Deng Xihou also led his troops to fight at night for the first time, and he was a little uncertain about the sudden silence of the battlefield. Soon several flares suddenly lit up over the battlefield, illuminating the ground in detail, only to see that the battlefield that was originally overgrown with dense weeds has turned into a sea of corpses and blood, and the officers and soldiers who died in battle are all over the battlefield, and in some places even three or four people are stacked together, and the blood gathers into a stream and gurgles unscrupulously on the ground.

Seeing this scene, Deng Xihou gasped, and Long Jiguang was even more frightened, and his hands and feet were soft. As soon as the light went out, he ordered in a trembling voice: "Mingzao, leave the two battalions here to cover, and the other departments quickly withdraw in the direction of Zhaoqing!" ”

Long Mingzao hesitated a little: "Marshal, withdraw the army now?" ”

"And when do you say you should leave?" Long Jiguang did not answer the rhetorical question.

Long Mingzao immediately came to his senses: Yes, if you don't withdraw at this time, when will you wait? It is true that the moon is dark and the wind is high now, which is very unfavorable to the retreat of the Ji army, but it is equally difficult for the opposite Hubei army to pursue. It is indeed much more convenient to evacuate during the day, but it is obviously more advantageous for the Hubei army, there are planes to bomb, and then there is a large army to pursue, at that time the Ji army is really no way to enter the sky!

"Yes, handsome! Withdraw now! Long Mingzao replied immediately.

Although the Ji army was so cautious in evacuating, Deng Xihou saw that the opposite side was in chaos and did not launch an offensive for a long time, so he fired a few lights in surprise and ejected them, and Long Jiguang's intentions were immediately revealed. Deng Xihou touched the stubble that was a little prickly and thought: Since the other party is leaving, why do you have to get up and send it off, right? At that moment, he concentrated artillery fire on the retreating Ji army and bombarded it wantonly, and ordered a company of troops to charge the opposite Ji army position under the cover of fire.

The flares not only allowed the Hubei army to see the tragedy of the battlefield and the withdrawal of most of the Ji army. The same scene also fell into the eyes of the officers and soldiers of the two battalions covering the evacuation. The psychological shadow caused by the bombing of the planes in the afternoon has not yet disappeared, and the corpses of the brothers of the five battalions are scattered all over the field, which makes them even more frightened. Only they were left to die in the back. What should I do? Do you just wash your neck and wait?

Just when the heavens and men were fighting in their heads, the Hubei army on the opposite side suddenly opened full firepower, and under the faint light of the bullets, hundreds of Hubei soldiers could be seen bending over and rushing towards the position, and in the blur, it seemed that they could still hear the clatter of their footsteps falling into the blood pit. Under heavy pressure, a soldier finally couldn't stand the fright and had a nervous breakdown, threw down his weapon and jumped out of the trench and fled the battlefield, disappearing into the vast darkness without waiting for the battalion officer to draw his pistol.

Successful examples have given countless people hope for survival. Soon a second and third imitators appeared, although they all died immediately under the spears of the company platoons that had been prevented long ago. But as the footsteps of the Hubei army approached closer and closer, the company platoon commanders had no time to take care of it. The escapees reappeared, and some of them simply shot the platoon commander's black gun before escaping. After a few minutes, the scale of the escape became a squad or even a platoon. Seeing that the entire line of defense is full of holes. It was only a matter of time before it was breached. Even the platoon commanders had no intention of suppressing the soldiers' escape, and some simply took the lead in escaping. In this way, Long Jiguang's position left two battalions to defend quickly collapsed and fell shortly after the Hubei army launched a charge.

When the news came, I heard that a company of soldiers broke through the back line of the Ji army without blood, and even Deng Xihou himself was a little unconvinced. The situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, and he had to fire more flares while trying to see the situation on the position so as not to fall into the enemy's trap. On the one hand, he hurriedly ordered the whole regiment to press on as a whole to prevent the Ji army from counterattacking and recapturing the position.

Seeing that his rear defense line was broken through by the Hubei army in minutes. Countless enemy troops swarmed in, and the Ji army, who was already panicked, was so frightened that they had no master, and they spread their feet and began to run wildly, no longer caring about the commander's orders and marching rules. And the panicked rush in the dark not only made the others more nervous, but also stirred up all the queues into a pot of paste. The chaos caused panic, and the panic turned the retreat of the Ji army into a rout in a short time.

Seeing that the enemy was unable to form an army, the Hubei army was also unforgiving, ignoring the fatigue of the long-distance attack, and followed frantically for nearly 20 miles, and barely stopped under Deng Xihou's five and three strict orders.

In this battle, the 5th Regiment of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division of the Hubei Army, with the assistance of aircraft, and with the help of superiority in air supremacy, tactics, and even weapons, defeated the more with less and the stronger with the weak, and completely defeated the 22 battalions and more than 12,000 troops with 2,600 troops, which became another classic example in the military history of later generations. According to post-war statistics, a total of 137 people were killed and 214 wounded in the Fifth Regiment, while the number of casualties on the Ji Army side reached a staggering 4,629, and the number of wounded was conservatively estimated at about 2,000, and the number of prisoners was 2,000 or 3,000, and less than 1,000 returned to Zhaoqing completely.

It is a great victory for Guangzhou.

After this battle, the vitality of the Ji army was greatly damaged, and its status in the two Guangxi regions plummeted. Shortly thereafter, it was annexed by Li Yaohan, the commander of the Zhao Army, and completely disappeared into the long river of history. By virtue of this battle, the reputation of the Northwest Army for its excellent weapons and courage and good fighting also spread from Saibei to Lingnan, and Lu Rongting, the governor of Guangxi, Tang Jiyao, the governor of Guizhou, and Sun Daoren, the governor of Fujian, who bordered the Northwest Army, were even more anxious, fearing that Sun Yuanqi would aim his next target at himself, so he had to privately pay Sun Yuanqi to express his surrender.

————

When Sun Yuanqi, who was in Beijing, heard that the 3rd Brigade of the Hubei Army had occupied Guangzhou, the situation in Guangdong Province had been roughly controlled by Liu Mingzhao. Although Sun Yuanqi was full of confidence in the military god sweeping Guangdong early on, he was still overjoyed when he heard that Guangzhou was captured, and said to Yang Du beside him: "This time to seize Guangdong, the blue son should be the first to take the lead!" ”

Yang Du rarely gave in humbly: "Yang is just opening the river, Brigade Commander Bocheng, Regiment Commander Jin Kang and others waved their troops south from Hubei, first forced Hunan, and then leaped forward thousands of miles, the soldiers pointed to the two Guangzhou, swept the Ji army, and settled in Guangdong, they are the ones who work hard!" ”

Sun Yuan laughed and said, "What are you talking about?" It is clearly 'in the midst of strategizing, winning thousands of miles away'! After a pause, he said: "Brigadier Bo Cheng, Regiment Commander Jin Kang and others are indeed hard work!" This time, the Ji army went east clearly from the command of Yuan Xiangcheng, intending to prevent us from getting involved in Liangguang, but I didn't expect Bo Cheng, Jin Kang and others to be so brave, from Hubei to Hunan, from Hunan to Guangdong in a few months, even the famous general of the Yunnan army, Long Zicheng, is not a unified enemy in front of them, and it really deserves to be a 'hero out of a boy'! ”

Yang Du shook the folding fan and said: "Bo Cheng and the others are powerful, but even more powerful is Bai Xi you!" It is said that Bo Cheng was just a recruit at the beginning, and Baixi was blue-eyed when he first saw it, and he was first appointed as the captain of the pro-army, and then promoted to the standard commander of the new army, which also caused a lot of criticism at that time. Now it seems that Baixi's vision of knowing people is really unattainable, and Yuan Xiangcheng should retreat from this alone! ”

Sun Yuanqi did not answer, but continued: "Originally, Yuan Xiangcheng was expected to secretly hack us while taking all the two rivers, so that we could eat Coptis chinensis dumbly - I can't say anything about it, but I can't steal chickens and rice without thinking about it, but it has achieved our army's prestige in the southern provinces, and even has the effect of surrendering people without a fight to Guizhou, Guizhou and other provinces." I wonder if he will jump to his feet and be angry when he hears the news of our capture of Guangzhou? ”

Yang Du said: "At this time, Yuan Xiangcheng's money bag is empty, the ammunition is exhausted, and the soldiers and horses are exhausted, no matter how angry he is in his heart, it is impossible to start a war again, and he can only temporarily acquiesce to this fact." After this war, the national pattern has been roughly demarcated, and there will be no changes in the short term, so it is time for everyone to sit down and talk about how to coexist peacefully! ”

Sun Yuanqi suddenly sighed and said: "Yuan Xiangcheng is worthy of a generation of heroes, it is really not to be underestimated!" His strength lies not only in the management of the army in a good way, but also in the fact that he is very politically skillful. For example, this operation to capture the three provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi was full of wisdom, and various means emerged one after another. It shows that it was taken by force, but in fact, I don't know how many ways were secretly used to divide and buy off revolutionary party figures, such as Hu Wantai, commander of the First Division of Anhui, Xu Baoshan, commander of the Second Army of the Northern Expedition, Chen Tingxun, commander of the Jiujiang Fortress, and Long Zicheng of Guangdong. It's really hard to prevent! Maybe within our New China Party, there are a lot of Yuan Xiangcheng's meticulous works now! ”

In later generations, Sun Yuanqi came into contact with many declassified articles on the espionage activities of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party during the Republic of China through television and the Internet, especially the Ma Sect, and the underground party members were almost densely distributed in all organs of the Kuomintang. Even so, the Ma Sect still rectified and rebelled every now and then, and knew his internal spies. As soon as Sun Yuanqi thought that his party was going to do these things, he felt a splitting headache!

Yang Du was still unconscious, still shaking the folding fan leisurely: "It's not 'maybe' that there is, but 'definitely' there is!" If there is no Yuan Xiangcheng's meticulous work in the New China Party, it will be a little strange. And not only sent by Yuan Xiangcheng, it is estimated that there are also Sun Yat-sen, Li Huangpi and others. But Baixi doesn't have to worry, as long as there is no big mess, it doesn't hurt to have a few details. When the water is clear, there are no fish, and when people are observed, there are no fugitives! ”

Sun Yuanqi was a little relieved, but still said: "That being said, if you really want to make a big mess, it won't end well." is like Bai Liewu, who is now fleeing everywhere, if it weren't for Hu Wantai's whole appearance, why would he be so embarrassed? If you have time, you still have to talk to Changqing and them, and see if you can purge the military and political leaders in the party and the provinces! ”

Yang Du nodded: "It's okay, Yang will discuss this matter with Changqing." However, this is not the most important matter at present, and the most important thing at present is to delineate as soon as possible the importance of the posts of governor and chief of civil affairs of Guangdong, so as not to paralyze the Guangdong provincial government. Baixi, do you have a belly case? ”

Sun Yuanqi said: "It's better to be the governor of Guangdong than Liu Mingzhao, what does Huizi think?" (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you knokno-kun for your continuous tips and encouragement!!