Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 498 Offense and Defense
In early October, after confirming the joint operation with Bai Jiansheng, Du Guangting personally flew to Nanjing to report the counter-offensive plan to Chang Ruiyuan.

Chang Ruiyuan agreed to Du Guangting's counterattack plan.

After receiving approval, Du Guangting immediately began assembling his troops and set out to march on October 15.

On the morning of October 15th, Du Guangting, dressed neatly and full of enthusiasm, arrived at the command post.

If the Central China Suppression Headquarters and the Pengcheng Suppression Headquarters launch a simultaneous attack, they will surely be able to separate the Central Plains Field Army and the East China Field Army of the Communist Party of China. If they launch another attack, they can at least annihilate 100,000 troops of the Central Plains Field Army of the Communist Party of China.

"Deputy Director Du."

Du Guangting turned around and saw a young military officer standing at the door.

"Deputy Director Du, the Chairman invites you."

"Chairman? Where is the Chairman?" Du Guangting was completely bewildered.

Isn't Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing? Why did he invite me?

"The Chairman has just arrived at the airport."

Upon hearing that Chang Ruiyuan had arrived in Pengcheng, Du Guangting's expression changed.

"Have the corps commanders wait for me. I will return immediately after meeting with the Chairman."

None of the corps commanders objected to Du Guangting's arrangements, even though they had arrived earlier; clearly, the Chairman's summons was more important.

However, none of them expected that Liu Jing would be helped in just over ten minutes later.

Moreover, as soon as they entered, Liu Jingfu told them to return to their respective posts.

Qiu Feng immediately said, "Commander, Deputy Siling Du has not returned yet, and the operational meeting has not been held."

"Qiu Siling, Deputy Siling Du has already been taken to Shenyang by the old man. Let's put the battle plan on hold for now."

After Du Guangting arrived at the airport, he had just boarded the plane and sat down, but before he could even speak, he saw Chang Ruiyuan's attendant close the plane door.

Immediately afterwards, the plane began to taxi slowly, and after takeoff, it headed straight for the northeast, leaving only a bewildered driver and guards on the ground.

At this time, the situation of the Northeast Kuomintang army was extremely tense, and the Northeast Field Army had already captured Jinzhou City.

Chang Ruiyuan had no time to spare for the Central Plains; he chose to take Du Guangting directly to the Northeast to put out the fire.

Inside the Pengcheng Siling Commandery, everyone was stunned to hear that Du Guangting had flown to the Northeast and the battle plan had been shelved.

"Commander, this..."

Liu Jingfu knew what they were thinking, and waved his hand directly: "Everyone, I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, but I can't command such a big battle."

Seeing that Liu Jingfu had said so, the group had no choice but to return to their respective posts in frustration.

The counter-offensive plan was also completely shelved.

The sudden departure of Du Guangting not only caused headaches for the people of Pengcheng, but also gave He Jingzhi, the Minister of National Defense, and Gu Mosan, the Chief of Staff, in Nanjing a fright.

Although the plan to launch a proactive attack was shelved, the troop movements had already been completed.

The hundreds of thousands of troops in Pengcheng lined up along the Jinpu and Longhai railways, forming a two-line defense of a single point.

However, due to the concentration of troops, the junctions between the defense zones of various units were riddled with holes and extremely vulnerable to attack.

Moreover, Bai Jiansheng's proactive offensive also failed due to factional issues.

Huang Peiwu was too slow and failed to surround Nakano, causing Nakano to retreat two hundred miles overnight.

While Du Guangting was busy putting out fires in Northeast China, he was also working to coordinate with the East China Field Army's plan to annihilate Huang Huanran's army group and liberate the Huaihe River and Haizhou areas.

Nakano Noji led four main columns to the outskirts of Shangdu City.

Because of Du Guangting's previous attack plan, the Shangdu garrison at this time consisted of only two miscellaneous divisions, totaling more than 10,000 men.

Faced with the strength of four columns of troops in Nakano, the defending troops had no intention of staying in the city to their deaths.

The next day, just as the Nakano troops were about to take their attack positions, they suddenly discovered that the Shangdu defenders had begun to abandon the city and flee.

This caused the original plan to besiege Shangdu and attract the Guo army's mobile forces to come to its aid to fail.

Zhongye captured Shangdu without bloodshed.

The garrison of Shangdu was quickly annihilated in the field.

After capturing Shangdu, Zhongye continued eastward and captured Bianliang, which had become an empty city.

The Guo army's early loss of two cities caused a huge shift in the entire battle situation.

Before the battle began, the Central Plains Field Army had already completed the tasks assigned in the campaign plan, which enabled the Central Plains Field Army and the East China Field Army to encircle Pengcheng.

Due to the sudden change in the battlefield situation, the Central Command immediately adjusted the next operational plan of the Central Field Army.

In the upcoming decisive battle, the Central Field Army will no longer only serve as the forward command and blocking force, but will instead prepare to directly enter the battlefield and join forces with the Chinese Field Army.

At this point, the Central Committee realized that this battle was probably no longer a local annihilation war, but was very likely to evolve into an unprecedented decisive battle.

Inside the Siling Division of the Huaye Army, looking at the enemy and friendly forces on the map, the commander also sensed the sudden approach of the decisive battle.

He also keenly realized that the key to winning this battle lay in whether the Central Plains Field Army and the East China Field Army could cooperate efficiently and smoothly.

At this point, judging from their positions, Nakano Noji should undoubtedly be in charge of overall command, one of the simplest reasons being that Hana no Shirin is Nakano's deputy Shirin.

However, the commander was worried that Nakano Noji would be embarrassed to issue orders to the Chinese Field Army because of the huge gap between the actual combat strength of the Nakano and the Chinese Field Army.

Therefore, the leader chose to take the initiative to break the ice, sending a telegram to the Central Committee expressing his willingness to follow orders and fully cooperate in the operation.

The Central Committee naturally understood the meaning of the East China Field Army.

The following day, the Central Committee sent a telegram: 'The entire campaign will be under the unified command of the Nakano Field Army.' Immediately afterwards, the Nakano Field Army replied: 'We should be responsible for commanding this operation; however, due to the inadequacy of our communication tools, we request that the Central Committee provide more direct command to the China Field Army.'

This is to tell the East China Field Army that we understand and will take on the responsibility of coordinating and commanding the East China Field Army and the Central Plains Field Army in coordinated operations.

At this time, the Nakano Command and the D Corps were using the same large telegraph machine, so Noji cleverly took advantage of this situation and claimed that his "communication tools were too weak".

This means that he cannot frequently issue orders to the East China Field Army, and therefore requests the Central Committee to provide more guidance.

However, everyone knows that the Central Committee doesn't have time to direct the specific operations of the East China Field Army.

Therefore, the specific operations of the East China Field Army were still commanded by the Field Army Headquarters itself.

In this way, the leaders at all levels tacitly resolved the major issue of command in the initial stage.

The only one who was frustrated was the telegraph operator of the Nakano D column. Despite having a very good telegraph machine, he ended up with 'communication problems'.

As the Northeast battlefield neared its end, the Ninth Army Corps was completely annihilated by the Northeast Field Army on the Liaoxi Plain, and the complete annihilation of the Kuomintang army in the Northeast was a foregone conclusion.

The sudden shock of the war in Northeast China brought Chang Ruiyuan to his senses.

He no longer cared about the gains or losses of individual cities or territories, but began to seriously consider how to preserve the elite Guo army in the Central Plains.

This was his last elite force; if it were lost, the entire empire would change hands.

After weighing the pros and cons, in order to preserve his political capital, Chang Ruiyuan decided to abandon Pengcheng, which was easy to attack but difficult to defend, and follow the ancient adage of "to defend the Yangtze River, one must defend the Huai River", ordering his troops to retreat to the fortified Huai River line.

However, two major problems were now facing Chiang Kai-shek.

The first issue is the command ability of Liu Jingfu, the general in charge of suppressing the rebellion in Pengcheng.

As the person who personally promoted Liu Jingfu, Chang Ruiyuan knew his abilities all too well.

Given Liu Jingfu's abilities, it would be difficult for Chang Ruiyuan to feel at ease even just guarding Pengcheng, let alone commanding hundreds of thousands of troops to retreat completely in front of the enemy.

The second issue is the retreat plan for the Pengcheng army.

Upon receiving Chang Ruiyuan's order to retreat, He Jingzhi immediately convened a Ministry of National Defense operations meeting to discuss the retreat plan.

At the meeting, He Jingzhi didn't waste any words and went straight to the point:

"Gentlemen, you are all aware of the Chairman's instruction to 'defend the Yangtze River by defending the Huai River.' Do you have any other good solutions? Please feel free to speak your minds."

The people below immediately started discussing among themselves.

In the end, it was all about following orders and retreating completely to the south bank of the Huai River. As for what will happen next, we'll see.

Guo Gui looked around and, finding that no one had any creative ideas, stood up.

"Commander He, gentlemen, I have a proposal."

"Please go ahead, Director Guo."

"Gentlemen, I think everyone understands what the Chairman means. Although the plan to retreat to the south bank of the Huai River has been set, the Chairman is still unwilling to give up Pengcheng."

Upon hearing Guo Gui's words, everyone nodded in agreement.

If Chang Ruiyuan was determined to leave, he wouldn't let them discuss any plans at all.

This is also why they are unwilling to offer their own suggestions.

If I dare to say it, I'll definitely get into trouble later.

“My plan is as follows.” With that, Guo Gui walked to the map.

"The troops do not need to retreat across the entire line. Instead, they should consolidate their forces along the Longhai Railway and deploy them on both sides of the Jinpu Railway between Pengcheng and Zhucheng to conduct an 'offensive defense'."

Everyone's eyes lit up when they saw Guo Gui's markings on the map.

If the situation becomes unfavorable, the main force can use the Jinpu Railway to quickly retreat south.

If the situation is favorable to our side, this plan will also make it easier for the Guo army to return to the Central Plains in the future.

This plan is both offensive and defensive, and they highly approve of it.

Hearing everyone's approval, He Jingzhi nodded: "Good, then write this down and submit it to the Chairman along with the plan to retreat to the south bank of the Huai River."

After discussing the details, He Jingzhi adjourned the meeting.

However, He Jingzhi stopped Gu Mosan, signaling him to wait a moment.

After everyone had left, He Jingzhi said, "Brother Mo, according to the air force reconnaissance, the East China Field Army and the Central Plains Field Army are located in the north and west of Pengcheng respectively, and seem to be converging."

"The situation in the Central Plains is extremely critical. The enemy and our forces are intertwined with millions of troops. Liu Jingfu is absolutely unable to win this battle."

"Brother Jingzhi means to change the commander?" Gu Mosan immediately understood, and he was also very clear about He Jingzhi's choice.

“That’s right!” He Jingzhi nodded: “At this critical juncture of life and death, the Party and the country should unite as one and abandon factional disputes.”

"My suggestion is that Bai Jiansheng should take unified command of the Pengcheng Suppression Headquarters and the Central China Suppression Headquarters."

“I have no objection,” Gu Mosan immediately agreed.

When it comes to combat command ability, no one in the Guo army can compare to Bai Jiansheng.

"This matter still needs to be handled by you," He Jingzhi said.

The decision of who should be the overall commander is not up to them; Chang Ruiyuan's approval is required.

After thinking for a moment, Gu Mosan nodded in agreement: "I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work, we can discuss it further."

(End of this chapter)