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Chapter 531 The Iron Army That Is No Longer Strong

In the next two days, the Fourth Division was attacked many times in a row, losing a large number of baggage and two field artillery, Zhang Fakui was furious, but he was helpless against the elusive He Long Red Army, in the vast mountains, the forest is lush and the terrain is complex, the streams are crisscrossing the road rugged, and the marching formation of 20,000 horses is eight kilometers long. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

At dawn the next day of the southward march, the Fourth Division encountered cold guns fired from the forests on the mountainsides on both sides, and often one or two cold shots consumed a large number of machine-gun rifle bullets from the officers and men of the Fourth Division, and the trees and weeds in the mountains and forests were scattered, but not a single Red Army was found.

Along the way, the seemingly five- or six-meter-wide and crystal clear stream was demolished due to the demolition of the wooden bridge, and thousands of officers and soldiers could only crowd on the winding mountain road and wait, becoming a live target for the Red Guards of the Red Army, and the team that fell behind the team or was too far ahead was twice fiercely attacked by hundreds of Red Army troops who appeared coldly, and the officers and men of the Fourth Division, who were tired and hungry, could not resist, so they could only retreat and organize a fire counterattack, but the Red Army, which had succeeded in one blow, quickly picked up the guns and ammunition on the battlefield, and even stripped off the clothes and pants of the captives and left only a pair of pants. It was completely destroyed before the main forces of the 4th Division arrived.

The Red Army's successive small-scale attacks killed and wounded more than 200 officers and men of the Fourth Division, and although the losses were not too great, the officers and men of the whole division became frightened birds, and whenever there was a little strange noise in the forests on both sides, a large number of bullets would be poured, causing the birds in the mountains to scream and the wild beasts to rush forward, and the officers and men were in panic one by one, and they had almost reached the limit of their psychological endurance when the wind was rumbling and the grass and trees were all soldiers. Fortunately, Wu Qiwei, a fierce general, quickly organized the Guangxi veterans of the three companies under his command to rush forward to explore the way and take the lead, and Zhang Fakui, who came to his senses, once again sent a regiment of Guangxi veterans to break off, promised heavy rewards on the spot, and successively promoted eight veterans with high prestige to captains.

This trick worked immediately, these Guangxi soldiers who had been away from home for several years and had survived hundreds of battles finally gave full play to their own advantages, they grew up in the mountains since they were children, they were extremely experienced, and several times they discovered the ambush of the Red Army in advance, and brought in mortars and field artillery for a fierce bombardment, so that the Red Army, which occupied the right time and place but was poorly equipped, had no choice but to withdraw from its position and watch Zhang Fakui's army leave.

After four days of arduous and rapid marching, the Fourth Division finally entered Shimen, only to find that a brigade of Wu Shang's 52nd Division had occupied the county seat.

Zhang Fakui was taken aback, remembering Lao Jiang's telegram condemnation and the combination of soft and hard methods against his headquarters in the past few days, and the generals under his command also judged that Wu Shangbu was on the order of Lao Jiang to encircle him, and immediately ordered to open up a posture and prepare for an attack. But at this moment, it was not Wu Shang who led the Yan Zhongru Brigade of the 52nd Division in the city, but Xiong Zhen, the deputy division commander who tore his face and parted ways with Wu Shang.

Xiong Zhen saw Zhang Fakui's soldiers pressing the border and opening a posture, and hurriedly rode out of the city to negotiate urgently, shouting all the way "don't shoot your own people", and finally found the main position, Zhang Fakui dismounted to clear the misunderstanding, and told Zhang Fakui that he and the five thousand brothers of Yan Zhongru's brigade were also forced to go south.

Zhang Fakui was taken aback, and the generals also gathered around, and Wu Qiwei asked loudly: "Brother Xiong, what is going on?" ”

Xiong Zhen sighed and said: "After your division went south, the two brigades of our division obtained An Yi's permission to withdraw to the front line of Changyang in the east, brother, I was ordered to immediately rush to Yichang to attend an emergency meeting, the theme of the meeting is about encircling your fourth division, but An Yi seems to be unwilling to embarrass you on the orders of Lao Jiang, after discussing with our Wu Shizuo and General Fan Xiaoquan, it was decided that each of the two divisions will send a brigade south to Xiangbei to make a show, and when you cross Xiangbei, there will be nothing to do in Yichang. But in the middle of the meeting, something happened that scared the hell out of us. ”

"What's the matter?" Zhang Fakui hurriedly asked.

