Zhang Yinwu, who was anxious, found Mardan, the head of the French General Engineering Department in charge of the operation of Zhengtai Road, and asked the French to restore the bridge that was blown up on Zhengtai Road as soon as possible.

However, the French did not buy the account of him, a general who had always been arrogant and domineering in the Jin Sui army, Mardan just shrugged his shoulders and told Zhang Yinwu very casually, "It is not impossible to repair these blown bridges, first, Zhang Yinwu is asked to take money, not only for the construction costs, but also for some construction materials to be bought in Tianjin; The second is that repairing these bridges is not something that can be done with the next order, it will take time, and it will take about a month to complete at the earliest. ’

Zhang Yinwu was very helpless about the arrogant attitude of the French, not only him, but also Yan Xishan had no way to take these foreigners, so he had to order all the troops to march to Jingcheng on foot.

But in this way, it was originally less than a hundred miles to reach Jingcheng along Zhengtai Road, because some bridges were bombed, it was necessary to take a detour, and it would take dozens of miles more than ten miles of mountain roads, and it would take at least two days for the whole army's materials and equipment to reach Jingcheng, so angry that he had already arrived at Yan Xishan in Datong, and he could no longer care about his demeanor, and in front of Fu Zuoyi, Wang Jingguo, Yang Yaofang, and Yang Chengyuan, he slapped the table and smashed the chair and scolded Zhang Yinwu.

Fu Zuoyi, who arrived in Datong, did not let Yan Xishan worry, he ignored Yan Xishan's repeated urgings, and did not take immediate action, but sent a large number of investigators to Youyu, Shanyin, Yingxian, Lingqiu, and even Fanzhi and Daixian to actively collect intelligence on the Fourth Route Army.

On the one hand, it actively replenishes the strength of various armies. In addition to replenishing all the more than 20,000 additional troops in Datong into the four armies in Datong, Fu Zuoyi also recruited more than 10,000 people in Datong, and all of them were also replenished into the troops, actively training and preparing for war.

Although Fu Zuoyi was busy in Datong, he did not march in the direction of Yingxian and Yanmen Pass. Every time Yan Xishan urged, he refused on the grounds that the enemy's situation was unclear and he was not well prepared. Yan Xishan was so angry that he blew his beard and stared at him in a hurry and had no choice, but the people around him were unlucky, and they were often scolded by Yan Xishan for no reason, if it weren't for Zhou Ying and Gu Renfa repeatedly dissuaded, the angry Yan Xishan really wanted to withdraw Fu Zuoyi, the commander-in-chief.

Yan Xishan here in Datong made Fu Zuoyi angry, and Song Zhewu here in Taiyuan also made Fu Zuoyi confused.

According to Song Zhewu's intelligence, Fu Zuoyi now has 1230,000 troops that can be commanded in Datong, and he has exceeded his estimate in terms of troops, and compared with the Fourth Route Army on the front line of Youyu, Yingxian, Shanyin, and Fanzhi, he already has a slight advantage in terms of strength, and he should have seized the time to launch an attack on the Fourth Route Army on this line, otherwise the longer the time, the more fully prepared the Fourth Route Army on the northern front will be, and the more difficult it will be for Fu Zuoyi to break through the defense line of the Fourth Route Army. But Fu Zuoyi just didn't move, which made Song Zhewu very puzzled.

According to Wang Xu, if the Jin Sui Army starts to act now, because the Jin Sui Army will definitely mention the place name of the battlefield and the number of troops in the telegrams, and even the battle situation must be mentioned. It will take more time.

In addition to ordering the troops on the northern front to continue to strengthen the fortifications, Song Zhewu decided to adjust the defense of the northern front again after careful discussion with Tao Rong, Mengxi, Li Wentian in Daixian, and Zhang Yafei and Xu Fang in Taiyuan.

For the sake of insurance, Song Zhewu decided: give up Fanzhi, and the Fanzhi defenders withdrew to Daixian to deploy defenses; Liang Fang's Fifth Army sent a division to San'in to replace the troops of Zhao Fengwu's army in Shanyin, and this part of the Eighth Army, which had been replaced, advanced to Yingxian to strengthen Yingxian's strength; The Ninth Army immediately advanced to Dai County and maneuvered near Yanmen Pass.

At the same time, Wu Jin was ordered to step up aerial reconnaissance of the Datong Jin Sui Army, and the Eighth Army and the Fifth Army in Yingxian and Fanzhi should also send more small units of reconnaissance troops, carrying radio stations, to conduct reconnaissance as close as possible to Datong.

When Xu Yongchang led the three armies of Sun Chu, Yang Xiaoou and Guan Fu'an, as well as more than 10,000 remnants of Sun Dianying's remnants who crossed the Yellow River with him, they rushed to Changzhi, and the two armies of Zhang Tao and Liang Zhongjia had all withdrawn from Changzhi and went to Qinyuan, Qinxian, Yushe, and Liaoxian to set up defenses.

Xu Yongchang did not continue to pursue the Fourth Route Army in the north, but ordered Sun Chu and Sun Dianying to garrison Changzhi, Guan Fuan to garrison Jincheng, and he himself led Yang Xiaoou's army and Qin Shaoguanyuan's troops stationed in Jincheng and Changzhi to rush to Linfen.

The Linfen Basin is the largest grain and cotton producing area in Shanxi, and of course it is also the most important city in southern Jinnan.

In addition, Xu Yongchang was also very concerned about the safety of Ma Liang and Liu Fengji, although he had ordered Qin Shaoguan to send troops to meet the two in Jiexiu, but the troops in Linfen were too weak, and he had to arrive as soon as possible.

After Ma Liang and Liu Fengji learned that Taiyuan was lost, they already knew that they had been fooled, so naturally they would never rush to Linxian again. However, the two of them are not fools, they know very well that it is absolutely impossible to recapture Taiyuan with the two of them with more than 10,000 troops, and it is only a dead end to go to Taiyuan at this time.

Ma Liang, commander of the 39th Division, is the most outstanding among the students of Yan Xishan's "Northern Military Academy", and he is also the most valued by Yan Xishan, and of course he is also the person with the highest current position among the graduates of the "Northern Military Academy" in the Jinsui Army.

When Liu Fengji was still hesitating, Ma Liang, without consulting anyone, ordered the troops, except for carrying weapons and ammunition and two days' rations per person, to abandon all baggage and rush to Jiexiu at full speed.

At the same time, Maleonn ordered the station to be turned off and kept silent. Because he believed that Zhou Shilian was likely to have surrendered to Song Zhewu, and the current password had been learned by the Fourth Route Army.

It was precisely because Ma Liang decisively turned off the radio station that Xu Fang couldn't figure out his location for a while, which also bought him a lot of time to escape from Jiexiu.

At the same time, Ma Liang sent a cavalry communication squad to look for Liu Fengji near Lou Fu with his handwritten letter, and asked Liu Fengji to lead his troops to transfer to Jiexiu immediately.

Liu Fengji climbed up step by step from the soldiers, unlike Ma Liang, who was a "protégé of the Son of Heaven", he did not have a deep foundation in the Jin Sui army, although he also knew that it was wishful thinking to recapture Taiyuan, but he did not dare to make a claim, and wanted to discuss with Ma Liang, but he couldn't contact Ma Liang, and wanted to ask Yan Xishan for instructions, but was blocked by his chief of staff.

His chief of staff believed that once Yan Xishan was consulted, he would have to carry out Yan Xishan's orders, and this would likely put the 37th Division in a situation from which it would never recover.

When Liu Fengji was in a dilemma and anxiously waiting, he received a letter from Ma Liang, which made Liu Fengji overjoyed, with Ma Liang's letter, Yan Xishan would blame him in the future, and that would also be Ma Liang's love for Yan Xishan.

Liu Fengji and his chief of staff discussed and decided to follow Ma Liang's advice, first run to Jiexiu and talk about it when he was safe, and then decide on the next step to see how the situation develops.

In order not to be intercepted by the troops of the Fourth Route Army that occupied Taiyuan, he did not take the short road of Lou Fu, Gujiao, Wenshui, Fenyang to Jiexiu, but changed to Lanxian, Fangshan, Luliang, Zhongyang to Jiexiu, which is a long bow.

That's it, Ma Liang is still not at ease, every time he encounters danger along the way, he will inevitably leave a company of troops, ready to block possible pursuers, and Ma Liang left two and a half battalions in one breath on the road from Lanxian to Zhongyang. It was precisely because of Ma Liang's caution that he and his 39th Division escaped the pursuit of Xu Fang's fast army.

A division sent by Xu Fang to Lou Fu to intercept Ma Liang waited in vain for a day at Lou Fan, and when he knew where Ma Liang was going and arrived at Fangshan, Ma Liang was already almost in Luliang.

When he continued to pursue, he was constantly intercepted by the blocking troops left by Ma Liang along the way, because the blocking troops left by Ma Liang were too small, so naturally they could not stop Xu Fang's pursuers, but this added a lot of trouble to Xu Fang's pursuers.

Although Xu Fang's troops all have horses, and the marching speed is much faster than Ma Liangbu's, even if Ma Liang walks a day first, it will not be a problem to catch up with him, but in order to deal with these small blocking troops, Xu Fang stopped and stopped along the way, from discovering the enemy to eliminating these small blocking forces, each place will take more than two hours at the earliest, this is it, although Xu Fang eliminated Ma Liang's two and a half battalions, but also let Ma Liang and Liu Fengji enter Jiexiu a few hours earlier than his pursuers.

Jiexiu is an important place connecting Taiyuan and Linfen, is the north gate of the Linfen Basin, and its strategic position is very important, so Qin Shaoguan stationed a regiment here.

Although the Jin Sui army did not have many troops in Jiexiu, but Jiexiu was the support point for the defense of Shaanxi, and there was originally a relatively complete fortification system, as soon as Ma Liang and Liu Fengji arrived, the three troops together had more than 10,000 people, because of the sufficient troops, under the command of Ma Liang, the little Jiexiu immediately became like a hedgehog with spikes, making people feel that there was nowhere to start.

That is, he did not catch up with Ma Liang, nor did he keep Liu Fengji, which made Xu Fang very angry, after arriving at Jiexiu, Xu Fang wanted to immediately order the troops to attack Jiexiu, but under the persuasion of Chief of Staff Wang Xiaotian, Xu Fang, who was much more mature, changed his mind.

On the one hand, he ordered the troops surrounding Jiexiu from the west and north to step up fire reconnaissance on Jiexiu, and find out as soon as possible the deployment of the Jin Sui army's peripheral fortifications in Jiexiu, and on the other hand, he arranged for the troops to seize the time to rest and prepare for the siege. At the same time, he telegraphed Song Zhewu of the situation of the pursuit and Jiexiu, and asked for orders for the next move.

(To be continued)