Southern guerrilla warfare: I led the Red Seventh Army Corps to amassed a million troops.

Before he could finish speaking, Chief of Staff Ruan Yongqi picked up the ringing phone, listened to a couple of sentences, and his face turned deathly pale.

"Commander... something's happened on the northern front." Ruan Yongqi's voice trembled. "The two battalions transferred back from the north were ambushed by the Red Army en route. The enemy's strength is unknown, but their firepower is extremely fierce, and they're being relentlessly pursued!"

Li Yutang swayed, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Reinforcements have been cut off, and they won't be here anytime soon.

The city walls have been breached, and the Red Army is pouring into the city in droves.

The situation suddenly became extremely dangerous.

He's not afraid of death. How many people who dare to be suicide squad leaders are actually afraid of death?

But at this moment, the fear in my heart was impossible to suppress.

Because he clearly perceived that the Third Division had a fatal weakness.

The troops outside the city did not carry any extra ammunition.

More than half of the division's ammunition stockpile is in the armory inside the city!

If the troops outside the city are cut off, they will be lambs to the slaughter once they run out of ammunition.

"Xun Huaizhou...what a ruthless scheme!" Cold sweat beaded on Li Yutang's forehead.

He has now witnessed firsthand what it means to be young and strong.

These young people, who are not from a professional background, are reckless and unscrupulous when they start hitting, and they go after the older comrades in their most vulgar ways.

In a moment of urgency, he quickly issued a series of orders.

"Immediately send an urgent telegram to the 9th Division in the Zhenghe area and the 36th Division in Datian County, requesting immediate reinforcements!"

"Order Xu Yongxiang of the 8th Brigade to disregard the enemy in front and immediately dispatch at least one regiment to launch a counterattack on the Red Army's flank and rear towards the south gate! I want to pin this attacking Red Army force down between two sides and hold them firmly at the foot of the city walls!"

However, Li Yutang felt that he had overestimated Xun Huaizhou, but in fact he had underestimated him.

By bypassing the enemy's frontal defenses and attacking the city directly, the flanks and rear would inevitably be threatened.

How could Xun Huaizhou make such a basic mistake!

On the mountain road to the south of the city.

Pan Zhizheng, commander of the 15th Regiment of the National Revolutionary Army, led his troops on a forced march to the county town.

Pan Zhi was a graduate of the fourth class of the Whampoa Military Academy, a professionally trained officer who received a complete military education.

However, in terms of talent, he can only be said to be far beyond ordinary people, but he does not reach the level of a genius.

Therefore, even among the many famous generals at Whampoa Military Academy, he could only be considered an unknown figure.

The operational command was conventional and did not make any common-sense mistakes, but it also did not have many outstanding performances.

"Quick! Keep up! Once we get over this hill, we'll be on the main road!" Pan Zhi shouted from his horse.

The vanguard had just crossed the mountain when a sudden change occurred.

Suddenly, a burst of gunfire erupted from behind.

"Commander! The rear guard company is under attack! The Red Army has captured the high ground behind us!" The messenger rushed in.

Pan Zhi's heart tightened. Before he could make a decision, gunshots rang out from ahead like popping beans.

"Report! Red Army blocking positions have appeared on the high ground ahead!"

Pan Zhi's expression changed drastically.

With both hilltops occupied, his two thousand men were trapped in this narrow valley, becoming sitting ducks.

Da da da da!

On the high ground on both sides, the Red Army's light and heavy machine guns opened fire simultaneously, and the dense barrage swept across the enemy, mowing down the exposed Nationalist soldiers in droves.

Mortar shells exploded one after another in the marching column, sending limbs and severed bodies flying everywhere.

The ranks were thrown into chaos instantly, with soldiers running around like headless flies.

"Don't panic! Organize a counterattack on the spot!" Pan Zhi drew his sidearm and shot down two fleeing soldiers who were trying to escape.

His mind raced. In this terrain, being ambushed, he absolutely could not order a retreat.

Once the retreat begins, the troops will instantly suffer a massive rout.

