The two large-scale battles in Jiangbei and Jiangnan can be said to have wiped out the capital that the Anhui army had accumulated for many years, losing more than 150,000 troops before and after, and even the two elite units of the Fourth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade also lost nearly half.

In these two major battles, the Anhui army lost a large number of heavy weapons and equipment, veterans with rich combat experience, and middle- and lower-level officers who were relatively high, and these could not be replenished in a short period of time.

More importantly, the Anhui army had already lost its temper by the Feng army in the two major battles in Jiangbei and Jiangnan, and the morale of the troops had dropped strictly, except for the two units of the Fourth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade, which could continue to fight stubbornly, the morale of the other troops was very worrying.

So don't look at the number of nearly ten divisions of the Anhui Army now, but in fact, today's Anhui Army is no longer the Anhui Army at its peak in the second half of 1907.

Although the Anhui army gathered a lot of troops, totaling more than 50,000 people, in fact, even Duan Qirui himself was not hopeful that Nanchang could resist the attack of the Fourth Army.

"Why hasn't Wuchang moved yet, does he Zhang Zhidong think that my Duan Qirui has fallen, can he still live alone?" Duan Qirui looked at the situation that was getting worse day by day, and he was even more angry that the Southern Federation of Wuchang did not act.

Facing the telegram sent by Duan Qirui urging him to send troops to Jiangxi, Zhang Zhidong sighed, he already knew that the current Anhui army had reached the eve of collapse, and if he did not move any longer, I am afraid that in less than two months, the Anhui system would retreat from Jiangxi and Zhejiang, and it would be absolutely impossible to keep Fujian and Guangdong in the future.

Now the relationship between the Anhui family and the Southern Federation is cold, even if he is still dissatisfied with Duan Qirui in his heart, he still has to start acting.

However, before considering sending troops to Jiangxi, he had to leave a part of his troops to resist Wang Shizhen's attack.

Zhang Zhidong gathered a lot of troops in Hubei and Hunan, and many generals of the Southern Federation also knew that their troops were not good at combat effectiveness, since the combat effectiveness was not good, then they would use the number to make up for it, so the number of troops under Zhang Zhidong's command was very large, only in Hubei Province, he gathered more than 200,000 troops.

In addition, there are nearly 100,000 troops in Hunan.

In terms of the number of troops alone, in fact, the three people of the Southern Federation, Zhang Zhidong, Duanfang, and Zhao Erxun combined, have reached nearly 600,000 troops in their hands, far exceeding any warlord in Beiyang.

But there are many of them, but the combat effectiveness is not good.

If you want to send troops to Jiangxi, if you want to achieve certain results, then the troops sent out must not be less, and you must be prepared for two to one, or even three to one, so after Zhang Zhidong made up his mind, he soon transferred the Fifth Army of the Northern Expedition to Jiangxi, and before leaving, he also enriched several troops to the Fifth Army of the Northern Expedition, so that the strength of the Fifth Army of the Northern Expedition reached 80,000.

These 80,000 people sound very scary, you know, the total strength of the Feng army is only about 300,000, the second army of the Feng army invested in the operation in southern Zhejiang is less than 40,000, and the fourth army of Meng Enyuan, which is invested in the Jiangxi operation, is the strongest, but the total strength is only 70,000 people, and the fourth army has to divide the troops into many ways, in addition to attacking Nanchang, the fourth army also sent the 14th division to march into the area of Hengzhou Mansion.

The Fifth Army of the Northern Expedition under Zhang Zhidong set off directly from Hubei, and they did not go to Nanchang, but went straight to Jiujiang. This is obviously the Anhui army Zhang Guotai who wants to reinforce Jiujiang.

However, Zhang Zhidong's behavior of sending troops to Jiujiang did not stop the Feng army from attacking Nanchang, on the contrary, it was threatened by the direction of Jiujiang, and the combat office had already given an order to Meng Enyuan on the front line, asking Meng Enyuan to take Nanchang as much as possible, and then send troops north to reinforce the direction of Jiujiang.

Since the end of the Jiangnan Campaign, Meng Enyuan has also received such a strict order for the first time, he knows very well that in the command system of the Feng army, don't look at himself as the commander of the first army, the number one military boss in the Feng army, but in the Feng army, the combat department is the boss. In the face of the strict orders of the Operations Department, Meng Enyuan did not dare to slack off, and soon gave an order to Gu Lanyu on the front line, asking the Third Division to make a strategic breakthrough.

Meng Enyuan didn't dare to slack off, Gu Lanyu didn't dare to slack off, since the Battle of Jinling, although the Third Division fought many battles in the follow-up, but the fierce Cheng dù was average, in other words, the Third Division has been resting and recovering for two months.

Since his troops are in good condition, then Gu Lanyu doesn't plan to delay for too long, he has to make his appearance better, so that it is possible to go further, otherwise he will have to be confined to the level of division commander all the time.

After two days of preparation, on July 28, Gu Lanyu's third division launched its first large-scale general attack on Nanchang.

The ace force of the Third Division was pressed by nearly 18,000 people, even if there were more than 30,000 defenders in Nanchang, but it still could not stop the fierce offensive of the Third Division of the Feng Army.

