At 3:18 p.m., more than 1,800 people of the 2nd Regiment of the Ninth Division of the enemy rushed to the Tonghe crossing, walked down the wharf on the river bank with heavy steps, and boarded more than 20 large and small wooden boats that had been forcibly collected.

More than 100 officers and men of the machine gun company walked last, put down 12 heavy water-cooled heavy machine guns, and crowded on the river embankment one by one to wait for the ferry. Regardless of the dampness of the grass and slates, they sat down to breathe, and one by one took off their wet hats to wipe the sweat, rain and mud from their faces.

The sturdy commander of the machine-gun company opened his furry chest and loudly reprimanded the officers and men of the inferior transport company, impatiently ordering them to quickly get more than 60 horses carrying boxes of machine-gun bullets across the river.

In the grass about 200 meters south of the estuary, Gu Changfeng held a telescope in his hand to carefully check the situation of the enemy's crossing of the river, and when he saw the happy place, he whispered and laughed to Wu Liheng, the deputy of the regiment beside him:

"His grandmother's, look at these grandchildren, where is it like his mother's army? I didn't even have a minimum of military principles, so I transported boxes of bullets across the river first, and I didn't know how to save a little at hand, so the dozen or so heavy machine guns that were stranded in the back during the war were still a fart? ”

Wu Liheng, who was born as a machine gunner, smiled: "This is common in the direct and Anhui armies, and I was also like this when I was a soldier in the Yunnan Army, Hunan Army, and Guangdong Army...... But this kind of thing is now unimaginable in our readers, and if anyone dares to do this, they have to lose their skin, hehe! But it's good for us for these grandsons to do this, you see, it's almost halfway over, give the order to fight, right? ”

"No hurry, no hurry! Wait for the sixty or so pack horses carrying bullet boxes to lead the boat to the halfway crossing, let's beat him again, hehe! Lao Wu, you go to the reconnaissance platoon now to say hello, order them to quietly touch Dujia Village, one kilometer upstream, and let Uncle Du transport them across the river, outflank them from behind, and be sure to carry back the dozen or so heavy machine guns. Gu Changfeng ordered in a low voice.

"Got it!"

Wu Liheng nodded, quietly slid down the muddy ditch behind him, crossed the prostrate brothers one by one, and walked to the left position.

Ten minutes passed, almost half of the pack horses carrying bullet boxes on the opposite bank had crossed, and those who lagged behind were also ferried to the middle of the river, Gu Changfeng saw that the time had come, put away the binoculars, pulled out the barge gun and fired three shots into the sky, the artillery behind the hill 1.7 kilometers south of the position fired in unison, and one mortar shell after another accurately fell into the enemy group that stopped and rested on the north bank, and after a series of explosions, thick smoke rose from the embankment of the north pier.

The 600 brothers of the first battalion beside Gu Changfeng had already rushed out more than 80 meters, prostrate themselves under the ridge and set up rifles and light machine guns, and opened fierce fire on the enemy group 100 meters away.

The brothers of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Battalion, and Machine Gun Company, who had already crossed the north shore in advance with the help of the fishermen, also opened fire at the same time, and the fierce crossfire knocked the enemy on the north shore into a daze and ambushed corpses.

Twelve mortars, under the command of the observer signal flag, adjusted the shelling every three minutes, and one shell after another accurately fell into the most concentrated place of the enemy group, and the entire north shore was wailing and chaotic within a radius of one kilometer, and hundreds of survivors rushed down the dock desperately, jumped on the six wooden boats stranded on the north bank, and rowed desperately to the south bank, and the pack horses on the more than ten ferries coming from the middle of the river were about to dock, but they were frightened by the sudden sound of guns and cannons, and they did not know whether to advance or retreat, and saw hundreds of people on the pier screaming and fighting for the boats. The horses on the river ferries were violently shaken in fright, and one by one the ferries swayed and capsized in the jumping and struggling of the out-of-control pack horses, and the pack horses carrying heavy ammunition boxes neighed and fell into the water, stretching their necks in vain, and in the blink of an eye they were carried to the bottom by the heavy ammunition boxes, creating huge whirlpools.

Liang Zhu, the commander of the first battalion closest to the ferry, saw the chaotic scene of people jumping up and down on their backs on their horses, and where would he miss this excellent opportunity, he loudly ordered the brothers to leave the enemy on the embankment to the second and third battalions, and all of them aimed at the boats crowded on the shore to shoot, and then jumped up, ran to the machine gunner's post, grabbed the light machine gun in his hand that had just been replaced with magazines, and fired wildly at the dense enemy on the shore.

