The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 503 Arriving in Nanning and Deploying Defenses

Nanning, Guangxi, also known as the Green City, Yongcheng, Southern Water City, and Five Elephant City, is located in southwest Guangxi and is an important city in southwest Guangxi. Nanning is located at the confluence of Zuojiang, Youjiang and Yongjiang rivers. It has an excellent shipping location and is one of the two river transportation centers in Guangxi (the other is Wuzhou).

In the southwest, import and export trade can be carried out with France and Vietnam. If goods from the coastal areas of Guangdong want to enter the hinterland of Yunnan and Guizhou, or if goods from Yunnan and Guizhou want to be sold to the coastal areas, they must transit through Nanning.

Before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Nanning was once the provincial capital of Guangxi. Its economy and transportation were quite developed. In particular, the Guangxi clique carried out large-scale construction in Guangxi before the war and built Guangxi according to the standards of a "model province". As a result, Nanning became more developed. For example, Southwest Airlines, the first airline in China to open international routes, was first established in Nanning, and its routes directly connect Hanoi and Nanning.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, there was a possibility that the Japanese army would land on the coast of Guangxi, and Nanning was only 150 kilometers away from the coastal area. In this case, it would be inappropriate for Nanning to be the wartime provincial capital. Therefore, for national defense reasons, before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the New Guangxi Clique moved the Guangxi provincial government from Nanning to Guilin. However, the relocation of the provincial government did not affect the importance of the city of Nanning.

Not only is its economy, commerce, education, and industry quite developed, but more importantly, Nanning is located at the central hub of the Gui-Vietnam transportation line, which is extremely important in the overall situation of the current War of Resistance. This transportation line runs from Vietnam to Zhennan Pass, and then reaches Nanning via the Yong-Long Highway or the Zuojiang Waterway, and then from Nanning, via the Yong-Liu Highway to Liuzhou to connect to the Hunan-Guangxi Railway. Its importance can be seen.

Nanning not only guards this important transportation route, but is also an important distribution center for foreign aid materials during the War of Resistance. Many materials shipped from Vietnam have to be unloaded and transferred in Nanning, which also shows the important strategic position of this place.

This important town in southern Guangxi is also the target entry point for the advance team entering Guangxi.

The advance detachment entering Guangxi moved forward very quickly. The assault corps itself was equipped with a large number of trucks, and the 5th Army also provided full assistance. Du Yuming also took out the motor vehicle regiment directly under the 5th Army to fully cooperate with the transportation of the advance detachment entering Guangxi. In addition, the Guilin Headquarters and the Military Commission also requisitioned a large number of trucks and trains for the transportation of the advance detachment entering Guangxi.

Therefore, with the help of a large number of transportation tools, the advance detachment into Guangxi entered the hinterland of Guangxi at an extremely fast speed. In less than a week, this army of more than 20,000 people, carrying a large number of artillery, tanks and other heavy equipment, arrived in Nanning fully equipped. The speed of its advance was extremely fast.

From a military perspective, the advance of the advance detachment into Guangxi was organized very quickly and forcefully. From a political perspective, the arrival of the advance detachment in Nanning also represented the first time that an organized unit of the Central Army entered the territory of the Guangxi clique, which was a solid block. The political significance behind it was also quite significant.

However, neither He Wei, the deputy commander of the advance detachment into Guangxi, nor Dai Anlan, the chief commander, were complacent with the safe arrival of the troops or the political significance behind this mobile march, because the situation and circumstances facing them were indeed not optimistic.

Since the advance detachment entering Guangxi was large in size and had a lot of heavy equipment, and the next operational deployment and defense situation had not yet been determined, after discussions between Dai Anlan and He Wei, the advance detachment entering Guangxi simply temporarily stationed in the vast plains in the western suburbs of Nanning. The formerly sparsely populated and beautiful suburbs of Nanning instantly became a sea of ​​soldiers and a world of the army with the arrival of more than 20,000 troops.

The troops' departure and stationing went very smoothly. The local government of Nanning also expressed great welcome to the arrival of the advance detachment, which made He Wei and Dai Anlan feel relieved. You know, the territory of the Guangxi clique was once known as "impenetrable to water and impenetrable to needles," but now they showed such welcome to the advance detachment, a direct descendant of the Central Army, which was really rare.

