The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

In the Huangan-Macheng direction, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Front had no defenses in Huangan. The First Independent Regiment in Macheng decisively repelled the 41st Army's attack on the first day, prompting the 41st Army commander, Fang Zhenwu, to send another telegram to the Third Route Army, asking, "Have you figured it out? It seems to me that the troops defending Macheng are regular Communist troops!"

4月10日一整天，41军都没有发动进攻。4月11日，国军第三路军如约送来了600发山炮炮弹，方振武这才让部队重新准备进攻。

But in fact, the Macheng Independent Regiment had already evacuated the county town and the surrounding defense lines and retreated north into the mountains.

In the direction of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, Chen Tianheng saw four arrows pointing at the enemy's movements.

The 31st Army, stationed in Huoshan, was the first Chiang Kai-shek army unit to enter the Dabie Mountains. Zhang Fakui's 11th Army, stationed in Anqing, was the second. However, both armies showed significant difficulty adapting to mountain marches and combat, with daily marches of 10 to 15 kilometers.

Fang Zhenwu's 41st Army spearheaded Macheng. The next stage of action may be to advance northward, into the western foothills of Dabie Mountains to search for the legendary main force of the Communist Army (actually the Macheng Independent Regiment with enhanced equipment).

Another army that set out from Wuhan, Ma Wende's 42nd Army, had just arrived in Luotian County.

Ten kilometers east of Luotian County is the foothills of the Dabie Mountains, and another 20 kilometers over the mountains will lead to Yingshan County, the headquarters of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, but the 42nd Army was obviously hesitant.

The first is that the road to Dabie Mountains is dangerous, and the second is that Yingshan County is now China's "Cultural Town".

For example, at that time, the four big names in oracle bone research were known as the "Four Masters of Oracle Bones, Guo, Dong, Luo, and Wang". Wang was Wang Guowei, who had already joined the Lakers, and the other three, Guo Moruo, Dong Zuobin, and Luo Zhenyu, were all in Yingshan County.

The 42nd Army was part of the Northwest Army system. Because most of the officers and soldiers were rough and old, the Northwest Army had always been notorious in the past. The commander of the 42nd Army, Ma Wende, was a pure outlaw, and he felt that scholars were really hard to mess with.

At this time, the main force of the Sixth Army... had already jumped out of the Dabie Mountains and was no longer within the area pointed by these four arrows.

4 month 12 day.

The Third Route Army, responsible for suppressing the Communists in the Hubei-Henan-Anhui region, finally received news that the Communist regular army had captured Qichun County yesterday. Upon hearing this news, Ye Kaixin immediately ordered the 42nd Army in Luotian County to march south to recapture Qichun.

If Qichun cannot be recovered within several days and Chiang Kai-shek finds out, it will be disastrous.

Yu Jishi stopped him and told him that if the 42nd Army left Luotian, even if the gap in Qichun was filled, a new gap would still appear in Luotian. At this time, the 46th Army should also be put into the battlefield, pushing forward from Hanyang-Huanggang-Tianshui-Qichun, and forcing the Communist army back to the Dabie Mountains.

Ye Kaixin issued a mobilization order to the 46th Army.

But he also thought that the 46th Army was the least combat-active of the three armies of the Northwest Army. A while ago, there was almost a mutiny within the army because of the issue of whether to fight the Communist Party. So Ye Kaixin issued another order, asking the 11th Army in the Anqing-Qianshan area, whose vanguard troops had already penetrated into the Dabie Mountains, to withdraw and march towards Qichun along the road north of the river. They should work together in two directions to recapture Qichun.

On the 46th Army side, Gao Guizi received the order and directly called Ye Kaixin and said, "Commander Ye, didn't you say that the 46th Army would be reduced to brigades? I think it would be better to reduce the 46th Army to a brigade before going to the battlefield. What do you think?"

