Chapter 7: Rivers and Mountains (37)

The supply line of the Japanese army on the front line of Hefei was only used once, and they did not dare to use it again, because the supply fleet had never stopped robbing along the way. After the flotilla entered Caoyun Town, sporadic gunfire began to ring out on both sides of the Misu River, and the guns were very accurate, only hitting the Japanese fireboats, and the local wooden sailing boats were allowed to let go. After walking dozens of kilometers, the Japanese fireboat no longer dared to move forward, and gradually fell behind, and then simply turned around and drove out of the mouth of the water, and when they reached the Yangtze River, they were safe.

In some silted sections of the river near Chaohu Lake, the fleet finally encountered the first large-scale robbery. The looters were all Japanese-style equipment, 38 big covers, Japanese shoes, backpacks, armed belts and steel helmets, except for the jackets that were different from the Japanese, there were all kinds of everything, and the others were exactly the same as the Japanese, including shit yellow breeches. This is a group of ruthless people, fast running, poisonous hearts, good marksmanship, in the hands of these people, the Japanese 38 rifle has become an excellent sniper rifle, you can raise the gun, and let it go. One shot broke the rope that pulled the sail, the other broke the rope that pulled the rudder, and even worse, shot down the sun flag that the Japanese army hung high on the bow of the ship. As for the Japanese soldiers escorted on the ship, those who dared to show their heads basically opened their scoops, and the rest were all lying in the cabin, not even daring to pee. The boatmen took advantage of the strong southeast wind, and the boats that could sail were full of sails, and they could only stop at the water's edge if the sail rope was broken. The Japanese escort jumped into the water and fled, and the captain of the ship took the sailors, kneeling on the boat with his head in his hands, his eyes closed. They know the rules, this kind of robbery does not hurt people's lives, provided that they squint and don't look around, let alone ask who did it.

The boss of the boat didn't know who did it, but Xu Ping understood very well that it was Su Yu of the Jiangbei advance force of the New Fourth Army who did it. From Jiangnan to Jiangbei, there is a shortage of armaments and food, and according to Zhang Yunyi, everything is wanted. A fleet of such fat ships passed under their noses, and if they didn't do it again, it wouldn't have come down from Jinggang Mountain.

Next, this supply fleet seemed to be in a dead end, and every less than five miles, two or three ships were stopped, and when they arrived at the mouth of Chaohu Lake and entered Chaohu Lake, a fleet of thirty boats had only five boats left. These five boats no longer went to Hefei, and directly unloaded the materials at the Chaohu Garrison Brigade, and immediately returned to the Yangtze River empty.

The Japanese army also knew who was doing this, and they also wanted to send troops to clean it up, but the Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Jiujiang, and Huangmei were fighting in full swing, and the Japanese army in Nanjing had all been evacuated, and they really couldn't spare manpower to deal with this problem of ringworm and scabies. Soon, under the leadership of Zhang Yunyi, Chen Yi, and Su Yu, the Jiangbei Column expanded rapidly, greatly increased its number, and its combat strength grew by leaps and bounds. However, another serious problem was placed in front of them, the east was the Grand Canal, the north was Xu Ping's station, and the west was the defense area of the previous fourth detachment, and finding enough space became their biggest task. The intention of the Nationalist Government was to allow them to cross the Yellow Flood Area, enter northern Jiangsu, and create a new base area behind the vast enemy lines in northern Jiangsu, but it was not easy to achieve this goal, and the vast waters composed of Hongze Lake, Baima Lake, Gaoyou Lake, and Shaobo Lake alone made them sigh at the ocean.

Liu Qinglong was extremely bored in Xixi, and several times asked to go to Hefei to find trouble with the military headquarters of the Second Army of the Japanese Army, but Xu Ping categorically denied it. Xu Ping told Liu Qinglong that he was honest and stayed in Xixi, first, he couldn't go to the territory of the New Fourth Army in Shucheng to make trouble, and second, he couldn't provoke the second army. We did not provoke the Japanese because the Japanese were too powerful, and we did not provoke the New Fourth Army because the two sides reached an agreement in a peaceful and friendly environment.

