Before the afternoon of March 19 of the lunar calendar of the second year of Jianlong, outside Wujiaozhuang, more than 80 miles west of Jiangzhou City, Xu Shao'an, who was standing on the side of the road, was looking at the combat map carried out by two staff officers, calculating the distance from here to Jiangzhou City, and at the same time ordering the herald to inform the commanders of all battalions and regiments, asking them to speed up the march as much as possible, and to rush to Jiangzhou City tomorrow, that is, before the afternoon of March 20 of the lunar calendar, so as not to miss the siege time and then affect the entire operational deployment of the Southern Expedition.

Speaking of which, Xu Shao'an cannot be blamed for the slow marching speed of the Middle Route Army, let alone the officers and men of the regiments and battalions under his command. First, this place belongs to the hilly area of the south of the Yangtze River, and since Qiyang crossed the river, all the way has been either continuous low hills or lakes and swamps, which is not fast for the middle route army carrying a large number of baggage and heavy artillery. Second, it is the end of March in the lunar calendar, and the rainfall in the south has begun to gradually increase. Although it was not as sunny as in the rainy season, the spring rain would fall every once in a while, making the roads more and more muddy and seriously hindering the advance of the Central Route Army. Therefore, the vanguard of the Central Route Army, which was originally planned to conquer Jiangzhou the next day, was still in Wujiaozhuang, more than 80 miles away from Jiangzhou City, struggling to move forward in muddy water. The artillery regiment and the baggage vehicles to which he belonged were even more slow, and at this time they were still trying to cross a small river, although it was not wide, but had become muddy due to the rainy weather of the past two days.

In fact, in order to avoid being affected by the weather during the conquest of the Southern Tang Dynasty in his previous life, Zhao Kuangyin chose the time of his southward journey in September and October of the lunar calendar with less rain, so as to minimize the impact of unfavorable weather on combat operations. In order to achieve the effect of "striking while the iron is hot", the Zhou army had to set the time of the expedition in the early spring because it wanted to effectively use the assassination incident of Wang Kunjun to create public opinion and find a better and more reasonable excuse for sending troops. At the same time, in order to reduce the obstruction of the weather and reduce the adverse impact of the large volume of water and the width of the river on the erection of pontoon bridges during the flood season of the Yangtze River, the Military Department and the Committee, when formulating operational plans, also raised again and again the speed of the advance of the various units and the time it took to conquer the cities.

Of course, the formulation of such an operational plan does not mean that the brothers of the military department and the committee only know what to do on paper and do not take into account the actual combat process. On the one hand, from the Battle of Youyun to the present, a series of achievements of the Beiping Army are there, except for the deliberate situation of the Beiping Army, no city can hold out for more than a day in the face of the attack of the Beiping Army, and most of the siege battles last in hours. This gave the Military Department and the Commission full confidence in the generals under their command. On the other hand, thanks to the effective work of the Jiangnan sub-stations of the Ministry of Intelligence, as well as the attention paid by the "Qingyuan" brothers to map operations, all units of the Southern Expedition were provided with a large number of clear and detailed maps related to their combat missions before they set out. These maps, coupled with the fact that the intelligence department dispatched agents from various sub-stations in the south of the Yangtze River who were familiar with the local terrain acted as guides, and the various units of the Southern Expedition could enter with confidence and boldness without worrying about getting lost. In this way, it is not difficult to understand that the military department and the committee had very little time left for the various ministries to attack the city when they drew up their plans.

Although the road was difficult and it was very difficult to complete the task of conquering Jiangzhou on time, Xu Shaoan had no other way to use at this time except to urge his soldiers and horses to speed up the march. After all, he was one of the main formulators of the Southern Expedition Operational Plan, and complaining about the flaws in the formulation of the plan at this time was tantamount to slapping his own mouth, and it was meaningless. Fortunately, it was not yet noon at this time, and the journey of more than eighty miles, for the middle route army, which had a large number of horses, could still be completed by reaching Jiangzhou City before noon tomorrow. Moreover, according to the information provided by the Jiangzhou Branch of the Ministry of Intelligence, Xie Yanbao, the assassin of Jiangzhou, is a person who is gentle and greedy for life and afraid of death. With the "example" of Yang Shouzhong in Wuchang Jiedu there, this guy is likely to choose to surrender without a fight for the sake of his personal net worth. It is estimated that as long as he takes a few men and horses to the next station in the city, and does not even need to set up artillery, Xie Yanbao in the city will open the city and surrender, which is easier and simpler than the old 26th to capture Wuchang.

The urgency of the task, the confidence in his own strength, the contempt that naturally arises due to the relative weakness of the opponent, and the psychological pressure caused by Zeng Zhilin's landing, marching, and siege of the city, and conquering Wuchang in less than a day before and after, made Xu Shaoan, who originally hoped that the battle of Jiangzhou and even the entire battle of the southern expedition could be quickly resolved to avoid the adverse effects of the weather on his side, finally chose the dangerous way.

After entering Wujiaozhuang for a short rest and having a very simple lunch with his generals, Xu Shaoan ordered the Central Route Army to split into two. He personally led the "Flying Dragon Army" to form a forward group of the four divisions and two regiments, two battalions of the division's cavalry regiment, the guard units directly under the headquarters of the Central Route Army, and the cavalry infantry of the two regiments of the "Security Army" to form a forward group, temporarily separated from the slow-moving heavy artillery units and baggage troops, as well as the combat units responsible for covering these two troops, and rushed to Jiangzhou lightly in advance, taking advantage of the unstable morale in the city and the uncertain thinking of the defenders to force them to surrender. The follow-up group composed of the four divisions and three regiments of the "Flying Dragon Army," the divisional artillery regiment, the divisional cavalry regiment, the remaining six regiments of the "security army," and other units directly under the command of the Central Route Army and the logistics baggage units followed up and joined up with the forward group in Jiangzhou City.

Anyone can see that Xu Shao'an's temporary combat order deviates from the steady and reliable operational policy that the Beiping Army has always adhered to, and it is not a good suggestion. However, on the one hand, as the nominal deputy commander of the Beiping Army's armed forces and one of the main decision-makers of the Beiping Army's military operations, Xu Shao'an's orders were difficult to effectively oppose except for Wang Kunjun, who was above him, and a small number of members of the military department and the security department of the crossing team, such as Qian Yuanshan, Zeng Zhilin, and Wang Feng. On the other hand, as a member of the Beiping Army, the officers and men of the Central Route Army also had great confidence in their own strength, and most of them, like their commander Xu Shao'an, firmly believed that the Jiangzhou defenders would surrender without a fight because they were afraid of their own strength. In addition, although the forward group led by Xu Shaoan lacked heavy artillery, it also had nearly 10,000 troops. Such a large number, even if it was just a salvo of rifles and machine guns at the head of Jiangzhou City, it was enough to scare the defenders in the city. Therefore, none of the staff officers of the Central Route Army Command spoke out against or even slightly questioned the orders of their own commanders, but carried them out unconditionally.

At the beginning of the year, the forward group completed the assembly. Xu Shao'an explained a few words to the adjutant general in charge of the follow-up group command, asking him to arrange for these tired soldiers to have lunch as soon as possible after the artillery and baggage troops arrived at Wujiaozhuang, so that they could go to Jiangzhou City to meet him as soon as possible.

By the way, the adjutant general naturally promised in a row. Xu Shao'an nodded with satisfaction, and then stepped on the war horse, waved his hand, and led nearly 10,000 lightly armed cavalry and cavalry infantry to rush out of Wujiaozhuang, go south along the road, and gallop towards Liuhu Town, the next town.

Liuhu Town was only twenty-five miles away from Wujiaozhuang, and although the road was difficult, the forward group of the Middle Route Army, which was full of cavalry and mounted infantry, believed that they could get there in an hour and a half, and finally arrived at Liwu Village, forty miles from Jiangzhou City, before dark, to spend the night. In this way, before noon the next day, the forward group of the Middle Route Army could Chen soldiers under the city of Jiangzhou and deliver a second big victory for the battle of the Southern Expedition.

At the end of the day, the Qianfeng Group arrived in Danshan Village, south of Baiyang Town. It was less than ten miles away from Liuhu Town, and as long as they climbed over a hill that was not very high, the troops could get rid of the mountainous and hilly terrain that had a great impact on the speed of the march, enter a relatively gentle area, and gallop all the way to Jiangzhou City.

Due to the delay in crossing the Wushan Mountain between Daqiao Village and Baiyang Town, Xu Shaoan ordered a rapid march after leaving Danshan Village. He not only threw the slower-moving 75-mm field artillery company of the artillery battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 4th Division to the rear, but also omitted the reconnaissance action of the spearhead soldiers on the mountain area in front and led the forward group to rush straight over.

The mountain road traveled by the forward group of the Central Route Army was sandwiched between two small but steep mountains, Yaji Mountain and Guniu Mountain. This mountain road is not only narrow, but also lined with cliffs on both sides, and people walk in the middle with a feeling of a glimmer of sky. It stands to reason that after passing through such a dangerous terrain, sharp troops should be sent to explore the road, and a certain number of troops should be arranged to occupy the commanding heights on both sides of the mountain road to cover the safe passage of the main force. However, reconnaissance and control in advance was considered by Xu Shao'an to be the main reason for the long delay in crossing Wushan, so at this time, crossing Yaji Mountain and Guniu Mountain, which were not as high as Wushan, Xu Shao'an decided to omit this step. In his opinion, the most important thing for the forward group of the Central Route Army now is to rush to the city of Jiangzhou as quickly as possible, rather than to conduct time-wasting reconnaissance and control. Especially when he thought that it was impossible for Xie Yanbao, the commander of the enemy army, to have the courage to send people to ambush him on the road, this idea became even stronger and difficult to eliminate.

Therefore, after vetoing the reasonable opinions of Wang Kunjun Yizi, deputy chief of staff of the Central Route Army Headquarters, and chief of staff of the Second Regiment of the Fourth Division of the "Flying Dragon Army", Xing Zhengnan, the only subordinate who dared to put forward the necessary reconnaissance and control suggestions to him at this time, Xu Shaoan led nearly 10,000 men under his command to crash headlong into the winding, narrow and cramped mountain road.