As night fell, the hot weather gradually became cooler, and Cao Kun's department, which had marched to Tailong Town, east of Wanxian, finally stopped to rest and eat.

Tailong Town is a large town 16 kilometers east of Wanxian County, the whole town is built along the wharf on the north bank of the Yangtze River, two-thirds of the people in the town rely on the wharf to sell grain and native products to passing ships, or fish along the river for a living, almost every family has a wooden boat.

Before the arrival of Cao Kun's army, the townspeople followed the advice and command of the army, carried all the food and valuable things in their homes onto the boat, and crossed the Jiangnan with their families to escape the military disaster.

Cao Kun, like all officers and soldiers, entered the empty town and got nothing, so he could only drink bowls of porridge to fill his stomach, and did not dare to set fire to the empty town, lest he be damaged in honor and attacked by the people of Sichuan.

At two o'clock in the morning, a team of scouts galloped between Tailong Town and Wanxian in the bright moonlight, Cao Kun and more than a dozen generals under his command repeatedly analyzed the information, and decided to set off immediately, destroy a regiment of Sichuan Army guarding Wanxian County as quickly as possible, and then stationed down to rest for two days, while collecting food supplies, while sending people to get in touch with Yucheng, and then formulate the next action plan.

At six o'clock in the morning, the sky had already brightened, and more than 10,000 officers and men of Cao Kun's headquarters ran 15 kilometers in fear, and under Cao Kun's strict orders, they quickly set up artillery regardless of fatigue, aimed at the defensive position of the Sichuan army in the east of Wanxian County, concentrated the cavalry companies of two brigades and the cavalry battalion directly under them, and planned to launch a firm charge to the Sichuan army position in the east of the city when the shelling stopped. The rest of the troops formed a second attack echelon, and Cao Kun personally commanded to rush to the county seat.

After Cao Kun's order was issued, the generals under his command stood up solemnly and loudly received the order.

Before the generals and colonels had yet to walk out of the Song family ancestral hall, which was temporarily used as a headquarters, the whistling sound of shells came from the ear, and Xiong Bingqi, the chief of staff who had experienced a hundred battles, was so frightened that he exclaimed "hidden", and the surrounding guards rushed up, set up the pale-faced Cao Kun and a group of generals, rushed out of the courtyard amid the deafening explosion, and fell into the middle of the depression by the pond in embarrassment.

The wide dam on the east side of the ancestral hall is already filled with gunsmoke at this moment, and the fire is bursting out.

Under the intensive artillery bombardment, the assembled cavalry had stumps and broken arms flying all over the sky, the frightened war horses were screaming and jumping frantically in the light of the explosion, the low houses around the dam collapsed one after another, and groups of officers and soldiers who had gathered inside and outside the houses to rest and stand by disappeared into the artillery fire, and hundreds of officers and men lost their command and lost their minds, threw down their weapons and rushed desperately in the direction of the county town where no shells fell.

After eight minutes of artillery fire, the officers and men of the two brigades of Cao Kun's division were completely scattered, and the more than 60 artillery pieces of the two regiments of the Sichuan Army located on the south bank of the Yangtze River roared again after a short adjustment, and the dense shells fell on the head of Li Bingyou, who was on the task of the rear of the palace west of Tailong Town.

Before the artillery battalion of Li Bingcheng, who had just reacted, had time to open the shell box, dozens of shells dragging the flames roared, the temporary artillery position fell apart in the blink of an eye, the blown off barrels and wheels rose with the flames, and the broken corpses were mixed with the flying mud and stones, and the deafening explosion resounded in the sky.

After 28 consecutive rounds of uninterrupted artillery bombardment, the one-kilometer radius occupied by Li Bingzhi was completely unrecognizable, full of red-hot artillery craters emitting thick smoke, stumps, severed arms, and unrecognizable weapons and equipment could be seen everywhere, wounded soldiers with severed hands and legs were screaming to the sky and crying out for life, and more than half of the more than 5,000 officers and men of the brigade were killed or wounded.

The sound of the artillery stopped, and the surviving officers and men began to assemble under the loud shouts of the officers, but suddenly there were earth-shattering shouts of killing and dense gunfire from the west, and the officers and men who had not yet assembled could no longer stand the successive blows, and fled frantically in the opposite direction.

Thousands of officers and men of the Sichuan army rushed to the site of the devastated artillery bombardment and stopped advancing, and quickly dispersed amid the whistles and orders of their respective commanders, dozens of light and heavy machine guns were lined up at a distance of 30 meters, machine gunners and ammunition men set up firing points as quickly as possible, and the rest of the officers and men pulled out the sapper shovels behind them and built blocking positions along the artillery craters like crazy.

