If you want to select the top ten tragic figures of the Patriotic War, Ma Baochen, chief of staff of the Sixth Beiyang Division, can definitely be elected. As the chief of staff of the major general, he was first rejected by Ma Jizeng, commander of the First Route Army and commander of the Sixth Division, and was reprimanded many times. Then on the way to escape, Ma Jizeng gave him a mission to organize a blockade, and I don't know if he wanted to take the opportunity to retaliate.

However, this is not a tragedy, because Ma Ji took the 11th Brigade, the main force of the 6th Division, to set off first, and threw the entire supplementary brigade of more than 6,000 people to Ma Baochen to organize a blockade.

According to Ma Baochen's military common sense, with such a strong force, it should not be a big problem to get out. But who would have thought that in just half an hour's effort, the Zhujiaqiao position, which supplemented the guards of the first regiment, would change hands. The 401st Infantry Regiment of the Youth Army, which had achieved a breakthrough, did not look at the Beiyang soldiers who were kneeling on the ground and raised their hands above their heads, and the whole regiment, under the leadership of the regiment commander Liu Xuyi, fiercely rushed towards Wenjiaping.

Since the third batch of ships would arrive in two hours soon, although Ma Baochen heard the rumbling of artillery in the direction of Zhujiaqiao, he estimated it to be two hours according to the usual practice, that is, it would be at least four hours before the youth army broke through the defense line and then rushed here. In this case, there is no need to build any fortifications, after releasing two companies to serve as guards, Ma Baochen began to be busy organizing the retreat, Ma Jizeng was in a hurry, and most of the documents of the division headquarters had not yet been destroyed.

As soon as Ma Baochen burned a small part of the message, he heard a loud gunfire not far away, and before he could ask what the situation was, the door was slammed open. The commander of the second regiment ran in breathlessly and said incoherently: "Chief of staff, it's not good, go quickly, the youth army is coming." ”

"What?" Ma Baochen was really panicked now, don't look at him who has been in the army for many years, this is the first time he is in danger, he was stunned for a long time before he came out: "Then you don't organize a team to resist!" ”

The regiment commander's brain suddenly turned black: "The enemy inserted too suddenly and violently, and the two companies in charge of guarding outside had no time to warn." Our troops were scattered around the village and ready to board the ship, and there was no way to organize resistance. Chief of Staff, we don't care about so much, let's go quickly, change into civilian clothes and escape. The enemy was less than a hundred meters away, and my platoon of guards was fending. ”

Ma Baochen nodded and went to look for plainclothes, only to find that the box containing the clothes had already followed the previous boat, and he should have done that trip, but because he wanted to show his courage, he took the initiative to leave late, and the result was ......

It was too late to regret that it would be too late, and before Ma Baochen and the others came out of the division headquarters, a scene that frightened them appeared, and a pair of soldiers in blue military uniforms ran past the division department at a very fast speed, and the yellow military coats on everyone's bodies clearly revealed their identities and positions.

I'm sorry, immediately two young army soldiers pointed their guns at Ma Baochen, and there were more than 20 of them on Ma Baochen's side, and they also reflexively took out their guns, and the two sides immediately entered a tense state of confrontation. The two young army soldiers who were originally only in charge of guarding the door were now in a cold sweat, and when they broke down the door, they didn't expect that there were more than twenty enemies with guns here. They didn't dare to call for support, and it was a dead end to turn around and run away, either selling their backs and being shot, or being dealt with by military law. The only thing that could cheer them up was the comrades who kept running on the street less than three meters behind them, but unfortunately they didn't notice anything unusual here, and sweat flowed down their cheeks.

The confrontation was only a short while, looking at more and more young soldiers running past the door, Ma Baochen sighed resignedly and said: "Ma Baochen, chief of staff of the Sixth Division of the Central Army, is willing to surrender to the Youth Army, and we will lay down our arms." ”

At this point, Ma Baochen became the first senior general of the Beiyang Army to be captured since the outbreak of the Protectorate War. When the news reached Beijing, Yuan Shikai was so angry that he tore up the telegram: "He weishenme will not commit suicide!" Does he weishenme not commit suicide? ”

Liu Xuyi didn't expect that he would catch such a big fish as a result of such a mess, so he immediately gathered his team and waited for the division commander Liao Lei to come up with the follow-up troops with more than 3,000 prisoners......

Dai Yue, deputy commander of the Second Army of the Tiger Youth Army and commander of the Second Division, is on the way to pursue at the moment, and among the pursuing troops of the entire Second Army, he may be the most relaxed, they set off from Changde, take the waterway, and even the division's heavy artillery regiment is carried, and chase along the Yuanjiang River towards Ma Jizeng, according to Wan Yaohuang's Jihua, the next battle to attack Yiyang, an important town in Xiangjiang Province, is also on the second division, and Dai Yue's great contribution is just around the corner.

Relatively speaking, the harder one was Zhou Zhengming of the Eighth Division, although they set off early, and they were hidden behind the flank of the Beiyang Sixth Division very early. But Jihua couldn't catch up with the changes, and the whole Jihua was actually recognized by the timid and cautious Ma Jizeng, and this old boy also played a good show of a strong man breaking his wrist and a gecko's broken tail, and ran away with his eleventh brigade and division headquarters.

The Eighth Division also reacted quickly, and when Liu Xing arrived with the military guard company, Chen Quzhen's division of the 801st Regiment under Zhou Zhengming had already rushed towards the Yuanjiang River. It stands to reason that this time Ma Ji had wings and could not escape, but there was another accident, Ma Ji had left an engineer battalion on the east bank of the Yuan River before attacking Changde. Although there was only one battalion of this unit, it successfully reached a pontoon bridge on the Yuan River, and as a result, Ma Jizeng escaped the Yuan River except for a battalion of 1,000 men to block the troops, and then blew up the pontoon bridge, so angry that Chen Quzhen, the commander of the 801st Regiment, threw all the horse whips into the Yuan River.

Ma Jizeng ran to Yiyang, where Xiangjiang Road is located, only to learn that Ma Baochen had been captured, needless to say, the entire replenishment brigade was finished. Moreover, Ma Jizeng's relationship with Lao Yuan also sent a secret telegram to tell Lao Ma that Lao Yuan was very angry about the failure of the Changde War, but it was only triggered because of the overall needs, and if the whole province of Hunan was lost again, the consequences would be unimaginable.

As a last resort, Ma Jizeng could only gather the remaining more than 9,000 people to hold on to Yiyang, and at the same time, in the name of the commander of the First Route Army, he strictly ordered Ni Sichong, who was stationed in Hengyang, to defeat the place in front of him as soon as possible, and then wave his army to Yiyang to join him.

This was ideal, because a day later Ma Jizeng got even more terrifying news.

In just two days, he forced the local government and garrison of Baoqing (mainly because the local garrison itself did not have many guns), and then waved 25,000 people to claim 50,000 people, and joined Cheng Qian in the Yongzhou area of Chenzhou, Lin Xiumei's army of more than 10,000 people, a total of 60,000 people to seize Hengyang. And Ni Sichong, the bastard, is not very good at fighting, but looking at the situation, he knows that Wang Zhenyu's strength is far beyond his own, so what else is this kind of battle to fight!

At this time, Ma Jizeng's telegram came again, and Ni Si was scheming and calculating. He immediately called back, the Yiyang war situation is related to the safety of Hubei, and the safety of Hubei is related to the great emperor Bixia's thousands of miles of rivers and mountains. Therefore, on the same day, Hengyang was handed over to the local management of Hunan, and the 15th battalion of the Dingwu Army under the general of the Ministry of Command went to Yiyang, and Ma Jizeng, commander of the First Route Army, commanded the bandits in western Hunan to investigate and quell the banditry in western Xiangxi.

It would be fine if Ni Sichong really went to Yiyang, but this guy was not kind, he withdrew from the Hengyang area by himself without waiting for Tang Qianming's army to be in place, and he didn't go to Hengyang to support our Commander Ma as the telegram said. All the way to burn and loot, along the Xiangjiang River directly to Yuezhou, and then to Anhui, so angry that Ma Jizeng scolded him for being shameless, but these are all later words......

Ma Jizeng didn't dare to run anymore, and sticking to Yiyang was the only way out. But this also has to ask Dai Yue, deputy commander of the Second Army of the Youth Army and commander of the Second Division, whether he agrees or not.

On January 19, just when Ma Jizeng ran to Yiyang on the front foot, Dai Yue arrived on the back foot, and the vanguard of the Second Division easily defeated the Beiyang Army alert force, which was already like a frightened bird. By noon, the heavy artillery regiment of the Second Division of the Youth Army was also in place, and it was a fierce bombardment of Yiyang.

Where can the Yiyang city wall, which has been standing for thousands of years, withstand such a blow from such a modern industry, and it has collapsed in dozens of places.

The battle has reached this point, and it will be a little difficult for the Beiyang Army, which lacks heavy weapons, to continue, Ma Jizeng's tears are about to flow, and the Sixth Division has not even fought a hard battle, so it collapsed and unjustly killed him.

On January 20, the battle in Guangdong was led by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi of the Third Army, and on this day, the men and horses of the Eighth Division of the Second Army of the Youth Army also arrived in the Yiyang area. The most direct result of their arrival was to use artillery to launch a large propaganda leaflet into the defense line of the Beiyang Army in Yiyang, the content of which was a letter from the family members of the Sixth Division of Li County, which roughly stated that everything was fine with the concubine, and that he hoped that Jun would return as soon as possible, and that he was not working for Yuan Thief.

In the afternoon of the same day, the 4th Division was also in position. The 70,000 youth army was surrounded by more than 8,000 Beiyang troops in Yiyang City, but they did not attack.

"What, there are 70,000 people outside our city alone, and the arms and salaries that he Wang Zhenyu got from there, how can he raise so many troops in a small Xiangxi?" Ma Jizeng, who had just received the news that Hengyang had been captured by Tao Zhiyue's division of the First Division of the Youth Army, asked in despair.

"It's true, Shizuo, what kind of battle are we fighting, we haven't figured out the enemy's strength yet, this battle can't be fought, let's descend, Shizuo, we can be regarded as loyal to the Great Emperor Bixia" Zhou Wenbing, the commander of the 11th Brigade, had already convinced his old opponent Zhang Zhonghe before coming to see Ma Jizeng, everyone's family members were in the hands of the Youth Army, and the army in their hands had lost all their baggage, and they couldn't get together for a while in this small Yiyang City. And after yesterday's ferocious shelling, everyone's morale has fallen to a low point, and no one wants to fight anymore.

Ma Ji had looked at these subordinates who had a slight fierce light in their eyes, and knew that asking himself was just a matter of affection and a passing scene, so he sighed and nodded in agreement.

On the 20th day of the first month of the fifth year of the Republic of China, the Sixth Division of the Beiyang Army was annihilated in Yiyang, and Ma Jizeng, the commander of the First Route Army in charge of the Hunan war, committed suicide by poisoning.