It was true that at the headquarters of the 19th Route Army, General Chiang was hurriedly woken up by the staff officer on duty shortly after he fell asleep after being busy until midnight. Without waiting for the staff officer to report, he heard explosions from dozens of kilometers away. At dawn
The quiet and vast night sky in front of me seemed so clear and abrupt.
As soon as I walked into the headquarters, I saw Commander Cai already standing guard next to the radio station, which was receiving reports from the front line.
General Jiang came directly to the map, looked at it and considered it carefully.
He knew from the direction of the explosion that the Yunzaobang defense line had been attacked by the Japanese, and the attack was very violent. He thought of the situation reported by Colonel Xiao Zhou that Chief of Staff Huang had conveyed during the day.
In fact, it is not that General Chiang and others do not pay attention to the situation and judgment reported by Zhou Wen, but that the Japanese army really cannot see the trend of large-scale troop mobilization, and the current number of enemy troops in Zhabei and Jiangwan does not show any signs of reduction, so
The command headquarters decided not to make deployment adjustments for the time being and to wait and see what happens.
You must know that on the Songhu battlefield at this time, although the 19th Route Army seemed to have more troops than the Japanese army, the Japanese army was backed by dozens of warships at sea, and could also receive support from hundreds of aircraft at any time. In terms of troop mobilization and attack direction,
It can be adjusted flexibly and always takes the initiative on the battlefield.
The 19th Route Army has to deploy defensive forces on a front line dozens of kilometers wide. Every nail is an eye. If the position is broken in any direction, it may cause the entire line to be passive. It is really a matter of one move.
whole body.
Therefore, without conclusive evidence that the Japanese army has mobilized troops, we cannot adjust the deployment of troops across the entire line based solely on Zhou Wen and others' inferences and conjectures.
Now it seems that Commander Zhou's inference is correct, now it depends on his own response.
General Chiang's face was still calm and calm, and he was not panicked. He had to wait for the situation report from the front line to fully understand the intentions of the Japanese army before making corresponding arrangements.
Moreover, General Chiang Kai-shek had confidence in his men and in the more than 4,000 soldiers of the 156th Brigade who had been fighting the Japanese troops on the front line since the war began and had not taken a step back.
Even if the Japanese army concentrated the strength of three brigades to attack as Zhou Wen deduced, it would be impossible to break through the 156th Brigade's defense line in a short time.
What's more, Brigadier Weng of the 156th Brigade was also a wise and courageous commander. He only deployed two regiments on the forward position, and also had a reserve regiment in hand, which could block the Japanese landing troops at any time.
At this moment, Commander Cai came over with a serious face and held a long message. While handing it to General Jiang, he said: "Brother Jingran, the situation is not optimistic."
General Chiang hurriedly browsed the telegram, his face became serious, and he looked at the map with Commander Cai and said: "The old man is under too much pressure. Less than half an hour after the war started, he sent the 3rd regiment as a reserve force. This shows that the Japanese army
The offensive is really fierce, which also shows that the previous judgment of the volunteer army commander Xiao Zhou was correct, so we must prevent the enemy from landing on the flank of the 156th Brigade."
"I just really don't understand, where did the two extra brigades of the Japanese army come from?"
At this moment, Chief of Staff Huang hurriedly walked in, wiped the sweat from his head and said: "Commander-in-Chief, the 61st Division captured several Japanese prisoners during the enemy's counterattack in Zhabei last night. After interrogation,
, the prisoners confessed that they did not belong to the mixed 24th Brigade, but were armed expatriates mobilized by the Japanese army. They were ordered to put on regular army uniforms and go to the front two days ago."
"What? Why are you reporting it now?"
General Jiang looked shocked and angry.
The situation became clear at once. The Japanese army used a civet cat-for-prince trick and quietly replaced the regular Japanese troops in the two brigades of the 24th Brigade on the front line of Zhabei with thousands of armed expatriates in military uniforms.
You must know that Japan was an aggressive country during this period. Japan made a lot of preparations before and after the war. In order to have a steady stream of soldiers, the country cultivated Japanese children's awareness of participating in the war from an early age. Various military trainings from elementary school to middle school were carried out.
Non-stop, the training content includes formation, marching, shooting and stabbing, etc.
Therefore, most of their young and middle-aged citizens have certain military qualities, especially those overseas, such as the Japanese Colonization Corps in Northeast China, Tianjin, Shanghai and other areas with a large number of expatriates. The local Japanese garrison will also regularly organize
Expatriates participate in military training and military exercises.
It can be said that Japan during this period had all its people serving as soldiers. This was also the basis for Japan, a small country that was trapped in the quagmire of China's Anti-Japanese War a few years later, to dare to go to war with the world's strongest industrial powers such as the United States and Britain at the same time.
But this time, before the Songhu War was launched, the Japanese army premeditatedly mobilized the immigrants in the concession and distributed guns, organizing more than 3,000 immigrant armed forces, including many retired Japanese veterans.
He became the backbone and grassroots officer of the expatriate armed forces.
After the war began, these expatriate armed forces were mainly responsible for the security and logistics guards of the Japanese concession and were not sent to the front line.
The Japanese commander Shimomoto Kumaomi is indeed one of the few masters of tactical command among the Japanese army. When he formulated this attack plan, he took these thousands of expatriate armed forces into consideration and used every chess piece in his hand to the maximum.
, it took two nights to quietly replace two brigades of regular Japanese troops with armed foreigners in military uniforms on the Zhabei front line.
The military quality of these Japanese expatriates was not very low. They followed the Japanese Marine Corps and launched several pretentious attacks. As a result, the Chinese troops on the front line were completely kept in the dark. From the details of the battle,
Deceptively speaking, it was very successful.
At this time, the Japanese army's entire offensive plan was completely displayed in front of General Chiang Kai-shek and Commander Cai. They included a strong frontal attack, a roundabout landing, and an ambush for a sneak attack. It could be said that all their trump cards were revealed.
However, due to the hasty response, the 19th Route Army did not have many cards to play.
After urgent discussions between General Jiang and Commander Cai, the 19th Route Army made three emergency arrangements:
The first is to immediately send power to the 156th Brigade, ordering it to withstand the frontal Japanese attack at all costs, and at the same time transfer the headquarters as soon as possible to prevent Japanese ambush attacks.
The second is to order the Shanxi Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army of the Central Party Headquarters stationed in Miaohang to immediately go forward and set up defenses on the Yunzaobang River bank behind the 156th Brigade to block the Japanese landing troops and protect the flanks of the 156th Brigade.
The third is to order the 122nd Brigade of the Zhanghuabang Defense Line to quickly dispatch a regiment to support the Shanxi Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army of the Central Party Headquarters blocking the river bank. The flanks of the 156th Brigade must be preserved.