Zhou Ze Fan soon got in touch with his own backer, who was currently in the provincial capital and was very influential, his classmate Cheng Qian. And through Cheng Qian, he learned that Wang Zhenyu was a formidable figure, which shocked him greatly at the time. It turned out that it was this person who had eliminated the Fifth Division in Changsha, and this person didn't even put Governor Tan in his eyes, so he couldn't be underestimated.

  After the Changsha soldiers' riot was pacified, Cheng Qian's recent situation in the provincial military government was still turbulent. To outsiders, he seemed to be one of the two top generals alongside Zhao Hengti and Tan Yankai. However, in reality, Cheng Qian had almost grasped control of the Hunan Army. Not long ago, he took over as the head of the Provincial Military Affairs Department from Zhang Xiaozhun due to a disturbance caused by retired soldiers. In the provincial capital, his influence was unmatched for a time, and even Tan Yankai had to give in on many matters. However, after the "Discussing Zhou" telegram was sent out, Cheng Qian was stunned - this matter was too thorny. Even if he issued a telegram as the head of the Military Affairs Department to stop the war, it's likely that the cunning and ruthless Wang Zhenyu would not listen. He had to rely on the governor's authority, so he immediately ran to Tan Yankai's place, angrily denouncing the Fourth Division of the Hunan Army led by Wang Long for unreasonably provoking a battle, secretly ordering his troops to attack friendly forces, seize territory, and destroy the good situation of stability and unity in Hunan.

  Zhao Hengyu was also present, but he didn't easily express his opinion. Emotionally speaking, he and Wang Zhenyu were sworn brothers, so it was certain that he would help speak up at this time. However, it couldn't be too obvious, if it aroused Tan Dudu's suspicion and rejection, it would be counterproductive, after all, he was now under Tan Dudu's command. It was unacceptable to smash the rice bowl in order to plead for mercy.

  However, Zhao Hengyu was indeed a personal object. In the face of Cheng Qian's anger, he lightly said a word to solve a big trouble for Wang Zhenyu: "Tan Duoduo, at present we are planning to cut off various divisions, especially this Wang Long, Baoqing Prefecture is a very large territory, and it must be recovered steadily. As for now, I personally feel that we cannot lose the big picture because of small things, scare away the snake, and disturb our own formation."

  Tan Yanqian listened and immediately agreed, then comforted Cheng Qian and smoothed things over.

  The provincial military government only issued a lukewarm ceasefire order, requiring both sides to return to their respective bases and not to provoke any further incidents. They no longer made any comments or expressed any views on the Hongjiang incident, as if everything was peaceful and calm there, and nothing had happened at all.

  In fact, neither of the warring parties took the provincial government's order seriously, and various military deployments continued as usual.

  Zhou Zefan soon received the news and found out that the invading troops had only two regiments with over 1,800 people. He was immediately furious, thinking that the "Mighty Tiger Regiment" was ridiculous to look down on him like this. Under his command, apart from the 2,400 regular soldiers, there were also a thousand militia members. The militia in Hongjiang was not comparable to the ordinary militia in other places, these people had been trained through long-term armed struggles with bandits. Moreover, because the merchants were willing to support them, the equipment of the militia was not inferior to that of the regular army. In this way, Zhou's forces had a significant advantage, and he could easily achieve a four-to-one victory. As a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, if he couldn't win in such a situation, he would have to commit seppuku.

  At this point, Zhou Zefan couldn't help but burst out laughing loudly. Chief of Staff Yang Yusheng was very puzzled: "Commander, why are you laughing?"

  Zhou Ze Fan laughed for a while, and replied with great satisfaction: "I laugh at Wang Zhen Sheng for not understanding military tactics, and not knowing the way of being a general. In this kind of war, he actually dares to hold back, and with 4,000 troops, he only sent out less than half of them. Isn't this sending himself to death? It's ridiculous to the extreme."

  Yang Yusheng thought for a moment and also nodded in agreement.

  At this time, Liu Qishan asked to see him and said that he wanted to provide 500,000 yuan in mobilization fees for Commander Zhou Zhenfan. Of course, the reason was also very sufficient. The city of Hongjiang cannot become a battlefield. Everyone's industries are here, and you, Commander Zhou, are the guardian god of Hongjiang. It is only reasonable to defend against the enemy outside the national gate.

