Chapter 3: The Wind Rises in Guangdong Section 11: Encirclement

  Hu Zongnan said: "Their troop deployment is a bit strange, Guan Linzheng's lone army is protruding, I think so, we first eat away Guan Linzheng, then press towards the crossing point, with one force to seize the floating bridge, if can seize it will break through Xiangdeyong, then turn towards Shou Gou Ridge."

  Li Zhi Long shook his head: "When we took down the stone tablet, I was certain that the defenders at the ferry would retreat to the other side of the river and burn the floating bridge."

  Jiang Xianyun furrowed his brow and said, "Can we take down the Stone Tablet? The enemy's purpose in building a floating bridge is to provide reinforcements when the Stone Tablet comes under attack. Our entire army is only half the size of theirs, so when we launch an attack, the enemy will definitely send reinforcements. If that happens, we'll be locked in a stalemate at the Stone Tablet."

  Zhuang Jihua looked at the map with suspicion, pointing to the area between Shipaixi and Lie Dechong in Shiqiu Village, northwest of Shipai, and asked: "Chen Gong, are there any enemies in this area?"

  "No, we've been there, otherwise we wouldn't have come back so late."

  "That's strange. This is a suicidal deployment. The troops are lined up in a single line, with both wings exposed and without cover. If we take the ferry crossing, Guan Linzheng will be surrounded at Shibaipai, with only 200 men, how long can they hold out? At most half a day. Why did Zhu Zongbai choose such a deployment? It can't be to let us win."

  Everyone looked at each other and saw distrust in each other's eyes.

  "Can we take down the ferry?" Hu Zongnan asked with some doubt.

  "They can definitely do it. Their troops are insufficient to form a dense defense line, and we have the opportunity to infiltrate from the gaps in their defense line." Zhuang Jihua said confidently.

  Jiang Xianyun felt that something was off when he heard Zhuang Jihua say this, so he asked Chen Gong: "What were Guan Linzheng and the others doing when you came over?"

  "Both ends of the repair work are being repaired."

  "What about in the village?"

  "It's also under repair, but we just took a look on the highway."

  Everyone fell silent, Zhuang Jihua looked at the map and still couldn't understand. Hu Zongnan looked at the almost straight line of enemy flags and glanced up and down the line, saying: "Don't worry about these for now, time is not waiting for us, let's first make a battle deployment according to this situation."

  Although there is some doubt, there is no other way.

  Li Zhi Long pointed with his big hand: "I suggest taking down Shi Gang first, then concentrating the main force from three sides to defeat Guan Lin Xing in one fell swoop."

  Hu Zongnan initially expressed his support, but Chen Gong refused: "Shigang and Shipai are interdependent and can support each other. Attacking Shigang would mean that both Shigang and Shipai would attack together."

  "Yes, Shigang is only about 800 meters away from Shipai. If we launch an attack on Shigang, Guan Lianzhen of Shipai will not be able to remain inactive. Therefore, attacking Shigang would mean engaging in a full-scale battle with Guan Lianzhen's army." Jiang Xiangyun expressed his support for Chen Geng.

  "I have a proposal, don't attack Shih Pai. " Jiang Xianyun looked at everyone and then said: "We use one unit of troops to hold down Shi Pai Guan Linzheng, but the main force will bypass Shi Pai and directly attack Du Kou. The troops at Du Kou are only one platoon, it can be easily taken down."

  "Gu Lianzheng will have no choice but to retreat back to the ferry crossing, and we can defeat him on the way." added Zhuang Jihua.

  "Right." Jiang Xianyun looked at Zhuang Jihua with a faint smile, and Zhuang Jihua nodded to him.

  "What if Guan Yu comes to support us from behind while we're attacking the ferry crossing? And what about reinforcements from the other shore?"

  "Let's first deal with Guan Linzheng, our troop strength is more than twice that of Guan Linzheng. We'll use one company to attack Shipaishan, while the rest of the troops will sneak up on the ferry crossing. At the ferry crossing, we'll set up a blocking position to intercept Guan Linzheng. If he comes with many men, Shipaishan won't be able to hold out, and after taking down Shipaishan, we'll immediately pursue him, and he'll face a pincer attack from both sides. If he comes with few men, it's impossible for him to break through our blocking line before we take the ferry crossing."

  Jiang Xianyun said confidently: "As for reinforcements on the other side of the river, there's nothing to worry about. There won't be more than one company of enemy troops on the other side. If they try to cross the river to reinforce, we'll annihilate them on the east bank and take down the floating bridge at the same time. Therefore, I think it's more likely that the west bank will be used as a landing point for the retreating garrison from the east bank."

  "What about after annihilating Guan Linzheng? The pontoon bridge will definitely be burned, how are we going to cross the river?" Li Zhilong asked.

  "Chiang Xianyun hesitated for a moment."

  "There's a way, we can borrow a boat from our fellow villager." Song Xilian said.

  "They are all small boats, how many people can they hold? How many trips will it take to transport everyone?" Hu Zongnan asked skeptically.

  "There are big boats," said Song Xilian. "I saw them on the river surface around Shikou Village, and at least twenty people can be loaded each time."

  "How many ships like this are there?" Li Zhilong asked excitedly.

  "About five or six, didn't count carefully."

  "It's all right, that one trip can take about a hundred people or so, and four trips will be enough to transport us all." Hu Zongnan was also quite pleased.

  After the problem with the boat was solved, everyone was greatly excited, and the opinions that followed were quickly unified. The combat order issued by Yan in the end was: 1. Zhuang Jihua led his team and two detachments of Song Xilian and Li Zhilong to hold down the enemy forces at Shipai and Shigang, while Jiang Xiuyun led the rest of the troops to bypass Shipai and attack the crossing point.

  2. The Jiang Xianyun unit must occupy the crossing as soon as possible. If they can capture the floating bridge intact, they should send out at least two detachments to guard the west bank of the crossing, while keeping the main force on the east bank. If they cannot capture the floating bridge, they are not allowed to attempt a forced crossing.

  3. The Jiang Xianyun unit took the ferry crossing and the main force turned towards Huangsha, taking action based on the movements of the enemy's Guan Linzheng unit.

  4. If Guan Lin's troops come out to reinforce the crossing, Zhuang Jihua's troops must quickly capture Shipaizhen and then launch a pursuit against Guan's troops, coordinating with Jiang Xianyun's troops to annihilate Guan's troops on the line from the crossing to Shipai.

  5. After annihilating Guan's unit, Fan Hanjie's and Li Zhilong's units were left to guard the crossing and monitor the enemy's movements downstream of Lie De Stream.

  6. The rest of the troops turned towards Shikou Village, gathered rafts, and attempted to cross the river at Lie De Chong; if they failed to cross secretly, they would switch to a forced crossing.

  7. After crossing the He De Chong, Jiang Xianyun led Chen Gong's and Song Xi Liang's troops to attack the crossing point, receiving Fan and Li's two divisions across the river, while Zhuang Jihua led the remaining troops to form a defensive line at the village of Tie Cun, blocking enemy reinforcements.

  8. After completing the above tasks, we will annihilate the enemy's Guan Linzheng division of 200 people and the defenders at the crossing point of over 100 people. At this time, the enemy's forces were around 500, still outnumbering our army, but our army's training and equipment were stronger than the enemy's, and the actual strength of both sides would change from strong enemy and weak us to being evenly matched.

  9. According to the current understanding of the enemy situation on the west bank of Heidongkou, the command center decided that after annihilating the enemy at the crossing point and after Fan and Li's two divisions crossed the river, the troops would split into two routes. Chen Geng would lead Li Zhiyong's division, disguised as the main force, to launch an attack from Cai Village, Tianhe, and Zhangyicun on the west side of Shou gou Ridge. The goal is to attract the enemy's attention. To achieve this goal, your unit must act quickly, decisively, bravely and fiercely.

  10. Jiang Xianyun led the remaining troops of various departments through Kangcun, Tianhe, Yue Xiu and Yanling, launching an attack from the east side of Shougou Ridge.

  The time of launching the operation is 1:00 on November 29th.

  The military academy staff attending the combat meeting recorded in the logbook: The main planner of the battle plan on the east bank of the Hun River is Jiang Xianyun; the main planner of the battle plan on the west bank is Hu Zongnan. Then, the meeting records and combat orders were submitted to the directing department together.

  Due to the rules of the play, although in the same village, the director's department set up at Beidi Temple did not interfere with their actions even if they were a bit anxious.

  Chiang Kai-shek accompanied Soviet adviser Galen to visit the Beidi Temple, where villagers said it was built during the Tang Tianbao period. However, according to Wang Boling's investigation into religious matters, it was actually built in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. His statement was strongly opposed by Pan Wenjing who was accompanying him.

  Zhu Village is the hometown of Pan Wen-ji. The Whampoa Military Academy often came to Zhu Village for exercises also because of Pan Wen-ji's reason. The Pan family was a prominent family in Zhu Village, and on this land, one word from the Pan family was more effective than an order from the Generalissimo's headquarters. Pan Wen-ji was the commander of the naval exercise fleet. When the Whampoa Military Academy was first established, Sun Yat-sen originally intended to build a Whampoa Naval School as well, but due to lack of instructors and equipment, the naval school was not established in the end. Pan Wen-ji served as the commander of the Humen Fortress, but he recently resigned, because he wanted to return home to develop the agricultural association.

  Chiang Kai-shek and Pan Wen-chieh's friendship began with Chen Jiongming's rebellion that year. At the time, Chiang Kai-shek was rushing from Shanghai to rescue him, while Pan Wen-chieh was a naval commander who had always fought alongside Sun Yat-sen. The two men admired each other from then on. Pan admired Chiang's bravery in rushing to his aid, and Chiang appreciated Pan's unwavering loyalty. Over the years, their friendship became increasingly solid.

  When Chiang Kai-shek was looking for a training ground for the Whampoa students, he first thought of Zhu Village's Pan Wenqi. He wrote to Pan Wenqi and asked him to mediate; Pan Wenqi agreed without hesitation and quickly returned from Hu Men to Zhu Village to explain to the villagers and the Pan clan people. With Pan Wenqi's status in Zhu Village and the Pan clan, there was no problem. Chiang Kai-shek was very grateful for this and as a return, he emphasized discipline during each training session, compensating for any damage at market price, and asked students to help villagers with farm work during their free time. This made Zhuang Jihua wonder if only the Communist Army had done so in the past. However, since then, some skeptical villagers have also begun to sincerely support the actions of the Whampoa students, and the relationship between the military and civilians has become more harmonious.

  Wang Boling's textual research made Pan Wencheng extremely angry, as it was obviously a Tang Dynasty artifact that had been misattributed to the late Ming Dynasty, arbitrarily reducing its historical value by several hundred years. The two men began arguing in the great hall, of course Wang Boling was no match for him, just like Pan Wencheng said, Wang Boling was an expert in Buddhism, but the Northern Emperor Temple enshrined the True Martial Grand Emperor of Taoism, and Buddhism and Taoism were incompatible, intentionally downplaying the historical value of the Northern Emperor Temple.

  Director Zhou also thought that Wang Boling was too deceitful, a Buddhist disciple actually hitting the Zhenwu Temple, in front of Emperor Zhenwu's face denying the Great Emperor Zhenwu, really treating us Taoist disciples as nothing. Director Zhou's words made everyone burst out laughing, and the dispute was resolved imperceptibly.

  The headquarters was set up in the side hall of the Beidi Temple, which made the Taoist priests in the temple very grateful. When Chiang Kai-shek and his party returned, they found two baskets of steamed buns on the table, and Chiang knew that Madame Pan had been there. He said to Pan Wenjing, "Every time we come to Zhucun, we have to trouble your wife, it's really embarrassing." Pan Wenjing smiled and said, "My old lady is just capable of this. General Galen, Director Zhou, I'm afraid this is the first time you've been to Zhucun, try my old lady's craftsmanship."

  Wang Boling said on the side, "Director Zhou may have eaten mango pudding in Guangzhou, but Mrs. Pan's mango pudding has a unique flavor that can't be found anywhere in Guangzhou."

  When they said that, Director Zhou noticed it and indeed the powder fruit was different from the one in Guangzhou city. At first glance, the powder fruit looked a bit like northern dumplings, but the skin was thinner and smaller than dumplings, and the filling color could not be wrapped up. The main colors that can be seen are green, red, and yellow. The whole fruit is crystal clear and translucent, with a bright green color that makes people want to eat it. Director Zhou couldn't help but pick one up, carefully biting open a corner, sucking out the oil inside, and then putting the whole fruit in his mouth to chew. While he was savoring it, Galen picked up a fruit and ate it, resulting in the juice splashing everywhere. Fortunately, the people around him dodged quickly. Galen apologized and muttered some Russian words, and everyone just laughed and didn't mind. Chiang Kai-shek said: "General, you can't do this, eating this kind of powder fruit should be like this." After that, he picked up a fruit to demonstrate to Galen.

  Gallon's face was full of admiration: "Wadali Jiang, you Chinese are too amazing, such a small thing can be made so beautiful, so intricate, unbelievable, unbelievable."

  "In terms of eating, we are the ancestors of the world, but I still prefer it to be simple. We have put our minds on this, Wenji brother, this is not to say you. If the mind for developing science and technology was like this, then we would have been a world power long ago." Chiang Kai-shek said gloomily.

  At this time, the staff came in to report that the battle plan of the Eastern Army had been delivered. After finishing, he took out two papers from the file folder and handed them over to Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek looked at it and handed it to He Yingqin: "It seems they have fallen into our trap."