Xu Rui did what he thought of, and sat in front of the radio again late that night. He delivered a passionate radio speech to the patriotic compatriots in central China, saying that he would lead more than 7,000 officers and soldiers of the Dameishan Independent Regiment to cross the Yangtze River south and enter northern Jiangxi. Fighting alongside General Xue Yue's 1st Army Corps.
However, in order to ensure the safety of the Dameishan base area, especially after the main force of the independent regiment leaves, the Dameishan base will become extremely empty. Therefore, it is hoped that the National Government can provide ten tons of cement to the Dameishan base area and appoint an engineering expert to work on it. For this, Xu Rui specifically named Mr. Mao Yisheng, the dean of Tangshan Institute of Engineering and Technology, who could come to the Dameishan base area to lead the guidance of defense projects.
Xu Rui's radio speech immediately aroused the vigilance of the Wuhan camp, especially now that the Fuxing Society had found out the ins and outs of the Wuhan student movement some time ago, and was particularly wary of Xu Rui.
Therefore, Chairman Chiang personally issued instructions and resolutely rejected Xu Rui's request for a war.
It is said that Chairman Chiang’s original words were as follows: What, Xu Rui is going to northern Jiangxi? What does he want to do? It's not enough for him to occupy central Anhui, why should he also occupy northern Jiangxi? No, absolutely no. In just a few months, his Dameishan Independent Regiment has grown from 500 people to more than 5,000 people. If he really goes to northern Jiangxi, his troops will grow from more than 5,000 people in the blink of an eye. The number of people has increased to more than 50,000. Do I still need my 1st Army Corps
But how could Xu Rui just give up? He continued the broadcast the next day, and vaguely revealed that he was mobilizing students and workers from all over the country to force the National Government to force the palace. You really can't say that, with Xu Rui's current reputation, and with the current national The public's love for him, if Xu Rui really mobilizes students and workers to force the palace, public opinion will really put great pressure on the National Government and Chairman Chiang, and you will have to agree even if you don't agree.
When Chairman Chiang saw that this was not going to work, and that the New Fourth Army's military headquarters was ineffective, he immediately bypassed the Third War Zone and the New Fourth Army's military headquarters and directly sent someone to contact Xu Rui to express his good intention to go to northern Jiangxi to participate in the war. Even if we are convinced, the troops in northern Jiangxi are still sufficient. Besides, the anti-Japanese battlefield in central Anhui is also very important. Your department cannot leave the defense area lightly. At the same time, it said that there were ten tons of cement and Mr. Mao Yisheng was appointed to come to the Dameishan base area. You can consider this.
Xu Rui's goal had been achieved, so he stopped talking about going to northern Jiangxi to participate in the war, and then sent a transport team over the Dabie Mountains to Luotian to receive the ten tons of cement supported by the National Government for the Dameishan base area. This time, for the first time, Chairman Chiang Kai-shek did not discount anything. He said it was ten tons.
Also returning to the Dameishan base area with the transport team was Mr. Mao Yisheng, the dean of Tangshan Institute of Engineering and Technology who was attending a meeting in Wuhan at the time.
All this happened at the end of June.
On the same day that Mr. Mao Yisheng arrived at Meizhen, the Matsuura Division was finally defeated by the 305th Regiment of the 74th Army, which broke through the main position Zhanggushan after resisting for seven days. The division commander Junroku Matsuura He committed suicide by drinking bullets. When the Matsuura division set off from Ruichang, of the more than 18,000 men, all but 3,000 were captured, and the rest were all killed.
This was also the battle with the largest single battle losses for the Japanese army since the Sino-Japanese War broke out.
At the same time, this victory at Wanjialing also broke the Japanese army's golden body. Since the Meiji Restoration, no division's organic troops have been completely wiped out by the enemy. This has had a great impact on the international community.
Zhang Lingfu, the leader of the 305th Regiment who was imprisoned for killing his wife, became famous in the first battle and became a world-famous general of the Anti-Japanese War. He left a deep impression on Chairman Chiang Kai-shek and has been on a meteoric rise ever since.
However, as the old saying goes, good fortune lies in misfortune, and misfortune lies in blessing. The victory of Wanjialing set a precedent for the systematic annihilation of a Japanese division, but it also inspired an old Japanese to realize his shame and then become brave.
This old devil was Okamura Neiji. After the Matsuura Division was completely wiped out, this old devil immediately sent a profound review to the headquarters and base camp of the Condemnation Army in Central China, and began to make a serious summary.
Then, Okamura Neji discovered the secret of Xue Yue's eight-character tactics.
After cracking Xue Yue's tactics, Okamura Neiji regrouped, mobilized his troops, and launched another offensive against De'an, vowing to avenge his previous humiliation.
Shunroku Hata also gave the 22nd Division, the only remaining reserve in his hands, to Neji Okamura.
Although Shunroku Hata was very dissatisfied with Neji Okamura, he had held back the 22nd Division and refused to send it to the De'an battlefield. It was for this reason that the 11th Army was unable to rescue, and the National Army finally seized the opportunity to encircle and annihilate the Matsuura Division. regiment, Shunroku Hata was also reprimanded by the base camp for this incident.
So this time, Shunroku Hata and Neji Okamura finally got their act together.
Shunroku Hata and Neji Okamura have worked together to eliminate all unfavorable factors, but a disharmonious scene has appeared on the side of the Nationalist Government.
After the victory at Wanjialing, Chairman Chiang's mind started to heat up again, and he once again seriously misjudged the situation of the battle.
