Zhou Zefan quickly got in touch with his backer, Cheng Qian, a classmate who is currently in the provincial capital and wants to be rainy. And through Cheng Qian, he knew who Wang Zhenyu was, and he was surprised at that time, it turned out that it was this person who eliminated the Fifth Division in Changsha, and this person didn't even take Tan Dudu in his eyes, it seems that he should not be underestimated.

After the Changsha rebellion subsided, Cheng Qian's recent involvement in the provincial military government is still thriving, and in the eyes of outsiders, he is the second general on the left and right of Tan Yanhong and Zhao Hengti. But in fact, Cheng Qian almost grasped the dominance of the Hunan army, and not long ago, he replaced Zhang Xiaozhun as the director of the Provincial Military Department because of the veterans' trouble. In the limelight in the provincial capital for a while, even Tan Yanmin had to give way to many things. But as soon as the telegram came out, Cheng Qian was dumbfounded, this matter was too tricky, even if he sent a telegram to the truce as the director of the Military Department, it is estimated that this thief Wang Zhenyu will not pay attention to it. He had to pull the banner of the governor, so he immediately ran to Tan Yanmin and angrily accused Wang Longzhong, the fourth division of the Hunan army, of provoking a war for no reason, secretly instigating his subordinates to attack friendly troops, seize territory, and destroy the good situation of stability and unity in Hunan.

Zhao Hengti happened to be there, but he didn't express his opinion easily. Emotionally speaking, he and Wang Zhenyu are sworn brothers, and it is certain to help speak at this time. But it can't be too obvious, if it arouses Tan Dudu's suspicion and rejection, it will be worth the loss, after all, he is now eating under Tan Dudu's banner. It is not advisable to smash the job bowl for the sake of intercession.

However, Zhao Hengti is indeed a character, in the face of Cheng Qian's anger, he solved a big trouble for Wang Zhenyu with a light sentence: "Tan Dudu, at the moment we are planning to dismantle all divisions, especially this Wang Longzhong, Baoqing Mansion is a large piece of land, and it must be taken back safely." As for now, I personally feel that we should not make a big mistake because of a small mistake, startle the snake, and mess up our own situation. ”

When Tan Yanmin heard this, he immediately thought so, and then comforted Cheng Qian, and then perfunctory.

As a result, the provincial military government only issued a painless armistice order, requiring both sides to return to their stations and not cause trouble. He no longer expressed any opinions or opinions on the affairs of Hongjiang, as if there was great harmony and well-being, and nothing had happened.

In fact, neither of the warring parties took the orders of the provincial government seriously, and various military deployments proceeded as usual......

Zhou Zefan soon received the news that the Ninth Brigade had only two regiments of more than 1,800 people. He was immediately laughed at angrily, is the Tiger Brigade very good? How dare you look down on people so much? In addition to the 2,400 regular troops under his command, there are also militia groups of 6,000 people, and you must know that the militia in Hongjiang is no better than the hooligan militias in other places, and these people have all fought out in the long-term armed struggle against the bandits. And more importantly, because of the merchant's support, these militias are no less equipped than the regular army. In this way, he has a sufficient advantage in terms of troops, and he can completely fight four to one, and he is a serious non-commissioned officer and student studying in Japan, and if he can't win the battle in this case, then he should commit suicide.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zefan couldn't help but hahadaxiao, and Chief of Staff Yang Yusheng was very strange: "Why is the commander laughing?" ”

Zhou Zefan laughed for a while, and replied very smugly: "I laugh at that Wang Zhensheng doesn't know the art of war and doesn't know how to be a general." This kind of war still dares to have reservations, and less than half of the 4,000 men and horses have been released, which is not what it is to die, which is extremely ridiculous. ”

Yang Yusheng thought about it, too, so he nodded in agreement.

At this time, Liu Qishan asked to see him, saying that he wanted to fund the opening fee of 500,000 oceans for Commander Zhou Zefan Zhou, of course, the reason is also very sufficient, Hongjiang City can not become a battlefield. Everyone's industry is here, Commander Zhou, you are the patron saint of Hongjiang, and it is only reasonable to keep the enemy out of the country.

