When the air is fierce, there is not a trace of wind in the mountains, it is the afternoon of summer.

Under the scorching heat, a long procession of soldiers, mules and horses meandered along the mountain paths, and although there were no flags to identify them, the mud-stained gray cloth uniforms and boat-shaped hats on their heads revealed their true identities.

This is a unit of the Republican Army, which is subordinate to the 2nd Division, and its commander is Zhang Yukun, the commander of the 6th Brigade.

Although the number of this force is not large. It was only a brigade of troops, but it carried a lot of radial weight, most of which was food and ammunition. In order to carry these heavy weights, more than 4,000 mules and horses were used, and basically every officer and soldier could get one, and the logistical support was very sufficient.

There is no way not to be sufficient, this march is a long-distance rush, far from the rear base, if it is not guaranteed to carry enough insertion, this army will be wiped out at any time.

Zhang Yukun left Qinjiang City five days ago, and if we do not count the day when he rested in Zunyi City, then he had already led all the officers and men of the Sixth Brigade to trek between the lofty mountains and mountains of Guizhou for four full days.

After the end of the War for the Founding of the People's Republic of China, the troops of the Republican Army of Sichuan were transferred back to Hubei one after another, and the situation in Sichuan was basically maintained by the two divisions of the Sixth Division and the Seventh Division, and only the second division of the regular army of the Republican Army that marched west to Sichuan was not withdrawn for the time being, and the division was divided into three parts and stationed in various places, and Zhang Licheng's brigade was stationed in western Sichuan. To escort the formation of Xikang Province, the Peng Han Relic Brigade was stationed in Chengdu and Chóngqìng as a strategic reserve, as for Zhang Yukun's Sixth Brigade. After the Battle of Chengdu, he was ordered to march eastward to Gongjiang, an important town in the south of Chóngqìng Prefecture, to take over the defense, and then remained stationed there until the Hunan and Guizhou changes occurred.

Waiting for the river is "a major town in the south, next to the north of Guizhou, after the Guizhou Revolution occurred Zhang Yukun learned the news from the telegraph office for the first time, and sent a telegram to Wuhan for instructions, but at that time Zhaobei had not yet formulated a response plan, so it was delayed for a few days, but in these days Zhang Yukun did not wait, but immediately ordered the troops to enter a state of combat readiness, and at the same time began to prepare grain and grass in accordance with the orders of the General Staff, and at the same time, the chóngqìng garrison was also ordered to move south, and sent a large number of ammunition, mules and horses at the same time, so, As soon as the order for Zhao Bei to enter Guizhou from the south arrived, Zhang Yukun led his troops to Zunyi Mansion in northern Guizhou on the same day.

There were no hard battles along the way to the south, and the troops of the Guizhou Army stationed along the way either fled from the wind or raised white flags and surrendered, plus the various armed forces and the "revolutionary coalition army" of the Communist Association that were incorporated along the way. By the time Zhang Yukun led his army to the city of Zunyi, his troops had expanded to more than 6,000 people.

Garrisoned in Zunyi City is a rabble of Guizhou "Elders' Association" in the local area, never really fought, and only more than 1,000 people, weak strength, a sight of the iron-blooded republic flag, the military heart has been dispersed, after putting a few bursts of guns on the head of the city, they pulled the flag and fled south, and scattered to Guiyang, Zunyi City was conquered

After taking Zunyi City, Zhang Yukun let the troops rest in the city for a day, and took advantage of this opportunity to rectify the miscellaneous troops that had been recruited, and used them as the main force left in Zunyi. Zhang Yukun led the Sixth Brigade to leave Zunyi City. Continuing to advance southward, the troops pointed directly at Guiyang, Guizhou Province.

According to the operational plan drawn up by the General Staff Headquarters, the Sixth Brigade must arrive at and take Guiyang City in the shortest possible time and stabilize the situation in Guizhou as soon as possible, so as to carry out a strategic outflanking of Hunan from the flank

In fact, the sortie of the 6th Brigade was made earlier than that of the 5th Division in Hunan, according to the plan of the march of the General Staff. Guiyang should have fallen into the hands of the Republican Army earlier than Changsha.

However, whether it is the General Staff Headquarters that formulated the operational plan or Zhang Yukun, who carried out the operational plan. They all underestimated the difficulty of this march. In fact, the greatest resistance to the Sixth Brigade's march did not come from the enemy's troops, but from the undulating terrain of Guizhou, which was stacked with mountains and obstacles, and the torrential rain that had fallen in the past few years, the already difficult mountain roads were washed away by flash floods.

Coupled with the sporadic harassment and resistance of the enemy and bandit forces on the road, the Sixth Brigade was already two days behind the scheduled advance plan, and Zhang Yukun was anxious, but he had no choice but to curse the terrible terrain and mountain roads, and curse the Manchu court and government that left the work of repairing the roads to nature.

Considering that the march into Guiyang required a long journey and there were no supply stations along the way, Zhang Yukun decided to bring more heavy radiation, and deliberately strengthened the artillery force, strengthening a mountain artillery company and a heavy mortar company on the basis of the original two artillery battalions, which had strong heavy firepower and was more than enough to deal with the enemy in Guiyang.

After leaving Zunyi, Zhang Yukun led his troops all the way to the south, on the way to fight a tough battle at Xifeng, defeated more than 1,000 defenders, and then did not encounter decent resistance on the way to the march, and arrived at Shazipo, a small town in the north of Guiyang, yesterday. unexpectedly caught up with the Qian army that broke up at Xifeng. A beautiful roundabout outflanking, capturing most of them, and rescuing several civil and military officials of the Guizhou Army of the Communist Advancement Association, with them leading the way. The 6th Brigade found a trail to avoid possible interception of enemy forces and outflank Guiyang from the northwest. The pace of the advance had finally quickened slightly, but it was still far behind the march route drawn up by the General Staff.

The reason why they rushed to Guiyang was that, in addition to eliminating the Guizhou "Elders' Association" there, one of the reasons for the riot was to take control of Guizhou Province before the Communist Advancement Association troops arrived in Guiyang.

In this Hunan and Guizhou Incident, although the Republican Army played the banner of "Defending the Revolutionary Army." "Uphold justice for the comrades of the Communist Party" But this does not mean that Zhao Bei will give up the swallowed Hunan and Guizhou to the Communist Association, Hunan and Guizhou must be controlled by the Republican Army, this is the real purpose of this march into Hunan and Guizhou, even if Hunan is taken

The joint lecture meeting also had a relationship with the military regimes in the two provinces. Zhao Bei will become the new master of the province and stand here overlooking Yunnan and Guangxi.

Although the Communist Advancement Association suffered heavy losses in the Hunan and Guizhou Incident, it did not lose completely, and they still had some relatively effective units in northern Yunnan and northern Guangxi, and after Zhao Bei issued a crusade order against the constitutionalists in Hunan and Guizhou provinces in the name of the "commander-in-chief of the rebel army," the remnants of the Communist Association in Yunnan and Guangxi provinces also set out at the same time, and the troops were divided into two routes, advancing to Guizhou and Hunan respectively.

Therefore, both the Fifth Division in Hunan and the Sixth Brigade in Guizhou must take Changsha and Guiyang alone before the arrival of the Communist Advancement Conference troops, and occupy the province and Tan, so as to gain strategic superiority and pave the way for the commander-in-chief to take charge of Hunan and Guizhou.

And this is also the main reason why Zhao Bei personally rushed to Changsha to "inspect", he must rush to see in person, in order to decide whether to use drastic means to take Changsha, if he can go down without a fight, then the problem in Hunan will be solved in the shortest possible time, and Hunan's Xianyou Association can also "waste utilization." ** Starter, hand. "As for the elders in Guiyang, the commander-in-chief's order was cold. That is: Don't let anyone slip through the net.

"Don't let anyone slip through the net." As a soldier, Zhang Yukun knows the truth of "military orders are like mountains", so this time he marched into Guiyang, he brought a military court, and this military court was specially used to kill people. The elders killed Jiao Dafeng, the governor of Guizhou. Now, the revolutionary comrades of the Republican Army are going to pay tribute to the martyrs with the heads stretched out by the old congregation.

But if Guiyang cannot be quickly occupied, this military tribunal may not be useful, and the anxiety in Zhang Yukun's heart comes from this.

"Ahh Syllable! ”

Two crisp gunshots halted the marching troops, and the soldiers scattered, removed their rifles from their shoulders, and looked in the direction from which the shots came.

Zhang Yukun just pressed his hand on the pistol holster. Without pulling out the pistol, he wiped the sweat from his face with his other hand and raised the binoculars. Look out over the nearby hills.

But he could see nothing but mountains and mountains, except for the lining and trees, and only the sound of gunfire in the distance.

The sporadic gunfire on the road hardly stopped, the mountains of Guizhou are far away, the local people are fierce, the terrain is complex, and the influence of the Tusi forces is added. The rule of the previous dynasties in this Qianbian area was very weak, and there were many local tyrants and strongmen, and there were many people who fished in troubled waters, and now the situation has become more complicated after the revolution, and there are more bandits in Guizhou.

In order to prevent being invited to attack, Zhang Yukun deliberately divided the troops into three detachments: front, middle, and rear, and he led the middle detachment.

But this is not a thoroughfare, but a secluded path, and it stands to reason that the enemy of Guiyang could not have foreseen that the Sixth Brigade would go from here.

The gunshots rang out sporadically, then intensified for a moment, and then suddenly fell silent.

Soon after, the front detachment sent a pound, a staff officer.

"I thought he was paste," Zhang Yukun asked.

The staff officer shook his head and said, "It's not our shooting." The spearhead of the front detachment reported. It was a mountain in front of two teams fighting, the team under the mountain was carrying the five-sè flag, but the iron-blooded eighteen-star flag was floating on the mountain. ”

"Iron-blooded Eighteen-Star Banner? Isn't that the flag of the Kyojinkai? Zhang Yukun was quite surprised, called a regiment commander, and ordered him to lead the team to stay in the valley to protect the heavy radiant, and he himself followed the staff officer to the front road detachment, accompanied by a few cadres of the Communist Association who were rescued on the way.

When they arrived at the place, the cadres of the Communist Association recognized that the mountain was called Xiaobei Mountain, which was located twenty miles northwest of Guiyang, and Guiyang was close to the eye.

Zhang Yukun took a look through the binoculars and saw that half a mile in front of him, a steep mountain rose from the ground, and a tall flagpole was erected on the top of the mountain. There was an iron-blooded eighteen-star flag fluttering above, and gunshots were heard from time to time up and down the mountain, but it was not intense. Detailed reconnaissance showed that the troops at the foot of the mountain were none other than the Guizhou army of the Elders' Association, and perhaps because of the lack of heavy weapons, they were unable to attack the mountain. Positions can only be arranged at the foot of the mountain as a siege.

"Could it be that the army of the Communist Association is really on that mountain?"

Zhang Yukun felt a little incredible, after all, more than ten days had passed since the Qianjin Revolution, and everyone thought that the troops of the Communist Association near Guiyang had been swept away by the Elders' Association, but the scene in front of him made Zhang Yukun puzzled, could it be that the troops of the Communist Association had stayed here for more than ten days without news and no reinforcements?

Or, the Gongjin Society, which had advanced north from Yunnan, had occupied Guiyang and was engaged in a tug-of-war with the forces of the Lao Hui in the area around Feiyang?

It is not impossible that since the Republican Army marched south, the attention of the Guizhou Elders' Association has been attracted to northern Qianbei, and the defense of southern Guizhou may also be relaxed because of this, in that case, the troops of the Communist Association coming from southern Qiannan will take advantage of the situation to attack Guiyang City.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yukun's heart was about to jump out of his throat, if the troops of the Communist Association occupied Guiyang City before the Sixth Brigade, then he Zhang Yukun, the brigade commander, would also be escorted to the military court, even if the commander-in-chief raised his noble hand. However, the charge of "dereliction of duty" was enough to ruin his future in the army.

"What are you doing? Immediately launch an attack and disperse the Laohui troops at the foot of the mountain."

Zhang Yukun roared and gave the order to attack, and the regiment acting as the front detachment immediately launched a surprise attack on the enemy position at the foot of the mountain with the support of a heavy mortar company.

The troops of the Elders' Association did not have any weapons, and suddenly they were hit hard from behind, and the morale of the army was old at the first time." After barely relying on the position to resist for a moment, they scattered in a hurry, and scattered all over the mountains and fields to the south.

Zhang Yukun stood on the opposite mountainside, looked at it with a telescope, roughly estimated the number of scattered enemy troops, and was surprised to find that his 1,000 people easily defeated at least 5,000 people, as if the other party was not an army, but a sheep, this was still a surprise attack launched in a hurry.

This also shows that the other side is not aware of the presence of a republican army behind them, perhaps they have not even sent scouts, and they may not even have the most basic common sense of war.

Soon, the hundreds of captured captives were escorted to Zhang Yukun, and after a hurried interrogation, Zhang Yukun confirmed his conjecture.

The army that established an attack position at the foot of the mountain was simply a rabble, and the defenders of Zunyi City were all the so-called "people's army" who would recruit after the Guizhou Revolution, in fact, they were bandits, and their real name was Bi Shuli, "one is Zuntou and the other have their own accumulation, and there were only hundreds of minions under them, taking advantage of the chaos of the "Wushen Revolution" to expand the number of men and horses to thousands of people, and after being recruited by the elders, it was further expanded to more than 5,000 people, but the weapons are outdated, most of them are big swords, spears, a small number of foreign guns, earth guns, As for the cannons, there are also a few earthen cannons, but they are simply the same goods, not to mention the battle with the mountain artillery, even if they attack the mountain, they can't do it, so as soon as the mountain cannon rang out just now, Luo Kui fled with more than 100 cronies. The rest of the crowd has no leader, and naturally they are scattered as birds and beasts.

