On August 2, 1919, the first battle of the Hunan Campaign began!
On that day, Zhang Xiaohuai was the first to take action. He took the initiative from Zhuzhou and launched an attack on Sun Chuanfang's troops of the Hubei Army.
Sun Chuanfang's troops stood firm and fought back with fierce firepower. Zhang Xiaohuai quickly withdrew to Zhuzhou after a brief attack.
This extremely brief contact was called the "First Battle in Hunan."
On the afternoon of August 2, shortly after the first battle in Hunan, the north and the south began shelling.
But both sides seemed to be trying their best to restrain themselves, and the scale of the shelling was also small!
On the 3rd, the two sides continued to conduct tests, and the scale was still controlled within a certain range.
On August 4, both sides finally lost patience, and the war broke out!
At 10 a.m. on the 4th, both sides concentrated hundreds of artillery pieces and intensively bombarded each other's positions. The "Battle of Hunan" finally officially began on this day!
The decisive battle between Liu Zhaocheng and Wu Peifu kicked off in Hunan!
Tons of artillery shells hit each other, and the positions of both sides were plunged into smoke.
The students who came from all over the battlefield in Hunan to cheer for the Northern Expedition saw such a real battlefield for the first time and were completely shocked by the scene.
This is completely different from the war you imagined.
The shells almost lifted the entire earth, the sky was completely obscured by smoke, and the pungent smell rushed into the nose.
The students' bodies were trembling and their feet were trembling, but the soldiers were hiding calmly in their trenches, motionless. They were used to all this.
With a "Wow" sound, a female student who had been laughing and joking before finally couldn't bear the stimulation anymore and actually cried in front of everyone.
The male student next to him wanted to give some words of comfort, but suddenly found that his legs could no longer move.
War, terrible war, shocking and terrifying war!
Liu Zhaocheng put down the telescope in his hand, handed a handkerchief to the female student, and said with a smile: "Isn't it different from what you imagined? This is just the beginning. People will die and bleed in the future."
The female student took the handkerchief, wiped the tears on her face, and tried her best to cry. First, she wanted to make herself look brave and make others forget her cowardice and gaffe.
Then, he looked at the young and heroic commander-in-chief Liu Zhaocheng with admiration.
She felt very strange in her heart. Could it be that the young commander-in-chief had a strong heart? Why was he not afraid at all when the artillery fire was so intense?
August 4, 2 pm, Henglong Bridge, Yiyang.
The left-wing army's general attack on Yiyang began with the artillery battle!
"Attack!" Li Zongren put away his pocket watch and gave the order expressionlessly.
The first critical battle of the Battle of Hunan, the Henglong Bridge attack begins!
The ones at the forefront were the assault battalion of the 6th Brigade of the 3rd Division commanded by the Commander of the Second Army, Xu Mu!
The battalion commander was Zhu Zaiming, a native of Taojia, Ba County, Sichuan. He had joined the army at the age of sixteen and was only twenty-three years old!
The battalion commander took the lead, leading the whole battalion of soldiers, roaring towards the Henglong Bridge.
The one at the forefront of defense at Henglong Bridge is Cai Juguang Camp of Zhang Jingyao's tribe.
Cai Juguang, nicknamed "Cai Erbu", fights at the risk of his life and steals money without shame!
Shameless robbery of money is secondary, but Cai Juguang is most famous for fighting without risking his life.
At the beginning of the attack on Henglong Bridge, Cai Juguang personally operated a machine gun, screaming "Ao Ao" and pouring strings of bullets into the attacking Northern Expeditionary Army.
The momentum of the charge was immediately suppressed. The assault battalion lay prone on the ground, unable to raise its head after being hit by countless dense bullets.
The soldiers in Cai Camp were also inspired by the battalion commander's ferocity. They screamed "ouch" like the battalion commander and splashed the bullets in their guns to the opposite side with all their strength!
The first attack forced Zhu Zaiming's assault battalion to return without success.
On the opposite front position of Henglong Bridge, there was a burst of laughter. A few brave soldiers even stood up on the position and made provocative gestures to the soldiers of the Northern Expedition.
Zhu Zaiming did not become angry because of this, but forced himself to calm down.
Seeing that the attack was not going well, a machine gun company quickly came up with reinforcements, which gave Zhu Zaiming some confidence.
"Machine gun cover, exchange fire with these gangsters." Zhu Zaiming gritted his teeth: "First company commander Duan Hailong!"
"arrive!"
Zhu Zaiming pointed to the position opposite: "See, the enemy there is the most fierce. You gather all the grenades in the whole company for me, and I will help you open a way. You take your company and use grenades to destroy me."
Those gangsters!"
"yes!"
The assault battalion's second attack has begun!
Zhu Zaiming, who had received reinforcements at this time, re-adjusted his formation, and all the machine guns of the entire battalion and all the light and heavy machine guns of the machine gun company were concentrated and used together.
The machine gun fire has begun!
Cai Ying's machine guns quickly became mute under the fierce firepower of the Northern Expeditionary Army. Cai Juguang was almost hit by bullets and was so frightened that he quickly hid behind the position and did not dare to raise his head for a long time.
