Chapter 294 Xuzhou Battle Curtain

The strategic intention of the Japanese army is very obvious, that is, to annihron the main force of the middle [***] team in Xuzhou, especially the five newly equipped with Soviet weapons. In fact, in addition to the so-called five armies, except for the Fifth Army, only one division of the other four armies has completed the replacement of a few books, and the TB-26 light Tan arrived in Wuhan. All of them were strengthened to the 200th Division of the Fifth Army.

It can be said that the troops assigned by the Japanese army on the front line have as many as 13 divisions and five brigades, four reading mixed brigades and three chariot regiments.

The five brigades even include three field heavy artillery brigades, which are only the offensive troops deployed on the front line of the Japanese army. The troops with at least ten divisions on the second line can be put into battle at any time.

In front of the huge battle map, Zhang Xuewu frowned and looked at the whole situation of Xuzhou. Although the strength of Li Zongren's troops in the fifth war zone had been enhanced, the five direct armies of the Central Army that failed to participate in the battle of Xuzhou in history were all integrated into the fifth war zone, so that Li Zongren had two troops that could be detoured. This is good news for Li Zongren, especially the 200th Division of the Fifth Army from Wuhan. Li Zongren heard that this army is also mechanized. The 200th Division's rush to Xuzhou is undoubtedly equivalent to injecting and strengthening the whole war zone.

The power of Zhang Xuewu's mechanized troops has been seen by many people with their own eyes, and some people have heard and witnessed it. Therefore, at this moment, Li Zongren's certainty of fighting against the Japanese army to defend Xuzhou is still relatively sufficient. However, the unprecedented strengthening of [***] strength has also made some changes in Li Zongren's tactical deployment.

In the historical battle of Xuzhou, the [[***] team has been carrying out strategic defense and tactical defense, including the Taierzhuang victory, which is all defending. Taierzhuang is the last support point on the front of Xuzhou, a life-and-death battle, but at this moment, Li Zongren, who is full of troops and elites, will defend. Focusing on the three support points of Linyi, Suzhou and Heze, in order to consolidate the defense of Xuzhou, the internal and external mobile and flexible deployment of defense forces, blocking the three main forces of the five routes of the army. If the other two roads of the army go deep, Li Zongren is determined to fight a major annihilation war at all costs. [***] In addition to Zhang Xuewu in the tenth war zone, all departments have not yet established a system to annihilate the battle line of the Japanese army coalition, so Li Zongren, who is in the elite at this moment, also has this intention to seriously hit a part of the Japanese army in the battle of Xuzhou to repay all kinds of insults and difficulties in the Shanghai negotiations. Therefore, Li Zongren set up the commander-chief of the fifth war zone. In Xuzhou City, there is a posture of vowing to coexist with Xuzhou.

Li Zongren commanded Pang Bingxun's Third Army, Tang Enbo's 20th Army, Sun Lianzhong's Second Army, Sun Zhen's 22nd Army, Liu Shiyi's 31st Army, Yu Xuezhong's 51st Army, Zhang Zizhong's 59th Army, Du Yuming's Fifth Army, Wang Yaowu's 74th Army, and Deng Longguang's 80th The Third Army, Liu Yinggu's 87th Army, Han Deqin's 89th Army, Li Xianzhou's 92nd Army, Feng Qinzai's 98th Army, Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army, and two Heavy Artillery Brigades assigned to Li Zongren Additional Artillery 9th Regiments and 10 Artillery Regiments. In addition, Qiu Qingquan's Armored Brigade was placed under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Theater.

Li Zongren is also very clear that the battle in Xuzhou is at risk of life and death, but Xuzhou is not dangerous to defend in the plains, and the Japanese army is also a prisoner of the north and south, so he only seeks to be able to hit the Japanese army, attack its living forces to annihilate one of them, consume its strategic material reserves, and buy time for the Supreme Military Commission to deploy Wuhan. Prepare for the battle.

Li Zongren was naturally overjoyed by the two heavy artillery brigades and the ninth artillery regiments and the tenth artillery regiments given by the Military Commission. After personally understanding the troops, he found that these two artillery brigades were the headquarters of Zhang Xuewu. After the Nanjing defense war, the heavy artillery was left to Hu Zongnan's headquarters, and all the personnel Withdrawal, the double artillery brigade at this moment is not only facing a shortage of professionals, lack of training, and a pitiful number of shells, and the 105mm howitzer battalion under the jurisdiction of each brigade has been kickbacked by Hu Zongnan. Can't you see the cannon? Are you dead or not?

Li Zongren had no choice but to send a telegram to the 10th Theater to request some shells and materials, because although there were many troops in the 5th Theater, the equipment was extremely different. Du Yuming's Fifth Army, Wang Yaowu's 74th Army, Deng Longguang's 83rd Army, Liu Yinggu's 87th Army, and Han Deqin's 80th Army The Ninth Army, Li Xianzhou's 92nd Army, Feng Qinzai's 98th Army, and Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army are all elite troops, while Pang Bingxun's Third Army has only five regiments. There are not enough bullets, and the number of people is less than Tang Enbo's division. There is no need to mention the combat effectiveness, not to mention Sun Zhen's 22nd Army. It's nothing. After the Sichuan Legion came out of the river, it was like a beggar.

