Section 269 Defeat on all fronts

After they talked and laughed here for a while, Stone also rearranged the defense mission here, considering that the battlefield here is difficult to clean up in a short period of time, which may affect the next battle, Stone decided to retreat five miles to rebuild the defense line. I believe that after this battle, if the devil wants to attack again, he will not only be very cautious, but also have to go through a period of adjustment. And with this period of time as a buffer, the newly dug field fortifications will also take shape a lot, not to mention completely blocking the attack of the devils, at least it can delay enough time to buy enough time for the 51st Division on the front line of Cili.

At present, the time is too tight for the officers and men of the 74th Army, they gathered from the Taoyuan line to the north to Cili, and before they could gain a firm foothold, they met the onslaught of the devils, and the troops in front of them continued to be defeated, which caused a great burden on their psychology, in this case, on the one hand, they had to rush to repair the fortifications, on the other hand, they had to adjust the state, and they had to always guard against the attack of the Japanese army, which was really extremely difficult. Fortunately, the independent regiment fought very beautifully in the contact battle here in Akamatsu Mountain, and dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army in the first battle, and defeated the arrogance of the Japanese army at once, so that the situation in front of it was finally relieved.

In the following two days, the efforts of the independent regiment were richly rewarded. In the case of the flames of war in all directions, only the Cili line where they were located was not attacked by the Japanese army, and I don't know if it was the annihilation of the Japanese army's forward troops, which made the Japanese army lose the confidence to attack Cili all of a sudden, or whether the Japanese army's offensive purpose had been achieved, and they did not advance to Cili, so that the independent regiment had enough time to build field fortifications here.

However, when the order from the 51st Division was conveyed to the Independent Regiment, it suddenly made the stone feel the smell of danger.

Division Commander Zhou ordered the Independent Regiment to evacuate west with the 51st Division and rush to the area of Qijiahe to assemble.

The order did not say what to do here, nor did it say where friendly troops would take over the defensive line. Judging from Shishi's rich combat experience, it seems that Cili is about to give up here. However, once Cili was lost here, the flank of the Tenth Army on the front line of Taiping Street was exposed to the attack of the Japanese army, and this situation was very unfavorable to the entire battlefield situation.

After Lin Xiufeng and Wu Zihuai on the side got the order, they couldn't help but look at each other, and the excitement of the previous small victory was all thrown out of the clouds, obviously they also smelled a trace of ominous breath from this simple order, and the confusion about the future made them nervous.

I don't understand it, but Shi didn't hesitate at all, since they were assigned to the command of the 51st Division at this moment, then he would conscientiously implement the order of Zhou Zhidao of the 51st Division. After all, on the battlefield, the subordinates obey the superiors, this is a principle that must be absolutely followed, otherwise it will be a trivial matter for an independent regiment to lose troops, affecting the entire 51st Division's troop arrangement and affecting the actions of the entire 74th Army, which is a major matter that cannot be afforded.

Qijiahe was not close to Cili, and with a stomach full of questions, Shi commanded the various units of the Independent Regiment to act overnight, and arrived at the assembly place at midnight. After arriving here, he was stunned to find that not only their independent regiment and the 51st Division had arrived here, but the 58th Division had already been in place.

Of course, in front of everyone, the stone is naturally not good to say anything to Zhang Lingfu. However, after the military council was dismissed, they still got together very tacitly to discuss the next battle situation.

"Stone, you kid is really, I haven't seen you for a few days, and you have killed a brigade of devils?" Zhang Lingfu looked at the dirty stones, and couldn't help but say with great admiration.

Hearing him say this, Stone somehow suddenly thought of a nickname that I don't know who gave him "Infantry Brigade Killer!" He could only smile helplessly: "Brother, in this kind of battlefield where hundreds of thousands of troops are fighting each other, the role that a brigade of a few hundred people can play is really limited, and no matter how much we can fight, we can't play much of a role!" Otherwise, why would we have to retreat here? After that, the stone looked left and right, and then lowered his voice and asked, "Brother, the situation has not been good in the past two days?" ”

Zhang Lingfu stretched out his hand and patted the stone on the shoulder, sighed helplessly and said, "It's not our problem here, it's the 29th Group Army." ”

Shi was surprised and asked, "After the 29th Group Army withdrew from the front line, wasn't the defense area already handed over to us?" What's going on? ”

Zhang Lingfu said: "Where can our 74th Army and 100th Army hold such a long defensive line? Especially in the case of the loss of the forward position, we can only delay the advance speed of the devil and give the follow-up reinforcements the opportunity to deploy defense, as for taking back the initiative from the entire battlefield, it is more difficult to say. After all, relying on the river fortifications, when there was a complete defense line, they could not stop the devils, and in the case of losing the geographical advantage, there was only hope after they had an advantage in the troops. Therefore, it is necessary not only to hold back the devils, but also to preserve the strength of the blocking troops, so that in the later counteroffensive there will be an absolute superiority in strength to defeat the Japanese army in one fell swoop. ”

Shi listened quietly, for the current battle situation, obviously because he had been staying on the front line, he didn't know much.

