Volume 2 King of the Northwest Chapter 39: Northern Expedition (IV)
"Luckily this monk Hu Li doesn't know what guerrilla warfare is."
Just when Ma Kang and Zhang Zilii had just finished their hard battle, Dai Jiliang's left detachment had successfully entered the county seat of Ganquan.
Apart from sporadic exchanges of fire along the way, Hu Jingyi's troops once again mysteriously disappeared.
As the battle line lengthened and it became necessary to guard military stations along the way, a large amount of Shaanxi Army's military strength was wasted on the rear transportation lines, and the original specially strengthened troops also seemed a little stretched.
"We can't keep fighting like this!"
The sound of a cannon is worth a fortune, and Dai Jiliang is absolutely unwilling to spend the money in his pocket like water.
"Come here, everyone. We all know the contents of the Chief of Staff's telegram. Let's discuss it. Do you think Hu Jingyi will resist stubbornly in the northeastern Fushi line, or turn to the northwest to Baoan Wuqi line, or turn to Yanchang Yanchuan line to join the Kuomintang Cao Gao and two divisions?"
"I don't think Hu Jingyi will go west to Baoan."
He Oucai was the first to speak.
To the west of Baoan is Wuqi Dingbian, and further west and north are Gandong and Inner Mongolia. This shows how poor and sparsely populated Tibet, which was later called northern Shaanxi, was.
"This is a dead end. Not to mention that the counties around Baoan cannot afford to support Hu Jingyi's thousands of troops, even if they can, without Hu Jingyi they will be no different from bandits."
"I think Hu Jingyi may abandon the Fushi line and continue to retreat to the northeast."
Zhang Binnan’s insights are even more unique.
"In my opinion, he will use a part of his army to continue to contain my detachment, and the majority of his army will go straight to Yanchuan to join forces with the two thieves Gao and Cao. In this way, they can attack my right detachment together, and retreat to defend Suide and Mizhi. At worst, they can retreat to Yulin and join forces with Zhang Xun and Jing Xiuyue again."
"I don't agree with Brigade Commander Zhang's suggestion."
Zhu Tang, a native of Jiangdu who was assigned to serve as a staff officer in the Baoding Second Phase of Dai Jiliang's staff, expressed his objection.
He was just a small captain and should not interrupt a conversation between generals.
However, the young fellow who wanted to show off in front of Dai Jiliang boldly stood up.
“The Democratic Party can merge, and so can we and the Right Branch.
Our army has control of radio stations, and our advantage in troop coordination is far beyond the reach of the Kuomintang.
Moreover, once the Hu and Cao forces resist on the Yanchuan front, our army can attack them from two fronts, and the Kuomintang will be unable to protect both ends.
I think Hu Jingyi will definitely not fail to see this problem clearly, so I think we will have to fight with the militia in Fushi."
"I support Staff Officer Zhu's opinion."
Song Cheng also expressed his opinion.
"Hu Jingyi must have known that we have divided our forces along the way, and that our forces would be at their weakest when we reach Fushe. If Hu's troops do not fight at this time, I'm afraid they will really retreat to Yulin as Commander Zhang said."
"That means you think the Kuomintang will not go west to Baoan."
Dai Jiliang rubbed his brows and looked at the map again.
"It's too rough. We must re-explore it in the future."
After saying this sentence which had nothing to do with the war situation, Dai Jiliang finally made his final decision.
If Hu Jingyi's troops cannot be destroyed or severely damaged at the gate of Fushi City, then the war will inevitably drag on through this winter. This is definitely not what he would like to see as he has a large number of troops outside. Therefore, the key to everything may lie in Fushi.
"Brother Guangfu, please stay in Ganquan County in person.
Except for the supply company at the Qianjin Military Station, the rest of the Tax Police Corps are all here.
The First Brigade and the First Artillery Regiment will march to Fushe after breakfast tomorrow. Our retreat is in your hands."