Ye Kaixin: "... Pei Wu, don't be sarcastic. This battle was ordered by the Chairman. While suppressing the Communists, the plan to disband the 46th Army will be temporarily suspended. The issue of reducing it to a brigade will not be mentioned again."

Gao Guizi: "So we won't mention it now, and we'll dismantle the army after we defeat the Communists?"

Ye Kaixin: "If the 46th Army performs well in the fight against the Communists, there will certainly be no reason to disband your army after the war."

Gao Guizi: "No need for 'ifs'. The 46th Army is at this level. You can decide whether to reduce its forces or not. We will depart tomorrow."

Jiangxi.

South City.

4 month 13 day.

The Third Army set out from Ganzhou and marched along the inner lines of Yudu, Ningdu, and Guangchang. It passed through the neutral zone in Nanfeng County - the countryside was the red regime and the county seat was an undefended city. Nancheng County, further north of Nanfeng, was where Chiang Kai-shek's troops were stationed.

The 9th Division of the 4rd Army launched an attack on Nancheng. By the afternoon of April 13, Nancheng was captured and a regiment of the 16th Division of the 6th Army of Chiang Kai-shek was completely wiped out in the city.

After Nancheng, the highway splits into two: one leads to Fuzhou, with a distance of 40 kilometers; the other leads to Yingtan, with a distance of about 90 kilometers.

"The passage to the Ganjiang Plain has been opened by the Third Army! Shouldn't Chiang Kai-shek make some response?"

"Let's not talk about Chiang Kai-shek, General He Yingqin should have made some statement, right?" Chen Tianheng muttered in Guangzhou.

Three days have passed since April 10th, and the various war zones are continuing to advance.

In the Jiangxi direction, the Third and Seventh Armies advanced rapidly or captured the county seat. What was destroyed in Nancheng was not the local armed security group, but a regiment of the Sixth Army of Chiang Kai-shek.

Chen Tianheng: "Ministry of Communications, have you intercepted any telegrams from Chiang Kai-shek?"

"We intercepted some telegrams from Jiangxi, all of which were divisional communications. Chiang Kai-shek's communication instructions to Nanchang may have been sent via wired telegraph."

Chen Tianheng: "We can only wait for news from the OSS. ... The Third and Seventh Armies will launch an attack on Fuzhou as planned."

Nanjing.

National Army Headquarters.

After Bai Chongxi stepped down, the current Chief of the General Staff is He Yingqin.

Although the headquarters delegated the command of the encirclement and suppression of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area to the Third Route Army Command in Wuhan, the General Staff of the National Army would still command the entire process of the encirclement and suppression of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area. In other words, the encirclement and suppression of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area was carried out under the dual command of the General Staff and the Third Route Army.

While encircling and suppressing Hubei, Henan and Anhui, information from other war zones across the country was also summarized to the General Staff of the National Army.

He Yingqin took great pains, using threats and inducements, and finally mobilized Gao Guizi's 46th Army. Only then did the General Staff pay attention to what was happening in other parts of the country.

"There's a Communist uprising in western Hunan. On April 10, the mob occupied Dayong. Now they may be laying siege to Cili County."

He Yingqin: "The Communists are scrambling to save Zhao from Wei, setting fires all over the country. Order the Changde garrison to reinforce Cili County."

"Yesterday, Nancheng, Jiangxi was captured by the Communists. The Sixth Army lost a regiment in Nancheng."

He Yingqin: "What? Let me see."

The staff officer pointed to the South City that had just been marked on the map.

He Yingqin: "The Communist army used to be near Ganzhou. This time they suddenly captured Nancheng. This must not be a small force. I'm afraid it must be the Fourth Army or the First Army."

Staff Officer: "Sir, it could also be the Communist Third Army in Jiangxi."

He Yingqin pondered for a few seconds: "Does the Sixth Army in Fuzhou have any reports?"

Staff Officer: "Fuzhou will routinely send back intelligence at 9 o'clock tonight."

He Yingqin checked the time. It was only 3 p.m. "Don't wait for Fuzhou to send the regular report. Send it immediately and have them—yes, the 16th Division—report the latest events."

