Wang Feng's marching troops on both roads marched north along the Jinpu Road, and Suqian had been left behind by Wang Feng's first division. Now there is only one goal in his mind, and that is Xuzhou.

The march of an army of nearly 20,000 men was indeed quite a spectacle, with horses, cannons, carts, and soldiers in yellow uniforms rolling all over the ground. The smoke and dust on the road rolled up the old high, and anyone who looked at the momentum of his subordinates had a feeling of scolding Fang Xuan, and Wang Feng was naturally no exception.

He waved his horsewhip on his horse and smiled at Gu Zhizhong beside him: "Brother Gu, the army is invincible!" Hundreds of northern troops in Suqian surrendered to the wind... Brother Gu, look at me to defeat Xuzhou and show it to the comrades in the south! ”

Since his sentence "Broken Thief" was recited south of the river, he has become more and more fond of performing in front of Gu Zhizhong.

Fortunately, in addition to the division commander who is now addicted to showmanship, the first division also has Wu Wencai, the chief of staff who has always kept a low profile and worked in a down-to-earth manner.

On the march, he urgently convened a meeting, and dozens of officers talked while riding horses.

"Brother Zhuoran, what is the movement of the Jiang Defense Army and the Northern Army on the Xuzhou front?"

Wang Yangming was already obviously dark and thin, but his eyes were still shining: "According to the cavalry's reconnaissance and intelligence summary, the enemy in Xuzhou has been in chaos, and their main force has been annihilated by us. At present, there are only more than 2,000 enemies there, and the combat effectiveness is very poor, and our 1st Brigade is sure that it will recover Xuzhou before the 26th. ”

When Chen Jianghe heard this, he jumped up and competed for the task, but since the first battle in Bengbu, the young brigade commander has been silent a lot.

His Second Brigade suffered heavy casualties in the First Battle of Bengbu, and more than 400 brothers died alone, and most of them were backbones.

Although Wang Feng tried his best to replenish the Second Brigade with prisoners from the old Beiyang, the Second Brigade has not yet recovered because of the mixture of the old and the new, the north and the south, and the lack of time to reorganize.

Chen Jianghe, who was much more sensible, heard that Wang Feng was impassioned there, so he had to shrug his shoulders and not speak.

Only Lu Si was very unconvinced, since he became the head of the teaching group, this teaching group and the camp school were all formed by young students from Shenhai, Jiangnan, and other places, and they were all regarded by Wang Feng as a treasure.

almost never let them go to the line of fire, so that Lu Si, who thinks he is a stubborn fighter, is really depressed for a long time.

I looked at myself and several classmates from the 6th Army Middle School, whether they were in the 1st Brigade or the 2nd Brigade, they all made more or less combat exploits.

After that Zhang San defeated Guzhen, he took the saber that captured the Northern Army Standard and showed it off in front of him. Lu Si felt that blood rushed to his head at that time, and he exchanged a few words with Zhang San.

This time Xuzhou was in sight, and he couldn't hold it anymore: "Chief of Staff, don't do anything, always do your best with the First Brigade, our teaching regiment has been on the Northern Expedition these days, and the guns haven't been fished out for a few shots, our regiment is 3,000 people, with artillery and cavalry!" As I always say, practice, practice! Don't go to the battlefield, practice hair! This time, no matter what, let our teaching group take the lead. ”

Lu Si, who has always been cold-hearted and cold-faced, would complain so aggrievedly, and the officers present all laughed.

Even several battalion commanders under Lu Si didn't give him face.

Wang Yangming said with a smile: "Brother Niansun, listening to Lu Heimian complaining like a girl, I won't fight with him this time, you look at the arrangement!" I went to the front and looked at the troops. He whipped his horse, and his guards rushed out.

Wu Wencai shook his head with a smile, and said to Lu Si: "Okay, Zhuoran and Wu Wai won't fight with you, I'll go to the division commander to beg for you?" Restore the name of Xuzhou, a big hero, and strive for it to give you Lu Si. ”

The battle went well, the troops were large and the morale was high. The enthusiasm of these officers has become very high, and even the increasingly cold weather cannot extinguish their enthusiasm, and the first division now really looks like a victorious division.

At ten o'clock in the morning, after a big break for breakfast, the marching sequence was really adjusted.

Wang Feng also did not want to curb the enthusiasm of his troops for war, and the teaching regiment was changed to the left flank avant-garde, followed by the first brigade, and the right flank was the second brigade, which accelerated the speed of the march and rushed straight towards Xuzhou, where they were only seventy miles away.

The teaching regiment and the 1st brigade maintained a distance of about ten miles, divided into four marching columns, and the regiment's cavalry training battalion was deployed, searching all the way to the front.

By four o'clock in the afternoon, I had arrived at Zhangjiabao, the gateway to the south of Xuzhou.

This town, which has about five or six hundred households, is still a peaceful and peaceful place, and on the open fields in winter, there are piles of haystacks ready to be used for the winter. A low wall enclosed the town, and the smoke of several houses was already rising, and there was no sign of war.

Behind Zhangjiabao is a tranquil flowing canal, and a railway bridge spans the canal, which is the only way to cross the canal to reach Xuzhou.

Shen Quan, the commander of the cavalry training battalion, served as a sentry officer of the cavalry team, and because he was the foundation of Xiucai, he was selected to the teaching regiment and has been the commander of the cavalry training battalion.

He is a Huaibei man, with pure equestrian skills, and his temperament is also fierce and light on weekdays, and he has a great appetite for their regiment leader.

He took a few officers to rush up the hill, looked at the terrain of Zhangjiabao with a telescope, and put it down for a while before smiling at the people around him.

