Chapter 332 Suqian Campaign 1

Suqian on the northern front line is an important route city of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Although the importance of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is not as important as before, it still has great economic and military value for the contemporary Shandong and northern Jiangsu regions.

Since the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War, this canal has become an important transportation channel for military supplies between the Feng and Anhui armies. During the Feng army's attack on Shandong, almost all logistics supplies were transported south through this canal.

This situation was not changed until the Feng army took Shandong and entered the north of the Soviet Union. In order to make up for the problem of too little canal transportation, on the one hand, the Feng army opened up maritime transportation, and on the other hand, it also occupied Haizhou to establish a temporary supply port, and on the other hand, Zhengzhou was also used as a transit point for logistics materials, and a large number of them along Beijing and Han The railway transported materials to the south through more than 300 kilometers of land passage, and rushed into Kaifeng and Shangqiu all the way to Xiao County, the bridgehead of the Feng army in the western region of northern Jiangsu.

Although there are maritime and railway transshipment, the Jinghan Grand Canal in Zhili and Shandong sections still undertakes part of the logistics transportation tasks.

This canal is important enough for the Feng army, but it is even more important for the Anhui army.

Xuzhou, the decisive battle between the two sides, is more than 300 km away from the Yangtze River. Although this distance is similar to the distance from Zhengzhou to Xuzhou, the traffic situation between the two is very different, because Zhengzhou and Xuzhou are open plain terrain, and there is no dense mountains and hills, and there is no dense water network terrain. Four-wheeled heavy carriages and other means of transportation with a large amount of equipment in the Feng army can be widely used. Otherwise, the Feng army would not choose to open such a land supply channel with a length of more than 300 kilometers.

However, the water network in Jiangsu is dense, and the traffic situation on land is not ideal. In this case, it is naturally more convenient and convenient for transportation.

Since Pizhou was captured by the Feng army, the supply line transported by the Anhui army through the canal to Xuzhou was cut off, and it could only be forced to turn to land transportation to continue to transport supplies to Xuzhou from Suqian.

It can be seen here that today's Suqian has become a logistics transfer center to support the Anhui army's operations in Xuzhou. For the Anhui army, the strategic position of this place is very important, no less important than Xiao County and Haizhou for the Feng army. Once Suqian is conquered by the Feng army, if the Anhui army wants to continue to transport supplies to Xuzhou, it can only be transported from Qingjiangpu as the starting point, or simply transport it by land from Jinling.

Although the capture of Suqian cannot completely cut off the logistics supply line of the Anhui army to Xuzhou, it can still greatly hit the logistics supplies that the Anhui army can obtain in Xuzhou.

No matter what the era is, in fact, fighting is a waste, especially this kind of super-large-scale battle is better than who can get more shells and bullets, and whose logistics is better, because the logistics supply capacity directly affects the combat effectiveness of the troops.

For example, although the Feng army has many weapons, if the rear cannot transport enough shells in time, then machine guns and artillery can only become decorations, and the weapon advantage cannot be exerted at all.

In addition to its importance in logistics and transportation, Suqian also has another very important strategic position, that is, once the Feng army goes south to Suqian, the 10th Division of the Feng army can continue to march west and then converge with the first mixed brigade from Pizhou to the west to form a strong vertical Deeply interspersed troops, and then captured the vast area in southern Xuzhou.

In this way, Xuzhou will become an isolated city independent. It will not only lose supplies and reinforcements from the rear, but also completely lose direct contact with the Anhui army in other directions in northern Jiangsu, and the Xuzhou garrison surrounded on all sides is likely to be completely surrounded and annihilated.

Based on these factors, the importance of Suqian is self-evident. It is rude to say that the victory or defeat in the direction of Suqian has directly affected the outcome of the whole war in northern Jiangsu, especially for the Anhui army.

If the Feng army can't win Suqian, at most, the attack will be blocked. It may take more strength and casualties to take Xuzhou. However, for the Anhui army, once Suqian is lost, it represents the collapse of the whole northern defense line of the Soviet Union.

The senior generals of the Feng army knew the importance of Suqian, and Duan Qirui also knew it. Therefore, when the Feng army gathered the main force of the 10th Division to attack Suqian, Duan Qirui also strictly ordered the Suqian garrison to defend it and never let the Feng army conquer Suqian.

At the same time, Duan Qirui also urgently transferred the second mixed brigade of the Liangjiang Army, which had just returned from Jiangxi, to reinforce the direction of Suqian. Originally, the Ministry intended to directly reinforce the direction of Xuzhou, but after the war in Suqian was tight, he was transferred to the direction of Suqian by Duan Qirui.

"At present, the enemy army in the direction of Suqian has increased to more than 20,000 people, and together with nearly 10,000 enemy troops in Qingjiangpu have formed the Suqian-Qingjiangpu defense line. Although it is too thin to defend such a defense line of nearly 70 kilometers with a total of more than 30,000 people, our division's strength is not enough.

Unless you give up the direction of Qingjiangpu and concentrate your troops in the direction of Suqian, it will be difficult to defeat the enemy in front of you by relying on the strength of a brigade on the other side of Suqian!"

Speaking of Colonel Su Kangyun, the Chief of Staff of the 10th Division, who, like most of the senior staff officers in the Feng army, is a trainee, and something different from other trainees is that he was still a student before he was admitted to the training class. He was one of Yuan Shikai's early official students sent to Germany to study military affairs. Naturally, this man could not be admitted to the Berlin Military Academy like Yang Deming's few children, but studied in an ordinary non-commissioned officer school. Like many predecessors who stayed in Germany in the late Russo-Japanese War, he also chose to join Zhao Dongyun. After serving in the Feng army, he served as a fourth-class staff officer and captain in the combat office, and then served as an instructor of Fengtian Military Academy. However, unlike many international students, he did not give up the opportunity to continue his studies, but was admitted to the training class. After graduation last year, due to his dual qualifications of German students and advanced students, the speed of promotion can be said to be extremely fast. First, after serving as the battalion commander for a few months, he was quickly transferred back to the field army. He served as a second-class staff officer in the war department and was successfully promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Because of its particularity, the staff officers during the period are generally highly educated officers, and a considerable number of regimental heads have served as combat staff officers in the combat office. Therefore, to some extent, the transfer to the combat office as a combat staff officer is the promotion pursued by those major and lieutenant officers. Channel, because as long as you serve in the combat office for a few months, you will often have the opportunity to be transferred to the head of the army or the chief of staff of the division brigade, and the military rank will be smoothly promoted to colonel.

Although there are also a large number of colonels in the Feng army who have been promoted step by step from company commanders, battalion commanders, deputy regiments and regimental commanders, most of these people are difficult to cross the threshold of major generals and become senior generals. Real high hopes for high-level officers, and the key cultivation of middle-level officers are often specially assigned to different departments. Positions are rotated to accumulate enough experience. At the same time, their information is enriched through frequent redelictions, so that they can also be blocked by others when promoted.

From the battalion commander of the field force, to the staff officers of key departments or section chiefs of the command department, and even the civilian staff, these are those proud sons who need to experience one by one, and their tenure in a certain position is usually not too long, and there will be no situation that they have been suffering for many years in the same position. It can be seen from the combat staff who frequently come and go in and out of the battlefield.

Based on this promotion mechanism of the Feng army, the Combat Department has served as the cradle of senior generals in the Feng army to a certain extent, especially for officers from Buke.

Su Kangyun also served as a staff officer in the Operations Department, but unlike ordinary people who served as an ordinary combat staff officer and served as the head of the field troops, he was promoted to the fifth section chief of the Operations Department after being promoted to the rank of colonel, and then he was transferred to the field force as the commander.

But to be honest, his appointment as the head of the regiment is just a transition. He doesn't even know that several senior military generals have already noticed him and think that his staff ability is quite excellent, and he intends to cultivate him as an outstanding senior staff officer.

So after serving as the regimental commander for only a few months at the beginning of the year, he was transferred to the 10th Division as the chief of staff of the division. If everything goes well, he will be promoted to the commander of the army or return to the commander-in-chief of a certain department, and the follow-up direction is to the commander of the combat department, which is known as the most powerful in the Feng army. The future major general has moved forward to the position.

As long as you have the experience of serving as the head of the Operations Department, then you can go to the field army in the future and serve as the brigade commander, then you can naturally move forward to the position of division commander.

Although Su Kangyun's employment experience and subsequent promotion are relatively cumbersome, in fact, the time required is much faster than those traditional officers, such as those colonels who have been promoted through traditional channels. Although on the surface, they are only one step away from the young brigade commanders, but in fact most of them are not It is possible to reduce this threshold across domains.

You see, there are so many school-level officers in the Soviet army, but there are only a lot of positions of senior generals, and the promotion system of the Feng army is also different from other warlord troops. Other warlord forces are basically battalion commanders, brigade commanders, brigade commanders, brigade commanders, but this is not like this in the Feng army. Even if the brigade commander is raised and vacancies, it is impossible for the commander below to directly take over the position of the brigade commander, but from other places to transfer the young general to directly serve as the brigade commander. So if you want to cross from regimental commander to brigade commander to division commander like other warlord troops, the possibility is almost directly ignored.

Watching Su Kangyun introduce the current situation of Suqian, several officers below, even Wu Peifu, who has been promoted to major general, are a little envious.