Chapter 189: Republic of China: Starting from the First Class of Whampoa Chapter 189 Unspeakable Words

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

Seeing that Zhang Faikui had taken Zhang Fei's words to heart, Lv Muzhi felt somewhat relieved, and it was not in vain that he had sent his confidant Zhang Fei to Zhang Faikui's side to remind him daily to pay attention to defending Hangzhou Bay; now it seemed Zhang Faikui had indeed listened to Zhang Fei's words.

Judging from the firepower of the naval gunfire support, after the devils suffered heavy casualties and a series of blunders, the army and navy seemed to have reconciled, and their contradictions could no longer be exploited for the time being; with naval gunfire support for the devil army, this operation was too unbalanced.

What Lv Muzhi needed to do was to transfer the troops to the second-line defense as much as possible, but this did not align with the Principal's strategy; as a direct-line follower, he could not propose this himself, but could only let the three route commanders above him kick up a fuss.

Gu Zhutong was now in a difficult spot; the commanders of the Left, Center, and Right Route Armies were all disobedient, and he, this Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Third War Zone, could not suppress anyone; upon seeing Zhang Faikui, he felt Zhang Faikui was up to something.

"I say, Commander Zhang, how do I remember not calling you to the meeting? Didn't I say the meeting results would be sent to you by telegram?"

Upon hearing Gu Zhutong's words, Zhang Faikui got angry: "What do you mean by this? Only you direct-line followers are allowed to attend meetings, and I, old Zhang, the Right Route Army Commander, cannot even come to a meeting?"

Gu Zhutong felt he had misspoken and said with a wry smile: "Don't be angry, I didn't mean that. So what do we do now? The Principal's intention is that the Left, Center, and Right Route Armies must all strike the enemy head-on; you doing this, isn't it... not too good?"

"We all need to unite behind the Leader's will, right, Wei Yue? Don't you think so?"

Gu Zhutong hurriedly tried to find someone to back him up, directly naming Lv Muzhi.

Lv Muzhi nodded: "Deputy Chief of Staff Gu is right; we must strike the enemy head-on. For example, Hu Gongnan's First Army at Yanghang needs to fight more decisively; Huang Wei's Sixty-Seventh Division at Luodian must fight to the last man; the Gui clique's..."

Before Lv Muzhi finished speaking, Hu Gongnan jumped up and said: "Wei Yue, my First Army is almost wiped out; we both came from the First Army, surely you remember old ties?!"

"Wei Yue, Huang Wei is lying on a stretcher, and even the cooks of the Sixty-Seventh Division have been killed in action..." Chen Cheng reminded him.

"Oh?" Lv Muzhi put on a surprised look and looked at Gu Zhutong: "Commander Gu... how do you think we should handle this? The devils are opening a second battlefield at Hangzhou Bay; the Principal has sent all available troops to Shanghai; how should we plan for Hangzhou Bay?"

"Hmm?" Gu Zhutong saw how the ball had been kicked to him, and seeing everyone's expectant eyes, he said helplessly: "This matter is too big; let me request instructions before we discuss it further."

Middle Route Army Commander Zhu Shaoliang stood up to press further: "How long will the request for instructions take? Without exaggeration, frontline soldiers are dying every minute."

"This..."

Hu Gongnan stood up: "Instructor Gu! The First Army is the force we started with; don't you remember the past at all?"

Gu Zhutong was stunned, suddenly recalling the scene of Whampoa teachers and students serving together in the First Army, but still did not answer; he stood up and walked out of the conference room by himself, leaving everyone cooling their heels in the conference room.

Chen Cheng saw this and said, "Heh, Deputy Chief of Staff Gu really knows how to protect his own feathers; he cannot play the role he should at all, only knowing how to be a mouthpiece."

Zhu Shaoliang also could not bear it: "Exactly how many divisions need to be written off before it's enough?"

Lv Muzhi looked at Zhang Faikui, and Zhang Faikui stepped forward and said: "As the saying goes, a general outside the capital need not accept the sovereign's orders."

Chen Cheng and Zhu Shaoliang saw that Zhang Faikui was a role model; he had insisted on defending Hangzhou Bay and disobeyed superior orders.

The Left, Center, and Right Route commanders gathered in a group to discuss something, while Lv Muzhi stood behind Zhang Faikui.

After a while, everyone finished discussing and left on their own.

Zhu Shaoliang leaned in and whispered something to Hu Gongnan, and the two left quickly.

Chen Cheng directly called all his subordinates out of the conference room and hurried back to the Left Wing Army Command.

Only Lv Muzhi and Zhang Faikui remained in the conference room; Lv Muzhi said: "Commander Zhang, you came quite fast."

"That's right; I happened to be in Songjiang receiving the newly arrived Northeast Army Sixty-Seventh Army on the battlefield, then received your telegram, so I came a bit faster."

Lv Muzhi asked: "How are the defense preparations at Hangzhou Bay?"

"Thanks to you, plus Zhang Fei's assistance, the anti-landing fortifications at Hangzhou Bay all have specialized troops defending them."

"Did that fellow Zhang Fei cause any trouble with you?"

"Haha, no, everything is fine; he just talks too much, always saying Commander Lv said this, that the devils have designs on Hangzhou Bay, that the landing forces in the Pudong area are a feint to lure the tiger away from the mountain; my ears are getting calluses."

Lv Muzhi said: "Still, Commander Zhang is straightforward; he says things we find hard to say and does things they dare not do."

"What's that? What I said is actually what you, Lv Wei Yue, wanted to say, right? Haha; things your direct-line followers cannot say, I will say; things they cannot do, I can do!"

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While Gu Zhutong was requesting instructions from Jinling, Chen Cheng and Zhu Shaoliang's deployments changed greatly.

On the Yanghang side, after suffering a counterattack from the devils, Hu Gongnan's troops withdrew from Yanghang and simultaneously sent a telegram to their superiors: "The Japanese army's offensive is fierce; the enemy occupied Yanghang with superior forces; the First Army is unable to launch an offensive and has now withdrawn from the Yanghang battlefield."

On the Luodian side, after Chen Cheng arranged troops to cover the bottom around Wunaozham and Jiading, he withdrew troops from Luodian one after another, and also sent a letter of confession to Jinling, stating that the troops had suffered huge casualties and could no longer fight, and that he had let down the Principal's trust and instructions.

In Jinling, the Principal was adjusting positions on the map one division at a time according to the telegram sent by Gu Zhutong, holding small flags in his hand, to facilitate his own micro-management.

"Report, Hu Gongnan has withdrawn from Yanghang!"

"Report, Chen Cheng has retreated to the Wunaozham line!"

The secretary's words left the Principal stunned on the spot; the combat plan he had worked so hard on was now all in vain.

Gu Zhutong's request-for-instructions telegram also arrived at this time; after reading it, the Principal cursed: "Outrageous, outrageous; the commanders of the three route armies actually disobeyed orders? This Zhang Faikui is too hateful!"