On February 3, the Yanjing Central Political Axe announced to the whole country:

Under the unified command of the central government, the officers and men of the Sichuan army attacked the rebels of the Cai Yi Division, annihilating more than 15,000 enemies, and more than 30 generals such as the enemy chief Dai Huan were killed by themselves, and more than 10 people including the rebel general Liu Yunfeng were captured, and the rebel general Cai Yi's troops were surrounded by the Sichuan Army and were about to perish; In addition, he was promoted to General Zhenwu, Sichuan Military Affairs Supervisor, and Lieutenant General Xiao Yimin, Commander-in-Chief of the Sichuan Army. He was promoted to Lieutenant General Bao Jiqing, Chief of Staff of the Sichuan Army, and was awarded the title of "General Zhenwei" and promoted to the rank of first-class earl.

As soon as the announcement came out, the whole country was shaken, and nearly half of the people and the local branches of the Kuomintang did not believe the words of Yanjing's political axe, believing that Cai Yi, who was also known as the "Three Heroes of Non-commissioned Officers" with Jiang Fangzhen and Zhang Xiaozhun, would not have been defeated so quickly, and Chinese and foreign reporters who had already found out the sporadic news began to flock to Sichuan and Yunnan to find out the truth.

In order to boost the morale of the troops, the Kuomintang newspapers in Shanghai and Guangdong responded one after another, saying that the announcement was pure wishful thinking and rumor-mongering to confuse the public, with the aim of vainly trying to disintegrate the morale of the forces of the movement to defend the country and fight against Yuan throughout the country, and was a despicable and shameless means to split the revolutionary forces.

At 9 o'clock in the morning on February 8, more than 30 generals of the General Headquarters of the Protector [***] jointly sent a telegram:

Protecting [***] and the Sichuan army eliminated the contradictions, ended the confrontation, and the soldiers of [***] immediately raised troops and marched east into Hunan by two routes, and continued to protect the great cause of the country.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, General Cai Yi, commander-in-chief of the protection [***], telegraphed the whole country:

Due to the aggravation of his condition, he could not continue to lead the Northern Expedition, and the post of commander-in-chief was handed over to General Li Liejun, deputy commander-in-chief, who would travel east to seek medical treatment after his condition stabilized.

Although the telegram did not give an explanation for why the protector [***] stopped entering Sichuan, most people have already guessed the truth - the protector [***] could not shake the united Sichuan army, and naturally could not enter Sichuan to launch the Northern Expedition according to the original plan, as for the escort [***] to turn around and go east in two ways, it was tantamount to admitting their own defeat, at least strategically failed.

What puzzled the world was that there was no sound from top to bottom of the Sichuan army, and Xiao Yimin, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan army, who had always been quick and high-profile, seemed to have disappeared, and not a word came out.

At this moment, Xiao Yimin had already returned to Chengdu and had a secret conversation with more than a dozen chief political officials, including Zhang Lan, the Sichuan Governor, Kuang Youmin, the speaker of the National Assembly, and Zeng Shouwu, the chief of civil affairs, for a day and a night

Liu Bingxian, who had successfully completed the negotiation task, was still busy at this time, and he personally sent Liu Yunfeng, the wounded general of the Yunnan Army, to Zhaotong, which had been looted, and then urged Sun Zhaoluan, commander of the Southern Sichuan Military Division, and Wang Jian, deputy commander, to release more than 5,000 prisoners of the Yunnan and Guizhou Army.

Sun Zhaoluan and Wang Jian were only willing to hand over 2,000 of the captured Yunnan officers and soldiers to Liu Bingxian, detain 3,000 Guizhou troops from Dai Huan's department, and hand them over to Wang Zhanxu's brigade guarding Qijiang to be escorted to Qijiang to build roads and mine.

Liu Bingxian, who had completed all the tasks and was exhausted, sat down and counted carefully, and found that the Sichuan army had made a fortune in this campaign.

Although Liu Bingxian did not know how much gold and silver treasures were looted by various units of the Sichuan army, and could not calculate the extent of the losses of the thousands of officials and gentry and landlords who were looted and looted in northeastern Yunnan, the value of all kinds of materials transported back to Syria by tens of thousands of people in six days alone was as high as more than 3 million, not including more than 3,000 cattle and horses and nearly 1,000 carriages of various types.

The heavy feeling of powerlessness weighed heavily on Liu Bingxian's heart, and the tiredness, helplessness and confusion that he had never felt before hit him, and Liu Bingxian finally fell ill.

The high fever caused by the wind and cold made Liu Bingxian's whole body ache and weak, and he was on the verge of a coma.

This tough guy slept for five days and five nights, and after waking up, he didn't want to stay in the hospital no matter how persuaded by others, and he returned to his home and closed his door, and no one came to visit him

The people of southern Sichuan, who were deeply troubled by the war, received strong financial support from the army and political axes, and the more than 8,000 migrant workers who enthusiastically participated in the rush to transport materials received generous wages, and each of them was rewarded with an additional piece of cloth or a large iron pot, and they were overjoyed.

When the officers and soldiers and officials of the southern Sichuan garrison delivered batches of cattle and horses, wagons, bags of seeds, and countless farm tools to every village, all the people were amazed, and then wept with joy and gratitude.

The thirty-seven towns in the defense area of the Fourth Division each received 500 oceans for the construction of primary schools, and the officers and men with a kind and approachable attitude swore by the following oaths:

We will do our best to help each town build its own school, so that all school-age children can get the opportunity to study! The villages that had previously reached agreements with the regiments of the Fourth Division on civil-military joint construction benefited even more, and almost every village had built primary schools and roads.

The military and political circles in Sichuan benefited a lot from this war, and all parts of Sichuan were filled with the heartfelt gratitude of the people, and the prestige of the political axe and the army was established.

The officers and men of the Sichuan Army, who had received internal commendations and were generally promoted to make a fortune, quietly withdrew from the Sichuan-Yunnan border area and returned to the garrisons of various units to rest and recuperate; batches of officers and men who had received medals and large bonuses took turns to take vacations, and the proud officers and men changed into the best military uniforms, wore polished military medals and commemorative medals, carried gifts, and proudly returned to their hometowns to visit their relatives, thus triggering a martial arts upsurge that affected the entire territory of Sichuan.

For thousands of years, for the first time, those who served in the army won the respect and love of the people from the bottom of their hearts, and countless young people, stimulated by their military exploits and heroic deeds, regarded joining the army as their own goal, and the garrisons everywhere were full of young people who asked how to join the glorious Sichuan army.

At the same time, all the cumbersome post-war work and propaganda tasks of the Sichuan army were carried out in an orderly manner, and the officers of various departments of the General Headquarters who had withstood the test grew rapidly, and the entire army was like a huge machine, running smoothly with unprecedented efficiency.

In stark contrast, the commander-in-chief Xiao Yimin had nothing to do, and while he frequently called to pay attention to the health of his second brother Liu Bingxian, Xiao Yuezi lived a relaxed life, and the practice of going to the military academy three times a week to teach was resumed again, and at the same time, he also summarized all the wars that have taken place since the founding of the army, including the "Mangkang Campaign" of the Western Expedition Border Army, and compiled them into a book, and added his own comments, which became a tireless textbook for military academy cadets

The peach blossoms in the backyard of the Xiao family gradually opened, and Xiao Yimin, who was rare and leisurely, held a pair of children and accompanied his beloved wife to the garden, and the two white foals sent by Zhong Ying from Batang became the children's favorite friends, and Xiao Yimin also let the two foals wander among the peach blossoms.

The sun was setting, sitting lazily on the bench among the flowers and trees, bathing in the spring breeze, listening to his wife's whispering, watching the children and horses screaming among the trees and on the grass, Xiao Yimin felt extremely satisfied in his heart, and all his troubles and sorrows disappeared at this moment.

"Hey, let me tell you something, Xiaoyue, this girl doesn't want to go to high school anymore, she must go to the Ordnance Research Institute to learn radio, Mr. Max is annoyed by her, so he can only agree to let her enter the research institute two afternoons a week to study. I don't think it's a way to go on like this, you have to take care of her, if she really doesn't want to study normal, it's okay to go to the medical school of the German church for further study, Bingxian's second brother's sister is very good, and she is deeply loved by several foreign professors and grandmothers in the medical school, and now she has begun to follow the professor's internship. Yi Zhenying said in a low voice.

"Why do you ask me about this?"

Xiao Yimin said disapprerovingly: "The second child doesn't care about Xiaoyue? After all, he is Xiaoyue's eldest brother, is it appropriate for me to say? ”

Yi Zhenying glanced at her husband: "Ma Gang is so busy that his feet don't touch the ground now, it's good to be able to go home for two days a month, who cares about you, big brother?" Besides, Xiaoyue, this girl is very careful, and she can also calm down, you still don't know this girl's mind after all these years? ”

Xiao Yimin had a headache: "Your sister-in-law also has to help, see if there are any satisfactory candidates among those who come to ask for marriage, if there is, let Xiaoyue meet with others, if they like each other, talk about it, women always have to marry." ”

Yi Zhenying bent down and leaned over her head, staring at her husband's eyes half gratified and half suspicious:

"Our Xiaoyue has to be good-looking, talented, and talented, she and your second brother's sister-in-law are praised as one of the four beauties in Chengdu, are you really willing to marry them?"

Xiao Yimin hugged his wife:

"Don't think nonsense, I'm very satisfied with you, I can't care about other people's three wives and four concubines, I want you one. I don't have that much energy to do anything else, I just want to work with you to raise our children, and when we are old, the children can grow up, and it will not be in vain to come to this world. ”

Yi Zhenying was moved when she heard this, and she fell into her husband's arms for a long time and was reluctant to separate, and her heart was full of happiness.

Wu San, the head of the guard, stood at the entrance of the garden, thought about it and finally coughed loudly, and then slowly walked towards Xiao Yimin, who had been separated from his wife, and picked up Xiao Nanzheng who threw himself into his arms halfway, and came to Xiao Yimin happily.

"Something?" Xiao Yimin asked with a smile.

Wu San nodded: "Brother Zicheng called from Yucheng and said that someone wanted to see Big Brother. ”

Xiao Yimin was slightly surprised: "After he returned to Yucheng, he didn't even want to answer my phone, how could he suddenly call and introduce others?" ”

"I don't know, it was Director Zheng who told me through an internal phone call...... By the way, that person's surname is Jiang, and his name seems to be ...... Right! It was Chiang Kai-shek. Wu San added.

Xiao Yimin stood up in shock, instructed his wife to take the child home, took Wu San with him, and walked quickly to the North Campus Headquarters in the west.

(To be continued)