At the moment when the entire 1st Division of the Guangxi Army was defeated and General Chen Bingkun became a prisoner, our Guangxi Governor Lu Rongting was still waving his whip and gazing out at the world with Wei Wu.

  "Hao Ming, after we cross the You River this time and defeat the Xiangxi Army, we will further attack Hongjiang." Lu Rongting laid out his own plan.

  Tan Haoming asked inexplicably: "General, weren't we going to attack Guangzhou? Why did it change to attacking Hongjiang?"

  Lu Rongting burst out laughing: "Everyone knows that Guangzhou is rich and prosperous, but they don't know how strong the Guangdong Army is. Moreover, within my Guangxi territory, it's not just me, Lu Rongting, who has a say in what happens. If we really went to Guangzhou, how could we possibly connect with Nanning? So occupying Guangzhou would be unsustainable. On the other hand, Hongjiang is different. Although the mountain roads are rugged and difficult to travel, if Guilin and Liuzhou were to fall into our hands, then it would truly become a connected territory. From what I know, Hongjiang is also a rich and prosperous place - tung oil, pig bristles, opium... everything makes money. Otherwise, how could that young whippersnapper Wang Zhenyu support such a large army?"

  Tan Hao Ming listened and thought it made sense: "General, then I'll take the lead and capture this Hong Jiang for you"

  Lu Rongting burst out laughing: "If we follow my plan, us Guangxi people will take down Hunan and Guangdong provinces. You go defend Hunan, Bingkun goes to defend Guangdong, then we'll have the qualifications to ask that Ding representing the whole country just how heavy it is."

  "What tripod is that representing the world?" Tan Hao Ming asked in confusion.

  Lu Rongting's face turned cold and he said, "I've told you countless times to spend less time playing cards when you're free and read more books. Yet, you don't even understand what a Ding is! This is something that even a school teacher would teach. That Ding, this Ding, anyway it's just that Ding!"

  At the time when Lu Rongting was looking down on the world, Huang Xuchu and other captured officers and soldiers of the first division of Guijun were all beaten by the Hunan Western Army and forced to squat on the ground with their heads in their hands.

  "What's wrong with Liao Kuai?" Li Zongren scolded in a loud voice, his usual rough demeanor making Liao Kuai, who was known for being crude, become flustered like a child.

  Bai Chongxi then hurried over and said to Liao Yue with a smile: "How could you have conflicts with the prisoners of war? Don't you know Commander Wang's rules? Have you memorized the military regulations or not? Are you trying to get beaten by the military stick? Explain it clearly to your superior, otherwise I won't let you off lightly."

  The chief of staff's words implied that as long as he explained, Liao Hui would be let off lightly. He took a deep breath and said: "Reporting to the commander and chief of staff, I really couldn't take it anymore. I just investigated clearly and found out that it was this trainee officer named Huang Xu who, during the chaos in the 2nd battalion of the Gui army's 1st division, carried the military flag and organized a counterattack with the whole battalion. The gunshot wound on his arm was definitely inflicted by the sharpshooter next to me. Such a reactionary officer should be executed immediately. Unexpectedly, these soldiers showed no prisoner-of-war consciousness and dared to block my way, so I..."

  Li Zongren immediately understood that Liao Yue's team had lost more than 300 people and after scolding himself, he naturally wanted to vent his anger on someone, so he made such a big move.

  He bent down to take a look at Huang Xuchu's forehead, which was stained with blood, and patted his shoulder gently, saying: "You're a talented military commander. From now on, don't follow Lu Dajun and the others in harming our Guangxi people. Just follow me honestly, can you?"

  Huang Xuchu stared blankly at this face like a thick and long official: "You are really General Li Zongren, the commander of the 3rd Division of the Xiangxi Army"

  Li Zongren burst out laughing and said: "How did you know me?"

  Huang Xuchu stood up and saluted, saying: "Greetings, senior. I am also a graduate of Guangxi Army Elementary School, a junior second-level student. I have heard stories about seniors participating in the Xinhai Revolution."

  Li Zongren hastily waved his hand: "Haha, what story? It's all about the beggar's story. Don't believe me, ask your senior Bai Jiansheng. And that rough behavior of Liao Xue, he is also your senior, but because he didn't study hard in school, he doesn't have any demeanor of a senior."

  Bai Chongxi could only laugh awkwardly after listening, while Liao Yue, who was trying to stir up trouble, was extremely embarrassed and could only twist and turn to come over and pat Huang Xu's shoulder: "This and that, you're quite something, we wouldn't have met if we hadn't fought."

  Those captured soldiers suddenly found out that the enemy officer was also from Guangxi. The hostile emotions immediately dissipated.

  A crisis triggered by a prisoner of war's disturbance was dissolved in an instant with just a few words of recognition between the sworn brothers.

  October 3, Xu Yuanquan arrived at the headquarters of the First Division in Baipeng Town. From here to Fenghuang Town, which is about 25 kilometers away from the front line, most of the terrain is mountainous and hilly, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Therefore, the original combat plan of the First Division was to send out small troops to use the terrain to slow down the attack speed of the Guangxi Army and effectively consume their morale, and then wait for Bai Chongxi to lead the Third Division to cross the Youjiang River and occupy the south bank of Laibin, completely cutting off the retreat route of the Third Division. At this time, it is estimated that Li Zongren, who led another part of the Third Division to occupy Guilin, also arrived at Liujiang. Everyone launched a counterattack from Liujiang and defeated the Guangxi Army in one fell swoop.

