In the evening, Commander-in-Chief Chiang's telegram suddenly arrived, and An Yi immediately convened a military meeting after reading it, conveyed the content of the order, and nervously agreed on the blocking plan according to the information sent back by the reconnaissance detachment one after another.

Although the battlefield was only more than ten kilometers north of Wangji, the brothers were all aware of the dangers of this battle:

Twenty-five kilometers north of the battlefield is the railway line where Chu Yupu's army marched westward, forty kilometers to the west is the main battlefield of Xuzhou, where fierce fighting is raging, and forty-five kilometers to the southeast is Suqian, which Sun Chuanfang's army has just occupied.

Determining the way of retreat without a fight is one of the principles that An Yi has always adhered to, although he has never talked about it publicly, but several deputies understand An Yi's meaning, and they also know that this principle is in line with the art of war, just to ensure the morale of the army, everyone tacitly agrees.

It is quite strange that An Yi's order to block the north actually came from Commander-in-Chief Chiang, rather than the headquarters of the Second Route Army directly under him, but with the arrival of Bai Chongxi's supplementary order of "agreeing with the decision of the headquarters and suggesting going north immediately", An Yi quickly dispelled the suspicions in his heart, thinking that the urgent report he sent to Bai Chongxi in the afternoon was transferred to the commander-in-chief Jiang who commanded the operation on the Xuzhou West Road.

The meeting was coming to an end, and Yin Jinan, who usually had few objections, put forward a suggestion:

"Personally, I believe that we are facing more than 16,000 enemy troops in this battle, and even if we use the night battle to defeat the enemy's vanguard in one fell swoop, in order to ensure that this enemy army is intercepted and prevent it from continuing to rush to the Xuzhou battlefield, we must continue to fight with the enemy after dawn.

In view of the current battle situation and the dangerous position of the enemy on three sides in which our division is currently located, just in case, the artillery battalion and the logistics quartermaster department, which cannot move at high speed, should be withdrawn to the rear, and it will not be too late to come up and join up again when the battle is smooth and Xuzhou is restored. ”

Yang Bin, who was old and steady, nodded again and again, and without waiting for the brothers to express his position, he immediately agreed with Yin Jinan's opinion:

"Deputy Division Commander Yin's suggestion is very sound, the twelve artillery guns of our artillery battalion are exhausted, even if they are pulled to the front line, it will not play a big role, but it will affect the rest of the divisions due to the slow speed of the march, and it is undoubtedly correct to retreat dozens of kilometers to a safe place to rest and replenish.

At the same time, we can send an urgent telegram to Chief Bai, asking for additional artillery and corresponding ammunition, didn't Chief Bai promise to distribute twelve artillery pieces to us as soon as possible? I believe that in this case, everyone can understand our difficulties. ”

Hu Jialin and Xia Jian also echoed the voice, and Lu Guang proposed that the mortar companies of the division and the mortars of each regiment were sufficient, and if the war required it, it was completely possible to concentrate 72 mortars at a time, and the power was not under the artillery of the artillery battalion, but the mobile surname was greatly enhanced.

Captain Li Tianen, the commander of the artillery battalion, saw An Yi's inquiring gaze, and immediately took the initiative to stand up: "Although I don't agree with it, I will follow the decision of the division headquarters, and only make one request under this subordinate, allowing my subordinates to lead five hundred brothers from the infantry company and engineer company of the artillery battalion to go north to participate in the war. ”

"No! You sit down! ”

Chief of Staff Yang Bin was willing to send his old subordinates and hundreds of outstanding artillerymen who had been trained with great difficulty and had been tested in battle again and again to the front line, and immediately refused to export.

Li Tianen earnestly requested: "Chief of Staff, his subordinates only use half of the strength of the artillery battalion, and most of them are infantry and auxiliary engineers of the escort artillery battalion, and more than 500 brothers with artillery will be ordered to retreat south." I believe that under the wise command of the division commander, this battle will be completed soon, and then we will naturally return to the building, and the combat effectiveness of the artillery battalion will also be greatly improved by the growth of infantry and engineers. ”

An Yi consulted with Yang Bin, Yin Jinan, and Hu Jialin and agreed with Li Tianen's opinion, and An Yi finally issued an order:

"Lao Li, you go back and get ready immediately, and order your battalion deputy Lao Liao to bring artillery and baggage to Yinji, thirty-five kilometers to the south, to rest and recuperate, and more than two hundred brothers from the logistics and quartermaster departments will act with you, which is the defense area of a regiment of General He Yaozu, they will take care of you, and when the principal and Commander-in-Chief Bai take down Xuzhou and stabilize the battle line, the division headquarters will give you further instructions."

"Understood!"

Li Tianen grinned and sat down steadily.

After the meeting dispersed, the commanders of each regiment immediately returned to their departments, nervously making preparations, and the town was full of cooking smoke for making fried fragrant rice and barbecued jerky, which was a unique way of making battlefield food for the readers, and every time a fierce battle was about to begin, each company would fry the rice, and cut the bitter salty pork, beef, and horse meat with coarse salt into thin slices and roast them in a hot cauldron, usually preparing the amount for three days to reduce the difficulty of logistical supply.

At midnight, the heavens and the earth were silent, and everything fell into a deep sleep, and the 10,000 soldiers of the reading force who had made all the pre-war preparations immediately chewed on the pieces, and under the guidance of the Ding Zhicheng special brigade one group after another, they kept silent and marched north.

