Chapter 351 Collision between Elite and Elite

As the head of the combat department, although Shi Yanglin can't control some tactical details, he still knows the current combat situation of the entire Feng army.

Hearing Zhao Dongyun's question, Shi Yanglin immediately said, "Yes, General Gu's third division has chased out of Chuzhou. According to the latest war report, the third division has had some exchanges of fire with the fourth division, but the specific situation is not known by the staff for the time being!"

Although the combat department has a comprehensive grasp of the situation of the whole Feng army, it is only limited to strategy. After all, the combat office is responsible for the operational command of the whole Feng army, not the specific command of a certain division or brigade.

Strictly speaking, the command system of the Feng army is like this. Zhao Dongyun has jurisdiction over many departments of the command department, including the staff department, the combat department, the ordnance department, etc., to coordinate the strategic development direction of the army. The staff department is responsible for the specific operational command affairs, and the operational command affairs here are specifically responsible for the Operations Department.

It's just that the Operations Department is not responsible for the operations of a division and brigade, but for all the strategic combat plans of the Feng army. For the Operations Office, their task is to formulate large-scale battle plans such as the Northern Jiangsu Campaign, and the orders of these plans are not communicated to each division and brigade, but to the armies. Command, and then the commander of each army formulates a specific detailed combat plan according to the strategic plan of the combat office, and dispatches the divisions and brigades under their jurisdiction to carry out specific operations.

For example, now in the direction of Jiangbei, Zhao Dongyun's strategic requirement for the staff is to take over the whole Jiangbei region as soon as possible and plan to cross the Yangtze River and Jiangnan.

For this reason, the combat department also ordered the First Army, the Second Army and the Third Army to quickly go south to capture Yingzhou Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture and other areas in central and western Anhui, and then ordered the Second Army to conquer Yangzhou, Taizhou, Chuzhou and other areas, and then ordered the Third Army to launch an attack from Henan to the east and occupy the eastern part of Henan. And the western region of Anhui.

In detail, Xu Bangjie of the Third Army ordered Gu Lanyu's third division to quickly go south to Fengyang and chase the fourth division all the way south to Chuzhou and so on.

This constitutes a complete command system!

Usually, neither Zhao Dongyun nor the combat office will issue direct orders to a division brigade subordinates of the three main forces. Even in the Chuzhou Campaign a few days ago, Zhao Dongyun did not actually issue direct orders to the division commanders such as Gu Lanyu and Ren Cunggao. At most, he went to the post. The so-called 'condolence' telegram urges the front-line generals to fight bravely to complete the relevant orders.

Of course, this is also limited to the units of the three armies, more than 200,000 people of the Feng army. In addition to the three main forces, there are also many divisions and brigades directly under the command, such as the 8th Division, the newly formed 14th Division and the 15th Division. In addition, there are the 5th Mixed Brigade, the 7th Mixed Brigade, the 9th Mixed Brigade, the 10th Mixed Brigade and other units. These troops are under the direct jurisdiction of the command department and directly dispatched by the command department.

With such a command system of the Feng army, coupled with the fact that the Jiangbei front line is thousands of miles away from Beijing, it is impossible for the combat office to control every move of the front-line troops in real time.

Zhao Dongyun was not dissatisfied with Shi Yanglin's vague answer. Fengjun's command system was built by him. He also knew that the combat office was not omnipotent and it was impossible to control all the changes in the front battlefield.

However, it is enough to know that the third division has caught up with the fourth division. He still trusts Gu Lanyu. Since he catches up, even if he can't completely defeat the fourth division, he should be able to bite a piece of meat from the body of the fourth division, as long as he can let Duan Qirui's fourth division suffered certain losses, so it will be much easier for him to cross the river in the subsequent battle.

Although there are still more than 100,000 people in the Anhui army, most of them are mob. What can be valued by Zhao Dongyun and many generals of the Feng army are the fourth division and the second mixed brigade under the command of Duan Qirui. Other Liangjiang Army and Zhejiang Army are not ignored by the generals of the Feng army.

And this is not the fact that the generals of the Feng army are proud of the enemy, but the truth!

In the front battle of Northern Jiangsu, there were many Liangjiang Army and Zhejiang Army under the Anhui Army annihilated by the Feng army. After the First World War, at least one division of the Liangjiang Army was completely defeated, one division was incorporated, and at least three mixed brigades of the enemy were severely damaged. Duan Qirui took to 780,000 people in northern Jiangsu, and only 20,000 of the direct fourth division and more than 10,000 remnants of the provincial army fled. The others were either annihilated or surrendered or captured.

In the battle in northern Jiangsu that lasted for the past three months, the Feng army has achieved at least 10,000 people killed and injured the Anhui army and the Lu army. More than 10,000 people joined the Feng army on the spot anyway. In addition, nearly 20,000 people were captured, most of whom also joined the Feng army's battle sequence.

In the battle of northern Jiangsu, the Anhui army lost at least 50,000 people.

As a contrast, the casualties of the Feng army, as well as the losses of missing and diseases, are less than 10,000!

