In fact, Lao Chiang himself did not believe that he could really do it once and for all after "capturing the thief and capturing the king", but Japan had recently begun to frantically expand its armaments, and actually sent a full division to Rehe and eastern Hebei, and built an air base in Tanggu under the protection of the navy, which caused greater pressure on the 29th Army than before the War of Resistance in North China, so even Lao Chiang, who had been hoping that Japan would stop in moderation, finally determined that a full-scale war between China and Japan was inevitable. Therefore, Lao Chiang naturally regarded this "suppression of bandits" as an opportunity to eliminate the threat of the Red Army, and if he didn't give it a try now, he would never have this opportunity again when Japan invaded in an all-out way, not to mention that even if the "suppression of bandits" failed, it would at least further weaken and even exhaust the strength of Zhang and Yang, so why wouldn't Lao Chiang do it?

On the one hand, Lao Chiang ordered the Northwest Warlord Ma Jiajun, who was quite loyal to him, to resolutely counterattack the Red Army's Western Route Army, and on the other hand, he asked Zhang Yang to immediately launch a full-scale attack on the Red Army, and at the same time continue to increase the strength of the Central Army in northern Sichuan and Hubei as a supervisory team and reserve.

Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng were almost crying after receiving the order, the reason why they reached a tacit understanding with the Red Army in history was mainly because the gains and losses of the battle outweighed the losses, coupled with the enthusiasm of the two to resist Japan and patriotism, and now they can't fight at all, the Northeast Army is weak, the 17th Route Army is poorly equipped, and there are nearly 200,000 troops, in fact, it is not strong, at present, the Red Army left behind in northern Shaanxi is enough to compete with them, not to mention that the West Route Army may kill when it will be killed. In addition, the Red Third Front Army, which is now known for its fierceness, can also attack from the Henan-Shaanxi border. And the two of them thought with their buttocks, and they also knew that Lao Jiang would only sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight at that time. If they really tear their faces with the Red Army, isn't it a dead end? At this time, Lao Jiang underestimated the courage of the two of them to resist him, and actually flew to Xi'an to supervise the battle in person, and after the two were rejected, they had to launch a military admonition, and as a result, Lao Jiang and Chen Cheng, Jiang Dingwen, Wei Lihuang and other generals were all captured as in history, and the "Xi'an Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries finally broke out!

Then Zhang Yang immediately sent a telegram to the whole country, calling on all parties in the country to put aside their personal grievances and differences, join hands to resist Japan, recover the lost territory, and at the same time urgently ask the Red Army for help. After receiving the telegram, the Red Army in northern Shaanxi immediately sent Xu Haidong's Red 15th Army to the south to help. And Zhang Hao, secretary of the Central Plains Bureau, was ordered to send Fang Yongle's Red 45th Army and Hu Lian's armored brigade (Zhang Xueliang also sent someone to pick it up, otherwise it would be difficult for tanks to pass through some sections. Advancing into the Weihe Plain, he also sent Gao Jingting to lead the rest of the Red Eighteenth Army to further expand the base area in northern Hubei and coerce the three towns of Wuhan. Su Yu, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Red Third Front Army, led the Red Eighth Army to march east to Xuchang, and in less than ten days, he took five counties in a row, and there was a great tendency to swallow the entire Henan in one fell swoop.

Since Hu Weidong streamlined his field troops, only local troops and militias were needed for the defense of the base areas, and although there were only more than 120,000 field troops left in the Red Third Front Army, all of them were mobile troops that could be deployed to any area where they were needed.

In addition, the Jiangnan Soviet District, which had been greatly reduced by the continuous encirclement and suppression of the Kuomintang army, also took advantage of the lack of troops in the south to expand vigorously and regain a lot of lost territory. Although it was not enough to threaten Lao Chiang's ruling core in Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou, it also made Lao Jiang in prison more and more distraught after hearing the news

After the Xi'an Incident in history, the Northeast Army, the 17th Route Army and the Red Army quickly formed the "Northwest Iron Triangle" with the Northeast Army as the center in order to resist the possible large-scale attack of the Central Army. In this time and space, the Red Army was not only politically powerful, but also militarily surpassed the Northeast Army and the Seventeenth Route Army combined, so the Red Army naturally replaced the Northeast Army and became the core of the "Northwest Iron Triangle". This also made the tripartite alliance united under the banner of anti-Japanese salvation more consolidated and reliable, the three families and horses together were no less than 500,000 regular troops alone, and the million-dollar Central Army was not afraid of Lao Chiang's million-strong Central Army at all, and the Central Army planes on the Xi'an airport were all captured in the incident, plus the Red Army Flying Regiment assisted in the battle. The Central Army did not have much advantage even in terms of air force, which made the three parties more confident in the subsequent negotiations...,

And this time. The pro-British and American factions, such as Chiang's wife and Soong Meiling, advocated armistice negotiations to rescue Lao Chiang, while He Yingqin and other pro-Japanese factions and some military leaders who were trying to stand on their own feet clamored that "it is better to be broken than to be destroyed." ", I want to get rid of Lao Jiang and the "rebels". However, because the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany and other powers all expressed their support for the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, and the few remaining warlords in China also sent messages calling for armistice and peace talks, Soong Meiling finally boarded the plane bound for Xi'an, thus beginning this important negotiation that would affect China's future fate

On the one hand, most of the middle and high-ranking cadres and a considerable number of grassroots commanders and fighters had a deep enmity with the Kuomintang, and they hated the culprit Lao Chiang even more; On the other hand, the Red Army is now quite strong (the overall strength is about the same as that of the People's Liberation Army in 46 years), and if the old Chiang is killed and causes civil strife in the Kuomintang, it is very likely that it will take advantage of the situation to sweep the whole country. As for the Japanese threat, most of the Red Army commanders and fighters did not take it to heart, and the victory of the War of Resistance in North China made the Red Army full of confidence, believing that their own Liliang alone was enough to resist Japanese aggression. At this time, the Comintern, or the Soviet Union, demanded that the Red Party release Lao Chiang in a commanding tone, which made Taizu, who had strong national pride, very angry, but at this time, a secret telegram from the Central Plains Bureau made him quickly calm down

In fact, a large part of the content of Zhang Hao's telegram was told to him by Hu Weidong before he left the country, and he felt that it made sense and wrote it in the telegram. Hu Weidong pointed out that if Lao Chiang is killed, the Kuomintang will inevitably be in chaos, and this will certainly be beneficial to the Red Army, but it will also be a golden opportunity for the Japanese, who will certainly take the opportunity to invade China.

Zhang Hao inadvertently slapped a sycophant in the telegram, saying, "I believe that under the wise leadership of the chairman, even if the Red Army resists the enemy alone, it will one day be able to drive the devil out of China." However, the telegram also relayed Hu Weidong's estimate, he believed that in order to force Japan to withdraw from the mainland, it was necessary to destroy (kill, capture, and mutilate) at least 2 million Japanese troops, and if it wanted to recover Taiwan and other islands that had fallen to the enemy, it was necessary to annihilate the Japanese army of 3 million to 5 million or even more troops without foreign aid, so as to promote the outbreak of revolution in Japan, and it is conceivable that the Chinese would have to pay huge national sacrifices in the process. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. )