The content of Shen Gang's telegram to Chen Jingyun was very simple, that is, he asked for another seven days to give him, and within these seven days, he asked the guard division to hold the northern city of Nanjing, and within seven days, he Shen Gang promised to take the southern city of Nanjing.

This is Shen Gang's request and guarantee after careful consideration, Shen Gang has always been a steady person, this Chen Jingyun is very clear, since he said that it will take seven days to take Nanjing City, then it will not work if it is less, and he should also be sure to take Nanjing within seven days. However, in this way, it was necessary for the guard division to continue to hold the northern city of Nanjing for more than seven days, which was very difficult for the guard division, which had already suffered great losses. If Lin Chengkun is not careful, he will end up with Feng Guozhang and defeat Nanjing Beicheng.

For this reason, Chen Jingyun is also decisive, which is why he found Yuan Fang, sometimes such a major decision requires the help of others to analyze and give determination.

"After sending reinforcements from a regiment to the guard division, will it be able to hold back for seven days?" Chen Jingyun seemed to be asking, and he seemed to be asking himself.

Yuan Fang didn't know how to answer Chen Jingyun, he was also in charge of the staff department, and he also knew very well that the guard division had suffered serious losses now, with only about 7,000 troops left, and such a force would be difficult to fight against the Beiyang Army, which was twice as large as the number and had heavy artillery troops, for three or five days, and even seven days.

However, war is often undesirable, and sometimes it is necessary to make some helpless decisions. No matter how long the Guards Division could hold it, it had to hold on, and all the rear National Army Command could do was to provide the Guards Division with ammunition supply support and send a small number of troops to reinforce it.

The next day, Chen Jingyun sent a telegram to Lin Chengkun, in addition to commending the heroic fighting of the guard division, hoping that all the officers and men of the guard division would show a fearless spirit and continue to hold the northern city of Nanjing, and at the same time sent an infantry regiment under the Fourth Division to cross the river to reinforce the guard division.

In the headquarters of the guard division, Lin Chengkun, Yu Ruofei, who had just returned from Shanghai, and other senior officers of the guard division gathered in front of the map, and Colonel Bao Gangyi, chief of staff of the guard division, pointed and pointed on the map and introduced the battle situation.

"According to the report of the headquarters, the main force of our army in the southern city of southern Jiangsu has gathered more than 30,000 troops from four divisions to launch a general attack on Cao Kun's troops, and according to the prediction of Lieutenant General Shen Gang, the commander-in-chief of the Nanjing Campaign, it will take at least six to seven days for them to completely capture the southern city of Nanjing. Compared with the more than 20,000 people in Cao Kun in the southern city of Nanjing, this time has been expected to be extremely tight! Bao Gangyi said this, and glanced at the division commander Lin Chengkun: "For the smooth development of the Nanjing Campaign, the headquarters requires our department to hold on for about seven more days!" ”

Lin Chengkun raised his head at this time and looked around at the officers: "The headquarters has promised to send the 42nd Regiment under the Fourth Division to support us, and now we have begun to cross the river, and we will arrive tomorrow." ”

This news is not a secret, the officers present have already known it before, but at this time, Lin Chengkun continued: "I have already sent a military order to the commander, and the guard division will ensure that the north bank of Nanjing is not lost within seven days!" And here today, I also want you to assure me that no one can retreat without an order from the division headquarters! ”

At this time, the chairman of the Political Committee of the National Socialist Party of the Guard Division stood up: "During the war, any officer who violates the order will be arrested immediately, and after the arrest, the political commissar will take over the command of the troops!" ”

Although almost without exception all of the generals present here have joined the National Socialist Party, these traditional officers are different from the political commissars at all levels assigned by the National Socialist Party headquarters, and those political commissars are almost all political officers, and perhaps their military quality is far inferior to that of these officers, but their loyalty to the National Socialist Party and to Chen Jingyun personally is incomparable to that of outsiders.

As a matter of fact, the political commissars at all levels assigned by the Kuomintang to the various units of the Kuomintang have always kept a relatively low profile in the war in southern Jiangsu, and they will not and have no right to interfere with the normal operations of the troops in peacetime, but there are also individual cases, such as when a front-line officer violates an order, the political commissar to which he belongs will not hesitate to arrest the officer who violates the order, and then temporarily take over the command of the unit until another officer is dispatched by the superior. This has happened three or five times, but most of them have occurred among the rank-and-file troops, and it has not happened to repeat such a topic at a high-level military meeting at the division headquarters as today.

Next, no matter what the officers below think, Lin Chengkun still quickly arranged various combat tasks, in order to achieve the goal of sticking to the north bank of Nanjing for a long time, the guard division made a strategic contraction move, preparing to retreat from Jiejiazhuang to Taishan Town, the guard division has occupied Taishan Town for many days, and it has not been idle during this period, but has built a large number of defensive positions, and has long planned to use this place as the second line of defense.

The situation on the battlefield in southern Jiangsu is generally favorable to the national army, but there is still a lot of trouble in local directions such as the north bank of Nanjing, and the trend of this war will not be because Chen Jingyun wants to go how he wants, nor because Yuan Shikai wants to go how he wants.

There are even many external forces that are paying attention to the development of the war at the same time, but also exerting various forces to promote the war, such as "Ben, since the outbreak of the war in southern Jiangsu, it can be said that this side is extremely excited, and actively participates in it, not only to Yuan Shikai's large amount of equipment procurement, even Chen Jingyun's ammunition procurement is also promised boldly, domestic military factories can not produce it, and this side has even taken out the inventory of its own army for delivery." Those who are engaged in the arms business at both ends can be said to have made a lot of money, but of course, the interests of arms exports are not worth mentioning compared with the strategic interests of the state.

Since Xinhai, the foreign policy toward China has been determined, that is, to maintain a state of division in China through various means, even if it cannot become a few countries, but at least to maintain the current situation of actual division in various places. Based on this, they initially chose to support Chen Jingyun and win over several warlords in the northeast region in an attempt to implement the north-south plan.

And when Chen Jingyun's strength slowly grew and the contradictions with Beiyang intensified, he finally fought in southern Jiangsu, and the happiest of them was called "Ben." When the war broke out in southern Jiangsu, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already instructed the relevant diplomats in China to contact the Beiyang and the Nationalist Army at the same time, and choose different levels of support for the two sides according to the situation, and the best thing was to let the two sides fight to the death and stalemate, and finally form a military confrontation in the Yangtze River Valley. If possible, it would be better to provoke Chen Jingyun to establish a separate political axe in the south, thus creating a situation of actual division in China.

When it came to implementation, it was manifested in the fact that some time ago, when the Beiyang Army had an advantage in southern Jiangsu, it said: "This side has procrastinated on the Beiyang Army's arms order and refused to deliver it for a long time, but on the contrary, it has delivered Chen Jingyun's ammunition order quickly."

However, when the Nationalist Army captured the north bank of Nanjing and Cao Kun's troops retreated to the southern city of Nanjing, after the war in southern Jiangsu changed, he said, "The attitude of the Beiyang Army towards the two sides has also changed, and the Beiyang Army's arms order, which has been unwilling to deliver the goods, has been delivered in just a few days, and even the payment for the goods has not been collected. But as soon as the money arrived, it was immediately transferred to the Ministry of Finance by Zhou Xuexi. Yuan Shikai obtained this batch of loans and the arms provided by this side, and then mobilized a mixed brigade of the First Division to fight south.

At the same time, after delivering the first batch of 20,000 rounds of artillery shells to the Nationalist Army, the latter two batches of ammunition orders began to be delayed, and no matter how Ouyang Tian of the Nationalist Army's Equipment Department urged, he was stunned that he would not deliver the ammunition, and Ouyang Tian was extremely angry, and then he had to contact the United States and placed additional orders with several arms dealers in the United States to make up for the shortfall.

In addition to these behind-the-scenes actions, seeing that Cao Kun's nearly 30,000 men were trapped in the southern city of Nanjing, and that the entire army was in danger of being wiped out at any time, he said, "Our diplomats stationed in China have also begun to liaise up and down, trying to exert pressure on both sides to promote peace talks between the two sides, so that Beiyang can keep these tens of thousands of elite troops." On his own side, he said that it would definitely not be of much use, so he said that he contacted Britain and Russia and other countries in an attempt to unite the great powers to jointly intervene in this Chinese civil war.

"If Cao Kun's nearly 30,000 troops in Nanjing are destroyed, this will deal a major blow to the Beiyang Army, and then the Nationalist Army will be able to concentrate its main forces and go all the way north along the Jinpu Line to directly threaten Yanjing! This is very bad news for the situation in China! "He said: 'This Minister to China, Ijiin Hikoyoshi, and the British Minister to China, Zhu Erdian, stand together.

Zhu Erdian put down his wine glass and straightened his collar before saying: "The war in southern Jiangsu has been going on for more than a month, and the trade routes have been blocked for more than a month, and the railway line from Shanghai to Nanjing to the north has been blocked, which has seriously damaged the commercial interests of merchants from various countries. ”

Speaking of this, Zhu Erdian paused for a moment before continuing: "However, the empire's policy towards China in the Far East has always been neutral, and it has maintained a neutral attitude towards China's civil war since the Wuchang Revolution last year!" ”

A casual smile appeared at the corner of his mouth after hearing this: Joke, if Britain still maintains neutrality in China, then the Great Empire will not pay attention to the development of the situation in China at all. In the first half of the year, Zhu Erdian Coco strongly advocated that Yuan Shikai should be the president of China and lead China.

However, the diplomats thought and said that there were few words the same, and immediately Ijiin Hikoyoshi said: "This is very true, but as a member of a civilized country, you have the responsibility to lead backward countries, and it is unjustifiable to watch them kill each other anyway." ”

Zhu Erdian said: "Oh, what do you mean? ”

"All countries join hands to promote peace talks between the two sides!" After a moment of silence, Hikoyoshi continued, "At least let them reach a temporary ceasefire agreement, so that Cao Kun's troops can return to the north and avoid major damage to innocent soldiers on both sides!" ”

The meaning of Ijiin Hikoyoshi is almost very straightforward, that is, he hopes that the Beiyang Army can keep Cao Kun's main force, so as to resist the northward advance of the Nationalist Army in the follow-up. After the main force is preserved, then the Beiyang Army and the Nationalist Army will continue to confront each other in southern Jiangsu in the future, maintaining the current situation without causing too many changes. This actual split is in the best interest of the Say.

Zhu Erdian pondered, and said after a while: "Tomorrow night, I will hold a cocktail banquet for ministers from various countries, and Mr. Minister must also come at that time!" ”

Hearing this, Hikoyoshi smiled at it: "Certainly, definitely!" ”