November 4rd, 14:7 p.m.

He Yingqin, holding a briefcase in his hand, hurried to find Chiang Kai-shek. "President, the main force of the Communist army has appeared in Fuzhou." Chiang Kai-shek: "Hmm?"

He Yingqin: "The Communist army captured Nancheng yesterday and has advanced to the outskirts of Fuzhou today. The 16th Division of the 6th Army in Fuzhou has confirmed that the Communist army is deploying mountain and field artillery outside Fuzhou. This must be the main force of the enemy."

Chiang Kai-shek: "Order our troops in Fuzhou to retreat while fighting, enter Nanchang, and join other troops in defending Nanchang."

He Yingqin: "The situation is not limited to this. The main force of the Communist Party has also appeared in the Fengcheng direction."

Chiang Kai-shek: "Hmm?"

He Yingqin: "Many merchants and foreigners in Ganzhou had previously reported that a large number of Communist troops had entered Ganzhou a few days earlier. Based on these reports, the Communist First and Fourth Armies must have entered Jiangxi. Therefore... the General Staff concluded that the Communists might be planning to launch the Battle of Nanchang."

Wuhan.

Li Zongren's Fourth Army Headquarters.

Now the Nanjing National Army’s group army controls the army and the “Route Army”. Of course, the “Route Army” may also have armies under it. In short, the Fourth Group Army controls the Kuomintang-controlled areas of Hunan, Hubei, and Anhui, which are the current out-of-province territories of the Guangxi clique.

"Report! Call from Nanjing Headquarters!"

Li Zongren took the telegram from the headquarters.

"The Communist army concentrated its main forces in Jiangxi, intending to launch an attack on Nanchang."

"The Fourth Army must quickly mobilize its main field corps from the two lakes to support Nanchang in the east! Do not let the capital of Jiangxi fall into the hands of the Communists!"

Chapter 34: Commander-in-Chief Li, You Have to Send Out the Troops

After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's telegram, Li Zongren laughed out of anger.

What's the Communist Party trying to capture Nanchang? The Communist Party wants Hunan! It wants Changsha! "The Communist Party has been conducting intensive reconnaissance of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan area since January. They've used those reconnaissance planes to their advantage. The fact that they attach so much importance to the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan defense line can only prove one thing: they are interested in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan."

"During the Xiangxi uprising, the peasant army successively conquered Dayong and Cili, and tens of thousands of people flocked to Changde. These peasant soldiers had aircraft to support them during the siege. If they had taken Changde and Yiyang, they could have threatened Changsha from the west. This was definitely the beginning of Hunan's success in Xiangxi."

Bai Chongxi is now the chief of staff of the Fourth Army Group. From a military perspective, he concluded that Guangzhou would not change its mind.

Li Zongren: "Ever since Cheng Siyuan returned from the negotiations, I've thought for a long time that the Communist Party must want Changsha. Pingxiang has coal mines, and there are several iron mines in central Hunan. They want to develop heavy industry in Hunan to make up for the shortage of coal and iron in Guangzhou."

Bai Chongxi: "We must solemnly remind Chiang Kai-shek that the Communist Party's actions in the Jiangxi direction are a feint. They want to seize Changsha, Zhuzhou and Tanzhou."

Nanjing.

"A feint?! Who said it was a feint?" "It's obvious that the Communist Party wants to take over Jiangxi!" Chiang Kai-shek roared.

"Delin and Jiansheng, these two are too selfish! They only care about their own territory! If the Communists capture Nanchang, Poyang Lake will be unstable. If they control the Nanxun Railway and Jiujiang, they can move down the Yangtze River and threaten Nanjing!"

At the Nanjing headquarters, the Nationalist Army General Staff laid out the battle situation in central Jiangxi. It was indeed full of dangers.

Yesterday, the South City was captured by the Communist army. Fuzhou reported that there were rebel troops outside the city, and today Fuzhou came under a fierce attack. According to the city's defenders, there are at least 20,000 people besieging Fuzhou, with artillery. In the first attack today, the Fuzhou city defenses were hit by over 700 shells and two outer defensive strongholds were lost.

In addition, Yingtan, east of Fuzhou, was also surrounded.

Over the past year, Nanjing had been busy, constructing numerous permanent and semi-permanent fortifications in Hunan and Jiangxi. In Jiangxi, the Nationalist army established defenses in Fengcheng, Fuzhou, and Yingtan, blocking three entrances to the Ganjiang Plain. Brick and stone bunkers became common, with even a small number of reinforced concrete bunkers. Nanchang City was organized into a continuous defensive line extending several kilometers from the city walls.

But having fortifications does not mean being safe. Faced with the attacker's overwhelming superiority in manpower and firepower, the defensive line will eventually fall.

If the Guangzhou rebels concentrated all their elite field forces to attack Nanchang, Nanjing would first rely on the three county towns at the checkpoints to slow down the enemy's offensive momentum, and then retreat to Nanchang. In short, if they held out until the reinforcements arrived, they would be able to win the battle.

But the problem now was... Chiang Kai-shek's own direct strategic reinforcements were insufficient. The First Army was split into three divisions to oversee the encirclement and suppression of Hubei, Henan, and Anhui. The 11th Army, which was originally scheduled to reinforce Jiujiang and Nanchang, was driven to the Dabie Mountains to suppress the Communists.

Now we must put pressure on Li Zongren and force Wuhan to send at least two armies to land in Jiujiang, otherwise Nanchang will be difficult to defend.

He Yingqin: "The Communist army's intention is very clear. They will first besiege Fuzhou and then Yingtan. After Fuzhou is captured, they will turn to besiege Yingtan and occupy Yingtan. The capture of Yingtan means that the route for reinforcements from western Zhejiang to eastern Jiangxi will be blocked. Then the Communist army will attack Nanchang from two directions from Fuzhou and Fengcheng."

Chiang Kai-shek scribbled the locations of Wuhan and Changsha on the map. "We must order the 47th Army of the Fourth Group Army to embark immediately and disembark at Jiujiang. The 7th Army will rush from Pingxiang to support Nanchang. Only with these two armies can Nanchang be saved."

He Yingqin: "The 7th and 47th Groups were Li Zongren's Guangxi clique. Li Zongren's idea was simply to hold on to Hubei and Hunan, which was where he focused his efforts."

Chiang Kai-shek: "Since the Communist army has concentrated its main forces in Jiangxi and launched an all-out attack on us, why should we worry about the direction of southern Hunan? Our German neighbors are confused. The Communist Party will not attack Changsha!"

When Chen Lifu, director of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, walked into the headquarters, Chiang Kai-shek was still angrily accusing Li Zongren of being confused.

"Commander-in-Chief," Chen Lifu said, "We have found some clues. ... It may be related to the Guangxi clique. ... Yes, the Guangxi clique is in secret contact with the Guangzhou Communist Party."

He Yingqin: "What?"

Chen Lifu: "There is some evidence that Cheng Siyuan, the Secretary-General of the Guangxi Military and Political Secretariat, recently secretly traveled from Wuzhou to Guangzhou, stayed in Guangzhou for two days, and then secretly returned to Wuzhou."

Chiang Kai-shek: "What did he talk about with the Guangzhou rebels?!"

Chen Lifu: "We are still investigating the specific details of the discussion. However, it is certain that Cheng Siyuan secretly traveled to Guangzhou at least once."

Chen Lifu spoke in a low voice so as not to be heard by all the staff officers at the headquarters, but his tone was very firm.

He Yingqin held his head in his hands.

Chiang Kai-shek gritted his teeth and said after a long pause: "Send another telegram to Delin. No, not a telegram."

Chiang Kai-shek stared at Chen Lifu and said, "Lifu, please go to Wuhan. Have the Air Force prepare planes immediately."

Guangzhou.

"The Fuzhou garrison consisted of a division of the enemy's Sixth Army, relying on a newly constructed perimeter defense perimeter around the city walls. Three villages served as support points outside the perimeter. On the 15th, our troops, using artillery support, captured two of these support points and launched their first assault on the perimeter, but were unable to break through the enemy lines."

"We plan to deploy artillery forward tonight and support the attack with direct artillery fire on the morning of the 15th."

The Second Army sent back the battle report on the 15th.

The main point is that the attack on the 15th was blocked because Fuzhou had good war preparations.

Of course, it's not that there is no progress at all. The battle to capture the outer support points is going smoothly, which is beneficial for the siege tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

The bunkers outside Fuzhou posed a significant problem. The low-slung brick and stone machine gun bunkers made it difficult for mountain artillery to directly hit them from a distance. Even if they did, the bunker's roof could withstand two or three consecutive hits.

This was a problem that was rarely encountered in several battles at the end of 1927.

Of course, the combat plan drawn up by the General Staff and the Second Army was prepared for this. The force in the Fuzhou direction consisted of two divisions to encircle the point and one division to block reinforcements. The attacking troops were supported by a team of 75mm field guns. They would push the field guns to within 1000 meters or even closer at night, and aim directly at the bunkers, which worked very well.

After the most difficult bunkers with the best shooting positions were destroyed, the attacking troops took advantage of the blind spots in firepower to infiltrate and advance, and the combat engineers used blasting tubes to solve the remaining problems.

Chen Tianheng: "The battle of Fuzhou will conclude on the 17th. The main force will shift to the siege of Yingtan. The established schedule will not change. Remind Jiang Xianyun to set the time node. What's the situation in Fengcheng?"

Su Yu: "The reconnaissance troops of the 19th Division of the 7th Army have covered Fengcheng, and the training division has assembled in Zhangshu. They are waiting for 'Big Daddy'."

Chen Tianheng nodded, and the Fengcheng direction continued as planned. "Now all that remains is the situation in the Hubei-Henan-Anhui region today."

At 8:00 p.m., a telegram from Hubei, Henan, and Anhui arrived, half an hour earlier than the scheduled contact time.

“对11军的战斗尚未结束。16、17师拟今夜继续对11军26师发动围攻。”

In the Hubei-Henan-Anhui direction, the 16th and 17th divisions fought on the outside a few days ago, attracting enemy troops from two directions, two armies and five divisions to rush over to "put out the fire."

According to battlefield reconnaissance information, the 46th Army moved too slowly, while the 11th Army moved faster. Zhou Shidi decided to move eastward and defeat Zhang Fakui's 11th Army first.

After the revolutionary army occupied Guangdong, the 4th and 11th Armies of the Guangdong Army, led by Li Jishen and Zhang Fakui respectively, became "orphans" wandering outside. As their hometowns were lost, the morale of the army continued to decline, but the original structure of the Guangdong Army had not collapsed. The quality of the grassroots officers and sergeants of the two armies was good, and their equipment was still maintained at a good standard.

4月15日，王树声率领的17师在宿松县附近向粤26师发动攻击。下午2时,粤26师后边的粤11师赶到战场,但与此同时，早已蹲守多时的徐海东16师从宿松县西北的白崖寨切入战场，至下午5时,将粤11师击退好几公里,粤26师被孤立。但粤26师迅速依托附近的新叶、黄坂两个村庄抱团，挖掘战壕和散兵坑,搞起了阵地防守战。17师打到天黑,暂时吃不掉粤26师。

Zhou Shidi decided to continue fighting tonight, with the 17th Division taking the main attack and part of the 16th Division also participating in the attack, so as to completely destroy the Guangdong 26th Division in one go.

Chen Tianheng: "The Sixth Army has decided to fight at night. We may receive Zhou Shidi's telegram at three or four in the morning, or after six in the morning. Be prepared to work all night, comrades."