Many years later, we can see from the letter written by Shi Congbin, the then Chief of Staff of the Zhili-Shandong Allied Forces and Commander of the Second Army, to his beloved daughter, how rapid the Youth Army's offensive in Shandong was. "My beloved daughter Gu Lan, see the words Ru Mian, my father was commanding the battle on the front line of Tai'an. The Southern Army was coming fiercely, and Commander Kun was unable to prepare for it. In just three days, the main force of the Southern Army marched straight into the Lu territory in three groups. The army moved quickly and had extremely strong fighting power. The nearly 20,000 officers and soldiers of the 16 patrol battalions deployed on the border were all wiped out without any warning. Yesterday, my father commanded two brigades of the Second Army to try to slow down the advance of the army along the railway in the Tengzhou area. Unexpectedly, The battle only lasted for less than two hours, and more than 10,000 officers and soldiers of the Second Brigade were defeated by the enemy's superior firepower. Then the enemy launched tactical interludes. Our army's retreat was cut off, and we were unable to advance or retreat. We had no choice but to surrender. My father was surprised and ordered the rest of his troops to retreat from Zoucheng. As a safe strategy, my father retreated to Tai'an first to avoid the danger. In addition, I am writing to you because although you are young, you know the letters. Please tell your mother, Commander Kun. Having decided to abandon Shandong and retreat to Zhili, Jinan is no longer a place to live in. It seems that it is not safe to retreat to Beijing. My father has sent Adjutant Xu to lead a battalion back to Jinan to escort you to the Tianjin Concession for temporary refuge. I hope you can take care of it immediately. "Xinruan, leave as soon as you hear the letter, don't stop." In fact, Shi Jianqiao, who was only 13 years old at the time, escaped from Jinan in just seven days, and walked along the railway line. The main force of the army, the 15th Division Gu Pinzhen's troops, rushed into Jinan City at a rapid march. Gu Pinzhen's actions shocked both warring parties. You know how chaotic the situation was at that time. In order to cover the retreat of the main force, Zhang Zongchang deployed two armies to delay the youth army in the Tai'an area. As for the four divisions responsible for breaking through and capturing Jinan from the front, except for Gu Pinzhen, the Yu Zuobai Department of the 5th Division, the Dai Yue Department of the 6th Division, and the Tao Jun Department of the 21st Division were all still engaged in melee with the Zhilu Allied Forces in the Tai'an area. . . At this time, Gu Pinzhen obviously grasped the core point of the entire battlefield and led the officers and soldiers of the 15th Division directly to Jinan. It was a trivial matter that Bai Chongxi was shocked. After all, it had happened more than once that the people below him did not follow his orders. The one who was really shocked was Zhang Zongchang. It is said that Zhang Zongchang was still in Jinan city when Gu Pinzhen's vanguard troops forcibly attacked the Jinan city gate. However, due to the unknown situation of the enemy, Zhang Zongchang chose to leave the remaining troops to cover himself (all fire-line officers were promoted to three levels, otherwise they would die), and he himself escaped from Jinan under the escort of the White Russian cavalry. The puppet Jinan Provincial Government and other institutions were not so lucky. All senior officials of the former provincial government, including eleven senior generals under Zhang Zongchang, were all captured because they did not retreat in time! This had a huge blow to the morale of the entire Zhilu Allied Forces. It should be said that Zhang Zongchang is not a careless person. In July, he ordered his officers and soldiers to "tighten the last string" and "guard against death." However, if the string is too tight for too long, it will break. Therefore, as time goes by, many of the Zhilu Allied Forces' own bad habits returned, such as eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, and neglect of duty. Fortunately, Zhang Zongchang's military layout in the entire Shandong Province was top-heavy, with most of the troops relying on Zhili, so at least half of the 500,000 Zhili Allied Forces had escaped. Zhang Zongchang was feeling heartbroken and thankful at the same time. He barely managed to "still have his charm." ". Another thing happened at this time. There were about three armies of the Zhilu Allied Forces near Qingdao. The commanders were Fang Yongchang, Wang Dong, and Xu Kun. Since the Zhilu Allied Forces failed to organize any effective resistance at all, they delayed the youth army's northward march. At such a pace, the three troops stationed in eastern Shandong could not withdraw back to Zhili no matter how hard they rushed. It was obviously impossible for them to muster up the courage to fight their way out with the youth army, and it was impossible to hold on where they were because they were blocking the Japanese's westward advance. Moreover, the Japanese had made it clear that they had no choice but to be disarmed or cooperate with the imperial army. . . With no other choice, Fang Yongchang chose to resign and fled to Tianjin to live in an apartment. Wang Dong and Xu Kun commanded 40,000 people from these three armies to participate in the Japanese military operation. The first traitor unit was born in this war known as the "Shandong Incident". In order to show punishment, Sun Wen, Chairman of the National Government, issued an order that all officers and soldiers of the Ministry will be regarded as traitors and will not accept surrender. . . As for Japan¡¯s Shandong Expeditionary Force, Commander Uheng Kazunari met with His Majesty the Emperor before the expedition and was promoted to Army General as usual. Major General Masatake Nakajima, Lieutenant General Matsuura Kanwei, and Lieutenant General Shigeru Honjo who were incorporated into the Shandong Expeditionary Force were very conscientious and followed the troops