The most important reason for the difficulties of the Eastern Battlefield is not the disparity between the strength of the enemy and us and the difficult conditions, the most important reason is that there is no unity within China, and since 1939, the Kuomintang has begun to passively resist Japan, not only Wang Jingwei and others have committed treason to the enemy, but it is even more common for other factions to reach secret deals with the Japanese army to preserve their strength, and Chairman Chiang even shouted the slogan of saving the country by curves, so that a large number of national troops surrendered to the Japanese army and acted as a puppet army to actively oppose the communists.

For example, in the Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningbo areas, the serious 800 national army, such as Hu Zongnan's 34th Group Army, which belongs to the existence of soy sauce, Yan Xishan's Jin troops directly reached a secret deal with the devil Antong Qu. Anyway, during the stalemate stage of the Anti-Japanese War, the national army was really a group of onlookers and soy sauce parties, and unless the devils took the initiative to trouble them, they would never take the initiative to fight. Even in 1944, when victory was in sight, the passivity of the national army reached its peak, and it was really a group of scum.

What is even more infuriating is that a considerable number of generals of the national army, whether they are protégés of the Son of Heaven of the local forces or the central army, are not ashamed of this kind of shameless acts, but are proud. In the external battle, he was like Fan Ranran, and in bullying his own people, these goods became experts one by one.

For example, Hu Zongnan's 34th Group Army, as mentioned earlier, Hu Zongnan's management of the army is really just like that, whether it is the 34th Group Army or the First Army of his descendants, there is no record that can be won in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (the same is true in the Civil War).

However, Hu Zongnan was not good at fighting, but he was a good hand at pleasing Lao Jiang, and he was extremely arrogant, in January 1940. Lao Chiang set off the first anti-communist upsurge. This protégé of the Son of Heaven was the first to lead an army to attack Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. He captured five counties in one fell swoop, arrogantly clamored: "Eliminate the border areas," and then built a tight blockade line more than 700 miles long around the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border region.

Not to mention after that, in the remaining five years, the king of the northwest basically had no intention of resisting Japan, and was bent on encircling and blockading Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningbo, anyway, in Hu Zongnan's eyes, the Turkish Communist Party was like that. If it weren't for the interference of international and domestic public opinion, it would have been as easy for him to eliminate Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningbo as it would have been to probe for things.

After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's order to cut off the Soviet Union's aid to the Turkish Communists, Hu Zongnan immediately gathered all five armies under the command of the 34th Army and began to move north. During this period, Ma Hongkui, one of the three horses in the northwest, also received orders from Chiang Kai-shek to cooperate with Hu Zongnan with his descendant 11th Army. The battle that came to be known as the Battle for the Defense of the Northern Line of Communication was officially fought.

At the beginning of the battle, Hu Zongnan's military deployment was as follows: Kong Lingsui's 80th Army served as the vanguard, Dong Zhao's 16th Army followed behind, followed by Li Tiejun's 76th Army and Zhao Xiguang's 36th Army, and the 1st Army, which had the strongest combat effectiveness, fell behind.

I have to say. This is a typical way of allocating the troops of the Kuomintang Central Army generals, why? Judging by a game of chess across the country. The Kuomintang and the Turkish Communist Party are not dealing with each other, and from the perspective of the Scraping People's Party, the central army and the local army are full of contradictions.

Nationwide, Lao Chiang was fighting the Turkish Communist Party, and within the Scraping People's Party, Lao Chiang would never be polite to those local forces. For example, according to Hu Zongnan's deployment, Kong Lingsui's 80th Army, which played in the vanguard, belonged to local forces.

After the Central Plains War, Li Jicai's troops were reorganized into the new 13th Division by Lao Chiang, and in 1931 it was changed to the 79th Division, and in 1937, when the Kuomintang was reorganized, it was reorganized into the 80th Army.

Anyway, since 1937, the 80th Army has been reorganized and reorganized several times, and its subordinate units have also been transferred around, in May 1941, the army was transferred out of the 34th Group Army to participate in the Battle of Jinnan, and suffered heavy losses in a heavy defeat, and even the old army commander Kong Lingsui was also replaced.

As for the 16th Army that followed Dong Zhao, it belonged to the original Hunan Army system, formerly known as the 53rd Division of the Hunan Army, and in the Central Plains War, Lao Jiang expanded the 53rd Division into the 16th Army in order to enhance its strength. Later, he participated in the second, fourth and fifth "encirclement and suppression", and after the Lugou Bridge Incident, he participated in the Battle of Songhu and suffered heavy losses.

