This battle choked Cui Wu enough before the start of the battle, the defense line of the front line was overturned by artillery fire all of a sudden, and the hour-long shelling made his troops not even have a normal room, and then Wu Peifu's troops launched a scattered line attack, the middle route army was defeated for more than ten miles, and Wuhan, which was originally within reach, was now recaptured, and the middle route army was divided into three routes, and among the three armies, Jiujiang, Wuhan, and Xiangyang were the three key points of attack, and as soon as Wuhan stopped, the other two roads were difficult to advance.

In the first battle of Wuhan, the troops also suffered heavy losses, and more than half of the original brave front-line troops were killed or wounded under artillery fire, and the most important thing is that this kind of artillery fire gave the Northern Expeditionary Army a head-on blow to the singing triumphant song, so that the morale of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which was once proud of heavy artillery, was suddenly greatly reduced, and the original roaring Middle Route Army was swept away by the sluggish atmosphere for a while, and all the officers and soldiers were like wilted eggplants.

"The big war is imminent, and it is a big taboo for the army to be unstable!" After Huang Ke heard about this, he angrily smashed the teacup in his hand, and he immediately asked for the phone number of the Central Route Army Headquarters, in which he scolded Cui Wu fiercely.

Cui Wu, who has always been calm, jumped up excitedly at this time, he grabbed the phone tightly and said: "Commander, you give me another ten days, if I can't take the three towns of Wuhan in ten days, I don't need you to speak, I will shoot myself in the head." ”

Huang Ke eased his mind and said: "You still have your own head, it is difficult to take Wuhan in ten days, even if you are a heavenly soldier." I don't understand very much, Wu Peifu has never had heavy artillery in his hands, where did he get so many artillery all at once? ”

"Commander!" Cui Wu thought that Huang Ke doubted what he said, and hurriedly defended: "We have indeed been subjected to major shelling, don't believe it!" If you don't believe me, you can go to the battlefield and take a look, those shell craters haven't been filled up yet......"

As soon as Huang Ke heard Cui Wu's words, he was angry, usually this person is a cold-faced killer, how can he become grinding and chirping after a defeat, he scolded into the microphone: "Don't fucking talk nonsense!" Cui Wu, let me ask you, can you still do it? If you don't have the ability, hurry up and roll up and get out, if you can do it, I'll give you fifteen days, and you must knock Wuhan down in fifteen days, is it clear? ”

After hanging up the phone, Cui Wu was stunned for a long time with a blind microphone, and after turning around, he put the big-brimmed hat full of dust on his head, and before the dust on his body could be beaten, he shouted to the herald at the door: "Call all the officers above the regiment commander to the headquarters." ”

The herald was stunned for a moment and said, "But, it's lunchtime." ”

Cui Wu frowned, "Lunch fart!" Lao Tzu didn't eat anymore, so hurry up and notify them to come over for a meeting! ”

The most direct impact of the war in front of Wuhan was Yang Yibing. As the direct leader of the Reserve Cadres Bureau, Yang Yibing's intelligence network had not yet been rolled out, and he suffered a big loss in intelligence. Wu Peifu's troops possessed artillery, but he did not even get the slightest rumor, and it has to be said that this was a major mistake in intelligence work.

After learning of the defeat on the front line, Yang Yibing's first thought was to leave and send someone to find out, how did this batch of artillery come from?

When Yang Yibing was thinking about it, the phone rang, he picked up the microphone, and before he could speak, Huang Ke's voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Wu Jun has a heavy artillery matter, why don't you have any news in advance? There is something wrong with your intelligence work. ”

Yang Yibing wanted to defend himself, after all, it had only been a few dozen days since he led the organization of intelligence work, and it was inevitable that such a situation would occur, but at this time, he couldn't say the reason for the justification in his mouth anyway.

After Huang Ke finished speaking, Yang Yibing was silent on the other end of the phone for a while, Huang Ke changed a soothing tone and said to him: "Yibing, you must know that your work responsibilities are huge, these are different from fighting in the front, you must always be vigilant and select excellent talents. ”

"Yes!" Yang Yibing replied without thinking too much: "Don't worry, Commander, I will immediately start to investigate." ”

Huang Ke's affirmative voice came from the other end of the phone: "Intelligence work is a system, and you will definitely have difficulties in working from scratch now, but you can't be decadent because of this, you must be meticulous and careful, and you can't have the slightest omission." ”

After Yang Yibing listened, Huang Ke hung up the phone, leaving him alone in the office for a long time.

The streets of Guangzhou are still lively, although it has entered autumn, but for such a southern city, the residual heat of summer has not yet dissipated.

Under a big tree in front of the presidential palace, Mr. President in a robe stood under the tree with his hands behind his back, and there were autumn cicadas singing happily and babbling on the tree.

After walking briskly to the courtyard, Imam Wang saw the president standing there and deliberately slowed down his pace, but the president still found him.

The president didn't turn his head, he still stopped at the autumn cicada of the big tree: "Is it Ji Xin?" Come on in. ”

Imam Wang walked in lightly and said in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry, Mr. President, for disturbing your rest." ”

"Out of the way!" The president waved his hand, turned around and sat down on a wicker chair under the tree: "Did you come to me for something?" You've worked hard to be in charge of education and administration during this time. ”

Wang stood beside him, hooked his waist and said, "It's not hard, it's all as it should be." As he spoke, he handed the president a yellow-brown brown paper document in his hand.

"This is the education situation in the area of the Northern Expedition during this period; At the request of Commander Huang, in the new area, we have set up a number of institutions for primary schools and literacy classes. ”

When the president wanted to spread out the documents, he couldn't help coughing a few times, he quickly covered it with his hands, and the guards behind him put a cloak on him and beat him on the back; The president hid his cough and waved his hand to stop beating his back.

"President, take care of your health," Imam Wang said in a slightly concerned tone.

The president waved his hand: "Out of the way, you continue to say yours." ”

After Imam Wang spoke slowly, the president nodded from time to time, and it seemed that he was quite satisfied with the education work promoted by Imam Wang.

At the end, Provost Wang said in a worried tone: "President, there is something that students don't know whether to talk about or not? ”

"Ji Xin, you have something to say, don't hide it, this is not like your character."

With the president's encouragement, Imam Wang breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Now that the Northern Expedition is underway, the Northern Expeditionary Army is still carrying out land reform in the locality while the Northern Expeditionary Army is in full swing, and the people in the army are not only a bit of a layman, but also suspected of overstepping their authority. In the past few days, a few university professors have gone to the field to conduct inspections, and they have written some articles that they want to present to you, I wonder if the president has time to read them? ”

As he spoke, Sect Chief Wang took out a pile of thick materials from his black leather bag.

The president took it and put it on the table: "Oh, it's good that some academics are concerned about this matter, after all, we still have to listen to the opinions of experts." You can put the opinion paper with me, and I will give you a reply after reading it in the past two days. ”

Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Provost Wang could not hide his joy in his heart, and after he cleaned up, he stood up and said half-bowed: "Mr. President, the student will step back first." ”

Although the Western Route Army was the slowest among the three route armies, there was no doubt that the Western Route Army was the most steady and steady one. The land of Sichuan and Chongqing has always been a place where soldiers must fight, because of the terrain, the battle here is also one of the most difficult to fight, plus the land of Sichuan and Chongqing has been a bit semi-independent since the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the warlords are swaggering everywhere, so this bone is most suitable for people with a character like Wang Maocai to gnaw.

When he was about to leave, Huang Ke told him that the land of Sichuan and Chongqing is the top priority, and if he fights well, half of the country will be started, but if he doesn't fight well, he will be annoyed in the future.

Although the Western Route Army is the poorest equipped of the three route armies, most of the officers and soldiers here are composed of sons and daughters of Yunnan, and the homeland and the land of Sichuan and Chongqing are somewhat related, and it is most suitable to be sent to fight Sichuan and Chongqing.

When fighting Chongqing, the first opponent that Wang Maocai's Western Route Army faced was the warlord Yang Sen. Yang Sen is a Sichuan warlord who had a conflict with Liu Xiang a few years ago, but because he has a heavy army, Liu Xiang can't help him.

Later, after the contradiction became big, Yang simply led his troops out and broke with Liu completely. After that, he led his troops to the eastern Sichuan and Chongqing regions, where his strength and territory greatly expanded, and by the beginning of the Northern Expedition, he already had more than 60 regiments and more than 70,000 troops, controlling the counties in eastern Sichuan, and once again becoming a hegemon in the land of Sichuan and Chongqing.

Undoubtedly, Yang Sen was the primary opponent that Wang Maocai wanted to order.

Facing the Sichuan army, which had more than 70,000 people in his hands, Wang Mao knew that if he wanted to defeat this army, he had to be as strong as a tiger, and if he was slack, he was likely to be eaten by the Sichuan army.

Therefore, before marching into the army, Wang Mao carefully studied the customs and customs in Chongqing and sent people to investigate; When tens of thousands of troops drove to the border of Chongqing, they did not attack immediately, as some people thought, but stationed themselves in the same place.

Wang Maocai's stationing was half a month, and at that time, Cui Wu and the Middle Route Army had already divided into three ways to attack the city; Jiang Xianyun and his Eastern Route Army also entered Fujian and fought fiercely with Sun Chuanfang's troops; Even Batu's cavalry began to rush back and forth to support each other, but only his Wang Maocai's Western Route Army remained still.

This not only made Yang Sen on the opposite side unable to figure it out, but even many of Wang Maocai's subordinates couldn't figure it out. However, Huang Ke never urged him to march quickly, because he knew that Wang Maocai had a small abacus in his heart.

Sure enough, on the 20th day, the garrison of 20,000 troops launched an attack at night under the cover of artillery fire...... Early in the morning of the third day, Huang Ke received a message: Chongqing has been breached!