Xiong Zhen shook his head and sighed: "Cao Wanshun's new first division was ordered to go to Yichang, the purpose is to leave you, but the first regiment of the new first division didn't know An Yi too well, as soon as they went ashore, Yin Jinan, the commander of the sixteenth division, led a group of generals to receive them ceremoniously, but a battalion commander of this vanguard regiment made a mistake, and when he saw a girl selling cigarettes on the dock, he moved his hands and feet, and several dock workers were unwilling, and stepped forward to theorize, the battalion commander surnamed Zhou may have gone off when he pulled out a gun and threatened. One shot blew the forty-something docker in the head.

This is terrible, there was an exclamation on the dock, the chaos was unbearable, a captain of the An Yi gendarmerie regiment made people rush down the dock, and couldn't help but say that the battalion commander surnamed Zhou disarmed and tied up, and the dock workers also came from all over the neighborhood, and five or six thousand people gathered at the scene, all carrying sticks to take revenge, at this time, if the commander of the new division surnamed Zhang was more interesting, it would be fine, the big deal was to let the gendarmes escort the battalion commander back, and pay some money to quench the anger of the public, but the head of the regiment Zhang was reckless, and ordered his brothers to set up machine guns and aim at thousands of dock workers, Seeing that the troop transport fleet carrying the main forces of the two brigades behind was also about to arrive at the dock, he was also bold enough to order the guards to snatch back his battalion commander from the gendarmes.

An Yi's gendarmes definitely didn't do it, but they were rushed up by more than 100 officers and soldiers of the new 1st Division, and the captain of the gendarmerie squad was beaten up. ”

"It's over! Finished! This regimental commander is dead! Zhu Huiri on the side sighed loudly.

"Not really."

Xiong Zhen continued: "An Yi interrupted the meeting and rushed to the dock, and we also followed to see the excitement, just to see the gendarmes being beaten, An Yi was furious, and with a wave of his hand, thirty-six guards rushed down the dock, and in less than a few minutes on the dock, more than 100 new brothers and sisters lay down on the dock, and the special agent battalion quietly mobilized by Yin Jinan also rushed in, and more than 500 new machine guns resisted the heads of those machine gunners and battalion commanders and company commanders, Regiment Commander Zhang was finally frightened, who knew that An Yi didn't give him a chance to speak and defend himself, and the whole regiment was disarmed with an order, An Yi's gendarmerie commander walked to the frightened and weak leg Zhang Commander, pulled out a pistol and immediately burst Commander Zhang's head, the beaten gendarmerie squad leader was also ordered by An Yi, and immediately shot the troublesome battalion commander with a gun, in the blink of an eye, more than 1,000 officers and soldiers of the New First Division were escorted ashore to wait for processing, and if they resisted a little, they were immediately shot, killing a person was like killing a dog, the scene was bloody! It immediately scared us and the thousands of people on the dock into ...... breath."

Everyone sighed, and Zhang Fakui asked a little strangely: "Didn't you say that the follow-up fleet of the new 1st Division will dock?" How can they watch their siblings suffer? ”

"It's here, but no one dares to get off the ship, guess what's going on?"

Xiong Zhen sold a pass, glanced at a circle of concerned people, and then said: "Because I don't know when Yin Jinan gave the order, the two mortar battalions of the garrison force have occupied both sides of the strait and are ready to fire, more than 100 light and heavy machine guns are aimed at the Jiangzhong fleet, and the four anti-smuggling gunboats are also slowly approaching from upstream and downstream, and the twin guns and light and heavy machine guns on the gunboat have been aimed at Cao Wanshun's boat, Cao Wanshun is estimated to be annoyed, and he is also estimated to be afraid, so he immediately ordered the fleet to turn around and go!"

