Just when a big drama around the assassination and defense of Wang Zhenyu was about to be staged, the second phase of Operation Blue Light also kicked off.

February 28 of the sixth year of the Republic of China (1916), the first day of the second month of the Gregorian calendar. In the Hukou Fortress in Jiangxi, in the newly established headquarters of the Southeast Front, fierce quarrels are constantly coming out of it.

"Chief of Staff Bai, I don't know if you think about it from that angle, the current position of the Fourth Division is in the Jingdezhen area, and it should fully cooperate with the Right Route Army with my First Division as the main body to attack southern Anhui and southern Jiangsu. Instead of crossing the Yangtze River for thousands of miles, and then participating in the operation of the Left Route Army under your personal command, this will most likely lead to the fact that our Right Route Army will not be able to seize Xu Chongzhi due to insufficient troops, and Li Liejun will seize Zhejiang in front. Commander Li, Chief of Staff Bai, the latest news we have just received is that just yesterday, the vanguard of Li Liejun's army had captured Nanping in the upper reaches of the Min River, and if nothing else, within five days, Li Houji would be defeated. So no matter how you make a decision, please be cautious, the military merits are small, and if you miss the big thing of the commander, all of us here will be pushed to the end. ”

Li Zongren didn't make a sound, just looked at the map with a frown. He was now also in a very embarrassing situation, unlike the first stage of the assault operation, when the enemy's situation was clear and his side was fully prepared, so the general staff even issued specific combat orders at the regimental level. But when it comes to the offensive combat period, it is different, the military liliang of Nanjing is changing every day, so Yang Wangui, who is far away in Anjiang, is also a bachelor, isn't this the establishment of the Southeast Front? Make your own decisions.

But whether it is Li Zongren or Bai Chongxi, no matter how famous they are in history, they are still young people in their twenties at this time, and they have nearly 100,000 troops in their hands in the four main divisions at once.

At this critical moment when it was about whether his own Shili would continue to rise or go low, the huge pressure forced Bai Chongxi to come up with a plan that made Tao Zhiyue, the commander of the First Division, extremely angry.

The entire headquarters of the Southeast Front Army was the original headquarters of the Third Army, and the Front Army had 100,000 men and horses under the jurisdiction of the first, third, fourth, and seventh main divisions. According to Jihua, the generals of these four divisions marched eastward in two routes: the first and fourth divisions formed the right route army, with Tao Zhiyue as the commander of the former enemy, and set out from the area of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province to attack southern Anhui and southern Jiangsu, with the focus on southern Jiangsu; The 3rd and 7th Divisions formed the Left Route Army, with Bai Chongxi as the commander of the former enemy, and set out from the area around Hukou in Jiangxi to attack northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu.

The combat goal of these two armies was to meet Nanjing, and this Jihua was drawn up in Changsha, which was also correct at that time.

However, no one expected that the first phase of the assault operation would go so smoothly, and in seven or eight days, the territory of Jiangxi and Hubei would be in hand. At this time, half of the progress of the material reserve work and the scheduling of the eastward coordinated combat troops had not yet been completed, which made Li Zongren, who was responsible for Wang Zhenyu, depressed. Fortunately, Wang Zhenyu made timely adjustments, and selected a group of personnel from Hunan to be led by Zhou Zhiyun, and Wang Zhenbang led the team to take over Jiangxi. The task force and security forces for coordinated operations in the southeast region are directly transferred from the current Jiangxi, so that even if there is a gap, there is still time to fill it, and it will not affect the overall situation.

