Fan Zhongxiu's death immediately led to chaos on the Xuchang front. After receiving the report of Fan Zhongxiu's death and the vacillation of the front line, Feng Yuxiang immediately sent Deng Baoshan to take over as commander-in-chief of the Eighth Front Army and personally inspected Xuchang to calm the army's morale.

At the same time, Feng Yuxiang adjusted his deployment in a timely manner, sent additional troops, and commanded his 4th and 5th Route Armies, as well as Gao Shuxun and Ge Yunlong's two divisions to urgently reinforce the Xuchang front line, and the 8th Front Army, to counterattack the 3rd Army Corps from the front and both flanks. Yan Xishan also sent cavalry commander Zhao Chengshou to lead his troops to attack Zhoukou, and Liu Guitang's troops also engaged in a fierce battle with Yue Weijun's troops between Xihua and Zhoukou to contain He Chengjun's troops.

In the two anti-Chiang operations last year, the Northwest Army suffered a series of defeats, and these generals held their breath. Especially in the second anti-Chiang operation, it was these little miscellaneous players who followed Tang Shengzhi to fight for the tiger, and took advantage of the opportunity of Song Zheyuan and Sun Liangcheng to dismantle each other, and chased and attacked their Northwest Army. This time, the generals of the Northwest Army were all holding back their strength, and they were determined to teach them a hard lesson in order to avenge their original revenge.

Therefore, as soon as it entered the battlefield, the Northwest Army was ready to teach each other a lesson under the command of Ji Hongchang and Sun Lianzhong.

He Chengjun was not unaware of the Northwest Army's coming to reinforce and take over the positions on both flanks of Fan Zhongxiu's Eighth Front Army, but it was only because he not only replenished the troops and weapons of the participating units in a timely manner in accordance with his promise, but also specially asked Chairman Chiang for rewards for the troops participating in the battle.

Except for Wang Jinyu, commander of the Ninth Army, everyone else believes that the current Northwest Army has experienced two blows last year, and its combat effectiveness is now much worse than before, not to mention that they have already learned the "toughness" of the Northwest Army last year. Therefore, they still strongly recommended that He Chengjun launch an attack on the positions of the anti-Chiang coalition forces. Seeing that the military heart was available, He Chengjun also wanted to show his hand in front of Chiang Kai-shek, so he agreed.

Thanks to the reinforcements of the Northwest Army, the Eighth Front Army defending the Xuchang Zhengmian position had relieved its breath, and although the attack of the Third Army was still fierce, it could barely withstand it. The right-flank position commanded by Sun Lianzhong was fine, and his troops used the preset position to resolutely block the attack. But on the left-wing battlefield it was very different.

Ji Hongchang's troops on the left flank battlefield, when Wang Jinyu's Ninth Army launched an attack, ignored the bombing and strafing of the Central Army Air Force on their heads, and suddenly launched a counterattack to attack against attack, and the troops of the two sides immediately collided fiercely together and launched a tragic white-knuckle fight.

Although these miscellaneous generals of the Central Army are not afraid of major casualties in the troops because of He Chengjun, it does not mean that their subordinates are not afraid of death, and the soldiers below and even the platoon officers are not willing to throw away their surnames casually. In a battle with the wind, they could still move forward bravely, but when they encountered the Northwest Army, which was even more ruthless and desperate than them, and pounced on them with snowy broadswords, their arrogance was immediately suppressed.

Wang Jinyu saw that the Northwest Army was swooping forward wave after wave, his troops were gradually exhausted, and his old troops fell under the broadsword of the Northwest Army one after another, knowing that it would be difficult to hold the position if he held on, let alone think about repelling the opposite Northwest Army. The idea of preserving strength resurfaced, and he ordered his troops to retreat, ignoring the friendly forces that were still fighting against Chiang's coalition forces.

As soon as the Ninth Army suddenly withdrew, the flank of Xu Yuanquan's Tenth Army on his right flank was immediately exposed, and Xu Yuanquan's troops immediately faced a two-sided blow from several times the size of their own.

As soon as the Tenth Army withdrew, the offensive of the Central Army not only immediately stopped, but the entire front collapsed immediately, and Sun Lianzhong's troops on the left flank and the Eighth Front Army, which had been pressed and fought by the Central Army for more than ten days, also immediately joined the pursuit.

