In the west wing of Pan's courtyard in Mengyuan, Feng Jieyun was lying on the desk in front of the window, staring blankly at the thin raindrops outside the window, and at Beigu Mountain standing majestically in the distance in the rain and mist. She only felt that her mood at this time was like
The whole world is gloomy and empty.
Zhou Ruoting, who was sitting on the left side of the desk, put down the book in her hand again, walked back and forth quite nervously for a few times, leaned on Feng Jieyun's shoulder and asked in a low voice:
"Do you really want to see General An later? I'm worried that he went out to patrol the camp early in the morning and hasn't come back. Their camps are spread all over Zhenjiang City. It would take a day to walk around. Besides, General An is busy with business.
It is estimated that he will have to stay for a long time wherever he goes, not to mention it has been raining for such a long time, I am really worried that he will not be able to return to the camp in the city tonight."
Feng Jieyun straightened up her weak willow-like waist, raised her hand and gently patted Zhou Ruoting's arm, opened her clear and bright almond eyes, and said softly:
"I think General An will return to the city. I heard from the soldier who received us in the morning that General An will give lectures to the newly recruited student soldiers three nights a week, including the only female soldier company of the Northern Expeditionary Army. All of them will attend the lecture today.
It’s General An’s teaching time tonight, and he will not fail to come back. We must seize this opportunity and request General An in person. As long as he agrees, no one can stop him..."
There was a burst of noisy voices in the front hall. Feng Jieyun and Zhou Ruoting clearly heard the words "the army evacuated". They were surprised and ran out of the door to the front hall.
Pan Henian and his wife were sitting on the Grand Master's chair, with faces full of surprise. They kept asking the two servants who came to report what was going on. Seeing Feng Jieyun's anxious look, Pan Henian forced a smile and pointed to the chair next to the pillar.
The two sat down, turned to the two wet servants in the hall and told them to explain in more detail.
The young servant kept wiping the rain from his hair and face, and answered Pan Henian's question with certainty:
"It's true, sir. When I was collecting accounts at Ximenqiao Pharmacy, I saw that hundreds of people living in Jinshan Temple had withdrawn. A group of masters from the temple, led by the master supervisor, had been sent to Ximenqiaotou. Many of them
Neighbors asked why the revolutionary army heading south suddenly left.
After repeated questioning by everyone, a bearded officer dismounted and told Uncle Qin, who was selling cigarettes across the door, that they were ordered to set off westward without delay for a minute. Before leaving, he kept thanking the people of Zhenjiang for taking such a long time.
Came to take care of you.
The neighbors were reluctant to part with it, and many ran home to give them boiled eggs and sugar biscuits, but none of the officers and soldiers accepted them, so they all politely refused. The younger one remembered the master's advice and did not dare to delay, so he immediately ran back to report.
Master, run to the north street corner and
I saw cannons drawn by three large mules. They did not enter the camp to the east but drove directly to the south. The more than a hundred pack horses following behind were all heavily loaded. They looked like the military masters in the direction of Jinshan Temple.
We evacuated Zhenjiang overnight."
Another servant, about forty years old, also reported loudly: "The younger one only realized this when he saw the military man named Han who was in charge of purchasing in the camp. He hurried to Beishi with a few of his men and went from house to house to pay the bills.
The money for the rice and meat purchased yesterday was also given to Qi Laowu, the pig butcher, two packs of cigarettes. Shopkeepers from all the shops gathered around him and asked him why he left so suddenly. Why didn't he tell him earlier so that he could prepare some gifts to send him off? That Han Jun
I'll hit you first
Haha didn't want to reveal anything. Later, when he couldn't resist the constant questioning from everyone, he secretly told us that they were going to Longtan in the west. He also pointed to the north and confidently said that he would go to Bengbu to buy supplies in two days.
After he left, everyone made some calculations and knew that the Northern Expeditionary Army was probably going to cross the river and head north. I heard that the army from Wuhan had already arrived at the border of Henan and Hubei. It seems that the war is about to start again."
Pan Henian praised the two loyal servants, waved his hand and told them to go back to the shop to take a closer look. He stood up and whispered to his wife: "I have to go to the camp in the east to see the Northern Expeditionary Army is about to leave.
Now, as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, I have to give it away... Xiaojuan, prepare it for me."
"Yes, sir."
The plump little maid strode towards the inner room.
Feng Jieyun and Zhou Ruoting were anxious and asked Pan Henian to take them with them. Pan Henian happily agreed and said kindly that it would be good to go together to see them off. After all, we all knew each other and were friends.
