Haifeng is one of the oldest county towns in Guangdong, and was established in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Zhuang Jihua observed along the way that the buildings in the city were mainly wooden houses, and sometimes there were brick houses, and there must be courtyards behind the brick houses, which was obviously a wealthy family. Zhuang Jihua saw no traces of the war, perhaps the only trace was that there were few pedestrians on the street; Despite the strict discipline of the Crusade Army, human instinct drove them to hide in their homes.

Hu Zongnan ran to report to him, and the Quartermaster Department found him. The munitions depot is located in the most magnificent building in the city - the Confucian Temple, which is said to be a temple, but it is not just a temple like the Daxiong Treasure Palace, but a huge building complex covering an area of nearly 100 acres, and the Eastern Expeditionary Army occupies a small part of it as a munitions warehouse.

After Zhuang Jihua handed over the materials, he took the seventh company to the second regiment camp outside the city, and when he arrived at Madouwei, he learned that the commander of the second regiment was already Qian Dajun, and the original regiment commander Wang Bailing was transferred back to the military academy as the chief of education, and Wang Jun, the commander of the third battalion, was also transferred.

Zhuang Jihua felt a little strange, Wang Jun was transferred back to the military academy was obviously a kind of derogation, he didn't want to ask Wang Bailing's situation, so he asked why Wang Jun was transferred, Qian Dajun told him that Wang Jun was responsible for the defeat of the Second Regiment outside Tamsui City because of improper command. Qian Dajun is not bad to Zhuang Jihua, the other two companies of the third battalion are from Huangpu instructors, Qian Dajun is worried that he will not be able to suppress the two, so he and the party representative Zhang Jingyu accompanied him to take office, and went to the battalion to announce the appointment of Zhuang Jihua, although the commander of the eighth company of the third battalion Fang Jin and the commander of the ninth company Yuan Weitai, although he was a little unconvinced, but there was nothing to say, the only victory that the second regiment had fought so far was Zhuang Jihua's fight in Zhangmutou, and this battle was still convincing to everyone, although they fought bravely under Tamsui City, they still lost.

Before leaving, Qian Dajun told Zhuang Jihua that the morale of the third battalion was not high because of the defeat in Tamsui, and Zhuang Jihua's first task was to restore morale.

After sending Qian Dajun and Zhang Jingyu away, Zheng Dongguo quietly told Zhuang Jihua that in the battle of Tamsui, although Wang Bailing asked for help, he actually fled, and someone needed to be responsible for the defeat of the second regiment, and this scapegoat fell on Wang Jun, the reason was that the first to lose the position was the third battalion, but fortunately, Wang Jun did not escape, and he was still fighting on the front line when he was in the most critical situation, so he was transferred, otherwise he would have to be shot. However, Wang Bailing's behavior also made him unable to stay in the second regiment in the future, so he transferred Shen Yingshi, the commander of the first regiment and the first battalion, to serve as the commander of the second regiment, but Shen Yingshi was injured under Tamsui City, and Qian Dajun temporarily took over.

Zhuang Jihua listened to Zheng Dongguo's words and smiled bitterly in his heart, it seems that Chiang Kai-shek is still very protective of Wang Bailing, even if he doesn't need to lead the troops, he will use him to protect the hospital, and it seems that he will have to deal with him in the future.

Zhuang Jihua found that the problem was indeed as Qian Dajun said, except for the seventh company, the morale of the other two companies was not high, and Zhuang Jihua couldn't help it for a while, and it didn't take long for the order to come down again, and the whole army set off for Chaoshan.

The Eastern Expeditionary Army fought continuously, traveling more than 200 miles, and the troops were a little tired, so the headquarters originally intended to rest in Haifeng for a few days, but just after two days of rest, it received a report from the Haifeng Peasant Association, Hong Zhaolin's troops were distraught, demoralized, and the chaotic soldiers robbed along the way, causing the anger of the people's army and township regiments in various places, and took the initiative to attack the routed Chen army, but the Chen army actually did not resist at all, and left with one blow.

After obtaining this information, Chiang Kai-shek, after consulting with Gallen and Xu Chongzhi, drew up a plan for the Chaoshan attack: the whole army was divided into three routes, with the Seventh Brigade and the Colonel Army on the left, and the coastal Feng-Hepoxu-Mianhu-Puning Road; The central route is the main force of the Second Division of the Guangdong Army, and the coastal Feng-Lufeng-Kwaitanxu-Jieyang advances; On the right side, there was a second division, which took a boat from Shanwei and attacked Chaoshan. It has advanced to Tamsui, and the Cantonese Army Chen Mingshu Brigade followed suit.

The school army suffered large losses in the battles of Tamsui and Zhangmutou, which made Chiang Kai-shek feel distressed, so Chiang Kai-shek concealed selfishness in this battle plan, the second division took the middle road to Chaoshan, and the seventh brigade and the school army took the left flank, that is, the north road, to attack the enemy's flank. Chiang Kai-shek's wishful thinking played very well, believing that if Hong Zhaolin wanted to block the attack, he would definitely block the middle road, and the Seventh Brigade and the school army could not only make meritorious contributions without losing troops; If there is no resistance, then everyone will be happy. But he didn't expect Hong Zhaolin to have his plan.