However, the losses of the Anhui army are almost all those provincial troops, and the losses of Duan Qirui's direct fourth division are almost negligible!

Considering the combat strength of the Fourth Division, it is rude to say that Duan Qirui has suffered heavy losses in northern Jiangsu, but in fact, it has not hurt his foundation at all.

After tens of thousands of people were lost, relying on the wealth seized by Jiangnan and Zhejiang, they raised tens of thousands of new troops in Jiangnan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places.

In the past few months, the Feng army has been expanding its army, but Duan Qirui is not idle. It's just expanding the army. As long as he has money in his hand, who won't!

So in the war between the Feng army and the Anhui army, in fact, those provincial armies and some secondary forces are foils, and it is the main divisions in the hands of both sides that can really decide the victory or defeat.

For example, the 3rd Division, 9th Division, 10th Division and 4th Mixed Brigade under the command of the Feng army, the rest of the troops include Lu Yongxiang's 1st Division, Bao Guiqing's 1st Mixed Brigade, the 16th Division of Zhang Dianru, and the second cavalry brigade that has lost most of the horses into foot cavalry, which are actually impossible. It has a decisive impact on the war situation of both sides.

So far, the main force that Fengjun can fight is actually only the third brigade of the third division at the beginning of entering the customs. The combat effectiveness of other troops or newly expanded troops can only be average. It is enough to deal with the provincial army of other warlords, but it is still slightly insufficient to fight with the fourth division under Duan Qirui. .

In modern times, the gap between the main forces and non-main forces under the command of warlords, including the Feng army, is still very large, and this creates a situation. If you want to completely annihilate a warlord, you have to kill their main forces, otherwise you can just annihilate tens of thousands of provincial troops at most. It makes people feel sad, but it can't decide whether they will win or lose.

In the battle of northern Jiangsu, the fundamental purpose of the Feng army allowed the 9th Division to boldly break through the west from the direction of Suqian was to surround the 4th Division in Xuzhou, but it did not expect Duan Qirui to retreat decisively, resulting in the Feng army leaving more than 10,000 Liangjiang Provincial Army, but still Let the fourth division escape.

On the surface, the Feng army won a great victory in the Battle of northern Jiangsu, but in fact, the Feng army did not achieve their original strategic purpose, which was to encircle and annihilate the Fourth Division.

Since the plan to surround the fourth division has failed, the Feng army can't watch the fourth division slip away, which has caused the third division to chase the fourth division. In the final analysis, it is still those senior generals in the Feng army, especially Xu Bangjie and Meng Enyuan, who are responsible for the Jiangbei war. Leave the Fourth Division with great resentment and try to let the Third Division catch up without seeking to completely destroy the Fourth Division, but at least give the Fourth Division a cruel note. It would be better if it could leave one or two regiments or even a brigade of the other side. Otherwise, it would be better to sit back and watch the Fourth Division escape back to Jinling and then cross the river to take over the south of the Yangtze River. OK.

These overall strategic considerations are worried by the combat office, Meng Enyuan and Xu Bangjie. For Gu Lanyu, the division commander of the Third Division, before he considers these strategic levels, he only knows one thing, that is, his immediate superior Xu Bangjie, wants to delay or even leave the Fourth Division by himself.

So Gu Lanyu began to command the third division to pursue all the way from Xuzhou. The fourth division in front of him was exhausted, and the third division chasing behind was also uncomfortable.

After taking Fengyang County, Gu Lanyu even abandoned the speed-crastinating troops such as artillery regiments and heavy regiments in order to catch up with the fourth division, and only led two infantry brigades and cavalry regiments to pursue lightly.

After chasing Baili before and after this, he finally caught up with the fourth division outside Chuzhou.

However, when Gu Lanyu didn't expect it, the fourth division opposite did not escape back to Chuzhou at the first time, but put on a posture outside the city. At this glance, he knew that Duan Qirui was going to go back and forth.

It's just that it didn't scare Gu Lanyu, but surprised him!

You, Duan Qirui, are running ahead, and it's okay if I can't catch up. How dare you take the initiative to stop and fight against me to fight back?

Gu Lanyu has experienced dozens of battles since last year, and has never been able to block his attack pace. At the beginning, Wang Shizhen's sixth division was not good, Lu Yongxiang's first division and Bao Guiqing's first mixed brigade in the Tangshan Campaign, Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division in the Bazhou Campaign was not good, and Zhang Huai in the Jinan Campaign Zhi's fifth division is not good, and today your fourth division is also not good!

Gu Lanyu, who was confident and arrogant, did not consider many messy things. At first, he launched a large-scale attack without hesitation. In addition to the frontal attack, he also played his best roundabout attack. This time, he sent a whole sixth brigade.

But what he didn't expect was that Gu Lanyu played around, but Duan Qirui on the opposite side also turned around!

Then Tang Tianxi's 7th Brigade, which also carried out any detour, faced Pei Lianying's 6th Brigade on the western front of the battlefield. There was no doubt that the fiercest and cruel battle between the two infantry brigades, which were highly expected by their superiors, broke out.