Chapter 248 Battle of Tangshan 1

On June 12, since the third division under Zhao Dongyun officially entered the customs by train, the domestic situation suddenly became boiling.

Zhao Dongyun's large-scale mobilization of troops to enter the customs was in the early stage, that is, when the original troops stationed in the three eastern provinces gathered in the mountains and customs, the confidentiality action was relatively appropriate. Although the forces of all parties were aware of it, it was difficult to find the actual situation. However, when the third division took the train out of the customs, Zhao The news of Dongyun's large-scale entry into the customs immediately spread through radio waves.

The first day to learn the news was to inform Wang Yingkai of this emergency military situation, and then Wang Yingkai ordered the first division and the first mixed brigade departments to take relevant actions, and then ordered Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division to go northeast of the mountain.

This first division, as Wang Yingkai's main direct force, has been in a state of combat readiness since Zhao Dongyun made some changes in early June. After receiving Wang Yingkai's order, it quickly advanced eastward.

The same is true of the first mixed brigade originally deployed on the front line of Tangshan. On the morning of that day, the first mixed brigade and the first division were all-round eastward from Jixian, Baodi and Ninghe.

However, although they moved east at this time, they still did not enter the Tangshan area. At the same time, because Li Chun's seventh mixed brigade also took measures to shrink the defense line, in the afternoon, although the two armies moved frequently, they still did not have direct contact.

At the same time, Wang Yingkai also sent a harsh telegram to Zhao Dongyun in the name of the Army Department, demanding that Zhao Dongyun abide by last year's Tianjin agreement and immediately transfer the third division out of customs.

Zhao Dongyun sent a telegram to the Army Department, saying that the entry of the Third Division was a normal change of defense. In order to replace the fourth mixed brigade and the seventh mixed brigade stationed in the customs, this move was naturally to confuse Wang Yingkai and slow down the outbreak of the war, so as to buy time for the mobilization of the troops entering the customs.

Although everyone knows that this is nonsense, in this case, it can be delayed as long as it can be, even if it is a day or two, which is extremely important for Zhao Dongyun.

Wang Yingkai was obviously not satisfied with Zhao Dongyun's reply, and even Wang Yingkai had already believed that Zhao Dongyun was going to enter the customs, so at noon, Wang Yingkai once again generated electricity to Zhao Dongyun and asked the Third Division to withdraw its troops immediately, otherwise his troops would directly enter the Tangshan area and take over Tangshan defense.

Zhao Dongyun is still unmoved, and he still restores electricity in the name of normal change of defense!

"President, we can't wait any longer. Zhao Dongyun's third division is already on the way. The third division will arrive in Tangshan tomorrow at the latest, and we will be passive!"

"Now that the situation is urgent, we must immediately send troops to capture Tangshan, so that we can occupy the strategic initiative in the future!" Another person persuaded Wang Yingkai.

Wang Yingkai also looked serious. Although he had long expected that Zhao Dongyun would enter the customs sooner or later, he did not expect Zhao Dongyun to come so soon. According to his conception, the north and south are still in the civil war. Zhao Dongyun is also in the process of military expansion and reorganization in the northeast. The barrenness of the three eastern provinces will not be able to do it until next year at the earliest. Complete the preliminary expansion.

At that time, his new 11th Division and 12th Division should also become an army. At that time, even if Zhao Dongyun wants to enter the customs, he can easily deal with it.

But he did not expect that it was precisely because the barrenness of the three eastern provinces could not support Zhao Dongyun's large-scale military expansion that caused Zhao Dongyun so eager to enter the customs.

On the surface, Zhao Dongyun's entry is related to the situation in the south, but in fact it is still due to the factors of the three eastern provinces.

Today, the three eastern provinces under the control of Zhao Dongyun are not the eastern three provinces in the era of Zhang Zuolin and his son. In 1906, the total population of the three eastern provinces was only more than 14 million, and the fiscal revenue was only more than 20 million taels. The fiscal revenue is still the best among the domestic provinces, but the population is too small.

Since last year, in order to restrict Zhao Dongyun's development, although Wang Yingkai did not have a positive policy of banning immigration to the three eastern provinces, he still privately blocked the immigration work of the three eastern provinces, resulting in less than 300,000 new immigrants in the three eastern provinces in the first half of this year. Without a large number of immigrants, Zhao Dongyun could not enter one Develop agriculture and industry in the three eastern provinces.

In fact, if Wang Yingkai is kept suppressing, it is not impossible to give Zhao Dongyun ten years to make the population of the three eastern provinces break through to 20 million.

Without a sufficient population, agricultural industry cannot develop rapidly. Without development, there will be no tax revenue. Without taxation, how can we expand the army and support the army?

In the long run, Zhao Dongyun's military advantage will be smaller in the face of the warlords in Guan. If he wants to maintain his military advantage, he will have to continue to expand his army. However, this will further aggravate the financial deterioration of the three eastern provinces. When the expansion of the new division and two brigades is completed, the patrol force will also be replaced. If several more brigades are expanded It is estimated that the number of Feng's army will exceed 150,000 next year. At that time, it will not be able to search out so many military expenses to maintain such a large-scale troops.

In other words, he will have to kill himself by next year!

Anyway, the population, industry and agriculture of the three eastern provinces are so large that it is enough to support the current 100,000 army. If we continue to expand our army in order to maintain military advantage, it will be 100% financial bankruptcy.

