Feng Guozhang withdrew to Wuhu before the main force of the army, and the latest news came at this time, through Li Chun's dispatch and command, the newly formed Beiyang Sixth Division, together with the Dingwu Army and the Anwu Army, a total of 40,000 horses, successfully entered Pukou, and at this time Bai Chongxi's vanguard was still more than 70 miles away from Pukou.

This latest news made Feng Guozhang very annoyed, the reason why he withdrew the main force in such a hurry before, although there was a reason for the sneak attack on the headquarters by the Youth Army, but it was not enough to make him chaotic. The root cause of his panic was Bai Chongxi's aggressive marching posture, and the night attack of the Youth Army this time made him feel that the Youth Army had rushed towards him like a big net. Years of experience gave Feng Guozhang, the old master, the illusion that Tao Zhiyue had begun a big pursuit under Zhao Yong's chaotic fist, so he ignored the opposition of Wang Zhanyuan and others, and issued an order to retreat on the whole line very nervously, and did not even arrange the troops behind the palace. If it weren't for Guo Songling's decision to set up a law enforcement team to maintain traffic, whether the Beiyang Army could return to Wuhu in a form might be a big question mark.

Maybe it was God's pity on Feng Guozhang's misery, this time the goddess of luck showed him a smile, Tao Zhiyue was also blinded, he didn't know what the Beiyang Army was going to do, and turned around in front of his own army? How could Feng Guozhang make such an idiotic move? Tao Zhiyue concluded that a veteran and famous general like Feng Guozhang would definitely not be stupid, so he didn't know if this was playing a knife trick or an empty city trick. Tao Zhiyue thought about it again and again, considering some of his own difficulties, Tao Zhiyue cautiously made a decision that he regretted and watched Feng Guozhang retreat to Wuhu.

And when Zhao Yong and the others escorted Yang Shande to the position of the Tongling army and asked Tao Zhiyue and Li Zongren for credit, Tao Zhiyue realized what a big mistake he had made. This is simply a dereliction of duty, and it was this fatal mistake that made the Youth Army miss the best opportunity to easily defeat the Beiyang Army. As for Tao Zhiyue personally, it also greatly reduced his status in the heart of the handsome, who was originally highly valued by Wang Zhenyu. In the future army, Tao Zhiyue began to slowly move away from the core, although his position continued to be promoted, but he never had the opportunity to command a campaign or battle alone, which can not but be said to be a huge regret.

The only remedy now is to hope that the 11th Division can really complete a large-scale interspersed mission as required by Li Zongren's order, cut off the passage from Wuhu to Nanjing in time, and cut off the road for Feng Guozhang and his nearly 100,000 Beiyang troops to flee back to Nanjing and return to the north, so as to make up for the mistake of the 1st Division in escaping the enemy. However, the 11th Division was the weakest unit of the entire Youth Army, and it was really difficult to entrust it with a heavy task.

So what was the Eleventh Division, which had been given high hopes, doing?

The current commander of the 111th Regiment is He Yingqin, which is also Lu Diping's decision after communicating with him several times, because Lu Diping found that He Yingqin's military quality is very good, and his psychological quality is even better. In the end, Lu Diping overrode public opinion and appointed He Yingqin, an airborne cadre from the Anjiang side, as the chief of staff of the 11th Division and the commander of the 111th Regiment.

In the ensuing outflanking operation, He Yingqin proved Lu Diping's unique insight with his practical actions.

At this moment, the 111th Regiment shouldered the heavy task of assaulting the road between Wuhu and Nanjing, and Zhang Zizhong, the commander of the first battalion, rushed to the forefront as the vanguard of the whole regiment. As for Lu Yongxiang's Beiyang Tenth Division, which was originally in front of them, in view of the fact that they were all busy evacuating in the direction of Zhejiang, Lu Diping chose to turn a blind eye and turn a deaf ear.

The location of Zuihou's blocking was personally determined by Lu Diping, a guy who was called a bit clever by Wang Zhenyu, Ma'anshan. The reason is that although the Beiyang Army did not dare to take the waterway, it must have returned to Nanjing by sticking to the Yangtze River, because this is the safest way. Subsequently, this suggestion was transmitted by Lu Diping to the headquarters of the Right Route Army through the radio of the division headquarters, and then reported to Li Zongren, commander of the headquarters of the Southeast Front Army.

At this moment, Li Zongren has a lot of things to do, as the commander of the front army, he can't only be responsible for military operations like the left and right route army commands, and he is also politically responsible. Since the dispatch of troops in December last year, the most direct impact of the rocket-like march of the youth army has not been the shock of the whole country, but the lack of political power in a large number of newly liberated areas.

A large contingent of Nationalist Socialist cadres, under the protection of the security forces, reluctantly took over power in these areas, but then a host of troubles followed.

On the one hand, these Nationalist Socialist Party task forces had to compete with the local Shili for de facto dominance of the area, and on the other hand, they were also asked to stabilize the situation in their localities as soon as possible, and then to raise as much money and supplies as possible for the youth army fighting on the front line. After all, as the battle line continues to lengthen, it has become extremely unrealistic to expect many materials to be transported through the Anjiang River.

This demand itself may not be contradictory, but if it is a comrade with great ability, then he will do these two things together. First of all, the local powerful factions should be suppressed and co-opted, and then the local order will naturally be stabilized, and the task of raising materials will not be difficult to complete. It is a pity that not all the comrades in the task force are so strong, and the good side of human beings determines that they habitually choose to compromise and retreat in the face of the original tough shili in the local area. However, history cruelly tells them that this is breeding tigers. Li Zongren has now arisen this problem in Anhui, and after the work teams in many places were dispatched, they were tossed and miserable by the local tyrants and shoddy gentry. In the case of crowding out, listening to the tone and not listening to the propaganda, it was still relatively haode, and even under the banner of Sun Yat-sen, he organized local armed forces, openly expelled them by force, and attacked the task force sent by the Kuomintang Socialist Party, causing a lot of bloodshed.

This led to a great reduction in Li Zongren's time to think about the war, and his nominal chief of staff was Bai Chongxi, a part-time soldier who was leading troops on the front line. This forced him to spend his energy every day on mobilizing security forces to suppress the situation, and constantly meeting with the representatives of the gentry group who were willing to cooperate with the government, and at the same time he had to keep in touch with Yang Yongtai, Wang Yaqiao and others in Shanghai, because the whole battle was also the most critical step to enter Shanghai.

When Lu Diping reported Jihua and sent it to Li Zongren, Li Zongren felt that he was indeed a little negligent about this war. It seems that his side seems to be winning steadily, but in fact, Feng Guozhang has only lost the initiative on the battlefield since the beginning of the war, and the main force of the Beiyang Army still exists. Li Zongren opened the map and looked at it, personally measured it with a ruler, estimated the speed of the Beiyang Army's march, and then called the staff officer: "Send a report to He Yingqin, commander of the 111th Regiment of the 11th Division, and order the unit to rush to Hongmu Mountain in Ma'anshan before 8 o'clock in the morning of April 4, and then firmly stick there like a nail." ”

The telegram was sent directly from the Front Army Headquarters to He Yingqin, the commander of the 111th Regiment, which was carrying out high-speed interspersed tasks, bypassing the headquarters of the Right Route Army and the headquarters of the 11th Division. He Yingqin was very surprised when he saw this telegram, because the time was already twelve o'clock at noon on April 3, and he and his army had only now reached Guquan Town, which was still a full 120 miles away from the point of blocking the attack requested by Commander Li, and the actual distance, coupled with the sudden situation on the road that was very likely to occur with the enemy troops, and the normal rest time, it was almost impossible to complete this order in the remaining 20 hours. And there is also a prominent circumstance here, Feng Guozhang is only more than eighty miles away from this place in a straight line, and the actual distance is no more than a hundred miles, and they will start to retreat at any time. This is a very problem, but He Yingqin thought about it for less than three minutes, and still tried to suppress the idea of appealing, because he knew that as a member of the Youth Army, he had to complete this task, and there was no room for bargaining, but how to implement it was negotiable and flexible.

One-third of the officers and soldiers of the 111th Regiment are northern soldiers, and most of them are concentrated in Zhang Zizhong's first battalion, they are tall and have long legs and good marching ability, and the most important thing is that they have also been stationed in this area, they are familiar with the roads and terrain, and there is no possibility of getting lost. Therefore, He Yingqin decisively ordered Zhang Zizhong's first battalion to throw away all the pots and jars, take only dry food and ammunition, and set off immediately, and must arrive at Hongmu Mountain before eight o'clock tomorrow morning.

Zhang Zizhong's military quality was fully demonstrated at this moment, and although he found that this order was extremely unreasonable after a little thought, he still accepted this order without the slightest objection. This moved He Yingqin very much, and he secretly made up his mind that if he had the opportunity to rise in the future, he must not forget to promote this Shandong young man.

He patted Zhang Zizhong on the shoulder and said: "My commander and the whole regiment follow behind your first battalion, after you arrive at the place, as long as you hold on for two or three hours, we will be in place, so let's do it boldly." ”

Zhang Zizhong returned to the first battalion and announced the order, and then assembled the team and set off, while marching, Zhang Zizhong formulated the march jihua. He asked all units to rest for half an hour every two hours, and it was a rotational break, and the method of solitaire was adopted, and one company took a break after it had surpassed all the companies, and he himself always rushed to the front of the whole battalion with a platoon of sharp knives.

At this time, Feng Guozhang was still hesitating in Wuhu, should he establish a blocking position here? Or do you retreat to Nanjing and return to the north across the river? History has played a ruthless joke here, that is, the news of Lu Yongxiang's withdrawal to Zhejiang was only learned by Feng Guozhang in the middle of the night on April 3, and it was too late to do anything at this time.