227 horse bow down

The clouds are surging in the southwest.

The National Revolutionary Army marched into all directions in the southwest. According to the decision of the Military Commission of the National Revolutionary Army and Li Xiang, they marched, or fought, and the war horses were hissing and agitated.

In the direction of Tibet and Xikang, after successively stabilizing Lhasa, Xigatse, Dandong and other major cities in Tibet, the deployment of defending Tibet has been adjusted, and the possibility of direct military intervention by Britain has been greatly reduced.

In the direction of Hunan, Yang Fan's troops marched to the east of Guizhou in western Hunan.

In the direction of Northwest Hanzhong, the 18th Corps and other units launched an offensive against the Sichuan army in the Qinling area. At the same time, the former Central Plains Military Region troops in southern Shaanxi and northwestern Hubei actively erted and attracted the attention of the Sichuan army.

At this time, only the senior generals of the Hubei army clearly know that in this intricate military operation, there is a great secret, that is, hundreds of thousands of troops of the Hunan Hubei army began to move westward.

In order to confuse the enemies in the southwest and ensure the suddenness of a great roundabout and encirclement, Li Xiang and General Counsel have designed and implemented two mobile methods, public and secret, preparing to march to the southwest from Yuan Shikai's unexpected direction.

The 5th Corps of the Yang Fan Corps drove from Shangrao to Xiangxi with the attitude of liberating Hengbao in southern Hunan. The regiment used the number of the old Xiang army in the entry, stationing, communication and contact with the local regime, which made Chen Eun mistakenly think that this was just the rectification of the defense of the Hunan army after the occupation of Hunan.

Except for one of Yang Fan's 3rd Corps, which went back to the north of the Yangtze River, most of the rest entered Hanzhong and attacked Sichuan from the north. In fact, the main force secretly went south and gathered in the west of Hunan and Hubei.

In this way, in the central and southern regions, there are two very different ways for the two major armies of the Northwest Hubei Army and the Hunan Hubei Army: the northwest troops advancing to Hanzhong are vast, with loud gongs and drums; Yang Fan's troops advancing to the southwest are frozen and there is no trace.

Facing this masterpiece of strategic camouflage in the history of war, Yang Fan nodded happily and said, "That's good. Marshal Li wants this kind of atmosphere!"

Tan Renfeng, who was beside him, smiled and said to the staff, "Everyone, try your best to perform the last scene well!"

The "last scene" that Tan Renfeng said is the "voice of the east and the west" of their "performance".

Yang Fan led the leading organ of the legion from Changsha, took a shallow-water ship north along the Xiangjiang River and began to march southwest. On the surface, it is to cross Dongting Lake to enter the Yangtze River, but in fact, it secretly turns into the Yuan River from Dongting Lake and enters Xiangxi.

............

Beijing, Zhongnanhai.

Hearing that Li Xiang's troops were frequently transferred in Hanzhong, Yuan Shikai was really shocked overnight.

"Hunan changed hands, Li wants to be ready to move to Sichuan so soon? He is so ugly that he is really not afraid of indigestion to death? Yuan Keding said with a gloomy face. He limped and circled in the hall.

"All's it! Can you sit down and pause for a while?

Yuan Shikai had nowhere to send a nameless fire, only to his son.

Due to the special geographical location, situational characteristics and political and economic conditions of the southwest region, Yuan Shikai tried to build the southwest into a "base to suppress Li", seize Sichuan and Shu, open up Yunnan and Kang, support a corner, wait for the opportunity, and put a knife behind the Li maniac. As soon as the war between Beiyang and Hubei began, this knife could definitely kill Li's madman!

Therefore, Yuan Shikai did not hesitate to take out three million pounds from the big loan, which made the small warlords in the southwest dizzy and obediently pushed him the grinding of Beiyang!

Yuan Shikai is also far-sighted and has already figured out about the back of the southwest - the crazy man Li. The Qinling Mountains, Daba Mountain, Wushan Mountain and Wuling Mountain are also a natural barrier that the Hubei army can't cross, which is easy to blockade. It can cut off the connection between Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and the mainland. For Hubei, it is a big sharp knife inserted behind the madman Li!

Moreover, the staggered local feudal forces and warlord bandits on each side of the southwest can be used as the political basis for the implementation of reactionary rule and money buying and differentiation. The southwest region has a large population, rich products, and guarantees soldiers and military food. It is located on the border with several countries, which is convenient to obtain foreign aid.

Therefore, Yuan Shikai decided to "invest in the southwest" vigorously.

In order to achieve this purpose, he decided to organize the remnants gathered in the northwest and southwest, and fortify the border areas of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei, layer by layer to form a solid line of defense to "hold the southwest". Yuan Shikai's plan: to use the troops of the Sichuan Army Group in the Sichuan-Shaanxi border area to guard the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountain to prevent the People's Liberation Army from entering Sichuan from Shaanxi; the newly organized Sichuan Army Group to guard the Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei border area to guard the eastern gate of Sichuan. Then, act according to the opportunity, and come out at the critical moment!

In order to build this insidious plan in the southwest. Old Yuan transferred Yin Changheng and sent his confidant Chen eunuch to replace Hu Jingyi's governor of Sichuan Province, and asked him to be optimistic about the stronghold of Chengdu; the southwest military and politics of Chongqing were taken by his cronin Huang Hu. Huang Yu is young, stubborn and arrogant, Chen Eunuch is resourceful, smooth and fickle, and both of them are at par with the Kuomintang, especially the madman Li.

Yuan Shikai was determined to "build" the southwest and wanted to put a sharp knife behind Li Xiang, but in terms of Li Madman, he has decided to attack the southwest.

"I didn't expect that the madman Li was so fast. We need to speed up the suppression of bandits in Henan and Jiangxi!" Yuan Shikai said, "Tell Chen Eunuch that you should try your best to coordinate the personnel relations in Sichuan as a veteran and the relationship in the southwest, ease the contradictions, control the rise of local forces, and do your duty for the great plan of the Republic of China."

......

The southwest has been full of clouds of war. In order to keep the "construction" of the southwest, this "sharp knife inserted in the back of the madman of Li", it can be said that the banquet is really warm and hard. For more than a month, he has frequently met with the generals of the Sichuan army.

However, Chen Yan was still worried. He ran from Chengdu to Chongqing and arranged a plan to resist the "invasion" of the Hubei army.

As soon as he got off the ship, Chen Yan delivered a speech and said, "Today, Chongqing will become the center of fighting against division, against the chaotic party, and against the crooked heresy of the three-minism, and will resume the mission of supporting the arduous battle. I hope that my compatriots in Quanchuan will cheer up the spirit of the Anti-Japanese War and work hard to maintain the results of the Anti-Japanese War and complete national reunification. Today, Chen Mou came to Chongqing to show his determination to fight against the Kuomintang to the end.

Chen Yan lives in the mausoleum. Immediately, Huang Yu, the commander of the First Mixed Brigade of the Sichuan Army, the head of the political army in the southwest, was summoned.

Looking at the former student, Chen said with emotion, "The heavy responsibility of guarding the gateway of Sichuan and Shu in the southwest is left to you. When it's done, we can stand in the southwest. Maybe, we will die without a place to die!"

Huang Yu seems to have insufficient confidence: "Chen Du, it is really difficult to prepare for the important task of the southwest this time. Huang Yu can only do his best. As for the combat matters, I'm not talented. I'm willing to wait for Chen Du's instructions at any time.

Chen Yan listened and was also worried. The two had a long talk about the development of the current situation.

The Hubei army attacked Yichang and Shashi, and Huanghu retreated to Badong, Wufeng and Cili. From Dayong to Yuanling, under the order of Yuan Shikai, the main task is to block the east gate of Sichuan. At this time, Chen Eunuch and Huang Yu were mages hanging on the same line, jointly shouldering the "heavy responsibility" of Yuan Shikai's "building the southwest".

At the beginning, they reviewed the situation in Sichuan in the two years since the founding of the Republic of China, and thought that the achievements were too poor: political corruption and incompetence were still as unchanged as in the Qing Dynasty, which made Sichuan people's grievances and uprisings; economic inflation and prices soar; party affairs were in a mess, although there were millions of parties. Member, but there is no organizational strength; there are also many contradictions in the army, the command is disordered, and the morale is depressed.

They believe that the above are the main factors that the Sichuan army can't withstand the Hubei army's attack.

Next, they focused on the following questions: First, will the third revolution break out in the short term? Second, is there any possibility of division within the Chinese Kuomintang? Third, judging from the current situation, can we keep the southwest? Fourth, if the Hubei army attacks the southwest, can we have a decisive battle with them? What should I do if I can't have a decisive battle?

For the first question, the two have similar opinions and believe that the possibility of the third revolution will break out in the short term is very small. The reason is that the madman Li was never willing to start the third revolution before he got to the southwest. And it is impossible for Yuan Shikai to fight with the madman Li before completely eliminates the remnants of the Yuan army in Henan and Jiangxi. Both of them are now stepping up their backyard and racing against time.

For the second question, Chen Eunuch believes that there is considerable research. Because he has been dealing with revolutionaries for a long time, he is responsible for the counter-revolutionaries for Yuan Shikai, and knows a lot of senior inside stories. He believes that the Kuomintang has formed all kinds of mountains since the time of the alliance meeting. During the Revolution of 1911, it was a set of scattered sand, and the second revolution was still a set of scattered sand. Many alliances or strong people of the Kuomintang are based on one side, and individuals engage in individual revolutions. Li Madman is the most prominent one. Huang Xing, Li Liejun and Bai Wenwei and Bei of the second revolution. The brains of the dogs beaten by the foreign army came out, but he stood idly by. And there are also several strong men in the Lixiang Group. In the northwest, in Tibet, these generals with heavy troops are now more powerful and will definitely compete with each other. Based on his experience in fighting for power and profit in the officialdom, he came to the conclusion that the Kuomintang had already been divided, and there was a possibility of division within the Li Xiang Group.

They are all very pessimistic about the third question. According to their estimate, the regular troops of the Hubei army have reached more than 400,000, and they are currently making every effort to operate in the southwest and marching to the southwest provinces. Now it has been clearly seen that the goal of the crazy man is to settle in the southwest of the backyard and then go north to win the Central Plains. Although the Beiyang army is strong, it is still guarded in the north and unmatched by the southwest. Moreover, it is anxious in the battlefields of Henan and Jiangxi. If the Beiyang army does not calm down these two places, it cannot march to Hubei! As far as Sichuan is concerned, in terms of quantity and combat effectiveness, it is no longer able to fight a decisive battle with the Hubei army in any region. Therefore, in the southwest, whether it is Sichuan or Guizhou, they will not be able to hold it. Only in Yunnan, due to geographical conditions, it may be possible to settle down temporarily.

Finally, they discussed the issue of "defending the southwest" in detail.

After calculating the troops to defend the southwest, they believed that it was completely impossible to fight a decisive battle with the Hubei army. You can't fight a decisive battle, and you can't wait to be killed. You can only find a way to avoid the encirclement and annihilate of the Hubei army and save your strength. Therefore, they made the following plan: before the army took a large-scale military operation to the southwest, they tried to transfer the main force to Yunnan. The first step is to control Xikang and southern Sichuan as a base for gradual transfer to Yunnan. In the second step, as soon as the Hubei army begins to march to the southwest, the main force will be immediately transferred. In order to consider the possible blocking behavior of Xikang's Hubei army, it must have the determination and strength to break through the Xikang Hubei army. Therefore, when transferring, we must do our best to preserve the existing heavy weapons such as chariots, heavy artillery, mountain cannons, etc.

According to this decision, the two agreed that Chen Yan would try to transfer the troops of about an army to be stationed in Leshan, Emei, Xinjin and other counties in southern Sichuan, ready to enter Xikang; the Song Department would draw some troops to be stationed in Huzhou to prepare for the future from Yanjin, Zhaotong, Huze and other places to western Yunnan. In order to implement this plan smoothly, Liu Jing, a famous general of the Hubei army, should be solved first to control Xikang and take Xichang as the first base.

In fact, they are not sure whether this plan can be achieved or not, because the Sichuan army has just been reshuffled by them. The running-in time is too short, and the relationship established by the pound is not reliable. Those Sichuan generals are not the same as them, but have their own thoughts. Isn't it the two of them secretly thinking?

......

Yuan Shikai never thought that his two proud students were looking for a way out before the battle to "defend" the Southwest began.

......

After the plan was completed, Huang Hu finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Chen Du, don't leave this time. How about living in Chongqing for a long time? This is also an encouragement to the soldiers of Chongqing.

Chen Yan fully understood Huang Yu's thoughts, but at this time, Chen Yan thought that only he could know.

Chen Yan said, "I took all the family members of the general of the Sichuan army to Chengdu in order to control the Sichuan army. Therefore, I will often live in Chengdu, but not stay in Chongqing for a long time. In the southwest, as long as everyone can work together to support a period of time, the domestic situation will definitely change. At that time, the Beiyang army will destroy the bandits in Henan and Jiangxi, and there will be hope for the victory of our counterattack.

Chen Yan's words raised a glimmer of hope for Huang Yu, followed by the difficulties of Shu Dao. It is really possible to support it for a period of time, but it can't support it. If you retreat to Yunnan, you can always stick to it. At that time, the Beiyang army was a rice bucket, and it should also wipe out the remnants of Henan and Jiangxi, right? At that time, it was the time for them to counterattack the southwest, and they could also insert a knife in the back of the madman Li.

Chen Yan came to Chongqing this time. In order to stabilize the military, he stayed for a few days. It is also a military meeting to deploy southwest defense; it is also a good opportunity to summon the main generals to inquire about the situation. However, many students of Sichuan Wubei School have already felt that Chen Yan no longer has the previous prestige.