Tiepu Bay, more than 90 miles south of the Pingjiang River, is a small town with a population of only more than 1,000 people, located on the only official road from Pingjiang to Liuyang, except for the past merchants of this province, there are few travelers throughout the year, but after more than 100 officers and soldiers of the 16th Mixed Brigade of the Beiyang Army suddenly drove into the town two days ago, the peaceful and comfortable life of the town was suddenly broken.

In the face of the Beiyang Army, which went door to door with guns to collect military rations and collect military expenses, the mayor of the town, who had made a fortune by beating iron for generations, was also the white-haired old man who was the head of the family surnamed Xiao in the ten miles and eight townships, and refused very stubbornly, and as a result, more than ten officers and soldiers were violently beaten and imprisoned.

The most luxurious and spacious building in Tiepu Bay is the Xiao family ancestral hall half a mile south of the town.

This clan ancestral hall with a history of more than 70 years, not only the holy place of the surname Xiao in the whole town to worship the ancestors, but also the only private school location in more than 20 villages and towns within a radius of 30 miles, has now become the barracks of more than 100 Beiyang troops, the official road outside the gate of the ancestral hall, set up with horses and sandbags, no matter day and night, there are five or six Beiyang officers and soldiers with loaded guns and ammunition are strictly stationed, all people who enter and leave the town are forced to be checked, and only need to go north and not south.

More than ten consecutive days of sunny weather finally ended on the third day after the arrival of the Beiyang Army.

The sky was full of dark and heavy clouds, and under the blowing of the bitter autumn wind, the entire sky was covered with more than a dozen officers and men of the Beiyang Army, and under the shouts of a tall commander, they began to build sheds on the official road.

Several families in the south of the town were even more distressed when they saw the officers and soldiers starting to build sheds, thinking that this group of bandits seemed to be not leaving for a while.

Just when a few families were secretly scolding their mothers, a burst of intensive gunfire suddenly rang out, and more than a dozen officers and soldiers who were building sheds were beaten into blood gourds in the blink of an eye.

I saw that as soon as the officer who opened his shirt and shouted loudly turned his head to the south, his huge head was like a watermelon that had been smashed by a punch, and before a dozen officers and men who had been shot died, a shout of killing sounded in the south, and hundreds of officers and men wearing colorful military uniforms and pot helmets rushed towards the earth-shattering shouts of killing.

A group of Beiyang troops who had just rushed out of the ancestral hall to prepare for the battle failed to raise their guns, and they fell to death in pieces in the roaring rain of bullets, and the large blood mist that suddenly rose up was particularly eye-catching against the snow-white courtyard wall of the ancestral hall.

Several families were already frightened by this sudden bloody killing, and stood at the door in a daze, forgetting to hide, until the wails and shouts in the ancestral hall were heard, and the few families who were already bloodless and weak in their hands and feet remembered to flee into their homes to avoid disaster.

But before they could raise their legs, the dozens of officers and soldiers in flowery clothes who rushed to the outside of the courtyard wall of the ancestral hall had already thrown something black and pressed into the courtyard wall, and then an earth-shattering explosion and dazzling fire sounded, which frightened several people to immediately slump on the ground.

As soon as the smoke of gunpowder rose, dozens of officers and soldiers in flower-clothed clothes rushed into the gate of the ancestral hall regardless of life or death, the "crackling" gunshots, mixed with the sound of screams, continued, followed by a huge explosion in the rear of the ancestral hall, broken masonry and sawdust rose into the sky in the thick smoke and firelight, and the bricks and stones in the sky had not yet fallen, and hundreds of officers and soldiers in flower-clothes had continuously rushed into the town.

More than a dozen war horses galloped from the south, passing by the entrance of the ancestral hall full of blood and corpses everywhere without slowing down, until they rushed into the middle of the town before stopping, four or five officers and soldiers in flowery clothes carrying shell guns quickly ran to the front of the war horses.

"Report to the division, all the enemies in the town were eliminated, and more than ten enemies in the north of the town were released according to the order of the division, and two of the remaining enemies fled in the direction of Xiejiashan in the west." The new special agent battalion commander with a face full of gunpowder reported loudly.

