Chapter 17 meritorious deeds

This is an urgent order from Chiang Kai-shek, requiring the Eastern Henan Corps to immediately withdraw from the siege and transfer to the Longhai and Ping-Han railways respectively.The order also stated that if the siege was not withdrawn in time, "the enemy will be annihilated and the soldiers will be disgusted." Gong Mengtao put down the microphone, picked up the telegram and walked into the room of Cheng Qian, commander of the first war zone.Cheng Qian hesitated for a while after reading it, and then asked Gong Mengtao to write an order to deploy the retreat. Gong Mengtao said unwillingly: "Let the tiger go back to the mountain and nourish the legacy of carbuncle. In the future, we will reap the consequences!"

Cheng Qian replied helplessly: "The chairman's order must be obeyed, you should make evacuation arrangements." Cheng Qian lamented that his efforts fell short, while Gong Mengtao did not see the overall change. In fact, Chiang Kai-shek's decision was correct.Because the Japanese army marching westward had captured Shangqiu to the west of Dangshan Mountain on May 29th, and was approaching the side of the Eastern Henan Corps.The situation on the battlefield is no longer how to eat up the 14th Division of the Japanese Army, but that the entire Eastern Henan Corps will fall into the encirclement of the Japanese Army.

The duck, which seemed to be just one step away from being cooked, just flew away.The Eastern Henan Corps retreated immediately. On June 1, the Seventy-Fourth Army was ordered to withdraw to Qinyang, where they built fortifications and made repairs. When retreating, the general soldiers were still kept in the dark, and did not understand why they took the initiative to retreat when they had not lost the battle ahead.Residents are even more puzzled. During the Battle of Lanfeng, the people in the Central Plains gave the army selfless help and care just like the people in the south of the Yangtze River during the Battle of Songhu.Every time the troops moved to defense, the local residents would be reluctant to part with them. Seeing that the troops could not be retained, they could only keep asking: "When can we defeat the Japanese devils? You have worked so hard to win, why do you have to retreat? You What should we do if we retreat?"

The soldiers couldn't answer, and could only curse as they walked: "Damn it, it's not that they are high officials who are afraid of death, so they ran away in a car. They usually teach us to resist the Japanese, but they run back as soon as they fight." The officers knew the inside story, but they had nothing to say except pretending to be deaf and dumb.At this time, they were more worried about whether the troops could withdraw. Compared with the southern terrain, the plain area would only be more conducive to the movement and pursuit of the Japanese mechanized troops. No matter how fast two legs are, it is difficult to run on four wheels.

When the 74th Army withdrew to Qinyang, it was ready to further resist and get rid of the chasing enemy.However, this worry soon became unnecessary. When the rear cover troops of the Yudong Corps passed near Luowang Station and were about to retreat to Kaifeng, they heard the blasting sound of the engineer battalion using explosives to destroy the railway bridge. Some troops in the rear mistook it for the sound of artillery from the Japanese chasing troops, and hurriedly greeted each other: "Hurry up and keep up, don't worry, the enemy is chasing you!" When the troops arrived in Kaifeng, the officer told everyone that it was not the sound of artillery: "The planes of the Japanese army blasted the mouth of the Yellow River in an attempt to drown our troops in the eastern Henan area, so the above asked us to retreat."

The soldiers believed it was true, and when they arrived at their destination, they were told the truth: "Our own engineers did the embankment digging at the Huayuankou of the Yellow River in Zhengzhou. The high command believes that only in this way can the Japanese army's pursuit be prevented." Indeed, the breach of the Yellow River blocked the advance of the Japanese army for a while, and the Chinese army participating in the Battle of Lanfeng could retreat safely, instead of suffering heavy losses like they did in Shanghai and Nanjing.Even some chasing enemies who were too late to retreat eastward were cut off by the Yellow River and were surrounded and annihilated.

But this cannot replace the serious disaster it brought to the people of the Central Plains.The turbulent Yellow River was like a wild horse, destroying countless homes. Wherever the flood passed, the plains became rivers, and people and animals became fish.A shocking "yellow flood zone" has accumulated for decades and cannot be rehabilitated. In the face of unprecedented disasters, many soldiers who participated in the Battle of Lanfeng were reprimanded by their conscience, and they kept asking themselves questions: a thousand-year-old crime!A thousand years of merit and crime? Looking at it from a high level, no matter the retreat of Nanjing or the breach of the Yellow River, they can all be regarded as part of the strategy of the War of Resistance, but in this so-called strategy, the lives of the people are always regarded as so worthless.Conversely, the common people don't know what strategy is or not. They only know that they have borne the greatest and most direct pain caused by the war. , not only was still ruthlessly abandoned, but also pushed further into the abyss of suffering.

Didn't you say that you must live and die with one city and one place, and live and die with the common people?However…… "King Luo's bloody battle destroyed the enemy, and the yellow flow flooded the middle of Henan." People's hearts were lost little by little, although this was not the responsibility of the blood-stained warriors.