On March 29, with the end of the first day of attack, the war entered a climax on this day, and both the Youth Army and the Beiyang Army were carrying out the most frantic attacks and the most tenacious defense since the Republic of China.

However, Zhang Huaizhi is an exception here, after he let Cheng Qian play, he began to have a long memory and began to shrink the defense line to a limited extent, and played local small battles with Cheng Qian as much as possible, in short, he refused to be the kind of yesterday. And what Cheng Qian wants is such an effect, he can still figure out where the main battlefield is and where the secondary battlefield is. If you play too much, you will be suspected of ruining the overall situation, and it will be OK to drag Zhang Huaizhi's army here.

The real decision of life and death was in the other three places, among which in Tongling, our tour of the five provinces made Feng Guozhang unceremoniously dig out all his own family funds, and in the whole of Nanjing, only Li Chun's Sixth Division, which was trying to reorganize and train, and all the other troops smashed into the Tongling defense line guarded by Tao Zhiyue's troops.

Wang Zhanyuan of the Second Division of Beiyang and Yang Shande of the Fourth Division really had no reservations this time and took out all the stocks in their hands. The shells almost completely ploughed the defense line of the 1st Division of the Youth Army, and the infantry poured wave after wave towards the defense line of the 1st Division of the Youth Army. The entire First Division of the Youth Army was facing the harshest battle since its formation, and all the officers and men were gritting their teeth and holding on to it.

Every inch of the position was soaked in the blood of the soldiers, the sound of gunfire, the clashing of metal, the hoarse cries of exhaustion, the wails before death. One of the most tragic scenes in the world is repeated on these kilometers of battle, and everyone knows when it will end. They only shoot numbly, reload, and continue to shoot; Block, stab, block and stab. In short, it is to destroy all the enemies that can move in front of you, leaving no one behind.

Young and fresh lives turned into clouds of smoke in an instant on this front, and the breath of death gradually enveloped the entire front, and both warring sides were trying to launch a sprint towards the limit of what they could bear each other.

"Commander-in-chief, you can't fight like this, our first division has one enemy and two enemies, and we can't afford to play this consumption!" Zhang Xuguang, chief of staff of the division and commander of the 101st Regiment, rushed in with a white veil that was still oozing blood wrapped around his left arm, and shouted loudly at Tao Zhiyue. Just now, after more than 160 officers and soldiers of the 101st Regiment were killed, more than a dozen officers and soldiers of Zuihou and reinforcements were once again stubbornly driven out of the Beiyang Army that rushed in. The tenacity of the Youth Army not only exceeded the psychological bottom line of the Beiyang Army, but also exceeded the bottom line of its own physical discipline. Although the officers and men of the 1st Division were able to effectively kill and wound the enemy by their bravery and tactics, the inferiority in strength could not be compensated, and this will become more and more obvious as the battle continues.

Tao Zhiyue looked at the military map and did not speak, at this time Li Zongren came to Tao Zhiyue's headquarters less than 1,500 meters from the front line through the artillery fire. "Ji Chang, we can't be so hard-burned, we have to find a way to change the current passive situation."

Tao Zhiyue was shocked when he heard this, and raised his head and said to Li Zongren: "Commander Li, why did you come up, nonsense, this place is within the range of the Beiyang Army's artillery, it's too dangerous, hurry, hurry up." ”

The thin Li Zongren had a very stubborn personality, he waved his hand and said: "Don't worry about this, what kind of soldier is you afraid of death, I just went to the front line to see it before I came, the brothers fought very hard, and the firepower of the Beiyang Army is also very fierce, we can't fight like this, otherwise the first division will be exhausted sooner or later." ”

Tao Zhiyue shook his head and said: "No way, Commander Li, we can only fight like this, we are fighting with the Beiyang Army now, and we can't make any false moves." I listened carefully just now, and according to their firepower today, soon their cannons will not be able to fire, either there are no shells or they are hot enough to burn people. ”

Li Zongren disagreed: "But if we continue to fight like this, our troops are small after all, and we can't afford to lose!" Must be adjusted! Give up part of the position first, transfer the troops down and rest before continuing the battle. ”

Tao Zhiyue also shook his head very stubbornly: "Commander Li, they are all my Tao Zhiyue's life and death brothers, I cherish their lives more than you, but Ci is not in charge of the army!" So at this time, we must grit our teeth and persevere, as long as we can persevere, then the first to give up must be the enemy, otherwise we will wait to be overwhelmed by the enemy. Commander Li, offended! ”

Li Zongren shook his head angrily, okay! Look at himself as a commander, whether it is Bai Chongxi or Tao Zhiyue, plus Cheng Qian, who acts without authorization, there is no fuel-efficient lamp under his hands. He said helplessly: "Since this is the case, then I, Li Zongren, will stand in this place today, and hold our army's Tongling defense line with everyone, just according to the previous command of General Tao, we will stick to the end and never give up." ”

After that, the attack of the Beiyang Army really began to decline slowly under the threat of the heavy artillery regiment of the first division, and the officers and soldiers guarding the front line couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, Li Zongren saw this situation, Tao Zhiyue's sense was much better, he knew that the front of the first division should not help but worry about being broken through by the Beiyang Army.

