At about four o'clock in the afternoon, Japanese fighters taking off from Qingdao intercepted and bombed the 57th Army attacking Pingyi. The Xueyi Division bore the brunt of the blow and suffered heavy casualties, killing and wounding more than 500 people. Zhang Zizhong met the attack with two air defense regiments and two tank regiments, shooting down three enemy planes and damaging two.

The troops suffered heavy losses, Zhang Zizhong was sad, but at the same time secretly excited, he said to Zhao Dengyu: "It seems that the Japanese want to fight us in Pingyi!" Good! Accompanied! Then he ordered the 1st Xue Division and the Mountain Division to release all their reconnaissance units to reconnoiter the enemy's situation in the east, west, and north directions.

At about half past five o'clock in the afternoon, Ge Zengfu sent back the most heartfelt information, and the main force of the Japanese detachment had indeed settled in Pingyi, and put on a defensive posture. A quarter of an hour later, the military headquarters of the 51st Army sent a telegram that the 63rd Wing of the 10th Division had left the north gate of Teng County, and the direction of the attack was unknown.

Zhang Zizhong immediately called a meeting of all division commanders and chiefs of staff, and he said: "The 63rd Wing is definitely here to take our back road, hehe, now we are fighting with a brigade." Let's talk about it, how are we going to fight this battle? ”

The 38th Division and the 132nd Division are also fully equipped with Class A, so that the 57th Army has a total of more than 45,000 people, while the Japanese side has more than 12,000 people. The 57th Army not only has an advantage in strength, but also has an absolute advantage in weapon allocation.

Guo Da glanced at everyone and said: "Military seat, Deputy Commander Zhao, everyone, our current whereabouts have been completely mastered by the Japanese army, and after the battle of Linyi, the Japanese have completely mastered the strength of our army." I think that in this case, the main force of the detachment still dares to enter Pingyi and wait for a decisive battle with our army, and there must be fraud afterwards. The 63rd Wing is definitely coming for our army, but there will definitely not be only one Japanese army coming to help. Are the Japanese stupid? Knowing that you can't do it, you still have to come and send it to death? Where is the mixed 3rd Brigade of the Japanese Army now? Even if they are still in Tai'an, with the help of the railway, it is too convenient for them to support Teng County. Pingyi is definitely going to fight, but how to fight is really debatable. I'm worried, once the 3rd Infantry Brigade goes to Tengxian and the 10th Division is free to march to the city, what will we do at that time? ”

With the timely information transmitted by the agents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Fox Pupil, Guo Da and Huang Haifu were able to learn about the movements of the Japanese troops in North China for the first time, which also made Guo Da and Huang Haifu feel much more confident when they made a choice.

The North China Front had four and a half divisions in Shandong and Hebei, in addition to the 5th Division, the 10th Division was located on the front line, the 101st Division was stationed in Qingdao, the 27th Division was stationed in Jinan, and the 3rd Infantry Brigade was stationed in Jining. Guo Da and Huang Haifu dared to go straight to Feixian County to attack Pingyi, because they had the backing of Fox Pupil agents, and they were not worried about being ambushed or surrounded by the Japanese army at all.

Zhang Zizhong dared to attack Feixian and Pingyi, and it was precisely because Li Zongren provided him with relevant information that the 57th Army had no worries, so he dared to assault the whole army, wanting to go down Feixian and Pingyi with one blow, so as to completely muddy the waters in this area. However, in the information provided by Li Zongren, there was no information about the Third Mixed Infantry Brigade. Hearing Guo Da say this, he couldn't help but hesitate.

The 51st Army is a feint attack on Teng County, so the 10th Division can completely leave a brigade to deceive Yu Xuezhong, win an hour, and successfully complete the defense handover with the mixed 3rd Infantry Brigade. Once the 10th Division enters the front of the city, then the 57th Army will be in danger. Whether it is the 27th Division or the 101st Division, as long as the division is outflanked from the east, the 57th Army can be firmly surrounded. In the southeast, the Japanese army still has a brigade of the 5th Division, and if the Japanese army in this division goes north, even if Li Zongren can immediately send reinforcements, what awaits the 57th Army will be a bloody battle, and it is very likely that the whole army will be lost here. Zhang Zizhong groaned, and it was difficult to make a decision for a while, and he even felt that the decision to send troops to Pingyi was a bit hasty. He glanced at everyone and found that Zhao Dengyu and other former 29th Army officers had heavy faces, while Guo Da, Huang Haifu and others looked relaxed, their hearts moved, and they asked with a smile: "Senior Commander Guo, you can't say enough, right?" Go on. ”

Guo Da, Huang Haifu, Guo Muyi and others glanced at each other and smiled. Guo Da said: "The Pingyi battle still has to be fought, and if it is not fought, the Japanese army will not change its original operational plan." If you really wait for the Japanese army to assemble heavy troops, then Xuzhou will be lost sooner or later. Military seat, what we mean is that since the 51st Army can feint to attack Tengxian, why can't we feint Pingyi. Hehe, at that time, the 10th Division will be deceived out of Teng County, and we will use the strength of one division to block this detachment, and combine the strength of three divisions plus the 51st Army, will we be able to make a lot of money on the 10th Division?! ”

Zhang Zizhong and Zhao Dengyu's faces changed, the 51st Army feint to attack Teng County, and only the two of them in the 57th Army know the truth - where did Guo Da get the news? Could it be that Li Zongren actually has a fox pupil next to him? Hey, I was afraid that Guo Da and Huang Haifu would not contribute to the work and have opinions, so I concealed this matter, but now it seems that I have the heart of a villain to live the belly of a gentleman. Zhang and Zhao glanced at each other, looking a little embarrassed.