In Shucheng, Gong Qingyuan met with General Gao Jingting, the head of the fourth detachment of the New Fourth Army, and everyone divided their respective areas, with the northern end of Chaohu Lake as the boundary, the west and the east, the west to Lu'an, and the east to Chuzhou. Each should guard its own territory, do not interfere with each other, and if necessary, should be notified in advance.

Gong Qingyuan was negotiating with Gao Jingting under the instruction of Xu Ping, the negotiations between the two sides were very friendly, Gao Jingting was not like a general, more like a scholar, in his thirties, medium build, thin, dressed in mixed and matched military casual clothes, the hat was the standard cloth hat of the national army, and the others were captured by the Japanese army, and the short-sleeved white shirt was tied in breeches, which had to be fierce. He is a native of Xinxian County, Henan, and he speaks with a strong Henan accent, and he speaks very gently, and sometimes he can bring some auxiliary words that are not the same, and he should be born in old books.

After the establishment of the New Fourth Army, he led his unit to be organized into the fourth detachment of the New Fourth Army, and under the deployment of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, he walked out of the Dabie Mountains and entered the central Anhui region. He has a very good view of the overall situation, the reason why he does not go to Hefei in the north of Chaohu is because that place has always been Xu Yuanquan's defense area, and he does not want to have a conflict with Xu Yuanquan, and then the Sakai detachment in Hefei was beaten away by Xu Ping, and the north of Chaohu Lake returned to Xu Ping, and he was even more unwilling to have a misunderstanding with Xu Ping. Therefore, his four regiments, the seventh regiment was in the west of Chaohu, the eighth regiment was in the east of Chaohu, and the eastern regiment was in the south of Chaohu, and he led the pistol regiment in Chaohu. After the detachment of the New Fourth Army crossed the river, Gao Jingting gave up Chaohudong to a detachment to settle down and returned to Shucheng by himself. Let the 7th Regiment return to Tongcheng and Gaohebu, hoping to take Anqing, Qianshan, Yuexi and Taihu Lake from the Japanese army and become their base areas. Therefore, the negotiation with Gong Qingyuan is also his hope, and if he has a good relationship with Xu Ping in the north, he will be able to let go of his hands and feet to try Anqing without worries.

The negotiation work has been strongly supported by Yang Kezhi, Yang Kezhi is very clear about the relationship between Xu Ping and Huang Tianhua, this Eastern Anhui Loyal Salvation Army is a branch of the Gui Army, if there is a conflict with them, it is a conflict with the Gui Army, think about Huang Tianhua's elusive combat skills, Yang Kezhi feels weak all over, not to mention that there is an invincible existence above them. Although Yang Kezhi has never seen Mo Enemy, in the mouth of Chen Zhengxin, Mo Di is the real unpredictable and invincible in the world.

However, this unpredictable and invincible enemy in the world is surrounded by the Japanese army.

When the news of Luo Shujia's occupation of Qianshan reached Guangji, Bai Chongxi immediately understood where the first move was, and ordered the Gui army to immediately launch a counterattack against Huangmei, Susong, Taihu and other places.

On 14 August, 10 days after the Japanese occupied Huangmei, the Nationalist army's counteroffensive began in full swing, with Qin Lianfang's 84th Army, which had only come from Guangxi at the end of June, as the main attacker, with the 188th Division as the vanguard.

