“The terrain of China is high in the west and low in the east, so the big rivers flow from west to east.
However, flowing from west to east refers to the main stream, while tributaries are mostly north-south.
The Huaihe River flows east-west, and one of its tributaries, the Baisha River, flows north-south.
According to the news from above, the Japanese army is attacking Gaocheng along the highway, and the Baisha River is a natural barrier.
Now it seems that the scale of the Japanese attack this time is very large. They have captured Xuzhou and want to attack Wuhan.
How important is Wuhan now? Nanjing was lost, and the Nationalist Government wanted to move to Chongqing, but only the government agencies had passed. Now the military command center is in Wuhan.
Moreover, since the northern provinces have already lost a lot, in order to persist in the resistance against Japan, the personnel and materials transferred from the northern provinces are all assembled in Wuhan.
Therefore, the reason why the Japanese army wanted to attack Wuhan was because they wanted to complete their victory in one battle and wanted China to surrender.
Our current location is in Nanyang, Henan, and we are the nearest large force there. Our army's task is to go south from Nanyang, cross the Huaihe River and set up defenses along the tributary of the Huaihe River called Baisha River, trying to stop the Japanese. The time is longer. "
The above is the general meaning of what Shang Zhen reported to brigade commander Liu Chengyi. Of course, it can also be said to be an order.
The Northeastern Army did not have much assets, so Shang Zhen and the 337th Brigade took action again. It has only been more than two months since the 51st Army completed the Lanling Blockade to conclude the Battle of Xuzhou. .
Under the scorching sun, we could see the exhausted soldiers walking along the road.
The worry of not having enough to eat disappeared, but the hardship of marching came again.
An hour has passed, two hours have passed, four or five hours have passed, and the troops are still moving forward on foot. Everyone's footsteps have become heavier, and they are just shaking their hands mechanically with the rhythm of the large troops moving forward. leg.
"I feel like we will never reach the horizon ahead.
When I saw this forest before, I thought that this forest might be there, but no, there was still a horizon ahead. "During the march, Chen Hanwen sighed like this.
"Yes, you can never reach the horizon in front of you, because the earth is round." Chu Tian gave this answer.
The soldiers around them actually heard them.
To be honest, how many people in China today know that they all live on the globe of the earth? Some soldiers heard the term "Earth" for the first time.
Normally there would be soldiers asking, but this time no one answered them. As for the reason, they were too tired and too lazy to talk.
A whole day passed in this march. When the sun set, the order came from the front to rest in place and continue the march tomorrow. So, on this road, soldiers fell down from the beginning to the end. .
Pillars of smoke from a picnic began to rise, first one, then two, three, and four. It was the cooking squads of each combat unit starting to cook.
It's just that the bunches of smoke are quite far apart. From a high altitude, they look more like beacon smoke set off when a foreign enemy invades.
"Ouch, my waist is going to break!" At this time, an officer was walking along the road while rubbing his waist.
But his words were overheard by a junior officer sitting on the roadside. The junior officer suddenly ordered in his slightly hoarse voice: "Whoever is marching in a carriage dares to come to us and complain about back pain? The whole company will beat him up, and I will be responsible if anything happens!"
This sentence can be said to be reversed.
Although the Northeastern Army is now in disarray, how can it be possible for a lieutenant colonel and a captain to wear the same military and military titles?
But when the words of the junior officer reached the ears of the officer who was rubbing his waist, the officer was so frightened that he turned around and walked back, still shouting: "You are rebelling against heaven, you are rebelling against heaven." , actually want to hit the commander!"
He turned around so quickly that he bumped into another junior officer who was walking from behind.
"That old bastard wants to beat me again!" The officer saw the person coming and complained, but he only said a word when he saw the other person glared at him fiercely, and then he said: "You really deserve a beating! "
The officer was so frightened that he quickly dodged and ran away. His pace was not slow when he ran away. The pain in his back was caused by the bumpy ride in the carriage, but his legs didn't hurt.
