Chapter 67: Sinister, Occupying the Magpie's Nest
Fu Zuoyi, who was reluctant inside, originally wanted to find some excuses to delay his march south, but Qiu Zhaochen arrived very quickly, and Lanzhou and Xiangning were urging him to go, so he had no time to delay.
Therefore, Fu Zuoyi had to hastily mobilize the entire army and prepare to move to Hunan, Hubei, Bashu and Sichuan.
But before the 35th Army set out, a series of unexpected events occurred.
Since the 35th Army was a rebuilt unit, a considerable number of officers and soldiers of the Shanxi Army, including Deputy Commander Fang Keyou, were not Fu Zuoyi's old subordinates. Therefore, they were reluctant to leave their homeland and were unwilling to follow Fu Zuoyi to fight in Hubei, thousands of miles away.
It happened that at this time, Yang Aiyuen, commander-in-chief of the Shanxi-Chahar War Zone, was working hard to recover the losses caused by the Japanese army's summer mop-up and to alleviate the problem of insufficient manpower in the Shanxi Army after the 35th Army was transferred south.
To this end, he sought approval from the northwest to establish new units including the 43rd Army, the 9th Reserve Army, the 10th Reserve Army, the 11th Reserve Army, the 70th Division, and the 31st Reserve Division.
Of course, adding four armies at once was difficult for the Jin Army, so Yang Aiyuen could only reduce the original one army with three divisions to one army with two divisions and several special forces teams. However, even so, the supply of troops and weapons was an extremely troublesome problem for the declining Jin faction.
Military equipment may be adjusted , and Yan Xishan, who is in Gaolan, can also play a role to a certain extent, so that an additional portion of funds can be allocated to the Northwest.
However, the shortage of cadres and veteran backbone soldiers at all levels cannot be solved by simply conscripting soldiers.
Therefore, after being forced to accept some students from the Northwest Army School who were born in Shanxi, Yang Aiyuen, who was unwilling to be a scapegoat, set his sights on Fu's troops who were preparing to move south.
This just happened to be a perfect match with Fang Keyou and others.
In order to gain a better foothold in the future, Fang Keyou, who was invited to serve as deputy commander of the Second Reserve Army, pulled away a deputy division commander, four regimental-level cadres, and more than 2,500 other old subordinates from the 35th Army.
Just when Fu Zuoyi was furious about this, a new blow came.
Liu Xiaozeng, Chief of Staff of the 35th Army, realized that there would be no benefit in following Fu Zuoyi to the end, so after a fierce ideological struggle, he finally chose to defect to the Northwest.
Moreover, Liu Xiaozeng was not the only one who went to the Northwest. Under his influence, Yuan Qingrong, the acting major general commander of the 138th Division of Fu's army, also finally chose the Northwest.
The two men hit it off immediately and after secret planning, Liu asked Fu Zuoyi to cross the Yellow River as Fu Zuoyi's representative to negotiate with the Northwest on the specific matters of how to use the Northwest railway network to transport the 35th Army.
However, after crossing the river, the first thing Liu did was to tell Zhang Xuelian, the commander of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia River Defense Command, about his and Yuan Qingrong's idea of joining the Northwest.
Naturally, Liu and Yuan's ideas were welcomed by the Northwest. After some detailed planning, Yuan's troops quickly applied to be the first to cross the Yellow River to the west as the vanguard of the 35th Army, while Liu continued to stay in Hexi to carry out so-called coordination with the Northwest.
Just like that, something unexpected happened to Fu Zuoyi.
Yuan Qingrong sent the troops he could firmly control as the first mover, but as soon as these troops crossed the Yellow River, Liu and Yuan sent a telegram to separate from Fu's troops.
Knowing that things were going to get bad, Fu Zuoyi rushed to Baode Ferry overnight upon hearing the news and prevented the situation from getting worse. However, it was too late to try to remedy the situation.
Almost three battalions of the 138th Division were taken away by the two men, and two more battalions that were unaware of the situation were forced to flee to the northwest by Yuan's troops after crossing the river. What made Fu Zuoyi even more crazy was that among them was an entire company of six 75mm mountain artillery belonging to the army.
