(...I went to the military academy to study and gradually understood some combat layout. Looking back, we are actually not worse than the Japanese in terms of battle layout, and we often win a little, but our strength is too weak. No matter how good the idea is, we are not able to do it... Excerpted from "My Memories of the War of Resistance - Cao Xiaomin")

The defenders on the Western Front were all defeated overnight by the ***! The Nanjing Japanese Command was in a hurry, and the only thing that was calm and calm was the new commander-in-chief of the Central China Expeditionary Army, who had just arrived for less than an hour.

"Your Excellency Commander, this is the latest defense plan proposed by our army..." The staff officer respectfully handed over the documents to the new commander.

The extremely thin face of Hata Shunruo just glanced at it, then glanced at a group of senior staff in front of him and said: "Do we need defense against the Chinese army?"

More than *** people were shocked by the tragic battle the previous night. The 138th Division behind the 131st Division was the first unit to feel numb: originally, according to their plan, only one 51st Army was left in the 11th Army blocking the Huaihe River, with the security regiment as an auxiliary, and the reserve force was also the 59th Army. The 31st Army's main task was to retreat into the mountains and wait for an opportunity to attack and cut off the enemy in half. However, along the Huaihe River, not only has the total mobile unit of the 59th Army occupied the 59th Army, but the 31st Army itself had already wiped out a reorganized 135th Division in the previous battle. The troops were originally weak, and after half of the 131st Division's losses in one battle, Mo Dehong no longer had the courage to counterattack casually. While telegramping Li Pinxian for the crisis, he reported the military information to Bai Chongxi...

"If we counterattack on the whole line as planned, it is obviously not possible. If the counterattack is smooth, it will be even worse! For example, if our army advances eastward smoothly, then the Japanese troops concentrated on the banks of the Huai River can cut off our retreat. Who will gain an advantage after everyone's generals cut off the opponent's retreat?" Li Pinxian's reaction was quick. After receiving the military information on the front line, a military meeting was held immediately. He expressed his views to the generals of the 11th Army: "It is obvious that the mobility and supply level of the Japanese troops are far higher than that of us. Once the rear route is cut off, our troops will be completely wiped out!"

"But if you don't counterattack, how many days can the Huaihe River be defended?" Yu Xuezhong became anxious as soon as he heard this. The 51st Army was the hardest fight on the Huaihe River defense line. Especially after the Chubeng Railway was bombed, the Japanese army in the Bengbu area could not keep up with the supply ammunition and had stopped the attack, but the Japanese offensive in the Linhuai Pass area did not diminish at all. If the counterattack in the south threatened the southern line of the Jinpu Road, the Linhuai Pass area would be under pressure alone.

Zhang Zizhong remembered to speak several times at the meeting and asked to exchange defense with Yu Xuezhong's troops, but he held back; after all, he looked down on others, and everyone saw the bloody battle of Yu Xuezhong's troops in Linhuai Pass. A 51st army had already destroyed 30%, so he was never afraid to fight.

The various units of the security teams recruited by Anhui were even more injured. Everyone was already quite complaining. At this time, they heard that the south might have to stop attacking, but they refused to agree!

"Then let's wait for the Degong to make a conclusion..." Li Pinxian saw that everyone here had their own opinions and knew that it was impossible to re-deploy the battle, but he had secretly ordered the 138th Division to stand on the spot, and the 131st Division was not allowed to advance. (When writing a book, I would often read Baidu's information and compare the basic information... Li Pinxian's status was stable by his relationship with Bai Chongxi? Haha... I was speechless. If I carefully studied Li Pinxian's battle example, it would not be difficult to find that he was the only one in central China in the entire stalemate period. The total number of enemies annihilated is one of the top three generals in the anti-Japanese battlefield. He was greedy for money? Tomb robbery?... But it seems that it is unfair to deliberately destroy the military talents of a generation of famous generals. Maybe it is his position and the many times that caused heavy casualties in various *** units...)

