It's been a week, Liu Cunhou and Zhang Yiqian have already commanded the troops to launch a continuous onslaught on Jiujianfang for a week, although the momentum is very large, but both of them are trying their best to control the casualties and firepower, while Wu Peifu's side occupies the favorable terrain of the defense, and the defense is also done with ease, and neither side has suffered much loss, nor has it taken any advantage. Top Novel, www.

Standing at the command headquarters, the two were using binoculars to observe the battle situation on the front line, the sound of gunfire was endless, the sound of rifles of various calibers, mixed with the sound of heavy machine guns, the rumble of artillery has not stopped since the beginning of today's battle.

Near noon, a signal soldier jumped off his horse from outside and ran in to report: "Division Commander Liu, Division Commander Zhang, the commander orders that the offensive can be stopped, if Wu Peifu organizes troops to attack, you can defend and counterattack as appropriate, this is the order book!" ”

Liu Cunhou took the order and looked at it, then took out a pen to sign his name and handed it to Zhang Yiqian, Zhang Yiqian also signed his name, and after the communication soldier took the order and went out, Liu Cunhou said to Zhang Yiqian: "Lao Zhang, I'm tired enough these days, order the troops to withdraw, you and I take turns on duty at the command headquarters, and the position defense also takes turns, so that others can take turns to rest and recuperate, what do you see?" ”

Zhang Yiqian said: "No problem on my side!" ”

Since the stop of the offensive this time, Liu Cunhou and Zhang Yiqian have not launched an attack for three consecutive days, which makes Wu Peifu, who has been attacked continuously for more than a week, quite uncomfortable, and at the same time makes him extremely uneasy, suspecting that the Northern Expeditionary Army is carrying out some conspiracy.

Wu Peifu also wanted to try to attack the position of the Northern Expeditionary Army, but in terms of troops, his 17th division was not superior to the strength of Liu Cunhou and Zhang Yiqian. Attacking a large number of troops with a small number of troops is extremely rare in the history of warfare. In particular, after the form of war entered the era of hot weapons, it was very rare for a small number of troops to attack a large number of troops. Unless there is enough self-confidence, unless there is a world of difference in strength between the enemy and the enemy. However, this kind of example is not unprecedented, such as the land battle of the First Sino-Japanese War, when the Japanese attacked Korea, the strength of the Qing army at that time can be said to occupy an absolute advantage, the Qing army at that time can be said to have an absolute advantage, the reason why the Qing army has been defeated and retreated one after another, on the one hand, because the soldiers' military quality is too poor, there is no courage to fight with the Japanese army, on the other hand, the generals are greedy for life and afraid of death. The lack of resolute resistance was also due to the confusion of the command, all in all, the Japanese defeated the numerically superior Qing army with a small number of troops, and retreated one after another.

However, the situation is different now, the Northern Expeditionary Army is not the Qing court army, and Wu Peifu's army is not the Japanese army, and the possibility of succeeding in attacking the Northern Expeditionary Army with a small number of troops is basically non-existent.

On the fourth day, the more Wu Peifu thought about it, the more wrong it became, and he decided to send a company to try to launch a tentative attack on the positions of the Northern Expeditionary Army. But the result of the test surprised him greatly, it turned out that the Northern Expeditionary Army on the opposite position had long disappeared, and what remained on the position were some scarecrows in military uniforms.

Wu Peifu quickly sent someone to report the news to Xi'an, two days later. He received a military order from Cao Kun from Xi'an, asking him to lead his troops to attack in the direction of Shangluo, and Wu Peifu had great doubts in his heart. He did not dare to devote all his forces to advance in the direction of Shangluo, but first eliminated a battalion of troops as the vanguard. Let the large army follow, after all, the road from Jiujianfang to Shangluo is not convenient for marching. If the Northern Expeditionary Army still occupied the peaks on both sides of Wangsun Mountain, it would not be easy for him to hit the city of Shangluo.

