The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Ye Ting: "Double pile.

The An Guojun ran desperately all night last night, but the result was that they walked 22 kilometers. In the morning, they walked a few more kilometers, but were suddenly attacked by a row of trucks and could not go any further.

Interestingly, despite being equipped with tanks, most soldiers from both the Fengtian Army and the Zhili-Shandong Allied Forces were completely unaware of the massive iron vehicles—both tanks and cars—that appeared on the road. The 1st Company of the 1st Regiment leaped from trucks in the fast column and launched an attack, firing machine guns mounted directly on the trucks' roofs. The trapped vanguard of the An Guo Army actually retreated, ultimately forcing over 30,000 men into Shuangdui Ji.

At noon on March 12, the 1st Division, the 25th Division and the 12th Division of the 4th Army rushed to Shuangdui Ji and surrounded the more than 30,000 An Guo troops on three sides.

On the afternoon of March 12, the 8th Brigade of the 3th Army also caught up.

The general offensive began on the night of March 12. Shuangduiji hadn't yet established any comprehensive fortifications, as the An Guo Army had only been stationed there for a few hours. In the early morning of March 13, the First Division stormed into the core positions of Shuangduiji.

"Commander, Commander! Get on the tank!"

the adjutant yelled.

Shouts, charges, and whistles were heard from all directions.

Zhang Xueliang scrambled into his Renault FT-17 and said to Zhang Zongchang, "Deputy Commander! There's another tank you can get on!"

Chapter 77: After the Decisive Battle

Double stacking.

This small town, which the First Division had passed through when it entered Su County, is now littered with weapons, ammunition, and supplies.

Of course, there were also groups of prisoners, each of which was so long that it was impossible to see the end. They were guarded and taken care of by the Northern Expedition Army and transferred to Bengbu.

Huang Weijin's Double Stacking.JPG

Logistics Director Huang Wei happily shuttled back and forth in Shuangdui Ji. It was like a cow entering a vegetable garden.

"The Liao-made 14th-year 75mm mountain gun, a copy of the Type 41 mountain gun, is quite impressive. It has a range of 6,000 meters, 2,000 meters longer than our current Soviet guns. I just don't know how we'll be able to secure ammunition in the future.

"The Liao-made 14th-year Type 37mm flat-fire cannon is the same as our 11th-year Type. All regiments and battalions can now be equipped with them, and they can also select the best quality captured items. Please have more ammunition."

In the hands of skilled soldiers, the 37mm flat-fire cannon is highly effective on the current domestic battlefield. Weighing only 95 kilograms, it resembles a heavier heavy machine gun, making it easy to relocate. Its direct-fire mode is particularly suitable for eliminating heavy machine gun positions located in trenches and sandbag walls. Often, while mortars are still calibrating their parameters, the 37mm flat-fire cannon can directly hit and overturn the heavy machine gun.

In the recent Shuangduiji battle, the 37mm flat-fire gun was also used to attack tanks, destroying two Renault FT-17s belonging to Zhang Xueliang's guards. This gun has weak anti-armor capabilities, and its grenades can penetrate 15mm armor plates, which is just enough to hit the Renault.

Of course, this achievement is also related to the fact that the first regiment that entered the core position had popularized tank knowledge and basic tank-fighting techniques among its soldiers before the battle.

There were still 6 tanks left in the Shuangdui Ji encirclement of the Fengtian Army. Four of them charged forward to cover Zhang Xueliang's retreat. After the First Regiment confirmed that they were tanks, the infantry retreated in an orderly manner until they reached a line parallel to the flat-fire guns. Then the flat-fire guns opened fire, and two tanks were killed. Another one fell into a ditch halfway through the charge and broke down due to mechanical failure.

Zhang Xueliang and Zhang Zongchang each got into a tank to escape, but tragically, Zhang Zongchang's tank got stuck in a pit after driving 600 meters and couldn't climb out. Zhang Xueliang's car went one kilometer longer than Zhang Zongchang's, and then also got stuck in a big pit and broke down.

During the previous retreat, the Fengtian Army's tanks had driven cautiously on flat roads, which allowed them to maintain a relatively high serviceability rate even after marching dozens of kilometers. However, once the battle began, the tanks had to jostle and jostle across the open fields, and the Renault FT-17's woeful reliability was immediately exposed.

Chen Tianheng, Huang Wei, Xu Xiangqian, and a platoon of soldiers strode toward the stalled tank at the edge of the battlefield. The soldiers surrounded the tank and knocked on the steel plate with their rifle butts, signaling those inside to come out.

Xu Xiangqian: "Oh, our great poet is hiding here.

Zhang Zongchang climbed out of the tank. Hearing Xu Xiangqian's ridicule, Zhang Zongchang blushed and said defensively:

"Those poems weren't written by me! They weren't written by me! I don't usually write poems!

Xu Xiangqian:

Zhang Zongchang's defense was spot on. It wasn't that his poetry was hilarious, but rather that he simply didn't write poetry. He was a rough, uneducated man, unable to write even long articles. His telegrams, birthday messages, and elegiac couplets were all written by his secretary.

As for those funny poems, they should have been compiled by one or more editors and reporters who had received systematic Chinese education, had excellent writing grades, joined newspapers after graduation, and were disgusted with Zhang Zongchang's actions in Shandong.

The second tank.

Chen Tianyu's tank steel plate:

"Little Six."

"Little Six?"

Huang Wei: "Hurry up, I'm waiting to tow this tank away.

Zhang Xueliang opened the hatch and stuck his head out of the tank.

"I am the commander of the Third Front Army of the Anguo Army. History books will record my name as Zhang Xueliang instead of some Xiao Liuzi. Who are you?

Huang Wei grinned and said, "We are the Northern Expedition Army.

"Captain Zhang," Chen Tianheng looked at Zhang Xueliang and said meaningfully

"My job is to try my best to prevent your name from appearing in history textbooks in the future. Of course, this can only be achieved with your cooperation.

Zhang Xueliang was led away by two soldiers.

"Dang Dang Dang"

Chen Tianheng knocked on the tank plate again:

"There is another one, come out too, I know who you are.

Lu Zhengcao climbed up two steps and stuck his head out from the tank hatch.

Outside the tank, Chen Tianheng, Huang Wei, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Geng, Zhou Shidi, Zuo Quan, Jiang Xianyun... formed a circle and watched Lü Zhengcao climb out of the tank.

"I'm Lü Zhengcao, the adjutant and secretary of Corps Commander Zhang," Lü Zhengcao said with a wry smile, "I'm really a nobody.

"White Russians! These are all White Russians! You killed them all before daybreak?!"

Cleaning up the battlefield of course also includes collecting corpses. The south of Shuangdui Ji Town is the place where the most corpses of the An Guo Army were left. The First Division and the Sixth Army were moving the corpses here. When they saw a large number of white soldiers wearing An Guo Army uniforms densely packed on the ground, Yang Jie, the commander of the 17th Division of the Sixth Army, was shocked.

"No, not all of them were killed," Zheng Dongguo said. "I remember that several hundred White Russian mercenaries were captured and have been taken away. Of course, the White Russians were relatively strong in combat. They were the only ones in the entire encirclement. When my First Regiment broke through the outer positions, they not only refused to surrender but also dared to counterattack. We had no choice but to give them a good fight."

"Here comes a serious one..." Yang Jie thought, it turns out that you didn't take the Fengtian Army and the other troops of the Five Provinces Allied Forces seriously at all.

Zheng Dongguo: "If these Russian mercenaries had not charged alone, but had joined their tanks, we would have been in even greater trouble.

Yang Jie: "Captain Zheng, there are nearly two hundred White Russian mercenaries lying dead on the ground. I see they are particularly concentrated, all lying in clusters.

Zheng Dongguo: "They were brave, but their tactics were a bit outdated, still using the skirmish line of 1914. Because the area was not wide enough, the formation was even denser than the drill manual prescribed. We fired three volleys of rifle fire, and when the distance was close, the riflemen stepped back two steps, inserted their submachine guns, and with a magazine and a row of grenades from the riflemen, they basically collapsed. So you can see that they fell in a very concentrated area. After the collapse, the few who continued to charge engaged in close combat with us, while the majority who did not dare to charge were captured.

The Sixth Army, under Cheng Qian's command, was relatively underequipped and undermanned. Its participation in the Northern Expedition was plagued by misfortunes. In its opening battle at Nanchang, it was nearly routed by Sun Chuanfang's counterattack, and it took two months to recover. After a few more decent battles, it reached Nanjing, where its soldiers' looting of foreigners led to the Nanjing Incident. Both Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek and Chairman Wang Ching-kuo viewed the Sixth Army as a second- or third-rate force.

At the Shuangdui Ji battlefield, they finally competed with the legendary First Army of the Northern Expedition. Then Yang Jie watched the 1st, 4th, and 7th Armies pierce into the circular defense formation of the An Guo Army like three knives quickly and fiercely. Among them, the First Division of the First Army was particularly eye-catching, fast and fierce, and didn't say much.

In short, when traveling in the underworld, safety comes first. No matter what happens in the future, it is best not to fight with the First Division of the First Army.

Yongcheng.

