Night has just fallen, a huge explosion came from the east of Taizhou City, and then the explosions from the southeast of the city to the northwest of the city came and went, the connection continued, the chickens and dogs jumped in the whole Taizhou City, and the chaos became a piece, a war horse carrying the herald shuttled through the major city gates, and more than 13,000 defenders in the city gathered in the rapid whistle, and then rushed to all directions outside the city, emergency reinforcements.

"According to the division, the Cha'an Bridge seven kilometers east of the city and the Tongyang Bridge six kilometers southeast were all blown up, and the officers and soldiers guarding the bridge suffered heavy casualties......

“…… The Sunduozha Bridge and the Taedong River Bridge in the north of the city were bombed, and the battalion of the 4th Regiment of Taedong was attacked by hundreds of mortar shells within five minutes......

"Division, the enemy army in the southwest is lurking in the woods north of Sanjiang Village, and suddenly launched a fierce artillery bombardment of the Doumen Bridge position in the north, several shells happened to fall on the tile roof of the main hall of the Tao family ancestral hall, General Qin, the commander of the second brigade who was eating, was seriously wounded and died, the commander of the third regiment died immediately, the commander of the first regiment lost an arm and could not command the battle, the rest of the regiment deputy and battalion commanders suffered many casualties, the brothers of the second brigade were leaderless, there were large-scale deserters, and the commander of the artillery regiment Qi asked to retreat......"

"The six-kilometer front-line sentries of our forward position were attacked almost simultaneously."

…… Cui Jinggui, the commander of the 12th Division of the Sun Army, who hurriedly threw down his job and returned to the headquarters, turned pale, did not say a word, walked quickly to the map to check for a moment, and ordered loudly:

"Immediately connect General Duan to the Nangong camp!"

"The reporter is seated, the phone can't be connected, it may be ...... It could be that the line was cut off......" replied the communications staff officer, bowing his head and trembling.

Cui Jinggui turned around and stared coldly at the generals in the hall who came quickly: "Immediately return to their respective positions and launch a vigilance in all directions, seeing that the enemy is attacking us instead of attacking us on a large scale, no one can mess up!" If you find the enemy, hit me hard! ”

"Yes!"

"Tang Cheng, immediately lead the guard regiment to rush to the aid of Doumen!"

"Yes!"

The generals in the hall walked away in an instant, Cui Jinggui ordered to quickly repair the telephone line and then returned to the map, and after a while, Duan Chengze, the lieutenant general of the Ninth Division, rushed over, with a trace of blood on the delicate leather whip in his hand, the former commander of the Ningbo garrison, the current deputy commander of the First Army of the Five Provinces Allied Army and the commander of the Ninth Division, a senior general who can write well and has deep painting attainments, has lost that elegance and steadiness at this moment, and his face is full of anxiety.

"Brother Rope Martial (Duan Chengze) ......"

Cui Jinggui strode forward to greet him, and then gave a brief report on what happened to his department, and the sound of gunshots and explosions still came from time to time, which made him unstable and irritable.

Duan Chengze sat down quite tiredly, picked up the tea sent by the orderlies and drank half a cup: "It's even worse on my side, all the departments on the front line have been blinded by the enemy's defensive posture for several days, and the officers and soldiers on the various forward positions have suffered heavy casualties without preparation, when I came to you, I encountered a small group of enemy troops at the Zhangjiabao bridgehead and ambushed from a distance, my chief of staff and adjutant were killed and wounded, the enemy retreated immediately after a successful blow, and after a short period of confusion, my guard captain led a company of brothers to ride horses in pursuit, Before chasing two miles, most of them were killed by a dense rain of light machine gun bullets, alas...... What do you think about the current situation? ”

Cui Jinggui, who had a long face and an eagle nose, suppressed the tension in his heart, and replied a little helplessly: "The enemy must be Jiang Zhongzheng's proud protégé An Yi, there is no doubt that this person is young but full of scheming, the newly created training method is unique and the effectiveness is amazing, and the actions of the department come and go like the wind, the most hateful thing is that this son has no rules and no trace of strange tactics, and the generals under his command are all from the green forest or the people who are not afraid of death in various armies, which is quite difficult to deal with."

