Chapter 3: The Wind Rises in Guangdong Section 30: Military Council

  The telegram from Tang Jiyao and Chen Jiongming suddenly made the situation in Guangzhou tense. Both Hu Hanmin and Liao Zhongkai were deeply disgusted with the former, not to mention the GCD and Soviet advisers; however, there were many people in the army who had an ambiguous attitude, and of course, there were also those who had a firm attitude, such as Fan Shisheng, Zhu Peide of Yunnan Army, Li Jishen of Guangdong Army, and Tan Yankai of Hunan Army. However, the attitudes of Yang Ximin of Yunnan Army and Liu Zhenhuan of Guangxi Army, who actually controlled Guangzhou City, were unpredictable.

  "... , this is the situation in Guangxi. Next I will introduce Chen Jiongming's dynamics."

  According to intelligence, Chen Jun's troops are divided into three routes. The first route is led by Lin Hu's unit and is currently concentrated in Boluo, with an estimated force of 20,000-25,000; the second route is led by Hong Zhaopi's unit and is currently gathered in the Shilong and Shitan areas, with an estimated force of 10,000-12,000; the third route is led by Ye Ju's unit and is currently in Huizhou, Danshui, and Dongguan, with an estimated force of 6,000-8,000. In addition, Chen Jianguang's unit of 7,000 people has advanced to Lutian and Liangkou areas.

  ……。”

  Chiang Kai-shek finished the introduction and walked back to his seat at the conference table with a expressionless face. Acting Commander-in-Chief Hu Hanmin looked around at Yang Ximin, Liu Zhenhuan, Xu Chongzhi, Tan Yankai, Zhu Peide, Liao Zhongkai, and others including Chief Adviser Galen, feeling very helpless in his heart.

  Before Sun Yat-sen went north, he had already begun to make arrangements for the Eastern Expedition. However, the main forces of the expedition, the Yunnan and Guangxi armies, made excuses and refused to participate. Several military meetings were held, and deployments were adjusted several times. Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan first asked the Commander-in-Chief's headquarters for equipment on the grounds that they were not well-equipped, with the aim of obtaining weapons from Soviet Russia. Then they asked for military pay, which made Hu Hanmin so angry that he almost vomited blood.

  The Yunnan and Guangxi armies occupied the richest areas of Guangzhou and were the wealthiest among all the armies. Yet they still asked the Commander-in-Chief's headquarters for military pay.

  "Now Chen Jiongming has attacked, and it's probably necessary to fight back. I don't understand warfare, so you all discuss what to do." Hu Hanmin said to the crowd.

  The scene fell silent, Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhua looked nonchalant, while Tan Yancai and Zhu Peide seemed helpless. They were facing Zhao Hengti from Hunan and Fang Benren from Jiangxi. Xu Chongzhi didn't have many ideas either. Although the Guangdong Army was not weak, it was scattered in various parts of Guangzhou, with Li Jishen in Xijiang and Liang Hongcai in Kaiping. Li Zongren from Guangxi had already sent a telegram seeking help, and the Generalissimo's headquarters couldn't ignore it. If they let Li Zongren fail, Tang Jiyao and Shen Hongying would take advantage of the situation and form a pincer movement with Chen Jiongming, putting Guangzhou in grave danger.

  "First, let's talk about Guangxi. Li Zongren expressed his determination to obey the orders of the Generalissimo's headquarters and block Tang Jiyao, but he asked for assistance, as Tang Shen's combined forces were not something they could resist with their own strength." Hu Hanmin picked up where everyone else was hesitant to start, handling the relatively easier matter first.

  "It goes without saying, send troops to support. If no one is willing to go, I'll go." The speaker was Fan Shisheng, the commander of the 2nd Army of Yunnan, who followed Gu Pinzhen to overthrow Tang Jiyao and later saw many of his classmates and friends killed by Tang after he regained power. He had always been thinking about returning to Yunnan to settle accounts with Tang.

