After issuing this order to the Political Department of the Eighth District, the man specifically told the director of the Political Department that once the Japanese army appeared along the Tongpu Railway, there should be no hesitation in taking all the staff and workers assisting in the dismantling. Cover the sick and wounded and immediately retreat along the Tongpu Railway towards Xindian.
After arriving at Xindian, do not continue to evacuate north or west, but turn northeast to the Shicheng line. There will be troops from the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Division to meet them. For the transportation of the sick and wounded, it is really impossible to forcefully mobilize some migrant workers. In short, he said that the intellectuals of the Political Department, as well as all the injured people gathered on the train at this moment, would be put in charge of him, the director of the Political Department.
In the opinion of the commander of the eighth division, he would rather give up the equipment than throw away a sick person and an intellectual. This is the real plan related to the stability and future development of the army. This person who has always strictly enforced mass discipline A cadre from the old Red Army has nothing else to worry about at the moment.
At present, almost all the effective forces have been dispatched. Even the scholars of the Political Department are dispatched with the army. He is different from the old comrade-in-arms in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Fourth Division. The old comrade-in-arms in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Fourth Division sent out to find them. They didn't find it at all. It was only after the gunshots were fired outside Taiyuan City that the Fourth Division Agency, which was operating in Pingtou and Lingjing north of Yangshou, discovered that there was fighting here.
In fact, the radio station was lost during the anti-mopping operations last winter. In order to ensure the survival of the troops when most of the supplies were lost, the base area was continuously subjected to unprecedented large-scale raids, and it was no longer able to support the large troops, the troops were dispersed. This guy got involved inadvertently. The three regiments he participated in were all serious combat troops.
But my own eighth division is different. All the family members are here, and there are even a group of Yan'an Anti-Japanese University students and Jinsui Branch Party School students. These are all treasures. Losing one of them is a huge loss. He is the division commander. We must consider protecting these people who are members of the Communist Party of China and are also political commissars.
Whether the wounded can be escorted out safely is a major issue related to the stability of the army's morale. Everyone is well aware of the Japanese army's consistent way of treating the wounded of its opponents. In the core area of enemy-occupied areas like Taiyuan, if the wounded are placed among ordinary people, Home is almost equivalent to sending them to death.
In order to be able to evacuate a large number of wounded people when needed, he had no choice but to learn what Yang Jicai had to say when he forced the people to help evacuate and dismantle the equipment. Those words were conveyed to the director of his political department intact.
Moreover, the commander handed over the counterfeit coins seized from the Bank of Japan in Taiyuan to the director of the Political Department and told him that it was okay to force the people to carry the wounded, but the money must be left behind. Although this kind of action violated the three major disciplines, Eight points of attention, but we must also try our best to restore some of the impact.
This commander and political commissar made a helpless choice. The Political Department of the Eighth District was the place where all the intellectuals under him were concentrated. He was reluctant to lose even one of these intellectuals, let alone if they were surrounded by the Japanese army. The chances of these talents standing out are not high.
After issuing the order to the director of the Political Department, he specifically talked to the battalion commander of a basic battalion in the eighth division who was responsible for protecting the equipment that had been disassembled, and told the instructors to immediately abandon the train and the equipment that had been disassembled and concentrate all the equipment once the situation became critical. The forces launched a counterattack along the Tongpu Railway to the east of the city.
Even if all his basic battalions are wiped out, he still has to rescue the last strength of the Resistance Alliance. If he completes the task, even if all the troops are wiped out, they will be credited with great merit. If he fails to complete the task, he will not lose a single soldier. , I will kill their heads when I come back. This is a death order and must be fulfilled.
At the same time, he sent capable personnel to look for the troops of the Southern Hebei Military Region behind the Japanese troops in the east of the city. Even if he brought back at least one regiment, the current predicament could be alleviated. After doing all this, the commander of the eighth division reported a telegram to the acting commander. Members of the army asked their superiors to coordinate with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei troops and find ways to mobilize some militiamen to respond to the wounded and sick at the front line of Fengliang Pavilion.
The acting commander who received the telegram shook his head and forwarded the telegram to the boss who was in Xing County to coordinate the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei troops. He did not have that authority yet, and Jin had already dispatched all the troops. The Sui Military Region really cannot send troops to respond to the Taiyuan battlefield.
The boss who was based in Xing County, after carefully reading the telegram from the acting commander, handed the telegram in his hand to the person in front of him, shook his head and said: "I really don't know whether to say that he is not afraid of tigers when he is a newborn calf. Or should I say that this little guy is too dogmatic. At this point, your subordinate doesn't even have a word of complaint. I really don't know what to say."
"Now all the strongholds outside Taiyuan have been basically abandoned by him. If we don't evacuate at this time, once the Japanese troops appear in Yangqu in the north, I'm afraid there will be no chance to evacuate. Can't we take away those machines and equipment? As long as the people Save it and we can think of a solution if the equipment is lost."
"I think it would be better for you to give him an order to evacuate immediately. Otherwise, once the Japanese army gets stuck, let alone the mechanical equipment, they will have to withdraw safely with the few troops they have. , it is basically impossible, you must know that the Japanese troops around him are several times his strength and firepower."
"With so many wounded soldiers, once they are surrounded by the Japanese army, it will be very difficult to break out. If such a good commander and such a capable young man is really lost, it will be a big loss for the army. Can Under the siege of the Japanese army's superior force, it is not easy to persist for such a long time."
"A brigade of the Japanese field division can often defeat a division of Chongqing. In many cases, if we want to defeat a Japanese brigade, we must concentrate at least one brigade or even more troops. Even so, it will not be possible. It may not be possible to completely eat up a Japanese infantry brigade. I know that your anti-alliance troops are very powerful, but the disparity in strength between the enemy and us is too great at the moment."
The person sitting opposite the boss was none other than Yang Zhen, the number one leader of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. He came to Xing County at this time when he should not have left the headquarters to discuss with the boss the cooperation between the troops inside and outside the Shanxi Pass on the entire battlefield in northwestern Shanxi. The most critical issue is the issue of food and material supplies.
After Mu Changqiu broke through the front line of the Great Wall and opened up the Datong battlefield, it became extremely difficult to raise food. It was difficult to meet the needs of the Datong battlefield for a long time by relying solely on the grain reserves captured by the Japanese army in Jining and Guisui. Before the Anti-Japanese War, The supplies sent were mainly ammunition and other combat materials. He came to Xingxian this time just for food issues.
In addition, there were certain problems in battlefield coordination between the Anti-Japanese Alliance and the Jinsui Military Region, which were cooperating for the first time. The troops of the Jinsui Military Region cooperating with the Anti-Japanese Army had completely different combat styles from each other. The cooperation was quite rough, and there were even accidental injuries. Yang Zhen came to Xingxian at this time mainly to solve this matter. Considering that the boss was supervising the war in Xingxian, it was not appropriate to send someone else.
As for the Taiyuan raid, although it is very critical, for the overall situation of this operation, it is just a small local battle. If it is important, I am afraid it is between the 41st Division and the 32nd Division. What happened after the reinforcements arrived at the Taiyuan battlefield.
Yang Jicai's actions in Taiyuan inadvertently held back a complete Japanese division or most of a division. In disguise, it held back part of the Japanese troops and slowed down the Japanese reinforcements in northern Shanxi. To a large extent, This reduced the pressure on Chen Hanzhang on the battlefield in northern Shanxi, and at least gave him relatively sufficient time to progress in the battle to capture Datong.
To be honest, when he first received the report that the 41st Division had arrived in Taiyuan, Yang Zhen was not too worried. In his opinion, with Yang Jicai's ability and the cooperation of the Shanxi-Sui Military Region and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei armed forces, Before the 41st Division broke through the defense line, it completed the task of transporting equipment without any problems.
But after the 32nd Division joined the battlefield, his heart has been hanging. Whether it is the Shanxi-Sui Military Region or the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, one of the best is now on the Baotou battlefield, the other is in the advancing army, and the remaining troops , either they suffered heavy losses in last year's anti-mopping battle, or the main force transferred the local armed forces left behind. It can be said that the role they can play is not ideal.
These troops are quite poor in terms of combat effectiveness and equipment, and these troops are also accustomed to guerrilla warfare of fighting if they win and leaving if they cannot win. This kind of head-on battle with the Japanese army's regular field divisions may be difficult to persist for too long. It took a long time, and although the roundabout troops led by Yang Jicai were well-equipped, they had too few troops.
Two Japanese divisions suddenly rushed forward. For Yang Jicai, who was at the core of the entire storm, how long he could hold on was his biggest concern. Even if the relevant troops cooperated, with the strength of a strengthened regiment , it is also very difficult to resist a Japanese army of one and a half divisions.
What Yang Zhen is more worried about is not only whether the troops can evacuate safely, but also whether the equipment from the northwest steelmaking plant he named can be finally transported out. There is also a layer in his heart that, given his character, cannot The worry I expressed was for the safety of my biological brother.
Once this younger brother is sacrificed, will the parents who have lost a son accept it? Yang Zhen knows very well that although his younger brother is a bit introverted, he is definitely not the kind of person who is afraid of death. If he loses the battle and cannot break out of the encirclement, the troops When the entire army was destroyed, he would never become a prisoner just to survive.
But he didn't expect that Yang Jicai relied on these troops with different structures to come together, and with some Japanese and puppet troops in depth, he could withstand the siege of one and a half divisions of the Japanese army. Under the nose, most of the equipment and workers were rushed out safely.
At this time, Yang Zhen realized that he had really underestimated his younger brother. But for the current Yang Zhen, he believed that since Yang Jicai had not complained until now, it meant that there was no room for easing the situation. He was a combat staff officer. He is not the kind of person who performs tasks rigidly.
To be able to contend with one and a half divisions of the Japanese army for such a long time with such strength, Yang Jicai should know how to advance and retreat. If he is still insisting, it means that he can still resist for the last ten hours. Thinking of this, Yang Zhen's heart My worries about this younger brother have somewhat eased.
But Yang Zhen also knew very well that even if Yang Jicai's troops could hold on for the last ten hours, I am afraid that the troops under his command would be exhausted under such a long siege by so many Japanese troops. Although Yang Zhen feels distressed about the loss, if these equipment and workers can be transported out quickly, as well as the future impact on the entire North China war situation, in Yang Zhen's opinion, the price is worth it.