After Sun Yat-sen went north, Tan Yankai and Fan Zhongxiu continued to lead the army to the north. The transcripts delivered by the two men were quite different.The Hunan Army led by Tan Yankai was forced to return to Guangdong after repeated defeats in the Northern Expedition.And Fan Zhongxiu, a martial arts master from Henan who set off earlier, created a miracle.He led thousands of soldiers from Henan under his command to march across five provinces, fought for thousands of miles, fought a bloody road among thousands of troops, and fought to the south of Henan, which can be regarded as returning home.

Sun Yat-sen went north and did not return, Fan Zhongxiu could not come back, Tan Yankai was newly defeated, and there were warlords in the Guangdong base camp engaged in armed separatism. For the restless Chen Jiongming, this was really a godsend opportunity.Therefore, Chen Jiongming, who had already retreated to his hometown, quickly recruited troops and gathered nearly 60,000 horses, and told the base camp clearly with his actions: he, Chen Jiongming, was going to fight back again. At the same time, Shen Hongying of the old Guangxi clan also recruited nearly 30,000 people, planning to fight a decisive battle in Guangxi with the "troika" Li Zongren, Huang Shaohong, and Bai Chongxi of the new Guangxi clan, and determine the ownership of Guangxi in the first battle.

The situation in Guangdong and Guangxi was chaotic, and a full-scale war broke out. Here I would like to add that under the hard work of Li Jishen, Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary united front plan achieved remarkable results. Li Zongren, Huang Shaohong, and Bai Chongxi, three aspiring middle-aged men, joined the promising Kuomintang at the end of 1924.Sun Yat-sen appointed them respectively as the supervisor of the Guangxi Appeasement Office (probably the commander-in-chief of the Guangxi Revolutionary Army), the meeting office (deputy commander-in-chief), and chief of staff.The Guangxi Revolutionary Army under the command of these three brothers can be regarded as an army that obeys the orders of the Guangdong base camp. Although it only has more than 10,000 people, its combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of the old warlords.

Faced with Chen Jiongming's provocation, the base camp was forced to fight. The Eastern Expeditionary Army was established to declare war on Chen Jiongming. At the same time, Li Zongren was ordered to lead the Guangxi Revolutionary Army to fight against Shen Hongying, and Chen Jitang of the Cantonese Army was sent to Guangxi to reinforce Li Zongren. In early February 1925, the first Eastern Expedition began. The Eastern Expeditionary Army was divided into three groups, of which Xu Chongzhi's Cantonese army was on the right wing, Yang Ximin's Yunnan army was on the left wing, and Liu Zhenhuan's Guangxi army was on the central army.

As the principal and the right-wing chief of staff of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, Chiang Kai-shek led a student army of more than 3,000 people from the first and second regiments of the Whampoa Military Academy, consisting of instructors and first-year students as grassroots officers. military.Zhou Enlai accompanied the army to the East as the director of the Political Department. In fact, the two bad boys Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan from the left and middle roads have been secretly bought by Chen Jiongming.The two of them stood still, and the three-way army could not form an effective cooperation.Therefore, only the right army led by Xu Chongzhi and Chiang Kai-shek actively fought.The total strength of the Right Route Army is more than 10,000, especially the teaching regiment led by Chiang Kai-shek, which is the backbone of the Eastern Expeditionary Army.

Saying that they are the backbone is not bragging, let me tell you who these two regiments are. The commander-in-chief was Chiang Kai-shek. The leaders of the two regiments are He Yingqin and Wang Boling respectively. Please pay attention to the name "Wang Boling", which is a magical figure. The battalion commander was the instructor of the first phase of Huangpu, such as Ye Jianying, the later Marshal of the Republic. There are also hidden dragons and crouching tigers among the students, just look at these names.Du Yuming, Guan Linzheng, Wang Yaowu, Zheng Dongguo, Song Xilian, Yu Chengwan, Yu Jishi, Chen Cheng, Hu Zongnan, Sun Yuanliang on the Kuomintang side, Jiang Xianyun, Chen Geng, Xu Xiangqian, Zuo Quan, Wang Erzhuo, Xu Jishen, Zhou Shidi on the Communist side, any of them One person will be the leader of the group army or above in the future (except for those who died early), but at this time he is only the company commander, platoon leader, party representative and even ordinary soldier in the teaching regiment.

The strength of the entire team is beyond doubt. Although the Whampoa student army has made some troubles due to lack of experience in marching, logistics, and even on the battlefield, their overall quality is extremely high, and they only need to accumulate experience and self-improvement through experience.Therefore, when such a group of generals encounters a suitable training opportunity, it is enough to grow into an extremely good team. Sure enough, the student army, which had grown rapidly in battle after battle, was heroic and unstoppable.They cooperated perfectly with the Guangdong Army and went to Dongguan, Pinghu, Shenzhen and other places.In less than two weeks, the vanguard of the Eastern Expeditionary Army had arrived at Chen Jiongming's important stronghold—under Tamsui City.

Although Tamsui City has a strong army, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but in the face of courage and sacrifice, the heavy army and natural danger can also be conquered. With the cooperation of the Cantonese army, the student army formed a "brave team" (death squad) with ten officers and one hundred soldiers. Taking advantage of the enemy's contempt, they unexpectedly launched an attack at dawn, risking their lives and fighting hard into the city.The large force subsequently took down the predetermined strategic target Danshui. In this difficult battle, most of the instructors and students fought bravely and performed well.It's a pity that there are exceptions to everything, and deserters even appeared in such an excellent group.

The first is Wang Bailing, the director of the Professor Department of the Whampoa Military Academy and the head of the Second Teaching Regiment.This man ran away in the name of "asking for help".Although the soldiers of the Second Regiment slapped their commander's face severely with their heroic performance in the battle, Mr. Wang is not too shameless, and the slap in the face has no effect on him. Wang Boling had a good personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek—the two were classmates at the Baoding Military Academy, sworn brothers, and had made some contributions to the revolution, so they only lost their official positions, but they saved their lives.But Sun Liang, the commander of the Seventh Company of the Second Regiment, was unlucky. This man who led his troops to retreat was immediately executed by Chiang Kai-shek's military law.Sun Liang can be regarded as using his own head to make some credit for the revolution-killing chickens to warn monkeys.The brutal military discipline has prepared the whole army for the upcoming decisive battle of life and death - and there will be no one who dares to retreat after that.

Next, Xu Chongzhi and Chiang Kai-shek decided to leave a small number of troops to block the enemy in Huizhou, lead the main force to bypass the heavily defended Huizhou by Chen Jiongming, continue to march eastward, compress Chen Jiongming's living space, and eliminate Chen Jiongming's vital forces—Ye Ju and Hong Zhaolin . Based on a common good wish: to help Chen Jiongming finish quickly, Xu Chongzhi and Chiang Kai-shek made a clear division of labor.Xu Chongzhi led the Cantonese army to attack Hailufeng.Chiang Kai-shek led the student army to cut off the enemy's financial and tax sources-Chaoshan-Chaozhou and Shantou, so that Chen Jiongming's army had neither food nor money to spend. This is really an efficient and stable way to scatter the enemy's morale.

Principal Jiang led the student army to drive hundreds of miles and occupied Chaoshan in early March.The performance of the Cantonese army did not fall behind, and they successfully won Hailufeng.Ye Ju and Hong Zhaolin were beaten until they cried for their father and mother, and escaped to sea to save their lives. In more than a month, a right-wing force composed of 10,000 Cantonese troops and student troops defeated an enemy that was several times larger than itself and had an absolute advantage in weapons and equipment.More importantly, this army is under the absolute control of the party, and wherever it goes, people everywhere welcome it warmly, the workers and peasants movement flourishes, and the prestige of the base camp has reached unprecedented heights. At the same time, the Guangxi Revolutionary Army led by Li Zongren also defeated Shen Hongying's main force, which was twice as powerful as itself, and the two great forces tended to become one.The revolutionary situation has never been clearer, the future has never been brighter. However, there are great worries in the good situation.At this time, the news that Sun Yat-sen was critically ill came out! With decades of ups and downs in the revolutionary experience, Sun Yat-sen is deeply respected by everyone. He is recognized by the teachers and students of Whampoa as the revolutionary leader and the banner of the revolutionary army.If the banner falls, Sun Yat-sen has no convincing successors. How can those forces who are not at ease united with the revolutionary army not start anew? Of course we have to start all over again.After Tang Jiyao learned the news that Sun Yat-sen was critically ill, he couldn't restrain his restless heart: the opportunity came!Look around and ask the heroes of the world, who is more qualified to take over the banner of Sun Yat-sen than me, Tang Jiyao! Therefore, Tang Jiyao received a large amount of arms aid sent by the Japanese, announced that he would take up the position of deputy marshal of the Guangdong base camp that had long since expired, and telegraphed the base camp that he would bring 100,000 troops to Guangzhou to take over the generalissimo's government. Mr. Tang is not kidding.In order to take advantage of the opportunity, this brother also resorted to a secret strategy. Before telegraphing the headquarters, he had ordered his army to set off secretly. Lu Han has also entered Guangxi and caught Li Zongren by surprise. Seeing that Chen Jiongming's meal ticket could no longer be relied on, Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan, who had always been obedient to Sun Yat-sen, flirted with Tang Jiyao, ready to move. The military situation is very urgent. Li Zongren could only temporarily let Shen Hongying, who was almost ravaged to death, lead the Guangxi Revolutionary Army back to the division to prevent Tang Jiyao from going south.Now that Li Zongren and the others have taken on the task of blocking the attack, the Eastern Expeditionary Army must also defeat Chen Jiongming's remaining troops as soon as possible, reinforce Li Zongren, and put down Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan, otherwise the previous victory will be wiped out. Just when the situation entered the most dangerous stage, Chen Jiongming began to add insult to injury.He jumped over the wall in a hurry, dispatched troops and generals, and wanted to fight to the death with the Eastern Expeditionary Army. Soon, Chiang Kai-shek received bad news from the farmers' association: Chen Jiongming's subordinate Lin Hu gathered more than 20,000 soldiers and divided his troops into two groups, one out of Mianhu Lake and the other way through Lihu Lake, in an attempt to cut off the return of the Whampoa student army! Chiang Kai-shek estimated the situation: the unconquered Huizhou Jiancheng was in power before, and Lin Hu's chasing troops blocked it later, and the Cantonese army could not catch up in a short time.The student army is facing the danger of being flanked by front and back, and it can be described as a dilemma!Fortunately, Huizhou is more than 200 kilometers away. Based on my understanding of Huizhou defender Yang Kunru, this person's ability to defend the city is not bad, but his vision is short-sighted, and he must not dare to go out of the city to attack him in a short time.As long as Yang Kun doesn't send troops, he only needs to single out Lin Hu, and his chances of winning will increase greatly. Judging the enemy's situation at a critical moment and being able to seize the opportunity to respond in a timely manner is one of the most important qualities of a general.Chiang Kai-shek's judgment: Yang Kunru will not go out of the city for the time being, and Lin Hu has not yet completed the siege of himself. At this time, it is suitable to implement the tactics of frontal breakthrough combined with roundabout attack. Chiang Kai-shek no longer hesitated, and immediately ordered: teach a group to advance to Mianhu Lake and break through Lin Hu's attack head-on!Teach the second regiment to advance towards Lihu Lake and execute a roundabout attack! No one would have imagined that in this small and unknown Mian Lake, a decisive battle that would determine the direction of modern Chinese history was about to break out! If Chiang Kai-shek loses this decisive battle, the Whampoa student army will definitely be wiped out, and Sun Yat-sen's years of struggle will come to naught, and he will not only become a sinner of the revolution, but may also lose everything - another chance, life, and even Hard-won fame. This is a war that cannot be lost.Chiang Kai-shek cannot afford to lose this war, nor can the revolution.Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang and even the Communist Party have only one choice: fight to the death, only at this time! Set off!Meet Lin Hu! On March 13, 1925, the first regiment of the student army encountered Lin Hu's main force of more than 15,000 people near Mianhu Lake, while the opponent of the second teaching regiment was Lin Hu's partial division of more than 4,000 people. This is the most critical situation since the student army became an army. Not only was Lin Hu occupying a favorable terrain, but also the teaching regiment was facing an enemy ten times larger than itself. Even the headquarters of Chiang Kai-shek and Zhou Enlai were taken advantage of by Lin Hu's main force Surrounded by troops. Under such adversity, the student army broke out a strong fighting force and fought fiercely with the enemy. When fully organized, they rely on superior team fighting against the enemy. After the organization was disrupted by the enemy, they relied on the individual quality of one against ten or even one against a hundred to kill the enemy. When the bullets ran out, they fought with bayonets, and when the bayonet blades rolled, they fought hand-to-hand. Generally speaking, the duty of officers is to use their own wisdom and strategies to maximize the combat effectiveness of soldiers. However, when the battle reaches the decisive moment of winning or dying, when all military wisdom can no longer be used, the officers are left with nothing but soldiers. The final trick: pick up the guy and go into battle in person. Jiang Xianyun, Cao Yuan, Guan Linzheng, Yu Jishi, Yu Chengwan, Du Yuming and other junior officers all went to battle! Manpower was still insufficient, and Chiang Kai-shek had to take part in the battle himself. Advisor Galen jumped into the trench, raised his machine gun and fired at the enemy. Liao Zhongkai, Zhou Enlai led He Zhonghan, Deng Wenyi and other members of the Political Department also joined the battle. The orderlies and cooks all went into battle to meet the enemy. At the critical moment, Chen Cheng made great contributions.The artillery company under his command reserved some shells, and whenever a large group of enemy troops rushed over desperately, Chen Cheng would reward them with a shell.The enemy army was naturally afraid of death, so they had to retreat again.Chen Cheng's move relieved a lot of pressure on the student army. It stands to reason that no matter how brave and fearless the teaching group is, it will be difficult for them to survive a day in front of an enemy ten times their own.But the fact is that they not only survived, but also killed and wounded enemies several times their own at the cost of more than half of their own casualties. The reason why the student army succeeded in doing this is that their opponent Lin Hu made a foolish move. Lin Hu is actually an old member of the alliance. He performed well in the Revolution of 1911 and the War to Protect the Nation. He had been on the battlefield, so he didn't pay attention to the fledgling Whampoa student army at all, thinking that he could kill the Whampoa army without leaving a single one.This is also the reason why he chose to attack the student army instead of the Cantonese army - he picked a soft persimmon to start, but he never imagined that he picked a hedgehog. The mentality of underestimating the enemy made him use more troops to fight less, instead of allowing his troops to be in place in one step, concentrate the absolute superiority of troops to attack with all their strength, and eat up the opponent at once, instead he played the tactics of adding fuel - increasing troops one by one, greatly reducing the pressure from the student army. The lion fights the rabbit with all his strength, let alone facing a strong opponent?No matter how strong one's own strength is, resources should be allocated several times stronger than the opponent's, and manpower, material and financial resources should be greatly