On the afternoon of 21 March, when Li Zongren arrived at the headquarters of the Right Route Army in Tongling, Tao Zhiyue led all the personnel of the headquarters of the Right Route Army, that is, the headquarters of the First Division, to welcome him at the wharf.

"Commander Li, how can you come by boat? The naval base of the Beiyang Army is in Shanghai, and the entire Yangtze River shipping is not safe, and two days ago our transport fleet was attacked by the speedboats of the Beiyang Army, but fortunately, the British fleet intervened in time, otherwise we would not have the original cans of Anjiang to entertain you today. ”

Li Zongren glanced at Tao Zhiyue in surprise, he knew that what Tao Zhiyue said was very lighthearted, but he thought that the situation at that time must be very dangerous.

"Commander-in-Chief Tao, I came this time for nothing else, but to decide to face the next situation with you!" Li Zongren went straight to the point and explained his intentions straightforwardly. After Bai Chongxi left, Li Zongren thought about it for a long time, and felt that it was easy to give an order to let Tao Zhiyue die, but it was not in line with his own moral habits. But calm down and think about it, Bai Chongxi's method is indeed the only feasible at present, and if you want to end the war as soon as possible, you can only rely on gambling. But even so, Li Zongren couldn't do nothing after putting the entire Right Route Army to death like Bai Chongxi. So Li Zongren's final decision was to put himself to death.

One of the main reasons why Tao Zhiyue can be so trusted and reused by Wang Zhenyu is that he is good at thinking, and as soon as Li Zongren's words came out, Tao Zhiyue immediately knew what Li Zongren had in mind. He took a deep breath and said, "Commander Li, look at the children on the dock who are loading and unloading supplies, how many people do you say will be able to return to Anjiang after we finish this battle?" ”

Li Zongren glanced at Tao Zhiyue in surprise, and when he heard this, he knew that this kid understood everything, so he could only sigh and say: "Commander Tao, I know that this life is very dangerous, but please firmly believe that everything is for victory, everything is for the handsome." The First Division is the descendant of the Great Marshal's lineage, and at this moment when deciding whether our entire group will fly into the sky or enter the ground, we can only rely on the brothers of the First Division. I know that after this battle, many brothers will shed a drop of blood for the commander, for the party, and for the country, but please believe that their blood will never be shed in vain. ”

Tao Zhiyue glanced at Li Zongren, and said as if his enthusiasm had dissipated: "Maybe, Commander Li, you give an order, I will try to make a compromise between the execution of this order and the casualties." ”

Li Zongren could only nod lightly and said: "Okay, in fact, this time Jihua is very simple, the new Cheng Qian's Ninth Division is transferred to the Left Route Army." Then the Left Army is responsible for the main attack this time, and your Right Army is responsible for defending. Your task is to hold on to Tongling until Bai Chongxi and their left army break through the Chaohu defense line and take Pukou. Is there a problem with this? ”

Tao Zhiyue nodded, thought about it and said: "I have no opinion on this plan itself, I think that Chief of Staff Bai's idea is to be more ruthless and faster than anyone." It is true that I can only fight like this, if I increase my troops along the way, even if I defeat Beiyang, I will only take Nanjing. And the main attack of the Left Army is full of live, what a big game of chess! ”

Li Zongren saw that Tao Zhiyue could figure it out, and said very happily: "Yes, yes, Jiansheng also means this." ”

Tao Zhiyue smiled bitterly: "But Commander Li, almost the entire Tongling is a plain, and there is no danger to defend, so let our first division and the eleventh division face the attack of twice my enemy army in such a wide area." It was a very dangerous decision, and the greatest point of our bloodshed here was probably to protect the flank of the Left Army. And the biggest reality is that the 11th Division is still a unit that has only been formed for less than a month, and they are now undertaking tasks that do not match their strength. You also studied in the crash course of the Xiangxi Army Military Academy, did Mr. Wan tell you that you can arrange it this way? ”

Li Zongren's face suddenly became very ugly, but he still gritted his teeth and said: "I can understand your current mood and dissatisfaction, but for the sake of victory, for the sake of the commander, I will still insist on ordering you, Tao Zhiyue, commander-in-chief of the Right Route Army, to resolutely implement this jihua and fight for the final victory of our Youth Army." ”

Tao Zhiyue also bit his cheek, stood up and saluted: "Please rest assured, Commander Li, he will resolutely carry out this jihua at all odds." After all, we are all part of the Youth Army, and we are all the most loyal subordinates of the commander. ”

After the ceremony, Tao Zhiyue glanced at Li Zongren and said, "Then please ask Commander Li to forgive me for being rude, and now I have to deploy and implement this jihua, so I won't accompany you." You and your entourage have already been arranged, so it's time to take a step back. ”

After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked away without waiting for Li Zongren's consent, leaving Li Zongren and a group of stunned front army officers, and the officers of the First Division who participated in the greeting, except for the officers who were responsible for arranging food and lodging, saw that the big man had collapsed, and they also followed Tao Zhiyue and left. That empty arrogance left an extremely deep impression on Li Zongren......

