After Wang Ding accepted Zhou Wu's task of asking him to go out of Danyang to reconnoitre, he selected more than 100 brothers with flexible skills and bright brains from the fat man's regiment, each of whom was equipped with a few more grenades and dozens of "flower machine guns" for close combat.
Before leaving, Zhou Wu specially explained to Wang Ding: "Lao Wang, you are going to Danyang to find out the situation this time, in case you encounter devils or other emergencies, you must not exchange fire with them, and quickly report the situation to the brigade headquarters before making a decision."
Wang Ding replied: "Luzao, don't worry, our mission this time is to reconnoiter the enemy situation in front, even if there are devils over there to fight, we will not take the initiative to exchange fire with them." ” "I still know this truth, please rest assured that the brigade seat and the chief of staff will complete the task."
Wang Ding patted his chest, and quickly walked towards Danyang with the hundred or so brothers he had just selected, and soon blended into the endless night.
Zhou Wu watched Wang Ding and them disappear into the night, turned back to Ding Ning and said: "Old Ding, I don't know if there are any devils' troops in front, now the devils have captured Wujin, and they are attacking Danyang day and night. ” "The devils are all mechanized troops, although it is not easy to maneuver in this Jiangnan water network area, but the marching speed is definitely faster than our national army, what I am worried about is that we have not yet arrived at Danyang, the devil's troops have already occupied there."
"At that time, the situation of our more than 100,000 national army troops in Jiangyin will be extremely dangerous, there are devils on the western front in front of them, and there are devils who occupy Jiangyin in the back, and they will be used as roasted cake loin by devils."
Ding Ning listened to Zhou Wu's worries and felt that it was very reasonable, but he didn't know what the situation was in front of him at present.
On the way to retreat from the Huashan position to Danyang, many people along the way fled to other places in order to escape the war, and only the thatched houses of the common people were left along the way, and they walked nearly dozens of kilometers away.
When Zhou Wu heard this, his brows tightened, and he thought: "It will definitely not work if it goes on like this, we have all become blind and deaf, it is really strange, fighting on our own land, our national army is going to become blind and deaf, how can there be such a reason" Zhou Wu immediately asked the accompanying staff officers to open the military map, and under the dazzling light of the gasoline lamp, Zhou Wu kept searching on the map, and suddenly he pointed to a place.
"Ding Ning, look, it's here, Shitang Town, you see that he is located right in the center between Jiangyin and Danyang, Jurong, the traffic extends in all directions, it is extremely convenient, if the devil wants to occupy Danyang or complete the siege of Zhenjiang, he must occupy this Shitang Town."
Ding Ning helped the gold wire glasses, looked at the map for a while, nodded and said: "Yes, this Shitang Town is a big town in the south of the Yangtze River, a place of transportation arteries since ancient times, there are many merchants and a large population, I don't know if our national army has a garrison over there now, if there is no or only some security forces are stationed, then it will be a big trouble." ” "The intelligence of the devil must know that the geographical location of this Shitang Town is important, and he will definitely send troops to occupy Shitang Town after occupying Wujin, block the waist and cut off the road for our national army to retreat from Jiangyin to Nanjing, and block the gate for our national army to retreat westward in the direction of Jiangyin, and then concentrate superior forces to encircle and annihilate it."
"The devil is so poisonous, damn it, if the devil really occupies Shitang Town, then we, the national troops who retreated from Jiangyin, can only wait for death."
"The north is the Yangtze River, so wide the river can not be crossed without a boat, the south is Changshu, the direction of Wujin, now it has been occupied by the devils, the east is Jiangyin, which we have just given up, the landing devils will definitely chase after them, and they will follow, if the devils really occupy this Shitang Town first, then we will not be able to catch up with the city of Nanjing and be dumplings by the devils."
Zhou Wu roughly calculated on the military map with his finger, raised his head and said to Ding Ning: "Old Ding, I think we have to change the route of the march, don't go to Danyang, go directly to that Shitang Town, and build a defense line there to prevent the devils from advancing in the direction of Zhenjiang and Nanjing." ” "Otherwise, even if we rush to the front line of Danyang, we won't be able to stop the devil's attack, but our entire national army in the direction of Jiangyin will have to be surrounded by devils."
