At dawn on the 30th, more than 300 artillery pieces of various units of the Northern Expeditionary Army suddenly opened fire in unison, and the continuous 20 minutes of non-stop artillery bombardment shook the mountains and shook the ground, the flames were blazing, and the thick smoke of gunpowder completely covered the little light brought by the morning light, and the battlefield within a radius of more than 10 kilometers returned to a terrifying darkness.

The Fourth and Seventh Armies of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which had been replenished after a short rest, once again launched a fierce attack on the enemy, this time with a rather desperate attack on the whole front than yesterday's operation was larger, more decisive, and more direct, and the initial investment of troops was almost double that of yesterday.

Such a swift and powerful offensive force caught the defenders off guard, and the commander Wu Peifu hurriedly launched a fierce counterattack with superior artillery fire, mobilizing more than 20,000 troops to rush to help, and the whole line was able to stabilize its position, but the entire long front moved 250 meters north under the frenzied blows of the revolutionary army, and the two lines of defense that the enemy had worked so hard to build fell into the hands of the revolutionary army.

Wu Peifu was extremely furious, and strictly ordered more than ten generals under his command, including Liu Yuchun, Chen Jiamo, Ma Ji, Sun Jianye, and Zhang Zhanao, to go to the front line in person, and lead the superior forces to counterattack on all fronts, and they were bound to beat the revolutionary army back to the starting point and then break through the whole line. Wu Peifu himself personally led the elite Praetorian Guard Brigade to the front line of Hesheng Bridge to help, and urgently ordered three high-power armored trains that had just returned from Wuhan to replenish ammunition to rush south into the battlefield.

A huge battle to decide the old and the new groups and the fate of millions of people has inevitably entered a white-hot state.

More than 80,000 people on both sides of the war began a fierce battle on a 10-kilometer front, and the fierce battle lasted for more than five hours, with heavy losses on both sides, but not a single one retreated, and no one spared his life.

The two sides invested more and more troops, the fighting became more and more intense, the battle positions were strewn with corpses, fires were everywhere, the fierce mud and stones mixed with burning blood flew all over the sky, and the stench of corpses was mixed with the spicy smoke of gunpowder and billowing dust.

More than 100,000 officers and soldiers on both sides and their generals have all become red-eyed gamblers at this moment, struggling in this desperate fight, risking their lives to move forward, and the generals on both sides know that as long as a slight retreat may lead to the shaking of the whole front, and then completely collapse, they will sink into ruin, and there will be no chance of turning over.

In the front headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army at Henggou Bridge, Li Zongren, the 36-year-old commander-in-chief of the campaign, bowed his head slightly and paced slowly, and Chen Keyu, deputy commander of the Fourth Army, who was sitting majestically, looked at the battle reports on the front line with a solemn expression, and seven or eight generals including Zhang Fakui and Chen Shuming nervously looked for a breakthrough around the map.

Li Zongren's chief of guard stood at the table by the door from afar, looking at the lunch that had become cold on the table, and he didn't dare to come out, and the atmosphere of the entire headquarters was suffocating, and everyone was like a string that was getting tighter and tighter, quietly approaching the limit of tension little by little.

The natal year is a hurdle, Li Zongren clearly knows that the battle in front of him is the biggest hurdle he has encountered in his life, and if he crosses it, he will open the sea and the sky, and if he falls, he may even have the hard-won reputation and fame that he has accumulated over the years.

This hurdle is far more difficult than when he resolutely raised the banner of righteousness and attached himself to the national political axe of Guangzhou, and rose up to crusade against the original separatist allies who were in the same bed and dreamed of different dreams, and he is now facing the most prestigious army in the country, the most powerful and prestigious prominent warlord leader, and the step he is about to take is far more difficult and more bumpy than all the efforts he made to unify Bagui back then!

He succeeded that year, after a long hibernation in the troubled times, he judged the situation and held high the banner of righteousness, united with the emerging forces Huang Shaohong and Bai Chongxi, who were still in a weak position, and rushed out of the narrow five genera of southern Guizhou to conquer everywhere, and finally defeated the powerful people in Guangxi, and beat Lu Rongting, the governor of Liangguang in the twilight of Xishan, to lose his armor and put an end to his decades of rule, and then beat Shen Hongying, who was capricious but had a heavy army in his hands and had been crisscrossing the two provinces for many years, and finally fled alone, disguised as a merchant and took a small fishing boat to die in the Xiangjiang River. Reduced to the end of the road, the hero was forgotten in an instant.

