Chapter 522 Zhengzhou is in danger

The information sent by the Zhengzhou Intelligence Station, not only did Tang Qiuli not understand, but the generals of the division headquarters were also confused, Tang Enbo still had at least 100,000 troops in his hands, how could the defensive forces still be weak? He looked back at Yu Deshui and ordered: "Director Yu, let the Zhengzhou Intelligence Station find out the actual situation at any cost." Yu Deshui understood what the division commander meant, and was not satisfied with the vague words such as "seeming" and "unclear" in the intelligence, so he immediately rushed back to the intelligence department.

Yu Deshui was also very angry in his heart, Tang Enbo couldn't be contacted, the division commander's judgment on the movement of the Japanese army completely relied on his own intelligence system, but he sent such vague information, it was really embarrassing, if he delayed the military plane, his own responsibility would be great.

Tang Qiuli stared at the map on the wall, the more he looked at his scalp, the more numb he became, if the information of the Zhengzhou intelligence station was true, at this time, Zhengzhou was afraid that it would be dangerous, Henan was the hinterland of the Central Plains, Zhengzhou was even more convenient, the geographical location was too important, this hand, holding Tang Qiuli's vein, Tang Qiuli sighed secretly in his heart, Zairen and Xiangyue Qingji, are not idle people, several battlefields, all fought passively, and they did not use this strange army in their hands, it is indeed scheming, am I despising them too much? He thought to himself.

Zhengzhou, let Tang Qiuli worry about Zhengzhou, after the Japanese army captured Zhengzhou, there can be three main directions of attack, westward can attack Xi'an in Shaanxi, from the flank and Wuxiang mountain pass echo each other, flank Taiyuan, can also take Hanzhong in southern Shaanxi, troops into Sichuan, or take Ankang, attack Hubei.

To the south, the target is to take Wuhan, an important city in central China, and occupy this city in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which is the thoroughfare of nine provinces, and can trace the river up to attack the southwestern provinces, and can attack Nanjing and Shanghai down the river, and cut China into two halves from the middle.

Advance eastward, go down to Kaifeng, Shangqiu, and approach Xuzhou, Xuzhou is an eye, go north and the Japanese army in Cangzhou, flank my more than 300,000 troops, go south, take Nanjing, attack Shanghai.

Tang Qiuli saw that his heart was blocked, Zhengzhou was lost, and his Yellow River defense line was facing collapse, from the analysis of the attack situation of the Japanese army in various battlefields, the possibility of the Japanese army advancing west and east was the greatest, otherwise, the Japanese army in Wuxiang and Cangzhou would launch such a fierce attack, which was obviously the Japanese army in the middle of the road.

It is unlikely that they will go south, with less than 100,000 troops, they will try to sweep through the hinterland of East China, and they will divide more than half of their forces just for the transportation points that need to be held along the way, so what will they use to attack Wuhan? There can be a few people who walk under the city of Wuhan.

In order to prevent the Japanese army from advancing west from Zhengzhou to Shaanxi and seizing Xi'an, he sent a telegram to Sun Zhenbang, commander of the Yellow River River Defense Headquarters, to lead four river defense brigades, totaling more than 36,000 troops, to immediately move to Lingbao, Henan, build fortifications, and prepare to block the Japanese army's westward advance.

He also knew that Sun Zhenbang's more than 30,000 local troops alone could not withstand the Japanese army's nearly 100,000 men for many days, so he immediately ordered Zhou Yushan's headquarters of the independent division's transportation headquarters, in addition to leaving one regiment to maintain the basic transportation support task, mobilize four infantry regiments and one air defense regiment to immediately rush to the Lingbao front line at the fastest speed and form the Lingbao defense headquarters with Sun Zhenbang.

Yuan Jinghao, commander of the Shaanxi Provincial Garrison Command, was ordered to lead three local garrison brigades under his command, totaling more than 22,000 troops, to immediately stationed in the Shangluo area to prevent the Japanese soldiers from attacking Xi'an in two ways.

At the same time, he informed Liu Tiehan, Tang Qiusheng, and Li Honggang of the crisis situation in Zhengzhou in detail, and the troops to be used for the raid on Tianjin were guaranteed to go south to the Xuzhou area under the condition that the Cangzhou front line was not lost, and joined Zhang Zizhong's Sulu garrison corps to jointly block the Japanese army intending to capture Xuzhou.

A series of orders were issued, Tang Qiuli almost sat paralyzed on the kang, his whole body was sore and weak, he used all the family resources this time, it can be described as "old and young go into battle", the troops from all over the country were exhausted, and the little force in his hand had to keep an eye on the mountain pass in Wuxiang to prevent him from returning to Taihang Mountain.

He has never felt such a sinister situation, all unfavorable situations have appeared, so heavy that he is a little breathless, his strategic layout, just because of a Zhengzhou, and facing the danger of collapse of the whole line, involving a single trigger and moving the whole body, Tang Enbo's 230,000 troops, can not hold Zhengzhou, which is protected by the Yellow River? His mind was full of doubts.

He also thought that the Japanese army might go south from Zhengzhou to Wuhan, struggled to sit up, and prepared to send a telegram to Chairman Chiang in Nanjing, reminding him to pay attention to the defense of northern Wuhan.

