PS: Thank you for the monthly tickets voted by the book friends "Brother Manwu", "LBX5566" and "NQM", and ask for recommendation votes ^_^ by the way

Compared with the civil war, Hu Weidong still wanted to fight devils more after all, but under the current situation that the remnants of the Japanese army in Central China were all shrunk in the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou triangle, the 15th Group Army did not have much room to play, and the 152mm/150mm caliber cannon of the heavy artillery brigade of the group army was difficult to damage the hull of the Japanese heavy cruiser on the Yangtze River, and although the 240mm heavy howitzer was powerful enough, it was inconvenient to maneuver and the number was too small. The basic training of pilots and flight cadets of aviation schools alone is almost entirely occupied, and the range of Soviet-style bombers of the Soviet aid air force is too short, and before at least 10 or more field airfields are built south of the Huai River, or heavy howitzers of 203 mm caliber are mass-produced and equipped with troops, although the strength of the 15 th Group Army is strong, it is still unrealistic to forcibly cross the Yangtze River

However, the frightened Japanese army in Central China also did not dare to compete with the 15th Group Army on land, so they took the initiative to give up most of the territory on the north bank of the Yangtze River (in fact, they did not occupy much, due to the lack of troops, the countryside could not be estimated at all, and even some towns could only rely on the puppet army to garrison, and not a single real devil could be arranged). ), and only a few strongholds were kept within the range of the Japanese naval guns on the Yangtze River. As a result, the Central Plains Border Region was further expanded to cover the six provinces of Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Anhui, and Suzhou, with a total population of more than 90 million, more than the total population of all other border regions and base areas behind enemy lines combined, and the industrial strength accounted for more than 80% (Note 1). In addition to the first-line land on the north bank of the Yangtze River, Hu Weidong found that the tasks assigned by the central government to the Central Plains border area had almost been completed, and if he wanted to expand, he would have to compete for territory with his brother troops

Hu Weidong realized from this that the expansion of the Central Plains Border Region had reached its limit, and that there would basically be no major battles to be fought in the next period of time, and that the focus of Hu Weidong's work would inevitably shift to the economic construction of the border region, unless the 15 th Group Army received a strategic combat mission across the theater such as the entry of the four fields into the customs in history.

But. That's okay, Hu Weidong has been really tired for more than a year, if it weren't for his strong physique. It is estimated that I have been exhausted for a long time, and now I can rest for a while. Although economic work may not be easy, it cannot be compared with the fact that there are many battles, days and nights without sleep, and often continuous or even rapid marches in exhaustion

The 15th Army did not participate in the war, but the civil war continued. In southern Shaanxi, Hu Zongnan had an army of 400,000, but he cowered in the city of Xi'an and did not dare to take the initiative. But his passive and conservative approach made Xu Haidong, who had recently recovered from illness, have no chance to take advantage of it. Since both the North China Border Region and the Central Plains Border Region have newly occupied a large area of new territory, the restoration of order alone has taken up a large number of troops, and the mountains and rivers in southern Shaanxi are victorious and the road is long, so the two major armies cannot send many reinforcements in a short period of time, so Xu Haidong now has only 100,000 troops under his command (but then again, he is not the type to command hundreds of thousands of troops).

If it is a field battle, it may not be able to win against Hu Zongnan's army of 400,000. But now Hu Zongnan is shrinking into the city, and a large number of fortifications such as Zimu Fort have already been repaired outside the city, and for a time Xu Haidong is really a bit of a "rat pulling a turtle - no way to start", so he can only divide some men and horses to open up the base area, while the main force stays outside Xi'an City to watch. I hope that Hu Zongnan can't help but send troops out of the city and give him an opportunity. But who knew that Hu Zongnan would not come out alive or dead, and Xu Haidong was so angry that he could only use his 70,000 or 80,000 men to "besiege" Xi'an City, which had a garrison of 400,000 troops, thinking that the consumption of grain and grass for the 400,000 army was not trivial, and as long as it took a little longer, the enemy would definitely not be able to hold on.

Who knew that at the beginning of 1938, when Hu Zongnan was ordered to come to Xi'an to prevent the Red Party from infiltrating into northern Sichuan, he already knew that sooner or later this place would become the focus of attack of the Red Party forces, so he had been desperately hoarding grain, grass and ammunition, and now the number of reserves was quite large, although with the astonishing consumption of 400,000 soldiers and 230,000 citizens, it was impossible to support it for too long, but one or two months was no problem. Hu Zongnan's political vision has always been stronger than his military talent, and he has long seen that this civil war will not last long, as long as he holds Xi'an and does not lose it, so that the northwest border region, where the Red Party Central Committee is located, cannot be directly connected with the most important Central Plains border region, he will be completely worthy of his principal

Compared with the battlefields in North China, the Central Plains, and the Northwest of China, where progress was limited, Fang Yongle, commander of the Red Party in Tibet, gave the central authorities a surprise; after learning the news of the "Gannan Incident," he immediately sent troops to disarm the thousands of unprepared national troops in Lhasa, and took advantage of this opportunity to marginalize the Kashag government and in fact completely control the local power in Tibet. After the annexation of the thousands of national troops and part of the Tibetan army, the total strength of the Red Party troops in Tibet under the command of Fang Yongle exceeded 30,000, and if the road construction army was included, the number was not less than 100,000.

It stands to reason that with so many rabbles newly recruited, the troops should be reorganized and trained for a period of time to form combat effectiveness, but the young general Fang Yongle came to "train with battle". When the situation in Lhasa was settled, he personally led more than 20,000 men to unexpectedly brave the bitter cold of the winter on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the east over the lofty mountains and mountains to attack the Xikang area

At this time, Liu Wenhui, the warlord of western Sichuan, who was entrenched in Xikang, claimed to have an army of 30,000, but not to mention the inferior equipment and lack of ammunition, and a large part of them were "double spearmen" with extremely poor combat effectiveness. Liu Wenhui actually lost the entire Xikang Province in less than a month (but this is also because Xikang is sparsely populated, and other places can basically be spread after taking Xichang.) It's no wonder that Lao Jiang, who was in Wuhan, was so angry that he scolded "Niang Xipi"

Note 1: Even if the Soviet aid projects in the Northwest and North China Border Areas are all completed, the industrial output value of the Central Plains Border Region still accounts for more than half, not to mention that the equipment and talents bought back from the United States must also be nearby to the Central Plains Border Region, and the same is true for possible cooperation with Germany in the future, so in terms of development potential, the Central Plains Border Region is still incomparable, even after the establishment of New China, the Central Plains Region has always been the most important industrial base, and there is no one (to be continued. )