The chief of the guard was stubborn, so he had to follow Xue Boling to the front line. After half an hour's drive, they arrived at the front line amid the roar of artillery. After getting out of the car, he did not go to the forward command post, but went directly to the defensive positions on the front line.

The sun is blazing, and the northeast land in midsummer is sweltering. Xue Boling walked to the lookout of a position and raised his binoculars to observe the movements of the Japanese troops not far away: a few miles away, the Japanese troops were stationed on the spot, the tanks and artillery were spread out in an offensive formation, the dotted Japanese military flags were faintly visible, and the hot and turbid air was mixed with a smell of gunsmoke.

Xue Boling put down the binoculars and jumped down from a high place, he handed the binoculars to the guards and walked forward. There were quite a few officers and men in the newly built field fortifications, and because of the hot weather, many of them simply wore only underwear.

Xue Boling was wearing an ordinary khaki training uniform, and there was no sign of military rank on his body, and many officers and soldiers did not recognize him after these days of fatigue, but only regarded him as an ordinary commander, so the officers and soldiers still did what they should do, and did not notice this commander who came to inspect at all.

Xue Boling didn't care, he came to check the front-line situation to find a breakthrough, not to review it with great fanfare.

"How many Japanese troops are there in the north?" Xue Boling asked.

The commander of a squadron who accompanied him on the inspection replied without hesitation: "The specific strength is not undetectable, but at least it is a brigade and a lot of tanks and artillery." ”

After speaking, he added: "To the north is Liaoyang, where the main force of the Eleventh Army is stationed, and the Japanese army is afraid that we will join the Eleventh Army, so they have deployed heavy troops in the north. ”

Xue Boling didn't speak, and continued to walk forward. After a few steps, he stopped, he turned his head and asked, "Are the Japanese attacking frequently?" ”

The squadron leader thought for a moment and said seriously: "The Japanese army has attacked a lot of times, but the intensity of the attack is not large, and many times it is only a symbolic attack. ”

Xue Boling nodded, and after wandering around the position for a while, he said to the chief of the guard: "Let's go, let's go to the other defense lines to have a look." ”

The chief of the guard was in a hurry, because the northern front had the 11th Army stationed in Liaoyang on the back of the Japanese army, they did not dare to act rashly, and the other three lines were the most intense attack area, and the danger of going to this time was self-evident. But looking at Xue Boling's meaning, it was necessary to go, and the chief of the guard had no choice but to follow him.

Xue Boling was naturally not a brute force, he drove around the positions on all sides, and everywhere he went, he personally went to the position to observe the situation of the Japanese troops on the opposite side, and then recorded it in detail. After a day, Xue Boling was already wearing a khaki uniform that had been salted a lot, and there were two times when he encountered the Japanese attack, and on the battlefield where bullets rained, Xue Boling was indifferent and continued to observe the formation and way of the Japanese army's attack.

When he returned to the headquarters in the evening, Wu Yizhi, a staff officer of the military headquarters, had been waiting for a long time. Wu Yizhi was a native of Guangdong, graduated from the Baoding Military Academy, and later returned to Guangdong to join the Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army, and was transferred to the First Group Army after the reorganization of the National Defense Army. It can be said that he and Xue Boling have been partners for a long time. As early as when Xue Boling formed the armored team, he served as Xue Boling's deputy for a period of time, and he was not only an excellent staff officer, but also a very suitable assistant.

Seeing Wu Yizhi waiting for him at the headquarters, Xue Boling walked towards the washbasin shelf and said with a smile: "Brother Xuexing is here!" ”

Wu Yizhi said with a serious face: "Commander Xue, you should tell us when you go to the front line to inspect it, the enemy can't find you at the moment......

Xue Boling interrupted him and said, "There are some situations where you can't just read the report, and you still have to go to the battlefield by yourself." ”

Wu Yizhi turned around and took two copies of the telegram that had just been copied in folders and seals and handed them to Xue Boling: "The former command office of the Ministry of National Defense and the theater command have both called back, you can take a look." ”

"Oh?" Xue Boling wiped his hands with a towel, then took Wu Yizhi's telegram, and after reading it, he closed it and sighed: "It's still Principal Huang (Huang Ke) who can see it clearly, and he breaks through the mystery in one sentence." ”

Wu Yizhi asked anxiously, "What does the telegram say?" ”

Xue Boling said: "Principal Huang said that the Japanese army had suffered the loss of the First Army before this, so they all remembered!" The reason why the Japanese laid siege to the First Army with so much blood was ostensibly to 'take revenge,' but in fact it was to boost morale, because there are people in the Japanese political circles who oppose China's use of force, and if we are eaten, I am afraid that it will boost morale even better than taking Shenyang and Changchun. ”

Wu Yizhi nodded: "It seems that we are only thinking about military deployment and ignoring politics." I said, why is the Japanese army's actions so strange? Leaving Liaoyang not to fight, he mobilized heavy troops to besiege the First Army. Did the commander say how to deploy next? ”

