Chapter 340 Over conquering Xuzhou

After discovering that Duan Qirui broke through the siege with the fourth division overnight, Meng Enyuan outside Xuzhou City looked a little ugly. He didn't want to see him busy with nearly 100,000 Fengjun in northern Jiangsu for several months, and finally could only take an empty city!

"Let Ren Cungao speed up and rush west, and let the first mixed brigade not care about the third brigade of the two rivers, get rid of their entanglement and catch up with the pace of the tenth division as soon as possible!" Meng Enyuan quickly issued a series of orders.

"The third division was ordered to immediately bypass Xuzhou and pursue south. The ninth division immediately turned south to Suzhou, and the final work in Xuzhou was handed over to the 1st division!"

After Duan Qirui led the main 4th Division to leave Xuzhou, although there were nearly 10,000 troops around Xuzhou, it had lost its strategic value for the whole northern Jiangsu war. As long as the 4th Division was not in Xuzhou, the Feng army did not need to set up heavy troops in Xuzhou.

Anyway, the Anhui army has shown a great retreat in northern Jiangsu, and the remaining nearly 10,000 enemy troops in the direction of Xuzhou can't set off a storm.

The situation on the front line in northern Jiangsu showed great changes in early November, and this change is good and bad for the Feng army. The benefits are obvious. No matter what the Anhui army is for, they have given up Xuzhou, and giving up Xuzhou is equivalent to giving up the whole northern Jiangsu, except for Xuzhou, Suqian, outside the front line of Suzhou, the Anhui army could not build a similar defense line in other areas of northern Jiangsu. In the face of the subsequent fierce attack of the Feng army, they could only retreat all the way to the south bank of the Yangtze River.

But there are also disadvantages, that is, although Meng Enyuan found that Duan Qirui was going to escape in time and quickly took targeted measures, urgently ordering the 10th Division to accelerate westward, and ordering the 3rd and 9th Division to bypass Xuzhou and go south to pursue, he still failed to catch up with the 4th Division who was eager to escape.

In order to cover the retreat of the fourth division, Duan Qirui still left nearly 10,000 people of the second and third brigades of the two rivers in Xuzhou. Even when the fourth division had escaped from Xuzhou, in fact, the Anhui army of these two brigades did not know that they had been regarded as abandoned.

After that, he did not care about the life or death of Zhang Huaizhi in the direction of Suzhou. He directly crossed Suzhou and ran all the way south to Bengbu before stopping his pace.

The Fourth Division successfully escaped from the encirclement of the Feng army, which made Zhao Dongyun, who was in Beijing, a little dissatisfied.

When receiving the war report from the former enemy headquarters in Xuzhou, saying that Duan Qirui successfully broke through with the fourth division, he seemed to have returned to the battle of Bazhou a few months ago. At that time, he also painstakingly planned for several months and still failed to leave Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division. Now the matter has happened again, which has to make him reveal Lament, it is really difficult to encircle and annihilate the main force that has always been the enemy.

However, although it failed to encircle and annihilate the Fourth Division, the service army in northern Jiangsu is still a brilliant result. On November 5, it was learned that nearly 10,000 people of the Second Brigade and Third Brigade of the Two River in Xuzhou City, which had been abandoned, were hopeless to break through and continued to hold on without enough ammunition. Facing the attack of the First Division, they and were He was forced to surrender.

It's just that the two brigades surrendered, not the initiative to surrender like Zhang Dian, so the Feng army also rudely imitated the two troops as the previous prisoners. After the preliminary collation by the Ministry of Education, the soldiers who are willing to continue to join the army are directly added to the south troops, and the basic officers are basically directly supplemented. Appointment, while middle and senior officers, depending on the situation, some were transferred to deputy positions and civilian positions, and had to be sent back to the military academy to study. Some were directly dismissed, some were under house arrest, and there were various treatments.

After receiving the replenishment of nearly 10,000 soldiers, the southern divisions were able to supplement the personnel in the early stage, especially several main divisions were able to continue to maintain a full staffing, which was very important for the subsequent operations of the Feng army.

Taking Xuzhou was originally an extremely important thing, but under the circumstances of the fourth division's inescapable pursuit by the Feng army, the capture of Xuzhou did not cause much waves.

However, after Xuzhou was conquered, Zhao Dongyun's former enemy headquarters for the Xuzhou campaign was also abolished. The first army and the second army returned to their respective establishment. The first army went south to Anhui, and the second army continued to go south to other parts of northern Jiangsu.

On November 9, the 9th Division of the First Army of the Feng Army converged with the fourth mixed brigade to conquer Suzhou. However, before they attacked Suzhou, in fact, Zhang Huaizhi also fled with the main force of the Fifth Division after learning that Duan Qirui had escaped from Xuzhou, leaving only thousands of troops in Suzhou. Obviously, these The troops, like the second and third brigades of the Liangjiang Army in Xuzhou, are just disconnected troops.

After taking Suzhou, the 9th Division, the 4th Mixed Brigade and other troops of the First Army continued to go south, targeting Bengbu.

On November 10, the 10th Division of the Feng Army and the 12th Division, which had just defected to the Feng Army, joined forces to conquer Qingjiangpu. The remnants of Zhejiang's second mixed brigade were forced to withdraw south from the front line of Taizhou and Yangzhou. However, in the subsequent attack of the Feng army, it was extremely difficult for them to defend the north bank of the Yangtze River.

The war in northern Jiangsu is temporarily lagging behind, and Fang Biyong personally reported the situation of the war in northern Jiangsu to Zhao Dongyun!

"The battle in northern Jiangsu began to break out. By mid-November, it lasted for more than three months. In this three-month battle, the Anhui army successively invested in the 4th Division of the Central Army, the 1st Division of the Liangjiang Army, the 2nd Division, the 5th Division, the 2nd Mixed Brigade, the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Zhejiang Army, and the 1st Two mixed brigades. There are also more than 15,000 people in Zhang Huaizhi's Lu army.

The Anhui army and the Lu army add up, with a total strength of more than 80,000 people, nearly 200 barrel guns of various models and calibers, and nearly 200 heavy machine guns such as Mark Qin and Hachikais.

Fang Biyong continued: Our army has successively invested in the 1st Division, the 9th Division, the 4th Mixed Brigade, the 2nd Cavalry Brigade and the 1st Independent Heavy Artillery Battalion of the 1st Army. The 3rd Division, 10th Division, 1st Mixed Brigade and 2nd Independent Heavy Artillery Battalion of the Second Army. In addition, there are three independent heavy mortar battalions, with more than ten patrol regiments serving as rear defense, logistics transportation and other tasks.

The above forces, including the main forces and auxiliary forces, have a total of about 90,000.

In addition, during the battle, our army incorporated many enemy troops, including the 12th Division. If these troops are added, the number of troops our army has invested in the war in northern Jiangsu has exceeded 100,000.

The above-mentioned troops have more than 20 100 mm cannons, more than 200 new and old guns of 75 mm. In addition, there are more than 800 mortars of various caliber, more than 300 heavy machine guns and more than 700 light machine guns.

If you simply look at the comparison of strength and equipment between the two sides, in fact, the difference is not as big as expected. At least in terms of the extremely important barrel artillery, the gap between the Anhui army and the Feng army is not as big as the outside world imagined.

In fact, it is the quality and tactical concept of the officers and soldiers of the two sides that cause such a big difference in combat effectiveness between the two sides.

The strength of the Feng army's participation in the battle includes the three main divisions of the Feng army. The three troops started by Zhao Dongyun, the 3rd Division, the 9th Division and the 10th Division, have all participated in the battle. In addition, the combat effectiveness of the fourth mixed brigade cannot be underestimated. Although the remaining Lu Yongxiang's 1st Division and Bao Guiqing's 1st mixed brigade are less effective, After all, it is the foundation of the old Beiyang troops. Although its combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the Third Division, it is far better than the provincial army among ordinary warlords.

In contrast, the Anhui army, except for a fourth division, the others are the Liangjiang Provincial Army or the Zhejiang Provincial Army. Most of these provincial armies are the collapsed troops from the Southern Federation. Although Duan Qirui has been vigorously reorganized, the provincial army after the reorganization is okay to fight against other warlords, but it is still necessary to fight with the main force of the Feng army. Far from enough.

In addition, the tactical concepts used in the Feng army are far beyond contemporary times, and the combined attack of light machine guns and mortars is difficult for old-fashioned troops to resist.

In the war in northern Jiangsu, it was not wrong for the Anhui army to lose!

Besides, although Duan Qirui lost, it seemed that he had lost his troops, but in fact, the foundation of the Anhui army was not damaged.

What can represent the Anhui army?

First, there must be Duan Qirui, and then there must be two troops under him: one of them is naturally the fourth division of the Central Army, and the remaining one is the second mixed brigade of the Central Army. As for those Liangjiang Army and Zhejiang Army, to be honest, Duan Qirui himself didn't pay much attention to it, otherwise he would not have directly left tens of thousands of Liangjiang Army in the previous battle of Xuzhou without blinking his eyes.

To put it rudely, the strategic value of a fourth division exceeds that of all other troops of the Anhui Army!

Now the second mixed brigade of the Central Army is still fighting in Jiangxi and the Southern Federation, and the fourth division of the Central Army escaped from Xuzhou. In addition, Duan Qirui himself is not dead, so the backbone of the Anhui army is still beyond doubt.

Fang Biyong continued to hold the thick war report and continued: "In the past three months, our army has killed and injured 18,000 enemy troops and captured more than 16,000 people. 26,000 rifles of various types, 58 machine guns, 37 artillery of various types, more than 8,000 military horses, and many other military knives, telescopes and pistols were also captured!"

After talking about the results and capture, we naturally have to talk about our own losses: "In our army, more than 3700 people have been killed and 7,000 injured, including more than 2,000 seriously injured, and other minor injuries have returned to the original army one after another. In terms of ordnance, our army lost 8,000 rifles, 16 artillery pieces, nearly 100 mortars, more than 20 heavy machine guns, and more than 50 light machine guns.

When Fang Biyong said these casualties, Zhao Dongyun was prepared for a long time, but he still frowned. Looking at the proportion of losses, it was not a big victory, but a typical war of killing the enemy with 1,000 and 800 losses. The Feng army achieved many results in northern Jiangsu, but its own losses It is also huge. The superficial loss of soldiers and ordnance is actually nothing. More importantly, the ammunition hoarded by the Feng army for a long time was almost exhausted in the Battle of northern Jiangsu.

After taking Xuzhou, the Feng army's reserve warehouses on the front line in northern Jiangsu are almost empty. If there is a war these days, it can't be fought without shells and bullets. If the battle is rushed under the condition of insufficient ammunition reserves, the end will usually be tragic.

"Now, after many months of fighting, the troops on the front line urgently need to rest to replenish the soldiers' physical strength and restore morale. In addition, it is also necessary to allow the quartermaster to replenish various military supplies such as shells, bullets and food to the front troops!" When Fang Biyong said this, he cautiously said to Zhao Dongyun, "Therefore, the staff department suggested suspending the war against Bengbu and let the front-line troops rest for a few days!"