The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

After firing three times in a row, the ungrateful machine gun bunker was completely destroyed. "Bang--" Outside Fengcheng, a green signal flare shot into the sky.

"Division Commander, the 55th Regiment has broken into the city."

Guan Linzheng: "I know, the tanks have already run over it."

At the command post 2 kilometers outside Fengcheng, Guan Linzheng, who was watching the battle through binoculars, watched the tanks of the teaching division fighting on the Fengcheng defense line, and was so envious that he almost cried.

When the Whampoa Military Academy reopened, I went to the Armored Department with Dai Anlan for further studies...

Now Dai Anlan has become the real commander of the armored forces, although it is a battalion-level unit. As for himself, he has returned to the infantry division.

Nanchang.

"Tanks! The damn Communists have tanks now!"

"Which of your troops knows how to deal with tanks?" Cheng Qian now knew the battle situation in the Fengcheng direction.

"Our instructors have trained to fight tanks."

Jiang Dingwen, the instructor at the Nanjing Military Academy, said disapprovingly, "Commander Cheng, there's not much of a problem with Nanchang's current defenses. I don't know why Fengcheng was lost when it encountered tanks, but it's not wise to charge a city defense with tanks. Just push the field artillery forward. The Communist tanks can't withstand the field artillery fire. If the field artillery isn't enough, the mountain artillery can also be used to attack the tanks."

Cheng Qian: "Is it as light as you say? When tanks appeared in the European War, they caused many Western European armies to collapse and flee in all directions."

Chiang Ting-wen: "As spearheads, tanks are certainly far superior to infantry. After all, they can withstand machine gun bullets... But tanks charging pre-determined defenses will be constantly consumed by artillery fire. The European countries fighting the European War deployed tanks in droves, and when a group of tanks was lost, they were replaced. The Communist army didn't have that many tanks to replenish, and the few that were lost were gone."

Cheng Qian: "Okay. ... Dingwen, then, will your division be responsible for taking over Nanchang's city defense system? Regarding the defense line facing Fengcheng?"

"No." Jiang Dingwen shook his head. "The Training Division can send a regiment to guide the Third Army in adjusting Nanchang's defense system. Our troops will continue to reinforce Yingtan."

Cheng Qian: "..."

Jiang Dingwen: "Commander Cheng, our unit's actions were already decided a few days ago."

South of Nanchang City.

In the Armored Reconnaissance Company of the Armored Battalion of the Training Division, a Citroën P15N was quietly hiding behind a bush, its engine turned off, and the scout was staring at the road more than a thousand meters away through a telescope.

"The enemy force numbered between 1,000 and 1,500 men. They were marching along the Nanchang-Jinxian-Dongxiang road."

"There are mule and horse columns... and towed mountain guns." "No, behind the mule and horse columns, there appear infantry."

The scout in charge of lookout reported the enemy situation verbally one sentence after another. Below him, another soldier wrote down the lookout's report with pen and paper and summarized it.

"That is to say, the enemy's infantry, numbering between 2,000 and 2,500 men, and the Wanma Mountain Artillery Column, are marching along the Nanchang-Jinxian-Dongxiang road, correct?"

"right!"

"What a joke!"

The soldier who had just written down the battle situation with pen and paper turned halfway around and sent a telegram using the regimental radio mounted on the vehicle.

"Dai Anlan!"

Qian Dengruoxian, Chief of Staff of the Training Division, ran from the headquarters to the next door and said, "Enemy troops have been spotted in Sector 14! They are sending reinforcements to Yingtan!"

Dai Anlan: "Where is Area 14?"

Qian Deng Ruoxian marked the location on the map: "Here. March on foot."

"It's 45 kilometers away from us." Dai Anlan calculated the distance in seconds.

Qian Deng Ruoxian: "Motorized march, set off now, we will intercept the marching enemy here, probably in two to three hours."

Dai Anlan: "No, my guess is that it will be here, because the Wanma Mountain Artillery Column can only travel 12 kilometers in three hours."

Qian Deng Ruoxian: "Armored Battalion, let them experience the speed of motorized strikes."

"Get in the car! Get in the car! Everyone get in the car!" "Bring all your equipment! Bring all your ammunition!"

In the parking lot of the Armored Battalion of the Training Division, in the open space north of Fengcheng, 54 Citroën P15N snowmobiles were lined up in three neat rows, and the infantrymen of the armored battalion jumped into their vehicles one after another.

The Citroën P15N is the main equipment of the armored battalion. The reconnaissance company and the mechanized infantry company both use it. The six Renault FT-17s are just six "big daddies".

