Because of the heavy snowstorm, Li Mingrui, who had lost contact with the headquarters for several days, finally regained contact with the headquarters five days ago. It turned out that their trip was blocked by a snowstorm and delayed for several days. Fearing that the troops would get lost in the heavy snow where they couldn't see people clearly, Li Mingrui could only find a cave to rest and wait for the snow to stop before continuing south.

I just didn't expect that after this snowfall, the snow in the mountains was too deep, and some routes were impassable, so I had to find a way to re-find the road and delay the trip. The hand-cranked generator that you carry can't start no matter how you get it. In order to regain the lost time, Li Mingrui could only find a way to repair and march.

Fortunately, the level of the newspaper operator assigned to him by Guo Bingxun is still there, and after a few days of hard work, he finally saw some results. Even so, it was not until five days ago, when the hand-cranked generator, which had been on strike for several days, barely resumed its work, that contact with headquarters was regained.

However, although the hand-cranked generator was barely repaired and could barely be used, the radio station did not know what was wrong, and the signal was intermittent. Therefore, Yang Zhen and Guo Bingxun don't know much about the situation on Li Mingrui's side. But there is one thing that the two still know.

After several days of arduous trekking in waist-deep snow, Li Mingrui had entered the territory of Dunhua, but he had not been able to find the other troops led by Dong Ping and Huang Dali. Moreover, Li Mingrui reported that he had encountered small units of the Japanese puppet army several times in the mountains. After careful observation, these Japanese puppet troops should be the vanguard troops entering the mountains to prepare for the next move.

Because there was a slight problem with the radio station and the signal was intermittent, Li Mingrui could only report the enemy situation and the search for Huang Dali and Dong Ping within the limited communication time, but as for his current situation, he did not say anything about it.

Now the temperature in the mountains has dropped sharply, the snow is waistless, and it is extremely difficult to move. The detachments have been active in the mountains for quite some time, and I am afraid that they have already run out of supplies. Let them continue to persist in the mountains, which made Yang Zhen a little worried.

Hearing that Yang Zhen was a little hesitant, Guo Bingxun pondered for a while and said: "In this way, anyway, we still need to take a day or two off to make dry food, adjust ammunition, and make final adjustments to the formation of the troops, and we can't go out immediately." As for their situation, when the time comes to contact them in the evening, talk to them, ask for their opinions, and then make a final decision. ”

Hearing that Yang Zhen was about to lead his troops south to Dunhua to fight, the commander-in-chief raised opposing opinions. In the commander-in-chief's view, since he has already chosen to attack, he might as well choose the target of the sortie farther away and hit it out. In this way, the enemy can be better mobilized, and it is also more conducive to protecting the secret camp.

The commander-in-chief's opinion is obvious, and he suggested that Yang Zhen should choose the target of the sortie in the Xiajiang area, so that he could coordinate with the Seventh Army, the remainder of the Fourth Army and the Fifth Army, which is currently retreating northward, as well as the troops of the Second Army, which may still be active in the Jidong area. In this way, having a mutual reliance will be more convenient for the activities of the troops.

Moreover, as the Japanese puppet army's liquidation of the Xiajiang area comes to an end, it is very likely that the Japanese puppet army in the Xiajiang area has withdrawn one after another, so that the hostile situation in the Xiajiang area will be relatively eased to a certain extent. The Xiajiang area is connected with the mountains and rivers where it is currently located, and the south can coordinate with the troops left in the Jidong area by the First Route Army, and the north can get in touch with the troops of the Third Route Army. Moreover, the Xiajiang area is the main activity area of the Second and Third Route Armies of the Anti-Japanese Federation, and the mass base is much better.

In the commander-in-chief's view, attacking Xiajiang is undoubtedly the best plan under the current situation, whether it is the enemy's situation or our own situation. The most important thing is to jump out of the outside line to fight, and effectively mobilize the Japanese puppet army that is very capable of carrying out a clean-up operation against the secret camp of the old black top in the next step, and protect this base area.

