The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Yu Chengwan: "I'm here!"

"The commander wants you to come to the headquarters for a meeting immediately!"

Yu Chengwan: "Roger that! Where is the regimental headquarters now?"

"Just follow me. I've got a horse ready for you!"

……

"The deployment for the afternoon's annihilation battle against the Soviet Fourth Division is as follows."

There was no room or table, so Chen Tianheng spread the map on an empty carriage.

"Our regiment will conduct penetration strikes against the enemy using company units. Wang Erzhuo, your 4th Company will cover the advance of eight mortars from here to 1.2 kilometers west of Caojiazhuang and establish mortar positions there. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Companies with two mortars will attack from the east, while 5th and 6th Companies with two mortars will attack from the west. Once the 4th Company confirms the mortar battery's position is secure, it will advance and engage in battle. The first phase of the raid is aimed at eliminating the enemy attacking Yutangpo from north of Caojiazhuang."

"Yes!"

"The 7th Company will approach Caojiazhuang from the northeast, and the 8th Company from the northwest. They will block the northern exit of Caojiazhuang with heavy machine guns. However, the decision to attack Caojiazhuang will have to wait until the Soviet troops north of the village are defeated. At that time, the headquarters will send out a red flare as a signal."

"Yes Yes!"

"After eliminating the Soviet forces north of the village, the Supplementary Battalion will leave the fortifications and join the 1st to 4th Companies in a raid on Caojiazhuang. The 1st and 2nd Battalion Commanders will command the attack on an ad hoc basis. Meanwhile, the 7th and 8th Companies will maneuver south of Caojiazhuang, blockading it from the southwest and southeast. The 9th Company and the Engineer Company will serve as reserve."

"Yes!"

Chen Tianheng: "After the battle begins, the mortar company will launch a short, intensive barrage at Caojiazhuang. Within 20 minutes of the battle starting, all companies must be careful not to approach the Caojiazhuang area. This area is bounded to the north by the old stone bridge, to the south by the large camphor tree, to the east by the nameless creek, and to the west by the land temple."

"Yes!"

"When the enemy launches an attack on Yutangpo, the battle will automatically begin. Yu Chengwan, when the enemy begins to attack the replenishment battalion's position, you will be responsible for firing three red flares. All troops will use this as the signal to launch the attack."

Yu Chengwan: “Yes!”

……

North of Caojiazhuang and in front of Yutangpo.

Xie Hongxun pulled out his pistol and loaded the bullet. "Bang!" The bullet penetrated the mud beside him.

"Why aren't you attacking yet? Why aren't you attacking yet?"

The two battalion commanders in front of him shrank back in fear: "Marshal! We don't have any artillery! Are we just going to charge in headfirst?"

"I don't have any! If you don't attack, the enemy will have artillery! The baggage train left over 20 artillery pieces over there. If we don't get through the passage back within an hour, they'll eat up the artillery regiment and then launch an attack on us! You, and you!"

Xie Hongxun grabbed the two battalion commanders by the collars and threw them into the infantry assembled for the attack: "You two follow!"

Yu Chengwan, who had just returned to Yutangpo, saw in the distance over 500 Soviet troops lined up in a long skirmish line, guns drawn, charging towards the supply battalion. He and the two training team leaders each raised a signal pistol to the sky, timing their shots accordingly:

"Pa" "Pa" "Pa"

As the signal flares rose into the sky, the Soviet army's left and right flanks blared the resounding charge. Like five spears, the five companies of the First Regiment fiercely penetrated the Caojiazhuang Beiping area where the Soviet Fourth Division was concentrated.

"Captain! The enemy troops that just charged have retreated!"

Chen Tianheng also moved forward and came to the fish pond slope. Yu Chengwan pointed in the direction of the enemy's retreat and said: "It's time to chase them down and beat them up!"

"Hold on."

Chen Tianheng observed the fierce battle north of Caojiazhuang from the slope.

The Soviet Fourth Division was still organizing resistance at the last moment. They had previously deployed heavy machine guns in the north of Zhuang to guard the left and right flanks. When the five attacking companies approached in waves, all these machine guns opened fire.