Yuan Chongxi, who was on the move, smiled: "You played well, I'll give you credit when I go back, haha!" ”

Yuan Chongxi tightened the reins slightly, and the war horse immediately leaned towards He Yuxing, the chief of staff on the side: "Yuheng, you lead the team to go first, how about I lead a group to delay?" ”

He Yuxin didn't have time to wipe the sweat off his face, looked at the dark and heavy sky, and explained very carefully: "It may rain heavily later, if we don't move fast enough, I'm worried that Feng Yuxiang will take the initiative to catch up, but he has a brigade under him, if you really fight, you only have one regiment, is it enough?" ”

Yuan Chongxi said disdainfully:

"I gave Feng Yuxiang ten dares, he didn't dare to catch up, at most he sent three or four hundred people to monitor us, in this huge area of Dashishan District, how could he see our numbers and movements clearly? If I let a regiment of two thousand brethren raise the banners of four regiments, occupy the favorable terrain and set up suspicious soldiers, and then let a dozen mortars fire a few volleys, and then charge without hesitation, I will surely frighten him, and when he understands the situation, I am afraid that I will have caught up with you. ”

"Good! Then I'll lead the team....... order: The special battalion will immediately set off to the north, and it must find out the enemy situation inside and outside Pingjiang City before dark! He Yuxuan ordered loudly.

"Yes!" The commander of the special service battalion rushed away.

"The rest of the regiments rested in place for half an hour and hurried to eat dry food."

He Yuxuan said a few words to Yuan Chongxi, who led a group to the west, and then took a few guards and staff officers to the most spacious house in the middle of the town, and politely called out the master of the room.

After some explanation, the old patriarch who had not yet recovered from his injuries and the more than 100 young people behind him knew that the officers and soldiers in flowered clothes were friends of the Hunan army, not the overbearing and extortive Beiyang Army, and then learned that this strange and murderous army of nearly 10,000 people was the Sichuan army invited by the provincial governor Liu Renxi and the overseer Tan Yanhong to drive away the Beiyang Army.

Although the people still looked skeptical, none of the Sichuan officers and soldiers who walked into the villagers' homes inside and outside the town still quickly won the favor of the people.

It didn't take long for the shrill whistles and stern military orders to be heard, and the thousands of troops sitting on the roads and under the eaves of the porches soon lined up neatly, carrying large burdens and carrying guns.

The old patriarch and the villagers who gathered more and more, and they didn't figure out what was going on at this time, He Yuxin led more than ten officers and soldiers to come again, and said apologetically that because there was no way to blow up the ancestral hall during the war, and they had to trouble the villagers to clean up, I was really sorry for the old folks.

The old patriarch was just about to say a few polite words, He Yuxuan saluted and turned to leave, under the protection of the two guards, they flew on their horses together and headed north, and the more than ten officers and soldiers who stayed behind put down the captured nearly 1,000 oceans and 50 long rifles, and then lined up and ran to catch up with the team.

Hundreds of villagers looked at the distant backs in the dust and smoke, no one knew what to say, and after a long time, the old patriarch's trembling voice suddenly sounded: "Sichuan army...... Righteousness! Sichuan Army Benevolence ......"

Exclamations and exclamations rang out: "What a big ocean!" How could they leave ......"

"Huh!? It's all new guns, and so many bullet belts have been sent! ”

"It's strange, it's strange, there will be such a soldier in this world?"

"Shut up, no one has drunk a sip of your water, no one has entered our house, they all sit on the ground and eat their own dry food and water from their own pots......"

The people were startled and discussed, and the chief of the operations section, who was riding his horse on the marching road, complained to He Yuxuan vigorously:

"Senza, you just send out more than a thousand oceans, our brothers have no opinion, but those fifty 38-style rifles are all new guns! How good is it to use as a sniper rifle? ”

He Yuxuan was also distressed: "Don't think that Lao Tzu is generous, but the commander asked us to do this in the telegram three times and twice, can we not obey the order?" Considering the cooperation with the Hunan army, and the possibility of coming back again in the future, it is still worth sending something, the teacher of benevolence and righteousness! ”

"Bullshit's righteousness! Which battle do we not kill dozens or hundreds of people? When have you ever seen your benevolence? ”

"Shut up! One more thing, Lao Tzu tore up your stinky mouth, Li Dingbang, who doesn't gnaw on dogs, your turtle son wants to rebel, you ......"

Eighteen kilometers west of Tiepu Bay, Gaoqiao Town, the headquarters of the 16th Mixed Brigade of the Beiyang Army.

The rumbling thunder kept coming, a few bolts of lightning pierced the thick dark clouds in the sky, the grass and trees swayed in the surrounding hills, and the wind hunted.

Inside and outside the dusty town, there were endless shouts and busyness.

The 16th Brigade under the earthen hill in the east of the town, only four 37 anti-aircraft guns were in full array, and almost all the high ground was covered with officers and soldiers wearing khaki uniforms, and the war horses carrying more than 10 heralds kept shuttling back and forth, as if the Great War I was about to come at the same time as the torrential rain.

The humble main hall of the town office was also busy, and the burly brigade commander Feng Yuxiang stared at the map on the table, and did not look up for a long time, and the seven or eight school officers on the side were full of eagerness and restlessness, but no one dared to speak at this juncture.

The sound of the horse's hooves was getting closer and closer, and the knight on the horse did not wait for the horse to stop, but dismounted, rushed into the main hall, and reported loudly:

"Brigade seat, the enemy suddenly launched a three-minute artillery bombardment, the impact of our regiment was blocked, and the units had no choice but to retreat, returned to the periphery of Shitang Village, which was two thousand meters away from the enemy, and organized a defense on the spot, but the enemy did not launch an attack as we expected, and still occupied the first line of high ground in Daijiashan, far away from our army.

"In order to find out the enemy's intentions, the guard battalion sent four reconnaissance teams, all of which were discovered by the cunning enemy, and three of them had a total of 17 people who encountered cold guns and could not come back, but according to the enemy's firepower and the intelligence of the reconnaissance team, it was completely certain that the enemy facing us was indeed the Sichuan army division that had confronted us across the mountain in the past few days, and judging from the intensity of the artillery, the Sichuan army had no less than 30 mortars of large and small calibers."

Everyone gasped when they heard this, and they all looked at Feng Yuxiang, who was as immobile as a mountain.

Feng Yuxiang frowned: "The enemy just shelled and didn't attack?" ”

"Yes! It's just shelling, and there's cold shooting...... There are too many sharpshooters in them, and the brothers can't resist them......"

"Boom...... Smack—"

A thunderclap rang out in the air, blinding lightning lit up the earth, and a torrential downpour fell from the sky in a fierce wind, and the dense sound of rain instantly overshadowed all sounds.

Feng Yuxiang glanced out of the door, and suddenly turned around and gave an order: "Order all departments, give up the baggage, and retreat at full speed!" ”

Chief of Staff Shi Jingting was taken aback, and hurriedly persuaded: "Brother Huanzhang, are you waiting to see?" ”

Feng Yuxiang raised his hand with some annoyance and made an unquestionable gesture:

"Can't wait! The strength of the Sichuan army is twice as much as mine, I am not afraid, the terrible thing is the dense artillery fire of the Sichuan army and many light and heavy machine guns, and the mountains here are extended, our brothers are extremely uncomfortable with the march, not only slow movements, but also unable to run and charge, but the Sichuan army is all his mother's monkeys, plus the Sichuan army has always loved to make strange moves, unable to prevent it, if you wait any longer, it is likely to be surrounded by the Sichuan army, our army is now completely alone, and the friendly army in the middle is a hundred miles away, if you do not immediately move closer to the middle road, it will definitely fall into the full set of the Sichuan army! ”

"In that case, we can return to Pingjiang!" Shi Jingting was anxious.

Feng Yuxiang immediately stopped: "No! I have a hunch that Pingjiang may not be able to be saved, even if we withdraw to Pingjiang at full speed now, it is not as fast as the Sichuan army, I am afraid that the Sichuan army still wants us to retreat to Pingjiang, so the only safe place is to retreat to the west, and it is safest to get closer to the main force in the middle. ”

Shi Jingting nodded, but he was worried: "What if Shangfeng blames him?" Our mission is to contain the enemy forces on the Eastern Front with all our might! ”

"Until now, I'm still holding back a fart, get out of here! Retreat west at full speed—"

(To be continued)