The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Under Chiang Kai-shek's strict orders, the 2,000 troops of the 7th Brigade immediately launched an attack as soon as they arrived at the battlefield. They did not care about the formation or whether the mountain artillery was in place. They just started to attack as soon as they arrived.

On the east side of the Mianhu battlefield, which was in a state of chaos, the 7th Brigade was like a spoonful of ketchup poured into a pot of porridge, making the bubbling hot porridge even redder.

Chen Tianheng had just ordered the first battalion to attack Lin Hu's headquarters because he knew that the Guangdong 7th Brigade had already joined the battlefield.

Song Xilian: "Company One, Charge!"

The two Hotchkiss heavy machine guns "guarding" outside Lin Hu's command headquarters provided some resistance.

Hearing the heavy machine gun fire from the defending side, Song Xilian suppressed his boiling heart and ordered the entire company to lie down and hide, and set up the light machine guns.

The exchange of fire between six Madsens and two Hotchkiss machine guns quickly determined the outcome. Each heavy machine gun faced light machine gun fire from three directions, leaving the operators unsure of what to do. Meanwhile, while the light machine guns blocked the attack, the first company of infantry advanced rapidly. Soon, the operators abandoned their weapons and fled. Song Xilian's hundred-plus men stormed Lin Hu's headquarters. Xu Xiangqian's second company seamlessly connected, immediately slipping through the breach.

Xu Xiangqian: "Everyone from the Second Company, charge! Throw out all the grenades!"

Chen Tianheng: "Everyone, pay attention! Only bomb the houses, don't enter! Clear out any resistance!"

Lin Hu's army headquarters was built in several large houses, which housed the staff of his 1st Army of the Guangdong Rescue Army. After all, the 10,000 men he led were divided into four divisions and six brigades, with dozens of staff officers.

The first battalion rushed into the command post, and the officers of the staff department also drew their pistols - these officers may not be professional enough to be staff officers, but shooting and firing artillery were their old skills.

But in front of the first battalion that was blinded by killing, the staff officer's small pistol was no match for it.

When the 2nd Company rushed to the big house, they threw a row of grenades, which exploded in front, behind and to the left of the house. The officers who were shooting with pistols fell down immediately.

Guan Linzheng's submachine gun team was in front of the big house. Each soldier emptied a magazine, and the enemy troops on the opposite side were basically cleared out. The few who were not hit retreated back into the house, but then there was "boom-boom", and grenades were thrown directly into the house.

Chen Tianheng: "First eliminate the soldiers, then deal with the officers! Guan Linzheng, keep an eye out for Lin Hu's guards!"

Guan Linzheng: "What does Lin Hu's guard captain look like?!"

"Lin Hu's guards also use portable devices, just like you!"

……

Lin Hu had been in the army for over twenty years and had fought in countless battles, big and small, but he had never been as miserable as he was today.

He entered the Jiangxi Military Academy in 1901, joined the Tongmenghui in 1906, served as the head of Huang Xing's guard regiment after the 1911 Revolution, and served as the commander of the Fifth Army of the Guangdong-Guangxi National Protection Army in 1917. From then on, he became a capable general under the Chen Jiongming faction entrenched in eastern Guangdong, and was considered a third- or fourth-tier star in the country's "warlord club". In particular, because of his military exploits, he was appointed as the Governor of Guangdong and General Huanwei by the Beiyang government.

As a result, this powerful general, with his 10,000 men, was defeated by more than a thousand student soldiers from the Whampoa Military Academy.

Lin Hu escaped the headquarters almost alone, with five or six guards by his side, but his secretary, adjutant, staff officer, and accompanying clerks were all missing.

"What? Lin Hu escaped?"

When Chen Tianheng heard Guan Linzheng say that there was a group of soldiers with portable machine guns in the command center, escorting someone out, he guessed that it must be Lin Hu who ran away.

The first battalion searched for a while in the destroyed command post, and there was indeed no Lin Hu among the living people, and there was no dead body - so far, there was no one wearing the uniform of a Beiyang general. So, unless Lin Hu changed into a soldier's uniform but was unfortunately killed on the way to escape, otherwise, the enemy's main general should have escaped.

"Although we didn't catch Lin Hu, we destroyed the headquarters of Lin Hu's army. Battalion Commander, Lin Hu and his 10,000 men are now like headless flies."

Song Xilian, acting company commander of the first company, comforted Jiang Xianyun and Chen Tianheng, who now looked a little lost.

"You're right. If we destroy the headquarters, Lin Hu's army will be defeated," Chen Tianheng said, changing the subject. "I asked you to find any emergency medicines and medical equipment at Lin Hu's headquarters. Did you find any?!"

Chapter 60

At around 4 p.m., Lin Hu's military headquarters was destroyed, and Lin Hu escaped alone. The 1st Army of the Guangdong Rescue Army under his command also scattered, fleeing to the west, north, and east. The 12-hour Mianhu Battle ended with a complete victory for the Eastern Expedition Army.

Five days after the war, Lin Hu, who was hiding in a small county town in eastern Guangdong, had only gathered more than 5 remnants of the army. Not only was the organization incomplete, but the soldiers were also in a panic and had no desire to fight.

On the Eastern Expedition side, since Lin Hu's army had been completely routed, the training corps was able to carefully clean up the battlefield. The identifiable results of the battle were 1100 of Lin Hu's troops and over 1800 prisoners. In other words, of Lin Hu's 10,000-man army, in addition to those gathered after the battle and those annihilated on the battlefield, an additional 3,000 to 4,000 fled and returned home.

The Eastern Expedition Army and the First Teaching Regiment also paid a huge price for this victory.

After the battle, Chen Tianheng gathered his troops and joined the main force of Lin Hujun's command headquarters with Du Yuming, who was defending the checkpoint at Dagong Mountain. After a headcount, he found that only 220 men remained in the 385-man battalion, including a dozen or so with minor injuries that would not affect the battle.

4个连长1个重伤；12个排长1阵亡3重伤，班长也大部分是黄埔一期学员为基干的，差不多也伤亡了三分之一。

After the entire Teaching Regiment assembled, Chen Tianheng also met Liu Zhi and the remaining troops of the 2nd Battalion.

There are only 187 people left in the 2nd Battalion who can fight.

In the attack at dawn on the 13th, all members of the 2nd Battalion also broke through, but they did not fight side by side with the 1st Battalion. However, the 2nd Battalion fought from dawn to the end of the afternoon, rushing around in Lin Hu's army, disrupting Lin Hu's thousands of people. Although more than half of their men were killed, the results achieved were extremely brilliant.

However, compared with the 3rd Battalion, the 1st and 2nd Battalions are considered to be well preserved.

"Is this all the men left in your 3rd Battalion? Are there still some small units that haven't returned yet?"

Chen Tianheng saw the commander of the 3rd Battalion, Hui Dongsheng. The 3rd Battalion behind him was probably called the 3rd Company, with just over a hundred people.

Hui Dongsheng himself had a thick bandage wrapped around his head, wounded by shrapnel. According to the men in the 3rd Battalion, if the shrapnel had been even slightly more accurate, he would have been the first battalion commander of the training regiment to die.

"Our battalion encountered repeated attacks from three waves of enemy forces," Hui Dongsheng said. "After the first attack, many teams were separated. Each unit fought independently, with companies and platoons as the only two. Now there are only 112 people left in the entire battalion. Three of the four company commanders were killed, and one was injured. Among them, all three infantry company commanders were killed..."

Chen Tianheng sighed. He knew all the company commanders of the 3rd Battalion, two of whom were members of the War Research Society.

"Let's go to the field hospital."

……

Zheng Dongguo, who was injured in Tamsui City, was sent back to Guangzhou for treatment early. More than half a month later, it is said that he can now walk again.

There were more than 100 officers and soldiers from the first battalion lying in the field hospital (actually just an emergency room). Chen Tianheng and Jiang Xianyun went to Chen Geng first, and heard the military doctor say that Chen Geng's injury was "not too bad". The bullet passed through his chest and did not remain in his body, so there was no need for surgery to remove the bullet.

