In the evening of the next day, General Wang Tianpei's five divisions finally took Zaozhuang as they wished, and the army led by Cheng Guorui and others under Zhang Zongchang retreated 35 kilometers north and reached Tengxian before gaining a foothold.

An Yi Reading Division was once again ordered to move to Taierzhuang, and while echoing with the friendly forces in the direction of Tancheng, he was ready to respond to Wang Tianpei's 10th Army in Zaozhuang and He Yaozu's 40th Army to attack Lingxian County. According to An Yi and his brothers' understanding, General Bai Chongxi regarded the reader as a dog skin plaster, and he would stick it wherever he needed it.

The whole division returned to Taierzhuang and settled down, set up a radio station, and immediately received the good news of General Feng Yuxiang's announcement to the whole country to occupy Xinxiang in Henan, and this good news had extraordinary significance for the entire Northern Expedition situation: Feng Yuxiang's powerful Northwest Army finally moved seriously this time, and Zhang Zuolin's Feng army would face heavy pressure from hundreds of thousands of troops from Yan Xishan's and Feng Yuxiang's troops, and it would no longer be able to draw more troops to support Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang, and there was even the possibility of withdrawing the three armies that had driven to the Jinan front line to Zhili.

An Yi and the brothers were overjoyed when they received the good news, they did not know that General Feng Yuxiang had received a huge sum of two million from Commander-in-Chief Chiang yesterday, and this was the opportunity to break the equilibrium today.

Encouraged by this good news, the Second and Third Route Armies commanded by Bai Chongxi and the First Route Army commanded by He Yingqin once again turned north and launched a fierce attack on the enemy.

However, when the revolutionary army was playing a triumphant song on the front line of southern Lu, Feng Yuxiang's troops immediately stagnated in conquering Xinxiang, and every time they sent telegrams to Wuhan and Nanjing, calling on the Wuhan army to stop the eastward expedition to Nanjing, turn around and go north as soon as possible, and ask Commander-in-Chief Chiang for arms and medicine by the way; On the one hand, General Li Zongren arranged his troops to prepare for battle, and on the other hand, he echoed Feng Yuxiang's frequent telegrams in a high-profile manner, loudly calling for not to fight in the same room, and to be quick to be enemies, but secretly frequently sent henchmen to Wuhan and Jiujiang; Yan Xishan's troops assembled on the front line of Zhengtai Road, putting heavy pressure on the Feng army, forcing Zhang Zuolin to start negotiations again and prepare to make concessions.

When the guns were rumbling on the battlefield and the political arena was in full swing, the third batch of troops of the Yue Army once again drove from China to Qingdao, preparing to increase troops in Jinan and intervene in China's affairs in an all-round way.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the European and American powers were deeply afraid that their interests in North China would be squeezed out by their own interests, and they also quickly mobilized troops from the Philippines, the Malaysian Islands, Sin Chew, and even India to rush to North China, and the United States alone urgently increased its troops to Tianjin by more than 3,000 troops, with as many as 12 warships and submarines.

In view of the barbarism of the Kou and the wanton trampling on the dignity of China's sovereignty and national dignity by the foreign powers, the Nanjing national political axe could only protest and protest, and the weak strength and the shattered and torn country could only let out a painful groan similar to that of a terminally ill person before his death, and the Wuhan political axe was even more desperate, and there was not even a single protest, Wang Jingwei was busy dividing the Communist Party, and the leftists were busy looking for their own space for survival, where could they take care of the coastal land thousands of miles away from them.

On this day, the Wuhan political axe controlled by Wang Jingwei and Tang Shengzhi convened the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, passed the bill to ban [***], and announced four measures to the outside world:

(1) To convene the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Executive Committee within one month; (2) To sanction speech and actions that oppose the policies of the Party's doctrine; (3) Sending personnel to Soviet Russia to discuss practical joint measures; (4) To protect the personal physical freedom of peasants, workers and workers. Immediately afterwards, the He Jian Division of the 35th Army under Tang Shengzhi held a grand demonstration in Hankou, occupied the trade unions in Hankou and Hanyang, and searched for Wu Yuzhang and other leftist leaders, and the Wuhan political axe moved towards an open split.

