When the news of Tongguan being captured by the Dragon and Tiger Army reached Xi'an, it was already one o'clock in the morning, and Songfan, who had just been lying down, had no time to sleep, so he immediately found his confidant Li Xianzong and urgently discussed countermeasures.

After some discussion, Songfan decided to immediately transfer the 50,000 Shaanxi troops to Yaozhou for reinforcements back to Xi'an, because now there are only 10,000 troops in Xi'an, and if the Dragon and Tiger Army attack, they will not be able to resist it at all.

In troubled times, without an army, there is no place to stand!

Although 50,000 troops was a little less for the powerful Dragon and Tiger Army, at least it alleviated the fear in Song Fan's heart a lot.

After the order to transfer troops was issued, Songfan said to Li Xianzong: "The general trend has gone, where do you say I will go in the future?" ”

Li Xianzong said: "Then it depends on what kind of life the adults want to live." ”

Song Fan was silent for a while, and then said in a deep voice: "What do you say? ”

Li Xianzong said: "If you want to live like a governor as before, then I suggest that you transfer the 50,000 army back to Xi'an, and leave immediately, first go west to meet with the 60,000 Gan army from Gansu, integrate 100,000 troops, and then go south through the Dasan Pass, Jianmen Pass, and unite with Kuijun, the governor of Sichuan, and Wei Guangtao, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. ”

Songfan groaned: "Why don't you go west to Gansu directly? ”

Li Xianzong said: "Gansu and Shaanxi are adjacent to each other, there is no danger to defend between them, now that the Dragon and Tiger Army has fought to such a point, how can Wang Jundao give up Gansu?" In other words, even if the adults occupy Gansu, even if Wang Jundao can no longer attack Gansu because of his strength, but at that time, the adults will inevitably look around with strong enemies. Moreover, with the geography of Gansu, agriculture, commerce, and industry are backward, and the population is sparse, even Shaanxi cannot be compared, how can it make a comeback?

But Sichuan is different, there is Jianmen Pass and the difficult Shu Road in the north, there is a rich country of abundance in the south, agriculture is developed, densely populated, if you can unite with the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou in the south and the governor of Huguang in the east, the opportunity is far greater than that of Gansu. ”

Song Fan sighed when he heard this: "But in that case, it is bound to be sent to the fence." ”

Li Xianzong smiled bitterly: "Temporarily sending people under the fence, just for the comeback of the East Mountain, of course, adults have another way to live." ”

Song Fan asked, "What way to live?" ”

Li Xianzong said: "Surrender, hand over all rights, and be a rich man who keeps to himself, like Yuxian, the governor of Shanxi." ”

Song Fan thought for a long time, sighed for a long time, and said, "A manly man, how can he live in the world? Instead of groveling like a dog and living mediocre, it is better to fight vigorously and die a dignified death. ”

Li Xianzong stopped talking, Songfan said everything about this, if he didn't understand what it meant, then he wouldn't be Songfan's chief staff.

At noon the next day, 50,000 Shaanxi troops from the north were transferred back to Xi'an, and by this time, Wang Jundao's army had occupied the county town of Weinan in the east of Xi'an.

In the afternoon of the same day, Songfan did not have any attachment, led 50,000 Shaanxi troops, and left Xi'an in a hurry, along the Wei River, to the west.

Along the way, rumors spread, all said that this time to leave their hometown, it will be impossible to go home in the future, many soldiers have quietly fallen behind and fled home, and when the Songfan army arrived in Baoji County, there were only more than 30,000 people left in the army.

In fact, Songfan was transferred from the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou to the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu after leading the troops into the king of Beijing and Gansu last year, and these Shaanxi soldiers under his command were also newly recruited this year, although they were trained and had strong combat effectiveness, but most of them did not return to their hearts, and they were not effectively loyal to his thoughts. So one by one they fled in droves.

It didn't matter if these soldiers fled, they also took their respective weapons, Songfan had to accept Li Xianzong's opinion, took thunderous measures, and killed dozens of fleeing soldiers in a row, and finally barely stopped the tide of deserters, but it couldn't stop the trend of morale getting lower and lower.

Two days after Songfan left Xi'an, the Xi'an political envoy personally led the officials of Xi'an out of the city to ask Wang Jundao for guilt and surrender, and Wang Jundao naturally would not get along with these civil officials.

After entering the city, a purge was carried out, a small number of officials with bad surnames were brought to justice, some officials were warned, relatively honest and capable officials were appointed to temporary important posts, and military control was imposed on Xi'an.

Soon, because of the departure of Songfan and the arrival of the Dragon and Tiger Army, the fear and tension in Xi'an disappeared without a trace.

On November 1, the main force of the North Route Army led by Xu Jian and Tang Jian arrived in Xi'an and joined forces with the main force of the South Route Army.

On November 2, Wang Jundao held a high-level military meeting at the headquarters.

At the meeting, everyone first summed up the battles that had taken place since the beginning of the day, pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of the battles, and gave each other suggestions.

Immediately after making arrangements for the military strategy for a period of time in the future, Lin Zhengnan said: "This morning, the reconnaissance team of the special forces in the front came with information that the Shaanxi army and the Gan army have converged in Baoji, and the specific movement is not clear, but as far as the deserters of the Shaanxi army we have caught in the past few days, Songfan seems to be leading the Shaanxi-Gansu coalition army south into Shu. ”

When the words fell, Pang Wei said suspiciously: "Could it be a trick used by the enemy?" Used to confuse us? ”

Lin Zhengnan shook his head and said: "No, through understanding, we got the news, these words, the deserters of the Shaanxi army are at least more than 10,000 people, the reason why there are so many deserters, there is only one possibility, that is, Songfan really wants to leave Shaanxi, but because he ruled Shaanxi for a short time, did not do much, this time he was defeated by us, and did not obtain the allegiance of the Shaanxi soldiers, so most of the Shaanxi army was not willing to follow him at all, so they would flee the army." ”

Pang Wai nodded, thinking deeply, at this time, Xu Jian frowned and said: "With so many soldiers fleeing and taking away their weapons, there will inevitably be a large number of guerrillas, and even more, it is likely to gather a crowd to become bandits, occupy the mountains as kings, and harm the people, I suggest that they be quickly extinguished before they have a firm foothold." ”

Pang Wei also nodded and said: "That's right, stragglers and bandits must be resolutely cracked down, and they can be used to quickly subdue the hearts of the people of Shaanxi." ”

Nie Yuanzheng said: "Through these battles, I found that although the Shaanxi army is backward in weapons and equipment, it is all the real elite, I suggest that a notice be posted first, ordering these deserters to go to the designated place to seize the weapons in their hands, and register their surrender, and give leniency, if not, it is not too late to exterminate them." ”

Xu Zhengrong also said: "This method is very good, but there should be a deadline. ”

Nie Yuanzheng nodded, he was about to say a question just now, so he continued Xu Zhengrong's words and said, "I suggest that it is limited to half a month." ”

Xu Zhengrong also had such a plan, so he said, "I agree." ”

The other army commanders, deputy army commanders, and chief of staff also agreed, but Wang Jundao said: "Fifteen days is too long, we have just occupied Shaanxi now, and what we want is stability." Therefore, starting tomorrow, the Dragon and Tiger Army will be dispatched to all county towns and important towns and towns in the Guanzhong Plain, especially along the Wei River, with one battalion stationed in each county town and one company stationed in important townships and towns, and the propagandists will accompany them. ”

When everyone heard this, they did not have any objections, and they resolutely should be.

Wang Jundao continued: "At eight o'clock tomorrow morning, the main forces of all the legions will be dispatched to pursue the Shaanxi army, and after entering Baoji, if the Shaanxi-Gansu coalition army has already gone south to Hanzhong, the second army and the sixth army will be responsible for the pursuit, and they must be driven to Sichuan and recover Hanzhong by the way." The main forces of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Army Corps entered the territory of Gansu to the west, approached Lanzhou, and occupied Gansu, mainly to force surrender, supplemented by fighting. ”

Everyone stood up and answered in unison: "Yes, Commander." (To be continued.) )