There was a rare calm on the Siyang front, and Qian Mou's 18th Division also received an order from above to stop the attack on the area around Lijiawan, and looked at Zhou Wu and their New Fourth Army across a position, both sides temporarily stopped military operations, and there was a rare calm on the front line.
The First Brigade of the Jiangbei New Fourth Army led by Lao Chen had rushed to Siyang City at this moment, and was about to launch an attack on Siyang City, but he suddenly received an order from Zhou Wu to suspend the attack, he couldn't figure it out, and hurriedly asked Zhou Wu by radio: "Old Zhou, what's going on with this, our First Brigade is ready to attack, and the team has been rolled out, now let's withdraw it, isn't this a blind toss?"
Zhou Wu said to him, you better come back, it's not clear on the radio, wait until you get to Tianchangma Beach.
Lao Chen had no choice, so he had to order the team to withdraw from the siege, and evacuate towards Huai'an City, and he himself took a few guards and rode to Matan, and before he entered the door, he shouted: "Lao Zhou, what the hell is going on, if you don't fight, you won't fight."
Lao Chen came in and took a look, good guy, the room was full of people, it seemed that Zhou Wu was having a meeting here, and when he saw that Lao Chen had arrived, Zhou Wu hurriedly got up and said, "Lao Chen is here, okay, let's have a meeting right away" Political Commissar Lao Niu stood up and said to everyone: "Comrades, I have just received an order from my superiors, in view of the fact that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party have signed a peace agreement in Chongqing, all our military operations in Jiangbei must be stopped immediately, and of course the military operations of the Kuomintang army must also be stopped. ” As soon as the fat man heard this result, he hurriedly stood up and said to Lao Niu: "We have just arranged the deployment, and we have all entered the combat position, so we have withdrawn like this, can we just watch those Kuomintang troops snatch the territory of our base area alive?"
"This situation is temporary, of course we will not watch these territories occupied by the Kuomintang army, we will negotiate with the Kuomintang through negotiations, we are soldiers, as long as we obey and carry out the orders of our superiors, we can't control other things."
Commissar Niu said to the fat man.
The fat man wanted to shout a few more words, but was pulled by Ge Sanmin and asked him to stop talking, the fat man had no choice but to sit down angrily, Zhou Wu saw this situation, and hurriedly said to the brothers: "Brothers, the political commissar is right, we listen to the superiors, it is best to get those territories back without fighting, but we still have to remain vigilant and strictly prevent the surrounding Kuomintang troops from taking the opportunity to sneak attack, repeating the incident in southern Anhui four years ago, and the Kuomintang army's intention to destroy our New Fourth Army will not die, we must always be on guard against them." ” The old army commander proposed at the meeting: "It's okay now, I should retire, the 79th Army has now defected to the New Fourth Army, I am relieved, I now resign from the post of commander of this column, recommend Zhou Wu as the commander of the column, I hope that the superiors can approve, I am old, I don't have the energy to follow my brothers to the battlefield, please be considerate of my hardships, agree to my retirement" The old army commander plans to let Zhou Wu take the position of column commander, so that he can rest assured.
When Political Commissar Niu heard the old army commander's meaning, he was a little surprised, so he said to him: "Commander Zhang's sudden resignation request surprised us, whether it is our New Fourth Army side is not doing well, or other reasons, I implore the commander to say it, and we will try our best to solve it."
Lao Niu thought that he had mishandled the old army commander and his brothers in the 79th Army, causing a misunderstanding, and hurriedly said to the old army commander.
"Oh.
Political Commissar Niu, I didn't mean that, I and all the brothers of the 79th Army were very honored to join the New Fourth Army this time, and I felt that I had chosen the right path, and I never felt bad, because I was nearly 70 years old, and I was a little bored with my long-term military career, and I wanted to retire and live a clean life for a few days, and I had no other ideas.
"The old commander is telling the truth.
"Okay, let's first solicit the opinions of the comrades in the party committee of the column, and then report to the military department, and the superiors will decide the question of whether the commander will stay or not, Commander Zhang, do you think this is okay" Lao Niu's attitude towards the old army commander was very polite, not only because he was Zhou Wu's teacher, in fact, at this moment he also admired the old army commander, an old soldier who has been fighting all his life, has experienced all the wars since the Northern Expedition, and now at this time he can take more than 20,000 brothers from the 79th Army to defect to the New Fourth Army, it is indeed quite difficult, How much courage and perseverance does this take, at this moment the Kuomintang government is in full swing, like the old army commander with such qualifications, if he can bow his head to Lao Chiang a little, he can be exchanged for a high-ranking official, but he still maintains his integrity, never bows to the power, and finally chose to defect to the arms of the New Fourth Army and stand on the side of the people, which is quite remarkable.
"Okay, I'll wait for orders from my superiors."
