Rise From Eight Hundred

"Where did Brother Jingshan get so many equipment?" Commander Zhang, who was shocked by the rich Northeast Army, couldn't help but be curious.

"Hehe, as long as Brother Zhang gives up the LY battlefield, I will give you the equipment of an infantry regiment of the 59th Army on behalf of Commander Wu, how about it?" Tang Dao said with a smile.

The secret arsenal of the Northeast Army located in the suburbs of Xuzhou basically has no need to exist in the upcoming battlefield. If the excess weapons are not sent out, they will become the spoils of the Japanese.

In this regard, Tang Dao knows the direction of the war better than everyone in this era. Naturally, he is not sorry to sell his father's land, and he opened his mouth to get a whole regiment of equipment.

Of course, as for the existence of this arsenal, it is not a big secret that Tang Dao can tell, so it is left to Comrade Lao Wu to decide.

"An infantry regiment?" Commander Zhang, who has seen the world, was also shocked by Tang's big mouth.

That must be shocking. A fully equipped infantry regiment, even if it is like the most miserable Sichuan Army, where two people share a gun and there are not many heavy machine guns, will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But what kind of person is Zhang Junchang? He immediately knew that the Northeast Army must have a secret arsenal behind it. Looking at the whole country, only they who have dominated the Northeast for more than 20 years have the strength to squander it.

As for whether Tang Dao can make this decision for Comrade Lao Wu who went to the theater headquarters, from the moment Zhang Junchang received the telegram from Comrade Lao Wu who was on his way to Xuzhou City for help, he knew that Tang Dao, the little regiment commander, was more important to the lieutenant general than a nephew.

Thinking about the battlefields they had experienced together, it is not difficult to understand. Whether it was trapped in the isolated city of Songjiang or the large-scale retreat of tens of thousands of people, it was almost a desperate struggle. The comradeship forged in this environment is obviously beyond the understanding of ordinary people.

However, in the reflection of the close comradeship between Tang Dao and Comrade Lao Wu, it is inevitable that he would think of his old brother who had treated him sincerely for many years, but at such an important moment, he finally chose to preserve his reputation and status. The lieutenant general, whose mind was no longer as depressed as before, still couldn't help but feel a little sad.

However, after Tang Dao took the initiative to open up his inner scars and let him face them, this kind of sadness was unconsciously no longer the pain that he had always felt before, and it just flashed through his thoughts.

"Okay! My 59th Army is in need of this batch of equipment. I don't care if you are bragging, brother Tang. With your words, I will not compete with brother Jingshan for LY, the city that must be defended!" Commander Zhang had no intention of being hypocritical at all, and agreed at once.

"Brother Zhang, you didn't refuse it? For example, it's not easy for you, brother. It's better for you to go to Chief Wu for this favor... To use a common saying: You are not playing by the rules!" Tang Dao blinked.

"Haha! Although Jingshan lied to me about the merits on the battlefield, he still told me the truth. You can't be polite to anyone, but you can't be polite to your brother Tang Dao. Otherwise, you will lose face but not substance." Commander Zhang couldn't help laughing.

"Ah! It's really not a good feeling to be seen through!" Tang Dao shook his head and sighed.

Commander Zhang laughed again.

The hearty laughter spread outside the house, and several of Commander Zhang's personal guards looked at each other in surprise. They were all from the former 38th Division Guard Battalion. It had been more than a month since they saw their old commander again, and they had never seen their old commander so happy.

They admired Tang Dao, the famous leader of the Four-Line Regiment, even more. He was not an ordinary person to be able to get so familiar with the military commander in such a short time, and to make him so happy.

However, until they helped the drunken Commander Zhang leave, they realized that they still underestimated a certain colonel.

There may be no one else who can get the two representatives of the Northwest Army and the Northeast Army drunk by himself except Tang Dao.

In terms of drinking style and drinking capacity, the Northwest and Northeast regions of China are definitely the top three in China.

Then, two of the top three were handled by Tang Dao alone.

You know, during that period, several officers from the 67th Army Liaison Office went to toast, but Commander Tang accepted all of them and drank until the cup was dry.

Moreover, Tang Dao also went out to toast a few glasses of wine at the dinner table to entertain the guards. Because of their mission, the guards did not dare to drink and replaced it with tea, but Commander Tang drank three bowls of white wine in a row.

Just like this, the two representatives of the Northwest Army and the Northeast Army were drunk by Tang Dao. How awesome is that? No wonder they dared to fight the Japanese to the death in Sihang Warehouse, Songjiang City and Guangde Mountain Area!

The Chinese army has a strange tradition. For soldiers, alcohol is courage, and good drinkers are synonymous with courage. Although drinking habits do not completely represent character, people with good drinking habits must have some advantages.

