Chapter 13: Changing Guards (20)

Mo Di did not want to strike at the Japanese puppet army in Shengqiao too early, his strength was never to attack, but to use the sound of the east to attack the west, and his method to achieve the purpose of the battle. The most important condition for using this method is time, and you need to have enough time to slowly dissect and eliminate the opponent. However, the opponent did not want to give him too much time, and on the third day of his stationing in the Donglu Battalion, the Fifth Division of the Founding Army of Hefei waved south.

Shen Xiru basically came out of the nest this time, because the last time Li Shigui was deflated in Lujiang, the military department of the Nanjing Peace Founding Army was very angry, and Ren Yuandao hit his head on the doorpost for this, smashing the myopic eyes that never left his face, and a few small pieces of glass were pierced on the bridge of his nose, so he was not embarrassed. The reason why the Nanjing Military Government attaches so much importance to this operation is that since the beginning of the spring of this year, the development of the war situation in China does not allow for optimism, and the Japanese puppet army in North China began to carry out the first campaign to strengthen public order on the northern front, which immediately aroused a strong backlash from various departments in North China, and the Eighth Route Army of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region attacked on all fronts, cutting off the communication lines of Zhengtai, Tongpu, Pinghan, Baijin, Pingsui, and Pinggu, annihilating nearly 10,000 Japanese puppet troops, and recovering the vast area in the southern section of Taihang Mountain. The eastern front is in a tug-of-war, from Fuqing in the south to Fenghua in the north. On the southern front, Boluo, Pingshan, and Huiyang in Guangdong fell, and the Japanese army made slight progress. In March, the Japanese army did not take advantage of the first battle of the Japanese army, and Wuhan and Yichang did not advance an inch, except for bombing Chongqing all day long, the Japanese army could not find any effective way to put pressure on Chongqing. The base camp of the Japanese army was mobilizing troops and dispatching troops to make some big moves in the Lianghu area, and did not hesitate to withdraw troops from the Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Anhui areas to supplement the 33 Division that had suffered heavy losses in the Shanggao Campaign. The 116th Division, not only the 119 Brigade in Anqing was drawn, but also the 130 Ozaki Brigade in Hefei was not spared. The Japanese have always believed that the best defense is to attack, and instead of being passive in the Chaohu area, it is better to take the initiative to attack and lay peace for this area for a period of time through force. It backfired, Li Shigui a reorganized brigade, was beaten to lose his armor and returned in embarrassment, Anqing defenders, no longer have the strength to go north, seeing that the enemy of Lujiang was going to attack Shengqiao, the only stronghold in the west of Chaohu, Nanjing could no longer bear it.

This time the southern expedition of Hefei was the Ninth Brigade of Shen Xiru's Fifth Division, and the brigade commander was Shen Xiru's cousin, Major General Shen Xilin. In order to prevent the 9th Brigade from working and not contributing to the 10th Brigade like the last time, the commander of the Ozaki Brigade sent the 2nd Infantry Brigade under the 133rd Tagawa Wing as a supervisor. In order to increase the strength of the Ninth Brigade, on the basis of the full strength, the mountain artillery battalion, the engineer battalion, the baggage battalion, and the medical team were temporarily transferred from the division headquarters to the Ninth Brigade, and for a time, the Ninth Brigade became a large battalion of more than 5,500 people, plus the 1,100 men of the Japanese infantry brigade, a total of 6,600 people, 18 mountain artillery, 24 infantry guns, and countless hand guns. There was no momentum for a while.

Wei Jiebo repaired the ancient city built by Lan Chengchun of the Taizheng Army in Sanhe as his first line of defense in Sanhe. Wei Jiebo is known as the dual power of civil and military, and he is familiar with the story that once happened here, that is during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xubin, a native of Xiangxiang, Hunan, led the Hunan army to attack Sanhe in the south, and was blocked by Wu Dinggui, the Taiping army stationed here. Taking advantage of Wu Dinggui's one-to-seven death to fight for the fighter plane that appeared, Chen Yucheng, the general of the Taiping Army, quickly returned from the camp in Jiangbei. Li Xubin saw that Chen Yucheng was tired from coming from afar, so he took the lead in attacking. General Chen Yucheng did not calculate, pretended to be invincible and retreated, and led the Hunan army into the preset encirclement, turning the tide of the battle in one fell swoop. Chen Yucheng, who had the upper hand in the battle, attracted the water of the Jiehe River, poured it into Li Xubin's camp, smashed the Hunan camp, and then broke each one, surrounding the remnants of the Hunan army in Yandungang. At this time, Li Xiucheng's army had already arrived at Baishi Mountain, and the two sides cooperated to attack on a large scale and annihilate the Hunan army. Li Xubin was awarded the title at the age of forty-one.

