Zhou Wu gave the order to retreat, and the common people in the Jiangbei base area withdrew to the western mountainous areas under the protection of the local anti-Japanese armed forces, and in addition to the independent brigade troops and the brothers of the local anti-Japanese armed forces who stayed behind to set up ambushes, the devil spies who were captured alive by the Huang Shuisheng Special Service Group are now sending false information to the devil headquarters in Nanjing that a large number of soldiers and civilians in the Jiangbei base area have died of infection with the plague.
The Japanese army headquarters, which had received false information, sent reconnaissance planes of the air force to fly over the Tianchang area to conduct reconnaissance and verification, and the reconnaissance planes of the little devils reconnoitred back and forth over the base areas several times, and found that the base areas below were full of smoke from burning corpses, villages were abandoned, and fields were barren; just as those inside lines lurking in the base areas reported, the Jiangbei New Fourth Army base area had now become a veritable no-man's land.
Shunroku Hatata, commander of the Devil's Dispatch Army in Nanjing, got the latest report of the Army Aviation Corps on the situation of the Tianchang Anti-Japanese Base Area, and determined that the Jiangbei side had almost become a no-man's land, which was similar to what was envisaged in the original plan, under the attack of the plague germ bacteria newly developed by the 731 unit of the Imperial Army's bacteriological warfare, even if those people snatched a batch of special drugs from the Nanjing Army General Hospital, it was a drop in the bucket, and it could not save the lives of so many people infected with the plague.
The messages sent by those insiders lurking in Jiangbei are basically correct.
So Hata Shunroku instructed his subordinates to be instructed by the devil intelligence staff officers to order these inner lines in Jiangbei to send timely information about the movements of various units of the New Fourth Army, so as to make a judgment on the next siege plan of the imperial army.
Of course, this instruction of the devil was soon handed over to Zhou Wu, and Zhou Wu immediately asked these devil spies who had gone anyway to send a report to Nanjing, saying that most of the New Fourth Army in Jiangbei was infected with the plague, and more than sixty percent of them died, and the rest of the New Fourth Army were infected with the plague to varying degrees, and the remaining two or three percent of the soldiers of the New Fourth Army recovered their health because of the effect of special medicine, and it is estimated that the ranks of the New Fourth Army that can be immediately put into battle in the Jiangbei area, plus those local anti-Japanese forces, are less than 10,000 people.
Even some high-ranking officers such as Zhou Wu, commander of the Independent Brigade of the New Fourth Army, and Ding Ning, chief of staff, were suspected of being infected with plague germs, and they had not been to the troops below to inspect for some days.
When the news was sent to the Nanjing Devil Headquarters, Shunroku Hahata laughed, and said to his staff officers: "The Jiangbei New Fourth Army is in a catastrophe this time, and immediately ordered the three brigades and regiments on standby in the area of Hengtang Town on the front line to advance the attack to the early morning of the day after tomorrow, and the division of the Imperial Allied Army will go first, and the advance teams of all the departments of the Imperial Army will all wear gas masks and inject special drugs to prevent and control the plague, and closely follow the ranks of the Imperial Allied Army to launch a general attack on the base area of the New Fourth Army in Jiangbei, and at the same time order the Miyamoto Brigade in Huai'an City to ask him to quickly send troops out of the city, to cover the attack of the three brigades of the Imperial Army from the flank, to attack the brigade headquarters of the independent brigade of Chaotian Changmatan on the east bank of Hongze Lake, and at the same time to contact the Chongqing Army, inform them of our marching route, and ask them not to block them along the way, otherwise they will be regarded as the enemy will be annihilated together."
This Hata Junroku has figured out the thoughts of those Kuomintang diehards in Suxian County, and knows that they don't dare to make a mistake for their own imperial army, but for those New Fourth Army in Jiangbei, these Chongqing Army are hated to the core, and they can't wait to wipe out all those New Fourth Army teams in Jiangbei one day.
As a devil commander who has been dealing with these Kuomintang troops in East China for a long time, Hata Shunroku knows very well, so this time, in order to completely destroy the communist anti-Japanese forces in the north, he decided to unite with the Kuomintang Chongqing army in Suxian first, and together they will annihilate all the communist New Fourth Army forces in Jiangbei, and then talk about the question of who will lead the territory of Jiangbei.
