Others show their swords, I show my missiles!

Chapter 54 The situation before the war in Zhongtiao Mountain (2)

Let’s take a closer look at Zhongtiao Mountain.

Zhongtiao Mountain is located in the south of Shanxi Province and on the north bank of the Yellow River. It runs northeast to southwest, with the northeast high and the southwest low. It is 170 kilometers wide and 50 kilometers deep. The highest peak is Shunwangping of Yuanquli Mountain with an altitude of 2321 meters. The average altitude of the mountain is 1249 meters. .

It starts from Yongji in southern Shanxi, facing Shaanxi in the west; ends in Jiyuan and Mengxian in northern Henan in the east, and is connected with the Taihang Mountains; in the north is the Yuncheng Basin, known as the granary of Shanxi Province; in the south is the rolling Yellow River.

The territory is crisscrossed with ravines, undulating mountains, overlapping passes, and rich in mineral deposits.

Zhongtiao Mountain and the three mountains of Taihang, Luliang and Taiyue are at the horns of each other, and their strategic position cannot be said to be important or not.

If the Japanese are allowed to stay here for a long time, digging deep holes and hoarding food, it will be quite difficult to deal with them.

But the Japanese probably didn't have this idea, they just wanted to annihilate Jiang Wufa's army here.

From this point of view, it is not impossible to adopt mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare without strategic decisive battle with the Japanese.

In this case, the strategic position of Zhongtiao Mountain is not that big.

At that time, many people believed that if the Japanese occupied Zhongtiao Mountain, they would be able to open up the north-south route.

But there are two dragons coiled in Jin Province: the 386th Brigade and the Independent Brigade.

Even if the Japs occupy Zhongtiao Mountain, come on, come on, little Japs, try to take a walk!

Looking at it this way, Jiang Wufa's army should have withdrawn after being unable to defeat him.

This left Li Yunlong's troops with a chance to carry six divisions and two brigades for the first time without dying.

But both Jiang Wufa and He Jingzi, who succeeded General Wei, valued Zhongtiao Mountain extremely.

It is believed that for China, if they occupy it, they can use it as a base to control the northern part of Yu Province, the southern part of Jin Province and Qin Province.

Advance can disrupt the enemy's rear and contain the Japanese troops;

To retreat, you can rely on risks and defend proactively.

As far as the plaster country is concerned, if it is obtained, it will occupy an important base for the invasion from the south to the north.

It can cross the river and go south, threaten Longhai and invade the Central Plains;

It can also go north to connect with its main occupied areas in Jin Province.

Eliminate the troubles of close confidants and improve the security situation in the occupied areas of North China.

Therefore, the Zhongtiao Mountain area was regarded as an "important place related to national security" during the Anti-Japanese War.

In the spring of 1938, in order to reduce frontal losses, the Chinese army in Shanxi Province dispersed hundreds of thousands of troops to the southern Shanxi area, established fortifications, and carried out guerrilla operations.

After the Japanese invaded Jin Province, they wanted to consolidate North China, suppress Luoyang, and peek into Xi'an.

Since 1938, Zhongtiao Mountain has been besieged thirteen times, but all failed.

The plaster army mobilized the forces of four divisions and surrounded the outside of Zhongtiao Mountain, forming an encirclement situation against the Chinese army.

Jiang Wufa not only thinks that Zhongtiao Mountain is important, but also thinks that targeting us is more important.

Not only did they not strengthen the defense of Zhongtiao Mountain, but they continued to mobilize troops from Zhongtiao Mountain to deal with our army.

General Yang's Fourth Army behaved similarly to the Eighth Route Army and was called the "Seven and a Half Routes" (the Seven and a Half Routes were not just this one, such as Fu Shui's troops and Chu Yunfei's troops back then), which also aroused Jiang Wufa's dissatisfaction.

Many old people in Zhongtiao Mountain can still remember the happy time with General Yang (General Sun)'s troops and them.

Every harvest and sowing season, these soldiers came to help them with farm work, carrying the harvested wheat to the threshing field, grinding it, drying it, and loading it into granaries for them.

After doing so much work, I never ate a meal from them.

These soldiers treated the common people as if they were their own relatives. They helped with any work they saw, such as carrying water to sweep the courtyards and chopping firewood to the fields. They took care of almost all the common people's work.

During festivals, these soldiers would buy some meat and wine, and then invite the elderly in the village to dinner.

The old people sat at the same table as the army commanders and division commanders, without any formality or unfamiliarity.

Officers also visited every household to pay New Year greetings and distributed New Year's money to children in the village.

Jiang Wufa thought, isn't this the same as our army?

Fearing that one day General Yang's successor, General Sun (General Yang was being imprisoned by Jiang Wufa at this time), would lead his troops and defect to our army, so he transferred the Fourth Army away from Zhongtiao Mountain.

In October 1940, the defense was moved to the east of Luoyang on the south bank of the Yellow River, guarding the more than 10-mile defense line in Yanshi, Gongxian, Feishui, Xingyang, and Guangwu.