A frontal attack is just one thing, the most dangerous will always come from the flank, and the two divisions led by Lu Yongxiang are to pass through Nanling and enter Tongling from the flank. This tactic was learned by the Beiyang Army from small Japan, and it was used quite well in history. It was used many times during the suppression of the Xinhai Revolution, the Second Revolution, and even during the Northern Expedition. The most famous one was the Battle of Nanchang during the Northern Expedition, which almost wiped out Chiang Kai-shek's First Division of the Party Army.

However, in Nanling, they also encountered hard stubble, Lu Diping's 11th Division.

As mentioned earlier, the 11th Division is almost the weakest existence of the Youth Army, and if they are allowed to fight positional warfare like the 1st Division, it is estimated that it will collapse in a few waves.

However, not being good at positional warfare does not mean that he is not good at anything else, Lu Diping actually played a short assault. He took the officers and men of the former Beiyang 39th Brigade, who had received formal training, as the point, and built a position from point to point, and the battle line was still broken through by the Beiyang Army. Then the other troops chased and attacked the Beiyang Army after the breakthrough, and the Beiyang Army still had enemies on the flank, so it would not be able to come up with any decent way in the face of this almost rogue counterattack for a while. After a few rounds of tossing, Lu Yongxiang was surprised to find that he not only failed to break through the defense line, but instead lost two or three thousand people, and he was a hell of a man.

Annoyed, Lu Yongxiang found that he really had no way to take Lu Diping's almost kraft candy style of fighting, and the only way was to gnaw the bones, concentrate his forces, and pull out the nails point by point. As a result, the battle immediately escalated from a blitzkrieg to a tough battle, and the tragedy directly doubled, and everyone was a mess.

The first battalion of the 111th Regiment led by Zhang Zizhong guarded the Doujia Village was the most intense, and the entire village was bombarded by Lu Yongxiang with artillery, and it was almost impossible to find a single intact house, but in this way, the attack of the Beiyang Army was once again repelled by the tenacious Zhang Zizhong's troops. Lu Yongxiang asked left and right in great surprise: "I want to confirm, is it the Youth Army that is fighting with us now?" Are they human? ”

Just when the battle on the entire right flank entered the most intense and tragic stage, on the left flank, the youth army also entered the stage of attacking Zuihou.

Bai Chongxi's order to attack was resolutely and thoroughly carried out at 4 a.m. on 29 March, and the three main field divisions concentrated more than 350 artillery pieces of various types and beat them unceremoniously at the position of the Dingwu Army.

This time, even Zhang Xun received a few shots near his headquarters, resulting in the death and wounding of more than a dozen guards, which forced Zhang Xun to change his headquarters overnight.

It should be said that the defensive design of the Dingwu Army is still very reasonable, and the Youth Army is constantly compressing towards the core position, while the Dingwu Army is not slow, relying on fortifications and constantly blocking attacks.

Nearly every punching bag required repeated assaults, multiple use of death squads and demomen to capture, and casualties on both sides skyrocketed. Although the attacking troops fought very hard, and after the attack lasted for almost 12 hours from 4 a.m. to more than 3 p.m., the young army found with sorrow that the Dingwu army was still as persistent as a stubborn rock, and there was not even the slightest sign of collapse.

The report requesting a break was quickly sent to the headquarters of the Left Route Army, Bai Chongxi threw it on the ground after reading the report, and he told the officers in a loud voice: "There are no reinforcements, and there is no need to think about rest, I don't have any reply or request for you here, the only thing I ask for is only a result, tomorrow at noon, I will have dinner in Hexian, it's as simple as that." ”

The words were quickly sent to the front, and the division commanders immediately knew that Bai Chongxi was angry, so everyone had to muster their heads again, mobilize and adjust their troops, in short, continue the offensive at all costs......

Now I can't bear to change to the Dingwu Army, damn, you youth army don't need to rest, play fatigue warfare, this is?

The Beiyang soldiers can't bear it, people can skip eating, but they definitely can't not sleep. Due to the disadvantage of a small number of troops, the Dingwu army could not even do the most basic rotation. Zhang Xun and other major generals continued to go to the front line to cheer up, but they still couldn't stop the continuous and obvious signs of collapse of the Dingwu army.

At about 11 o'clock in the night of March 29, the Youth Army made a breakthrough in most parts of Hexian County at the same time, and the army broke into Hexian County and started street battles with the Dingwu Army.

The general trend has gone, Zhang Xun had to flee to the Yangtze River with the guards and main officers, and fled to Nanjing by boat.

At 8 o'clock in the morning of March 30, the remaining more than 5,000 Dingwu troops surrendered to the Youth Army under the command of Su Xilin, and so far, after 28 hours of fierce fighting, Bai Chongxi annihilated 20,000 Wuwu troops, and the gate of Pukou was so simply opened.

The battle of Hexian was also the first successful battle in the history of the Youth Army, so it was honorably recorded in military history, and Bai Chongxi also became a recognized military genius and a famous general in the whole army.