Chapter 91: Blasting the Bridge

The fire in Yanzhou City did not spread, which made the 40th Army breathe a sigh of relief after conquering Yanzhou.

At less than six o'clock in the morning, news of the 40th Army's recovery of Yanzhou spread all over the country.

"Chairman, good news. The 40th Army has recovered Yanzhou. It is estimated that the 10th Division will be exhausted this time. The Segu Detachment heading south may be withdrawn." Luopu happily ran to the chairman's yard with the message he had just received. Before he entered the door, he started talking.

"Oh, it's Luopu! Xiao Li, hurry up and make tea." Although the chairman was smiling, there was a feeling of worry between his eyebrows.

When Luo Pu saw Xiao Li bringing the teapot, he fell to himself and smiled: "Chairman, I'm not polite."

"You!"

In fact, Luo Pu was not thirsty. He just wanted to find someone to be happy. After drinking a few sips of tea, he realized something was wrong. Because the Chairman's solemn expression was once again devoted to the map. This would not appear in the face of ordinary big victory. Luo Pu, who was familiar with the Chairman's habits, knew that this was the expression that the Chairman would only have when he was undecided.

"Chairman, isn't it a big victory to conquer Yanzhou?"

The chairman laughed: "The capture of Yanzhou was a big victory, but the main force of the Japanese army was not damaged, and the real war had just begun. Look, the Japanese 14th Division was stationed in Xinxiang area, and there was no sign of going south for a long time because there was no cooperative force in western Shandong and eastern Henan. However, the 40th Army had snatched the rear route of the 8th Brigade of the Japanese army, so why didn't you hurry to jump over the wall?"

"This?" Luo Pu laughed awkwardly: "I'm happy just to patronize, I didn't think too much."

"Since Xue Yue's First Army was established in Henan, the situation in the First War Zone has changed from a disarray to a situation with the Central Army as the main force and the miscellaneous army as the auxiliary. In terms of military strength, it has been enough to resist the threat from the 14th Division from Xinxiang, but in general, the prospects are worrying." The chairman said helplessly. The 40th Army was forced to advance eastward. The 40th Army had only a lot of people. Xue Yue made a big deal, with four armies under his command, of which the 74th Army was ace force in the Central Army.

The chairman touched his pocket, took out the cigarette box and saw that there was only an empty shell left. He asked with a smile: "How many cannons are supported?"

"Okay, I'll support you." Luo Pu said as he delivered the cigarette that had not been opened in his pocket to the Chairman's hands, and said with concern: "However, Mao. Although this cigarette can refresh himself, smoking too much will hurt your body, so it's better to smoke less."

"It's not a problem." As he spoke, the chairman lit a cigarette and sucked the clouds and mist, and then said: "The 40th Army can no longer help much in the situation in Henan, but Zeng Yiyang led some troops westward, which shows that he still attaches great importance to Henan and has the intention of competing with the Central Army for the people of Henan."

Luo Pu catered to him: "This little guy Zeng Yiyang is not very old, but he is very talented in war. The battle of the 40th Army is the most worry-free in the central government."

"You can't say that. Zeng Yiyang is not allowed to praise him. After hearing a few good words, he will be three points lighter." The chairman joked, but he was very relieved about the 40th Army. The 40th Army had completed the strategic idea of ​​dividing troops from two groups.

One was taken into Shandong by Luo Ronghuan and Chen Guang, while the other one led by Zeng Yiyang took over most of Shandong and then moved to Henan again.

I believe that as long as time and space allow, the 40th Army will be able to capture no less than a province within two years, and then it will have the ability to fight a major battle with the main force of the Japanese army.

Luo Pu thought about it and asked: "Lao Mao, the Battle of Xuzhou, Lao Chiang, from hesitation to support, to his desperate bets now, there are many political factors. However, for us, we have not participated in these areas. The main battlefield of our army is still in Shanxi. In the past few days, the Japanese army in Shanxi has drawn troops, and many places have insufficient troops, and they have also given up the mobilization of our Taihang, Jincha and Ji bases. Lao Peng means..."

"This is not possible. Shanxi has many mountains, few lands and complex terrain. It is the rear of our army entering North China. It must develop resolutely and not delay it. Only after the base is built and developed and strengthened can Shanxi's role be highlighted. This is not a good time to vigorously counterattack." The chairman flatly rejected Luopu's lobbying. Mr. Peng, who has a high prestige in the army, had long been full of anger about being swept by the Japanese some days ago and turning back.

It would be a good time to take advantage of the Japanese main force to go south and draw troops from Shanxi while attacking the Japanese arrogance.

The Chairman thought for a while and said, "We not only have the national responsibility to attack the Japanese army, but also the task of strengthening our army. Overall, China is still Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang in power, and any international aid is accepted by the National Government in Chongqing. In this regard, we are at a disadvantage. Once the main force suffers too much damage in the battlefield in North China, the Northwest will not be able to maintain it. In this way, it will bring great losses to the revolution."

One thing the Chairman did not say is that once the Eighth Route Army and the 40th Army became the main targets of the Japanese army on the front line.

If you lose the opportunity to strengthen yourself, develop troops and base areas. Then, the northwest will also become the front line. If you lose the strategic buffer zone, GCD will lose a good opportunity for development, and may even fall into the situation of fighting guerrilla in the past under the siege of the Japanese army and Chiang Kai-shek's army.

This is a situation that the Chairman did not want to see, and that Chiang Kai-shek and the Japanese army were willing to accept.

An hour later, a telegram from the Northwest was sent to Zeng Yiyang.

The content of the telegram is very long, which is a bit unexpected to Zeng Yiyang. He did not recommend a strategy throughout the article. Instead, after reading the entire article, two eye-catching big words "developed" into the main content of the telegram.

"Captain, we have taken Yanzhou, and the Japanese have been completely wiped out by our army. If we want to cross the canal west, we must have a large number of laborers to successfully deliver Yanzhou's supplies to eastern Henan." Wu Gaoqun was also ignorant of mobilizing the masses. The people in Shandong were all afraid of the army.

"For labor, I think the rice and white flour stockpiled in Yanzhou is enough for the 40th Army to eat for two or three years. In addition to leaving enough food, part of this food is distributed to the poor people, and part of it is used as labor expenses to requisition local people." Zeng Yiyang also secretly sighed in his heart that the land reform was not implemented, and the people everywhere had no sense of belonging to the army.

It should be time for the joint troops to advance westward, and Zeng Yiyang was not sure about the situation in Sishui City.

Zeng Yiyang asked the chief of staff of the 115th Brigade and Lu Pingjiang, who temporarily served as the chief of staff of the enemy, and asked: "Is there any news about Sishui?"

"Chief Xie has surrounded Sishui City for three days. Within these three days, the Japanese turtle shrank in Sishui City and remained motionless. But just now, a correspondent heard that the Japanese in Sishui City had already launched a feint attack on the surrounding army yesterday." Lu Pingjiang's work was very cumbersome, which was to collect a large amount of front-line information, telegrams, and some reconnaissance information, and then report the important information to Zeng Yiyang through his sorting.

"Oh..." Zeng Yiyang raised his eyebrows, and it seemed that the Japanese garrisons stationed in the Japanese army could no longer help: "Let the Chief of Staff prepare to retreat during the day today, lure the Japanese gangs from Sishui out to fight an ambush, and tell the Chief of Staff not to fight the Japanese army in Sishui. Their mission is to march and meet with the main force."

"Let General Wang Mingzhang's Sichuan Army evacuate in advance and tell the Chief of Staff to appease the Sichuan Army's emotions." The Sichuan Army was bullied by the Japanese planes and cannons in Shandong. If one could not help it, he would be resolute to the Japanese in Sishui City.

Then thousands of Sichuan troops may leave a small half in Sishui City.

On the day when the 229th Regiment arrived in Sishui City, Zeng Yiyang learned that the Japanese in Sishui City were covered with castles and bright forts around the county, clearly showing a stance of defending the situation.

The two divisions of the 41st Army leaving Sichuan, the 122nd and 124th Divisions, only 5,000 people were left after several battles. If this continues, it will take less than two months for the 41st Army to cross out the battle sequence of the 22nd Army.

In particular, the Sichuan Army's replenishment of troops has not arrived for a long time, which has made the troops feel very resistant. In addition, repeated and repeated failures in combat also affected morale.

In the warehouse in Yanzhou, the Japanese army left few weapons, but the ammunition accumulated to a division to launch a number of troops to continue combat.

After dawn, the reconnaissance planes sent by the Japanese army conducted reconnaissance around Yanzhou, and the old reconnaissance planes hovered over Yanzhou.

Just like a vulture on the grassland, lifeless.

At noon, the 40th Army soldiers who had been publicizing for a long time finally raised a large-scale transportation team to clean up the food in Yanzhou City. The 40th Army soldiers also moved the ammunition from Yanzhou to prevent Japanese air raids and cause losses.

The Japanese planes flew over Yanzhou again and again, but no bombers appeared. The rare low-altitude strafing of fighter jets also caused no danger to the 40th Army.

On the Yanzhou Railway Bridge, the engineers of the 40th Army conducted the last inspection of the **s placed on the piers. Each pier prevented hundreds of kilograms of **s, but it was the first time for these soldiers to explode at one time.

"The country has been installed. Why hasn't it been detonated?"

"The battalion commander, if you bomb a bridge, it is difficult to succeed in one go without a bridge expert. And the risk of a second blast may be greater."

"But the large army is about to move, and the bridge is not blown up for a long time, so we can't leave it to the Japanese intact! Besides, our mission is to break the bridge. As for how it can be broken, the army's orders are not to say that the entire railway bridge will be blown away. As long as the Japanese are allowed to repair it for a month, our mission will be completed successfully."

"Oh, if you do this, why not detonate first!" technician Zhang Baoguo thought for a while and said: "Without the construction drawings of the bridge, it is difficult to blow up the piers, but it is not difficult to blow up the bridge deck."

"Then why don't you go to blow it up?" The battalion commander Gao Ming was not pretentious. Anyway, it was just destruction. Who would do the destruction perfectly?

"I'll make arrangements right now."

On the west bank of the bridge, a red flag was constantly waving, and orders were issued to evacuate all the people inspecting the bridge.

Fifteen minutes later, the railway bridge was filled with smoke with a loud bang.

When the smoke dissipated, the three-section bridge deck of the entire bridge fell on the river surface, and the soldiers cheered loudly on the shore. Although the damage to the bridge pier was not serious, the Japanese army wanted to continue to open to traffic and could not repair the bridge in a month.
Chapter completed!