According to the offensive plan formulated before the oath, Yu Dacheng's Second Division did not participate in the direct battle against the Gansu army. This army would first capture Changwu, cut off the traffic from Pingliang to Xi'an, and then go west from Changwu to Lingtai to attack Longxian, control the Lao Lanxi Highway, and close the access from southeastern Gansu to Shaanxi.

Changwu County is not only a must-pass place for the land passage of the ancient Silk Road, but also a must-fight place for military strategists in history. The father of the Gugong Tan was forced to move to Qixia because of the garrison of the Di. Emperor Taizong of Tang fought fiercely with the Xue family father and son in the "Shaoshuiyuan". Guo Ziyi and Changwu were stationed in the army to defend, and Fan Zhongyan sent Song Liang to station in Changwu. It was named "Changwu" because it was a "place where martial arts are often used" in history.

Yu Dacheng sent dozens of soldiers to Changwu to reconnaissance and found that the situation here was a little nervous.

Changwu County was first stationed by two regiments of Liu Zhenhua's division, Yang Fengyi and Jiang Hongmou, and then Liu Zhenhua was defeated by the Northwest Army and fled to Shanxi. Changwu County was controlled by Sun Yue's national armies in the Northwest Army. When the Beiyang coalition forces attacked Chi, they fought fiercely with the Northwest Army on a thousand-mile front. Many troops in the rear were transferred to the front line, and the same was true for Changwu, and the defense immediately became empty.

In the spring of 1926, in April this year, Chen Zhaoli, the magistrate of Changwu, colluded with a miscellaneous company incorporated by the National Army to station in the county and be responsible for local defense. In the Northwest Army, the First Army of the National Army was Feng Yuxiang's direct line. Although Hu Jingyi's Second Army and Sun Yue's Third Army were not weak, their control and military discipline were relatively poor compared to the First Army. At that time, this saying was popular in the Northwest Army: one army was private, two army was overbearing, and three army was corrupt. The company commander of the National Army stationed in Changwu was named Lu Tao, who really played the tradition of "three armies greed" to the fullest.

Lu Tao, a miscellaneous company, was originally a bandit. After being incorporated by Han Tingfang's troops of the National Army, he hung the golden signboard of the Northwest Army. His actions were even more unscrupulous and increasingly rampant. This time, Lu Tao colluded with Chen Zhaoli and stationed in Changwu under the banner of "Supporting Wu Xingqifeng Guerrilla Second Company". Not only did he gather soldiers and gang up the rogues, but he created a 10th company to expand his power to call himself a regiment, but he also recruited land taxes and plundered them wantonly, and he led the troops to become bandits, burned, killed, plundered, and did everything he did. Because his army had a red belt on the hat, the people of Changwu hated him to the core, so he called him the Red-headed bandit army.

A soldier who was in Changwu's reconnaissance in advance told this story.

Lu Tao sent troops to the Lijin Bureau controlled by Chen Zhaoli to set up checkpoints in Fangzhuang, forcing farmers who used trolleys to sell rafters, charcoal and livestock to hang slopes to pay "chaos tax", and forced farmers who went to the market to sell pork after killing pigs and paid "blood tax". The people were miserable.

The day before yesterday, the county town was filled with meat, Lu Tao bandits and Lijin Bureau suddenly increased the "blood tax" to 5 cents of silver for every half slice of pork, which triggered protests from the people, and the market was in chaos. At that time, a farmer stood up and raised his arms and shouted: "If you don't pay, you won't pay! The people have been bleeding and sweating a little over the years, and they are not allowed to eat the fat pigs. Then the corrupt officials were jealous!" The man shouted from the East Street to the west gate: "The township party selling meat is upright, and the blood tax is not paid!" The crowd was angry and responded to the call. The bandits who collected the tax were angry and beat the farmer on the spot for a while and put them in the county jail.

On the second day, Chen Zhaoli pretended to start an "tax-resistance case". The office yamen set up a big battle. Dozens of red-headed bandits held nuclear bombs and bayonets Leng Sen. The farmer was beaten again in prison, covered with scars on his body. After being dragged to the court, he saw Chen Zhaoli looking like a slutty person, surrounded by bandits and followers, and immediately became angry and squirted, scolding: "What! Cangmai and Canggu is not settled, he only knows how to plunder money and bully the people!"

Chen Zhaoli was already holding a grudge, and then she became even more angry and ordered: "Beat this troublemaker hard!" The farmer did not show any weakness and cursed. Chen Zhaoli showed off her fierce look and executed the farmer with a stick. She beat the farmer to a bloody and bloody sight, and was standing in court. Onlookers were uproar, running around and shouting, causing a sensation in the city, and they wanted to seek justice for the victims and avenge the stolen officials and bandits.

Another soldier returned to the Second Division to report on the political and civilian situation of Changwu County, and brought a few people back.

One of them was Zhao Shuxun, who was 26 or 27 years old, from Nangong Village, Jinxian District. He joined the army and was trained at the Sanmin Officer School founded in Yao County, Yanghucheng's headquarters. He left the team and returned home at the beginning of this year. Another was Li Guilin, from Fengtou Village, Jinxian District. He was studying with Zhao Shuxun at the Huoshen Temple Mandarin School. Later, he dropped out of school to farm and was well versed in boxing. The other was Hu Jihai, from Hujiahe Village, Jinxian District. These three people are representative figures in the "anti-corruption officials and red-headed bandit army" trend among Changwu people.

In order to avenge the villagers, Zhao Shuxun, Li Guilin and Hu Jihai secretly connected Jing Tianshen, Hu Zhenfan, Hu Zhanbiao, Zhang Baoshan, Zhao Zhiyun, Jing Qingshan, Jing Ju, Li Rulin, Gao Yunjin and other village heroes, and went to Yaozhou to invite martial arts boxers to establish the Red ** club in Jingjiahe. While burning incense and valiant talismans and chanting spells, practicing martial arts, while raising swords and spears to inquire about the enemy's situation, so as to wait for the opportunity to take action.

Yu Dacheng admired these three people with courage, knowledge, wisdom and courage, but Yu Dacheng still had some concerns about their expectation to immediately march to eliminate Lu Tao's soldiers and bandits and deal with Chen Zhaoli.

For the People's Liberation Army, dog officials like Chen Zhaoli and soldiers and bandits like Lu Tao were of course the targets of extermination and suppression, and the soldiers were also angry and demanded that the people of Changwu be removed. However, Yu Dacheng was a little hesitant and for nothing else, but Lu Tao, a miscellaneous company, was a regular organization under the Northwest Army. It was easy to eliminate Lu Tao, but how to deal with the Northwest Army needed to have an attitude first. Yu Dacheng thought about it and thought that it would be best if Wu Anping made the decision on this issue, so he informed Xifeng of Changwu's affairs and his own considerations through military radio.

Wu Anping's views on the Northwest Army are also very complicated.

Currently, Beiyang warlords such as the Zhili, Feng, Lu, and Jin are jointly attacking Feng Yuxiang and his commanded Northwest Army. Since the Beijing coup, Feng Yuxiang has been very close to the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. Although this has become an excuse for the Beiyang coalition to launch the "anti-Cheng" battle, it is precisely because of this that Feng Yuxiang and the old warlords of the Northwest Army have been reversed and gradually tended toward the front.

Some people have regarded it as the most revolutionary force outside Guangdong.

In fact, the formation of the Northwest Army can be traced back to 1912.

At that time, Yuan Shikai decided to train a new army, named Beibu Army, divided into five routes in front, back, left, center and right, and appointed his confidant Lu Jianzhang as the commander of the left. Lu Jianzhang appointed his niece-in-law Feng Yuxiang as the former battalion commander. After Feng Yuxiang took office, he immediately went to Jing County, Hebei to recruit a first battalion. This battalion was the initial team of the later large Northwest Army.

The next year, the left-road reserve army was renamed as the Guard Army and expanded, and Feng Yuxiang was promoted to regiment commander. Because there were people in the court, not long after, Feng Yuxiang was promoted to brigade commander of the left brigade of the first division, and soon he was renamed as brigade commander of the 14th Brigade of the 7th Division. In 1914, the 14th Brigade was changed to the 16th Mixed Brigade, which was under the jurisdiction of the 10th Battalion.

In 1917, Feng Yuxiang led his troops to Changde, Hunan as the governor of Xiangxi. During this period, he recruited soldiers and the net-level unit, and squeezed out the people who were stationed by Lu Jianzhang out of the troops. At that time, Feng's unit had the Fourth Infantry Regiment, the First Artillery Regiment, the Cavalry, and the Battalion of Engineers. Li Mingzhong was the leader of the First Infantry Regiment, Zhang Zhijiang was the leader of the Second Regiment, Zhang Shusheng was the leader of the Third Regiment, Zhang Weixi was the leader of the Fourth Regiment, Lu Zhonglin was the leader of the Artillery Regiment, and Liu Yufen was the chief of staff. At this point, all the officers of the 16th Mixed Brigade were Feng Yuxiang's confidants, which was the beginning of the formation of the Northwest Army Group.

In 1921, the Beiyang government replaced Chen Shufan, the governor of the Anhui clan, and succeeded him as Yan Xiangwen, the commander of the 20th Division of the Zhili Division. Chen Shufan disobeyed, and Yan Xiangwen was determined to solve the problem by force. Because Feng Yuxiang's 16th Mixed Brigade performed very hard in the battle, to express gratitude, Yan Xiangwen telegram asked Cao Kun to expand Feng Yuxiang's troops into division, and Feng Yuxiang's 16th Mixed Brigade was then expanded into the 11th Division.

In 1922, the First Zhi-Feng War broke out, and Feng Yuxiang became the commander-in-chief of the Zhi army. After the war, the Zhi army rewarded the merits and Feng Yuxiang became the governor of Henan. Feng Yuxiang expanded the troops and organized two supplementary regiments and a student regiment, and in October of that year, it was expanded into three mixed brigades. Feng Yuxiang's power rapidly expanded, which aroused Wu Peifu's fear. In order to suppress Feng Yuxiang, Wu Peifu coerced Li Yuanhong, then president, to remove him from his position as governor of Henan and transferred him to the Army's reviewer.

Before the Second Zhi-Feng War broke out in 1924, Feng Yuxiang expanded three additional brigades. After the war broke out, he served as commander-in-chief of the Third Army of the Zhi-Feng Army, but joined forces with Hu Jingyi and Sun Yue to launch a Beijing coup.

Later, Feng, Hu and Sun held a meeting in Beiyuan and decided to establish the National Army. Feng Yuxiang became the commander-in-chief of the National Army and the commander of the First Army. Hu Jingyi became the commander of the Second National Army, and Sun Yue was the commander of the Third National Army. Later, after Guo Songling was defeated in the Feng army, his remnants were led by Wei Yisan to join the National Army and established the Fourth National Army. Later, Fang Zhen's army left Zhang Zongchang, joined the National Army, and established the Fifth National Army.

The First National Army to the Fifth National Army are actually the current organizational sequence of the Northwest Army. The reason why the Northwest Army is called the Northwest Army is because in 1925, Feng Yuxiang took office as the Northwest Frontier Defense Supervisor, and the National Army was also renamed the Northwest Frontier Defense Army, abbreviated as the Northwest Army. However, many people are still used to calling the National Army.

In the Northwest Army, Feng Yuxiang's influence was everywhere, but for Wu Anping, he could not simply assign Feng Yuxiang, who also belonged to the warlord, to the hostile side.

No warlord has so many names like Feng Yuxiang, the commander of the Northwest Army: General Christ, General Commoner, General Against Gentle, Model Warlord, etc. Behind these complicated titles, it reflects the change in Feng Yuxiang's interests and ideas.

Feng Yuxiang betrayed his superiors many times. In 1923, he was involved in the expulsion of Li Yuanhong. During the Second Zhi-Feng War in 1924, he launched a coup and imprisoned the election-bribery president Cao Kun. He continued to join forces with various Beiyang warlords, intrigueing enemies and friends. In terms of ideas, from converting to Christianity to getting close to the Soviet Union, some people think that he was capricious.

Of course, the red-headed bandit army in Changwu County is not worth Wu Anping considering much, but the contact with the Northwest Army will surely increase and more, which requires the establishment of a unified principle. Finally, after repeated discussions with the brigade commanders of each division, Wu Anping set up a principle: only ask good and evil, not the others. Treat the Northwest Army units separately, refer to their actions, and then determine whether they need to be absorbed or eliminated.

After receiving the notice from Xifeng, Yu Dacheng immediately found Zhao Shuxun, Li Guilin and Hu Jihai and informed them of the immediate attack on Changwu. Lu Tao's red-headed bandit army did all kinds of evil, of course, the Northwest Army that should be eliminated.

