Back to the Republic of China as a commander

The result of Bai Chongxi's desperate attack on He County surprised Feng Guozhang, who had been attacking Tongling and Nanling for three consecutive days and still had no results. He knew that something bad was going to happen, but at this time, he couldn't withdraw if he wanted to. He knew that he had to do it. Something to salvage this already dire situation.

"Tell Zhang Huaizhi, if we fail this time, he will be the sinner of the entire Beiyang. Tell Ni Sichong, don't think that if your family enters the Tianjin Concession, it will be safe. If the power is gone, that little money is not enough for him to lose for a few days. Tell Li Chun, don't I’m hesitant, Pukou is lost, so there’s no point in defending Nanjing?” Feng Guozhang became incoherent in the face of senior generals such as Wang Zhanyuan and Yang Shande, which made these senior generals feel the pressure.

Feng Guozhang took the tea handed over by the adjutant and drank it in one gulp. After a little relief, he suppressed his emotions, calmed down a little and said to the staff officers standing there dumbfounded: "Convey my order. , Ni Sichong's Anwu Army, Zhang Xun's Dingwu Army, and Li Chun's Sixth Division gathered at Pukou at full speed, and asked them to defend Pukou at all costs."

Wang Zhanyuan seemed to have seen something, he hesitated for a moment and asked softly: "Fu Shuai, we will not fight Tongling anymore."

Feng Guozhang was taken aback when he heard this. This was something he had been hesitating after learning of Zhang Xun's defeat in He County.

Although my own side failed to take down Tongling for three consecutive days, it is impossible to withdraw it now. The armies of both the enemy and us are stuck together.If he dared to play gecko docking, judging from the performance of the two armies, he might end up repeating the mistakes of Ma Jizeng because of the slow action of his own army.The army in his hands is Beiyang's biggest reliance. If the entire army is destroyed, there is no need to wait for the troops of Wang Zhenyu, Cai E, and Sun Wen to enter Beijing. One Yan Xishan is enough to make Lao Yuan step down.But if he continues to attack here and Pukou is lost, then the end of his army will also be exhausted and surrender.Whether to retreat or continue to attack, this question has begun to deeply trouble Feng Guozhang's brain.So at this moment, he himself didn't know how to answer Wang Zhanyuan's question.

Seeing Feng Guozhang's expression, Wang Zhanyuan knew that Fu Shuai probably didn't have an answer to the question he asked, so he immediately shut up and stood aside.

After a while, Feng Guozhang made a seemingly twisted decision: "Send a telegram to Xu Shuzheng, asking him to take the [-]th and [-]th divisions southward, and talk about it at Pukou."

At this time, I thought of letting Xu Shuzheng go south, would he come down?Yang Shande and Wang Zhanyuan who stood aside couldn't help but slander.But this is just thinking about it in their hearts. In this situation, they dare not say such discouraged words.But gradually they became more careful, because no matter how they looked at it, they were going to lose this battle.

Feng Guozhang is also a good person. Naturally, what are his subordinates thinking, he thought over and over again, and kept Wang Zhanyuan and Yang Shande: "We may suffer a big loss in this battle of Beiyang. I want to know your thoughts."

Wang Zhanyuan didn't follow up, but Yang Shande said that the commander-in-chief's will prevail, and he just carried it out.

Feng Guozhang sighed, and said with confidence: "Then we will retreat? We will go back to Nanjing first by water?"

Wang Zhanyuan finally spoke when he heard the words, he shook his head and said: "Fu Shuai, I'm afraid we can't do it even if we want to take the waterway now. The Yangtze River Fleet is now owned by the Kuomintang. If we withdraw to the waterway, it is estimated that they will pass through Jiangyin. The fortress is on the water and bombards us landlubbers. Besides, let’s retreat at this time, let alone the Jiangbei area, whether we can even retreat to Nanjing is a big problem. Will the youth army on the opposite side allow us to return to the division calmly?"

Feng Guozhang thought for a while and said: "Let's withdraw to Wuhu first, and then leave the two divisions in Jiangsu there. We will continue to withdraw to Nanjing. As long as the second and fourth divisions can return to the north, our Beiyang vitality will still be there. We still have a chance to recover today's debt. So don't hesitate, if we really wait for Bai Chongxi's grandson to conquer Pukou, it will be difficult for us to leave."

