At nightfall, two divisions of the Beiyang Army north of Qiaoyi Town suddenly launched a fierce attack on the position of the Hunan Army.

More than 20 artillery pieces used by the two divisions of the Beiyang Army were the first to attack, and launched a 15-minute non-stop artillery bombardment on the three-kilometer defense line that the Hunan army was holding on to for 15 minutes, and the unsuspecting Hunan army was stunned at once.

Immediately afterwards, the artillery of the Beiyang Army quickly adjusted the target, and all the shells smashed on the right flank position of the Hunan army that had just been reinforced, and at the same time, the 3,000 warriors carefully selected by the various departments of the Beiyang Army were divided into two routes, raised their spears, brandished broadswords, and launched a fierce charge towards the left flank and the middle junction of the Hunan army's position.

The Hunan officers and soldiers who had not yet recovered from the shelling, in the face of the earth-shattering shouts and indomitable momentum of the Beiyang Army, had no time to organize defense, and the light and heavy machine guns that were hugged into the anti-artillery tunnels had not yet been carried out, so they could only subconsciously shoot their guns and make every effort to stop them, but they were soon rushed to the position by the unstoppable Beiyang warriors, and the battle instantly entered the bloody hand-to-hand combat stage.

Cheng Qian and the others, who were eating in the rear headquarters, were shocked, and Cheng Qian gave an order, and the chief of staff Lin Xiumei and the two brigade commanders threw down their jobs and rushed to the front line, leading the reserves to rush to the position at full speed to support, which was worthy of repelling the sudden and crazy attack of the Beiyang Army.

The position was filled with gunsmoke, about to cover the last bit of light in the sky, and inside and outside the trenches that had lost their shape, there were stumps and broken arms, and the corpses of the soldiers of the two armies were full of sadness.

Cheng Qian, who came to inspect the position, walked in the mud and blood, followed by more than a dozen generals and guards with heavy expressions, looking at the exhausted and numb officers and soldiers, and his mood was extremely heavy.

No one can figure out how the Beiyang Army could launch such a fierce and resolute attack at this time with an unprecedented intensity of artillery fire since the battle, is it really the same as the analysis of the generals, the Beiyang Army, which is facing the encirclement on three sides and about to reach the end of the road, really has to fight to the end in despair, and both sides will be defeated?

Cheng Qian's hesitation and the erroneous analysis of the generals and colonels of the Hunan Army gave the main forces of the two divisions of the Beiyang Army valuable time and space to retreat.

It wasn't until late at night that the team that sneaked out of the front line to scout quickly came to report, and Cheng Qian and his generals lamented regret and remorse.

After a while, Cheng Qian, who was the first to recover, eliminated all troubles, rejected the proposal of his generals to attack Yuezhou, and decisively issued a fair and selfless order:

"Quickly report the situation to the Tan Inspector Army, leave the enemy trapped in Yuezhou to the 1st Division to solve, the 2nd Division and the 1st Brigade stay to clean up the battlefield and clear the remnants of the enemy, and the rest of the troops will immediately form a team and pursue west with me!"

After the war, Cheng Qian's order for his second division and the new fifth division received a huge return, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan army, Xiao Yimin, felt Cheng Qian's righteousness and open-mindedness, and in order to close the relationship between the two armies, most of the various units of the Sichuan army on the Hunan battlefield were captured and generously given to Cheng Qian.

As a result, the strength of Cheng Qian's department was able to expand rapidly, and he soon overtook Tan Yanmin and ascended to the throne of the commander-in-chief of the Hunan army, and all the officers under his command were promoted, which also constituted the main structure of the Hunan army and reshaped the spirit of the Hunan army.

The scene that appeared on the battlefield on the western route was also repeated on the battlefield on the middle road.

The difference is that the Eighth Division, the main force of the Beiyang Army in the middle of the road, only launched a large-scale feint and hurriedly retreated, and then continued to repeat the habit of the two armies at night since the engagement, firing cold guns and cold artillery at each other, and the fierce artillery fire on the battlefield south of Gaoqiao Town gradually fell silent.

At this moment, the urgent report from the battlefield on the west road and the urgent telegram from Tan Yanhong, the overseer, have already arrived, and Yue Sen, chief of staff who is in charge of the full command of the middle route, and Wang Zhanxu, commander of the third division of the Sichuan army, who led his troops to rush a day ago, are intensively discussing countermeasures.

Yue Sen was not sure about intercepting the main force of the Beiyang Army fleeing from the West Road, after all, it was already dark at this time, and the two divisions led by Cao Kun, Zhang Jingyao and others could appear on the battlefield in the north at any time, plus the eighth division of Wang Ruxian, which was originally basically preserved, and two mixed brigades, the total strength of the Beiyang Army was as high as more than 40,000 people, although Cheng Qian led a division to follow and pursue, but with the current total number of less than 30,000 in the Sichuan-Hunan coalition army, it was difficult to block and surround the Beiyang Army, not to mention that the Feng Yuxiang Brigade of the Beiyang Army suddenly disappeared. It is likely to bring more variables to the next battle.

Wang Zhanxu, who only led a light infantry brigade to help in the battle, was not very sure in his heart, and he could not even judge the enemy's next move and the route of breaking through, let alone ignore the uncertain factor of the disappeared Feng Yuxiang's troops.

The generals and colonels of the two armies pondered for a long time and weighed them repeatedly, but it was still difficult to come up with a result.

Just when everyone was becoming more and more anxious, Wang Zhanxu saw that his brigade commander Chen Lanting wanted to speak and stopped, and immediately asked him to express his opinion.

Chen Lanting, who is a talented person, is known for his boldness, perseverance and courage in the Sichuan Army, and is not only a well-known master of the Sichuan Army's internal boxing, but also the leader of the first batch of graduates of the senior staff major of the Sichuan Military Academy, and has won the respect of Commander-in-Chief Xiao Yimin.

Facing everyone's expectant or suspicious eyes, Chen Lanting didn't care, stretched out his slender finger, and pointed directly at Liuyang: "Feng Huanzhang's 16th Mixed Brigade must have arrived in Liuyang at this moment, and it is not good that it is about to exchange fire with the 3rd Division of your army that will take over the defense of our army's reading division." ”

Everyone immediately exclaimed, and successively figured out the reason - if Feng Yuxiang suddenly appeared in Liuyang, the newly formed Third Division of the Hunan Army might not be able to stop the offensive of this Beiyang elite, and the passage for the Beiyang Army to flee east would not be blocked.

Wang Zhanxu stared at Chen Lanting, who was silent: "Go on!" ”

"Yes!"

Chen Lanting continued: "Now it seems that it is really difficult for us to leave all the main forces of the Beiyang Army that fled eastward with all our might, but if we deal with it properly, even if we can't keep all the more than 40,000 people, it shouldn't be much of a problem to leave 8,000 people behind. ”

"Brother Chen, please speak!" Yue Sen was looking forward to it.

Chen Lanting smiled: "As long as our Sixth Brigade is transferred, and the division base hands over the mortar company to the command of his subordinates, his subordinates will have the confidence to knock him off, plus a division of Commander Cheng Songyun will arrive soon, how dare the Beiyang Army insist?" Only for the sake of escape! ”

Wang Zhanxu looked left and right, and immediately made up his mind: "Okay!" I'll give it to you, it's good to rush his mother for a while, it's not good that the fleeing enemy can be disrupted, how can you say that the Beiyang Army, which has fallen into a heavy siege and has become a frightened bird, has little morale, do you agree with this judgment of the little brother? ”

Yue Sen and the others wished that the well-equipped Sichuan army would rush to the front line, and after listening to Wang Zhanxu's words, they all agreed, and they all smiled politely.

Wang Zhanxu gave the order without saying a word, Chen Lanting saluted and turned to leave, leading the whole brigade of 5,000 brothers to take over the defense.

Wang Zhanxu then discussed with Yue Sen and others the coordination of various departments, as well as the echoing and protection of each other, and soon reached a consensus on the two armies fighting side by side.