As for the top echelons of the Southeast Front, it is obviously not appropriate to entrust Li Zongren alone. After all, it is not so simple to march into Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and in addition to military struggles, there are also many responsible political issues. Therefore, Wang Zhenyu thought about it again and again, and could only sigh that there were too few people available under his hands, and transferred Yang Yongtai, who had just arrived in Guangzhou for less than a month and a half, to Jiangxi to serve as a senior staff member of the Southeast Front Army. The work in Guangdong and Guangxi was handed over to Li Buyun and Zeng Qi, two high-ranking cadres of the Kuomintang Socialist Party, respectively, and in order to avoid accidents, Chen Gongbo was also sent to Guangzhou to assist. At the same time, in Hubei, Xu Yuanquan and Wan Yaohuang both hoped that they could get the opportunity to govern Hubei, but sorry, Wang Zhenyu did not plan to do what they wanted. He sent his father-in-law to Hubei as acting governor, Xu Yuanquan and Wan Yaohuang naturally did not dare to have an opinion when they saw this situation, and then Wan Yaohuang was transferred to the Southeast Front Army as the deputy commander and director (that is, the supervising army), and Xu Yuanquan was transferred to Jiangxi to deal with the reorganization of the Ninth and Tenth Divisions.

The changes on the side of the Youth Army themselves are so big, not to mention the Beiyang Army, which has already sensed the crisis and has begun to actively deal with it.

Feng Guozhang's movements were very large with the support of Lao Yuan, first of all, in the northern Anhui region, Feng Guozhang not only transferred Zhang Huaizhi's Fifth Division, which was stationed in Zhenjiang, but also transferred Wang Zhanyuan's Second Division, which was withdrawn from Hubei and stationed in Wuhu. If it was only the two main divisions of Beiyang, Bai Chongxi, the former enemy commander of the Left Route Army, would not worry about anything, the key was that Feng Guozhang also interceded for Ni Sichong, and at the same time transferred Ni Sichong's 20,000 Dingwu troops and Zhang Xun's 30,000 pigtailed soldiers to northern Anhui. This is an army of 100,000 before and after, you said that if Bai Chongxi doesn't tremble, then he will be a fool.

If Jihua, who supported Bai Chongxi, transferred Liao Lei's Fourth Division to the Left Route Army, and used the three main forces of 75,000 people to meet the Beiyang 100,000 army, then it is likely to lead to the lack of strength of the Right Route Army, affecting its assault speed, and in the end, perhaps Tao Zhiyue's army has not yet entered Zhejiang, and Zhejiang will fall into the hands of Sun Yat-sen, and Li Zongren cannot afford this consequence; But if you don't agree with Bai Chongxi's plan, then once you can't solve the Beiyang Army in northern Anhui in a short time, and wait for the first, fifteenth, and sixteenth divisions of Beiyang to take the train south, then northern Anhui will be in a state of anxiety, and eventually ruin the whole situation, and Li Zongren can't afford this consequence. You can't have both fish and bear's paws, Li Zongren really feels difficult.

Bai Chongxi and Tao Zhiyue were also so angry that they blushed and had a thick neck: "If the situation in northern Anhui can't be opened, what's the use of you occupying Zhejiang, when the main force of the Beiyang Army is pressed down, can your first division withstand it?" Tao Zhiyue? ”

Everyone started a new round of quarrels, which was also a very rare scene in the history of the Youth Army, the army was about to attack, but the final battle plan had not yet been decided.

In the end, it was everyone's common teacher Wan Yaohuang who came forward and made peace with the mud: "I see, everyone doesn't have to quarrel anymore, it's all reasonable, we still report to the marshal, my opinion is that the fourth division is still assigned to the left army, as for the right army, it can't be underestimated, Yang Shande's Beiyang Seventh Division, Lu Yongxiang's Beiyang Tenth Division, and Li Chun's personally reorganized Beiyang Sixth Division are not good looks, so it's better to draw one or two main divisions from the rear, if possible, I prefer that the Left Route Army has four divisions, and the Right Route Army has three divisions. Because neither northern Anhui nor Zhejiang can afford us to lose, ladies and gentlemen, the marshal is still waiting for the good news of our Southeast Front Army in Anjiang. ”

