"Report to the commander, Rao Ping was lost under the sneak attack of a division of the Sichuan army!"

"What? How is this possible? You—Do you say it again? ”

The pencil in Xu Chongzhi's hand fell in response, and he suddenly turned his head and stared at his adjutant in astonishment, and the generals of the Guangdong army, Chiang Kai-shek, Liu Bingxian, and others who were discussing nervously together, were taken aback, and soon saw Liao Yuanhe, the general of Rao Ping and the county magistrate, standing outside the door, disheveled and soaked.

Xu Chongzhi's eyes widened, the thick beard on his upper lip was frequently upturned, he suddenly raised his hand, and pointed like a halberd, pointing out the door: "Where did a division of the Sichuan army come from?" Sling the bull! Liao Yuanhe, you come in! ”

Liao Yuanhe, who was frightened and tired, hurriedly entered, almost tripped over the threshold, and looked even more embarrassed when he stabilized his body: "Report to the commander, his subordinates are incompetent, but he has only one battalion of troops stationed in Raoping, and he is also responsible for guarding the baggage, transporting ammunition and materials, and collecting the wounded on the front line for the Eighth Brigade in the front, which is really no match for the thousands of elite Sichuan troops who suddenly came in from behind!" ”

"I ask you how the enemy army came to be, and on what basis do you think that the other side has a division?" Xu Chongzhi almost roared.

Liao Yuanhe, who is usually submissive and not taken seriously, took a step back in fright, and after staggering and standing firmly, he raised his head stubbornly, gritted his teeth and replied:

"Commander, until the last moment of the city break, his subordinates still stood on the position with guns on their shoulders, and clearly saw the number of the enemy's red flying leopard battle flags written on them, 'Nanjing Xingying directly under the Second Reading Division', and personally felt the tragic situation of dozens of enemy mortars firing in turn, causing the bloody corpses to fly all over the ground in the southern position of our city......"

Maybe it was too sad and indignant, Liao Yuanhe's voice was hoarse, his face was distorted, and he paused for a moment to stabilize his emotions: "As for where this Sichuan army came from, my subordinates don't know, maybe it's from the sea, or it may come from the west through the gap in our army's defense area, anyway, my subordinates can't figure it out, and this is not the responsibility that subordinates should bear!"

However, the subordinates clearly saw that the enemy troops who rushed over in dense clusters had steel helmets on their heads that only the Sichuan army had in the country, and they were wearing camouflage combat uniforms that only the Sichuan army wore, and in their hands they were holding Mauser short rifles and light machine guns with fierce firepower that only the Sichuan army had.

"If it weren't for the brothers under his command who paid seven lives, desperately dragged his subordinates off the position, begged his subordinates to come and report the enemy situation to the commander, and let the commander find a way to rescue the brothers of the Eighth Brigade who were dragged by the Fujian army on the front line of Zhangpu and Yunxiao, and his subordinates would rather die than die at the head of Raoping City!"

After listening to Liao Yuanhe's extremely tragic account, Xu Chongzhi and the generals fell silent, and they generally felt discouraged and hopeless about the fate of the 6,000 officers and men of the Eighth Brigade. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, and because of the misjudgment of the 8,000 rebel Sichuan army troops in Chaoshan in Shuikou Town, Xu Chongzhi did not inform the front departments of the Chaoshan mutiny, and as a result, Raoping, who was only 40 kilometers away from Chaozhou, suffered this catastrophe.

Prior to this, the Fujian army, which had always been weak, suddenly changed its appearance, and even stormed the two main regiments of the Eighth Brigade that had not had time to withdraw from the front line of Zhangpu at all costs, forcing the Eighth Brigade to hurriedly turn back to meet the battle and did not dare to retreat.

Xu Chongzhi waved his hand weakly, walked back to the large map in pain, and the adjutant hurriedly went up to support the crumbling Liao Yuanhe, and called two guards to take Liao Yuanhe to rest.

Chiang Kai-shek and Liu Bingxian looked at each other silently, both feeling that the general trend was irreversible, but they did not know where to go.

Liu Bingxian took a deep breath, suddenly took a few steps forward, and said to Xu Chongzhi across the huge desktop:

"Brother Ru, yesterday the Seventh Brigade was surrounded by two divisions of the Jiangxi Army in Jiaoling, and today the Eighth Brigade is in a crisis of being attacked on both sides, and Meixian has only 5,000 officers and soldiers, and it is impossible to change the battlefield situation at all, even if you concentrate troops to rescue all the way, it will be too late in time, if my judgment is correct, within 24 hours, the enemy will launch a general attack on Meixian from three directions."