General Sun was also seized of military power by Jiang Wufa through overt promotion and covert surrender.

Then Jiang Wufa successively transferred troops from Zhongtiao Mountain, not to guard against the Japanese, but only to guard against and against our army.

The original garrison of Zhongtiao Mountain was 26, but after Jiang Wufa's defeat, only 17 were left.

Even if there are only 17 left, if He Jingzi is left to direct, it is possible to win.

Because at that time, the Japanese army had more than [-] troops, which was smaller than Jiang Wufa's army. Moreover, Jiang Wufa's army was defending according to danger and had a geographical advantage.

But Jiang Wufa once again made the mistake of "the general is outside, and the monarch is commanding him from afar".

Regarding the situation in Zhongtiao Mountain, He Jingzi and the generals below made wrong judgments.

In fact, what the Japanese thought was: "They are especially looking forward to the battle to eliminate Jiang Wufa's army in the southern part of Jin Province in North China."

In other words, what the Japanese wanted was to eliminate Jiang Wufa's vitality.

But He Jingzi and others agreed that the plaster army was going to cross the Yellow River, thus threatening Luoyang and Xi'an and opening up the northwest.

In order to maintain the Yellow River defense line, He Jingzi hoped to take the initiative.

After reporting the plan to Jiang Wufa, Jiang Wufa agreed with the judgment of He Jingzi and others, but the order was indeed to consolidate along the Yellow River.

And mobilized a large number of mobile troops from the northwest to go to Henan and Qin provinces to strengthen river defenses.

Send Zhongtiao Mountain as a mobile general reserve to the south bank of the Yellow River.

In this way, the elite troops in Zhongtiao Mountain were greatly reduced, and the supporting troops were moved to the other side of the Yellow River.

What does this allow He Jingzi to take the initiative? Use your own guards?

Or should He Jingzi hold a silver gentian gun in his hand and a magnolia and white dragon horse on his crotch, and kill him seven times in and seven out?

Being so interfered with by Jiang Wufa, He Jingzi, who had just taken over the army and was not familiar with the situation, felt that his brain was running out.

We had to make the following deployment in a hurry:

The 9th Army is in Jiyuan, an important town in northern Henan;

The 43rd Army is at Yuanqu at the southern end of Jin Province;

The 17th Army is in the Jiangxian area;

The 3rd Army and the 80th Army are in Wenxi and Xia County areas;

The 98th Army is in the Dongfeng Town area, and the 15th Army is in the Gaoping area.

Another four armies were deployed in the Taihang and Taiyue areas as support.

Contrary to Jiang Wufa's continuous deployment of troops from Zhongtiao Mountain, the Japanese continued to increase their troops here.

The commander-in-chief of the Japs is Lieutenant General Shao Dijun, and the total force deployed in Zhongtiao Mountain is about 63 brigades.

第1军:下辖第33、第36、第37、第41师团、独立混成第4、第9旅团,军预备队。

Regiments directly under the control of the Front Army: 21st and 35th Divisions.

Originally attached to the 35st Section of the 4th Cavalry Brigade and the 3rd Flying Brigade of the [-]th Division.

The Kwantung Army mobilized the 32nd Flying Team and the 83rd Flying Team, and deployed the main force of the 3rd Flying Group at the two airports in Yuncheng and Xinxiang to be responsible for air coordination.

The traitors and puppet troops are the 24th Division.

The main force of the 35th Division, the First Division of the 21st Division, and the First Division of the 4th Independent Cavalry Brigade, totaling about 3 people, with the cooperation of the puppet troops Zhang Lanfeng and Liu Yanfeng, divided into three routes along the western section of Daoqing Road towards Jiyuan, Meng County invaded.

The main force of the 37th Division, part of the 36th Division, and the independent 16th Brigade, with about 3 people, attacked Zhangdian Town from the southeast of Wenxi and Xia County.

The 41st Division and the 9th Independent Mixed Brigade, with a total of about 3 men, used the lightning tactic of central breakthrough to attack from the Hengling Pass to the west side of Hengyuan Avenue.

The main force of the 33rd Division and the first section of the 4th Independent Cavalry Brigade, with about 2 men, attacked Dongfeng Town from the Yangcheng side.

At this time, the Japanese didn't know why they were crazy, and they changed their previous principle of not provoking our troops.

Perhaps in order to intensify the conflict between Jiang Wufa and us, he even spread rumors that our army would not fight against the Japanese, but would specifically fight against Jiang and Yan.

Jiang Yan then used this as an excuse to increase his attack on our army.

Our top leader was very angry.

Instruct the headquarters to launch a major battle like the Battle of Zhengtai Road last year, in addition to resolutely counterattacking Jiang Yan's army who attacked us.

Let the Chinese people see who is resisting the Japanese and who is causing friction.

The headquarters ordered the directly affiliated independent brigade to surround and annihilate the enemy's 33rd Division and part of the enemy's 4th Cavalry Brigade to the south.

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