The two battles of Qianjiang and Lechang completely disturbed the situation in the whole country, and Wang Zhanyuan and Wu Peifu, who were facing Chen soldiers between Hanyang and Xiaogan, retreated ten kilometers almost simultaneously and sent people to contact the armistice one after another.

The Guizhou Revolutionary Army, which had been stationed in the Dayu area of southern Jiangxi for two years, was shocked and furious when it saw Huang Fusheng leading more than 1,000 remnants of troops to flee back and cry.

The Sichuan army, which was wrong, annihilated the first mixed brigade of the Hubei army with lightning speed, and achieved the record of destroying more than 700 enemies and capturing more than 4,000 people, and then handed over all the prisoners and captured guns and ammunition to Shi Xingchuan, and under the leadership of Chief of Staff Bao Jiqing, they quickly left Qianjiang and went to Shashi to the front line of public security.

The whole territory of Hubei, which has been regarded by the whole country as a "powder keg about to explode", has miraculously quieted down.

Xiao Yimin, who was sitting in Yichang, did not relax at this time, on the contrary, he knew very well that the current situation in Hubei was only a prelude to the arrival of a large-scale war, but the most beneficial thing for the Sichuan army was that the entire Jingxiang and Western Hubei regions were completely in their own hands, if it were not for the unsure of the reaction of the Beiyang system, Xiao Yimin would have already taken advantage of the victory to pursue Wuhan.

Due to the destruction of the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Hubei Army and the centrifugal departure of the Shixingchuan Division, the Hubei army stationed in various parts of Hubei was rapidly divided, and the strength of Wang Zhanyuan, the originally strong and incomparably prominent Hubei overseer, was greatly damaged, leaving only an infantry division and four local garrison troops stationed in the three towns of Wuhan and the two counties of eastern Hubei, and it was also necessary to guard against the coveting of rich Wuhan by Wu Peifu's troops in the north.

The west of Wuhan is now all under the control of the Sichuan army. The elite troops of the three divisions and seven brigades of the Sichuan Army may launch an attack on Wuhan at any time, and the anxious Wang Zhanyuan cannot send troops to retaliate, with his current capital, he cannot shake the opponent in any direction, and now he needs to consider how to stand in a position to protect himself.

The Jiangxi battlefield finally began to fight fiercely, Li Liejun, who was appointed by Sun Yat-sen as the deputy minister of military affairs and the commander-in-chief of the Jiangxi army, regained his vigor and led the two brigade revolutionary armies composed of the Yunnan army and the Gannan Revolutionary Army.

However, at this critical moment, the internal conflict in the Lechang area occurred without warning, and the two brigades of the Guizhou Army Protector Army, which were supposed to attack Ganzhou as planned, were no longer willing to assist Li Liejun's troops, so they turned around and went south, waving their troops to Lechang, and the former enemy headquarters of the revolutionary army, which was so frightened that the former enemy headquarters of the revolutionary army frequently sent revolutionary veterans to pacify, review the mistakes, and understand the righteousness, and the revolutionary army's northern expedition offensive was shattered as a result.

Where would Li Chun, a famous Beiyang general who has experienced a hundred battles, let go of this good opportunity, when Li Liejun did not have time to switch from attack to defense, he launched a fierce counterattack with the strength of four regiments, and in only half a day, he broke the defense line hastily built by Li Liejun's troops, and pursued until Xinfeng City did not stop.

Li Liejun led his troops to flee back to Longnan before he dared to stop breathing, and a rough calculation showed that more than half of the troops of the two brigades were killed or wounded, and the two regiments that Li Liejun brought from Yunnan two years ago were almost all wiped out.

After this battle, the Northern Expeditionary Army under the command of Sun Yat-sen showed its declining momentum to the fullest, and had to urgently adjust its strategy, switch from offensive to defensive, and make every effort to deal with the division and internal strife within the revolutionary army.

Xiao Yimin straightened his waist, threw the red and blue pencils in his hand on the map on the desktop, and turned to Wang Lingji and Bao Jiqing, who were still looking at the map and discussing in a low voice:

"It's a pity, the whole of Hubei is empty, if it weren't for the scruples and the five divisions of the Beiyang Army in the north to tear their faces, I really want to order an attack on Wuhan immediately."

Bao Jiqing pointed to the line of Xiangyin and Pingjiang on the map:

"The two divisions of Tan Zu'an in Hunan are fighting with Zhang Jingyao's three brigades, one of Cheng Songyun's divisions was forced to retreat to the south of Xiangyin, Chen Eun resigned and ran to Yanjing, and the two regiments of the Beiyang Army left behind are still holding Yiyang and are unwilling to surrender to Tan Zu'an, if it weren't for Chen Quzhen's two brigades to Huarong west of Yueyang and contain Zhang Jingyao, it is difficult to say whether the situation in Hunan will collapse again!

"At this time, if we are hot-headed and swing in Wuhan, we will definitely fall into the danger of encountering enemies on two sides or even being attacked on three sides, only a fool would do this. Of course, if we have this vital force to join, Hunan will be much more comfortable. ”

Wang Lingji was happy when he heard it:

"That's true, Tan Zu'an and they frequently called, asking us to attack Wuhan, or simply go south, capture the important town of Yanglousi in northern Hunan Province, cut off the retreat of Zhang Jingyao's department of the Beiyang Army, and force the Beiyang Army to retreat to Wuhan or the Hunan and Jiangxi borders, this plan should be said to be good, but in this way, our army will inevitably suffer heavy casualties, and it is also beyond the scope of the agreement between us and Hunan, and it will lose the Jingxiang area that was hard to obtain. It's just, as allies, we have to do something, right? Otherwise, they are likely to be misunderstood. ”

Xiao Yimin thought about it for a long time: "Did you pull out the second and sixth divisions in advance?" ”

Wang Lingji and Bao Jiqing were stunned for a moment, realizing that Xiao Yimin was going to help Hunan.

Xiao Yimin pointed to the map apologetically and explained:

"You see, the current situation in Hubei is very delicate, the two divisions led by Cao Kun have already driven to Xinyang, if we don't take the initiative to evacuate Qianjiang, Cao Kun will definitely continue to wave his army south, join forces with Wu Peifu, and then forcibly enter Wuhan, and then start a confrontation with us, after all, the Beiyang Army cannot tolerate our occupation of Hubei, if we lose Hubei, as Wu Peifu yelled all day long, Shaanxi will also be occupied by us.

"Therefore, I am almost sure that as long as we continue to advance into Wuhan, we will completely tear face with the Beiyang line, and the bosses of the Beiyang lineage, Anhui lineage, and Feng line will temporarily give up their differences, and make every effort to protect the northwest, Central Plains, and Hubei and Anhui provinces."

When Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji heard this, they immediately understood what Xiao Yimin meant, and nodded frequently in agreement, they still have this bit of eyesight.

Xiao Yimin continued: "In this case, we have to not attack Wuhan first, at least we can greatly delay the time of direct conflict with the Beiyang Army, I always have a feeling, as long as we don't seek Wuhan, temporarily satisfied with the current results, the Beiyang departments will not take the initiative to tear their faces with us, at least Duan Zhiquan, who occupies the center, will not do this, at this time, the internal fighting of the Beiyang departments such as Zhi, Anhui and Shandong has become white-hot, and there is also the Shanxi army that has been standing still - Yan Baichuan This person is not a fuel-efficient lamp, As long as he is given the opportunity, he will definitely seek the interests of his subordinates by focusing on the development of industry and agriculture, which is also a hidden danger that the various factions in Beiyang are deeply concerned about. ”

"Not bad! Shanxi is rich in coal resources, in fact, it is not worse than our Sichuan, in the blink of an eye, Yan Xishan has developed 130,000 guns, and the Beiyang factions are only alert at this time, the sense of smell is really too bad, Suiyuan, Rehe, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei and other provinces are all under Yan Xishan's nose! Bao Jiqing said with a smile.