The brothers of the first battalion all turned their guns and fired continuously, and six heavy water-cooled Makqin machine guns also quickly joined the ranks of the slaughter, and a dense rain of bullets sprinkled on the enemy at the water's edge, beating the wooden boats to the ground with sawdust, and hundreds of enemies who rushed onto the wooden boats were glad to have grabbed a way to survive.

The few hundred enemy soldiers left on the pier were frightened and desperate, and turned again to flee to the embankment, but they were greeted by more dense bullets and loud charging trumpets, and more than 1,800 exhausted enemies were killed and wounded in 20 minutes after being hit by the powerful fire of the three battalions.

By the time the second and third battalions rushed to the position, there were less than 300 of the enemy who could sit, and hundreds of shrewd men had already thrown down their weapons and lay on the muddy ground, not daring to move, so they could only resign themselves to fate.

The more than 100 machine gunners who were still stranded on the south bank waiting for the ferry watched as the main force on the north bank was quickly annihilated like a whirlwind and clouds, and after sobering up, they only felt terrified, and they did not want to throw down the heavy machine guns without bullets and fled for their lives, but unfortunately they did not run 800 meters before they were killed by more than 50 well-equipped officers and men of the reconnaissance platoon of the 3rd Regiment of the Reading Division. The enemy, almost all of them unarmed, fell to their knees and consciously raised their hands.

After collecting the prisoners, the commander of the reconnaissance platoon ran to the river with a smile on his face, blew his whistle at the fishermen gathered in the river, and the eight fishing boats immediately accelerated their speed and rowed towards the mouth of the Tong River, and in less than half an hour, they crossed the dejected prisoners and 12 new heavy machine guns across the north bank.

Uncle Du, the leader of the fishermen, and more than a dozen villagers who were holding the boat looked at the river water that was almost soaked red with blood, as well as the floating corpses that lingered on the side of the boat, and applauded loudly, and they couldn't wait to put these dirty things plus a bamboo pole into the water, which shows how badly the local fathers and villagers were persecuted by the Zhilu warlords, and even such a generous and simple fisherman had no mercy for their death.

The main forces of the three regiments on the north bank have been assembled, the three battalions were left behind to clean up the battlefield and guard more than 600 prisoners, and the remaining two battalions, under the leadership of Gu Changfeng, rushed along the west bank of the Huai River at full speed to Liuxiang Town, which is 4.6 kilometers to the north, striving to solve the defenders of less than one regiment in the town as quickly as possible.

Soon, the news that the enemy's second regiment was ambushed and annihilated reached the enemy's headquarters in Wuhe County, and the desperate call of Ji Dengyun, the defender of Liuxiang Town, stopped abruptly on the phone, Qin Shanhu, who was holding the telephone receiver and kept asking questions, turned pale, and his arms trembled slightly, just when he was disappointed and wanted to put down the phone and report to Chu Yupu, a strong and powerful northern accent came clearly: "Hey? Hey......"

"Hear me! Heard it! Please report the situation immediately! Now that Command knows nothing about your situation, I desperately need your latest report! ”

Qin Shanhu's spirits were greatly boosted, and Kong Fanfang, the chief of staff of the Ninth Division, who gathered beside him, immediately held their breath and listened carefully, hoping that it was a false alarm just now and that Liuxiang was occupied by the enemy, and a veteran like Chu Yupu, who had been in a hundred battles, also walked over unconsciously.

"I hear you, who are you?" A clear northern accent came again.

Qin Shanhu frowned, and replied rather impatiently: "Bastard, I'm Qin Shanhu, I'm the adjutant of the deputy marshal, why can't I even hear my voice?" Who are you? Is it from the garrison brigade or the 2nd regiment of the 9th Division? ”

"It turned out to be Adjutant Qin, I'm sorry! I have an urgent military situation to report to the deputy marshal in person, how about you please ask the deputy marshal to move to answer the phone? ”

The voice in the earpiece was full of energy, so that all the quiet generals on the side could hear it clearly, and their hearts sank and they all knew that the situation was not good, and they couldn't help but look at Chu Yupu on the side.

Chu Yupu's sharp eyes skimmed over the face of the handsome general with a panicked face, thought about it and strode in front of Qin Shanhu, took the telephone receiver, glanced at the surrounding generals again with displeasure, slowly moved the earpiece to his ear, and said calmly: "I'm Chu Yupu, if you have anything to say, Chu Mou listens." ”

"Hello General Chu! I, Hu Jialin, the deputy commander of the Reading Division of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army, a native of Hebei, can talk to the world-famous Chu seniors, I am deeply honored, and the younger generations implore Chu seniors to withdraw as soon as possible, and don't help Sun Chuanfang, who is untrustworthy and swaying from side to side, to fight, it's really not worth it! Hu Jialin's voice was earnest and very serious.