Zhou Zefan thought about it, he took 1,800 people from the six battalions of Cai Juxian and Liu Xuyi, plus 3,000 strong people drawn from the regimental training office, and killed them in the direction of the Ninth Brigade's march. Yang Yusheng led three battalions of 600 people and 3,000 militia groups to stay in Hongjiang.

In fact, there was no error in the news sent back by Zhou Zefan's scouts, and it was Hao Bing and Song Xianfu who were attacking along the official road towards Hongjiang, and they each brought a regiment and three battalions of troops, which together were actually only 1,800 people. And what is even more serious is the current state of these two colonels, a serious lack of confidence. However, Wang Zhenyu seems to be very confident in them, in order to coordinate the relationship between the two ministries, Wang Zhenyu appointed Wan Yaohuang as the supervisor of the war this time, as for whether this lieutenant colonel can supervise the battle of the two colonels, only God knows.

Wang Zhenyu personally led the advance team composed of the guards, the teaching team, the special service team, the reconnaissance team, and the first battalion under the guidance of the guides sent by the Hongjiang merchant gang, and went all the way over the mountains and mountains to the Hongjiang River.

Zhou Zefan naturally didn't know this, although he had also been worried, but since Hongjiang had left three battalions and three thousand regiments to train, even if Wang Zhenyu, a madman, really climbed the mountain, he didn't need to worry.

Therefore, his Jihua led nearly 5,000 people to kill Ben Huitong, and first defeated Wang Zhenyu, the main force of 1,800 people. As long as Wang Zhenyu is defeated, there will be one more Jingzhou Mansion in his control area, and Zhou Zefan was suddenly ignited with ambition to become a hero.

According to this line of thinking, the two armies began to move in the same direction, and it was inevitable that there would be an encounter.

The encounter took place in the town of Ma'an, Huitong County, which was already forty miles away from the Hongjiang River.

Since the scouts detected the enemy situation before the other side and reported back in time, the Tiger Brigade took the advantage and seized a favorable terrain.

By the time Zhou Zefan's men and horses arrived, the Tiger Brigade had already completed the layout of its position.

Song Xianfu and Hao Bing didn't have to think about it, they knew that there were definitely more people on the opposite side than on their side. So as soon as the scouts reported, they didn't say a word, and ordered all the troops to put up a defensive formation relying on Saddle Town.

The plan of these two is very simple, that is, relying on the mountain, protecting Ma'an Town to the death, and dragging Zhou Zefan here will be completed. Wan Yaohuang shook his head very dissatisfied, but he was only a war supervisor, not a commander-in-chief. Therefore, the only thing he could do was to resolutely demand that the Second and Third Regiments be deployed in a V-shape in accordance with the requirements of weekdays, with Li Hongkui's 4th Battalion going out of the left and Zhou Zhengming's 7th Battalion going out of the right to ambush in the middle of the mountain. Song Xianfu and Hao Bing combined, it didn't matter, agreed.

In this way, Wan Yaohuang was not very relieved, he repeatedly told Li Hongkui and Zhou Zhengming: "No matter how big your casualties are or what the battle situation is, you must firmly jam your position, there is no charge, you are not allowed to attack, do you understand?" ”

Li Hongkui and Zhou Zhengming glanced at each other, saluted and replied, "Yes." ”

The other four battalions are responsible for guarding the bottom of the V-shaped Ma'an Town, Wan Yaohuang took a closer look, although Song Xianfu and Hao Bing's combat command ability was miserable, but they still had a good set of leading troops. The civil engineering capabilities of the 2nd and 4th regiments were quite remarkable, and in just half an hour, the two improvised blocking positions were completed.