Armored Battalion Commander Dai Anlan also rode in a Citroën P15N. This vehicle could carry a regimental-level radio—not a voice radio, but a Morse code radio—which couldn't fit inside a Renault FT-17 tank.

"Is the radio working properly?" Dai Anlan asked the communications soldier sitting in the car. "It's turned on, everything is working properly!"

The convoy drove out of the parking lot and traveled along the dirt road for about two hours. When it was time to deploy, Dai Anlan's car hoisted a signal flag. Not long after, the commanders of the three mechanized companies and the Renault tank company also hoisted signal flags, indicating that they had received Dai Anlan's order.

As the Citroën P15N drove down the dirt road, Dai Anlan felt the front of the car suddenly sink, and the front tires rushed into the semi-dried rice fields with a pia~~ sound. However, the rear tracks turned strongly under the drive of the engine and immediately lifted the front of the car up again.

Dai Anlan held onto the armor plate added to the side of the P15N with his left hand and looked around. Dozens of half-track vehicles rolled forward across the farmland of the Ganjiang Plain, like a herd of tan iron bulls.

Signalman: "The enemy's marching column should be ahead!"

Dai Anlan: "If this army is still considered a regular army, they should have scouts on the left and right wings of their march—"

"Da-da-da! Da-da-da! Da-da-da!"

Dai Anlan's prediction was accurate. The 2nd Mechanized Company was using its vehicle-mounted Maxim machine guns to drive away the newly discovered enemy scouts. According to German infantry division combat regulations, wing scouts were deployed 1 kilometer away from the left and right flanks of the marching column. Together with the lead scouts, these scouts could theoretically prevent any ambush or sneak attack on the marching column.

But... it only takes 3 minutes for a mechanized column to charge a distance of 1 kilometer.

This is not a sneak attack, this is a forced attack.

Chapter 37, Cheng Qian, give me back my instructor!

4月21日下午2时,南京官校教导师第2旅第3团正在进贤至东乡镇的道路行军，右翼斥候（侦察队)突然出事。

A burst of intense gunfire shattered the afternoon's tranquility, and then, with a bang, a red flare rose into the sky. It was clear the soldier firing the flare was in a critical state, as he didn't even fire it straight up, but at a 45-degree angle.

"Enemy on the right wing, prepare for battle!"

教导3团团长霍揆彰迅速下达指令:“辎重原地不动;1、2营掉头向辎重方向集中，3营原地围阵保护火炮;另马上向4团传信,请他们加速前进!”

Two fast horses set out from the regimental headquarters and galloped backwards. One messenger went to notify the 3rd Battalion, and another messenger notified the 4th Training Regiment which was marching 3 kilometers behind the 3rd Regiment.

Over a thousand people were busy with their own things, and over a thousand German M1918 helmets gleamed in the sun. However, just as the 1st and 2nd Battalions, marching at the front, suddenly stopped marching, screams came out from the mouths of the officers and soldiers:

“Tank, tank, tank!!”

"It's not a tank, it's an armored vehicle!"

"Armored vehicle! Armored vehicle! Ahhhhhhhh!"

A kilometer from the highway, Dai Anlan's half-track armored vehicle surged up a dirt slope several meters high and stopped at the top. To his left and right, two armored vehicles rested on relatively solid ground. With two thumps, the Stokes mortars on each vehicle fired two more rounds, pelting the chaotic crowd of the 3rd Training Regiment a kilometer away.

"Enough, enough!" Dai Anlan saw that the three armored companies were about to charge into the enemy infantry group. He shouted loudly, asking the mortars to stop firing: "Follow me, go west! The battle at the rear of the team needs fire support!"

Teaching 3rd Regiment.

Huo Kuizhang looked to his right and saw dozens of steel monsters, arranged in three arrowhead formations, rushing across the fields and heading towards the road. The machine guns on the steel monsters continued to flash, and bullets pattered on both sides of the road, followed by the sound of explosions: whoosh—boom!

Huo Kuizhang suddenly felt his eyes go dark.

It's only been a few minutes? Why do I feel like the red flare in the sky hasn't landed yet? It's too fast!

The enemy's armored vehicles charged to a distance of one or two hundred meters, and several soldiers jumped out of each armored vehicle. The armored vehicles did not stop, but continued to move forward, skillfully using their own steel plates to provide protection for the soldiers who jumped out.

The machine guns on the vehicle were still firing, but now, the Borgman submachine guns and Madsen light machine guns in the hands of the infantrymen who got off the vehicle also joined the ranks of the reapers with a "thump thump" sound.

In less than five minutes, the 700-plus soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Battalions were completely routed. The soldiers in the machine gun squad had just set up two heavy machine guns when armored vehicles rushed to close range. The machine gunners didn't even bother to reload the ammunition belts and just ran away.

The first section of the 3rd Training Regiment's column collapsed, and the soldiers fled backwards, toward the left flank of the road, but the second section of the column was also under attack. In fact, the three arrows of the armored battalion attacked the front, middle, and rear sections of the 3rd Training Regiment, leaving no one untouched.

下午2时30分，装甲营收拢部队,雷诺FT17坦克在这时候姗姗来迟。全营不停歇,步兵重新上车,装甲营沿着公路、公路两侧展开队形前进，掠袭教导3团后边几公里的教导4团。

"Drop your weapons and gather on the roadside! I don't have time to capture you! !" Zeng Zhongsheng, commander of the 1st Armored Infantry Company, roared.

The half-track rolled forward two or three hundred meters, and there was another huge crowd of fleeing soldiers, hands raised high. Zeng Zhongsheng repeated:

"Drop your weapons and gather by the roadside! I don't have time to capture you!" On the right flank of the highway, 600 meters from the road, Dai Anlan and two self-propelled mortars were also advancing backwards. The three attacking armored companies remained within Dai Anlan's sight. At the end of the road ahead, a marching column could be vaguely seen.

This is the 4th Training Regiment of the Nanjing Training Division. It seems that the 4th Training Regiment is still accelerating, probably to reinforce the 3rd Training Regiment that was under attack.

Dai Anlan commanded the vehicle and the self-propelled mortar to stop.

迫击炮的覆盖射击打乱了教导4团的行军队形。炮弹的爆炸声就是进攻的信号，以4辆雷诺FT17打头,3个连的雪铁龙P15N把三个小箭头汇聚成一个大箭头，对教导四团来了个从头到尾的贯穿式掠袭。

"Report! The commander called!"

At 3 p.m., the radio on the command vehicle copied a telegram, and the communications soldier handed the notebook directly to Dai Anlan.

"The enemy's training division's movements were to establish contact points in Changnan, Jinxian, and Dongxiang to support the enemy's 19th Division in Yingtan in its breakout and return to Nanchang. The Jinxian-Dongxiang contact point no longer exists, but the enemy should have established another contact point at the Fuhe Ferry, which is also likely the location of the training division's headquarters."

"The Engineering Battalion has built a second pontoon bridge at Baicheng Village. The Armored Battalion will cross the river from here and attack the Fuhe River crossing from the other side!"

Dai Anlan: "Give me the map!"

The communications officer (also serving as a staff officer) brought a map, and Dai Anlan read it beside the armored vehicle. The frantic, ravaging battle was over in less than an hour, and the cleanup work was handed over to the motorized infantry battalion of the armored regimental combat team. This battalion's dozens of trucks lacked off-road or assault capabilities, but they had already reached the battlefield by taking the highway and making circuitous routes.

Dozens of Citroëns and five Renaults from the armored battalion were parked in a large field. The infantrymen on board rested, while the drivers and support personnel hurriedly pushed fuel drums to fill the tanks of each armored vehicle.

The company commanders of the three armored companies gathered at Dai Anlan's place for a meeting.

"The pontoon bridge at Baicheng Village is here," Dai Anlan said. "Our superiors have intelligence reporting that the enemy training division is establishing a contact point on the west bank of the Fuhe River ferry at Liangjiadu. They may even have their headquarters there. We suffered minimal damage in this battle, so we're capable of another fight today and destroying the Liangjiadu contact point."

"The marching route is here, here, then cross the Baicheng Village pontoon bridge, and then go this way. The march distance is 40 kilometers. We will march as a whole battalion, but we do not rule out the possibility of taking alternate routes and marching in companies. Mark the routes you will take on your maps."

After hearing what Dai Anlan said, the three company commanders lowered their heads and made marks on their portable maps.

Dai Anlan stretched out his fist: "Are you ready?"

The three company commanders also extended their right hands and touched them together in the center of the four men: "Iron Cavalry! Victory is certain!"

Liangjiadu.

This was originally the ferry crossing for local villagers to cross the Fu River. Yesterday, Nanchang built a floating bridge across the Fu River, and two regiments of the Second Brigade of the Training Division crossed the river from here to Jinxian and Dongxiang.

Jiang Dingwen had just arrived at Liangjiadu with the division headquarters and the 1st Training Regiment. He observed the surrounding terrain and immediately sent a connecting pipe to build a pontoon bridge in Xinglong Village. The infantry carried heavy machine guns to the other side of the Fuhe River to set up machine gun positions and replaced the two engineering squads that were originally guarding the bridge.

"From the old ferry to the Xinglong floating bridge, we need to set up a defense line along the riverbank. From Xinglong to the north, the defense line will also need to be extended a bit," said Xu Tingyao, Chief of Staff of the Training Division. "It's about two kilometers."

Chiang Ting-wen: "We can defend along the river. The terrain is favorable to us. We can just arrange patrols along the two-kilometer riverbank."

In fact, Jiang Dingwen originally thought that the 19th Division in Yingtan would die in Yingtan. It was estimated that most of the troops would be lost if they broke out, and only a crippled skeleton would return to Nanchang, which would have very limited impact on the reinforcement of Nanchang's defense system.

But he also took into account that the 19th Division, also known as the Sixth Army, was Cheng Qian's starting point. Cheng Qian would certainly not allow the Sixth Army to be wiped out outside Nanchang without a single division left. Therefore, Chiang Ting-wen did not continue to argue with Cheng Qian. Instead, he took the initiative to propose that the training division leave the Nanchang defense zone and escort the 19th Division back to Nanchang.

The instructors confidently established a regimental-based rendezvous point because this location, nestled deep within the Ganjiang Plain, was quite far from the battle lines. From Liangjiadu, 25 kilometers to Nanchang County, and 30 kilometers to Nanchang City itself. Nanchang's defense system, in this direction, stretched from Nanchang County to Nanchang City itself.

I just didn't know when the 3rd and 4th Training Regiments would arrive at their destinations. Only after they arrived and arranged their camping could they turn on the radio and send a telegram.

But then again, his division headquarters had just arrived at Liangjiadu, and the division command center had not yet been established.

"Who is it?" "Stop!"

"One of us! I'm from the Fourth Regiment! Don't you recognize me?"

There was a commotion at the bridgehead, and a dozen distraught soldiers appeared on the east bank. They were all wearing the uniforms of the training division, but only three of them wore helmets, and none of them carried guns.

"Teaching the Fourth Regiment?"

Jiang Dingwen recognized one of the young officers and confirmed that he was the one teaching the Fourth Regiment.

"What happened to the Fourth Training Regiment?" "Sir, the Fourth Training Regiment is finished!" Jiang Dingwen and Xu Tingyao: "Huh?"

"When our regiment was marching south of Jinxian, the Communist army attacked us! The Communist army... attacked us with tanks!"

"It's full of tanks, the whole mountain is full of tanks!"

Xu Tingyao: "Stop the nonsense. Tanks everywhere?"

"Anyway, we saw tons of tanks, dozens of them! The 4th Regiment was wiped out in a flash!"

The defeated soldiers were taken away. Jiang Dingwen and Xu Tingyao discussed what was going on. Xu Tingyao said: "I know a little bit about the Communist army's tanks. Some people saw them in Guangzhou, just a few... But why are the Communist army here?"

Jiang Dingwen: "Chen Tianheng's First Division and First Army are very aggressive in their rapid marches and interspersed battles. It's not impossible."

Xu Tingyao: "But if they penetrate our hinterland, we will at least call the police."

蒋鼎文:“现在搞不清楚状况。教导4团，还有走在4团前边的教导3团，我们不知道还在不在,但跑回来的这十几个人有两个军官,士兵来自4团的5个连,我觉得,得按最严峻的形势来做决定了。拆除浮桥吧。”

Xu Tingyao: "Yes, the floating bridge must be dismantled immediately."

The company that had just crossed the river soon returned from the pontoon bridge, carrying its heavy machine guns. Engineers laboriously untied the pegs and untied the cables, loosening the pontoon bridge, which consisted of more than a dozen hulls, and recovered them one by one.

Outside Liangjiadu.

"battalion commander!"

The armored reconnaissance vehicles joined the main column of the armored battalion.

"Enemy infantry, approximately one regiment in strength, along with a large number of baggage and other auxiliary forces, have gathered at Liangjiadu. The baggage is concentrated at Liangjiadu, while the infantry are distributed around Liangjiadu and the pontoon bridge area 1 km north of the ferry. A small number of troops are assisting engineers in dismantling the Liangjiadu pontoon bridge."

Dai Anlan put down the map and used a stick to draw the terrain of Liangjiadu in the mud: