Chapter 9: Behind Enemy Lines (22)

The withdrawal of the New Fourth Army left a temporary vacuum west of Chaohu Lake, the Gui Department wanted to enter, the Japanese army also wanted to occupy, and Ren Yuandao also wanted to get involved.

The Japanese knew very well that the small number of troops in Anqing could not make them get their wish, and the 116th Division was not a standing first-class army in the first place, and it was only hastily formed in 1938, and as soon as it was built, it was hurriedly pulled to China, and in Xuzhou, Henan, and Jiangxi fought all the way and lost troops, and even the division commander was replaced. In Anqing, it is nominally a brigade, but in fact it is just a brigade headquarters. It was precisely because of the slight number of soldiers and generals that Hao Wenbo attacked Anqing once, although he did not take Anqing City, and also scared the Central China Command in Nanjing into a cold sweat. The Japanese knew that the empty city plan could no longer be played, so they finally transferred the Aoki United to Anqing, which was considered to have available troops.

Anqing, as an important town on the Yangtze River, its geographical location determines its important role, the Japanese army's army aviation regards this place as a relay station, the navy's Yangtze River transportation line is more dependent on Anqing, and the army, navy and air force have taken Anqing as an important base. The withdrawal of the New Fourth Army exposed the area from Tongcheng Shucheng to Hefei in front of the Central China Command of the Japanese Army.

Kazuo Aoki rushed from Nanchang to Anqing, and in Wangjiang Huayang, he put down a battalion full of wounded soldiers of the Fujita brigade. When he came to Anqing, it was when Hao Wenbo withdrew from Anqing, he sent a complete squadron of 180 people to cooperate with a battalion of the Appeasement Army to pursue Hao Wenbo, but he did not expect to be ambushed by Hao Wenbo in Shipai, and one of his squadrons and a battalion of the Appeasement Army were eaten up completely, leaving no scum at all.

The infantry wing is the basic independent combat unit of the Japanese army, with three infantry brigades under one wing, four infantry squadrons, a machine gun squadron composed of eight Type 92 heavy machine guns, and a cannon squadron directly under the brigade composed of two 70mm infantry guns. Each infantry squadron has 180 men and has three infantry squads of 54 men each, one machine gun squad consisting of two crooked light machine guns, one grenadier squad consisting of two grenadiers and two rifle squads. The normal infantry wing has about 3,000 officers and soldiers, and some strong wings also have about 1,000 logistics support to supplement the troops.

Anqing's Aoki Brigade cannot be judged by this criterion, Wangjiang's Fujita Brigade is the largest part of the population, remaining full, but more than half of them are wounded soldiers, the two brigades that came to Anqing are not fully staffed, one of the brigades turned out to be only two squadrons, and now there is only one left, and the other has been permanently buried in Shipai. With such a small number of troops, it is already stretched to hold Anqing, let alone divide troops to other regions.

Fortunately, the arrival of a division of the appeasement army gave the empty city of Anqing more strength, and the division commander Liu Zuoxin, who was originally the commander of the garrison headquarters of a certain city in Jiangsu, has been maintaining law and order in southern Jiangsu since he was incorporated into the appeasement army. After the establishment of the puppet government of Liang Hongzhi, the appeasement army expanded on a large scale with the support of the Japanese army, and Liu Zuoxin's army also rose, growing to more than 6,000 people in the first division. This time, it was sent to Anqing by the Japanese army's large troop carrier Ito Maru, which was the first time to shepherd the side, and for this, Liu Zuoxin was very proud. Standing on the foredeck of the Ito Maru, he actually read Shi Dakai's poem aloud: "For the sake of blood and sincerity, I would like to tell all the soldiers and civilians: self-hatred has no intelligence, and heaven is ashamed of Hoen." However, the arrow is loyal and loyal, and the heart is only a heart, and the upper can be to the emperor, and the lower can be the ancients. ”

