readx;

On February 2, the 18th year, the Central Committee of the Kuomintang promulgated the battle sequence of the Central Army, "※: The list of commanders and deputy commanders of the first, second and third armies was officially announced, and the whole ** team deployment plan was aborted for ten months, and the warlords of the country heard the wind and moved, and the wind and cranes desperately scraped the ground to expand the army, and the dark clouds of war instantly shrouded the troubled land of China. first electrify to support the leadership of the central government; Feng Yuxiang of the Northwest Army was secretly happy when he saw the two tigers fighting, and while shouting "restraint" from all sides, he dispatched troops to strive for the greatest interests; Seeing that the mountains and rains were coming, Li Zongren could not sit still in the western-style building of the "Rongyuan" on Haige Road in the French Concession of Shanghai, and on 4 March sent a telegram to support the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Chiang in order to promote the reunification of the whole country. Bai Chongxi let out the thick smell of gunpowder in the air, and then sent a telegram to state leader Hu Hanmin, telling the central authorities that in the name of chief of staff of the Fourth Group Army and commander-in-chief of the former enemy, he had strictly ordered all troops in Wuhan to stand by and stop all military operations, and also sent a telegram to Li Jishen, chief of the general staff of the revolutionary army and commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, who was hesitant, urging Li Jishen to leave Guangzhou for Nanjing as soon as possible and discuss with the central departments a peaceful settlement of the "Hunan case." Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Although Bai Chongxi is a genius in military affairs, he is very short-sighted in politics, and he did not see the deep meaning of Chiang Kai-shek's various measures, and this urging is tantamount to completely cutting off the two vast rear areas of the Gui system that are connected into a single body, and he originally thought that with the current military strength and strong combat effectiveness of the Gui system, the Central Army would never dare to crusade against the Gui system, and at this time, there was still a Feng Yuxiang in the north of Wuhan and Nanjing who was eyeing him with heavy troops, and Chiang Kai-shek did not dare to attack Wuhan at all at the risk of the goose and clam competing for the profits of the fishermen. He did not dare to control Li Jishen, a senior member of the Central Committee and a veteran of the revolutionary army, who had the support of 80,000 Cantonese troops behind him, so the conceited Bai Chongxi twice denied Li Zongren's dissuasion and openly called Li Jishen to invite him to a meeting in Nanjing, hoping to resolve the crisis in a peaceful way so as to win sufficient preparation time for future wars.

When Chiang Kai-shek saw Bai Chongxi's telegram, he was secretly happy in his heart, and called the hesitant Li Jishen again, politely asking him to move to Nanjing and work together to solve the "Hunan case" and discuss state affairs. At the kind invitation of all parties, Li Jishen finally made up his mind and handed over the post of commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army to Huang Shaolian, chairman of Guangxi Province and commander of the 15 th Army, who hurried to Guangzhou to take the town, and then rushed to Shanghai by cruise ship and then transferred to Nanjing.

Li Jishen did not know at all that the reason why Chiang Kai-shek agreed to the decision of the Wuhan Political Branch to appoint He Jian as the governor of Hunan Province and that he had been patient and did not fail to mobilize every soldier was a delaying tactic to confuse Li Zongren and Li Jishen, and that as long as Li Jishen was controlled, Chiang Kai-shek would have the means to dismember the Cantonese army in Guangdong, and the 14 divisions and 150,000 troops under the name of the central government would march westward on all fronts, and the clarion call for attacking Wuhan would be sounded.

On 7 March, Chiang Kai-shek finally showed his grandeur and a handwritten letter was delivered to Li Zongren in Shanghai, who saw that the letter contained a firm and non-negotiable tone, such as "the authority of the central authorities must be maintained." Hurriedly shouted that the big thing was not good, turned around and sent an emergency call to Bai Chongxi, who was nervously watching the situation in Beiping.

At this time, due to the restrictions of the environment and living conditions, Li Zongren was surrounded by a few people, such as the adjutant and the chief of the guard, and there were no telegraph operators and telegraphers, let alone radio stations, so even if he sealed the telegram, he would have to travel for a long time, let alone keep abreast of the news from the outside world. Therefore, Li Zongren did not know at all that just three hours before he received Chiang Kai-shek's letter, 1,700 officers and men of the Independent Regiment of the 52nd Division under his command Ye Qi, who commanded Ye Qi, rashly advanced lightly against the enemy, and frantically pursued the remnants of Tan Shuqing's division 16 kilometers away, and was ambushed in a narrow area west of Changde where there was water on both sides and mountains on the other. The main regiment with the strongest combat effectiveness was completely annihilated, and the remaining 500 or so prisoners were forced to carry the weapons and equipment of the whole regiment and march west with difficulty under the guns of more than 1,000 officers and men of Zhang Cunzhuang's 1st Division.

Half an hour after the end of the battle, Ye Qi led the 52nd Division to three catties, and the main force of the regiment rushed to three kilometers east of the lotus weir, and the telescope showed the corpses of the whole place, which made this short and stocky brave general extremely shocked, and the two special service company lieutenants volunteered to see this, and rode on horseback to the battlefield to investigate the situation, but unfortunately they heard two gunshots before they approached the edge of the battlefield, and the two elites who had experienced a hundred battles fell off their horses almost at the same time, one of them was dragged by the frightened war horse and rushed into the mountain four paths and disappeared, and the other was on the ground and never got up.

Ye Qi was shocked and hurriedly picked up the binoculars to take a closer look, only to see that the loyal and brave subordinate's head was full of red and white things, obviously being shot in the head, and his bent knees were still shaking at the moment. Ye Qi, whose face was pale, trembled in his heart, and almost without any hesitation, he immediately ordered the whole army to withdraw to Changde, and then telegraphed to the Wuhan base camp to seek countermeasures.

Hu Zongfeng was very surprised when he received the emergency call, no matter what, he couldn't imagine that the cooked duck actually flew, Ye Qi's retreat was not tight, and Tan Daoyuan, who was chasing and fighting all the way, escaped from it. However, thinking about the losses of Ye Qi's department, Hu Zongfeng was relieved, suffering such a heavy blow in such a short period of time, the strength of the opponent is self-evident, and it is no wonder that Ye Qi will retreat.

At this time, Hu Zongshi Tuchuan cited the remnants of the 44th Army to attack Bai Chongxi's 12th Army's infantry regiment two years ago, "2 contains a greater conspiracy, and he did not dare to slack off at the moment, and immediately reported to Bai Chongxi in Beiping, and at the same time informed one of Tao Jun's divisions, ordering all to stop advancing in order to avoid falling into a larger trap.

Chaoyimen Inner Street, Beiping, the former enemy headquarters of the Fourth Army.

A black Dodge sedan drove by, crushing a series of pools of water on the street, splashing the melted snow with sludge high, the sedan turned a corner and crossed the four saluting guards, entered the antique courtyard gate, and stopped in front of the lobby of a tall and majestic yellow tile heavy eaves building, Huang Ruihua, the chief of the guard, got out of the car and opened the rear door, Bai Chongxi slowly got out of the car, tightened the collar of his yellow coat, and strode into the lobby.

Bai Chongxi frowned after reading the message, stayed in place for a moment, strode into the office located in the central nave, and instructed the confidential adjutant to find a map of Hunan to check carefully, a few minutes passed, Bai Chongxi took off his glasses and raised his head, looking at the ancient and delicate painted ceiling, his face changed, obviously very annoyed and confused.

"Report to the military seat, Duke De is calling urgently from Shanghai."

According to the spirit of the dispatch meeting, Chen Zhibiao, the commander of the major general and brigade who was reduced to the teaching brigade, walked into the room and whispered that because the teaching brigade served as the important task of the general headquarters of the Gongwei, Chen Zhibiao and Bai Chongxi got along day and night, and Chen Zhibiao, who did not have much business after the end of the Northern Expedition, saw that Bai Chongxi's assistants were very sharp, so he silently followed the commander-in-chief to do his best.

Bai Chongxi was a little surprised, turned his head to look at Chen Zhibiao, took the telegram with his glasses and read it carefully, sighed slightly, and then put down the telegram and asked calmly:

"Zhibiao, I was looking for you, do you remember the encounter when you pursued the remnants of Ye Kaixin in Xiangxi? .