to Shandong early. Moreover, the commander of the Honzhuang Fan Division, whose equipment arrived first, attacked first and successfully forced the landing of three Chinese troops, opening the door for the Imperial Army to advance towards Jinan. . . But now these are obviously in vain, because the first thing Commander Yuheng Yisheng did after arriving in Qingdao was not to immediately start winning the war, but to review the 100,000 Japanese troops under his command in Qingdao. Who said Japan has no bureaucracy? The neatly lined up Japanese troops showed their majestic appearance to Qingdao citizens and reporters from various countries. If the neatly lined up troops are considered powerful, the Japanese army is indeed invincible. . . On the one hand, the Japanese Shandong Expeditionary Army is still intoxicated there, on the other hand, the Northern Expeditionary Army has begun to prepare for the Jinan Campaign. After Zhang Zongchang's remnants were driven across the Yellow River, the Youth Army stopped pursuing it. In addition to leaving three brigades of troops to provide basic warning on the north bank of the Yellow River, more troops were asked to concentrate towards Jinan. Bai Chongxi also arrived in Jinan on October 16, but he came not by plane, but by train. The Jinan Military Airport is currently under construction frantically by three engineering units deployed by the Ministry of Engineering and the Ministry of Air Force, working day and night. It is expected that the airport will be able to take off and land aircraft on the 25th, when Yang Xianyi personally serves as the division commander. The scene will change here, and the air control in Shandong will fall into the hands of the Northern Expeditionary Army. This was precisely what Bai Chongxi valued most. Although air supremacy was a new term and the power of aircraft was generally despised in this era, Bai Chongxi included air supremacy in the battle plan as a key factor in the decisive victory between the Northern Expeditionary Army and the Japanese Army. Wang Zhenyu admired this very much, because even Jiang Fangzhen, known as the master of strategy, failed to realize this. . . The war situation in Shanxi has also taken a turn for the worse. Although Fengjun acts like a good boy in front of the youth army, no matter how docile the Siberian tiger is, he is still a tiger. Since it is a tiger, it will naturally eat people. Fengjun finally swept away the bad luck of Xuzhou's defeat in Shanxi and showed his own prestige. . . Although Chu Xiongfei's troops fought brilliantly and defeated a regiment of Fengjun with one battalion, Chu Xiongfei was only a battalion commander of the Jin army after all. Shang Zhen and Xu Yongchang, who commanded the two armies, were a well-known often-defeated general in the Republic of China, and the other was a model soldier of this era. With such two people to command the Jin army, which itself lacks combat effectiveness, against the wolf-like Feng army, we can only lament that Comrade Yan Xishan is indeed a political giant and a military dwarf. Although the officers and soldiers of the Jin Dynasty knew that they were defending their hometown, and they all had strong fighting spirit, their fighting skills were too advanced, and they really couldn't do it when they encountered the bandit soldiers like Feng Jun. The war lasted less than a week, Yan Xishan's hair was half white, and no good news came from the Jin army on both fronts. The eastern front is okay, relying on the favorable terrain to resist, and the entire front is still controlled in key areas. The northern front was not so lucky. The Jin army was pushed back fifty kilometers from the entire front by Feng Jun. It is estimated that Feng Jun will appear in Jinzhong in two days. This will make our classmate Yan Xishan very worried. . . . The whole of Shanxi was mobilized, and Yan Xishan still imagined that he could defeat Fengjun on his own. Therefore, Yan Xishan has not yet sent an invitation letter to the five divisions of the Northern Expeditionary Army, commanded by Commander-in-Chief Cheng Qian of the Left Army, that have arrived at the Yellow River. And Cheng Qian's troops seemed to be really benevolent and mighty teachers, and they really would not enter Shanxi. Zhang Zuolin got a whiff of this situation, and he immediately ordered Zhang Jinghui and Sun Liechen to speed up the attack to capture all of Shanxi before the Southern Army entered Shanxi. At the same time, Zhang Zongchang's life became difficult. After the Zhilu Allied Forces under his name fled to Ludong in fear, they found that there were only 300,000 people in total. You must know that before the war started, the Zhili Allied Forces were claimed to be 500,000, but the actual number was about 400,000. As a result, in just one week, nearly 100,000 troops were lost, and what was even worse was that not a single battle was fought. Thinking of this, Zhang Zongchang felt embarrassed and really didn't know what to say to Veteran Zhang. Zhang Zuolin was very pregnant. Not only did he not blame him, but he also sent Yang Yuting to work south. Not only did he receive additional military pay, but he also allocated a batch of arms from the arsenal in Tianjin to Zhang Zongchang. Zhang Zongchang was almost moved. I sold my life to Zhang Zuolin. So a very strange scene appeared on the battlefield in Shandong. On the north bank of the Yellow River, Zhang Zongchang's 300,000-strong army was watching eagerly, while in the east of Shandong, 100,000 Japanese troops and 40,000 puppet troops invaded in large numbers. Bai Chongxi is making final adjustments and deployments in Jinan. A war that will determine the fate and direction of China in this time and space is about to begin. . . But in Wuhan, Wang Zhenyu couldn't restrain his excitement. He couldn't even drink three cups of herbal tea to quench his thirst. Now it's like he has been reviewing his homework for a long time and is about to face the college entrance examination. How can he not be excited? Although it is already autumn, the rising sun still rises slowly, shining on the top of the towering Mount Tai. . .