War of Resistance

Chapter 453
Xuzhou, Fifth Theater Command.

Li Zongren, who had just returned from inspecting the troops on the front line, received this telegram from Tang Enbo asking for help. At his core, he wanted to mobilize the troops of the First Regiment directly under the Third Theater to cooperate with him in taking down Beidayao.

Looking at this telegram, Li Zongren frowned deeply. To be honest, he was even a little caught off guard: This Tang Enbo Army is currently the most powerful and largest army in the fifth theater. They have just been transferred from the first theater. When they came here, they had nearly 3 troops!Looking at Sun Lianzhong's second group, even if you count the logistics troops, there are only more than 5 people. If you count the number before the division of the Ninth Army, it is only more than [-] people, and it is not as strong as Tang Enbo's army.

This is still counting troops, and then counting other equipment?Not to mention the others, the Tang Enbo Army is equipped with a German-made heavy artillery battalion of fifteen students (that is, 150mm caliber howitzers), light and heavy machine guns, etc., although it is not as good as the No.30 Sixth Division and No.80 before the Anti-Japanese War. Seventh Division, No.80 Eighth Division, these German weapon divisions are equipped with weapons, but they have also reached the standard of elite adjustment divisions.

Don't forget, apart from Zhang Zhen's [-]th Division, which is not very effective, there are still four divisions in Tang Enbo's army!
Zheng Dongguo Second Division under Guan Linzheng's Second Army, Zhang Yaoming's No.20 Fifth Division, Wang Zhonglian's No.80 Fifth Army's Chen Daqing Fourth Division, and Zhang Xuezhong's No.80 Ninth Division. These four divisions were formed by the former No. The 13th Army was expanded and formed, basically the old base was left over from the Northern Expedition, and it can be called an elite.

The only fly in the ointment is that these units were expanded after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, so the training is still a little lacking, especially Zhang Xuezhong's No.80 Ninth Division, the order of replenishment is the last, and priority is given to supplementing the second division , Fourth Division, and No.20 Fifth Division, the three units with relatively high numbers.

As for Zhang Zhen's [-]th Division, it was formed by merging the Northern Henan Division and the Northeast Cavalry Brigade. Both of these two units are not strong in combat effectiveness. In addition, the factions of the troops are mixed, so the combat effectiveness has never been strong. up.

The division-administered troops sound like regular troops, but they are actually five under-trained militia battalions, and they are the kind with a serious shortage of qualified cadres. The Cavalry Brigade of the Northeast Army.

It can be said that the combat effectiveness of the [-]th Division is really weak, so Tang Enbo never regarded them as key training units. teacher!
"This Tang Enbo Army is the essence of our army. Why do they want reinforcements? Could it be that they have other ideas?" Li Zongren looked at Xu Zuyi in front of him. After all, how strong is Tang Enbo Army? They all know it clearly.

"I don't know, and they want reinforcements from the first regiment directly under Zhang Tianhai's third theater." Xu Zuyi said in a deep voice. He is a good chief of staff, but at his level, there are many factors to consider. up.

"The No. 20 Legion headquarters still has a heavy artillery battalion with 6-year-old howitzers. Even their [-]-strong regiment can't defeat them, let alone the third theater is directly under the first regiment." Li Zongren snorted softly. Said in one voice, obviously he was a little dissatisfied with Tang Enbo's slow action.

This dissatisfaction has to be caused by the slow action of the No.20 Army headquarters, and the "seeing death and not saving" the Sichuan Army Wang Mingzhang's department defending Teng County.

After all, when the No.20 Legion headed north from Liguo Post Station to Teng County, Li Zongren sent several telegrams to Tang Enbo, ordering him to go up as soon as possible. However, because of Tang Enbo's previous order "to wait until the army headquarters arrives before acting", Wang Zhonglian could only send a regiment of troops north to Teng County, which resulted in the death of the entire first and second divisions of Wang Mingzhang's division. The 80st, [-]th and [-]th divisions were also beaten to the point where there was almost nothing left.

Therefore, Li Zongren had resentment towards Tang Enbo, so when Tang Enbo proposed to transfer Zhang Tianhai's first regiment directly under the third war zone, he subconsciously thought that Tang Enbo was passive again.

This point is not conjectured out of thin air. When Li Zongren was about to transfer Tang Enbo's army to the south, he sent a telegram with extremely severe words to admonish Tang Enbo's army commander: If he does not obey the military order and causes a mistake in the army, he should follow Han Fuju's advice. The precedent is strictly enforced.

It can be seen from this that it can be seen how dissatisfied Li Zongren was with Tang Enbo's slow action at that time.

"Then what does Chief Li mean, that the [-]st Regiment will go directly under the [-]rd War Zone?" asked Xu Zuyi.

"Of course not." Li Zongren directly came to a conclusion after thinking about it, "The third theater is directly under the first regiment, and can be transferred to other battlefields, but it cannot be transferred to Tang Enbo's troops. The troops are fighting in Teng County and At this time, all the operations in the south of Taierzhuang were slow. Although the first regiment directly under the third theater suffered heavy losses in the LY operation, it was still a combatable division. At least Zhang Tianhai's regiment was quite obedient, although Sometimes it’s unreasonable to play cards, but after the last warning, it should also improve.”

Xu Zuyi thought for a while and said: "Mr. Li, your approach is correct, but do you need to correct it in the way? It is not suitable to say that the headquarters of the first regiment directly under the third theater has not recovered its vitality during the LY battle a few days ago. Such a fierce frontal battle."

"No need, this Tang Enbo has been slow in fighting many times. First, he fought in Teng County, which resulted in the death of the entire army of Sichuan Army Wang Mingzhang; Let these Japanese troops occupy Taierzhuang. Just send it out." Li Zongren's attitude was very firm, and he could see that Tang Enbo, an old boy, only cared about his No.20 Legion, but did not think about the overall situation of the battlefield!

The lives of the officers and soldiers of the No.20 Legion are their lives. Isn’t the life of these brothers from the Sichuan Army and the Northwest Army not their lives?This is why Li Zongren's attitude is so firm.

"Then it's up to you." Xu Zuyi smiled and said.

……

Without any accident, Tang Enbo once again received an extremely harsh telegram from the Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth War Zone. The general content was to order the No.20 Legion to speed up the pace of combat and offensive, and to form a complete encirclement of the Taierzhuang enemy as soon as possible. .

After all, from Li Zongren's point of view, the enemies of Taierzhuang are already in a desperate state, and they must be completely encircled, otherwise when they discover the weakness of the encirclement and break through, it will really be too late It's too late.

Therefore, Li Zongren must be thinking about how to encircle the Japanese army as soon as possible, and then gather and wipe them out!
Anyone who wants to stop him from achieving this goal must obey, otherwise he will be shot!

"It seems that the Chief's Department is still wary of us... This battle must continue..." Holding the telegram from the Chief's Department in his hand, Tang Enbo sighed, "That's all, Asking others is better than asking yourself. Order the troops to continue fighting!"

"Yes, sir!" Guan Linzheng agreed, and then continued to command the troops to fight.

Zhang Tianhai was unaware of the open and secret struggle between the No.20 Legion's headquarters and the commander's headquarters. What he had to do was to urge the first battalion to complete the formation as soon as possible, and then hurry up to train the second and fourth battalions!
The war is about to come to Zhangshan, if you don't prepare well, you must be the one who suffers!

……

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(End of this chapter)