As for the army carrying the eighteen-star flag against the Luo Kui bandit army, it was indeed the people of the Communist Association, but it was not from Yunnan to Guiyang. It was the remnants of the revolutionary coalition army that retreated here after the Guizhou Revolution, and they had been holding on to the mountain for more than ten days, just at the critical juncture when they ran out of ammunition and food. The 6th Brigade of the Republican Army arrived in time and gave a surprise blow to the Luo Kui bandit army from behind, and this Communist Army was able to avoid the fate of the total annihilation.

In fact, these two hostile forces have been facing each other here for more than ten days, and they have to fight several times a day, fortunately, the mountain is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the bandit army below the mountain has no combat power to speak of, not so much that they are fighting. It is better to let the elders in Guiyang City hear the gunshots, and it is because of this that the troops of the Communist Association have been able to hold on to the present.

Although this communist army held out until reinforcements arrived. But it also paid a huge price, the original two-hundred-strong force is now less than a hundred people left, and there are not many bullets, and if it hadn't rained a few days ago, this force would have collapsed long ago due to lack of water.

The commander of the remnants of this Communist Party is named Zhong Changluo, the character Yuan Huang, and the number Shanyu, who was originally the deputy governor of the Guizhou Army of the Communist Advancement Association, after the governor Jiao Dafeng was killed, the outside world speculated that he was also killed, and he did not want him not only not to die, but also led his troops to hold on to this mountain for more than ten days, this matter is legendary, which attracted the attention of the two political commissars of the Sixth Brigade, but because Deputy Governor Zhong has fallen into a coma due to severe dehydration, he cannot be interviewed, so the press release of the political propagandist became very brief, And due to poor communication, this press release was not sent out in the first place.

Now the situation in Guizhou is chaotic, and no one knows how many small troops like Zhong Chang's fraud department are. After the killing of Jiao Dafeng, the governor of Guizhou, thousands of "revolutionary coalition troops" were scattered in a province of Guizhou. All of them were dispersed, the southern Qiannan troops retreated to Yunnan, and some of the northern Qianbei troops retreated to southern Sichuan, while others retreated eastward, trying to return to Hunan, but because of the mutiny instigated by the constitutionalists in Hunan, there was also a mutiny instigated by the constitutionalist. Xiangxi set up a constitutionalist army similar to the Guizhou Elders' Association, and the remnants of the Gongjin Society's retreat were cut off, so they could only gather their forces and retreat in Huangzhou City, waiting for rescue, but that was before the telegraph line was cut off. After that, the revolutionary army lost contact with Wuhan, and it is not known whether the current city of Huangzhou is still under the control of the revolutionaries

Zhong Changzuo was lucky, at least he held out until reinforcements arrived, and as for the others, it was questionable whether they could leave their names in history.

Some revolutionaries left their names, while others didn't even know their names, which is a true portrayal of this great era.

After the Guizhou Change, the Communist Party was defeated, and Zhang Yukun originally looked down on the Communist Party troops. But Zhong Chang's performance as this small unit made him awe-inspired, and in the past ten days. It is not that the Guizhou Elders' Association has not sent people to persuade them to surrender. The high-ranking officials were generous and the future was bright, but this army did not surrender, and although a few people deserted, it could not detract from the glory of this army.

What is even more admirable is that this Deputy Governor Zhong is a real scholar who has never led soldiers before.

It can be seen from this that it is not that there are no talents in the Communist Association, but they lack a capable and prestigious leader.

Zhang Yukun was very glad that he had chosen to go to Henan with the Qunzhi Society after returning to Hubei. Perhaps, today he will not become the brigade commander of the 6th Brigade of the Republican Army, and only in the Republican Army can he experience the glory of being a soldier.

Only the commander-in-chief can have the ability and prestige to unite people from all over the country with different political views. Only the commander-in-chief can take this weak country on the road to power.

"Herald! Everyone cheers up the gods, no matter what, they must rush to Guiyang before dark! Take Guiyang, let's complete the task! ”

Pointing to the map, Zhang Yukun gave the order to march. Since the commander-in-chief has strategized and won a decisive victory. Then, this rushing and courageous soldier crossing the river will let Brigadier Zhang act as him.