Regarding the commander-in-chief's construction, Yang Zhen pondered for a moment before saying: "Your construction has a certain truth. But commander-in-chief, how long will it take for us to get in touch with the troops of the Third Route Army and the First Route Army in the Jidong area, and will you be able to find them in a short time? ”

|“ As for the Seventh Army, commander-in-chief, do you think they still have the strength to take the initiative to attack the enemy? For the Seventh Army, what is more needed now is to cultivate one's body and regain one's strength. Although the Japanese puppet army has entered the end of the Xiajiang area, the fact that the commander-in-chief has entered the end does not mean that the Japanese puppet army will withdraw from the Xiajiang region in a short time. ”

"Indeed, as the main force of the Japanese army to clean up the lower river. The 8th Wing of the 4th Division has been repatriated, but we do not know how many Japanese puppet troops there are in the Xiajiang area. The only thing that is clear at the moment is that the Japanese army did not use its troops in the Xiajiang area for our clearance. Therefore, I think that the Japanese army may withdraw the Japanese troops, but the puppet Manchu army will not only not be transferred, but will also increase the number of troops if it is not done well. ”

"The Xiajiang region, which is backed by the Soviet Union, is a key direction of the Kwantung Army's future operations against the Soviet Union. The Japanese army will definitely focus on fortification here. It is even possible that we think that the Japanese army will be from the Xiajiang area, which will be our wishful thinking. The Xiajiang area is going to attack, but it must first fight a battle. ”

"The first is to give the enemy the impression that our army has to move because the secret camp has been exposed. Second, it is also to better mobilize the strength of the Japanese puppet army in the Xiajiang area. Find a way to attract some of the Japanese puppet troops in the Xiajiang area. It will bring greater convenience to the troops to attack on the outside line. ”

"And the most fundamental one is that we must have a clear goal when we attack Xiajiang. Now we are very unfamiliar with the shape of the lower river, and we don't know anything about what is going on there. So this battle, we have to fight. The Eighth Wing of the Devils has just been withdrawn from the Xiajiang area, and it should be clear about the shape there. As long as we catch the captives, I think we should be able to get some useful information. ”

Regarding Yang Zhen's idea of interrogating prisoners to obtain intelligence in the Xiajiang area, not to mention the commander-in-chief, even Guo Bingxun, Li Yanping, Peng Dingjie and several others felt ridiculous. The commander-in-chief, Li Yanping, and several people from the Anti-Japanese Federation knew that it might be relatively easy to capture the Japanese police, but it would be even more difficult to capture a Japanese prisoner.

In particular, this fourth division is a regular field division of the Japanese army, and it is said to be the first regular army division since the Meiji Emperor created a new army. His qualifications are one of the best in the Japanese Army. It is simply impossible to capture prisoners of war in such Japanese troops. At least the Anti-Japanese Federation has been active in the Northeast for several years, but the captured prisoners can still be counted even by a slap.

Most of these captives were Japanese policemen who were far less resilient than those Japanese soldiers. The prisoners of the regular army cannot be said to be none, but almost pitiful few. And these captives, even if they are captured, this mouth is difficult to pry open. This is very different from the captured Japanese puppet army spies.

Although the commander-in-chief and Li Yanping and several people from the Anti-Japanese Federation felt that Yang Zhen's idea was a bit ridiculous, they looked at Yang Zhen, who was full of confidence, and didn't open his mouth to ask. But Guo Bingxun said directly: "Regiment commander, you want to capture Japanese prisoners to obtain intelligence, this is an idea in theory." But in practice, it can be difficult. ”

"Since the outbreak of the full-scale war between China and Japan in the July 7 Incident last year, the battle has been fought for nearly a year until we were captured. However, the tenacity and tenacity of the Japanese soldiers are rare among other countries. Even for the German army, which has always been strong-willed, it was far inferior. In the unfavorable situation, he would rather commit suicide than be willing to be captured. The millions of troops of the national army fought several major battles, but very few prisoners were captured. Moreover, these prisoners of war were extremely difficult to tame and to extract useful confessions from them. ”

"During the Battle of Xuzhou, I heard the Sichuan Army Pao Ze, who fought with the Eighteenth Group Army in the Second War Zone, mention that when your Eighteenth Army was in the Battle of Pingxingguan, it paid a lot of price for trying to capture a few prisoners. We can't let tragedy happen to our troops, and let them sacrifice in vain for a few prisoners who don't open their mouths. ”

Regarding the worries of several people, Yang Zhen smiled and said: "If you talk about dealing with other Japanese troops, I really don't have the confidence." But in the face of the troops of this Fourth Division, as long as we fight smoothly, I still have no problem getting a few Japanese prisoners. And I promise that as long as we can catch the captives, they will be able to speak. ”

As for Yang Zhen's confidence that he would definitely be able to catch the captive, a few people didn't know very well. But since he insisted on obtaining information from Japanese prisoners, it was difficult for others to say anything. After all, the battle has not yet begun, and it is possible that it will not be. When the time comes, depending on the situation, find a way to persuade yourself.

It's just that what a few people never expected was that in the battles of Dunhua in the south, Yang Zhen's promise to capture prisoners was not only fulfilled, but also made a lot. And to the surprise of a few people, these hardly like the tenacious Japanese soldiers they remembered, only received a few lashes, and then said anything.

Its backbone is so low that even those puppet Manchurian military and police are far inferior. Of course, this is all an afterthought, for a few people in front of them, since they can't persuade Yang Zhen, then the most important thing now is how to figure out how to fight this battle.

Just when Yang Zhen and Guo Bingxun were adjusting their troops and making final preparations for the southward attack on Dunhua, the personnel of the Seventh Army brought by the traffic officers who had withdrawn north to the Tongjiang and Fujin areas to communicate with the commander-in-chief brought bad news to the commander-in-chief. This bad news almost crushed the commander-in-chief.

Although they withdrew north to the Fujin and Tongjiang areas to avoid the advance of the Japanese army, the predicament faced by the troops of the Seventh Army who retreated north was not fundamentally alleviated. Although the Seventh Army relied on favorable intelligence support and concentrated a small force to kill a Japanese major general on the Ussuri River, it itself was also retaliated by the Japanese puppet army.

Since the beginning of winter, the Seventh Army has suffered extremely heavy losses under the strict blockade and encirclement of the Japanese army. Not only were all the secret camps lost under the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese puppet army, but also most of their own losses. The North Manchurian region has entered a bitter cold, but the Seventh Army has never been able to raise enough cotton clothing, and the troops can hardly survive the winter.

In order to raise cotton clothes and winter supplies for the soldiers, in desperation, the acting commander of the Seventh Army, who had just been in office for less than a month, could only take the risk of concentrating the main force and risking to fight the market town where the Japanese puppet army was heavily armed under the severe enemy situation.

For the Seventh Army, which is still well-informed, they know that the devil's blockade plan has changed greatly compared with the beginning of the year. The Japanese puppet army concentrated all its supplies in the larger villages and towns where it was heavily garrisoned, and distributed supplies according to the number of people. Even if he defeated a few group tribes, he couldn't raise enough supplies.

In order to allow the troops to survive in the seemingly cruel winter of North Manchuria, even if the acting commander knew that it was the Longtan Tiger's Den, he could only bite the bullet. However, this acting army commander can be regarded as a tiger general, and he adopted the method of diverting the tiger from the mountain, bluffing most of the Japanese puppet army stationed at the target, and personally commanding a main division of the Seventh Army to take advantage of the weakness to conquer the target.