In his telegram to Li Benyi, he said that he was willing to lead the 414th Regiment to nail the old camp in Sanhe, just like Wu Dinggui in those years, to create fighters for the army.

Li Benyi didn't know that Sanhe had such a glorious story, and after consulting Gong Qingyuan, he learned that the Hunan army was invincible back then, and the biggest tragedy happened here. Li Xubin died in battle, 6,000 elite soldiers were lost, the news came out, Hu Linyi, who was worried at home, vomited blood and fainted on the spot, blamed himself, and sighed "After the defeat of Sanhe, the military spirit has been cold, and it is not possible to recover between the years." More than one Li Xubin died in the Battle of Sanhe, and the generals Zhou Kuanshi, Ding Ruiyi, and Sun Shouxin were all spared, and Xiangxiang, Hunan Province "summoned souls everywhere, and every family complained goodbye". Zeng Guofan's sixth brother, Zeng Guohua, was also killed in the Battle of Three Rivers, and Zeng Guofan "mourned and was cautious, and reduced his diet for a few days". The Taiping Army, which won the Battle of Sanhe, conquered Shucheng, Tongcheng, and Qianshan, and the Taiping generals Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng were soon named "King of England" and "King of Loyalty", becoming the mainstay of the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Li Benyi is not interested in history, and the people of the five genera of Yulin also have a very limited good impression of the Taiping Army, and he is interested in why Chen Yucheng defeated Li Xubin and what are the key factors for victory or defeat. Gong Qingyuan can be regarded as a well-versed scholar of the present and the past, and he talked about it as if he were talking about the past, and he listened to Dai Jiajin, director of the Political Department, and Liu Chunrong, director of the Logistics Department, who marched together. On the whole, there are four reasons for this war: First, the three rivers and one place are densely packed with paddy fields, and the Hunan army's horse team cannot be dispersed. Second, Emperor Xianfeng did not know the situation, and repeatedly ordered Li Xubin to start a war with the Taiping army. Third, the disparity in strength between the two sides was too great, the Hunan army had only 6,000 men, while the Taiping army had more than 200,000 people. Fourth, God helped the Taiping army, and heavy fog fell, which seriously hindered the operation of the Hunan army. Dai Jiajin, director of the Political Department, said disapprovingly, this should be an excuse for the Qing government, 6,000 Hunan troops may be true, 200,000 long hairs are impossible, after Shi Dakai left Tianjing, it will be difficult for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to organize an army of 200,000, not to mention Chen Yucheng, who has not yet become the king of England, it is impossible to command an army of 200,000.

Li Benyi did not participate in their discussion of historical facts, but thought about it for a long time before saying that the water network in the area of the Three Rivers was dense, and it was the case in the past, and it is even worse now. Longshu water, Xiaonan River, and Jiehe are still the same, Chen Yucheng can borrow them back then, and we can also use them. The strength of the troops, the two sides are about the same, we also have 6,000 people, and as for the artillery, we have a little more advantage. Heavy fog, it is estimated that there will not be this season, and if there is none, forget it, it is no longer the era of cold weapons, and it is not too big a problem to have fog or fog. I think we can emulate the long hair of the past and have a big fight here.

Gong Qingyuan turned his mind for a moment and said to Li Benyi: "If you want to fight a battle like Chen Yucheng, I'm afraid you have to rely on one person." ”

"Who?" As soon as he finished asking, Li Benyi came back to his senses and asked, "Are you talking about Mo Tianzong?" ”

Gong Qingyuan nodded, he can use troops out of nowhere, he only recognizes Mo Enemy. Li Benyi sighed and said, "I gave him the task of dealing with Shengqiao, so I can't bother him here!" What's more, without him, we would also have to fight, right? ”

Having said that, Li Benyi still had a glimmer of hope and sent the telegram to Mo Di of the Donglu Battalion.

Mo Di received the telegram and smiled faintly, there was no problem for him to leave Lujiang and go to Sanhe, the problem was that Shi Chong's guard battalion could not leave, as an extremely important chess piece, the battle of Shengqiao could not leave them.

In the just-concluded pre-war meeting, Mo Di had basically ended his mission on the Eastern Front, and his role was once again vividly embodied, two aspects, one is coordination, and the other is determination, except for these two points, other work has been handed over to others.

Xie Qi is a general, a little brain, not very good-looking, without the bravery of a general, nor the elegance of a Confucian general, Mo Di looked at him very carefully, and the final conclusion is that he is a bit like a bandit, with the wisdom of a bandit, and the fierceness of a bandit. Xie Bi knew very well that he was able to lead the field to make up the regiment and leave Commander Yan at the division headquarters, firstly, to establish the leadership position of Modi, and not to engage a person at the same level as Modi to affect the work, and secondly, to give himself a chance to see if he had the ability to lead the army independently, so he took it very seriously and added five points of caution in addition to caution. Hearing Mo Di ask everyone what they thought at the meeting, he was the first to stand up and put forward a battle plan for encircling Sanque Yi, and he and Yao Yutian and Jin Tongxuan each led a part to attack Shengqiao from three directions, east, west and south, and at most in two days, Shengqiao could be captured.

Yao Yutian, chief of staff of the 138th Division's Field Supplement Regiment, is a scholar, very gentle, a native of Lingui Chadong, Guilin, less than forty years old, graduated from Nanning Military Academy, he speaks slowly, and he is not in a hurry. Hearing Xie Bi's suggestion, he subconsciously shook his head, or Yan Junlong would adopt Xie Bi's suggestion, but Mo Di would definitely not take it. His hometown is not far from Modi's hometown, he has studied Modi, in his eyes Modi will never fight a vicious war, as long as there is a chance, he will definitely use the way of knocking on the side to destroy the enemy to the greatest extent, and at the same time will save himself to the greatest extent, and take the initiative to attack on the basis of no time and place, Modi will not do it. Although Chief of Staff Yao knew the crux of the problem, but he did not have a solution, and like most people, he was able to deny others, but he could not propose a correct solution.

Relatively speaking, the young Jin Tongxuan is completely different, he has a red and blue aluminum pen in his hand, his eyes are fixed on the map, Zhang Shenghu's news of coming back is digitally displayed on the map by Jin Tongxuan, and the seemingly messy map of others is three-dimensional, dynamic, and flesh and blood in Jin Tongxuan's eyes. He politely rejected Xie Qi's suggestion, and just said one sentence, we have no supplements, no equipment, and try not to fight evil battles. Then he pointed to the map and began to put forward his own opinions: "It is right to encircle the three ques, but after the siege is done, it is not a strong attack, it is a feint, and the one that is surrounded is not left to the opponent to leave, but to our guard battalion." The guard battalion entered the Sheng Bridge through this gap, and first stirred up the darkness before talking. ”

Shengqiao, and Liu Qinglong entered the Shengqiao is completely different, because Liu Qinglong and his group of bestiality angered the Japanese, when the captain of Yantian returned to Shengqiao, saw a long row of Japanese man corpses on the street, and saw a group of Japanese women who were ruined, anger came from the side of the bold. He got another piece of land to the east of Shengqiao and set up a Japanese camp. This camp is not small, one mile wide, one and a half miles long, about five or six hundred acres, and it is full of fine fertile land. The Chinese of Shengqiao worked day and night to dig a trench around the camp that was three meters wide and two meters deep, and filled it with water from a ditch not far away. The camp has four suspension bridges, which are hoisted by hoist chains, and the bridge deck is strong enough for cars. There was no wall around the camp, but a trench was built, and every 100 meters in the trench was set up with a bunker, which was equipped with a crooked handle and manned 24 hours a day. There are no tall buildings in the barracks, not even big trees, only in the four corners, there are four tall turrets, and the sentries on the turrets are like falcons, monitoring all directions. Not only did the Japanese soldiers stay in the barracks, but all the Japanese who did business in Morihashi also lived in it, and they went out to do business during the day and had to return to the camp at night, otherwise, safety could not be guaranteed.

In the eyes of Yantian and Wang Zhanlin, such a stronghold, not to mention eternal stability, can at least be called impregnable. In the eyes of Xie Bi and Yao Yutian, this kind of military camp, except for a strong attack, really has no good way.

But in Jin Tongxuan's view, this stronghold is full of loopholes, and it is a camp that is born to be beaten. In Jin Tongxuan's explanation, Mo Di smiled, Xie Yu was stunned, Yao Yutian kept nodding, it turned out that the battle could be fought like this!