Chapter 288 Jinan Battle 1

In Jinan, Shandong Province, Gu Lanyu wore his general's regular uniform and wore the epaulette of the rank of lieutenant general. After taking over Chen Guangyuan as the division commander, he also took the opportunity to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

Nowadays, the Beiyang Army, including the Feng army, still has relatively strict control over the military ranks. After Beiyang officially issued the new military rank at the beginning of the year, only two people in the Beiyang system have been awarded the rank of general in the army, that is, Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen. As for Wang Yingkai and Zhao Dongyun, they have served as presidents at that time. And the vice president, so they themselves did not have the title. After Zhao Dongyun moved to Beijing, he reorganized the command and thought he was a 'great marshal'. In fact, this grand marshal was not a military rank, but a position.

Except for the two generals, the number of generals was not large. At that time, only senior generals above the division commander were awarded the rank of general, such as Lu Yongxiang, the commander of the 1st Division, Chen Guangyuan, the commander of the 3rd Division, Zhang Huaizhi, the commander of the 5th Division, Wang Zhanyuan, the commander of the 7th Division, Wang Ruxian, the 8th Division commander Lin Yongquan, commander of the 9th Division, Xu Bangjie, commander of the 10th Division, Meng Enyuan, commander of Yuguan Defense, and so on. Other mixed brigade commanders, infantry brigade commanders, cavalry brigade commanders and other messy people are basically major generals.

As for the ranks of generals of the warlord provincial army, most of the ranks registered in the Syrian department of the Army Department are also major generals and even colonels.

Of course, each warlord also has its own appointment. For example, Duan Qirui privately granted him several division commanders of the Liangjiang Army as lieutenant general, but this kind of local military rank is not recognized by the outside world.

Later, the central government promoted a group of generals to the rank of military. For example, after Zhang Huaizhi was promoted to commander of the Third Army, Wang Yingkai promoted him to general in accordance with the previous precedent of Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen. At the same time, he introduced an additional rank system, promoted Wang Ruxian to the rank of lieutenant general of the army, and promoted Wu Fengling to the rank of general. On the eve of the Tangshan Campaign, Lu Yongxiang was promoted to the rank of general and a group of other generals.

The so-called additional rank, such as the general in the army, means that your position is still at the rank of lieutenant general, but you can enjoy the etiquette treatment of generals. At present, the addition system in the Wang Yingkai era and Zhao Dongyun era is still limited to the general class.

It is usually to add the rank of lieutenant general to the major general and the rank of general to the lieutenant general. There is no such thing as adding the rank of major general to the general for the time being.

After Zhao Dongyun moved into the capital, he rewarded his men. First, he promoted Meng Enyuan to a general of the army, and then Xu Bangjie to a lieutenant general of the army, and promoted Gu Lanyu to a lieutenant general of the army.

However, although it has been rewarded a lot, there are still only a handful of generals in the Feng army system, and the gold content is still very high.

Gu Lanyu is now very satisfied with his current situation. He has not only been promoted to lieutenant general, but also served as the commander of the third division, the division commander of the main division of the Feng army. His position in the Feng army has been vaguely second only to Meng Enyuan and Xu Bangjie.

If he performs well in the subsequent southward campaign, then he may be the next commander, but it is still too early to talk about the subsequent southward battle. What he has to do now is to take down Jinan as soon as possible and then put Shandong under his control.

Gu Lanyu has this idea, and most of the other generals of the Feng army also have similar ideas and want to make great contributions in subsequent operations to gain reuse.

"Now our first priority is to break through the enemy's Yellow River defense line!" Kong Guanbei, the commander of the 5th Brigade below, looked at Gu Lanyu and the epaulette of the middle-general on Gu Lanyu's shoulder, inadvertently showing envy.

You should know that Kong Guanbei was also a powerful candidate for the commander of the Third Division, but during the Battle of Bazhou, the overall performance of the Third Division was poor, and the performance of the Fifth Brigade could only be regarded as mediocre. Not only did it lead to the transfer of Chen Guangyuan, the commander of the Third Division, but also the further promotion of Kong Guanbei was also affected. However, Gu Lanyu performed well, which was defeated by Kong Guanbei in the competition of the third division.

After the sound of Kong overlooking the north fell, Pei Lianying, who replaced Gu Lanyu as the commander of the 6th Brigade, also said, "Now that Zhang Huaizhi's Fifth Division and the Anhui Army are deployed along the Yellow River defense line, I'm afraid it will be very difficult to cross the river head-on. Now the best way is to bypass the front battlefield and cross the river from the flank!"

"If you take a detour, the effect is not great. The enemy on the opposite side can easily move to our position of crossing the river. If the detour distance is too large, it will affect the transportation of the logistics force, and the marching time is also too long. If you cross the river in a large circle, I'm afraid the test for the troops is still relatively big! " Kong Guanbei said, "According to my opinion, it is still necessary to make a breakthrough in Daqiao Town. There are not many enemy deployments there, and it is relatively easy to cross the river!"

At this time, Gu Lanyu said, "It is too difficult to cross the river in Jinan. Although our army has an advantage, we should also try to avoid unnecessary casualties and preserve our strength as much as possible to deal with Duan Qirui's Liangjiang troops."

The enemy of the Soviet Feng army is not only Zhang Huaizhi. The bigger enemy in the southward battle is actually Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui has now occupied the two rivers for many days. When Zhao Dongyun launched the battle to enter the customs, Duan Qirui was not idle. His troops have gone south to southern Zhejiang and Jiangxi, although the southern federal forces He resisted but couldn't resist Duan Qirui's troops at all.

Whether the Feng army can take Shandong or not, sooner or not, he will have to fight against Duan Qirui. If he takes Shandong and continues to go south, he will march to northern Jiangsu. Duan Qirui will definitely resist, and if he can't take Shandong, Duan Qirui will also slowly send reinforcements north to Shandong.

Therefore, as long as the conflict between Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui is not resolved at the political level, then a large-scale war between the two families is certain.

In this case, the Second Army in the direction of Shandong and Liangjiang must be cautious in the early operations and preserve its strength as much as possible to fight against Duan Qirui's Liangjiang troops.

After considering the opinions of many subordinates, Gu Lanyu proposed a battle plan to Xu Bangjie, the commander of the Second Army. Like Gu Lanyu's previous battle plan, the core of this battle plan is also the word 'roundabout'.

And the detour distance is farther than the previous battle plan. Gu Lanyu suggested sending the main force to bypass Jinan and then cross the river in Zhaoguan Town, 30 kilometers southwest of Jinan.

Unlike the previous consideration of only sending a partial division to cross the river, this time, Gu Lanyu suggested using the main force to cross the river, leaving only a small number of troops in front of Jinan to contain it, and then the main force will directly kill to the south of Jinan after crossing the river, and can also cut off Jinan and the south. Contact.

After seeing this battle plan, Xu Bangjie discussed a large number of senior generals of the Second Army, and finally implemented the plan after a small-scale break.

So on August 9, the main force of the second army under Xu Bangjie quietly left the front battlefield, and then marched southwest to cross the river, including the 19th Brigade of the 3rd Division and the 10th Division, and the 20th Brigade of the front battlefield was used as a companion attack. As for the first mixed brigade preparing to reinforce the Shandong battlefield, now Langfang has just set out and has to come to Jinan for at least ten days and a half. Xu Bangjie does not plan to wait so long, because the longer he waits, the more troops Zhang Huaizhi has transferred from Anhui, and Duan Qirui's troops to the north are getting closer and closer.

On August 11, Xu Bangjie's Second Army set up a pontoon bridge on the Yellow River around Zhaoguan Town, and then the main force quickly crossed the river. The troops under Zhang Huaizhi opposite also found the second army's circuitous crossing of the river and sent troops to intercept it urgently, but it was defeated by the fifth brigade belonging to the leading third division after crossing the river lightly. After the Fifth Brigade occupied the other side of the river, a large number of main forces and artillery units of the Second Army also began to cross the river.

