Commander Du's plan was the only correct under the circumstances at that time, his purpose was to preserve the existing elite troops, not to carry out a strategic decisive battle with East China in the current unfavorable situation, even if there was a decisive battle, it could not be a decisive battle in the Xuzhou area, and must retreat south to the south of the Yangtze River, and take advantage of the Yangtze River's natural danger to confront the communist army across the river, forming the situation before the Battle of Chibi in the Three Kingdoms period in history.
As soon as Lao Jiang heard Lao Du's suggestion to him on the hospital bed, he didn't immediately give a clear answer, but just said to Lao Du: "Take care of yourself, I will consider your plan to retreat west and south." ” Just when Lao Jiang was considering the plan of Commander Du to abandon Xuzhou and retreat south with the main force in Nanjing, a battalion led by Zhou Wu's subordinate Ge Sanmin had arrived not far from Nianzhuang in the early morning At this time, Ge Sanmin suddenly found that the land under his feet was constantly trembling, and Ge Sanmin, who was a little superstitious at first, thought that there was something wrong with the cemetery, so he was so frightened that he immediately took a closer look, and found that the land was shaking and was not a matter in the cemetery, the sky had already lit up, and the input here was a mass grave, but there would not be any ghosts.
The commander of the first battalion hurriedly jumped up from a high grave, stood on the tombstone, looked at the west of Nian Zhuang with a telescope, his face changed greatly, and he hurriedly jumped down and shouted to Ge Sanmin: "Division commander, a large number of enemies have come in front, and the leader is a group of tanks."
Ge Sanmin understood, the land here trembled just now, it turned out that the tanks of the Yellow Corps had come, he hurriedly jumped on the tombstone on the high place, and looked in the direction pointed by the battalion commander with a telescope, and sure enough, in the light of the morning light, a large group of tanks and armored vehicles of the Kuomintang army were crossing the Grand Canal west of Zhuangzi and driving towards Nianzhuang The first battalion commander was very nervous when he saw so many enemies coming, and there were many tanks and armored vehicles, and hurriedly asked Ge Sanmin: "Division commander, what should we do now?"
When Ge Sanmin heard this, he hurriedly said to him: "What can I do, hurry up, occupy the high slope on the edge of Zhuangzi in the west, dig a pit on the spot to block the enemy, our task is to block the Yellow Corps from retreating westward, even if we kill all the brothers here, we must hold here" Ge Sanmin gritted his teeth and stamped his feet and ordered the team to immediately dig a pit on the spot to block the attack, and stop the Yellow Corps from withdrawing from the west or south at all costs The commander of the first battalion saw that Ge Sanmin's confidence was so firm, so he immediately agreed, and led the brothers of the first battalion to rush to the high slope west of Zhuangzhuang, and the brothers took out the shovels used to dig the pit, excavated the fortifications, and soon built a simple fortification on the high slope west of Zhuangzi, arranged firepower, and waited for the Kuomintang troops coming from the opposite side However, Ge Sanmin and his more than 400 brothers landed for more than an hour, and still did not find any enemy tanks and infantry rushing towards here At this time, the brothers sent out to reconnoiter came back and reported: "Division commander, a large number of enemies have already set up camp in Nian Zhuang, and it seems that they are going to stay here this time. ” Receiving the situation reported by the scouts, Ge Sanmin was ecstatic, God helped me, originally he was worried that one of his battalion brothers would not be able to stop the onslaught of the Yellow Corps with tanks and armored vehicles in any case, he was ready to fight in case the attack failed, he would also be desperately prepared to hold the position, and die in time, and he had to buy more time for the PLA troops to come behind, for this reason, he asked his brothers to plant mines and explosives on the road on the west side of the village, Slow down enemy tanks and infantry attacks as much as possible.
Now it seems that his worries are unnecessary, and the Yellow Corps seems to be going to rest here in the mill.
After entering Nianzhuang, Commander Huang received a telegram from Chief Du, which said that the Qiu Li Corps had arrived at Sanhegou, which was only more than 40 kilometers away from Nian Zhuang, and that Commander Du asked Commander Huang not to move west to Xuzhou, but to set off in the direction of Sanhegou in the south to join the Qiu Li Corps Just as Commander Huang was about to order the team to continue marching, the scouts sent a message: "Traces have been found in the southwest of Nian Village, the number is unknown, and they are desperately digging trenches."
When Commander Huang heard that he had rushed to the front of him, he immediately panicked, and hurriedly ordered the scouts to go to the front again to find out the situation, and at the same time he sent a report to Commander Du in Xuzhou, explaining the situation that his corps had encountered in the Nian Zhuang area, and he planned to eliminate this group first, and then march south to Sanhegou to join Qiu Li's corps.
It was really a coincidence that the book was not written, when Commander Huang's telegram was sent to the Xuzhou Suppression General Headquarters, Chief Du suddenly had a high fever that did not go away, and the doctors and nurses in the hospital were busy rescuing him, and the staff officer who held the telegram did not know what to do, so he had to wait in the hospital for Chief Du's condition to improve.
In this way, an hour related to the fate of the Yellow Corps slipped away in vain, and Commander Huang, who was waiting for Chief Du's reply in Nianzhuang, saw that Xuzhou did not reply, thinking that the above had acquiesced, and he was worried that the longer the time dragged on, the greater the danger, so Commander Huang made a decision to immediately attack the team in the southwest direction without waiting for Xuzhou's reply, and surrounded them to eliminate them all.
In this precious hour, Ge Sanmin hurriedly took this opportunity to report the situation with Zhou Wu, Zhou Wu listened, and immediately keenly felt that this Yellow Corps would not stay in Nian Zhuang for a long time, forty kilometers to the south of him, Qiu Li Corps had already arrived, the Yellow Corps' wishful thinking was to meet with the Qiu Li Corps in the south, and they must not be allowed to meet, Zhou Wu hurriedly called Commander Li and reported that the Yellow Corps had arrived at Nian Zhuang, Commander Li heard it, and hurriedly told Zhou Wudao: "Comrade Zhou Wu, Order all the teams at hand to rush to Nianzhuang and block the Yellow Corps, you don't have to worry about the direction of Sanhegou, our four columns are about to arrive there, it is estimated that we will be able to contact the Qiu Li Corps this morning, you just need to block the Yellow Corps here in Nianzhuang, at all costs, be sure to block the Yellow Corps, don't be afraid of the loss of the troops, I will give you how much I lose, even if it is gone, I will rebuild it for you, but if you can't block the Yellow Corps, then the whole situation of our East China Field Army will be dangerous, It is no exaggeration to say that the key point of the first step of the Huaihai Campaign is here in the Yellow Corps of Nian Zhuang, and to block them and encircle and annihilate the Yellow Corps will be of great benefit to our encirclement and annihilation of other Kuomintang troops on the Huaihai battlefield in the future, otherwise our East China Field Army will fall into an extremely unfavorable situation, not only will the Huaihai Line not be defended here, but also Shandong, which we have liberated, will also be implicated. ” When Zhou Wu heard this, he felt that this time he had a great responsibility, whether he could resist the attack of the Yellow Corps when he was the key to this battle, the Yellow Corps had hundreds of thousands of people, and there were tanks and armored vehicles to help the battle, the soldiers were well-trained, the weapons were advanced, the firepower was sufficient, and all the artillery at hand added up to less than an army under the Yellow Corps, it seems that only he was desperate to fight in this battle, as long as he could resist the attack of the Yellow Corps, even if it was a stalker, it would be a step by step, Whatever you say, you have to let the Yellow Corps knock out their teeth when they attack themselves Zhou Wu put down the phone, couldn't stay in the command post any longer, and immediately got into the captured jeep and said to the guard platoon: "Hurry up and go to the village" When Chief of Staff Lao Xu and Political Commissar Lao Niu saw that Zhou Wu was so anxious that they wanted to go into battle in person to go into battle to intercept the Yellow Corps, they also hurriedly brought two fast horses and a few guards to catch up closely.
At this moment, the fat man has received the order sent to him by Zhou Wu, and Zhou Wu asked the fat man to rush to the Nian Zhuang area at all costs, and the loss of the team is not afraid, how much is lost, how much is replenished, and if he dies, he will be counted as a martyr, and he will not be able to stop the Yellow Corps from serving in military law After the fat man received Zhou Wu's almost crazy order, he knew that the area in front of him was dangerous, but Zhou Wu had never issued such an order, this was a fateful thing.
Of course, the fat man is not afraid of these things, he hurriedly measured the distance on the map, calculated the time, and ordered the cars, horses, motorcycles, and other guys who ran faster than people in the eighteenth army team that had just been reorganized from the uprising to find them, gather them, and count them, these means of transportation can probably carry half of the division's troops, and the fat man hurriedly ordered half of the brothers of the first division under his command to sit on these vehicles, and the brothers of the eighteenth army drove them to the Nianzhuang area first, As much as you can get there Xiao Zheng, Huang Shuisheng and Lao Chen all received a similar forcible march order from Zhou Wu, they saw that Zhou Wu was going to play with his life this time, so they did not dare to slack off, and they all tried their best to find a way to show their talents and march towards Nianzhuang, for a time, in the area south of Taierzhuang, 50,000 or 60,000 People's Liberation Army troops along both sides of the Longhai Line desperately marched towards Nianzhuang, 50 kilometers east of Xuzhou, Ge Sanmin's brothers of the Second Division actually pulled out those locomotives and train carriages in Pixian Station, and urgently mobilized the local guerrilla comrades, After rushing to repair the railway from Pixian County to Nianzhuang, and getting on the train, a large number of PLA soldiers took the train emitting billowing white smoke towards Nianzhuang.
At this moment, the Kuomintang reconnaissance planes that were reconnoitering the battlefield situation in the vicinity of the Nianzhuang area discovered a situation that surprised them greatly: 50,000 or even more soldiers in yellow uniforms below were riding trains, automobiles, horses, donkeys, ox carts, and other means of transportation, along the vast plains around the Longhai Line like a tide towards the Nianzhuang area t1706231537: