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

When the gunshot rang out from the side and behind...

"We're surrounded!" someone shouted first.

The sound traveled quickly through the trenches, like a drop of cold water falling into a pot of boiling oil.

Immediately afterwards, a rout broke out.

Without warning, yet it was perfectly natural.

Several soldiers threw down their guns and turned to run away.

Before the officer could even utter a reprimand, more people had already started running.

Some people ran while shouting that the command post was destroyed, while others didn't shout anything and just ran wildly with their heads down.

The machine gunners who were still firing in the trenches saw that everyone around them was running, so they stopped aiming and abandoned their machine guns to run after them.

When the Nationalist army commander rushed out of the command post, this was the scene he saw—hundreds and thousands of soldiers were pouring out of the position and scattering and fleeing to the rear.

He pulled out his pistol and fired two shots into the air, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Come back! All of you come back! Anyone who runs away, I'll shoot them!"

It was no use. The fleeing crowds were like water bursting its banks; there was no stopping them.

He even saw a battalion commander running faster than the soldiers while mixed in with the fleeing troops.

More Red Army soldiers came ashore from the river, wading through the muddy shoals, and pursued the fleeing Nationalist troops.

The gunfire escalated from sporadic shots to bursts of fire during the pursuit, with people falling to the ground every now and then, but those running ahead never looked back.

Seeing this, Hu Tiantao on the south bank slapped his thigh and shouted, "Signal flares! Fire three green ones! Quickly!"

Whoosh... Bang.

A green signal flare rose into the twilight sky, exploding into a bright green light in the hazy dusk.

Immediately afterwards, the second and third missiles rose up almost simultaneously, three green lights hanging side by side in the sky, like three stars that suddenly lit up.

On the main battlefield, Xun Huaizhou was standing on a high ground, holding up a telescope.

He saw those three green signal flares clearly.

According to his experience, more than 90% of the Nationalist army's troops would collapse after being outflanked and surrounded by the Red Army.

The remaining less than 10% were the elite of the elite, and Zhou Hunyuan clearly did not have such elite troops under his command.

He turned to the bugler behind him and ordered, "Sound the charge! All troops, attack!"

The resounding bugle call tore through the twilight and echoed throughout the entire battlefield.

On the frontal blocking position, the Red Army soldiers, whose palms were already sweating from waiting, leaped out of the trenches and charged towards the National Army's position with shouts.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist soldiers on the position had already heard the increasingly intense gunfire behind them.

"What happened in Qujiang?"

"Has our left wing collapsed?"

"Are there Red Army soldiers on the flank or rear?"

These sounds traveled quietly through the trenches, growing faster and faster with each passing moment.

The veterans' faces were all grim.

They are more skilled in battle than anyone else. They can tell from the direction and intensity of the gunfire that their brothers on the other side can't hold on.

Once the flanks are breached, the front line of defense will be vulnerable to attack.

I don't know which company started moving first, then the battalion, and then the entire regiment.

The Nationalist army's defensive line on the front line collapsed like building blocks with their bases removed.

The soldiers dropped their weapons and ran desperately westward, in any direction they could run.

The officers shouted themselves hoarse but couldn't stop them. In fact, some of the loudest shouters were pushed by their own men and nearly fell into the trench.

Zhou Hunyuan stood in the command post, listening to the gunfire and shouts of battle getting closer and closer, his face ashen.

He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them, turned around, and his voice regained some of its composure:

"Order all units to take turns providing cover and retreat towards Jiangshan. Take what you can carry, and destroy what you can't. Send a telegram to Commander-in-Chief Wei... Our troops are no longer capable of fighting."

Zhou Hunyuan was also a veteran general who had been on the battlefield for a long time.

Despite his orders, such as alternating cover and destroying supplies, they were never actually implemented.

However, choosing Jiangshan County as the retreat location was definitely a wise choice.

Behind them is Longyou, and further behind is Quzhou.

If it were an ordinary general, he would have thought of not going to Longyou, but retreating to Quzhou, which is a little further away, and relying on the strong city walls to hold out to the death.

That shows some basic knowledge of war, but not much.

Because neither Longyou nor Quzhou escaped the Red Army's attack range.

You retreated into the city, and the Red Army surrounded it from all sides. You, with a bunch of defeated soldiers, still wanted to hold the city.

That would probably be like offering yourself up to the Red Army as a snack.

But things were different when they retreated to Jiangshan, where there were still more than 2000 local troops in Quzhou.

Using them as shields could at least slow down the Red Army's pursuit.

Moreover, after arriving in Quzhou, two main roads appeared ahead, one to the left and one to the right. To the left was Jiangshan, and to the right was Changshan.

Changshan County is located at the foot of the Huaiyu Mountains.

The meaning of this retreat order is quite clear.

Red Army gentlemen, I've already cleared the way.

Stop chasing and hitting him!

But he was being too naive.

That's how Xun Huaizhou fights: he either doesn't fight at all, or he fights to the death.

As dawn broke, the west gate of Quzhou City creaked open.

There were no bugles, no banners, and no orderly ranks.

Emerging from the city gates was a large group of disheveled and filthy defeated soldiers.

They ran westward without looking back, like a group of rabbits chased by hounds all night, driven only by the instinct to escape.

The Nationalist soldiers on the city wall were dumbfounded. Some leaned over the crenellations, looking down with their mouths agape.

Last night they received a notice that defeated troops were going to pass through Quzhou, but they did not expect the "defeated troops" to look like this. This was not a retreat, but a rout.

Zhou Hunyuan was in this rout of soldiers. He wasn't riding a horse, and his uniform was covered in dust.

He walked in the middle of the group, slightly ahead, his steps heavy, but his back was still fairly straight.

As he walked, he shouted to the soldiers beside him, "Keep it up, everyone! We'll rest at the next town. When we get there, there will be hot food and clean water. Cheer up!"

His voice was hoarse, but his strength was still there. Having fought for over twenty years, he knew what to do at what time.

If I collapse first at this point, the team will fall apart completely.

Even if he escaped alive, he would be a commander without any soldiers.

There was an old soldier in the team, in his early thirties. He was so tired that he bent over, put his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath.

Before he could catch his breath, he was kicked hard in the buttocks, staggering forward two steps and almost falling to the ground.

He turned around angrily to see who had kicked him, and when he saw it was Zhou Hunyuan, he swallowed the curse that was about to come out.

Zhou Hunyuan withdrew his foot and glared at him: "You dare stop? Do you fucking want to die?"

The veteran was rendered speechless by the kick, and while starting to run again, he muttered curses under his breath:

"Damn it, the Red Army soldiers are a bunch of animals. They've been chasing me all night. Aren't they tired?"