Chen Tianheng kept observing, calculating the time in his head. Thirty seconds later, the mortar shell exploded in the heavy machine gun position.

In the previous battle, the First Regiment seized a large number of mortars, and the number of mortars in the mortar company doubled instantly. If it weren't for the lack of experienced gunners, the number would be even greater.

But the mortars accompanying the advance are equipped with the strongest artillery crews, who can install the mortars from the marching state in the shortest time and complete the calibration to cover the target in the shortest time.

Amidst bursts of explosions, the heavy machine gun positions on the left and right sides were destroyed one after another, and the First Regiment broke into the interior of the Soviet Fourth Division.

"Yu Chengwan, attack!"

……

"Damn it, no martial ethics, no martial ethics..."

Xie Hongxun was not in Caojiazhuang, but was personally supervising the battle on the plains north of the village, which was something the First Regiment had not expected. Now Xie Hongxun witnessed with his own eyes the spectacular scene of these so-called Guangdong Red Bandits rushing over the mountains and plains.

He ordered the two battalions of more than 500 soldiers attacking Yutangpo to withdraw, while the remaining battalion in reserve north of Zhuangbei remained to block the attack. He also ordered the three battalions defending Caojiazhuang, which had been under fire, to break out eastward. As for himself, he and his personal guards followed the three battalions in the eastward charge.

Xie Hongxun's transfer was soon noticed by Zheng Dongguo, who was in charge of the offensive in the east. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd companies stopped their rapid advance and moved 500 meters south to meet the breaking out troops of the Soviet 4th Division.

Not only did Zheng Dongguo have a keen sense of smell, but the 2nd Battalion Commander Xu Jishen also determined the direction of Xie Hongxun's breakout. While the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Companies were blocking the entrance, the 5th and 6th Companies chose to bypass the enemy troops blocking the area and chase the enemy fleeing from Caojiazhuang.

Chen Tianheng, who was at Yutangpo, looked at his watch. The battle had already lasted an hour.

The plain battle in Zhuangbei was nearing its end. The replenishment battalion met with the 4th Company here, and the remaining companies were engaged in the battle against the enemy fleeing eastward.

"Who occupied the small hill east of Zhuangdong?" Xu Xiangqian pointed into the distance. "The four heavy machine guns there are very effective, almost blocking half of the escape route."

Chen Tianheng: "It could be one of the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd companies. Ask again after the battle. Send in the reserves."

The last words were addressed to Xu Xiangqian. Xu Xiangqian: "Join us now? The battle is going smoothly."

Chen Tianheng: "The enemy is about to enter a desperate struggle. We must cut the Gordian knot and reduce unnecessary casualties."

……

East of Caojiazhuang.

Xie Hongxun's target was Luling, east of Caojiazhuang. He hoped to take the remaining 1,000 men of the Su Fourth Division to climb Luling, relying on the terrain to hold on and wait for reinforcements.

If Luling couldn't be defended - Xie Hongxun had already thought about it, then he would use these more than a thousand people as shields. He and a few of his confidants would cross Luling, go to the Poyang Lake, find a fishing boat and row back to Jiujiang.

It's not that he didn't want to rely on Caojiazhuang to defend it, but the mortar fire from the opposite side was too intensive and it was unbearable.

The remaining thousand-plus men of the Soviet Fourth Division also erupted in their desire to survive. Ignoring the harsh flanking fire from the heavy machine guns, they charged towards the enemy outside the village. After losing over a hundred men, Xie Hongxun found himself rushing out.

"Commander, Commander, look!"

The commander of the 13th Regiment pointed forward in panic.

Less than thirty meters ahead, hundreds of men suddenly appeared from the bushes, all in Northern Expedition uniforms. With a short whistle, these hundred-plus men drew strangely curved machetes from their waists and charged at him, shouting!

Xie Hongxun turned around and ran backwards, then he thought for a moment and ran south.

Less than a hundred meters into the sprint, a burst of gunfire rang out from the front. This time, Xie Hongxun was greeted not by a machete squad but by a long line of three or four-man combat teams.