Thanks to his active service, Yuan Qingrong entered the Northwest Army School Staff College as an army colonel and studied for one and a half years. After graduation, Yuan was promoted to major general of the army and served as chief of staff of the Yumen Provincial Reserve Command, commander of the Yuzhou Provincial Military Police Command, and commander of the 249th Division.
As for Liu Xiaozeng, he was ordered to lead the five battalions of the Shanxi Army that had joined the Northwest to retreat to Suiyuan, and to accept cadres and new recruits in Wuyuan and other places in Suixi. According to the organization table of the 29th year of the Republic of China that was being implemented by the Northwest Army, he was organized into the 253rd Division of the Northwest Army.
Liu was appointed division commander and remained under the command of the Sixth Army until the end of the War of Resistance.
Fu Zuoyi, who was attacked from both sides, had no choice but to appoint his old friend Chen Bingqian as deputy commander of the 35th Army, and then promoted the chief of staff Zhang Zhuoqing to chief of staff. He also appointed Jin Xianzhang, the commander of the previously expanded Provincial Government Security Brigade, as the commander of the 6th Reserve Division, and Lu Yinglin, the former commander of the 6th Reserve Division, as the commander of the 138th Division. He then used the troops of the Provincial Security Brigade to fill the vacancies in various units, thus basically maintaining the integrity of the 35th Army.
At this time, Fu Zuoyi knew that if he did not move faster, the situation would become increasingly dangerous. So he and his confidants Lu Yinglin, Sun Lanfeng and others went to the front line and personally commanded the troops to move forward. The 35th Army finally began its uncertain journey southward.
After that, after a period of torment with no rest day and no sleep night, Fu Zuoyi finally pulled the 35th Army to Shangluo, and walked out of Wugu Pass and Zijing Pass, passing through Xichuan, Neixiang, and Dengxian to Xiangfan. Not to mention the chaos when Fu Zuoyi's troops moved south, the 225th and 234th Divisions of the Northwest Army that replaced Fu's troops to enter northwest Shanxi also had countless problems.
Not to mention the hostility of the various Jin factions and the lip service of the local government in northwestern Shanxi, the more crucial thing is that the two divisions were originally field divisions aimed at frontal combat. To suddenly transform into a mode mainly based on guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines posed many difficult-to-overcome problems.
In addition, accompanying the 225th and 234th Divisions into Shanxi was a newly organized combined artillery brigade.
This artillery brigade consists of two 12-gun 75mm mountain gun battalions, one 18-gun 75mm field gun battalion, four 6-gun 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft machine gun companies, four 6-gun 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun companies and two ammunition supply battalions.
Today, all 11 cavalry infantry corps (22 cavalry infantry divisions) of the Shanxi Army have a total of only more than 230 75mm mountain and field guns and more than 50 120-150mm mortars. By comparison, this combined artillery brigade cannot but be said to be very powerful. However, judging from its assigned field artillery units and larger battalion system, it is actually not adapted to the current situation of the struggle in the northwestern mountainous areas of Shanxi, which is mainly focused on counter-encirclement and suppression.
Therefore, how to adapt to the needs of military struggle in northwestern Shanxi in accordance with local conditions has become the most urgent concern of Qiu Zhaochen and Major General Ye Chigao, commander of the 225th Division.
On November 19, a heavy snow froze the entire land of Shanxi. While the Japanese troops were hiding in the city and doing nothing, a military meeting of vital importance to the Northwestern Army entering Shanxi was held in the cold mountain village of Liupu.
In addition to officers above the battalion level of the 225th and 234th Divisions, several staff officers of the 221st Division who were fighting the enemy on the southern Shanxi front attended the meeting. In addition, through the transfer from Lanzhou, the Eastern Shanxi Anti-Japanese Corps behind enemy lines also participated in the meeting via radio waves.
After three days of discussion, the Northwest Shanxi Cluster made a resolution to disband the existing structure of the troops and, except for retaining one part as a fist, have each part move into various counties in the form of detachments and groups to develop bases.
Based on this, Qiu and Ye first sent the field artillery battalion that was not suitable for mountain warfare back to Hexi, and then transferred mountain artillery troops from the northwest to Shanxi.