He Chengjun, who was supervising the battle in Luohe, received a report, and while urgently investing the Second Army of the reserve to strengthen the Luohe defense line, he sent an urgent telegram to He Yingqin in Hankou to transfer the 53rd Division stationed in Hankou to transport the Luohe River along the Pinghan line.

The anti-Chiang coalition army pursued and fought fiercely all the way, not only taking advantage of the situation to recover Linying, but also chasing it until the line of Yuncheng and Luohe before stopping.

At this time, the Yan and Feng armies on the battlefield of Longhai Road were fiercely attacked by the Jiang army, and Feng had worries, so he stopped the offensive on Pinghan Road, and the two sides turned into a confrontation.

He Yingqin was very angry that Wang Jinyu withdrew from the battlefield without authorization, resulting in the destruction of the excellent situation on the Pinghan Line, and ignored Chiang Kai-shek's order to give He Chengjun full command of the battlefield, and sent separate telegrams to Chiang Kai-shek and He Chengjun, insisting on holding Wang Jinyu responsible.

Although He Chengjun was also very angry with Wang Jinyu, he knew that if he didn't speak for Wang Jinyu at this time, it would probably chill these miscellaneous generals, so he just didn't do the telegram pressed by He Yingqin, which made Wang Jinyu and the generals very grateful.

However, soon Chiang Kai-shek also sent a telegram, although Chiang Kai-shek did not explicitly ask He Chengjun to hold Wang Jinyu accountable, but in the telegram he reminded He Chengjun, "The battlefield on the Pinghan Line is related to the overall situation, and He Chengjun must supervise all units to fight cautiously." He Chengjun understood that this was Chiang Kai-shek's implicit expression of dissatisfaction with Wang Jinyu.

He Yingqin's telegram He Chengjun could ignore it, but Chiang Kai-shek's telegram he couldn't be indifferent, and took two telegrams and went directly to the Ninth Army to find Wang Jinyu.

After reading Chiang Kai-shek's telegram, Wang Jinyu understood He Chengjun's difficulties, and he was not verbose, and immediately offered to resign. He Chengjun sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek to report the incident, but Chiang Kai-shek did not keep him, and soon appointed Shangguan Yunxiang, commander of the 47th Division under the Ninth Army, as the acting commander.

Although the Third Army Corps commanded by He Chengjun did not achieve brilliant results on the Western Front, it also temporarily achieved the goal of attracting the main force of the anti-Chiang coalition army. Through this big battle, He Chengjun, who originally wanted to do a big job, realized that it was impossible to defeat the opposite Northwest Army by relying on these miscellaneous armies, and it would be very good to stabilize the battle line. However, because of the tense fighting of the Central Army on the Longhai and Jinpu fronts, not only did the troops of the Central Army's descendants have to be transferred to the east, but Chiang Kai-shek also wants to transfer some other troops from the western front, which makes the battle situation on the Pinghan Front dangerous again.

When all the generals were worried, He Chengjun took out another killer weapon that he had prepared a long time ago.

He brought a long line of "floats" from Hankou and stopped them on his own side of the battle line, and in the floats there were not only fine wine and delicacies, but also 3,000 beauties, almost all of Hankow's kind of female snares. Not only can the officers of their own side go in and enjoy, but they also welcome the officers above the platoon level of the other side to come and enjoy themselves, eat, drink, and gamble, and they can also take a stack of Yuan Datou to walk. Moreover, according to the rank of the coalition officer, the platoon commander can take 10 pieces, 50 for the company commander, 100 for the battalion commander, 500 for the regiment commander, 2000 for the brigade commander, and 10000 for the division commander.

He Chengjun's trick really worked, at the beginning, only a small number of low-level officers of the Eighth Front Army tried to come over, seeing that these people were really full of food and drink, and they came back safe and sound with the ocean, more and more people came over secretly, and later even Sun Lianzhong, Ji Hongchang, Gao Shuxun, Ge Yunlong and other troops had officers sneaking over. Although the people who stole the past to enjoy themselves were all low-level officers, the biggest was the battalion commander, but these low-level officers had a great impact on the combat effectiveness of the troops, so angry that after Ji Hongchang shot a company commander, his troops temporarily stopped this kind of thing, but the other troops still repeatedly stopped.

