Chapter 1 When Gu Xiuming and Tian Huacai were talking, an airplane was slowly passing overhead.

Tian Huacai heard the buzzing engine and looked up at the sky. "Regimental Commander! Is that one of our planes?"

Gu Xiuming smiled and said, "That's our reconnaissance plane. I just had it take off to take a look in this direction. Knowing yourself and your enemy ensures victory in every battle."

Tian Huacai said enviously, "When will our militia have planes like that?"

Gu Xiuming glared at him. "Even our combat troops don't have enough! You'll have to wait. The Jiangbei base area has already equipped the Eleventh Company with anti-aircraft machine guns and the Twelfth Company with rocket launchers, but we haven't gotten any yet. When we have all our weapons fully equipped, the militia will be fully equipped too."

Tian Huacai said happily with a smile, "At that time, can we attack Xuzhou?"

"Definitely!" Gu Xiuming said with great certainty.

Of course, Song Zhengye in the air didn't know that Regimental Commander Gu was discussing him below. He was piloting the plane, searching along the main road where the battle had just taken place, heading towards Xuzhou.

According to Regimental Commander Gu's order, he had to thoroughly search this area to see if there were any Japanese troops marching in this direction.

Today, the First Regiment had already wiped out a Japanese infantry battalion, a tank squadron, and a cavalry squadron here.

According to the Japanese's habits, so many troops should be enough to reinforce the Japanese at Huangtuling. Maybe there wouldn't be any more troops coming after this cavalry force.

Song Zhengye's current task was to find out if there were any more Japanese troops coming along this road.

Huan Anran, the puppet army regiment commander, was filled with anger today. In this hot weather, the Taijun (Japanese officer) actually ordered his troops to set out from Xuzhou to Huangtuling.

And they were required to arrive by tomorrow morning. Was that even a feasible task?

It was a full one hundred and fifty li from Xuzhou to Huangtuling. Did the Taijun think the puppet soldiers were all as fast as flying squirrels?

Although he was furious, he didn't dare disobey the Taijun's order. The Taijun's order was the commander's sacred decree.

Puppet Army Commander Ruan also said to him, "Brother Anran! Thank you for your hard work this time. After you return, I will put in a good word for you and treat you to the opera."

"Ten days! I want to watch for ten consecutive days!"

"Good! Good! As long as you can complete the mission assigned by the Taijun. The Taijun is really anxious this time. The two regiments of you will be going together, so you must look out for each other and be careful, careful, and careful again." Ruan Lesheng, the puppet army commander, didn't know much about the situation at the front.

He only knew that a Japanese force had encountered difficulties at Huangtuling, and the Taijun wanted to send some troops to assist in the battle.

Although Ruan Lesheng wasn't clear on the specifics, he knew from the fact that the Japanese first sent out a fully mechanized infantry battalion, and then brought back the tanks that had already been loaded onto the train to send to Huangtuling, too, that the situation in the Huangtuling area was not good. But considering that the Japanese had already sent an infantry battalion, a tank force, and a cavalry squadron as the vanguard, and that he was sending two infantry regiments to participate, it might just be to cheer them on. What’s more, there was a Taijun's infantry battalion following along with the two infantry regiments.

Safety shouldn't be a problem, but the stronger the force, the more uneasy Ruan Lesheng felt.

This time, he sent Huan Anran's First Regiment, as well as Song Cai's puppet army Second Regiment.

Song Cai's name sounded like "sending wealth," and Ruan Lesheng liked the omen of "sending wealth," which was why he made him a regimental commander at noon. He hoped that he could send him more wealth.

Over the years, Regimental Commander Song had indeed sent him many good things. As long as he had any opportunity, Regimental Commander Song would be able to discover a way to make money.

This was why Ruan Lesheng was willing to use him. But today, sending out Regimental Commander Song felt like sending wealth to others. Ruan Lesheng felt for the first time that the name of this regimental commander was not good.

Regimental Commander Song didn't feel anything. He was still the same as before. As long as he was on a mission with other troops, then everything would be handled according to the other troops' instructions.

