According to investigations, Tang Shengzhi's troops of Deng Baoshan's Fifth Route Army had entered and occupied Zhengzhou at 2 a.m. today, and a regiment of the forward had already occupied the village of Liyuan north of Zhengzhou. Therefore, early the next morning, Song Zhewu and Tao Rong, who had had breakfast early, took their staff officers and guards to a high ground on the bank of the Yellow River, holding binoculars to observe the situation on the other side.

Because the cavalry brigade had been withdrawn to the north bank of the Yellow River, and only Zhang Yafei's division and one regiment were on the south bank, the command of the campaign was handed over to Zhang Yafei. Of course, Zhang Yafei, who has always loved Song Zhewu to interfere with his command, is still inevitably interfered with, but fortunately, Song Zhewu is not in his first division headquarters in Hebei, which makes Zhang Yafei feel very happy, and there are some things that he can cut first and then play.

After sending a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan yesterday, Song Zhewu ordered the troops to withdraw immediately as planned, without waiting for them to call back.

Yan Xishan's telegram arrived quickly. Yan Xishan expressed his complete agreement with Song Zhewu leading the Fourth Route Army to withdraw to Laiyuan, and also told Song Zhewu not to clash with Tang Shengzhi again.

Chiang Kai-shek's telegram did not reply as late as last time, and it also arrived immediately after Yan Xishan's telegram. In his reply, Chiang Kai-shek, although his tone was very mild, also reproached Song Zhewu for not being strict with his imperial authority, which led to the killing of a major general and officer appointed by the Kuomintang, and demanded that Song Zhewu severely punish the perpetrators. Unlike Yan Xishan, Chiang Kai-shek did not mention Song Zhewu's request to withdraw Laiyuan, but only ordered the Fourth Route Army to withdraw to the north of the Yellow River. Of course, Chiang Kai-shek also sternly warned in a telegram that everything should be done in the light of the overall situation, and that he should not cause any more trouble.

Song Zhewu, who received the telegram, knew that Chiang Kai-shek was unwilling to let him return to Hebei, and after discussing with Tao Rong, he ordered the whole army to withdraw north immediately, and the general headquarters and the three regiments of the first division, the baggage regiment, and the artillery regiment were led by Meng Xi, the chief of operations, to withdraw to Xinxiang, the first regiment was still deployed at Huayuankou and Qiaotou on the south bank of the river, and the second regiment, the cavalry brigade, the guard brigade and the divisional troops were stationed in the areas of Handongzhuang, Wuyuan Town, and Qiaobeizhuang on the north bank of the Yellow River to receive the first regiment.

Therefore, all the troops, except for one regiment, successfully withdrew across the Yellow River before 20 o'clock in the evening.

The sun has risen very high, but there is still no movement on the other side, which makes Song Zhewu a little surprised, since Tang Shengzhi sent troops to retaliate, he will definitely not occupy Zhengzhou and it will be over, it is impossible for him not to know that the Fourth Route Army is at the mouth of the garden on the bank of the Yellow River, which is only a few dozen miles away from Zhengzhou, does he really think that he is afraid of him when he withdraws from Zhengzhou Tang Shengzhi, and really thinks that he will not take the initiative to attack him?

Song Zhewu, who didn't know why, looked at his watch, the time was already more than 8 o'clock in the morning, and he couldn't help but feel a little anxious. Tao Rong understood Song Zhewu's mood, raised his hand and beckoned a staff officer to come over, asking him to go to Zhang Yafei's first division headquarters to inquire about the situation. Then he said to Song Zhewu: "Is it that Tang Shengzhi has an order, afraid that Deng Baoshan's 10,000 or so people are not our opponents, and that he will suffer our losses, and will wait for his large army to arrive before attacking us?" ”

Song Zhewu shook his head and said: "This Tang Shengzhi is a little strange, since he knows that we are in Huayuankou, no matter what, he must send troops to test our hypocrisy, and Deng Baoshan should not be allowed to stay in Zhengzhou." But you said that Tang Shengzhi was afraid that Deng Baoshan would suffer our losses, and Tang Shengzhi would not have such good intentions. ”