Feng Jieyun and Zhou Ruoting thanked each other gratefully and hurried back to the room to change clothes. Mrs. Pan unhappily scolded her husband for taking the two girls with him. Pan Henian laughed and explained: "It's just a meeting to say goodbye. General An's troops are on their way out urgently. Where are they?"
Are you still thinking of recruiting female soldiers? This
This will put the two girls out of their minds at once, so we can explain to the eldest brother, sister-in-law and the old man that if we don't let them say goodbye, it might be bad for them to sneak out. It's better for me to keep an eye on it and wait until tomorrow.
It will be easier once the eldest brother, sister-in-law and the old man of the Zhou family arrive.
After a while, Pan Henian, Feng Jieyun, and Zhou Ruoting walked out of the Pan family courtyard with a big oil umbrella under the wait of the housemaid. Pan Henian looked at the gray sky, took out a pure gold pocket watch to check the time, sighed and walked forward quickly.
, Feng Jieyun and Zhou Ruoting held an umbrella together and followed closely.
After walking more than 70 meters to the north, he saw groups of heavily armed officers and soldiers heading towards the west of the city in the rain. Pan Henian slowed down in confusion, thought for a moment and then accelerated again.
When they arrived at the street entrance, Pan Henian and others could only stop and wait for the large group of people to pass. He looked up to the east of the camp gate, and happened to meet Yin Jinan coming on horseback.
The polite Yin Jinan looked quite surprised when he saw Pan Henian, Feng Jieyun and others. He dismounted his horse and politely stepped forward to salute: "President Pan, it's raining and it's getting dark soon. What are you..."
Pan Henian immediately bowed his hands and said with regret: "Oh... I also heard people say that the army was about to leave, so I hurriedly came over to say goodbye. In the afternoon, we came to the camp to reward the army and hold a symposium. Who knew
You are about to leave in a blink of an eye, we are not prepared at all, how disrespectful... Where are you going, Chief Yin? Why don't you inform us so that representatives from all walks of life in the city can say goodbye."
"Thank you, President Pan! For such a long time, our independent group has received so much support from the wise men and people from all walks of life in the city. I thought that before the final evacuation tomorrow morning, I and General An would pay a visit to President Pan to say thank you and say goodbye, but I didn't expect it.
Please come out in the rain. The first battalion on Jinshan Mountain has been evacuated. After nearly a thousand brothers went to the Runzhou camp in the south of the city for dinner, they had to join the third battalion and head to the west first. Our artillery battalion also moved to the east of the city.
The second battalion in the south is gathering there, and I will also rush to the west with the first and third battalions overnight to report to the commander of the theater. I will lead the model battalion to the old camp at Ximen Bridge to garrison until the second-line friendly forces from the south have taken over tomorrow morning.
We all have to leave Zhenjiang. I don’t know when we will see each other again. Please allow me to greet you on behalf of the officers and soldiers of the Independent Regiment... See you later!" Yin Jinan saluted and mounted his horse.
Pan Henian hurriedly stepped forward and called Yin Jinan: "Sir Yin, please wait a moment. I wonder if General An has returned from his inspection tour? I hope to meet and say goodbye. These two girls at home once met General An and got along very well. I also want to
Say goodbye with the courtesy between friends!"
Yin Jinan glanced at Feng Jieyun and Zhou Ruoting, who were anxious and expectant, and hesitated for a moment before replying in a low voice: "I am on military duty and cannot accompany you. I would like to ask President Pan to go to the gate to ask the duty officer to report. General An just left Longtan to command the enemy an hour ago.
The department has returned from a meeting, and is currently hosting a small meeting. If he knew that President Pan was coming to visit in person, he would definitely come out to greet him, thanks to President Pan!"
“Thank you so much!”
Pan Henian bowed his hands politely, thanked him repeatedly, and watched Yin Jinan get on his horse and leave quickly surrounded by a group of guards. He exhaled heavily and strode towards the east gate. For a moment, he even forgot to take care of the two delicate girls.
Feng Jieyun and Zhou Ruoting didn't care so much anymore. They quickly caught up with each other and stepped into the small pool of water that was up to their ankles without feeling anything.
Ten o'clock in the evening, the official residence of the Nanjing Xiyuan Headquarters.
Yin Zusheng, deputy director of the General Staff Department, took the message handed over by the intelligence staff at the door, nodded, closed the door, glanced hastily, and strode to the map in front of Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek, Ge Jing-en and other nine headquarters generals:
"An Yi called: The raiding unit has successfully crossed the river and sneaked to the predetermined position. Xia Jian's 1st Battalion has successfully assembled on the 7th ferry to Liulin. In addition, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front called He, the divisions of the First Army, the 26th Army
The two divisions marched toward Jiangyin one after another as ordered, and General Liu Zhi led the second division to arrive at the Jiangyin Fortress first."
