My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

Chapter 356 Yang Shen's Backstab Success

With an army of more than 1.6 million at his disposal, Jiang Li finally had the confidence to start his next plan.

After confirming through telegram that the defense line in his territory was very solid, he ordered them to reinforce the fortifications, use the terrain to fight a defensive battle, and delay the enemy to create opportunities for him.

After that, Jiang Li began to mobilize troops and march towards Guizhou.

He showed no mercy in this move. He directly mobilized 200,000 wolf soldiers from Guangxi and 100,000 mountain combat troops from Chongqing, making a total of 300,000 people.

They joined forces with local guerrillas and, under the cover of aircraft, quickly rampaged across Guizhou, targeting permanent buildings such as those in towns.

He did this with only one purpose, which was to force the local warlords to confront him head-on, after all, Guizhou has many valleys and gullies.

If I really let them hide in the mountains, I'm afraid my logistics will be in big trouble.

The result was exactly as he expected. After he divided his troops into two groups and entered Guizhou, the largest local warlord, Wang Jialie, saw that the situation was not good and immediately contacted his two old rivals, Zhou Chengxi and Yuan Zuming.

Under his verbal offensive, the three parties finally put aside their prejudices and decided to join forces. With the support of local gentry and landlords, they assembled 400,000 troops to resist the attack from Jiang Li.

However, their ideas were good, but in the face of the fierce attacks of the well-equipped and well-trained Anmin Army, the constant harassment of the guerrillas, and the bombings from the planes in the sky, they could only retreat unwillingly in the end.

However, in just one month, the soldiers under these three guys either died, escaped or were captured, and the number of soldiers was reduced by nearly half, leaving only about 200,000 people.

They occupied one-third of Guizhou's territory and put up a desperate resistance.

When the warlords in several surrounding provinces learned that Jiang Li dared to send troops to attack Guizhou at this time, they stepped up their offensive, hoping to increase the resource consumption of the Anmin Army and make his logistics unable to support multiple fronts.

However, how could they know that Jiang Li has been continuously investing in infrastructure over the years, and now all the border defense areas have cement roads.

Coupled with his development in military industry and the large amount of stored military supplies, he is fully capable of supporting this army of more than one million and fighting at the current intensity for a year.

It is precisely because of this that Jiang Li is so confident and dares to go to war with the six surrounding provinces at the same time.

Another half a month passed like this, and under the instigation of Yang Shen, Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu in Yunnan finally turned their guns around and stopped attacking Guangxi, which was heavily defended.

Instead, they joined forces and went to Guizhou together to help Wang Jialie, Zhou Chengxi and Yuan Zuming to fight against Jiang Li's fierce attack.

However, although they went to support, in order to prevent them from evacuating suddenly, the Guangxi defenders took advantage of the opportunity and sneaked in, stealing their lair in one fell swoop.

So only half of the troops were taken away, with a total of 300,000 people on both sides, and the remaining half were left in Yunnan to prevent any accidents.

In addition, because Longyun was worried about Yang Shen, he deliberately left him on the border with Guangxi and let him stand on the front line to guard against the surprise attack of the Anmin Army.

But this was exactly what Yang Shen wanted. After sending Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu away, he immediately contacted Jiang Li to request action, and at the same time, he took advantage of Long Yun's power and began to quickly recruit soldiers in the surrounding areas.

With the support of Long Yun's power, Yang Shen recruited new soldiers and deserters and garrisoned 30,000 troops in local villages and towns in a very short period of time, which increased the number of his men to 50,000.

It was at this time that he received clear instructions from Jiang Li, telling him to proceed according to the original plan immediately, cooperate with the local guerrillas and the Guangxi defenders, quickly attack the various checkpoints and cities in Yunnan, and cut off their logistical supplies.

After receiving the order, Yang Shen acted quickly according to the plan. He first joined up with the troops stationed in Guangxi, and then falsely conveyed Long Yun's order, tricking many cities into opening up and capturing the garrisons there.

Afterwards, the political commissar and propagandists of the Anmin Army took action, explained the policies of the Anmin Army to these soldiers, quickly instigated a group of defenders to rebel, and began a full-scale attack on other cities in Yunnan.

Cooperate with the guerrillas to cut off all logistical supplies to Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu.

Because the mountain roads were difficult to navigate and the guerrillas could intercept, the transmission of intelligence was very slow.

It was not until five days after Yang Shen took action that Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu received the news and learned that there was a fire in their backyard.

So they ignored the advice of Wang Jialie, Zhou Chengxi and Yuan Zuming, and insisted on taking their troops back to Yunnan to resolve their own crisis.

As a result, the morale of the Guizhou soldiers, which had been greatly boosted by the arrival of 300,000 reinforcements, became very low again.

However, this was not the worst. What was worse was that the troops originally defended by Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu suddenly withdrew, resulting in large gaps in the defense line.

Jiang Li had anticipated this, so he used it as a breakthrough point and quickly dispatched troops to attack, quickly defeating the armies of Wang Jialie, Zhou Chengxi and Yuan Zuming.

Zhou Chengxi and Yuan Zuming died in the chaos, leaving only Wang Jialie to escape to Yunnan with 20,000 to 30,000 remaining soldiers.

After Jiang Li took over Guizhou, he did not stay there for long. He left a small number of soldiers to cooperate with the guerrillas to clear out deserters.

He once again ordered his army to pursue Wang Jialie and drive him into conflict with the armies of Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu.

Afterwards, he cooperated with the Guangxi garrison and Yang Shen to attack these panicked warlords from both sides.

The final result was predictable. Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu had neither a place to rest in the fortified city nor any replenishment of weapons and ammunition. Not only was their morale extremely low, but their combat effectiveness was also reduced by an unknown amount.

After several charges failed to break through the defense lines of the Anmin Army and Yang Shen, they finally chose to surrender under the repeated harassment of the guerrillas, the heavy bombing of aircraft, and the encirclement of the army in front and behind.

After repeatedly confirming that they were not pretending to surrender, they carefully confiscated their weapons.

Jiang Li finally breathed a sigh of relief at this time, and had Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu escorted to persuade the remaining defenders to surrender.

But at this time, something unexpected happened. The soldiers who stayed behind did not listen to Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu and actually defended the city and refused to surrender.

After receiving this news, not only Jiang Li was confused, but even Long Yun and Hu Ruoyu were all in disbelief. These soldiers actually did not listen to them!

Finally, after Jiang Li sent someone to communicate, we found out the whole story.

It turned out that the gentry and landlords in the city saw that the situation was hopeless, but were unwilling to give up the family business accumulated by several generations.

So they either spent money or found relatives who held positions in the army to explain Jiang Li's brutal policies. Eventually they raised an army and took control of the defenders in the city, hoping to negotiate with Jiang Li and preserve their land and property.