The dense footsteps seemed unusually dull in the quiet night, the damp dirt road was not stirred up a trace of dust, the dew condensed on the wildflowers on the roadside was shaken down, the wind stirred up by the silent march of many soldiers blew the weeds in a disorderly manner, and the singing summer insects were frightened by the invisible and overflowing killing breath to put away their wings and consciously close their mouths.

Wangzhuang, located in the south of the wide and vast Gaoyou Lake, is actually only a very small village, with only more than 40 households, and Guoji, which is two kilometers away from Wangzhuang, is the most prosperous and lively market in the surrounding dozens of miles.

The reason why Gu Zhutong chose to establish a defensive line here is because there is a six-kilometer-long dirt slope across the Chahu Lake from the east to the southeast of Wangzhuang, this snake-shaped soil slope is only about ten meters high, guarding the three roads from the south of Gaoyou City to the north of Jiepai Town and the south of Yangzhou City.

Just after five o'clock in the morning, the sky and the earth were dark, and after four hours of cautious sneaking, more than 4,000 officers and soldiers of the First Brigade led by Qiao Zhensheng finally came to the boundary east of Guoji and stopped advancing.

After a short rest, Qiao Zhensheng prepared to launch a surprise attack on the ninth regiment of Gu Zhu's department in Wangzhuang's position. Although it is only 18 kilometers from Gaoyou City to Guoji, it has to pass through eleven large and small bridges and three seemingly endless reeds, and it took the team four and a half hours to complete. Qiao Zhensheng, who was nervously inspecting the officers and men under his command and making preparations before the battle, did not know that Gu Zhu, together with more than 4,000 well-equipped officers and men of the Seventh Regiment, was slowly sailing towards Dongdun Port, two kilometers north of Gaoyou City, on more than 120 fishing boats and cargo ships that had been urgently requisitioned.

Just after six o'clock, just after the darkest hour before dawn, Qiao Zhensheng's division was divided into eight teams and launched a rapid attack on the revolutionary army's position.

The sound of rapid breathing, the crash of metal, and the noisy footsteps frightened the family dog, which had just been quiet, barked in terror, and the sentry of the third division in the defending position spotted the surging enemy troops under black pressure, and immediately pulled the bolt of the gun, and was about to shout, when he was knocked down by a flying bullet.

The defenders, huddled in the trenches and makeshift straw huts, panicked, shouted, and hurriedly fired at the enemy with their weapons, and the sound of gunfire and shouting instantly rang out. Hundreds of officers and soldiers of Qiao Zhensheng's department who were fast were not afraid to point their guns at them, and after pulling the trigger, they didn't have time to load again, so they started a fierce hand-to-hand fight with the defenders, and roars and screams rang out one after another, spreading in all directions.

In front of the Land Temple, 800 meters behind the position, Wang Wanling, the commander of the Ninth Regiment who was confident, saw that the enemy was coming, and calmly issued an order, and the trumpeters immediately sounded the call to retreat. Wang Wanling led his lieutenants to turn over and flee southward with more than 2,000 brothers who had recuperated and recuperated.

Although the hundreds of brothers on the battlefield had been mentally prepared, they were still very panicked when they saw that they were being treated as outcasts, and they fought hard to get rid of the entanglement of the enemy army, and quickly retreated to the south to flee for their lives.

Qiao Zhensheng, who had climbed the high slope on horseback, saw thousands of deserters retreating to the south in embarrassment, he laughed proudly, waved his hand, and ordered the troops to pursue at full speed.

After chasing two kilometers, the morale of the pursuing troops gradually disappeared, and the second regiment commander felt that the situation was different, so he hurriedly turned his horse's head and ran to Qiao Zhensheng of the rear team and reported loudly: "Division, the situation is not quite right!" Turning through this dense forest, all the fleeing enemies in front of me are gone, and I suspect that there is an ambush! ”

"What?"

Qiao Zhensheng was taken aback when he heard this, looked around and hurriedly ordered: "We have been tricked, withdraw quickly!" Quick, blow the trumpet and withdraw! ”

Before the horn could be sounded, the deafening machine gun sound had already sounded, and the dense rain of bullets beat the adjutant next to Qiao Zhensheng and the second regiment commander who had just turned around and left, and killed them instantly, and even the guards around Qiao Zhensheng were also knocked off the horse one after another, and the officers and soldiers of the Ninth Regiment, who had just been chased like a lost dog, shouted "Long live the Northern Expedition" under the leadership of the regiment commander Wang Wanling, and more than 3,000 officers and soldiers of the Eighth Regiment in the woods on the left quickly swarmed out to occupy the commanding heights, Machine guns were set up to fire fiercely at the enemy troops who were advancing and retreating, and the officers and men of the supplementary regiment in the dry ditch on the right sent a unit to block the enemy's retreat, and the remaining half of the two thousand men fired a dense stream of bullets at the dense enemy.

More than 4,000 officers and soldiers led by Qiao Zhensheng were completely surrounded in a few minutes, and hundreds of people were knocked down in the blink of an eye.

Qiao Zhensheng prostrate on the belly of his killed war horse, pushed away the corpse of the guards who were desperate to cover him, quickly looked around and calculated the direction of the breakthrough, and was just about to turn around and give an order, a bullet entered from his right temple and flew out from under the skull above his left ear, Qiao Zhensheng fell down before he could open his mouth, and the red and white things flowing from the head without half of his skull were mixed with the blood stains of his beloved horse.

Thousands of officers and soldiers who had lost their commanders began to shout for surrender, and then begs for mercy rang out, and the dense gunfire gradually thinned out, and a battle that lasted only more than 40 minutes was declared over.

The brothers of the Eighth Regiment who set up an ambush did not have time to clean up the battlefield, so they quickly assembled under the leadership of the regiment commander Pan Guocong, and then galloped away in the direction of Gaoyou City, and the two battalions of the Ninth Regiment also marched north after a short period of arrangement, leaving more than 4,000 brethren of the supplementary regiment to celebrate the prisoners to clean up the battlefield.

Xu said that Dongsheng, Gu Zhutong was surrounded by the officers and soldiers of the special service company and many followers, and rode a tall jujube red horse.

Looking at the black pressure on a large number of prisoners, Gu Zhutong said happily: "You fought well!" I'm afraid there are two thousand captives, right? ”

Li Jilan, the head of the supplementary regiment, quickly stepped forward and excitedly reported:

In this battle, more than 1,280 enemies were annihilated, and the enemy's division commander Qiao Zhensheng and his 16 officers were killed. 2,453 enemy prisoners, more than 3,000 guns of various kinds, and more than 200 horses were captured. ”

Gu Zhutong laughed: "It's good to anticipate the enemy first, but this is not my credit alone, but the result of everyone's brainstorming.

It is estimated that at this time, more than 4,000 brothers led by Chief of Staff Han and Seventh Regiment Commander Chen Tie have already attacked Gaoyou City, and the enemy division commander actually personally led half of his men and horses to come to the sneak attack. Jilan, after you lead your troops to bury all the corpses, escort the prisoners and booty back to the Yangzhou camp. ”

"Yes!"

Li Jilan saluted and left quickly.

At half past eleven o'clock in the afternoon, Gu Zhutong ordered nearly 8,000 soldiers under his command to transport more than 1,600 prisoners, 12 artillery pieces, a large number of guns and ammunition, and more than 60 carts of captured baggage back to Yangzhou.

The hungry Gu Zhu had not yet sat down when he entered the division headquarters, and suddenly remembered that the battle in An Yi's headquarters was not going well, and he was just about to ask, when the adjutant Huang Wei immediately came to report:

When Cui Jinggui, the defending enemy of Taizhou, occupied the Doumen position in Yin Jinan's Reading Force, he immediately led more than 10,000 people from two brigades under his command to throw down all their baggage and flee, and the model battalion drove into Taizhou almost bloodlessly, and captured the 14 Krupp guns and a large amount of ammunition that Cui Jinggui threw outside the city.

Chen Zhibiao's 2nd Regiment, Xia Jian's 1st Regiment, and Gu Changfeng's 3rd Regiment under An Yi had already been inserted into the enemy's junction in the south of Taizhou City, and almost when Yin Jinan entered Taizhou, he learned that the defenders of Taizhou were fleeing frantically, and immediately held high dozens of model battalion battle flags, turned south, and launched a fierce pursuit and encirclement of Duan Chengze's division.

Duan Chengze broke out of the encirclement under the desperate protection of his own guards and was spared, just when Xia Jian's regiment moved to the south of Taixing, Taixing's defending enemy Du Quanzhong's brigade took the initiative to send people to contact, and soon the two sides quickly reached a surrender matter, and now An Yi is in Jiangdu City to accompany Du Quanzhong and other more than ten generals to drink. ”

"What ......"

Gu Zhutong sighed loudly in shock, after he entered Gaoyou, he passed a telegram with An Yi, and after getting An Yi's congratulations and "everything went well" answer, he was relieved, how did he know that An Yi fought this battle so easily, and the results were so brilliant, which greatly surprised him.