"He Ling has always been bold and careful. If he didn't think there was something wrong, he would never propose a change plan... Jiansheng, look..." Li Zongren immediately agreed with Li Pinxian's view as soon as he received the telegram. In fact, when he learned that the Japanese army's strength was at least three times the number, he already felt that there would be some problem with counterattack according to the original plan, but the situation forced him to fight. Now he suffered heavy losses as soon as he started fighting. It seems that the idea of ​​cutting off a part of the Japanese army's encirclement and annihilation was about to fail.

Bai Chongxi smiled slightly: "It doesn't matter, I think the Japanese army will not rush to attack them... You see, if the Japanese army attacked them fiercely now, they would go into the mountain immediately after turning back, and there would be no loss; but if they continued to advance, the Japanese army suddenly pulled one from the troops on the south bank of the Huai River and cut them off and they could be wiped out completely. If I were Hata Shunruo, I would definitely let them advance east..."

"Oh! Is it all in Xiao Zhuge's expectation?" Li Zongren suddenly felt that Bai Chongxi's analysis was indeed at the critical point. If he was a Japanese army, he would never rush to attack the Gui army that had just emerged. He would definitely find a way to make them unable to go back and attack again. He was relieved. Since his alliance had already thought about it, there was a countermeasure.

"I think it's just for a few days to rest in the middle of Qin Lianfang's army and not rushing eastward. In this way, the Japanese army will definitely find a way to force us to attack... The best way is to attack the Huaihe River defense line!... I have a chain of plans here. If it is done, it will make the Japanese army frustrated!" Bai Chongxi confidently tapped the table with his fingers.

"Is it just enough troops?" Li Zongren was still worried about the strength of the Eleventh Army. After all, the ultimate goal of fighting was to the absolute strength of both sides. Without enough strength, even if the plan was good, it would be useless.

"We have two troops." Bai Chongxi knocked on Hefei and Quanjiao: "Xu Yuanquan and Li Tianhao..."

Xu Yuanquan's 10th Army (not the "Taishan Army" of the Battle of Changsha, but the 10th Army of the Zhilu Alliance) was a garrison in Hefei. This army was still very tough in the battle, but the losses in the defense of Nanjing were very heavy. Although it was the first batch of troops transferred to the reorganization after breaking through, it could recover so quickly? But thinking about it, Li Zongren also understood in his heart: in the entire central China area, except for this tenth Army, no other troops had the confidence to challenge the Guangxi clique, and few generals had the qualifications to join the revolution during the Wuchang Uprising... To control central China, some forces were indeed weakened... (In real history, Xu Yuanquan was later given more military power by Li Zongren and was sent to prison for a while, and he was in internal strife... speechless.)

Almost as the generals were planning, the combat plan in the Japanese army headquarters in Nanjing also came out: Hata Shunruo's words "Do we need defense against the Chinese army?" were exactly the same as Bai Chongxi imagined. As long as the 11th Army dared to advance eastward, the Japanese army would let you in!

Almost that night, Qin Lianfang received a telegram from Li Pinxian: pretending to advance eastward and rest on the spot; quickly search for Li Bin, set up a guerrilla corps, and wait for an opportunity to go to the Mingguang line of Zhangbashan... This guerrilla corps is different from the road digging teams commanded by the 11th guerrilla column. Their mission is to break the attack, and they are really fighting against the Japanese army behind enemy lines; they must be equipped with more sophisticated and lighter weapons and a large amount of explosives than ordinary troops. This is an elite army and a decisive force that will be destroyed at any time!

Due to his outstanding performance at Qingliu Pass, Li Bin has attracted the attention of the Guangxi generals after Li Tianhao. This time, a very important part of Bai Chongxi's military use fell on him. He will be ordered to become the commander of the guerrilla corps commander who pretended to be a large force to sneak eastward into the Mingguang area of ​​Zhangbashan completely paralyzed the Japanese army heading north along the Chubeng Railway!

Before Li Bin returned to the construction, he was transferred from the 138th Division and the 21st Army to the former Seventh Army. Some guerrilla elites from the 48th Army were also driving towards Dingyuan. They were all fighting the banner of large troops, which made the Japanese spies mistakenly think that *** was strengthening the middle line and preparing to advance eastward. But at this time, in Dingyuan, the "rats" had already conducted field training on the guerrillas that were about to set off. (The battle on the front line of the Huaihe River, in real history, was the real battle of the "rats" in Dingyuan. (The battle on the front line of the Huaihe River,

Bai Chongxi and Li Pinxian sent a large number of guerrillas, which made the Chubeng Railway, the major artery on the south bank of the Huai River, and made indelible achievements for the several encirclement and suppression battles on the southern line...*** I really don’t fight guerrillas, can’t fight guerrillas, and don’t fight guerrillas?... My information shows that almost every major battle behind the enemy traffic, ambush, and raids with names and names seem to be fought by ***, and I haven’t seen anyone help...)

Therefore, in addition to the continued fierce battles in the Linhuai Pass area and the 51st Army continued to fight alone, the southern front was suddenly left with the 21st Yangtze River line, which was far away from the main battlefield, and the 27th Army and the Japanese army were fighting, and between Hefei and Chuxian and the Bengbu area were very strange. Both sides followed a tacit understanding of the ceasefire! (In the real Huai River battle, after careful study, you will find that Bai Chongxi and Li Pinxian were indeed better than Hata Shunji in their strategy of using troops. Although the strength gap is large, it can be found that the entire battle situation has actually been following the baton of the Chinese General. This small military talent is really not very good, no wonder Hata Shunji was unable to stabilize the eastern Anhui around Nanjing and become a guerrilla area...)

As long as the Japanese army's transportation is destroyed, the large amount of Japanese army's supplies piled on the south bank of the Huai River will be a problem. The Japanese army plans to keep huddling there and wait for the eastward advance, so let them suffer more and taste the cold and hungry taste! In order to make the supplies that the Japanese can get to the lowest point, the Xuzhou Battle Command also ordered the entire Jianghuai region to start a grain-burning campaign, especially the northern Jiangsu region (the northern Jiangsu here refers to the areas represented by Yangzhou, Huaian, Yancheng, and Taizhou instead of the northern Jiangsu region in a broad sense). It is necessary to carry out a large-scale attack from both water and land routes to destroy the Japanese army's grain supply!

In northern Jiangsu, *** has been fighting all the time. This rich area, which is basically isolated behind enemy lines, has almost become the only area where the Japanese army can obtain more food with guarantees. If this area can increase its efforts to break the Japanese and paralyze the Japanese food supply, then the army fighting on the Huaihe River will be unsustainable.

According to the order of the Xuzhou Battle Command, the guerrillas in this area, which seemed to be extremely empty in defense and rule because the Japanese army drew troops everywhere, began a crazy raid battle. The guerrillas here are not ordinary local guerrillas. Their main forces are Han Deqin's 89th Army, the Sixth Independent Brigade, and the 10th Security Column of Jiangsu Province; Li Mingyang and Li Changjiang's eleven columns under the jurisdiction of the Shandong-Suzhou-Anhui Border Region Guerrilla Command; Chen Taiyun's tax police corps, local security teams and water police forces in northern Jiangsu, basically most of them were regular troops!

A small boat quietly leaned on the dry land in a water town reed marsh. The correspondent in the costumes of ordinary people jumped ashore and walked towards the hidden shack deep in the dry reed marsh. This is the western suburb of Yizheng. To the north, you can attack the railway and to the south, you can attack the ships on the Yangtze River. In such a place, it was infiltrated by the *** guerrillas.

"Captain, the command from above has been brought down, so we must ensure a raid once a day!" The correspondent brought the message - because we wanted to avoid the Japanese investigation, the orders between the guerrillas were generally only transmitted by message, except for appointments and very important tasks. The captain in the shack stretched and sat up and thought motionlessly: This is not a simple task, and the action is so frequent that his team is just under the eyes of the Japanese. Although many Japanese troops have been transferred, his troops will be unable to bear it if they fight head-on.

