The distance from Xuzhou to Suzhou is more than 150 miles in a straight line, which is just a two-day outing in the eyes of the Guangfu Army. The troops also arrived at the city of Suzhou three days after their departure.

"Political commissar, do you want to surround Suzhou City?" The two commanders asked.

In the Liberation Army, the status of the political commissar is higher than that of the executive officer, and likewise, the commander has a say in the commander-in-chief of operations. In military command, if the political commissar and the commander are on the same page, the commander has every reason to ignore the political commissar. Of course, the political commissar can also convene a meeting of the party committee to discuss the resolution of the removal of the commander. If the party committee passes this resolution, the second commander elected after that can still completely oppose the orders of the commissar.

It's a system that seems to be completely opposed, but the worst of this has never happened. Unless the system is rotten to the roots, the chances of letting the party committee, the command headquarters, and the general staff make a mistake together are too small. Not to mention that after losing the war, it is necessary to lose the head. At this time, a very interesting situation arose, the political commissar who was the secretary of the unit and the commander who was the deputy secretary of the party committee, who was more capable of fighting, everyone listened to him at the military meeting.

If it is a political commissar who is more able to fight, this is called a party committee decision. If the commander is more capable of fighting, it is the supremacy of professionalism. Of course, there is only one premise for all this, and all members of the party committee meeting must be party members. There is no precedent for a non-party member to become a commander.

Lei Hu, a veteran of more than ten years, looked at the commander of the cavalry division after hearing this question, "Will they choose to flee for their lives?" ”

This was a matter discussed before the station, and if the enemy fled for his life, a cavalry unit was sent in pursuit. The four armies dispatched this time did not attack centripetally, and the two armies of the Xuzhou Military Region went straight to Suzhou one after the other. The two armies of the Anhui Military Region attacked Mengcheng and Fuyang. In the original plan, after the three cities were conquered, the four armies combined to attack Wuyang, and then liberate Cao Cao and Hua Tuo's hometown of Haozhou. After the next step out of Shangqiu, the battle was basically over. The southern part of Henan is liberated by the Hubei Military Region, and the Yuanhuai River Defense Line Command is not responsible.

The troops all believed that the Xuzhou Military Region would definitely take part in the battle in northern Henan, and that the cavalry units would have sufficient room to go into battle during the battle. The Xuzhou Military Region had no experience in the large-scale use of cavalry units, and the previous cavalry divisions were basically mounted infantry rather than assault cavalry, and there were plans to conduct actual combat in this campaign.

"This is not the same as the original military plan," the commanders said, "This is not the same as the original military plan. "There's no need to deliberately let the enemy slip away."

The commanders used such serious reasons to oppose Lei Hu's opinion, and the others thought similarly. If the Qing army saw that the Guangfu army was killing under the city at this time, they immediately opened the city gate and fled, then they naturally had to let the cavalry troops chase after them. Deliberately creating opportunities for the enemy to escape is too much. Pursuit battles may be able to annihilate most of the enemy, but siege battles can wipe out all enemies. If any important figures of the Huai army escaped in the pursuit, the losses would be great.

Lei Hu himself did not particularly want to create an opportunity for the cavalry troops to attack, everyone was against it, so he ordered, "Siege!" ”

There was a panic in the yamen of the Anhui governor in Suzhou City, if it was the Huai army, it was not impossible to walk more than 150 miles in three days. But it had to be a small force, just like Jiang Zhongyuan's envoy, a team of seven or eight people, found that there were a large number of troops of the Liberation Army on the opposite side, and they could run back as fast as they could. But the march of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses was completely different from this. Marching, eating, resting, if one is not properly arranged, the speed of the troops' movement will be greatly reduced.

Before the Guangfu army besieged the city, Jiang Zhongyuan's subordinates asked whether to escape from Suzhou first. Jiang Zhongyuan did not hesitate to deny this construction, if a fortified city like Suzhou fled without a fight, what other city in the entire Huaibei could be defended? He sent Liu Kunyi to lead some people to leave Suzhou to raise men and horses in Wuyang and other places, where there were about 50,000 Hunan troops and Huai army encirclement armies, and more than 10,000 Huai troops were stationed. If this force can be mobilized, Jiang Zhongyuan feels that he can at least fight the Guangfu Army.

After letting Liu Kun leave the city, Jiang Zhongyuan personally led the troops to the city, in addition to closing the gates of the city, he also had to surround the actions of the recovering army. The march of the large army for three days, at least 60 miles a day to reach Suzhou, must have been extremely exhausting. Jiang Zhongyuan saw in the telescope that the Guangfu Army set up positions and dragged large artillery. The fighters were fierce and fierce, without the slightest fatigue.

Jiang Zhongyuan thought that he might still have a chance to send troops to sneak attack, but until the Guangfu Army completed the encirclement, he didn't see any opportunity for him to take advantage of.

Back at the governor's yamen, the Huai army was stunned. Ignorance is a kind of happiness in many cases, and if the Huai army had not done similar training under the persecution of foreign teachings, they could still laugh at the military arrangements of the Guangfu Army for some reason. When watching the preparations of the Guangfu Army at the head of the city, a considerable part of the arrangements of the Guangfu Army made the Huai Army feel very familiar. Huai Jun complained a lot during the training of foreign education and persecution, and he also procrastinated. Seeing that the troops of the Guangfu Army were doing more complicated work, that kind of neatness and ability, made these guys who knew the goods feel a chill.

