In the past six months, Wuhan's factories, machinery and equipment, skilled workers, schools, cultural relics, and ordinary people have moved to Chongqing, Yunnan and Guizhou through the Yangtze River waterway. Although the Japanese army was blocked on the periphery of Wuhan, and it was not possible to attack Wuhan in the short term, Wuhan, which had almost become an empty city, did not need to hold on.

Especially after the loss of the Pearl River Delta in Guangzhou, the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway was interrupted, and Wuhan lost its role as a transit station, so it became meaningless to use the lives of a large number of soldiers to block the Japanese army in Wuhan. Wuhan has been evacuated into an empty city, so Lao Jiang's next consideration is to preserve his strength. If you want to preserve your strength, the first thing you need to do is to replace the Central Army, which is on the front line.

Wang Haitao's 90th Group Army, as a trump card in Lao Jiang's hand, naturally also received an order to change guards, and it was General Li Pinxian's Fourth Corps that replaced Wang Haitao in guarding the Jiujiang area. After Wang Haitao received the order to change the guard, he personally went to Madang Fortress. Considering that the 20 German-made heavy guns on the Madang Fort could not be withdrawn as soon as he left, and it would be a pity to lose them to Little Japan, Wang Haitao went to the Madang Fort and replaced the 20 German-made heavy guns with ten Japanese-made 105 howitzers.

After handing over the Changshan position, the Daxueshan position, and the Madang Fort to Li Yunheng's 16th Army, Wang Haitao returned to Jiujiang City with his troops. As soon as he arrived in Jiujiang City, General Li Pinxian of the Fourth Corps, who had changed guards with Wang Haitao, was already waiting for Wang Haitao at the headquarters. Li Pinxian came this time to discuss with Wang Haitao about the change of troops.

Li Pinxian's Fourth Corps had four corps and an independent brigade in his hands, and Lao Chiang sent them here because he was afraid that the 90th Group Army would not be able to withstand it, so that they could support it in time. In Li Pinxian's Fourth Corps, the main forces were his own 84th Army and Liao Lei's 48th Army, both of which were Guangxi soldiers and troops with strong combat effectiveness, in addition to Liu Ruming's 68th Army, Xu Yuanquan's 10th Army and the independent brigade composed of the Sichuan Army.

After discussion with Wang Haitao, Taihu County has been broken, so don't want it, Liao Lei's 48th Army is guarded in Susong and Huangmei counties, Hukou County is handed over to Liu Ruming's 68th Army, Li Pinxian himself takes the 84th Army to guard Jiujiang City, Wang Zanxu's Sichuan Army goes to Pengze to prepare to support Madang Fortress at any time, Xu Yuanquan's 10th Army is useless, and is sent to guard the sharp corners on the periphery of Jiujiang, and Jiujiang City is a horn.

When Wang Haitao left Jiujiang, he not only gave Li Pinxian 20 German-made heavy guns and all the shells, but also gave Li Pinxian a batch of captured Japanese heavy weapons, including dozens of 75 mountain guns. This gave Li Pinxian a batch of artillery that could compete with the Japanese army, and also gave Li Pinxian more confidence and reliance.

The resting place of Wang Haitao's 90th Group Army was Yueyang City, Hubei, and Yueyang was south of Wuhan, so it was unlikely that the Japanese army would attack Yueyang first without capturing Wuhan, because Wang Haitao's 90th Group Army could have a long period of rest and recuperation in Yueyang. Wang Haitao waited in Jiujiang until the Heavy Artillery Brigade and the 271st Brigade had all arrived, and then he said goodbye to Li Pinxian and lived in Yueyang before leaving Jiujiang.

As soon as he left Jiujiang, Wang Haitao ordered the Heavy Artillery Brigade, the Armored Regiment and the 271st Brigade, as well as the 93rd Division to retreat from Nanchang to Longzhou County, and Su Zuxin and Zhao Zhongwu were in charge of this journey. Wang Haitao told Su Zuxin that after the 90th and 93rd divisions returned to Longzhou, they were all supplemented by Guangxi children, and then replaced by Tang Renli's logistics office with all-German new equipment.

After the change of clothes, the German instructors in Longzhou conducted tactical training. Let these two divisions also strive to become mechanized divisions, just like the current independent division in Longzhou. According to Wang Haitao's idea, even if the 91st Division and the 92nd Division do not go back to Longzhou with him in the future, he can set up a mechanized army with these three mechanized divisions, and when it is fought again, Little Japan will have more good fruits to eat.

These troops returned to Longzhou, and Wang Haitao took the remaining 91st and 92nd Divisions, the 168th Division of the Sichuan Army, the Guard Regiment, and the Reconnaissance Regiment along the main road to Yueyang City via Wuhan. When passing through Wuhan, Wang Haitao also went to meet Lao Jiang, who naturally praised Wang Haitao, and used the words "what kind of national cadre" and "what mainstay". Wang Haitao was worried for a while.

After meeting the veteran, Wang Haitao visited Chen Cheng, the first confidant of Lao Jiang. After all, his 90th Army belongs to Chen Cheng's civil engineering department, and it is unreasonable not to visit Chen Cheng. Wang Haitao's performance in the past two years has really given Chen Cheng a lot of face, there are 90 troops in the army, and Chen Cheng is a little hard-hearted in the national army full of factions. Therefore, Chen Cheng was also quite polite to Wang Haitao, rewarded him well, and promised a lot of ordnance materials.

