The Yellow Corps was surrounded and annihilated by Zhou Wu's large army in Nian Zhuang, and the news reached Chief Du who was retreating to Xiao County, and Chief Du immediately sent a telegram to Lao Jiang, Lao Jiang received that the Yellow Corps had been completely annihilated by East China, and he was furious and angrily removed all the department-level directors of the Ministry of National Defense, and he also had to investigate the responsibility for the ineffective rescue of Chief Du and Qiu Li's Corps, and was stopped by Chief of Staff Bai and said to him: "Now that the battle of Xu Beng has reached the most critical moment, you must not change generals on the spot, this is a taboo for soldiers, More than 100,000 horses of the Yellow Corps were eaten by the Zhou Wubu in East China, which is indeed a very big loss for us, but our main force on the front line of Xu Beng is still there, on the battlefield, even now, East China has not been able to form an advantage over us, in the west of Xuzhou, there are still five corps there, now what we have to do is to withdraw all the five corps, withdraw to the front line of Bengbu, and use the younger brother of Lianghuai to work with East China to keep the territory of Jiangbei and deploy along the line of Hongze Lake in Yancheng.
Leave a buffer zone for the area north of the Yangtze River, creating a situation of confrontation with the communist army across the river. ” Chief Bai's suggestion is very reliable, taking advantage of the fact that the elite corps at hand are still there, evacuate the Xuzhou area as soon as possible, avoid the decisive battle in Xuzhou, defend the Lianghuai area, and protect the Yangtze River area, which is the only feasible way to deal with it at present, to hold the Yangtze River, we must hold the Lianghuai region, otherwise once the five corps are all eaten by East China, the two Huai will definitely fall into the hands, even if the Yangtze River is a natural danger, it will not be able to stop the crossing of the Yangtze River to the south Lao Jiang listened to Chief Bai's analysis, nodded yes, so he suppressed the punishment of Chief Du, and sent a telegram ordering Chief Du to continue to retreat around Xiao County, and immediately build a defensive line on the spot to resist East China from the south after meeting Huang Wei of the Xiao Yellow Corps in the north After Chief Du received Lao Jiang's order, he felt that there was basically no problem, and he had said before, either concentrate on retreating, or fight a decisive battle on the spot, Du Chang's heart was slightly relaxed, and he felt that the chairman's handling this time was still quite wise and decisive, and he was not affected by the total annihilation of the Yellow Corps, which was indeed commendable.
As everyone knows, Lao Jiang or the eight Bai commanders tried their best to dissuade him, and now what is in the hands of Chief Du is not this order for him to continue to retreat westward, but a telegram that dismisses him from the post of deputy commander-in-chief of the Xuzhou Suppression Headquarters on the spot, and of course Chief Du does not know what is going on in Nanjing at the front line, and as soon as he saw the order sent by Lao Jiang to continue to advance westward and evacuate, he hurriedly asked his ace New Fifth Army to immediately go to Xiao County and join the small yellow corps heading north But after only one day, Lao Jiang repented, when he saw on the map that the five elite corps under his command were all concentrated in the area west of Xuzhou, he had a whim, thinking that his team here had an absolute advantage, and the five corps alone had 500,000 horses, and there were other troops in the appeasement zone, adding up to no less than 600,000, these troops were all American-style equipment, training advantages, and could be called the elite, if they did not take advantage of such a good advantage, but evacuated to the south, Isn't it a little too timid, in this way, the US allies must have opinions about themselves, thinking that their troops are too timid, they know to retreat, although those 600,000 troops after the main force of the army to the south of the Yangtze River, can keep half of the south of the Yangtze River, but their own cowardice does not dare to fight a decisive battle with the communist army in the north of the Yangtze River will stay, which is very unfavorable to the future, and we must reconsider the battle plan of the battle of Xu Beng.
At this time, the reconnaissance planes of the Kuomintang Air Force reported that a lone team of troops had been spotted near Yongcheng, numbering about one division, and the distance between them and the nearest one was more than 60 kilometers.
When Lao Jiang received this report, his heart suddenly churned, and he thought: "Isn't this something that was sent to the door for himself, there are a large number of elite troops of his own near Yongcheng, and if you send an army up at will, you can quickly surround and completely annihilate the lone communist division, if you can completely annihilate that communist division, then you can also give out a bad breath of the Yellow Corps being completely annihilated in East China, and boost the morale and confidence of the team on the battlefield of Xu Beng, which is absolutely beneficial and harmless." ” Lao Jiang made up his mind, bypassed Chief Bai and Chief Du below, and personally sent a telegram to the Xiao Huang Corps, which was going north to Xiao County, ordering the Xiao Huang Corps to turn around and drive west to the Yongcheng area, encircle and annihilate the lone team, and boost the morale of the team on the battlefield of Xu Beng.
Commander Xiao Huang, who received the order personally issued by Lao Jiang, is marching with the 12th Corps to the area of Guzhen, which is less than 50 kilometers away from Su County, and from the map, it seems that the distance between him heading west to Yongcheng and continuing to go north to his original destination Xiao County is almost the same, and now that he has encountered this matter, as a student of the Whampoa Military Academy, Commander Xiao Huang is worried, and from his military experience, the most advantageous thing now is to continue to go north along the Jinpu line, and rush to Xiao County to meet with Commander Du's large army, so that A large number of troops were concentrated around the Xiaoxian area, and even if the entire East China Field Army pounced on it, it would not be possible to form a right encirclement, because there were far more people in this area than in East China, and to encircle the enemy, you had to at least have more than twice as many troops, otherwise it would be impossible to encircle, and it would be bad if you had to be counter-surrounded by a clever enemy.
However, Chairman Jiang is his own principal, and he was fortunate enough to become the commander of the 12 Corps this time, which is the result of the president's exceptional promotion, and most of the main forces of the 12 Corps are the starting team of Chief Chen, and President Jiang has been able to promote himself, a person who originally taught at the Nanjing Military Education Institute, to serve as the commander of the Corps.
So, Commander Xiao Huang ordered the 12th Corps to quickly turn westward, cross the Jinpu line to the direction of Yongcheng in Shangqiu, Henan, when passing by the Suxian Railway Station, Commander Xiao Huang found that this place was very important, and it was necessary to send heavy troops to garrison, so he left a reorganized division to stay in Suxian to protect the smooth flow of the Jinpu line.
Fighting a war is a logistical supply, so the burden of your division is very heavy, and it is related to the outcome of the entire battle of Xu Beng.
The commander of the reorganized division was originally an old subordinate of Commander Chen, and he believed that his subordinates had a large number of generals and strong combat effectiveness, and when he heard the words of the corps commander, he patted his chest and assured him: "Please rest assured, commander, that our reorganized 28th Division will defend Su County to the death, and Su County will live and die together Commander Xiao Huang has no cronies in the 12th Corps, he was also temporarily pulled by Lao Jiang to do temporary work, this time I heard this Chief Chen's old subordinate reorganized the 28th Division so confident and firm, he couldn't say anything, so he nodded and left, at this time, Chief of Staff Ye beside him reminded the commander: "The location of Su County is extremely important, and you can't be sloppy, I don't think it's enough to send only one integrated 28th Division, it's better to leave Commander Li's 39th Army to guard Su County." ” Chief of Staff Ye believed that the terrain of Suxian County was quite critical, and it was related to the life and death of the Corps and even the entire East China, and it was necessary to hold on to it with heavy troops, and that it was obviously not enough to reorganize the 28th Division, and only by leaving the 39th Army to guard Suxian was the guarantee.
Commander Li is Commander Xiao Huang's close friend, even if he is his cronies, Chief of Staff Ye's proposal is also very reliable, which means that Commander Xiao Huang will leave his cronies in Su County, in case of encountering a situation in the process of westward advance to Yongcheng, he can also quickly retreat, as long as the Su County on the Jinpu Road is in hand, the supply will not be interrupted, and the corps will be able to attack and defend freely, and there will be more room for maneuver.
But Commander Xiao Huang didn't think so, he thought that in the Corps, except for this Commander Li who could be transferred smoothly, the rest of the people had ideas about him as the commander of the 12th Corps, and they were all respectful and polite on the surface, but they were not convinced behind the scenes, once he said that the 39th Army was deployed in Su County, the commanders of the following armies and divisions were going to report to the commission again, saying that we were playing favoritism and fraud, and they all knew that the 39th Army Division had its own cronies, so he couldn't do such a thing.
Even if they want to stay, they can't send the 39th Army to stay.
As soon as Chief of Staff Ye heard the commander's reason, he shook his head and said to him: "Commander, now you are the head of the 12th Corps, you let that unit stay and hold on to Suxian, this is your power, at this moment, it is useless for the chairman to send a telegram asking you to change the combat deployment, why care about the thoughts of those subordinates, your order goes down, see who will not carry out the order and talk nonsense, don't listen to the chirping of those villains, those guys are not enough to succeed and more than to lose, just know the intrigue, take care of the interests of the small group, and ignore the overall situation, I think it's uncertain that our corps will go to Yongcheng.
He is an old soldier, so he naturally saw through all the shady scenes inside the Kuomintang army, and knew that the water inside was very deep, for fear that this friend of his own, Commander Xiao Huang, who was used to teaching in the military academy, did not know the depth of the water in the army and suffered a loss, so he hurriedly persuaded him.
Commander Xiao Huang resolutely disagreed to send another army to guard Suxian, and Chief of Staff Ye had no choice but to follow the corps with a large force across the Jinpu Road and set off towards Yongcheng in the northwest direction. t1706231537: