At this time, the chief of staff of the river interjected in a sullen voice: Didn't the two detachments of the Second Army of Lieutenant General Nishio (author's note: referring to Nishio Shouzo, who was then the commander of the Second Army of the Japanese North China Front) make a move to intersperse and divide the direction of Taierzhuang?

Kosuke Otsuka, who did not know about this, was speechless, and the brigade commander Hagiwara Akira sighed, pointing out that the Second Army of the China Army, which is currently guarding the Taierzhuang area, has two armies, in addition to Sun Lianzhong's original 26th Route Army (now renamed the 30th Army), and the 43rd Army has been strengthened, and the army commander Feng Anbang is also a difficult role to deal with. The two detachments I attacked to the front front of Taierzhuang were not superior in strength, and it was difficult to divide the manpower to carry out the backward intersperse.

"In addition, there is intelligence that the 20th Army of the Chinese Army Tang Enbo with 100,000 troops has now advanced to the vicinity of Taierzhuang, and once the division launches a flanking attack from behind the Seya detachment and the Sakamoto detachment, the situation will become very serious." Hagiwara added.

"Townenbo's army?" The chief of staff on the river side couldn't help frowning: "I've heard of this general of China, when Lieutenant General Itagaki first entered Shanxi, he should have fought with them, and it seems that his combat power is quite good." ”

"Indeed, Tang Enbo was favored by Chiang Kai-shek among the generals of China, and often gave him great power; The large force of the Tang Army wandered behind the two detachments of the Second Army, and it would obviously restrain their footsteps in interspersing and dividing the Taierzhuang defense area. ”

"General, I don't know anything!" Kosuke Otsuka blushed at this time, and asked in a snort: "The strength of the Second Army to attack in the direction of Xuzhou is two divisions, why do these two divisions only send one detachment to battle?" If Lieutenant General Isoya and Lieutenant General Itagaki had invested all their forces to go south from the beginning, I am afraid that Xuzhou would have already become the bag of the imperial army! ”

The room fell silent. No one came to answer this question from the commander of the Japanese wing.

In the end, it was the brigade commander, Major General himself, who muttered with a little embarrassment: The front army did not get the permission of the base camp at the beginning of the operation to move south to Xuzhou, and General Terauchi (author's note: referring to Terauchi Shouichi, who was the commander-in-chief of the Japanese North China Front at the time) Although he was ambitious, he was always a little jealous. Sending two detachments to advance in the direction of Xuzhou can be regarded as reducing the scale of the battle as much as possible.

"I'm afraid there are some elements of underestimating the enemy," Hebe Dazuo echoed in the same voice: "When the Second Army attacked Shandong at the end of last year, it almost did not encounter any decent resistance, and the Sixth Theater of the China Army can be described as fleeing from the wind, and their commander Han Fuyu was also killed by the China Military Commission precisely because of this. It's just that Lieutenant General Nishio didn't expect that he would meet Li Zongren next, including Sun Lianzhong, who was under Li. ”

The room became silent again—both the Itagaki Division and the Isoya Division belonged to the elite main force of the North China Front, and in terms of combat power, the Sena Division, to which the officers sitting at the conference table belonged at the moment, could be called equal; At this moment, everyone was thinking about the same question: if it was their own division that was in a bitter battle with the Zhina Army in Taierzhuang, what would the situation be?

The seminar, which was held in response to the war thousands of miles away, ended in a somewhat depressing atmosphere. However, all the officers present at the meeting did not expect that a fierce battle was quietly approaching.

The joint operation plan of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army and the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division was finally finalized after consultation and revision by the military commanders of the two sides.

The 391st Regiment dispatched two main battalions with additional artillery companies, heavy machine gun companies, and special service companies to attack Lingshi County on the Nantongpu Railway Line, feigning to attack the city, attracting Japanese troops from Wencheng more than 40 miles away to come to the rescue, waiting for an opportunity to annihilate their reinforcements; At the same time, the railroad tracks and telephone lines were demolished and destroyed.

The second battalion of the Xu Brigade dispatched two main companies, an additional cavalry company, a mortar platoon, and two lines; The first road went to the southern suburbs of Fengdian County to lay an ambush to monitor the movements of the garrison Japanese troops in the city and the Japanese troops in Xiaoyushu Mountain, and once the Japanese army in this area sent reinforcements after the battle in the direction of Pulu began, it was necessary to undertake the task of blocking and harassing the attack, and at the same time ensure that the path of the 391st Regiment to retreat to Dayushu Mountain was unblocked. The second route was to go to the Tongpu railway line ahead of the 391st Regiment, and set up an ambush south of Lingshi County to block possible Japanese reinforcements, and at the same time dismantle and destroy the railroad tracks and telephone lines.

Before Wu Zijian approved this joint operation plan, most of the company-level commanders of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade expressed their opposition: It was clear that the 391st Regiment was the main attacker in this operation, and the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade was only assisting in the cover, especially since the two companies had to be separated for action.

