readx;? In Anqing City, Wang Haitao set up the headquarters of the 90 th Group Army, and at the same time, the military headquarters of the 90 th Army, the headquarters of the 93 rd Division, and the headquarters of the 168 th Provisional Division were also set up in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Group Army. Wang Haitao knew that www.biquge.info the Japanese army would not give him too much time, and there were still a lot of things to do at hand, first of all, the reorganization, redressing, and training of the 168th Division.

There is no need for Wang Haitao to do this matter himself, the matter of changing clothes will be handed over to the logistics department, and the whole training will be handed over to the military training department of the 90th Army. With Wang Haitao's family background, it is not a problem to replace a division of more than 4,000 people with Japanese-style equipment. In addition, Wang Haitao still asked Yang Jie to select 300 elites and equip a guard battalion with new weapons.

However, even if all the veterans in this provisional 168th Division are veterans, it will take a period of training to form combat effectiveness after changing clothes, but fortunately, Wang Haitao only let this division be used as a general reserve, and it is not about to go to the battlefield immediately; after changing clothes, Wang Haitao asked the logistics department to pay them a military salary, and gave them another 20,000 yuan of military expenses. These things made Yang Jie and his subordinates grateful to Wang Haitao.

Now another important thing in Wang Haitao's hands is the construction of the Laoshan Fort. The Laoshan Fort was to confront the large-caliber boat guns on the Japanese warships, so the solidity of the fort should be put in the first place. Time was very tight, and it was impossible for a single engineer regiment to build fortifications in a short period of time, so Wang Haitao simply pulled the 279th Brigade up to repair the forts.

It was a matter of the safety of Anqing City, and the 279th Brigade had no complaints, from the brigade commander Huang Gang down, to the Laoshan construction site. The fort is a gun emplacement dug out after the vertical flattening of a mountain wall near the river, behind the gun emplacement is the ammunition depot and living quarters, the old mountain is an earth and stone mountain, in order to speed up the progress, a lot of explosives were used when the hole was opened, and the excavated earth and stone were just in front of the gun emplacement to build an infantry fortification.

As soon as the gun emplacement was dug out, and the ammunition depot and living quarters behind it were still not dug up, Wang Haitao looked for a night, used storage rings to transport 20 German-made 150 heavy guns up the mountain, and placed them on the gun emplacement. Four observation posts were also built on the top of the mountain, all of which were equipped with artillery mirrors, and the communication between the observation posts and the gun emplacements was carried out by walkie-talkies.

The heavy artillery was placed on the Laoshan artillery position, Wang Haitao was relieved, and the later project was continued to be completed by the engineer regiment, and the 279th Brigade withdrew to Anqing City to begin to build the city defense fortifications of Anqing City. In the past, when Yang Sen's 20th Army was stationed in Anqing, it basically did not build any city fortifications, and even the very important Yangtze River wharf did not have any fortifications, only a sentry post.

In Wang Haitao's eyes, this is naturally not possible, the 279th Brigade began to build fortifications one by one from outside the city, and the main position was the section of the road from the direction of Huaining County and the riverside wharf. The wharf is about two kilometers away from the city wall, because Anqing is an important wharf on the Yangtze River, cargo ships and passenger ships have to dock here, and the flow of people is very large, so the road from the wharf to the city gate spontaneously becomes a bazaar, and the shops and stalls are densely lined up on both sides of the road.

After the Japanese occupied Nanjing, Japanese gunboats often appeared on the river downstream of Anqing, and the wharf in Anqing was also deserted, but the shops and stalls were still there, which made the 279th Brigade encounter problems in building fortifications. To build fortifications, it is necessary to clear the firing range, and it is necessary to demolish the shops, but none of the owners of these shops are willing to demolish the shops, and the officers and men of the 279th Brigade do not dare to forcibly demolish them, so this fortification cannot be repaired.

Huang Gang reported the situation to Wang Haitao, and Wang Haitao and Su Zuxin discussed it, but there was nothing they could do. In the end, Wang Haitao and Su Zuxin found the Chamber of Commerce in Anqing together, and under the coordination of the Chamber of Commerce, these shop owners outside the city reluctantly agreed to demolish the shops, but it takes time to demolish the shops, and Wang Haitao has no way to do anything about this situation.

After the Japanese army gathered heavy troops in Hefei, the 18th Division first occupied Lu'an County, which had no defenders, while the 111th Brigade of the 106th Division occupied Lujiang County, which was only a few dozen kilometers away from the 570th Regiment in Tongcheng County. The 3rd Independent Mixed Brigade was used for the garrison of the Hefei occupation zone.

After conducting reconnaissance in Hefei, the reconnaissance team sent by Wang Haitao came back and reported to Wang Haitao that the Japanese army had established the 11 th Army in Hefei, and that the 11 th Army would have five divisions under its command, one Taiwan detachment, two independent mixed brigades, one independent heavy artillery brigade, two siege heavy artillery brigades, and two tank brigades, with a total strength of 150,000 troops. The reason why the Japanese army did not launch an offensive was because the commander of the 11th Army, General Okamura Ninji, had not yet arrived.

Wang Haitao had studied Japan's war of aggression against China when he was still studying at the military academy before the crossing, and among them, Okamura Ningji, Tojo Hideki, Kita Seiichi and other Japanese war criminals were all the subjects of Wang Haitao's research. At this time, the treacherous Okamura Ningji was going to Hefei to serve as the commander of the Eleventh Army, which means that he would face this Okamura Ningji general, and at the same time, Wang Haitao was a little nervous.

General Okamura Ninji and the 150,000 Japanese troops in his hands are not good stubble, and his own hands are full of 40,000 horses, although he has the right time and place, but it will also be a bitter battle. At this time, Wang Haitao could only hope that Bai Zhenxi behind him could lay out the Wuhan defense line as soon as possible, so that he could take a step back if necessary, and take advantage of various geographical advantages to attack and destroy the Japanese army in the movement.

The Japanese army had not yet launched an attack, and they could just reinforce the fortifications and prepare for the battle. The fortifications here in Anqing are in full swing, and Wang Haitao is not idle, he takes a company of guards, starting from Tongcheng, and inspects several defensive positions one by one. Outside Tongcheng, Wang Haitao also unexpectedly met with the fourth detachment of the New Fourth Army, and after the exchange and collusion, the commander of the fourth detachment, Gao Jingting, met with Wang Haitao in Tongcheng County.

With the support of Commander Ye Ting, Gao Jingting's attitude towards Wang Haitao is still good, and the atmosphere is also very harmonious when the two sides talk. After the two sides reached a consensus, the fourth detachment of the Fourth Army was not responsible for blocking the Japanese army head-on, but striking at the supply lines of the Japanese army, supporting Wang Haitao's troops from the side, and Wang Haitao only had the right to mobilize the fourth detachment, not the right to command. Wang Haitao will take out some guns and ammunition to support the fourth detachment.

The fourth detachment is not a very important force for Wang Haitao, but they are all anti-Japanese forces, and some are better than nothing, and Wang Haitao is also willing to help the New Fourth Army, but now there are a group of people from the Military and Political Department in Anqing City, and they can't hand over weapons and ammunition to the New Fourth Army in a big way. Wang Haitao could only ask the logistics office to transfer a batch of guns and ammunition to Tongcheng in the name of supporting the 570th Regiment, and then transfer it to the fourth detachment by the 570th Regiment.

When Wang Haitao came to Huaining with his team, he found that the fortifications here were the best and most systematic, which should be the handiwork of the original garrison troops of the 90th Division. When asked about Li Chunshan, commander of the 277th Brigade, the brigade commander who had just been brought up, told Wang Haitao that when they took over the defense of Huaining City, most of these defensive positions had already been repaired, and he just continued to complete them.

The city walls of Huaining County were also reinforced, and a number of strong fortifications were built on the top of the city, which were used to place heavy machine guns. In addition, more than 100 mortars of large and small calibers of the whole brigade have also built several concealed artillery positions according to the distance of their firing range.

From all respects, the defense of Huaining County was satisfactory, and the defense of the 277th Brigade, a brigade with a majority of veterans, would definitely teach the Japanese army a profound lesson. Considering that there would definitely be planes to assist in the Japanese attack, Wang Haitao also transferred a company of the antiaircraft artillery battalion, and the ten antiaircraft guns mounted on armored trucks greatly strengthened Huaining's ability to fight against the air.

Soon after returning to Anqing City, the reconnaissance group sent information that the commander of the 11th Japanese Army, Okamura Ningji, had arrived in Hefei and that the Japanese army would attack at any time, and asked Wang Haitao to prepare for battle. This information was sent by Wang Haitao to all divisions, and the entire 90th Army moved. Sure enough, three days later, several Japanese gunboats appeared on the Yangtze River.

When these gunboats were about to go against the tide, they were intercepted by a 150 heavy artillery on the river 150 kilometers away from Laoshan. The gunboats found that their guns could not reach the Laoshan Battery, and after being severely damaged by the two gunboats, they retreated in a huff. The sound of the cannon of the Laoshan Fort fired the first shot of the Anqing Defense Battle.

The 18th Division was directly divided into two routes from Lu'an County, one was the 23rd Brigade with a mountain artillery brigade to attack in the direction of Yeji, and the other was led by the 35th Brigade with two mountain artillery brigades and a cavalry brigade, led by the new division commander Long Nacheng 1 to launch an attack in the direction of Jinzhai County.

The 111th Brigade of the 106th Division left Lujiang County and launched an attack on the defenders of Tongcheng, and the 136th Brigade, another 106th Division, also entered Lujiang County under the leadership of the division commander Junrokuro Matsuura. The 27th Division went from Feixi County through Shucheng County to Huoshan County and Yuexi County.

In addition, two other divisions were assigned to the Eleventh Army, one being the Fifth Division and the other being the 101st Division. After returning to China to replenish the Fifth Division, it was again transported to Shanghai and landed, and after the reorganization, the commander of the division was changed to Lieutenant General Toshiyoshi Ando, and it still had two brigades and one wing each of artillery, engineering, cavalry, and baggage, totaling 27,000 people.

The Fifth Division has already arrived in Nanjing and is about to reach Hefei. The other 101st Division was sent back to China after being crippled in Jing County a few months ago, and this division had just been reorganized, but it had not yet been transported to Shanghai, and the division commander was still Ito Masaki, with two brigades and regiments under its command, totaling 24,000 men.

These two fully manned divisions will be the killer weapon in the hands of Okamura Ninji, and once they are engaged in battle, then the pressure on Wang Haitao will increase a lot. While the three infantry divisions were attacking, the Botian detachment also advanced from Lujiang County to Zongyang County, aiming directly at Anqing City. On the Yangtze River, the Japanese army mobilized more than a dozen warships, including light cruisers, to launch another attack on the Laoshan Fort.

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