After a simple welcoming and condolence ceremony, Li Delin and others took a bus to various defense areas in Zhuzhou County for on-site inspections.

Before Li Delin arrived, the main forces of the 31st Army and the 22nd Army had arrived in Zhuzhou for defense one day in advance.

But Li Delin was very uneasy when he was facing the enemy. He needed to visit Zhuzhou County and various defense lines in person to be at ease.

I didn't know if I didn't look at it, but I was shocked when I saw it. At this time, Li Delin realized that the actual situation in Zhuzhou was much worse than he thought.

In Li Delin's impression, Zhuzhou is a thousand-year-old ancient city, with a long history of 1,800 years, and has always been known for its prosperity and prosperity.

However, it is not the case now.

Zhuzhou was called Jianning in ancient times. In history, many cities in history never stood up again after the old city was abandoned. After the ancient Jianning was abandoned, Zhuzhou could still stand for thousands of years.

With the changing world and the fire of artillery fire, the main reason why Zhuzhou still stands is transportation and trade.

In modern history, it was a city that emerged due to industry. In 1936, the Republic of China government successively deployed enterprises such as weapons manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, and train repair to Zhuzhou, and prepared to temporarily move the capital to Zhuzhou.

At that time, the Republic of China government not only established the "Eleventh Arsenal" in Zhuzhou, the largest national defense industrial base in Zhuzhou, but also opened several large national industrial enterprises near the Zhuzhou Guangdong-Hankou Railway, introduced German-tech arsenals and automobile factories, and introduced British-American-tech locomotive repair factories and put them into production one after another.

The dream of building Zhuzhou as an important industrial base in China mentioned in Sun Yat-sen's "Strategies for Founding a Country" was gradually realized. This was once the "Huaxia Ruhr District" of the Republic of China government.

During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republic of China, Zhuzhou experienced several wars and smoke, but the trade between Jianning Port was not burned out, and the spring breeze was blown again.

Especially the opening of the first railway in Hunan Province - Zhuping Railway, has led Zhuzhou's trade to a prosperous road.

The current main attack route of the Japanese Kwantung Army is starting from Yichun, Jiangxi Province, and launching an attack along the Pingxiang-Zhuzhou-Changsha railway line, trying to implement a strategic encirclement of the Ninth War Zone centered on Changsha.

As the saying goes, "The trees are outstanding in the forest and wind will destroy them." The Japanese army with very detailed intelligence work will naturally not let Zhuzhou go. From the moment they began to invade China, they focused on Zhuzhou.

Before the Japanese Army entered Hunan, the Air Force carried out intensive bombing of Zhuzhou arsenals, railways, etc. as early as October 1937. Several major factories in Zhuzhou moved to other places one after another.

The long-term crazy bombing has turned the original important town of nearly 100,000 people into a deserted county town with no population.

Zhuzhou, which has been tragically damaged by war, has no longer had the prosperity before the outbreak of the War of Resistance. The city and the city are filled with shocking broken eaves and walls, and desolate ruins are everywhere.

The once prosperous county town is already empty, and the rest of the city is basically all elderly, women and children. People who are disabled due to Japanese bombings can be seen everywhere. This scene is even worse than an ordinary poor county town in Guangxi.

Looking at everything in front of him, Li Delin felt an indescribable grief and murderous aura, and he became more determined to make the Japanese invaders pay a heavy price this time.

After half a day of meticulous on-site investigation, Li Delin soon had a complete defense deployment plan in his heart.

After returning to the Zhuzhou County Security Command, Li Delin made a series of decisions, focusing on areas that were easy to defend and difficult to attack, such as Huangnitang, Dongliuao, Hetangpu, Tiantai Mountain, Leiguling, Dajin Temple, and Dongjiajiakou.

In these areas, the Kuomintang army has long built many permanent fortifications, which can fully play a huge role.

Therefore, Li Delin decided to focus on defense in the first stage and defend Zhuzhou County to interrupt the offensive momentum of the Japanese Kwantung Army along the railway line to Changsha, and use the favorable fortification system to consume the Japanese army's vitality.

Now the 22nd Army and the 31st Army led by him have a total of 130,000 troops under his command, and all of them have arrived in Zhuzhou.

This 130,000 army is equipped with a large number of tanks, armored vehicles, heavy artillery, anti-aircraft guns, self-propelled rocket launchers, anti-tank rocket launchers and other technical equipment, which can be said to have been reborn long ago.

Even though the five divisions of the Japanese Kwantung Army that were far closer to Zhuzhou were not only strong, but also a large number of combat aircraft were used to cooperate in combat, Li Delin was still full of confidence.

What he has to do now is to continue to strengthen the fortifications and then wait quietly for the Japanese to come.

At this time, the 31st Army, composed of Du Yuming's 5th Army and Zhong Bin's 71st Army, had arrived in Yijiawan to deploy defenses.

Next, based on the trend of the war, they will decide whether to go south to cooperate with Li Delin to attack the Kwantung Army, or to go north to Changsha to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Japanese 11th Army entering Changsha.

As for the 31st Army, which was formed by Gan Lichu's 6th Army and Zhang Zhen's 66th Army, it is currently staying in the towns along the railways in Hengyang and Hengshan, responsible for protecting Hengyang's security.

The main reason is that after the Japanese Kwantung Army left Jiangxi, three divisions of troops advanced southward to attack. At present, they have conquered Liling County, You County, Chaling County and other towns, posing an extremely serious military threat to Hengyang, a military city.

Hengyang is the three major central cities in China during the war, alongside Chongqing and Kunming. It ranks second in the country in tax revenue, and is known as "Little Nanjing" and "Little Shanghai".

Moreover, Hengyang is located at the intersection of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway and the Hunan-Guangxi-Guangxi Railway, and is the gateway and military throat of southwest China.

Today, more than 200 combat aircraft have been deployed in Hengyang Airport, becoming the most important air force stationing and output point in Hunan.

The importance of Hengyang's strategic position has become more important and has reached an unprecedented level. Therefore, at this time, there must be an elite army to ensure its safety.

As the 6th Army and 66th Army, which rank the lowest in the Expeditionary Army sequence, were naturally the best choice.

At this moment, Gan Lichu, who was ordered to defend Hengyang, was already starting to build Hengyang's defensive fortification system.

At the same time, after the long-term anti-Japanese and national salvation struggle, the people of Hengyang were united, and they shared the same hatred for the enemy, and vowed to defend Hengyang to the death, and actively participated in the defense of Hengyang with the defenders.

The trade union also organized 3,000 workers and requisitioned more than 1.2 million wood from 120 timber manufacturers in the city. In cooperation with the Sixth Army of the Kuomintang, which was ordered to "defend Hengyang", the sixth army of the Kuomintang, used the rivers, hills, city walls and houses around Hengyang to build solid fortifications.

Trenches, fox pits were dug in various streets in the city, and castles, machine gun bunkers, barbed wire, etc. were built to form a solid defense system.
Chapter completed!