Originally, this time he should have followed the lead of Captain Yamada Ki no Suke, but the cunning Captain Yamada Ki no Suke actually had the two puppet army regiments walk in front.

His infantry battalion was walking at the back of the team. This was letting the two puppet army regiments act as a vanguard for the Japanese, to scout for mines!

The puppet soldiers were already used to this kind of situation: the puppet soldiers went first for things that were about to die, for things that were difficult and hard.

The Japanese came first when it was time to claim credit and divide the spoils. What was this all about?

Of course, puppet army Regimental Commander Huan Anran wasn't angry about this. For him, it was the rank-and-file soldiers under him who were suffering and dying. No matter what, the Japanese would give him a bone to gnaw on after they had eaten the meat.

As for the ordinary puppet soldiers, they not only didn't have any soup to drink, they couldn't even smell the flavor.

What Huan Anran was angry about now was that in this hot weather, he had to march along with them and suffer along with them. Although he could ride a warhorse to march, the weather was too hot, and the heat from the horse radiated out, making it uncomfortable to ride on the warhorse.

No matter how dissatisfied he was, he didn't dare disobey the military order. However, their team's marching speed wasn't fast from the time they left the city.

Captain Yamada Ki no Suke's team followed behind, but strangely, he didn't send any Japanese soldiers to urge them, as if he didn't mind the slow marching speed.

In fact, Captain Yamada Ki no Suke didn't mind the slow marching speed at all. When he was in Xuzhou City, he had also worked hard and striven to get some more troop carriers so that his battalion could travel by car like the previous Yamada Infantry Battalion.

Not only would the speed be faster, but the soldiers would also suffer less and be able to maximize their combat effectiveness.

However, Lieutenant General Manden Yuto of the Tenth Independent Mixed Brigade of the Infantry temporarily didn't have the ability to find vehicles for his infantry battalion, so Yamada Ki no Suke's battalion could only advance towards Huangtuling, one hundred and fifty li away, under the scorching sun.

According to Captain Yamada Ki no Suke's idea, in this kind of weather, large armies should be mobilized in the morning and afternoon, or even march at night, to avoid the scorching sun.

However, Lieutenant General Manden Yuto and Lieutenant General Kugu Shun Jie had the same attitude: they must set off immediately!

Of course, Yamada Ki no Suke's battalion could only set off immediately, but their marching speed was touching. They were advancing at a speed of about ten li per hour.

Even so, the soldiers were sweating profusely as they walked. If they continued to march like this, they would probably only be able to reach Huangtuling the day after tomorrow.

However, Captain Yamada Ki no Suke wasn't worried. So many Japanese soldiers had already gone ahead. After they arrived, all problems would be solved. His team was actually completely unnecessary to go.

Song Zhengye flew until he was twenty kilometers away from Xuzhou before he discovered a long line of troops marching under the scorching sun on the ground.

He intentionally lowered his altitude. He could clearly see with his naked eyes that this team was composed of puppet troops in the front and Japanese soldiers in the back.

After roughly estimating, there was one Japanese battalion and the strength of one puppet army brigade.

Song Zhengye discovered a Japanese team and immediately reported it. Then, he continued to fly sideways for reconnaissance. His mission was to investigate the situation within a radius of one hundred li, with Huangtuling as the center.

He had only finished inspecting the most likely route. There was a larger area to be checked later.

Gu Xiuming, who had received the message, finally felt relieved after hearing that the Japanese support infantry was still sixty li away.

If the distance of the Japanese troops was too close, he would have to prepare to have the team change the ambush location.

This pontoon bridge on the Yi River was the only way for the Japanese to go to Huangtuling. Setting up an ambush on both sides of the pontoon bridge would be perfect for waiting for the Japanese to come.

If he didn't set up an ambush here, the Japanese could take another road at any time. Anyway, there were many roads on the plains. They only needed to cross this pontoon bridge in the end.

Since there were still Japanese troops coming in this direction, the First Regiment had to clean up the battlefield thoroughly, leaving no traces of fighting.

All the soil on the ground stained with Japanese blood was shoveled away. The iron pellets and shrapnel left behind after the explosion were all sucked up with strong magnets.

