Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 470 Overall Battle (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote)
After Zhang Zhonglin's body was transported to Nanjing, Chang Ruiyuan held a grand memorial service for him.

Zhang Zhonglin's coffin was buried on Yingzhou Island in Xuanwu Lake, and Chang Ruiyuan also praised the erection of a monument on the shore of Xuanwu Lake in his memory.

After attending Zhang Zhonglin's funeral, Chang Ruiyuan returned and summoned high-ranking officials from the Ministry of National Defense to berate them.

"In Shandong, you destroyed the 74th Division!"

"In northern Shaanxi, you can't even find a trace of ***!"

"Idiots! A bunch of idiots! You're all going to be in trouble! You're all going to be in trouble!"

After venting his anger for a long time, Chang Ruiyuan convened a military meeting to investigate the responsibility for the failure of the Diecui Mountain Campaign.

Although Zhang Zhonglin blamed Li Yaozong for the defeat of the 74th Division before his death.

However, Chang Ruiyuan's target was Huang Huanran and Li Yaozong right from the start.

"The 25th and 83rd Divisions' failure to provide adequate relief led to the complete annihilation of the 74th Division. Someone must be held accountable for this!"

Huang Huanran wasn't stupid; she understood what was going on as soon as she heard it. It was obvious who was the biological mother and who was the stepmother between the two of them.

If I don't speak up, I'm afraid I'll face not just dismissal, but execution.

“Chairman! I have something to say!” Huang Huanran stood up abruptly.

Chang Ruiyuan was startled by Huang Huanran's strong reaction.

"Go ahead and speak." After all, he was the supreme commander, and he still had to give his subordinates a chance to speak.

"Chairman, I believe the responsibility for this battle does not lie with me, much less with Commander Tang and Commander-in-Chief Gu."

"The root of all this is Zhang Zhonglin's mistake of disobeying Commander-in-Chief Gu's orders and acting on his own!"

"Moreover, putting everything else aside, the unfavorable battle situations in Luozhen, Wanquanshan, and Tianmashan were all related to him!"

Seeing that someone had already taken the lead in the charge, Tang Keqin immediately added, "Chairman, this is indeed the case."

“When the G army appeared near Luozhen, I sent an order to Division Commander Zhang to strengthen the defense of Luozhen, but he ignored it. I had no choice but to send the 19th Brigade of the 83rd Division to Luozhen.”

"When Wanquanshan was attacked on the night of the 14th, I also ordered the 74th Division to send reinforcements, but until Wanquanshan fell, the 83rd Division did not see a single soldier from the 74th Division."

"The fall of Luozhen and Wanquanshan led to the closure of the eastern and southern routes of the 74th Division."

"Later I ordered him to break out towards Tianma Mountain. The 25th Division would send a unit to meet him, but Commander Zhang still did not break out."

"This ultimately led to the complete annihilation of the 74th Division, and the 25th and 83rd Divisions also suffered heavy losses."

Since Zhang Zhonglin is now unable to speak, everyone is shifting the blame onto him.

Putting everything else aside, it is an undeniable fact that the 25th and 83rd Divisions suffered more than half of their own casualties in the rescue of the 74th Division.

After hearing Tang Keqin and Huang Baitao's explanations, everyone at the meeting agreed that the 25th Division had done its best.

Chang Ruiyuan knew why Zhang Zhonglin was so determined to defend Diecui Mountain, but could he tell him now? Of course not.

Moreover, none of the attendees seemed to have considered this point.

Huang Baitao's courageous act of putting himself in a do-or-die situation allowed him to escape danger and avoid being sent to a military court. However, Chang Ruiyuan ultimately gave him a punishment of being dismissed from his post but allowed to remain in his position.

As for Li Yaozong, he was directly dismissed from his post and sent to a military court for trial.

However, thanks to Li Yaozong's intervention, he was not sentenced and even made a successful comeback a year later.

It can be said that, throughout the entire battle, only the 74th Division was truly punished.

After the meeting, Chang Ruiyuan also met with U.S. Ambassador John Stuart.

Although the 74th Division was destroyed, the Yimeng Mountain area was occupied by the Kuomintang army, and the Kuomintang army still won on the front line.

Situ Lei also told Chang Ruiyuan some good news: military aid worth 300 million US dollars had been loaded onto a ship and shipped.

Upon hearing this news, Chang Ruiyuan, whose mood had been somewhat somber, immediately brightened up.

With this batch of military aid, he was able to form several more 74th Divisions.

"Mr. President, I am very sorry about General Zhang."

"However, I have a small suggestion, and I wonder if you would be willing to listen?"

"Mr. Situ, please speak freely."

"I suggest that your army launch a 'whole-of-arms war' when attacking the G Army's liberated areas."

"Oh? I wonder what this 'whole-of-systems warfare' means?" Chang Ruiyuan asked with some curiosity.

He had never heard of this tactic before.

"It's actually very simple. When the President concentrates his forces to fight in the liberated areas, even if he can't capture the Communist army, he should still use brutal sabotage methods to destroy the economy of the liberated areas."

"As long as the economic foundation of the liberated areas is destroyed, no matter how strong the mobilization capacity of the G army is, it is like a tree without roots."

"If the liberated areas cannot provide the G army with enough supplies and food, the G army will naturally collapse."

