When Sun Wen went south to the city of Guangzhou, not only did he not reach an alliance with Li Zongren, but even under Li Zongren's persuasion, the attitude of the party army became blurred. After Sun Wen left with doubts, Li Zongren immediately returned to the front line, and the smoke of gunfire on the originally stagnant battlefield resumed. Li Zongren put aside the party army, and Shuling's independent brigade of the National Defense Army, which was strong and strong, directly attacked Guangxi. For a time, the scale of the Liangguang War was raised to a new level. Lu Rongting was greatly nervous, concentrated the elite forces of Guangxi, and engaged in a fierce battle with Li Zongren's independent brigade at the junction of the two Guangzhou.

If it had been half a month ago, the war between Beijing and Beiyang would have become the focus of attention of the whole of China, but now, compared to the battle of tens of thousands of troops in the Liangguang area, the military confrontation between Beijing and Beiyang can be called crazy.

Since the Beijing government issued a military mobilization order, it has easily raised a million-strong army with the help of the increasingly perfect reserve system in various places. Feng Yong named it the garrison army, and the troops were divided into four routes as a supplementary force for the elite army of the four routes. At the same time, elite troops were drawn from various military regions to form four group armies, each with a size of about 100,000 troops. In a short period of time, most of the elite troops of the Beijing government were concentrated on the border of Beiyang.

Beiyang fought-for-tat and tried its best to expand the size of the army. With the means of arresting strong men, the number of recruits in Beiyang's training camp expanded by nearly one million within half a month. At the same time, more and more Japanese "retired soldiers" entered the Beiyang boot camp as instructors. At the same time, the arms trade between Beiyang and Japan has become unprecedentedly prosperous, and in order to rapidly strengthen Beiyang's strength, Japan has even not hesitated to borrow money from it and pre-sell arms and weapons in advance. The Japanese government showed great confidence in the future victory of Beiyang.

For a time, in the Central Plains, the total strength of the two sides was more than 2 million people, and there were 600,000 elite troops, including about 400,000 in the National Defense Army and about 200,000 in the Beiyang Army. The difference in strength between the two sides is doubled. In terms of weaponry, because of the large-scale expansion of the army, the level of firepower and equipment of the national defense force has declined, and although the scale of its firepower has been strengthened compared with that of the previous Northeast Army, it is difficult to compare with the elite units that the Southeast Military Region and the Southern Military Region have worked hard to build. This time, not a single soldier from the Southeast Military Region moved, and more than half of the people from the Southern Military Region were evacuated. After all, the original defense area of the Southern Military Region was on the Liaodong Peninsula. What they were to defend against was the sea. Previously, the Beijing government had no defense of the sea, and it needed a strong military force to protect the industrial base in Northeast China. But now it's different. With the First Fleet of the Chinese Navy, China is not completely without the right to speak at sea, at least in the Bohai Bay, the Chinese Navy has shown an unexpectedly strong force, and on several occasions it has confronted the detachment of the Japanese Combined Fleet that has invaded the Bohai Bay, and several shells from both sides have hit the sides of the ships of both sides; if it were not for the joint order of the Japanese emperor and the military department, I am afraid that the Chinese and Japanese navies would have to go to war again.

As the largest navy in Asia, it is naturally difficult to elaborate on the hegemony of the Japanese Combined Fleet, but the military department is not only the navy, but also the army. In the last Sino-Japanese war, hundreds of thousands of elite imperial troops of the Northeast Army lost their armor and dismounted their armor, which was a great deterrent to the Japanese troops in Korea. The arrogance of the War Department is far from being comparable to that of the Navy, which has not experienced setbacks. Every time the Japanese Combined Coalition Detachment entered the Bohai Bay to provoke the Chinese fleet, on the Yalu River, the Chinese Army would always create tension. As a result, the Japanese troops throughout Korea were mobilized, and the Korean Army Command reported to the Military Headquarters, which in turn ordered the Navy to stop provocations and withdraw to the high seas. Although this method made the Japanese army and navy mad at all times, they could not but obey the orders of the military headquarters. This has made the resentment of the navy and the army deeper and deeper. The army complained that the navy should not repeatedly provoke China, and asked the Chinese army to save face from being provoked by the navy by suppressing the imperial army. The navy complained that the army was useless, and it repeatedly became a stumbling block to the navy's efforts to win glory for the country. Coupled with the uneven distribution of funds between the Japanese military, the army, and navy, this contradiction naturally deepens.

May 4 is a day that Chinese history is destined to remember. In the early morning of this day, before dawn, the Northeast Army's Fourth Route Army launched an attack at the same time.

The First Army took advantage of the darkness to build a pontoon bridge over the Yellow River. After the sky was a little lighter and things could be seen, the Wehrmacht First Army launched an attack, and the commander Qian Yansheng was personally in the riverbank headquarters. The 1st Regiment of the 1st Division of the Wehrmacht was the main force in the river-crossing operation, and at the moment of the battle, it crossed the Yellow River at a very fast speed. Attack the positions in the North Ocean on the opposite bank. The earth-shattering sound of cannons shook the ancient waters of the Yellow River. Wu Peifu's carefully constructed defense line was instantly broken through most of it because of the sneak attack of the Wehrmacht, and the perfect defense line of Beiyang was torn open.

After the Wehrmacht occupied the position on the opposite bank, the follow-up troops continued to rush across the pontoon bridge, and the heavy artillery of the Wehrmacht was always angry, suppressing the counterattacking enemy to the death, and buying time for the Wehrmacht's river crossing operation.

Seeing that the main force of the 1st Division had crossed the Yellow River, the Wehrmacht launched another attack, and continued to exert force on the opening of the Beiyang defense line, making its breach even larger.

When the Wehrmacht had the upper hand, the Beiyang Army suddenly retreated five kilometers and entered a pre-set position, and the Beiyang Army suddenly retreated, which made the Wehrmacht a little confused, but went to the best opportunity to attack. Wu Peifu carefully surveyed the waters of the Yellow River near Luoyang, and he knew that it would be difficult to stop the advance of the Wehrmath by relying on the gentle flow of the Yellow River, but it was better to retreat decisively, choose a more favorable terrain, block the enemy step by step, and consume the enemy's vital forces to the greatest extent.

The ancient city of Luoyang. Wu Peifu camp.

The suave Yu Shuai was looking at the map in front of him with a solemn face. I don't know which famous general said that a qualified general likes to look at maps. Wu Peifu, as a famous general, likes to do this even more. The current map is densely marked with the situation of the entire Wehrmacht and the Beiyang Army. Although Wu Peifu is the commander of the Left Route Army, as a military master who grew up in Beiyang, he is rooted in the red, and he is naturally more supported by Beiyang. Moreover, Wu Peifu has his own special staff team responsible for handling this information, and then filtering it out and picking out the things that are beneficial to the operation. It was then reported to Wu Peifu as a material to assist Wu Peifu in making decisions. It can be said that Wu Peifu's prestige has a lot to do with the efforts of these subordinates.

"Yushuai, the Wehrmacht is divided into four routes, and at the same time it is attacking our Beiyang, it is menacing, we are afraid that we will not be able to resist!" Wu Peifu's chief of staff, He Jiajin, said with a sad face. Beiyang formed a corner to contain the Wehrmacht, and the Wehrmacht came to a four-sided flower, using the simplest method and the most violent means to smash open every kind of turtle shell. The four-way army, each with three or four hundred thousand people, of which there are 100,000 elites. Such a combination has the power to fight against any horn in the Beiyang, not to mention that there are four on it. This made Wu Peifu's fear of the National Defense Force deeper.

"Have you now confirmed the identity of the enemy's four-way commander?" Wu Peifu asked in a deep voice. Each general has his own unique habit of leading troops, which is like a chronic illness that is difficult to change. And these characteristics may very well be the advantages of becoming a famous general, or they may become the handle of his eventual failure. Therefore, since ancient times, the first thing that the famous generals who have commanded the army to fight in the war is to find out the identity of the local commander. Then, according to the identity and personality characteristics of the commander, the most correct and effective method is chosen. War is not child's play, and the slightest negligence awaits the most brutal slaughter of life and death.

"It's already clear. The four-way army of the National Defense Force, the road in front of us is called the First Group Army of the National Defense Army, and the commander of the group army is Hu Jingyi, commander of the Shaanxi garrison. The number of the Left Central Army is the Second Group Army of the National Defense Force, and its commander is Zhen Zhen, the new commander of the Northeast who shines in the war against Japan. The number of the right middle army is the Third Group Army of the National Defense Army, and the commander is Zhang Zuolin, the father-in-law of Feng Shaoshuai. The number of the army on the right is the Fourth Group Army of the National Defense Army, and the commander is Guo Shanhu, commander of the Southwest Military Region of the National Defense Army. He Jiajin said in a deep voice. It took a few days for this information to be figured out. Although the Northeast Army's deployment of troops was high-profile, it was very secretive about the generals who commanded the troops. Beiyang used a lot of intelligence forces to find out the enemy's combat intentions.

"If I'm not mistaken, among the four armies of the Northeast Army, the Right Route Army is the weakest, and the generals who command the troops are also unknown. However, Jiangsu is also the weakest place in our strength, and it is difficult for the coastal areas of Jiangsu to completely defend against attacks by the National Defense Forces from the sea. Wu Peifu sighed and said helplessly. Even if he knew that the Wehrmacht's right flank army was the weakest, it would be difficult for him to come up with any good solution for a while. Now Beiyang is already on the defensive, and the Wehrmacht is a four-way army, each of which can go head-to-head with the strategic group of Beiyang, and in this case, the division of troops in Beiyang is tantamount to seeking its own death. But regardless of the division of troops to resist the enemy, Wu Peifu and Zhang Xiaozhun can at most stop two roads, even if Cao Kun's troops quickly go north and stop one way, it will be at most three roads, and there will be a breakthrough into Beiyang. Once this happens, Beiyang will not only suffer huge losses, but also the internal atmosphere of resistance will be devastated, and the people have already turned their hearts to the central government, and now Beijing has played the banner of judgment, and it is not to blame for taking the initiative to surrender to the people. Even capable generals can be promoted and reused. Just like Hu Jingyi, Yan Xishan and others, not only were they not suppressed in the National Defense Force, but they rose to the sky step by step, becoming the commander of one party, and the other was also the deputy commander, and served as the chief of staff of the group army. This is like a hint to all sides: the Beijing government can not only save its life, but also be promoted to make a fortune and realize its ideals and ambitions. I'm afraid that Feng Yong, who appointed the general, didn't expect this. Of course, this effect will not be felt now. It will wait until the future when the Wehrmacht will gain the advantage of war, and that will be when it will play a huge role

(To be continued)