"What's going on now?" Liu Zhenhuan asked directly without saying nonsense.

"Return to the division commander, the town has been taken down, and the brothers are cleaning up the battlefield. My subordinates have just sent a reconnaissance cavalry to investigate the situation in front of us." The company commander of the Ninth Company replied without hesitation or humility.

"Where is the enemy? What kind of resistance do you encounter during the attack?" Liu Zhenhuan asked again. He had always been very strange to this question.

"The Ninth Company did not encounter resistance, but the communication officer of the Sixth Company said that they encountered an enemy bunker during the attack, and two grenades were defeated. It is said that the town had only one patrol battalion stationed, and the total strength was not as strong as ours. The Sixth Company caught many prisoners, and a quarter of an hour ago, the subordinates saw them escorting the prisoners to the regiment headquarters for trial." The company commander of the Ninth Company tried to report in detail, and he himself was very depressed. The Ninth Company was the second stormtrooper, but the battle ended as soon as he arrived in the town.

Liu Zhenhuan ignored the company commander of the Ninth Company. He pondered for a moment, turned around and ordered his messenger:

"Let the Sixth Regiment continue to advance in Chongqing and occupy all major transportation routes, railways, post offices, and official roads for defense. In addition, I will give the division headquarters an order to press the town. I will go to the front line to inspect now!"

"The division seat is already interrogating the prisoners, so why bother to go to the front line in person? This is really too risky." Chief of Staff Li Wenbo rushed forward and said emphatically.

"It's okay, Chongqing's troops are already empty. I predict that Chen Huan's son will have no troops to adjust, so there should be no danger ahead." Liu Zhenhuan said boldly.

"But there is no need for us to take this risk," Li Wenbo said again.

Liu Zhenhuan didn't say much, waved the whip in his hand and left with his personal guards. Li Wenbo had no choice but to follow closely behind.

The group passed through Qijiang Town and galloped along the official road of Chongqing and Guizhou. After leaving the town, fewer and fewer people met. Occasionally, several vanguard soldiers were exploring the way and mapping the terrain. I don’t know how long I walked forward. Liu Zhenhuan tied the reins and took out his pocket watch to look at the time. It was almost three o’clock in the afternoon.

Li Wenbo asked a cavalry to look up the hill ahead. He kicked the Spurs lightly and came to Liu Zhenhuan. He set up a shed with his hands and looked at the surrounding wilderness. He said calmly: "We are more than ten miles away from the town, and we really can't even see the shadow of an enemy. If you continue moving forward, you may be in Banan County, which is the last county town south of the Yangtze River Bank in Chongqing. Chen Huanshi Shizhao will set up defense lines there."

Liu Zhenhuan nodded slowly and said, "So we must hurry up and let the sixth regiments rush up quickly, and don't give the enemy a slight preparation time. Only when the south bank has severely damaged the Chongqing defenders will it be easier when we cross the river, otherwise the Yangtze River will not be so easy."

Li Wenbo said: "But even if the crossing of the river is not smooth, as long as we create enough pressure in Banan County, we can also restrain Chongqing's troops. At that time, we can cover General Songpo's troops to cross the river from the upstream and directly attack Chongqing."

Liu Zhenhuan said with a serious expression: "We cannot give everything to General Songpo. We have more troops than the division headquarters, so we should serve as the vanguard. In any case, entering Chongqing is our current goal."

Li Wenbo was about to say something, but some inspiration flashed in his mind, so he simply shut up.

At this moment, the cavalry who had been sent to the hill ahead to observe the movements hurriedly ran back, and while running, shouting: "There are people in front of you, a team of cavalry!"

Everyone immediately became alert, perhaps it was a reconnaissance team sent by the Beiyang Army in Banan County.

Li Wenbo quickly asked the personal guard to keep alert and pulled Liu Zhenhuan to the back. There were more than 100 people in the personal guard, so there should be no mistakes. Maybe he could capture a few enemies alive for interrogation.

Not long after, the team of cavalry appeared on the hill ahead, but after seeing the situation here, they did not rush to prepare for the war. Instead, they rode slowly towards this side, without any intention of fighting. This surprised Liu Zhenhuan. When the other party approached, they found that the suddenly appeared cavalry in the military uniforms of the Southern Army, which were the scouts just sent by the Ninth Company.

Li Wenbo stepped forward and asked, "Why did you come here?"

The captain of the reconnaissance team quickly saluted and said, "The company commander asked us to reconnaissance the enemy situation and found it since noon. Now, there was no shadow of the enemy, so we continued to advance to the riverside."

Li Wenbo was a little surprised and asked hurriedly: "Have you gone to Banan County?"

The captain touched his head and turned to his subordinates and asked, "Which county is called Banan County?" He turned around and said with an innocent look on his face, "Sir, we don't know the place name nearby. But we did go along the official road, and walked about forty miles, and then met a town, which should be what the adults called Banan County."

Li Wenbo thought about it carefully and walked along the official road to the only county town by the river, Banan County. He was surprised and asked: "Did you meet the enemy in the county town? Did you find anything?"

The captain shook his head and said, "We went to the county town, and there was no enemy inside. We also asked the people around the county town and in the city. They said that when they saw the army, about an hour ago, at around 1:30, the army had crossed the river to Chongqing City. We also looked around the river and disappeared, and the fishermen and the ferry boats were gone. It seemed that the enemy planned to defend Chongqing City and prevent us from crossing the river!"

Li Wenbo immediately turned to Liu Zhenhuan behind him and said with a heavy expression: "Master, it seems that Chen Huan had made a plan earlier, we might suffer some losses."

Liu Zhenhuan snorted coldly and said angrily: "This Chen Huan child is really as timid as a mouse!"

Li Wenbo thought for a moment, and then said, "Master, it's useless to say that these are now. Why don't we go back to the division headquarters and make plans for the senior. If it really doesn't work, let's concentrate all the artillery and greet Chongqing City to buy time for General Songpo to cross the river."

Liu Zhenhuan was very upset. He was still thinking that he could be the first to enter Chongqing City. Now there are two regiments in Chongqing City who are guarding the riverside, and the pressure on the offensive has increased in vain. Not only will it take some time to prepare the ship, but it also needs to be mentally prepared for major casualties during the crossing of the river. He sighed and said helplessly: "We can only do this first. Regardless of whether we can enter Chongqing or not, we must take a step back and stop Chongqing at our doorstep and completely cut off contact with Luzhou and Chengdu. In this way, we can be regarded as completing the cutting and surrounding of the grand strategy."

Li Wenbo nodded and said in agreement: "What the teacher said is very important. It is difficult for us to cross the river to attack. Even if the reinforcements from Hubei arrive at Chongqing Port, it will not be easy for them to cross the river to counterattack. At worst, it will be like Luzhou. If it is consumed, it will be exhausted. In the end, Chengdu will be gone. Chongqing people are panic, and everything will be solved."

Liu Zhenhuan pondered for a while and said, "That's right, everything will be solved."

Wu Shaoting did not stay in Guangzhou for only one day as planned. Since the Senate Conference ended successfully and the war in Sichuan was also developing in an orderly manner, he stayed in Guangzhou until March 22. During these days, he handled some of the government affairs accumulated in Guangzhou, strengthened the construction of the military police division and the efficiency of coastal railway projects, and also spent a long time to watch the first armed test of the "Basic Government".

Zhang Zhicheng completed the improvement of the bomb drop device in just two days. The armed test went very smoothly. The two bomb drop devices installed under the airship pods could drop 1,500 kilograms of bombs in batches within ten minutes. With the ideal combat power, it could completely razor the base of a battalion-level unit.

Even the German engineers present and Major Philip were very interested in this test, and after the test was over, they began to obtain the production technology of the bomb drop device. Wu Shaoting only negotiated for half an hour and soon signed a technology sharing contract, giving the bomb drop device to Germany almost for free.

The day before leaving Guangzhou, Wu Shaoting, Zeppelin's Guangzhou office, Huangpu Machinery Company, and Mawei Shipyard signed a new airship construction plan, and drafted a draft of three large military airships, the "General Rongwu", the "Southern Kingdom" and the "War Eagle". The two factories started construction at the same time, and two of them are expected to be completed by June.

Among them, the "General Rongwu" is expected to become China's largest airship, with a total length of 238 meters and can carry 6,000 kilograms of bombs.
Chapter completed!