Back at the office venue, the younger brother immediately discussed with Wu Shizuo, suggesting that the team be quietly pulled to northern Xiangbei, it is really not possible to defect to He Yunqiao, and it is better than going to western Hubei and the Red Army to work hard! But Wu Shizuo was obsessed, thinking that as long as he didn't make mistakes, he would be fine, follow An Yi, and the military salary and materials would be more secure, as a result, Zhang Jingxi's brother and Shizuo quarreled, saying that following An Yi would be swallowed by him sooner or later, even if he survived, he would not be able to develop under his strict military law, and asked to lead his troops to leave western Hubei, and finally broke up unhappily, Zhang Jingxi led a brigade to the downstream to join the old brother Li Yunyan's department, and the younger brother I saw that the situation was not right after the meeting, and immediately led the troops south to Shimen, ready to go to Brother He Yunqiao. ”

Zhang Fakui and his generals looked at each other, and couldn't help but secretly sigh, thinking that if they returned to Yichang, maybe their fourth division would be worse than Cao Wanshun's new first division, so they understood Xiong Zhen's concerns and the reason for leaving western Hubei.

"Didn't Brother Xiong say that your ministry and Fan Shisheng's ministry were going south to Shimen to surround us? Why are you still here, not afraid that they will pursue you and lead your troops to say goodbye? Zhang Fakui asked with a smile.

Xiong Zhen hurriedly explained: "The little brother is about to leave, Brother Xiang Hua is here, in order to avoid misunderstanding, I can only come to explain, otherwise if the little brother is misunderstood as escaping, he will not be misunderstood and pursued by your iron army?" ”

Everyone smiled heartily, and the atmosphere was extremely harmonious.

Seeing that the matter was resolved, Xiong Zhen politely said goodbye, let Shimen out for Zhang Fakui to lead his troops to station, and he led thousands of brothers under his command to go east to Jin City, and rushed to Yueyang to join He Jian.

Soon after the Fourth Division entered the city, the alert troops came quickly to report that Fan Shisheng's brigade had arrived at Yijiadu in the north and was slowly moving.

All the generals looked at Zhang Fakui, Zhang Fakui pondered for a moment, and decisively ordered: Huang Zhenqiu led the 11th Brigade to go around the northwest of the city, Wu Qiwei led the 12th Brigade to go around the northeast of the city, arrange pockets and wait for Fan Shisheng's troops to get in, and the rest of the troops such as the artillery battalion and the baggage battalion immediately went south and headed for Cili!

Zhu Rihui hurriedly suggested: "Cili is the territory of the 44th Army in Xiangxi, is it okay for us to go over like this?" Moreover, the 44th Army has a very good relationship with An Yi, if we enter rashly, will it cause any trouble? ”

Zhang Fakui waved his hand disappreciatively: "No, An Yi is still smart, since he didn't carry out Lao Jiang's encirclement order, he won't embarrass us anymore, the foolish brother and General Zhang Hongluan met at the last meeting, and they were very polite to each other, just send the vanguard team to say hello in advance." The 44th Army is not the Central Army, and it will not be so easy to work for Lao Jiang, and the person we have to guard against is He Jian. Okay, time is urgent, let's do it! ”

"Yes!"

The generals agreed in unison and left.

Two hours later, more than 4,000 brothers of Fan Shisheng's First Brigade, who were following Zhang Fakui's pretending to be, slowly entered the encirclement in the north of the city, and the two brigades of the Fourth Division shouted in unison, and the guns rang out, and in a blink of an eye, Fan Shisheng's troops were disabled, and finally only more than 1,600 people escaped. The brothers of the Fourth Division quickly cleaned up the battlefield, carrying more than 2,000 long and short guns, more than 70 light and heavy machine guns, several hundred catties of opium, and a batch of ammunition, and drove to Cili happily.

Zhang Fakui didn't know that this move was exactly what Chiang Kai-shek was looking forward to, as long as Zhang Fakui made a move on the friendly army, he would become the target of the whole people, and Chiang Kai-shek would be able to mobilize the army of He Jian and Zhang Hongluan to justifiably attack the Fourth Division of the henchmen, so as to get rid of this capricious rebel general of the Cantonese army!