Chapter 343 Wang Zhanyuan's Ambition

On November 15, the third division of Gu Lanyu's army quickly launched an attack on Bengbu after arriving in Bengbu.

However, the attack is unsatisfactory. Although the Anhui army in Bengbu is far less powerful than in Xuzhou, and the defense line is not as many defensive fortifications as in Xuzhou defense line, only a third division has attacked Bengbu.

Attacking the Anhui army with more than 10,000 troops, and most of the more than 20,000 people are Duan Qirui's direct fourth division. Although this fourth division fled all the way to the south, its morale has declined and it is exhausted, but at least it has rested for two days in Bengbu, which makes the third division fight less and more more. Force.

At the same time, in order to avoid excessive casualties, Gu Lanyu did not launch a large-scale attack, but wanted to delay the arrival of the 9th Division, 1st Division, 4th Mixed Brigade and other troops.

But what he didn't know was that Duan Qirui also wanted to delay the time. If it hadn't been for delaying more time to transfer the north reinforcements of southern troops in order to establish a stable Yangtze River defense line in the future, Duan Qirui would not have risked a defensive battle in Bengbu.

As a result, the battle on the 15th seemed somewhat plain. Gu Lanyu only dispatched a regiment to attack, and it was mainly based on fire reconnaissance. Duan Qirui saw that the 3rd Division did not have many offensive troops, so naturally he would not send too many troops to play counterattacks or something, but continued to build a defense line.

However, while the front line of Bengbu is calm, the large rear of both sides moves frequently.

Duan Qirui has issued many orders to transfer troops stationed in Jiangxi, Zhejiang and even Fujian to go north to reinforce. These troops do not mean directly crossing the river to reinforce Bengbu, but to Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Jinling, Anqing and other places to form a complete Yangtze River defense line based on the above-mentioned important cities along the Yangtze River.

On the side of the Feng army, the subsequent 9th Division, the 4th Mixed Brigade, the 1st Division and other units did not stay much after capturing Xuzhou, Suzhou and other places one after another, but continued to go south to reinforce Bengbu and other central Anhui.

It is worth noting that the enemy faced by the First Army of the Feng Army in Anhui is not only one Anhui army in Bengbu, but also nearly 10,000 people from Zhang Huaizhi's fifth division and Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division in the border area between Anhui and Henan.

Although Zhang Huaizhi's Lu army suffered continuous defeats, it left relatively early in Suzhou. It successfully escaped from the enclosure of the Feng army with nearly 10,000 people of the fifth division, and then continued to retreat south along the Mengcheng area, followed by the fourth mixed brigade and the second cavalry brigade of the Feng army.

In addition, as the Feng army went south, Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division also had small-scale contact with the Feng army.

Since Wang Zhanyuan entered the western region of Anhui, he forcibly controlled the area despite Zhang Huaizhi's opposition, and then collected money in the local area. Moreover, he also knew that he could not occupy these sites for a long time, so the means of raiding were very fierce. Through forced allocation and collection, he got millions of yuan. The local gentry complained. Wang Zhanyuan used the money collected, on the one hand, to recruit soldiers, and on the other hand, to buy ordnance from foreign countries.

Through these three or four months of recovery, although it is not possible to recover a large number of previously lost artillery, heavy machine guns and other weapons, rifles, bullets and other ordnance have been replenished a lot, and the number of the 7th Division under its hand has also increased from 10,000 to more than 20,000.

Although the seventh division under Wang Zhanyuan is a division, it is now seriously overstaffed like the fourth division. In addition to the inherent two infantry brigades and an artillery regiment, it also has two so-called independent regiments.

This situation is more common in the direct forces of contemporary warlords. Although the fourth division under Duan Qirui's command has three brigades and one regiment and the second mixed brigade, it also has three infantry regiments and two artillery battalions, with tens of thousands of troops, far exceeding the strength of 4,000 to 5,000 ordinary mixed brigades. This is true of the 7th Division under Wang Zhanyuan and the 6th Division under Wang Shizhen. In addition to the formal establishment, there are also so-called supplementary brigades, independent regiments and so on.

This is not only the direct forces of many warlords in the North Sea, but also a few main forces in the Southern Federation. For example, the 19th town under Zhao Erxun is called a town, but it has three infantry associations and a cavalry association with nearly 30,000 people.

The strength has been restored. Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division is also a negligible opponent for Fengjun!

This leads to the existence of four large-scale troops in Anhui, which are still different belongings, namely the Feng Army, the Anhui Army, the Lu Army and the 7th Division.

What's not hard is that the three troops behind are all enemies of the Feng army!

In order to deal with Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division and Zhang Huaizhi's 5th Division, it is actually difficult for the first army under Meng Enyuan to reinforce the Bengbu front line in a short time to support the battle of the third division under Xu Bangjie's second army. The fourth mixed brigade belonging to the First Army is in the area of Mengcheng, and the first division reinforces the western region of Anhui from Xuzhou in the rear to prepare for Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division. As for the 9th Division, it is also a division to reinforce the fourth mixed brigade. At most, it is only a brigade that can reinforce the third division in a short time.

As for the 10th Division, another main force of the Second Army, the department has continued to go south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal since the battles of Suqian and Wanglan Town, successively conquering Qingjiangpu and many prefectures around Hongze Lake. Their task is not to go to Bengbu, Anhui, but to continue to capture the northern part of the whole north bank of the Yangtze River. We are currently marching towards Taizhou, Yangzhou and other places.

In this way, the subsequent reinforcements of the Third Division on the Bengbu Front are extremely limited.

And this situation undoubtedly gives Duan Qirui a great strategic buffer time!

On the one hand, he transferred troops from Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places to build the Yangtze River defense line. On the other hand, he also actively contacted Zhang Huaizhi and Wang Zhanyuan to try to build a so-called Anhui defense line with him. However, Zhang Huaizhi did not know that Duan Qirui did not plan to stay in Bengbu for long. As long as he takes a breath and waits for the defense line on the other side of the Yangtze River to be built, his next step is to run away immediately.

However, Duan Qirui didn't know that he was pulling them, and Zhao Dongyun was also pulling Zhang Huaizhi and Wang Zhanyuan, especially Wang Zhanyuan.

Fuyang, Yingzhou, like most of the prefectures and counties under the Beiyang Republican government, there are still old government signs hanging on the gates of the former government. After last year, although it was already a republic on the surface, neither Wang Yingkai nor Zhao Dongyun has changed the local administrative organs on a large scale, and still maintained the provincial, government and county administrative institutions. Most of the names have not been changed. Only a few large cities have been changed to 'cities' directly under the direct government of the cabinet or the provincial government. Such as Yingkou City, Tianjin, Shanghai, etc.

This is mainly to avoid excessive changes in the administrative institutions of local governments, which will cause chaos in political orders. After all, Zhao Dongyun's main focus on war. Even local government affairs is mainly on financial rectification and the development of industry and commerce. He will not say that he will find something to change the jurisdiction or name of local governments and counties randomly. Weighing and so on.

Of course, some areas that need to change will also change, such as Huludao Industrial Zone and Tangshan Special Administrative Office.

However, unlike other places, in addition to the distinctive government sign, there is also a sign of the headquarters of the 7th Division.

Since Wang Zhanyuan controlled the whole territory of Yingzhou Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture and parts of Liu'an in southern Anhui, he has set up this headquarters in Fuyang.

Fuyang, which has been calm in the past two or three months, has not been very calm in recent days.

In the headquarters of the 7th Division, Wang Zhanyuan and his men were worried about it!

"Then Zhao Ziyang is not a good thing. He said that he wanted to cooperate with us, but he said that he would send instructors here, and that he could not build troops and levy taxes without authorization. This is obvious that he wants to annex us. If he turns to Zhao Ziyang, we will be the same as Lu Yongxiang and others in the future!" The middle-aged officer continued:

"However, Qirui is not a good thing. He said that he cooperated with us to fight against Zhao Ziyang, but this obviously wants us to be his cannon fodder bullets. In less than half a month, we have already had the first division and the fourth mixed brigade of the Feng army next to us, and Duan Qirui is still staying in Fengyang. Where's the port?

This man seemed to be getting more and more angry: "And Zhang Huaizhi is also a coward. Tens of thousands of people have fought before, but there are less than 10,000 left. If he hadn't been defeated so quickly in Suzhou, how could we face the threat of the Feng army!"

When Wang Zhanyuan listened to these words, it was impossible to say that he was not depressed!

Shit, he fled all the way from Zhili to Yingzhou. He finally occupied some territory and regained a little vitality, but in less than two months, Fengjun came to the side again. It's not easy to be a warlord these days!

Originally, he still thought that the Anhui army and the Lu army would join hands, and he blocked the third army of the Feng army in Henan on the Yingzhou side, which is equivalent to indirectly protecting the safety of the hinterland of Anhui. In this way, even if the Anhui army and the 80-90,000 Lu army can't win, how can they be defended in Xuzhou, even if they can't keep it. It should be able to support it until next year, but what he didn't expect was that the Lu army and the Anhui army were so incombare, and the troops of the Feng army that came to attack were not much more than them, but they couldn't defend it, which made Wang Zhanyuan despise Duan Qirui and Zhang Huaizhi very much.

At the beginning, when Wang Zhanyuan was in Bazhou, only 10,000 people abruptly resisted the attack of more than twice the strength of the Feng army. In the early stage, the fifth brigade of the Feng army was facing the crisis and almost made dumplings of the fifth brigade of the Feng army. If Wang Yingkai on the Beijing side couldn't stand it first, it would be uncertain who would win or lose the battle of Bazhou.

Wang Zhanyuan naturally ignored that the seventh division he led was a serious Beiyang main force, and although there were many general troops of the Anhui army and the Lu army in the battle of northern Jiangsu, the main force was actually only the fourth division and the remnants of the fifth division, and those who were defeated were not the above two. The old Beiyang army, but those Liangjiang army, Zhejiang army, Anhui army.

No matter how disdain he is of Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui, in this situation, Wang Zhanyuan must make a choice, either to cooperate with Duan Qirui and Zhang Huaizhi to stop the southward momentum of the Feng army, or learn from Lu Yongxiang and Zhang Dianru to defect to Zhao Dongyun, or to be in Henan at the beginning. In Kaifeng, he directly turned around and ran away, and then went to Jiangxi and other provinces to shoot a piece of land.

However, these three are not what he wanted. Although Wang Zhanyuan has not risen for a long time and has only entered the vision of major warlords for two or three months, he is still ambitious. Whether he wants to join Duan Qirui or Zhao Dongyun, it is not what he wants.

Of course, it is not what he wants to resist Fengjun or give up his current territory. What he really wants is a territory and opportunity that can be used for his own development.

In this case, he is willing to imitate Wang Shizhen. If he can reach an agreement with Zhao Dongyun to recognize Zhao Dongyun as the president of the central government, and Zhao Dongyun also recognize his actual control of the western Anhui region, then he does not mind declaring his allegiance to the central government like Wang Shizhen.

It's just what he wants to do, but Zhao Dongyun doesn't want to!

Although Zhao Dongyun is also known as Zhao Guangtou, he is not Jiang Guangtou. He wants a complete unification, rather than ostensibly the provinces to be loyal to the central government, but in fact, they are all independent. As for Meng Enyuan and Wang Shizhen, Zhao Dongyun cooperates with them for special reasons, and Wang Zhanyuan is not qualified to let Zhao Dongyun treat them specially for the time being.

Although the Feng army in the south is fighting relatively hard now, the overall trouble is not big. In terms of the strength of the Feng army in the Jiangbei region, the complete capture of northern Jiangsu is already certain. The difference is just a month or two months.

In this process, it won't take long for Feng Jun to clean up Wang Zhanyuan and Zhang Huaizhi. In fact, Feng Jun is doing this now.

The fourth mixed brigade, the first division and the ninth division of the first army have gathered in central and western Anhui, and the third army in Henan has also begun to draw troops to prepare for eastward. In the face of the attack of more than 50,000 main troops of the Feng army, if Wang Zhanyuan can hold it, Zhao Dongyun will immediately announce that he will go to the field without saying a public!

Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Meng Enyuan and Zhang Zhidong are qualified to negotiate with Zhao Dongyun, but Wang Zhanyuan does not have this qualification!

Either fight, surrender, or escape!

In addition, Zhao Dongyun does not intend to give him a fourth choice!