Chapter 541: Shocking news

Tang Qiuli thought of Su Jingfeng's troops, they had lost contact for more than ten hours, and they no longer had the heart to think carefully about the next battle plan, and their hearts couldn't help but become chaotic, but fortunately, the general outline had already come out, so he could only put it aside for the time being, and then make detailed additions when his mood calmed down.

He asked the guards to ask the communications office if there was any news of Su Jingfeng's troops, and the guards quickly ran back to tell him, not yet, Tang Qiuli suddenly felt that the air in the house was very depressing, so he walked outside the house, the cold cold wind, blowing on his cheeks, the Taihang Mountains in winter, a little desolate, empty, not many pines and cypresses, stretching black and green branches and leaves, hanging a little white snow, the cold wind blew, falling down from time to time.

In Tang Qiuli's view, the winter of Taihang Mountain, and the winter of his hometown in the northeast, are two completely different scenery, in his hometown, now it is a snow-covered mountain, the sky is cold and frozen, thinking of this, there seems to be a white snow, continuous mountains, majestic green pines, Tingting's birch, snow-covered roof, quiet cooking smoke, and beautiful memories of youth.

The soldiers of the Special Guards who followed closely behind him, seeing the face of the division commander, flashed a smile that was rarely seen in recent days, and there seemed to be a kind of youthful brilliance, which instantly enveloped his whole body, driving away the vicissitudes of life that were disproportionate to the age of the contract, and even the scars on his face seemed to be stretched, and they were also in a happy mood, and their fate was already closely connected with this young division commander, happy for him and worried about him.

Tang Qiuli woke up from the dreamy memories, and also saw the expressions of his loyal guards, and smiled apologetically at them, because Tang Enbo was lost in Henan, and his love was not too good recently, and Mei Ting was not around, and she didn't even have a confidant, in the face of a group of big men, how could she say some private words between young couples, maybe she lost her temper, and these guards were also wronged.

Tang Qiuli, who was in a much relaxed mood, returned to the command headquarters and continued to review various documents, and the staff officers sent telegrams from various battlefields from time to time, but his heart was still worried about Su Jingfeng's troops who had lost contact.

Wang Dongshan with the remaining more than 6,000 soldiers, according to the prior deployment, all the way to the direction of Xuchang, he is not worried that the Japanese army will follow the pursuit, from the three days of fighting can be seen, the Japanese army to hit the road to Xuzhou, is their main goal, December 20 near noon, Wang Dongshan finally saw the ancient city wall of Xuchang, a few withered grass, shivering in the cold wind, at the gate of the city, the soldiers of their own troops, standing guard duty.

The strength in his body seemed to have been exhausted, and after a few days of fierce fighting, the pain of Su Jingfeng's sacrifice, the pressure of leading the troops to evacuate, and the breath that supported him all the way, after arriving at the destination, disappeared in an instant, and there were gold stars in front of him, and his body shook a few times, if it wasn't for the guards around him to quickly support him, he could have fallen to the ground.

Taking a deep breath, he ordered: "Cheer up, form a four-way column, and enter the city immediately", more than 6,000 soldiers in ragged clothes, covered in gunpowder, and tired faces, straightened their waists and walked neatly into the ancient city of Xuchang, many of them had wounds on their bodies, blood on their military uniforms, condensed into red scars, and the bandages wrapped around their heads and bodies had lost their original background color and were full of dust, but they could not slightly damage the murderous aura on their bodies.

Clear-eyed people can see at once that these soldiers, who have experienced bloody battles, crawled out of the pile of dead, and Xuchang, which is located in the hinterland of Henan, was not greatly affected by the war on the bank of the Yellow River in the north, but some time ago, it was plundered by the passing troops of Tang Enbo's Eighth Army, and the market looked depressed.

As soon as the troops entered the city, the citizens hid on both sides of the road, looking at them with frightened and curious eyes, as if they had a kind of resistance and disgust for the army, and perhaps in their hearts, this heroic army that had fought a bloody battle with the Japanese invaders for three days was regarded as the same as Tang Enbo's troops.

The artillery commander, who escorted the wounded to arrive in advance, heard that the troops had arrived, and hurriedly greeted him, and as soon as he met Wang Dongshan, he couldn't stop crying, and Wang Dongshan hurriedly asked him: "Where is the body of the commander?" The artillery commander told him that he had been placed in the hospital and that it was well preserved, and he was a little relieved.

After the troops settled down, Wang Dongshan immediately convened a military meeting to discuss the next move, and there was another important matter, that is, what channels could be used to report the death of the commander and the current situation of the troops to the division headquarters, and ask for instructions on the next direction of action.

It took great pains to find a telegraph operator of the telecommunications office of the corps headquarters among the wounded who were sent back in advance, and he had a spare password for communicating with the division commander, and if the chief of staff had not personally found him, he would rather die than reveal his secrets, which was the request of Chen Feng, director of the communications office of the independent division, who was the only survivor of the corps telecommunications office, and the others were all killed in the shelling of the sneak attack directed by Masao Koyama.

It became a difficult problem to report on the situation of the troops, but the news of the death of the commander was a question that made every senior general of the corps feel painful, and in the end, Wang Dongshan, who was the chief of staff, had to personally write the telegram.

