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Chapter 538 Southwest Raiders

On December 2, the day before the start of the Bengbu counterinsurgency battle, Tang Shengzhi, who had already secretly communicated with Wang Jingwei, He Jian, Yan Xishan and others, saw that Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi once again dominated Guangxi, and the Guangdong troops withdrew from Wuzhou under the division and co-optation of Wang Jingwei and no longer attacked the Gui army; Zhang Xueliang was defeated by the Russian ** team on the Sino-Soviet border, and had to give up the interests of the Middle East Road, was licking his wounds and had no time to look south, and was silent on the issue of supporting Chiang and begging for Chiang, with an ambiguous attitude; Yan Xishan also secretly reconciled with Feng Yuxiang again; Shi Yousan led his troops to oppose Chiang and shelled Nanjing, which attracted the attention of China and foreign countries, and immediately became the vanguard of the surging anti-Chiang forces throughout the country, earning enough political capital. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Tang Shengzhi judged the situation, fearing that he would fall behind others, and was worried that he would follow in the footsteps of others in the action of overthrowing the crumbling Nanjing government, so as to lose his advantage in the future coalition government, and finally couldn't hold back the passion in his heart, and contacted more than ten local warlords such as Liu Wenhui, the Sichuan warlord who had already reached an alliance, and telegraphed against Chiang:

Tang Shengzhi angrily accused the Nanjing government of being an illegal government, issued a "Letter to the Nationwide Soldiers", supported Wang Zhaoming and Yan Xishan in reorganizing the new government, admired Chiang Kai-shek's military talents, but stated that politics was by no means Chiang Kai-shek's forte, and expressed regret that Chiang Kai-shek was deeply burdened by Tan Yanmin and Hu Hanmin. Tang Shengzhi also whipped Feng Yuxiang in the "Letter to the National Soldiers", accusing Feng Yuxiang of being the first demon king, the chief culprit of the great famine in the northwest, only knowing selfish interests and being disloyal to the party and the state, and deceiving the people with military force, urging Feng Yuxiang to self-reflect, and telling Chiang Kai-shek to immediately withdraw the army and repent.

As soon as the telegram came out, the whole country was shaken, and the Chiang Kai-shek and the Nanjing government, who were already fighting on all sides, suddenly became even worse, and there was a panic up and down, and Wang Jingwei, who had set up another central government, was in need of help to the village, and was overjoyed after seeing the anti-Chiang declaration of Tang Shengzhi, an ally of the former Wuhan Nationalist Government, and immediately telegraphed in the south to echo it, and officially appointed Tang Shengzhi as the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Route Army of the Chinese Kuomintang to protect the party and save the party. Shi Yousan, who occupied Bengbu and did not know that the catastrophe was approaching, echoed, telegraphed the whole country, and officially took office as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route Army to protect the party and save the **, and other warlords such as Liu Wenhui, who was far away in Sichuan, were not far behind, and they appeared on the stage, supported Wang Jingwei, supported Tang Shengzhi and Shi Yousan's anti-Chiang action, and took up the post of commander-in-chief of the party to save the ** road army, and the whole of China seemed to have become unrecognizable overnight, which made people extremely confused, and countless people in the provinces of the Yangtze River basin began to pack their bags and prepare to flee when they saw that the situation was not good.

With the help of He Guoguang, An Yi, who did not stop doing anything, quickly reached an agreement with Liu Xiangbu of the Sichuan Army, and was the first to stand up and telegraph the whole country: severely condemn Shi Yousan's shelling of Nanjing, which caused hundreds of innocent casualties, denounce Shi Yousan's bloody massacre against the logistics officers and soldiers of the three battalions of the Independent Division who rushed to stop it, and vowed to do everything in his power to severely punish Shi Yousan, a despicable and shameless reactionary warlord who committed war crimes. He announced that 100,000 soldiers in western Hubei would resolutely support the leadership of the central government in Nanjing, and called on all parties to stop all military operations and stop the civil war through negotiation and dialogue, so that the government could promptly send 200,000 tons of imported grain, medicine, and other relief materials that had already arrived and were arriving one after another to the disaster-stricken areas in the northwest where hunger was everywhere, and saved tens of millions of Li people from the dire situation!