Later, the 16th Army was rebuilt mainly with the remnants of the army, but the commander was replaced by Dong Zhao, the commander of the 28th Division of the 46th Army of the Central Army. In order to control the 16th Army, Lao Jiang Ke made a bloody investment, changed Dong Zhao's 28th Division to the 16th Army, and let Dong Zhao continue to serve as the commander of the 28th Division. After the defeat at the Battle of Wuhan in 1939, the army was transferred to Shaanxi to besiege Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia.

Objectively speaking, the 16th Army already belongs to half of the Central Army, and the reason why Hu Zongnan placed the 16th Army behind the 80th Army was to let Dong Zhao monitor Kong Lingsui, so that the 80th Army had to take the lead as cannon fodder.

Kong Lingsui naturally knew what Hu Zongnan was planning, but there was no way, who let the 80th Army's arms not be able to twist his thighs? In fact, this is not the first time that the 80th Army has been cut meat. Since 1939, the establishment of the 80th Army has been constantly changing, first the 165th Division was transferred in and out, and then the 191st Division and the new 26th Division were transferred in. But before the two divisions were hot, they changed again, first the 191st Division was expanded into the 42nd Army, and then in the spring of 1940, the new 26th Division was transferred away, and the previous 165th Division and the new 27th Division were transferred to the army. In the autumn of 1940, the 80th Division, the last old unit of the 97th Army, was transferred. In other words, Kong Lingsui was left with two completely unfamiliar troops - the 165th Division and the newly formed 27th Division.

At this time, Kong Lingsui not only had the strength of his troops greatly reduced (three divisions became two divisions), but also that the two new divisions were not his own people, and whether they would listen to the command on the battlefield in the future was another matter. Moreover, Hu Zongnan, who was uneasy and kind, still let him, the weakest and most complex military striker, not obviously want to cut off his head with the knife of the Turkish Communist Party?

Before the expedition, Kong Lingsui was very depressed, he, the army commander, had basically been hollowed out, wouldn't he only have the share of mermaid meat in the future? And for the goal of this expedition, Kong Lingsui is also different from the arrogant Hu Zongnan, he doesn't think it will be so easy. Is that easy to deal with? Look at the trajectory of people since 1937, it is the stronger the war. In 1940, the Battle of the Hundred Regiments could also be launched. Compared with the situation when he just arrived in northern Shaanxi. It's literally heaven and earth.

Can such a troop that can only fight and is not afraid of war get along? What's more, this time Hu Zongnan is still doing business that cuts off people's financial routes and cuts off the Soviet Union's aid channels, so the Turkish Communist Party is not desperate?

The desperate Turkish Communist Party is very terrible drops! Kong Lingsui really didn't want to participate in this bad thing, but Hu Zongnan just let him play as a striker, isn't this a knife to kill people?

In fact, Kong Lingsui's estimate of the future is too optimistic, because he didn't expect that it was not Tubalu who shot this time. Rather, it was the Soviet Red Army, which was serious eight hundred. In Ulaanbaatar, Konev's 53rd Army was undergoing an intense rearmament, not of course, to change weapons for battle, but to change uniforms.

The 53rd Army will change out of the Red Army's military uniform and all other Red Army-related insignia, and wear the Outer Mongolian military uniform to fight, which is also a way for the Politburo to reduce the pressure of international public opinion, after all, the Red Army's direct interference in China's internal affairs is still too sensitive to give the enemy a grip.

While the 53rd Army was nervously changing its clothes, Konev was not idle, and sent out the 5th Outer Mongolian Cavalry Corps, which was assigned to him. He is well aware of how important it is to have the initiative on the battlefield. If you wait until the enemies are in place before fighting, it will be too passive. Nor is it his style.

According to Konev's order, the two cavalry divisions of the 5th Outer Mongolian Cavalry Corps will quickly move to the north of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, advance to occupy the line of Guyang and Baotou, and rush to build a defensive line. Later battles proved that this was indeed a good move, and the Outer Mongolian cavalry troops that came out blocked the siege of the Scraping People's Party army, buying time for the follow-up main force to arrive on the battlefield.

Of course, Hu Zongnan did not know what his opponent was doing, and the vanguard of the three armies marched on the Hetao Plain without hurry, supervising or escorting the 80th Army to slowly march north. The 1st Army and the 76th Army, which were the main forces of the group army, almost all stayed on the front line in southern Shaanxi and did not move, and it seems that Hu Zongnan thought that the three armies would make money by carrying out this mission.

It wasn't until January 25, also after Laba, that he ordered the 76th Army to start moving north, while the First Army continued to stay in Xi'an, and it seemed that Hu Zongnan was ready to let his descendants have a good year.

At this time, the 13th and 15th divisions of the Outer Mongolian cavalry, which had rushed wildly, had arrived at the periphery of Guyang, and after a short rest, they began to attack the city. Soon the puppet army stationed in Guyang was routed, and the Outer Mongolian cavalry easily occupied Guyang.

This news did not attract the attention of the Scraping People's Party, after all, Guyang was not their territory, at this time Kong Lingsui and the 80th Army had just arrived in Wuhai, a sudden sandstorm made the Scraping People's Party army suffer a lot, and had to temporarily stop advancing.

According to Kong Lingsui's idea, he should take the opportunity to rest in Wuhai, so he sent a telegram to Hu Zongnan, complaining that he wanted to stop and rest. But how could Hu Zongnan allow Kong Lingsui to stop and rest? This time to let Kong Lingsui play the striker is to knock this ragtag commander for the last time, once he does not perform well, then there is an immediate excuse to remove him, as for if his performance is good?

With the current combat effectiveness of the 80th Army, I am afraid that even if it wins, it will be a disastrous victory, and the 80th Army will still be finished at that time.

Anyway, Hu Zongnan's calculations were very good, not only did he not agree with Kong Lingsui to stop and rest, but instead ordered him to speed up his advance, and even loudly reprimanded him for "delaying the fighter" and threatened to "engage in military law".

At the same time, Hu Zongnan sent another telegram to Dong Zhao: "Jiesheng my brother (Dong Zhao's character), for the sake of the party-state's plan, I hope that you will march quickly and arrive at the predetermined area as soon as possible with the Zhengzhai (Kong Lingsui) department......

The relationship between Dong Zhao and Hu Zongnan is actually average, although both of them are in the first phase of Huangpu, Hu Zongnan is a native of Zhejiang and is the heart of Lao Jiang. And Dong Zhao is a native of Shaanxi and does not belong to Lao Jiang's core confidants. After arriving in Shaanxi, around power, Dong Zhao and Hu Zongnan had a very unhappy quarrel, every time Hu Zongnan had to suppress Dong Zhao, this time letting Dong Zhao follow behind Kong Lingsui, in fact, it was a deliberate beating.

Dong Zhao was also unhappy at this time, he thought that he was not bad at all compared to Hu Zongnan, and the surname Hu had a set of skills in addition to the principal, and the ability to fight was like that. And he, Dong Zhao, was very heroic in the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Taierzhuang, the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Luoshan, and the Battle of Xinyang, where was he worse than Hu Zongnan?

And after arriving in Shaanxi, Hu Zongnan relied on Lao Jiang's favor to exclude dissidents. Jiang Dingwen, the old superior (this is not a good bird. Famous corrupt generals) are squeezed out. also suppressed him Dong Zhao more than once, you said he could be happy.

Especially this time, it was clear that the order from above was that all the members of the 34th Group Army would be dispatched to completely block the foreign aid channel of the Turkish Communist Party, but Hu Zongnan was good, and let his 16th Army eat sand in the northwest wind on a cold day, while his descendant First Army was eating and drinking spicy food in Xi'an, what is this Nima?

So. Dong Zhao looked at Hu Zongnan's urging telegram and threw it aside, and directly replied with a telegram that the weather was bad and the march was difficult, and ordered the troops to rest in place, according to Dong Zhao's statement: "Lao Tzu is not Kong Lingsui, and the 16th Army is not the 80th Army, don't be stupid!" ”

The 16th Army, which was not a stupid camel, rested in place, but Dong Zhao did not tell Kong Lingsui about this situation, and Hu Zongnan naturally did not notify (once Kong Lingsui learned that Dong Zhao was resting, he would definitely not continue to advance).

That is, from the end of January. The 80th Army, which was in the vanguard, and the 16th Army, which was in the front, were disconnected, and Kong Lingsui's troops continued to advance along the Yellow River stupidly. On 8 February, they arrived at Gohara.

At this time, the 16th Army, which "cooperated" in the operation, slowly walked to Linhe under Hu Zongnan's strong orders over and over again. The distance between the 80th Army and the 80th Army was reduced to more than 80 kilometers. As mentioned earlier, the combat effectiveness of the 80th Army is extremely limited, and there are only two infantry divisions in the whole army, and they are not yet formed. And Kong Lingsui was not able to command Wang Zhiqi, the commander of the 165th Division, and Wang Jun, the commander of the newly formed 27th Division.

Therefore, after arriving in Wuyuan, Kong Lingsui was not ordinary nervous, and repeatedly sent telegrams to Hu Zongnan, asking to stop advancing and wait for Dong Zhao to catch up before moving forward. But Hu Zongnan's request to him was categorically refused, in Hu Zongnan's opinion, Dong Zhao did not follow the best, just let the 80th Army fight the Turkish Communist Party alone first, borrow a knife to kill first.