If it goes on like this, it is better to take advantage of the military advantage now and enter the customs directly.

War, politics and economy are complementary. Only political and economic factors can lead to the outbreak of war.

Zhao Dongyun made up his mind to enter the customs. Wang Yingkai was not a person waiting to die. Seeing that a precious day was about to pass, Zhao Dongyun still did not give him a reasonable explanation and there was no sign of retreating. At the same time, he learned that there was a gathering of Feng army on the side of Shanhaiguan, and even the ninth division and The number of the 10th Division.

"Since Zhao Dongyun wants to fight, then fight! Let the first division and the first mixed brigade let go and attack Tangshan directly!" Wang Yingkai gave the order and then said, "Also, what do you say about Liangjiang, Hubei and Shanxi?"

"Nanjing has not made a statement yet. Governor Zhang of Anqing has transferred his brigade to Bengbu in the north. As long as the war starts, he can immediately take the Third Army to the north! Wang, the second chief of Hubei, also did not show up. Governor Wang of Xinyang has sent a telegram, saying that he can go north at any time.

Wang Yingkai nodded after hearing this. Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen's ambiguous attitude was also expected. They must be happy to see it when they just started fighting with Zhao Dongyun. If they want to go north, they will probably be defeated. As for Wang Ruxian and Zhang Huaizhi, although they are separated from their appearance, they are still effective on the surface. Loyal to the Central Committee, it is estimated that troops will be dispatched to the north to fight after the start of the war. As for Wu Fengling, this person has the same ambiguous attitude and blindly persuades him to restrain him. It seems that he also wants to take advantage of the fire.

At this time, Wang Yingkai did not know that Wu Fengling had reached an alliance with Zhao Dongyun, and now he has led the army to leave Taiyuan and went straight to Shijiazhuang along the railway.

Zhao Dongyun wanted to delay the time, but Wang Yingkai saw a bad opportunity. In the afternoon of the same day, he ordered the troops to officially attack Tangshan. Of course, they can't use the outbreak of war now. They used the excuse to take over Tangshan's defense.

At 5 p.m. on June 12, Hanhezhuang on the outskirts of Tangshan, this former small village is completely quiet as before. Outside the village is a long trench. The trench looks old, and at the same time, a complete civil fortifications have been built. Some areas are also built with strong cement fortresses. Obviously, this is The army has built permanent fortifications for many hours.

Not only Hanhezhuang, but also trenches and fortresses on the left and right sides of Hanhezhuang.

Since the Feng army stationed Tangshan last year, it began to build the Tangshan defense line. With the conclusion of the Tianjin agreement, because the Tangshan garrison can only have 5,000 people, while the direct army on the opposite side is more than 20,000 to 30,000, the Feng army has paid more attention to the construction of fortifications. In the past six months, in addition to the army, it has also hired many people. Build trenches and fortresses.

Most of the construction of these fortifications revolve around the Fuyuan Machine Factory. In short, the deepest part of the defense line is the Fuyuan Machine Factory.

At the same time, in order to further strengthen the defense of Tangshan, according to the order of the staff, the workers of Fuyuan Machine Factory were also organized to conduct several military trainings in order to requisition workers from the factory to join the defense operations during the war.

After Zhao Dongyun officially decided to enter the customs in early June, Li Chun began to recruit 500 workers in the factory for training in the name of training. After today's incident, Li Chun requisitioned another 2,000 people. However, it is naturally not feasible for these people to fight, and it is not even good to be cannon fodder. These people gave the enemy a big The artillery basically dispersed as soon as it was bombarded, and the newly requisitioned 2,000 people were used to continue to build fortifications and be responsible for logistics transportation.

As for more workers, they are now working overtime in the factory for munitions production. Even if there is a war on the front line, this arsenal cannot be stopped. Otherwise, Zhao Dongyun will take some bullets and cannonballs to fight.

Han Wuduo looked coldly at several looming figures hundreds of meters away. He knew that those in gray military uniforms were direct troops.

He bent down and walked through the trench. As he walked, he said, "It's all steady. No one is allowed to fire without my command!"

In the trench he passed, many soldiers were already lying on the trenches, looking nervously at the direct soldiers in the distance, and some timid even began to tremble their fingers.

After walking through this trench, Han Wuduo went to the front of a machine gun fortress: "How are you ready?"

A sergeant touched the heavy machine gun in his hand and said, "This gun has just been taken from Fuchang. The new guy doesn't have many bullets. I'm afraid it's not enough to fight later!"

"I have applied for the bullet, and I guess it will arrive soon. Don't be afraid. Now looking around the whole country, there is no army that is more sufficient than our ammunition!" Han Wuduo said, "If there is a fight later, you can hit me hard. Don't be afraid of running out of bullets!"

The 7th Mixed Brigade is stationed in Tangshan. This arsenal is on the side. All kinds of ordnance, especially bullets and shells, can be said to be taken casually. As for how to pay for these ammunition and ordnances, it is a matter of the Ordnance Department. Li Chun does not intend to worry about this.

At this time, the sergeant suddenly said, "You see, the direct army is coming!"

Han Wuduo just wanted to look up, but there was a roar in his ear. As soon as he lay down, several explosions were remembered in the position!

It's shelling!

With the shelling, the direct soldiers in gray military uniforms in the distance also gradually appeared in the eyes of Han Wuduo!