Among the many plans of the Nationalist Army, some of them took into account that the Beiyang Army would concentrate four or five divisions at once and move southward, that the Beiyang Army would take Hangzhou directly after occupying Shanghai through the navy, and that the Nationalist Army would carry out follow-up defense after the loss of Nanjing. For example, the No. 3 plan adopted by the Nationalist Army now is based on the fact that Huang Xing can resist the Beiyang Army for three to five days, and then give the Nationalist Army time to march to Nanjing.

But neither Chen Jingyun nor the staff officers in the General Staff of the National Army thought that Huang Xing would run away!

Based on the antagonistic relationship between Huang Xing, Sun Wen and others and Yuan Shikai, it also takes into account the antagonistic relationship between Sun Wen and Yuan Shikai after Xinhai, as well as the dispute between the capital and the political system. Almost everyone in the country thought that Huang Xing and Sun Wen were at the forefront of the confrontation against Yuan Shikai, and some people even speculated that if the Beiyang Army was going south, then the first obstacle it encountered would definitely be the Kuomintang forces on Huang Xing and Sun Wen's side.

Even now, when fierce conflicts broke out between the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army, people are still accustomed to regard Chen Jingyun as a member of the Kuomintang, regard Chen Jingyun as the same role as Huang Xing and Li Junlie, and regard the two provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang occupied by the Nationalist Army and most of Guangdong as the Kuomintang's sphere of influence.

When Chen Jingyun went north to Hangzhou and Feng Guozhang commanded the Beiyang Second Army to go south, many people would think that Huang Xing would fight side by side with Chen Jingyun, and even this would lead to a nationwide civil war.

However, people do not know that the current situation in the country is very different from last year.

The most important thing is the sudden rise of Chen Jingyun, the rise of the national army system can be said to be extremely rapid, during the period of the Wuchang Uprising, Chen Jingyun has led the national army to integrate Fujian, laying the foundation for the expansion of the national army, and then took advantage of the Nanjing War period, with the name of the southern coalition army to occupy the southern region of Zhejiang, greatly expanding the financial resources of the national army.

At the beginning of this year, after the conflict between Jiang Zunwei and Zhu Rui in Hangzhou and the outbreak of a military rebellion, the Nationalist Army completely defeated Zhu Rui through military operations, and then occupied the northern part of Zhejiang, and actually took complete control of Zhejiang, thus completing the real expansion of the Nationalist Army and laying the foundation for the Nationalist Army to dominate the Central Plains.

In this process, although Chen Jingyun maintained a close relationship with the previous alliance and the reorganized Kuomintang, and he is still a cadre director of the Kuomintang, he formed a Kuomintang by himself, and imposed it in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces by administrative and military means, and the Kuomintang not only controlled the Fujian Provincial Assembly, but also controlled the Zhejiang Assembly by a narrow margin in the re-election of the Zhejiang Provincial Assembly in the second half of the year. Up to now, thirty percent of the high-ranking officials in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces have joined the National Socialist Party, and in the Nationalist Army, basically all the officers have joined the Kuomintang, and most of the soldiers have joined the National Socialist Party. Chen Jingyun's strong support for the Kuomintang (KMT) has caused a great obstacle to the KMT's development in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, and the KMT's 30 percent of the seats in the recently concluded Zhejiang Provincial Assembly election shows that they and the KMT have become political opponents.

The rivalry between the Kuomintang and the Kuomintang also led to an increase in the contradictions between the revolutionary parties such as Chen Jingyun and Song Jiaoren, but they were not exposed but concealed.

To a certain extent, Chen Jingyun, Cai Yi, Sun Wen, Li Yuanhong, Lu Rongting, and Tan Yanmin are all political groups with relative reading power. Cai Yi controls Yungui, Chen Jingyun controls Fujian, Zhejiang and most of Guangdong, Lu Rongting controls Guangxi and western Guangdong, Li Yuanhong is concurrently the governor of Hubei in the name of vice president, Tan Yanmin is relatively weak, and he does not actively expand the army and express various views on the domestic situation, he is a representative of the Hunan gentry, and the army under his command is also chaotic and complicated, and he cannot be compared with the previous people.

Sun Wen's forces mainly relied on Li Junlie in Jiangxi, and then Huang Xing in southern Jiangsu and Bai Wenwei in Anhui.

Therefore, although Sun Wen is the nominal leader of the major warlords in the south on the surface, he is only the nominal leader, Sun Wen himself is not stupid, he doesn't want Chen Jingyun to be a gunman, and now the national army wants to fight with the Beiyang army, why drag us inside.

In addition, when Sun Wen talked with Hangzhou and Chen Jingyun about the Shanghai incident, he was very dissatisfied with Chen Jingyun's explanation, and thousands of Shanghai troops said that if they were gone, they would be gone, so Sun Wen sent a telegram to Huang Xing: "The revolution has not yet succeeded, and the monarchs still need to work hard to endure the temporary humiliation for the country and the people!" ”

Huang Xing didn't want to leave in his heart, and he didn't say anything about retreating to Nanjing in the various plans he had predetermined, but planned to resist Beiyang for a few days first, and then wait for the Nationalist Army to go north and fight with the Nationalist Army. If this is something that slips away by itself, then it will be a big joke in the world, and everyone will not be able to scold themselves for being greedy for life and afraid of death when they see themselves in the future.

However, Sun Wen sent him to Anhui in a telegram, saying that it was very difficult for Bai Wenwei to maintain in Anhui, and that the first and second divisions of Anhui did not obey Bai Wenwei's orders, and if Huang Xing entered Anhui with his troops, then he would be able to completely control the Anhui region, and in the future, with Li Junlie in Jiangxi, then the Kuomintang would have a solid territory in two provinces.

This situation is always much stronger than looking at the faces of the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army in the southern Jiangsu region now.

Huang Xing thought about it in detail and felt that if he and the National Army jointly defeated Beiyang, then the biggest benefit would definitely be the National Army, and when the time came, the National Army in southern Jiangsu would probably not be able to go again, if he and the National Army were defeated, not to mention that the National Army would be miserable, he Huang Xing could not be able to raise it.

After thinking about it a lot, Huang Xing gritted his teeth and ordered a retreat overnight.

So, in the afternoon, as soon as the troops of the Beiyang Fifth Division came into contact with the Soviet army, they exchanged fire slightly, and then the Fifth Division spent a night preparing for the battle, and when they were preparing for a large-scale attack the next day, they found that there was not a single Soviet army in Nanjing.

When Feng Guozhang of Chuzhou learned that Huang Xing fled with people overnight, the whole person was stunned, Rao is he is a veteran general who has been through ups and downs for a long time, but he can't react to this sudden incident.

"This Huang Xing actually ran away again!" Feng Guozhang fought Huang Xing in Hubei at the beginning, Huang Xing saw that the situation in Hubei was difficult to maintain and fled east overnight, and now his troops have just put up an offensive posture, and Huang Xing ran away before he could fight.

"That's fast enough!" Feng Guozhang shook his head and smiled bitterly: "But this is also a good thing, this is what the soldiers who live without a fight say!" ”

Yuan Shikai couldn't help but laugh when he learned the news: "What are these revolutionaries thinking in their heads!" ”

Duan Qirui also quipped on the side: "This Huang Xing has really become an escaped general!" ”

Huang Xing ran away, this matter is a major good thing for the Beiyang Army, not to mention taking Nanjing without a single soldier, but also allowing the Beiyang Army to preserve its strength, by occupying Nanjing, the Beiyang Army crossed the Yangtze River moat.

In addition to Nanjing's important political significance, his transportation significance is also very important, Beicheng District is the north bank of the Yangtze River is the terminus of the Jinpu Line, and then Nancheng District is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, which is the terminus of the Shanghai-Nanjing Line.

After occupying the south bank of Nanjing, the Beiyang Army could, on the one hand, use the Shanghai-Nanjing line to attack Zhenjiang directly, and even reach the Shanghai area, thus completely bypassing the obstacles of the Yangtze River. On the other hand, you can also go south directly, threaten Huzhou after taking Liyang, and then threaten the safety of Hangzhou in these two rounds. And taking Hangzhou can also be said to be taking the northern Zhejiang region.

It can be said that Huang Xing's overnight escape to the west gave the Beiyang Army a great strategic advantage, and for a time the various deployments of the Nationalist Army produced various uncertainties.

When the Beiyang Army happily entered the city of Nanjing and crossed the Yangtze River to reach the south bank of Nanjing, Hangzhou also took temporary emergency measures because of Huang Xing's unexpected changes.

On the afternoon of the 23rd, the Hangzhou Nationalist Army Headquarters issued an order to the 2nd Division, which had already reached Lishui, to stop the march to Nanjing, and at the same time ordered them to block the vanguard of the Beiyang Army, which might be moving south from the direction of Nanjing.

At the same time, the 7th Division, which had already reached Changxing, accelerated northward to reinforce the 2nd Division.

Then he ordered the 1st Division in Shanghai, Suzhou and other places to go to Zhenjiang to meet the 3rd Jiangsu Division abandoned by Huang Xing.

After Ma Cheng, who had arrived in Lishui, received a telegram from the headquarters, he was still a little puzzled at first why Hangzhou asked him to stop the march, but when he found out that it was Huang Xing who abandoned the city and fled overnight, he scolded his mother in a popular manner: "Ge you Laozi, fuck me, I know that the revolutionaries don't have a good thing, when they brag about their skins, one is bigger than the other, and the one they say is better than the other, and when the real thing comes to an end, they will all become fucking soft-footed shrimp!" ”

Whether it is Ma Cheng or Chen Jingyun, in fact, you really can't blame Huang Xing for such a move, people think about themselves, you Chen Jingyun want to fight with the Beiyang Army for the benefit of the National Army Huang Xing naturally has no opinion, but if you want him to be caught in it, for the benefit of the National Army, Huang Xing can't do this. If Huang Xing was told in advance, maybe the Nationalist Army could still seize Nanjing through a rapid march, but now a day has passed, and the main force of the Beiyang Army has arrived in Nanjing, it is unlikely that the Nationalist Army wants to raid Nanjing, and the most important thing now is not to capture Nanjing, but how to defend under the attack of Beiyang's superior forces to avoid the Beiyang Army from continuing to move south.

Ma Cheng immediately ordered the troops to stop marching, and then set up a defensive line in the area of Lishui and Yuanxiang, on the one hand, to wait for the arrival of reinforcements from the Seventh Division, and on the other hand, to send a reconnaissance cavalry battalion to reconnoiter the enemy.