Jin Ge Iron Horse

On an irregular road in southern Hunan, there was no end in sight of the marching procession.

Where the team walked, there was the sound of guns and kettles colliding with ping-pong pongs, and the sound of mules and horses panting; Most of the officers and soldiers wore long-sleeved shorts when they were still in Guidi, and wore Tony's helmet on their heads, and they hung water bottles, scarves, and quilts on their bodies; After more than ten days of marching, they no longer have the heroic posture they had when they first started, and their original grass-green military uniforms have been stained with dust, replaced by gray faces.

Half a month ago, this unit was the first to be dispatched, and after three days of rapid marching, they unexpectedly launched a lightning-like attack on Wu Peifu's troops stationed in Hunan, and overnight, the Hunan defense line was opened.

A few days earlier they had engaged in an encounter with several units on the Hunan border, but those troops dispersed before they could open fire; Prior to this, dozens of 122-millimeter cannons of the artillery regiment directly under the Third Army of the Wehrmacht had rained thousands of shells at the defensive positions, turning half the sky red.

The scattered troops who had never experienced such an artillery bombardment were completely frightened, and they all said that the Liangguang Mazi in the south fought a great battle, and now they really saw it. So before the battle began, the roaring artillery fire had shaken their morale.

When the infantry charged, the Wehrmacht officers and men lined up in a skirmish line were overwhelmed by the powerful artillery fire behind them, and the fire fortifications that seemed to them to be as solid as a rock collapsed like tofu scum under the cover of large-caliber artillery.

lost more than 100 miles of territory overnight, and the angry Wu Peifu simply called Ye Kaixin, the commander-in-chief of the southern defense line stationed in Hunan, "If you lose Hunan, you don't have to come back, shoot yourself yourself!" ”

But Cui Wu didn't want to give Ye Kaixin a chance to survive at all, and the order he gave to the 20,000-strong army was to stop after conquering Changsha.

The army just rushed forward, singing all the way "Catch up, catch up, don't let the enemy take a breath!" The battle song galloped forward, and above the Hunan land, a puff of dust rolled up, and Wu Peifu said that there were hundreds of thousands of troops in the Lianghu area that collapsed overnight.

More than 30,000 troops under Li Jichen, the Hunan and Hubei border defense superintendent, stationed in Pingjiang, Tongcheng, Yueyang, Lixian, and western Hubei on the north bank of the Miluo River, and about 30,000 troops under Chen Jiamo's Hubei army were ready to respond.

On the march, Cui Wu, an indifferent man, rarely spoke along the way, he rode on a bantam horse, the spurs on his feet made a clanging sound, and he hung a short general's sword from his waist, which was given to him by Huang Ke when he became a military commander not long ago.

The most ruthless senior officer in the Wehrmacht also didn't care about his injuries at all, and the formation of the team was a little chaotic at the beginning of the battle, and Cui Wu and the command headquarters rushed to the front without knowing what was going on. The guard company asked to retreat, but Cui Wu disagreed, "Since you are in front, don't go, just check it." ”

After saying that, Cui Wu launched a charge with the flower machine*, and the headquarters of the army killed two staff officers in this battle, and Cui Wu himself was also hit by a stray bullet.

But he seemed to be fine, after the stray bullet hit, Cui Wu continued to get on the horse after the military doctor took off the bullet, he insisted on not using a stretcher, in his logic, only seriously injured people use stretchers, he felt that he was a tough guy, and naturally there was no reason to use a stretcher.

Such a person who is cold to himself is naturally cold to other officers and soldiers; When charging, Cui Wu rarely cared about the casualties of officers and soldiers, what he asked was to achieve the goal, and he didn't ask anything else. In this way, the officers and men of this army have also developed a habit of not liking to be verbose in anything, and they will open fire directly. However, since the beginning of the war, the casualty rate of his army has been much higher than that of other armies.

With an artillery regiment and three infantry divisions in his hand, Cui Wu became bolder, relying on these troops, he dared to have a hard-fought battle with the 100,000 army built by Wu Peifu in the Lianghu area.

Cui Wu is also a hard-tempered person, he is not afraid of anyone since he was a child, no matter what the opponent is, he dares to fight. How can the more than 10,000 elite troops in his hands be cowardly? In Cui Wu's view, fighting and fighting is a truth, if anyone admits it, he will lose three points before the war starts, so at the beginning of the battle, Cui Wu went straight with a single sword, along the way they didn't care how much they occupied, and no matter how many enemies they had, they only had one goal was to take Changsha, and then take Wuhan, and it was best to take down the city of Beijing.

The task given to him by Huang Ke was to pierce the enemy's heart with a knife and kick off the entire strategic offensive, and Cui Wu also knew this truth, and he did the same.

"Tell the whole army, stop and trim!" Cui Wu called the herald and signaled for the team to start resting. The march was so fast that the march did not stop to rest for many days, and the heralds who ran back and forth were like saviors. When the officers and men heard the news, they sat on the ground in twos and threes, some of them put their helmets up and boiled some hot water, and some simply lay down to sleep. Take off your shoes, almost everyone's feet are blistered, and the calves inside the leggings are also red bruises.

"Holy shit, why is it getting hotter and hotter? Didn't you say that people froze to death in the cold weather in the north? "On the resting ground of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, a young soldier whined while washing his feet.

"Talking nonsense, what month is it? It's summer, can you go north and get hotter and hotter? An experienced veteran in the team took out a cigarette pouch and knocked it on the ground, "It's so cold in the north, it can freeze people to death in winter, and spitting can turn into ice ballast, do you say it's cold?" ”

When a few soldiers were chatting, Cui Wu, who was passing by, heard it, he felt that what the veteran was talking about was an urgent problem, the war could not end before the summer, but now these soldiers are still wearing single clothes, if they go to fight Zhang Zuolin in winter, wouldn't they be defeated without a fight?

Thinking about it will kill people if he is not thoughtful, Cui Wu put away the horsewhip in his hand and stood up and said: "Signal soldiers, go and send a telegram to the Northern Expedition Headquarters, and ask them for cotton clothes and cotton clothes, one set for each person." ”

When the telegram was sent to the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army, Huang Ke was in a daze in a conference room in southern Guangdong looking at a large-scale map, on which the location of the enemy troops was marked in red, the location of the Wehrmacht was marked in green, and the area of engagement was staggered in red and blue.

Thus began the Northern Expedition. When he saw this, he felt both the excitement of Annai's lack and the nervousness of inexplicable excitement.

Now that the Northern Expedition Command has just been formed, Huang Ke will soon go out with the last force, but at this time, the main forces under his command have begun to attack from all sides; The fastest advance was led by Cui Wu's troops, which took Hunan and completely defeated Wu Peifu's defense line in a few days.

The troops led by Jiang Xianyun and Lin Zuo have also rushed to the junction of Fujian and have also begun to attack. In addition, Wang Maocai, who was in Guizhou, also marched to Sichuan and Chongqing.

The overall situation of the Northern Expedition has been roughly outlined, and all that remains is how to fight.

Huang Ke's heart is surging, in the past few days he has set up a staff department of the Northern Expeditionary Army, in addition to using some old officers of the original staff department, he has also dug up military talents from various parties, including some military veterans of the Kuomintang and GC Party, and some even became the number one in the future.

Such a powerful think tank is the backing of Huang Ke's Northern Expedition, and it is not easy to gather these people, but all those who have a little ability have a bit of character and temper, some people can't get this Northern Expeditionary Army Staff Headquarters, but some people ask for it several times, but they just don't want to come.

Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi are such people.

Bai Li and Li were military experts at that time, but both of them had a little trouble with Huang Ke, let's take Li as an example, when Huang Ke sent troops to attack Lu Rongting in Guangxi, Li, who was only a major at the time, retreated to the Yulin area with a team of several hundred people.

In the Yulin area, he reorganized the army and waited for the opportunity to move. He successively renamed his headquarters as the "Third Road of the Guangdong-Guizhou Frontier Army" and the "Second Army of the Guangxi Autonomous Army", and appointed himself as the commander, and the defense area was gradually expanded to seven counties. When Jiang Xianyun, who was fighting, came with an army, he sent him a letter to persuade him to join the revolutionary army and participate in the revolution together.

At that time, the army was pressing, Li naturally did not dare to fight, so it didn't take long to hand over the military power, after arriving in Guangzhou, he was engaged in staff work, I don't know what was going on, when Huang Ke formed the staff of the Northern Expeditionary Army, he wanted to transfer two people from below, but the two people themselves just didn't agree, and they didn't want to come, and finally Huang Ke went to invite him personally, and when he went three times, this Bai Chongxi was willing to come and take office.

These things made Huang Ke feel that he had no face on his face, but when it came to looking back, what was face? Nothing is worth anything, having soldiers in hand is the most important thing, as soon as Bai Chongxi came to report, Huang Ke arranged him to hold an important position in the General Staff.

"Report, General Cui called." The staff officer on duty walked in and snapped upright, and Huang Ke, who was watching, did not raise his head and said, "Read!" ”

"Our department lacks winter clothes, please distribute them as soon as possible." After the staff officer read it word by word, Huang Ke frowned, what kind of telegram is this? It's just summer, how could Cui Wu think of winter clothes at this time?

"What the hell is this Cui Wu doing? Why do you ask the headquarters for winter clothes at this time, isn't it a neurosis? "Huang Ke's temper is not very good, and he will scold when he encounters bad things.

Staff Officer Bai Chongxi, who was standing next to him, smiled and said: "Commander, don't be angry, I think this Cui Wu is a very thoughtful person, the Northern Expedition is not a short period of time to end, and it is appropriate to prepare materials for the winter as soon as possible." In this case, let's first prepare a telegram reply, and say that the winter material will be delivered when needed. ”

Huang Ke smiled after hearing this, and he secretly scolded in his heart: "It's really worthy of Xiao Zhuge ! ”