And this is still an unusual murder with a knife, in fact, it kills three birds with one stone, weakens the 80th Army, and the Turkish Communist Party naturally has casualties, the most interesting thing is that Dong Zhao can be held accountable afterwards, and the crime of poor support can be deducted from that guy, maybe this bastard can be squeezed out of Shaanxi!

As soon as he thought of this, Hu Zongnan couldn't help but be excited, squeezed out Jiang Dingwen, and then squeezed out Dong Zhao, then he would be a veritable king of the northwest. So in the next few days, Hu Zongnan turned a blind eye to Dong Zhao's procrastination, and waited to reap the benefits of the fisherman.

After looking at Konev's side, after recovering Guyang County, he ordered the cavalry troops to continue to advance rapidly and go straight to Baotou. Because Baotou is so important, only by occupying Baotou can we cross the Yellow River and ensure that the Soviet Union's military resources through Outer Mongolia can be continuously sent to Yan'an. In Konev's plan, Baotou had a particularly important position, so he left only a few troops in Guyang, and the main forces of the two cavalry divisions went to Baotou.

It is not difficult to recover Baotou, the combat effectiveness of the local Japanese puppet army is too poor, and the Turkish Communist Party has provided a lot of detailed information, it can be said that there are many defenders in Baotou, and it is clear whether the defenders have a few guns and whether they wear them or not. For the Japanese puppet army, the arrival of the Red Army was completely unexpected, and they quickly broke up in a swarm without preparation.

After capturing Baotou, Konev did not rush to the south, but ordered his troops to build fortifications in place and rush to build a defensive line. Konev knew very well that Baotou was too important here, and whether it was the People's Party army from the west or the Japanese army and puppet army from the east, he would not watch this important city fall into his hands.

However, what made Konev strange was that the first to come to Baotou was not the expected Kuomintang army, but the Japanese puppet army from the east. At the time, he wrote in his diary: "The slowness of the movement of the Kuomintang army is simply incredible, and I have always been told that everyone from Chiang to Hu Zongnan attached great importance to this operation, and did not hesitate to use the most elite troops for this purpose." But why don't they understand the truth of the speed of soldiers? The military generals of the People's Party can't be so bad, right? ”

It's not that the officers of the People's Party don't understand the truth of the speed of soldiers, but they can't do it. Looking at the elite 34th Army, the internal turmoil is very serious, and sending troops to fight a war is not only to guard against the enemy but also to defend against one's own people, so it is strange that it can fight a good war.

For example, Kong Lingsui's troops, under Hu Zongnan's strong orders, he reluctantly left Wuyuan, but did not go far, the main force stopped east of Wuliang Suhai, and then tightly sent a small reconnaissance force to advance towards Baotou and Guyang.

Kong Lingsui was indeed very careful, according to the intelligence of the Scraping People's Party, further on was the territory of the Japanese, and he knew very well what the result of a hasty exchange of fire with the Japanese army was. Of course, more importantly, he also has to beware of the Turkish Communist Party south of the Yellow River, in case the Turkish Communist Party has unexpectedly crossed the Yellow River and is waiting for him?

Kong Lingsui refused to take risks, he could completely bear the time under the banner of battlefield reconnaissance, wouldn't it be safer to wait for the 16th Army to come closer?

It's just that Kong Lingsui didn't expect that Dong Zhao's 16th Army did not move in Linhe, not only because of the bad weather and Hu Zongnan's deliberate connivance, but Dong Zhao actually had a small abacus - that is, to preserve strength.

The current troop allocation is very clear, once the 80th Army and the Turkish Communist Party exchange fire, it is impossible for him to continue to sit idly by, even if he pretends to be closer, he has to move closer to the 80th Army. But Dong Zhao knows very well that the 16th Army is the capital of his life, and it cannot be easily damaged, so why should his 16th Army accompany him to play the striker? It doesn't make sense!

Dong Zhao stopped at Linhe in fact, waiting for the 36th Army behind, as long as the 36th Army followed, he could sit back and relax. It's just that what Dong Zhao didn't expect was that he was at ease on his side, but Kong Lingsui fell into the fire pit! (To be continued......)

PS: Sorry, overslept!

Bow and thank you to Drawing Geothermal, Fox in the Desert, Ryoko 913, Wolf-NO.1, 435349915, gi, cs_ak74, Xuanyuan Extreme Holy Emperor, Sunset on the Horizon and Juventus, and other comrades who were swiped after voting for the tip!