Gu Zhutong ignored the frightened appearance of Han Deqin and the others around him who opened their mouths wide, stood up and asked Huang Wei: "An Yi, this guy is really fucking cunning, he has won battles and victories, and has captured countless people, and the most exaggerated thing is that he also incorporated Du Quanzhong's brigade...... How did he do it? ”

Huang Wei shook his head and replied with great sighs: "An Yi boy is now powerful in all directions!" Everywhere the banner of his model battalion went, it was intimidating. After careful analysis by his subordinates, the three divisions of our 1st Army under the command of Commander He made rapid progress, and after occupying Nantong, they approached Rugao, and the 21st and 2nd Divisions turned westward, pressing step by step, and the enemy on the first line of Jingjiang could not retreat to the northeast, and Taizhou was occupied by An Yi's department, and the only way for the enemy to retreat in Jingjiang and Taixing had been lost, and there was only a dead end for stubborn resistance, so the enemy army would have no fighting spirit and surrender in despair.

In accordance with the order of the division, the subordinates led the teaching team and the engineer battalion directly under the division headquarters to be ready to respond to the An Yi Department at any time, and after receiving An Yi's report on the battle situation, the subordinates immediately rushed to Taizhou City.

When he learned that Du Quanzhong, the defender of Taixing City, had arrived in the south of the city, he immediately apologized to the group of gentry and rushed to the horse, and the subordinates felt that there was no suspense in the battle, so they asked to resign and return to Yangzhou. ”

Gu Zhutong and his subordinate generals looked at each other, and after a moment of silence, Gu Zhutong sighed faintly: "An Yi is indeed a military genius with both wisdom and bravery!" He is full of strategies, brave and fast, and the ability to judge the situation and adapt to changes without thinking of second people, and achieving such brilliant results, I am not jealous of him at all, but admire him! Think about it, how many people have his indomitable courage? Who can lay a trap before the war like him, and do enough work to lure the enemy into the urn? His victory was by no means light, but full of danger, but he dared to do it, and he did it, and you can't help but admire it...... Walk! Let's rush to Jiangdu together, more than ten kilometers away in a moment, I want to have a drink with him! ”

Nanjing, Xiyuan.

Commander-in-Chief Chiang was so excited that he rushed back and forth, and under the gaze of many jubilant generals, he suddenly stopped and ordered to Ge Jingen, chief of staff, Liu Wendao, deputy director of the Political Training Department, and other commanders:

"Immediately electrify the good news of Taizhou and Gaoyou's victory to the whole country; The Political Training Department of the General Headquarters and the Military Affairs Department jointly notified the whole army and gave An Yi, Gu Zhutong, as well as individual and collective special commendations to the readers, and the three divisions! ”

"Yes!"

The generals replied in unison.

"Brother Yongqing ......"

Chiang Kai-shek walked up to Liu Wendao: "In the name of myself and the General Headquarters, I vigorously publicized the great victories of Taizhou and Gaoyou in our major newspapers, and sent a telegram to the whole country appointing General Du Quanzhong, who had surrendered to the revolution, as the commander of the 16th Reading Force Division of the National Revolutionary Army. ”

"Understood!" Liu Wendao nodded happily.

"Zhanhou ......"

Chiang Kai-shek turned to Ge Jingen.

"The subordinates are here!" Ge Jingen stepped forward.

Chiang Kai-shek looked at the ceiling and calmly ordered: "Secret telegram An Yi, send all the officers and soldiers of Du Quanzhong's brigade to Zhenjiang; The Ministry of Military Affairs was ordered to urgently send people to Zhenjiang to give formal appointments, and Du Quanzhong's headquarters was stationed in Danyang. In addition, he called Du Qiyun's department and said that he would cross the river and go north, stationed in Yangzhou and Taizhou, and take over the defense as soon as possible. The staff office will separately assign second-line troops to take over the defense of Zhenjiang. ”

"Yes!"

After answering, Ge Jingen asked in a low voice: "Do you want to order the Third Division and the Reading Division to go to Chuzhou and return to General Bai Jiansheng's Second Route Army as soon as possible?" ”

Chiang Kai-shek nodded: "Presumably they also need to rest for a while, so I will call Gu Zhutong and An Yi, and ask them to lead their troops to Chuzhou within three days, and order Gu Zhutong and An Yi to go back to Nanjing before twelve o'clock at noon the day after tomorrow, I want to meet them and personally present them with awards!" ”

"Yes!"

(To be continued)