  "Is that all you've got?" Commander-in-Chief Liu Zhenhua of the Guizhou Army sneered, although the Yunnan and Guizhou armies were united on the surface, but in reality they still had to distinguish between close and distant relationships. This Fan Shisheng didn't get along with him: "Younger brother, I'm afraid it won't work, unless we add our Guizhou Army, maybe we can stop Tang Jiyao."

  "Commander Liu is going where, the Eastern Expedition cannot do without Commander Liu, let me go with Brother Xiaquan instead," said Li Jishen, commander of the First Division of the Guangdong Army. Li Jishen had a wispy goat beard and looked more like a scholar than a soldier.

  Li Jishen knew what Liu Zhenhuan was thinking. After Sun Yat-sen appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the Guangxi army, Liu Zhenhuan wanted to return to Guangxi, but none of the local troops in Guangxi welcomed him, including Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohong who supported the Guangzhou Generalissimo's office. Liu Zhenhuan once thought of fighting back, but the Xijiang River was his own defense zone, and he had an agreement with Li, Bai and Huang that they would never allow Liu to attack them from behind. Now Liu Zhenhuan wanted to take this opportunity to return to Guangxi, and Li Jishen certainly could not let him have his way.

  "Alright, let the 2nd Yunnan Army and the 1st Guangdong Division form a relief army to support Li Zongren. Commander Liu's troops will stay behind to deal with Chen Jiongming instead, this side is more urgent." Hu Hanmin was also unwilling for Liu Zhenhuan to go to Guangxi, he had previously promised Li Zongren's representative not to send Liu Zhenhuan into Guangxi, so as soon as Li Jishen spoke up, he immediately made a decision. Liu Zhenhuan could only glare at Li Jishen with hatred.

  Hu Hanmin didn't care about these, currently the most direct threat came from Chen Jiongming, to conquer the east, without the powerful Guangxi army it would be difficult to achieve. Then he asked: "Commander Yang, what do you think is the way to fight."

  "General, don't worry, we'll defend first. Tan's Hunan army will guard the northern line of Lianhe, Longyan and Baiyun Mountain to block Lin Hu, Xiang Cheng will guard the middle Shipaishi to block Hong Zhaonan, and I will guard the southern Wuyong and Nangang to block Ye Ju. When they are exhausted, we'll launch a massive counterattack and completely destroy Chen Jiongming." Yang Ximin said with a big smile.

  Everyone who heard this cursed in their hearts. The Yunnan army had the most troops, and Ye Ju's division was clearly a defensive deployment. As long as they didn't attack on the southern front, there would be hardly any battles to fight. Tan Yancai's Xiangjiang Army, which had 20,000 men, still had to face Jiangxi Fang Benren, and Chen Jiugong's 7,000 men were clearly going to attack him.

  "No, no, General Yang. This strategy is too passive. We should adopt a more active offensive strategy." Gallen said with a shake of his head after hearing Yang Ximin's deployment.

  "What's your brilliant idea, Mr. Adviser?" Although Hu Hanmin didn't understand military affairs, he saw the reactions of everyone and knew that this deployment was not good. Seeing Galen come out to oppose it, he was naturally delighted. After all, Yang Ximin was arrogant and narrow-minded, unable to tolerate different opinions.

  "Chen Guangming's deployment is clearly taking the initiative on the northern and central routes, while defending on the southern route; therefore, we should adopt a strategy of offensive defense based on their deployment. Specifically, the Yunnan army defends the northern line, the Guangxi army defends the central line, and the south is our direction for counterattack," said Galen.

  "When the enemy first comes, morale is high. According to military strategy, after the first wave, they will weaken; after the second wave, they will be exhausted; and after the third wave, they will be defeated. So we should hold our ground first and wait for their morale to drop before launching a counterattack." Yang Ximin said, if it weren't for the other party's consultant status, he would have slammed his fist on the table already.

  "No, General Yang, General Tan wants to defend both Shaoguan and Guangzhou, which is beyond his power." Gallen pointed out another flaw.

  "We can transfer two divisions from your brother's troops over here." Yang Xi Min said bluntly.

  "The First Division of the Guangdong Army is going to Guangxi, and the Second Division is stationed in Kaiping and Enping to defend against Deng Benyin. The Second and Third Divisions, as well as Zhu Peide's troops, are stationed in Lianzhou to keep an eye on Zhao Hengti. It's impossible to mobilize any troops." Chiang Kai-shek interjected at this point. As the chief of staff of both the Generalissimo's headquarters and the Guangdong Army, he was extremely familiar with the strength of each unit. The combined forces of Li Fulin, Huang Mintang, and others totaled less than 4,000 men. Yang Ximin's strategy of preserving his own strength was one aspect, but Chiang Kai-shek was more concerned that Yang had ulterior motives. Recently, Yang had sent someone to Yunnan to recruit soldiers, and Tang Jiyao had not only failed to stop him but had even adopted a cooperative attitude, which was very unusual. Chiang suspected that Yang Ximin had made some secret agreement with Tang Jiyao, who was politically allied with Chen Jiongming. After Chen's rebellion, Tang was the only one in the Nationalist Party who openly defended him. If this were true, then Yang's deployment would be suspicious of waiting for the two tigers to fight each other. But what was even more frightening was that if the war effort went slightly awry, Yang might launch a rebellion. Chiang Kai-shek thought about this and felt a chill run down his spine.

  "I suggest that the Yunnan Army defend the northern line, the Guangxi Army defend the central line, and the Second Division of the Guangdong Army and our Huangpu School Army defend the southern line." Chiang Kai-shek decided not to let Yang Hucheng hide in the sidelines, but pushed him to the front line.

  Chiang Kai-shek's suggestion was immediately supported by Tan Yankai, Xu Chongzhi and Zhu Peide, among others. Yang Ximin said with a disapproving face: "Huangpu military school? You are just a group of new recruits, can you be used? This is going to the battlefield, it's real swords and guns, not just talking big."

  Chiang Kai-shek's face suddenly turned red, and he said loudly: "We are not afraid of sacrifice. Although our military training time is short, the morale and revolutionary spirit of our soldiers are very high, they have entrusted me to ask for battle with General Dai."

  "Hmph, you're all just Premier's darlings, nothing but a golden egg that looks good on the outside but is useless inside." Liu Zhenhuan said disdainfully.

  "General Chiang, please calm down, let's continue the discussion." Galen saw that the meeting was getting off track, so he brought the topic back on track. "I still think it's not good to have only the Second Division of the Guangdong Army, it would be better to mobilize one or two more brigades to join the battle in the southern front, this way we can launch an attack with superior forces in the southern front, and disrupt Chen Jiongming's deployment, destroying his offensive." Galen insisted on using offense as defense.

  Tan Yan-kai expressed his support for this strategy, Xu Chongzhi was a bit hesitant because he didn't know which troops to withdraw from, or Li Jishen made up his mind. Li Jishen suggested withdrawing one brigade from the First Division, and the less one brigade in the Guangxi army would not be a big deal, as long as the Eastern Expedition could win quickly, Tang Jiyao would not have time to open the road to Guangzhou.

  ….

  After several hours of noise, Yang Ximin still did not get what he wanted. According to the deployment set by Galen, the Yunnan Army was responsible for defending the northern line, the Guangxi Army and the Yunnan Army's Hu Si-sheng division defended the central line, and Tan Yan-kai's Hunan Army sent out a division to advance to the Baizi and Wengyuan lines to hold back Chen Jue-guang's division. The Guangdong Second Division Zhang Zhang Min-da division and the Guangdong First Division Xu Ji-traveling in the southern line launched an attack, first clearing the Guangzhou-Kowloon line, then attacking Danshui and Huizhou. The Huangpu Military Academy had too short a training time and did not participate in this eastern expedition.