Chapter 281 conquering Tongzhou

Wang Zhanyuan's decision was decisive and fast. Previously, he thought that even if the strength of one of his divisions could not eat the fifth brigade of Kong Jingbei, it should not be a problem to defend Bazhou in the face of the attack of the two divisions of the Feng army!

After all, in the war of this era, the defensive side occupies a great tactical advantage. It is common to block two, and it is impossible to surround himself with the troops of the two divisions of the Feng army, so Wang Zhanyuan feels that he should be safe in Bazhou.

In addition, if he defends and contain the two main divisions of the Feng army in Bazhou, he can greatly reduce the pressure on the Beijing division and buy time for the defense of the Beijing division.

What do you do to buy time?

Waiting for Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen from Henan and Hubei, as well as Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui in the direction of Shandong!

As long as they and the capital are dragged to Wang Ruxian to take Shijiazhuang, then Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen's troops can continue to quickly go north to reinforce the capital and themselves, and then Zhili's dilemma will be solved.

It is this factor that makes Wang Zhanyuan have never had the idea of withdrawing troops before. Even if he was besieged by the two divisions of the Feng army, has he ever wavered?

However, the current situation is completely different from what he expected. First of all, Wu Fengling in Shijiazhuang is like the immortal Xiaoqiang. After receiving reinforcements from 2,000 people from the Second Cavalry Brigade of the Feng Army, he continued to guard Shijiazhuang with inferior troops, so that Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen, who was supported by subsequent reinforcements, could not go north. Take an inch.

Of course, Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen's troops can actually leave the railway and bypass Shijiazhuang on foot, but not to mention that the north troops around Shijiazhuang will face the danger of being cut off or even surrounded by the supply line. If there is no railway transportation alone, their pace to the north will be unbearable. Step.

Although Shijiazhuang is not far from Beijing, it is also hundreds of kilometers. At that time, in order to get to Shijiazhuang as reinforcements, the second cavalry brigade of the Feng army ran to death thousands of horses along the way. By the time they arrived in Shijiazhuang, the second cavalry brigade had only more than 100 cavalry, and the rest were lost horses. The hiking cavalry.

If Wang Ruxian's troops want to leave the railway and go north, they will be given less than half a month in Beijing, and this half month is enough for Wu Fengling and the direct army to work together to kill Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen's troops who are going north several times.

More than 20,000 Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen have been unable to take Shijiazhuang for a long time, which means that Wang Yingkai has not been able to get reinforcements for a long time. Sooner or later, the Beijing Division will be captured by the Feng army. After the fall of the Beijing Army, the other main forces of the Feng army will go south to reinforce Shijiazhuang and Bazhou, not to mention Shijiazhuang.

But in that case, the seventh division of Wang Zhanyuan in Bazhou will be dangerous.

Although Wang Zhanyuan is confident that the two divisions of the Feng army opposite can't leave him, if the Feng army has another division, he really can't break through at that time.

And this situation became more serious after the defense line of the 28th Regiment was broken. Although the two divisions against the Feng army are not completely defeated, they are also very reluctant. If the Feng army comes back to reinforce the troops, then they may really be defeated by the state.

Now that they can't break through the Feng army's interception and reinforcements the capital, and Wang Ruxian and others can't break through Shijiazhuang to reinforce the capital. As for Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui's troops will go north to the capital, they don't know when. In this case, they continue to delay It has become meaningless.

In the face of such a situation, Wang Zhanyuan quickly made a decision, that is, 36 tricks to go first!

Wang Zhanyuan's withdrawal was once again unexpected by most people, and just like the retreat of the 13th Brigade, the retreat of the 7th Division was decisive and quickly. In the evening of that day, the 13th Brigade launched a large-scale counterattack on the front line. The scale of the counterattack was huge, and the direct army also did not hesitate to fire. The bomb carried out a fierce shelling, which once made the front-line officers of the 10th Division think that the 7th Division had drawn troops from other fronts to launch a large-scale counterattack from the north or even break through the interception of the 10th Division and go north.