  Zhou Ze Fan thought so too, he led Cai Jun Xiang and Liu Xu Yi's two battalions with 1,800 men, plus 3,000 strong troops drawn from the Tuanlian department, to march towards the direction of the enemy's advance. While Yang Yu Sheng led three battalions of 100 men and 3,000 militia to guard Hongjiang.

  In fact, the scouts sent back by Zhou Zefan had no error. Along the official road towards Hongjiang for an attack were Hao Bing and Song Xianfu's two divisions, each with a brigade of three regiments, totaling only 1,800 men. Moreover, the current state of these two colonels was even more severe, with a serious lack of confidence. However, Wang Zhenyu seemed to have great confidence in them, and in order to coordinate the relationship between the two divisions, Wang Zhenyu appointed Wan Yaohuang as the supervisor this time, but whether this colonel could supervise the two colonels, only heaven knows.

  Wang Zhenyu personally led the guard team, instructor team, special operations team, reconnaissance team, and the first battalion to form an advance team. Under the guidance of a guide sent by the Hongjiang Chamber of Commerce, they took a shortcut, crossing mountains and ridges, rushing towards Hongjiang.

  Zhou Ze Fan naturally did not know these things, although he had also been worried about it. Since Hong Jiang had left three camps and 3,000 militia, even if Wang Zhenyu, the madman, really climbed over the mountain, he himself had nothing to worry about.

  So his plan was to bring nearly five thousand people to kill Wang Zhenyu's main force of one thousand eight hundred, and then talk about it. As long as he defeated Wang Zhenyu, his control range would have another Jingzhou Prefecture, and Zhou Ze Fan suddenly ignited the ambition to dominate.

  Following this train of thought, the two armies began their simultaneous movement, and an encounter battle was inevitable.

  The battle took place in Ma'anshan Town, Huitong County, which is already forty miles away from Hongjiang.

  Because scouts discovered enemy situation before the opponent and reported in time, Huǒ Hǔ Lǚ (Tiger Troop) took the initiative and seized a favorable terrain.

  When the enemy troops arrived in a mighty and majestic manner, the Tiger Troop had already completed its deployment.

  Song Xianfu and Hao Bing didn't even think about it, they knew that the enemy's forces must be more numerous than their own. As soon as the scout reported back, without saying a word, they ordered each unit to form a defensive formation around Ma'anjing.

  The two of them had a simple plan, which was to rely on the mountain terrain and defend Ma'anshan Town at all costs, dragging Zhou Zhenfan down here would be enough. Wan Yaohuang shook his head in dissatisfaction with this, but he was only the supervisor officer, not the commander-in-chief. Therefore, the only thing he could do was to firmly request that the second and third battalions deploy in a V-shape according to their usual requirements, Li Hongkui's fourth battalion would ambush on the left side of the mountain, and Zhou Zhengming's seventh battalion would ambush on the right side of the mountain. Song Xianfu and Hao Bing agreed after discussing it together.

  It was like this that Wan Yao-huang was not at ease, he repeatedly urged Li Hong-gui and Zhou Zheng-ming: "You no matter how many casualties, the battle situation is what, must firmly hold their own position, without charging order, do not allow to attack, understand?"

  Li Hongkui and Zhou Zhengming exchanged a glance, saluted and replied: "Yes."

  The other four battalions were responsible for holding the bottom of the V-shaped Ma'anshan, Wan Yaohuang took a closer look and although Song Xianfu and Hao Bing's combat command ability was appalling, they were still quite good at leading troops. The engineering capabilities of the 2nd and 4th Battalions were excellent, and within just half an hour, two simple blocking positions had been completed.

  As Zhou Zhenfan raised his binoculars and took a look, he burst out laughing. Cai Jun, who was following him, looked puzzled: "The enemy is in front of us, why is the commander laughing?"

  Zhou Ze Fan smiled and turned to Cai Jun, saying: "When I was studying at the military academy in Japan, my instructor told me that the most important thing for an army on the battlefield is morale. But look at the enemy's 'Fierce Tiger' regiment - as soon as they saw our troops, they immediately adopted a defensive posture, waiting to be beaten. What kind of 'fierce tiger' is this? It's just a paper tiger! Colonel Cai, lead your brothers in a charge and defeat them."

  Cai Junxian is not a tall and majestic figure, but his body exudes a strong aura of ferocity, making him look like an extremely fierce person. He can also be considered the number one tiger general under Zhou Zhenfan's command, with more seniority than Zhou Zhenfan himself. Unfortunately, Cai Junxian is from the old army and was incorporated into the new army, relying on his former superior Huang Zhonghao to lead troops in western Hunan. In several battles against bandits in western Hunan, he fought bravely and achieved numerous victories, making him a well-known figure locally. The local bandits in Guizhou were so intimidated by Cai Junxian that they didn't dare to commit any crimes in Hongjiang for ten years.

  Cai Junxian thus climbed to the position of Biao Tong, but unexpectedly the Xinhai Revolution broke out and his biggest backer Huang Zhonghao was overthrown. Having lost his backer, Cai Junxian, with a bleak future ahead of him, had no choice but to attach himself to Zhou Zhenfan, a Japanese-trained military officer seven years his junior, just to make ends meet.

  In the process of Zhou Zhenfan's entry into Hongjiang, Cai Junxian made a great contribution. He defeated the allied forces of the two major bandit groups, Yao and Tan, who took advantage of the chaos to launch a surprise attack on Hongjiang, with only 800 men. The 4,000-strong bandit alliance was beaten by him and fled from western Hunan overnight to avoid trouble.

  Zhou Ze Fan also trusted and reused Cai Jun's contribution, so this vanguard mission was naturally given to him again.

  The bugle sounded, and over 1,200 soldiers of the Hongjiang Garrison Brigade launched their first wave of attack against the Meng Huo's troops.

  If Wang Zhenyu were here, he would certainly find the scene before him very familiar, because the combat method of Cai Jun's troops is similar to the battle scenes in the American movie "The Patriot". They are all soldiers lined up in rows, marching forward in unison, but less than 80 meters away from each other, it becomes different from the movie. The march turns into a mad dash, and the Hongjiang Garrison rushes down with great momentum.

  "As soon as he finished speaking, Song Xianfu fired the first shot. After the division's training in Hanyang and reorganization in Nanjing, the greatest progress was that the soldiers would no longer fire randomly."

  In this era, due to the constraints of various factors such as cultural education and production level, the shooting training of soldiers has become a mere formality. It is often the case that they may not even get one live-fire training exercise in a year, which also leads to inexperienced soldiers often firing wildly before the enemy is within effective range. Fortunately, the soldiers of the 7th Regiment, thanks to Wang Zhenyu's money, have overcome this problem through sufficient training.

  Song Xianfu and Hao Bing did not choose to throw hand grenades or use mortars at the first opportunity, because the brigade commander had said that those were the last resort, and could not be used casually until the final moment (use them in the final moment, commit suicide?).

  However, under the insistence of Wan Yaohuang, they strictly implemented Wang Zhenyu's tactical training requirements during the Nanjing training period, arranging the entire defensive line into a V shape or an inverted "品" character. Relying on the advantageous terrain of the mountains, they arranged the individual camps into three battlefields, forming a firepower angle to fire at the enemy's attacking troops.

  This tactic was repeatedly discussed by Wang Zhenyu and Wan Yaohuang, and combined with an article about the German army's tactics in World War I that they saw online. At that time, the German army used the terrain of the bushes to deploy a company of soldiers in a defensive position, resulting in a company of French soldiers being annihilated during their attack. They felt that bullets were coming from all directions and had nowhere to hide, with casualties rising sharply. What was even more deadly was that because they couldn't find a key point to attack, the French army was unable to inflict effective damage on the German army.

  During the Nanjing reorganization period, Yang Wanguo, Song Xianfu, Hao Bing and others were also skeptical of Wang Zhenyu's tactics at first, and even proposed a challenge. However, after three simulations, all ended in failure, and everyone finally fully accepted this defensive tactic.

  This incident also made Wang Zhenyu sigh that soldiers are indeed one of the most conservative groups in the world, without exception.