The old commander still said very calmly.
In this way, the brothers of the New Fourth Army under Zhou Wu were idle all of a sudden, and they didn't know what to do, the nerves that had been tense before suddenly relaxed, which made people a little uncomfortable, Zhou Wu saw that this was not good, and hurriedly let the fat man go down to the company, and train with his brothers, although a peace agreement has been signed now, but the danger of civil war is still there, maybe one day a sudden fight will start, we are comfortable in the base area, and we will suffer a lot by the enemy suddenly made such a sudden.
Taking advantage of this opportunity to recuperate, Lao Xu, the chief of staff who was also in charge of the quartermaster of the column, procured a batch of weapons in Shanghai and Nanjing and other places through the relationship of Lao Chang, this batch of weapons was left behind when the Japanese devils surrendered, and were sold to the Qinghong Gang in Shanghai and other places as tatters by those Kuomintang receiving officers.
Most of them were just equipped by the little devils, and they were sent to the companies below, and the fat men and their subordinates all smiled happily and said: "We have changed the shotguns this time, and I used to look at the grenadiers and mortars of the little devils so hungry, but now we have them, and there are quite a few, and now we have more confidence to fight."
Lao Xu also through the help of a gang brother in Shanghai before, got four small steamers, each small steamer can carry about 100 horses, a little modification can be used as a gunboat, this procurement plan has been approved by the commander of the Li Division, he believes that there are many water networks in the Jiangbei base area, there are two Gaoyou Lake and Hongze Lake in the big lake alone, there are really no ships and sailors, and it is really not possible to advance into the column to purchase small steamers, even if they cannot be used in the future war, it is also good to use them as a means of transportation to transport materials.
Four small steamers bought from Shanghai drove to Yancheng Port by sea, and Yancheng Port at this moment was the territory of Zhou Wu's advancing column, and Zhou Wu handed over all these four ships to Huang Shuisheng's special service group, so that he could form a naval army to help the logistics department of the column transport materials in ordinary times, and to use them as water troops in wartime.
As soon as Huang Shuisheng saw these four small steamers, he couldn't close his mouth happily, and said to Lao Xu, who came to Yancheng to receive the ships together: "I said Chief of Staff, you have done me a great favor now, if those "white stripes in the waves" of our special service group can have these steamers in hand, then it will be repaid, not that I brag, in the water, I am afraid that those Kuomintang troops will have to suffer a lot." ” Lao Xu smiled: "Haha, aquatic, now your spy group is a veritable naval army, I will ask the comrades of the firearms repair institute to come over in a few days to transform these small steamers, and transform them into gunboats that can fight according to your wishes, what accessories and things do you want, although tell me that we have channels to get these things now, and when we fight with the Kuomintang army in the future, it will not be so easy to do." ” "Okay, I'll do it immediately tomorrow and try to get it out in a short time."
Huang Shuisheng was very confident and determined to make an appearance, otherwise how their spy group mixed up water warfare in the advancing column was their specialty, and only by fully combining ships and other tools could they give full play to the power of their spy group's water warfare.
For a long time, the special service group can only give the fat man and them and other main force groups to fight, and has never been alone, since Huang Shuisheng got these four small steamers, he is determined to make some moves, let the fat man and Ge Sanmin take a look, it turns out that the combat effectiveness of the special service group is not bad Sure enough, Huang Shuisheng carried forward the revolutionary spirit of not being afraid of difficulties and fighting continuously, and in just one month, he completed the refitting of the four small steamers, and on the day of completion, he invited all the cadres above the company level in the column to come to Yancheng Port to see the launch of his four gunboats Zhou Wu looked at it, admired Huang Shuisheng very much, it is indeed a talent for water warfare, the original four small steamers were changed by Huang Shuisheng into gunboats full of weapons, the firepower configuration is very powerful, there is a 75 mountain gun in front and rear, and the surrounding side sides are all equipped with heavy machine guns, and even the firepower of air defense is equipped, and three Browning light machine guns are pressed on the top of the gunboat, which are specifically responsible for air defense, Zhou Wu looked at this kind of firepower, and hurriedly asked Huang Shuisheng: "Aquatic, Did you press all the mountain guns and heavy machine guns of your special service regiment on these four boats, the firepower of your four ships is not small, there are eight 75 mountain guns alone, which will not be less than Zhang Ercheng's howitzer battalion. ” Huang Shuisheng heard Zhou Wu's question, smiled hehehe, and said to him: "Thanks to the chief of staff, whatever I want, he got it for me, this is why I have these firepower, commander, with these gunboats, you will need fire support when you fight in the future, you have two choices, Zhang Ercheng's howitzer battalion and my gunboat battalion, as long as there is sufficient ammunition, I guarantee that I will never drop the chain for you." t1706231537: