20_20434 Yang Zhen thinks that he does not know much or comprehensively about the real combat effectiveness of the entire southern Anhui army and the ability of commanders at all levels, which is why Yang Zhen dares to boldly delegate power to this Xiyi commander. He was granted real military command that he had never received since the formation of the New Fourth Army.

For Yang Zhen, it is much better to let someone who is familiar with the troops to command than a stranger himself. Yang Zhen, who was born in a real soldier, thought that he would not be inferior to the commander in front of him on the battlefield. But in terms of understanding the troops, he can only be said to be an outsider so far.

As the founder of a unit, except for the deputy commander who has already arrived in Yan'an, it is obvious that no one will be more familiar with the combat effectiveness of his subordinates than this commander. It is better to leave the battle to the command of someone who is familiar with the army than to know the army yourself.

This is not the Northeast, and the troops led by him are not the New Anti-Japanese Federation that they created and know everything about themselves. Although most of the commanders above the regimental level were from the old Red Army. Basically, all of them have gone through the test of three years of guerrilla warfare and the Long March, and they are all veterans who have been in battle for a long time. There are even many commanders at the division level in the Red Army, but for Yang Zhen, they are still quite unfamiliar.

Lin Jianqiu and Xiang Yongzhang were originally selected to stay and insist, except for the recommendation of the commander and political commissar of a detachment who was familiar with the situation of the military department. The resumes of the two people are also one of the reasons why Yang Zhen made up his mind. Lin Jianqiu was born as a veteran guerrilla and had rich experience in guerrilla warfare.

Moreover, Lin Jianqiu is not the main commander of the troops, and he insists that the combat effectiveness of each unit will not be affected because of the adjustment of the military commander. Compared with Lin Jianqiu, the reason why Xiang Yongzhang was selected is simpler. Because he is a native of southern Anhui, he is quite familiar with the terrain and folk conditions here.

If he had time to become more familiar with these cadres, Yang Zhen would never have been so hasty when choosing candidates. At least in terms of military commanders, he will still think about it carefully. But now, when the troops are about to set off and it is not appropriate for the military and political commanders of each regiment to change, Yang Zhen thinks that it is still a good choice to transfer these two people.

The lack of a deep understanding of the combat effectiveness of the troops was one of the main reasons why Yang Zhen delegated power to the army commander. But now, since Yang Zhen has said that he will not participate in the combat deployment, he really does what he says. When the commander was deploying for battle, although he sat on the side, he did not say a word.

When the commander is deployed, he habitually looks at him and wants to ask for his opinion on the deployment. He only emphasized the basic strategic requirements of meeting the brave on a narrow road and concentrating troops and firepower, but did not say a word more. Just sitting there, not knowing what was on my mind.

Looking at Yang Zhen, who didn't say a word, and even put on a look of closing his eyes and recuperating, the army commander and several senior generals around him could only shake their heads with a wry smile. The young new political commissar was too relaxed. If you are a political commissar, you must at least play a supervisory role.

According to the regulations, the political commissar has the final decision-making power. In the course of the operation, it is responsible for the final check of the entire combat operation. But you, the political commissar, didn't say a word, and now you even close your eyes, obviously putting on the appearance that I trust you completely. Is this commissar so deserved?

In fact, Yang Zhen's name and experience are basically known to the senior generals here. Since the start of the battle, everyone wants to see what this self-made young general who has laid down such a big piece of the world in the northeast has what he is capable of. But they didn't expect that the new political commissar would put on such a posture when he arrived on the battlefield.

Compared with the cadres at all levels around them, they have their own differences. The commander who finally gained the real command of the battlefield had mixed feelings in his heart. Relative to the previous distrust, and even exclusion. This young man, who is almost twenty years younger than himself, has given him trust at a critical moment, but this military commander is quite unaccustomed to it.

After adjusting the deployment, the army commander turned his head and wanted to ask Yang Zhen for advice on his entire deployment. Unexpectedly, after Yang Zhen simply finished two sentences, he closed his eyes and recuperated. In desperation, the commander had no choice but to turn around and continue to discuss the battle situation ahead.

It's just that what everyone present didn't know was that Yang Zhen seemed to be recuperating at this time, but in fact, his head didn't rest for a moment. The commander had just made a deployment, and he heard it very clearly. However, in Yang Zhen's view, it is undoubtedly an extremely correct decision to concentrate troops at the moment to defeat the 40th Division of that year.

Only before the rest of the divisions on all sides come up to encircle them, defeat this roadblock, and enter the Tianmu Mountains of Jingde, can the troops in southern Anhui really escape from danger. At present, there is only one way to Huashan, even if you do it yourself, there is no other better way.

Although Yang Zhen did not express his position on the military deployment, his attitude and previous orders were speechless to all the people, and his trust in the military commander in the military command. At present, when almost everyone knows that the three theaters have already encircled the troops in southern Anhui, his composure made everyone calm down in the face of the sudden appearance of the enemy.

Yang Zhen's way of acting by example with actions obviously gave great confidence to the commander and all the people in the military department. Without interference, the commander who had been given command of the battlefield for the first time since the formation of the New Fourth Army was almost at a super-level performance. One by one, orders were passed from the commander's mouth, and the troops in front were becoming more and more courageous.

The battle continued until noon, under the cover of intensive fire from six 90-millimeter mortars and eight Type 92 heavy machine guns that Yang Zhen had airlifted at random, the 5th Regiment and the old 1st Regiment, which were attacking and advancing eastward from Piling, took the lead in making progress and successively broke through the three blockade lines of the 40th Division. It has successively seized the commanding heights along Jiangjun Mountain, Caojia Mountain and Lugong Mountain.

The 120th Regiment of the 40th Division, which was deployed along the line from Piling to Lugong Mountain, suffered heavy losses under superior firepower and the fierce attacks of the two regiments. Most of the regimental direct subordinate team and the three battalions under it were annihilated, and the rest withdrew to Xingtan to join the 119th Regiment. After the 120th Regiment was defeated, a battalion of the old 1st Regiment that launched an attack along the mountain beam on the west side had already entered the west of Xingtan.

An hour after the advance of the old regiment arrived at Xingtan, the main force of the fifth regiment that launched an attack on the east side also arrived less than five miles southwest of Xingtan. At this time, the old 1st Regiment and the 5th Regiment, which had launched a frontal attack from the military headquarters, had already formed a pincer offensive against Xingtan. As long as Xingtan is taken, it means that the entire blockade line deployed in the southeast direction of the three theaters will be torn apart. As long as the entire southern Anhui army passes through Guò Xingtan, it will enter the Tianmu Mountains, which means that they have escaped and ascended to heaven.

At the same time that great progress was being made in the center, the 1st column on the left flank, after a hard battle until 15 p.m., defeated and intercepted a reinforced battalion of the 52nd Division, a search company, a pistol company, and a special service battalion of the division, and completed the task assigned by the military headquarters to forcibly cross the Hui River and seize the important place of Bangshan in the east of the river.

After completing the first phase of the combat mission assigned by the military headquarters, the first column left the deputy commander to command the old third regiment to build a position on the spot and block the follow-up troops of the 52nd Division in the north, and the new 1st and 3rd regiments, the main force, the new 1st and 3rd regiments, made a 90-degree turn.

The first column concentrated the strength of two regiments and the strength of the two special service battalions directly under it, and under the cover of three mortars reinforced by the military headquarters and more than 10 Czech light machine guns and Hatch Chase heavy machine guns, it forced its southward attack. Before sunset, they successively captured the front line of Jushan and Diaolichong, and the forward directly threatened the flank of the main force of the 40th Division of Xingtan and the covered bridge where the baggage of the 40th Division was located.

The breakthrough of the 1st Column on the left flank forced the 40th Division to transfer a battalion of the 119th Regiment from the flank and rear of the 120th Regiment in the front, and the division's special service battalion and engineer battalion to the line from Jushan to Madu, so as to stop the fierce offensive of the 1st Column. Although this action of the 40th Division temporarily stopped the offensive of a column, it weakened Xingtan's strength.

The 40th Division is a descendant unit of the Central Army in the Third Theater, although its equipment is not as elite as the 52nd Division, which has a full set of French-style equipment. But in the entire three war zones, it is also one of the best. Not only are there light and heavy machine guns, but there are also divisional mountain artillery battalions, and the shells are also sufficient. The combat effectiveness is also first-class among the troops currently deployed in southern Anhui.

However, under the two-sided attack of the first column and the troops directly under the army headquarters that attacked head-on, the 40th Division, despite desperate resistance, fell into a situation of being left and right under the fire of the various units regardless of the loss of ammunition. While the front and left flanks were constantly being broken through, the division commander Fang Riying was constantly adjusting his deployment in order to plug the bigger and bigger loopholes, but he couldn't help but scratch his head.

He could not help but scratch his head when he received a report that the forward troops had suffered heavy casualties and had to retreat under the intense firepower of the New Fourth Army in the face, especially the intensive machine-gun fire and mortar fire. Doesn't it mean that the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui lacks guns and ammunition and is extremely poorly equipped? But how did it come to his own head, and only one attack surface could concentrate dozens of light and heavy machine guns at once, as well as a large number of mortars?

The ammunition was like a splash of water, and it didn't look like it was scarce at all, especially since it was also equipped with a large number of hand-held machine guns. How could he be so rich all of a sudden? Not to mention being able to fight against his own troops, he can still suppress his own troops in terms of firepower intensity?

What puzzled him even more was that his mountain artillery battalion, which was deployed in the rear position on the east bank of the Hui River and was equipped with eight French-style 75 Schneider mountain guns, lost contact after only a few shells. When someone was sent to check, in addition to the inexplicable disarmed artillery, this mountain artillery battalion was only a pile of wreckage that had been blown up.

And the artillery that was beaten and blinded, until the whole army was destroyed, I don't know who did it. All they knew was that a group of people dressed in fancy clothes and carrying a strange automatic firearm that had never been seen even in the equipment of the Wanguo brand, with the cooperation of some small units of the New Fourth Army, took advantage of the gaps in the forward troops to infiltrate the artillery positions. After disarming the artillery and blowing up all the artillery, he rushed away before the reinforcements arrived.

The artillery was completely wiped out, all the artillery was lost, and the artillery, which had lost its full set of weapons and equipment, did not know anything. Although Fang Riying was furious, he was helpless, so he had to be shot by the artillery battalion commander who he thought was derelict in his duties.