Chapter 3: The Storm Rises in Guangdong Section 12: Breaking the Deadlock

  He Yingqin took the order of battle and looked at it carefully, then handed it to Galen, translator Zhang Jingyu hastily took it over, and then took the order to translate for Galen.

  He Yingqin saw that Chiang Kai-shek's face was not pleasant and knew that he was not feeling comfortable, so he comforted him by saying: "Perhaps the questions we set were too difficult, after all they had just graduated and had not yet experienced actual combat."

  Director Zhou didn't understand combat, but looking at Chiang Kai-shek and He Yingqin's expressions, he knew the situation was not good: "Commander He, is there a problem with their battle plan?"

  He Yingqin nodded: "According to this plan, it would be good if we can keep half of our troops."

  Chiang Kai-shek sighed: "It seems that they still need to continue learning in the army, and military schools can only turn them into soldiers, teaching them military theory, and other things they have to figure out for themselves."

  At this time, Galen came over and said a lot of things. Chiang Kai-shek and He Yingqin looked at Zhang Jingyu, who said: "Gu Wen asked that this exercise is too difficult for students in primary military schools like Huangpu, even in Russian military schools it's very hard, unless it's the graduation exam of the Frunze Military Academy, and the time given to them is also too tight, the victory conditions are harsh. Even if the right combat plan is chosen, it's hard to win within the prescribed time."

  Wang Bailin saw Chiang Kai-shek was a bit unhappy, so he said: "If not, we can give them a reminder."

  Chiang Kai-shek got angry upon hearing this: "What are you talking about, nonsense, who are you fooling? Losing here doesn't matter, it's also a kind of learning, let them know what the art of war is."

  Chiang Kai-shek then asked: "What are they doing now?"

  "Report: The Eastern Army is having dinner, and as planned, they will rest after the meal. They will set out at 1am and launch an attack at 2am."

  He Yingqin nodded: "Mm, not bad, knowing to launch a night raid, doesn't count as reckless."

  Director Zhou still didn't quite understand, so he asked: "Commander He, I know that although I'm wearing a military uniform, I don't really understand combat. Can you tell me what's wrong with their plan? Let me understand it too."

  He Yingqin smiled and said, "Director Zhou is being polite. First of all, they misjudged the enemy situation. Although they grasped the situation of Guan Linzheng's unit and the enemy at the crossing point, they didn't grasp the enemy situation on the other side of the river and hastily made a plan. This must have resulted in an imperfect plan with loopholes."

  "Secondly, they judged that Guan Linzheng's troops would send troops to rescue the crossing when they were attacked at the crossing. This is a bit wishful thinking. What if Guan Linzheng doesn't save the crossing? Moreover, there was a pontoon bridge at the crossing, and the defending army could quickly retreat to the west bank through the pontoon bridge and then burn the pontoon bridge. In this way, they would have to face the situation of being surrounded by Hede's troops in front and Guan Linzheng's troops behind."

  "If we force our way across the river to attack De's troops, then Guan Yu will kill us from behind. On the other hand, if we attack Guan Yu, we will face two possibilities: one, Guan Yu will defend his position to the death, with 200 men and a strong defensive formation, so he can at least hold out for 5-6 hours; two, reinforcements from the west bank, they have noticed that there are large ships in the Shiqiao area, these large ships can transport their troops over, and can also transport the Western Army over, so when attacking Guan Yu's troops at Shibao, the Western Army will inevitably cross the river to reinforce. Therefore, either way, we will face a situation of being attacked from both sides."

  "The last thing is their time, as the consultant said, they don't have enough time, even if they find reinforcements, quickly leaving the battlefield, there's no more time. So this topic is a bit big."

  Director Zhou finally understood and began to worry seriously about them. He Yeping looked at him but didn't say anything else.

  Although the outcome was already known in the dead of night, no one in the director's department slept. Chiang Kai-shek, Galen, He Yingqin, Director Zhou and others stood in front of the map, watching as staff officers inserted small flags representing troop strength into corresponding positions while waiting for the latest reports.

  "Report: The Eastern Army launched a surprise attack on Shih Pai, and Li Tzu-lung's attack on Shih Kang was successful."

  "How can it be a full-scale attack on Shihpai, didn't you see wrongly?" He Yingqin was somewhat surprised.

  The staff officer looked at the combat order transmitted by hand: "Report, no, it was written like this on the transmitted combat order. The whole army launched a surprise attack on Shih Pai and has occupied Shih Kang."

  He Yingqin was slightly surprised: "How come? Didn't Zhuang Jihua lead three detachments? They changed the combat order."

  Chiang Kai-shek took over the transmitted order and said after reading it: "It seems that's the case. Maybe they've discovered something."

  Exercises are like detective novels, knowing the outcome is dull and uninteresting. The officers in the directing department didn't sleep, but their enthusiasm was indeed not high. Now, unexpected changes on the battlefield have also made these officers somewhat interested.

  "Report: The Eastern Army left behind Li Zhi-long and Song Xi-wen's troops to hold down Shi Pai Guan, while the rest of the troops crossed over Shi Pai and turned towards Du Kou."

  He Yingqin breathed a sigh of relief, as the Eastern Army's current actions were still within his expectations. The Western Army's deployment in this exercise was not arranged by Zhu Tan, but rather by He Yingqin himself. When designing the exercise, he had wanted to personally lead the Western Army, but the Military Committee appointed him as Chief of Staff instead. As the Instructional Corps was a new unit, He Yingqin did not want to lose the exercise and affect their morale. After reporting his concerns to Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang also thought his concerns were reasonable and agreed to let him arrange the battle plan, detailing the key points to Zhu Tan for execution. Therefore, if the Western Army lost, at least half of the blame would fall on He Yingqin himself.

  "What about the movements of the Western Army?"

  "Report, the Western Army's movements have not been sent yet."

  After the meeting, the Western Army's action also arrived. Guan Linzheng retreated to Shibaicheng after losing Shigang and sent a signal to the crossing that he was under attack by the enemy's entire army.

  "Guān Línzhēng's actions were correct, the Western Army launched a full-scale attack, he couldn't hold onto Shí Gǎng, retreating back to Shí Pái to defend the village could delay time, waiting for reinforcements."

  News then arrived that the crossing was being attacked by three detachments of the Eastern Army, while the remaining eight detachments were roaming between the crossing and Shih-p'ai.

  Everyone now knew that the Eastern Army's battle plan had changed, and the officers of the General Staff became even more interested, with Gallien even beginning to ponder what the Eastern Army was trying to do by wandering around here.

  The Western Army, having lost half of its men, burned the pontoon bridge and retreated to the west bank under the cover of the troops on the west bank. The Eastern Army left a detachment to keep watch, while the other two detachments joined forces with the main force.

  The Western Army on the opposite bank of Shikou Village began to send out reconnaissance teams towards Shikou Village.

  The entire Eastern Army returned in the direction of Shihpai and prepared to attack Shihpai.

  Upon receiving this news, He Yingqin let out a sigh of relief, fortunately everything was going according to plan.

  The Eastern Army divided into two routes, Chen Gong led two divisions from the west to launch an attack on Shibaipai, and the main force advanced northward. Later, Li Zhilong and Song Xilian's division abandoned Shigang, bypassed and merged with Chen Gong's troops. At this time, the sky was already dimly lit.

  At this time, everyone in the director's department was asking, where did Dongjun's main force go north? Did they discover the movement of the Western Army in Shikou? It should not be, otherwise it should have been reported in the war report.

  The battle at Shípái was fierce, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Guān Línzhēng remained firmly in control of the village, and the Eastern Army failed to breach it.

  The Western Army began to cross the river at Shikou Village with a force of over 400 men in an enhanced battalion. The main force of the Eastern Army went in an unknown direction.

  The battle at Shibao stopped, and the Eastern Army retreated. The Western Army's reinforcement troops all crossed the river. The Eastern Army left two detachments to monitor Shibao, while Chen Gong led another two detachments to advance northward. The Eastern Army's detachment monitoring the crossing blew up the crossing and withdrew in a northeast direction.

  He Yingqin felt something was wrong and Galen said: "The reinforcement troops of Commander He are probably in danger."

  "Reinforcements have a reinforced battalion of over 400 people, and their total number is almost the same as ours. It's hard to be eaten up," He Yingqin said, but others thought he was just comforting himself.

  As expected, the subsequent battle report was that the Western army's reinforcements were ambushed at Weitang and the rear guard company was annihilated.

  He Yingqin was somewhat surprised and unexpectedly had a regiment annihilated so quickly. He didn't believe it: "How is that possible? Did you transmit the message incorrectly?"

  "Report, no. The battle has begun and the Eastern Army, led by Jiang Xianyun, launched a surprise attack on the Western Army, splitting it into two segments. Later, Zhuang Jihua concentrated his main force of six divisions to annihilate the rear guard regiment. Currently engaging in fierce combat with the remaining Western Army troops."

  Three hours later, the entire Western relief army was annihilated. He Yingqin was stunned, he really couldn't believe it, and under equal numbers, they were actually completely annihilated. He grabbed a battle report to see if it was written incorrectly.

  Chiang Kai-shek and others were also somewhat unexpected, knowing that this was an exercise, and only the intensity of firepower could be calculated, while morale and awareness were not counted as combat effectiveness.

  The Western Army, after confirming the annihilation of the rear guard regiment, decided to launch a breakthrough, but was intercepted by an enhanced detachment led by Hu Zongnan. With too few men, the defensive line was on the verge of being breached when Chen Geng's troops arrived and stabilized the line. Hu Zongnan's troops suffered heavy casualties, but they held up the Western Army's breakthrough, annihilating the Eastern Army's rear guard regiment that had turned to attack the remaining Western Army troops. Subsequently, Zheng Dongguo led his troops to cut off the Western Army again into two segments... and so on, until the Western Army's reinforcement troops were gradually worn down by the Eastern Army. The staff officer finished reporting the battle situation and stood aside, waiting for instructions.

  "Too wonderful, really too wonderful. As for this topic, it's impossible to find a better answer than this. Chiang, I must congratulate you, you have a group of outstanding and brave students." The Russian was very emotional and immediately hugged Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek was only 1.69 meters tall, which is not considered tall among Chinese people, while Galen was tall and sturdy, his bear hug made Chiang Kai-shek very uncomfortable, dodging repeatedly: "Too kind, too kind, General, too kind."

  "What, your plan has completely failed." Galen said to He Yingqin after releasing Chiang Kai-shek.

  "Alright, I'll just have to rely on Zhu Tang from now on." He Yingqin said helplessly. Then he said somewhat discontentedly: "The siege of the pond is so lively, why hasn't Guan Linzheng sent any reinforcements? The two detachments of Song Xilian's troops monitoring him only have more than 50 men."

  "It's useless, in last night's battle, Guan's unit lost 50 people at Shigang, and 34 people in the defensive battle. Now there are only about 120 people left in Guan's unit. If he wants to reinforce, the two detachments led by Song Xilian will change from monitoring to blocking. Moreover, Fan Hanjie's detachment at Duankou did not participate in the encirclement and annihilation war, but instead marched here," said the staff officer, pointing to a point on the map: "Here, we can either reinforce the main force to annihilate the Western Army or reinforce Song Xilian's unit to block. Finally, he said: "I think this plan is tightly linked, very strict, and once the Western Army enters the encirclement, it will be finished."

  At this time, Chiang Kai-shek asked relatively calmly: "What do you think the Eastern Army will do next?" Whether that unit won or lost, Chiang was not happy.

  "Of course, we will annihilate Guan Linzheng." Wang Boling said with a matter-of-fact expression.

  He Yingqin didn't say a word, this was the easiest idea, but he felt it wasn't right. Guan Linzheng is now truly isolated, annihilating him would clear the rear, then they could cross the river. Otherwise, during the crossing, Guan Linzheng would attack from behind, and the consequences would be unbearable to contemplate. However, retreating at this point wouldn't allow them to fully utilize the encirclement and annihilation tactics. Today He Yingqin received a heavy blow, his mind was somewhat muddled.

  Gallon said: "Now is the difference between generals and marshals."

  Chiang Kai-shek asked in confusion: "General Galen, what does this mean?"

  Gallagher said: "Generals, the current military strength comparison is that the Eastern Army still has about 300 people left, and the Western Army was annihilated by around 500 people. The remaining 120 people are at Shibao, and there are about 300 people on the west bank, but these 300 people are distributed in the vast area from Du Kou to Shou Gou Ridge. Although the Eastern Army has fewer troops, its military strength is concentrated. If we take advantage of the situation to cross the river and cut off the connection between Shou Gou Ridge and the rest of the troops, we can concentrate our superior forces to annihilate the enemy in any local area. Therefore, crossing the river is my choice, and it should also be the future marshal's choice."

  Chiang Kai-shek nodded after carefully studying the map and said, "You're right, but judging whether he's a marshal or general based on this is probably too simplistic." Chiang wanted to salvage some dignity for his subordinate.

  Gallon shook his head: "No, no, Davarxiang, if they can make such judgments and grasp the battlefield as soon as they leave school, then twenty years later, they will definitely become marshals."