Chapter 239: Strategic Confrontation (first update)

Liushilipu, the headquarters of the 3rd Japanese Division.

Amid the rapid footsteps, Chief of Staff Colonel Tajirito walked into the headquarters with a panic look, and reported to the division commander Fujita Jin, urgently: "General, it's not good, the Fifth Brigade was defeated by the Chinese army."

"What?" Fujita Jin was shocked when he heard this, and suddenly stood up and asked in disbelief: "Tian Jiujun, what are you talking about? The Fifth Brigade failed?"

"Yes, first the Chinese Tiger Army air force attacked our fifth artillery gang position, and then their armored troops arrived suddenly. The Fifth Brigade was caught off guard and was defeated by the Chinese Army during the attack. The sixth and sixty-eighth main gangs both lost more than half, and the tank chariot brigade assigned to the Fifth Brigade also lost two-thirds of the chariots." Tian Jiulixiong suddenly lowered his head and replied.

"Bagaya Road! Didn't the intelligence say that the Chinese army's armored troops have already arrived in Huainan? Why did they still appear here? And why did the heavy artillery corps not pay attention to air defense? How did he command this idiot Katayamari Ichiro?" Hearing that the heavy artillery corps were also destroyed, Fujita Jin couldn't help but feel pain. That was a heavy artillery corps specially assigned to him by the Central China Front Army Command.

The Central China Front Army had only two such heavy artillery brigades and four heavy artillery corps. Now, a complete heavy artillery corps in his hands was wiped out. How could he not be angry? How could he not be angry?

Before Tianjiritsu replied, he roared in anger: "Let Katayamari Ichiro come to see me immediately! Hurry up!"

"Hayi!" Tian Jiulixiong quickly lowered his head again, then turned around and left quickly.

When the commander of the Fifth Brigade, Takuya Ichiro Yamari came to the 3rd Division headquarters with a look of embarrassment, Fujita Jin scolded him fiercely. Then, the 3rd Division stopped the attack and built complete fortifications at Sixty-Lipu, especially digging several anti-tank trenches on the periphery.

In the next few days, more than 100,000 troops of several other main divisions of the Japanese army also rushed to the Liushilipu area. However, what surprised the soldiers of the Huben Army was that the Japanese army did not launch an attack, but instead stopped on the spot in Liushilipu and the surrounding areas.

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Thirty-literpu, the position of the Hu Ben Army.

Qiao Anbang was inspecting the front-line observation post accompanied by the adjutant Liang Jiahan and the commander of the First Division, Li Yifeng and others. Over the past few days, in addition to the first Huben Division stationed in Sanshilipu, the second Huben Division also rushed to the Yingzhou front line and built two or three lines of defense with Chu Jingming's fourth division in the rear to prevent the front line from failing to support it, and could resist step by step, slow down the Japanese offensive front, and finally block the Japanese attack.

In the tide watch, Qiao Anbang and Li Yifeng stood side by side, and both of them held up the telescopes in their hands and silently observed the situation ahead.

"Military throne, the Japanese have increased their troops today." Li Yifeng said while looking.

"Yes, I guess the main forces of the Japanese army in Central China are almost all here." Qiao Anbang put down his telescope and sighed.

"Which is the Japanese singing? More than 100,000 people gathered, but they didn't attack our troops, but instead defended on the spot." Li Yifeng also turned around and followed Qiao Anbang in confusion.

"No matter what the purpose of the Japanese is, what I worry most about now is not our place, but the Xuzhou battlefield. If Xuzhou is lost, our base area will be attacked on both sides." Qiao Anbang said with concern in his tone.

‘Don’t worry too much, the head of the Fifth War Zone commander has mobilized the 11th Army and the 21st Army to head north? With the joining of these two armies, Xuzhou is not so easy to fall." Li Yifeng said without hesitation.

"It's not that simple. The combat power of the fifth war zone is incomparable to that of a few months ago. The Japanese army not only has nearly half of its military strength, but its firepower has also been greatly enhanced. The most important thing is that they have the experience of fighting with ** last time, and this time it will be even more difficult." Qiao Anbang said with one hand on his back.

"What should I do? Now that the 150,000 Japanese troops are approaching, our Hu Ben Army is unable to mobilize troops to go north to reinforce." Li Yifeng said with a frown.

Qiao Anbang did not continue to speak. He knew that the current situation was what the Japanese army in China wanted to happen. They could contain the Hu Ben Army without attacking at all. If the 150,000 troops were fully attacked, the Hu Ben Army would do its best and the outcome was still unknown. Therefore, even if the Japanese army did not attack, it would be enough to put huge pressure on the Hu Ben Army.

At least Qiao Anbang did not dare to draw the main force north to Xuzhou at this time, because he was not Zhuge Liang, so he could not sing the empty city plan. Moreover, he did not have the courage to sing the empty city plan with his entire base in northern Anhui, because he knew that once the Japanese army entered northern Anhui, the base he had worked hard to sing would be gone in an instant.

"Military throne, why don't we mobilize three divisions and armored brigades to launch an initiative to attack the Japanese army and defeat the enemy in front of us in one fell swoop, so that we can mobilize our troops north to Xuzhou." Li Yifeng suddenly had a whim.