"What do you want to say?"

Xu Chongzhi's deputy division commander Liang Hongkai asked sharply, and the surrounding generals and schools also showed resentment, as if Liu Bingxian was the culprit who caused all this evil result.

Liu Bingxian didn't even look at Liang Hongkai, continued to stare at Xu Chongzhi's eyes, and said calmly:

"Brother Ru Wei may not know Xiao Yimin's surname very well, according to the current situation, he will not leave any chance for Brother Ru Wei to negotiate peace, otherwise with his person, he should have sent someone to contact him a long time ago...... More importantly, Chen Jingcun's four divisions had withdrawn from the battlefield on the Western Front, and the internal division of our revolutionary army had become a fact, and Guangzhou was completely exposed to the guns of more than 100,000 Gui troops.

"At this time, even if Brother Ru Wei leads his troops to evacuate Meixian, it will be too late, I dare to say that the 11th Division of Wang Zhanxu, which has been staying north of Heyuan, is waiting for the rabbit on the front line of Longchuan."

Although the generals were resentful in their hearts, after listening to Liu Bingxian's calm analysis, they were all speechless, and the grim reality was in front of them, no matter how much resentment they had in their hearts and how strong their personal courage was, they could not change the fate of failure.

Xu Chongzhi nodded heavily: "Zicheng, please continue." ”

Liu Bingxian closed his eyes painfully, and immediately opened them again, and said his plan with great firmness:

"No matter what, I have to go back to Guangzhou, return to Mr., there was something sorry before, and please Brother Ru and you Haihan, as long as I am alive, I will continue the revolution as before, and continue to follow Mr. without hesitation, swords and fires, and die without regrets!"

The generals were taken aback, and Xu Chongzhi hurriedly stopped: "No, no!" Brother Fool knows your intentions, but you must not go back, those rebels have lost their reason and morality, and will not accept any more negotiation conditions, and you also know the situation in the past two days, the scouts and liaison officers we sent out have all been sniped and killed by many small forces sent by the rebels, and these extremely violent and murderous rebels may appear in our south at any time. ”

Liu Bingxian waved his hand: "This is my only choice, there is no other way...... I also want to see who dares to shoot at me Liu Bingxian! ”

Xu Chongzhi saw the perseverance and deep pain in Liu Bingxian's eyes, and the generals looked at each other, and they all knew very well what was going on, many people changed their inherent views at this moment, and suddenly found that Liu Bingxian in front of him was very worthy of his respect and admiration.

"Let's go together!"

Chiang Kai-shek was moved, strode to Liu Bingxian's side, and stood side by side.

Half an hour later, Liu Bingxian and Chiang Kai-shek, under the protection of a platoon guard they had brought with them, mounted their war horses, left the south of Meixian County, and when they arrived at Wuli Pavilion, a flaming red flag was unfurled in the horse team galloping south.

On the hills and in the grass on both sides of the Meijiang River from north to south, a pair of sharp eyes stared at the horse team galloping south along the river bank, and the muzzles of their guns were aimed at the two officers galloping in front of the horse team, but none of the snipers could bear to shoot at the two officers under the star.

Three and a half hours later, dozens of dusty cavalry were stopped in front of the North Chanlin Temple in Shuikou Town, and the officers and men of the Sichuan Army Guard Battalion guarding around the Chanlin Temple saw the comers, and all of them silently lowered their heads, one by one put up the steel guns in their hands, and stood in place, motionless.

Liu Bingxian and Chiang Kai-shek jumped off their horses, straightened their military uniforms, looked around, and saw that no one came forward to take care of them, and couldn't help but look at each other and smile bitterly.

At this moment, a hearty laugh came from the gate of the temple, Liu Bingxian and Chiang Kai-shek followed the prestige, and were surprised to see that the person who led a group of generals to usher in a big stride turned out to be Lu Chuanfang, who had been absent for many years.

"Brother Zicheng, Brother Kai-shek, I didn't expect to meet again in this place, haha! It's been a great journey! ”

Lu Chuanfang greeted loudly from afar, saluted as he walked, and when he came to Liu Zicheng and Chiang Kai-shek, he had already stretched out his enthusiastic hands.

