Located on the north bank of the Yangtze River. The county seat, for thousands of years, is an important post station on the water and land passage into Sichuan, the county is connected to Fengjie in the east, Wanxian in the west, the mountains and deep ravines are high on all sides, the peaks are extended, the average altitude is more than 800 meters, the cliffs can be seen everywhere in the river section in the territory, and the terrain is extremely important.

Yunyang is a small city without walls, with a population of more than 10,000 people.

When Cao Kun, the commander of the river defense in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the general of Huwei, arrived with two brigades, Yun. The big families and people in the county town were deeply afraid of the cruelty of the guest army, and most of them had fled, and the rest were all panicked, old, weak, sick and disabled, and more than 12,000 officers and soldiers under Cao Kun crowded the small town.

Out of fear of war, ships from various countries stopped sailing, and several original 100-ton engine ships in Yichang had already been routed by Zhou Jun, who had already fled, to Chongqing.

The Yucheng Chamber of Commerce and the police station secretly responded to Xiao Yimin's call, and had already sailed all large and medium-sized ships to the port upstream of Yucheng to anchor, under the protection of Wang Lingji's Fourth Division.

What is even more serious is that the military rations carried by the army have been exhausted, and the morale of the officers and men has been completely demoralized due to fatigue and hunger, and the 12,000 officers and men who originally thought that they would be able to make a windfall after entering Sichuan searched the entire county and only got more than 2,000 catties of corn and sweet potatoes.

"General, let's have a bowl of mung bean porridge, it's a pity that there is no sugar."

Cao Kun's adjutant handed over a large bowl of freshly made mung bean porridge, and turned around to present a bowl to Wu Xiangzhen, commander of the 4th Mixed Brigade, and Li Bingzhi, commander of the 13th Mixed Brigade.

Cao Kun, who is from Tianjin, was quite humorous, picked up a big bowl of "puff" and drank a few big mouthfuls, smacked his lips and said that the beans were good, and they tasted better than the beans in the north, and looked at Wu Xiangzhen and Li Bingzhi who were holding the bowl with a helpless face:

"Drink it, it's just time to relieve the heat, I have to walk all day today, I have to rush to Wanxian in one go, and when I get to Wanxian, there are no difficulties."

Wu Xiangzhen, a general from Yunnan, knew the spleen and surname of the Sichuan people very well, he put down the bowl and said worriedly to Cao Kun:

"Brother Zhong Shan, although Wanxian County is relatively wealthy, and there is a large transit station set up by Zhou Junbu, at this time, I am afraid that it has also been emptied by the Sichuan army and the local people, and the telegraph lines along the way have been cut off, and the connection between us and Yucheng has been cut off for two days, the situation is not good!"

Cao Kun slowly put down the bowl, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and nodded slightly:

"Yes, this Xiao Yimin is really appealing, he shouted in the newspaper that the walls are clear, the people of the chambers of commerce in various places are like clouds, and Chen Eun and the two brigades of the Hunan army in Yucheng were also forced by him to be at a loss, and we couldn't even find food along the way.

"It can be seen that entering Sichuan this time is not a good errand, it is likely that you have to fight a solid battle, and the two of you must be mentally prepared!"

Li Bingzhi, a general from Hebei, drank half a bowl of porridge and put it down:

"Brother Zhong Shan is reasonable, but, according to the current confrontation situation, Xiao Yimin, the commander of the border army, does not seem to dare to fire the first shot, otherwise with the strength of the Sichuan army of the three divisions on the periphery of Yucheng, he will be able to launch a four-sided attack on the two brigades trapped in Yucheng, and then take Yucheng, but Xiao Yimin has not dared to move until now, obviously he can't make up his mind

"The subordinates believe that Xiao Yimin is just putting on a posture and striving for a favorable position for bargaining, and he will never dare to start a war lightly, otherwise it will be tantamount to betraying the commander and opposing the central political axe, and he will definitely fall into an isolated situation, and then be severely attacked by the various departments under the central government and the Yunnan army."

Cao Kun waved his hand: "No, no! You don't know this Xiao Yimin, although this person is young, but he is definitely a decisive person, I have been thinking about the march in the past few days, since he has successfully stirred up the public opinion in Sichuan, forced the Sichuan army divisions to stand on his position and unanimously to the outside world, and has ample time for war preparations, why is he still besieging Yucheng and not fighting?

"Does he have to wait until our two brigades arrive in Yucheng to start fighting? Xiao Yimin is by no means so pedantic, otherwise he would not have reached his current position in just eight years. So, I'm still saying that...... What's going on out there? What are you yelling about? ”

The courtyard was noisy, and Xiong Bingqi, the chief of staff who was inspecting the opening of various departments, dismounted and ran in sweating:

"The second battalion directly under our department, which served as the vanguard, was suddenly attacked by unknown militants when it marched to Miaozi Mountain, 15 kilometers to the west, and the battalion commander Zhao Huan, the battalion deputy Zhang Kaitai, and the three company commanders were the first to be shot and killed, and the 500 brothers were leaderless and in the middle of a narrow mountain road, and they were attacked by hundreds of grenades before they could launch a counterattack.

Cao Kun jumped up in fright, Li Bingzhi and Wu Xiangzhen stood up, surrounded Xiong Bingqi and anxiously asked for details.

Xiong Bingqi, who was anxious, explained, and finally simply ordered the adjutant to bring the map, packed up the table and quickly spread it out, pointed to Miaozi Mountain, which had only a small black dot on the map, and quickly explained:

"Right here, it is a two-mile long narrow road built along the mountain, it is the only official road leading to Wanxian, this road is between the two mountains, the south is separated by hundreds of meters of reckless high mountains is the Yangtze River, and the north is Miaozi Mountain, which is thousands of meters above sea level and has a steep terrain, the terrain is narrow, and there are curves and restrictions, if we launch an attack, it will be a headache, and the strength of more than one battalion will not be able to move at all!"

Li Bingzhi turned to Wu Xiangzhen: "Yuting, you are familiar with the situation in the southwest, tell me, whose troops might be the attacker?" ”

Cao Kun and Xiong Bingqi immediately looked at Wu Xiangzhen, and Wu Xiangzhen shook his head helplessly:

"The younger brother has been away from his hometown for more than ten years, and has been leading troops in the northeast and Zhili, and he doesn't know the situation in Sichuan at all, so it is difficult to judge whose troops are nearby According to reason, Zhou Jun's troops have been dispersed, and one-third of the troops fled to Yucheng to join Chief Chen Eun, and most of the units of the First Army of the Sichuan Army scattered throughout eastern Sichuan were disarmed and returned to the field, and Zhou Jun himself was ridiculed by the Sichuan army, and he was frustrated and had been ordered to go to Yanjing to take up his post. Under such circumstances, only local armed forces or local gangs will attack our army. ”

"Nope! Where do the Jianghu gangs have so many advanced weapons? Where is there such a good marksmanship? Light machine guns and high-powered grenades have all come up together, do the local armed forces have the ability to do this? Cao Kun immediately questioned.

Wu Xiangzhen explained with a wry smile:

"Shi Zuo may not know that Xiao Yimin's two arsenals in Chengdu and Ya'an have a very high level of technology and weapon production, and they have surpassed the Hanyang factory in all aspects, except for the lack of ability to produce large artillery. Looking at the whole of China, only the Ya'an Arsenal can produce high-power cast iron grenades and wooden-handled grenades, the Hanyang Factory, the Jiangnan Factory, the Fengtian Factory, and the Dagu Factory only began to imitate low-tech wooden-handled grenades at the beginning of this year, while the weapons and equipment and explosives produced in Chengdu and Ya'an have been sold to all parts of the country as early as three years ago, and Xiao Yimin himself is from Hongmen, and now he is the leading figure in the 'Yizi generation' of the Sichuan Pao Brother, so it is not surprising that he sells weapons and ammunition to people in various places. ”

"Master, there is such a thing, Yuting is reasonable. The subordinates heard that the German light machine gun imitated by the Chengdu Arsenal has been finalized, it seems to be called the M1915 type, and it has been successively equipped with the Sichuan border army and the fifth division of Wang Jian stationed in southern Sichuan. Chief of Staff Xiong Bingqi reminded in a low voice.

Cao Kun walked to the door with his hands behind his back, and saw a few bloody soldiers running from the courtyard to report the news still waiting, and the anger in his stomach finally exploded, he turned around and ordered loudly:

"Transfer the two artillery teams up and bombard Lao Tzu! Evil sect, dare to fight Lao Tzu's ambush, no matter what part he is, Lao Tzu will destroy him! Biao Chen, you go and command it yourself! ”

"Yes!"

Li Bingzhi hurriedly grabbed the big cap and ran out of the temporary headquarters.

Xiong Bingqi walked up to Cao Kun and said in a low voice: "Shizuo, could it be that the opponent wants to prevent our army from advancing west into Yucheng?" Or is it through a sneak attack to slow down the pace of our army's advance? ”

Cao Kun glared at the beads of his eyes and scolded loudly: "Lao Tzu, no matter what they think, all in all, we must arrive in Wanxian County at this time tomorrow, otherwise we will starve to death if we don't wait for others to fight!" Mom, follow me, Lao Tzu wants to see where Xiao Xiao is, and he dares to stand in the way of Lao Tzu! ”

(To be continued)