Bai Chongxi's desperate attempt to defeat Hexian surprised Feng Guozhang, who had been attacking in Tongling and Nanling for three days in a row but still had no results, he knew that something bad was going to happen, but at this time, he couldn't withdraw if he wanted to, he knew that he had to do something to save this already very serious situation.

"Tell Zhang Huaizhi that if we fail this time, he will be a sinner in the entire Beiyang. Tell Ni Sichong not to think that his family will be safe when he enters the Tianjin Concession, the power is gone, and the money is not enough for him to lose for a few days. Tell Li Chun, don't hesitate, Pukou is lost, there is still a fart to defend Nanjing? Feng Guozhang actually became incoherent in the face of senior generals such as Wang Zhanyuan and Yang Shande, which made these senior generals feel the pressure.

Feng Guozhang took the tea handed over by the adjutant, drank it in one go, and after letting his breath ease a little, he suppressed his emotions, calmed down a little, and said to the staff officers who were standing there: "Convey my order, Ni Sichong's Anwu Army, Zhang Xun's Dingwu Army, and Li Chun's Sixth Division will gather in Pukou at full speed, and let them hold Pukou at all costs." ”

Wang Zhanyuan seemed to see something famous, he hesitated for a moment and asked softly: "Fu Shuai, we won't fight Tongling." ”

When Feng Guozhang heard this, he was stunned for a moment, this was something he had been hesitating about after learning that Zhang Xun had defeated Hexian.

Although his side failed to take Tongling after three consecutive days of attack, it is unlikely that he will withdraw now, and the armies of both sides are stuck together. If he dares to play gecko tail breaking, judging from the performance of the two armies, he is likely to repeat the mistake of Ma Jizeng in the end because of the slow movement of his own army. The army in his own hands is the biggest reliance of Beiyang, if the whole army is destroyed, there is no need to wait for the army of Wang Zhenyu, Cai Yi, Sun Wen and others to enter Beijing, and one Yan Xishan is enough for Lao Yuan to step down. But if he continues to attack here, and Pukou loses it, then the fate of his army will also be to run out of ammunition and food, and surrender will be lost. Retreat or continue to attack, this question has begun to plague Feng Guozhang's brain deeply. So at this moment, he didn't know how to answer Wang Zhanyuan's question.

As soon as Wang Zhanyuan saw Feng Guozhang's expression, he knew that the question he asked probably didn't have an answer to Fu Shuai, so he immediately shut up and stood aside.

After a while, Feng Guozhang made a decision that made people look very twisted: "Send a telegram to Xu Shuzheng, asking him to take the 15th and 16th divisions south and go to Pukou to talk about it." ”

At this time, I remembered to let Xu Shuzheng, this guy, go south, will people be willing to come down? Yang Shande and Wang Zhanyuan, who were standing on the side, couldn't help but sneer. But this is also thinking about this situation in their hearts, they don't dare to say such discouraged words. But slowly, they also have a little more heart, because no matter how you look at this battle, they are going to lose.

Feng Guozhang is also a good person, what is the way of nature thinking in the hearts of his subordinates, he thought about it again and again, and left Wang Zhanyuan and Yang Shande behind: "We may suffer a big loss in this battle in Beiyang, I want to know what you think." ”

Wang Zhanyuan did not follow along, while Yang Shande said that he would only carry out the instructions based on the marshal's intentions.

Feng Guozhang sighed and said in his heart: "Then we will retreat?" Go back to Nanjing first by water? ”

Wang Zhanyuan finally spoke when he heard this, he shook his head and said: "Fu Shuai, I'm afraid we can't take the waterway now, the Yangtze River fleet is now under the Kuomintang, and if we retreat to the waterway, it is estimated that people will go to the water through the Jiangyin fortress to bombard us landlubbers." Besides, retreating at this time, let's not talk about retreating to the Jiangbei region, and even whether we can return to Nanjing is a big problem. Can the youth army on the opposite side let us calmly return to the division? ”

Feng Guozhang thought for a while and said: "Let's withdraw to Wuhu first, and then leave the two divisions in Jiangsu there, let's continue to withdraw to Nanjing, as long as the second and fourth divisions can return to the north, our Beiyang vitality will still be there, and we will still have a chance to recover today's debts." So don't hesitate, if we really wait for Bai Chongxi's grandson to lay down Pukou, it will be difficult for us to leave. ”

Yang Shande also nodded and said: "What the marshal said is reasonable, let's fight it down in the past few days, not to mention anything else, the enemy in front of us is definitely not more than 30,000 people, and this is still before the war." And even if we deduct the losses of these three days, there are still more than 80,000 people in four divisions, so we have to turn around, they can't do anything at all. ”

The more Wang Zhanyuan thought about it, the more he felt hanging, and he dared to say bluntly: "But if we withdraw like this now, what if Pukou is still lost?" Can't we make a reverse assault and use our superiority in strength to enter Jiangxi and Hubei? If we take Wuhan, we can still get supplies through the Jinghan Railway? ”

Feng Guozhang shook his head and said: "But our supplies can't support Wuhan at all, and after the three days of fighting, you yourself have seen that the Youth Army is not as easy to pack as you think." So ......"

"Who? …… Yes...... Rumble...... Rumble...... Da da da"

Fierce gunfire suddenly came from outside the house, which made Feng Guozhang and the three of them look at each other in surprise, what is the situation?

At this time, an adjutant pushed the door in a panic and said: "Oh no, Dashuai, a unit of the Youth Army somehow touched it, there are still a lot of people, the guards are fighting with them, please Dashuai and the commanders quickly avoid." ”

The Youth Army actually found its own headquarters, this is Fanxian, and it is forty or fifty miles away from the front line, how is this possible?

But the fierce fighting outside unmistakably told Feng Guozhang that all this was true.

The troops who raided the headquarters of Feng Guozhang in Fanxian County were none other than more than 150 warriors of the 5th Company of the 103rd Regiment, who did not return to Tongling under the agency of Zhao Yong, the acting company commander, but insisted on fighting in the Fanxian area. Zhao Yong is indeed a good hand, under his leadership, the entire company not only did not collapse, but became stronger and stronger, and successively eliminated several small supply points of the Beiyang Army. It's just that because there is no radio station, there is no way to get in touch with the division headquarters.

On the day of 30 March, Li Weidong and others, who were in charge of reconnaissance, observed the enemy situation near Shuikou Village, which was more than ten miles away from Fanxian County, to see if there were any supply units of the Beiyang Army that were not strong in defense. Unconsciously the whole company has taken a big step in the direction of bandits, but there is still a difference between them and bandits, that is, they do not forget to kill the enemy.

Li Weidong and the others discovered an anomaly today, this village of less than 100 households is only guarded by less than 200 Beiyang Army, and what is even more unusual is that there are civilian personnel coming and going here from time to time, but there are no material supply vehicles. Li Weidong observed for several hours, and could only sigh, his luck was really bad, the village he found was not a supply point for the Beiyang Army, and it seemed that everyone was going to eat dry food and canned food tonight. Speaking of canned food, there has been no supply for several days after breaking away from the main force, and there is no stock of canned food now.

Returning to the hidden point of the 5th Company, Li Weidong truthfully reported his work to his taciturn company commander, and the party representative Cui Fei was counting how many cigarettes he had left.

Li Weidong, who originally thought that he could rest after the report, saw that the company commander Zhao Yong didn't say anything, so he naturally got up and planned to leave and go to the cave where he was to rest. As a result, I heard the company commander Zhao Yong shouting excitedly: "Gather the team and prepare to attack." ”

At this time, Li Weidong was stunned, and Cui Fei was very surprised and asked, "What's the situation?" Weishenme is going to attack? ”

Zhao Yong danced and said: "If I am not mistaken, the small village that Li Weidong and they found is at least a division-level headquarters. There are no supplies to protect, and so many guards and weapons are used, grandma's, big fish! ”

Everyone suddenly realized, and everyone immediately flew to inform the troops that they had combined, and followed the company commander to fight big fish! So Feng Guozhang was tragic......

Zhao Yong and the others quietly touched Shuikou Village, and at least evaded two Beiyang patrols composed of cavalry.

As we approached the village, it was already getting dark, and the smoke was slowly rising from the village, reflecting the afterglow of the setting sun.

Zhao Yong didn't say anything, just asked everyone to hide in the woods and wait for dark.

After a while, Zhao Yong called all the main officers over: "Wait for the next battle, I will lead the second platoon to touch it in first, and then stir up chaos inside." The remaining brothers, commanded by the Cui Party representatives, saw the opportunity to attack them. Everyone saw the patrol on the road just now, so the battle was only allowed to last ten minutes, and after ten minutes we didn't want anything and retreated at full speed. I estimate that after this battle, we can go back to Tongling to rest and recuperate instead of fighting here. ”

Cui Fei, Li Weidong and others looked at Zhao Yong in surprise, this was the longest sentence Zhao Yong said in their impressions.