Liu Bingxian and Chiang Kai-shek completely understood, and in the face of Lu Chuanfang, who was full of smiles, they could only shake their heads and smile bitterly, and reluctantly stretched out their hands to greet Lu Chuanfang.

Liu Bingxian smiled coldly in anger: "I said, who can command eight thousand brothers, and in the blink of an eye, he did the feat of surprise and raid Rao Ping, tsk!" Brother Xiangting really deserves to be the confidant of Commander-in-Chief Xiao, and his shot is extraordinary! ”

Lu Chuanfang shook his head self-deprecatingly:

"Brother Zicheng, is this complaining that the brother dove occupies the magpie's nest? But I can answer unequivocally that this is the trend of the times, and it is not up to the brothers to make their own decisions! Come on, come on, please ...... inside Brother Kai-shek, please! The commander often thinks about Brother Kai-shek, and this time the younger brother came, the commander specially explained that if he met Brother Kai-shek, he would invite Brother Kai-shek to Nanjing at any cost. ”

Chiang Kai-shek's heart was shocked, but there was no trace on his face, and he politely dealt with Lu Chuanfang with a few words, and then stopped talking when he entered the hall together.

Liu Bingxian was not interested in the splendid hall, and he didn't even look at Xu Tongyao, the second brigade commander who was sitting under Lu Chuanfang, with a ashamed face, and drank a large cup of tea, handed the teacup to the guards behind him, and asked for another cup, then wiped his mouth and squinted at Lu Chuanfang, who was smiling:

"Brother Xiangting, you are now the commander of the 'Second Reading Division directly under the Nanchang Xingying', right?"

Lu Chuanfang waved his hand and replied politely: "It's just temporary, temporary...... After Xiao Fei comes back from Raoping, this division commander will have to give it to him! By the way, Brigade Commander Xu will serve as the deputy division commander and chief of staff, and after General Wang Zhanxu's 11th Division arrives to take over the defense, this unit will be transferred to Nanjing and directly under the command of the commander-in-chief! ”

Liu Bingxian and Chiang Kai-shek were taken aback again, and suddenly found that Xiao Yimin's appetite was far beyond their own understanding, and before that, no one expected that Wang Zhanxu's Fourth Army would entrench in the Chaomei area, so it would be tantamount to driving a big nail between Guangdong and Fujian, which would have a huge impact on the situation between Guangdong and Fujian in the future.

After the shock, Liu Bingxian didn't have time to sigh at Xiao Yimin's generosity, and he didn't want to think about the future southeast trend, so he just looked at Lu Chuanfang's eyes fixedly: "What does Xiao Yimin want to do with me Liu?" ”

Lu Chuanfang was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "You don't know the commander's surname, how can he deal with Brother Zicheng, seeing that I am only happy, I almost forgot about the big thing......"

Lu Chuanfang stood up, took out a notebook from his pocket, took out a photo sandwiched in it, and handed it to Liu Bingxian with both hands.

Liu Bingxian took it suspiciously, his heart fluctuated suddenly, his eyes were moist, in the photo, his sister leaned on Xiao Yimin's side holding the child, her face was full of happy and satisfied smiles, Xiao Yimin in the photo was smiling, looking straight ahead, the cute child in his arms stretched out his round little hand, extremely childish and cute, the upper right of the photo is Xiao Yimin's familiar font: Uncle souvenir! The inscription on the bottom left is: Baby nephew, Crusade!

Liu Bingxian suddenly raised his head and looked at the ceiling of the main hall, endured the complex emotions rushing in his heart, took a deep breath of air, slowly lowered his head, and returned the photo to Lu Chuanfang:

"If Brother Xiangting doesn't force Liu to stay, Liu will rush to Guangzhou."

Lu Chuanfang was taken aback, hesitated for a moment, and asked in a low voice, "Brother Zicheng, do you really want to do this?" ”

Liu Bingxian laughed, took off his belt, glanced at the precious gun given by Xiao Yimin when he returned from studying abroad, and finally threw it on the chair with his belt, and walked out of the hall with a miserable but extremely resolute face.

Seeing this, Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly stood up, smiled bitterly at Lu Chuanfang and caught up with Liu Bingxian, quickly turned over and got on his horse, and took several of his personal guards to march side by side in the direction of Guangzhou in the west.

(To be continued)