Yang Shande also nodded and said: "The commander-in-chief is right. Let's fight down these few days. If nothing else, the enemy in front of us will definitely not exceed 3 people. This is before the war. And we will deduct this amount here." After three days of losses, there are still more than 8 people in four divisions, so we have to turn around, and they have nothing to do."

The more Wang Zhanyuan thought about it, the more he felt suspenseful. He boldly said: "But if we withdraw in this way now, what if Pukou is still lost? We can't make a reverse assault and use our superior force to go to Jiangxi and Hubei? Take Wuhan, and we will Can we still get supplies through the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway?"

Feng Guozhang shook his head and said: "But our supplies can't support Wuhan at all, and you have seen it yourself that the youth army is not as easy to deal with as you think. So..."

"Who?...ah...boom...boom...da da da"

Suddenly there was intense gunfire outside the room, which made Feng Guozhang and the three of them look at each other in surprise. What's going on?

At this time, an adjutant opened the door in a panic and said: "It's not good, Commander, a unit of the Youth Army came up for some reason, there are still a lot of people, and the guards are fighting fiercely with them, please Commander!" Get away quickly with all the officers."

The youth army actually found their own headquarters. This is Fan County, which is forty or fifty miles away from the front line. How is this possible?

But the fierce battle outside told Feng Guozhang unmistakably that all of this was true.

The troops that raided Feng Guozhang's headquarters in Fan County were none other than more than 103 warriors from the 5th Company of the 150rd Regiment. Under the agency of the acting company commander Zhao Yong, they did not return to Tongling, but insisted on fighting in the Fanxian area.Zhao Yong is indeed a good player. Under his leadership, the entire company not only did not collapse, but became stronger as the battle progressed, taking down several small supply points of the Beiyang Army in succession.It's just that because there is no radio station, there is no way to get in touch with the division headquarters.

On March 3th, Li Weidong and others in charge of reconnaissance observed the enemy's situation near Shuikou Village, a dozen miles away from Fan County, to see if there were any Beiyang Army supply troops with weak defense forces. , not only can replenish ammunition, but also delicious.Unknowingly, the entire company has taken a big step towards the direction of the bandits, but there is still a difference between them and the bandits, that is, they do not forget to kill the enemy.

Li Weidong and the others discovered the anomaly today. This village with less than 200 households has only less than [-] Beiyang soldiers guarding it. What is even more unusual is that there are civilian personnel coming in and out from time to time, but no supply vehicles are seen.Li Weidong observed for several hours, and could only sigh. His luck was really bad. The village he found was not a supply point for the Beiyang Army. It seemed that everyone was going to eat dry food and canned food tonight.Speaking of canned food, there have been no supplies for several days after leaving the main force, and there is not much canned food in stock now.

Back at the hidden spot of the 5th company, Li Weidong truthfully reported his work to his taciturn company commander, while the party representative Cui Fei was counting how many cigarettes he had left.

Li Weidong, who originally thought he could rest after the report, saw that the company commander Zhao Yong didn't say anything, so he naturally got up and planned to leave and go to the cave where he was to rest.In the end, the company commander Zhao Yong shouted excitedly: "Assemble the team and prepare to attack."

Now Li Weidong was stunned, while Cui Fei asked in surprise: "What's the situation? Why did you attack?"

Zhao Yong danced and gestured: "If my analysis is not wrong, the small village that Li Weidong and the others discovered is at least a division-level headquarters. There is no material to guard, and so many guards and weapons are used. ***, Da Fish!"

Everyone suddenly realized, everyone immediately flew to inform the troops to join forces, and followed the company commander to catch big fish!So Feng Guozhang was in tragedy. . .

Zhao Yong and the others reached Shuikou Village quietly, and escaped at least two Beiyang patrols composed of cavalry.

When approaching the village, the sky has gradually darkened, and the curling smoke is slowly rising from the village, reflecting the last afterglow of the setting sun.

Zhao Yong didn't say anything, but told everyone to hide in the woods and wait for it to get dark.

After a while, Zhao Yong called all the main officers over: "After the battle, I will lead the second platoon to touch it in first, and then we will stir up chaos inside. The remaining brothers are under the command of Cui Dang's representative, and attack when they see the opportunity. Everyone saw the patrol on the way here, so the battle is only allowed to last for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, we don’t want anything and retreat at full speed. I guess this battle is over, we can go back to Tongling to rest instead of guerrilla here .”

Cui Fei, Li Weidong and others looked at Zhao Yong in surprise. This was the longest sentence Zhao Yong said in their memory.