1938 was the most critical year for China to enter the national war of resistance. Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan, a small island country, has always invaded China as its basic national policy.As early as July 25, 1929, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiichi Tanaka wrote a letter to the Emperor of Japan. He believed that if he wanted to conquer the world, he had to conquer China first, and to conquer China, he had to conquer Manchuria and Mongolia.This became the central point of Japan's policy of invading China. In 1931, the Japanese imperialists sent troops to occupy the three northeastern provinces of China and established the "Manchukuo" regime.The Kuomintang government at that time not only did not adopt a policy of resistance to Japanese aggression, but also tried its best to sabotage and attack the People's Anti-Japanese Movement led by the Communist Party of China.Chiang Kai-shek's non-resistance policy made the Japanese aggressors even more arrogant, and the aggressors gradually extended their greedy hands to Shanghai, Chahar and Suiyuan areas.

However, the ambitions and appetites of the invaders were still not satisfied. They believed that the Japanese government’s invasion of China was not bold enough or active enough.Prime Minister Hirota Koki of the Japanese warlord government proposed to the Chinese government the three principles of stopping the anti-Japanese movement, recognizing the puppet Manchukuo government, economic cooperation, and joint defense against the Communist Party, forcing the Chinese government to accept them.The Kuomintang government had an ambiguous attitude and did not want to express its position, while the Japanese warlords pressed on every step of the way. After establishing a puppet government in eastern Hebei, they also established a puppet regime in Inner Mongolia in an attempt to "specialize" the five north China provinces.

Even at this point, Chiang Kai-shek was still single-mindedly engaged in the civil war to wipe out the Communist Party. He advocated the policy of "suppressing the outside world first," and mobilized 260 regiments to gather in the Shaanxi-Gansu area, preparing to launch a large-scale siege against the Shaanxi-Gansu Red Army.Chiang Kai-shek also flew to Xi'an in person to sit on the front line to supervise the battle.The Northeast Army and the Northwest Army suffered a lot from the suppression of the Communist Party. They were unwilling to fight another civil war and asked to turn their guns to fight the Japanese invaders.So it led to the famous Xi'an Incident in history, forcing Chiang to resist Japan.

In 1937, after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, China began an all-out war of resistance against Japan.In particular, the "August 13" Songhu incident triggered a large-scale Songhu battle between the two sides.This battle lasted for 3 months, and it was the decisive battle with the greatest sacrifice and the worst battle in China's eight-year war of resistance. On November 9, China's 700,000 elite troops retreated across the board. The tragic scene is really hard to describe. Immediately afterwards, the Japanese army took advantage of the situation to attack, and the Chinese army lost more than 100,000 people on the battlefield defending Nanjing.The enemy entered the city of Nanjing on December 13 and began the inhuman Nanjing Massacre.In just one week, more than 300,000 Chinese compatriots were massacred, and the brutality of Japanese soldiers was fully exposed.

While the Battle of Songhu was still going on, the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government set out to set up the Xuzhou theater. The purpose was that after the fall of Shanghai and Nanjing, the Chinese army could do some resistance on the front line of Xuzhou, so as to gain more time to deploy Wuhan, a strategic point. ground defenses.China has a vast territory, and it is entirely possible to exchange space for time. The Japanese army will be exhausted and exhausted in a long period of time, unable to support it. It was against this background that the Supreme Military Command of the Nationalist Government appointed Li Zongren as the commander-in-chief of the fifth war zone and ordered him to start the formation of the fifth Xuzhou war zone, whose task was to command the defensive battle to defend Jinpu Road.Xuzhou Fifth War Zone extends from the south bank of the Yellow River in Jinan to the north, the north bank of the Yangtze River at Pukou in the south, and extends northward from the Wusongkou of the Yangtze River to the coastline of the Yellow River estuary in the east.The areas directly under the Central Government include the entire province of Shandong and most of the north of the Yangtze River in the two provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui. In this area of ​​jurisdiction, all Kuomintang party and government organizations can be directly commanded.