It is said that this person is strictly selected to supplement himself every time he is captured, and those who have expertise can be quickly promoted, and once he is identified, he will let go of it and use it without doubt, and this person is the first soldier in battle, and he eats the same pot of rice with the soldiers in the army when he is not entertained, and he never deducts the salary of the army under his command, and the left and right generals are loyal to him more than his siblings, and the people who belong to him are all grateful and weeping, so every time he fights, he is not afraid of death, and everyone competes for the first.

From Fengxin to Nanchang, from Quzhou to Kunshan, every colleague who encountered him was either captured or fled, and none of them got the slightest chance from him. I'm not afraid of the jokes of Brother Rope, the younger brother has been studying his tactics for several years, and he still has no clue, this son is quite terrifying! ”

"The hero saw the same thing, and even when the soldiers of our department heard that the enemy they faced was An Yi and his model battalion, they were extremely panicked and cowardly before fighting, which was really worrying.

I originally thought that a newly formed reading division in An Yi District could at best block the road of our army's westward advance, in order to cut off the contact between our army and Xu Beng's friendly forces, and did not dare to rashly take the initiative to attack, no matter how strong the combat strength of An Yi's department was, it was only a division at best, as long as the commander's reinforcements went south from the Yancheng line, they would definitely be able to recover Yangzhou and force Zhenjiang, but now I received two urgent telegrams from Commander Zheng to know that An Yi's department was not just 8,000 people, and even thousands of trained soldiers who came to Nanchang drove to Zhenjiang to quickly cross the river. An Yi's troops have been rapidly replenished and strengthened in strength, and they will definitely take the initiative to attack before the arrival of our army, break the confrontation between the two armies and gain the strategic initiative, and in addition, the 70,000 troops under He Yingqin's division on the eastern front have successively crossed the river and marched northward, and our army has lost the opportunity, and I am afraid it will be difficult to resist. Duan Chengze said his opinion worriedly.

Suddenly, a dense burst of shelling sounded and the porcelain cups on the Nanmu coffee table clanged, and the tiles on the houses and the window lattices on all sides made a noise.

Duan Chengze and Cui Jinggui were startled, and at the same time stood up and walked quickly to the door, looking in the direction of the Doumen Bridge, where the cannon was rumbling and burning several kilometers to the west, and the rumbling shelling continued, which lasted for a long time.

The communications staff officer in the room put down the phone and strode behind Cui Jinggui to report loudly:

"Division, the enemy artillery suddenly launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the front line of the Doumen Bridge, the brothers of the guard regiment who had just arrived at the Doumen Bridge position suffered heavy losses, and the rest of the forward positions were attacked by the enemy almost at the same time, and the preliminary estimate of the size of the enemy's artillery reached at least two regiments, otherwise there would not be such a huge power and continuous artillery capability."

Cui Jinggui was taken aback: "Two artillery regiments? This is the firepower that a military talent has! Is the enemy about to charge? ”

The chief of staff standing on the side said anxiously: "I'm afraid that from the analysis of the enemy's blowing up of all the bridges to the east and north of us, it must be trying to cut off my retreat and force our troops to fight a decisive battle, or mobilize Yangzhou City Gu Zhu and his division to carry out a flanking attack on us from the northwest and southwest directions, so as to contain our army here, so that the army of He Yingqin's army on the eastern front can quickly break through the southern front and encircle us, otherwise it will not have to risk his life to go deep into the depth of our army to carry out attacks and destruction, and there must be a huge conspiracy hidden in it!" ”

"Chief of Staff Chi is reasonable, An Yi's division must have received a large number of reinforcements before daring to suddenly attack, this must be their tentative attack for tomorrow's general offensive, in order to find out the deployment and reaction of our army's troops, the ultimate goal is to capture our Taizhou position, and encircle the friendly forces on the front line of Taixing and Jingjiang in the south!

Brother Xian, without further ado, you immediately dispatch a reserve force to rush to the front line of Doumen Bridge to Sanjiang Village, if you can let General Qiao Zhensheng of Gaoyou break through the Wangzhuang position of Gu Zhu's same division on his southern line, you will definitely be able to contain Gu Zhu's division stationed in Yangzhou and cooperate with An Yi's department to attack our Taizhou, otherwise if the forward position is occupied by a strong enemy, Taizhou will be in danger!

I will immediately return to the Nangong camp and dispatch two regiments of my department to storm Huadang Town on the right flank of the An Yi Department, so as to disperse its forces, work together with your department, and try our best to keep An Yi troops from the west of Doumen, and strive to support until reinforcements arrive! Duan Chengze hurriedly made a suggestion.

"Report, the headquarters is in an emergency, Nantong is lost, our Nantong defenders are withdrawing to the north, and the enemy's three divisions are showing signs of attacking westward." The communications staff officer's hand holding the message trembled.

Everyone was taken aback, Cui Jinggui hurriedly sent the anxious Duan Chengze to the camp gate, returned to the command headquarters and immediately ordered the communications staff officer to call Gaoyou's sworn brother Qiao Zhensheng for help, and at the same time sent the urgent report to the Yancheng General Headquarters, imploring the army commander Zheng Junyan to send troops to help Taizhou quickly.

An hour later, the fighting came to an abrupt halt, and An Yi's headquarters fell silent after an hour-long intermittent shelling.

After receiving the telephone report, Cui Jinggui was full of doubts and frightened, but he did not dare to order all the units under his command to advance at the risk of death, so he could only order all units to hold their positions and closely monitor the movements of the enemy. How did he know that under the accurate shooting of the snipers of the An Yi Division, none of his front-line units dared to send personnel to reconnoitre, not to mention that it was night at the moment, and he could only kill himself when he fought against a model battalion that was famous throughout the country for fighting field warfare.

At this time, Duan Chengze was personally leading two regiments to set off, and when he arrived at the east and two sides of Huadang Town, he was suddenly bombarded by mortars from the rivers on both sides for five minutes, and the sound of light machine gun fire resounded in the night sky, and the officers and men on both wings were suddenly hit by this, and they moved closer to the middle road as if they were dead, and in the darkness, many officers and soldiers pulled the bunches of shallow buried mines on the road with grenades, and the firelight caused by bursts of explosions pointed to the target for dozens of machine guns, and the rain of bullets and shells flew towards the enemy who was in groups of confusion. The officers and men of Duan Chengze's division suffered heavy casualties and screamed again and again, and before they reached the front of the position of An Yi's division in Huadang Town, the morale of the whole army was taken away, and then an uncontrollable large-scale rout occurred.

In this way, more than 4,000 officers and soldiers of Duan Chengze's department who rushed to death have lost more than 800 people without seeing the shadow of a revolutionary army, and the rest are all scattered and frantically fleeing for their lives, Duan Chengze could not stop the large-scale rout of the officers and soldiers under his command who had lost their fighting spirit, and the original promise to Cui Jinggui was like the wind, so he could only sigh and give a hasty retreat order, and hurriedly evacuated the battlefield under the cover of the guards.

In the semi-underground headquarters of the Yangjiaying front, Hu Jialin listened to the reports of the signal troops of each department, and without hesitation, he ordered all the departments to rest in concealment, and whispered to Ding Zhicheng beside him:

"Lao Ding, it seems that the enemy has been shaken, and if you work harder, you can scare the enemy away, and your first and second companies can set off to implement the second set of plans. Remember, the brothers were instructed not to fall in love with the war, and to return to the division headquarters immediately after completing the mission, and the main attack was carried out by the regiments. ”

"Yes!"

Ding Zhicheng turned and left.

Hu Jialin instructed the adjutant to answer An Yi's phone call, explain the situation of all parties on the front line in detail, and suggested that An Yi let Xia Jian's first regiment and Yin Jinan's reading regiment prepare for the attack on Doumen. An Yi asked Hu Jialin to wait for half an hour, and replied immediately after discussion.

At the headquarters of the Longchuan battalion, An Yi informed Yin Jinan, Yang Bin, Gu Changfeng and others of the content and suggestions of Hu Zi's report, walked to the front of the large map and pointed to the location of Duan Chengze's department and said loudly:

"It is estimated that the news that Nantong was captured by our army has reached the ears of the defending enemy in Taizhou and Jingjiang, and the enemy is now frightened and does not dare to let go, especially not daring to fight a night battle with our army.

Duan Chengze's two regiments attacked the periphery of Huadang Town in the southwest, and after being severely attacked by the second regiment and the brothers of the machine gun company, they were unable to form an army, and they had all fled back to the front line of Nangong, and the guards could not even catch up with the brothers; Cui Jinggui's troops in front of us now don't even dare to approach the Doumen bridgehead position, this is what I didn't expect before the war, it is estimated that our initial attack and destruction made the enemy frightened, I really thought that it was our troops with the assistance of the army to launch a tentative attack, so I suggest that we adopt Hu Zi's opinion, and immediately move the artillery forward four kilometers, that is, to the area of Majiaying, which is already the limit of our movement, just to reach the maximum range of fire.

Hutou's 3rd Regiment and Xia Jian's 1st Regiment immediately rushed to Huadang Town to join Chen Zhibiao's 2nd Battalion, and then rested for four hours, during which the 3rd and 4th Companies of the Guard Battalion would carry out uninterrupted harassment of the enemy for you, and at dawn they would concentrate more than 3,000 superior forces to penetrate directly into the junction of the enemy's two divisions in the south of Taizhou City, and storm Taizhou City from south to north. At the same time, Ji Nan led the model battalion and the division's subordinate units to storm Doumen with the support of artillery fire, I think one regiment is enough, as long as Doumen is captured, Cui Jinggui will definitely throw away all his baggage and flee eastward without his life, we only need to leave one regiment to guard the west of Taizhou City to monitor the direction of Jiangyan, and the other two regiments quickly turned around and went south, and they will definitely be able to cripple Duan Chengze's division! ”

Yin Jinan was taken aback: "It's very risky to do this!" No more reserves? ”

"Stay! Chen Kan led a few teachings to connect with the various departments, isn't it? An Yi smiled confidently.

The generals looked at each other for a moment, and finally they all nodded, Yang Bin stood up and said loudly: "I will go to the artillery camp, and I will definitely be able to help Ji Nan blow up the enemy's position in Doumen, haha!" ”

Gaoyoucheng, Major General Qiao Zhensheng, who is known for his bravery and tenacity, silently read the urgent report sent by the army commander Zheng Junyan and his brother Cui Jinggui, and after thinking about it, he still issued an order to the generals under his command who were urgently concentrated:

"Chunlin, you lead the brothers of the Second Brigade to stay, and I will lead the First Brigade and the division's subordinate units to immediately quietly leave the city, arrive at the location of Wangzhuang in the south of the city, and immediately launch an attack on Gu Zhu's fellow troops. Three days ago, our plane arrived and dropped a few bombs, which scared Gu Zhutong's 3,000 rabble into a fart, and fled without a trace. This time, we will not let this group of little-known revolutionary troops escape, let's also surround Wei and save Zhao! What do you think? ”

"Yes!"

The generals and colonels under his command stood in unison, all of them with high morale.

(To be continued)