Wang Lingji sighed with emotion: "If it weren't for the commander and the chief of staff reminding me, I would have almost ignored Yan Xishan's important impact on the situation in the north, and this guy would have really been able to bear it." ”

Xiao Yimin smiled, and then turned the question to Hunan:

"Since we have decided not to fight Wuhan, then the two brothers Tan Zu'an and Cheng Songyun in Hunan will have a hard time, Zhang Jingyao will definitely not take the initiative to give up Hunan, and regardless of the strength and equipment, the four mixed brigades under Zhang Jingyao are far stronger than the Hunan army, since we have provided the Hunan army with weapons and equipment worth more than 1.5 million yuan as agreed, we must always pay attention to whether our huge investment will be wasted.

"Therefore, directly sending troops to support the Hunan army that is fighting hard is already a choice that has to be made, since it has to be done, why not do it? This also makes the allies feel more comfortable! ”

Wang Lingji asked: "Do you want to transfer the Second Division and the Sixth Division to Hunan based on military training considerations?" ”

"This is only one aspect, the other aspect is that Wang Jian's Fourth Division is resting and expanding, and Yang Sen's First Division is still suppressing bandits in Xiangyang and northeastern Hubei to completely open up the Henan-Shaanxi Passage and prepare for the next step of the strategy. Liu Xiang's 10th Division needed to be stationed on the Jingmen front line to monitor Wu Peifu's troops on the Xiaogan and Suizhou lines to protect the flanks of Yang Sen's troops.

"Now, these divisions can't move, and if they move, they may make Wu Peifu or Wang Zhanyuan greedy, and the ghost knows if the two of them will abandon their previous suspicions and join forces. Therefore, in order to assist Hunan in realizing reunification as soon as possible, the only way to do this is to transfer the other units at home to the Hunan battlefield. ”

Bao Jiqing nodded: "In this case, just go directly by water, capture northern Hunan in one go, cut off Zhang Jingyao's retreat, and directly drive Zhang Jingyao's troops to Jiangxi." ”

"That's a good way, isn't the Yue army very leisurely? Just drive Zhang Jingyao to Jiangxi and see how those revolutionary troops full of blood and ideals will deal with it! Wang Lingji said with a smile.

Xiao Yimin knew what Wang Lingji meant, and he would not have any opinions because of the possible losses of the revolutionary army, on the contrary, the various units of the revolutionary army gathered in the Guangdong and Jiangxi regions were mixed, and instead of needing the Sichuan army or Tan Yanmin's Hunan army to face it at that time, it was better to simply let Zhang Jingyao and Li Chun eliminate it, which would be beneficial to Xiao Yimin and the Sichuan army.

Wang Lingji suddenly pointed to Daye: "Where is the teaching group that evacuated Daye?" ”

"Yesterday, after Xiushui in western Jiangxi, our intelligence department secretly recruited more than 2,000 miners in Pingxiang, and the weapons, equipment and uniforms have been quietly transported to Pingxiang, and in about four days, the teaching regiment will meet with these two thousand Pingxiang recruits......

When Xiao Yimin said this, he suddenly raised his head: "Fang Zhou, what do you mean ......?"

Wang Lingji nodded:

"Let's just add more fire, let the teaching group capture Pingxiang by surprise, and then nail it to Pingxiang, and make a posture of entering Hunan to participate in the war at any time, even if it doesn't really fight, it can distract Zhang Jingyao. As long as our two divisions appear in northern Hunan Province, Zhang Jingyao will inevitably be shaken by the enemy on both sides, and the feints of Pingxiang in the east and Chen Quzhen's troops in the west will definitely cause huge psychological pressure on Zhang Jingyao's troops, and the next battle will be much easier. ”

"What about the front line in Wuhan? Will it prompt Cao Kun's two divisions to rush south to aid Hunan? Lu Yixuan, who had not spoken, asked, and several combat staff officers around him also showed concerned eyes.

Xiao Yimin, Bao Jiqing, and Wang Lingji looked at each other and smiled, and finally Xiao Yimin explained:

"If Cao Kun's two divisions really go south to participate in the war, it will be tantamount to openly tearing our faces, we can mobilize Wang Jian and Liu Xiang's three divisions to slowly advance to Wuhan and Suizhou, at that time, will Cao Kun dare to continue to go south to Hunan?"

(To be continued)