Chu Yupu's face was solemn, and then he smiled: "Thank you, Brother Hu, there are not many of us northerners who are generals in the southern national political axe, haha!" Thank you Brother Hu for your kindness, the battle has developed to the present, and it is not yet known who will die in the end, as the saying goes, the one who knows the times is Junjie, I want to say to Brother Hu, if you are captured by our army one day, it can be said that it is my Chu's old friend, if you don't dislike it, you can come to me at any time, a young handsome man like Brother Hu, I Chu still loves talent very much, haha! ”

"Thank you seniors for your care! I also put down a sentence, if the seniors are willing, you can always call the juniors. The juniors here have to inform the seniors that a regiment of your army has been completely annihilated by our army in Tonghe, and the defenders of Liuxiang Town have also been annihilated under the attack of our army's superior forces.

At present, our army has sent a battalion of officers and men to the mouth of the river on four steamboats and two medium-sized motor ferries to tow all the boats on the north bank back to the south bank, so as to prevent the reinforcements of your army from going south to cross the river to attack our army. Thank you seniors for giving juniors this precious opportunity to call, please take care! Bye! The sound of hanging up came from the receiver.

Chu Yupu sighed softly, handed the microphone to Qin Shanhu, who was apprehensive, and sighed: "An Yi's department is really full of talents!" I am still polite and polite to this part, and I still call me a senior very nostalgically, courageous and knowledgeable, calm, full of confidence and not humble or arrogant, it is really rare! It seems that the world is really going to be surnamed Jiang. ”

Everyone was taken aback, Qin Shanhu put down the earpiece and was just about to say a few words, when the bell of "Jingle Bell" rang again.

Qin Shanhu hesitated for a moment, grabbed the earpiece and put it close to his ear, the rapid voice of Jiang Yuming, the commander of the Ninth Division, came, and immediately reported after getting Qin Shanhu's reply:

"The first regiment of our division, which followed eight kilometers behind the second regiment and drove to Liuxiang, was attacked by two regiments of the enemy on the south bank of the Huai River just three kilometers out of Changhuai, and the other side used many mortars and light and heavy machine guns to strike across the river, and the selected blocking area was just in the narrow place between the hillside and the river, the officers and men of the second regiment lost ground and suffered heavy losses, and only half of the regiment of more than 1,000 people fled back to Changhuai, and the subordinates led the three regiments and the fourth regiment just arrived at the edge of the battlefield, and were attacked by a regiment of enemy troops ambushed in the woods on the opposite bank across the river. As a last resort, I had to retreat to Changhuai and hold on. I beg the lieutenant marshal to give further instructions on how our division should fight! ”

Qin Shanhu immediately conveyed the content to Chu Yupu, who was sitting back on the Taishi chair, and Chu Yupu spit out two words expressionlessly: "Hold on!" ”

Chu Yupu calmly motioned for the generals to sit down, looked at the zenith for a while, and then sighed sadly:

"We clearly saw the opponent's strategy, and we had no power to resist it in our carelessness, and we didn't expect that the opponent would act so quickly and with such strong combat power, and in just one hour, we could make full use of the flaws exposed by the difference in marching time between the various regiments of our army, and decisively adopt the strategy of attacking in sections, so that the various units could not advance and could not assist each other, and after so easily annihilating one and a half of our regiments, we calmly took Liuxiang Town as a bait, and cut off the north and south waterways of our army in one fell swoop, I Chu still underestimated him too much, It's so big! An Yi's son is indeed scheming, once he finds an opportunity, he will be as quick as thunder and merciless! ”

The generals had solemn faces and didn't dare to speak, Chu Yupu stood up and suddenly laughed:

"The young man surnamed Hu said on the phone what was stationed in Liuxiang, in fact, it was a radical general, knowing that he respectfully persuaded me Chu to retreat in a timely manner, mostly out of sincerity, but also a little challenging, but I Chu had to fall for his plan, otherwise, the world knows that I Chu with two divisions and one brigade of troops, was beaten by a group of young people who have not dried up and had no power to resist, and finally had to retreat for the sake of Gou Quan's surname, I Chu Mou's old face will have no place to put it! Now that they have made a move, I, Chu, will take the move, I want to see how much more capable they have......"

(To be continued)