Back to the Republic of China as a commander

Just as the drama surrounding Wang Zhenyu's assassination and defense was about to take place, the second phase of the Blue Light Operation's fortified battle also kicked off.

February 1916, the sixth year of the Republic of China (28), the last day of February in the Gregorian calendar.In the fortress of Hukou, Jiangxi, in the newly established headquarters of the Southeast Front Army, fierce quarrels are constantly coming from inside.

"Chief of Staff Bai, I don't know from which angle you think about it. The Fourth Division is currently located in the Jingdezhen area. It should cooperate with my First Division's right-hand army to attack southern Anhui and southern Jiangsu. Instead of traveling thousands of miles away Cross the Yangtze River, and then participate in the operation of the left army under your personal command. This may cause our right army to be unable to seize Xu Chongzhi due to insufficient troops, and Li Liejun to seize Zhejiang ahead. Commander Li, Chief of Staff Bai, the latest news we just received , just yesterday, the vanguard of Li Liejun's army captured Nanping in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. If there is no accident, Li Houji will fail within five days. So no matter how you make a decision, please be cautious. All of us present here will be covered to the end for the great matter of the commander-in-chief."

Li Zongren didn't make a sound, but just looked at the map with his brows furrowed.He is also in a very embarrassing state now, which is different from the first stage of assault operations. At that time, the enemy's situation was clear and his own side was fully prepared, so the staff even issued specific combat orders at the regiment level.But it’s different when it’s time to attack the fortifications. The military strength in Nanjing is changing every day, so Yang Wangui, who is far away in Anjiang, is a bachelor. Isn’t this the establishment of the Southeast Front Army? You can decide for yourself.

But whether it is Li Zongren or Bai Chongxi, no matter how famous they are in history, they are still young people in their 20s at this time. They have four main divisions and nearly [-] troops in their hands. It would be a lie to say that there is no pressure.

At this critical moment, whether one's own power will continue to rise or fall, the huge pressure forced Bai Chongxi to propose a plan that made Tao Zhiyue, the commander of the First Division, extremely angry.

The entire Southeast Front Army Command is the original Third Army headquarters, and the Front Army has four main divisions with 10 troops under its jurisdiction: the first, third, fourth, and seventh main divisions.According to the plan, these four divisions will divide their troops into two groups and advance eastward: the first division and the fourth division will form the right-hand army, and Tao Zhiyue will be the commander of the former enemy. They will attack southern Anhui and southern Jiangsu from the Jingdezhen area in Jiangxi Province, with the focus on southern Jiangsu. area; the third division and the seventh division formed the left army, and Bai Chongxi was commanded by the former enemy, starting from the Hukou area of ​​Jiangxi to attack northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu.

The final combat goal of the two armies was to join forces in Nanjing. This plan was drawn up in Changsha, and it was correct at the time.

But no one expected that the first stage of the assault operation would go so smoothly, and within seven or eight days, the territories in Jiangxi and Hubei would be obtained.At this time, neither the material storage work nor the dispatching work of Dongjin's coordinated combat troops had completed half of the progress, which made Li Zongren, who was in charge of Wang Zhenyu's heavy responsibility, very depressed.Fortunately, Wang Zhenyu made timely adjustments and selected another group of personnel from Hunan, led by Zhou Zhiyun and Wang Zhenbang to take over Jiangxi.The task force and security forces for the coordinated operations in the southeast region are directly transferred from the current Jiangxi, so that even if there is a gap, there is still time to make up for it, and it will not affect the overall situation.

As for the senior officials of the Southeast Front Army, it is obviously not appropriate to entrust Li Zongren alone.After all, marching into Jiangsu and Zhejiang is not that simple. In addition to military struggles, there are many political issues involved.So Wang Zhenyu thought over and over again, and could only lament that there were too few people available under his command, so he transferred Yang Yongtai, who had just arrived in Guangzhou for less than a month and a half, to Jiangxi to serve as a senior councilor of the Southeast Front Army.The work in Guangdong and Guangxi was handed over to Li Buwei and Zeng Qi, two senior cadres of the National Socialist Party. In order to avoid accidents, Chen Gongbo was also sent to Guangzhou to assist.At the same time in Hubei, both Xu Yuanquan and Wan Yaohuang hoped that they would have the opportunity to govern Hubei. Sorry, Wang Zhenyu did not intend to do as they wished.He sent his father-in-law to Hubei as the acting governor. Xu Yuanquan and Wan Yaohuang naturally did not dare to have any objections when they saw this situation. Afterwards, Wan Yaohuang was transferred to the Southeast Front Army as the deputy commander and director (that is, the supervisor Army), Xu Yuanquan was transferred to Jiangxi to handle the reorganization of the Ninth and Tenth Divisions.

The changes in the youth army itself are so great, not to mention the Beiyang army, which has already sensed the crisis and started to actively deal with it.

With the support of Lao Yuan, Feng Guozhang moved a lot. First of all, in the northern Anhui area, Feng Guozhang not only transferred Zhang Huaizhi's Fifth Division stationed in Zhenjiang, but also planned to transfer Wang Zhanyuan's Second Division stationed in Wuhu from Hubei. Call them together.If it was just the two main divisions of Beiyang, Bai Chongxi, the former enemy commander of the left army, would not be worried. The key is that Feng Guozhang pleaded for Ni Sichong, and at the same time transferred Ni Sichong's [-] Dingwu troops and Zhang Xun's [-] braided soldiers. To northern Anhui.There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers before and after. You said that if Bai Chongxi didn't tremble, he would be an idiot.

Therefore, the problem before Li Zongren is big. If you support Bai Chongxi's plan and transfer Liao Lei's fourth division to the left army, with three main forces of 5000 people to face the Beiyang 15 army, then it is very likely. As a result, the right army was short of troops, which affected its assault speed. In the end, perhaps Tao Zhiyue's army had not entered Zhejiang, and Zhejiang fell into the hands of Sun Yat-sen. Li Zongren could not bear the consequences; but if he disagreed with Bai Chongxi's plan, then Once the Beiyang Army in northern Anhui cannot be solved in a short time, waiting for the Beiyang No. 16 Division and No. [-] Division to go south by train, then Northern Anhui will become anxious and eventually ruin the whole situation. Li Zongren also bears the consequences Sorry.You can't have both, Li Zongren really feels it's difficult.

Bai Chongxi and Tao Zhiyue blushed with anger when they roared like this: "If the situation in northern Anhui cannot be resolved, what is the use of you occupying Zhejiang? When the main force of the Beiyang Army is suppressed, your first division can withstand it." Is it Tao Zhiyue?"

Everyone started a new round of quarrels. This is also a very rare scene in the history of the youth army. The army is about to attack, but the final battle plan has not yet been finalized.

In the end, everyone's common teacher, Wan Yaohuang, came forward to reconcile the mud: "I see, you don't need to quarrel anymore, it's all reasonable. Let's report this to the commander. My opinion is that the fourth division should be rowed to the left army. , As for the right army, the enemy should not be underestimated either. Yang Shande's Beiyang [-]th Division, Lu Yongxiang's Beiyang [-]th Division, and Li Chun's reorganized Beiyang [-]th Division are all bad guys, so one or two main forces should be drawn from the rear Come on divisions, if possible, I would like the left army to have four divisions, and the right army to have three divisions. Because no matter whether it is in northern Anhui or Zhejiang, we will not allow us to lose. Everyone, the commander is still waiting for our southeast front army in Anjiang Good news."

After listening to Wan Yaohuang's words, Li Zongren nodded and said: "That's the only way to do it. The final offensive will be postponed until March [-]rd. The fourth division will go to the left army, and the rest will follow Teacher Wan's opinion just now. Draft the telegram and ask Anjiang for instructions."

In Anjiang, in the General Staff Headquarters, Yang Wangui was furious at Li Zongren's telegram. Although he, the chief of staff, was far away from the battlefield, his pressure was no less than that of the generals in front: "What does he mean by Li Delin, delaying the attack and needing reinforcements?" , doesn’t he know how much we spent on this war? What is the daily expenditure of an army of 10,000+? It’s really a pity that Tian’s heart is not hurting. Three more divisions will be sent up. Where will the military expenses come from? Where do the materials come from? He wants to kill me, the chief of staff? Tell him Li Delin, on this condition, whether he can play depends on the cards in his hand now, and we can't give you any support here! Give me up as soon as possible .”

Things in the world often have such a coincidence. Yang Wangui, who was under heavy pressure, was talking nonsense. He didn't know that when he was yelling and venting his dissatisfaction, Wang Zhenyu stood at the door.

Wang Zhenyu felt a little disappointed with Yang Wangui. With such a psychological quality and overall awareness, it is obviously inappropriate to continue to serve as the chief of staff.But this time there is no rush to change, anyway, the command of the battle ahead has been given to the front army.After this battle is over, let's replace Yang Wangui with a more relaxed position.I also heard from Zhao Yuting that Yang Wangui can't even finish a bowl of rice every day recently, and he is getting thinner and thinner. This is not going to work.

The little staff officer who had finished recording Yang Wangui's order was about to turn around and send a call back, but was stopped by someone.The staff officer looked dissatisfied at the person who stopped him, but was shocked that it was his own general, so he quickly saluted and said hello.

Wang Zhenyu didn't think it was disobedient, and said with a smile on his face: "Little comrade, this telegram is invalid and there is no need to send it again. I will go and talk to your chief of staff now."

At this moment, Yang Wangui also noticed that Wang Zhenyu was coming, and he was taken aback and said, "Marshal, it's already twelve o'clock in the evening, are you still not resting?"

Wang Zhenyu waved his hand and said, "Old Yang, you have worked hard these days. I heard what you said just now. Don't worry, sit down. You don't need to explain anything. I understand your difficulties better than you."

Yang Wangui, who was about to stand up and explain, quickly sat down again, and Wang Zhenyu said: "But Lao Yang, war is a continuation of politics, and there are many things where you lose everything if you are not careful. This time we are fighting in the southeast. You are also facing this problem. You should have seen the intelligence of the Yangtze River Intelligence. This kid Feng Guozhang has spent a lot of money this time. Four and a half main divisions plus Ni Sichong, Zhang Xun two local strong troops, almost 17 combat troops plus 5 servants ( The local army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, of which Zhu Rui has 25 horses). There are 30 enemy troops and about [-] to [-] reinforcements going south at any time. You let Li Zongren and the others use [-] to deal with almost [-] regular troops. It is indeed a bit difficult.”

"But Commander, the war has been going on for so many days since New Year's Day, and our expenses are costing too much." Yang Wangui was still a little worried and unconvinced.

Wang Zhenyu waved his hand and said, "Old Yang, we have already spent so much money, if the hammer does not go down in the end, then all the previous work will be in vain, do you know? As for the money, I will let Mr. Ye find a way , You transfer both the fifth division and the eighth division that are resting in Hubei, let Xu Yuanquan draw some elites from the ninth and tenth divisions in Jiangxi to form the No.11 division, appoint Lu Diping as the division commander, and also transfer up .The victory or defeat depends on this. If we win, we will aspire to the Central Plains. If we lose, we don’t have to worry about how much it costs. It’s all other people’s.”

Only then did Yang Wangui figure it out, nodded and said: "I understand, I will do it immediately."