Early in the morning, located in the north of Zhenjiang City, Beigu Mountain is shrouded in the vast white mist, the whole mountain is composed of three parts of the front peak, the middle peak and the back peak, the main peak is the back peak, because it is adjacent to the Yangtze River in the north, the situation is dangerous and solid, so it is called Beigu Mountain. The mountain is nearly 60 meters high and about 200 meters long, and the Ganlu Temple, which was built in the Ganlu period of Eastern Wu, stands on the top of the mountain.

Beigu Mountain and the Jinshan in the west, the Jiaoshan in the east form the horn of the momentum, the three mountains stand together, constitute the river defense barrier of Zhenjiang, the terrain of the north peak is precipitous, pillow on the river water, the momentum is magnificent, the cliff is like cutting, the mountain is full of hundred-year-old ancient trees, the places of interest and historic sites are more on it, it is known as "the first river and mountain in the world" is famous all over the world. Climb to the top of the mountain on a sunny day, look at Jiaoshan Mountain in the east, look at Jinshan Mountain in the west, and the famous scenic spot Pingshan Hall in Yangzhou across the river is clearly visible, but now it is said that it is the fog locks the river, and it is rainy, even if Gu Changfeng's observation point has a Zeiss 20 times artillery special telescope purchased from Germany, it is helpless, and it is impossible to see at all at a distance of 30 meters in the fog.

Accompanied by Hu Zi, Gu Changfeng and others, An Yi left the observation point covered with a thick camouflage net at the top of the cliff, crossed a steep and winding sixty-meter path, and returned to the quaint grass pavilion outside the wing house on the east side of Ganlu Temple to sit and rest.

An Yi took off his military hat, shook off the dew and residual leaves on it, looked up at the faint morning sun in the east, and let out a long sigh. At this moment, his state of mind is like the mountains and rivers locked by the mist, unable to see the road ahead and unable to distinguish the direction.

After the Battle of Nanchang and many large and small battles in Zhejiang, the Anhui warlord Sun Chuanfang has suffered heavy losses, his strength has been greatly reduced, and there are only more than 40,000 remnants of the 200,000 army left, but An Yi did not dare to be careless about the more than 40,000 enemy troops, but paid more attention to it, because the surrender of those who supported the army and the two ends of the first rat surrendered, and the uprising of the uprising, the remaining 40,000 people were all desperate and stubborn enemies.

According to the information from Lian Yue and the open newspapers, Sun Chuanfang's troops received the support of Zhang Zuolin, the most powerful warlord of the Feng faction in the north, and also received a large amount of money and a batch of artillery provided by the British, 300 light and heavy machine guns and corresponding ammunition secretly donated by the French.

What made An Yi very annoyed and very jealous was the full support of Zhang Zuolin and his son for Sun Chuanfang.

After the defeat in the first Zhifeng War and retreat to Guanwai, Zhang Zuolin, who had greatly expanded his ambitions, learned the lessons of the bandit-style army's failure in combat, and with the full support of Yue Ben, he strictly reorganized the army, and the number, quality, and weaponry of the army have been markedly improved, and now it has 350,000 infantry, 300 aircraft, 21 large and small naval vessels, and sufficient weapons and ammunition. Seeing the chaos in the Central Plains, Zhang Zuolin used various excuses to wave his army into the customs again, and through the war and peace with Feng Yuxiang, Wu Peifu and other warlords, intrigues, and finally occupied Yanjing and Zhili, and became the de facto master of northern China, not only won the victory of the Second Zhifeng War, but also beat the capricious northwest warlord Feng Yuxiang to lose his armor and flee in the wilderness, and a large number of Soviet aid weapons received by Feng Yuxiang's troops fell into the hands of the Feng army.

Zhang Zuolin, who had received the vigorous support of the imperialists, was greatly boosted by his confidence, and launched a long-planned southward march, holding high the banner of "asking for aid to Wu", establishing the so-called "An [***]" in Tianjin, proclaiming himself the commander-in-chief of the three armies of An [***], and giving Sun Chuanfang, who was cornered by the Northern Expeditionary Army, and Zhang Zongchang, a rebel general who split from the Feng system and attached himself again, the title of deputy commander-in-chief, occupied Anyang, Xinxiang, Kaifeng and other places in February, and then besieged Zhengzhou under the cover of aircraft and heavy artillery, and "asked for red aid to Wu" Wu Peifu, the object of aid, was caught off guard, and Wu Peifu was beaten to lose his armor and fled to Gong County, Henan Province for refuge.

