The third part of the bloody war, Chapter 9, Running, Section 2, the battle after the war

Zhengzhou in May is still shrouded in the celebration of resurrection. The barriers on both sides of the Yellow River are tight. The Yellow River Bridge that used to communicate north and south had already left only a few bare piers. The river water with yellow sand roared around the piers and ran into the distance. With the restoration of Zhengzhou, the aftermath of the Battle of Northern Hubei was completely quelled.

As Rigao Nosuke judged, the attack south of the Yellow River was carried out by the War I Zone. Wei Lihuang was unwilling to leave the War I Zone calmly, so he insisted on launching an attack before leaving and demanded that the Fifth Army, which had already occupied Queshan, be placed under the command of the War I Zone.

Just as Li Gao Nosuke accurately judged the operation of the War I zone, Wei Lihuang also concluded that the Japanese army would implement the contraction strategy and the entire army would shrink to the north bank of the Yellow River. At least from a military perspective, this line of defense is more suitable for defense.

The offensive in the First World War Zone was not fierce, and in fact it could not be fierce. The troops belonging to the First World War Zone were far inferior to those of the Fifth World War Zone in terms of equipment and training. Only Tang Enbo’s 31st Army was built in Chongqing in the entire war zone, and most of the remaining troops were miscellaneous troops. And the war zone had more than one-third of the troops placed in the Zhongtiaoshan area.

(It must be added that due to history's change, the Battle of Zhongtiaoshan in history did not take place.)

However, after mid-April, the First War Zone suddenly launched a fierce attack, especially the Fifth Army attacked Kaifeng on the right wing. The Fifth Army used tanks as cover and two divisions attacked Kaifeng. The 37th Division of the Puppet Third Front Army turned against each other. The Fifth Army rushed into Kaifeng, and the Japanese defenders threatened to blow up the south bank of the Yellow River. After negotiations between the two sides, Fan Hanjie agreed that the Japanese army could bring all heavy weapons to the north bank of the Yellow River, and the Japanese army peacefully handed over to Kaifeng.

After occupying Kaifeng, the Japanese army used the Yellow River to flood the Seventh Army's plan to completely break down. Gu Shoufu in Zhengzhou was no longer interested in fighting. At the end of April, he led his troops to withdraw from Zhengzhou, blow up the Yellow River iron bridge, and retreat to the north of the Yellow River. The war on the entire south bank of the Yellow River subsided.

After the war in Henan subsided, Wei Lihuang led the main department of the former First War Zone Command to cross the Yellow River north to enter the Zhongtiao Mountain Area, and established the Second War Zone Front Enemy Command and the Southern Shanxi Operations Command, and took office as deputy commander of the Second War Zone, commander-in-chief of the Second War Zone and commander-in-chief of the Southern Shanxi Command.

Also joining Wei Lihuang into Shanxi were the 93rd Army, which was originally the first War Zone, and the 86th Army Mo Heshuo's troops and the 94th Army Mou Tingfang's troops were transferred to Zhongtiao Mountain Area. Gao Guizi, the 17th Army of Zhongtiao Mountain and Tang Huaiyuan's troops of the Third Army, were transferred to the south bank of the Yellow River for reorganization.

In this way, Wei Lihuang's Jinnan Command was under the jurisdiction of: Liu Maoen's 14th Army, which was under the jurisdiction of the 43rd Army, the 15th Army, and the 98th Army; the 80th Army, the 14th Army, and the 94th Army. If the 86th Army and the 94th Army were added, the total force was as high as 300,000. More importantly, due to the contraction of the Japanese army, the road from Zhongtiao Mountain to the south of the Yellow River was unobstructed, and various military supplies could be delivered to the mountainous areas continuously.

After attending the victory congratulations at Laohekou, Chiang Kai-shek announced the reorganization of the troops in the Fifth War Zone, he left the Fifth War Zone and returned to Wuhan, and then went to Nanchang, leaving the reorganization of the Fifth War Zone to Zhuang Jihua.

Before Zhuang Jihua's Battle in Northern Hubei ended, the troops in the Fifth War Zone had a preliminary reorganization plan. After Chiang Kai-shek left, the reorganization meeting of the Fifth War Zone officially began.

Zhuang Jihua announced that Song Xilian, commander of the 36th Army, was renamed as commander of the Second Army, Zhong Bin took over as commander of the 36th Army, Lan Yundong, commander of the 49th Army, was renamed as commander of the newly established First Army, Wang Guobin's 59th Army, Chen Mingren's new Third Army (adapted from the puppet army anyway), and Huang Botao's 55th Army; Du Yuming still served as commander of the 50th Army, and the 50th Army was expanded into three armies,

Wang Guobin's 60th Army, Situ Fei's 77th Army, and An Enpu's newly formed Seventh Army; the four young army were reorganized into two armies, the Third Army of the Youth Army (referred to as the Qingsan Army), the commander Li Wentian, under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Division and the Sixth Division of the Youth Army; the Fourth Army of the Youth Army (referred to as the Qingsan Army), the commander Liu Zhensan, under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Division and the Eighth Division of the Youth Army; Song Xilian took over as the commander of the Second Army, under the jurisdiction of the Forty Army of Chi Fengcheng and Liang Dai's Sixty-eighth Army.

Except for Sun Zhen's 22nd Army, the other commanders of the troops were adjusted, and the troops were also adjusted, such as: the 179th Division of the 77th Army and the 102nd Division of the 60th Army, and the 180th Division of the 59th Army of the 55th Army.

With the adjustment of the troops, Zhuang Jihua announced that the troops would be re-equipped, the entire 59th Army and the 55th Army would be replaced, and the 37th Division of the 77th Army would all replace the equipment.

This was a large-scale reorganization of the army, and it was also a naked annexation of the sect. The strength of the Zhuang Group increased greatly. Some local generals were transferred out of the army and served as local police division commanders, or as local county magistrates and regional commissioners. The adjustment range was so large that it even affected some regiment-level officers. After these officers left the army, they served as directors of local police stations.

If this move was changed, it would have been strongly resisted by local factional officers, but after the victory in northern Hubei, it was difficult for them to resist, especially the obvious resistance, for three reasons:

First of all, after the great victory in Hubei, the whole country was celebrating victory. With the unprecedented prestige of the National Government, it was difficult for them to adopt strong protest measures;

Secondly, these officers were not without places to go except for leaving the army. Both the police chief and the commander of the security area were very good choices. In addition, some officers took interest-free loans provided by Sichuan Development Bank and brought a group of disabled soldiers to open companies and factories in Wuhan, so they were not without a way out;

Finally, Zhuang Jihua took over Liu Ruming's 68th Army before the war, shocked the officers who wanted to move and made them dare not take strong actions.

Before the officers who left the field troops left, Zhuang Jihua specially invited them to dinner. During the banquet, Zhuang Jihua clearly told them that in addition to improving combat effectiveness, this adjustment also means eliminating the central miscellaneous cards. In the future, the troops in the Five War Zones will be treated as Central Army.

"We are fighting in front, and the supplements in the rear are all up to you. We have suffered more than 100,000 casualties in this battle in northern Hubei. We need to supplement them, but where does the new recruits come from? Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, why these three provinces can provide them? The reason is very simple. These three provinces have implemented social reforms and reserves. Your task is to establish reserves in Hunan and Hubei, promote social reforms in newly recovered areas, and complete our great cause of the establishment of the country in the War of Resistance and the War of Resistance."

After pushing them to the high position of morality, Zhuang Jihua gave them another reassurance: "You are from the fifth zone. If you have any difficulties in the future, I, the commander of the war zone, can help me, please send me a letter and I will definitely help."

Of course, these are from the troops, so they are not so polite to the puppet troops anyway. All the troops are reorganized, all officers at the regiment level and above are dismissed, senior officers such as Zou Pingfan were dispersed to Guizhou, Hunan, and all the low-level officers were trained in military academy and then assigned to various security areas.

After conquering Zhengzhou, all the troops in the Fifth War Zone were adjusted. Zhuang Jihua then set off to the First War Zone, to be precise, the original First War Zone.

On the northern front, Tani Shouo led the main Japanese army's 63rd Division, the 46th Mixed Brigade and the reinforcements of the North China Expeditionary Force retreated north of the Yellow River, and the 48th Mixed Brigade on the flank retreated to Shandong and to Heze.

The Henan offensive was not large invading, but the territory recovered was very vast. Including the important city of Zhengzhou, it recovered more than 40 county towns. Fortunately, except for several cities such as Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, and Queshan, most of the other areas were not destroyed by war.

What is a headache is that Henan has been still the same since last year. Before the Japanese army withdrew, they plundered a large amount of food from the local area, which further aggravated the famine in Henan.

"Deputy Commander Tang, how much relief food does Henan need?" Zhuang Jihua stood in a cover, staring at the other side of the river, but the questions asked had nothing to do with the enemy's situation.

"I don't know," Tang Enbo's answer was not hesitant, and he was a little irritated. Compared to a few years ago, Tang Enbo's face had a few more meat and a little bulging on his cheeks: "I have provided relief in western Henan. Commander, frankly speaking, if military rations are not sent within two days, my troops will be out of food."

Tang Enbo talked about the truth. Zhuang Jihua began to help the victims in the Fifth War Zone, especially after U.S. media reports such as Times, Wei Lihuang ordered the use of military rations to help the victims. Chiang Kai-shek urgently used the Air Force to transport a large amount of food, but it was a drop in the bucket for nearly one million refugees.

The problem in Henan is that western Henan and eastern Henan are different. With the Pinghan Line as the line, the west is mainly the Kuomintang-controlled area, and the east is mainly the occupied area. The Kuomintang-controlled area implemented relief, but there was no occupied area. When the battle was in progress, the various ministries had no time to care about local refugees. Now that the war has passed, they are facing the problem of no grassroots organizations. Most of the areas that were restored are still pseudo-government officials who control government agencies.

From southern Henan to the Yellow River, dozens of counties and millions of people have almost no food, and even spring plowing has not been carried out. The difficulty of relief can be imagined.

"Deputy Commander Tang," Zhuang Jihua thought to himself that Tang Enbo was still the deputy commander of the Jiangbei War Zone. The two maintained a slight politeness and politeness. Zhuang Jihua knew very well that Tang Enbo was specially left by Chiang Kai-shek in the Jiangbei War Zone. No one could move him. For Tang Enbo, Zhuang Jihua's strength was seen in the battle of Linyi that year, and he did not dare to offend him at will.

"There may be a few days left in military rations. From now on, you may have to save food. Tell the army to eat one meal a day and get through these days. Starting from me, now you only eat one meal a day, one steamed bun at each meal."

Zhuang Jihua's tone was very firm, but Tang Enbo was not vague: "Commander, it's not that I disobeyed my orders. Why did I explain to my brothers that after winning such a big victory, I couldn't even eat enough to eat."

"Let the truth be explained clearly to everyone. I believe that brothers, for the sake of their country, they can even give up their lives. What else can they not give up? Deputy Commander Tang, as long as the military officers can do it, the brothers will not complain. By the way, except for the wounded."

"Commander, don't worry, my 31st Army will definitely do it," Tang Enbo took it without hesitation. Since he was forced to help the people near Yucheng to rebuild the post-war period, he knew that Zhuang Jihua did what he said and did not have any good results with him, but he must warn him: "But my 31st Army has only three armies and five armies."

Today I have a little less content, mainly because I spent a lot of time adjusting the compilation.

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