Because there is an order of magnitude difference in number between the Japanese army outside the pass and the Northeast Army, before the September 18th Incident, many generals in the Northeast Army, from Zhang Xueliang, did not think that the Japanese would invade the Northeast by force. They only believed that the Japanese were experiencing provocations, frictions, and then developed into armed conflicts, and they wanted to seek greater benefits in the Northeast. They would never believe that the Japanese could use more than 20,000 military personnel to kill snakes and encroach on the entire Northeast by force.

Not only did the Northeast Army know this, but also the important officials and officials of Nanjing also viewed this. When the Wanbaoshan incident intensified in July and North Korea's atrocities invaded, Chiang Kai-shek reported to Zhang Xueliang on the 12th, saying that it is not the time to fight against Japan, and that the Northeast should be restrained and patient. Even the Kuomintang veteran Yu Youren also called Zhang Xueliang on the 13th, saying that "the central government now regards quelling civil unrest as the first priority, and Northeast comrades should experience it." This understanding in Nanjing has in turn further affected the judgment of the Northeast Army.

If Zhao Zhenzhong had not known the historical development, he would not have believed that the 400,000 well-equipped Northeast Army would have retreated to more than 20,000 Japanese armed personnel and watched the Northeast fall; he would not have believed that the Japanese Kwantung Army had grown from more than 20,000 armed personnel to a scale of hundreds of thousands, becoming the largest strategic force of the Japanese army. Seeing that it was difficult to convince Yu Xuezhong, Zhao Zhenzhong also gave up the idea of ​​continuing to work hard, and after talking about some arrangements for disaster relief, he said goodbye and left.

On the way to Baode, Zhao Zhenzhong was thinking about how to plan to minimize the Japanese's gains, while thinking that the Ningxia battle was also on the agenda.

When Zhao Zhenzhong and Li Yuntian returned to Baode on July 12, they found that the county was in trouble. On July 9 and 10, heavy rains fell in Baode, causing mountain torrents to erupt. The water depths of the ground were several feet long, and the crops in the ground were flooded. Most of the houses built with loess and thatch in many villages collapsed, and many people avoided the mountains.

Fortunately, when Zhao Zhenzhong and others were building the Baode-Shuozhou Highway, they had reinforced the Zhujiachuan, the largest river in Baode near the road, which reduced the disaster caused by the floods a lot. Lao Zhichang, chief engineer of Tongpu Railway, also dispatched some construction workers who built the road to Baode to rescue the disaster, so that the scope of the disaster did not expand. After learning about the situation with Lao Zhichang, Wang Tieshan and others, they learned that the flood did not cause damage to the Baoshuo Highway and would not affect the railway construction. Moreover, the affected people also received some assistance, Zhao Zhenzhong breathed a sigh of relief.

Now the Yellow River has entered the flood season, and the transportation of materials from Baotou through the Yellow River waterway to Baode has basically stopped. At present, all kinds of materials are operating through the Tongpu Railway and the Baoshuo Highway extending south from Datong to the road construction site, Baode and the Shanzhong material storage base, so there is no problem with this passage.

"Mr. Lao, how is the progress of the Tongpu Railway now?" Zhao Zhenzhong asked, who was relieved for the time being.

"The road section between Datong and Huairen has been put into use. The road section between Huairen and Shanyin is expected to be put into use by the beginning of next month. By the end of the year, the road section north of Shenchi can be put into use. I dare say that the speed at which we are now building the Tongpu Railway is definitely the first in China, and it is also worthwhile in the world." When talking about the construction of the Tongpu Railway, Lao Zhichang's eyes shone and said proudly, "In addition to the use of the results of Yan Xishan's original survey and our full preparations for personnel, materials since last winter, the construction machinery Mr. Zhao brought from the United States is definitely of great contribution. These nearly 300 bulldozers, excavators, forklifts and trucks save too much manpower and material resources, which can improve our work efficiency by a whole lot."

"It's good to have something to use." Zhao Zhenzhong was overjoyed when he heard that the Tongpu Railway had already been put into use. "Mr. Lao is an expert in the road construction, so the situation is naturally within your control. All I can do is to provide all kinds of conveniences so that Mr. Lao and the relevant engineers can do their best to improve the speed and quality of the project without worries, and build a first-class railway."

"It is a great blessing in life to be able to cooperate with Mr. Zhao, and it's so satisfying!" Lao Zhichang laughed, "Since Mr. Zhao has provided such good conditions, I have no say, I promise to build a railway number one in China!"

After a while of conversation, Zhao Zhenzhong sent away Lao Zhichang and others who were in a good mood. Then, he assigned the preparation of supplies and rescue of the victims to Li Yuntian. Next, Zhao Zhenzhong devoted himself to planning for the Ningxia battle.

In this era, Ningxia Province had a territory of about 275,000 square kilometers, in the southeast of the Gansu area, in the northwest of the Juyanhai in the northeast of Jiuquan, in the Houtao Jierzhao area. However, due to considerations of its own strength and convenience of defense, Zhao Zhenzhong only wanted to include the area east of the Helan Mountains in this Ningxia battle. The area of ​​this area is not much different from the territory of the later Ningxia Autonomous Region, about 60,000 square kilometers.

After Ningxia was established in 1929, it was under the control of Feng Yuxiang. During the Central Plains War, Feng Yuxiang made a desperate bet and drained all the troops in the northwest. Ningxia only had more than 2,000 people led by provincial chairman Ma Hongbin when he took office and the county road protection team organized by him after taking office, totaling only more than 3,000 people. After the war in the Central Plains, Feng Yuxiang was defeated. Ma Hongbin left Shaanxi under the remaining headquarters of the 22nd Division in Weibei, Shaanxi, led by Ma Yulin and Ma Xiancheng, and returned to Ningxia at the end of 1930. As many people were abandoned on the road, only 4,000 people returned to Ningxia, and the gun was less than 4,000.