  However, with the annihilation of the First Division of the Guangxi Army, this plan underwent a slight adjustment. The First Division was asked to move the location of the decisive battle to Baipeng. The reason is simple:

  Firstly, the terrain of the Liujiang area is flat and difficult to defend, and it's hard to predict what would happen if the Gui army were to be stationed here.

  Secondly, Lu Rongting's troops are also foolish and came from Luzhai, how far can they go to Liujiang without being able to contact Chen Bingkun, will they not run away?

  The decisive battlefield was moved forward by 14 kilometers, just to the exit of the entire mountainous area, Baipeng Town, which is also the location of the current First Division headquarters.

  The commander of the 101st Regiment, Tao Zongyue, was a favorite general of the commander-in-chief and also the battalion commanders under him, such as Cai Junxian and Liu Xuyi, were also former surrendered generals. Naturally, the whole regiment actively requested to participate in this blocking mission.

  Xu Yuanquan then gathered all the officers above the regiment to give a speech: "From Fenghuang Town to Baipeng Town, I require you to defend every mountain head with your lives and continuously delay the enemy's advantageous forces' attack to lay the foundation for the overall counterattack of the main force. Our First Division is the division where the commander-in-chief started his career, it is the direct descendant of the commander-in-chief's direct descendant. This time is the first time we are conducting such a large-scale battle, if we win, it will make the commander-in-chief proud, if we lose, everyone will be humiliated together. Therefore, I require all officers and soldiers to uphold the spirit of not being afraid of death and not being afraid of hardship; each mountain head must be defended for no less than 24 hours unless the troops defending the mountain head are completely wiped out, otherwise, it is absolutely not allowed to retreat half a step. Do you understand?"

  The slaughter on the battlefield is just a manifestation of war, but the real war actually starts from logistics and supplies.

  The officers in the logistics room of the Military Equipment Department made their best efforts to use cows, horses, donkeys and even civilians to transport box after box of bullets, shells and hand grenades from the military factory in Anjiang to Baipeng Town, and then through the temporary transit warehouse in Baipeng Town to all participating units. The officers responsible for transportation worked day and night without rest. Despite this, Xu Yuanquan was still not satisfied. He hoped that the combat units could receive more sufficient supplies, which is the basic guarantee for the implementation of his combat plan.

  On October 4, the 301st and 302nd Regiments led by Li Zongren successfully opened up Guilin City, where 2,000 Guangxi troops defending the city surrendered without firing a shot to the Xiangxi Army. Bai Chongxi then led his troops to complete their reorganization, while Deputy Division Commander Liu Zhenhuan led the 303rd and 304th Regiments to begin an extremely difficult flanking maneuver.

  On October 5, the 101st Division successfully established its first line of defense near Fenghuang Town. Tao Zhiyue ordered the engineering troops to flatten the slope as much as possible into a 90-degree angle that was difficult to climb, while cleverly using the terrain to set up firepower points. Often, two mountain peaks' firepower points could form a firepower interlocking angle near the post road, thereby successfully blocking traffic.

  The 102nd and 103rd brigades were used as counter-attacking troops Shi Yong, the 104th brigade was stuck behind the 101st brigade, tense and conducting earthwork operations. Currently, the work on the anti-artillery cave is still not qualified. Wang Zhenyu is also not very concerned about this, after all, the so-called engineering level of the workers depends to a certain extent on the industrial technical level, it's not something that can be settled with one or two trainings.

  Wang Zhenyu inspected the first-line position under the accompaniment of Xu Yuanquan and Tao Lengyue, and was warmly received by Cai Junxian, the commander of the first battalion.

  "Hey Old Cai, how's the front line?" Wang Zhenyu asked seemingly casually.

  Cai Junxian had to reply with utmost respect: "Reporting back to the commander, our troops have built fortifications on various mountain peaks. My plan is to deploy one row of troops on each peak, while other units provide mobile support and respond through firepower superiority to carry out multi-layered blocking."

  Wang Zhenyu nodded, but actually he didn't have a clear idea of how to play this game. As for Cai Jun's professional terms, they were also quite vague concepts.

  He actually cared about another issue: "Old Cai heard that your family has all moved to Anjiang"

  "It is General Cai" answered Cai Jun standing upright

  Wang Zhenyu made a downward pressing gesture: "Others want you to be like this, Old Cai doesn't need to be so polite. In terms of seniority in the new army, I'm not as good as Old Cai. When you're fighting, you should use your brain more and don't just emphasize fierce battles and hard charges. Many times, fighting requires using your brain to think of ways, being flexible, and changing tactics. Most importantly, you need to try to kill the enemy with the smallest cost. You need to pay special attention to this point. It's not just that you want to go back to Anjiang and reunite with your family, in fact, all soldiers are raised by their parents."

  Cai Jun nodded slightly and accepted the challenge.

  Various tasks were completed very quickly but the enemy still hadn't appeared and everyone couldn't help but feel a bit anxious.

  October 6th, the Gui army, which had been expected by various departments of Xiangxi Army for a long time, finally came out from Laibin City.