The first telegram was sent out quickly, Tang Qiuli, who was reviewing the text, was interrupted by the hurried footsteps of Chen Feng, the director of communications, Chen Feng's face was full of excitement, and he shouted happily from afar: "Division commander, the Yellow River Henan Garrison Corps has news" Looking at Chen Feng's face full of joy, these days, he is also very worried.

Tang Qiuli received the telegram, which read: "The division commander, the Yellow River Henan Garrison Corps, after three days of hard fighting, successfully completed the task assigned by the division commander to block the Japanese First Army, evacuated Kaifeng at 3 o'clock in the morning of the 19th, and arrived in Xuchang on the 20th, the casualties of the troops are close to one-half, and they are now resting in Xuchang, please ask for instructions on the next task, Chief of Staff Wang Dongshan." ”

After reading the telegram, Tang Qiuli's heart was finally put in his stomach, and the anxiety and worry of a few days came to naught in an instant, and he said in a loud voice: "It's good to withdraw, it's good to withdraw" The casualties of the troops were as he expected, this time the big man Su fought a tough battle, with less than 30,000 people, he just withstood the attack of the Japanese army of 130,000 people, amazing, he smiled and said loudly: "I want to celebrate the success of Su Jingfeng's corps, they fought well" However, he still has a question, why did he lose contact with the division commander for more than ten hours?

The entire division commander was informed of the whereabouts of Su Jingfeng's corps, and the atmosphere became lively and relaxed, and the staff officers showed a smile on their faces that had disappeared for many days, this atmosphere was also felt by Tang Qiuli, he smiled and secretly thought: "Big man Su, you guy, how many people are worried about you, I'm afraid that if you start a battle, you will forget about everything, and you will evacuate to Xuchang safely, and you don't know how to report safety, this guy is careless, and he has to report to the chief of staff."

Chen Feng turned around to go back, a confidential officer ran over with a pale face, and almost hit him head-on, Chen Feng glared at his subordinates in displeasure, and reproached in a low voice: "It's always hairy, and I'm not afraid of the jokes of people from other departments?" If the director had said so in normal times, those confidential officers and telecommunications officers would always stick out their tongues and quickly slip away, knowing that this good-natured director would definitely not look for the account.

But this time, the confidential officer did not slip away, but with tears in his eyes, he put a telegram in Chen Feng's hand, Chen Feng took the telegram in surprise, and quickly browsed it, this is the second telegram from the Yellow River Henan Garrison Corps, but the content made him like a lightning strike, "Division Commander, our Corps was scheduled to evacuate Kaifeng at 0:00 on December 19, but at about 23 o'clock on the 18th, the Corps Headquarters was suddenly shelled by the Japanese army, all the personnel were killed, the radio station and password were destroyed in the artillery fire, and it was impossible to contact the division commander. General Su Jingfeng, commander of our corps, was seriously wounded, and unfortunately died after rescue efforts failed. ”

"In order to find out, it was the Japanese army that infiltrated into the rear of our defense with a small force and instructed the Japanese artillery to make a long-range sneak attack, which caused this incident to occur suddenly, and Wang Dongshan, chief of staff of the corps, was responsible for the ineffective defense of the corps headquarters, and was strict in his duties, and requested that Wang Dongshan be given the most severe punishment.

Chen Feng is very familiar with Su Jingfeng, who is nicknamed Su Da, he is the old man of the Bloody Hand Regiment at the beginning, not long after the division commander raised troops in the Northeast, the two of them came to the Bloody Hand Regiment, the predecessor of the Independent Division, Su Jingfeng's distinctive personality made a deep impression on Chen Feng, he almost couldn't believe his eyes, that Su Jingfeng, who was fast-talking, as strong as fire and as strong as a camel, would be sacrificed, and his eyes were covered with tears.

Looking at Tang Qiuli who looked down at the telegram, he didn't know how he got to the division commander, Tang Qiuli felt that there was someone in front of him, raised his head, and looked at Chen Feng with a sad face in a little surprise, thinking that he had already left, Chen Feng bit his lip, his hands trembled, and handed the telegram to Tang Qiuli.

After reading the telegram, Tang Qiuli's face instantly became extremely pale, for a long time, he didn't say a word, his eyes stared into the distance emptyly, Chen Feng was frightened, thinking that something was abnormal in the division commander, and he was just about to step forward and call him, "Click", the pencil in Tang Qiuli's hand was broken by him, and blood flowed out of his palm.

Immediately afterwards, a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth, and under the reflection of the sun, it turned into a cloud of blood mist, a little bit of Yin Hong, staining all the qi in front of him, and his body fell heavily backwards.

The sudden situation frightened all the people in the headquarters, Chen Feng stepped forward step by step, holding the division commander's body in his arms, the feeling of his hand, the division commander's body was terrifyingly cold, Chen Feng suddenly felt a burst of fear, and he shouted to the staff officers who gathered around: "Hurry, go find a doctor"

Hearing a commotion in the headquarters, the mountain tiger and the soldiers of the special guard team broke in at once, and he saw Tang Qiuli, who was held in Chen Feng's arms at a glance, with blood stains on the corner of his mouth, and was unconscious, and immediately made a special gesture, and the soldiers of the special guard immediately forced all the people in the command headquarters to the corner with guns, including Chen Feng, Tang Qiuli had long been held in the arms of the mountain tiger.

(To be continued)