There were enemies both in front and behind, but advancing forward at least gave the soldiers the psychological hope that the attack was still ongoing.

This is strikingly similar to the Japanese army's strategy of retreat.

"First Battalion, Second Battalion, charge forward! Recapture the high ground ahead!" Pan Zhi roared hoarsely.

Driven by their officers, the Nationalist troops reluctantly launched an assault on the high ground ahead.

However, the Red Army's infiltration forces had already established a tight network of crossfire.

The hastily organized uphill attack appeared pale and powerless in the face of the dense barrage of bullets.

After leaving behind about a hundred corpses, the Nationalist army's offensive completely collapsed.

Just then, the Red Army from behind pressed down along the mountainside.

The shouts of battle echoed across the mountains and fields, deafeningly loud.

Pan Zhi looked at the collapsing defenses and the soldiers fleeing in all directions, his hand holding the gun trembling slightly.

lost.

A complete and utter defeat.

He took a deep breath and ordered all units to... disperse and break out.

Wang Yaowu once said something quite apt: even if there were 50,000 pigs, it would take three days and three nights to catch them all.

That's absolutely right.

The Red Army soldiers at that time had a deep understanding of this.

The Nationalist army not only refused to surrender, but actually dared to fight back.

Just as they were about to teach their opponents a lesson, these guys suddenly ran away.

Despite their best efforts to stop them, three to five hundred people still managed to escape the battlefield.

The key problem is that once these people went deep into the mountains and forests, they couldn't figure out their exact location at all.

The pursuit was like playing hide-and-seek with the Nationalist army in the woods.

We can't just not chase them, because who knows if they'll launch a surprise attack?

Left with no other choice, the Second and Third Battalions each sent out a company to search and pursue the enemy in the mountains and forests.

At this point, although the situation was unfavorable for the Third Division, it was not without hope of turning the tide.

In terms of troop strength, they only lost one regiment, and three other battalions were temporarily rendered combat ineffective.

The Eighth Brigade still has one regiment, and the Ninth Brigade still has three thousand combat-ready soldiers.

In addition to the garrison troops in the county town and the division's directly subordinate troops, the combat force available for deployment is still no less than six thousand people.

The Red Army troops responsible for the feint attacks in the south and east cities quickly ran out of steam and were discovered by the Nationalist army.

Therefore, even though Li Yutang had received clear news that the 15th Regiment had been ambushed and wiped out, he still felt that there was still a chance to fight this battle.

He ordered the supply battalion to load nearly half of the ammunition from the armory onto trucks, and to distribute the remainder to the front-line troops as much as possible.

If things truly become unmanageable, immediately abandon the county town and move towards the west gate.

At that time, the Ninth Brigade, relying on the mountain fortifications outside the city, will hold out until reinforcements arrive at dawn, which will be the time for the National Army to turn the tide and win.

However, Li Yutang, who had made all the arrangements, made a mistake that many generals make—overestimating his subordinates' ability to withstand adversity and pressure.

These fierce generals subconsciously assumed that their subordinates, who were usually so passionate and eloquent in front of them, possessed the same strong mental fortitude as themselves.

If the roles were reversed, given Zhou Zeyuan's style of doing things, he would have delegated the task of formulating battle plans to his subordinates, while he himself would have focused on calming the morale of his troops.

A slight dip in morale usually doesn't matter.

But if it drops to zero outright, even Sun Tzu, the military genius, would be at a loss.

At the headquarters of the 8th Brigade of the National Revolutionary Army, Xu Yongxiang paced anxiously back and forth.

The gunfire outside was sometimes dense and sometimes sparse, and each explosion made him pause.

His palms were sweaty, but he forced a calm expression on his face.

At that moment, a burly man lifted the curtain and walked in.

As soon as Xu Yongxiang saw him enter, he immediately went to greet him and grabbed his arm:

"Old Han, you've come at the right time! Tell me honestly, did you hear that commotion just now? What size cannon would it take to make that kind of noise?"

Old Han was the only veteran in the brigade who had served in the artillery, but the explosions that came from the south of the city earlier had left him somewhat bewildered.