Zhou Wu at this time in the independent brigade headquarters with Chief of Staff Ding Ning sat in command of the entire anti-encirclement campaign, the news from the front line indicated that the little devil launched an attack on the base area the day after tomorrow, and the villagers in the base area have not all been evacuated to the western region, Zhou Wu saw that the time was urgent, so he hurried to the place where Lao Niu's political commissar was, and said to him: "Lao Niu, this retreat speed is going to be accelerated, according to reliable intelligence, the Japanese army and Wang's puppet army launched a general attack in the early morning of the day after tomorrow, and the vanguard is the puppet army division, There is not much time left for us, and the villagers in the base area must all evacuate before the early hours of tomorrow morning, otherwise it will affect the deployment of our independent brigade's ambush force here. ” Commissar Niu's voice was still hoarse, he could only sleep for two or three hours a day at most in the past few days, and even if he fell asleep, he was just looking for a place to take a nap, his eyes were full of red bloodshots, as soon as he heard Zhou Wu's words, he hurriedly said to him: "Old Zhou, don't worry, before tonight, we will transfer all the villagers in the base area, and a few of them are really unwilling to leave, we will send soldiers to carry them out, and now we can only do this, If there is anything to apologize to these villagers who are unwilling to retreat westward after this battle, Lao Zhou, you and the chief of staff will study how to break the enemy together, you don't have to worry about these things, just wrap it up on my old cow alone, you go back, I will immediately go to the local cadres below to mobilize. ” Commissar Niu is really a desperate tiger general, after saying to Zhou Wu, he immediately took a few guards to the bottom to find those local cadres to mobilize, some of the older villagers in the epidemic area are attached to their homeland, unwilling to evacuate with the New Fourth Army troops to the west, a few villagers said to the New Fourth Army cadres who came to persuade the evacuation: "We are all old men in our seventies and eighties, and we can't live for a few years, this is where we have lived for generations, we are going to die here, we want to go you go, A few of our old men stayed here, give us a few grenades, and when the little devil came, we pulled this grenade and fought with the little devil."
Lao Niu patiently explained to them that here our New Fourth Army is going to arrange a big battlefield, it is not good for you fellow villagers to stay here, in case of a battle, stray shells and shells will be smashed over, isn't it going to kill and injure many innocent fellow villagers, and finally, even the very good-tempered Niu political commissar was also angry, and ordered his brothers to set up those villagers who were unwilling to evacuate one by one, and sent them to the western mountains to hide.
As soon as the people in the base area withdrew, the fat man and Huang Shuisheng and their two regiments immediately secretly and quickly entered the ambush area, this time in order to set up an ambush, Zhou Wu and Ding Ningzai carefully studied the map for a while, and under the guidance of local comrades who were familiar with the terrain, Zhou Wu and Ding Ning observed on the spot, and decided to put the fat man's group in the chahu village near Gaoyou Lake to ambush, and Huang Shuisheng's spy group was on standby on the edge of Gaoyou Lake.
They borrowed boats from the local people in Gaoyou Lake, all disguised as ordinary people and fishermen, and lurked along the coast of Chahu Village on the edge of Gaoyou Lake.
Zhou Wu ordered Guan Cheng, the first detachment of the New Fourth Army, who had just arrived from Jiangnan, to let their first detachment ambush opposite the fat man's regiment, using the fat man's signal flare as a code, first let go of the Wang puppet army troops who came to explore the road and investigate, and wait for the little devil team behind to come in, and then quickly seal the pockets at the front and rear ends, attack on all fronts, divide the devil team that entered the ambush circle into several sections, concentrate superior forces, and annihilate the devil At this time, Lao Chen, who was in charge of arranging the pocket array east of Hongze Lake, sent a telegram, saying that their three Jiangbei brigades had all been put in place, and that at present, there was no abnormal movement of the devils and puppet troops on the Huai'an and Taizhou sides, and that the two regiments of the independent brigade had quickly passed through Chen Guofu's defense area and were hurrying towards Huai'an City in the north.
When Zhou Wu received a telegram from Chen Guofu, he immediately sent him a telegram back, asking Chen Guofu to temporarily take command of the three Jiangbei brigades on the eastern front, closely monitor the specific movements of the enemy in Taizhou, Yancheng, and other directions, and once the enemy is discovered to be attacking the base area, firmly block them east of Hongze Lake, and ensure the safety of the flank of the eastern front of the base area.
Zhou Wu and Ding Ning kept deploying in front of the military map, this time Zhou Wu commanded all the communist anti-Japanese armed forces under the command of the Jiangbei Anti-Japanese Command, a total of 450,000 people, the pocket array is large and small, the big pocket is covered with small pockets, interlocking, there is no room for a trace of mistakes, Zhou Wu knows that the success or failure of this battle is related to the life and death of the 450,000 anti-Japanese armed forces of the New Fourth Army in Jiangbei and millions of villagers in the base area, and there is no way to be sloppy.
He and Ding Ning had been constantly comparing and deploying in front of the broken map at the brigade headquarters, trying to find out the existing mistakes and correct them before the war began.
In the end, Zhou Wu's eyes fell on the northernmost part of the pocket array, close to the Dacheng town at the junction of the Kuomintang's Sixth War Zone and the base area, pointing to this place, Zhou Wu said to Ding Ning: "Ding Ning, I have carefully considered other places, as long as there are no major changes, with our current troop deployment, there should not be major problems, especially in the east and west parts east of Hongze Lake, we concentrated Lao Chen's three brigades and Ge Sanmin, Xiao Zheng and their two regiments to contain the Miyamoto Brigade and Taizhou in Huai'an City, Those enemies in the direction of Yancheng, it is estimated that if these enemies want to break through the defense of the eastern front, I am afraid it will not be so easy, the strength of the western front is relatively less than that of the eastern front, but there is also a Jiangnan to reinforce our first detachment of three full regiments, plus the fat man's regiment and Huang Shuisheng's water battle regiment, as well as those county brigades and other local anti-Japanese forces, should be able to resist the attack of the devils, I am now worried about this Dacheng town in the north, don't look at where the wind is calm now, But secretly, the eyes of the Kuomintang diehards are staring at it. ” t1706231537: