Heavy rain from the 2nd onwards began to rain continuously, dense rain silk wrapped in the north wind whistling from the Xiaogan Plain, getting colder and colder weather made the war difficult, Yunmeng in the west to Hujiata in the south, the ten-kilometer-long defense ground is covered with trenches flowing with yellow mud water, whether it is the Wehrmacht who is dead here or the Beiyang, which is known as the first in China, are rapidly consuming vitality, and the artillery fire is also loosened up because the railway line is broken, seeing that the snow season is coming, both sides are a little anxious ().

The news of the night of Changsha on 914 has completely spread, the front line is anxious, the north is restless, the south of the Jinpu line is really Shanghai has been self-reliant, and the two Huai are also constantly gunshot, at this moment of smoke, the news that Hunan has been pocketed by the national defense force is simply bad news for the north! There was a constant stream of telegrams urging the front line, which showed that the one on the north side was really a little flustered.

When Master Feng was in a dilemma in the face of heavy rain and supply difficulties, Yang Qiu came to the front line again to inspect, the bleak wind and cold rain, the remnants of the broken walls, and the accumulation of sandbags and deer barns like mountains actually gave people the feeling of being in a meat grinder. However, he knew that Xiaogan might just be an insignificant battle in this life, and there would definitely be bigger battles waiting for him in the future, but taking the first step could lay a solid foundation for the future, so he would never lose this battle.

Under the care of Hakan and a squad of guards, he stooped over to a machine-gun point. The machine gun squad was set up in a dilapidated earthen temple, an infantry company was separated, and there were about 60 light and heavy machine gun points like this on the entire Xiaogan front, and it was the efforts of machine guns and artillery that made it impossible for Beiyang to expound the advantages of combining infantry and artillery.

Hang Zhi has been stationed in Changsha, there will be no change in a short time, Xiao Anguo and Zhang Wenjing have also sent officers to take over the Fourth Division, and Su Xiaohu on the Sichuan side has begun to go north, and in a few days it should be able to reach the capital (). According to his own orders, Ma Kui gathered all the workers of the former Sichuan Manufacturing Bureau, which had been scattered in the war, to Chongqing, and began to select a site to level the land, just waiting for the end of the war to redraw the blueprint. However...... Only by winning this war can all this be truly guaranteed, and if it fails, then everything will be in the mirror.

"Commander......."

The light machine gunner was a young man in his twenties from the foot of Wudang Mountain, and when he saw Yang Qiu, he immediately wanted to salute, and he pressed down to make a silent gesture, signaling everyone to sit down and patting his shoulder with a smile: "I heard that you killed seventeen Beiyang soldiers in one day here, not bad!" It is said that Shaolin Wudang is a hero, I think you are ....... ”

The machine gunner smirked and touched the back of his head, and the soldiers were also happy, Yang Qiu beckoned to take a stack of notes printed with the Wehrmacht Headquarters from Lei Meng's hand: "Everyone has worked hard, and the headquarters has decided to issue additional wartime allowances, plus 12 oceans per person." The silver is too heavy for me to bring over, and the bank has to wait for paper tickets in preparation, so there is only this one, and after retreating and resting, the brothers can go to the headquarters to collect it. ”

The soldiers smiled and put it away, most of them were recruited from the north, and they were still a little reluctant to fight to the death in Xiaogan, but they didn't think that after arriving, Yang Qiu was this allowance, that allowance, guns and ammunition were also fully supplied, and even the food was several times stronger than the original, so his mind slowly stabilized. What's more, people are now famous all over the country, and there are countless young people who want to put a flying tiger armband on their arms when they meet someone who says they are members of the National Defense Army! I heard that the blood-stained Flying Tiger armband was taken to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai by the fleeing people, and it was directly sold for a high price of ten yuan! What's more, now that the commander has personally ventured to the dangerous front line to give everyone allowances, his heart is naturally warm.

"How's the machine gun going?"

"Commander, don't worry, it's been almost half a month, and thousands of bullets have been fired, so I won't waste any more ammunition." The machine gunner smiled and showed the machine gun to Yang Qiu, and the fast and slow machine was indeed dialed on the point fire, instead of choosing full automatic at every turn as before.

Yang Qiu praised a few words, this machine gunner said well, starting from Liujiamiao, the machine gunners are more than a few thousand or hundreds, all have a certain amount of experience, although they have not been systematically trained, but they have also found some ways, the most worrying machine gun ammunition consumption momentum has finally begun to slow down, compared to a period of systematic training after the war, this group of people can quickly mature and become the pillar force in the national defense force ().

This is the advantage of actual combat, even a new recruit who has just carried a gun can hone a good skill, but the price is too big! As far as a new army is concerned, if it were not for the people's indignation and resentment, if it were not for the revolutionary righteousness of the party members, the frequent agitation of himself and the officers at all levels, the distribution of various allowances, and the efforts to maintain good food, etc., it might have collapsed long ago.

"Commander, I heard that Hunan is ours now?" The machine gunner scratched his head, daring to ask about the news that began to spread in various armies today, Yang Qiu smiled and patted his shoulder, and raised two fingers: "Fourth Division, 20,000 people have begun to assemble in Yueyang, as long as we can hold out for another ten days and a half months, give them a little time to adapt and train...... Beiyang can't help us! ”

"Great!"

"When they come, can we fight back?"

"Yes, bombarded by artillery all day, let them try our cannons and machine guns too!"

"Don't worry, the counterattack will come soon, whoever picks me at that time, don't blame me for kicking his ass."

"Haha......." In the discussion and excitement of the soldiers, Yang Qiu left this machine gun point, and then spent a full hour taking advantage of the rain and truce to run all over the frontline positions and then dragged his tiredness back to the headquarters, and just walked outside the door to find that Song Qing had finally returned.

"Commander!"

"Qing!"

After saluting, Yang Qiu seemed to feel that it was not enough and hugged him fiercely, to be honest, just by taking Chongqing and Guang'an and opening the gate of Sichuan, he was worthy of this hug.

Song Qing was also a little moved, and smiled: "Commander, I'm not late, am I?" ”

"It's not too late, it's just right." Song Qing was very happy to come back, and hurriedly pulled him to sit down and talk about Sichuan, and asked, "How is Sichuan now?" ”

"Chaos ()." Song Qing hit the nail on the head with one word, and said: "At the beginning, the siege of Chengdu was broken up, and after Qin Zaigeng also died, they temporarily abandoned Chengdu and attacked the periphery first. After Rong County became self-reliant, the states had already followed suit one after another, and Brother Pao and his comrades would take advantage of the situation to recruit troops and horses, claiming to be 100,000 people. But like Hunan, they lack guns, their management is chaotic, and they basically don't have the ability to command unification and harmony, and many people have already raised the banner of self-reliance and set up private checkpoints to exploit places, so Zhao Erfeng can continue to sit in Chengdu. ”

Song Qing knew what he was worried about, and continued: "Commander, don't worry too much, the three thousand Sichuan-Yunnan border guards in Zhao Erfeng's hands are much worse than our old eight towns, and there are not a few machine guns in the whole of Chengdu, if Xiaohu can't take a brigade, he's the brigade commander in vain!" ”

His words made Yang Qiu feel a lot more at ease, and he beckoned Lei Meng to close the door, his face became serious: "Qing, you should also know some of the overall situation, let's talk about your thoughts." ”

On the way here, Song Qing read all the battle reports during this time, and carefully pondered each of Yang Qiu's orders, Wushengguan intended to delay the speed of Beiyang's advance, the northward advance was to gather the strength of the whole Hubei, and the three defenses of Weidian, Xiaochang and Xiaogan were arranged to cut off the enemy's opponents layer by layer...... It's a decisive battle! So he spread out the map and asked, "I'm afraid the commander is thinking about the decisive battle, right?" ”

Yang Qiu nodded, Xiaogan is not good at guarding him, he already has a number in his heart, without the barrier of Weidian and Xiaogan Highland, the front of Beiyang is already flat, so Feng Guozhang will definitely advocate an onslaught after the weather is sunny to help his two masters share their worries. The losses on his side are also very large in the fierce battles for days, and the recruits are overwhelmed, and it will only be a burden for the Fourth Division and the Hankou recruits to pull up, so if you don't take advantage of the strength you still have to be ruthless, I am afraid that this battle will fall into a stalemate or even lose and lose, and you will gain a greater right to speak in the future.

In front of Song Qing, he didn't need to hide anything, pointed to Jingshan and Yingcheng on the left side of Xiaogan and said: "I have ordered Yue Peng to send two regiments north to detour to Dahongshan to attack Wangjiadian behind Xiaochang, this is now the advance base of Beiyang, if you can hurt him, Feng Huafu will definitely divide his troops to Tianmen in order to ensure the safety of the flanks." After he divided our troops, we took the initiative to retreat 40 kilometers sharply, using the Hukou and Sandao Bridges as screens to induce the main force of Beiyang to go deeper, and then ....... ”

Yang Qiu picked up a pen casually and walked between Hukou and Jingshan ().

This situation made Song Qing understand at once, this was to induce Feng Guozhang's main force to go deeper, widen the distance between his main force and the army attacking Tianmen, cut off the connection between the two with a small number of troops diagonally, and then put the decisive battle in Tianmen, and surrounded it to force him to go south again!

After thinking about this, he also understood why Yang Qiu hadn't let go for a long time, because there were two key points that needed to be solved. The first is the naval division, whether it is the mouth and the three bridges are too close to the river, once the naval division comes to attack the naval artillery can cover the entire theater of war, Beiyang will take advantage of the situation and quickly go south to Hankou, at that time I am afraid that Hankou will fall before the outflanking is completed.

I'm afraid the rest will test the cohesion of the army! Because this plan is too bold, judging from Feng Huafu's steady use of troops, he wants to divide the troops at least a mixed association, and it can only be said that it is reluctant to encircle and suppress a association with two brigades of Yue Peng's first division, which must be transferred at least one brigade on the front line! As a result, only five brigades of dissatisfied personnel remained on the front, and almost half of them were recruited! As for the Yueyang Fourth Division and the Hankou recruits, they couldn't catch up with this battle at all, and the only thing that could be drawn was the Third Brigade of the First Division in Qingshan after the Shui Division was resolved. On the other hand, Beiyang, even if one mixed association is siphoned out, there are still two towns on the front and Henan 29 mixed association with fox and fake tiger, and five half-life unstable brigades are too difficult and difficult for the elite of the two towns! If it fails, I am afraid that it will be a disaster to Hankow. No doubt! This plan will definitely be questioned once it is taken out, so there must be someone who can control it.

"Commander, let me come."

Yang Qiu glanced at him: "Cai Jimin and Deng Yulin are not much of a problem, but can you suppress those grassroots officers of Jin Zhaolong?" ”

Song Qing was silent, whether it was Cai Jimin or Zhang Tingfu and other senior officers, they were all people who knew tactics, and they might make sense, but it was difficult to say about the party officers at the grassroots level below, many of these people were lawless, and they had always been very unconvinced by Yang Qiu's appointment as commander-in-chief...... I'm afraid that the position of commander will not be guaranteed.

"Before you came, Wenjing had already sent me a telegram, Huang Keqiang led Wang Longzhong and Hunan Yixie to come tomorrow morning, I decided to ......."

"Commander, you want to give him the front? ()！！ ”

Song Qing almost jumped up, Huang Keqiang's fame is enough, the alliance will be the second leader, the military god in the meeting, and the loyal martyr! All this is enough to command the troops, but the problem is that this Uncle Huang is really ...... He is not a trustworthy military commander, who has been born and died for so many years, commanding a maximum of a few guns and 100 people, but he has been defeated again and again, and he has been defeated again and again...... The Guangzhou Huanghuagang Uprising even crashed directly into someone's arms, not only did he consume the elite for many years, but he also broke a finger.

Let such a person command a life-and-death battle involving two armies spanning 50,000 .......

Yang Qiu didn't seem to see his face, and said very seriously: "He is the leader of the Alliance, his prestige is enough to suppress the army, and the Hunan army will supervise the battle tomorrow, so let's decide!" After finishing speaking, he didn't give Song Qing a chance to speak at all: "After Huang Keqiang comes, I will go back to Hankou, and the fourth division and Hanyang recruits need to be immediately put together as a reserve just in case, so you must immediately shoulder the responsibility of the chief adviser!" The 2,000 veterans I brought back should also come as soon as possible, and I am ready to hand over the task of horizontal insertion to them and the 2nd Division and 1st Brigade, this time we need to do our best! ”

It's a bet!

In Yang Qiu's pen, Song Qing saw that a fierce fist on the left side was gradually forming, bold and decisive from the tactical point of view! As long as Feng Huafu really divides his troops, as long as he can defeat a complete association, then Yuan Shikai will definitely die of pain, and in the end, he will not sit down to negotiate. At the same time, the central "meat shield" must also withstand the crazy attack of the North Ocean! But...... He still sighed secretly, in fact, he knew in his heart what Yang Qiu meant by doing this, he was using the war to achieve some goals! If he does not hesitate in peacetime, the Wehrmacht is no longer a small force with 2,000 guns on the night of the uprising, as the army grows larger and larger, this sapling has grown rapidly, and a new force is forming in Lianghu and Sichuan, so it is extremely necessary to get rid of these Hui parties, but this use is really too bold, to really ...... If you hurt Hankow, I am afraid that you will drag yourself into the water. Obviously, Yang Qiu himself knew this, so he hurried back to Hankou in order to stabilize the back, and then pinch the Fourth Division and the Hankou recruits together to beware of Wuchang's possible accusations.

Song Qing didn't speak in the end, and Yang Qiu didn't have any explanation, only after the former left, he slowly took off his hat and walked to the window...... He didn't know if the choice was right or wrong.