The discussion in the room was lively, and the artillery of the Qing army outside was in full swing. However, unlike the festivities of the revolutionary army, everyone in the headquarters of the Qing army felt a cold that penetrated the bone marrow. Wu Jiezhang looked at the Manmeng No. 3 Town Standard Tongfu who escaped from Meiling Pass in the tent and said, "What you said is true? Is the Western Route Army really exhausted? ”

Fuxi was being supported by his own soldiers at this time, he was originally stationed at Jigong Bridge, and then this place was captured by the revolutionary army, he was stunned by artillery fire, and was pulled by the migrant workers who cleaned up the battlefield to the side of the Bagu Bridge to pack the wrapping, and the dead clothed slave woke him up, and the two slipped into the ravine while people were not paying attention, and escaped in a circle. At night, he was caught by the patrol post of the Qing army, but he had a fluent Beijing accent and braids, and he was soon sent to the headquarters.

"As soon as the Jigong Bridge I am guarding is lost, there will be no more barriers for the Western Route Army. The top of the hill on all sides was occupied by the revolutionary party long ago, and it was only a matter of time before the whole army was wiped out. Now that the revolutionary party is dragging us, I am afraid that it will also eat the Eastern Route Army. If you don't withdraw your troops, tens of thousands of soldiers in the whole army will die here. "Fuxi escaped death, and he can't wait to leave this place now, but he also knows that he still can't run alone, and it's best to retreat south with the army, so as to be safe.

After Fuxi finished speaking, Chief of Staff Sun Zongxian said: "Songpo, we are preparing to withdraw now, and it will be too late if we don't withdraw." ”

Seeing him say this, Wu Jiezhang was even more anxious: "There must also be a charter for withdrawal, should you withdraw there now?" Whether it's Lanxi or Longyou, or something else, there must be a place. And what is the withdrawal method of this withdrawal? The night march was not fast. I'm afraid that even if I walk all night, I won't be able to get to Longyou County. ”

Wu Jiezhang asked about the details of the retreat, and Sun Zongxian said: "If you want to evacuate, you can only retreat to Longyou County, Hengshan Town." We joined the third town from Hengshan Town, so there were more than 30,000 people, and as long as we could hold on until the 10th town of Hangzhou came to the aid tomorrow, those 40,000 people would not have to be afraid of the revolutionary party. And we have chlorine cannons in hand, and the revolutionaries will surely be repelled by us......"

Sun Zongxian thought that what he could rely on now was the reinforcements from Hangzhou and the chlorine cannon in his hand, but he said so. Fuxi next to him said loudly: "Don't talk about the chlorine cannon!" The revolutionary party is not afraid of this thing at all. If the chlorine cannon was useful, could the Western Route Army be defeated so badly? It must have been that kind of person who gave the inferior goods, and it was useless to hit that thing. Otherwise, the revolutionary party invited the superior people to do the work and protect the chaotic party. Cai Juntong, don't believe that thing is useful. ”

Fuxi's words only stunned everyone in the tent, and Cai Yi, who was pondering how to get out, also exclaimed: "What you said is true? How do you know that the revolutionary party is not afraid of chlorine cannons? ”

"How could I not know? The revolutionary party played the Eight Drum Bridge. I'm going to attack the Jigong Bridge that I'm defending. At that time, I was in a hurry, and only let the artillery team shoot howitzers, which stopped the revolutionary party, and then at dawn I wanted to counterattack, although the artillery team was suppressed by the revolutionary party, but still fired a few chlorine cannons, but that thing was useless at all, the revolutionary party was running around in chlorine gas, and there was nothing to do! Ironclad, the foreigner deceived us again. All that was sold to us were fakes. Fuki stiffened his neck and said, believing that it must be the man who handled the matter who took the money from it. That's what a foreigner fell for.

"What you saw with your own eyes?!" The matter is very important, Cai Yi forced to look at Fuxi and asked again loudly.

"With your own eyes, of course! If there is a lie, it should be dealt with by military law! Fuxi looked really real during the day, and replied loudly. As soon as he said this, all the military tents were as white as dirt. The revolutionary party was able to exterminate the Western Route Army, at first everyone thought that it was a night attack by more people, so it was a fluke, and their own chlorine cannon did not play a role at night, so it turned out that the revolutionary party was not afraid of this thing.

Wu Jiezhang hurriedly said: "Songpo, this ...... How's that going?! I feel that the revolutionary party has retreated too calmly today, and not a single corpse has been left behind. They...... They're just trying to trap us here. For today's plan, it is better to withdraw earlier, if it is late, I am afraid of peace, I am afraid of ending up with the Western Route Army! ”

Wu Jiezhang was in a hurry, Qi Baoshan, the 28th co-co-commander in his town, was also in a hurry, and Jia Binqing, the co-commander of the 10th co-ordination in the 5th town, was also a little flustered, the two looked at each other a few times, and Jia Binqing, the co-ordinator, said to Cai Yi and Wu Jiezhang: "Marshal, since the Western Route Army has been defeated by the revolutionary party, our army should retreat quickly." If it's too late, we, like the Western Route Army, will have to do the same. ”

Withdrawal is certain, but how to withdraw is to think carefully, Cai Yi was about to speak, next to Sun Zong preemptively said: "Everyone, don't be impatient, even if you withdraw the army now, you must also have a charter, you go back to rest first, and then ask you to come over to discuss, now please go back first." Also, this matter must be kept secret, otherwise as soon as the news leaks, you won't be able to withdraw if you want to. ”

Sun Zongxian was an old man, and soon persuaded the two co-commanders to leave, and Fuxi also asked him to be escorted down and strictly guarded. As soon as these people left, he looked at Cai Ye and Wu Jiezhang, who were still frowning, and said: "Brother Songpo, it is certain to retreat now, but so many people retreat, there is always a sequence, the 9th Association and the 27th Association are now on the front line, if even they retreat, then the revolutionary party will definitely find out." The best way now is to let the 10th Association and the 28th Association withdraw first, and to say that it is to return to the Meiling Pass Pass in the west by night. Wait for this side to retreat, and then let the 9th and 27th Concords retreat in the middle of the night. ”

Sun Zongxian's plan is very organized, now the 9th Association is in Shimuling, and the 27th Association is in Zhutangkeng, both of which are at the forefront of the front, if these two associations move, then the revolutionary army will be alarmed, and I don't know if their side can retreat safely at that time. But with such an arrangement, although they could also send an order to the two associations to retreat in the middle of the night, they all knew in their hearts that the retreat in the middle of the night was just polite words, and such an arrangement would only make the two associations never come back. Although Cai Yi and Wu Jiezhang felt sorry for that association, the situation dictated that they had to break their wrists.

Wu Jiezhang was more bureaucratic, and although he lost a number of troops, he didn't feel that there was anything wrong, but he thought of something else and asked, "What about the third town?" When will they be notified of the retreat? ”

The third town is the Manchurian and Mongolian New Army, and it is the master of the new army. If you lose it, you will be questioned when you go back. Sun Zongxian only glanced at the tent door, and said softly: "Our army retreats." The troops are already thin, so we must inform them to retreat together, but we can't retreat with them, otherwise we will ......"

Cai Ye didn't understand Sun Zongxian's plan, and when he heard him say that he would not retreat with the third town, he only asked: "Hanchen, we will not retreat with the third town." So where to retreat? ”

"Since the revolutionary party lured us into the urn, there will definitely be follow-up arrangements, and now maybe their army has been inserted into Longyou and Lanxi. Now our only way to survive is to retreat to the railway station south of Qujiang. There may also be wagons carrying heavy loads over there. It is very close to Jinhua, as long as we can occupy the railway station, then we can retreat to Jinhua to wait for help, and there is a way to live. "Sun Zongxian deserves to be a staff officer. actually pointed out the third way.

"But isn't that station open yet? Again. Isn't there only one wooden bridge over the Qujiang River when we take this road, and our whole army will have to cross the bridge, and I'm afraid it will take several hours. Also, what about Longyou and Lanxi's military funds, do you want them all? Cai Yi thought about the route given by Sun Zongxian, and was very hesitant, he felt that it was safer to merge with the third town and retreat to Longyou County.

"Songpo, didn't you come by train last time? Although it has not been officially opened to traffic. But it's also a train. As for the wooden bridge over the Qujiang River, since it is to retreat. I don't care about the baggage or something. It's winter, and there's no way to wade across the river. Sun Zongxian looked at Cai Yi, who was a little hesitant, and said very eagerly: "If you want to withdraw, you must do it as soon as possible, and although there are two battalions of patrol teams stationed at the railway station, you must also beware of the revolutionary party occupying there in advance, and all the horse teams in the army must be gathered now, let them go to the railway station immediately to assist in the defense, so as to prevent the revolutionary party from occupying this place in advance." ”

The retreat plan is just that. Cai Yi hesitated, but Wu Jiezhang made up his mind, and only said on the side: "Yes! Songpo, now it is necessary to transfer the horse team to seize the railway station. It doesn't matter if the bridge doesn't work, if it doesn't work, we will wade across the river, and we can evacuate as many people as we can. The third town can also inform them to retreat from the train station, but only in the second half of the night, whether they can withdraw or not, whether they will be intercepted by the revolutionary party, it is only up to God. ”

Wu Jiezhang's eyes lit up with hope, but Cai Ye was disheartened, and the labor teacher retreated, which was very frustrating. However, he also knew that this was the only way to do it now, so he calmed down slightly, and said, "Brother Deyu, Hanchen, you should follow this strategy." If you can withdraw more people, you can withdraw more people. The artillery team ......."

Speaking of the artillery team, and then thinking of wading across the river, Cai Ye had no follow-up. People can wade into the water, but the cannon can't wade into the water, and it seems that most of the more than 100 artillery pieces will be lost here, and in order to prevent the revolutionary party from being vigilant, even sabotage cannot be destroyed. He sighed and said, "Let's go and arrange it right away." The sooner the better, Zhang Peirong, who let the horse team, must seize the railway station before the revolutionary. ”

As soon as Cai Jie's words came out, Wu Jiezhang and Sun Zongxian were relieved, and Sun Zongxian immediately went out to make arrangements, leaving only Wu Jiezhang in the tent with Cai Jie's narration. At eight o'clock in the evening, the horse team of the 5th town quickly left the camp and headed south, while the 10th and 28th associations and the engineering battalion abandoned a qiē baggage, and the artillery team carried only a small amount of artillery and ammunition and marched to Youbu Town overnight. In order to strictly guard the news so as not to cause a commotion in the whole army, before the operation, they only said that this was a roundabout maneuver, not a retreat, and only when the troops arrived at the Qujiang River and were about to wade into the water, did the standard commanders tell the battalion management and the officers who had already doubted that this was a retreat.

Because it was not a major road, but a small road, it was already two o'clock in the morning when the troops waded along the Qujiang River. Many of the acquaintances and relatives of the officers and soldiers in the 10th and 28th associations who had withdrawn were in the 9th and 27th associations, and there was a great confusion for a while after hearing the news. Cai Yi and Wu Jiezhang personally suppressed and informed the 9th and 27th Concords that they had received orders to retreat, and ordered an artillery and infantry mark to dig a trench on the south bank of the Qujiang River to cover the retreat of the follow-up troops, so that the whole army was determined and drove to Tangxi Town, where the railway station was located, with peace of mind.

Although Cai Yi and Wu Jiezhang had notified the 9th Association and the 27th Association to retreat, the two knew that the two Associations would not be able to retreat, and now they could only hope that the 3rd Town, which received the order to retreat, could rush to Tangxi Town before dawn, and the two towns would retreat to Jinhuafu City together during the day. However, unlike what they expected, the 3rd Town, which received the order to retreat in the middle of the night, crossed the Qujiang River at more than 3 o'clock under the leadership of the town commander Wenhua, and arrived at Tangxi Town before 5 o'clock. They were completely disregarding the weight of a qiē and carried only rifles. Escaped alone.

In Tangxi Town, looking at Wenhua, the town commander who was riding on a horse with a frozen face, Cai Ye said apologetically: "Brother Xiufeng has suffered. ”

Wen Hua looked at Cai Ye but was annoyed. sarcastically said: "Does Cai Juntong think that this marshal can't come out and is about to report the funeral to the imperial court?" ”

Wenhua's words were not good, Cai Yi's face was blue and white for a while, and Wu Jiezhang next to him hurriedly played a round game, "Brother Xiufeng, our army came here first to prevent this place from being taken by the revolutionary party, and there is no intention of retreating first." Now I also ask Brother Xiufeng to retreat to Jinhua to wait for help after resting, and the pursuing troops of the revolutionary party will be handed over to us to deal with. ”

Cai Ye actually dared to retreat first and then inform himself, which is why Wenhua was angry. However, Cai Ye finally didn't dare to abandon him, and now Wu Jiezhang let him retreat first, he was angry in his heart for a while, but he was still unforgiving. only looked at Cai Yi and smiled: "Cai Juntong." Don't forget who is the master and who is the minion. No matter how fortunate Lord Liang is favored by the emperor, he is just a dog of my Qing Dynasty. Hum! ”

After Wenhua sarcastically finished Cai Yi, he urged the horse to go to Jinhua, he didn't want to rest in Tangxi Town, he remembered that after he evacuated Hengshan Town, there were guns and cannons on the Meiling Pass, I was afraid that the Qing army left behind was fighting fiercely with the revolutionary party, once they could not find the main force of the East Route Army, it would definitely cross the river.

Cai Ye was so humiliated by Wenhua that his face turned purple with anger. Next to him, Wu Jiezhang and Sun Zongxian just persuaded each other gently, and he would come to his senses after a long while. Thinking of the 9th and 27th Concords, he lamented: "I'm afraid they won't be able to withdraw." ”

"Hmm!" Sun Zongxian also said. "I guess I can't get out. Brother Songpo, you can't stay here for a long time, and you still have to withdraw to Jinhua to be safer later. Tomorrow at noon, the tenth town in Hangzhou will arrive. When they arrived, we were safer. ”

Cai Ye was discussing the next retreat, but the revolutionary army was patting his head at this time, he didn't expect the Qing army to withdraw so neatly, one night's effort, no artillery baggage should run away, and he didn't take the big road, but took the small road. And the destination is not Lanxi and Longyou, but the temporary railway station of Tangxi Town across the Qujiang River. In terms of the traffic volume of that wooden bridge, I am afraid that all the Qing troops waded across the river. He looked at Lin Wenqian and Fang Yanchen and said, "I was careless, I didn't expect the Qing army to run so fast, and the place where they ran was Jinhua." ”

Lin Wenqian's side also received a report of the retreat of the whole Qing army at two o'clock in the middle of the night, and the revolutionary army set up observation posts on the main road, but the Qing army did not take the main road, and only waited for the third town to retreat from Hengshan Town to know that the Qing army had slipped away. Although Zhang Gong had two brigades guarding Lanxi and Longyou, those two places were farther away from Youbu Town than Hengshan Town, and the road from the two places to Youbu was extremely difficult to walk.

"The two remaining associations have surrendered?" Lin Wenqian didn't blame, he only asked about the current battle situation.

"Hmm. They were surrounded by the 6th Division and surrendered after a short fight. But there were also some scattered Qing troops who fled. Now Zhang Gong's side is intercepting. Zhou Sixu reported the latest battle situation, and said: "Are we going to chase Qujiang and go to Jinhua City to eat the remaining two towns?" ”

"Didn't the Qing army's reinforcements come? When will it arrive? Fang Yanchen asked.

"According to the intelligence, we will arrive in Jinhua at noon tomorrow, it is the tenth town, and the town is Xu Chongzhi, the one we let go of at the entrance of the field the year before last." Zhou Sixu said, and also introduced the town commander Xu Chongzhi, who made a deal with the revolutionary army after being arrested, so Zhang Chengyue made the decision to let him go, which means that he escaped, and killed many people in the revolutionary party.

Lin Wenqian glanced at Zhang Chengyue, who was smiling, and said, "Since Xu Chongzhi is here, then don't chase it." He doesn't have to be used in these two towns. ”

When Lin Wenqian said this, Zhou Sixu and Fang Yanchen both understood, and they both laughed together. I only felt that the other two towns ran away, but there were a lot of baggage and artillery left, especially the third town, except for rifles, nothing else ran away, but unfortunately the Qing army's livestock were all taken away, and to pull so many artillery and baggage back to Yanzhou, we could only rely on those prisoners.

Everyone laughed, and Zhou Sixu took the opportunity to say: "Now that the war is over, Chengyuan's side will have to deal with it." ”

Li Chengyuan personally came to the headquarters in the middle of the night last night to turn himself in, Lin Wenqian didn't see him at all because he was angry that he didn't obey orders, but Zhou Sixu, Zhang Chengyue and Fang Yanchen went to see him. These people all have the intention of exculpating Li Chengyuan, after all, Feng Guozhang's death was a great blow to the morale of the Qing army, and because Tie Zhong's straw bag took over the command. The Qing army did not break through the siege overnight, which can be regarded as making the encirclement and annihilation more smoothly. However, in Lin Wenqian's view, Li Chengyuan's approach is indeed right for this encirclement. However, this kind of practice is detrimental to the army's obedience, and the most annoying thing is that Li Chengyuan actually refused to admit his mistake, and he held in the review that the orders of the higher authorities should be obeyed, but the commander has the right to make adjustments and trade-offs according to the actual situation when receiving the specific implementation of the order. Otherwise, the whole army will ossify.

In order to prove that he was right, Li Chengyuan even quoted the aphorisms he had learned from German instructors, such as "you must get used to letting your subordinates take the initiative to solve problems" and "combat is an art," as well as Yang Rui's emphasis on the spirit of "self-initiative" in the army's internal text. to prove his innocence, these things made Lin Wenqian very annoyed. In fact, Lin Wenqian's annoyance was caused by the different command styles of the two. Although he and Li Chengyuan are both in the first phase of South Africa, one is an infantry section and the other is an artillery section, and the infantry pays more attention to discipline and bravery. Strict adherence to orders is a prerequisite for victory; And Li Chengyuan is an artilleryman. In his opinion, the most important thing in fighting a war is to use his brain to think about how to complete the task, rather than rigidly carrying out the orders of his superiors, because for artillery, even if every soldier tries hard and cannot hit the enemy, it will be in vain.

In addition to the differences in military branches, the growth environment of the two is also different. Although everyone had experienced the Russo-Japanese War, Lin Wen then infiltrated the customs to support Zhejiang. It was in the case of the collapse of the entire Zhejiang Front that stabilized the situation and opened up a base in Yanzhou in accordance with Yang Rui's instructions. The Qing army encircled and suppressed, weapons were in short supply, and most importantly, most of the officers were unqualified, so he could only ask to persuade the whole army to strictly abide by the order and concentrate all the forces together, which led to today's Yanzhou Revival Army; However, Li Chengyuan has been in the Tonghua Mountain Army, because there are several forces intertwined, and all the foundations are good, there is no urgency as Yanzhou, and the officer corps is very qualified in terms of both numbers and experience, and the most important thing is that Yang Rui implemented the company commander responsibility system in order to cope with the encirclement and suppression of the Manchu Qing Dynasty -- he believed that jungle warfare was a war of company commanders in accordance with the viewpoint of the Vietnam War of the US Army in later generations -- and the army's management style was more flexible, often only giving a goal, and not limiting the methods of achieving the goal, so as to cultivate officers' overall concept.

In the final analysis, if the army is a plane, then Lin Wenqian hopes that every officer is a part of the machine, so that he can gather strength and achieve victory; And Li Chengyuan, or the Tonghua Mountain Army, although they also think that the army is a plane, but they think that this machine is modular, and if necessary, the whole machine can be split into various small machines, and then these small machines operate independently under the command of officers at all levels and fight together.

For the difference in the style of the two, among these chiefs of the wartime command. Lin Wenqian and Zhang Chengyue both believed that such disobedience to orders should be severely punished, while Fang Yanchen, an officer from guerrilla warfare, and Chief of Staff Zhou Sixun believed that Li Chengyuan only needed to be punished slightly, and there was no need to take this matter seriously. Now Zhou Sixu took the opportunity to mention Li Chengyuan's matter, just to take advantage of Lin Wenqian's happiness to deal with this matter.

After Zhou Sixu finished speaking, Lin Wenqian said with a calm face: "I don't agree with any of the things that Chengyuan said anyway. The army fights, as long as there is a head, that is the command. Can't everyone have their own ideas, every officer does this, so what else does the staff have to do? When the time comes, everyone thinks that there is a better idea, and then the whole army will be in chaos. What I mean is that this matter still has to be dealt with strictly, and if Chengyuan is not taught a lesson, he will mess around in the future. ”

After Lin Wenqian finished speaking, Fang Yanchen said, "Chengyuan shouldn't have fired in advance, but we also have to consider the actual situation, at least the result of this matter is not bad." I think it's better to remove his brigade commander and let him be the commander of the artillery regiment. ”

As soon as Fang Yanchen said that he would be dismissed, Zhou Sixu next to him said: "What about the artillery brigade?" Who takes over the command? ”

"Chen Dashan doesn't know if it's okay, if it doesn't work, let Chengyuan be the acting brigade commander." Fang Yanchen said. He still meant to deal with it lightly, Li Chengyuan's military rank and position were not moved, and he was still in charge of the artillery brigade.

As soon as he said this, Lin Wenqian said, "It's not too cheap for him." It is because the result of what he did is good that he must be dealt with strictly, so that he can have a lesson for other officers, and I mean that the rank should also be lowered, otherwise he will not be moved. ”

The brigade commander is a major general, and if the revolution succeeds this year, and Li Chengyuan is now removed from the rank of major general, then he will only be a colonel, not a founding general, and this loss will be great, and maybe the two will have a grudge because of this. Zhang Chengyue next to him saw that Lin Wenqian was so strict, so he didn't want to persuade him, so he had to say: "Let's report this matter to Mr." By the way, the results of this battle are also reported, today is his birthday, and this victory should be regarded as a congratulatory gift. (To be continued......)