As for the reasons behind this, He Wei could also guess it. He estimated that on the one hand, the Guilin Headquarters must have given orders to Nanning, requiring them to fully cooperate with the advance detachment. On the other hand, he estimated that the high-level officials of the New Guangxi Clique such as Little Zhuge Bai Chongxi informed Nanning in advance not to cause trouble, which made the advance detachment's actions so smooth. Otherwise, He Wei and his team's actions would never have been so smooth.

In addition, the local economic situation also made He Wei feel relieved. After all, He Wei was still responsible for a "special mission." The attendant's office wanted him to spend a lot of legal tender in Guangxi and let the central government's currency enter Guangxi, thus helping to achieve the economic unification of Guangxi. But after arriving in Nanning, He Wei found that he didn't have to worry about this matter.

Because, as early as after the Anti-Japanese War, the southern part of Guangxi no longer used only Guangxi currency. Although legal tender and mainstream currency are still the mainstream, there are also people who use legal tender. It is said that in the local black market, more people use legal tender.

Moreover, an exchange system was formed between Guibi and legal tender. Therefore, he did not need to worry about how to spend the legal tender in his hands. As long as he boldly spent money in Nanning, he could carry out the task of "spending legal tender" assigned by his superiors. This really saved He Wei a lot of trouble.

If the currency in southern Guangxi was still the local Guangxi currency and the circulation of legal tender was completely prohibited, He would have to rack his brains to find a way to distribute the legal tender in his hands. But now, some people in the local area have been using legal tender for a long time, so he doesn't need to waste brain cells on this.

As for the military mission, the order given by the Guilin Headquarters to the advance detachment into Guangxi was to strengthen the defense of Nanning and advance to the Qinzhou Bay line when the opportunity arose. Therefore, defending Nanning was undoubtedly the core mission of the advance detachment into Guangxi. He Wei had long been aware of the fact that Nanning's defense was empty, but when he arrived in Nanning, he found that the actual situation there was worse than he had imagined.

In He Wei's original expectation, although the defense of the important city of Nanning was empty, he estimated that there should be some troops stationed here. Not to mention an army, there should be at least one or two divisions stationed here.

The sad thing is that the huge city of Nanning does not even have a field army. The only military force that can be barely called a military force is a Guangxi gendarmerie battalion under the Nanning Military and Police Inspectorate and the police in the city. Their total number is no more than a thousand. They are good at maintaining public order and fighting petty thieves, but as for fighting in the battlefield, forget it.

In addition, there is the Nanning local militia, which has about two thousand people and has little combat effectiveness.

In short, the defense force of this huge city of Nanning is really pitiful. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is an undefended city. On October 10, in a temporary meeting room built in a large military tent at the western suburbs of the advance detachment, He Wei, Dai Anlan and a group of officers sat together. Among the officers, only the deputy commander of the advance detachment, He Wei, and the chief of staff of the assault corps, Wang Yuanling, came from the assault corps, while there were many more officers from the 30th Division.

Including Major General Dai Anlan, commander of the 200th Division who served as the commander of the advance detachment into Guangxi, Major General Peng Bisheng, deputy division commander, Colonel Zhang Zhige, chief of staff, Colonel Gao Jiren, commander of the 200th Infantry Regiment of the 598th Division, Colonel Liu Shuren, commander of the 599th Regiment, Colonel Shao Yizhi, commander of the 600th Regiment, Colonel Dai Enzhan, commander of the 200th Division Supplementary Regiment, and several staff officers of the 200th Division.

There was also a man in a black uniform. He was Deng Zhizhuang, director of the Nanning Military and Police Inspection Department. He was currently the highest commander of the local armed forces in Nanning, or the local tyrant.

The reason why these people gathered together was naturally to discuss the next steps of the advance team entering Guangxi and the defense deployment of Nanning.

Of course, the atmosphere in the conference room was not solemn, because up to now, both Nanning and the coastal areas of Guangxi have been in peace. The Japanese army has not invaded, and the war has not spread to the southern Guangxi area. Among the officers in the conference room, the only one who can be sure that the Japanese army will land in the Qinzhou Bay area in southern Guangxi and raid the hinterland of Guangxi is He Wei, the time traveler.

Therefore, the officers all had some "peace disease" in them.

Of course, this was not obvious in the officers, but the director of the Military and Police Inspectorate of the Guangxi clique was undoubtedly more direct in this regard. Although he was in the conference room, he was obviously absent-minded, and his eyes kept glancing outside the tent, which showed that he did not care about this meeting.