Liulin Town, a common place name in central Shaanxi, is now the command center for thousands of troops under Hu Jingyi.
It was already time to turn on the lights, but the room was still steaming hot and full of people.
As Dai Jiliang's Shaanxi Army pressed forward step by step, the life and death of the Right Route Army in Jingbian, Shaanxi depended on everyone present.
"Baoshan, Runchu, how are the situations of your two groups?"
Different from the information obtained by Dai Jiliang, Hu Jingyi actually organized the troops into three detachments and seven regiments.
Among them, the two regiments of Tian Yujie and Deng Baoshan with 1,700 people formed the first team, the two regiments of Yue Weijun and Kang Ziding with 1,800 people formed the second team, and the unit of Zhang Yian and Jiang Shijie with 1,800 people formed the third team.
The rest were the 1,200 men of Li Jicai's regiment directly under his command, the only two artillery companies of the left-wing militia, and the guard battalion led by Yang Hucheng.
"Report to the commander, the rectification has been completed."
The one who responded was Deng Baoshan. It was their detachment that launched the previous night attack.
Although it caused great chaos to Dai's army, its own losses were also quite heavy.
However, the only thing that was not lacking in northern Shaanxi was men who wanted to eat food. With Hu Jingyi's reputation and a considerable number of rifles looted, the current team was stronger than before.
"A fight will definitely not bring shame to the commander."
"very good!"
Hu Jingyi nodded.
In this way, except for the firepower which was inferior to Dai Jiliang's Shaanxi Army, Hu's troops had far overwhelmed their opponents in terms of military strength.
"I asked you to gather here today so that everyone can make a decision together. What do you think? Should we retreat a little further and give Fushi City to the Shaanxi Army?"
Hu Jingyi's meaning was very clear, that is, he wanted the Shaanxi Army to continue to divide its forces and then fight a decisive battle with the Shaanxi Army when he deems it appropriate.
"Brother Liseng, I don't agree to retreat any further!"
Although everyone made the decision, no one below dared to raise any objections. Only Chief of Staff Li Wenqing dared to raise any objections.
"We can't keep retreating."
He gave his reasons.
"The right wing army has already lost Yichuan. If we can't hold Yanchang, we may be attacked from both sides."
At this moment, he didn't know that Cao Shiying and Gao Jun had decided to abandon the area south of Suide. If he had known, he would definitely not insist on defending Fushi.
"Only by fighting Dai Jiliang first and forcing him to go on the defensive can we move forward calmly and attack the enemy in Yichuan together with the left-wing army."
"What Wenqing said makes sense. Brother Liseng, we also need to see that the bearded old man is about to enter Shaanxi. We can't just retreat again and again to welcome him, right?"
Senator Zhang Liqing was concerned about political influence.
"If we retreat without fighting, Dai Jiliang will certainly publicize it in the newspapers in Xi'an as his victory. Once the people are deceived, it will be difficult for our comrades in the south to mobilize the people to fight."
"But even if we stay and fight Dai Jiliang, there is no guarantee that we will win!"
Zhang Yangcheng has already spoken very politely.
What equipment did the Shaanxi Army have? The flesh and blood of the Right Route Army confronted Dai Jiliang's cannons and machine guns, and even a brave man like him was a little frightened.
"In fact, Dai Jiliang is not as powerful as imagined."
Another senator, Wang Ziyuan, spoke with numbers.
"Dai Jiliang initially deployed more than 7,000 troops against our right-wing army.
There couldn't be no losses along the way, right? There were five counties along the way from Yintai to Ganquan. Should he send people to guard them? Even if the Shaanxi Army only used the anti-smoking tax police force to guard the counties, they would have to remove the guards who were protecting the grain route along the way.
After all these deductions, there were less than 4,500 troops that could be deployed to the battlefield at the city of Fushi, including a considerable number of baggage troops, artillery and other unarmed soldiers. In total, the Shaanxi Army could only use about 3,500 combat troops.