When Wu Peifu led the army to the foot of Wangsun Mountain, as he expected, the Northern Expeditionary Army occupied the natural danger here, and it was impossible to open it, no matter how difficult it was, Wu Peifu immediately ordered to attack, and the battle was immediately launched.

Just when Wu Peifu commanded the troops to attack Wang Sun Mountain, Cai Yi gathered superior forces in Madang Town and the Fenghe River line to storm Madang, and collected ships to force the Fenghe River, the guard Liu Hongkui was paralyzed and careless, and it was too late to transfer troops and reinforcements when Cai Ye launched an attack, Madang and Fenghe two lines were lost at the same time, most of the defenders were scattered, and Liu Hongkui escaped with his life under the desperate protection of several horses.

Liu Hongkui is also from the Beiyang Military Academy, he is also the second batch of Beiyang soldiers, Cao Kun, Wang Zhanyuan, Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and other people are considered the first batch, Liu Hongkui is still very brave in battle, but this person has a very bad disadvantage is good wine, in addition to not daring to drink before meeting the chief, usually three meals a day can not be without wine, and at least once to get drunk. The reason why Cai Ye succeeded so easily this time was that he learned of Liu Hongkui's shortcomings and chose to attack at night, Liu Hongkui was already drunk at that time, and the soldiers were extremely tired and unprepared in the middle of the night, which made Cai Ye successful.

The next morning, Cai Yi crossed the Feng River with his command headquarters with the troops, and at this time, Zhu Peide also jumped ashore from a bamboo platoon and ran over to report: "Commander, Liu Cunhou sent someone to send news that Wu Peifu is leading his 17th Division to fiercely attack Wang Sun Mountain, and it is estimated that the army left in Jiujianfang will be at most two battalions!" ”

Cai's eyes lit up, "Oh? In this way, wouldn't we have a chance to capture Wu Ziyu alive? Immediately go and order Xiong Kewu, and ask him to order a regiment to go over and take nine rooms for me, and attack nine rooms from the west, I guess the defenders who stayed there would not have thought that their flanks would be attacked, right? Go ahead! ”

"Yes, Commander!" Juppel saluted and turned to leave.

Cai Ye said to the herald standing beside him: "Immediately send an order, let Xiong Kewu leave a regiment to collect prisoners and clean up the battlefield, and all the other troops will march towards Xi'an City at full speed with the army, and order Xu Chongzhi's troops and Zhang Yiqian's troops to speed up and strive to attack Xi'an City before Cao Kun has time to react!" ”

"Yes, Commander!"

The distance from the Fenghe River at the foot of the Qinling Mountains to Xi'an is not far, only one morning the army arrived at the south gate of Xi'an, Xi'an City suddenly made a mess, you must know that there is only one regiment in Xi'an City now, only 2,000 people, to defend four city gates, that is, each city gate is only 500 people, and Cai Yi has two divisions and a part of the surrendered troops, the total number is about 15,000 people. It is more than seven times that of Xi'an City, and the disparity in strength between the two sides is too great. This caused not only the officials in Xi'an to panic, but even Cao Kun panicked.

Cao Kun always thought that the southern defense was the most secure. After all, the roads to Xi'an from the direction of Hanzhong and Ankang are all goat's intestine trails, and some places can only accommodate one person to pass guò, and the Northern Expeditionary Army wants to fight Xi'an from these trails It is simply a fool's dream, but it is precisely Liu Hongkui, who he trusts the most, who has done something wrong with him, so when Liu Hongkui was fled back to Xi'an by several horses and appeared in front of him with a very wolf appearance, he pulled out his command knife on the spot and wanted to chop Liu Hongkui with a knife, but fortunately, several officers pulled Liu Hongkui back a life.

However, Cao Kun did not have time to deal with Liu Hongkui, and it didn't take long for the Northern Expeditionary Army to arrive in Xi'an, which made Cao Kun and some officers shocked. How can this be good, now that Liu Hongkui's department has been completely dispersed, it is basically impossible to find these routs back, the Northern Expeditionary Army outside the city has besieged the city, and not a single mosquito can fly out. Before that, Cao Kun sent people to ask Lu Yongxiang and Wu Peifu for help respectively, and now it is up to him to see if he can hold out until the reinforcements arrive.