After listening to Wan Yaohuang's words, Li Zongren nodded and said: "This can only be done, the launch time of Zuihou's attack will be postponed to March 3, and the fourth division will be assigned to the left route army, and the rest will be drafted according to Mr. Wan's advice just now and ask the Anjiang side to send instructions." ”

In Anjiang, in the General Staff, Yang Wangui was furious at Li Zongren's telegram, don't look at him, the chief of staff, who is far away from the battlefield, but his pressure is no less than that of the generals in front: "What does he Li Delin mean, postpone the attack, and still need reinforcements, doesn't he know how much money we spent on this war?" How much does an army of hundreds of thousands spend a day? It's really a cub who sells Ye Tian's heart, and if you transfer three more divisions, where will the military expenses come from, and where will the materials come from? He's trying to force me, the chief of staff, to death? Tell him Li Delin, that's it, whether he can play or not depends on the cards in his hand now, and we can't give any support here! Give Lao Tzu a dead heart as soon as possible. ”

Things in the world are often so coincidental, Yang Wangui, who was speechless under heavy pressure, didn't know that when he was shouting to vent his dissatisfaction, Wang Zhenyu was standing at the door.

Wang Zhenyu felt a little disappointed in Yang Wangui, with such psychological quality and overall awareness, it is obviously inappropriate to continue to serve as the chief of staff. However, this time there is no hurry to change, anyway, the command of the battle at the front has been handed over to the front army. After this battle is over, let's change Yang Wangui to a more relaxed position. I also heard Zhao Yuting say that Yang Wangui can't even eat a bowl of rice every day recently, and he is getting thinner and thinner, so it can't go on like this.

After recording Yang Wangui's order, the little staff officer was about to turn around and send a call back, but was stopped. The staff officer looked at the person who stopped him dissatisfiedly, but he was startled, it was actually his own handsome, and he hurriedly saluted and greeted.

Wang Zhenyu didn't think it was wrong, and said with a smile on his face: "Little comrade, this telegram is invalid, there is no need to send it again, I will go and talk to your chief of staff now." ”

Yang Wangui also found out that Wang Zhenyu was coming at this time, and was stunned for a moment: "Dashuai, it's twelve o'clock in the evening, and you still haven't rested?" ”

Wang Zhenyu waved his hand and said: "Lao Yang, I've worked hard for you these days, I heard what you said just now, don't worry, sit down, don't explain anything, I know your difficulties better than you." ”

Yang Wangui, who was about to get up and explain, hurriedly sat down again, and Wang Zhenyu said: "But old Yang, war is a continuation of politics, and there are many things that you lose if you are not careful." We are also facing this problem in the southeast operation, and you should also see the intelligence of the Yangtze River Intelligence Network. Feng Guozhang, this kid has made a lot of money this time, four and a half main divisions plus Ni Sichong, Zhang Xun two local strong brigades, almost 170,000 combat troops plus 80,000 servants (Jiangsu and Zhejiang local troops, of which Zhu Rui has 50,000 horses). The 250,000 enemy troops have almost 60,000 or 70,000 reinforcements coming south at any time, and it is indeed a bit difficult for you to let Li Zongren and them deal with almost 300,000 regular troops with 100,000. ”

"But Marshal, the war has been fought for so many days since New Year's Day, and our expenses are too much" Yang Wangui was still a little worried and unconvinced.

Wang Zhenyu waved his hand and said: "Lao Yang, we have already spent so much money going down, if Zuihou doesn't go down, then the previous ones will be all in vain, do you know?" As for the money, I will let Ye Lao and them find a way, you transfer the Fifth Division and the Eighth Division that are resting in Hubei, and let Xu Yuanquan transfer a part of the elite from the Ninth and Tenth Divisions in Jiangxi to form the Eleventh Division, and appoint Lu Diping as the division commander, and also transfer them. Victory or defeat depends on this, winning, we won the Central Plains, losing, we don't have to care how much it costs, it's all someone else's. ”

Yang Wangui then understood, nodded and said: "The lowly position understands, and the lowly duty will be done immediately." ”