Tao Zhiyue returned to the headquarters and didn't speak, but just asked the adjutant to take the map, and after looking at it carefully for a while, he said, "Go and ask Division Commander Lu to come over." ”

Lu Diping came and said, "Commander-in-chief, what's the matter, I heard that you left Commander Li at the dock and came back by yourself?" What's the big deal? Don't make any moths at this time, the enemy is about to pounce. ”

Tao Zhiyue nodded, didn't say anything, he didn't want to pass on his dissatisfaction and affect the overall situation. He grabbed Lu Diping and said: "It's not a big deal, it's just that the latest order has come down, in order to avoid delaying time, I rushed back to deploy first." ”

Then Tao Zhiyue chose to turn a blind eye to Lu Diping's suspicious face and continued: "There is only one figure in the Eleventh Division, and it will be deployed on the front line of Nanling, no matter what method is used, it is necessary to delay Lu Yongxiang's tenth division as much as possible. They will never be allowed to appear on the front line of Tongling, this is no problem, right? ”

Lu Diping's attention immediately returned to the map, and after thinking for a while, he said: "Commander-in-chief, this task is not light, but I am more worried that if our 11th Division stays in the Nanling area, then we will sing the fake drama of luring the enemy seriously." Next, the first division faced Yang Shande and Wang Zhanyuan's two divisions alone, did the front army have any reinforcements? ”

Tao Zhiyue shook his head and said truthfully: "The front army Jihua is using the main force on the left side to break through the Pukou defense line on the whole line, so we can only rely on ourselves here." ”

Lu Diping was really angry when he heard this: "Damn, there is such an arrangement for the battle, isn't this putting the brothers on the fire to roast?" ”

Tao Zhiyue hurriedly reassured: "This is not necessarily, Brother Lu, don't think so much, go to Nanling, in case Tongling is broken, you must not retreat to Jiangxi, you go directly to Zhejiang." This time, the Beiyang Army is pouring out, and even if they take Tongling, they will go all the way to the west, so your chances are still quite big. ”

When Lu Diping heard this, he could only sigh and say to Tao Zhiyue: "I know, brother, you also take care, no matter how you look at it this time, it is very dangerous." Alas......"

After sending Lu Diping away, Tao Zhiyue said to the adjutant again: "Go and invite Zhang Xuguang, the head of the 101st Regiment, Xia Wei, the head of the 102nd Regiment, Yan Daogang, the head of the 103rd Regiment, and He Chengjun, the commander of the 104th Regiment, I have an order to give." ”

Although he served as the commander of the First Division for only four months, Tao Zhiyue had successfully established his prestige in the First Division. The four regiment commanders quickly rushed to the headquarters of the Right Route Army, which was actually also the headquarters of the 1st Division.

"Commander, what are your orders?"

Tao Zhiyue didn't speak, just stood in front of the map and looked at the map motionlessly, and then said: "Our Jihua is to build fortifications from Tianmen Mountain to the Yangtze River Zhongcang line to defend the position. ”

"Ahh

The first to raise objections was He Chengjun, the commander of the 104th Infantry Regiment: "Commander-in-chief, there is no favorable terrain for defense in this area at all, and there are three difficulties that are difficult to solve for our defense here. What to do with the Beiyang Navy on the Yangtze River? According to the report of the reconnaissance unit, the enemy army had already set out from Wuhu, and it was only a day or two of work to get here, and there was no time to build strong fortifications. And the most important point is that the enemy's strength is in an advantageous position, once we enter the positional war, even if we are not afraid of outflanking, we can't afford to drag one meter at a time, and we will suffer a big loss if we fight like this, commander-in-chief! ”

Tao Zhiyue glanced at He Chengjun, who was extremely excited, and said, "Commander He, I know everything you said, but this is an order. Now tell me, the commanders of your regiments, what is the vocation of a soldier? ”

"Obey orders," the four regiment commanders immediately replied loudly.

Tao Zhiyue nodded with satisfaction and said: "I also don't understand this battle, but from the overall situation, we must suffer this loss for our military flag and our commander." So let's not say anything more about this, let's still move our minds to see how to fight this battle under such conditions is more realistic. ”

Later, Tao Zhiyue said: "I order, each regiment will send a company to mix with the division headquarters guard battalion to form a special detachment, under the command of chief of staff Zhang Xuguang, all of them will go out to the Fanchang area to attack and harass the enemy's vanguard and logistics troops, in short, make every effort to win three days for our army." And in these three to five days, I will try my best to give you a little more cement and steel bar, you work hard, usually hard work depends on this effort. As for the navy, I don't think you should worry about it, there will be changes soon, they will no longer be a problem, go and carry it out! ”

The four regiment commanders exchanged glances, saluted and left, the battle was about to begin......