Seeing the adjutant walking away, Hu Yi understood something and walked to Director Zhang in a few steps: "Instructor Zhang, how about we go to the exchange place?"
Minister Zhang looked away from a distance with a worried look on his face: "The matter is very serious. They did not pay attention to the new round of raids by the Japanese."
Hu Yi silently calculated in his mind: "After a large number of Japanese troops have been removed, most of the remaining troops in the enemy-occupied areas are security forces. According to Commander Li, their group army has 70,000, and other friendly troops combined. There are some in the area on the north bank of the Yellow River. There are nearly 300,000 troops. If we include the south bank of the Yellow River, there must be 500,000 or 600,000 troops. We have small arms and legs in company units. We have to worry about that. Are we overly worried?"
Minister Zhang shook his head: "If we are truly united to resist Japan and commanded properly, these troops alone can confront the Japanese. Unfortunately, some people don't like us."
Hu Yi was confused when he heard this: "Who doesn't like us? I don't quite understand what you mean."
Minister Zhang glanced at Hu Yi: "Attention, this is top secret information. As the exchange commander, I can tell you that the one in Chongqing instructed the Fifth Army to surrender to the enemy, and then turned its guns against us!"
Hu Yi was confused and frowned: "You're not going to be alarmist, are you?"
Minister Zhang's face turned pale and he looked at the church in the distance: "As a commander, you must understand that although this place is not big, it has always been a battleground for military strategists. After the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, we established a base here. Seeing our rapid development, Yan Laoxi was so panicked that he actually accepted the Kuomintang Central Army's entry into Shanxi and established the Nationalist Army's Southern Shanxi Working Group."
"I understand. Yan Laoxi has no ability to hold on. Seeing us growing and growing, he has no choice but to invite Lao Jiang here?"
"That's pretty much what it means. Later, Chiang Kai-shek sent a large number of spies to constantly destroy our base areas, create friction, and kill my staff. For the sake of the overall situation of the war of resistance, we endured it. Later, we found a way to drive away their county magistrate. This area The place finally fell into our hands.”
"Then why is it occupied by the national army now?"
Minister Zhang looked at the mountains and rivers in the distance: "Our base areas are in rural areas and mountainous areas. In the spring of the year before last, the Nationalist Government once again caused friction, and the Wannan Incident happened in the south. The main force of the New Fourth Army suffered heavy losses. In Taihang, Chiang Kai-shek's 27th Army was directly affiliated with the Central Army. and the New Fifth Army deployed six divisions to invade our base here."
"Hu Yi thought about it for a while. I know about this. The regiment has reported it. At that time, the Japanese were conducting a large-scale sweep."
Minister Zhang continued: "At that time, the head of the headquarters was furious and immediately responded tit-for-tat. He immediately added the newly-organized First Brigade of our division, the 344th Brigade of the brother troops to the east, the Shanxi Death Column, the Independent Detachment of Hebei Province, and the Hebei People's Liberation Army. The Fourth Regiment of the Army and your independent regiment formed the 'Second Column of the Eighth Route Army' and prepared to severely attack the reactionaries."
Hu Yi listened carefully, frowning and saying nothing.
Minister Zhang paused for a moment: "At this critical moment, in order to prevent the unity of the two parties from being broken by this incident and allowing the devils to take advantage of it, the Chairman has instructed our party, government, and military agencies, local armed forces, and underground personnel whose identities have been exposed to all withdraw to In the mountains, last month, the First War Zone suddenly requested military exchanges with Qiu, trying to let some national troops enter our defense zone. Do you understand the general situation now?"
Hu Yi was stunned for a moment. Since entering the Anti-Japanese University, his horizons have been constantly expanding. Many questions that he could not understand before, or even thought about at all, suddenly appeared in his mind: "They plan to send people in the name of exchange first." We have our base area, and then let the New Fifth Army surrender to the enemy, and then finally take action against our base area?”
Minister Zhang nodded: "You, the staff officer, have some sense, but in fact, the matter is far from that simple. There are many people in the friendly forces who are determined to protect their homes and the country. The 24th Army is unwilling to engage in internal strife, so we have this A military exchange.”
Hu Yi figured out the details: "I understand. Our superiors sent us here to win over Pang of the 24th Army?"