Stuart's suggestion was undeniably ruthless, and this tactic had been tested in actual combat.

During the American Civil War, the Union army used this tactic to carry out widespread burning, killing, and looting in the South, destroying the South's economic foundation with extremely cruel methods, and ultimately winning the war.

The person most determined to implement this strategy was Sherman, a famous figure in American history.

The M4 tank is named after him. "Hehe, Mr. Situ, you may not know, but the Homecoming Corps is already working on destroying the G Army's economic foundation," Chang Ruiyuan said with a smile.

The Returning Militia had weapons provided by the Kuomintang army. They would collude with landlords and gentry who opposed the Communist Party in the liberated areas to carry out burning, killing, and looting in the villages of the liberated areas.

The actions of the Homecoming Corps were sometimes even more excessive than those of the Japanese invaders.

“Mr. President, I know all of that.” Situ Lei shook his head.

"I have read your department's report. Although the Homecoming Corps operates with the main force of the Kuomintang army, it does more sabotage in the liberated areas it occupies."

"And if I may be so bold, their damage was far too minor."

"If livestock are not slaughtered and farmland is not destroyed, what's the point of killing more than a dozen people in a village?"

Upon hearing Situ Lei's words, Chang Ruiyuan fell into deep thought.

Situ Lei knew Chang Ruiyuan well and didn't say anything more.

After Situ Lei left, Chang Ruiyuan carefully considered the matter and finally sent a secret order to the frontline officers.

The Guo army in Shandong began widespread burning, killing, and looting.

Their cruelty towards ordinary people even surpassed that of the Japanese invaders.

In just fourteen counties in central Shandong, more than 80,000 livestock were robbed, 1.2 million mu of farmland were destroyed, and more than one million farmers became disaster victims.

This was even more ruthless than the Japanese, since the Japanese occupied the territory and still needed the people to grow food for them, but the Kuomintang army had no such idea at all.

Moreover, when the Kuomintang army carried out its 'economic war of attrition,' it was often accompanied by the massacre of civilians.

The annihilation of the 74th Division shocked the entire Kuomintang army.

After all, the 74th Division has always been considered the most capable unit of the Kuomintang army, and the most elite 30,000 men on the battlefield inside the Great Wall.

As a result, among the 400,000 people advancing in unison, he was singled out and eaten simply because he stood out for one day.

Moreover, they couldn't even hold out against the G army for three days.

If we don't count the initial cut-off and encirclement, the final showdown will take less than a day.

This means that any army-level unit of the Guo Army must think twice before acting alone.

Are you more elite than the 74th Division? Are you better equipped? Do you have air superiority in your theater?

No? Then what gives you the right to act alone?
This made the already cautious Guo army even more wary of overconfidence.

The idea that the KMT army was a guerrilla force has disappeared from the KMT high command, and the KMT army has begun to fight timidly.

Moreover, the Kuomintang army no longer dared to act alone on the Central Plains battlefield as a single army or reorganized division; they had to assemble at least a corps before they could set out.

This gave the G army more room to maneuver.

The complete annihilation of the Kuomintang's elite 74th Reorganized Division in the Menglianggu area also completely disrupted the Kuomintang's key offensive plan.

Don't underestimate the fact that only 30,000 were annihilated; if used properly, those 30,000 could be more powerful than hundreds of thousands of ordinary troops.

Fighting a war is a highly specialized job, and new recruits are no match for veterans.

A well-trained and battle-hardened force is far superior to any ordinary force.

Such troops often play a decisive role in large-scale battles.

A defensive line of hundreds of thousands of people could collapse or even be completely wiped out if just one point is breached.

The elite troops who created this breakthrough were the ones who served as the spearhead of the attack.

Guo Jun is the most qualified to speak on this matter.

As the saying goes, good steel should be used on the blade.

A sword composed of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, with the elite troops as its blade.

Without the blade, this knife is no different from a stick.

By late June, after more than forty days of reorganization, the Guo army had once again assembled 11 reorganized divisions.

They began to adopt a strategy of intensive, gradual advances, launching their third offensive into the Yimeng Mountains.

At the same time, in order to completely reverse the strategic situation between the enemy and ourselves, and to prevent the liberated areas from being further destroyed.

The central government ultimately decided to divide its forces into three routes and launch an attack on the Central Plains region, where the enemy's forces were relatively weak.

Seeing that the Guo army's frontal forces were densely packed while its flanks and rear were relatively undefended, Hua Yesi decided to divide his forces into two routes.

One force would engage in frontal combat on the inner line, containing the enemy's main force; the other would advance on the outer line, supporting the Central Plains Army's advance into the Central Plains.

Commanders, I'm about to accelerate.

The text jumps quickly from one war to the Huaihai Campaign, and then quickly to the Korean War.

I wonder what everyone thinks?

In addition, I have a draft of my next book and would like to ask for everyone's opinions:

The Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army (which may have been composed of bandits or indigenous people) started from September 918th.
What do you all think? Or do you all prefer to watch the Eighth Route Army?
Which characters would you like to add?
P.S.: If nothing unexpected happens, the next book should only cover the War of Resistance against Japan. I already have ample experience with this, so I don't need to worry about the censorship.
(End of this chapter)