Chapter 72: Pacifying Guang (Part 1)

  The real battle between Ping and Guang began before the troops set out, in Nanjing.

  That night, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly notified all the representatives to attend an emergency meeting. After everyone arrived, they found that Tan Xiao was nowhere to be seen. Although this young man was attending such an important meeting for the first time, with his actual full control over the military work as the deputy commander-in-chief and chairman of the committee, no one dared to underestimate him. Even at noon's dinner gathering, including Yan Xishan and other big shots, all showed their goodwill towards him. Now this main character of this conference, a candidate for the Military Commission who was waiting to be reviewed, had disappeared... Was there another unexpected event in Shanghai?

  While everyone was guessing, Chiang Kai-shek calmly said to everyone: "What? With Tan Fengsheng missing, can't you all focus on the meeting? He has important business to attend to, go deal with it. Now let's take a look at these materials..."

  The scene being broadcast was that of the two Guang representatives and Yayama Kaya negotiating, after just three minutes of broadcasting, Li Zongren's face had turned pale and he immediately stood up: "Commissioner, speak, how do you plan to deal with this?"

  "Wait and see, wait and see, what's the hurry......" Chiang Kai-shek was calm and composed, but in his heart he was overjoyed! This old opponent who had once forced him to step down and launched the Chiang-Gui War would be thoroughly defeated tonight!

  Bai Chongxi slammed his fist on the table: "That's right, these things were done by my Guangxi clique! But I'd like to ask, who among you has not pretended to cooperate with the Japanese? Who has really betrayed the country?" Just as he slammed his fist, a team of guards rushed in from outside, their guns pointing at the leaders of the Guangdong and Guangxi warlords.

  "Who doesn't?! I don't!!" Feng Yuxiang, wearing a second-class soldier's uniform, also stood up and shouted: "I, Feng Huanzhang, would rather not make anything of myself in this life than acknowledge the Japanese as my ancestors, fawning on them like a prostitute!" He was cursing Bai Chongxi, but his eyes were fixed on Yan Xishan.

  Yan Xishan couldn't help but tremble with rage! He and Tōjō were classmates in Japan, and over the years, he had often collaborated with the Japanese. If Chiang Kai-shek were to reveal his evidence this time...

  As for someone like Han Fuqu who has had a long-term relationship with the Japanese, he is even more covered in cold sweat, hanging his head low and not daring to utter a word, only regretting in his heart until his intestines turn green: Why did I come to attend this meeting!

  "I see that among you, there are some who occasionally come and go with the Japanese, and there are those who are insincere. But to dare to make a joke of the great righteousness of the nation and the people, to openly sell out the country, it is precisely you few!" Chiang Kai-shek also slammed his fist on the table, triumphantly shouting: "Take down Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi for me!"

  "May I ask if this is Tan Fengshan's plan?" Bai Chongxi suddenly asked Jiang Jieshi in a calm and peaceful tone. Seeing the latter remaining silent, he let out a long sigh: "From the moment I met him at Lingling, I had a premonition that I would die at his hands... Ah, fate..."

  That night, Liao Kuang and Xia Wei were taken to two reception rooms at the Fuxing She Te Wu Chu. When they entered, they saw that a table of wine and dishes had been set up in the reception room, surprisingly all of which were local dishes from the Hunan-Guangdong-Guangxi border region, such as 田螺焖排骨 (snail steamed with pork ribs) and 野椒酸猪脚 (wild pepper and sour pig's feet), all made extremely authentically, probably even the ingredients had been airlifted in. The one receiving Liao Kuang and Xia Wei was unexpectedly Ji Ping of the Wild One Army!

  "Two of you are surprised, come on, let's have a good chat!" Ji Ping called out: "The wine is light and the dishes are thin, slow, slow..."

  As for the comings and goings of the Gui faction and the Japanese, Liao Kuai and Xia Wei were both well-informed, and they even knew about the secret agreements with the Japanese. At this time, the two thought that all hope was lost, so they let loose, drinking heavily and eating meat lavishly, as if nothing was wrong!

  "Great, the food is delicious! Thanks to you, Brother Xia, for treating me to this meal before I head out!" Xia Wei wiped his mouth clean with his general's uniform sleeve and said: "It's rare that you'd come see me off at a time like this, truly a testament to our friendship!"

  Ji Ping looked at him with a big brother's demeanor and didn't get angry, so he handed over a stack of newspapers.

  Liao Yue and Xia Wei took a look and were immediately stunned!

  Ji Ping handed over to them was actually tomorrow's Shun Pao and Ta Kung Pao, among a dozen influential newspapers nationwide. The headline on the front page of Shun Pao was a large title: National Crisis! Traitors Must Be Killed! Below it, the traitorous terms of the Guangdong-Guangxi armies were listed one by one. And the subtitle was: For the sake of great righteousness, sacrificing small righteousness, righteous men of the nation! It turned out to be a shocking report that Liao Xia and others had secretly reported Li Bai's treasonous activities to the central government long ago, and took advantage of this meeting to secretly arrest and send them to Nanjing.

  "These newspapers have been printed for many days, and today they were all transported to Lingling. Tomorrow, the Central Army will march south, and instead of dropping bombs from the air, they will drop these..." Ji Ping looked at the two people who had lost their color and continued: "With 20 elite divisions, it would be easy to take down Guangxi in one fell swoop, but the commander-in-chief didn't want to hurt the national defense forces too much, so he came up with this plan!"

  Actually, when they met Ji Ping, the two of them thought they were doomed and that he had come to persuade them to surrender. However, they didn't expect it to be this kind of persuasion method. Originally, the two of them thought that with Guangxi's military strength, especially the powerful reserve troops, even if the Central Army had twenty divisions, they might not be able to swallow them whole. It seems that Li Bai is unlikely to escape, but they might still be able to use the help of the Central Army to absorb the Guangxi army and slip away. However, now that they've seen these newspapers, they understand that as soon as the air force makes a move, the Guangxi army will fall into chaos, and it's possible that the troops loyal to Li Bai will clash with their own troops, while the Central Army sits back and enjoys the show! And they themselves will probably not be able to sit pretty for much longer.

  "Today, the film reels you saw at the meeting have been distributed in many copies and are estimated to be available all the way to the Yunnan border. Do you think there are still many troops willing to follow traitors?" Ji Ping asked.

  The two men turned pale: "Brother Ji, speak plainly, what do you want us brothers to do?"

  Ji Ping nodded: "General Feng didn't want to hurt friends who had a relationship with the Gui Army, so he asked Chairman Mao for this task, giving me, a small figure, the opportunity to enter this grand hall... Some people's intention is to throw away these materials and wait for the Gui Army's internal war to collect the remnants. However, our Wild One Army has a deep relationship with the Gui Army, which cannot be done. Therefore, General Feng's intention is to ask you two to send a telegram to each department, ordering them to surrender their arms and accept reorganization..."

  Accepting the reorganization is inevitable, but the two words "surrender arms" are hard for them to accept - can they get their guns back after handing them over? Isn't this going to end their military career?!

  Watching the two hesitate, Ji Ping also became impatient. He handed over a second stack of newspapers, which were still Shen Bao and Da Gong Bao, but with different content: The four major traitors of the Guangxi clique have been caught, and the seven patriotic heroes have sent telegrams to support the Central Government!

  "It's up to the two of you to decide which newspaper to send to the air force! I won't hide it from you, among the seven heroes, actually only Mo Shu-jie of the 175th division and Ou Shou-nian of the 176th division were insiders, the others didn't have any prior agreement!" Ji Ping said, looking at the two people's faces which turned even paler.

  At that time, Mo Shu-jie's unit was stationed in Guilin. As long as he let go of his hand, it would naturally be a joint central army to attack Liuzhou from the south; and Ou Shou-nian's unit was stationed in Nanning, this uprising, Liuzhou had already been attacked from both sides. As for the 172nd Division of the Seventh Army stationed in Rong County, Chen Shu-fen's unit has been cut off on the east side, it is likely to be attacked from two directions; this is still only the case where these two divisions surrendered, if other units change or fight themselves... Just looking at the momentum of the north-south pincer movement, you can tell that the Central Army has mobilized the navy to land. The Guangxi army is really finished!

  Just as the two were lamenting, a staff officer came in and handed a document to Ji Ping. Ji Ping took a look and said to the staff officer, "We're having a good talk, you can go out first." After the staff officer left, Ji Ping handed the document to the two of them, on which was written: Li Zongren is willing to step down by telegram to ensure the safety of his family!

  Liao Yue let out a long sigh and said: "Whatever Ji brother says, we'll do it!"...

  The experience of Xiang Hanping and Li Yangjing of the Guangdong Army was similar, only the mediator had changed to other people who originally had a relationship with them.

  Actually, including the 175th and 176th divisions mentioned by Ji Ping, none of them had any prior agreement with Ye Jian's troops; they were all deceived. Li Zongren was not so weak either! However, in Tan Xiao's plan, even without anyone inside responding, under the overwhelming propaganda strategy he learned from the US military's Iraq War, it would not be difficult to quickly capture Guangdong and Guangxi.

  In fact, Ping's two Guang troops advanced surprisingly smoothly!

  The commander-in-chief of the All-State Militia, Yu Shixi, was sleeping soundly in the middle of the night when the city gate of Quanzhou had already been opened. By the time he got dressed, the vanguard of Ye Jianying's army had arrived at his doorstep! Frightened, Yu Shixi hastily ordered all units to abandon resistance and surrender their arms. It wasn't until dawn that he learned the main force of Ye Jianying's army had passed through the city and was rushing straight towards Guilin.

  Yu Shixi cooperated and immediately gathered the garrison commanders and local officials in Quzhou to watch the movie with the military propaganda team. Everyone naturally fully supported the central government's punishment of traitors, and the local officials donated money to support the army to show their sincerity. Quzhou was thus pacified! What surprised everyone even more was that when the people of Quzhou were preparing a banquet to entertain the relevant personnel from Ye Yi's army, news came from the front line: Guilin had been captured!

  Sun Liren stood on the city wall, looking at a distant mountain slope that had been bombed out of shape, and couldn't help but laugh and cry: he had fought his whole life, but had never seen such a fight!

  As soon as the sky brightened, hundreds of warplanes appeared in the air above Guilin City, frightening all the soldiers and civilians inside to death! The Wild One Army mobilized all the planes that could be used, including those DH10s and the 224 fighter jets that had just arrived from Britain, as well as all the transport planes, trainer planes, etc. Those rookie pilots were not good enough for dogfighting, but they could still fly their planes over the enemy's head, make a few circles, and drop some stuff! The planes didn't drop bombs, but instead dropped photos of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi selling out the country, as well as treaties and propaganda leaflets urging the soldiers and civilians of Guilin not to resist and to cooperate fully with the central government's campaign against the bandits. When the defenders of Guilin gathered at their defensive positions, they were even more frightened: the number of cannon barrels standing upright in the distance was greater than the number of chimneys in the city! Sun Liren had deployed all his cannons, including those fake ones used to deceive the Japanese air force later, and from a distance, it looked like there were no fewer than 500 cannons!

  Mo Shu-jie was meeting with the negotiating representative of Ye Yi's army when a round of artillery fire came from outside the city! The target was a desolate mountain outside the city. In fact, all the shells fired were just practice shells with very little explosive power but added with brightening and amplifying agents, however, the shooting area had been tampered with, inside there were secretly installed explosives, this round of artillery fire actually blew up the entire hillside! Moreover, the observation surface of the explosion was designed to be most conducive to the viewing of the Gui army in the city, and the 175th division, which only had a few cannons, was naturally frightened to lose all resistance. So before Mo Shu-jie could even agree to surrender, there were already troops opening the city gate to surrender.

  Several divisions under the 15th Army, due to a large number of troops being withdrawn to fight against the Red Army, had originally been left with a number of personnel and equipment that was fundamentally incomparable to those of the First Route Army. When they saw Guderian's iron torrent rolling over, none of them did not feel fortunate for not having really clashed with the First Route Army.

  Sun Liren, who was eager to fight a battle, ordered all units except the troops of the reorganized Guangxi Army to rest for 15 minutes and then rush to Liuzhou. The closer they got to Liuzhou, the easier it was to fight, occasionally encountering small resistance forces on the way, which were resisting because the air force's airdropped materials had not been scattered!

  Is this a war or a swift march! Not only Sun Liren, but the entire First Field Army's troops advancing into Guangxi are also puzzled! The Southern Line's Yang Qing's unit occupied Fangcheng and Qinzhou overnight, and with less than 3,000 soldiers, they arrived in Nanning by morning. Yang Qing and Ou Shounian had a prior relationship, and before Yang Qing's unit arrived, there were already internal responses to persuade Ou Shounian to surrender; at this time, Nanning was filled with "snowflakes" (propaganda flyers), and the civilians and military were picking them up and reading them. Some internal responders in the city were also stirring up voices to discuss Li Bai, opening the gates to welcome the Central Army's parade. Seeing the situation, Ou Shounian knew that Nanning was indefensible, so he made a gesture of goodwill, opened the four gates, set up a banquet, and waited for Yang Qing to come and chat.

  So when Sun Liren arrived at the north gate of Liuzhou, he only knew that Yang Qing's troops had already reached the south gate of Liuzhou half an hour earlier!

  The Seventh Army was relatively loyal to Li Bai, but the city was also in chaos. The old-fashioned army generally had a tradition of following their superiors to the end, regardless of right or wrong. However, this time was different; Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi were already captured in Nanjing, and this was not a civil war, but treason - naked treason! The Guangxi clique actually agreed to let the Japanese occupy the area north of the Yellow River! The soldiers' morale was extremely unstable, and if they hadn't been half-believing and half-doubting the news, it's likely that more than half of the troops would have mutinied already.

  While Xu Qiming and Yang Junchang were discussing countermeasures, they received a telegram from Cheng Shufen in Rongxian announcing his surrender to the Central Government! The telegram was fake! Cheng Shufen is now running around like an ant on a hot pot in Rongxian! The special military telephone line of the 172nd Division was cut off, and the wireless telegraph also couldn't get through for some reason. Tan Xiao's insider had set up a radio station just a few hundred meters west of the division headquarters, conducting electromagnetic interference! In this era, who knew what electronic warfare was? Cheng Shufen was completely at a loss as to what to do! The only thing he could do was to order the military police to collect and burn all the propaganda materials that had fallen from the sky.

  In the city of Liu Zhou, two people collapsed under Tan Xiao's final blow - they actually heard on the radio that Central Radio broadcast a recording of "them" making a phone call to declare their support for the central government and condemn Li Bai! The two voices and tones were so similar that even they themselves couldn't tell them apart in poor signal conditions.

  "Report, sir! There's a mutiny in the city troops!" "Reporting to you, sir, the entire northern outer defense line has been lost!" Xu and Yang looked at each other in dismay. "Forget it, forget it, there's no way out, don't blame me, old general!" Xu Qiming wept bitterly and made the decision to surrender. Yang Junchang naturally followed suit...

  The outer defense line north of the city was also broken through under a new tactical strike that had never been seen in this era. Sun Liren, in order to capture Liuzhou as soon as possible, concentrated all military vehicles carrying soldiers, not bringing a single cannon, and directly advanced with the tank troops. When they arrived at the outskirts of Liuzhou, the defending army was already on guard, so Sun Liren ordered his troops to rest and cook meals by starting fires.

  The defenders observed for a while, confirmed that the enemy army would not take action temporarily, and slightly relaxed; however, due to the unclear situation, they did not dare to fire at the enemy army. When they saw through binoculars that some of the enemy soldiers were starting to have meals, they began to slack off.

  Just as Gui Jun had just let out a sigh of relief and was about to eat, Ye Yi Jun launched an attack.

  One move was a general attack! The tank troops led by Guderian suddenly adopted the iron flow breakthrough tactics without infantry cover, directly piercing the first line of defense of the Gui army, and did not stop at all, directly advancing into the depths. Sun Liren personally commanded the infantry to follow up in trucks, and these few thousand people completely broke through the Gui army's position; The Gui army, which was originally without fighting spirit, collapsed instantly, with most choosing to surrender, and only a small number retreating to the city. However, where could the two legs of these troops loyal to Li Bai run compared to cars? They were basically blocked outside the city, except for a few who resisted to the end and were killed, the others also became prisoners; More than half of the 171st division, the main force of the northern line of defense outside the city, was eaten up by Sun Liren's troops of less than 4,000 people!

  The troops in the city opened the gates to welcome the arrival of the Wild One Army, and Sun Liren, who was proud and satisfied, rode into the city on a tank, with his sword drawn and looking around, feeling quite majestic!

  However, in China, personal relationships often outweigh actual events. When Sun Li-ren arrived at the Liu Zhou command center, he was surprised to find that Yang Qing was there to greet him! Xu Qiming and Yang Junchang had decided to surrender after their defeat and chose to surrender to Yang Qing, an old acquaintance from the south gate, rather than Sun Li-ren! As a result, Yang Qing, a veteran general from the Ba An Travel "Tan Mianmian" troops, created a military miracle by capturing four cities - Fangcheng, Qinzhou, Nanning, and Liu Zhou - with thousands of soldiers in just one day!

  One hour later, after confirming the news that the other two divisions of the Seventh Army had surrendered through contact, Chen Shufen's unit could only choose to surrender. Before midnight, the battle on the entire Guangxi front ended, and if not counting the opening shot, from the night raid in Quanzhou, it took about 24 hours to pacify Guangxi!

  In this process, Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing was crystal clear.

  It was probably to save the face of the opponent, but also to intimidate other warlords; from last night's surprise attack, all the warlords who were summoned to attend the meeting, including Li Bai and others who had already been captured, were invited to observe the battle in the combat strategy room.

  Since the start of the war, there have been swift victories: on the sand table, the blue sky white sun flag representing the vanguard of the Central Army has advanced rapidly. The Northern Route Army led by Sun Liren has successively captured Quzhou, Xing'an, Lingchuan, Guilin, Lingui, Yongfu and Luzhai; while Yang Qing's Southern Line Army swept through Fangcheng, Qinzhou, Nanning, Binyang and Laibin, converging on Liuzhou!

  Is this a swift march or a battle?! In an era where mechanized troops are generally lacking in awareness, even most generals wouldn't think of a tactic that requires troops to cross half of Guangxi in 24 hours! All onlookers couldn't believe the speed of the advance!

  Li Zongren's face turned iron-green, and every time he heard a telegram report that the Central Army vanguard had captured a place, his face would twitch in pain; Bai Chongxi was trembling all over beside him. After ten years of operation, it was suddenly blown up, and the two men really couldn't accept it!

  "You, you're deceiving people! This is all fake! My Seventh Army's seven main divisions, are they just for show?! You dare to deceive people with false battle reports!" Bai Chongxi roared at Chiang Kai-shek. If he hadn't been held back by the guards, he would have smashed the sand table!

  Chiang Kai-shek didn't mind, and merely said contemptuously: "Tan Xiaoyi's use of troops is not something that you, Bai Jiansheng, could have thought of!"

  Tan Xiao's tactics, Bai Chongxi couldn't imagine, even when Chiang Kai-shek received this battle plan, he looked at it for half a day and listened to Tan Xiao's explanation for half a day before understanding: what lightning war, iron flow war, special war, information war, electronic war...... He only understood one thing, that Tan Xiao had enough means and preparation to win this battle, to quickly win this battle!

  As someone who has never been exposed to these concepts, it is unimaginable the fear of a unit that suddenly loses its leader, with friendly neighboring units defecting and enemy troops suddenly appearing out of nowhere; even more unimaginable is how a unit that suddenly loses its faith and soul would collapse in disarray!

  Once, anti-Japanese was a vital slogan for the survival of the Guangxi Army. Today, anti-Japanese has become the fatal force that ended them!

  Just as Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren persisted in disbelieving those battle reports and the telegrams from the generals, another telegram arrived from Lingling: The seven commanders of the Guangxi Army who defected, including the three divisional commanders Xu Qiming, Yang Junchang, Cheng Shufen of the 7th Corps, and the four divisional commanders He Weizhen, Wang Zanbin, Mo Shujie, and Ou Shounian of the 15th Corps, would fly to Nanjing in the morning to report personally to the Central Government on the defection of the Guangxi Army and meet with the press.

  "Alright! By noon, everything will be clear! Two nights and one day, everyone is tired too! Let's take a rest first!" Chiang Kai-shek was in high spirits, without a hint of fatigue. His mood at this moment was more exciting than an injection of chicken blood!

  "Report to the Commander-in-Chief! Guangzhou Battle Report!" A staff officer rushed over from the telegraph room, barely catching his breath before excitedly reading out the telegram: "The Special Forces of the 1st Route Army, led by Li Huan, successfully captured the national traitor Chen Jitang half an hour ago. They have now joined forces with the troops entering the city to clear up the remaining resistance. The Guangdong military and air force have all defected to our side and are escorting Chen's captors to Nanjing, expected to arrive in the morning!"

  Two hours after the ceasefire in Guangxi, Guangdong is pacified!

  I've been writing while ill for the past two days, although I had thought out the plot a long time ago, but I didn't have the energy to make the details exciting. Sometimes toothache is more painful than a serious illness... Today I came up and saw the comments from Old Mouse Book Friends, I'm so honored... Don't take what other big shots say seriously... The recommendation has fallen to tenth place, but the clicks are going up, haha, strange! Please everyone support me, all kinds of PP (promotions) are flying everywhere, just like the flyers for Ping's advertising agency...