In the end, Wang Haitao took the instructions of Lao Jiang and Chen Jie, and got a lot of good things in the logistics quartermaster department in Wuhan, including the remaining one million yuan of legal currency that Lao Jiang rewarded last time. Only then did he leave Wuhan contentedly and head for Yueyang. When he arrived in Yueyang, the brigade was stationed, and the first thing Wang Haitao did was to recruit troops. With guns and money, coupled with the gold-lettered signboard of the 90th Army, it didn't take much effort at all, and the two divisions were all full of manpower, and even the Sichuan Army was wiped out, and all the men and horses were recruited.

At this time, the 168th Division of the Sichuan Army, which was originally subordinate to the 90th Group Army, also had an official name: 210th Division, the division commander was still Yang Jie, and the second brigade and four regiments were under its jurisdiction. After He Zhizhong's 86th Army completed its reorganization and came to Yueyang City, the 90th Group Army suddenly had two armies and one division, with a total of 38,000 men and horses. It's just that half of them are recruits.

Naturally, someone will do the training of recruits, and Wang Haitao can be regarded as idle at this time, and he can finally have time to accompany Fenggu (Tian Yu then withdrew to Longzhou with the hospital). The two often go to Yueyang Tower and Dongting Lake together. This period of time can be said to be the most comfortable day Wang Haitao has had in more than two years.

Even in his leisure, Wang Haitao always pays attention to the movements on the battlefield in front of him. Although the Japanese army in Dabie Mountain under the command of Luo Zhuoying was also attacking, the effect was not great, and there was no progress for a long time. And Liao Lei's 48th Army in Susong defended to the death and fought fiercely with the Japanese army. The 5th and 101st Divisions of the Japanese Army, having lost their superiority in artillery fire, were instead severely damaged by the 48th Army, among which the 101st Division suffered the most serious casualties, and even the division commander, Lieutenant General Masaki Ito, was seriously wounded by a shell fired by the Nationalist army and sent back to Japan.

On the contrary, it was here in Madang Fortress, and Li Yunheng's 16th Army finally failed to resist the attack of the two Japanese brigades and regiments, and lost Madang Fortress. So that the Japanese army approached Hukou County. After losing Madang Fort, Li Pinxian also commanded Peng Ze's Sichuan army to counterattack Madang Fort, but the disparity in strength made this Sichuan army not only fail to capture Madang Fort, but also was defeated.

There was a major breakthrough on the south bank of the Yangtze River, which made Okamura Ningji excited. On the one hand, he commanded the 106th Division and the 27th Division to continue the attack on Jiujiang City, and on the other hand, he asked Commander Yanjun 6th for reinforcements. The six generals of Yanjun, who were originally optimistic about the Second Army, saw that Okamura Ningji's side had broken through the Madang Fortress and had the hope of capturing Jiujiang, and he was overjoyed, and suddenly added 10,000 soldiers and a large number of military supplies to Okamura Ningji's Eleventh Army.

With these 10,000 soldiers and military supplies, not only the last wing of the 27th Division was fully replenished, but even the 18th Division was replenished by 7 or 80 percent, and it was ready to go into battle again. Okamura Ninji immediately threw the 18th Division into the attack on Jiujiang. Now the pressure here in Jiujiang is greater. The first to bear the brunt is naturally Hukou County.

The 68th Army was the foundation of the Northwest Army and was incorporated by the Northeast Army, Liu Ruming was also a general who participated in the Great Wall War of Resistance, and the 68th Army still had a certain combat effectiveness. However, Hukou County is easy to attack and difficult to defend, and there is no danger except for the city wall, although there are bunker fortifications left by the 92nd Division in front, but it cannot control the Japanese army's attacks on land and water. The 68th Army was forced to abandon Hukou County and retreat to Jiujiang City after only one day.

With the loss of Hukou County, the Japanese army could unscrupulously launch an artillery bombardment on the Jiujiang River with the Yangtze River Fleet, and could choose a landing site at any time on the bank of the river several tens of kilometers near the Jiujiang River. However, Okamura Ninji didn't know what to think, and he chose the landing site in Gutang. What kind of place is Gutang? It is a small town on the shore of Poyang Lake at the foot of Lushan Mountain, and it is really surrounded by mountains and lakes, and this place cannot immediately attack Jiujiang (and also cross the area of Puquan Mountain on Tading Mountain at the northeast foot of Lushan Mountain), and second, it cannot cut off the connection between Jiujiang and Nanchang or Ruichang, but on the contrary, it may be blocked and beaten by the national army from the north and south sides.

Okamura Ninji was complacent in his later report, believing that he had a unique vision, and that it was extremely difficult to predict the selection of the national army for the landing site, so the weak defense would soon be able to land successfully, and Okamura was moved to tears by his supreme wisdom. The logic of the devil is special, how easy is it to log in? The question is what can be done after landing?

Sure enough, in the two days after the 27th Division landed in Gutang, it fell into a bitter battle with several divisions of the Nationalist Army Liu Ruming on the first line of Puquan Mountain in the northeast corner of Lushan Mountain.

In the end, Okamura still had to draw some troops to land on the river bank north of Jiujiang City in order to finally force back Xu Yuanquan's 10th Army in the northeast corner of Lushan, and only then could the Japanese army take Jiujiang. On Jiujiang City and Lushan Mountain, Li Pinxian's troops withdrew to the line of Nanchangpu and Jinguanqiao, and held the mountain positions that had been built. I knew this earlier, but I really didn't know that Okamura's landing in Gutang and crossing Lushan was useful, and it only increased the casualties of the devil soldiers.