An Yi, Yang Bin, Liu Shoujiang and others walked out of the division headquarters, and saw Yin Jinan in the courtyard with a grim expression, talking to Hu Jialin in a low voice, An Yi smiled, walked over and asked:

"Ji Nan, why are you sad? Don't you worry about the artillery regiment and the brethren in logistics? ”

Hu Jialin explained: "Ji Nan said that his right eyelid has been jumping non-stop since the afternoon, and he is always worried that something big will happen. ”

An Yiwan smiled: "I remembered the soldiers' nonsense of 'jumping left and right', right?" When did you believe in this? Do you need to send a telegram to Lao Nanchang, and let Lao Dao help you calculate a hexagram? ”

The brothers laughed when they heard this, Yin Jinan touched his head, and smiled a little embarrassedly: "Be careful to walk the 10,000-year-old ship, let's go." ”

The brothers walked out of the courtyard gate one after another, each boarded their own horses, An Yi approached the little black horse, affectionately hugged its neck, whispered a few words, the little black horse raised his head and shook his beautiful mane, but turned his head to the south, An Yi pulled the little black horse a few times and still reluctantly turned to the south.

An Yi gave the little black horse a slap, scolded with a smile, turned over Mahler and turned the horse's head, and joked with Shen Fengdao who was walking beside him as he walked:

"Lao Shen, just now Ji Nan said that his right eye jumped today, how can Lao Tzu be the same? His grandmother's has been jumping since the morning, and the more she jumps, the more powerful she becomes, it's just that Lao Tzu doesn't want to mention this! I don't know why, I always feel panicked in my heart, what do you say is going on? ”

Shen Fengdao looked at the Big Dipper Star in the sky, and then at Chang Geng Star and several surrounding constellations, sighed slightly, and replied in a low voice: "The big war is approaching, it's always good to be careful...... In this battle, you have to keep your eyes open and look at the six roads, if you can, let Ding Zhicheng expand the scope of the investigation a little more, and use all four radio stations as much as possible. ”

"Hey, you're worried too?" An Yi said with a smile, but he was stunned in his heart.

Shen Fengdao shook his head and laughed at himself: "There are bullets and bullets on the battlefield, where can you not worry?" The stars and moon are bright tonight, and the marching speed will not be slow, and it is estimated that the battle will be ready in four hours. ”

An Yi understood that this was Shen Fengdao's euphemistic suggestion to ask him to speed up and fight quickly, so he called the chief of the guard behind him and whispered a few words, Lin Xudong nodded and quickly rode his horse forward, chasing Hu Jialin and Yang Bin, who were the commanders of the former enemy.

At this moment, An Yi and his brothers did not know that all kinds of omens and faint worries in their hearts soon became reality.

In fact, Commander-in-Chief Chiang, who commanded the counteroffensive army on the western route, had already been defeated two and a half hours earlier: Cheng Guorui, the commander of the enemy army, had indeed adopted the same strategy as Bai Chongxi had judged, and when both armies were exhausted by fighting at 5:30 p.m., the fresh forces of the three divisions of the Zhilu coalition army suddenly rushed from the flank of the revolutionary army seven kilometers from the left flank.

Wang Tianpei, who was alert in advance, immediately led his army to retreat quickly, but there was still one division that was surrounded by the enemy, and in a blink of an eye, it was completely annihilated like a small wooden boat in a huge wave.

He Yaozu's 40th Army and Chen Chengshi, who had lost their left flank guards, were still fighting fiercely with the enemy in the south of Xuzhou City, launching wave after wave of offensive charges, and the sudden retreat of the 10th Army led to the enemy's long drive in, and in a blink of an eye, the 40th Army and Chen Chengshi's more than 50,000 people surrounded the battlefield in a radius of four kilometers south of the city.

The defenders in the city multiplied their troops, and the outflanking reinforcements echoed each other, and the revolutionary army was scattered, and the extremely shocked commander-in-chief Jiang immediately sent General Wang Pu, who served as a reserve, to lead the officers and men of the 27th Army to desperately rescue, and finally broke through the encirclement, allowing Chen Cheng and He Yaozu to lead the remnants to escape from Shengtian.

In the early morning of the next day, He Yaozu and Chen Chengshi, who had resisted and repelled the enemy's pursuit again and again, retreated to Su County, and less than 20,000 of the more than 50,000 soldiers under his command remained.

Wang Tianpei telegraphed back that the headquarters was suddenly attacked by tens of thousands of enemy troops, and now there are less than fifty percent left, and the retreat is really a last resort, and the department is no longer able to fight; Bai Chongxi said that due to the sudden retreat of the commander-in-chief's army, the whole army was lonely, and was slowly retreating to the front line of Bengbu to rebuild the position.

Commander-in-Chief Chiang was dizzy for a while, suddenly felt that the people had betrayed his relatives and had no skills to return to heaven, and he hid in a small bedroom alone and pondered in great pain for two hours, and when he came out, he looked calm and calm, and ordered the General Staff Office to order all units to retreat south again, and retreat to the Jiangbei area on the Chuzhou line as usual.

The generals were stunned, but seeing that the commander-in-chief was resolute and could only comply, then the depressed commander-in-chief Chiang did not stop at the front line for long, and led the headquarters personnel to Bengbu directly by car under the escort of the guards.

The Xuzhou counteroffensive plan was a complete failure, and An Yi's division, which was kept in the dark, was surrounded by the Zhilu coalition army and Sun Chuanfang's army, and the future was bleak.

(To be continued)