"Don't we have been active frequently enough? This is a death urging!" The captain sighed, walked outside the shack and whistled. He immediately heard the reeds everywhere sending the whistle. There were so many guerrillas hidden in this reed marsh!

The captain is not someone else. He has a nickname called "drunk", a "drunk" who doesn't drink alcohol!

He and the "Old Bed Bug" and their team stayed in the coastal area where the river crossed the river to break through Nanjing for a long time, but they never found Cao Xiaomin. After that, seeing that the search of the Japanese was getting stricter and knew that it was difficult to hide, they began to move eastward. The reason for going east was that they analyzed that if Cao Xiaomin could cross the river, he might have gone the other way with his words, and would not go to the Japanese line and mingle with the Japanese to the Yangzhou area, so they went east; so they soon encountered the guerrillas adapted from the northern Jiangsu water police force.

The "drunk" who does not drink alcohol is also a famous grassroots hero among the ***. As soon as everyone comes to the front, Han Deqin will immediately take their team to the headquarters. However, the "drunk" refuses and insists on staying because they still have something unfinished, and they must wait for this iron brother here!

In this way, the "drunk" and "old bed bugs" became a large-scale guerrilla captain. Their guerrillas were even equipped with mortars and war defense artillery specially used to attack passing ships on the Yangtze River. The latter was seized by them when they attacked a Japanese stronghold. They had used these extremely rare heavy weapons at the guerrilla level to sank many Japanese transport ships on various rivers.

"How many shells do we have?" "The Drunkard" had a headache: they have cannons, but they have too few shells, and they can only save money on one shot, because each shell can almost represent an inland transport ship!

"It seems that you have to take the risk of building another artillery tower, and only four shells are left..." "Old bedbug" replied: "After I had a trip last time, the Japanese defended much more tightly... and it became even more cruel..."

After listening to the answer of "Old Bed Bug", the "drunk" was speechless for a moment - they sneaked into a gun tower on the side of the road a few days ago, and the Japanese slaughtered all the villages that had passed along the way!

At this moment, one of the guerrillas who suddenly came to assemble and ran over excitedly and shouted: "Captain, look! What is this? I just picked up a lot of them on the way back..."

When the "drunk" saw it, he said, "What a guy, that's a big piece of military oil cloth! This guy can shelter the wind and snow, and the color is yellow and green. Even if the plane passes by in the air, it can't be noticed. It's the treasure of the field guerrillas!

"What? Where did you find the baby?...How many more?" The "drunk" was also excited. This is a good thing that you can't buy with money!

"It's twenty miles away from this. It's just in a reed marsh. There is a Japanese plane that fell down at some point. There are many of these things inside. It's not connected to us. If the ship can't get through, it's necessary to bypass a Japanese sentry..." The guerrillas were also a sentry detective and often walked around. This time, they found a big ocean in the reed marsh!

Suddenly the "drunk" trembled all over! He had heard the radio on the seized radio in the morning: Cao Xiaomin hijacked an airplane in Nanjing and threw down the commander and chief of staff of the Japanese!

Could this be... it must be! The "drunk" suddenly confirmed: they had never seen the Japanese plane fall down. Two days ago, a Japanese plane was inexplicably out of control and fell down. In less than two hours, the Japanese infantry searched the area. Such a plane that was lost in the reed marshes must be an airplane that they didn't know where they fell!

"Did you cover these canvases on the plane?" The "drunk" asked the soldier nervously.

"The plane is covered with canvas, but there are still some in the cabin. I didn't dare to pull the planes. If it is pulled, it will be discovered by others. We have to take back the rest..." Those who can act as sergeants are smart soldiers!

"Okay! Remember your achievements, great achievements! Take me there right now..." The drunkard was about to set off. He winked at the "old bedbug", and the latter also shone in his eyes!

No one said it, they all understood because they couldn't say it - this is behind enemy lines, and Cao Xiaomin's reward is so expensive. Who can guarantee that there will be any traitors betrayed?! They had already agreed that if they were really taken to Cao Xiaomin, they would not be able to reveal his identity no matter what!
Chapter completed!