By the end of 30 years, Ma Hongbin was appointed as the acting chairman of Gansu Province by Nanjing. His headquarters was reorganized into the temporary 7th Division, with two brigades and four regiments under his command. In addition to the engineering battalion and artillery battalion, there were a total of about 6,000 troops. At the beginning of 31 years, when Ma Hongbin came to Gansu, considering the need to stabilize Ningxia and prevent bandits, he only took away an infantry regiment, a cavalry battalion, and two direct companies, with a total of about 2,000 troops. The remaining troops in Ningxia were more than 4,000.

More than 4,000 troops need to defend the area of ​​more than 270,000 square kilometers in Ningxia, which is a huge joke; it is used to guard against the area of ​​more than 60,000 square kilometers on both sides of the Yellow River east of Helan Mountain, which will definitely be full of loopholes. Moreover, these more than 4,000 people cannot even have an old rifle, and there is even a lack of heavy weapons. If it were not for the fact that Hexi, after taking Ningxia, had to be guarded against enemies in Suiyuan and Gansu, and considering the needs of subsequent combat, Zhao Zhenzhong was confident that Zhang Mingrui's single lever can completely defeat Ningxia!

Contacted by telegram, after confirming that most of the First Column had crossed the river and entered the Helan Mountain area, and after taking turns to transport various reserve materials, it could basically meet the 4-month operation and disaster relief use, Zhao Zhenzhong immediately issued an instruction on the Ningxia operation on July 16:

1. Establish the Hexi Operations Command of Ningxia Campaign, with Zhang Mingrui, Chen Zhiyuan and Chen Hailan as members of the command center, and Zhang Mingrui was responsible; the troops in the headquarters were all in the first column and one in the special column;

2. The combat mission of our troops in Hexi is: A, block the enemy north, south, and westward of the retreat route, and completely resolve the enemy of this troops in Hexi to ensure that we block the news after seizing Ningxia to gain rest time; B, solve the enemy east of Helan Mountain in Ningxia and west of the Yellow River; C, establish a defense line in the direction of Suiyuan and Gansu to achieve offensive defense; D, after the war, quickly eliminate hostile forces, rescue disaster victims, mobilize the people, establish regimes, and consolidate the results of the war;

3. Establish the Hedong Operation Command of Ningxia Battle, with Yang Tianming and Yu Zhenshan as the command center, and Yang Tianming was responsible; the troops in his headquarters were all in Hedong and all in the education board;

4. The combat mission of our troops in Hedong is: A, cut off the passage between Ningxia and Gansu to prevent the news of our capture of Ningxia from being leaked prematurely; B, solve the enemy in the Hedong area of ​​Ningxia; C, establish a defense line against Suiyuan along the Great Wall line, and establish a defense line against northern Shaanxi and Gansu areas; D, all work after the war is the same as in western Hebei;

5. During the Ningxia Battle, the second and third columns maintained a high level of vigilance to stabilize Longdong, and at the same time guarded against the Yanghucheng tribe in Shaanxi and the Ma Tingxian tribe in Longzhong;

6. The scheduled battle is launched on July 25. The pre-war command will be decided by each department on the spot. This is not a remote place. Each department can start on time after it is ready.

Zhao Zhenzhong was not worried about whether he could win Ningxia. The reason why he chose to launch the Ningxia battle in late July was mainly to take into account other factors.

On July 14, vehicles were blocked in the northern section of Pinghan Railway, and there were reports that Shiyou San's ministry had abnormal movements. The next day, Shiyou San called the Guangzhou National Government, saying that his ministry would follow the order to organize the Fifth Army and was scheduled to take office in Shunde on the 18th.

Although Zhao Zhenzhong did not know the specific time of Shi Yousan's rebellion, he knew that as long as Shi Yousan's rebellion, the Central Army, Northeast Army, Shanxi and other regions of Pingjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and other regions were all involved, and there was no time to take care of Ningxia, a remote and barren land. This rebellion could definitely not be resolved within one or two days, which brought convenience to him and others to take over Ningxia.

Yang Hucheng, Shaanxi Province, just took office as the director of the Tongguan camp. Although he was responsible for stabilizing the northwest provinces, in addition to stabilizing Shaanxi to provide relief to the victims, he also had to be alert to southern Shaanxi to prevent the spread of Sichuan warlords and the epidemic in northern Shaanxi. After he learned about the news of Ningxia's changes, he and others must have already solved the Ningxia problem.

As for the enemies in other parts of Gansu, Longzhong, Longnan and Lanzhou are not subordinate to each other. It won’t take long for Lanzhou to cause chaos, so there is basically no need to worry too much.

Moreover, by late July, all regions will basically enter the rainy season. Floods will definitely occur in rivers such as the Yellow River, Wei River, Jing River, etc. in Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Sui. Even if the news of Ningxia's change of hands is exposed too early, external forces will have many difficulties in launching attacks on Longdong and Ningxia.

Zhao Zhenzhong thought it very comprehensively, and after receiving a telegram from Zhao Zhenzhong, Zhang Mingrui, Yang Tianming and other departments in Hexi, Hedong and other places considered it more specifically. While mobilizing troops and forming a command center, they also formulated detailed combat plans for different situations and reported to Zhao Zhenzhong.
Chapter completed!