Sun Dianying's 14th Army rushed to Yongcheng from Xuzhou to provide assistance. The next day after arriving, Zhang Zuolin also rushed to Yongcheng.

Now Zhang Zuolin already knew that the Huaihe Group of the An Guo Army - including Sun Chuanfang's First Front Army, Zhang Zongchang's Second Front Army and his son's Third Front Army - was all finished.

Anguo Army soldiers gradually fled from the front lines, their faces covered in dirt, treading lightly in the fields until they appeared on the distant horizon. From the fleeing soldiers, we learned that they had been surrounded and annihilated at Shuangduiji, a mere two days' journey from Yongcheng.

"Hello, hello! Isn't that Deputy Commander-in-Chief Sun?"

"Ah, ah, that's it!"

Sun Chuanfang, commander-in-chief of the Five Provinces Allied Forces and deputy commander-in-chief of the An Guo Army, appeared outside Yongcheng limping with a cane and the only two remaining guards beside him.

The past half month of my life has been really... full of ups and downs.

Why did I join the An Guo Army's group march south to fight? Ah, it was because Zhang Zuolin vowed that he could fight to the Yangtze River and recover part of the territory of the Five Provinces Allied Forces, so Sun Chuanfang took a remnant division and a brigade, raised the flag of the First Front Army and went to join in.

Then, the group was blocked at the Huai River, and most of the soldiers he brought with him symbolically were lost at the Huai River.

The An Guo Army was attacked from both sides. Zhang Xueliang wanted to build an airport to escape. He actually planned to escape with Zhang Zongchang without taking me! Fortunately, the airport was not repaired and the plane could not land, so no one escaped. Hahahaha.

Later, the situation became increasingly dire. The An Guojun abandoned the railway line and fled westward, their forces dwindling. Finally, at Shuangduiji, Zhang Xueliang and Zhang Zongchang each boarded a tank and fled. By this time, Sun Chuanfang had completely resigned himself to his fate: "Fine, you have the tanks, I'll just walk."

But this time I was lucky. After walking for two days and three nights, I actually reached Yongcheng on foot.

Sun Chuanfang: "Marshal!!!"

Zhang Zuolin: "Brother Xinyuan!"

Sun Chuanfang shed tears: "Over 100,000 troops were defeated in the Yellow River and Huai River regions. We struggled to hold on, but ultimately were unable to withstand the Northern Expedition's overwhelming offensive. I am ashamed, ashamed."

"Xinyuan, do you know where my Xiao Liuzi and Zhang Zongchang have retreated to?"

Sun Chuanfang: "Ah, haven't they reached Yongcheng yet? When we broke out of the encirclement, Xueliang and Xiaokun each boarded a tank. They should have arrived in Yongcheng earlier than me.

Zhang Zuolin: "It's bad.

Zhang Zuolin soon learned of his son's capture. The Northern Expeditionary Army's telegram also mentioned that Zhang Zongchang had also been captured.

The whole country, from south to north, suddenly fell into a brief silence.

The Beiyang clique's defeat in this battle not only affected the issue of Fengtian clique's successor, but also the problem of the Zhilu coalition forces being leaderless. This battle directly led to the Beiyang warlords having no mobile field corps.

The Second Front Army (the Zhili-Shandong Allied Forces) had 8 armies under its command. Three of them were lost this time, which means half of the total force was lost. The remaining troops had to defend Zhili-Shandong, northern Jiangsu, and northern Anhui. It was basically impossible to mobilize a complete army to carry out mobile operations.

The same was true for Zhang Zuolin. Although the Fengtian Army had five fronts under its command, only four remained, all of which were deployed to defend various locations. These included Feng Yuxiang's Nationalist Army, which had repeatedly fought with Soviet aid, the Western Route Army of the Northern Expedition, eager to make a move on the Pinghan Railway, the fronts stationed in Peiping and Tianjin, and the fronts stationed in the Northeast. Zhang Zuolin had no more mobile forces.

Not only did the Fengtian Army lack mobile troops, it also lost its artillery corps in the Battle of Jinpu Road. Even with the Fengtian Arsenal, it would take Zhang Zuolin almost a year to equip these nearly 100 heavy artillery pieces, and it would take even longer to rebuild the officer and non-commissioned officer corps.

Another thing that cannot be ignored and that was particularly unbearable for Zhang Zuolin was that Sun Chuanfang actually ran back! He walked step by step from Shuangduiji to Yongcheng!

Now the An Guo Army still has a deputy commander-in-chief in office! Although the territory and soldiers are gone, Sun Chuanfang's status is still there.

"power ups"

"Since the beginning of the Republic of China, wars and turmoil have plagued the land of China. Countless lives have been lost, and people's livelihoods have been devastated."

"With bitter domestic wars and foreign aggression taking advantage of the situation, China's sovereignty is increasingly being lost, and central authority is increasingly weakening. Five thousand years of civilization are now in danger of being usurped by Western powers."

"I, Zhang Zuolin, the Grand Marshal of the Army and Navy of the Republic of China, the Anguo Military Government, wish to change our flag and reform, to dispel humiliation and suspicion, to unite our forces to resist foreign aggression, to gain the sympathy of the world, and to meet the long-standing demands of the people at home..."

"Zhang Zuolin, Yin, Xian."

Chapter 78: Peace Talks between North and South

"Commander, look, this Japanese newspaper! ...Hey! I'm dying of laughter!

The Asahi Shimbun was published three days ago.

Japanese newspapers took notice of the decisive battle between North and South China in the Xuzhou-Bengbu area in early March and began reporting intensively, with remarkable timeliness. This issue of the Asahi Shimbun summarized the victory. The most prominent feature on the front page wasn't the blockbuster headline, but a cartoon that took up a quarter of the front page:

In the center of the cartoon is a bald figure wearing the uniform of a Northern Expedition Army officer, with a ferocious look. This is Chiang Kai-shek.

To the left of Chiang Kai-shek is a tiger. The cartoonist used a black and white sketch style, using angles and shadows to express the meaning of this being an iron tiger. The caption above the tiger reads: "Fourth Army: Iron Army"

On the right is another tiger, with its fangs bared and claws bared, and a ferocious face. The cartoonist also used a sketching style to express that this is a steel tiger, with a caption: "Seventh Army: Steel Army"

Chiang Kai-shek holds a huge, gleaming sword, annotated:

"One Division: The Revolution"

Chen Tianheng: "Pfft..."

Throw away the newspaper.

Pick it up again.

"It was the Asahi Shimbun that last time called the 1st, 4th, and 7th Armies the 'Three Evil Tigers of the Red Army,' right?" Chen Mingren said.

Lu Deming: "Yes. But now the newspaper seems to have quietly changed its image. The Fourth Army and the Seventh Army are still tigers, and our First Division has become the sword of revolution. Then they also gave the Second Division a name, see, on the second page.

Chen Tianheng turned the page and looked at the second page of the Asahi Shimbun. In fact, without even reading the comics, Chen Tianheng could guess the nickname of the Second Division:

Second Division: Revolutionary Pig

In Japanese, the characters for "pig" and "ton" are clearly distinct: 猪 (pig) refers to wild boars with tusks, while 豚 (ton) refers to domestic pigs. In short, for Japanese authors and readers, "revolutionary pig" was a positive term. However, in China, when the newspaper reached Liu Zhi, I wonder if he would have understood it.

But Liu Zhi likely didn't care much about the Japanese newspaper reports at this point. The Second Division's performance in the Battle of Jinpu Road was so impressive that both the Northern Expedition Army Headquarters and Chairman Wang in Wuhan issued commendations, including a copy of the Second Division's report. Postwar journalists often covered this unstoppable general. In terms of individual division performance, the Second Division ranked second among the more than 20 divisions and brigades of the seven armies involved in the campaign, second only to the First Division.

Jinpu Railway, Guzhen Station.

The Ruihe Railway Bridge is bustling with people.

A construction and repair train was parked on the north bank of the Rui River, its rear facing the river. A beam was slowly lifted from the train, and workers, tugging on hemp ropes, moved it horizontally across the damaged railway bridge.

After the girders are placed, fixed, inspected, and the sleepers and tracks are laid, the railway artery connecting Tianjin and Nanjing Pukou will be reopened in two days at most.

The engineering repair vehicle came from Xuzhou. Now the North and the South have reached a ceasefire, waiting for the two sides to negotiate the specific terms of the peace agreement.

At the end of 1924 and the beginning of 1925, Sun Yat-sen went north despite his illness, and he also brought with him a draft for peace talks between the North and the South and the unification of China. However, the Beiyang warlords at that time dismissed the draft.

Two years later, the Northern Expedition swept across half of China and annihilated 100,000 Beiyang troops south of Xuzhou. With the Central Plains under control and the Northern Expedition taking over, Zhang Zuolin could no longer refuse.

A black car drove out of Bengbu and crossed the temporary floating bridge over the Rui River in Guzhen. After crossing the bridge, the car drove to Guzhen Station, where it boarded a waiting four-carriage passenger train and departed north.

Xu Xiangqian: "Who is the Southern negotiating representative in the car?"

"Li Shizeng," Chen Mingren replied, "sent by Wang Jingwei.