Chen Zhibiao was stunned for a moment, then shook his fork and smiled bitterly: "Shame! The subordinates have not been able to forget for a day, it is one of the few fiascos since the subordinates joined the army, unforgettable, military seat"

"Well, Zhibiao, I didn't blame you, not at the beginning, not now, I just want to tell you, just a few hours ago, Ye Cuiwei Ye Qizi's 52nd Division Independent Regiment was ambushed in the same way, but it was even worse than you were at the beginning, and the time was much shorter, the whole catty, the regiment was almost wiped out, and all the weapons were lost, if it wasn't for the machine gun battalion marching too slowly to keep up, I'm afraid the loss would be more than 1,700 officers and soldiers.

Presumably, you are also well aware of the situation of the 52nd Division Independent Regiment, and the combat effectiveness of this unit with glorious traditions is by no means under your teaching regiment, and almost all of them are composed of veterans with more than three years of military experience. If we can find some reason to prevaricate by chance, but this is the second time, and we have to pay enough attention to it.

You know what kind of strategic position Hunan is in for us, if the remnants of Ye Kaixin in Xiangxi are allowed to grow smoothly, it is likely to give us a fatal blow at a critical time, so I want to figure it out. Why does this remnant have such a strong fighting force? What happened to that area in the past two years? Will it confirm your suspicions from another angle? ”

Chen Zhibiao hesitated, and whispered in Bai Chongxi's encouraging gaze: "My subordinates have been thinking about this problem for two years, and have repeatedly recalled the before and after An Yi and Ye Kaixin's interactions, at the beginning of the Northern Expedition, Ye Kaixin was still the common enemy of our revolutionary army, and after joining the revolution, he led his troops to flee east under the threat of General Tang Mengxiao's disarming, and since then he has joined the Central Army, An Yi also met Ye Kaixin after that, however, Ye Kaixin's deputy commander at the time, Zhang Hongza, knew An Yi earlier, At the beginning, Zhang Hongza led the second division of the Hunan Army to defend Yueyang, fighting to the death, and finally broke through the encirclement of the four divisions of Tang Mengxiao's Eighth Army to the east. The subordinates remembered that General Zhang Hongza was released by Liu Jingfu at that time. also specially asked to see An Yi, who dragged his thousands of remnants to death, the two broke up after a few words, and later unexpectedly reunited in the Northern Expedition in Jiangbei, An Yi has become a major general and division commander, and Zhang Hongza and Ye Kaixin have also become friends Bai Chongxi's eyes lit up, and blurted out: "Zhang Hongza!" I know this person, after graduating from Baoding, the Gui Army 6 Rong Ting did not want to use us at all, I almost joined the second division of the Hunan Army, at that time Zhang Hongza was already the brigade commander, in the entire Hunan Army system, this person has the most military demeanor, the style is tough and the troops are well-organized, count him the most capable of fighting, and continue to say. ”

Chen Zhibiao nodded: "Based on the above situation, my subordinates guess that An Yi is likely to quietly send an instructor team into the 44th Army of Xiangxi to help it practice the team out of friendship with Ye Kaixin and Zhang Hongza, or will accept the outstanding officers and soldiers of the 44th Army to go to the old Nanchang non-commissioned officer training base for training, or a two-pronged approach, otherwise it is impossible for any army at present to have a combat style and strict military discipline similar to that of an independent division."

In addition, An Yi himself and the grassroots officers who have been constantly trained by him and the instructors of various subjects for a long time are very self-disciplined, and the independent division from the division commander to the platoon commander can basically all be "leading by example." Therefore, we have a deep understanding of the respect of the officers and men at the grass-roots level, and the teaching brigade now led by Erle's subordinates has basically followed the same set as the independent division, but it is a pity that we do not have as many outstanding instructors with skills as the independent division, nor do we have the time and opportunity to select instructors from among the tens of thousands of officers and men. ”

Bai Chongxi slowly stood up: "Speaking of which, your and my judgments are basically the same", An Yi and his independent division are well-known throughout the army in terms of officer and soldier training, this person has excellent intelligence, full of strategy, although he is young but calculating, from every battle he has fought to the great business he has created in Jiangxi now, you can see this person's ability, alas, Zhibiao, take your time and don't worry, we still have time and opportunity, but at present, I am afraid that it will not work, judging from the telegram of the German public network and the sequence of the three armies of the Central Army announced by the central government, Commander-in-Chief Chiang has already sharpened his knives and is ready to make a move. Our armies don't have the energy to deal with the affairs of Xiangxi for the time being, and I want to find a way to make He Jian worry about it. Now the situation is urgent, and it is necessary to transfer Xia Cangxi's 15 th Division to eastern Hubei Province, and it is necessary to urgently order the 18 th Army stationed in Yichang to immediately shrink its formation to strictly prevent a sneak attack by the Sichuan Army, and also to transfer Ye Cuiwei's 52 Division to the front line of the Hunan and Hubei border to deal with the possible attack of the Central Army at any time.

You should also prepare, if the situation is urgent, maybe we will risk being intercepted by Feng Yuxiang, and all of them will take a special train to the south to join the battlefield, Wuhan cannot be lost, and everything will be lost if we lose Wuhan" Yes! ”

Chen Zhibiao turned to leave, walked a few steps and seemed to think of something, hesitated and turned back again: "Junzao, there is something that my subordinates think it is better to repay you, not because my subordinates are jealous of General Li Heling and Li Pinxianzi, but because they are deeply confused about some things, and they don't vomit or feel unhappy." ”

Bai Chongxi glanced at Chen Zhibiao in surprise and smiled slightly: "Zhibiao, I know very well what you are, just say it directly!" Today, his subordinates led the military police to patrol. At present, many generals and colonels under the command of General Li Heling are eating and drinking in the restaurant, and they are extremely generous. The subordinates thought it was strange at the time. Although our three armies have been reduced to three divisions, they are still staffed at the corps level, so salaries have always been a problem. So far, everyone has not been paid for three months, where did General Li Heling's soldiers get the money? The subordinates didn't want to say anything about it, but they always felt that something was wrong in their hearts, so they could only take the liberty to report it and ask the military seat for forgiveness.

Chen Zhibiao said with a wry smile.

Bai Chongxi was taken aback in his heart, but a calm smile appeared on his face: "It's nothing, you did a good job in this matter, there is no mistake but merit, this matter seems to be very small, but it is likely to make the soldiers in the army misunderstand." It's okay, I'll call Li Heling later, you go back and rest" Yes! ”

Chen Zhibiao walked out of the door with his front foot, Bai Chongxi's face changed immediately, he was silent for a while, and immediately called the adjutant to arrange the vehicle, and a few minutes later, Bai Chongxi, escorted by two troop transport trucks and guards in front and behind, drove directly to Li Pinxian's 51st Division headquarters.

After enjoying the sumptuous dinner, Li Pinxian, who was comfortably picking his teeth, was taken aback when he heard the urgent report of the star officer, his white face was cloudy, and his eyes flickered. Although Li Pinxian was born in Cangwu, Guangxi, and Li Jishen is a fellow countryman, but after graduating from the first phase of the Baoding Military Academy, he returned to the first division of the 6th Army in Guangxi to be excluded everywhere, and did not get any promotion opportunities for two consecutive years.

Three days ago, the old boss Tang Shengzhi suddenly appeared in Tianjin, and Li Pinxian, who secretly rushed to Tianjin to meet, and Liu Wendao, the old boss of the former Eighth Army Party representative, was also present.

After that, it didn't take much effort, Li Pinxian happily accepted Tang Shengzhi's 800,000 cash check, and obtained the central government's promise that the central government would make up for the army's three-month arrears, so Li Pinxian returned to the garrison and immediately convened the regimental commanders and brigade commanders to negotiate secretly, and the general heard that the old boss Tang Shengzhi had returned, and was appointed by the Nanjing government to prepare for reinvigoration, and immediately rejoiced and praised in unison, Li Pinxian saw this and took out a check of 400,000 yuan, and ordered the quartermaster to immediately go to the bank to cash in and release the whole army, so, This descendant of the Hunan Army, which was reorganized from the original Eighth Army into the 51st Division, has since regained its surname Tang.

But this time is obviously not a good opportunity for a showdown, Bai Chongxi's sudden arrival made Li Pinxian frightened, thinking that it was probably the leakage of the news that caused Bai Chongxi's vigilance.

Li Pinxian deeply knew the methods of his Baoding junior brother Bai Chongxi, and knew that Bai Chongxi was ruthless in dealing with traitors and dissidents, no matter what aspect he dared to compete with Bai Chongxi, but this time Bai Chongxi suddenly appeared unclear, and the car had already driven into the gate and came to the gate of the headquarters.