Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 534 Never Coming Again

Upon learning that the G army had crossed the river in the middle of the night, Chang Ruiyuan in Xikou was extremely uneasy.

"Damn it! Delin is incompetent! It seems I must come out of seclusion!"

Regardless of whether Li Delin knew about this river defense plan or not, in Chang Ruiyuan's opinion, the G Army's breakthrough of the Yangtze River was due to Li Delin's poor command.

"Immediately notify the entire army! We must fight the G army to the bitter end at all costs!"

"yes!".
After the announcement was issued, Chang Ruiyuan continued to pace back and forth in the room.

Although he had given the order to fight to the end, he was still worried about losing all his last bit of savings.

After much hesitation, Chang Ruiyuan changed his mind again.

"Liangzhen".

"President."

"Send a telegram to Tang Keqin, instructing him to lead his troops to abandon Nanjing and retreat quickly towards Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou."

Chang Ruiyuan felt that the G army was unlikely to advance horizontally across the river; they would definitely carry out deep penetration operations as before.

If the main force gets surrounded, he'll be completely finished.

Upon receiving the order, Tang Keqin did not hesitate for a moment and immediately issued the order for a full retreat.

However, long before Tang Keqin issued the retreat order, the twelve armies along the Yangtze River had already completely collapsed.

Of these twelve armies, only the three armies in the far east offered a token counterattack.

As for the remaining troops, upon seeing the G army cross the river, they immediately turned and fled.

Among them, the 88th Division, which had been sold out, fought the most tenaciously.

Li Delin in Nanjing received a call from Tang Keqin.

"Please have the acting president leave Beijing no later than noon."

At first, Li Delin didn't recognize that it was Tang Keqin and thought it was the City Defense Division.

"I'm still in Jinling, what are you panicking about?" Li Delin was still determined to fight to the death; he really didn't want to give up Jinling.

"Acting President, this is Tang Keqin. This is President Chiang's order," Tang Keqin said. "I have already arranged for people from the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics to help you pack your belongings."

Li Delin is still the acting president, and Chang Ruiyuan cannot accept that he has fallen into the hands of the Kuomintang army, no matter what.

Otherwise, once Li Delin signs his name, the G army will have the moral high ground.

No sooner had Tang Keqin finished speaking than Li Delin saw a large number of cars rushing into the Presidential Palace.

At this point, even if Li Delin was unwilling, there was nothing he could do.

In the end, Li Delin could only take off from the airport to Guilin under the personal escort of Tang Keqin and others.

On the plane, Li Delin asked the pilot to circle Nanjing twice, the place he had always dreamed of visiting.

Looking at the circling plane from the ground, Tang Keqin said speechlessly, "Why is he still circling around?"

"Hehe. Back then, President Chang went around in circles once, now he's gone around in circles twice."

"Boring." Tang Keqin shook his head: "What time is it, still doing this?"

"let's go!"

After getting into the car, the group did not return to Jinling, but chose to leave directly.

They had already transferred their assets to Guangzhou long ago, and their families had all gone to Frog Island.

Meanwhile, Nanjing was already in chaos, with the roads crowded with the defeated Kuomintang troops.

Those police officers and public officials were either busy dividing up Chiang Kai-shek's assets or busy dividing up the property of the high-ranking officials who had fled.

There was simply no one managing the chaotic situation in Nanjing.

"Commander, we have received a telegram from the Special Operations Brigade. Nanjing has fallen into chaos, with deserters and rioters causing destruction everywhere."

"The special operations team asked if they needed to enter the city immediately to maintain order."

“Maintain order? How can we maintain it?” Chen Chengxing shook his head: “They are too few in number. Entering the city at this time will only cause greater chaos.”

No matter how strong the special operations brigade is, they only have about a hundred people right now.

Pouring a bowl of water into a pan of oil will only cause the oil to explode.

"Order the troops to abandon heavy weapons, speed up, and enter the city to maintain order."