Let such troops follow a legion? Or a group of troops to use? Li Zongren can't bear to deploy like this, in order to reflect the wise decision of the Supreme Command? Deploy the third-rate miscellaneous cards in the front to consume the edge of the Japanese army, deploy the main troops of the faction in the middle to fight with the Japanese army, and put the elite troops at the end to picking fruit?

In fact, from the perspective of strategic and protracted war, Li Zongren also agreed with Chiang Kai-shek's deployment and such a tactical arrangement, which can carry out the war more protractedly, but for those cannon fodder troops who are placed in front of them, it is crying and scolding. This is the reality, no Have all the elite troops been fought out? How to fight the war? The lives of veterans are much more expensive than those of new recruits. Only about 5% of the recruits who can live for three months are about 5%. Sometimes they would rather send ten recruits to test the firepower than send a veteran to take risks, because at the critical moment, the veterans can rush out with explosive bags, and the recruits will only cry for their father and mother. After a battle, the governor will be killed. Sometimes there are more recruits than I killed. These people will be classified as missing, and even the pension will be saved.

Li Zongren wants to deploy the troops under the jurisdiction of Pang Bingxun's Third Army and Sun Lianzhong's Second Army along the Huaihe River, but the headquarters of the Second Army is only the 27th, 30th, 31st, and three divisions. Each division is only about 6,000 or 7,000 combatants, plus the 44th Brigade, which is really a little encouraging. Qiang had no choice but to put Liu Shiyi's 31st Army and Yu Xuezhong's 51st Army along the Huaihe River, and Sun Lianzhong's 2nd Army and Sun Zhen's 22nd Army in Linyi.

Concentrate Du Yuming's Fifth Army, Wang Yaowu's 74th Army, Deng Longguang's 83rd Army, Liu Yinggu's 87th Army, Han Deqin's 89th Army, Li Xianzhou's 92nd Army, Feng Qinzai's 98th Army, Shi Zhongcheng's 100th Army, Qiu Qingquan's Armored Brigade, assigned to the 10th Heavy Artillery Brigade and 10th Artillery Regiment directly under the Military Commission, first welcome If he can defeat the two-way troops attacking the Japanese army in Suzhou on the front line, then he can let go of his hands and feet to deal with the fierce Japanese army in North China.

However, the two sides tore their faces in Shanghai. Li Zongren was also busy in addition to dispatching troops and generals, because there were three whole divisions of Han Fuyu's Third Army in front of him, and the Supreme Military Commission also provided the artillery brigades of the Third Army as support. The three divisions of Han Fuqu are all masters of the three brigades and six regiments that have been operating decently for many years, with more than 12,000 people.

Li Zongren planned to first stop the Japanese army on the south bank of the Huai River on the southern line, breaking its attempt to join the Japanese army on the northern line, then defeat the Eastern Japanese army in the Linyi area on the northern line, and then stop the right wing of the Western Japanese army in the Jiaxiang area, smashing the plan of the Japanese army to unite in Taierzhuang. Adopt an active defensive strategy, with one as the internal defense, and the other on the outside, the combination of attack and defense, flexible combat mode, do not give the Japanese army the opportunity of superior ground and air firepower, internal and external lines to fight, so that the Japanese army is tired of coping.

Li Zongren knows that it is now the middle of November. It is difficult to directly carry out a strategic decisive battle without a few months of preparation and mutual testing for such a large-scale battle. Only when the opportunity of the decisive battle appears, the generals on both sides of the battle will really devote all their strength to give the opponent a final blow, otherwise before that The physical situation should be calm and calm. I'm afraid it would be great if the tenth war zone could give itself a certain degree of cooperation.

Li Zongren had no bad impression of Zhang Xuewu in the tenth war zone. He thought that he was far better than his prodigal brother, and at least he ran a world for the old Zhang family. Zhang Xueliang applied for investigation in the tenth war zone several times, but he was stopped by Chiang Kai-shek. His purpose was obvious, but with Zhang Xuewu The sard, Li Zongren's son seems to be much better?

Chairman Jiang also seems to be relieved to assign troops, which is much better than commanding a large number of miscellaneous troops to fight a family war.

However, Li Zongren is most concerned about the action of the tenth war zone. He threw away the battle plan of the tenth war zone sent to him by the staff headquarters at a glance, because it was formulated by the staff headquarters for Zhang Xuewu. If Zhang Xuewu can follow the battle plan formulated by the guys of the staff headquarters, then he is afraid. I'm afraid that he won't be Zhang Xuewu. In a few years, his wings will be hard at once? Li Zongren can only sigh that his future life is terrible. What makes him envious is Zhang Xuewu's huge amount of funding from unknown sources. If he had such a funding in those years, I'm afraid that Jiang Gong's comeback after he left the field can only be a beautiful dream. What is the battle? It is the comprehensive national industrial foundation of money and the country.

Li Zongren believes that Zhang Xuewu is definitely not a person who ignores the overall situation of the Anti-Japanese War. If there is a policy in the tenth war zone, it will reduce the pressure from the Japanese army in North China. In addition, Li Zongren hopes that Zhang Xuewu can give him assistance in terms of weapons, ammunition and materials. After all, as the commander of the war zone, what do you want? It's nothing. How can you ask the people below to work for their lives?

(to be continued)