On the 13th, the third division after crossing the river quickly advanced eastward and captured the main cities along the way. At this time, Zhang Huaizhi also mobilized the main force to intercept and defend it with long-time fortifications in the area of Lashan.

At this time, a large-scale war officially broke out between the two sides, and it was a battle led by the Feng army.

Jinan is bordered by the Yellow River in the north and Mount Tai in the south, but whether the Feng army crosses the river from the east or the river from the west. At that time, it is necessary to launch a tough battle, and Zhang Huaizhi on the opposite side can't see this, so in the Jinan defense line he deployed, he actually expected this situation for a long time. If he wants to stop Feng It is impossible for the army to cross the river in a roundabout way, but he can shrink his troops and hold on to Jinan.

If the Feng army wants to take down Jinan, it will inevitably fight a tough battle. The longer the war in Jinan is, the more beneficial it will be for Zhang Huaizhi, because Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui's troops are constantly marching north to reinforce, and Zhang Huaizhi will have more power in his hands.

After the attack of the 3rd Division was blocked, the light infantry unit did not immediately launch a strong attack, but waited for the arrival of the follow-up artillery force and the 10th Division. Of course, more importantly, after many days of continuous detouring across the river, the supply of the troops began to be scarce and urgently needed to be replenished. At the same time, the soldiers' physical strength was also The decline is serious.

After two days of resting in Lashan, the Third Division launched an attack on Lashan with the support of an artillery regiment and two 120mm mortar battalions, which completely opened the prelude to the battle in Jinan!

On the front line of Lashan, the rumble of cannons has not stopped since it sounded. The sound of machine guns on both sides has been intermittent, and the sound has been transmitted back in the air.

In the front position of the 2nd Battalion of the 11th Regiment of the Third Division, Zhao Dongzhi, who wore the rank of major, looked a little nervously at the pocket watch in his hand and the passage of the hourly clock in his pocket watch in his hand. His hand holding the pocket watch unconsciously got closer and closer, and stopped with the pointer. At 5: 30, Zhao Dongzhi secretly counted in his heart, and suddenly there was a loud rumble behind. It was the sound of the rear artillery regiment and 120mm mortar battalion launching shelling on time, and then countless shells crossed the sky and landed hundreds of meters away from their heads.

For a while, it seemed that the whole time was shrouded by the smoke of the explosion. Zhao Dongzhi took out the effect of the telescope and the bombardment of the viewer, but his eyes were not very good. Obviously, the shelling did not achieve the expected effect. Although explosions kept coming from the opposite position, Zhao Dongzhi was a figure. I didn't see it. Obviously, those Anhui soldiers hid in the cannon hole.

Fifteen minutes later, the shelling stopped. Zhao Dongzhi's telescope had vaguely seen the opposite Wan army starting to walk out of the anti-gun hole, because according to the Beiyang tactics coordinated by infantry, it was time for the infantry to charge, but Zhao Dongzhi sneered when he saw it.

Two minutes later, the artillery, which had stopped shelling, suddenly opened fire again and fired rapidly. In a short period of time, it once again threw a large number of shells at the position of the opposing Anhui army. The Anhui army, which had just walked out of the artillery hole to prepare for defense, immediately turned over, and the soldiers quickly ran back to the gunhole. Go.

However, at this time, Zhao Dongzhi took a deep breath and then pulled out his command knife: "Let's launch an attack according to the scheduled plan!"

With his order, the platoon leaders of the 2nd Battalion blew the bronze whistle in their mouths together. A large number of Feng soldiers in blue-gray military uniforms climbed out of the temporary trenches, and then rushed forward scatteredly and quickly towards the front. At this time, the artillery of the Anhui army, which had been silent, also opened fire!

In an instant, hundreds of meters on the road charged by the Feng army, the shells of the Anhui army kept falling and exploding, and the heavy machine guns of the Anhui army opposite also rattled.

The soldiers of the Feng army kept falling, and the explosions sounded around from time to time. Then Zhao Dongzhi still waved his command knife to let the troops charge!