Commander-in-Chief Jiang nodded with satisfaction: "Half the success is achieved."
Ge Jingen used a blue marker to draw an arrow on the map at Liangjiawan, eighteen kilometers southwest of Yangzhou, turned around and praised with a smile:
"Commander-in-Chief, An Yi's security company's operational capabilities are truly astonishing. He even carried a radio weighing 38 kilograms on his back to carry out operations. This is the first time that the division headquarters directly directs small-scale troops to infiltrate surprise attacks.
See, this is unprecedented in our army, including the Japanese army. If the commander-in-chief had not just informed An Yi of his special operations thoughts in detail, his subordinates would never have imagined that An Yi would have such a sophisticated and efficient combat method.
, this tiger general is amazing!"
Commander-in-Chief Chiang returned to the sofa in front of the large map and sat down. He picked up a glass and took a sip of boiled water. He said to the generals with emotion something that had nothing to do with this battle:
"None of my students has An Yi's talent and research spirit. While other students asked me for cars, trucks and heavy weapons, An Yi only asked me for radio stations, mortars and automatics.
Small arms, he never made any unreasonable demands, nor did he ask me
Instead of asking for money, he submitted his excellent military reports to me one after another, and contributed dozens of cannons, light and heavy machine guns, thousands of prisoners and a large number of horses captured in many battles, leaving them to be allocated by superiors without any help.
He complained, but he never took credit for it and was arrogant about it.
When others went to bustling cities such as Nanchang, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, they indulged themselves in sexual activities, but he and his officers were training hard without any slack. All the heavy weapons of his independent regiment were captured by themselves, and they are still there.
In previous battles, it contributed to the seizure of equipment worth more than 3.5 million yuan for our army.
It is precisely because of this kind of ambition that he fought beautifully and skillfully in every battle. Even Li Delin (Li Zongren), Li Renchao (Li Jishen), Zhu Yizhi (Zhu Peide), Bai Jiansheng (Bai Chongxi) are famous all over the country.
The commander-in-chief of the army also looked at him with admiration and praised him very much."
The generals stood in silence, realizing that Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek had taken this opportunity to make a meaningful speech, so no one wanted to miss a word.
Commander-in-Chief Jiang glanced around and continued: "However, some people reported to me that An Yi was greedy for money and did his best to collect money. They said that every time An Yi's troops won a battle, they would make a fortune from dead people.
, and also said that An Yi has the style of the Communist Party.
These snitches have never seen what An Yi did with the money. They haven't seen that An Yi's army has the best treatment and welfare in the army. They haven't seen that An Yi built a military base in old Nanchang.
A factory was built to house the subordinates and military families who were disabled in the war, not to mention the huge amount of money An Yi spent to improve combat effectiveness.
Today I want to take a stand and clarify this issue, because if such an issue is not clarified, it will seriously affect the construction and growth of our party and our army, pushing batches of very outstanding young generals with great prospects to the next level.
It is very wrong to join our opponent's camp, especially in this life-and-death period, and we cannot allow this kind of internal constraints, exclusion, and exclusion of the younger generation of generals to happen. No matter how chaotic it is outside, our army must not
chaos!"
General Zhu Shaoliang, the director of the Department of Military and Political Affairs, stepped forward and said, "The commander-in-chief is right. Emergency times are the time to employ people, and we must not allow signs of internal strife to appear in the army. My subordinates believe that An Yi has the ability to take charge of his own affairs, both in terms of military merit and qualifications."
Ability, if we follow our army's promotion practices since the Northern Expedition, An Yi should be a lieutenant general and division commander now.
This time, in order to boost morale and win over the military, Wuhan promoted a group of educated mid-level commanders from various armies and first-, second- and third-level commanders from Huangpu to the first level. More and more people in their twenties became lieutenant generals and major generals.
Seventeen people were killed, so my subordinates suggested that they should be given peace
Excellent talents like Yi Yi will have more training opportunities and more power. Talents that have emerged from previous battles in combat units such as the First Division, the Second Division, and the Artillery Command directly under the Artillery Headquarters should also be promoted and reused accordingly, so that they can be better
Local people use their talents to boost morale."
"Report!"
Yin Zusheng, who received the urgent call, had to interrupt the conversation of several bosses: "Commander He Yingqin called, the large-scale feints of the divisions of the First Army have triggered a strong reaction from the enemy forces on the north bank. The enemy opposite Jiangyin launched an attack on the Jiangyin Fortress on the south bank.
Fifteen minutes of blind bombardment."
