Zhou Wu's worries are not unreasonable, the forces at hand have been deployed in all major directions of the base area to defend against the enemy's possible onslaught, and Yancheng hangs alone on the east side of the sea, and is only connected to the base area is a narrow area with a width of only more than 10 kilometers, and the rest of the territory is controlled by the Kuomintang army, to say that this Yancheng was not originally the territory of the New Fourth Army, but after the uprising of the old commander's 79th Army, a regiment of the 79th Army stationed in Yancheng with the cooperation of local guerrillas.
If it weren't for the uprising of the old commander's 79th Army, this Yancheng was still controlled by the Kuomintang army, so this situation determined that the east of Yancheng's lonely base area could not get timely reinforcements and supplies, if you want to hold Yancheng Port, you must increase troops to Huang Shuisheng, and there is no team at hand that can be mobilized, in order to resist the siege of the Kuomintang elite troops, Zhou Wulian local troops and guerrillas have come in handy, There are really no extra troops to send reinforcements to Yancheng Port.
What should I do Just watch Huang Shuisheng and their lone army fight against the Kuomintang army that came to attack, Zhou Wu gritted his teeth and decided, from the two divisions of the original 79th Army defending the south of Gaoyou Lake to reinforce Yancheng, it would rather be broken through by the enemy in the direction of Gaoyou Lake, but also to ensure the safety of Yancheng Port, Yancheng Port is too important for the Jiangbei New Fourth Army at this moment, not to be lost, the direction of Gaoyou Lake was broken through by the enemy, and the Jiangbei New Fourth Army had a big deal to shrink the defense line and withdraw backwards, It may be possible to encircle and annihilate the attacking enemy through movement warfare, forcing the enemy to retreat in spite of the difficulties, and once the Yancheng port is lost, it will be completely blocked by the enemy and the way to retreat, and if it wants to withdraw to the liberated area of Shandong, it will have to break through several blockade lines set up by the enemy, and this price is really too great for the Jiangbei New Fourth Army to be unable to afford.
"Old Zhou, if the troops are not enough, ask the corps headquarters, aren't there still a few divisions in our teacher's hands that have not moved" Commissar Niu saw that Zhou Wu was in trouble for the defense of Yancheng, and hurriedly reminded Zhou Wu to ask the corps headquarters that there might be a way.
Zhou Wu thought about it right, and hurriedly called Commander Li: "Commander, the location of Yancheng Port is very important, but our defensive strength there is only one division of Huang Shuisheng, although it is known as a division, but most of them are new soldiers, and the number is only eight or nine thousand, I am afraid that Yancheng Port will not be able to hold, if the Kuomintang army storms Yancheng Port by sea and land, it is estimated that there is a lot of pressure there, and there is a danger of losing it, with Yancheng Port in our hands, we can attack and retreat, and the worst can use the port to evacuate the team to the Shandong Liberated Area."
Once the port of Yancheng is lost, our Jiangbei New Fourth Army will be completely surrounded by the Kuomintang army, so I ask the commander to allocate another division to our army to reinforce Huang Shuisheng's Yancheng direction to ensure the safety of this seaport. ” Commander Li was silent on the phone for a long time, he knew that the location of Yancheng Port was important, as the supreme leader of the Jiangbei New Fourth Army, he naturally had a long-term vision of the problem than Zhou Wu and others, how could he not know the importance of Yancheng Port to the Jiangbei New Fourth Army now, but he knew that with the current strength of the Jiangbei New Fourth Army, it would not be able to hold Yancheng, if the Kuomintang troops attacked Yancheng Port by sea and land, the New Fourth Army and the Kuomintang army defending the city would have to fight a war of attrition, and the Kuomintang army would also have the air force to help, so it would be defeated.
The ranks of the New Fourth Army defending the city must have suffered heavy casualties, and now the ranks of the New Fourth Army have just been expanded, and a large number of new recruits have been added, and the combat effectiveness has yet to be tested in actual combat; during the eight-year War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Jiangbei, most of them fought guerrilla attacks and harassment wars with devils, and this kind of large-scale urban attack and defense operation is the first time for the New Fourth Army, and in the case that the supply of weapons and equipment and logistics is much inferior to that of the enemy, there is really not much certainty of victory.
Even if they sent a division in the direction of Yancheng to reinforce Huang Shuisheng and them, they might not be able to withstand the Kuomintang army's two-way attack by sea, not only could they not hold Yancheng Port, but also increased a large number of casualties.
Commander Li said to Zhou Wu: "Zhou Wu, I will discuss this issue with the political commissar and give you a reply later." ” Commander Li put down the phone and said to the political commissar: "I said old man, it seems that we are in big trouble this time, judging from the arrangement in front of Zhou Wu, he wants to fight a decent defensive battle with the Kuomintang army that came to attack, in terms of the local force arrangement on the line from Siyang to Huai'an, Zhou Wu still has a certain number of advantages, and it is relying on the Jiangbei base area, logistics is not a problem, but I always feel that this plan is not so proper, and the weapons and equipment of our New Fourth Army are far inferior to the Kuomintang army, There is no comparison with that Qian someone's 18th Division, in a plain water network area on this side of Siyang, our soldiers with 38 big covers can withstand the cluster impact of the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles, even if they barely resist the enemy's attack, I am afraid that our casualties will not be able to bear, or immediately let Zhou Wu change the existing combat plan, change the positional defense battle to a mobile war, make full use of the enemy intelligence obtained, lure the enemy deep, destroy the enemy in the movement, don't just consider the gains and losses of the city, In order to take the annihilation of the enemy's living forces as the main operational objective, Yancheng Port should first be guarded by Huang Shuisheng, and once the situation was not right, immediately withdraw from Yancheng Port, and it was not allowed to engage in positional warfare with the enemy who had absolute superiority in Yancheng. ” The political commissar nodded again and again: "The commander is reasonable, the current strength of our New Fourth Army is not enough to defeat the superior enemy in frontal positional warfare, especially the 18th Division of that Qian someone, let alone a hard encounter, then we will suffer a big loss, the gains and losses of one city and one pool are not important to us, what is important is how we use the existing forces to concentrate and annihilate the enemy's living forces, although the Kuomintang army is now outnumbered and well-armed, it is bound to win, but there will definitely be mistakes in some places, Only by concentrating our forces, finding the right time, attacking their weak points, and annihilating the enemy, we will be able to force them to be exhausted from coping, and we will only be led by the nose, and then the initiative in the battle will be in our hands. ” Zhou Wu soon received a call from Commander Li: "Zhou Wu, the headquarters has decided that your First Army should change the existing combat plan, and not fight a frontal battle of attrition with the Kuomintang army with numerical and weapon superiority, this kind of tactic our Jiangbei New Fourth Army cannot afford to consume, at least the current situation does not allow us to do so, I know that those teams you have east of Siyang are luring the 18th Division into the preset ambush circle on the shore of Hongze Lake, but your stall is too big and too open, which is not conducive to the mobility of troops.
And it is very likely that the 18th Division will seize the fighter plane, come to a counter-encirclement, the command suggests that you adjust the deployment, contain the living forces of the 18th Division in frequent movements, take the opportunity to find fighters, concentrate forces and wait for the opportunity to annihilate the enemy, it is better to cut off one of the enemy's fingers than to hurt his ten fingers This reason is still very useful, it is very important not to consider retreating, and to have the determination to break the cauldron and sink the boat, so as to give full play to the soldiers' will to fight, if necessary, abandon Yancheng Port, and save the living force of Huang Shuisheng, as long as the soldiers are there, It's not a big deal to lose a territory, and it will still be our New Fourth Army when the time comes. ” Zhou Wuyi heard that Commander Li asked him to give up Yancheng Port if necessary, and felt a little puzzled, how could such a good geographical location be given to us in vain, "Commander, I can figure out other aspects, our conditions for fighting a regular positional war with a superior enemy are still not ripe, I immediately changed the battle plan, but this Yancheng Port must be defended to the death, this is the only seaport currently in the hands of our New Fourth Army, and it is very useful to our base area, and if we lose it, it will cause great harm to our base area.
Or ask the commander to think again.
"Zhou Wu still insisted on defending Yancheng Port to the death, in order to strive for this important place that could be attacked and defended to ensure that it was in the hands of the New Fourth Army.
"Hey, I said Zhou Wu, then do you think I will now reinforce you with a division to guard Yancheng Port, under the attack of the Kuomintang sea and air, you can ensure that you hold on for a few days" Commander Li saw that Zhou Wu was still insisting on holding Yancheng, and asked Zhou Wudao.
"This, if you play well, can hold on for more than seven days."
Zhou Wu roughly estimated it, in fact, this seven days of holding on is also Zhou Wu in the best direction, if the Kuomintang army really attacked Yancheng Port by sea and two roads, Huang Shuisheng's division can block it for three days It is quite good, Huang Shuisheng's men are famous for water battles, but that is in Gaoyou Lake and Hongze Lake, and the large warships of the Kuomintang Navy bombarded the Yancheng defensive positions with naval guns in the open sea far from Yancheng Port, and the bombers in the sky bombarded the fortifications, There are also the Kuomintang army advancing from the north and south to attack on both sides, Huang Shuisheng and they even if they hold Yancheng, I am afraid that they will be crippled, indeed at this moment Zhou Wucai realized that he was a little too optimistic, only saw the importance of the geographical location of Yancheng Port, but ignored the difficulty of holding such a seaport, without the support of absolute superiority of troops, the current Jiangbei New Fourth Army to hold Yancheng is quite difficult.
"Then can you complete the encirclement of the Eighteenth Division within seven days," Commander Li asked Zhou Wu again.
"This, the grasp is not very large, it is estimated that the encirclement of the 18th Division will not be completed in seven days."
Zhou Wu told the truth.
"That's good, since you can't encircle the 18th Division before Yancheng is lost, then why do you need to defend Yancheng to the death, isn't it in vain to lose a large number of the living force of the New Fourth Army, Huang Shuisheng's team is good at water warfare, and is quite familiar with the terrain around Hongze Lake, it is better to take the initiative to abandon Yancheng Port, put Huang Shuisheng in the area on the edge of Hongze Lake, as an ambush force to surround the 18th Division, so that there is a better chance of victory, and it is more beneficial for us to leave Yancheng to the Kuomintang army, the enemy occupies Yancheng and other cities, We must divide our forces to defend there, so that the enemy in front of us is weakened by a part, wouldn't it be good for us," Commander Li said to Zhou Wu. t1706231537: