Chapter 25: Nanchang City Falls Again
Cheng Qian's greed for the merits of Jiangxi led to his capture of Nanchang, but the troops he brought with him were not many, mainly the 19th Division of the Sixth Army, and only a part of the troops brought by Wang Boling's First Division. This resulted in there being only about 10,000 soldiers in Nanchang City at present.
Three armies launched a surprise attack on the city of Nanchang, capturing the train station without shedding blood. Before they could even celebrate, news arrived about the Battle of Nanchang.
This was not an order given by Cheng Qian to him, but the rumbling gunfire could be clearly seen in Niu Hang, Liu Yuan knew that the enemy had bypassed himself and attacked Nanchang first. There are two possible reasons for this: one is that the enemy did not know about his occupation of Niu Hang, and the other is that the enemy already knew about his occupation of Niu Hang, but they were more confident in attacking Nanchang than attacking him.
"Master, Nanchang city has started fighting, what should we do?" Nie Rongzhen hastily rushed over, still holding an unfinished fried dough stick in his hand.
"Cheng Qian has done something wrong, and now he wants us to cover for him. It's really disgusting. I'll leave 5,000 men here with you to guard Niuxing, so we can still escape later. I'll take 3,000 men to Wuchang to see if we can break through the enemy's defenses and rescue our people. Otherwise, Cheng Qian will lose face completely." Liu Yuan stood up, adjusted his uniform, fastened his belt, and led Li Erniu out the door.
"Fu Guo, I'm telling you, when the time comes and the war in Nanchang is chaotic, at least you'll still be the deputy commander. You must gather your troops then, don't let Cheng Qian sacrifice over 10,000 people." Nie Rongzhen instructed Liu Yuan, he understood in his heart that this trip was no different from pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth, but this was something others couldn't do, only Liu Yuan himself could.
Liu Yuan rushed all the way to Nanchang, but when he arrived, Nanchang was already in a state of war and chaos. Liu Yuan cursed under his breath, "Damn it, what a pain in the eggs!" How could there be over 10,000 people, and yet they collapsed so quickly?
On the way of Northern Expedition, Liu Yuan saw for the first time the deserters of National Revolutionary Army and saw such a large number of National Revolutionary Army being chased by the enemy all over the world.
"Grass, let's retreat immediately, Nanchang city has been taken by others. Look at them, they don't even have a bit of military demeanor, they're all deserters. If we had enough bullets, I'd shoot them dead." Guan Linzheng scolded angrily.
Liu Yuan didn't say anything, but instead let Li Er Niu catch a fleeing soldier.
"Don't kill me, I have an 80-year-old mother at home and a three-year-old child, I really don't know anything!" The soldier in the dark couldn't see Liu Yuan's uniform clearly, thinking he had been captured, cried and said, but fortunately, he still knew military discipline and didn't directly reveal military secrets.
"Soldier, take a closer look at who I am?" Liu Yuan asked with furrowed brows. Whose soldier is this? How can they be so weak? Liu Yuan had an urge to scold him.
"Commander, it's you! I'm from the First Division, and you've trained me before! You're here, that's great!" The soldier exclaimed excitedly.
Liu Yuan's face turned black with anger, "Lie Bing, I've warned you about this before, don't bring it up again. I've never trained such a cowardly soldier like you."
The soldier's face turned red. "Commander, this is not our fault! The division commander has disappeared and Commander Cheng has also disappeared. Our brothers are fighting on their own, and the enemy has broken through."
"Where's Cao, Wang and the monks gone? And Cheng Qian?" Hu Zongnan was furious, feeling that this was a great shame. In war, if soldiers can't even find their commanders, what's the point of fighting?
Hu Zongnan's face turned red with rage, his killing intent overflowing, and the soldiers were so frightened that they trembled. Liu Yuan waved his hand and said, "I heard there are still gunshots in the city, it can't be that there is no resistance, can you tell me about the specific situation in the city?" Liu Yuan tried to make his expression look kinder, but in fact, he had already had a strong urge to kill.
"The 19th Division is a bunch of useless people, they've been no good for a long time. Now the ones rebelling inside are Commander Xue Yue's troops. We originally wanted to get close to them, but Commander Sun Yuanliang has disappeared, and we have no way to do it." The soldier said.
"Damn it, Sun Yuanliang has gone crazy, he actually dares to flee in the face of battle. What a talent!" Liu Yuan scolded loudly and said, "Alright, soldier, I know your situation now. Don't run away either. I see you still have a gun on you. Later, I'll leave someone behind, and you can stay here with my men to regroup the troops. How much face the First Division can regain depends on yourself."
"General, is what you said true? The brothers are all willing to follow you, just give the order." The soldier said excitedly.
Liu Yuan nodded and said to Song Xiluan, who had been silent all the time, "Xiluan, among several brothers, your temper is still good. I'll give you 500 men. You gather the defeated soldiers, bring them back to Niu Hang, and tell the party representative to fortify the defenses. This battle won't be easy to fight."
Song Xilian's expression was as calm as ever, nodding slightly and rubbing his eyes before saying to Liu Yuan, "General, don't worry, I may not have any great abilities, but I do have the ability to gather scattered soldiers. However, if the brothers from the 19th Division come, should we let them in or not?"
"I want to, why not? As long as there are still people with the guts to fight against warlords, I will." After finishing speaking, Liu Yuan led his soldiers, taking advantage of the cover of night, into Nanchang City.
As soon as they entered Nanchang, Liu Yuan's more than 2,000 men clashed fiercely with Sun Chuanfang's subordinates. Liu Yuan divided his soldiers into several groups, making the already chaotic situation even more chaotic, and for a time, the enemy could not tell how many people had come to support them.
Sun Chuanfang's vanguard command post in Nanchang, Wang Yuanyi was staring at the map with a gloomy face. Where did this troop come from? How many people are there? What do they want to do? Why did the troops that chased us like dogs earlier now go crazy? Cao Laozi's 88th division reserve troops were sent up, and in the blink of an eye, half of them were lost. This is what kind of world we live in.
At the time of Wang Yuan's dilemma, a staff officer from the Staff Department rushed in and reported to the commander-in-chief: "According to the judgment of the Staff Department, this unit is very likely to be part of the third division under Liu Yuan's command, because they are also in the second route army of the Southern Army, and their combat effectiveness is very strong."
"Have they found their target of attack? They can't come to make trouble, how did Nanchang city let them stir up a mess. And there are snipers lying on the gun, just now a brigade commander was blown up." Wang Yuan Yi slapped the table in anger.
"The staff has found their direction of attack, because although they are scattered, the traces of their movement all point to one direction, and they went to rescue a unit." The staff officer said.
"Which unit is that?" Wang Yuanyi suddenly realized and looked at the map, "Is there still a rebel army in the city now?"
"There are over a thousand people, relying on the alleys and fighting us alley by alley, right in the Western District, while their supporting troops are about to arrive at the Western District."
After listening to the advisor's introduction, Wang Yuan Yi nodded and said, "Don't worry about it, I don't care if it's a river source or Liu Yuan, as long as he dares to touch my brow, I will make him die here."
