After explaining Feng Shaojie's various matters, Zhang Cheng brought the guards to the Baolai Bridge ferry, and at this time, the correspondent came to report to Zhang Cheng: "There is a commercial firm with a large cargo ship, which can plant more than 1,000 people. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Zhang Cheng was overjoyed when he heard this, and said, "Take me to see it." ”

After following the correspondent for more than ten minutes, Zhang Cheng and his party came to the cargo terminal.

Zhang Cheng boarded the large cargo ship under the guidance of the crew, and after a closer inspection, it could indeed carry more than 1,000 people.

Zhang Cheng then personally negotiated with the owner of the cargo ship, whose name was Li Jinfeng, and the business of Jinfeng Commercial Bank under his name spread all over the country.

After paying a satisfactory rent, Li Jinfeng agreed to transport troops for our army.

The deal was made, and the two sat down to drink tea and chat.

Zhang Cheng casually took the fur business he learned in later generations and played it with Li Jinfeng, but Li Jinfeng was suddenly shocked.

The two talked very happily, and when they parted, Li Jinfeng also left a contact address for Zhang Cheng, and agreed that if the Red Army had a base area, Jinfeng Commercial Bank would definitely do more business with the Red Army.

As soon as Zhang Cheng returned to the south bank of the port, he found that the fighting on the north bank was still continuing, and extremely fierce gunfire was heard from the opposite bank.

Zhang Cheng was very surprised, there was only one regiment of the Sichuan Army on the other side, and Ding Wei had already led the Second Brigade to clear it, with the strength of the Second Brigade, the battle should have ended at this time, why was it still fighting? What's new?

Thinking of this, Zhang Cheng immediately called Ding Wei, but Ding Wei said that the other side was not a regiment, but a reinforced brigade with 5,000 people.

"Mother! Intelligence is wrong! Zhang Cheng cursed secretly in his heart, and then transferred the Fifth Brigade to act as a reserve, and immediately arranged to rush across the Yangtze River and reinforce the battle of the ferry on the north bank of the Second Brigade.

The specific plan made by Zhang Cheng is:

The special operations brigade took two patrol boats captured from the enemy's river defense brigade and immediately launched a surprise attack on the pier on the north shore to lay a good front station for the follow-up landing force.

The 5th Brigade forced its way to the north shore on a large cargo ship, and quickly reinforced the 2nd Brigade to destroy the remnants of the enemy.

After arranging the battle plan, Zhang Cheng called Li Jinfeng and said that he would rent his large cargo ship now.

Li Jinfeng was a good friend, and in addition to lending the merchant ship that could carry 1,000 people to our army, he also asked someone to bring two medium-sized merchant ships that could carry 500 people from downstream to deliver them to our army.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the special operations brigade seized the dock position on the opposite shore and fired a signal flare into the sky to signal that they had completed the task of seizing the dock position.

After receiving the signal, Brigade Commander Chen Zhengxiang immediately led more than 4,000 soldiers of the Fifth Brigade to board the ship and cross the river in two groups.

At this time, it suddenly began to rain heavily, and on the three-mile-wide river, the smoke and rain were suddenly hazy, and the vision was dim, and nothing could be seen clearly.

Under Zhang Cheng's gaze, the three big ships slowly sailed away from the dock and pounced on the choppy river.

I looked at the other side of the river with a telescope and found that there was a hazy scene in the mirror.

Zhang Cheng couldn't help but worry about Ding Wei, but his anxiety didn't help, he could only choose to trust his subordinates and hand over the battlefield to them.

While anxiously waiting for the results of the battle, he stepped up the organization of the second group of troops crossing the river, and boarded the ship as soon as the big ship returned.

After about half an hour, the fighting continued to end, and the gunfire that broke out on the other side became more intense.

Zhang Cheng blamed himself in his heart, thinking that he was too underestimated.

