Chapter 493: Is this time going to lose again?

"Great, the little devil has dropped again!" There were many people who dared to watch the air battle near the riverside, and the large and small buildings not far from the vicinity were also crowded with people watching, while muttering and cheering.

There were still people who rushed to hear the news, but by the time they came, the short air battle was almost over.

There were no more devil planes in the sky, only about 20 hellcats of the vanguard army were hovering, and from time to time planes swooped down to attack the gunboats of the devils on the river who fled in a hurry.

"How's it going?" The latecomer asked eagerly.

"What else? Of course, the little devil was defeated! See? There! "Some people are excited to share this happiness.

Following his guidance, a devil's Zero plane in the distance was dragging the black smoke farther and farther, while on the other side of the Yangtze River, a Zero plane was stuck obliquely in the mud by the river, and the exposed fuselage and wings formed the shape of a victory symbol.

"I heard movement in the south of the campus this morning, but unfortunately I didn't see it, and this time I didn't see it with my own eyes." Someone lamented.

"This morning, the school field was tossed up a lot, I heard that the airport was bombed by the Vanguard?" Someone is interested. In the early hours of this morning, I heard the roar of airplanes and the sound of explosions from the side of the campus, but unfortunately few people dared to find out before dawn.

The Japanese were also constantly guarding against the attacks of the vanguard army. It's just that it rained yesterday, and before dawn today, the planes of the vanguard army came. The B-17 first flew directly above their heads from a high altitude and dropped bombs directly on the field of the Nanjing University, which was caught off guard. In view of the fact that the devils often used Huaxia coolies to clean up those submunitions in the past, this time the B-17 did not drop submunitions, but used ordinary bombs. But the massive number of bombs was enough to blow up the Dajiaochang airport.

"Of course it was blown up, otherwise there are so few planes of the little devils today. I saw it, it was magnificent, there was fire everywhere! ......" someone began to brag out of tune.

"Spread out, spread out, spread quickly! If you don't leave, you'll be arrested! A group of traitors hurried over and shouted loudly.

"Wang Mazi, the vanguard army is coming. If you want to play tricks again, just wait to eat the gun! Someone shouted in the crowd.

"Who is it? Who is it? Give me a kind of out! The thin Wang Mazi waved a handful of Wang Ba boxes with red silk in his right hand, and shouted inwardly.

"The grasshoppers after autumn won't be able to stumble for a few days." Someone sneered behind him.

Wang Mazi turned around suddenly, his eyes were red and he shouted: "Come out, don't come out again, I'll arrest someone?" ”

At this time, a hell cat in the sky swept past everyone not far away with a scream, Wang Mazi hurriedly hugged his head and dodged to the side. But the laughter of everyone rang in his ears.

Wang Mazi was furious, but he still had scruples in his heart, after all, once the vanguard army came over, he would inevitably be unlucky if he was not clean under his buttocks, and he couldn't offend people at this time.

"Captain, there's a mission!" There were subordinates next to him who relieved him in time, "Let's go to Xiaguan to strictly investigate Jiangfang." ”

"Humph! Walk! Wang Mazi snorted coldly, and hurriedly left here, with the laughter of everyone behind him.

Although there was no more air battle in the sky, there was still artillery fire on the other side of the river. In addition to the umbrella flowers that are not falling in the sky, there are more planes circling and flying there. The troops that the Japanese intended to cross the river to support were all intercepted by planes in the air.

"Tom tom!" A series of explosions, with a loud bang, after the two Il-10s crossed the figures, a gunboat of less than 100 tons of devils was blown up by a 23-mm cannon.

In addition to the Hellcat, there is also the short-legged Il-10. Although it has a range of only 1000 km, the power of two 23mm cannons is not bad. When one of the nearly 1,000-ton destroyers of the devil was damaged by an R-82 rocket carried by the Il-10 and received a 200-kilogram bomb, the river was much more deserted for a while.

