Although spring has already begun, heavy snow is still falling in some places in northern China, and a cold spring is hitting the northern land.

In the vast northern land, an invisible marching team advanced rapidly in the mountains, snowflakes drifted on the bodies of officers and soldiers wearing felt, and the marching military horses breathed white air in their nostrils, and their bodies were covered with snow.

It was a cavalry force composed entirely of southerners, many of whom had faced such severe cold for the first time, and many of them had seen such heavy snow for the first time. Looking at the snowflakes flying in the sky, most of these people were not happy at all, because at this moment they were facing the test of life and death.

The commander-in-chief, General Batu, led his horse to the middle of the ranks, and the cowhide riding boots on his feet made a "creaking" sound when they stepped on the snow.

It's been half a year, and Batu is slowly thinking about the past days in his heart. He remembered that when he left Changsha with his troops, the leaves were still green, but now they were yellow and green again, and time flew by, and this proud cavalry had also decreased from more than 10,000 at the time of departure to more than 6,000 now, and the horses were only half of the previous ones. Along the way, in addition to fighting various armies, they also had to fight against the weather, the cold, and what was even more terrifying was that they were now facing even more brutal tests.

"Hey!" Batu sighed softly, as the commander, he couldn't do anything now. Now, in addition to riding a war knife on his body, the most valuable thing on his body is probably the cowhide bag.

The bag contains two books given to him by Huang Ke, one is "Zeng Wenzheng's Official Document Collection", and the other is not a book, strictly speaking, it is only a notebook with a kraft paper shell, and the book was also given to him by Huang Ke, which reads "The enemy is stationed and disturbs, the enemy is tired and I fight, the enemy advances and I retreat, the enemy retreats and I chase, preserve strength, and don't care about the gains and losses of a pool and a place".

At first, Batu didn't understand the meaning of this little book, but now after playing all the way, he realized that this kind of combat thinking really helped him a lot.

Half a year ago, this army set out from Changsha and went west to fight in many provinces, crossing most of China, traveling more than 10,000 miles, their destination was Mongolia, and one more sure thing was to return to Sui, Huang Ke did not give him a clear place to occupy, but just gave him an order to gain a firm foothold in Mongolia.

They have also experienced countless battles, large and small, including Wu Peifu's troops, Zhang Zuolin's Northeast Army, and even bandits in various places.

Everywhere he went, Batu did his best to propagate the agrarian revolution and the policies of the new government, which also made their revolutionary ideas more far-reaching.

However, when they left Shanxi to cross the Yellow River, they found that the thin clothes on their bodies were obviously insufficient, and after a heavy snowfall, many officers and soldiers had frozen sores on their hands and feet, and they were no longer able to walk.

The officers and men were riding on horses, and the khaki uniforms on their bodies were as thin as a piece of paper, and many people in the army suffered from frostbite and frostbite, and their combat effectiveness had obviously declined. When approaching the Yellow River, such a tattered team finally stopped, and then they had to cross the Yellow River, at this time the Yellow River was not completely frozen, and how to pass it became a problem in front of them to continue to solve.

Batu's brows were furrowed, his coat was already dirty, and the long time of wearing it had made the originally bright and straight tweed coat hard and dirty. If this continues, not only will they not be able to reach Guisui as scheduled, but even this army will freeze to death by the Yellow River.

What to do? Batu's heart couldn't help but become agitated, and the herald quickly conveyed the order to stop advancing, and the team, which was not moving quickly, began to stop advancing.

After the troops stopped, after the guard posts were released, the men went to collect firewood. When they returned, they often gathered together with three or five soldiers, and built a fire around them; When everyone gathered, everyone's faces were baked red.

The guards also dug a pit near where Batu was resting, and made a fire, and Batu put his saddle on the ground and sat on it, and kept receiving the rare warmth with his hands on it. The wood on the fire crackled, and looking at the raging fire, Batu had a lot of thoughts.

"Ma Guizi, how long will our food last?" Batu asked Ma Guizi, the logistics minister next to him.

Ma Guizi shook his head: "When I passed by the village a few days ago, all the troops purchased some, and now it is enough to eat for half a month; If you reduce the standard a little more, you can eat for more than 20 days. ”

"20 days! Now it is a high-intensity march, but if there is not enough to eat, the officers and men will not even be able to walk. Batu dismissed Ma Guizi's opinion.

Ma Guizi stopped talking, he didn't know what to say at this time, it was difficult for the Qiao woman to cook without rice, and he, the "housekeeper", now didn't know how to continue the next supply.

"Communication Link! Communications battalion commander! After a moment of silence, Batu suddenly shouted loudly at the top of his voice, the sound of which was far away in the cool air, and the communications battalion commander, who had just put down the radio equipment, ran over quickly.

"Report!" The communications battalion commander reported for duty, and Batu paid attention to it, and the cotton clothes on the communications battalion commander had already revealed cotton, even battalion-level officers, let alone ordinary soldiers?

"Start recording and prepare to send a report to the Northern Expedition Command." Batu took out the Mohe tobacco leaves in his purse, then tore open a notebook paper, rolled a cigarette, put it in his mouth and lit it.

The commander of the communications battalion took out a telegram, newspaper and pen to prepare the record, Batu took a deep breath of cigarette and said: "Since the dispatch of the troops in the autumn, our 10,000 elites have overcome all kinds of difficulties and dangers to fight for more than 10,000 miles, but now the Yellow River has encountered severe cold, and the officers and men have suffered serious losses due to the lack of cotton clothes for the winter, there is a shortage of grain and grass, and there is almost no logistical support. Commander Mingjian, Batu. ”

The communications battalion commander recorded it and looked up at Batu, who spat out a puff of cigarette and said, "Go ahead!" Immediately sent to the command of the Northern Expeditionary Army. ”

"Yes!" The communications battalion commander turned and walked out, but Batu was still smoking there.

Ma Guizi tore off a piece of paper from Batu's notebook, rolled a cigarette in his mouth with his own hands, he took a few puffs and asked, "There is a sentence that I don't know whether to say or not." ”

Batu glanced at him: "You and I are both from the old cavalry, what else is there to say?" ”

Ma Guizi frowned: "The northernmost troops of the Northern Expedition have now hit Wuhan, even if they want to give us supplies, there is no way." We don't have balls, and we can't pass through enemy defenses, and if we wait for them to come, I'm afraid we'll see Hades a ball. Now we can't stay here for long, Yan Xishan's troops are still leaning here, and it is estimated that they are going to fight with us. ”

"No, they want to drive us away." Batu turned his head and glanced at Ma Guizi, if these words came out of other people's mouths, I am afraid that Batu would lock him up on the charge of bewitching the hearts of the army, but Ma Guizi is his brother who was born and died, and he is also the head of logistics, he knows all the details here, and his words are the truth.

Batu had no reason to blame him, nor could he blame him, because he himself was now in the same confusion.

What to do? Batu drew a big question mark in his heart, and he was expecting Huang Ke to give him a satisfactory answer.

While a tattered army appeared on the banks of the Yellow River, another army in disarrayed clothes was running in the opposite direction from them.

The banner of this army was called the "Thief Army", and the total number was 300,000 men; It is composed of the Northeast Army, the Feng Army, the Northwest Army and other multi-way armies, because they come from different warlords, the military uniforms on their bodies are also different styles and colors, the Feng Army is wearing an earthy yellow imitation Japanese military uniform, the Northwest Army is wearing an earthy gray military uniform, and Sun Chuanfang's team is wearing a dark gray "fisherman" military uniform.

Although their uniforms were very different, their goals were surprisingly unanimous, and their expression was Wuhan and Nanjing, where they would establish a defense line on the Yangtze River, fight a decisive battle with the Northern Expeditionary Army, and defeat the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Before the expedition, the warlords held a huge oath-taking ceremony in Beijing, and at the same time held the inauguration ceremony of the generalissimo of the army and navy.

At the solemn ceremony, the warlords were dressed in military uniforms, Zhang Zuolin wore a top hat with red pendant hair, the rank of first-class general on his shoulders, and a gleaming marshal with a sword hanging from his waist. Compared with him, Zhang Zongchang and the others are not so vigorous, and several warlords are wearing ordinary dresses, which are much more paled than Zhang Zuolin.

When the press conference was held, Zhang Zuolin did not change his dress, he stood in the middle of the press room, raised three fingers in the air and said: "The thief army will wipe out the southern thief army within three months, and we will hold the same press conference in Guangzhou three months later, and we will also return peace and tranquility to China!" ”

Although many people did not agree with this, the movement of this army still attracted a lot of attention, and the imperialists, who had been disappointed in the Northern Expedition, immediately set their sights on this combined army, knowing that they needed to support this army and the power behind it.

Although the land reform promoted by Huang Ke laid the foundation for the Northern Expedition and the rear, it also made Britain, France, Japan and other countries that were ready to support Huang Ke decide not to cooperate with him.

Blind military intervention will not solve any problems, and the Japanese top brass believes that they can achieve what they need by supporting the Chinese warlords.

Just as the thieves were marching southward, the spy and intelligence agencies of many countries in the concession area of Shanghai sent telegrams back to their national headquarters at this time, and an open and secret battle had begun.