Liu Ren, commander of the 188th Division, a native of Yangzhaidian, Cuikou Town, Yanshan County, Hebei Province, graduated from the Normal School, was born as a secretary, and was a greedy and fearful of death who had never experienced a battle array. He did not dare to go to the front line, so he sent deputy division commander Liu Jianchang to the front line to command, while he led a few cronies to hide behind the military headquarters to observe the movements, ready to slip away at any time. Deputy division commander Liu Jianchang, a native of Liling, Hunan, graduated from the 3rd Cavalry Section of the Baoding Military Academy, and after being transferred to the Guangxi Army Lecture Hall in January 1919, he has always been engaged in education in the military academy. After receiving the order, he immediately launched an attack, the offensive was very fierce, and he played a little bit of the prestige of the Gui army, only to see Liu Ren shouting loudly in the rear, his feet jumping wildly. The Japanese army fought for a long time, and the commander of the 13th Wing, Hidemitsu Nakano, gave way to the avenue, leaving the 1st Infantry Brigade three or four kilometers outside Huangmei City, organizing strong defensive positions, deep trenches, tall barbed wire, and dense firepower. When the 188th Division attacked here, it could no longer advance an inch, and in the confrontation between the opposing side, the troops exposed on the flat ground suffered heavy casualties. At this time, the other two infantry battalions of Nakano Hidemitsu's 13th Wing were outflanked to the southwest, and the 188th Division was unable to land and was forced to withdraw from the battle.

Two days later, the 84th Army coordinated with the 68th Army and the 176th Division of the 48th Army to counterattack Huangmei again, fighting fiercely for two days and nights, and occupied the Weijia Pavilion five miles away from the city. The 176th Division of the 48th Army, which was the pointed head team, pursued the victory and occupied Shuangchengsi. The Japanese army repeated its old tricks, taking advantage of the unstable foothold of the 176th Division, attacking from both flanks and encircling the 176th Division. Ou Shounian held a short gun in his hand and went into battle in person, and led the 1056th Regiment to bear almost two-thirds of the Japanese attack. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, and neither could get out of the battle, which became the focus of the battle of Huangmei.

Situation crisis!

Li Pinxian ordered Liu Jianchang, deputy commander of the 188th Division, to personally lead the 1101st Regiment and the 1102nd Regiment to help, and join hands with the 176th Division to hold the position.

Although the 188th Division rescued the 176th Division, its own losses were extremely heavy. Li Hanguang, the commander of the 1102nd Regiment, was besieged, and only Li Hanguang led 8 soldiers to flee back, and the rest were all killed.

The withdrawal of the 176th Division means that the plan for the battle of Huangmei for this counteroffensive is bankrupt, and it also means that the Japanese counteroffensive is coming, and the next city, Guangji.

In August 1938, the war north of the Yangtze River passed in the attack and defense of Huangmei. To the south of the Yangtze River, the Japanese army successfully occupied Ruichang, and under the escort of the Third Fleet of the Yangtze River, the 9th Division of the Japanese Army came to Ruichang by water. Previously, the enemy in Jiangnan only had the 101st Division, the 106th Division and the Botian Detachment, and they were fighting with Zhang Fakui's division, and suddenly a 9th Division was added, which caught the Jiangnan defenders by surprise. Maruyama Masao's 6th Brigade came out of the oblique stab, and when Wang Yaowu killed Yu Ji, he fled, and finally figured out that another handsome regiment had been added to Jiangnan.

What made the Central Military Commission even more important was that Xu Ping successfully completed the task of delaying the Second Army's offensive until late August, and worked with the New Fourth Army to completely cut off the southern section of the Jinpu Line and the two passages of the Misu River. However, the supply of the Xubang Railway arrived as scheduled, and on August 22, the Second Army set off to capture Lu'an, and the battle at the northern foot of Dabie Mountain began.

In order to increase the defensive force at the northern foot of Dabie Mountain, Liu Yinggu's troops and Yang Sen's troops were all transferred to Lihuang County.

Huang Tianhua was unable to support himself and asked to withdraw from the hidden mountain.

Liao Lei, commander of the 21st Group Army, made a suggestion to Bai Chongxi, asking Mo Di to lead the 1056th Regiment to join forces with Huang Tianhua and occupy Qianshan, Ma Weixin to lead the rest of the 526th Brigade to occupy Taihu Lake, and Ou Shounian to lead the 176th Division to govern the 525th Brigade and occupy Yuexi. The region must not be allowed to become a vacuum.

Liao Lei's words made Bai Chongxi's eyes light up, land is the purpose of life and death!