So in the evening of that day, the front-line troops of the 10th Division were forced to defend themselves and closely followed the possible night attack of the 13th Brigade.

However, they didn't know that Wang Zhanyuan's 13th Brigade was just a false shot. After a powerful counterattack, when night came, in addition to leaving a small number of troops to continue to play small-scale counterattacks, the main force quietly withdrew from the front line.

At that time, a large number of front-line officers of the 13th Brigade still thought that the 7th Division was brewing a large-scale counterattack, and many people believed that the counterattack of the 7th Division might come at dawn tomorrow, so they were busy deploying the defense line that night. Many officers stayed up all night to command the soldiers to dig trenches. Strengthen the defense line. After all, the strong offensive ability that broke out in the attack of the 5th Brigade of the 7th Division still made other officers of the Feng army more afraid.

The same situation also appeared on the 28th Regiment!

However, before the second dawn and even in the following morning, the Feng army, especially the 10th Division, could not wait for the expected counterattack of the 7th Division. When the front-line troops launched a tentative attack, they found that the direct front opposite was empty.

"He ran away?" Xu Bangjie couldn't believe the situation reported by his subordinates: "Didn't you say last night that the 7th Division would launch a large-scale counterattack? How did it all change overnight!"

There is no need to ask, at this time, everyone also understands that the offensive yesterday evening was a false momentum of the 7th Division, not for the counterattack but for the withdrawal of troops!

"They must have retreated at night. When we made a reactionary attack in the morning, we found that there was only one battalion left by the enemy on the opposite side, and it was also the night attack launched by this battalion against us last night!" Zhou Fulin, the commander of the 20th Brigade, said, "Obviously, this battalion is their broken rear troops!"

Ren Cunggao, the brigade commander of the 19th Brigade, also said, "Last night, not only did the 13th Brigade retreat, but also the 28th Regiment of the 5th Brigade withdrew. But the enemy did not go far, and Brother Gu's 6th Brigade is still fighting with the enemy's 27th Regiment on the southern front of Bazhou, which shows that they didn't go too far yesterday!"

"He Wang Zhanyuan thinks we are. Come and leave if you want, hum!" Xu Bangjie, who felt that he had been fooled, was in a bad mood. If he was successfully escaped by Wang Zhanyuan, although his side may achieve certain results, from a strategic point of view, the battle of Bazhou was completely defeated.

The reason why the Feng army launched the Battle of Bazhou to prevent Wang Zhanyuan from going north to reinforce the capital is only secondary. What's more is that the Feng army hopes to hit the seventh division in one fell swoop, so as to create favorable conditions for the subsequent march into Shandong and Nanzhili areas. If Wang Zhanyuan's troops can escape smoothly This means that the Feng army will be blocked by the 7th Division in the process of going south, and it will take more time to go. At that time, Qirui and Zhang Huaizhi's troops will enter and completely control Shandong.

So Xu Bangjie can't let the 7th Division escape intact!

"Lao Zhou, your 20th Brigade immediately pursues lightly and must catch up with the enemy's main force. Let your 19th Brigade quickly get rid of the broken battalion and catch up with the 20th Brigade!"

When Xu Bangjie ordered the troops to pursue at the first time, Chen Guangyuan also found that the decision he made was similar to Xu Bangjie, that he ordered the Fifth Brigade to break through the interception of the troops and go south to pursue as soon as possible.

At the same time, he ordered Gu Lanyu of the Sixth Brigade to ask that the Sixth Brigade must pester the main force of the Seventh Division!

However, Wang Zhanyuan thought differently from them. When he retreated last night, he did not lead the troops to retreat south, but led the troops to retreat from the southwest, and he did not take the 27th Regiment.

In fact, the officers and soldiers of the 27th Regiment still don't know that the main force of the 7th Division has retreated. Why?

Because Wang Zhanyuan needs a broken force to cover the main retreat!

And the 27th Regiment has indeed become a dazzling fire magnet. Xu Bangjie and Chen Guangyuan both thought that Wang Zhanyuan had made a breakthrough from the south, otherwise they would not have let the 27th Regiment stick to it, so the 20th and 5th Brigade of the 10th Brigade quickly arrived at the southern line of Bazhou and participated in the 27th Regiment. After the siege.