Tang Dao did not have much contact with the guards of the 59th Army, but he gained their trust by relying on his good drinking capacity and excellent drinking habits.

Of course, the reason why the two elders got drunk in the end was not that Tang Dao relied on his good drinking capacity alone, that would not be enough, because the two lieutenant generals who were already over 40 years old would be happy.

This day may also be the happiest afternoon for General Zhang since the July 7 Incident.

It was not just about opening his heart in front of Tang Dao, the new little brother, nor was it just a big pie falling from the sky and getting an infantry regiment of equipment for free, but the problem that had troubled him for many days was solved by Tang Dao's words.

Although he got the equipment of an infantry regiment for nothing, after laughing, Commander Zhang still frowned and paced slowly in front of the big map.

Invited by Commander Li to serve as the commander of his old unit, he has been thinking about how to avenge his previous shame all the time in the past month. With the end of the Jinling Defense War in the southeast, a large area of ​​fertile land in North China was lost. With the arrival of New Year's Day in 1938, the Japanese army's intention to attack Xuzhou, a major railway transportation hub in China, from the north and south, was about to come out.

LY, the big city guarding the north of Xuzhou, was the battlefield he had been looking for for a long time. The Japanese Fifth Division, which had already entered Green Island, wanted to come to Xuzhou in the south, and that was their only way.

For this reason, Commander Zhang even sent his special forces battalion to detect the terrain outside LY in advance a few days ago and asked the military staff to make city defense deployment. He only had to report to the theater headquarters for approval, and the main force of the 59th Army stationed outside Xuzhou would set out for LY.

However, he did not expect that the 67th Army, a dark horse, would appear halfway and intercept the Hu of his 59th Army.

With many years of experience in the army, Commander Zhang certainly knew that if the 67th Army had only more than 10,000 troops, it would be a pure fantasy to want to stop the Itagaki Division, known as the Steel Army. Not to mention that the King of Guangxi, who was stationed in Xuzhou, would not agree, even he himself would feel guilty.

But Tang Dao just said that the 67th Army, which could at least get two infantry regiments and thousands of wounded soldiers to return to the team, would have a force of nearly 30,000. In addition, after replenishing a large amount of arms, and with the record of Songjiang's battle against the Japanese Tenth Army for several days and nights as an endorsement, the possibility of the theater command agreeing would be more than 90%.

Without this battlefield that he had carefully planned, he could only look for another place.

Walking silently in front of the map, Commander Zhang's eyes kept wandering on the map. Following the gradual convergence of several roads, Commander Zhang's eyes gradually stopped at a certain place on the map, his footsteps stopped moving, his eyes gradually burst into brilliance, and he pointed his finger at it fiercely: "Since Brother Jingshan has robbed my 59th Army of the defense zone that originally wanted, Brother Tang, what do you think of this place?"

"Ahem!" Tang Dao almost choked to death on the tea!

Is this a butterfly effect? ​​He helped the 67th Army to rob the LY that was originally supposed to be stationed by the 59th Army, but this guy wanted to roll up with the Northwest Army.

However, this also proves the strategic vision of this great commander. The place he chose is not a place that must be defended!

The place that Commander Zhang chose this time is not somewhere else, but the core area of ​​the future Battle of Xuzhou---Taierzhuang!

No one can ignore this place that is just a small dot on the map, even if it is not a city, but just a large village belonging to Ludi

But this village is not an ordinary village. The time of its establishment can even be traced back to the Tang Dynasty a thousand years ago. Due to the prosperity of water transportation, the superior geographical location of the village became more important. In the last feudal dynasty, it was even given the title of "the first village in the world".

Let's talk about the geographical location of Taierzhuang first. It is located in Shandong, but it is only tens of kilometers away from Xuzhou, a major city in northern Jiangsu. It is adjacent to Weishan Lake in the west, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the southwest, Longhai Road in the south, and Jinpu Road in the north. With convenient water and land transportation, it can be called the northeastern gateway of Xuzhou, an important strategic barrier, and the throat of the canal.

It is not enough to have such an important geographical location. This village, which was given the title of "the first village in the world" by Emperor Qianlong, has become a regional center since the Ming Dynasty. It has even stationed officials at all levels, such as the third-rank lieutenant general, the fifth-rank garrison, the sixth-rank Tongpan, the seventh-rank Bazong, the eighth-rank county magistrate, the eighth-rank foreign commissioner Qianzong, and the ninth-rank patrol inspector.

What does it mean? It means that in this village, people were department-level units during the Ming Dynasty.

In the last feudal dynasty, even the city walls were built.