At this time, there were only a dozen guards left around Xie Hongxun, and guards continued to be shot and fall to the ground.

Xie Hongxun turned back again, and he met the machete team again.

"Come on! Little red bandit!"

Xie Hongxun, desperate, with red eyes, drew out the high-ranking Beiyang command knife from his waist, pointed it at the extremely young-looking officer in the machete team, and skillfully made a sword flower with one hand: "Let's fight alone! One-on-one!"

You Buying, the captain of the engineering company, looked coldly at the high-ranking Beiyang officer in front of him, wearing a tall hat and ribbon, and drew his revolver from his waist.

"boom."

"boom."

"boom."

……

Chapter 109

"This one is the command sword of a senior officer of the Beiyang New Army."

"Beiyang custom-made it in Solingen, Germany. The blade has double blood grooves, and the base of the sword bears the Solingen factory logo. The brass guard is emblazoned with dragon patterns, and the grip is lizard skin wrapped with silver thread. Tsk... this is a fine piece."

"A Colt M1911A1 pistol, released in 1924, 11.43mm caliber, 7-round capacity. This one is a specially ordered deluxe model with ivory inlay grips. Tsk... it's a good thing too."

After praising the two trophies, Chen Tianheng returned them to You Buying: "Captain You, these are the weapons you captured on the battlefield. I should give them to you."

You Buying: "Commander, these two items are the symbols of our victory in killing the commander of the Soviet Fourth Division, Xie Hongxun. They are the result of the joint efforts of you and the entire First Regiment. I dare not take them alone."

Chen Tianheng smiled and said, "How about this? There are two commemorative weapons here. How about we each take one? By the way, you pick first."

You Buying chose M1911A1 without hesitation.

His current sidearm is a .32 revolver that he got from somewhere, and it's really quite delicate.

"Captain, I actually wanted to capture him alive, but Xie Hongxun was completely berserk. He rushed over and tried to hack people, so I had no choice but to pull out my gun."

After the spoils were divided, You Buying explained why he wanted to kill Xie Hongxun on the battlefield.

Chen Tianheng raised his hand to pause the conversation. "You don't need to explain this. On the battlefield, if you want to capture prisoners or persuade others to surrender, they must be willing to cooperate and surrender. If this person dies, then he dies. Don't let the living be troubled by the dead."

It’s a good thing that Xie Hongxun was beaten to death.

This man was a favorite general of Sun Chuanfang, a second-tier warlord within the Sun faction, and a nationally renowned figure. If he had been captured instead of killed, he would have been returned to Sun Chuanfang within two months, and the ransom would have gone into Chiang Kai-shek's bank account. Why bother?

All property captured on the battlefield by the Northern Expedition Army had to be turned over to the public, and weapons and ammunition had to be registered, but the troops that captured the spoils had certain rights of control over the weapons and ammunition (priority use rights).

The First Regiment crushed the Soviet Fourth Division from head to toe like chewing sugarcane, leaving behind hundreds of corpses and 4500 prisoners (more than a thousand of whom were wounded), and of course, the sweet syrup flowing from the sugarcane.

Needless to say, there were guns and rifles gathered in bundles, covering a large area on the ground.

There were dozens of heavy machine guns and dozens of light machine guns, including many Madsen light machine guns. After all, before the ZB-26 came out, the Madsen was almost the light machine gun with the best overall performance of the era.

(After the ZB-26 came out, Madsen was also very capable and appeared until the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War)

The artillery regiment is the biggest treasure unearthed by the 4th Soviet Division.

11门沪造克75山炮（有一门坏了丢在九江了），4门75毫米克虏伯1903野炮（一个营带了一个连出来），斯托克斯迫击炮是16门。

The Soviet 4th Division's supply team, which had a bit of hamster syndrome, carried more than 2600 mortar shells.

The Soviet 4th Division's mortar organization was rather strange, being organized into the division's artillery regiment rather than being assigned to the three infantry regiments. In fact, theoretically speaking, this 81mm mortar should not even be a regimental artillery piece, but rather a battalion-level piece.

"Pitch angle, shake this. How many degrees does the pitch change in one circle?"

Artillery Company Commander Yuan Yelie was fiddling with the K-75 mountain gun while reading the instruction manual.

"Azimuth, shake this. ... One circle, two circles, ... that's it. Hey, how do I know that at this angle the shell will land exactly on the target point for indirect aiming?"

Chen Tianheng: "Yuan Yelie, just take your time getting used to it. It will take you three to five days to master it. But I suggest that you start by getting your company to use those field guns. Direct-aiming fire is the normal way to use them."

Yuan Yelie: "We are short on manpower. The 22 mortars have already used up all the manpower in the entire artillery company. Can we mobilize some of the captured artillerymen to join the First Regiment?"

Chen Tianheng: "Yuan Zhongxian is doing his work."

Yuan Zhongxian's focus was on technical arms like artillery, so as you can imagine, the work was difficult.

The reason the officers and soldiers of the Soviet Fourth Division enlisted in Sun Chuanfang's army was simply to get paid. A month's pay was as much as a year's worth of farming at home.

In this day and age, before the baptism of eight years of fighting the Japanese invaders, talking about class consciousness and national consciousness with captured soldiers is basically half the effort. The conversion rate of captured soldiers exceeded 50% only during the Liberation War. During the Jiangxi Soviet era, captured soldiers were basically educated, given travel expenses, and then released. If the battle was against the Central Army, only about a hundred of the more than a thousand prisoners were willing to join the Red Army.

However, although these soldiers were stubborn, they were actually quite well-behaved.

"Sir, sir."

Among the captured soldiers, an old soldier who looked very old spoke respectfully to the soldiers of the First Regiment who were guarding the prisoners.

"Your army is so formidable in battle, we are truly convinced. You don't abuse or scold prisoners, so we have no complaints about being your prisoners. We used to be cooks in the army, so could you let us help cook?"

The First Regiment's several cooking squads were so busy that smoke rose from their hair. They poured dozens of kilograms of rice into the pots, shoveled it out quickly, and then poured dozens more kilograms of rice in. The captured, uninjured officers and soldiers of the Fourth Soviet Division stood in a huge crowd. At the rate the food was being cooked, it was unknown when everyone would be able to eat.

Huang Wei: "Well, those of you who are cooking and willing to help with the cooking, please come out."

More than 30 captured soldiers came out one after another.

Huang Wei turned to Yu Chengwan, who was in charge of guarding the prisoners, and said, "I think they should set up their own tents."

A large number of tents were indeed found among the Soviet Fourth Division's supply train, which was being transported back to Yongxiu County. The First Regiment had designated four areas outside Yongxiu City as prison camps for the captured soldiers to set up camp. Tents and supporting materials were delivered to the four areas for the captured soldiers to receive. When Huang Wei was about to hand over hammers and ground spikes, he gave the captured junior officers a stern look as they arrived to collect their supplies.

"Sir, we won't do anything rash. I swear, I swear!"

Huang Wei: "You are responsible for managing the hammers. You will be given as many hammers as you want after the assembly is completed."

……

After the Nanxun annihilation battle ended, all members of the First Regiment returned to Yongxiu County.

The next day, October 7, the 10st Regiment sent a small part of its troops to attack southward along the Nanxun Railway.

Yongxiu is only 45 kilometers away from Nanchang Niuxing Station. Wang Pu, who was defeated by the First Regiment two days ago, was huddled at Lehua Station on this line with more than 200 remaining soldiers, trembling in fear. He didn't quite understand why the Northern Expedition Army that defeated him in one move didn't come to attack him in the past two days.

However, the 10st Regiment's attack came on October 7. Wang Pu immediately fled eastward, boarding a small fishing boat near the Gan River where it merged into Poyang Lake, and fled to Jiujiang.

On the evening of October 7, the vanguard of the 10st Regiment sighted Nanchang Niuxing Station and joined forces with the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Division.

"Ah! Chen Tianheng! You're here! I knew you had cut off the Nanxun Line!"

Because the other two regiments of the 2nd Division were destroyed in the First Battle of Nanchang, Liu Zhi, the commander of the 2nd Division, was basically the commander of the 4th Regiment, and was also at Niuxing Station.