It is no wonder that Liu Zuoxin is happy, his army is a small division of less than 3,000 people, whether it is in the eyes of commander Ren Yuandao or in the eyes of army commander Li Pucheng, it is the most unsightly and ineffective division. This time, he not only filled the establishment at one time to form a three-regiment C division, but also told him that after arriving in Anqing, the Liu Maizai garrison regiment in Anqing before him was also included in his subordinates, and it could immediately be upgraded to a B-level division of two brigades and four regiments, and all combat expenses and military salaries would be directly allocated by the Anqing headquarters. If you have a gun, you are the king of grass, and if you have a gun and money, you will be counted by yourself in this Anqing place! The Second Brigade and the Fourth Regiment, what kind of existence is that, that is a transcendent existence, in the occupied areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, it can speak quite loudly.

Disembarking in Anqing and setting foot on the land of Anqing with great ambition, Liu Zuoxin reached the peak of excitement when he saw Kazuo Aoki who came to greet him from afar. Kazuo Aoki was one level lower, and he first came to a very standard salute, and he was so happy that Major General Liu Zuoxin almost didn't take off, so he hurriedly returned the salute, and took the initiative to stretch out his hand and shake hands with Kazuo Aoki.

Following Kazuo Aoki was Liu Maizai, the former head of the Anqing Garrison Regiment, who was originally the head of the Wangjiang Detachment of the 11th Guerrilla Column, after the Battle of Huangmei, surrendered to the Japanese army, was appointed as the commander of the Anqing Independent Battalion, and was later promoted to the head of the Anqing Garrison Regiment. Being able to upgrade from a local garrison regiment to a formal regiment of the appeasement army, Liu Maizai was also extremely satisfied, not only the steel helmet on his head changed from a wide-brimmed French style to a standard Japanese style, but even the epaulettes on his shoulders had different logos. In the past, although it was also known as the appeasement army to the outside world, I knew that it belonged to the side line, but now, it is really entering the door. I wanted to be the head of the Wangjiang detachment, I couldn't compete with Tao Taiping's Wangjiang Garrison Brigade in terms of power, and I was even lower than Wu Wannian in military operations.

After Liu Maijae saluted Liu Zuoxin, he immediately moved from Aoki Kazuo to Liu Zuoxin's side to stand still, he had a natural instinctive understanding of the door court and knew who was his real boss.

A bespectacled man beside Liu Zuoxin pulled him away and told him that there were two brigade commanders next to his division commander, and he was just a regiment commander, and he wanted to stay some distance from the division seat. Liu Maizai honestly followed behind the brigade commander and did not dare to make a sound. But Kazuo Aoki didn't know the scene, and shouted at Liu Maizai: "Liu Sang, your lead and the arrangement of the military camp are your responsibility." ”

Liu Maizai trotted in front of Liu Zuoxin again, bent down and said very humbly: "Sir, I have a troop resettlement plan here, please take a look." ”

Liu Zuoxin glanced at it and said: "I know all the words, but I don't understand the name of the place at all, so I will do it according to your arrangement, and you will be responsible for the specific work." ”

The troops followed Liu Maizai out of the dock, and Liu Zuoxin, under the leadership of Kazuo Aoki, went to the Japanese brigade headquarters.

The 116th Division is under the jurisdiction of the 119th Brigade and the 130th Brigade, the main force of the division is stationed in Nanchang under the leadership of the division commander Lieutenant General Seiichiro Shinohara, and the 130th Brigade Headquarters in Anqing, the brigade commander Kiyono Naoyuki, so it is also called the Kiyono Brigade. The 130th Brigade is under the jurisdiction of the 133rd and 138th Infantry Wings, and Kazuo Aoki is the commander of the 138th Wing.