Battleships can't rush through, how can those ordinary ships rush through?

"We must rush over, and we must not allow the vanguard army to occupy Pukou." Shunroku Hata was embarrassed that the vanguard army had directly attacked the Yangtze River, although other places were also very anxious, but what happened under his nose at this time must be paid special attention. Once Pukou is occupied, the vanguard army will use the Tianjin-Pudong Railway to move south in an instant, and it will be able to completely lock up the Yangtze River passage and put more than 100,000 devils in the interior.

The devil's reaction was fast, and the surrounding devils immediately began to fight back towards Pukou. And the reinforcements of the vanguard army are also constantly being sent.

The skies are once again ruled by the vanguards. This is also the reason why Meng Xiang dared to fight airborne. Numerous soldiers were parachuted into enemy territory, and it was sad if there were no reinforcements. And the vanguard army fought this time with air support. Artillery fire came from the air, and personnel and supplies came from the air. When Xinghua and Shucheng were occupied by the vanguard army, some of the Junker aunts moved to Pukou.

When the threat from the air and the ground was almost cleared, one by one the Junkers swooped down and began to land on an airstrip. As soon as the plane came to a stop, groups of heavily armed Army soldiers jumped from above, and after a brief assembly, began to run towards their respective target positions.

The devil still did not learn his lesson, and easily let go of some dried fish and some freight yards in Pukou, which provided a good opportunity for the layout of the airstrip.

As soon as several freight yards were opened, it was a wide airstrip. Although it is not possible to take off and land the giant bird for the time being, the Junkers and the -47s are absolutely fine, even taking off and landing those fighters. This relieved a big problem for short-legged aircraft such as the Il-10.

The ground crew, who arrived in disguise in advance, urgently unloaded the ammunition and fuel transported by the transport plane, and some secret warehouses that had been prepared for half a year were also opened, and all kinds of urgently needed materials were constantly transported. In a secret warehouse on the old mountain, a large number of shells accumulated solved the problem of the shortage of ammunition for the 76-mm cannons of the Soviet-made Zi-3 type that were airborne.

Three 76-mm Zi-3 cannons were pieced together from the airborne weapons box, two of which were placed directly on the old mountain. With a maximum range of 13 kilometers, it can easily hit Xiaguan on the other side of the Yangtze River.

However, because of the limited airborne conditions, the giant bird could not land for the time being, and the heavy firepower that was airborne was a minority after all, but as long as the vanguard army still controlled the sky, Meng Xiang was sure that he would rely on the slightly thin light infantry to defend until the reinforcements arrived.

"I don't care about anything else, I just need to capture Bengbu!" Zhang Lingfu slapped the case and shouted.

Gu Liangmin was no longer in charge of the military at this time, and began to seek development in political affairs. Although Zhang Lingfu, who has outstanding ability, bears the name of deputy commander, he has already begun to take charge of the handsome seal of the 56th Army.

Although the 56th Army's attack this time was a multi-point attack, the main thing was to attack Bengbu.

And the Japanese also saw the fateful point of Bengbu's connection to the Tianjin-Pudong Railway. Although the Japanese destroyed the railway bridge over the Huai River, they did not destroy it completely, and as long as it was repaired for a few days, it could be passed. From Bengbu to Pukou, it was unimpeded, and the Japanese were busy on this transportation line, plundering the surrounding resources.

At this time, the railway may fall into the hands of the vanguard army and become a passage for them to move south quickly. It was also a fast channel for the Japanese army to support Bengbu and Huainan. It depends on who grabs it first.

"Mingguang has fallen." Kenji Dohihara gave Shunroku Hata another piece of bad news.

"The army from Hongze Lake?" Shunroku Hatatake's mind stabilized and said coldly. He was talking about the second regiment of the amphibious armored division of the Vanguard Army, which had already captured Hongze and was at this time interspersed with the back of Huai'an, attacking directly.