But they didn't know that when they besieged the 27th Regiment, the main force of the 7th Division led by Wang Zhanyuan had jumped out of the siege of Bazhou and appeared in Xiong County 30 kilometers away.

At this time, the Battle of Bazhou, which lasted for nearly ten days, also came to an end!

However, the result of this battle made both sides seriously dissatisfied. After learning that Wang Zhanyuan led the main force of the 7th Division to successfully break through, he did not hit the 7th Division as badly as originally planned. Zhao Dongyun, who was in Langfang, was very angry and sent a telegram of condolences to Chen Guangyuan, the supreme commander in charge of the Battle of Bazhou, that day, although However, on the surface, the telegram praised the bravery of the troops of the 3rd Division and the 10th Division and successfully annihilated more than 2,000 enemies. He hoped that Chen Jun would continue to work hard and live up to the expectations of the country and the nation.

The words of Zhao Dongyun's telegram to Chen Guangyuan are extremely formulaic and do not use approachable words as before, which is a very obvious signal that Zhao Dongyun is quite dissatisfied with Chen Guangyuan's command!

The purpose of the Feng army's Bazhou Campaign is very clear. Although it is not expected to completely encircle and annihilate the 7th Division, it will also hit the 7th Division. Only in this way can we create favorable conditions for the subsequent southward battle. However, although the 7th Division has left more than 2,000 people in Bazhou, and even a 27th regiment has been besieged and destroyed, to be honest, although this is a great loss for the 7th Division, it is also the main force of the 7th Division.

The retreat of the 7th Division was different from the original 1st Division. At that time, Lu Yongxiang's 1st Division was rather a retreat, but it was beaten and fled. There was no time to take away a large number of heavy weapons, especially the two artillery battalions assigned to the first brigade for combat were almost lost. End. However, in the 7th Division, their artillery troops left ahead of schedule, and all the heavy machine guns of the infantry were also taken away. The main technical weapons were still there, and the backbone was still there. Even if an infantry regiment was lost, the 7th Division could recover in a month.

These days, it is difficult for you to expand an artillery regiment, but if you want to expand an infantry regiment, it will be much less difficult. Wang Zhanyuan does not have to spend much effort to directly transfer a battalion from other troops, and then a new 27th regiment can be reorganised and recruit 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers. , his seventh division can restore its original combat effectiveness.

As for the source of new recruits, the Feng army can recruit new soldiers while fighting during the war. Wang Zhanyuan and most of the other warlords did the same. Wang Zhanyuan also modeled the Feng army in Shandong to make a new barracks, in which there are thousands of people training. After supplementing, the seventh division can be restored soon. Combat effectiveness.

But the same loss is not small for the first division. Their artillery, heavy machine guns and other weapons are almost lost. This first division can never recover its combat effectiveness in a short time like the seventh division.

The seventh division was not seriously damaged, and Zhao Dongyun was naturally dissatisfied.

On the other side of the war, Wang Yingkai was also seriously dissatisfied with Wang Zhanyuan's retreat, because Wang Zhanyuan's retreat almost announced the complete failure of the rescue plan!

Today's Beijing is like a lonely boat in the desert, surrounded by the Feng army!

With more and more losses, and when the officers and soldiers knew that it was impossible to have reinforcements, the direct army in the capital finally shook on a large scale.

On July 13, with the cooperation of He Zonglian's Fifth Mixed Brigade and Cao Kuan's Fourth Mixed Brigade, they successfully defeated more than 6,000 of the 11th Division and captured Tongzhou!

On the 14th, Fengjun continuously broke through the multiple defense lines of the remnants of the direct army and went all the way to Chaoyangmen.

At this time, it can basically be announced that the defense of the direct army of the capital division has been retreated and broken. Even if the remnants of the first division in the direction of Nanyuan are still resisting, it cannot change the fact that the Feng army entered the capital from the eastern battle of the Beijing division!