Not long ago, Feng Yuxiang, who fled to Shaanxi by Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin, was still breathless, and saw that Zhang Zuolin's father and son took advantage of the danger and suddenly launched a fatal blow to the "old friend" Wu Peifu, where would they give up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Immediately gathered the remnants of the troops out of Tongguan, and Zhang Zuolin came to an east-west attack, Wu Peifu, who had not gained a stable foothold, abandoned Gongxian and fled to Nanyang, Feng Yuxiang once again shook his prestige, took advantage of the victory to pursue, and beat Wu Peifu all the way south, panicked, so that Wu Peifu, who was once a leader in modern Chinese history, was defeated and embattled, and since then he has been in a slump, and finally withdrew from the big stage of the world.

Feng Yuxiang was happy for a few days, and suddenly found that he had been placed under the cannon of the army of Zhang Zuolin and his son, and immediately flew back in shock, preserving the strength that was not easy to grow again, and in a low voice united with Yan Xishan, the king of Shanxi, attached to the National Revolutionary Army, and sent a telegram to the whole country to support the southern national political axe, desperately appealing to the Kuomintang Wuhan political axe and the newly established Nanjing political axe, which were in the same room and angry eyes, to abandon their differences and immediately wave the army to the Northern Expedition.

The scheming Yan Xishan, because he was afraid of the strong military strength of Zhang Zuolin's father and son, although he attached himself to the revolution in his mouth, in fact, he did not move, sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, and Feng Yuxiang, who had just formed an alliance and was forced to panic by Zhang Zuolin's army, was so anxious that he was sweating, and could only organize 10,000 people to give speeches every day, chant revolutionary slogans, and keep recruiting troops and horses to step up training, but he did not dare to advance half a step in the direction of Luoyang at all.

Zhang Zuolin was very keenly aware of the essence of the discord between Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan, and also clearly saw that the National Revolutionary Army after the break between Ning and Han had moved towards a substantive split, so it was very easy to throw the "defective general" Feng Yuxiang on the Loess Plateau, quickly adjust the strategic direction, point the sword to the southeast, provide Sun Chuanfang, the righteous son who was picked up cheaply, a large number of guns and ammunition obtained from the book, and appointed his son Zhang Xueliang and Zhang Zongchang, the warlord of the Lu army who turned against the Feng family and took refuge again, as army generals, and the troops were divided into two routes. He led tens of thousands of troops into the front line of Bengbu and Xingtai, and under the pretext of aiding "Sun's army to fight for the red", he began to get involved in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, the richest cities in China, and finally achieved the grand goal of capturing the two lakes and unifying China.

Seeing that the large army led by Zhang Xueliang and Zhang Zongchang was moving south one after another, Sun Chuanfang's troops, who had been struggling to survive, were taking advantage of the internal strife and splitting of the revolutionary camp to win a precious respite with the support of reactionary forces at home and abroad, gradually recover their vitality, reinvigorate the morale of the army, and soon march south in a big way to take revenge.

At this time, An Yi, although he was anxious, but he was helpless, he clearly saw that as long as the strategic adjustment and troop deployment between the Feng warlord and Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang were completed, the war would be rekindled, and the strategic position of his reading group would definitely become the target of the enemy's first attack, and he could only watch the open and secret battle between Ning and Han intensifying, and there was a great tendency to be tense and imminent.

The various forces of the Northern Expeditionary Army supported their own troops, which was like a separation, and at the same time desperately searched for the people's fat and ointment in the name of the revolution, they shuttled and wandered between Ning and Han under various seemingly fair and righteous pretexts, but in fact, they all took advantage of the crisis to sell their reputation and seek fame, and they were very happy.

In the face of such a general trend in the world, An Yi suddenly felt that he was so incompetent and insignificant, and couldn't help but doubt his ideals and the firmness he had always had, feeling that he was like a tree and a small grass shrouded in this chaotic fog, weak and helpless.