Cheng Qian's Sixth Army under Wuhan Zhengaxe, the Fourth Army and the Eleventh Army under Zhang Fakui, and the newly formed He Long 20th Army continued to concentrate on Hukou, Jiujiang, and Nanchang in three routes, preparing to attack Anhui and Zhejiang by separate routes. Wang Pu and other units of the 27th Army under the command of Li Zongren under Nanjing headed for Anqing, and Zhou Fengqi of the 26th Army and Zheng Shaoqian of the 31st Army marched to western Zhejiang, where they confronted the troops of Wuhan, and the Ninghan War was about to break out.

At the same time, Yan Xishan of Taiyuan saw that Zhang Zuolin had no sincerity in negotiation, but secretly dispatched troops, and immediately ordered Xu Yongchang's troops under his command to attack the Feng army, and occupied Shijiazhuang in one fell swoop.

Zhang Zuolin, who has received his full support, is willing to show weakness? On the one hand, he secretly sent people to appease Feng Yuxiang, and on the other hand, he gathered a large army and prepared for a decisive battle with Yan Xishan.

Also on 15 July, Zhang Zuolin, in the name of the generalissimo of China's only legal political axe, appointed Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zongchang, Zhang Xueliang, Han Linchun, Zhang Zuoxiang, Wu Junsheng, and Chu Yupu as commanders of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Front Armies.

Seeing that the general situation was out of control, Commander-in-Chief Chiang hurriedly convened military commissars to urgently discuss military and diplomatic countermeasures, but the princes under the Nanjing political axe looked like they were in harmony with each other, and they had different dreams in the same bed, and for their own interests, they did not care about the general trend of the world and revolutionary beliefs, and when the crisis came, where could they still talk to you about their beliefs and ideals, and the general trend of the world has undergone great changes as a result.

On the fourth day after An Yi's reading division was stationed in Taierzhuang, Wang Tianpei's 10th Army, which had just occupied Tengxian County, could not resist even half a day under the fierce attack of the enemy's three armies, and there was no reasonable layout and mutual response in the rout, and it was only when it fled to Hanzhuang that it could gain a firm foothold, and the main force of the 40th Army of General He Yaozu on the right flank was affected by it, and had to retreat to Taierzhuang under the fierce blow of Chu Yupu's army.

Fortunately, An Yi's reading division responded in time, and the blocking position built during the previous period of garrison was wide and strong, taking advantage of it, and the two divisions worked together to repel several attacks by an enemy three times their size, and steadily held the area south of the Taierzhuang Canal.

Bai Chongxi and He Yingqin cooperated quite tacitly, and once again ordered the eastern front to retreat and besiege Linyi, and immediately attracted the enemy's main force to the Linyi line.

Wang Jingwei and Tang Shengzhi changed their original insistence on the slogan of "[***] to seek Ning" and shouted "[***] Down with Chiang", the difference between the two words was completely different in essence, and it became to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek instead of overthrowing the entire Nanjing political axe, and as soon as the slogan was shouted, the entire Ninghan political arena underwent wonderful changes:

The "Xishan Conference faction," a rightist faction of the Kuomintang entrenched in Shanghai with a profound background, immediately stopped its accusations and attacks against Tang Shengzhi and Wang Jingwei, and General Li Zongren led an army of 120,000 troops to stand still and no longer launched-for-tat military operations against the Wuhan political axe army in the area around Jiujiang and Hukou.

Although Commander-in-Chief Chiang was not shocked on the surface, he was extremely shocked in his heart, and finally knew that he had been conspired by Wang Jingwei, Li Zongren, and the Xishan Conference faction, so he urgently summoned his henchmen in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Nanjing to hold secret meetings to seek a way to break the situation, and more than 100,000 troops on the Lunan front suddenly fell to the margin.

The European and American powers and the ambitious imperialists were overjoyed to see this, and they all stopped the struggle for their interests, gathered in Beijing and Tianjin, and waited quietly to watch the changes in the situation.