After a while, Dai Anlan spoke first. He cleared his throat, coughed lightly, pointed to the map on the table, and said, "Everyone, our advance detachment has now arrived in Nanning with all its members fully equipped. The Guilin camp has issued an order requiring us to focus on the defense of Nanning, conduct a careful survey of the area around Nanning, and prepare for the defense of Nanning. In addition, we will send a favorable force to the coastal area from Qinzhou to Beihai to reinforce the defense of the coastal defense forces. We are holding this meeting today to discuss specific defense measures."

Dai Anlan then turned his gaze to He Wei and said, "Captain He, you are the deputy commander of the advance detachment, so please tell us your opinion first."

He Wei nodded, and then said, "Then I'll be frank. To be honest, our army's deployment in southern Guangxi is really problematic. To put it simply, there are two points. First, the number of our troops stationed in southern Guangxi is small and the quality is low. The situation we have learned is really not optimistic."

As He Wei said, the current quantity and quality of the Kuomintang troops in Guangxi are indeed not optimistic.

There are only two armies of the National Army in Guangxi and southern Guangdong under the New Guangxi Clique's 19th Army Group (Commander-in-Chief Xia Wei): the 170st Army and the 175th Army. The 135th Army has three infantry divisions (the newly formed 131th Division, the 188th Division, and the th Division), and its combat effectiveness is acceptable. Although the st Army also has three divisions (the th Division, the st Division, and the th Division), this army was a unit of the New Guangxi Clique that returned to Guangxi for reorganization after being defeated in the Battle of Xuzhou. Several divisions suffered heavy losses and have not yet completed reorganization, so their combat effectiveness is relatively low.

This is the current situation of the National Army troops in southern Guangxi. Both the quantity and quality of the troops are very problematic.

"The second point is that there are certain loopholes in our army's defense deployment. At present, the enemy situation of the Guilin camp is that if the Japanese army invades Guangxi, they will use Hainan Island as a base and Liuzhou as a target. The main force will land in Guangzhou Bay and invade Yulin, Guixian, and attack Liuzhou. As for invading Nanning, it will only use a part of the troops as an assist."

"In response to this enemy situation, the Guilin Headquarters deployed the four divisions of the 31th Army (the 135th, 131st, and 188th divisions of the 46st Army and the 170th division of the 46th Army) to Guixian, Guiping, and Pingnan on the north bank of the Yujiang and Xunjiang rivers for training, and built fortifications nearby to prevent or delay the enemy's invasion of Liuzhou. The two divisions of the 19th Army (the newly formed 175th and th divisions) were stationed in Qinzhou and Fangcheng to guard the coastal defense. Therefore, Nanning was basically empty."

"But this strategic assumption completely abandons the possibility that the enemy's main attack direction and target is to land along the coast of Qin County and attack Nanning along the highway from Qinzhou to Nanning. I think this is quite inappropriate. Although the Guilin Camp has deployed our advance detachment into Guangxi as a fresh force in Nanning, in terms of the overall situation, our army's defense force on the line from Nanning to Qinzhou is still insufficient. Under the current situation, it is obviously unrealistic to continue to send troops to the vicinity of Nanning. Therefore, our fresh force that has just arrived in Nanning must make preparations early."

As soon as He Wei finished speaking, a colonel officer said anxiously: "Captain He, if you have any advice, just tell me directly."

He Wei glanced at the officer. The impatient officer was Gao Jiren, the commander of the 200th Regiment of the 598th Division. He was a graduate of the fourth class of Whampoa Military Academy. He had a quick temper and was a straightforward person.

Of course, He Wei's deepest impression of this person was that in another time and space, he served as the army commander in the battle sequence of Qiu Qingquan's Corps during the Huaihai Campaign. He was captured after Qiu Qingquan's Corps was completely wiped out in Chenguanzhuang, and then successfully escaped. After going to Taiwan, he was promoted to lieutenant general. He was also a remarkable man.

As for a more specific combat plan, He Wei, relying on his advantage as a time traveler, actually had one in mind long before he came to Nanning. After arriving in Nanning and understanding the defense situation in the Nanning area, this plan became more specific.

He Wei looked at Dai Anlan at this time and said slowly: "I think that all our deployment decisions should be centered on ensuring Nanning. So, my general idea is to use the 200th Division as the defending corps in Nanning to take on the garrison mission, while my assault corps and the 5st Tank Battalion of the 1th Army Tank Regiment will serve as mobile forces to advance to the Qinzhou-Beihai line for mobile defense and strengthen the coastal defense of the Qinzhou-Beihai line."

(End of this chapter)