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Chapter 1041 Sichuan Xiang Wind and Thunder

Three days later, the Xiangxi army sent a telegram to the whole country, and the 44th Army officially withdrew from the three counties of northern and northeastern Guizhou from now on, confusing Mao Guangxiang, who became chairman of Guizhou Province and commander of the 25th Army after defeating Wang Jialie. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

When he learned that the purpose of Zhang Hongluan's withdrawal was to mobilize heavy troops and deploy them in the southern part of the Yuanling area to strictly guard against the Red Army, Mao Guangxiang was immediately overjoyed, and immediately mobilized all his propaganda mouthpieces, trumpeting his great achievements, and making a speech to the press, saying that "the lost territory in northern Guizhou and northeastern Guizhou has once again returned to the embrace of the people of Guizhou."

Almost at the same time, An Yi held a press conference in Syria, announcing that all divisions of the 24th Army had advanced to their established positions, and that under the command of General Liu Xiang, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Provincial Suppression of Bandits, they would launch a dragnet-style encirclement, suppression, and annihilation operation against the Huanghan Communist Army on the Sichuan-Hunan border.

Public opinion across the country immediately forwarded An Yi's high-profile speech, believing that with An Jiajun's army, the extermination of the Sichuan-Hunan Red Army was just around the corner. Only veteran military commentators and journalists who have studied military affairs do not know whether An Yi handed over his troops to the command of Liu Xiang, who had lost the battle, out of Chiang Kai-shek's orders, or because he wanted to take care of Liu Xiang's face.

Chiang Kai-shek was very happy about this, he was happy to see An Yi's consideration of the overall situation, this moment is the critical period of encircling and paralyzing Liu Xiang, An Yi is obviously very in line with Chiang Kai-shek's intentions, proving that An Yi is also very aware of the current complex situation, for the sake of the greater goal, it is very appropriate to make some necessary sacrifices.

Therefore, after Chiang Kai-shek sent a message of encouragement to Liu Xiang, he immediately sent a secret telegram to An Yi to show his appreciation.

Liu Xiang was also deeply surprised and satisfied by this, although the military and political system in southern Sichuan has always been self-contained, and the An Jiajun was directly under the command of the Central Military Commission, but during the period of suppressing the communist rebellion, according to the order signed by the Central Military Commission and Chairman Chiang, the An Jiajun should still obey the command of Liu Xiang, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan anti-bandit suppression, after all, no matter how autonomous southern Sichuan is, it is only a part of Sichuan Province. The only regret is that it was not until today that An Yi promised the outside world for the first time to hand over the most elite 24th Army in the whole army to him to command, but although this time came a little late, it was also the right time, as long as the three elite divisions of the 24th Army joined the ranks of suppressing the Communists, the communist army on the front line of Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan would no longer have much room to use, and the pressure on Liu Xiang's rear would be greatly reduced.

What made Liu Xiang even more reassuring was that An Yi's troops were not stationed in Qijiang, and it can be seen from this incident that An Yi respected him, and did not have the ambition to annex Qijiang, which is rich in mineral resources such as iron, coal, and aluminum, and was very good at being a man.

According to the repeated analysis and deduction of An Yi and the generals of the An Jiajun, Liu Xiang, who attaches great importance to the southern barrier of Chongqing, can only pull the three divisions of the An Jiajun to the southeast line of Chongqing, connect with his two security divisions, and slowly advance eastward, forming an east-west flank with He Chengjun's troops in western Hubei Province, only in this way can the Red Army of Huang Han and He Long be forced to go north, and the only option is to flee to the Hunan line on the Sichuan-Hunan border. In this way, the goal of narrowing the encirclement and facilitating the total annihilation of the Red Army in Sichuan, Hunan, and Hubei was achieved.

However, as long as the main force of the Central Red Army in the Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet Region withdraws from the base area and breaks through to the west, He Jian, who is seriously threatened by Laowo, will definitely draw troops to rush to the front line of southern Hunan, and the close encirclement gradually formed by the Huanghan and He Long divisions will be opened wide because of He Jian's withdrawal of troops, and the Red Army will be able to seize this favorable opportunity to quickly move south, and within a few days it will rush headlong into the northern Qianbei region, which is empty of troops.