Hong Zhaolin retreated to Jieyang and was supported by Xiong Luo's subordinates Li Yunfu and Zhong Shaobin with nearly 4,000 men. Xiong Luo's subordinate was originally under the leadership of Chen Jiongguang and confronted Tan Yankai's Hunan army, but the deterioration of the battle situation on the southern front made Chen Jiongming unable to care about the northern front, Lin Hu could not move, so he had to transfer troops from Chen Jiongguang, Chen Jiongguang himself had less than 8,000 men, and Tan Yankai's two divisions were already struggling, this time half of the men and horses were gone, and they were not beaten by Tan Yankai, Chen Jiongguang retreated to the Hunan and Jiangxi borders, Tan Yankai approached Lin Hu's nest Xingning, forcing Lin Hu to send troops to deal with Tan Yankai, which delayed the southward strategy.

After receiving reinforcements, Hong Zhaolin did not plan to defend Jieyang, his idea was to go north to form a line with Lin Hu, and concentrate his forces to jointly deal with the increasingly fierce Guangdong army and school army. Hong Zhaolin abandoned Jieyang and went north, and met the right-wing army head-on west of Lihu Xu.

After Hong Zhaolin discovered the Eastern Expeditionary Army, he immediately seized the commanding heights of the Lihu Market area, Huaguyan, the vanguard of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, Wei Lihuang's regiment was defeated, Wei Lihuang was furious, shot the two company commanders who retreated, and then personally led the follow-up troops to launch a counter-charge, blocking the enemy's attack, and winning time for the follow-up troops to deploy.

This was an encounter that neither side expected, Chiang Kai-shek and Gallen thought that even if Hong Zhaolin did not defend Jieyang, he would have to retreat to Chaoshan, otherwise Chaoshan would be almost empty, and only one of the first detachment of Chaomei would be left with negligible combat effectiveness. Hong Zhaolin thought that he had given up Jieyang and even Chaoshan, and the Eastern Expeditionary Army should naturally go and take it to intercept what I was doing.

Wei Lihuang's force battle made the Eastern Expeditionary Army save the situation, the main force of the Seventh Brigade and the Teaching Regiment was put into battle successively, and the offensive of Hong Zhaolin's Department gradually exhausted, and then Chiang Kai-shek led the Second Regiment to arrive, adjusted the deployment, and launched an attack on the Junpo with the Xu Ji Brigade as the right flank, and the First Regiment attacked the Huagu Rock for the middle road, and the Second Regiment attacked the Yudongling on the left side of the Flower Drum Rock for the left flank, and inserted it into the rear of the Flower Drum Rock after success, and the third battalion of the Second Regiment launched a fierce attack on Hong Zhaolin as a reserve.

The battle immediately entered a fierce state, Hong Zhaolin desperately resisted, the Guangdong army was stubbornly blocked by Li Yunfu on the front line of Junpo, Xu Ji personally supervised the battle and did not make any progress, and the Hong Department guarding Huaguyan repelled a regiment and two charges in a row under the personal supervision of Hong Zhaolin, and the left flank was also in a state of stalemate.

Chiang Kai-shek saw that the battle was not going well, his mood became anxious, and he scolded Niang Xipi at the headquarters, at this time Gallen and Xu Chongzhi were still in Haifeng, and did not move with the troops, and the only Soviet Russian adviser by his side was the military academy adviser Yalepanov, Chiang Kai-shek rushed out of the command headquarters and ran to a regiment, and when he saw He Yingqin's head, he asked: "When can you take the Flower Drum Rock?" ”

He Yingqin's face was embarrassed: "Headmaster, the enemy has a lot of troops, and the terrain is not favorable to us, so it is very difficult for the troops to attack on the back. Then he looked left and right, and after motioning for the others to withdraw, he stepped forward to Chiang Kai-shek and said in a low voice: "The school army is the brainchild of the principal, and a forcible attack will inevitably lead to excessive casualties among the troops, so the principal's hard work will be consumed here." ”

When Chiang Kai-shek heard this, he calmed down: "Then what do you say?" ”

He Yingqin walked to the map, pointed to the situation above and analyzed: "The enemy in front of us is Hong Zhaolin's main force, and there are many enemies in front of Xu Ji on the right flank. I propose to transfer the reserves to the left flank and open a breakthrough from Yudong Ridge, as soon as Yudong Ridge is broken, the enemy will collapse on all fronts. ”

Chiang Kai-shek stared at the map for a while, thinking that the morale of the third battalion was not high after the setback in Tamsui, but now Zhuang Jihua is back.

"Okay, call Zhuang Jihua." Chiang Kai-shek made up his mind.