According to historical records, the city was built beside the canal, 1.1 kilometers long from east to west and 1 kilometer wide from north to south. In the seventh year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign (1857), a new brick wall was built on the old foundation. The bottom of the new city wall was an earthen platform, 4 meters high, and crenels were built on it. The city wall sloped inward from the bottom edge, and adobe was built inside the brick wall, with a width of nearly 3 meters. There are 6 city gates: the east gate is called Yangsheng, the west gate is called Taicheng Jiuzhi, the north gate is called Zhongzheng, the small north gate is called Chengen Zhanlu, the south gate is called Huidiji, and the small south gate is called Yingxiang. The four gates in the east, west, south, and north each have a two-story gatehouse, about 7 meters high, with a guardhouse on top and a passage below for large vehicles. The moat is 9 meters away from the city wall, 10 meters wide, 2 meters deep, and 5.7 kilometers in circumference.

By the Republic of China period, there were 8 streets, 13 docks, 437 alleys, 5,000 households and 20,000 houses in the ancient city.

Although it is called a village, Taierzhuang is not much smaller than the ancient city of Songjiang. If you want to occupy Xuzhou, this place must be occupied.

Facts have also proved that the highest commanders of China and Japan have set their sights on this place, and it eventually became the most core battlefield where both sides invested a total of 800,000 troops.

Surrounding this ancient city with a radius of only a few square kilometers, the Chinese army invested 300,000 troops in the ancient city and surrounding areas for auxiliary defense and the final general attack, while the Japanese army also invested more than 100,000 troops for this.

The Chinese army, which carefully planned this battle, was just a little short of it. If it were not for the timid commander of the 20th Corps who missed the opportunity several times with his almost idiotic talent, the two Japanese detachments on the most core battlefield would have been unable to escape, and the Chinese army would have almost completed the miracle of annihilating two brigade-level Japanese troops.

However, the area here is not large, and it is enough to accommodate an infantry division. If a huge army like the 59th Army were to retreat to the city for defense, it might suffer even more serious losses due to the Japanese army's bombardment from the sky to the ground. In Tang Dao's eyes, it was not the most suitable position for the 59th Army.

More importantly, psychologically speaking, Tang Dao already knew that the 31st Division of the Second Army, led by another important general of the Northwest Army, would definitely defend this core area and severely damage the Japanese army attacking the city. The glory of this battle was already doomed.

This choice of Commander Zhang was not the most suitable for him, even though Tang Dao knew that the combat effectiveness of his troops was not weaker than that of the Northwest Army.

"Why, Brother Tang, you are not optimistic about my choice?" Commander Zhang was extremely sharp-minded and asked with his thick eyebrows slightly raised. "If I guess correctly, the Japanese army will attack Xuzhou from both north and south. This place must be the place where their two armies from the north and south meet, and then use this place as a base to organize a large army to attack Xuzhou."

"Brother Zhang, your strategic vision is beyond doubt. This place will be the core of the core of the Xuzhou battle. Our army and the Japanese army will definitely shed blood inside and outside this city!" Tang Dao nodded solemnly.

"Then why are you hesitant to speak, brother? Are you questioning the combat effectiveness of our 59th Army?" Commander Zhang showed displeasure for the first time.

"Brother Zhang, don't get me wrong!" Tang Dao stood up and stood in front of the map. "The core of the battle is this city, but it only takes one infantry division to defend this city. The more important thing is the peripheral battle. Brother Zhang, how can you use the 59th Army for such a big job!"

"You say!"

"The Japanese are a lonely and stubborn nation. From the perspective of our Chinese people who have an extremely brilliant civilization history, they are somewhat weird, but we have to admit that they do a good job in execution and details." Tang Dao did not talk about the battlefield, but talked about the characteristics of the Japanese nation.

Commander Zhang did not interrupt. As a veteran who had served in the army for decades, he certainly knew what it meant to know oneself and the enemy. It was not only about knowing the opponent's strength, position and intention, but also knowing the opponent's personality characteristics. Otherwise, before the battle, both sides would try to obtain intelligence about the names of the other side's generals.

Just like this battle, before it even started, the intelligence department on the Chinese side was already fully operational. Who would lead the Japanese army in the south, who would lead the Japanese army in the north, and Japanese spies were everywhere. In Xuzhou alone, no less than ten genuine Japanese spies were caught, and there were even more traitors who forgot their roots and worked for the Japanese.

Both sides also knew that in front of the pervasive intelligence agencies of the other side, the unit numbers and the names of the generals could not be kept secret.

But doing or not doing is the basis of success or failure.