When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi received an invitation from Chiang Kai-shek to discuss the plan of the Anti-Japanese War.At that time, Li Zongren was managing the construction and development plan of the whole province in Guangxi, developing social politics, economy, culture, education in an orderly manner, and of course including the construction of the army. He lives in Guangxi, but he pays close attention to the situation of the national anti-Japanese war all the time. He has done serious and thorough analysis and research on the Japanese invasion, and wrote "Scorched Earth Anti-Japanese War", which was reprinted by various newspapers across the country and became a hot topic for a while.

Regarding Chiang Kai-shek's invitation, Li Zongren had a clear attitude. He telegraphed back to Chiang Kai-shek, saying that the central government is determined to resist the war, and we vow to support the government.Li Zongren asked Bai Chongxi to go first, and stayed in Guangxi to deal with the war of resistance and planning matters. Once he had a clue, he immediately went north. While Li Zongren was exchanging telegrams with Nanjing, Chairman Liu Xiang of Sichuan Province and Chairman Long Yun of Yunnan Province also got the news. , followed in the footsteps of Zhang Xueliang, Wang Jialie and others, regret it too late.They repeatedly asked Li Zongren to think twice before acting, or not.

Liu Xiang and Long Yun were out of kindness, and Li Zongren understood this.Chiang Kai-shek's character is too poor, and he often plays such despicable tricks.Dissident faction dignitaries have little faith in him.What worries Liu Xiang and Long Yun even more is that if Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi are deceived, Guangxi Province will definitely be controlled by Jiang's clique.If so, life in Yunnan and Sichuan will be difficult.Of course they understand the truth of being cold-hearted. Li Zongren called back to persuade them for two reasons: one is the current situation, China has two ways to go, either to survive the war of resistance, or to surrender and subjugate the country; The direct line troops will also take the initiative to carry out the war of resistance.Judging from these two points, Li Zongren believed that Chiang Kai-shek had no other choice but to resist the war.

Liu Xiang and Long Yun still have lingering fears.Li Zongren took the lead in calling for a nationwide war of resistance in Guangxi and recruiting soldiers.Farmers from all counties responded one after another and flocked to the county government to report to join the army. In less than a month, four armies were formed, with a total of 40 regiments, which were later reorganized into three group armies.The order of battle is as follows: Li Pinxian, Commander-in-Chief of the 11th Group Army Xia Wei, Commander-in-Chief of the 16th Army Liao Lei, Commander-in-Chief of the 21st Group Army After the formation of the armies, the two armies of Liao Lei and Li Pinxian went north into Hunan in turn and marched to the front line.

On October 10, 1937, Li Zongren took a special plane to Nanjing to take up his post. When Li Zongren arrived in Nanjing, it was the most intense stage of the Songhu War, and the Central Command needed General Li Zongren's assistance in planning.Xu Zuyi is the director of the first department of the Central Military Command. He is quite famous for planning the Songhu battle. Therefore, Li Zongren selected Xu Zuyi as the chief of staff of the fifth theater.Chief of Staff Xu rushed to Xuzhou to organize the Fifth Theater Command. Just when the Battle of Songhu failed and Nanjing was in a hurry, the commander's headquarters of the Xuzhou Fifth Theater was ready, and Li Zongren was urgently needed to take office.Li Zongren arrived at the Xuzhou Fifth Theater Command and found that the troops under the jurisdiction of the theater were pitifully small. Looking at the number of the troops, Li Zongren was dumbfounded.