It was Wang Qingfeng who lamented that his back hurt so much that it almost broke, and it was Mr. Wang who ordered him to be beaten, and the person he turned around and bumped into was Shang Zhen.
This was really the first time Shang Zhen glared at Wang Qingfeng. It turned out that he was just too lazy to talk to that damn fat man.
But this time you, a man in a carriage, came to us walking and complained that your back hurts, you are no longer an ordinary debtor!
"Don't pick the soles of your feet that are blistered. It will hurt even more if you pick them!" Shang Zhen ignored Wang Qingfeng and shouted. The soldiers raised their heads and glanced at their company commander, who was picking his own big feet with his hands. Feet hurriedly put down his hands.
People's feet will often get blisters if they walk too much, even veterans who have calluses on their feet.
"Boy Shang, tell me, how far do we have to go? Are we almost there?" When Shang Zhen sat next to Mr. Wang, Mr. Wang asked.
"It's early, it won't arrive in ten days." Shang Zhen replied.
"What? So far away?" Mr. Wang was surprised, and the soldiers who heard Shang Zhen's words all looked over.
"I don't know exactly how far it is, but when I was at the brigade headquarters, I estimated the brigade commander's map and found that the straight-line distance is always three or four centimeters." Shang Zhen replied.
Maps are scaled down, so one centimeter on the map probably represents 100 kilometers.
Shang Zhen said that three to four centimeters on the map is three to four hundred kilometers in reality, and this is still a straight-line distance on the map, and which of the roads is drawn with a ruler? It's all with turns, so it's normal if it's four to five hundred kilometers long.
It is indeed a sin for a tired division like them to march four to five hundred kilometers on foot.
Mr. Wang was surprised for a while. This time he didn't curse again, but he couldn't help but sigh, and then said: "It's better to catch the strong man!"
Shang Zhen didn't answer, but what he was thinking was, I'd rather walk with blisters on my feet!
It was getting dark after dinner, and the snoring of soldiers could be heard on both sides of the road. However, there were whispers from one place, and that was from some veterans headed by Shang Zhen.
"The strong men are cannon fodder for the veterans, the soldiers are cannon fodder for the officers, and the miscellaneous troops are cannon fodder for the Central Army. These are all fate!" That was Gu Bing's voice.
Shang Zhen was also present, but no veteran objected to Gu Bing's statement, because those who had just participated in the discussion were all sensible people.
Although Shang Zhen is a company commander, he is also an officer, but what kind of officer is he? He is the one who charges forward and retreats behind. Everyone understands that Gu Bing is not talking about Shang Zhen.
"Why trade space for time? Isn't it just dragging China because of its large territory? It cannot be said that it is wrong to use the word 'drag' when the enemy is strong and we are weak.
But if this drags on, the people in the areas occupied by the little devils will suffer the same consequences.
Then they divided the troops to guard and fortify them step by step. For example, there were obviously an army of 200,000, but they had to be divided into many parts to release people everywhere. In the end, Yi'er became like a place where there were more Japs than our army. Aircrafts, artillery, tanks, whatever we had, in the end all the people were killed. Anyway, if they were killed, they did not belong to the Central Army. "Gu Bing then complained.
No one went to talk to Gu Bing. In fact, everyone was tired after talking for a while.
Shang Zhen sat cross-legged aside. He was also tired, but he had no intention of answering. Why don't you let your own people complain when you are tired from the march?
Although Gu Bing's statement is biased, for example, you can't say that the Central Army did not contribute to the fight against the Japanese, such as the Battle of Songhu, but there are many more insights.
But so what? The power to determine the direction of a war has never been in the hands of small people with true insights.
After Gu Bing finished complaining, he lay back and fell asleep. Naturally, his audience fell asleep earlier than him, including Shang Zhen.
However, there was one person who was still sitting cross-legged, and that was the old fool.
(End of chapter)