Luo Ping added: "Tell the comrades to protect all public and private property abandoned by the enemy; to abide by the policies and strictly enforce urban discipline."

"yes!".
After a rapid march, at 5 p.m., the vanguard of the Second General Corps entered Nanjing and planted red flags on the city walls.

However, by the time Chen Chengxing arrived with the command post, it was already the next morning.

Meanwhile, the Second General's heavy weapons are still crossing the river.

Chen Chengxing and Luo Ping, who were initially in high spirits, discovered a problem as soon as they entered Jinling.

"What are you doing?! Come here!"

"Commander-in-Chief, Political Commissar."

A battalion commander jumped down from the grain sack with a grin.

"I've had the rice shops taken over, and I'm preparing to rob the rich to help the poor and open the granaries to distribute grain."

"Rob the rich to help the poor? Did you get that slogan from the Water Margin?"

"I learned it all from listening to audiobooks, so I don't know many characters yet."

"Nonsense!" Seeing Luo Ping's face growing increasingly dark, Chen Chengxing shouted, "Who gave you the right to take over the grain shop without authorization? And opening the granary to distribute grain—is it your grain?"

"Commander-in-Chief... I..." The battalion commander looked aggrieved. Isn't that how storytellers always say it?
Besides, the people had no food to eat, and he was doing it for their sake.

"What do you mean, 'what ...'? Get back here! Ten days of confinement! A deep self-criticism!"

"Return to camp immediately!"

"Yes, sir!" The battalion commander didn't dare to waste any more words and immediately took off running.

"Don't act recklessly without understanding the situation!"

Chen Chengxing said to the soldiers of the guard battalion next to him, "Take the grain back for them and check if there is any loss."

"If there is any loss, write a note saying it was borrowed by the second boss and pay them back another day."

"Yes!" Just as Chen Chengxing and Luo Ping finished dealing with the grain matter, before they could even move, they heard a gunshot.

When Chen Chengxing and his group arrived, they saw the head of the cultural troupe standing there with a flushed face.

"What's going on? Why were shots fired?"

The head of the cultural troupe, who was also the "Commander-in-Chief and Political Commissar," mumbled for a long time before finally explaining the situation.

It turned out that he was being held back by two prostitutes and was about to be dragged into the house.

Unsure of how to proceed, they opted to fire a warning shot in the street.

"You're the head of a cultural troupe, and you don't even know the rules?" Luo Ping said irritably.

“These people are difficult to deal with, but you can’t just shoot them.”

"Why are you still shopping? Let's go back." Luo Ping waved his hand.

"Yes!"

Upon arriving at the Presidential Palace and seeing the scene inside, Chen Chengxing covered his face, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

The soldiers didn't recognize the faucets, so they broke them off, causing water to flow everywhere inside the presidential palace.

The carpets inside the presidential palace were cut up by a company commander and distributed to the soldiers as blankets to sleep on.

In the garden, military horses defecated everywhere, and soldiers washed clothes and cooked in the garden, making a complete mess.

The soldiers were all hardworking people, and they had never seen anything like this before. In their eyes, it was a waste to plant such a large garden with only trees and no vegetables.

If we weren't stationed here, the soldiers would be clearing land.

Just as Chen Chengxing was arranging for the soldiers to regroup and recover, a telegram from the field headquarters nearly made his head explode.

"You're saying that a platoon leader from the 21st Detachment went to the home of U.S. Ambassador Stuart and gave him a lecture?!"

“That’s right.” Chu Yunfei nodded: “Although he didn’t curse, he was still disciplining people by pointing fingers.”

"I heard that the protest letter has reached the central government."

"Sigh," Chen Chengxing slumped down, feeling utterly defeated. "What a mess."

"If I had known this earlier, I wouldn't have rushed to Nanjing."

"We only managed to hold off 5,000 fleeing soldiers, yet so many unexpected problems have arisen."

"So many confusing and baffling things are happening all the time."

In Chen Chengxing's view, the five thousand people couldn't even get a bite to eat anywhere, and the troubles they encountered in Jinling were incomparable.

"Commander-in-Chief, the Field Headquarters said that the 35th Army is crossing the river and will soon come to take over the garrison. After the handover, the Second General Staff will continue south."

"Handover? We can't wait for a handover! Convene a combat meeting immediately!"

Chen Chengxing decided to leave Jinling as soon as possible; the guns and cannons on the battlefield made him feel more at ease.

By the time the commanders of each unit arrived at the headquarters, Chen Chengxing had already filled the map with lines.

"Look here."

"Kirikawa."

"According to intelligence, the retreating Nationalist troops mainly went in two directions. Those east of Dantu went to Shanghai, while the Nationalist troops west of Dantu and around Nanjing headed south, with their target likely being Lin'an."

"From Jinling to Lin'an, you have to pass through the Tongchuan area."

“Starting from the Jinling and Dantu areas, it is about 150 kilometers away from Tongchuan. Due to the obstruction of the mountains, at the speed of Guo Jun, it would take them at least four or five days to travel.”

"I have decided that the entire army will immediately launch an attack and seize Tongchuan!"

"Commander-in-Chief, if this continues, we'll be isolated and vulnerable to being surrounded by the Guo army from both sides."

Chen Chengxing waved his hand: "It's not that I look down on Guo Jun, but if we were there now, they wouldn't dare to come over. Even if they dared to surround us, they couldn't do anything to our Second Commander."

The Second Division certainly couldn't bring artillery for a rapid pursuit, but even the lightly armed Second Division was not something that the hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops could wipe out in a short time.

Of course, if the Guo army really surrounded them, Chen Chengxing would be laughing all the way to the bank.

“Our target is the Kuomintang troops who have already retreated to the Shuiyang area,” Chen Chengxing said, pointing to the map.

"The transport regiment, chemical defense battalion, air defense battalion and other troops will remain in Nanjing to await handover, and will then advance together with the artillery units. The remaining troops will assemble and depart immediately."

"My requirements are very simple, just fourteen words: chase quickly, block quickly, intercept quickly, annihilate quickly; run away, fight well, starve well."

"Old Chen, should we report this?"

Chen Chengxing thought for a moment and said, "Send a telegram to the Corps Headquarters, saying that the Second Commander is going to have a big meal. Those who want to eat should hurry up and follow. If they are late, there won't be any soup left."

Upon receiving the order, each unit immediately set off at the fastest possible speed.

If they encounter small groups of KMT troops along the way, they will only send out a small force to drive them away.

The troops didn't even want prisoners; everyone braved the wind and rain, advancing as quickly as possible on the muddy roads.

Without the burden of heavy weapons and supplies, the Second General Corps could achieve an average speed of six to eight kilometers per hour, with a top speed exceeding ten kilometers per hour.

Especially after entering the mountainous area, the speed of the Second General Team did not decrease but increased.

"Hurry and chase them! If we don't catch them a hundred li today, there won't be any more battles to fight!"

"Faster! Faster!"

By the roadside, soldiers spotted the temporary encampment of the KMT troops, but the KMT troops were no longer there.

Once the Guo army saw the G army from afar, they had already turned tail and ran.

"Hey! Comrades! There's rice! Quick, everyone eat up so we can chase the enemy!"

Chen Chengxing saw a dozen soldiers as soon as they entered the small shed, before they had even eaten.

After riding up, Chen Chengxing immediately shouted, "Don't stop!"

"We are hungry, but the enemy is even hungrier; we are exhausted, but the enemy is even more exhausted!"

"Don't let the enemy catch his breath. If we let the enemy escape, the price we will pay in the future will be even greater."

"Pursue them immediately!"

Watching the departing figure on horseback, the squad leader exclaimed in surprise, "My goodness, that's our captain! Come on, everyone, grab your things and fill them up so we can keep chasing!"

The squad leader used an entrenching tool to scoop rice directly into each soldier's helmet, allowing them to eat while running.

(End of this chapter)