If the situation does not change much, this conspiracy of An Jiajun can be carried out smoothly, and when the Huang Han army rushes into northern Qianbei, Mao Guangxiang, who is facing Wang Jialie on both sides, will inevitably ask Zhang Hongluan and An Yi for help.

Moreover, Chiang Kai-shek has long been dissatisfied with Mao Guangxiang's capriciousness and swaying from side to side, and since the beginning of this year, the short-sighted Mao Guangxiang has reached a tacit understanding with Li Zongren on the one hand, and on the other hand, he has reached out to Chiang Kai-shek to ask for military salaries, numbers, and ranks, if it were not for Chiang Kai-shek, in order to take into account the overall situation, he would have launched a ruthless attack on Mao Guangxiang a long time ago.

Therefore, the Central Army, which followed the Red Army into Guizhou, would definitely not give Mao Guangxiang the slightest face, and Guizhou, like Sichuan, would henceforth become a territory where the central government and Chiang Kai-shek's heavy troops were stationed, and another province under the complete leadership of the central government in one fell swoop.

After that, no matter which general of the central government sits in Guizhou, he must give An Yi face in order to sit firmly, not to mention An Yi's deep connections and strength in the upper echelons of the central government, as well as Chiang Kai-shek's trust in An Yi, just Shi Zhen, who dominates Qianxi, does not cooperate, which will make it difficult for newcomers to move an inch and have nothing to do.

In fact, Guizhou's economy has long been controlled by the Anyi Group, and the currency in circulation is also the banknotes and copper and nickel coins issued by the Southwest Bank.

On 9 September, after the Sichuan Army was defeated by the Northern Sichuan Red Army at the southern line of Bazhong by Luo Zezhou and Li Jiayu's troops two days earlier, Tian Songyao's Second Route Army was again routed by Xu's front, which suddenly turned and galloped more than 130 kilometers day and night.

Just when Liu Xiang was concerned about the war in northern Sichuan, the Huang Han Division of the Red Army suddenly appeared in Mawu Town, south of Fuling, and the three main forces launched a fierce attack on the 20th Regiment of the 7th Security Division of the Sichuan Army, which had just arrived in Mawu Town, and it took only two hours to completely annihilate more than 1,700 officers and men of the regiment, seize a large number of guns and ammunition, and then disappear into the lofty mountains and mountains in the southeast.

At this time, the 16th Division of the 24th Army was heading for Pushi on Liu Xiang's orders, the 39th Division was still searching and advancing on the boundary north of Nanchuan, and the instructor had just been urgently transferred by Liu Xiang to the Shilong area, where "there were signs of heavy concentration of the Red Army." The three divisions were all a day's journey away from the location where the security division was attacked.

When the bad news reached Chongqing, Liu Xiang was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and the information was unknown, and the command was unclear, and he lost his old face, not to mention for the time being, a main force regiment that had just finished changing its equipment was wiped out, and the new weapons and a large amount of ammunition worth more than 2 million yuan all became trophies of the Red Army in the blink of an eye.

Huang Hanbu succeeded in a single blow, ran for hundreds of kilometers, and on the afternoon of the next day, the whole army sneaked back to the Babel Pagoda area, more than 30 kilometers north of Wulong, and rested silently.

After the evacuation of the 44th Division of the 24th Army of the Anjia Army, the 9th Garrison Brigade, which was in charge of the defense of Wulong, took over the defense, and the brigade commander received a secret telegram from the headquarters and immediately ordered the reconnaissance troops to disperse in detachments, quietly deploy defenses, and closely monitor all movements within a radius of 20 kilometers.

The reconnaissance planes of the 1st Regiment of the Syrian Air Force frequently took off to carry out repeated aerial reconnaissance on the line from Wulong to Nanchuan and then to Qijiang, causing a very huge momentum.

Zhan Zhan, director of the Political Department of the Anjia Army Headquarters, met with reporters every day, announced in a high-profile manner the Anjia Army's large-scale anti-bandit action, and announced to the outside world that every effort would be made to block the Huang Han Department north of the battle line and eventually annihilate the unit.