The lion fought the rabbit, and he still used all his strength to take the southern city of Luzhou, but he did not immediately exert his strength to take down the remnants of the enemy on the other side, resulting in a stalemate in the battle.

Zhang Cheng began self-criticism in his heart, and finally came to the conclusion that the victory of the continuous battles had made all the junior officers, including himself, have the idea of being proud and underestimating the enemy, not to mention the local warlords like the Sichuan Army, and even the Central Army also had a feeling of underestimation.

Thinking of this, Zhang Cheng didn't dare to underestimate the enemy anymore, so he hurriedly requisitioned Li Yunqiang's regiment, which was repairing in the city, to recruit more merchant ships again, and asked the first regiment and the rest of the Fifth Brigade to cross the river.

It didn't take long for Zhang Cheng to receive a report from Ding Wei and learn about the enemy situation from the captured prisoners: Pan Wenhua of the Sichuan army requisitioned the troops of a brigade in Yibin to suppress the Red Army in Guiyang, but when he passed through Luzhou in the afternoon, he found that our army was fighting with the Sichuan army, and the brigade commander of the Sichuan army decided to reinforce the defenders of Luzhou.

Originally, the Second Brigade was about to annihilate the Sichuan Army, but the reinforced Sichuan Army Brigade suddenly appeared, and the Second Brigade met on a narrow road, and the two sides fought an encounter, and the battle fell into a stalemate.

At present, the Sichuan army brigade has launched a counterattack, and the attack is very fierce, and due to the unfamiliar terrain of our army, the casualties are large.

After Zhang Cheng heard this, he strictly ordered him to hold his position no matter how big the casualties were, and the follow-up reinforcements of our army had already arrived one after another.

Forty minutes later, the 5th Brigade and the 1st Regiment landed on the opposite bank one after another, and after the 2nd Brigade received strong reinforcements, it immediately launched a counteroffensive, and soon crushed the counterattack of the Sichuan Army Brigade, not only seizing the lost ground, but also advancing the battle line by a big step.

Subsequently, when the transport ship returned, Zhang Cheng also put the assembled mortars and heavy machine guns on board, and ordered the artillerymen and machine gunners to immediately board the ship to reinforce the battle on the opposite bank.

An hour later, Ding Wei adjusted the heat of the battle department, and with the support of the powerful fire of mortars and heavy machine guns, the troops launched a surprise attack in two directions.

Our army pursued and attacked fiercely, forcing the retreat of the Sichuan army to turn into a rout.

After Zhang Cheng learned of this, in order to keep it secret, he immediately ordered his troops to pursue the enemy so that no one would slip through the net.

In the end, the Sichuan army was completely annihilated, and after the 5,000-strong troops were killed and wounded by our army, more than 2,000 people, the other half of the Sichuan army surrendered to our army.

Our army completely controlled the ferries on both sides of the Yangtze River and the entire city of Luzhou, and completed the task assigned by the commander to the young column.

However, due to our army's intelligence mistakes and the mood of the whole army to underestimate the enemy, our army's casualties reached 2,000, especially the 2nd Brigade under Ding Wei's command, with casualties as high as more than 1,000.

Among them, the chief of staff of the 4th Regiment was seriously wounded, two battalion commanders died on the spot, and the political commissar of the 5th Regiment was also seriously wounded, and more than 30 cadres of the brigade, battalion, company, and platoon suffered casualties, which was almost the largest loss in all previous battles of the Young Column.

After the battle report came out, the officers and men of the whole army lost their joy, and their faces were gloomy.

At 10 o'clock in the evening, in view of the huge casualties caused by the battle on the north bank, the whole army from Zhang Cheng and the division commanders, brigade commanders, and regiment commanders below the political commissar level made a profound review.

At the same time, this incident also sounded a huge alarm bell for Zhang Cheng, making him understand the huge responsibility he shouldered, and knowing that any battle order he gave was related to the life and death of thousands of people. (To be continued.) )