Although sufficient supplies and supplies were raised in this battle, they were caught up by the Japanese puppet cavalry on the way to retreat. In order to cover these materials to ensure the winter of the Seventh Army, the acting commander personally led the two main regiments to break off.

After half a day of hard fighting, although the supplies were saved, in the end, because of the disparity in strength, the covering troops were all wiped out. The acting commander and most of the soldiers were killed, and a small number of soldiers were scattered.

Although the more than 30 soldiers who were scattered were regrouped under the help of a regimental political commissar, they could only go south to find the headquarters of the Second Route Army because the back road was cut off.

After an arduous long journey, a small number of left-behind troops left by the commander-in-chief were found in a newly built secret camp in the southeast mountains of Fangzheng. At this time, the more than 30 soldiers who went south were extremely difficult to raise supplies because of hunger and cold, and when they arrived at Fangzheng, they sacrificed a lot because of cold and hunger, and less than half of them were already killed.

In order to report to the commander-in-chief the situation of the Seventh Army, it was also difficult for the left-behind troops to maintain themselves because they were not sufficiently supplied, and the supply of the Seventh Army troops could not be solved at all. The political commissar of the regiment could only take the last fifteen people of the main division of the Seventh Army to the south under the escort of the traffic officer of the headquarters of the Second Route Army and continue to search for the commander-in-chief.

Because the Japanese puppet army blockaded the mountainous area southwest of Ning'an very strictly, and they were not familiar with the terrain, they wandered around the blockade line for ten days before they learned a path into the mountains from the mouth of an old ginseng picker. In just these few days, the remaining dozen or so fighters died four more because of cold and hunger. By the time they found the commander-in-chief at Yang Zhen's place, there were less than ten people left in the two most complete main regiments of the Seventh Army.

Hearing the report of the political commissar of the regiment, looking at the less than ten soldiers left in the two regiments of the third division of the main force of the Seventh Army, the commander-in-chief's eyes were dark, and he almost fainted. For the Second Route Army, which had already lost its embers, the Seventh Army, which had barely maintained its formation, was almost the only hope for the commander-in-chief to continue fighting when some of the scattered troops of the Fifth Army's Western Expedition did not know where to go.

Although the Seventh Army suffered heavy losses in this year's large-scale sweep of the Xiajiang area by the Japanese puppet army, and its strength has sharply reduced from more than 1,000 to more than 200 at present, its overall strength is still the largest among the Second Route Army, and at the same time, it is also the most complete structure.

Although the Seventh Army was reduced to two divisions due to huge troop losses after withdrawing to the Tongjiang and Fujin areas, its strength and backbone still existed. In particular, when the Fourth Army was completely annihilated, most of the Fifth Army was lost, the whereabouts of one part were unknown, and the only third division that remained in Xiajiang during the Western Expedition was almost completely lost, it became the largest and strongest army in the Second Route Army.

However, this time, the Seventh Army's more than 200 people lost nearly half of its strength, and the army commander was also killed. Of the five regiments after the downsizing, only three remained. It can even be said that four out of ten. This is still the casualties that I know, and the casualties of the rest of the troops as a feint, which have not yet been included. Excluding the casualties of this battle, the commander-in-chief knew how much of a role the remaining more than 100 people of the Seventh Army could play in the face of such a grim situation.

What the commander-in-chief is most worried about now is how the anti-Japanese war situation in the Xiajiang area will go under the situation that the Seventh Army has suffered a setback and the once strong Second Route Army has few troops left. And the safety of the remaining troops of the Seventh Army is not too worrying for the commander-in-chief.

Although the commander of the Seventh Army was killed, his classmate of Yunnan Jiangwutang, who was also the secretary of the Party Special Committee of the Seventh Army, and the chief of staff of the founder of the Seventh Army, was still there. As long as he is there, there should be no major problems with the remaining troops of the Seventh Army. But for the commander-in-chief, the way out for the Seventh Army in the future is what he urgently needs to face.