The warhorses were dragged away, and the Japanese corpses were also dragged to the lower reaches to dig a large pit and bury them.

The militiamen of the First Regiment of the Sishui Security Force were very happy. There were more than seven hundred warhorses, and the meat weighed hundreds of thousands of jin. Their three thousand people would definitely not be able to finish eating it.

Gu Xiuming had already sent the newly captured trucks to transport the horse meat to the rear. Regiment Commander Song Guoan of the Feixian Security Regiment, who was surrounding Huangtuling, saw the horse meat sent back from the front.

He was happy now. They were surrounding Huangtuling. The sound of bandits slaughtering pigs and sheep on the mountain reached the foot of the mountain, and his brothers were drooling.

Now they don't have to envy the Japanese, because they have horse meat to eat, too.

Lieutenant General Kugu Shun Jie of the Tenth Independent Mixed Brigade of the Infantry in Xuzhou City had already boarded the train at this time. This time, he led two infantry battalions to Tianjia'an.

As for the Shenchuan Da Zhi battalion that was still struggling on Huangtuling, he believed that with Yamada Yu Jie's infantry battalion and the other teams coming to rescue them, there was absolutely no problem. He was relieved!

The two regiments of the Special Operations Brigade that were attacking Liu'an and Huoshan had already occupied the county seat and were setting up defenses in the northwest direction of the county seat.

According to Lin Fan's orders, the Sixth Regiment and the Second Regiment would hold firm in Huoshan, and the Third Regiment and the Thirteenth Regiment would hold firm in Liu'an, not allowing the Japanese Second Army to break through these two places and trapping them to death.

The Japanese Sixteenth Infantry Division now had only the division-level command headquarters and the regimental commander-level commanders left. The lower-level commanders had all been wiped out. The entire division had fewer than five hundred Japanese soldiers, and they had completely lost their combat effectiveness.

However, the situation on the battlefield had been too bad in the past few days, and the Sixteenth Division had no chance to retreat to the rear for reorganization.

On the other hand, under the command of Division Commander Xiaoyan Yitian of the Japanese Tenth Division, seeing that the situation was not good and that the firepower of the attacking Special Operations Brigade troops was too strong, he actually took the initiative to abandon Liu'an and Huoshan, preserved half of his forces, and retreated to the rear.

His troops retreated back, and the commander of the Japanese Second Army, Prince Higashikuninomiya Naruhiko, was worried. The retreat was cut off, the logistics were cut off, and his Second Army had lost more than half of its troops in half a month of deployment.

How could this battle continue?

The entire Second Army sent four divisions to cooperate with the Central China Expeditionary Army's Wuhan Campaign.

Up to now, the Sixteenth Division had completely lost its combat effectiveness, and the Tenth Division Infantry Battalion had lost four battalions, and the artillery battalion had been completely lost, which was considered a loss of half of its combat effectiveness.

The Third Division attacked the right flank and encountered the elite Thirty-Sixth Division of the National Army at Fujinshan. More than half of the heavy artillery of the entire division was lost, and more than half of the infantry was lost. This was also considered a loss of half a division, adding up to a loss of two full divisions.

The Japanese Headquarters obtained the latest action plan of the National Army in Jiangbei from reliable channels. This plan was aimed at annihilating the entire Second Army.

Now the entire army had lost half of its forces, and the next ten days were the most critical time. If the deadlock could not be broken in ten days, the fate of the Second Army being completely annihilated was irreversible.

The so-called reliable channels of the Japanese came from the surrender faction within the high-level National Army.

This group of people was very pessimistic about the current situation. They believed that if they continued to fight like this, the entire country would be destroyed. They strongly opposed the war and strongly called for peace talks with the Japanese. Any conditions could be negotiated, as long as the war did not continue.

In order to undermine the morale of the pro-war faction within the National Army, these surrender faction members had been sparing no effort to send important military intelligence to the Japanese.

Like the National Army's most secret plan to sink ships to block the river, the Shanghai retreat plan, and the Nanjing defense plan, all were placed on the desk of the commander of the Japanese Central China Expeditionary Army at the same time as the plans were formulated.

Now the commander of the Japanese Central China Expeditionary Army, Yan Jun Liu, took out the intelligence he had received a few days ago to study again. This new Jiangbei combat plan passed by the National Army was aimed at encircling and annihilating the Japanese Second Army.

When this plan was sent to Yan Jun Liu, he did not pay attention to it, thinking that it was a smokescreen released by the National Army and that it was completely impossible.

Up to now, the National Army had not completely annihilated even one of its own divisions, and this time it was fantasizing about completely annihilating an army.

This was another daydream of Chang's, so when he received this intelligence, neither the Central China Expeditionary Army, nor the North China Dispatch Army, nor the Japanese Headquarters took a closer look at this plan and threw it aside, classifying it as useless intelligence and archiving it.

Now the situation on the Jiangbei battlefield had suddenly changed, and the Japanese Sixth Infantry Division had driven straight in and had already reached the last fortress of Wuhan on the Yangtze River.

On the other side, the Second Army's retreat was cut off, its logistics were cut off, and it was really surrounded by a large number of National Army troops.

At this time, the high-level commanders of the Japanese army took out the plans they had received before and studied them again.

They wanted to find flaws in the National Army's troop deployment and see how they could find a glimmer of hope for the Second Army.

In this situation, the Second Army was indeed about to be completely destroyed. Chiang Kai-shek's mood in Wuhan was also much better.

According to the latest plan to ensure strength and resist step by step, as long as the Japanese Second Army could be completely annihilated, it was acceptable to temporarily abandon Wuhan.

Chiang Kai-shek looked at the situation on the map and happily inserted the red flag representing his side into Liu'an and Huoshan on the sand table with his own hands.

Then he inserted a flag next to Tianjia'an, and then another flag at Chaohu.

After doing this, he asked, "We asked Lin Fan to capture Liu'an and Huoshan and hold them.

What is he going to do in Tianjia'an and Chaohu?"

Chen Cheng, who had been with him, said, "Principal! This is the style of combat over there in Lin Fan. When they fight in the front, they have to prepare a large base area in the back.

They use the power of this large base area to support the small battlefield in front."

"Tianjia'an is not a strategic point. What does the Special Operations Brigade want to do by attacking it?"

"Resources! The Special Operations Brigade is developing very fast in Jurong now and needs a lot of coal and oil. They must be attacking Tianjia'an for the coal here," Chen Cheng said.

Speaking of Jurong, Chiang Kai-shek's mood was not good. In fact, he was a little jealous. He had been in charge of Nanjing for more than ten or twenty years, but he had not achieved the results that Lin Fan had achieved in Jurong in one year.

The Jiangzhe area was where Chiang Kai-shek's foundation was located. Even if it was now occupied by the Japanese, he still left a large number of spies in that place.

He was clear about the construction in the Jurong base area, which was changing three times a day. The merchants and people in the base area were now living better than before the war.

The factories in the base area were now opening new ones every day, which was what Chiang Kai-shek envied the most.

The Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant had expanded tenfold compared to before, and Lin Fan had also established ammunition factories, ordnance factories, aircraft factories, and engine factories. Each of these factories and mines was something that Chiang Kai-shek wanted very much.

Now was not the time to think about this. Chiang Kai-shek forced himself to take his thoughts back.

Pointing to the map again, he said, "The Fifth War Zone began its offensive against the Japanese yesterday, but the effect was not ideal.

Not only did the offensive not achieve results, but in some directions, the Japanese even counterattacked and lost ground.

This cannot continue. Let the commanders of each team understand that when the country is in trouble, they should unite sincerely, and each team must help each other."

Now, when he talked about the Special Operations Brigade, joy and worry coexisted. When he talked about the performance of the National Army on the battlefield, he only felt heartache.

Chiang Kai-shek didn't understand. Battles that could clearly be won and fortresses that would never be lost would always fail inexplicably, and fortresses would be lost inexplicably.

Why was this?

However, this time, he used ten times the strength to surround the Japanese Second Army in the mountains, and he was confident that he could completely annihilate them.

This time, the National Army occupied all the advantages of time, location, and people. It was now the hottest time in Jiangbei, and the temperature had been above thirty-six degrees.

Diseases were prevalent in the Japanese army, and they were completely unaccustomed to the hot and humid climate in the mountains. In the mountains and forests, the Japanese mechanized troops also lost their use. The time and location were unfavorable to the Japanese.

The National Army soldiers were united in their hatred of the enemy, and they had the support of the people. They had to win this battle no matter what!

Commander Higashikuninomiya Naruhiko walked around frantically in the command headquarters. He had already read the National Army's latest combat plan three times.

This combat plan, which was completely aimed at the Second Army, was now being implemented by the National Army in its second step.

This made him think of the traitors who had tried their best to persuade him to act like this when his team set out.

There were more than two hundred of these traitors, and they were representatives of various counties and cities along the way of Liu'an, Huoshan, Shangcheng, and Macheng.

These people swore to him that as long as the Taijun advanced along this road, the National Army would protect the highway well.

The Taijun could move quickly, and with the support of these people, the Taijun could reach the upper reaches of the Yangtze River unimpeded and guarantee that they could be the first to attack Wuhan City.

Because the National Army did not have many troops stationed on the southwest side of Wuhan, they did not defend that direction.

It was because he believed these traitors that Higashikuninomiya Naruhiko decided to adopt the current combat plan against the advice of the public.

He had compared his own combat plan with the National Army's combat plan three times, and each time he came to a perfect conclusion: the plan he had formulated was perfect for sending the Second Army into the National Army's encirclement.

This made him unable to not be manic. Could this be a trick of the National Army, deliberately using a group of people to pretend to be traitors to offer advice?

Like the chain plan offered by Pang Tong in the Three Kingdoms, locking the large ships together to facilitate the fire attack by Eastern Wu.

This group of traitors was offering advice to introduce the Second Army into the mountains here, making it easier for the National Army to encircle them.

The more Higashikuninomiya Naruhiko thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed, but he was ultimately the army commander and did not act rashly.

Instead, he gathered the staff of the command headquarters to discuss the current situation and what should be done next.

The staff of the Second Army pointed to the situation on the sand table and confirmed that the Second Army was completely surrounded. They suggested that the traitors who offered advice must be from the National Army.

There was no doubt about it! Since so many staff members thought the same as him.

Higashikuninomiya Naruhiko immediately took action and ordered the military police to arrest the traitors who offered advice and suggestions.

Ran Junxiong was originally the president of the Macheng Chamber of Commerce, and he still was. However, he believed that the National Army's resistance was bound to fail. Merchants pursued profits, and he decided to make a big investment.

He joined forces with a group of like-minded people and ran to Xuzhou to welcome the Japanese and offer advice to let the Japanese advance from Huoshan and Liu'an all the way along Jinzhai and Shangcheng, so that they could quickly break through Wuhan.

If the Japanese gained power, these traitors would have the credit for following the dragon and would certainly be able to share a lot of benefits.

What he didn't expect was that there were many traitors who had the same idea as them, and unknowingly they had gathered more than two hundred such traitors.

These days, they had been following the Japanese army, collecting food and firewood for the Japanese army from the local area, and finding laborers. These things were all found by them.

After all, these traitors were all prominent figures in the local area, and many ordinary people knew them or had heard of them. As long as they came forward, many things could be done quickly.

However, what disappointed Ran Junxiong and his group of traitors was that the main force of the Japanese army did not advance as rapidly as they had expected.

On the contrary, the road that the Japanese army was attacking was difficult, and now their logistics had been cut off.

However, what made Ran Junxiong and these traitors happy was that the Taijun, who had no logistics, relied more on them.

Only these local merchants and gentry could find enough military rations for the Japanese army. Of course, they could not supply ammunition.

Even so, these traitors were satisfied. They had a sense of presence in front of the Taijun and were being reused.

Ran Junxiong and his group of traitors were holding a meeting to discuss how to raise more food to ensure that the Japanese soldiers had enough to eat and drink.

A large group of military police rushed in!