Ge Jing'en said happily: "The enemy has been mobilized, which proves that An Yi's plan has achieved very good results. In addition, An Yi's department started to implement the deception strategy of pretending to withdraw from Zhenjiang and go to Longtan to assemble at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It can be foreseen that the enemy
There will be a large-scale mobilization of troops, and the enemy in Yangzhou will lose the opportunity to obtain reinforcements.
The subordinates suggested that after An Yi's attack is successful, not to retreat, but to stand firm and wait for reinforcements. We can quickly mobilize Gu Mosan's third division, which is cooperating with the feint, to Zhenjiang, and then move the two troops of the Second Army stationed at the foot of Qixia Mountain.
The division was transferred to Zhenjiang to cross the river for reinforcements.
Occupy Yangzhou in one fell swoop and hold on to it, completely tearing apart the enemy's defense line on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, thereby achieving the goal of forcing the enemy to retreat across the entire line, expanding our army's depth advantage in the shortest possible time, and avoiding possible backwater operations when crossing the river across the entire line."
Commander-in-Chief Chiang stood up and took a few steps lightly. He looked up at Wu Jingheng, the deputy director of the Political Training Department, and Liu Wendao: "Brother Zhihui and Brother Yongqing, can we convene a large-scale Northern Expedition at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning?"
A swearing-in meeting?”
Wu Jingheng and Liu Wendao looked at each other and nodded: "No problem, our ministry can send notices to all ministries in Ning, major newspapers, foreign news agencies in Ning and major social groups overnight to hold a grand rally of 100,000 people.
No problem."
"Tomorrow is the May Day International Labor Day. The Party Headquarters will have a grand mass celebration event held at the stadium. All we need to do is dispatch the garrison and a division of headquarters guard troops, and then let the troops stationed in Ning send some officers and soldiers to hold high the first place.
A military parade can be held under the banners of the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Armies, and it will not be inferior to the ceremony in Wuhan."
Liu Wendao, who was skilled in various organizations, made the suggestion confidently. Since he had seen through that Tang Shengzhi had been highly used after switching to Commander-in-Chiang's camp, how could he let go of this opportunity to show off his abilities.
Commander-in-chief Jiang nodded: "Okay, it's decided. Brother Zhihui and Brother Yongqing can immediately send a telegram to General Li Delin in Wuhu and General Zhu Yizhi in Jiujiang in the name of the Political Department and myself, asking them to rush as soon as possible.
Come and attend the swearing-in ceremony together, I think they will not miss it. The coaches of the Sixth Army and the Second Army are both in Nanjing. I will personally call them tomorrow morning to attend."
"clear!"
Wu Jingheng and Liu Wendao both left and had to stay up all night again tonight.
Commander-in-chief Jiang then turned to Ge Jingen: "Zhanhou, I agree with your opinion. You can immediately send a secret message to Gu Mosan, ordering him to lead his troops to Zhenjiang before eight o'clock tomorrow morning, and quickly cross the river to pick up An Yi's troops.
The right-wing combat mission, together with An Yi's troops, directly captured Yangzhou City without stopping.
!As for the Second Army, you can call Dai Yue immediately and ask him to come to see me immediately. I will personally give him an order and ask him to lead his troops on a special train to Zhenjiang to rescue An Yi. After crossing the river, he will turn west.
Cooperate with the Sixth Army, which is conducting artillery attacks from the south, to attack the Yizheng enemy from the east and occupy it!"
"yes!"
Ge Jingen strode towards the phone.
Commander-in-chief Chiang finally turned to Zhu Shaoliang, the director of the Military and Political Department, motioned for him to sit down with him, personally brought the tea sent by the guards to Zhu Shaoliang, and expressed his gratitude to this junior fellow student who also graduated from the Japanese Zhenwu Military Academy and completed the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School.
Whispered instructions:
"Yi Min, your proposal just now touched me deeply. The war is about to begin, and it is indeed urgent to cheer up and set an example, so that our soldiers and the young heroes of the younger generation can see a bright future.
I agree with your opinion just now. Tomorrow, I will commend An Yi's troops and upgrade the independent regiment to an independent division, which will still belong to the first army. As for the military rank... let's keep it unchanged for the time being, so as to let them motivate themselves.
Continue your efforts and make new achievements in the subsequent Northern Expedition. Outstanding middle-level generals from other ministries will be evaluated by your Military and Political Department and submitted to me, and I will approve them in the shortest possible time."
"Understood!"
Zhu Shaoliang nodded happily: "How to determine the formation sequence of An Yi Division?"
Commander-in-chief Jiang smiled slightly: "Let him report it himself, and then the Military and Political Department and the headquarters will confirm it. The combat style and method of An Yi's unit are different from any other troops. We still don't want to put too many restrictions on him, but
, we have to choose a party representative for him, let me determine the candidate. An Yi is very smart, he will know how to do it well."