In the headquarters of Liujiamiao Station, Wang Zhanyuan began to be anxious, the second line of defense is now about to be overwhelmed, how can he block the offensive momentum of the Northern Expeditionary Army?

At this time, the chief of staff, He Peirong, rushed in with a sweaty face and said anxiously: "Division commander, the big thing is not good, the Hubei army can't resist it, Li Yuanhong unilaterally ordered the troops to withdraw to Hanchuan, and the Northern Expeditionary Army now occupies the position left by the Hubei army after retreating, that is to say, the right wing of our army has directly faced the threat of the Northern Expeditionary Army, please decide to stay quickly, and if you hesitate, our army will be attacked from both sides!" ”

"Li Yuanhong harmed me!" Wang Zhanyuan screamed when he heard this, and spat out a mouthful of blood, and almost fell to the ground, but fortunately, He Peirong reacted quickly and helped him up, and began to deploy immediately after Wang Zhanyuan woke up; "Quick, find someone to drive the train to Hukou Station to standby, you must not leave the train to the Northern Expeditionary Army, otherwise they can go north through the Guò train to directly threaten Xinyang, and let Shi Zhensheng give me to resist in the second line of defense, the cavalry regiment retreats to Hukou to hold the mouth and stand by, order the commander of the seventh regiment, Zhu Yancan, and the commander of the eighth regiment, Liu Dingchen, to deploy around the headquarters, dig trenches, dig wider and deeper, nail me here, use the train track and the buildings around the railway station to form a solid line of defense, Gather all the heavy machine guns in the division, let the remnants of the artillery regiment bring the few remaining guns to the waiting room, and prepare enough ammunition, I will let the Northern Expeditionary Army stop at Liujiamiao, and make this place their grave! ”

The walls of the waiting room are extremely strong, and they are made of reinforced concrete, and ordinary shells cannot penetrate the wall at all, which is why Wang Zhanyuan asked the artillerymen to pull the artillery into the waiting room.

At dawn, the Second Beiyang Division finally couldn't stop the advance of the Northern Expeditionary Army. Retreat from the second line of defense, and retreat to Liujiamiao Station on the whole line. At this time, Liujiamiao Station had been excavated and defended by the 7th and 8th Regiments of the 2nd Division after a night of excavation, and the fortifications of the entire station were constructed. Relying on the buildings around the station, with the waiting room as the center, the surrounding buildings are used as covers, and trenches are dug between buildings and buildings, and between buildings and train tracks to facilitate cover and communication, forming an extremely complete defense system.

However, after a night of fighting, the officers and men of the Northern Expeditionary Army were extremely tired, and did not attack again after occupying the second line of defense, and it was already afternoon after the second echelon landed on the shore.

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Wuchang Front Command.

It was sweltering heat in the headquarters, and almost everyone was sweating, despite this. No officer or soldier can untie the discipline button, and they cannot do it during combat or training, because this is a discipline regulation, and if they violate it, they will be locked up.

Under all kinds of information, the staff officers embodied the changes in the military situation of the enemy and us on the sand table, and some staff officers marked the map with a pen, and the entire command headquarters flowed endlessly.

Zhang Xiaozhun stood in front of the sand table with his arms crossed and stared at the sand table, when a staff officer came over and saluted: "Report to the commander." The battle report came from the 4th Reserve Division in front, the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Regiments of the 4th Infantry Division had captured the three defense lines of the Hubei Army, and Li Yuanhong led the remnants to retreat in a panic and had retreated to the direction of Hanchuan to garrison! The 31st Division came with a battle report. Our division has captured the second line of defense of Wang Zhanyuan's division of the Beiyang Second Division, and Wang Zhanyuan has a firm will to resist, and has led the remaining troops to retreat to Liujiamiao Station to garrison. Our ministry has besieged Liujiamiao Station, but Wang occupies the Yuanzhi station and the train track. The train has already left for Hukou, and the other party can retreat in the direction of Hukou at any time. In addition, Wang Zhanyuan has used the buildings around the station to build a strong bunker group around the Liujiamiao station, our division launched an attack an hour ago, but the losses are quite large, the opponent occupies a favorable terrain, our artillery has not yet been transported across the river, mortars and so on can not cause damage to it, request the headquarters to contact the Yangtze River fleet, let the fleet ships provide artillery support, and send troops to cut off its retreat! ”

After listening to this staff officer's recitation of the two battle reports, several staff officers standing on the edge of the sand table immediately planted their small military flags on the sand table positions of the representatives of the areas already occupied by our side.

Zhang Xiaozhun stared at the sand table for a few minutes and then walked back and forth in front of the sand table, obviously thinking about the next deployment, and he stopped for a long time before he stopped: "First, order the second echelon of the reserve fourth division to quickly go north to pursue Li Yuanhong's department, bite his tail tightly, the other troops of the division will leave enough vigilance troops to control Hanyang after a little rest, and the other main forces will go north at full speed tomorrow morning to meet the second echelon, and the wounded will be left behind, and organize forces to transport the heavy artillery troops across the Yangtze River and then follow the main force to provide fire support at any time." Second, give the 31st Division an order not to act brutally, the headquarters will contact the Yangtze River Fleet, let the fleet use naval guns to shell Liujiamiao Station, the 31st Division should find out the opponent's firepower point, and then notify the Yangtze River Fleet of the coordinates and orientation of the opponent's firepower point, the specific shelling time will be notified separately, after the shelling, let the 31st Division organize a firepower squad to carry out a penetrating attack on Liujiamiao Station, and break down Wang Zhanyuan's strong fortifications. Third, give an order to the 43rd Division of the Hunan Army, order a regiment to collect ships from Tianxingzhou to cross the Yangtze River to attack the three bridges, and must take the three bridges before tomorrow evening, cutting off Wang Zhanyuan's retreat! ”

"Yes, Commander!"

