On March 23, it was cloudy and clear, and the spring breeze was blowing.

Today was the most boring day, our whole company was on the march, passing through about a few villages, one of which we had even crossed on foot. The inhabitants of the village kept their doors tightly closed, as if they were afraid that we would rob them. I really want to leave the team, knock on the door and tell these Anhui fellows that we are not the Beiyang Army, we are disciplined and civilized. But time does not allow, because this morning Company Commander Zhao suddenly told us the place where this combat mission was carried out, Xiaotuanshan. This meant that we had at least forty miles to go, and we began a boring march.

In fact, we don't know where the Beiyang Army has been, but when we came to a village called Fengdun, we heard the sound of gunfire coming from a long distance. This is undoubtedly telling us that there is already a fight between the brother troops that set out first and the enemy, and this means that we are getting closer and closer to the enemy. At this time, Wang Dang's representative measured the military map distributed by the division headquarters and said that we were still six miles away from Xiaotuan Mountain, so everyone accelerated the pace of marching.

After arriving at Xiaotuan Mountain, Company Commander Zhao and Wang Dang representatives left their team to inspect the terrain, and the sharp knives were also released, and they were asked to conduct reconnaissance and vigilance at a place five miles away from Lixiao Tuan Mountain.

It was already more than one o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived at Xiaotuan Mountain, and after everyone hurriedly ate lunch, they were ordered to build simple fortifications according to the requirements of Company Commander Zhao. Company Commander Zhao had a lot of ideas, and we were asked to build fortifications in the woods on the side of Xiaotuan Mountain near the road.

About four o'clock in the afternoon we had dug our fortifications, but we saw dozens of men in youth uniforms running towards us, and I was ordered to intercept them with ten soldiers. When I asked, I learned that they were from the 104th Regiment, and they even set off half a day earlier than us, and they marched in a hurry, and in the morning they had a fierce exchange of fire with the vanguard of the Beiyang Army more than 20 miles away from us, and it was obvious that they did not take much advantage, because their company commanders, party representatives, and several platoon commanders were glorious, and the remaining 30 or so of them broke through under the leadership of a squad leader. The squad leader's name is Zhang Zipei, and I chatted with him for a while to find out that he graduated from Anjiang Middle School, just two years lower than the party representatives, but because of bad luck, he was not admitted to the Xiangxi Army Military Academy. But he still signed up for the army, and the recruit training is still the same base as me, but unfortunately I don't know him. However, these are not important, according to him, the Beiyang soldiers are very powerful, they shrink very quickly after being hit suddenly, and they will quickly find out the enemy's situation, and then use outflanking tactics to surround them from both sides. It was for this reason that their company suffered a heavy loss, and in the face of an enemy with superior forces, it only lasted less than three hours and collapsed after relying on the courage of its officers and men by virtue of its geographical advantage.

Company Commander Zhao and the representative of the Wang Party attached great importance to this, because I saw that their brows were always tightened, and it was obvious that the strength of the Beiyang soldiers had exceeded their expectations. Zhang Zipei and more than 30 of them were then assigned to our battle sequence, because Company Commander Zhao said that although they were defeated, their fighting spirit was still there, and they didn't need to pay for it.

Maybe Zhang Zipei and their fighting were too tenacious, and we didn't see the shadow of the Beiyang soldiers this afternoon and evening. However, it was about dinner time when we heard the sound of heavy gunfire, which seemed to be less than seven or eight miles away from us, and the gunfire continued for more than two hours before it stopped, and we all knew that another company of brother troops was glorious, and it might be our turn next......

On the 24th of March, the clouds turned cloudy, the wind was blowing, and the crows were crowing in the mountains, which made me feel very bad, because everyone knew that there would be a fierce battle here today, but we did not mind the magpies coming out and calling twice.

The Sharps had come back an hour earlier, reporting that the enemy had camped less than ten miles from us the previous night and were now on their way. That's the strength of a regiment, but they went through at least three battles yesterday, and we don't know exactly how much they lost, but we know that what we have to do is to make them stop, as long as possible.

Everyone is starting to nervously check their equipment, all the camouflage is in place, and a fierce battle is about to begin.

Next, let's take a look at the memoirs of Zhang Zipei, who only joined Li Weidong's company with more than 30 soldiers yesterday afternoon, Zhang Zipei's later career was smoother than Li Weidong, he was originally the leader of the cooking squad of a company of the 104th Regiment, and he had outstanding performance in a series of operations since then, successively serving as company commander, battalion commander, regiment commander, division commander and other positions. When he wrote this memoir, titled "Bloody Youth", it was already after his honorable retirement from the post of vice admiral chief of staff of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Federation.

Obviously, the company commander and the party representative, who I don't remember my last name, valued the experience of those of us who had fought against the Beiyang soldiers, but I really wanted to tell them that I was just a cooking squad leader. But what's the use of saying anything now, in my heart, they are much stronger than my unlucky ghost company commander, at least they have the intention of fighting an ambush, instead of stupidly putting the troops out to block the attack.

And what I admired the most was that the company commander actually watched the regiment at the head of the enemy walk past under our noses without giving the order to open fire, which laid a solid foundation for our great achievements later. Many years later, thinking back to this guy who can no longer remember his face, if he can survive, with his ability, the marshal does not dare to say, it is no problem to be a general, but it is a pity that he is glorious. So he became a martyr, and I became a general of the navy, and a lot of things about this shijie really can't be explained clearly, it's really amazing.

Still returning to reality from the memoirs, the Wang Party representative was very dissatisfied as soon as possible, but Zhao Zhao did not give an order, and he, a political cadre at the same level, did not have the right to command the troops to fight. This is also stipulated by Senior Marshal Wang Zhenyu himself, that the decision-making power of military operations belongs to the military supervisor, and that political work cadres are more responsible for the evaluation and recommendation of personnel and the ideological and political work of their own units.

So now everyone can only wait for Zhao Zhao's order, and Zhao Zhao still looks at the road down the mountain without saying a word.

An hour later, the battle began about seven or eight miles behind them, and it was clear that another company of brother troops had exchanged hands with the vanguard of the Beiyang Army......

The Second Division of the Beiyang Army was the vanguard of Feng Guozhang's attack on Tongling, and all the officers and men from division commander Wang Zhanyuan down to the division commander were determined to move forward desperately and wash away the shame of their loss of Hubei with victory and the blood of the Youth Army.

At this moment, the pioneer of the second division is the commander of the third brigade, Wang Jinjing, who should have been promoted to the commander of the second division in history, but because of Wang Zhenyu, he has no chance in this time and space.

Leading for Wang Jinjing is Shi Zhensheng, the commander of the fifth regiment of his fierce generals, this kid wiped out four or five hundred youth troops in one day yesterday, and the results were very remarkable, but the speed slowed down because of this, according to reason, everyone should have arrived in Tongling last night. But now? I walked less than twenty miles in one day.

Wan Muzhong, chief of staff of the Second Division, is with Wang Jinjing at this moment, both of them are generals, so naturally they are marching in a sedan chair, which is much more comfortable than riding a horse.

Before they knew it, they had entered the ambush circle of Zhao Zhao and their company.

Party representative Wang Shuaiyu held a telescope and saw Zhang Jiarui, the commander of the Sixth Beiyang Regiment on horseback, and quickly saw from his epaulettes that this was a colonel officer. Big fish, Wang Shuaiyu immediately suggested firing and killing this kid as soon as possible, and this time he would not die in vain. But I don't know Weishenme, this suggestion was rejected by Zhao Zhao again.

Wang Shuaiyu said angrily: "What do you mean by Company Commander Zhao, let's just watch the enemy pass under our noses and do nothing, this is against the orders of the superiors, and I have the right to take battlefield measures against you." ”

When Zhao Zhao heard this, he sighed and said, "My party representative, don't get excited, you take the telescope and look behind you, aren't there still two sedan chairs?" ”

Wang Shuaiyu looked at it and sure enough, he asked in surprise: "What does the sedan chair have to do with it?" The one I saw just now was the Colonel on horseback. ”

Zhao Zhao smiled and said: "This is the difference between your political department and our command department, my instructor told me that this Beiyang Army is different from us, high-status officers do not ride horses, they all sit in sedan chairs." Think about it, this colonel is riding a horse, how big an official should be in this sedan chair? ”

Wang Shuaiyu patted his head, yes!

Zhao Zhao didn't smile anymore, but commanded in a low voice: "Pass my order, listen to my gunshots, and aim the mortars at the two sedan chairs, after the start of the meeting, kill the two sedan chairs as soon as possible, and we will withdraw after a while, we have few people and can't endure a long battle." ”

The order was quickly conveyed, and by this time, the palanquin was getting closer and closer to the ambush point......

"Huh" Zhao Zhao fired the first shot, followed by the rifle and machine gun frantically covering the mighty Beiyang soldiers on the road, the bullets rained out, there was no need to aim at all, the enemy was there, too much and too dense.

And the three mortars also fired righteous shells at the two palanquins (the properties of the shells were originally divided like this?). So the tragedy happened, and the battle report issued by the Second Division of the Beiyang Army on the same day was truthfully recorded: "On that day, our army defeated thousands of young troops and killed countless enemies, but the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Wan Mu, and the commander of the Third Brigade, Major General Wang Jinjing, were killed bravely because of an accidental stray bullet, and the whole army mourned, and our generation will inherit their legacy......