The Japanese attack, the offensive was fierce, equipped with a large number of long-range heavy artillery, the strength increased by about 150,000 people, the periphery of Shanghai and the direction of Hangzhou Bay, fierce battles broke out on the whole line, the battle situation was tragic, on the first day, the Japanese attacks were repulsed, but, according to the forward observation post report, the Japanese army did not retreat, there was an intention to attack again.

Tang Qiuli's head has two big heads, the Japanese are crazy, the northern battlefield is inextricably fought, and there is a breakthrough in the middle line, the southern battlefield, the war has restarted, and it is also a desperate attack, this is a typical north-south flanking strategy, the Japanese want to fight to determine the situation in China, this qiē flashpoint, is in Zhengzhou.

However, in the southern battlefield, Tang Qiu couldn't take care of it, and he was also powerless, there were hundreds of thousands of elite Central Army under Chairman Jiang, and there were generals like Zhang Zhizhong, what he was most worried about now was the battle situation in Zhengzhou, but the intelligence was delayed, and the situation was unclear, so he was so anxious that his eyes were on fire.

If you look at the land of China in 1937 from a bird's-eye view from the sky, Jiangnan and North China are full of smoke and artillery fire, but there is a quiet place in the middle, in history, the land of China at this time, except for the southwest and northwest, is full of war, and the national government was forced to move the capital, first Wuhan, and finally Chongqing, because of the appearance of Tang Qiuli, blocking the footsteps of the Japanese army in North China to the south.

As a matter of fact, China's anti-Japanese battlefield has been divided into two parts, the Central Army in the south is dominated by Chairman Chiang, and the North is dominated by the troops of the North China Independent Division dominated by Tang Qiuli.

Tang Qiuli, commander of the North China Independent Division and commander-in-chief of the Yellow River Valley Theater, was anxious in a simple peasant courtyard in Guxian County, and arranged all the troops he could use to the front line.

These two old foxes, hand in hand, for sending less than 100,000 troops to attack Anyang and occupy Zhengzhou, they originally did not report very hope, attacking Henan, not the main goal of the two of them, at the beginning of the war, they put their attention on Datong and Niangziguan in Shanxi on the west front, and Dezhou in Shandong on the east front.

This did not contradict the emperor's general strategy of dispatching troops from Shanghai to the city of Nanjing, and also satisfied the original idea of the army to move from north to south, first north China, and then south.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the battle began, first of all, the direction of Datong was not smooth, Yan Xishan, the emperor of the soil, was desperate with the imperial army, and concentrated the main forces on the front line of Datong, and fought to the death, and there was no progress in the war.

The direction of Dezhou, is the most hopeful battlefield of Zairen and Kazuki Kiyoji, the crumbling Chinese defenders' defense line, as long as they work harder, they can crush the Chinese army, where did they think, the Chinese defenders who are at an all-round disadvantage just do not fall, later, Tang Qiuli mobilized reinforcements, the Dezhou battlefield reversed, 300,000 imperial troops, lost nearly 70,000 or 80,000 people, and was forced to retreat to Cangzhou, and was pressed to move.

Although His Royal Highness personally led the troops to reinforce, he could not change the passive situation, broke into the pass of Tang Qiu's old nest from Taihang Mountain, empty-handed, did not achieve the expected results at all, and if he continued to consume, he might be trapped and die in the Taihang Mountains, and in the end, he had to change the battle plan and attack Taiyuan from the south of Jin, and was blocked by Yan Xishan's hundreds of thousands of Jin troops under the city of Wuxiang, and his head was broken and bleeding, and he did not take Wuxiang.

In the North China battlefield, nearly 1 million troops were mobilized, and from 5 November to 13 December, more than 40 days, none of the original battle plans were realized, and it was impossible to go south, and North China was passive everywhere, and Zairen and Kazuki Kiyoji were extremely distressed, during which Kazuki Kiyoji returned to Beiping many times to discuss with Zairen how to change the current passive situation.

Forced by the form, the two of them decided to use the long-planned dangerous move, with the only unused force, to attack Anyang, Henan, open the north gate of Henan, and take Zhengzhou, so as to change the situation of the war, this is a gambling adventure, the entire chess game in North China, the two of them have such a job.

For the attack on Henan, Zairen is not optimistic, more than 90,000 troops, to face the Central Army's more than 200,000 people, the comparison of troops, in an obvious disadvantage, if there is no southern Songhu battlefield and Hangzhou Bay fiasco, so that he has a new evaluation of the combat effectiveness of the Central Army, otherwise, Zairen would have approved the implementation of this plan a long time ago, the reason why it has been repeatedly postponed is that the more than 90,000 troops will be eaten by the Central Army before they see the Yellow River.

Kazuki Kiyoji repeatedly insisted on launching the Henan Campaign, Zairen understood the feelings of his old friend very well, North China was like this, and there was no way to reverse the situation, and his position as the commander of the North China Dispatch Army would definitely not be able to be kept, even if he tried his best to maintain it, he could not change the fact that he was defeated again and again.

Kazuki Kiyoji was full of confidence, and all of them originated from the adventurous actions of a Japanese squadron leader, and it was this inconspicuous guy in the Japanese army that made Kazuki Kiyoji see the dawn of victory.

(To be continued)