"Zhang Da Braid and Zhang Chengwu seem to be really ready to give up Xuzhou! The portal of Zhangjiabao is also gone. We passed Zhangjiabao, and the cavalry attacked, didn't we enter Xuzhou? It seems that before we passed through Xuzhou, this Northern Expedition was not able to make any hard battles! ”

Several officers were full of interest: "Battalion commander, look, are we going through Zhangjiabao and directly attacking Xuzhou from the south side of the canal?" At dawn, the regiment commander and division commander had to watch the flag of our battalion float above Xuzhou. The 1st Brigade fought the Jinling Company and the Guzhen Company, and the 2nd Brigade has nothing, if our regiment fights a Xuzhou battalion, won't it still press the 1st Brigade and the first head? ”

Shen Quan was really excited, he also carefully considered the end of the Northern Expedition, seeing the territory of northern Jiangsu, the division commander would not let people anymore. Such a large ground force will definitely have to be expanded, needless to say, the first brigade will be promoted to one level.

Wang Yangming was a team officer back then, and now he is a brigade commander, and he hopes to be promoted to a regimental seat, and if he doesn't make a big contribution in Xuzhou, where can he find it again?

But then I thought about it, the black face of my regiment commander, and the order of the cavalry he ordered to search until Zhangjiabao.

I struggled in my heart for a long time, and finally sighed: "Forget it, it's always a sin to act without an order, our cavalry battalion is on the battlefield for the first time this time, don't make a joke first, it will make the regiment commander's face not look good." On my order, the company bypassed Zhangjiabao and continued to search for the alert to the north and occupy the railway bridge. The second company entered Zhangjiabao and gave the headquarters above the regiment a house, and the third and fourth companies demarcated the rest camp area for the follow-up troops. ”

As soon as the battalion commander said this, the officers below were all enthusiastic and responded listlessly.

Each led the company to carry out the mission, and the first company successfully bypassed Zhangjiabao from the southern field.

Shen Quan was satisfied at the heights, looking at the mental state of his cavalry, he raised the binoculars again, and then habitually looked at the terrain.

When his eyes swept over the burning grass piles in the field, he was surprised to see that many of the grass piles were suddenly pushed away, and the muzzles of black holes stretched out!

The muzzle of the gun spit out the sound of the fire snake machine gun, which immediately filled the entire Zhangjiapu, in addition to the fire in the grass in the field, the town of Zhangjiabao also shot fierce machine gun fire! The unsheltered cavalry in the winter wilderness was simply an excellent target, and the unsuspecting two, three, and fourth companies were suddenly beaten to the ground, and there were at least two infantry battalions of the enemy in Zhangjiapu!

The commander of the second company, who was walking in the forefront, was knocked out of his horse, and the battlefield was full of people shouting and neighing, and the enemy's firepower was excellently organized, completely blocking the two flanks of his own troops, and driving the men and horses towards the middle, and when they were huddled together, one or two machine guns, which had been silent, suddenly opened fire on the most densely populated places, bringing the greatest casualties, and the cavalry battalion was completely stunned.

Fortunately, the training on weekdays came in handy at this time, but perhaps it was the soldiers' instinct to survive.

The soldiers dismounted, took down their German-made carbines from their horses, and began to return fire. But the cavalry battalion advanced lightly, did not carry machine guns at all, and how could it suppress the opponent's firepower with more than 200 horse guns alone!

The first company found that the troops behind it had been hit, and they also happily turned around and wanted to rush into Zhangbao. But this reckless action was immediately punished, and there was already firepower waiting for them, and even two 57-mm mountain guns joined in the shooting!

Suddenly, twenty or thirty people, including the commander of a company, turned into blood and soil on the way to charge. But the rest of the company rushed to the southwest wall of Zhangjiabao in a rage, and circled in front of the town's trenches.

It turned out that the bridge board that was put on the ditch was pulled out by the enemy as early as when the fire was fired! More intense fire poured down on the heads of the remaining centaurs. The cavalry finally broke down and retreated, and retreated in a large circle to their own brigade, but more than half of them had already suffered casualties, a company commander, three platoon commanders, and only one wounded platoon commander remained.

Shen Quan saw all this and rushed straight down, and the bullets flew by beside him. He also didn't care at all, he took off his military hat and waved it in the air.

Already sweating profusely: "Hurry back!" Hurry back! Assemble the team later! Hurry up and take it down for Lao Tzu! ”

By the time the cavalry battalion finally withdrew, it was no longer a team, and the four companies were beaten to pieces, with nearly half of the casualties.

The cavalry, which is known for its mobility and flexibility, was actually ambushed by the enemy in an open area.

Shen Quan closed his eyes in pain, how did this battle be fought! A platoon commander, already wounded, was still shivering there.

"It's the old Beiyang, it must be the old Beiyang! Look at their bullets, they all bite the flesh, and they hit so accurately! ”

Shen Quan gritted his teeth: "If you suffer a loss, don't be so unproductive!" ”

He looked around at his men, who were not willing to admit defeat and had pained expressions, and the leader grabbed a rifle and walked forward.

"A brigade is coming! Organize a line of defense for me! Prevent the enemy from counterattacking! ”

Under his leadership, four companies quickly organized a defensive line with the help of the terrain. The enemy in Zhangjiabao did not attack, but the soldiers who were in ambush in the field also retreated back into Zhangbao. Looking at their gray military uniforms and patent leather big-brimmed hats, they acted neatly and quickly, and they were indeed the troops of the Fifth Town of Beiyang!

The corpses of the men and horses on the ground were still a little wriggling, and a wounded war horse barely tried to stand up, and finally fell to the ground with a desolate neigh.

Shen Quan closed his eyes in pain, his pride completely shattered.