Seeing the opportunity, Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang finally made a move, and the veteran general Chu Yupu led two armies and another division of Xu Yuanquan and Xu Kun to take the lead in attacking, and suddenly drove from the west, north, and east directions to Wang Tianpei's 10th Army stationed in Hanzhuang, and at the same time increased the troops on the front line of Taierzhuang.

While continuing to maintain pressure on the 40th Army, the scheming Chu Yupu ordered Xu Yuanquan's army to move west to attack the exposed right rib of the 10th Army, and the two armies of Cheng Guorui and Wang Dong in Hanzhuang launched a full-scale attack on Wang Tianpei's 10th Army.

Wang Tianpei, who had been defeated again and again, and the generals of the Tenth Army were like frightened birds, long before they received the warning from An Yi and He Yaozu, they had fled to the battle line north of Liuquan where they fought side by side with An Yi's reading division to achieve the great victory in Liuquan a few days ago.

On the evening of the 23rd, An Yi's Reading Division, which was guarding the south bank of the canal with He Yaozu's 40th Army and confronting Chu Yupu's army, suddenly received an order from Bai Chongxi, asking the Reading Division to go to Liuquan again in the morning of the following day, and defend Liuquan, the last barrier north of Xuzhou, with the Tenth Army; He Yaozu was ordered to withdraw the 40th Army to the front line of Chefushan and hold the eastern section of Longhai Road behind him.

An Yi consulted urgently with He Yaozu, and immediately called Gu Zhutong and Deng Zhenquan to inquire, and finally learned that the First Route Army of Chief He Yingqin had left Lunan and withdrawn to the eastern section of Longhai Road, and the first and third divisions besieging Linyi were ordered to retreat last night and were rushing in the direction of Suqian.

An Yi and He Yaozu looked at each other, and the dozen or so generals around them also realized Bai Chongxi's strategic intention to concentrate his forces to protect Xuzhou and Suqian.

An Yi sighed, and his words were extremely bitter: "It seems that Commander-in-Chief Bai wants to transfer our Second Route Army to the original battlefield of the Third Route Army to fill the gaps in between, as long as a few of our divisions leave, Tancheng, Xinyi, Pixian and Suqian from north to south behind him will soon fall, if Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang are ruthless enough, just let Chu Yupu, a veteran, lead two armies to break through Pixian and go straight to Suqian, and the entire front of our army can be divided into two, and when Sun Chuanfang's army will maintain the oppression of Chief He's First Route Army, If we send Chu Yupu's army to attack Xuzhou from east to west, it will be difficult for us to be undefeated! ”

He Yaozu rubbed his astringent eyes, and was deeply helpless: "As soon as you read the strength division leaves, the pressure on my side will increase greatly, it seems that I must hold on for more than two days, and wait for the third division, the first division and the forty-fourth army to withdraw from the direction of Linyi before I can move, if my estimate is good, I am afraid that my forty army will retreat to Pixian again." ”

The generals were depressed and silent, but Gu Zhenglun, the deputy commander of the army, was optimistic, he believed that as long as the 40th Army withdrew to Pixian, it was likely to be adjacent to the east and west of the Reading Division on the eastern front of Xuzhou again, and they would form horns with each other, and proposed that the two armies discuss the next mutual response issue.

This suggestion was immediately agreed by the generals of both sides, and after a simple dinner, more than a dozen generals gathered again at He Yaozu's military headquarters to negotiate intensively and formulate a plan.

At 11:20 p.m., He Yaozu, An Yi and others were checking the final plan, when they suddenly received an urgent call from Bai Chongxi:

Wang Tianpei's 10th Army suffered heavy losses under the attack of Cheng Guorui, Xu Yuanquan and Xu Kun of the Zhilu Alliance, and retreated to Xuzhou to defend.

"Fuck, how long has it been since I read the strong line of defense that my teacher has worked so hard to forge? I don't know how the Tenth Army fought? Alas, this time Xuzhou is finished......"

After An Yi finished speaking, he looked up to the sky and sighed, He Yaozu slammed his fist on the table, and scolded Wang Tianpei's vulnerable Tenth Army, and the generals were shocked, watching An Yi sigh frequently, watching He Yaozu jump like thunder, but he couldn't say a word of comfort.

(To be continued)