"The plan of the Japanese with this kind of national character to attack from the north and south has been formed for at least half a month. Even if it is guessed by our army, they will definitely implement it firmly with their self-confidence. That's our chance." Tang Dao said.

"Go on!" The gleam in the eyes of Commander Zhang flashed, as if he had captured some inspiration from Tang Dao's words, but it flashed by again, and there was nothing.

"Then our army will defend the south of Xuzhou, with the natural barrier of the Huai River as the boundary, so that the Japanese troops coming from the south cannot advance, and the Japanese troops in the north will strictly implement their strategic goals, even if they are alone..." Tang Dao said with a smile.

"I understand!" Commander Zhang clapped his hands.

"You mean, to resist the south and attack the north, the Japanese want to use their two knives, one in the south and one in the north, to cut our army like a cake and share it, then we will turn the southern defense line into a copper wall and iron wall so that they can't cut in. If only one knife cuts in, our big cake in the eyes of the Japanese army can swallow the Japanese knife."

"That's right! Brother Zhang, no matter where you are stationed, just remember one thing, hold your own defense line, always pay attention to the core battle of Taierzhuang, and once the time is ripe, take the initiative to participate in the encirclement and annihilation in advance. I believe that Commander Li will definitely choose to trust you." Tang Dao said seriously.

This can be regarded as Tang Dao's best efforts to make up for the big bug of the 20th Corps in the past time and space. The general surnamed Tang did not even believe that the Chinese army could be so powerful until the great victory, and he counterattacked the main force of the Japanese army of more than 20,000. Otherwise, why would his tens of thousands of troops drag their feet and come so slowly, and give the main force of the Japanese army time to hide in the county town of Ze County 20 kilometers away to hold on and wait for reinforcements?

If the 59th Army with a strong fighting spirit came, coupled with the 67th Army that came quietly, the two infantry armies would be attacked from the left and right. If the two detachments of the 10th Division and the 5th Division could still escape, Tang Dao would really say that they were the sons of heaven.

"Haha! No wonder Jingshan loves you so much, brother. Sure enough, you have great talent!" General Zhang, who was awakened by Tang Dao's words, laughed and patted Tang Dao's shoulder. "With your proposal, Commander Li will also help you get military pay without having to sell my face."

"Brother, keep a low profile. Don't tell Commander Li what I said. My Four-line Regiment has just fought a few battles and the troops have not been replenished yet. I don't want to compete with you for credit!" Tang Dao waved his hands and tried to clear himself.

He knew that Commander Li came here to take charge. He wanted to win the battle and strike the Japanese invaders, but he also wanted to take this battle to move up a level.

If he knew that Tang Dao had such ability, a telegram would come. Let alone Tang Dao, a small colonel, even if he changed the colonel to a general, it would be difficult to disobey the military order.

He was a first-class general who commanded hundreds of thousands of troops. The Sichuan Provincial King who had passed away was only a second-class general!

"I didn't know until you told me, but now I know that Jingshan is rushing to garrison LY. It's probably your suggestion, brother!" Commander Zhang ignored Tang Dao's little thoughts and glanced at him while laughing. A glance at a certain colonel who was 'cautious'. "The merit is the result of the attack. For the sake of brotherhood, I will help you, including when you pass through Yu Province. I will also edit a letter for you to hand over to Mingxuan. But tonight, you have to have a good drink with me. "I don't have a good drinking capacity. I can still drink a pound or two of liquor. Brother, you still have to be aware of this, so as not to say that I am bullying you."

Tang Dao...

"Is it really okay for a big brother to bully others like this?" Tang Dao felt aggrieved for a long time before answering with difficulty.

"This is a drinking competition between Sichuan Province and the Northwest and Northeast. Brother, you can't embarrass the elders in your hometown, and you can't be a coward!" Commander Zhang, who had completely relaxed his mind, actually had a childlike innocence, turning a drinking game into a drinking competition between several provinces. high.

Maybe this is the real interesting person.

After a thousand journeys, I am still a young man when I come back!

Comrade Lao Wu, who was waiting for his return from the theater headquarters, sat down at the wine table and watched as his old friend took a sip of Lao Di and Tang Dao Gan's wine. Before he even drank, his face began to turn red.

If you seek death on the battlefield, he can persuade you!

But in the wine shop, this really doesn’t work!

Comrade Wu, who has already maxed out his experience points, just wants to escape this "battlefield" where he is bound to lose. But obviously, the famous saying "Don't be afraid of opponents who are like gods, only be afraid of teammates who are like pigs" applies to both ancient and modern times.

. . . . . . . .

ps: I suddenly like this chapter title. The general who is willing to die for his country finally becomes a young man! It’s still a big chapter of 5,500 words!