After dinner, nearly two hundred generals who had come from afar had showered and changed their clothes, and gathered in the large conference room in Kaifeng City specially built by the Henan-Anhui Appeasement Office for this exercise that could accommodate 500 people for simultaneous meetings.
At this time, An Yi's staff team, with the full cooperation of Liu Zhi, director of the Sui Administration Office, had hung a large map on the large wall just north of the conference room. The three huge arrows on the map pointed steadily towards the ancient city.
In Zhangde, the defensive front stretches for dozens of kilometers. The numbers of the various units representing the defenders are clearly marked, and the deployment of troops at the passes along the line is also clearly displayed one by one.
An Yi, who came from Baoding to Kaifeng to greet the leader and many officers, had already put on the straight uniform of a general and met with the Chairman of the Military Commission Chiang Kai-shek, Vice Chairman Feng Yuxiang, Training Director Tang Shengzhi, Deputy Chief of General Staff and
Yang Jie, the leader of the exercise referee team, and others discussed briefly and then announced the start of the meeting.
An Yi tidied up his appearance, strode to the map, gave a ring salute to the generals, then put down his hands and announced loudly: "Chairman, sirs, colleagues, there are still three hours until the official start of this exercise.
Twenty points, please allow me to explain the progress of my exercise."
An Yi turned sideways, raised his baton, and pointed at the map: "Currently, the red side, the defensive side, has made all preparations. The headquarters of the 40th Army and the former enemy headquarters of the 53rd Army have been merged to form a new one.
The joint command has begun normal operations.
"Please look here. Under the command of General Pang Bingxun, the 43,000 soldiers of the 40th Army have all entered the preset positions. At the same time, the instructors of the 53rd Army have also successfully arrived at the line of Yuefei Temple east of Zhangde. Black
The independent division of the 17th Army of the attacking side marched along the iron
Roads and highways, they gathered at the preset location on time. They will launch an attack southward at midnight tonight. In addition, the two groups of the Southwest Air Force that cooperated with Black's attack have arrived within 500 kilometers of the exercise area.
They are stationed at three airports."
When the generals heard this, they nodded repeatedly, their eyes wandering over the markings on the red and black squares, trying to figure out in which direction the first conflict of the exercise would unfold.
An Yi put down his baton and said very seriously: "Everyone, this large-scale military exercise of our army has made the Japanese army in North China extremely uneasy. Over the past month, the enemy's intelligence personnel have increased their intelligence probing efforts, using various methods to
Identity, active in the border area of Hebei and Henan, the 40th Army Intelligence Office captured and deported more than 50 suspects in the surrounding Linxian, Anyang, Neihuang and Tangyin areas.
"According to the latest intelligence analysis sent by the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the Military Commission and the Fourth Department of the General Staff Headquarters, the Japanese army has most likely guessed that our exercise will be carried out in the near future, but the Japanese army has not yet learned the details of the launch of our large-scale exercise.
Time, place and content. Our intelligence department made comprehensive analysis and speculation by intercepting several Japanese cable messages. The Japanese intelligence department speculated that our exercise will be carried out within 24 hours to 36 hours, but the location is not clear.
It is still not certain and is still being searched extensively.
"Since yesterday, our technical department has monitored a large number of radio signals. The Japanese and puppet military intelligence personnel in Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Baoding and other places are extremely active.
, more than 30 suspects were captured along the railway, including three incidents of shooting and resisting arrest, four enemy agents were killed and seven were captured. Two of our intelligence personnel have died in the line of duty."
There was a soft cry in the venue, and most of the generals looked serious and worried.
For a long time, the Japanese invaders’ astonishing intelligence spying capabilities and all-pervasive detection methods have made it difficult to guard against. In particular, there are a large number of traitor lackeys who are willing to work hard for the Japanese and carry out crimes as businessmen, doctors, monks, and even our military and political personnel.
Secret service activities give every military branch a headache every time they think about it.
At this time, after hearing the series of situations reported by An Yi, the generals who were initially quite disapproving of the Military Commission's deliberate concealment quickly realized that the confidentiality measures An Yi had worked hard to formulate and the many changes to the itinerary of the huge observation group had
It is definitely not a pretense or grandstanding, but it is truly based on the principle of just in case and ensuring safety. To put it too much, it is not an exaggeration to use the word "wind and crane" to describe it.
Seeing the constant buzz in the venue, Chiang Kai-shek, who was sitting in the front row, frowned, stood up and looked around, and the whole place quickly fell silent.
Chiang Kai-shek did not speak. After sitting down, he made a gesture to An Yi, asking him to continue.
An Yi nodded, pointed at the map with his baton, and then said: "Look, everyone, at twelve o'clock tonight, the exercise will be here - the main defensive position of Zhangde's 36 kilometers, here -
- The assembly area of the 53rd Army instructors at Yuewangmiao, 43 kilometers east of the east line, and here - the Black starting positions such as Boundary City, Cixian, and Linzhang on the Hebei-Henan border were activated. The exercise headquarters sent in advance
Eighteen joint referee teams will fire signal flares at the same time, and the exercise will officially begin.
"Everyone, according to the joint discussion between the exercise headquarters, the General Staff Headquarters and the Director-General of Training, and with the consent of Chairman Chiang and Vice Chairman Feng, the moment the exercise officially begins is when our observation group rushes to the war zone for on-the-spot observation.
"In half an hour, all of you here will rush to Zhengzhou in batches. I am personally responsible for arranging the special train, which will be guarded by the special agent group directly under the Second Route Army Headquarters. Three and a half hours later, from the Changge Station in the south.
Driving to Guangwu Station in the north of Zhengzhou City, you will be transported safely and quickly to the Zhangde exercise battlefield. An engineer company of the 17th Army has built a strong and concealed observation bunker and underground command post at the appropriate location in the exercise area.
"I know that everyone is traveling a lot and may want to take a good rest, but there is really no time. I can only wrong you tonight and take a good nap after getting on the train. If you are willing, at dawn tomorrow, I will
I will invite you all to have breakfast together at the forward observation position. This concludes the meeting."
There was a burst of chuckles in the venue. Even Chairman Chiang was as busy as everyone else. Who dared to complain? Just make do with it for one night!
Chiang Kai-shek nodded, stood up together with Feng Yuxiang and others, and discussed in low voices with An Yi, Yang Jie, Chen Cheng and others who came to him.
Yang Jie took the order and walked quickly towards Liu Zhi who was arranging the generals to set off in batches. He whispered in his ear. Liu Zhi said yes again and again and quickly went out to make arrangements.
…
At twelve o'clock at midnight, in the quiet border area between Hebei and Henan, dense and dull gunshots suddenly rang out, and dozens of red flares shot into the sky, illuminating everything on the earth in early autumn.
"Woo——"
The train whistle sounded for a long time, even more shrill in the silent night.
On a simple platform in the south of Cixian County, Major General Lu Xiong, the commander of the New First Brigade, wearing a soldier's combat uniform, saluted the commander Hu Jialin, the division commander Yang Guan and other generals, took the chief of staff and adjutant with him, trotted a few steps, and jumped on.
The train rumbles south.
"Report, there is a call from Commander Liu of the Third Brigade. The 11th and 12th regiments of his headquarters have crossed the wicker and penetrated directly into Huangsha Town to contain the defenders from sending out troops and cover the armored regiment's eastward detour around Dayugou." Operation.
The section chief reported loudly.
Yang Guan nodded: "Understood! Continue to keep in touch and inform various ministries of their schedules in a timely manner."
"yes!"
Hu Jialin's expression was serious, and he still stared at the towed artillery that continued to move southward on the left side of the road, silently calculating the time it would take for the artillery regiment to reach the attack position.
The artillery regiment composed of 2,500 soldiers of the Independent Division received strong support from the Anjia Army headquarters three months ago. All the mountain guns and field guns originally equipped were replaced by new generation artillery towed by heavy-duty tractor trucks.
The new artillery's longer range, higher accuracy, faster loading speed and more powerful shells have allowed the well-trained independent division artillery regiment to quickly rise to a higher level.
Watching the artillery pieces pass by in front, Hu Jialin had mixed feelings in his heart. At the same time, he was also very clear that many new weapons were unveiled in this exercise that was close to actual combat, which carried much hope for the Anjia Army soldiers.