In the evening of the same day, a staff officer of the Northern Expeditionary Army holding a white flag came to the city gate and took out a letter, claiming that it was a letter written by Cai Jie, the commander of the Western Route Army of the Northern Expeditionary Army, to Cao Kun. A hanging basket was soon laid down on the castle tower, and the staff officer did not leave after placing the letter in the basket, but continued to stay where he was.

The next morning, the staff officer who delivered the letter returned to report to Cai. Cao Kun's people took the letter, but there was no response, in fact, the letter was a letter of persuasion written by Cai Yi to Cao Kun. He must open the city gate and surrender before dawn today, otherwise the Northern Expeditionary Army will attack after dawn.

Since Cao Kun chose not to surrender. Cai Ye felt that he was benevolent and righteous, and immediately ordered an attack. Launched a fierce attack at the south gate, pinned down in the three directions of the east gate, the west gate and the north gate, the battle for a day, the corpses piled up above and below the south gate, and the south gate was almost lost, if it wasn't for Cao Kun at about four o'clock in the afternoon to transfer his own guards over to help defend, it is estimated that the northern expeditionary army has already entered the city.

The city wall of Xi'an is very strong, Cai Yi ordered to concentrate all the artillery to bombard the city wall, the shells hit for a day, although the city wall has been seen through, but still standing in the night.

In the middle of the night, Cao Kun took advantage of the fatigue of Cai Yi's army to attack during the day, organized most of the troops to open the east gate and forcibly break through to the east, it was dark outside the city at night, and a regiment of the Northern Expeditionary Army guarding outside the east gate was taken by surprise, and it was too late to mobilize troops when he reacted, and after paying heavy casualties, he still let Cao Kun escape, but Cao Kun only took away more than 200 people, and all the others were left as prisoners, and Xi'an was immediately occupied by the Northern Expeditionary Army.

After Cao Kun successfully broke through to the east with more than 200 people, he happened to meet the signal soldier who was sent to ask Wu Peifu for help, and then learned that Jiujianfang had also been occupied by a regiment of the Northern Expeditionary Army, but this communication soldier said that when he arrived at Jiujianfang, the Northern Expeditionary Army was attacking, and after he arrived, he told the Beiyang defenders there about the situation in Xi'an, and they had sent someone to inform Wu Peifu.

After listening to the report of the signal troops, Cao Kun decided not to stay any longer, and immediately went east to Tongguan quickly, where is there still a regiment of troops of the Beiyang Army, and it is more than enough to defend Tongguan with the strength of one regiment for the time being, as long as he can block the Northern Expeditionary Army west of Tongguan and prevent Cai Ye from threatening Henan and Shanxi, he will have enough time to remobilize his forces to deal with Cai Yi.

The next day, when Lu Yongxiang was shocked when he learned the news of the loss of Xi'an, in order to prevent being attacked by the Northern Expeditionary Army from the east and west, he immediately led his troops to retreat north to Gansu, and then continued north from Gansu through Ningxia into Suiyuan.

And Wu Peifu knew that Xi'an was besieged by the Northern Expeditionary Army and that the Northern Expeditionary Army was attacking Jiujianfang, there was a blockage in front, the back road was broken, and if he wanted to escape from Ascension, he had to make a strange move, he was also a person with a firm mind, after a short panic, he sent someone to find a mountain hunter in the local mountainous area, and let the hunter take the mountain path to the east, the mountain path in this area is too dangerous, the road is extremely difficult, and the army often accidentally rolls down the mountain during the march.

Half a month later, Wu Peifu appeared under Tongguan City with the 17th Division, which had lost two-thirds of its strength and all its heavy weapons, and everyone was so hungry that their faces were yellow and thin. The Western Route Army of the Northern Expeditionary Army, under the command of Cai Yi, quickly captured most of Shaanxi within half a month. (To be continued......) R527