An Yi's public telegram immediately attracted the attention of various forces at home and abroad, and won the support of the overwhelming majority of the people and all walks of life, and the eyes of warlords and officials from all walks of life turned to the sky over Bengbu. An hour later, Liu Xiang, chairman of Sichuan Province, more than 10 generals of the Sichuan Army, Zhang Hongluan of the 44 th Army in western Xiangxi, Mao Guangxiang, chairman of Guizhou Province and commander of the 25 th Army, Wang Jialie, member of the Guizhou Provincial Committee and deputy commander of the army, Shi Zhen, member of the Guizhou Provincial Committee and commander of the 43 rd Army, He Guoguang, commander of various units of the Western Hubei Garrison and deputy director of the Yichang camp, Lu Diping, acting chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Government and director of the Nanchang camp, and Yang Bin, commander-in-chief of the Jiangxi Provincial Security Forces, sent telegrams to the whole country one after another, announcing their support for the leadership of the central government.

The generals of all armies and divisions of the Central Army, the Whampoa Military Academy Alumni Association, and the General Chamber of Commerce of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Hubei provinces also sent telegrams one after another to support the central government and An Yi's crusade against the capricious, tyrannical, and cruel reactionary warlord Shi Yousan.

Three hours later, Hu Jialin, commander of the independent division, Zhang Chengzhu, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, Zhan Huanqi, commander of the Nanchang Garrison Division, and Huang Sisheng, commander of the Bengbu Garrison Regiment of the 7th Division, jointly telegraphed the whole country:

The 40,000 officers and men of our coalition army have completed the encirclement of Shi Yousan's rebels, fierce battles are ongoing, the new 2nd Brigade of the Independent Division has captured the three positions in the west of Bengbu City, and all the officers and men are in the same hatred of the enemy's morale, in order to save innocent soldiers from harm, I advise the reactionary warlord Shi Yousan to immediately lay down his arms and surrender by himself, otherwise he will be ruthlessly attacked by the 40,000 righteous divisions!

As soon as the power was released, the whole country was in an uproar, and all forces and all walks of life across the country had not yet recovered from the announcement of the power-up, no one expected An Yi's revenge to be so fast, and he didn't expect Shi Yousan, who was extremely fierce and in the limelight, to be surrounded so quickly.

The camp of the Anyi Alliance and the various departments of the Central Army applauded, Feng Yuxiang was so anxious in the Shanxi Jin Temple that he jumped to his feet, Tang Shengzhi of Zhengzhou put down the third telegram manuscript in his hand, and waited nervously for the follow-up news, Han Fuqu, who had just telegraphed against Chiang and supported Tang Shengzhi, immediately recruited military divisions and urgently discussed countermeasures, Yan Xishan in the headquarters of the Jin Sui Army in Taiyuan summoned his generals to check the map and evaluate the authenticity, and Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing immediately publicly announced: Then mobilize the third and fifth divisions that rushed back to Nanjing to cross the Yangtze River and join the military crusade of the three divisions of Shiyou.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, in the city of Bengbu, which was filled with gunsmoke and flames, Shi Yousan, who was too greedy and thought he could control the overall situation, was finally scared after losing three positions outside the city one after another, he urgently ordered the remaining nine artillery pieces to bombard the Central Army in the north of the city, and ordered the fourth division of the reserve under his command to launch a fierce attack to the north to break through the siege, and when the fierce battle began, Shi Yousan, under the cover of the guard regiment and a reserve brigade, threw down the three divisions and all the baggage that were struggling to resist, and fled eastward, and the morale of the three divisions who lost their command was gone. Tens of thousands of routed soldiers threw down their positions and rushed out of the east of the city to flee frantically, which completely doomed the fate of 30,000 rebels.

At six o'clock in the evening, An Yi, who received the battle report from the front, telegraphed the whole country again:

At 3:30 p.m., the four allied forces including the independent division loyal to the central government had completely occupied Bengbu, wiped out the remnants of the enemy, killed more than 7,000 rebels, captured more than 14,000 rebel officers and soldiers, and the fleeing enemy laid down their arms and raised their hands to surrender under the pursuit of our soldiers, and the rebel general Shi Yousan led the remnants to flee rampantly to the direction of Suqian in the northeast, and the 5,000 iron cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Division were pursuing and suppressing with all their might, striving to annihilate all the stubborn enemies!

Under the ruthless blows of the officers and men of the Independent Division, the Garrison Brigade, and the Security Brigade, and under the lightning impact of 5,000 iron cavalry, the corpses of the fleeing enemy stretched for more than 20 kilometers, hundreds of rebel lieutenants and officers were shot in the head and chest, and the more than 10,000 prisoners who raised their hands and surrendered were divided into more than a dozen parts, and under the pressure of the officers and men of the Independent Division and the security forces, they dug deep pits, collected the scattered corpses, and buried them all. The military uniforms, shoes and hats stripped from the dead were scattered like hills along the road for more than 10 kilometers, and Wang Jun's brothers from the Bengbu garrison regiment drove the only three remaining trucks and made more than 10 round-trip trips to load them.

In the early morning of the next day, more than 14,000 frightened prisoners were escorted into the camp south of Bengbu, drank a bowl of gruel, and continued to be coerced by the garrison regiment and two brigade garrisons to begin to clean up the ruins and ruins inside and outside the city, repair civilian houses, clean the city, fill in all the trenches, and level the roads in all directions.

After the unruly captured rebels finally appreciated the iron blood and ruthlessness of the An Jiajun, and after more than 30 mentally broken people were shot dead on the spot, the only remaining self-esteem and delusion in the hearts of the officers and soldiers were shattered, and all that remained was tears of despair and absolute obedience.

In the afternoon of the next day, Zhang Chengzhu led his troops to chase directly to the shore of Hongze Lake, and judged that Shi Yousan had escaped, so he regrettably stopped the pursuit.

Zhang Chengzhu finished sending a report to Hu Jialin and An Yi, took a lot of captured booty, and returned directly to the northwest front line of Xuzhou to the west. After the elite of the independent division and the special service companies of each brigade disposed of the corpses of the enemy soldiers along the way, they immediately returned to their lives. Although Shi Yousan, who was born as a horseman, was not able to capture or kill alive in this campaign, the independent division and other units annihilated tens of thousands of enemy troops and captured tens of thousands of enemies, thus achieving the goal of revenge, greatly deterring the enemy, and inspiring the officers and men of the whole army.

The far-reaching significance of this battle is far from being as simple as revenge, and it is not an exaggeration to call it a power to turn the tide in the face of adversity. Almost at the same time, senior officials of various central government departments in Nanjing and Commander-in-Chief Chiang gave commendations to the Independent Division, the First Cavalry Division, and the Nanchang Garrison Division, and division commander Hu Jialin, who had just graduated from the special class of the Central Military Academy for more than a month, was given the heavy award of being promoted to lieutenant general in the army. Zhang Chengzhu, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, removed the fictitious title of major general and lieutenant general, and won the honor of being awarded the rank of lieutenant general by the Central Military Commission; Gu Changfeng, deputy commander of the independent division, Zhan Huanqi, commander of the Nanchang Garrison Division, and more than ten generals and colonels won double special awards from the central government and the Central Military Commission, and the commanders of the three brigades of the independent division were promoted to major generals because of this battle.

An Yi, who was angry, calmed down again and held a secret meeting with more than ten commanders including Shi Zhen, commander of the 43rd Army, and Zhang Hongluan, commander of the 44th Army.

Because Liu Wenhui, the great warlord who occupied large areas of land in southeastern Sichuan, southern Sichuan, and Xikang, sent a telegram against Chiang Kai-shek and threw himself into the camp of Wang Jingwei and Tang Shengzhi, completely annoying Chiang Kai-shek, Hu Hanmin, Tan Yanhong, and others, the central government announced the dismissal of Liu Wenhui from all posts as a member of the Sichuan Provincial Committee, and the Central Military Commission telegraphed to dismiss Liu Wenhui from his posts as commander of the 24th Army and alternate member of the Central Military Commission, withdraw the number of the 24th Army, and call on the officers and men of the Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Hunan armies to crusade against the reactionary warlord Liu Wenhui.

After the announcement of the central circular, Liu Xiang, chairman of Sichuan Province, and all the princes of central Sichuan were all excited, although the position of the central government and the number of the army did not have much benefit, but it played an important role in name and law that should not be underestimated, and it was finally able to rightfully carve up Liu Wenhui's vast territory.

Liu Xiang, who was already inseparable from him and only united when he was using each other, did not comment on this on the surface, but secretly stepped up the division of Liu Wenhui's forces and alliances, and the rest of the ministries also quietly formulated plans to dispatch troops - Liu Wenhui's annual tax revenue from Yanjing in southern Sichuan was as high as 900 to 14 million yuan, and it was in a monopoly position in the supply of salt and sugar in the entire Sichuan and Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. I can't wait to replace it as soon as possible, now that there is a crusade order from the central government, it is completely justifiable to use various means to get involved in this piece of fat, and if a family can act alone, it is completely possible for several families to join forces to attack it, and then sit down and slowly divide it after taking it.

An Yi clearly saw this, so he urgently summoned seven or eight allies such as Zhang Hongluan and Shi Zhen, An Yi did not look at the huge profits of salt and sugar in southern Sichuan, but the southeast region of southern Sichuan with mineral resources, and Xuzhou (Yibin), known as the first port of the Yangtze River, as long as he could seek Xuzhou, he would have a safe and stable rear, and the rich and stable Yunnan was under his nose.