Kiyono Naoyuki is an old military stick, he was left behind in Anqing because of physical problems, and for more than a year, except for Hao Wenbo, who caused him a little trouble, he had a smooth life. After the Huangmei War, the front advanced to the Wuhan area, this area became an occupation area, the Chinese army is not much, most of them are shrinking in the Dabie Mountains, the strength of the new Fourth Army around Chaohu Lake is limited, the imperial army is everywhere, most of them take the way is to dodge, so in the occupied area of the New Fourth Army, most of the Japanese army occupies the county seat, and the New Fourth Army occupies the countryside, most of the time it is not against each other, and occasionally there will be some skirmishes, but it does not affect the overall situation. Kiyono Naoyuki was very satisfied with this situation, with the New Fourth Army and the 48th Army involved with each other, on the contrary, the Japanese army was very detached in this area, the Japanese army was small, and it was impossible to take all the areas, as long as there was no war, it was the greatest contribution.

However, all this was completely broken in June 1939, and the first chrysalis was the damned Hao Wenbo, if he hadn't attacked Anqing, there would have been no Aoki Kazuo to come to Anqing's aid. If it weren't for Kazuo Aoki's help, there wouldn't have been that damn ambush at Shipai. If it weren't for the New Fourth Army's dissatisfaction with Hao Wenbo's monopoly of Huaining, there would not have been an expansion of friction with Gao Jingting in the ensuing years, and it would not have provoked the high-level leaders of the Gui Army and given heavy medicine to the New Fourth Army. The Qinglongchang rebellion not only killed a Gao Jingting, but also cleaned more than 2,000 people to leave, forcing the New Fourth Army to leave the area, completely breaking the balance in this area, so that the conflict between the two sides escalated layer by layer. The arrival of Liu Zuoxin means that the comfortable days have come to an end, and here, just like the damned Jinchaji, the Eighth Route Army and the North China Garrison Army will play hide and seek day and night, restless day and night. Naoyuki Kiyono believes that to occupy an area is to enjoy it to the fullest, and if you are tired of running every day, there is not much fun in occupying it. He was in Anqing for a year, traveled to a large number of local scenic spots, Yingjiang Temple, Ten Thousand Buddha Pagoda, and even the boulder mountain on the shore of Caizi Lake, listened to Huangmei every day, came to a cup of good Erzu Zen tea, a Xiaojiaqiao shortbread, and then a superb Mailong fragrant Mozi crisp, this feeling, compared to Okamura Ningci's daily fight for life and happiness is more than a hundred times.

Liu Zuoxin looked at Naoyuki Kiyono, who was in the same rank as himself, and raised his hand involuntarily, and a fairly standard salute was completed subconsciously. Kiyono Naoyuki smiled indifferently and didn't return the salute, but just raised his hand and said in Chinese with a bit of Anqing accent: "Please be seated." ”

This is a traditional Chinese-style hall, one of which is a table of eight immortals, there are some fruits on the table, above the table of eight immortals is a huge central hall, a plausible map of Songshan travel constitutes the main body of the middle hall painting, Liu Zuoxin recognized This is a forgery, the brushwork seems to be old-fashioned, in fact, it is naïve, the ink has the Japanese copying style, if it is not as accidental, it should be the work of the person in front of you, the top is actually the Taoist nature four characters, a bit nondescript. There is a pair of official hat chairs on both sides, but a pot of pine scenery is placed in the middle, and the wide atrium is made into a grass hall, Liu Zuoxin smiled secretly, the Japanese learn China, like a toddler in Handan, it is rare to learn its shape, and it is quite difficult to get its god. I think that despite this, the surface is silent, but instead makes a look of extreme appreciation and appreciation, which is also a master of counterfeiting!

Kiyono Naoyuki has always been quite satisfied with the layout of his central hall, thinking that it is the authentic transmission of Han and Tang culture, which is completely different from China's culture that has been raped by the Qing generation, seeing Liu Zuoxin looking at his central hall with appreciative eyes, he can't help but be happy, as for the war and trouble brought to himself, he put it aside for the time being, and said to the maid on the side in Japanese, and served tea.