Zhang Lingfu obviously knew this, and said more carefully: "The devil's attack is very fast, it looks like two fists, the 3rd, 13th, 34th, and 39th divisions on the left, and the 17th Brigade, 40th Division, 68th Division, and 116th Division on the right. Now the devil only exerts the fist on the left, and after the devil smashed the defense line of the 29th Army with one punch, he hit all the way to the Cili line, but he didn't expect to touch an iron plate and couldn't move. ”

"But the devil's right fist hasn't been used yet, and now no one knows where the devil's right fist is going to smash." Zhang Lingfu shook his head and said helplessly.

Hearing this, Shi already had a general understanding, and couldn't help but say: "Since the devil's right fist has not yet been hit, the top priority is to block the devil's left fist, if you can hit the devil's left fist hard, the devil's right fist will definitely come out, otherwise, the devil only has one fist left, and he won't be able to make any big waves." ”

Zhang Lingfu nodded and said, "Yes!" But the problem is that the 29th Group Army did not block the attack of the devils on the river defense line, if they fought hard enough, blocked the devils, and even severely damaged the devils. Then, the devil's right fist had to be punched out, so that the sixth and ninth theaters could mobilize heavy troops to deal with it calmly. The problem now is that the devil's right fist has not been hit, but the left fist has turned the sixth war zone upside down, and this battle makes it difficult for us to lay out. Especially in the Ninth War Zone, on the one hand, Chief Xue was worried that the devil's left fist was a feint, and the real target of the right fist was Changsha, so he did not dare to send heavy troops to support him, and on the other hand, he was worried that the devil would take Changde and cut off the connection with Chongqing, so that the Ninth War Zone would be under the attack of the devils, so the transfer of various departments has not been clear so far. ”

At this point, Shi had a general understanding of the enemy situation in front of him, and couldn't help but be surprised and said: "Brother, in this case, we hold Cili and then counterattack on the front line of Li County and Jinshi is the solution to the crisis, why did we suddenly withdraw here?" ”

Zhang Lingfu smiled bitterly and said: "Brother, Linli is lost, if you don't withdraw it, you will be surrounded by devils!" ”

The stone was dumbfounded, and said incredulously: "How could Linli be lost?" An army guarding a small county town, behind it is Changde, where the 57th Division is stationed, not to mention guarding it for a month, there should be no problem at all for ten days and eight days! ”

Zhang Lingfu shook his head and said: "The 73rd Army is finished, and in the area of Li County and Shimen, not only have they suffered huge losses in terms of troops, but what is even more terrifying is that the confidence and courage of this army are gone. A unit without courage, a unit that has lost its soul, is no longer effective on the battlefield! ”

Shi Shi also couldn't help but sigh bitterly, he was in Cili, he had met a lot of brothers from the pre-5th division who had withdrawn from the front line, even if there were only a dozen of these people, they were still not afraid of death and dared to attack the devils, even if they knew that such an action had no meaning, such an attack was completely sending them to death, but they did not hesitate and fear at all.

Why can't such a soldier and such a bloody army not exert its due combat power on the battlefield? Shi couldn't help but sigh helplessly, the war was too complicated, and the affairs in the army were even more complicated, so he couldn't help but have any clues.

Zhang Lingfu saw that Shi lowered his head and didn't speak, so he couldn't help but put his arm around his shoulders and said with relief: "Don't worry, over the years, so many hard battles and bloody battles have come, I don't know how many more difficult situations we have encountered, haven't we all survived?" I was able to get through it this time. In the past few years, the number of attacks by the devils has become less and less, and the combat effectiveness has become weaker and weaker, and the number of our counteroffens has also increased. After that, he looked up at the distance and said: "This battle, it seems that it will depend on Brother Jianshi again, whether he can block the devil's left fist now depends on how long he can hold in Changde." ”

After Shi pondered for a long time, he couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Another battle of Shanggao? ”

Zhang Lingfu nodded vigorously and said, "Yes, another battle on the high level!" ”