Liu Xiang, who has more than 80 fighter planes, has only 30 or so planes that can barely fly because of the aging and backwardness of the planes, and these 30-odd old planes must also be used in the northern Sichuan battlefield, where 150,000 troops are invested and the battle front extends for more than 300 kilometers, of which only seven can drop bombs.

In view of the strong aviation strength of the An Jiajun, the Central Staff Committee requested An Yi to send a large group of fighters to support the main battlefield in northern Sichuan, but An Yi replied that a large number of planes needed to be deployed on the front line of southern and western Yunnan to monitor and guard the British and Burmese troops, and that the Sichuan-Hunan battlefield would send fighters to assist in the war, and it was impossible to separate fighters to support the battlefield in northern Sichuan. After verification, the Central Staff Committee knew that this was indeed the case, so it could only dispel this idea and command the coalition forces to rush forward with real swords and guns together with Liu Xiang.

On 11 September, there was no news of the Huang Han Red Army, but the news came from the western Hubei front that He Chengjun's western Hubei troops were once again fighting fiercely with He Long's Red Army south of Lichuan, and Gu Changfeng, commander of the 24 th Army under the command of Liu Xiang, hurriedly sent a telegram asking for instructions on the next plan of action.

At this time, Liu Xiang could no longer let go of his face, and rushed to the eastern Sichuan Bandit Suppression Headquarters in Wanxian County, and urgently convened a military meeting above the head of the anti-bandit unit. Liu Xiang lost his temper at the meeting, dismissed the commander of the 7th Security Division, and strictly ordered all divisions to find the whereabouts of the Red Army of the Huang Han Division within three days.

At this time, An Yi, who was calmly watching from the headquarters of the Anjia Army in Syria, finally completely relieved of the situation on the Sichuan-Hunan border, Huang Han did not have a hot head, and followed He Long to venture eastward, which won valuable time for the Huang Han Department to preserve its strength and recuperate, judging from the current situation, as long as Huang Han did not attack rashly, Liu Xiang could not touch the whereabouts of the Huang Han Department for a month, even if he found the main force of Huang Han, he did not dare to quickly pursue in the mountains with steep walls and extremely complex terrain, and waited for him to mobilize a large army to start a siege. Although there were planes in the air to reconnoitre, it was difficult to find the whereabouts of the Red Army in the mountains covered with forests and towering and reckless, and it was even more helpless at night, and the commanders and fighters of the Red Army of the Huang Han Department were all ironclad, and it was very easy to run quietly for dozens of miles overnight.

In a hurry, Chairman Chiang sent a telegram to Liu Xiang, pointing out that the anti-bandit armies in all walks of life should not be afraid of sacrifice and stubbornly advance, and there should be no more partial retreat. An Yi and his generals were bored and turned their main energy to the east.

At the end of September, major news finally came - Li Yannian and other divisions of the East Road Suppression Army conquered Baiyiyangling, the most important defensive position of the Red Army's Ninth Army, and the gateway to Ruijin, the capital of Red China, was wide open; The Tang Enbo column of the North Road Suppression Army captured Dapailing, Fu Zhongfang and other divisions captured Tonggang and Xiaosong City, and Zhang Yi, the commander of the Fourth Division of the Red Army, surrendered; Wan Yaohuang's division under Zhou Hunyuan of the Eighth Column then defeated the ** Corps and occupied Lantian in Xingguo, and Liang Huasheng's division of Xue Yue's division of the Sixth Route Army occupied Xiahu and Taipingshan.

At this time, the Sichuan battlefield was a different scene, the Sichuan army failed repeatedly, Luo Zezhou and other generals were beaten by Xu Xiangqian and threw down the troops and fled alone, the news came out, the national public opinion was in an uproar, and the call for An Yi to come out to replace the incompetent Liu Xiang was getting louder and louder.

In addition to frequently calling Liu Xiang and the Central Staff Committee to instruct Sichuan on military measures to suppress bandits, Chairman Chiang was well aware that he could not change commanders and shake morale at this moment, that is, he dismissed Luo Zezhou, commander of the newly formed 22nd Division of the Sichuan Army, who had lied about the war situation and fled in despair.

On September 30, feeling the drastic changes in the battlefield of Jiangxi and Fujian, and for the rapid development of follow-up military operations, Chiang Kai-shek summoned An Yi to Nanchang again with a telegram.