The Republic of China: A Letter of Appointment Creates the Most Powerful Warlord

Late at night, the entire valley was shrouded in darkness as thick as ink, as if a huge and mysterious monster had opened its endless mouth and swallowed everything.

However, in this pitch-black darkness, rows and rows of soldiers were bending their waists and moving forward silently.

Because it was too dark, they did not dare to use lighting tools for fear of exposing their position. They could only lean on the shoulders of those in front of them and move forward step by step.

Under the cover of night, the marching team was so long that it seemed as if there was no end in sight. All the people bent over as they marched towards the enemy's front line.

call out! !

The sharp and piercing sound pierced the dark and lightless night sky. The creepy sound of breaking through the air was like a desperate cry coming from the deepest part of purgatory, penetrating people's eardrums and hitting the deepest part of the soul, making everyone present involuntarily look up and look at the mysterious sky.

At the edge of the sky, points of light with long flame tails suddenly appeared, like the bright stars flickering in the Milky Way, emitting dazzling light.

The scorching tail flame streaked across the night sky, leaving behind a series of brilliant and colorful trails, like a magnificent painting that made people unable to help but stare intently.

"Fuck, get down!!!"

"Everyone get down!!"

"Get down, the shells are coming, get down quickly!!"

At the front of the team, some junior officers reacted instantly. Without caring whether they would be exposed, they ran around and shouted, raised the flares in their hands, pointed them at the sky, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang!

As a signal flare was launched into the air, the team moving forward at the rear discovered something was wrong and hurriedly stopped, not continuing to climb Hill 231.

It was also at this moment that dense spots of light had enveloped the entire mountain. Under the horrified gaze of the soldiers, the fireball grew larger and larger until the moment it collided with the ground. In an instant, it erupted with a temperature of thousands of degrees, burning everything around it to ashes.

Boom boom boom boom...

Explosions rang out one after another. Under the fierce artillery attack, Hill 231 seemed to be experiencing a strong earthquake. The entire mountain was shaking continuously, and large pieces of rock were turned into powder under the action of explosives.

Of course, if the stones could be blown into powder, the soldiers would not have a good fate either.

With just one round of salvos, half of the personnel of a regiment that had already climbed up disappeared into the world along with the rising green smoke.

The remaining people were either seriously injured and dying or injured in vital parts of their bodies, making it difficult for them to form effective combat capabilities.

After a bombing that lasted no more than two minutes, there were less than a hundred people in the entire regiment who were still able to stand up and fire.

This scene happened to be seen by the officers in the rear. Among the crowd, Sun Chuanfang, the governor of Qianhu Province, held up a telescope with a complicated expression and sighed slightly.

"The gap is stark. With the same equipment, their total artillery firepower is more than ten times ours."

"They can clear the way with artillery fire, but we can only fill it with lives. It may seem like we have twice as many people, but in reality, we have no advantage at all."

After sighing for a while, the guy gave the order without hesitation.

"Notify the vanguard troops to retreat immediately!"

"Ah? Retreat!?"

At the side, Wang Cheng, the commander-in-chief of the Central Plains garrison, asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Why should we retreat? This position was captured with great difficulty. Retreating at this time is likely to provoke a counterattack by the Independence Army."

"Oh, you don't understand. You still don't have the habit of studying your opponent." Sun Chuanfang sneered, with a subtle contempt in his eyes: "The artillery of the Independence Army is not used to firing only one round. Whenever they open fire, the minimum is a base number."

"Are we going to stay here and wait to be bombed if we don't retreat now?"

"But...but this position..." Wang Cheng was still a little reluctant. He only had the position in his eyes. As for how many people died, he was too lazy to care and didn't want to care.

The order given to him by his superiors was to defend the Central Plains, and the order he gave to his subordinates was also very simple, which was to lock down Hill 231. As long as this hill was there, the Independence Army would have to pay a heavy price if it wanted to continue advancing.

"The position is gone."

Sun Chuanfang handed over the telescope in his hand and pointed towards the high ground where artillery fire was flying.

"If you observe carefully, you'll see that the Independence Army's generals are not stupid. They're not trying to blow people up. They're deliberately flattening the ridgeline of Mountain 231. Hundreds of cannons are firing thousands of shells. Not only the ridgeline, but even the entire mountain couldn't withstand such a fierce attack."

"Let's retreat and let the soldiers build a defensive position and rest for the night. Then we can go back to hold a meeting and discuss tomorrow's attack route."

"Otherwise, if we just rely on brute force, we might not be able to defeat the enemy with so few people!"

After saying this, Sun Chuanfang turned back without any reluctance and prepared to return to the command center with a group of generals from the staff department.

Wang Cheng, who was still staying in place to observe, looked at the flames rising from the high ground, which were madly devouring his own soldiers. He was so angry that his teeth were itching, but he had no way to do anything. He could only clench his fists and roar helplessly.

"Retreat, order everyone to retreat!"

……

In the Rehe area, after two days of continuous retreat, Fengbei King Zhang Zuolin was forced to return to his own territory.

As the battle reports came in one after another, the old man's slightly weathered face became full of solemnity.

"Marshal, our troops have almost retreated. Only the 382nd Brigade and the Guards Brigade are holding the frontline!"

Zhang Zuoxiang brought a group of staff to Lao Zhang's study. Looking at the dark-faced and dejected King Fengbei, no one dared to say a word, for fear of getting into trouble at this critical moment.

As an old friend who had shared life and death with him, Zhang Zuoxiang realized that something was wrong and quickly dispersed the crowd. Then he cautiously took two steps forward and asked tentatively.

"What's going on? It's already pretty good that the battle has turned out this way. If it weren't for that bastard Duan Tianlin's sudden move, Cao Xin and his gang would have been no match for us."

"Humph, it's not that I think the Fengbei Army fought poorly, but I can't understand why Duan Tianlin targeted our Old Zhang. When he stepped down, I personally went to the station to see him off, but what happened? As soon as he came back, he stabbed me in the back without any reason!"

Zhang Zuolin spread his hands, feeling particularly wronged. He didn't know what went wrong that made Old Duan hate him so much.

This old guy is quite interesting. He only mentions things that are beneficial to him and never mentions anything that targets others.

Yes, you did see Duan Tianlin off at the Beijing Railway Station, but why didn't you tell us how he got so angry? How he was forced to surrender by you and Cao Xin to the northern frontier, with nowhere to turn for help?