Lao Jiang stubbornly believed that since the Sino-Japanese War, Japan has had an empty treasury and weak successors. The Japanese army has suffered heavy casualties and is exhausted. However, the National Army has accepted the weapons and equipment just aided by the Soviet Union, especially a thousand aircraft of various types. After three types of attack aircraft and fighter jets, they already have counterattack capabilities.
So Chairman Chiang mobilized troops to punish the generals, and despite the strong dissuasion of Bai Chongxi, Chen Cheng and other officials, he insisted on fighting the Japanese at the De'an battlefield.
General Xue Yue has a cool head. Although he won the first Battle of De'an and annihilated the Matsuura Division, he knew that there was still a huge gap between the strength of the National Army and the Japanese army. At least at this stage, it was not capable of a head-on decisive battle. Confident, he rushed to Nanchang and tried his best to dissuade Chairman Chiang who came to the front line to supervise the war.
As a result, Chairman Chiang Kai-shek thought that Xue Yue was cowardly and fearful of fighting, so he was furious and directly dismissed Xue Yue. Luo Zhuoying, commander-in-chief of the 19th Group Army, temporarily took over as commander of the 1st Army Group and launched a brazen counterattack.
It can be said that the response of the National Army played into Okamura Neiji's plan. In order to confuse and deceive the National Army and achieve the goal of annihilating the main force of the National Army on the De'an battlefield, Okamura Neiji ordered the 27th Division on the left flank of the battlefield to pretend to be defeated and flee. , Luo Zhuoying, who was more defensive than aggressive, was indeed fooled, and ordered the ace 74th Army to immediately launch a counterattack.
(Dividing line)
When the Battle of De'an was in full swing, the independent regiment was building the Shaqiaogang Fortress.
After surveying the terrain of Shaqiao Gang, Mr. Mao Yisheng proposed a complete set of design plans.
According to the design plan proposed by Mr. Mao Yisheng, Shaqiaogang Fortress mainly consists of three parts. The first part is also the main body of Shaqiaogang and consists of three large bunkers.
These three large bunkers are located at the entrance of Meizhen, directly opposite Shangsha Bridge.
Among them, the largest main bunker was built at the location of the original old locust tree. The centuries-old locust tree has been removed. The other two auxiliary bunkers are located diagonally behind the main bunker to protect the side and rear of the main bunker.
The three large bunkers are all made of concrete and reinforced steel. The front wall is four meters thick, the side and rear walls are three meters thick, and the top is over five meters thick. There is also a buffer in the middle. According to Mr. Mao Yisheng’s calculations, this The design strength can at least withstand the dive bombing of heavy aerial bombs of 1,000 kilograms.
At least at this stage, Japan's aviation and heavy artillery have nothing to do with this bunker.
The main gun with a caliber of more than 300mm on the battleship may be able to blast open the front of the three bunkers, but the problem is that it is impossible for the battleships of the Japanese Navy to sail into Meihe to attack the fortress, so there is no need to consider it.
The second part of Shaqiaogang Fortress is the heavy artillery position built on the cliffs on both sides.
As mentioned before, outside the entrance of Meizhen is a grand canyon with a width of more than two thousand meters at its widest point. It is only connected by a sand bridge in the middle. There are cliffs on the left and right sides of the sand bridge, and it is connected with Qingniuling and Qingfengling. The remaining veins are connected, and the Wolf Fang Squadron can cross this grand canyon with tools, but it is absolutely impossible for the large army to pass.
The second part of Shaqiaogang Fortress, which is the heavy artillery position, is located on the cliffs on both sides of the entrance to Meizhen. It can block the open area outside Xiashaqiao from a high position. In wartime, if these two heavy artillery are not destroyed first In this position, the Japanese could not even assemble in the open area outside Xiasha Bridge, let alone launch an attack.
In order to build these two heavy artillery positions, Mr. Mao Yisheng also took great pains to specifically select the narrow parts of the Qingniuling and Qingfengling mountains to drill two tunnels. They penetrated from the back of the mountain, which is the direction of Meizhen, and drilled through the entire mountain. Go straight to the cliff on the other side, and then carve out gun emplacements one by one on the cliff.
Finally, the front of the gun emplacement was resealed with concrete, leaving only a small hole to extend the muzzle.
Here, it should be noted that Xu Rui still kept a hand in the last transaction. He did not hand over all the more than 160 heavy artillery pieces, but kept twelve 150mm caliber heavy howitzers. , now these twelve heavy howitzers come in handy.
With these twelve heavy howitzers, coupled with these two extremely strong heavy artillery positions, the Japanese artillery has no way to form an effective counterattack. Is it possible that the Japanese artillery can still hit the shells into a small town a few kilometers away? hole? The Japanese aviation forces are also in trouble. They can't throw bombs accurately at high altitudes. How about diving bombs? Hit the cliff directly.
There is only one way to crack these two heavy artillery positions, and that is to break them from the inside.
Therefore, in view of this weakness of the heavy artillery position, Mr. Mao Yisheng designed the third part of the Shaqiaogang Fortress. The third part of the fortress is a large number of bunkers scattered on Qingfengniu Ridge and Qingfeng Ridge on both sides of the entrance to Meizhen. These fortifications could not prevent the attack of heavy Japanese army groups, but they were enough to prevent the infiltration of small troops.
This formed a chain of death. One day, the Shaqiaogang Fortress was officially completed, and the Japanese basically stopped trying to attack Damei Mountain from the front. (To be continued.)