The military doctor disinfected both ends of the wound and sutured it. The key is that the infection will undoubtedly cause a fever over the next few days, but if the body's immune system can withstand it, it will gradually recover. Even the bullet-pierced lung lobe can only be repaired on its own.

"Three had their legs amputated, two had their arms amputated, and some are already infected. Their condition will worsen in the next few days and they'll need surgery for amputations. Some have internal organ injuries that will severely affect their mobility even if they recover," Chen Tianheng said. "Xianyun, a considerable number of these wounded won't be able to return to the army. Back at Huangpu, we'll have to recruit from the Second Training Regiment."

"Davarish, long live victory! Long live the Teaching Regiment!"

At the headquarters, an ecstatic General Galen warmly embraced He Yingqin: "I can't believe that we can win despite such a huge disparity in strength between the enemy and us!"

He Yingqin: "This is a victory for the Whampoa Military Academy and also a victory for the doctrine. In the Battle of Mianhu, our army, from officers to soldiers, bravely charged forward without fear of death. This high morale was unprecedented in previous wars between warlords."

The battle plan for the Eastern Expedition's Right Route Army's expedition to Chaoshan-Meizhou was actually formulated by Galen. After learning a few days ago that Lin Hu's troops had returned and the Whampoa Military Academy Army might not be able to escape, Galen felt a pang in his heart. He also knew that the Whampoa Military Academy Army was in big trouble this time.

But the Whampoa Military Academy Army won the Battle of Mianhu decisively, making Galen's original military adventure a success.

If the school army was completely wiped out at Mianhu, Huangpu and even the entire KMT-CCP ​​cooperation would be at risk of failure. If the school army was severely defeated and finally broke out and returned to Guangzhou, it would not be a complete loss, but it would still be a failure overall.

Now the three thousand school troops plus two thousand Guangdong troops defeated Lin Hu's ten thousand troops and returned victoriously, so the battle plan formulated by Galen became a "grass-raiding" action against the area controlled by Chen Jiongming in eastern Guangdong.

This expedition did raid Chen Jiongming's hometown and reaped rich rewards: the confiscated cash and property were worth 200,000 oceans. In addition, a large number of weapons were seized in previous battles, including 4,000 rifles, more than 100 light and heavy machine guns, and 4 mountain cannons.

The seized money and guns were just enough to form the Third Whampoa Training Regiment.

Apart from these battle spoils, the Battle of Mianhu actually has a more important significance.

It was the first time that the powerful Whampoa Army/Whampoa Military Academy appeared on the battlefield.

Since modern times, the Chinese army has never had such strong offensive and defensive capabilities on the domestic battlefield.

If the Beiyang warlords of the Zhili and Anhui factions had been able to observe the Battle of Mianhu up close, their leaders would likely have been shocked or even horrified by the prowess of the Whampoa Military Academy. However, the Beiyang government, currently embroiled in internal strife, had no time to consider the rising power of the Guangdong Revolutionary Government. Consequently, they had no time to research how to counter the Whampoa Military Academy, nor did they have any interest in improving and upgrading their own forces based on them.

Mianhu battlefield.

The work of cleaning up the battlefield is still in progress.

The three battalions of the main teaching regiment were now tired and exhausted, and had already fallen down. The battlefield was cleaned up by officers and staff of the school military headquarters, and villagers recruited from nearby villages.

"The first battalion was here, and there was not enough time to dig field fortifications, but it had to withstand three consecutive attacks from the entire battalion of Lin Hu's army?" Ye Jianying climbed up Da Gong Mountain, the site of the first fierce battle of the Mianhu Battle.

This mountain is not high at all, the slope is very gentle, and there are some terraces at the foot of the mountain.

Zhou Enlai: "The terrain is not difficult, but successfully defending against a large army attack in this place is not an easy task."

Ye Jianying gazed at the view from the top of the mountain for a while, then walked down the mountain with his hands on his hips. After walking a few steps away from the trench, he discovered something: "There are no corpses or bloodstains 30 meters in front of the trench. This shows that the attacking Lin Hu army did not even rush into the trench."

Keep going down.

"A deep ditch halfway up the mountain, a man-made torrent diversion channel based on a natural river. Uh, this..."

Ye Jianying came to the deep ditch and looked at the ditch full of corpses. He was speechless for a moment.

"Sir, there are 98 dead bodies here and we are about to start moving them," said a nearby villager.

"Let me take a look."

Zhou Enlai walked over and looked down at the bottom of the ditch. Then his gaze extended to the left and right along the ditch, and finally found something on the left: "The ambush is here."

Ye Jianying walked over and saw a blunt-angle bend in the ditch. At this corner, both of them saw a pile of yellow bullet casings on the ground.

Ye Jianying: "Chen Tianheng has machine guns deployed here. Judging by these shell casings, they should be... Madsen light machine guns. When Lin Hu's attacking infantry rush here, they will accidentally fall into the ditch. When enough soldiers fall into the ditch, Chen Tianheng's soldiers will poke their heads out from here and shoot, and a single bullet can hit several people. Moreover, because the gunfire on the battlefield is continuous, the subsequent attacking Lin Hu troops may not be able to detect the trap ahead that buries the attacking soldiers."

"Ten years ago, during the European War, the Tsarist Russian army encountered this same death trap while attacking an Austro-Hungarian fortress. The Tsarist commander ordered an entire regiment to launch an attack, but the attacking force vanished completely shortly after departure, leading the commander to believe the troops had mutinied and defected to Austria-Hungary. It wasn't until the Tsarist officers launched their fourth regimental attack that other troops close to the front line faintly heard endless screams in Russian and realized something was amiss."

"After the battle, the Russian army occupied the fortress and discovered the deep trapezoidal trench dug in front of the bastion. Notice that the bottom of this trapezoid is longer than the top."

"...You guys keep moving, don't worry about me! Director Zhou, let's keep going downstairs."

The two men crossed the ditch of death and walked more than 100 meters down the mountain. Ye Jianying looked back.

Just now, at the top of the mountain, Ye Jianying had paid special attention and memorized several locations on the mountain where piles of empty shells were piled up. These were machine gun positions. He continued to walk down, and after walking 300 meters, he looked back, just to see how difficult it was for the attackers to find those machine gun positions.

After looking back for a few minutes, Ye Jianying restored the machine gun position he remembered in the picture he saw.

"Chen Tianheng's defensive arrangements not only fully utilized the weapons in his troops' hands, but also took full advantage of the terrain. How should I put it," Ye Jianying thought for a moment, "it's as if he grew up in this area."

Zhou Enlai: "But actually, that's not the case. I remember Chen Tianheng was from Changsha, Hunan."

Ye Jianying nodded. "That's exactly what surprised me. Last year I read a novel that described a hero as a 'martial arts prodigy rarely seen in a century.'"

"In fact, there is no such thing as a martial arts prodigy. Kung Fu is just a literary exaggeration. At most, it is a natural supernatural power that only appears once in a century."

"On the contrary, in the military, people sometimes describe a person as a 'rare military genius'."

Chapter 61

After the battle, on the Mianhu battlefield, Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying not only reviewed the battle, but also talked about many topics.

Now, Ye Jianying has not yet joined the party...

Ye Jianying was born into a small merchant family in Meizhou, Guangdong. As a teenager, he traveled to Southeast Asia with his father, but his absence was brief, returning to China in 1917 to join the revolution. In June 1922, when Chen Jiongming rebelled against Sun Yat-sen, Ye Jianying was the battalion commander of the Marine Corps of the Generalissimo's Office. It was he who led his troops to escort Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling aboard the warship Yongfeng. Days later, Chiang Kai-shek arrived from Shanghai aboard the Yongfeng to "escort Sun Yat-sen."

After the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the founding of the Whampoa Military Academy, Ye Jianying became the deputy director of the teaching department (he is now the director after Wang Bailing took office as the teaching corps). It was at the Whampoa Military Academy that Ye Jianying came into contact with communist ideas.

He borrowed progressive books such as "ABC of Communism" and "History of Social Evolution" from Yun Daiying and Bao Huiseng, and often listened to lectures by Soviet advisers and communists.

"From a young age, I determined that my goal was to help the poor rise up," Ye Jianying said. "I followed Sun Yat-sen's revolution to achieve this goal, but over time, I began to feel that Sun Yat-sen's ideas might not truly help the poor rise up."

Zhou Enlai: "Many people had such ideals in their youth and searched for ways to realize them. But only Marx and Engels, from a fundamental philosophical perspective, explained why the poor should rise up and why they could do so with confidence. This is also the reason why I established my faith in communism."

Ye Jianying: "After the KMT-CPC cooperation, some KMT leaders also developed a favorable impression of the Soviet Union and communism. Wang Jingwei repeatedly stated on various occasions that Minshengism is socialism, or that socialism is the only viable path to achieving Minshengism. Liao Zhongkai bluntly stated that we should now learn from the Soviet Union and follow its path. I believe that these KMT leaders, when they were young, also had similar ideals to mine."

Zhou Enlai: "It can be seen that since the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, communist ideas have been recognized by more and more people, and you are not the only one who thinks so."

Ye Jianying: "But will the Kuomintang accept communism completely? If not, then I think the Communist Party is my ideal place."

……

The teaching group returned to Guangzhou from eastern Guangdong.

On the way back, on March 20, Liao Zhongkai was ordered to convey the news of Sun Yat-sen's death in Beijing to all the Whampoa Military Academy soldiers. Afterwards, the Whampoa Military Academy soldiers held a ceremony to commemorate Sun Yat-sen while camping.

"Oh my god, the people of Guangzhou are so welcoming to us. There are even more people than when we saw them off!"

He Zhonghan, the party representative of the first company of the first battalion, looked at the huge crowds of people on the streets of Guangzhou and was a little stunned.

When the Whampoa Military Academy Army set out on the Eastern Expedition, the citizens of Guangzhou gave them a warm farewell. However, compared with the crowds that welcomed their triumphant return, the number of people who came to see them off was simply not enough.

Chen Tianheng: "This shows that an army that comes from the people and fights for the people will surely be supported by the people; but only an army that fights for the people and is invincible will receive the people's unconditional love and support. He Zhonghan, after you return to Guangzhou, I'll see what you write."

"No problem. My writing skills will definitely not let down the brothers of the First Battalion and the Training Regiment who died."

In fact, it is not only He Zhonghan who can write articles, but Chen Tianheng, Chen Geng and Jiang Xianyun can also write. It’s just that Chen Geng is still lying in the hospital, Chen Tianheng and Jiang Xianyun are busy with work, and He Zhonghan has relatively more time, so the manuscripts are mainly left to He Zhonghan.

After the celebration party in Guangzhou, the 1st Training Regiment returned to Changzhou Island, where they were stationed, received new recruits, and conducted training.

Before the arrival of the new recruits, the First Training Regiment had quite a bit of free time, so they had a rare few days off.

"Where's 'Story Club'? Where's the latest issue of 'Story Club'?"

In the War Research Society, "Story Club" is always the best-selling book on the bookshelf. As long as there are people in the small classroom, there will always be one or two copies of "Story Club" not on the shelf.

Chen Tianheng walked around in front of several people in the classroom, but the latest issue of "Story Club" was not in their hands.

"The latest issue of 'Story Club', I know," Lu Deming said. "Director Ye borrowed it. He's taking it home to read."

Chen Tianheng: "Oh, I just know where to go. I'm just worried that I'll lose the magazine and not be able to find it."

Chen Tianheng also wanted to read "Story Club" because more than 80% of the novels published there were not based on the titles or outlines he set.

The magazine has been published for two years. At the beginning, Chen Tianheng provided detailed outlines of several novels. Later, the magazine editors and core authors gradually learned how to write detailed outlines, and Chen Tianheng only needed to come up with ideas. Now these authors can mass-produce new themes and new ideas on their own.

Don't be surprised by the rapid learning of editorial boards and authors; driven by economic interests, everyone learns quickly. Not only did Story Club learn everything, but even imitative magazines have emerged.

For example, there was a copycat book that Chen Tianheng found in a bookstore in Guangzhou.