concentrated to form an instant advantage in time and space, and carry out key strikes against the opponent.This principle applies generally to dealing with powerful competitors. But at this point, it was too late for Lin Hu to regret it.Because Liu Yaochen, Song Xilian, Zheng Dongguo and other fierce men who taught the second regiment, under the leadership of the new regiment leader Qian Dajun (Wang Bailing had been dismissed at this time), had already defeated Lin Hu's other army in Lihu. The first teaching group finally waited for reinforcements from the second teaching group! Teach the second regiment to attack Lin Hu's headquarters directly, encircle Wei and rescue Zhao.The enemy army was knocked dizzy by the sudden attack, and the soldiers retreated like a tide.Lin Hu saw that there was no hope of eliminating the opponent, the casualties of his men were increasing, and the morale was getting lower and lower, so he could only make up his mind to run away.If you don't run away quickly, your old life may stay here. Lin Hu not only lost the battle, but also stood on the opposite side of the historical trend, and gradually retreated to the second line. The student army defeated Lin Hu by 20,000 people with more than 3,000 people. This battle is known as the "Mianhu Battle" in history.This battle hardened the image of the Kuomintang in the hearts of the Chinese people. Finally, the Kuomintang is no longer an organization that can only rely on the party and mercenaries to "eat soft food"! After the Mianhu War, the student army was notified of Sun Yat-sen's death.The whole army turned grief into strength. After joining forces with the Cantonese army, they chased Chen Jiongming's remnants and beat them to death without rest. Most of Chen's army was wiped out, and a small part fled into Jiangxi and Fujian. Just as the Eastern Expeditionary Army was marching towards Huizhou City, Yang Kun, who was trapped in the isolated city of Huizhou, left the city and surrendered, seeing that there was no hope of reinforcements. The first Eastern Expedition ended victoriously. The victory of the first Eastern Expedition was the victory of the Guangdong Revolutionary Government, the victory of the Cantonese Army, and the victory of the Whampoa Student Army. "One against a hundred" is usually used by us as an exaggerated rhetoric, but using this word to describe the student army in the Eastern Expedition is worthy of the name.Later, if the warlord troops heard someone shouting "the student army is coming", they would throw their guns away, turn around and run away, which has reached the point of panic. In addition, the Whampoa instructors He Yingqin, Liu Zhi, Chen Cheng, Gu Zhutong, Qian Dajun, Jiang Dingwen, Wei Lihuang, etc. represented by the Baoding Department, rose to the ranks of the Kuomintang army only by relying on the prestige established in this bloody battle. Leadership.However, most of them are only second-rate in military affairs and politics. This is one of the factors that led to the defeat of the Kuomintang in the military decisive victory of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. After winning the battle, Chiang Kai-shek was in a very good mood.Not only because of the unprecedented reputation-"Hero of the Eastern Expedition", but also because of the good news just received-Hu Hanmin appointed him as the supervisor of Chaomei Eight genus aftermath with the qualification of acting generalissimo. If you think this official position is not very good, then you are wrong, this is actually a very powerful position.This appointment is very important to Chiang Kai-shek, because this is the first time he owns a territory, and it is the wealthy eight counties of Chaoshan.In other words, he mastered the taxes of eight counties, and finally had the money to support the development of the Huangpu Army. However, Chiang Kai-shek's gain made another person a little dissatisfied. This person was his sworn brother--Xu Chongzhi, the commander of the Guangdong Army. The seeds of discord were sown. After the victory of the Eastern Expedition, Tang Jiyao's big problem should be solved next. The base camp decided to proceed in two steps: the first step was naturally to repel Tang Jiyao's army that invaded Guangxi, and the second step was to calm down Tang Jiyao's internal counterparts in the Guangdong Revolutionary Army-Yang Ximin of the Dian Army and Liu Zhenhuan of the Guangxi Army. Li Jishen, the leader of the Cantonese army, was worried about Li Zongren, a fellow Guangxi fellow who had a good relationship with him. Li Zongren's troops entered Guangxi to assist Li Zongren and the others and attacked Tang Jiyao together. From March to July 1925, after the Kunlun Pass, Liuzhou, Shapu, and Nanning battles, the Guangdong and Guangxi coalition forces finally defeated Tang Jiyao, and all the remnants of the Yunnan Army returned to Yunnan.The Dian army, which was trained by the famous general Cai E and once made great contributions to the country, has never recovered since then.Two years later, Tang Jiyao was kicked out of power by the rebellion of his subordinate Long Yun and others. In the same year, he embarked on the road to the west. After solving Tang Jiyao's worries, the coalition forces chased after Shen Hongying, who slipped through the net.While you are sick, I will kill you.Shen Hongying was forced to flee to Hong Kong with the remaining six guards. Lu Rongting's old Guangxi era came to an end, and Guangxi entered the new Guangxi era. At the same time as the fierce battle between the Xingui faction and the Yunnan faction, Chiang Kai-shek was also reorganizing his army in Guangdong to prepare for the imminent civil war in Guangdong. The super combat effectiveness of the student army made everyone excited: finally found an effective way to strengthen the army. In April 1925, the base camp passed the "Establishment of the Party Army" case, determined to establish the Kuomintang Party Army based on the Whampoa Student Army of the two teaching regiments, with Liao Zhongkai as the representative of the Party Army and Chiang Kai-shek as the commander of the Party Army. The reason why this force is called "party army" is because the party representative system has been established in the army.Every move of the army is subject to the guidance and supervision of the party representatives, and the reports and orders of military chiefs at all levels must be countersigned by the party representatives to take effect. In other words, the military is controlled by the party. But in fact, every link in the process of establishing the party and army was carefully designed and executed by Chiang Kai-shek, and even some party representatives were appointed by him, so the final establishment of the party and army can be regarded as the initial stage of Chiang Kai-shek's personal will accomplish. Although the party and army were so powerful, Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan still stood up to challenge the Eastern Expedition.They didn't do this on impulse, because they had some capital at hand and some unrealistic ideas in their heads.In addition, the two brothers were also driven by interests from the outside world. Before Tang Jiyao was defeated, he had written them two bad checks, appointing Yang Ximin as governor of Guangdong Province and commander of the military region, and Liu Zhenhuan as governor of Guangxi province and commander of the military region in the name of the expired deputy marshal.The two have been thinking about these two empty checks ever since.Even though Tang Jiyao retreated steadily, the two did not intend to give up these two checks. The performance of the two is not incomprehensible.The so-called sticks can't break the economic law, and people will do things that are beneficial. Of course, this also reflects from the side that Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan have serious IQ and EQ problems: short-sighted, muddled, ignorant and fearless. Basecamp obviously also has a deep understanding of these two guys.They understand that it is useless to talk about faith, country, nation, and peace to these two guys, because the other party only believes in strength, and he will listen to you only when your fist is harder than his, so the base camp Advocate resolute counter-insurgency. But Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan, the two ignorant and fearless guys, didn't pay attention to the base camp at all, and they didn't play tricks. All rebellious actions were carried out openly. After the two sent troops to take down the best arsenal in Guangdong, the Ishii arsenal, they marched into Guangzhou, and even threatened: Please attack us for three days, and then we will fight back! For these two guys with the words "Come and hit me" written all over their faces, the Guangdong base camp will naturally not be polite. On June 7, 1925, acting generalissimo Hu Hanmin sent a telegram announcing the crimes of Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan, and formally sent troops to crusade. The battle also started on this day. The fighting power displayed by the Yunnan-Guangxi Allied Forces is far inferior to the arrogant self-confidence shown by their boss.Five days later, the 40,000 Yunnan-Guangxi coalition forces were defeated by the "commander of the suppression of the chaos" Chiang Kai-shek, led by the party army as the main force, and either collapsed or surrendered. Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan fled to Hong Kong. The revolutionary mountains and rivers in Guangdong were bright red, which opened the prelude to the establishment of the National Government.