It took only two years for Li Zongren, who was calm, generous, stoic and wise, to end the chaotic secession of Guangxi for decades and become a rapidly rising military group leader, attracting the attention of the world. Immediately afterwards, he tried his best to advocate the Northern Expedition to take the lead in Hunan Province, help the Tang Shengzhi Department, which was crumbling all the way, to gain a firm foothold, and commanded the elite under his command to assist the desperate Tang Shengzhi Department to fight back at Hengyang in three months, capture Changsha, and rise again, shaking Kyushu and impressing the forces in the north and south. As a result, Li Zongren has gradually moved from a strong local to a national level, and has entered another leap and sublimation in his life.

However, the hurdle in front of Li Zongren at this moment has invisibly become the biggest touchstone in his life. It seems that the darkness of the heavens is destined to make him unavoidable, and one advance and one retreat will determine his future fate, at this moment he suddenly thought of a sentence that the adults in his hometown Lingui often teach their children: Jackie Chan becomes a snake in the sky and drills holes! I feel like a koi swimming under the dragon gate, struggling to leap into a golden-scaled dragon, and since then I have been drowning in the vast mediocrity and humility.

Li Zongren stopped, walked to the group of generals again, quietly stared at the large map on the table with his calm eyes, focused his gaze on the north end of the Hesheng Bridge between Huangtang Lake and Liangzi Lake, paused for a moment, moved his gaze to the wide and gentle area northeast of Liangzi Lake, nodded slightly, and said calmly: "Everyone, immediately move the headquarters forward by five kilometers, it is time for a decisive victory." ”

The generals were taken aback, but after seeing the strong confidence in Li Zongren's eyes, no one spoke against it. Although it was extremely dangerous to move the headquarters forward five kilometers and completely exposed to the enemy's artillery fire, none of the generals in the hall flinched, but felt that this was the best way to deal with it, at least it could greatly relieve the heavy psychological pressure, and it was a hundred times stronger than suffocating helplessness to bear everything in the rain of bullets, not to mention that all the generals and colonels in the hall were all people who had experienced a hundred battles, and the pride of the soldiers greatly stimulated Li Zongren's easy words.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Li Zongren stood on the mountainside of Wangxian Mountain on the left side of the railway, slowly looking at the long battle line, and he vaguely saw Wu Peifu's handsome banner and canopy-like mobile camp at the north end of Hesheng Bridge.

Li Zongren gently instructed the chief of staff around him: "Order, all divisions of the Fourth Army immediately put in all reserves and launch an all-out attack on the frontal battlefield of Hesheng Bridge, and fight as fiercely as possible." ”

"Yes!"

"Slow! Order again: Yu Zuoyu's regiment on the right flank of our Seventh Army broke away from the frontal enemy and rushed to the northeast, rushing all the way, running as far as it could, and not stopping without a strong enemy blocking it! ”

"Yes!"

With Li Zongren's sudden adjustment, the entire balance of power battlefield immediately changed.

An Yi, who returned to yesterday's observation point and overlooked the battlefield, found that the left-wing troops had suddenly increased their attack, and immediately paid full attention.

In the telescope, the two divisions of the tenacious and fierce Fourth Army suddenly exerted their strength after the arrival of the reserve units of the four regiments of the army, and launched a charge in the face of the rain of bullets.

"Ye Ting's reading force! Big brother, look, look at the banner of the commando team's rapid northward movement, it must be Senior Xu Jishen's assault battalion that successfully broke through the enemy's first line of defense, great! ”

Yin Jinan, who was beside An Yi, couldn't help but scream.

An Yi held the high-powered telescope motionless: "I saw it, it must be him." Huang Qixiang's 36th Regiment had already rushed to the area around the hill about 100 meters to the left of the south of the bridge, and the enemy's fire was too fierce to advance further, but unfortunately their machine guns were not equipped enough...... What was that? Oh my God! Brother Xiang, get out of the mountain bag quickly......"

Under An Yi's futile shout, the three large-caliber shells fired by the enemy's armored train made a screaming sound that could tear the heart, and fell like lightning to the small mountain bag area where the 36th Regiment was located, when the earth-shattering explosion came, the mountain bag with a radius of fifty meters had been blown up to the sky, the smoke soared into the sky, the rain of mud and stone splashed for 100 meters, the smoke soared, the entire turquoise mountain bag had disappeared in the blink of an eye, turned into a huge circular scorched earth, and the vegetation within tens of meters was shattered piece by piece under the ravages of the powerful shock wave, Like withered leaves circling in the sky, more than 300 officers and soldiers around Shanbao disappeared, seeing An Yi's heart like a knife, he closed his eyes in pain, and more than a dozen subordinates next to him were also frightened, dumbfounded, looking at the mushroom-shaped smoke cloud that rushed into the sky for hundreds of meters like a nerd.

On the mountainside of Wang Xian Mountain, Li Zongren put down his binoculars and turned to Chen Keyu: "The 36th Regiment cannot retreat, it is recommended that the officers and men of the 12th Division do not stop, and immediately launch a full charge, as long as the troops are close to each other, the enemy's artillery superiority will be lost, and if it is delayed for another five minutes, the Ye Ting's Reading Force Regiment that has opened the bloody road may lose its previous achievements." The enemy has been shaken, and at this time everyone is fighting for the last breath. ”

Chen Keyu nodded painfully and turned to Zhang Fakui, the commander of the 12th Division, but Zhang Fakui had already thrown down his hat and gun and rushed down the mountainside.

Li Zongren looked at Zhang Fakui's short back, nodded with satisfaction, raised his telescope to look at the right flank of the Seventh Army in the northeast, and saw that Yu Zuoyu's regiment had been intercepted by twice the enemy's strength, nodded with satisfaction and said to the chief of staff beside him again:

"Wu Peifu has already seen our motives, but he actually used two regiments to intercept Yu Zuoyu's regiment, and then used Zhang Zhanao's division, which has not moved, to cut into the junction of our army and the four armies with all his might, so it can be seen that he has panicked, and the pressure on our northeast has been doubled, and it is time. Hu Zongduo was ordered: the 2nd Brigade Lu Yanxin Regiment moved to the left to stabilize the flank battlefield of the Fourth Army, and Yang Tenghui's regiment moved to the right to break the enemy's attempt to encircle Yu Zuoyu's regiment. Another order: Xia Wei led the two brigades under his command to launch immediately, break through the northeast defense line at all costs, and then go straight to Echeng regardless of it! ”

"Yes!"

As soon as this order came out, the battlefield changed dramatically, Xia Wei led the 14,000 soldiers of the two brigades under his command to shout and charge like crazy after receiving the order, and the soldiers who were beaten in the dark rushed towards the machine guns on the enemy position in front of them, and the officers and soldiers fell in the enemy's dense bullet rain, and more officers and soldiers went forward one after another, stepping on the corpses and charging wildly. Under the overwhelming momentum of the soldiers of the Gui Army, who rushed like crazy wolves, several enemy machine gunners who had no time to change their belts could no longer bear the fear in their hearts, and turned around and ran wildly with a wail. In the blink of an eye, the thousands of enemy troops whose morale had been taken away all threw down their weapons and fled for their lives, and the enemy positions four kilometers to the east collapsed.

The enemy general Song Dapei was ordered by Wu Peifu to lead 5,000 officers and soldiers to come to the aid of the battle, but as soon as he arrived, he was disrupted by the rout of the front army.

The sense of fear wailing everywhere instantly infected the 5,000 reinforcements, and nearly 10,000 soldiers, including Song Dapei, were defeated like a mountain, fleeing for their lives on all fronts, and under the frantic pursuit of the soldiers of Xia Wei's department, they panicked and went straight to Echeng in the northeast.

How could Xia Wei, who was so surprised, let go of this God-given opportunity, and immediately ordered all regiments to widen the gap, strive to catch up, follow this nearly 10,000 defeated enemy like ducks and shoot calmly, chase all the way to Echeng, and even disarm all of them, capturing more than ten enemy generals, including Song Dapei.

This battle not only destroyed countless enemies and captured abundantly, but also successfully occupied Echeng, blocked the eastward escape of the enemy in Wuhan, and cut off Wu Peifu's front connecting Sun Chuanfang in one fell swoop, which had a huge deterrent effect on the enemy army.

He greatly admired Li Zongren's tenacious spirit and superb command art, and was full of respect for the brave and fearless officers and men of the Fourth Army and the Seventh Army, and even called out the word "Iron Army", and the brothers around him were also extremely impressed, and they all thought that they were compared with the two steel heroes on the battlefield, and the gap was too big!

Shi Junren got up, wiped the sweat from his head, and muttered as if talking to himself: "It's over!" It's hopeless, it's over......"

An Yi turned to him in surprise: "Old Shi, what did you say?" Who's finished? ”

Shi Junren was stunned for a moment, shook his head and pointed to the He Sheng Bridge in the north: "Wu Dashuai is finished!" The subordinates have been in the direct line for seven years, and they have never seen such a tragic battle, and even the subordinates, who were called the most fearless of death by the brothers in the past, are frightened, and I believe that the brothers on the other side can't stand it...... An hour at most, maybe less than half an hour to collapse, I know, I can't say anything, but I know, I know it in my heart. ”

"Are you sure?" An Yi asked excitedly.

"Sure! Battalion commander, his subordinates dare to vouch for their heads, they are not saved......" Shi Junren said this, and couldn't help but shudder.