Song Zhewu said disdainfully: "Deng Baoshan, the old department of the Northwest Army, is a miscellaneous unit of his Fifth Route Army in Tang Shengzhi's place. Although Deng Baoshan still wears the big hat of a military commander, his troops are actually only more than 10,000 people, and if it is not for the crusade against the Gui family and let Chiang Kai-shek stop the disarmament thing, it would be very good to give him a brigade establishment. Deng Baoshan is also a figure in the Northwest Army, and this is because he had to take the initiative to return to Tang Shengzhi's side of the big tree. Tang Shengzhi is also the same as everyone else, he is simply regarded as an outsider, otherwise this time it is clear that Li Pinxian's Eighth Army is the fastest and most powerful to attack us, why did he send him to take the lead in attacking Zhengzhou, this is clearly to use Deng Baoshan's troops to test us first, and after we and Deng Baoshan's troops fight, he is mobilizing other troops to pick up the cheap. Therefore, Tang Shengzhi would never order Deng Baoshan to wait for his large army. Deng Baoshan is not a fool, he has not moved in Zhengzhou for a long time, he must have seen Tang Shengzhi's intentions, I guess either Deng Baoshan has not reported to Tang Shengzhi that he has occupied Zhengzhou, or he has postponed the time of the report, anyway, he is deliberately delaying the time to attack us, and wants to wait for Tang Shengzhi's large army. ”

Tao Rong said with a smile: "I listened to the Guangxi officers of the Eighth Army who ran back from Hebei to say that Tang Shengzhi returned to the Eighth Army after he left Beiping after Commander Chongxi left Beiping, and many people who ran back had seen Tang Shengzhi before, and they said that Tang Shengzhi's surname had changed a lot before, and he was no longer as flamboyant as before, but on the contrary, he was much calmer, which can also be seen from this incident." This matter was put a year ago, Tang Shengzhi would raise troops to Zhengzhou that night to take revenge, and it was not his habit to send Deng Baoshan to test first this time. But Tang Shengzhi is like this now, if he doesn't cooperate with us, it is really not good for us to withdraw like this, so that the commander-in-chief will not be able to explain to Chiang Kai-shek. ”

Song Zhewu thought for a while and said: "That's right, tell Zhang Yafei and let him send a small force of cavalry to Zhengzhou to knock Deng Baoshan again, if he doesn't come out again, it will be difficult for him to explain to Tang Shengzhi." ”

Tao Rong was about to send someone to give an order, and the staff officer who went to Zhang Yafei to inquire about the news ran back on horseback and reported: "The head of the first regiment Xu reported that Deng Baoshan had led his troops out of Zhengzhou an hour ago and drove north, and it is estimated that they will be able to reach Huayuankou in two hours; The regiment from Biyuan Village also came out, and in an hour it would rush to the entrance of the garden. ”

Tao Rong smiled and said: "Commander-in-chief, it seems that Deng Baoshan was forced by Tang Shengzhi to be in a hurry, and it won't work if she doesn't come out." I don't think we took advantage of Tang Shengzhi's big army to come up and beat Deng Baoshan hard, although the loss was not Tang Shengzhi's descendant troops, but Tang Shengzhi couldn't afford to lose this face, he has always regarded himself very highly, the famous general of the Northern Expedition, the commander-in-chief of the Wuhan Political Axe National Revolutionary Army, this name is very loud. As long as Tang Shengzhi led his troops to the Yellow River, the matter would be a big trouble, and we would have reason to ask Chiang Kai-shek to return to Laiyuan again. ”

"Okay, that's it. Tell Zhang Yafei to fight hard, don't be stingy with shells, once pursued, don't go too far, just reach the village of Biyuan, and must withdraw to the north of the bridge. Tang Shengzhi's large army will arrive soon, don't be entangled by the large army of the Fifth Route Army. ”

The reason why Song Zhewu wants to tell so much is that he is still a little worried about Xu Fang, the master who is happy to jump high as soon as he fights, after Xu Fangguan is reinstated, he will exchange with the head of a regiment, if he doesn't give him an order, maybe this kid dares to go to Zhengzhou and take Zhengzhou back.