The passage from north to south is not only the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, but also the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

The vanguard army has been dredging the passage of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal in the joint theater, and they have not been affected by the bursting of the Yellow River, although because there is no communication between the devils and the vanguard army, but the Jinghan Grand Canal from Weishan Lake to Yangzhou is also unblocked. Although the canal's water transportation speed is slow, it can transport a large number of troops and supplies south. The devils have also been keeping an eye on this passage.

Whether the vanguard army attacked Huai'an or parachuted Xinghua, it was all to open up this canal.

"It's the other one, and some of them are continuing south."

"To the south? Why didn't they attack Bengbu? Shunroku Hata frowned, intending to see the vanguard's intentions.

The vanguard army has no other plans, Huainan and Bengbu are the key places for the devils to operate, whether it is in front or behind there are dense fortresses - 40 amphibious tanks can cross the river and grab the beach, but the armor is slightly thinner, and it is a bit risky to directly attack the fortress of Bengbu. At this time, the first thing they needed to do was to consolidate the position of the Huai River section that they had broken through.

There, the amphibious engineering regiment quickly erected pontoon bridges, and an infantry division of the 56th Army and the 41st Division behind had already begun to cross the river.

The defense line here and the task of attacking Bengbu are carried out by them, and the mission of the amphibious landing force is to continue to advance. Although the armor is weaker, it is better to advance quickly under the premise that the resistance in front is not strong. By this time, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 1st Regiment had already conquered Mingguang. They are still moving forward, and their goal is Chuzhou.

If Chuzhou is well defended, it will bypass Chuzhou, support Pukou, and disperse the devil reinforcements gathered in Pukou.

"Whew!" Two Il-10 planes flew in the sky, swept down, saw the eye-catching sign of the amphibious force below, and after checking the password on the radio, they shook their wings, pulled up the nose of the plane and flew away. Soon another Il-10 formation flew behind and flew directly south.

"Regiment Commander, if we hadn't had a striking sign just now, would they have beaten us like devils' Douding tanks?" The guard next to him asked He Huangdao.

"There's a password!" He Huang said indifferently, but he was also a little nervous in his heart. He had been on a plane, and his eyes in the sky were not very good. At this time, there are not many vanguard troops who have suddenly come to the hinterland of devils, and they may really be hit by their own people if they are not careful.

The greatest contribution to the mobilization of the entire army was the smooth flow of radio communications. The arrival of the vanguard army's telephones in the battalion and the radio radios at the company and platoon level enabled the entire army to operate in an orderly manner.

This time, the coordinated operation of the various branches of the army and air force was a big exercise, and Meng Xiang used devils to sharpen his knives.

"Keep moving forward and take down Zhang Baling!" He Huang shouted loudly, and the on-board radio transmitted his orders to every car at any time. Some Soviet-made vehicles originally did not have radios, but Meng Xiang also added them through modification, or directly chose the command model with a radio.

The scattered arrangement of the devils in the Three Realms and Zhang Baling was a squadron, and with the help of the vanguard guerrillas, they rushed away and took it with the same ease.

Although the vanguard army did not cross the Huai River, the guerrillas in northern Jiangsu had grown to tens of thousands. In the area of Zhang Baling alone, there was a guerrilla brigade of 1,000 people. In addition to this, there were guerrillas of other forces, but the guerrillas of the vanguard army were recognized as strong.

Every guerrilla was basically trained by the regular army, and those who did not meet the standards continued to be trained in the recruit camp.

Moreover, the guerrillas of the vanguard army received more training, including targeted training for survival in the mountains and the wilderness, training in intelligence gathering, and political work training for implementing relevant vanguard policies. Many of these veterans, who are not inferior to those of the Vanguard Army, are veterans of the Vanguard Army as the backbone, and they have returned to their respective hometowns to carry out activities.

They also have a share of the credit for spreading the Pioneer Army's subsistence allowance policy and various benefits.

Because they have the vanguard army behind them, a big rich man selling orders, their weapons and equipment are much stronger than others. Strong equipment means that the devils don't have much to do with them, unless they are surrounded by a large army, but when they drill into the mountains and forests, the devils will stare when they come. In the battle in the mountains, the large army could not be opened, and the small units of the troops were only going to deliver food against the sophisticated weapons and equipment of the vanguard army guerrillas.

Their living conditions can also be solved on their own without disturbing the people. What is missing, in addition to frequent airdrop supplies, you can also come up with money to buy directly from the surroundings. The surrounding people also like to use the vanguard coins that maintain their value, and the guerrillas of the vanguard army buy and sell fairly. Although I didn't go to other people's homes to jump into the water and sweep the floor, I also got along with the local residents.

There are also many people who eagerly look forward to the arrival of the vanguard army's subsistence allowance policy, and they are even more leaning towards them.

This time, the vanguard guerrillas were also notified on the radio and actively cooperated with the activities of the attacking troops. Ahead was the Pioneer Army, near Hongze Lake, where the guerrillas took over the station of Mingguang.

"Keep going! The devils of Chuzhou went to support Pukou. He Huang, who had just experienced an impact and was still a little unsatisfied, received a surprising news at this time.

As the number of Pukou vanguard soldiers grew, the last bit of stubbornness of the devil in Pukou was also uprooted.

And the artillery threat set up by the devils on the south bank of the Yangtze River could not prevent the planes of the Pukou Pioneer Army from taking off and landing non-stop. At that time, the airstrip was set up on the north side of Laoshan, and after the devil's bunker on Laoshan was cleared out in advance by the guerrillas of the vanguard army and the "Huya" special forces, the airstrip was safe for the time being.

Unable to stop the landing of the vanguard army, Shunroku Hata could only increase the strength of reinforcements. The Yangtze River was locked by the air power of the vanguard army, and troops from other places on the north bank could only be transferred to ensure the key point of Pukou. In this way, more than half of Chuzhou's troops were withdrawn, and there were less than half of the surrounding brigades. Even Shunroku Hata didn't expect the amphibious team of the Vanguard Army to be so fast-

The land speed of 40 is not slow, and it rushes directly when it hits a river. He Huang and the others followed the route that they had been exploring for more than three months, and they rushed forward non-stop, and even for lunch, they casually ate some compressed biscuits and nutritious meals in the car. Although the battles in Zhang Baling and Mingguang and other places just now were short, the bloody scene of crushing the corpses of the devils still made many soldiers unable to eat those canned meats.

"Who? Password! Seeing that Chuzhou was in sight, in front of a devil post on the road, two devils held a 38 cover and shouted loudly. They had not received warnings from elsewhere, and they had not imagined that the Vanguard would come so quickly.

"Da Da Da!" A rhythmic jump note from the 7.62 machine gun directly gave them a special pass that had been beaten into a sieve. Half of the body of a devil in the nearby outpost was also lying there with his head at this time.

On the car in front of him, two fighters quickly jumped out, quickly removed the railing of the outpost, and with a wave of his hand, the convoy of amphibious tanks continued to move forward. Only in the outpost behind him, a rapid telephone rang.

On Shunroku Hatata's desk, three telephones rang continuously. None of the news flying in from all over the place seemed to feel comforting, and it was urgent everywhere.

Although it was a sunny day today, as the sun sank in the west, the bad news came one after another.

Yuexi near Dabie Mountain was originally arranged for the Gui system. Although the Gui army was very strong in combat, their equipment and weapons were much worse, and they could not pose much of a threat to the Japanese army, and one wing could hold it. But at this time, this wing could not stop the impact of the 57th Division of the 111th Army of the Vanguard Army. Before noon, it was all in the hands of the vanguard.

The 111th Division was a little too easy to deal with a wing of the 35th Division, they directly attacked forward, Gaohebu and Qianshan were also captured one by one before evening, and another wing was annihilated, and it approached Anqing.

Sun Liren's new army made a sudden attack, except for leaving some men to conquer Lu'an and Huoshan, the army was directly between the two, directly pointing at Hefei. When the devils of the 3rd Division shrank their forces and were ready for battle, they suddenly turned around, swept through Feixi, and met the paratroopers in Shucheng, and the army only pounced to the south, and waited until dusk and sunset, Liankelujiang, Tongcheng and other places, and the 57th Army joined at Gaohebu, and also pointed the spearhead at Anqing.

It was easy to kill chickens with knives, and in the evening, Huoshan Lu'an was also captured in the heavy artillery forcing the city. In the evening, the vanguard of the New First Army had already attacked the vicinity of Zongyang. The 35th Division has not yet performed some wonderful battles, and has basically been annihilated by the 57th Army and the New First Army. Only one wing and baggage troops remained in Anqing. And the 27th Division was also annihilated by a wing, and most of its forces were concentrated near Anqing.

"This is really going to cut off Okamura's back road!" Kenji Dohihara and Okamura Ninji have a good relationship, they are both capable generals under Hirohito, so they naturally don't want this royal celebrity placed in the army to fall early, and they are also paying special attention to it.

A chain in Pukou was not enough, but also Anqing, and in addition, Rat Yi and their team also attacked the vicinity of Wuhu and Dangtu, so that Hata Junliu had to arrange people to defend the enemy in the south. These three ropes were enough to cut off their back roads in Jiujiang and Wuhan.

"Hefei can't be saved!" Kenji Dohihara shook his head in his heart, and at this time, Sun Lianzhong's second army also pressed up from Henan. The vanguard of the three armies has begun to take over Lu'an. There is no suspense about the 3rd Division of the 100,000-strong army against Hefei.

Vaguely, Kenji Dohihara already had a vague impression of the vanguard army's offensive, and the credit for completing the attack on Hefei was to be handed over to the Second Army.

No wonder, at the beginning, he wondered how it was the old foundation of the vanguard army who was fighting. It seems that the Northwest Army, which was the first to complete the training, is going to make meritorious service. Even the area north of Hefei has the credit of the Second Army. The 56th Army seems to be attacking from three points, and it is possible that the focus will be on Bengbu in the east. At that time, it will be connected with the 12th Army and will mainly attack the two main transportation arteries of the Jinpu Railway and the Canal.

Kenji Tohihara is worthy of being a Huaxia Tong, and some of the relationships are relatively familiar, so he made this judgment: "The goal of the new First Army is Anqing." And where is the credit of the 57th Army? ”

Huang Baitao, the commander of the 57th Army, has always been known to be very loyal to Meng Xiang, and after the Central Plains War, he did not pay any attention to the attraction of all parties. Don't talk about the Japanese, even Lao Jiang can't pull it.

His gaze kept shifting on the map, and finally settled on a place, and muttered to himself, "This place, it must be here!" He wants Wuhan! The 57th Army must have been heading for Wuhan. ”

"What if you get it? There is too much difference in strength! He suddenly smiled bitterly and looked at Shunroku Hatata.

At this time, Shunroku Hata was also thinking about the estimated two million troops of the vanguard army. This time, the vanguard army is attacking rapidly, and I am afraid that there are many troops involved. Together with other irregular armies, the vanguard army on the southern front this time is probably no less than a million.

On this line, the Japanese deployed no more than 300,000 troops. Even if the Japanese army and the vanguard army are calculated according to the combat effectiveness of one to one, they will fight more with less, not to mention that the combat effectiveness of the vanguard army is stronger than that of the Japanese army. This time, the vanguard army is in full bloom, and it seems that all aspects are the focus. On the contrary, the Japanese army, which was inferior in strength and strength, was full of loopholes and could not parry.

"Is this time going to lose again?" The corners of Shunroku Hatata's mouth twitched a few times, and finally arced down.