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

At twelve o'clock noon, Zhang Ye, who had only slept for more than three hours, rubbed his groggy head and got up from the bed. As soon as he walked out of the house, he saw Chang Rui and others waiting in the living room, talking in low voices.

As he appeared, everyone stood up in unison, and more than a dozen senior officers from the Second Corps were present and saluted.

"Hello, Marshal!"

"Okay, stop doing useless things."

Zhang Ye was in pajamas. He waved his hand casually and went to the temporary sand table in the living room. After carefully examining it for a moment, he yawned and asked in a hoarse voice.

"When I got off the bus yesterday, I heard that the fighting in the north was very intense. What's the current situation of the Fourth Army? Are there heavy casualties?"

"Overall, the casualties were not small."

Chang Rui glanced at everyone, stopped the chief of staff who wanted to stand up, and took the initiative to step forward and take the responsibility on himself.

"The Feng faction had a total of 56,000 troops, stationed in three groups and establishing a four-tiered blockade. Considering the impending decisive battle in the south, I didn't give the Fourth Army much time. This put a lot of pressure on them, and they fought for over 20 hours straight, leaving them exhausted."

While talking, Chang Rui came to the sand table, holding two small red flags and sticking them in the direction of Hecheng and Dongjun, and explained.

"Currently, the two cities north of the Central Plains have been captured by the Fourth Army. Although there are still several small units resisting stubbornly, they are unlikely to cause any trouble."

"In this battle, the Fourth Army used lightning speed to advance over a hundred kilometers in less than forty hours, breaking through four blockades. With just over thirty thousand men, they overwhelmed an enemy force of nearly sixty thousand. This was truly an incredible feat."

"According to incomplete statistics, the Fourth Army suffered nearly 15,000 casualties, and several units were completely wiped out..."

"Tsk... reckless, shouldn't be so hasty to fight..."

Zhang Ye pursed his lips and sighed with some heartache.

"You kid, you want to do everything perfectly, but some things can't be rushed. You still don't understand the principle that more haste makes waste."

Looking at the two bright red flags on the sand table, Zhang Ye turned around and gave instructions with a serious face.

"This time, the Fourth Army successfully completed its mission with its strong will, but this cannot be used as a standard to spur other troops."

"With over 30,000 men, half of them were wiped out in one battle. I wonder how you're going to explain this to He Wei!"

"cough……"

Faced with the Marshal's reprimand, Chang Rui looked embarrassed, coughed lightly, and didn't know how to respond.

He didn't think so much at the time. He just wanted to quickly eliminate the enemies in the north and gather troops to move south as soon as possible.

"Well... actually, this matter can't be blamed entirely on Commander Chang."

On the side, Lu Shan noticed his embarrassment and quickly stepped forward to support him and say some nice things.

"The Marshal has traveled all the way to the front. The Muye battlefield is too close to Shangdu. He is worried about your safety, so he is so anxious to eliminate all the Feng faction members."

"Oh, you're good at making excuses for him."

Hearing the voice, Zhang Ye turned around and smiled, pointing at Lu Shan's nose and teasingly.

"As the commander of the Guard Division, don't you feel embarrassed when you say this?"

"We're bringing two guard regiments with us this time, totaling 8,000 men. Let alone a small battlefield like Muye, we can easily handle even the decisive battle in the south, and come and go freely!"

"Uh...this...isn't this foolproof..."

Lu Shan stammered and started talking nonsense with his eyes open, while at the same time not forgetting to glare fiercely at Chang Rui who remained silent.

This bastard was clearly trying to help him out, but he acted like a mute and didn't even fart.

It’s true that your brothers are close to you, but you are playing tricks on them!

At critical moments, no one can be relied upon!

"Stop talking nonsense. Tell the Fourth Army to stay where they are. They won't be involved in the Southern Campaign for now. Let the brothers rest."

Zhang Ye turned his gaze back to the sand table and quickly made new changes.

Having just experienced a difficult battle, everyone in the Fourth Army has reached their physical limit. If they move further south, it is very likely that irreversible damage will be caused to the soldiers' bodies.

Just let them rest here for two days and take good care of themselves.

"You guys should hurry up and hold a meeting to sort out this battle plan."

After watching for a while, Zhang Ye rubbed his stomach and gave instructions in a deep voice.

"I'm going to eat first, and then we'll have a meeting. This battle involves at least three factions, plus four or five hundred thousand people. The battle line is bound to be very long, so we must prepare early!"

"Yes, Marshal. The plan has been finalized last night and is waiting for you to perfect it."

Chang Rui took two steps back, revealing a large pile of marked maps behind him.

In this battle, their Second Corps was the main force. The terrain near Yudu was relatively complex, with not only mountains, rivers and lakes, but also large areas of wilderness and plains. If they wanted to seize the initiative, they had to divide the battlefield in advance.

……

North of Jiangyou, the main force of the Fujian National Army is stationed.

The beautifully decorated office was in a mess, with antiques, calligraphy and paintings, porcelain and teacups scattered all over the floor. Even the tables and chairs in the room were not spared and were all smashed.

At this moment, Jiang Xiansheng, who was furious, was like a mad beast. He looked at the generals behind him with red eyes and shouted angrily.

"You guys, it's fine that you make money and play with women on a daily basis, but you're so useless at the critical moment. You're trash, all of you!!"

"The vanguard army of 50,000 men was taken away without any effort. This shows how much of them are lazy and dissolute on a daily basis, completely neglecting their subordinate units!"

"Sir, who would have thought Xu Zhenlin would stab us at this moment? That old guy looks so gentle, but I didn't expect him to be so ruthless."

His deputy chief of general staff had a sad face and was still trying to defend himself.

Just this morning, news came from Zhijiang that the 50,000 vanguard troops of the Fujian government and Lu Yongxiang's troops simultaneously rebelled, directly abandoned the southern territory of Zhijiang, and took the road through Huishan and headed straight for Tianjin.

When this news reached the headquarters, Jiang Xiansheng, who always regarded himself as a scholar, became furious on the spot and wanted to shoot all the generals in the general staff.

Long before this, he had repeatedly instructed the General Staff to keep a close eye on the vanguard army, especially Xu Zhenlin and others, and that nothing must happen to them at this critical moment.

But the result?

Despite repeated warnings, such a big joke still happened.

At this moment, Jiang Xiansheng really wanted to die.

In all his years of life, he had never lost such a big person!