In this way, on the Western Front of the Central Plains War, the sound of drizzle in the gramophone overshadowed the rumble of guns; The silver light of the ocean concealed the murderous aura that soared into the sky. On the Western Front, the anti-Chiang coalition never launched a decent large-scale offensive again.

On the Hunan battlefield, Li Zongren commanded the 1st Front Army, with a total of 13 divisions of more than 30,000 troops, from the whole county of Guangxi to Wuhan. On May 27, Hengyang was captured; He Jian's troops withdrew north to Changsha. On the same day, Chiang Kai-shek ordered three divisions of the 8th Route Army to move north from Guangdong and Guizhou to cut off Li Zongren's retreat.

He Yingqin, the commander of the Wuhan camp, also adjusted his deployment, with the 13th Division to hold Yueyang, with three regiments into Hunan to support the 4th Route Army, and with the 6th Route Army and other three echelon regiments to be placed in the suburbs of Wuhan and Pingxiang to prevent Li Zongren from advancing north. On June 4~8, Li Zongren captured Changsha and Yueyang, and after entering Zhaoli Bridge in Puqi County, Hubei, because the Northwest Army of Pinghan Road stopped attacking Wuhan, and more importantly, because Cai Tingkai's 8th Route Army went north from Fujian to occupy Hengyang, the retreat route was cut off, and the enemy was attacked on his back, so he retreated to Changsha.

The 4th Route Army of the Central Army and part of the navy took the opportunity to attack Changsha. 15 Li Zongren had no choice but to retreat to Liling, Youxian, and Liuyang. In order to recapture Hengyang, he fought a fierce battle with the 8th Route Army, and returned to Quanzhou due to heavy casualties.

The battlefield of Longhai Road is even more fierce at night, and the sound of killing continues. Liu Zhi's command post launched an attack on Sun Chu, Yang Xiaoou, Sun Liangcheng and other troops who were entrenched in Kaocheng, Lanfeng, Qixian and the areas south of them.

Gu Zhutong commanded the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th divisions and the teaching brigade as the right wing army; Jiang Dingwen commanded the 6th, 9th, 11th, 21st, and 52nd divisions and taught the 1st Division as the middle route army; With Liu Maoen commanding the divisions of the 15th Army and Zhang Qiaoling's 1st Cavalry Brigade as the left flank army, it occupied positions on the lines of Xilingji, Matouji, and Heyangji. and engaged in fierce battles with the anti-Chiang coalition forces.

After Fan Zhongxiu's death in the bombing of the Pinghan Line, Feng Yuxiang transferred troops from Longhai Road to the west, and this information was obtained by Chiang Kai-shek, so Chiang Kai-shek decided to change his deployment and crush the rebel army in front of him in one fell swoop.

Because a frontal attack was not easy to achieve, Chiang Kai-shek followed the advice of his German advisers and decided to launch a major detour attack from the right flank of the anti-Chiang coalition forces. Therefore, Zhang Zhizhong was ordered to command and teach the 2nd Division, the 5th Division, and the New 21st Division, and after assembling at Changgang and Longquji on June 1, they would advance to Wagang, Yuzhen, Shawo, Chaocun, Qinfengzhai, and the line of Chazhai, occupy all key points on the line, and build fortifications. Cooperate with the divisions on the front to flank the anti-Chiang coalition forces in Lanfeng and Qixian. and 4 regiments as reserves, controlled in the area of Chenliu and Zhenggang; In addition, the first engineer went to the vicinity of Fan Longji to destroy the railway and cut off the enemy's traffic.

Ordered Liu Maoen to lead 3 divisions of the 15th Army and the 1st Cavalry Brigade to assemble Muzhougang, Meigang, and Liuzhuang south of Longquji to attack the enemy in Jutaigang, Ouyanggang, and Changzhiji, and camp in the areas of Cinnabar, Steep Wall, and Xiaochengji. If there is an enemy, it is to be monitored by one department; The main force is approaching Kaifeng and the camera is occupied. The cavalry brigade set out first, covering the flank of its own army in the area west of Tongxu on the right and searching for the advance.

During the advance of the roundabout troops, the armies in Qixian and Lanfeng should carry out feints from time to time to contain the enemy in front of them and make it easy for the roundabout troops to be effective......

(To be continued)