Sure enough, as Song Zhewu expected, Deng Baoshan entered Zhengzhou at 2 o'clock in the morning, but he reported to Tang Shengzhi at 5 o'clock. Tang Shengzhi received the report that Deng Baoshan successfully occupied Zhengzhou, and knew that Master Gu's prediction was correct, and Song Zhewu really took the initiative to give up Zhengzhou. Tang Shengzhi, who was excited, immediately ordered Li Pinxian to urge the Eighth Army to immediately go north to Zhengzhou, and the General Headquarters of the Fifth Route Army to follow the Eighth Army.

Seeing that Tang Shengzhi was too excited and forgot what he should do, Master Gu reminded Tang Shengzhi and said, "Commander-in-chief, we will arrive in Zhengzhou at the earliest, after 8 o'clock, Song Zhewu's troops have not yet withdrawn from the Yellow River." ”

Master Gu's reminder, Tang Shengzhi also remembered that he was happy to patronize, this scene with Song Zhewu has not been finished yet, if Song Zhewu can't return to Laiyuan, he will not be stable in Zhengzhou. Immediately, he sent another telegram to Deng Baoshan, ordering Deng Baoshan to take advantage of the victory to pursue, attack Huayuankou, and be sure to drag Song Zhewu's troops left at Huayuankou before the Eighth Army reached Zhengzhou.

Tang Shengzhi now fully believes in Master Gu's judgment, that is, Song Zhewu is looking for a reason to return to Laiyuan, and the reason why he is still relying on Huayuankou and not leaving is because Chiang Kai-shek will not let him go back. Tang Shengzhi also received a telegram from Chiang Kai-shek yesterday evening, in which Chiang Kai-shek told Tang Shengzhi, 'He has severely reprimanded Song Zhewu, and Song Zhewu has agreed to give 300,000 yuan from the military salary allocated by the central government to the Fourth Route Army this month as a condescent for the dead of the Fifth Route Army. At present, the great enemy wants Tang Shengzhi and Song Zhewu to unite sincerely and jointly determine the northwest. ’

Chiang Kai-shek's meaning Tang Shengzhi understood very well, that is, Chiang Kai-shek did not want Song Zhewu to leave Henan, and said that he would deduct 300,000 yuan from the military salary given to Song Zhewu to him, Tang Shengzhi did not believe it, he knew that this money must be paid by Chiang Kai-shek out of his own pocket, just to calm his anger and ask him not to conflict with Song Zhewu again. Because if the two sides clash again, then one side must withdraw from Henan. Since this is the case, then this battle must be fought even more, and even he Tang Shengzhi does not hesitate to fight.

Deng Baoshan, a native of Tianshui, Gansu. In the summer of 1909, he joined the Ili New Army in Xinjiang Province, and Deng Baoshan was introduced by Jin Botao (a native of Gansu), secretary of the New Army Coordination Department, and met Feng Temin, the head of the Ili League, and joined the League. The year after the Wuchang Uprising, the Ili revolutionaries launched a New Army uprising. After the failure of the uprising, Deng Baoshan returned to Gansu through Russia. Later, he went to Shaanxi and became acquainted with Hu Jingyi, Zhang Yi'an, Dong Zhenwu, Liu Shouzhong, Shi Zongfa, Xu Tongxi, Li Qishan, and Xu Fanting in Shanxi, He Sui in Fujian, and Sun Yue in Hebei. After Yuan Shikai became emperor, he and Dong Zhenwu, Yang Ruixuan, Hu Defu, Ma Qingyuan, etc., entered Liyang, blew up the barracks, annihilated the local guards, and captured a batch of firearms. After that, he followed this team to fight in the counties north of the Wei River, successively captured more than 500 fast guns, and then went to southern Shaanxi to guard the Hu Jingyi regiment of Chen Shu's domain as a company commander. In 1917, Sun Yat-sen launched the Dharma Protection Movement, and the Shaanxi Kuomintang responded to it, Deng Baoshan and Dong Zhenwu assisted Zhang Yi'an in the uprising in Sanyuan, Shaanxi, and wiped out a regiment of Zeng Jixian's brigade to which Chen Shufan belonged in one fell swoop. Since then, Deng Baoshan has been the commander, regiment commander, and deputy commander-in-chief of the fourth road battalion of Jing [***]. Sun Yat-sen once encouraged Deng Baoshan to "stick to her original ambition and persevere".

In September 1924, when the Second Zhifeng War broke out, Feng Yuxiang, Hu Jingyi, and Sun Yue conspired against Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, and Deng Baoshan contacted Feng and Sun for Hu. On October 19, he went to Luanping to discuss with Feng Hui, and decided on the date for the secret division to return to Beijing, and after the successful coup d'état in Yanjing, the three troops were combined and named the national army, and Deng Baoshan served as the commander of the seventh division of the second national army and the commander of the fifth army of the second group army.

It can be said that Deng Baoshan's troops are really native of the Northwest Army, and even the heroes and veterans of Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, because of this, when Qiu Weijun threw himself to Chiang Kai-shek, Deng Baoshan did not follow Chiang. However, because Deng Baoshan is a unit of Hu Jingyi's Second Army, he is not an old unit of Feng Yuxiang's First Army, and he is not a descendant of Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army. In this disarmament, Deng Baoshan's troops were assigned to the Central Deployment Area, and he was also forced to accept the command of the Central Army. Because Han Fuyu pulled away the troops and Feng Yuxiang went into the wilderness, Deng Baoshan did not want to be looked down upon in the Central Army, nor did he want to return to the Northwest Army, and no one took him as his own, so Deng Baoshan had no choice but to take the opportunity to take refuge in Tang Shengzhi.

Deng Baoshan originally thought that Tang Shengzhi now was the time to develop and strengthen his forces, and he would not be as harsh on his own army as others, and would not treat himself as a miscellaneous card, but what he didn't expect was that when he received Tang Shengzhi's telegram yesterday, he was willing to seek the near and far, not letting his Eighth Army fight Zhengzhou, but letting his troops attack Song Zhewu in Zhengzhou, which obviously wanted to use his troops as cannon fodder.

Although Deng Baoshan had never seen Song Zhewu's Fourth Route Army, he had heard a lot of the names of Song Zhewu and his Fourth Route Army. A force that can hardly shake the tens of thousands of horses of the elite 19th Army of the Gui Department in Hubei, and his Deng Baoshan's 10,000 people are by no means opponents, that is, the elite Sun Liangcheng Department of the Northwest Army, didn't he also suffer two big losses of the Fourth Route Army of Song Zhewu in Zhengzhou and Heishiguan!

His troops are also considered to be miscellaneous in the Northwest Army, so although his troops claim to be an army, they actually only have about 10,000 people, and their weapons and equipment are the worst in the Northwest Army, and they are not even comparable to the troops of Yang Hucheng and Pang Bingxun, who are also miscellaneous brands. If a unit with such combat effectiveness as him fights the Fourth Route Army, it is better to let him lead the troops to join Song Zhewu, so that the old brothers under his command can shed less blood.

Deng Baoshan, who was angry, had no choice, so she had to set off in the afternoon yesterday, and rushed to Zhengzhou at 2 o'clock in the morning today. Originally, he wanted to delay time, and wait for Li Pinxian's Eighth Army to arrive during the day to start attacking Zhengzhou, but to his surprise, the reconnaissance force reported: "Song Zhewu's Fourth Route Army has withdrawn from Zhengzhou. ”

entered Zhengzhou without any losses, and did not violate Tang Shengzhi's orders, which could not but make Deng Baoshan happy. On the one hand, Deng Baoshan sent a reconnaissance force to reconnoiter the whereabouts of the Fourth Route Army, and on the other hand, he ordered the troops to be deployed overnight and on strict alert. When he learned that the main force of the Fourth Route Army had withdrawn from the Yellow River and only part of the troops were stationed at Huayuankou, he relieved himself and ordered a regiment to go out to the village of Yuanyuan to set up defenses, and then he fell asleep on the bed.