Minister Zhang was annoyed: "It's about unity! What's the matter of co-opting? We are not bandits!"
"I understand, this is also the reason why the superiors did not send higher-level leaders to participate in the exchange, right?. Just to not attract attention." Hu Yi rarely spoke in such a humble tone of asking for advice.
Minister Zhang was in a good mood and felt that this fake staff officer could still give some more advice: "What happened the year before last had a great impact on us. The Central China base area suffered heavy losses. Even so, we were still struggling to rebuild the base area under the eyes of the Japanese.
But since then, our Taihang base area’s way south has been blocked here by the National Army. Their defense is even tighter than the Japanese blockade, so that the base area north of the Yellow River cannot be connected into one piece, even on the plains and When the leaders of the newly formed Fourth Army go to Yan'an for a meeting, they have to take a detour through the vast Taihang Mountains. Do you understand now? "
"I understand!" Hu Yi was not a fool. He thought for a moment: "Chiang's trick of sending knives to kill people might ruin the entire Yellow River defense line!"
This time it was Minister Zhang's turn to be surprised: "What do you mean?"
"Yesterday we communicated with Li Zhenqing, and he actually kept reminding us that the Yellow River defense line is more than 200 kilometers long, but the 300,000 defensive troops are not from more than 20 divisions of different sequences. With the temper of the Central Army, the surname is Jiang The commander cannot do what he wants. If the troops on the north bank are wiped out by the Japanese and surrender, it is entirely possible that the Yellow River defense line will collapse at the first touch."
Minister Zhang was stunned for a while before nodding: "The man named Jiang asked Sun Dianying to deliberately surrender to the enemy and point his gun at us justifiably. He is playing with fire and burning himself! You first keep an eye on the communication team, and you have to find a way to pass on the information send out!"
Hu Yi looked at the dense trenches outside the wall: "Even I can think of it, do you think your superiors can't think of it? Let's just communicate with peace of mind. Look, Commander Pang asked Commander Li to build such a large area of defenses here. They are also understanding people."
Minister Zhang looked at Hu Yi angrily: "It's just that with their more than 10,000 people, they can't defeat Chiang Kai-shek. I have to go talk to Commander Pang."
In the wilderness outside the village, there were a large number of troops participating in the exchange.
The first exchange project of military skills is digging fortifications.
The leader of the military skills exchange was a friendly army commander. He glanced at Luo Fugui and Li Huanzhang, who were holding engineer rifles: "Two people work together to dig a five-meter-long standard trench. It takes one hour. Isn't that difficult?"
Luo Fugui grinned: "Hey, just look at it. It hasn't rained here for a year, so it's easy to dig. It's not a problem to dig ten meters in an hour!"
If trenches are temporarily dug on the battlefield and are not reinforced, the average soldier can dig more than one side of soil in an hour, which is a little more than one meter, and two people can dig two meters. Since it is a competition, the workload is doubled.
The two sides immediately selected a site to draw a line, and a battalion commander led by the Chinese army next to them blew the whistle immediately.
Luo Fugui calmly picked up the shovel.
On the opposite side, the shovels of the friendly forces were flying, and the soil with the grass roots was scooped up and thrown aside. In a few seconds, a big hole was dug.
Luo Fugui's movements were not fast, much slower than those of the national army. After only ten minutes, the situation began to reverse.
Human muscles have limits when it comes to continuous high-intensity movements. After doing it for a while, you have to rest for a while, or stop high-intensity exercise, so that the blood can bring sufficient oxygen and sugar to satisfy the consumption of the muscles.
Luo Fugui and Li Huanzhang each occupied one end of the five-meter-long trench and dug both ends toward the middle. The competition was actually over around the tenth minute.
Luo Fugui took off his military uniform and was sweating profusely in only a coat in the winter. A spade of soil was flying out. The leader of the friendly army next to him had a black line on his head. He had never seen trenches dug like this that could be maintained at a constant speed, and with such speed. Fast.
At the current speed, this five-meter-long trench can be dug out in less than half an hour. This is nothing!
Seeing the speed of their opponents, the two soldiers from the national army simply gave up and sat in the pit to watch the excitement.
It's better to admit defeat. Anyway, with the opponent's big body, there is no shame in admitting defeat.
(End of chapter)