Zhang Kexia spoke, he is now the chief of staff of the 38th Division, and he happens to be qualified to participate in a meeting at this level. He directly questioned Guo Da's plan: "What if the 3rd Infantry Brigade attacks the 51st Army?" The 51st Army is suffering from the enemy on its back, can it withstand it? Once the 51st Army is defeated, then we will be passive. Division Commander Guo doesn't think that we can defeat the 10th Division first, right? ”

Guo Da looked at him and didn't speak, and his chief of staff, Yu Zequan, spoke: "It depends on whether Commander Li has the courage to fight the enemy in front of the city." We still have the 31st Army and the 48th Army south of Xuzhou, and as long as we can transfer one of them, we will be able to maintain our superiority in strength. ”

"However, in that case, the remaining army may not be able to withstand the Japanese army on the southern front," said Zhao Dengyu.

Guo Muyi said: "Everyone, do you think we can hold Xuzhou? What if you lose Xuzhou? The slogan put forward by the chairman of the NPC National Committee is to exchange time for victory, and to accumulate small victories into big victories, and at this stage, our goal is to kill the enemy. As long as you kill as many Japanese invaders as possible, a temporary loss of city and territory is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as we inflict heavy losses on the 10th Division, then the Japanese army's plans will be completely disrupted, what will they do? Launched the Xuzhou offensive in advance? Then their losses will only be greater. ”

A lot of what Guo Da said before came from Guo Muyi.

Ouyang Yun appointed Guo Muyi as the chief of staff of the Mountain Division, and what he valued was his overall situation and his ability to conspiracy. Guo Muyi lived up to expectations, and in the face of large-scale battles, she really showed extraordinary judgment, and if she didn't open her mouth, she would remember it ruthlessly. But unfortunately, Li Zongren couldn't listen to him.

His assertion is correct, but Xuzhou can't be so embarrassed. Once Xuzhou is lost, the 57th Army and the 51st Army can still retreat from Shanxi, but what about the other national armies? Will they be able to withstand the next offensive of the Japanese army?

Guo Muyi kicked the ball to Zhang Zizhong, Zhang Zizhong kicked it to Li Zongren, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi discussed, and finally decided to fight a battle in Pingyi, as long as it can temporarily attract the attention of the Japanese army on the northern front and buy a little time for the strategic layout of Xuzhou. He did not allow the 57th and 51st armies to get too entangled with the Japanese army.

Li Zongren's ideal decisive battle place was in Taierzhuang, and before that, he did not allow any of his troops to fight to the death, and he wanted to accumulate strength and strive to achieve a great victory, so as to boost the morale of the retreating national army along the Yangtze River.

In the battle of Pingyi, the thunder was heavy and the rain was small, and the four divisions of the 57th Army rushed over, and the current supreme commander of the detachment, Hirayayama Kiyodasa, originally thought that there would be a hard battle, so he sent frequent telegrams to Ryosuke Isoya and the cabinet body Shengyu (commander of the 3rd Infantry Brigade) to request support. However, when it was dawn the next day, he was surprised to find that the Zhina army outside Pingyi City had disappeared. Subsequently, he received the latest intelligence from the air force reconnaissance planes that the 57th Army had retreated to Beizhuang.

"Eight grids!" Kiyoshi felt that he had been fooled, and he was so angry that he scolded. Then he received an order from Hideki Tojo to immediately send troops to Linyi, and after Linyi and the 5th Division had joined up, he marched to Xiangcheng.

In the battle of Linyi, the detachment was annihilated, and the detachment leader, Major General Shun, was killed, which was not too much of a stain on Hideki Tojo. After all, the offensive of the Central China Front on the Southern Front was also not smooth, and the losses were greater than those of the North China Front. However, the Linyi military warehouse was burned down, but he was almost dismissed from his post and taken to a military court. The first battle of Linyi was the turning point of the entire Xuzhou defensive war, because a large number of materials were burned, the orderly movement and assembly of the Japanese army was disrupted, and the Japanese base camp was furious, and ordered Tojo Hideki to immediately launch the Xuzhou offensive.

On April 21, the 5th Division set out from Linyi and launched an attack on Xiangcheng. On the same day, the 10th Wing of the 10th Division of the Japanese Army stormed Lincheng, and the 63rd Wing attacked Zaozhuang. On the Chinese side, the 57th Army was in Xiangcheng, and the 51st Army was in Lincheng and Zaozhuang to block the Japanese army, and the two sides fought fiercely for two days. The main force of the 51st Army and the 57th Army were forced by the situation to abandon Lincheng and retreat to Hanzhuang and Dige in the second half hour to build a second line of defense. The two sides fought fiercely for two more days, and the 51st Army withdrew to Taierzhuang along the direction of the Grand Canal; Under the leadership of Zhang Zizhong, the 57th Army fought with the 5th Division for two more days, and after achieving the expected goal of blocking, it took the initiative to withdraw and retreated to Taierzhuang.

On April 26, the Japanese army began to carry out fierce air raids on Taierzhuang, focusing on the tank units and self-propelled artillery units of the Cadet Army. The defenders relied on generally backward anti-aircraft weapons to engage in a fierce battle with the Japanese planes, and in five days, a total of nine Japanese planes were shot down and 11 were damaged. The two cadet divisions lost a total of 27 tanks and 43 anti-aircraft combat vehicles, and the self-propelled guns did not suffer any losses because they were well hidden.

On May 2, the 5th Division took the lead in launching a ground offensive against Taierzhuang, which also marked the full start of the Taierzhuang Campaign.