The instantaneous changes on the battlefield made Chen Lanting's bold strategy almost come to naught - without waiting for the Sixth Brigade of the Sichuan Army to arrive at the battlefield, the Beiyang Army took the lead in launching a fierce attack, and the well-trained and powerful Beiyang Eighth Division almost moved in a nest, and with the assistance of limited artillery fire, launched a full-line charge, and the fierce engagement began again.

Chen Lanting listened to the earth-shattering cannon and shouting of killing, and immediately urged his brothers to speed up, and the soldiers of the 5,000 Sichuan Army, who had been waiting impatiently, rushed to the frontline position at full speed, who knew that the moment they rushed to the position, the brave Beiyang Army forward soldiers had already started a cruel white-knuckle battle with the Hunan army brothers, and the black pressure in the rear was overwhelming a Beiyang soldier shouting to kill Zhentian, and they surged up one after another.

For a while, I saw the big knife waving, and the cold light was shining.

The Beiyang warriors, who were generally tall and more skilled in swordsmanship and assassination skills, instantly gained the upper hand, screams and wails came and went, and the soldiers of the Hunan army, who had lost their courage after a night of hard work, soon showed their defeat.

Chen Lanting, who took the lead, drew his pistol and fired three shots in succession, and the five thousand brothers immediately let out a roar of rage, and rushed to the position without hesitation and threw themselves into the white-knuckle battle.

After a while, the high-power pistols issued by the Sichuan army to the squad leader level showed a powerful killing effect, and one by one the Beiyang warriors who held high the broadsword fell unwillingly in the sound of gunshots.

The light machine gunners of the Sichuan Army, who seized the fighters, under the protection of two secondary shooters equipped with pistols, fired their machine guns at the flat ends, firing frantically, and in less than 10 minutes, the surging Beiyang officers and soldiers were knocked out of their positions.

"Stop blowing the trumpet, stop blowing the trumpet...... The trumpeter of the dog's voice, blow the trumpet! ”

When the horn sounded, the brothers of the Sichuan army, covered in mud and blood, stood neatly on the position, no one had time to pay attention to the wailing wounded and trampled corpses around them, one by one they loaded their bullets and inserted three-edged bayonets in the command of the regiment and battalion commander, and a sonorous metal sound instantly drowned out all sounds.

Chen Lanting glanced at the defeated soldiers of the Beiyang Army who were receding like a tide, picked up a big knife on the ground with his toes, raised it high, and roared loudly: "Machine guns are in front, keep the medium speed, brothers, rush!" ”

"Kill—"

The earth-shattering sound of killing sounded again, and the 5,000 Sichuan troops lined up in a zigzag fan formation and began to charge, dozens of machine guns chased the fleeing Beiyang Army and opened fire, and the Hunan officers and soldiers on the position were stunned and frightened.

I didn't expect the first appearance of the Sichuan army to be in such a way, and no one expected that the commander of the Sichuan army would launch a counter-charge so frantically.

Seeing that there were fewer and fewer Beiyang officers and soldiers who had fled back to their positions, and seeing that the frenzied Sichuan army was stepping on corpses and shooting the enemy in front of them unhurriedly, the positions of the two armies did not make a sound.

Just when the thousands of Sichuan troops who were calmly killing drove to the middle of the battlefield of the two armies, the sound of the military horn sounded again, and the 5,000 Sichuan troops stopped advancing under the stunned gaze of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the two armies, turned around neatly, and then fled to their own positions without any image and as if flying.

The 5,000 Sichuan troops did not flee to their starting positions, and the dense artillery fire behind the Beiyang Army's position roared, chasing the footsteps of the Sichuan army's escape until the position, but the cunning Sichuan army had safely drilled into the trenches except for dozens of people killed and wounded.

The smoke of gunpowder cleared, and the ground more than 400 meters wide between the positions of the two armies was full of the corpses of the officers and men of the Beiyang Army and the wounded soldiers who were still rolling and wailing.

After a rough count, the Sichuan army's sortie actually achieved an excellent record of killing more than 1,000 enemies, and the name of Chen Lanting, the general of the Sichuan army, was remembered by countless officers and men of the Beiyang Army and the Hunan Army through this treacherous and sudden counter-charge and rapid contraction.

(To be continued)