Taking advantage of the moment when the opponent's machine gun misfired, Zhu Zaiming's second charge of the assault battalion began!
At this time, without the suppression of the opponent's firepower, the assault battalion charged forward, and then opened fire with all kinds of weapons in their hands, and dense bullets poured onto the opponent's position!
Duan Hailong came up one after another!
"Throw!"
With this roar, black grenades were thrown out like raindrops!
"Rumble" explosions sounded continuously on the enemy's position. Shouts of terror and cries of sorrow made the entire enemy's position a mess!
"We will win the Northern Expedition, go ahead!" Zhu Zaiming stood up first and shouted loudly.
"We will win the Northern Expedition, charge forward!"
All the soldiers stood up.
The assault battalion rushed forward. Zhang Jun's position was already in chaos, with rows of dead bodies lying in random directions. Those who were lucky enough to survive saw countless shining bayonets appearing in front of them and hurriedly raised their hands.
Almost half of the Cai camp was destroyed by bullets and grenades. The remaining soldiers had no fighting spirit, so surrender became their best option.
At 3 o'clock, all the forward positions of Henglong Bridge fell into the hands of the Northern Expeditionary Army.
While Zhu Zaiming ordered the consolidation of positions to prevent enemy counterattacks, he also ordered people to clear the battlefield and escort the prisoners away.
A blown-up heavy machine gun fell there, and an officer covered in blood fell under the heavy machine gun.
Our battalion commander Cai Juguang," a prisoner said carefully.
Zhu Zaiming glanced at the corpse. The flesh and blood were so bloody that it was impossible to distinguish its original appearance.
Several pieces of ocean were scattered beside Cai Juguang's body. Zhu Zaiming picked them up, put them to his mouth and blew them, then put them to his ears and listened. Then he smiled and threw the ocean to the prisoner: "Your regiment
Who is the elder?"
"The report, yes, is Basilin."
Zhu Zaiming nodded: "This piece of ocean is awarded to you. Now go and tell your regiment leader that Cai Juguang is dead and ask him to hand over the Henglong Bridge position as soon as possible. Don't be Cai Juguang's second best."
"yes!"
Henglong Bridge is the gateway to Cangshui, and Cangshui is the gateway to Yiyang.
Zhang Jingyao's two younger brothers were defeated by the Northern Expeditionary Army. Among them, his fourth brother, who called himself "Little Zhuge", is still a prisoner in the Northern Expeditionary Army. Zhang Jingyao himself was driven to Yiyang by Wu Peifu. He wanted to make a comeback.
, Yiyang became his only hope.
Once Yiyang is lost again, Zhang Jingyao will really become a lost dog.
Now that he has no one in his hands, he can only count on his close confidants, including people like Basilin, who are not close confidants.
But these officers may not be reliable.
An arrogant figure like Zhang Jingtang was defeated by the Northern Expeditionary Army. With his own strength, how could he be the opponent of the Northern Expeditionary Army?
Whoever acquires Hunan has nothing to do with them. The only thing they care about is whether they can keep their jobs in the future!
Basilin was still taking chances. Cai Juguang, who he placed at the forward position, was known for risking his life in battles. With him, he might be able to hold on.
But then this illusion was shattered. In just one hour, the Henglong Bridge forward position fell into the hands of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which made Basilin suddenly panicked.
Then the prisoners brought "advice" from the Northern Expedition, which made Basilin, who had no intention of holding on to the end, make up his mind: Surrender!
I don't care about the Northern Expeditionary Army or Zhang Jingyao. Anyway, how to save my life is the most important thing!
At 5 pm on August 4, after the Hunan Northern Expeditionary Army's Left Army launched an attack on Henglong Bridge, Zhang Jun's Basilin Regiment, who was responsible for defending Henglong Bridge, led by the regiment leader Ba Xilin, surrendered the title to the Northern Expeditionary Army.
Exited the Henglong Bridge position.
The battle went smoothly, which was beyond Li Zongren's expectation.
In his consideration, he originally thought that Yiyang was Zhang Jingyao's last territory, and he would defend it to the end no matter what, but he did not expect that his subordinates had already lost their fighting spirit.
Wu Peifu's order was to let Zhang Jingyao defend Yiyang for ten days to buy as much time as possible for his overall plan, but now it seems that Wu Peifu really miscalculated.
Li Zongren, who had secured the Henglong Bridge, was concerned about the frontal battlefield commanded by Liu Zhaocheng, so he did not stop at the Henglong Bridge and immediately launched an attack on Cangshui with two brigades of troops.
At this time, Zhang Jingyao, who was supervising the battle in Yiyang, fell down like a thunderbolt after hearing the news that Henglong Bridge fell into the hands of the Northern Expeditionary Army so quickly.
How is it possible? How is it possible that the Henglong Bridge was lost so quickly? Yiyang Yan was about to be directly attacked. Once he lost Yiyang, where could he run to?
Changsha? There is no Wu Peifu’s territory there anymore! Surrender to the Northern Expeditionary Army? I’m afraid they may not want me. So, where else can I go?
Although the world is huge, at this moment Zhang Jingyao felt that there was no place for him!!