Not long after he fell asleep, he was woken up by the chief of staff, and it turned out that Tang Shengzhi had called to ask about the location of his troops. Deng Baoshan never called Tang Shengzhi after entering Zhengzhou, not because he forgot, but because he was afraid that Tang Shengzhi would force him to pursue Song Zhewu's Fourth Route Army overnight. Deng Baoshan took out his pocket watch and looked at it, it was already six o'clock in the morning, and told the chief of staff that he could call back and report the truth. Because Deng Baoshan estimated that the Eighth Army was about to arrive, he would not report the truth again, for fear that Tang Shengzhi would blame him.

Not long after the telegram was sent, Tang Shengzhi called back and ordered him to pursue the Fourth Route Army at Huayuankou. According to the information he received, a unit of nearly 10,000 men of the Fourth Route Army set up positions in the area of Huayuankou and Qiaotou, and it seemed that they were not ready to withdraw to cross the river. But even the troops left in Henan by the Fourth Route Army were not something he Deng Baoshan could afford to provoke.

Deng Baoshan was so helpless that Deng Baoshan had no choice but to order the troops to have breakfast and prepare for departure.

After breakfast, Deng Baoshan put it off again and again, and it was not until 8 o'clock that he reluctantly ordered the troops to set off, and at the same time gave the order to the regiment in the village of Biyuan to attack at the entrance of the garden. According to Deng Baoshan's order, the regiment commander divided the troops into three parts, one company set off first as the vanguard, and a battalion followed one mile behind the company, and he himself led the main force of the regiment to follow two miles behind the battalion.

The regiment commander understood that this was the arrangement of a team that wanted to sacrifice the battalion and company in front of him, and he also made up his mind that once the forward was attacked, he would immediately withdraw to Zhengzhou with his troops. In order to keep the troops, it was necessary to abandon a few hundred people. However, before the battalion set off, the regiment commander couldn't help but call out to the battalion commander and whispered to him that if he was attacked, he could leave the unit and run back by himself.

After knowing the deployment of Deng Baoshan's troops, Song Zhewu and Tao Rong couldn't help but look at each other and smile bitterly. Song Zhewu originally thought that Tang Shengzhi would be angry and attacked, and that he would not hesitate to pounce on him and launch an attack as soon as the troops of the Fifth Route Army came up, and he was also prepared to take advantage of the fact that the troops of the Fifth Route Army came to attack, and they would take advantage of their unstable foothold to beat him to death and withdraw to Hebei, which completely aroused Tang Shengzhi's anger and made the matter bigger and bigger, and finally made Chiang Kai-shek have to agree to the withdrawal of his troops from Henan.

Song Zhewu took the initiative to withdraw from Zhengzhou, because he was afraid that once the two sides became entangled in Zhengzhou, the scale of the battle would be uncontrollable, and once the battle was too big, there would be too many casualties on both sides. Now that the large army has retreated across the Yellow River, leaving only one regiment, and after the battle, they can retreat across the Yellow River, as long as the iron bridge is blocked, it is absolutely impossible for Tang Shengzhi's troops to rush across the river in the current situation; Another idea is to show weakness to Tang Shengzhi and let him attack boldly, so as to create favorable conditions for him to successfully attack Tang Shengzhi's vanguard troops.

But now that Deng Baoshan is doing this, she is obviously unwilling to fight this battle with him, and she is even dealing with errands. He stretched the troops so long, once the fight started, he could only eat the hundreds of men and horses he put in front, and the regiment behind would easily run away, let alone capture Deng Baoshan's large army. Knocking out the hundreds of people who killed Deng Baoshan, will Tang Shengzhi care? If Chiang Kai-shek appeased Tang Shengzhi and his anger was extinguished, his Fourth Route Army would not be able to return to Henan......

(To be continued)