Subsequently, with the two divisions' baggage battalions, field hospitals, each regiment's field first aid stations and the combined artillery brigade's supply battalion as the core, some guard troops were assigned to build rear military stations in Hequ, Pianguan, Baode, Xingxian, Linxian, Lishi and other places, and local governments of counties and townships in the northwest were established based on military stations at all levels.
The 225th Division also drew out the headquarters of its 2253rd Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the regiment as well as the regiment's police and communications company, supply company, and anti-tank artillery company to form an eastward-moving detachment, waiting for an opportunity to quickly enter eastern Shanxi through Yangquan, and then head to the Zhengtai Road to join forces with the Eastern Shanxi Anti-Japanese Corps and other units, and established bases behind enemy lines in Shouyang, Yun County and other places around the node of Yangquan.
After sending out the Eastward Detachment, the main force of the 225th Division will then go to Fangshan, Zhongyang, Jiaohe and other places.
At that time, the division headquarters and its police communications battalion, military police company, and chemical troops company will form the southern command group to command the operations of the Northwest Shanxi Cluster in the southwest direction of Taiyuan.
The 1st and 2nd Companies of the division's artillery battalion, the division's field engineer battalion (including a 210mm heavy mortar company), the 2251st Regiment and its 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion, and the regiment's direct team formed the Southern Detachment, which was a brigade-sized force that could take the initiative to attack or respond to Japanese raids.
The rest of the division was organized into battalions and companies, with an independent artillery unit equipped with 1 to 2 artillery pieces, mortars or several anti-aircraft machine guns and a signal/communications unit, forming a front-line command group, a battalion-level combat group or a company-level combat unit to control the entire southern part of northwestern Shanxi and serve as a tentacles for active operations against Japan.
The 234th Division was roughly organized in the same way, and its division command group advanced to the Lanxian and Jingle lines.
However, the division will be organized into two main combat detachments, with the 1st Mountain Artillery Battalion of the Combined Artillery Brigade and the headquarters of the 2341st Regiment, as well as the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the regiment, the regiment's direct team, and the division's search and reconnaissance company as the Northern Detachment.
The Central Detachment is composed of the 1st and 3rd Companies of the division's artillery battalion , the division's field engineer battalion, the headquarters of the 2342nd Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the regiment, and the regiment's direct team.
The Northern Detachment was mainly responsible for responding to the Japanese army's attacks from Shuoxian, Daixian and Yuanping, and actively fought against the enemy-occupied areas north of Xinkou.
The Central Detachment mainly targeted the Japanese Army's 9th Independent Mixed Brigade and the First Army's direct team outside Taiyuan. In addition to deploying various units, the Northwest Shanxi Cluster was also ordered to participate in the reorganization of security teams in various counties in Northwest Shanxi.
To this end, each department has also selected some veterans to serve as training officers and backbones of the county security teams on a regular basis. It is expected that after the training of the county security teams is basically completed, the Northwest Shanxi Reserve Command and the recruit training camp will be established.
"Master Ye, the secret message from the Lord has made it very clear that we are here to take over your place."
The purpose has been decided, and the next step is to execute it. When the two commanders said goodbye, Qiu Zhaochen gave them earnest instructions.
"So don't be afraid of being criticized by the Jin side, just smash the bottles and jars directly. Otherwise, you have to destroy before you build."
Qiu Zhaochen was born in Guangdong, but now he is sitting on the position of Northwest. Besides the fact that he would rather die than be a poor Taoist priest, he naturally also wants to take the opportunity to follow the dragon. In this regard, Ye Chigao, who was a veteran of the Shaanxi Army when Dai Jiliang was still the garrison commander, secretly despised him but responded seriously.
"Please, Brother Yulin, rest assured. I will follow your instructions and be polite and disciplined."
Qiu Zhaochen also knew what these old Northwesters were thinking, so he smiled and said, "Master Ye is an old subordinate of the Lord, so I am naturally relieved. However, for the Jin faction, we should still focus on using and digesting it. You should not press too hard in the south, but defend your respective territories with Yang Chengyuan and live in peace with them first."
Ye Chigao nodded: "I understand. I will first make a joint guarantee agreement with Yang Chengyuan, but if he is unable to resist the enemy, we will have to rely on ourselves in the end."