An Yi was overjoyed: "Brothers, all the regiments of our division have already gone up, let's go back immediately and lead the brothers of the first and second companies to catch up together!" I feel that after the main force crosses the bridge, it will definitely pursue it non-stop to the city of Wuchang, in the style of General Li Zongren, it will never give the enemy a chance to breathe, so we have to clean up the battlefield in front of the turtle grandsons of the Eighth Army, and we have to keep our eyes open and be smart, and if we don't get back 18,000 loot, even if we are unlucky! ”

As soon as the brothers heard this, they were excited, and even the old man, who was soft-footed and soft-handed, was suddenly full of strength, and followed closely behind the brothers who rushed down the hill without falling behind.

With the assistance of nearly 10,000 brothers in the First Army, Hu Zongduo's troops broke the enemy's attempt to separate and encircle the enemy in one fell swoop, drove Zhang Zhanao's troops, who had lost troops and lost generals, all the way to the Hesheng bridgehead, and quickly adjusted the formation, and combined a powerful shock offensive of 20,000 officers and soldiers with the second division brothers, squeezing the remnants of the enemy into the crumbling enemy main position little by little.

Ye Ting, who served as the vanguard of the main attack, saw the chaos of the enemy formation, and couldn't help but be arrogant, raised his arms, rushed into the smoke of gunpowder in the first place, and led his troops to launch a fierce charge against the enemy without returning, and finally broke the last line of defense set up by the enemy army at the south bridgehead after a bloody battle, and the morale of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers in the rest of the departments was greatly boosted, shouting and killing like thunder, and followed closely behind Ye Ting's reading force group and stepped on the layers of the enemy's corpses, pouring onto the bloody bridge deck, and more brothers from various departments waded through the wide shallow lakes and marshes on both sides of the bridge.

How can the 3,000 defenders on the bridge hold off this mighty army of steel? In the blink of an eye, he was either killed or fled with a scream of surprise, shocking Wu Peifu's heavily guarded position north of the bridge, and his soul was scattered.

Tens of thousands of defenders in the north of the bridge threw down their positions and turned around and fled, only to find out after escaping 100 meters that Wu Dashuai's dozens of black hole machine guns were facing him, and more than 100 officers and soldiers of the supervision team on both sides were holding snowy broadswords in their hands, and their gloomy eyes and murderous aura were like hell Yama.

Tens of thousands of rout soldiers finally stopped in the earth-shattering roar of "no mercy", and crowded in panic on the wide second position on the north bank, and the fatal thing was that the revolutionary army that rushed across the bridge burst into gunfire, and dense bullets flew to the rear of the rout like a torrential rain.

The survival ** in the hearts of the defeated soldiers who were unable to protect their stomachs finally burst out, and rushed to their own supervision team lifelessly, trying to escape from the road, but the oncoming machine gun bullet rain swept down the hundreds of defeated soldiers who fled in front like mowing grass in a blink of an eye, and the officers and soldiers of the supervision team waved a big knife up and down, and suddenly the blood was full of light, and the head flew sideways.

Countless frightened routs panicked, jumped down the blue waters of Liangzi Lake, the water rose and fell, pulling each other and struggling, and finally the good swimmers and landlubbers were entangled, unable to separate, the lake was full of people, overlapping, and countless people drowned.

Marshal Wu, who had more than 200,000 troops in his life, was furious, and ordered his subordinates to pull up 20 zhang of iron wire between the poles and trees on both sides, pulled out his treasure sword and personally slashed 12 fleeing generals, and ordered his subordinates to hang all their heads on the iron wire to set an example and force more and more defeated generals to turn around and fight.

At this time, Wu Peifu also knew that it was difficult to save the defeat, but he was unwilling to lose his dignity and could not lose the military prestige and reputation that he regarded as his surname for the rest of his life.

However, the rapid pace of the revolutionary army, whose morale was like a rainbow, broke Wu Peifu's last bit of extravagant hope, and under the stormy blow of the revolutionary army, the morale of the entire direct army was completely lost, and it was completely out of control, and the shouts of the revolutionary army soaring into the sky shook the trees and shattered people's hearts.

The dense gunfire was getting closer and closer, and the whistling bullets broke the treetops one after another, and the surrounding tin houses kept shaking, and tens of thousands of remnants of the soldiers were defeated, and they rushed madly towards the overseers and hundreds of machine gunners, grabbed the broadsword machine guns, and slashed and shot blindly with all their might, the whole position was in chaos, wailing like thunder, and the black pressure pressed the flow of people fleeing north like an overwhelming flood, breaking through layers of obstacles, and sweeping away everything in front of them could no longer be stopped.

Wu Peifu boarded the train under the forced escort of dozens of cronies, and threw down tens of thousands of frightened and dejected officers and soldiers to flee for their lives.

The gradually accelerating train knocked and crushed the ant-like rout on the railway, and the guards on the car raised their broadswords to cut off a pair of hands that were tightly climbing onto the train, and the train splashed blood all the way, gradually accelerating under the impact of the stump and broken arm, only the forty or so general's heads hanging behind were still swinging in the blazing wind......

(To be continued)