Sandao Bridge is located between Liujiamiao Station and Hukou, it is the necessary place to pass from Liujiamiao Station to Hukou, and the Sandao Iron Bridge is built on a large lake swamp to lay the rails of the Jinghan Railway, hence the name. As long as he captures this place, it will not be easy for Wang Zhanyuan to escape, unless he leaves his large army behind and escapes alone.

After the success of the Wuchang Uprising two years ago, the revolutionary army attacked Hukou from many directions, and the combat force was mainly the regular army of the Hubei New Army. The Qing troops stubbornly resisted the Sandao Bridge and suppressed several charges of the revolutionary army, but because the Sandao Bridge was surrounded by a large lake and mud swamp, the reinforcements sent by the Hubei military government from Jiangnan could not gain a foothold at all. The attack on Hukou failed, and the revolutionary army suffered heavy casualties and had to retreat, and since then the revolutionary army has been pressed and beaten by the Beiyang Army until it has lost Hankou and Hanyang in succession.

Xiangyang, the headquarters of the First Beiyang Army.

There was a commotion in the headquarters, a square table of four people sat on one side, and there were more than a dozen officers standing around, it turned out that there was mahjong rubbing here, and one of them sitting north and facing south was Duan Zhigui, the commander of the First Army, he smiled with a red face, his hands kept with the mahjong on the table, but his mouth muttered: "Forty-eight, give money to money!" ”

The other three officers were sweating profusely when they lost, and while rubbing mahjong, they took out some silver coins from their front and threw them over, Duan Zhigui smiled and collected the silver money that the three families had lost to him.

This mahjong is not big, and winning or losing is not big, but Duan Zhigui is happy, in addition to liking to pimp for dignitaries and nobles to pave the way for himself to climb the dragon and attach the phoenix, he also has a special hobby, that is, he likes to play mahjong, he has no other requirements for playing mahjong, some people play mahjong and look at mahjong cards, only play mahjong with good mahjong friends, but Duan Zhigui does not look at mahjong cards at all, as long as someone accompanies him to rub mahjong, no matter who it is, he is happy, for him, If you don't play mahjong for a day, it's itchy, he has an addiction, and this addiction is not ordinary, don't pick people at all when playing mahjong, just rub it.

There is a sign hanging at the door of this headquarters, which reads "Commander-in-Chief's Office", there are more than 100 people working in the headquarters, in addition to the card table where Duan Zhigui sits, there are also six tables of mahjong, each table has people playing cards, in addition to military supplies, there are seven mahjong, there are 14 pairs of smoking guns and cigarette trays, hundreds of dozens of hoho water are placed on the side of the wall, and those who want to use them can take it by themselves.

At this time, a staff officer came over with a telegram and reported: "Commander, Hankou and Hanyang battle reports!" ”

Duan Zhigui was happy when he won the money just now, he kept holding mahjong tiles in his hand, and commanded in his mouth: "Read!" ”

The staff officer had to read it out: "The Northern Expeditionary Army launched an attack across the river in the early hours of yesterday morning, the firepower was fierce, and it was dark at night, we were unprepared, and the Northern Expeditionary Army was successfully attacked, Li Yuanhong's troops were defeated and retreated to the direction of Hanchuan, my second division still held the Liujiamiao Station, but the losses were quite large, and now the Hukou Station is still in my hands, please send reinforcements as soon as possible!" ”

The officers playing cards and the onlookers around were shocked when they heard this, they were crossed by the Northern Expeditionary Army across the Yangtze River, and the Hubei Army and the Second Division in front could not resist it, wouldn't the Northern Expeditionary Army soon come over?

Duan Zhigui was extremely unhappy by this telegram, and the little interest in winning just now was gone, and when he saw that the officers were all discolored, he waved his hand and said, "What are you panicking about?" Don't panic, the Northern Expeditionary Army has just crossed the river, and it will take time to occupy Hankou and Hanyang, where can you fight here so quickly? Where has Li Chunbu gone? ”

The staff officer said: "It's almost time for Xiaogan!" ”

Duan Zhigui hurriedly said: "What, let Li Chun stop going further after he arrives in Xiaogan, build fortifications on the spot, and give Wang Zhanyuan an order, telling him not to defend Hankou if he can't stand it, and retreat directly to Xiaogan to join Li Chun's troops to start a defense, he still has a train, it should be no problem to escape back, right?" ”

"Yes, Commander!" The staff officer agreed, and then said, "What about Li Yuanhong?" ”

"Li Yuanhong? Leave him alone, when the Kuomintang made trouble in Wuchang two years ago, he didn't do anything and picked up a cheap one for nothing to become the governor, hehe, it's really good luck, this person is a speculator, I see, this person sees that the Northern Expeditionary Army is powerful, and it is estimated that it is very likely that he will leave us alone and make peace with the South again, let Li Chun divide a group of men and horses to go to Hanchuan to stare at him, and force him to fight to the death with the Northern Expeditionary Army, if he doesn't do it, destroy him first and then collect his army, go! ”

"Yes, Commander!" The staff officer saluted and turned to leave. (To be continued......) R1292