Xue Boling handed the second telegram copy paper to Wu Yizhi and said, "Take a look." Commander Zhang said let's hold on and wait for reinforcements, they have mobilized the 11th Army to prepare to attack from Liaoyang, and when the time comes, we will break through to the north. ”

Wu Yizhi couldn't help nodding after reading it: "This is indeed the most prudent tactic, but the Japanese army has mobilized a large number of troops, and its equipment is comparable to that of our army, and it has strong naval and air support." Although the chances of victory in such a tactic are great, I am afraid that the casualties are not small, and even if it wins, it will hurt the enemy by 1,000 and lose 800. ”

A smile appeared on Xue Boling's tense face, and he pointed at Wu Yizhi and said, "Brother Xuexing, we want to go together." Come and see, this is the approximate deployment of the Japanese army that I drew after I went to the front line today. ”

As he spoke, Xue Boling spread out his notebook, on which he roughly drew a schematic map of the deployment of Japanese troops in the form of topographic maps and annotations.

Wu Yizhi looked at the detailed map and said with a smile: "No wonder you want to go to the battlefield, it turns out that there are still achievements!" ”

Xue Boling pointed to the map and marked the deployment of the Japanese troops that came to him in the morning, and a few minutes later, he spread out a map of Jinxian County and pointed to the map and said: "You see, the Japanese army has deployed heavy troops on the northern and western fronts, but the number of attacks is not much; They didn't have a lot of troops on the southern and eastern fronts, but they attacked sharply, do you think why? ”

Wu Yizhi is the senior chief of staff, and he glanced at it at a glance and said: "The Japanese army is between Jinxian and Liaoyang on the northern front, and the 11th Army is stationed between Liaoyang, and they are mobilizing troops. ”

Xue Boling nodded: "That's right!" The Japanese expected that we would only have to break through to the north or west, so they placed heavy troops on these two fronts. The troops on the eastern and southern fronts were the main forces of the offensive. ”

"Their tactics are very simple, just surround us and then eat us in two lines. Combined with what Principal Huang said, the Japanese army wants to use our First Army as the jackpot, so naturally it will not care about the gains and losses of one city and one place, and will definitely expect us to break through to the north and join the Eleventh Army, so this move can't go, and if you go, you will fall into Okamura Ningji's trap. ”

Wu Yizhi lifted his glasses and looked at Xue Boling and said, "Then what do you mean?" ”

Xue Boling pointed to the south of the map, and said with a strong tap: "Break through from the southern front and catch them off guard!" ”

"......" Wu Yizhi was stunned for a while, the southern front is Lushun, which is the base camp and troop gathering point of the Japanese army, isn't it a brain convulsion to attack rashly like this?

Before he could react, Xue Boling called the heralds and asked them to inform Wu Zhichuan and the others to come to the headquarters for a meeting.

……

The strategic intention of the Japanese army to desperately besiege the First Army was Huang Ke's idea, and the idea was quickly verified from the intelligence department. Based on this idea, he telegraphed and ordered the Northeast Theater to mobilize heavy troops to go south, not to care too much about time, and to fully assemble superior forces to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Kwantung Army in the Kwantung Prefecture and Liaoyang area.

This move was very risky, and Zhang Xueliang was a little confused after seeing it, but he still executed it. He ordered all the reserve forces in the Northeast Theater to assemble quickly, and the field troops also to assemble to the south, so he estimated that it would take him half a month to assemble all the main forces.

But the fighters on the battlefield are fleeting, not to mention half a month, that is, a day or two can decide the victory. However, Zhang Xueliang still carried out the orders of the central government to the letter, and in response to the First Army's request for help, he also ordered the Eleventh Army to prepare for an attack to the south, and replied to Xue Boling with a telegram, asking him to hold on and wait for help.

Zhang Xueliang could only gamble, he bet that the First Army would be able to hold out for half a month until he had assembled the main forces in the northeast.

Huang Ke's tactics in the Northeast Theater were opposed by many people, including Bai Chongxi, a senior staff officer of the Military Staff Department, who he most valued the most.

Bai Chongxi and others believed that the northeast should be fought steadily at this time, and the First Army should converge with the 11th Army to the north, build a defensive line on the front line of Liaoyang and Shenyang, prevent the Japanese army from advancing north or west, and confront the Kwantung Army on the front line of Kwantung Prefecture.

It was undeniably a sound suggestion, but Huang Ke would never take it, and his strategic goal was to kill and injure the enemy's living forces. Everyone knows that there are only so many elite troops in Japan, and one less to fight, but if the city is lost, it can be fought back, but the people are different, if the 100,000 troops of the Kwantung Army have been in the northeast, it will always be a threat.

However, Bai Chongxi and others still have reservations. At the end of the dispute, Bai Chongxi simply said: "Xue Boling's troops are now difficult to protect themselves, can they hold on to the final build-up?" The battle deduction showed that the First Army was besieged by 100,000 troops, and even with air support, it would be held out for a week at most. ”

After hearing this, Huang Ke glanced at Bai Chongxi with a little meaning, and then smiled: "Who said that Xue Boling must stick to and wait for help?" ”

At the end, he added: "Is it clear that this military content is not to be mentioned to you as anyone?" ”