We have almost twice as many people as them, why can't we fight them head-on?"
"My consideration is mainly based on our food reserves."
Quartermaster General Zhu Zimin's concerns are more practical.
"Although we have just harvested the autumn crops, it is still not enough to support so many of our troops.
Even if we retreat to the Yanchang-Yanchuan line and join forces with the Left Route Army, judging from the current autumn harvest situation, we still cannot guarantee that everyone will have enough food.
Rather than having our troops dispersed while starving and freezing, it would be better to fight a battle and seize some military supplies from the Shaanxi Army."
As expected of the person in charge of military supplies, he knows everything.
However, his subtext was to use a part of the Shaanxi Army to eat dry food. Anyway, as long as there were guns and food, there would be no worries about not being able to recruit troops in northern Shaanxi.
"What about you? What do you think?"
Obviously, the opinions of several senators and staff were somewhat contrary to his own, but Hu Jingyi did not intend to act arbitrarily.
So he couldn't help but glance at the faces of the other captains who hadn't spoken a word, and asked frankly.
"Don't keep it in your heart, pour it out. Xifeng, you speak first."
"Commander, I think we can have a fight."
Yue Weijun was a little flustered when Hu Jingyi called him out like this.
However, the numbers Zhu Min reported just now gave him an idea. Since he couldn't defeat two enemies alone, it would be better for the militia to disband.
Of course he couldn't say this directly, so he could only answer.
"If you keep retreating like this, the morale of our brothers will be dispersed. I have . Commander, I think it's time."
Next, Tian Yujie, Kang Zhenbang and Jiang Shijie also stood up and expressed their desire to stay and fight, while Yang Hucheng's words were even more sharp.
"Commander, didn't you keep me from Brother Geng just to have a good fight with Dai Jiliang? Deputy Commander Guo and Brother Geng were both ruined by Dai Jiliang, and Brother Wangchen ruined his reputation because of him. We can't let Dai Jiliang, the executioner, go, because he has the blood of our Shaanxi party members on his hands!"
"I know you think you are sure of it."
Hu Jingyi listened quietly, and made a difficult decision after half a day.
Damn it! If we retreat a few steps, we won’t be able to fight anymore? If we retreat further, we will be ignoring the blood of our party members.
Ultimately, politics influences the military.
Hu Jingyi knew very well that now was not the best time, but except for Zhang Yian, everyone was willing to fight, and it was difficult to offend the public anger.
"In that case, then fight!"
Having made up his mind, Hu Jingyi immediately made arrangements.
"Tian Runchu, take your men and leave immediately, rush to Sishilipu, and block the pass of Qiuyan Mountain for me. You must hold out until tomorrow night."
"yes!"
When Hu Jingyi showed his power, no one dared to make a sound. Only Tian Yujie, who was called, stood up suddenly, responded, pushed the door and went out.
"Baoshan, you go to Sanshilipu to fight the second battle. Remember to come back after you pick up Tian Runchu. Leave a few people behind at most to fire a few shots and delay the Shaanxi army."
Hu Jingyi continued to make arrangements.
Look, another person left early.
“The rest of you should not sleep tonight.
From Shangqiao, Huaishuwa to Goumen and Shangjiagou, fortifications were dug in every place.
Of course, if you are not afraid of the Shaanxi Army's artillery, you don't have to dig. I won't force you."
Hu Jingyi stared at everyone sharply.
"My command post is located in Ershilipu. If you want to escape, just step over my dead body!"
"Please rest assured, Commander. If anyone is going to die, we will die first."
Everyone stood up and expressed their opinions.
"Very good, Brother Zimin, don't hide it anymore, give the brothers more food and dishes tonight. In this battle, either we defeat the Shaanxi Army, or we all die and don't have to live anymore in the future."
Hu Jingyi yelled viciously, like a desperate wolf.
Now that you have made up your mind, let’s go to the God of Death’s banquet together!