Those Liangjiang Provincial Army, like many of its predecessors, had just engaged in the battle for two days, and collapsed again under a large number of casualties, which made Jin Yunpeng, the commander in charge of Nanchang's defense, quite helpless, and he also knew in his heart that the Liangjiang Provincial Army under his command could not be fought, but he did not expect that it would be so bad, under the onslaught of the Fourth Army, Nanchang was declared lost after only three days, creating a domestic warlord war, and the fastest chance of losing an important strategic city.

In the case of the large-scale rout of the Liangjiang troops under his command, he could not rely on the second mixed brigade alone, and finally could only flee to Fuzhou with the second mixed brigade, as for the other Liangjiang provincial army, the eighth division retreated a little earlier, so it was able to escape to the Xinyu area, but the rest of the troops were not so lucky, the defeated were defeated, and the captured were captured.

The battle of Nanchang was fought for only three days, but the Anhui army set a record and lost more than 30,000 people in three divisions here.

The 11th, 12th, and 13th Divisions of Liangjiang have disappeared into the world as dust of history.

On the same day, Duan Qirui also came to another news, that is, in the direction of Zhejiang, the Fourth Division was unable to fight and was forced to abandon Jinhua and continue to retreat south, and the 10th Division of the Second Army of the Soviet Union captured Jinhua, an important city in central Zhejiang.

Hearing the news of the loss of Nanchang and Jinhua one after another, Duan Qirui was speechless for a long time, as if he had seen last year's scene re-enact this year.

Last year, he led the Fourth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade and other troops south to Jiangxi and Zhejiang, and it was also as rapid as the current Feng army, and almost did not meet a round of enemy all the way south, and in just half a year, he occupied most of southern China.

However, now it seems that he has also followed in the footsteps of the Southern Federation, and he cannot stop the offensive of the Feng army in Jiangxi and Zhejiang.

Do you really want to quit the domestic political stage?

He was not reconciled!

However, what if he was unwilling, now he remembered the Xiliang who committed suicide in Chaozhou, and Lei Zhenchun, who committed suicide in the defeat of Dangtu, maybe he would follow in their footsteps!

If Duan Qirui only saw the dawn of defeat now, then in the next two months, Duan Qirui was really desperate.

On August 1, Lu Yongxiang of the First Army of the Feng Army led the First Division to conquer the Madang Fort, which was crucial for the Battle of Jiujiang, and then took Pengze, Zhang Guotai's troops were forced to retreat to the Hukou area, on August 5, the Feng Army captured Fuzhou, the 14th Division of the Feng Army captured Hengzhou, and then the 3rd Division of the Feng Army went north to Jiujiang, all the way to capture Yongxiu, De'an and other important towns in the south of the Jiujiang River, and arrived south of the Jiujiang River on August 16.

On 17 August, the First Army of Lu Yongxiang of the Feng Army launched a large-scale offensive against Hukou, and the Anhui army had no way to retreat and no ammunition inside.

On the evening of the same day, Zhang Guotai was placed under house arrest by his subordinates, and several brigade commanders and regiment commanders under his subordinates forged Zhang Guotai's signature to announce the surrender of the whole army, and issued a 'letter to the people' in the name of Zhang Guotai, saying that the general trend of domestic unification was the same as that of Zhang Guotai, and he Zhang Guotai did not dare to stop the general trend of history, so he announced that his subordinates were in Anhui anyway and turned their allegiance to the central government.

After the release of this telegram in the name of Zhang Guotai, it set off a great turmoil in the country, Duan Qirui scolded Zhang Guotai for being a traitor, betraying the great cause of the republic, and betraying the last wishes of Duke Yuan.

Zhang Guotai knew about this telegram, sighed deeply, things have developed to this point, it is no longer beyond his control, now he has completely lost control of the Hukou Anhui Army, several brigade commanders of the Hukou Anhui Army and many regiment commanders have launched a few representatives to negotiate with the Feng Army, the content of the negotiation is not whether to surrender, but how to surrender, those Anhui army generals asked to take the initiative to surrender to the name of the central government, and asked the Soviet Department to give them the number of the Central Army, and maintain a certain degree of military independence.

And the Soviet faction will naturally not accept this, it is okay to take the initiative to surrender, and it is okay to give the number of the Central Army, but it is impossible for you to maintain your independence, and the Feng army has never set such a precedent.

In the end, this deadlock was broken by Zhang Guotai, although Zhang Guotai was very dissatisfied with the surrender of his generals, but he also knew that if he continued to resist stubbornly, sooner or later the whole army would be destroyed, and the telegram issued by his subordinates in his name pushed him directly to the cusp of the storm, and when Duan Qirui thought that he was already a traitor, he had no room for maneuver, and then gritted his teeth and was ruthless, and directly surrendered to Fengjun.

He only had two demands, one was to follow the precedent of the 16th Division and reorganize the surrendered troops into the Central Army Army, and the second was that he himself must also be the commander of this unit.

However, many middle and high-level generals are not required to maintain their independence, which is equivalent to Zhang Guotai's subordinates selling Zhang Guotai, but now Zhang Guotai is selling those subordinates again.