The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 316 Madang is lost
After learning that the Military Commission actually issued an order to the assault corps to prepare for dispatch, He Wei immediately ran back to the corps headquarters and prepared to ask Wang Yuanling about the specific situation.

When He Wei ran back to the headquarters out of breath, he saw Wang Yuanling sitting on a chair and smoking with a sad face. When Wang Yuanling saw He Wei coming back, he immediately handed the message in his hand to He Wei.

"Captain, the boss has given an order."

He Wei grabbed the still-warm telegram and read it through without daring to miss a word.

"I heard that the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs conducted an inspection when your army was established. According to the report from Minister He, your army is training well and actively reorganizing the training. The results are very good, which is commendable. I still look forward to supervising the subordinates of your army to continue to work hard. At present, the battle situation ahead The emergency has suddenly changed, and your department is ordered to prepare for war immediately and prepare to depart when ordered. The required ordnance is reported to the Ministry of Military Affairs immediately for replenishment. Food and ammunition will be provided at the military station near the station without delay. After the replenishment, we must actively prepare. We will order your department to go to Hankou later. Move in and gather nearby, hope to prepare early, Military Commission."

After He Wei read the telegram, the Military Commission first praised the Assault Corps for its outstanding performance in the formation ceremony, and then issued the military order.

But this military order left He Wei a little confused.

He first emphasized the critical situation of the previous battle, but without going into details, he asked the assault team to step up preparations for the battle, and then inexplicably came to assemble towards Hankou.

Moreover, it was still a "preparatory order." After reading the entire telegram, He Wei felt that it was shrouded in fog, without any specific content or situation.

After reading the telegram, He Wei said: "What does this mean, Layer Feng? I won't tell you what the problem is at the front. Half of this order is nonsense!"

Wang Yuanling sighed and said: "Yes, not only was there no specific report on the battle situation on the front line, but he just asked us to prepare to move to Hankou, and he also used a mock order. This order was also a bit ambiguous, but I have already dealt with it. , I have several classmates from the Army University who serve in the Wuhan Garrison Command, and I am going to contact them to find out the specific situation."

"Can it be done? After all, it involves military information, and there is a risk of leaking the secrets."

Wang Yuanling said: "Don't worry, Captain. I think since the Military Commission said it was a critical situation on the front line, it is probably because the war situation has worsened or something went wrong. This kind of thing cannot be hidden, and there is no need to hide it. There will be no problem. , and they are all my classmates. Our classmates have had a deep relationship for several years. Even if there are really some undisclosed secrets, they will reveal some details to me. "

"Okay, then as soon as possible."

He Wei nodded to Wang Yuanling, then fell into deep thought, repeatedly savoring the contents of the telegram from the Military Commission.
A few days later, He Wei and Wang Yuanling repeatedly discussed the contents of the telegram but failed to come up with a solution. However, Wang Yuanling's connections accumulated at Army University showed a transcendent effect.

In just a few days, Wang Yuanling's classmates at the Wuhan Garrison Command enthusiastically sent a special person to deliver a very detailed war briefing document to the commando corps, as well as various gossip and rumors obtained by Wang Yuanling's classmates through private channels. Obscure rumors.

After receiving this batch of war reports, He Wei understood the ins and outs of the recent frontline war situation.

It turned out that as early as May, in order to capture Wuhan as quickly as possible after the capture of Xuzhou, the Japanese army decided to use a force to capture Anqing as an advance base for the attack on Wuhan, and then use the main force to attack the area north of the Dabie Mountains along the Huaihe River, and capture Wuhan from Wusheng Pass. .

The other group moved westward along the Yangtze River. Later, because the government dug up the Yellow River embankment and flooded the Yellow River with Huayuankou, the Seventh Army's tactics created a large yellow flood area. The Japanese army was forced to suspend the plan to attack Wuhan along the Huaihe River and instead use the main force to attack Wuhan along both sides of the Yangtze River. attack.

The current overall deployment of the Japanese army is that Okamura Neiji commands five and a half divisions of the Japanese Eleventh Army to attack Wuhan along both sides of the Yangtze River; King Higashino Miyashihiko commands four and a half divisions of the Second Army to assist Wuhan along the northern foot of the Dabie Mountains .

In mid-June, the Japanese army began a full-scale offensive, sending heavy troops from Wuhu to the west of the Yangtze River and launched a surprise attack on Anqing. The 6th Group Army of the Yang Sen Department of the Sichuan Army guarding Anqing was caught off guard and lost its position after fighting all night.

After capturing Anqing, the Japanese army continued to advance westward along the Yangtze River, and soon arrived at the Madang Fortress, the national army's key river defense pass on the Yangtze River.