And when Zhou Zefan held up the binoculars and took a look, he immediately hahadaxiao got up, and Cai Juxian, who followed him, was very puzzled: "At the moment of the great enemy, why is the commander laughing?" ”

Zhou Zefan smiled and looked back at Cai Ju and said: "When I was studying at a military academy in Japan, the instructor told me that the most important thing in this army is that morale. But you see, when the Tiger Brigade on the opposite side saw our army, they immediately put on a picture of Jiashi defending against being beaten, where is this Tiger? It's clearly a paper tiger! Commander Cai, take your brothers to a charge and defeat them. ”

This Cai Juxian is not tall, but he has a tiger spirit on his body, and he is an extremely fierce person at first glance. can be regarded as Zhou Zefan's number one tiger general, and his qualifications are even higher than Zhou Zefan's airborne cadres. It's just a pity that Cai Juxian was born in the old army, and after being included in the new army, he has always relied on the care of his old superior, Huang Zhonghao, a native of Qianyang, to lead troops in Xiangxi. In the previous Xiangxi bandit operations, this person bravely dared to fight, repeatedly made military exploits, and was also a well-known role in the local area, and the bandits in Guizhou did not dare to commit Hongjiang for ten years because of Cai Juxian.

Cai Juxian also climbed to the position of the standard, but unexpectedly, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, and his biggest backer Huang Zhonghao was actually revolutionized. Cai Juxian, who lost his backer and had no future, had to choose to rely on Zhou Zefan, an officer who was seven years younger than him, in order to just be able to eat.

In the process of Zhou Zefan's entry into Hongjiang, Cai Juxian made the first contribution, he defeated the alliance formed by the Yao family and the Tan family, two major bandits Shili, who took advantage of the chaos to attack Hongjiang, and the 4,000-person bandit coalition army was beaten by him and fled from Xiangxi overnight, temporarily avoiding the limelight.

Zhou Zefan also trusts and reuses Cai Juxian very much, and this pioneer errand was naturally given to him again.

The charge whistle was blown, and more than 1,200 officers and men of the Hongjiang garrison launched the first wave of attacks on the Tiger Brigade.

If Wang Zhenyu is here, he will definitely feel that the scene in front of him is very familiar, because the fighting style of Cai Juxian's unit is very similar to the battle scene of the later American movie "The Patriot". It's all soldiers marching in unison with the beat of the drums, but when they are less than eighty meters away from each other, it's a little different from the movie. Qi Bu turned into a wild run, and the Hongjiang garrison pressed down very imposingly.

After the Ninth Brigade underwent the reorganization of Hanyang and the reorganization of Nanjing, the biggest improvement was that the soldiers would no longer shoot indiscriminately.

In this era, due to the constraints of many factors such as cultural education and the level of productivity, the shooting training of soldiers was a mere formality. Often, it is not always possible to get a single live-fire training in a year, which also leads to inexperienced soldiers often shooting indiscriminately before the enemy is in effective range. Fortunately, the soldiers of the Ninth Brigade have overcome this stubborn disease with Wang Zhenyu's money and sufficient training.

Song Xianfu and Hao Bing did not choose to throw grenades or use mortars at the first time, because the brigade commander said that those things were things that were at the bottom of the box and could not be used casually until the zuihou juncture (zuihou only used at the juncture, suicide?). ）。

However, at Wan Yaohuang's insistence, they all strictly implemented the tactical training requirements of Wang Zhenyu during the training period in Nanjing, arranged the entire defensive line into a V-shape, or inverted character, and relied on the favorable terrain of the mountains to form three positions with the six battalions in their hands, forming a firepower angle, and firing at the enemy's attacking troops.

This tactic was repeatedly discussed by Wang Zhenyu and Wan Yaohuang, and combined with an article about the tactics of the German army in World War I that he saw on the Internet in later generations. At that time, the Germans took advantage of the bush terrain to line up a company of German troops in an inverted line, and the result was that the French troops of the same company were devastating when attacking, they felt that the bullets were fired from all directions, and they had no way to hide, and the casualties skyrocketed. To make matters worse, the French were simply unable to inflict effective damage on the Germans because they could not find a key point of attack.

During the reorganization of Nanjing, Yang Wangui, Song Xianfu, Hao Bing and others did not think much of Wang Zhenyu's tactics at first, and once challenged them. However, after three simulations, all of them ended in failure, and everyone completely accepted this defensive tactic.

This incident also made Wang Zhenyu sigh, the military really deserves to be the most conservative group on Shijie, there is no one.