The gun emplacements and positions were well arranged, and the defense was tight. Not to mention that approaching during the day is a dead end, even if you attack at night, you will never be able to get any benefit. "My lord, can we wait for reinforcements?" That's the only question I can ask.

"Can't you still believe Liu Kunyi?" Jiang Zhongyuan asked this group of subordinates.

Liu Kunyi was the first group of backbones to follow Jiang Zhongyuan, if even he couldn't be trusted, there would be no one in the entire Huai Army to be trusted.

"Can Lord Liu get to Voryang safely?" The Huai generals began to worry about this. But they can only worry about it, the Guangfu army surrounded the city of Suzhou, and the Huai army was afraid of being attacked by the Guangfu army, so the four gates were locked, and they had no other way than to arrange to send people out at night.

The night guard was assigned, and the Huai generals went their separate ways. Jiang Zhongyuan ate with a pale face, and then went back to the backyard. His family didn't dare to disturb him during the day, but now that Jiang Zhongyuan appeared, his wife immediately stepped forward and asked, "Master, why did this start a fight?" ”

Jiang Zhongyuan was extremely unhappy when he heard this, and the peace in the past few years really paralyzed Jiang Zhongyuan. Although he knew that the Huai Army and the Guangfu Army would fight sooner or later, he knew that after Xuzhou was occupied by the Guangfu Army, the situation in Huaibei would be too bad. There has been no sign of an offensive by the Guangfu Army, and Jiang Zhongyuan believed in Zeng Guofan's strategic judgment that the Guangfu Army hoped that the imperial court and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would fight each other, so he did not make any special preparations. In particular, after Li Hongzhang led his troops south, he was hit hard, and the Huai army no longer had the intention of attacking. Combining many circumstances, the news of the sudden dispatch of troops by the Guangfu Army did catch Jiang Zhongyuan off guard.

But when things came to such a point, Jiang Zhongyuan could only admit it, and he said with a dark face: "If you can carry it this time, then everything will be fine." If I can't bear it, I'm ready to be loyal to the country. ”

Hearing this, Jiang Zhongyuan's family cried loudly, and his wife grabbed Jiang Zhongyuan's arm and cried loudly, "Master, you can't help it!" ”

Jiang Zhongyuan saw his family crying like this, his lips trembled a few times, and his eyes turned red. Let the family sit down first, Jiang Zhongyuan said in a dumb voice: "My mother died last year, and I, as a son, finally fulfilled my filial piety in front of the bed. Although the Guangfu Army was clamoring to kill the Nine Clans, they hadn't really heard of them doing this. If I die, live well. ”

Jiang Zhongyuan's mother, Chen, was originally in his hometown in Hunan, and Hunan was liberated by the Liberation Army. This senseless resistance was of course ineffective, and the group training was easily resolved, and the Chen clan was captured. The old lady was so strong that she went on a hunger strike to kill herself.

The Guangfu Army didn't want to kill this old lady with a good reputation in the countryside, but they couldn't let her go. In the end, she could only be sent to Suzhou, so that Jiang Zhongyuan's family could be reunited. Jiang Zhongyuan himself is determined to be loyal to the Manchu Qing to the end, but he can't help but think about it for future generations. After all, it is a family, and it is enough for Jiang Zhongyuan to be loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, because his own actions have cut off the Jiang family's bloodline from then on, and this kind of thing is not something that this man with affection, righteousness, generosity and heroism can do.

Listening to the crying of this big family, Jiang Zhongyuan wanted to say something more, but the crying made him upset. Jiang Zhongyuan simply got up and left the back hall, preparing to go to the camp.

When I walked into the courtyard, I heard a sharp whistling, which was like the sound of cannons, but it was not like it at all. Because it is impossible for the sound of artillery to come from such a high altitude in the air. Raising his eyes to look at the place where the sound was made, Jiang Zhongyuan saw that several extremely bright stars suddenly appeared in the sky, and the light of the disastrous color was extremely dazzling, and he couldn't look at it directly. Jiang Zhongyuan subconsciously closed his eyes, even so, he felt that there was still a bright flash on the retina, and he had the feeling of looking directly at the sun.

After another moment, the rumbling of cannon fired.

Lei Hu and they have long known the power of flares, so the whole army is prepared. The purpose of using flares was to shell the city, and it was not difficult to take Suzhou easily, and such an operation ranked third in the plan of the Liberation Army. The number one is naturally to encircle the point to send reinforcements, and use Suzhou to mobilize the Huai army in other places. The Huai army sent it to the door by itself, which naturally saved too much effort from the Guangfu army.

Before that, it was necessary to put strong pressure on the Huai army in Suzhou City. Shelling under flares is undoubtedly the best thing to do. The Huai army was defending near the city wall at this time, and the effect of the artillery bombardment at this time was undoubted. No matter how worthwhile the combat effectiveness of the Huai army is, if the Huai army goes out of the city to fight without knowing how to die, it is not a good thing. Effectively weakening the Huai army is definitely the right choice. R1058