"No, we must know that the Japanese army opposite us is not one or two divisions, but more than 150,000 troops of five or six divisions. Moreover, the Japanese have built a large number of field defense fortifications. Even if we attack with all our strength, it will be difficult to defeat them in one battle!" Qiao Anbang immediately rejected Li Yifeng's suggestion. It is obviously impossible to defeat them in one battle with 150,000 Japanese, unless the Hu Ben Army has absolute superior forces.

"What should we do? Are we just doing it like this? It's not a solution to continue like this. If the Fifth War Zone can't stand it in Xuzhou, then wouldn't we be even more dangerous?" Li Yifeng said anxiously.

Qiao Anbang pondered for a moment and said, "I have a solution."

"What's the solution?" Li Yifeng asked hurriedly.

"The Japanese have fifteen people on bombing, and their daily consumption is definitely astronomical, so their dependence on logistics must be amazing!" As long as our planes keep bombing the Japanese's logistics supply line, they can defeat the troops without fighting. Without logistics, the Japanese will not be able to eat enough. What kind of attack will he use and what will he use to consume with me?" Qiao Anbang said in a high spirit.

"But, military commander, we can't master the Japanese logistics transportation route so accurately." Li Yifeng asked with a bitter face.

"Well, our Hu Ben Army alone is not good enough, we still have to borrow some strength." Qiao Anbang said thoughtfully.

"Borrow some power?" Li Yifeng was confused and asked in confusion: "Military, where to get the power? What does it mean?"

"Li Yifeng, you will immediately send someone to the border areas of Huainan and Henan-Anhui to contact the New Fourth Army in this area, tell the New Fourth Army that we will provide them with weapons and equipment, and ask them to send troops to attack the Japanese army's logistics supplies and cooperate with us to fight together!" Qiao Anbang turned around and ordered.

"New Fourth Army? Military Commander, they are the top troops. Will they help us?" Li Yifeng hesitated.

"Yes, now is the period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. People are very wise and will definitely cooperate with us! Tell them, I will give you as much equipment as they have, but please do your best to harass the rear of the Chinese and Japanese troops and cut off the Japanese logistics supply!" Qiao Anbang nodded confidently and said, "As long as there is more support from the New Fourth Army, and with our double attack from the ground and air, the Japanese will not want to send military rations and ammunition to the front line."

"Oh, I remember." Li Yifeng stood up and responded, and then asked again: "That military throne, can we mobilize our troops north to reinforce Xuzhou?"

"It's not possible yet. We have to wait until the Japanese's logistics supply is exhausted before we can move according to the situation. Now I'll leave it to you. I'll take a regiment with me in the Armored Brigade, and leave all the rest for you to cooperate with your division to fight. If the Japanese attack, you have to defend this place for me no matter what. You must never retreat without authorization. Do you understand?"

"Yes! I understand, please don't worry, the military throne is in the position!" Li Yifeng patted his chest and promised loudly.

"I'll leave it to you to contact the New Fourth Army. Remember, the faster the better." Qiao Anbang patted Li Yifeng's shoulder and said. After saying that, Qiao Anbang walked forward with great strides, and Liang Jiahan hurriedly followed.

"Salute to the military throne!" Seeing Qiao Anbang leave, Li Yifeng shouted loudly, then took the lead and stood up to salute Qiao Anbang with a standard military salute.

The officers and soldiers of the first division in the trench followed suit, and for a moment the entire position was filled with solemnity.

Qiao Anbang casually saluted the soldiers, then turned his head to Liang Jiahan who was following him and said: "Immediately notify the flight regiment to bomb the Japanese ammunition depot and granary of Liushilipu. In addition, the Japanese supply routes will be bombed continuously every day. It is best to bomb Pukou Pier every day so that the Japanese can't transport a grain of food and a bullet from Jiangnan."

"Yes!" Liang Jiahan shouted, then turned around and ran forward quickly.

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On the road from Chiheji to Mengcheng, a large group of people were following the road towards Chiheji. Among the crowd, there were a few young men with bad eyes looking around from time to time. These people were Japanese agents who sneaked into northern Anhui in batches, and Colonel Chuan Guang suddenly got involved.

The crowd walked slowly and soon arrived at Xiyang Town, south of the Wohe River. The highway passed through the middle street of Xiyang Town. Sichuan Guang and several agents found a team of Chinese people carrying guns and ammunitions at the entrance of the town to check the passing people one by one.

It turned out that after the Fourth Division encountered the incident of the Japanese smuggling into the crowd a few days ago, Qiao Anbang ordered the entire army to order some left-behind troops to set up checkpoints in various villages, towns, especially major traffic roads to inspect, to prevent a small group of Japanese troops from sneaking into the rear of the base where the troops were already very empty.

So the militias in Xiyang Town spontaneously set up two checkpoints at the entrance of the town's highway, and strictly inspected and interrogated the passing people. These militias may not be in a hurry to fight, but they did not do anything worse than regular soldiers when they set up checkpoints on the road. They were majestic with the Garland rifle in their hands, which satisfied the vanity of these old hats, so they worked very hard.

"Kun Chuan Guangjun, what should we do?" A Japanese agent in the crowd approached Chuan Guang and asked in a low voice. In fact, they really didn't take these militias seriously at the intersection. The key is that when the gunfire sounded here, their whereabouts were exposed. Maybe the entire pheasant and the market would enter full martial law.

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Chapter completed!