Zhao Shuxun, Li Guilin, and Hu Jihai naturally supported him enthusiastically and were in high spirits. Although they organized the Red ** Society to develop secretly, the total number of township heroes and boxers is less than 200. Compared with the Red-Headed Bandit Army, their strength is still far behind. Now Yu Dacheng leads his troops to attack Changwu, and the villagers will be liberated in advance to get rid of the oppression of stolen officials and soldiers. This is naturally the best thing.

The Red-headed Bandit Army was stationed in many strongholds in the countryside, so Yu Dacheng divided several companies, led by Zhao Shuxun, Li Guilin, Hu Jihai and others, and was specifically responsible for clearing out the rural soldiers and bandits. He led the main force of the Second Division to attack Changwu County and surrounded them and attacked them, so as not to let a bandit army and the stolen officials escape.

When the Second Division of the People's Liberation Army mobilized and advanced to Changwu County in an all-round way, the battle quickly started everywhere.

Zhao Shuxun led a company of fully armed People's Liberation Army soldiers to cover a company of Red-headed Bandits stationed in Xianggong Town with lightning speed. The enemy still had to resist, but after a few releases, they were sobbing by the soldiers' grenades. The bandit company commander looked around behind the cover, but was hit by a soldier's sniper. A big hole was opened on the spot on the forehead, and blood and brain soil were mixed with water. When the other enemy troops saw this tragic phenomenon, they dared not resist stubbornly and surrendered one after another.

When Li Guilin followed the soldiers of the company to Penggongbao, he suddenly encountered Huang Yaozi's troops in Liuquan City. The soldiers charged and fired wildly, and the bandit army was caught off guard. Li Guilin also stood up and fought hard in the fierce battle, and used Yu Dacheng's hand to kill Huang Yaozi, the company commander of the bandit army. The enemy's remaining soldiers fled towards Penggongbao. The soldiers chased them all the way and contained dozens of prisoners. Penggongbao was immediately conquered.

Hu Jihai was even more brave. He led a company of People's Liberation Army soldiers to encounter He Baocheng, a bandit army who had just returned from taxes in Mafangao. After a battle, He Baocheng was chopped off by Hu Jihai's sword, his head was hanging from his waist, and continued to chase and kill the defeated soldiers. The soldiers of the Second Division were all looking at him. When he arrived at Tingkoupo, another bandit army came to help, but when he saw Hu Jihai's blood was hanging on his waist, he immediately turned around and fled. The soldiers did not even let go of the **, so they had to continue to chase the deserters.

While each company cleared the strongholds of the Red-headed Bandit Army in the countryside, Yu Dacheng led the main force of the 6th Division to surround Changwu County. Under the four passes, mortars and field artillery attacked the city wall in turn. Lu Tao raised the signs of the Northwest Army and the National Army and demanded peace talks. Yu Dacheng ignored it at all and instead called the sniper to kill Lu Tao on the spot on the wall. The bandit army was injured and disabled, and he dared not show up again. When the thick artillery barrel of the Type 26 tank pointed at the city gate, the bandit army finally raised a white flag on the city wall.

After the Second Division entered the city, it immediately controlled all administrative agencies and the garrisons of the Red-Headed Bandit Army. Chen Zhaoli and the heads of the county office were arrested. Although they tried hard to clear themselves and blamed all the crimes on Lu Tao, under the testimony of countless Changwu people, all of these people were seized. When Chen Zhaoli and others were taken to the prison full of various torture instruments, the villagers rushed to tell each other, and firecrackers sounded everywhere in Changwu County, and the lively atmosphere was like the New Year.

After conquering Changwu County, Yu Dacheng invited Zhao Shuxun, Li Guilin, Hu Jihai and others from the Changwu Hongxun Society to join the People's Liberation Army and become the People's Army of the new era. Zhao Shuxun and others agreed with the purpose of the People's Liberation Army and were attracted by the generous military pay. They happily agreed to join the Second Division and follow Yu Dacheng to fight.

At this point, the section of Pinglan Highway in Changwu County, at the junction of Gansu and Shaanxi was firmly controlled by the People's Liberation Army. No matter what the Longdong is like, the Shaanxi warlords, especially the Zhensong Army of Liu Zhenhua, must first pass the Second Division if they want to support Zhang Zhaoguan.
Chapter completed!