Cao Kun, who was dazed, received an urgent report that the back road was cut off, and he didn't bother to gather all the generals under his command, and immediately issued an order to attack the city with all his might.

The generals under his command immediately obeyed the order, everyone knew that there was no hesitation at this time, and only by sacrificing their lives to attack the city of Wanxian and mingling with tens of thousands of people could they avoid the powerful artillery fire of the Sichuan army.

However, Cao Kun and his officers and men miscalculated again, and just as they were gathering the remnants to launch a charge, the artillery regiment of the 3rd Division, which was hiding three kilometers north of the city, launched an artillery bombardment, and 24 rounds of artillery shells fell accurately between Cao Kun's assault team and the fortifications in the east of the city according to the predetermined strikes.

Seeing that the casualties of the officers and men of the department increased sharply, dozens of light and heavy machine guns suddenly poured out from the defensive position of the Sichuan army in the east of Wanxian County, and roared violently at the charging officers and soldiers who were frantically fleeing, and the earth-shattering shouts of killing were heard again from the north.

Under the attack from three sides, Cao Kun and his generals did not mention the words of breaking through to the south along the river, and the tragic casualties, tired and hungry officers and soldiers, and the loss of control of the battle situation finally made this group of direct fierce generals who had never encountered an opponent completely collapse.

When Wu Xiangzhen, whose face was full of black, ran to Cao Kun to ask for a truce, Cao Kun, who had been proud for half his life, shed painful tears, he covered his face and sat on the ground, raised his trembling hand and waved weakly at Wu Xiangzhen, and a group of frustrated generals stood up silently and returned to the departments with their heads down.

Five minutes later, Cao Kun's troops, who were in the midst of three blows, raised the white flags they had hurriedly made, and the stunned Sichuan officers and soldiers stopped firing and looked at their commanders in a panic.

In the joint headquarters of the Lingguan Miaochuan Army in the southwest of the city, Bao Jiqing put down the phone and shook his head, looked at Xiao Yimin, Wang Lingji and others who were nervously assessing the battlefield situation against the map and said loudly:

"Commander, everyone, Cao Kun's various departments have already raised the white flag, and General Wu Xiangzhen, the commander of the Third Mixed Brigade, has asked to meet the commander."

All the generals and colonels in the command headquarters stopped all movements and looked at Bao Jiqing and Xiao Yimin in amazement.

The red and blue pencils in Xiao Yimin's hand had already fallen onto the map, and his face was full of disbelief: "How could it be so fast?" There was only one and a half hours of firefighting, and Cao Kun stopped fighting? ”

Wang Lingji smiled bitterly: "I really didn't expect that I wanted to drive them to Yucheng, his ancestors' ...... Didn't you say that Cao Kun and Li Bingzhi were very capable of fighting? ”

Bao Jiqing couldn't hold back a smile, walked up to Xiao Yimin and asked, "Wu Xiangzhen wants to see you, can't you see this senior brother who has never met?" ”

"How embarrassed to meet on such an occasion? If my uncle knows, I don't know what to do with me, or you go, you go with Fang Zhou, anyway, Cao Kun, Li Bingzhi, Xiong Bingqi and others are all your old acquaintances, and there are also a few classmates in the Third Mixed Brigade when Fang Zhou was studying abroad, you go and talk well. I'll go back. Mountain Command, in Bi. The mountains are waiting for you. ”

Xiao Yimin began to look for his hat and prepared to slip away, and a group of combat staff officers and guard chief Wu San and others in the headquarters immediately became busy.

Wang Lingji and the others were surprised, and couldn't help but ask Bao Jiqing: "What is the relationship between Commander Xiao and General Wu Xiangzhen?" ”

Bao Jiqing sighed slightly:

"Before Lord Zhao Erxun came to Sichuan, he served as the governor of the Northeast for several years, and at that time Wu Xiangzhen was still a pipe band of the Northeast Army, and he was polite and very studious, so he became half of Lord Zhao Erxun's disciple, so even if they fought each other to the death before, but when they met, Commander Xiao had to call Wu Xiangzhen a senior brother, he couldn't let go of this face, and he couldn't bear to stab Wu Xiangzhen's self-esteem, so he could only dodge."

Wang Lingji and the generals suddenly realized, and couldn't help laughing.

(To be continued)