The problem lies in this Madang Fortress.

After the fall of Nanjing, the Madang Fortress became the first line of defense for Japanese troops entering the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The government spent a huge amount of money to reinforce the Madang Fortress, dispatched marines to the fortress, and added many ships dismantled from naval warships. The naval artillery team strengthened the defensive firepower of Madang Fortress.

While reinforcing Madang, the Chinese army continued to block the waterway with mines and ships. It also mobilized the 16th Army of the Army to strengthen the defensive strength of the Madang Fortress. Li Yunheng, commander of the 16th Army, served as the commander of the Mahu Fortress.

The government worked hard near the Madang Fortress and invested a large amount of military and weapon resources. It can be said that the Madang Fortress was built into a strong fortress to stop the Japanese army.

The Military Commission and senior government officials also placed high hopes on it, believing that it could hold off the Japanese army for at least a month.

Although the Madang Fortress was very strong in terms of hardware, the garrison was stretched thin.

When the Japanese Botian detachment arrived at the Madang Fortress, they did not immediately launch an attack on land. Instead, they took the lead in launching an exploratory attack with naval vessels. Unfortunately, there were too many mines, sunken ships and artificial reefs along the river, and the artillery in the fortress was also weak. They fought back bravely and blocked the Japanese navy moving up the river.

Seeing that it was not feasible to go up the river, the Japanese army switched to a roundabout land attack. In the early morning of June 6, the main land defenders of the Madang Fortress, the Sixteenth Army, launched a land roundabout attack from the eastward direction of the defense line of the 24th Army.

After the initial bloody battle on the river, the Japanese land roundabout troops, who thought they would go through a hard battle, succeeded in the land roundabout attack very easily.

It turned out that two days before the Japanese army launched a roundabout attack on land, Li Yunheng, the commander of the 16th Army and the supreme commander of Madang Fortress, somehow made a mistake. A two-week so-called "Anti-Japanese Military and Political University" was opened there. The training targets were the nearby township chiefs and security chiefs, as well as deputy officers, platoon leaders and some company commanders in the 16th Army.

Ironically, the day the Japanese army launched its land attack was actually the graduation ceremony of the so-called Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. When the Japanese army came over, most of the officers of the land defenders were attending this graduation ceremony.

Almost all the junior officers of the Sixteenth Army were not at their posts. The entire army was in a state of paralysis without organization, chief officers, and no command. Facing the fierce attack of the Japanese army, they were quickly defeated and could only defend the core position of the fortress. , the Marine Corps, which did not send anyone to attend the graduation ceremony, put up a more effective resistance.

When the overall situation was about to collapse, the Marine Corps guarding the core position of Madang Fortress repeatedly asked for help from the commander of the 16th Army, Li Yunheng, but to no avail. Seeing that Li Yunheng was unreliable, they directly sent a telegram asking for help to Wuhan, breaking the news. The highest authority is Chang Kaishen. After learning about the fighting situation at Madang Fortress, Chang Kaishen, the highest authority, was also anxious and hurriedly sent a telegram to Xiao Zhuge, a Guangxi leader who was inspecting the Tianjia Town Fortress behind Madang Fortress, asking him to take immediate measures.

Xiao Zhuge reacted quickly and gave an order to the 167th Division of the 16th Army stationed in Pengze, asking the division commander Xue Weiying to immediately lead his troops along the nearby wide road to reinforce the Madang Fortress.

Almost immediately, Li Yunheng, commander of the 16th Army who discovered the situation, also sent a telegram to Xue Weiying, commander of the 167th Division, asking him to take a small road to reinforce the Madang Fortress.

Faced with two different orders, Xue Weiying, the commander of the 167th Division, did not know what he was thinking. In the critical situation of the military situation, he did not take Xiao Zhuge's order to take the wide and smooth highway, but took the small road to reinforce Madang Fortress. As a result, the Madang Fortress was declared lost before they had gone very far. The Marine Corps, which had held on to the core position for two days, suffered heavy casualties and was almost out of ammunition and food. They had to break out and abandon their position.

The Madang Fortress, which had high hopes, declared its fall in a very absurd way.

According to the national government's battle plan, Madang Fortress could be defended for at least a month, but it was lost before it could even be defended for a week.

Chang Kaishen, the highest authority, saw that Madang, which he had hoped to defend for a month, was lost before he could even defend it for a week. He called Chen Cheng, commander of the Ninth War Zone, over night and scolded him. Chen Cheng immediately ordered the 16th Army and the 4th Army. The 19th Army counterattacked Madang.

In the face of the Chinese army's counterattack, the Japanese army made good use of the strong first-level national defense fortifications at Madang Fortress. Relying on the strong fortifications, the Chinese army's attacks were repeatedly frustrated and suffered heavy casualties. Chen Cheng had to order a halt to the attack.

Seeing that there was no hope of recovering the Madang Fortress, the highest authorities angrily dismissed Li Yunheng, commander of the 16th Army, who was responsible for the fall of the fortress, and shot Xue Weiying, commander of the 167th Division of the 16th Army, who was unfavorable for reinforcements.

After the Madang Fortress was lost, the Japanese Botian detachment that captured the Madang Fortress and the 106th Division that came for reinforcements attacked Pengze, and Pengze fell.

Seeing that the situation was serious, Chen Cheng strictly ordered the 64th Army of the Guangdong Army of Li Hanhun's Department stationed in Hukou to counterattack Peng Ze. After some fighting, the Japanese army not only repelled Li Hanhun's attack, but also took advantage of the momentum and rushed towards Hukou, and Hukou also declared its fall.

Madang, Pengze, and Hukou were lost one after another, and the entire war situation took a turn for the worse.

In the war room of the Assault Corps, He Wei's face turned red after reading the war report. He punched the table and bounced several documents out.

"Damn it, Li Yunheng is a pig-head, what the hell is he doing at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University? Why didn't the principal drag this guy to death?"

He Wei couldn't help but curse, and Wang Yuanling, the chief of staff on the side, also beat his chest and shouted that Li Yunheng was harming the country.

After seeing the specific process and details of the loss of Madang Fortress, He Wei and Wang Yuanling's blood pressure could be said to have skyrocketed.

The reason for the loss of a position could be due to lack of fighting strength, inferior weapons, or even poor command. However, the reason for the loss of Madang Fortress was actually because the top commander of the fortress had an addiction to becoming a principal.

Anyone who sees it will definitely curse.

After venting enough, Wang Yuanling packed up the documents and asked He Wei: "Captain, based on the current war situation, do you think the Military Commission is planning to use our unit in which direction when it asks our assault force to prepare for war? "

He Wei walked to the battle map, frowned and took the baton, pointed at Hankou, the assault team assembly point scheduled by the Military Commission, and slowly said: "Judging from the current battle situation, the Japanese can be said to have won consecutive battles and victories." , march forward, and then their offensive method will definitely be the same. The army and navy will advance together along the land and the Yangtze River. When the navy encounters trouble, the army will make a detour. If the army's attack is unfavorable, the navy will find a way to make a breakthrough on the river. "

"In my opinion, although our army has been defeated one after another, our Assault Corps is just a reinforced regiment-level unit. If we really want to fight the Japanese army attacking along the land, it will not be inferior to the strength of our Assault Corps. If a regiment is thrown into a large-scale combat battlefield on land, it will be completely useless, and it will not be able to give full play to the advantages of our regiment. "

Wang Yuanling said doubtfully: "What do you mean, captain?"

The baton in He Wei's hand meanders along the Yangtze River adjacent to Hankou.

"In my opinion, our team is most likely to be used here!"

The baton stopped and landed on the key pass on the map, located southwest of Guangji and on the north bank of the Yangtze River. The sign of this key pass on the map had the three characters "Tianjia Town" written on it.

Wang Yuanling asked anxiously: "Will our team be thrown into Jiangfang?"

He Wei nodded: "Brother Yuan Ling, think about it, if our corps is going to be used to reinforce land operations, why would the Military Commission ask us to be ready to go to Hankou? There is a train station near us, and an order comes down We can get on the vehicle. Besides, the Japanese army's attack on land is overwhelming and the land march is slow. If we really want to put our regiment into land operations, why bother hiding it in the order of the Military Commission? "

After being reminded by He Wei, Wang Yuanling quickly responded: "So, the Military Commission asked us to prepare to go to Hankou. It wants us to prepare in advance. When the order comes, our regiment will directly take a boat and march from Hankou to Tianjia. The fortress area around the town is responsible for river defense."

"Yes, what Brother Yuan Ling said is true. After the loss of Madang Fortress, the Tianjia Town Fortress was the last line of defense along the river to defend Wuhan. As soon as the Madang Fortress was lost, Shangfeng would definitely pay more attention to Tianjia Town, and the fortress garrison The scale cannot be very large, but the requirements for the combat effectiveness of the troops are not low. Our team just meets these two requirements, so I think we will probably be pulled to the front line of Tianjia Town to serve as Jiang defense. "

The baton in He Wei's hand kept tapping the combat map, his eyes fixed on the location of Tianjia Town Fortress.

His thoughts were also drawn to Tianjia Town, which was located on the side of the rolling river.

(End of this chapter)