"Only by seizing Shitang Town, the choke point, as soon as possible, can we delay the pace of the devils attacking from the direction of Wujin, and when most of the national troops withdrawn from Jiangyin arrive, we can build a defense line centered on Shitang Town and surrounding Danyang, Jurong, and Zhenjiang, so as to ensure the security of the southeast of Nanjing."
Ding Ning nodded again and again, and he proposed: "Brigade seat, immediately contact the army commander and ask to change the marching route and combat deployment, it is now ten o'clock in the evening, this place is still more than sixty kilometers away from that Shitang Town, and the forced march can be reached there in four or five hours, and before dawn, hurry up and seize Shitang Town." ” "Otherwise, when it is daylight tomorrow, the devil reconnaissance plane will definitely be able to detect our whereabouts, then it will be more troublesome, I think this matter should be changed as soon as possible, it is still too late."
Zhou Wu listened to Ding Ning's statement, didn't say a word, and immediately called the signal corps to contact the army commander by radio, and the army commander was at this time to the front line of the Huashan position to command the 11th and 13th divisions to storm the devil's position Zhou Wu told the commander of the army his intentions and ideas, asked to change the route of the march, and immediately rushed to Shitang Town, where a temporary defense line was constructed.
Zhou Wu explained in detail the importance of this Shitang Town in Infinite Volume, and repeatedly guaranteed that the Independent Brigade would be able to complete the task of blocking the devils coming from the direction of Wujin in Shitang Town.
The old army commander obviously also knew the location of this Shitang Town, and when he heard Zhou Wu's reminder, he thought about it for a while, and agreed to the battle plan of the Independent Brigade to change the marching route and rush to Shitang Town to build a defensive line.
He also told Zhou Wu that he would inform the other friendly forces in Jiangyin that they too would change their original route of retreat from Danyang to Nanking via Danyang and Jurong, and turn closer to the line of Shitang Town, where they would re-establish a defensive line on the spot.
It's just that whether they want to listen or not, that's another matter, anyway, our 79th Army will retreat along this route.
Zhou Wu was glad that the army commander could agree to his plan, he put down the radio, and immediately ordered Gao Xiangfa and Ge Sanmin to send a battalion of troops each, and turned to rush to Shitang Town at the fastest forced marching speed, with the other troops following closely behind, the health company and the wounded in the center, and the fat man with a battalion of troops cut off.
Zhou Wu radioed Zhai Daping, who had blown up the cannon in Jiangyin Fort, and ordered him to immediately lead the team to Shitang Town.
In view of the fact that the special service battalion carried the baggage of anti-aircraft guns and shells on the battery, plus the artillery brothers of an artillery regiment on the battery, the marching speed was naturally much slower.
Zhou Wu asked them not to rush to rush for time, they could just come to Shitang Town at the normal marching speed, and it was estimated that they would arrive at Shitang Town at noon tomorrow.
Therefore, Zhou Wu repeatedly told Zhai Daping on the radio to pay attention to safety, do a good job of camouflage when marching during the daytime tomorrow, pay attention to the reconnaissance planes of the devils in the sky, and consider deliberately making a detour to march as a last resort, so as to confuse the devils and make them not know where this force is going.
After Zhai Daping received the order, he immediately discussed with the commander of the battery, and the regiment commander was quite refreshing: "Battalion commander Zhai, now that our brothers in the artillery regiment have arrived at this place, there is no way, we can use artillery to reach the devil warship on the battery, and now on this halfway, we can only obey your infantry, because you are more experienced than our artillery, what do you say, we will do it, listen to you." ” This regiment commander thought clearly, he knew in his heart that once the artillery on this battery ran out of artillery, it was almost useless, although these artillery brothers would shoot or something, but the professional level was still inferior to Zhai Daping's infantry.
Besides, Zhai Daping is still a good hand in the infantry, a special battalion specializing in reconnaissance, so the regiment commander still thinks quite clearly at this point.
Zhai Daping thought about it, these artillery brothers are good at shooting warships, but if they use guns on land to fight devils, it will be almost hot.
Considering that he might encounter devils or other special circumstances on the way, he discussed with the regiment commander and decided to mix these artillery brothers into the special service battalion, and the brothers of each special service battalion should bring an artillery brother so that they could be taken care of in case of emergency. t1706231537: