Speaking of this, Chen Hanzhang pondered for a while and said, "Also, the battle is about to enter a critical node. At present, the entire northern Shanxi, northeastern Shanxi, and northwestern Shanxi have actually formed a unified battlefield. Whether or not the cooperation between the various battlefields can be smooth is crucial to whether or not we can achieve victory in this battle that will determine the fate of the Western Front. ”

"In the absence of a unified coordinating body as it is now, the various forces have always been working in silos. Boss, I ask you to personally send a telegram to the boss of Jinsui, asking him to rush back first, and we will come up with a battle plan together. At the very least, it is necessary to clearly define the scope of operations in three aspects so as to avoid the problem of command confusion. ”

"Our three strategic groups can't fight separately like we did in the northeast of Shanxi before. In the entire battlefield in northern Shanxi, which has become a whole, the objectives of each strategic group must be clear. Only in this way can we give better play to the advantages of our military's various strategic groups. ”

Regarding Chen Hanzhang's ideas and ideas, the boss pondered for a while and said, "Comrade Chen Hanzhang, I agree with your deployment in principle. However, in my opinion, Comrade Yang Jicai's thinking also has a lot to offer. There are some places in your whole plan, and I still do some fine-tuning. I think the newly formed Jinsui Sixth Column should not go south for the time being. ”

"With such a small number of troops, the whole army going south will not solve any problems, but will reduce the strength of your troops on the Western Front. Moreover, most of these units have been upgraded from local units, and command organs at all levels have just been formed, and most of them have not fought tough battles themselves, so it is easy to make mistakes when they go south. ”

"My idea is to leave this sixth column in the direction of northern Shanxi, on the one hand to carry out training, and on the other hand to serve as the general reserve in the northwest of Shanxi. Moreover, if they stay on the battlefield in northern Jin, you will have a certain amount of mobile forces in your hands. At least the front is fighting, and the alert forces in the rear are there. ”

"In this way, based on your opinions, plus some of Comrade Yang Jicai's ideas. The newly formed Jinsui Sixth Column was all left to fight in northern Shanxi. The main force of the Jinsui Military Region immediately moved south, and with the strength of the two brigades that had already gone south, they secretly interspersed southward according to the route you said and went south to the designated place to stand by. ”

At the same time, the main force immediately moved south as soon as the whole army arrived. As for the insufficient strength of the two brigades, as you said, all the rescued prisoners will be given priority to replenish the two brigades. The rest of the personnel immediately went to the front line of Baode to stand by. After the arrival of the main forces of Jin Sui, they will be incorporated into the combat troops. ”

"As for censorship, I think we can stop for a while. Whether these prisoners have withstood the test in the concentration camp will be clear when they arrive on the battlefield. The rest, wait until this battle is over. The most important thing now is to complete the formation of the troops of the Jinsui Military Region. ”

"Not only the captured personnel of our various units, but all of them were transferred to the main force of Jinsui. Even the captured personnel of the national army, I think that all officers and soldiers below the company level have been temporarily replenished into the troops. I immediately telegraphed to all units of the Jinsui Field Army to immediately reduce the size of the directly subordinate units and replenish the non-combatants with the front-line combat units. ”

"In addition to the part north of Fangshan, the rest of the troops are also assembled in the area south of Lanxian County, ready to be incorporated into the field troops to participate in the battle. As for the World War II zone, you don't have to worry. The king of Shanxi calculated very clearly, if we were defeated in this battle, the Japanese should clean him up next. ”

"Unless he is ready to completely go into the water and become a traitor, he will not, and he does not have the strength to take advantage of others at this time. He knows very well that even if he gets a bargain for a while, but you guys are tanks and a lot of planes, so he doesn't worry about us picking him up afterwards? Don't worry, this king of Shanxi, who was born as a young shopkeeper, is very good at abacus. He won't intervene until the outcome of the battle is decided. ”

"As for the encirclement and annihilation of the left detachment, let's look at your two regiments, don't take on combat missions. Our troops, like yours, have fought few large-scale campaign annihilation wars, and Yan Zòng lacks experience in large-scale campaign operations. The experience accumulated during the Red Army period is now basically lost. ”

"In the past, there was no condition and no strength to fight against the Japanese army. In addition to penetrating deep behind enemy lines, all units were expanded on a large scale, and the number of troops in the army declined rapidly. Compared with the military quality of the Japanese army, compared with the reorganization in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, it did not shrink with the size of the troops, but was subject to the constraints of conditions and gradually increased. ”

"In the past, we avoided face-to-face confrontation with the Japanese army as much as possible, and mainly resorted to movement warfare and guerrilla warfare. But this kind of battle, we can't fight for a lifetime. The troops cannot always be confined to this kind of scattered guerrilla warfare and petty fighting. The Battle of the Hundred Regiments the year before last gave us a lot of warnings. ”

"It turned out that the gun had no bullets, lacked heavy firepower, not only lacked artillery equipment and corresponding personnel, but even the number of light and heavy machine guns was insufficient. Neither firepower nor military literacy is possible for large-scale movement operations. There is no way to rely on guerrilla warfare and small-scale movement warfare. ”

"But now that the equipment of the troops has come up, and we are staying on the previous tactics, this is our own lack of progress. At present, the main force of Jinsui is only directly under the artillery, with two field artillery regiments with 36 field guns, and an antiaircraft artillery regiment equipped with 16 antiaircraft guns. ”

"Each column also has an artillery regiment to which the column belongs, equipped with 12 mountain guns and 4 field guns, and the brigade has two mountain guns, 92 infantry guns, and four rapid-fire artillery battalions. The regiment had a mortar company, and the battalion had an artillery company. In terms of firepower allocation, although the overall strength is still weaker than that of a division of the Japanese army, the firepower allocation of a column is no longer inferior to that of a division of the Central Army in Chongqing before the war. ”

"A unit is fought, not raised. In the past, there were no conditions, but now the conditions are there, but this does not mean that the combat effectiveness will also be improved, and the comprehensive combat capability will be improved. If we don't seize the time to change ourselves according to the development and change of the form, we will not only delay ourselves. ”

"Only fire can refine real gold, and we will never be able to train a group of troops without the test of actual combat. I think the change in the combat style of the various units in the Kannai began with this battle. I have already decided that the operation of the left detachment will be undertaken entirely by the Jinsui Military Region. ”

Although the main force of Jin Sui returned to the northwest of Jin with only more than 30,000 troops, it also occupied a six-to-one advantage in the comparison of troops. Coupled with the local armed forces left behind, this advantage can only be greater. And in terms of firepower, it also occupies an absolute advantage. Since there are so many advantages, then use this left detachment as a whetstone. ”

"Even if the price we pay in this battle may be greater, as long as we train a group of high-quality commanders and a group of troops, I think it will be worth it, and this price will be cost-effective. This is not just my opinion, but also the attitude of the President. ”

"We can't worry about casualties and be tied down in the use of troops. Your two regiments, in this battle, are still mainly responsible for peripheral strategy and blocking Japanese reinforcements. Once the Japanese reinforcements appear, you will have to rely on your two regiments to buy them as much time as possible. ”

"Actually, I now understand the true intention of why Taihang District wants to concentrate its forces to fight the two divisions of the puppet army first. It is not simply because the combat effectiveness of the puppet army is relatively weak compared to the Japanese army, and the main force of the Japanese army can be solved by fighting the puppet army first. Its real intention is to take these two puppet military divisions first to exercise the troops' ability to conduct large-scale mobile warfare. ”

"The operational thinking of the whole army will gradually begin to prepare for the transformation of troops from a state of scattered guerrilla warfare to a mobile warfare, and lay a good foundation. First of all, take these two puppet military divisions whose combat effectiveness and equipment are not weak, but they are worse than the Japanese army. In the end, it is a veteran who single-handedly brought out the four front armies, and this vision is still very long-term. ”

"They concentrated their forces and first attacked the two puppet army divisions that took the lead. That is, the ability of the troops to concentrate on movement and combat has been exercised, and the casualties will not be too great against the puppet army that only has two brigades of Japanese troops supervising the battle, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. It's just that here in Jinsui, we don't have that prerequisite. Since the Japanese army didn't help and left us with a hard bone, then let's take the hard bone first. ”

"As for the issue of coordination and command you mentioned, my opinion is still in accordance with the unified command of the Northern Shanxi Battlefield and the frontal battlefield in the northeastern Shanxi Province, and the unified command of the Jinsui Military Region in the Northwest Shanxi Battlefield. I'm here to be the chief dispatcher and coordinator for you. The deputy commander-in-chief was responsible for fighting behind enemy lines in the northeastern battlefield of Jin, as well as coordinating various aspects of other battlefields. ”

"With me here, you can rest assured that you will be bold in command. Don't be tied, like an old lady with a small foot. Scruples about this, scruples about that, our whole army is a game of chess. Whether it is the Eighteenth Group Army or the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army, they are all fraternal troops under one banner, and there is nothing to say about this. With the chairman and I as the backstage boss for you, you can rest assured to do it boldly. ”

The boss made a final decision, Chen Hanzhang hesitated for a long time, and finally nodded in agreement. However, in consideration of the current situation of the Jinsui troops, Chen Hanzhang still transferred one additional battalion of the 122 rocket artillery battalion and one battalion of 150 mm howitzers to strengthen the main force of the Jinsui Military Region. And the boss also asked Chen Hanzhang for Yang Jicai and asked him to go to the Jinsui Military Region to cooperate with the command.

Considering that when necessary, it involves air support, coordination of artillery firepower allocation and command, and coordination of the command relationship between the main force of the Jinsui Military Region and the two regiments participating in the anti-Japanese alliance, Chen Hanzhang not only nodded and agreed to the boss's request. Yang Jicai was also assigned two communications staff officers and two artillery staff officers to form a light staff coordination group.

When the boss of the Jinsui Military Region rushed to Chen Hanzhang's place, after hearing the boss's request, although he hesitated slightly, he finally agreed to the boss's idea. The reason for the boss's hesitation Chen Hanzhang was clear, the strongest column of the Jinsui Field Army in the first battle of Baotou was disabled, which made the boss feel distressed enough.

This time, we were facing the regular divisions of the Japanese army, and the strength and combat effectiveness of the Japanese army we faced were not far from being comparable to the First Battle of Baotou. He is always a person who leads troops, and he still knows the losses he may face in this battle. What he was worried about was that after this battle, the Jinsui Military Region, which had a thin foundation, would have to suffer a great loss of vitality.

However, the commander-in-chief's sentence is that all the troops of the Jinsui Military Region have been disabled, but as long as the troops are trained, this battle will be worth it, so that he also understands the determination of the central government. The boss who gritted his teeth, although he knew that the foundation that his troops had saved in the past few years in this battle might be exhausted, but he finally accepted the order unconditionally.

After accepting the task, after studying the general combat ideas, in the face of the current situation in the northwest of Shanxi, especially when it comes to the safety of northern Shaanxi, the boss did not make any stops, and he didn't even bother to take a sip of water, and directly led the team to leave northern Shanxi. Take the truck provided by Chen Hanzhang and go south under the stars.