The 31st Army, Commander Liu Shiyi, has the 131st, 135th and 138th Divisions under its jurisdiction.This army belongs to the Guangxi army, and is now stationed in Haizhou, northern Jiangsu, to prevent the Japanese army from landing here from the sea. (Third Group) Army Commander-in-Chief Han Fuju under the jurisdiction of the 12th Army and the 55th Army, all stationed in Shandong. The 57th Army, commander Miao Chengliu, has the 33rd Division and the 117th Division under its jurisdiction.Adapted from the Jiangsu Security Team, the combat effectiveness is very poor. The 51st Army, Commander Yu Xuezhong, under the jurisdiction of the 113th Division and the 114th Division, was stationed in Qingdao. It was originally the Northeast Army and had a certain combat effectiveness. The 3rd Corps, Pang Bingxun, has 5 regiments under its jurisdiction and is stationed in Dangshan.It was originally the Northwest Army. Because of Pang Bingxun's seniority, he became the commander of the army. His strength is only 5 infantry regiments, and his combat ability is limited. Li Zongren shook the troop sequence list in his hand, what kind of soldiers did Generalissimo Jiang send to the fifth theater?They are all third- and fourth-class goods, and they are called miscellaneous troops by the central government. They cannot be supplemented by the central government's food, salary and equipment. How can this battle be fought?It was only then that Li Zongren realized that this was Chiang Kai-shek's consistent style of plotting to wipe out these miscellaneous troops with different political views on the front line of the war of resistance under the pretense of national unity and common disaster. The commanders of the miscellaneous troops had already seen Chiang Kai-shek's motives. Their morale was low. They had originally rushed to the front line of the War of Resistance with enthusiasm and fought against the Japanese army for the survival of the nation, but they were treated unfairly.Not only will they not be supplemented with bullets, but in the end they will be reprimanded for incompetence in combat, investigated by military law, and even their lives will be lost.So they all count on Li Zongren's help. Li Zongren worked hard to unite people's hearts with his unique way of governing the army and employing people.Because these miscellaneous troops have been neglected and looked down upon by others, Li Zongren treats each other with sincerity, talks to them, and uses his power to do what he can for them to solve their current difficulties as much as possible. After the Japanese army succeeded in Shanghai and Nanjing, the next target must be the Jinpu line.But at that time, national newspapers and some political commentators did not think so.They analyzed that after the Japanese army repulsed the main force of the Chinese army in Beijing and Shanghai, they would inevitably drive straight in and take Wuhan in one fell swoop.Li Zongren told Chiang Kai-shek that these journalists were just talking on paper, without the minimum military common sense.In the next step, the Japanese army must open up the Jinpu line, completely eliminate the threat on the right side, and connect the Japanese army's north and south battlefields, and then it is possible to advance westward. Chiang Kai-shek certainly agreed with Li Zongren's view, because this is an indisputable fact.Therefore, Li Zongren talked with Chiang Kai-shek about the strength and equipment of the Jinpu Line defensive battle.Jiang said that in the future, the troops withdrawn to Jiangbei on the Beijing-Shanghai line will be under the control of the fifth theater. Li Zongren's uneasy heart was a little more stable. At this time, Generalissimo Jiang did not regard the fifth theater of Xuzhou as very important. He simply wanted Li Zongren to guard Xuzhou for him for a month or two, so that he could free up his hands to deploy the defense line in Wuhan.Almost all the troops sent to the Fifth Theater were within the sequence of the central government's elimination plan. Even after Bai Chongxi sent the Sichuan Army to the Fifth Theater, Chiang Kai-shek was not very optimistic about it.The more motley crews in the past are added, the better, as long as they are willing to go. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek was thinking: 700,000 elite troops can't win in Songhu, can a motley army of 100,000 or 200,000 can win?Even if he wins the battle, it is an honor for him to be the chairman of the committee. The achievements belong to him, Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist government. Who can snatch them away?Defeated, it can only show that Li Zongren is incompetent, he was the one who consumed all the miscellaneous troops in the country, and the blame can only fall on him. However, Li Zongren, who was ordered in a time of crisis, was attentive to the Xuzhou Fifth Theater. He firmly believed that there are no unusable soldiers in the world, only unusable generals.Like a magician, he turned a group of scattered sheep into fierce tigers one after another.