The deputy commander of the second battalion didn't realize this, but he had his own considerations: At present, the war in southern Jinnan has reached the most critical juncture, and whether the main force of the second theater of the national army can stay in Shanxi will be known in a short time. The 391st Regiment resolutely sent troops to fight Tongpu Road at this time, and it can be said that Qin Zhongxiao gambled with his life - if it succeeded, it was enough to hit or even cut off the supply line of the Japanese Sena Division, and form a strong support for the main force of the Central Army on the front line; However, if it fails, it is unknown whether it will be safe to withdraw to the camp.

In view of this, it is obvious that the 2nd Battalion should no longer give too much attention to the issue of the priority of the two armies in joint operations. What's more, with the current equipment of the two armies, the 391 Regiment of the Central Army obviously has a lot of money, and it goes without saying that it has light weapons, and the artillery company alone has three mountain guns and a heavy machine gun company, which is strongly relied on for both siege and reinforcement. This is undoubtedly incomparable to the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade.

What Wu Zijian was really entangled with was that his two companies had to act separately in this battle, and the originally weak forces were more and more scattered. And among the task assignees of the two companies, he also felt a headache. According to the battle plan, the Nantongpu railway line was the focus of the battle, and he should personally lead Li Tianlin's 5th Company to go, and at the same time send Wei Xin's 7th Company to the southern suburbs of Fengdian County to ambush. However, there was one thing that the deputy commander of the 2nd Battalion had to consider, and that was the enemy forces that the two companies might face.

According to the information currently available, the Sena Division of the Japanese Army stationed heavy troops at three locations on the Nantongpu Railway Line, namely Wencheng, Linfen, and Yuncheng, and its Chinese City and Linfen were respectively the headquarters of the Hagiwara Brigade and the Kato Brigade, and Yuncheng was stationed with the division headquarters of the Sena Division. The main force of the entire division is gathering in the vicinity of Yuncheng, preparing for a decisive battle with Wei Lihuang's division in the second theater of the national army; In addition, there are only a small garrison in the counties and towns where the railway stations are located along the railway line. This means that in the south of Lingshi County, where the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade is responsible for defense, it is unlikely that there will be large-scale reinforcements from the Japanese army.

On the other hand, in Fengdian County, there is at least one infantry brigade of the Japanese army, as well as the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army, if you count the unknown number of Japanese troops in the mountains of Xiaoyushu Mountain, it should be said to be a rather large force. In addition, the southern suburbs of Fengdian County are flat and lack a combat barrier; Wu Zijian was worried that once the Japanese puppet army in that area was dispatched, would Wei Xin's 7th Company be able to support it?

"I can see clearly, Colonel Qin used two companies of our Eighth Route Army to give him front and rear shields," Li Tianlin, commander of the 5th Company, said indignantly when he first saw the complete joint operation plan: "The front one will block the bullets for him on the Tongpu Railway, and the back one will reserve the back road for him outside Fengdian City." What a beautiful plan! ”

"That's not the case, the 391st Regiment has its own risks," Wu Zijian disclosed and explained the battle plan to his subordinates in front of the sand table, and he pointed to several strategic points on the sand table and explained: "Although there are very few Japanese troops stationed in Lingshi County, if reinforcements are sent from Wencheng, it will not be less than the size of two or three infantry squadrons, and it is possible to strengthen the artillery." Colonel Qin's two battalions really can't be regarded as having an advantage at all. If it weren't for the fact that they still had heavy artillery and heavy machine guns to suppress the formation, I myself would really not be optimistic about the Central Army. ”

"Deputy battalion commander, will the 391st Regiment really go all out to help?" Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th company, asked worriedly: "Will they just set up heavy artillery and bombard the city wall of Lingshi County twice, and as soon as the reinforcements from Wencheng appear, they will raise their legs and leave?" In that case, we will be completely pitted with one of our companies responsible for blocking the enemy troops south of the railway line! ”

Before Wu Zijian could answer, Li Tianlin waved his hand: "This is impossible, Qin Zhongxiao and the 391st Regiment are still bloody, they either hide in the mountains and do not fight, once the Xingshi moves out of the mountain, there is no reason to run away with a shot." ”

Wang Shuanglong, the commander of the 6th Company who was responsible for staying in the base area, also attended the meeting, and at this time he was equally worried that he did not question the combat sincerity of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, but it should be noted that Qin Zhongxiao's men and horses could really be able to encircle and annihilate the enemy army in Wencheng when it came to help, and what was even more vigilant was that once the 391st Regiment was crushed by Japanese reinforcements, how would a company of the Xu Brigade on its flank respond? If a well-equipped main regiment of the Central Army can't withstand it, what role can a company of the Eighth Route Army play even if it is thrown into it? Will it also suffer a catastrophe of destruction itself?

The deputy commander of the second battalion felt anxious and irritable: he had considered all these situations, but since he had promised to fight with friendly forces, he could not pay too much attention to preserving his own strength—otherwise, joint operations would become empty talk.

Wang Shuanglong put forward his own suggestion in the end: the second battalion is only responsible for defending the direction of Fengdian County and keeping the retreat channel open for friendly troops; As for the direction of the Nantongpu Railway, he suggested that only the cavalry company of the second battalion should be sent to carry out the parade alert, and not to carry out specific blocking tasks. In this way, no matter which direction of the north and south is in danger in the battle on the railway line, the cavalry company can quickly leave the battlefield with the speed of horses!