"Boss, the brethren are asking me when I will launch a general offensive on all fronts? I don't know how to answer, seeing the current chaotic situation between Ning and Han, I have no confidence in myself, but I can't say it clearly, I am afraid that the morale of the brothers will plummet after knowing it, and I can only deal with it with non-stop training. Gu Changfeng sighed in a low voice.

Wu Liheng, the deputy battalion commander, couldn't hold back: "The current situation reminds me of the repeated chaos during the two Eastern Crusades, when friendly troops suddenly became enemies, and after a few days, the enemy became friendly again, which made us confused, it's not a thing!" Boss, tell us how to deal with it. ”

An Yi smiled bitterly: "I can't see through it, fortunately, the enemy will not launch a full-scale attack for at least half a month, although the enemy in Jiangbei is menacing, and the so-called Fengjun Marshal Zhang Xueliang also frequently makes high-minded statements, but in the face of the Yangtze River, it is difficult for them to prepare in a short period of time."

The Fengjun, Lu Jun and Sun Jun combined nearly 200,000 people, such a huge army was mobilized, it took a lot of time, and there was no half a month to gather in the first line of Jiangbei to various important places, plus Zhang Zongchang's department had to be annexed by the old boss Zhang Dabeard from time to time, and the work did not necessarily contribute; The various units of Sun's army have just recovered their vitality, and the readjusted divisions and brigades need to have a process of adaptation, otherwise they will still be a mess of sand, and no matter how good their weapons and equipment are, they will be useless. Judging from the remarks made by the young marshal, he was also very anxious, and it is estimated that he already knew that there was a big difference between playing the Yangtze River and tasting the beauties of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and visiting the kilns in Tianjin. ”

When all the brothers heard this, their sorrows were gone, and they all burst out laughing.

Hu Zi admired An Yi's ability to make the brothers relax at critical moments, smiled and said according to the original discussion:

"Lao Wu, Cambridge, there is no need for you to be anxious at all, from today onwards, you will not move your troops for two weeks, except for closely monitoring the movements of the enemy in Jiangbei, stop all reconnaissance activities of crossing the river, you can take turns to give the brothers a holiday, Zhenjiang City is currently under our absolute control, there is nothing to worry about.

If the brothers asked when the general offensive would be launched, they told them that everything was under intense preparation, and that they only had to defend their positions during the preparation period.

Cambridge, you have to go down to the company more, the brothers in the fourth battalion are all good, there is no fancy intestines, and while insisting on patriotic education, you must also maintain a certain amount of war pressure. ”

"Don't worry, the brothers of our fourth battalion are very easy to lead, just tell the brothers to wait for the enemy on the opposite side to send the opium down, and I believe that the brothers will not slack off."

Lu Cambridge, the deputy battalion commander and instructor, looked very relaxed, and everyone smiled when they heard this, knowing that this was a way for Lu Cambridge to use the exploits he had captured to boost morale and build confidence, and it was very effective for the officers and men of the fourth battalion.

An Yi nodded with satisfaction: "In addition, you must take into account the safety of the right flank of the artillery battalion, the observation post on Jiaoshan is very important, you can't slack off, the artillery battalion has made great progress through continuous actual combat, they have just completed the adjustment of officers at all levels, and they are in the second stage of strong training, so they need your help." Xia Jian's battalion is the same, stop all reconnaissance tasks, and leave everything to Lao Ding and them to be responsible, too many sorties will affect their actions, if you are not willing to let your reconnaissance platoon stop, you can train troops in our entire defense area, if the regiment headquarters has an urgent task, your reconnaissance platoon has to assist. ”

"Yes!"

Gu Changfeng and the three of them replied in unison.

The fog slowly dissipated, the light rain gradually stopped, and the warm sun shone on the earth, An Yi, who returned to the camp, was extremely depressed, and after a round of inspection, he said hello to Yin Jinan and Huzi, and rode on his horse to the first battalion and guard company of Jinshan Temple with Gu Laoer.

The two of them were followed by more than ten guards, rode slowly, crossed the Ximen Bridge and entered the territory of Jinshan Temple.

After only listening to two sentences, An Yi's heart suddenly tightened, and he couldn't help but stop his horse, and looked at the lakeside pavilion in the depths of the green willows of Baihuazhou in the west with some surprise - the beautiful singing voice in the guzheng and flute was the song "I Wish People Were Long" played and sung by his beloved Chu'er in his church.

(To be continued)