Chapter 399 The Last Battle 1

"Are you sure it's the fourth division?" Pan Luanqing asked the reconnaissance cavalry in front of him with a solemn look.

The tired cavalry said, "I personally approached the enemy less than 100 meters to observe. Judging from the enemy's marching posture, military appearance and weapons and equipment, it is definitely the main force of the Anhui army. They not only have a large number of artillery, but also a large number of mortars and light machine guns!"

After hearing this, Xiong Zhiqing, the chief of staff of the 17th Brigade, said, "According to our intelligence, there are very few troops equipped with mortars and light machine guns in the Anhui army at present."

Mortars and light machine guns are still relatively new in China. As the weapons led by Zhao Dongyun's design after crossing, the Feng army was the first to use them. At present, only the Feng army has been equipped with mortars in batches in the world. Since the outbreak of the civil war, the Feng army's mortars have been powerful, and other warlords in the country have been greatly It also began to imitate mortars for their own use. However, no matter how simple the mortars are, a large-scale arsenal is needed to produce them. Therefore, at present, only the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau controlled by Duan Qirui has large-scale imitation mortars in China. However, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has not been able to prevent mortars for a long time. Previously, it was still a trial production and testing stage, and only hundreds of doors were produced before and after.

For light machine guns, there are many factories that can imitate in China. In addition to Fuyuan Machinery Factory, an arsenal that has purchased the official patent authorization of Denmark's Madsen Company, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and Guangdong Manufacturing Bureau can also imitate production on a small scale. Of course, they will not give Madison patent fees.

The number of mortars and light machine guns that Duan Qirui's Anhui army can obtain is extremely limited. Due to the limited number, only the two main forces of the 4th Division and the 2nd Mixed Brigade are equipped with a considerable number of mortars and light machine guns. Other Anhui troops, that is, the Liangjiang Army, are not equipped in batches. For the two weapons, each has a small amount of equipment of individual troops.

Pan Luanqing continued: "The person who came is at least one regiment, and there are more enemies behind it. This time, at least it is a mixed brigade of the enemy, but I don't know it is the brigade of the Fourth Division!"

Xiong Zhiqing, chief of staff of the 17th Brigade, said: "The news from the 3rd Division has found the 6th Brigade on the front line of Jinling. The visitors are either the 7th Brigade or their supplementary brigade, and the 7th Brigade has been severely damaged by us before. Duan Qirui should not risk the reconstruction of the 7th Brigade, so the visitors should It's their supplementary brigade!"

"And from the perspective of the enemy's equipment, there is at least one artillery battalion, and the information we have obtained is that the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division is a mixed brigade with an artillery battalion, so the enemy is likely to be their supplementary brigade!"

Pan Luanqing said, "If the supplementary brigade of the Fourth Division comes, then we will be in danger tomorrow!"

Although the supplementary brigade of the fourth division is in the name of the supplementary brigade, it is a veritable mixed brigade. The fourth division under Duan Qirui is different from other Liangjiang army divisions. In addition to the fixed two infantry brigades, one artillery regiment and other units, this fourth division also has a supplementary brigade. This supplementary brigade is a mixed brigade with two infantry regiments and one artillery battalion.

In terms of regimental-level formation, the fourth division since the end of last year is a unit of six infantry regiments, four artillery battalions with 18 guns, three engineering battalions, three heavy battalions, and a cavalry regiment with a total strength of more than 25,000. It is said to be a division, but it has no match with ordinary infantry divisions.

Among these units of the 4th Division, the 6th and 7th Brigades are directly under the division, but the supplementary brigade is assigned to an artillery battalion with relevant projects. The mixed brigades of the heavy forces have a total strength of more than 6,000.

So, the 4th Division Supplementary Brigade is only in the name of the Supplementary Brigade, thinking that there are some kind of new recruits in their families, but in fact it is not, but a real, even more terrible opponent than the rebuilt 7th Brigade.

As the main force of Duan Qirui, the fourth division is the main opponent of the Feng army, so the Feng army's intelligence department has always maintained the highest level of attention to the department. Except for the wartime deployment and mobilization operations that can't be collected, other personnel from establishment, equipment, to battalion commanders and regimental commanders have been collected.

There is a lot of information about the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division, and eight out of ten Anhui troops found by the east are the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division.

Pan Luanqing didn't feel anything about this situation. Before crossing the river, he had expected to be counterattacked by the enemy's main force, but the fourth division's supplementary brigade came faster than he expected.

According to the itinerary of the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division, it will meet the 34th Regiment deployed in the east with the 17th Brigade at noon tomorrow.

At that time, with the 7th Division of Liangjiang on the western defense line, the 17th Brigade will face the attack of the 4th Division Supplementary Brigade of the Anhui Army and the 7th Division of the Liangjiang Army at the same time, and the enemy troops participating in the counterattack will not be less than 20,000.

However, the 17th Brigade currently has less than 5,000 people left.

The strength of both sides is one-to-four, and the 17th Brigade is still seriously short of ammunition, so it is difficult to defend under such a serious situation.

However, no matter how difficult it is, Pan Luanqing has no other choice but to continue to stick to it. Even if his 17th Brigade is disabled, he has to survive tomorrow!

According to the news from the Fourth Army, the construction of the north part of the Fengjun's pontoon bridge has been completed, and the construction of the south is currently making every effort to build the south pontoon bridge. According to the report of Fang Biyun, the head of the task force, his task force is expected to complete the preliminary construction of the pontoon bridge by 9 p.m. tomorrow night. Work.

Although the pontoon bridge built at that time still had many problems such as robustness and could not transport a large number of artillery across the river on a large scale, at least it allowed personnel and more important ammunition to cross the river quickly.

At present, the biggest problem for the Feng army to cross the river is the lack of ammunition. Otherwise, Meng Enyuan would have sent the whole 9th Division across the river in the past two days.

As long as the pontoon bridge is initially built, the carrying capacity is not high, and it is only required to be able to cross the horse or even a human cart, or simply pick it. As long as ammunition and other supplies can be quickly transported across the river, then the task is preliminarily completed.

Because as long as a large amount of ammunition can be transported across the river, Meng Enyuan can send more troops across the river without worrying that the troops will not play their due role without ammunition after crossing the river.

Based on this situation, Pan Luanqing is very aware of his task, which is to stop the enemy at all costs and must stick to it until 9 o'clock tomorrow night. As long as you can stick to that time, you will be able to get a large number of ammunition logistics supplies, and there will be friendly reinforcements.

At that time, even if the whole battle of crossing the river will be revitalised, and then tens of thousands of troops of the Fourth Army will cross the chasever of the Yangtze River, go straight into the direction of Jinling to the southeast, dividing the two main four divisions and the second mixed brigades of the Anhui army, and then break through the two units.

As long as the Feng army defeats Duan Qirui's two cards of the fourth division and the second mixed brigade, it can declare victory in such a Fengwan war that has lasted for more than half a year. As for the remaining 100,000 liang Jiang troops, to be honest, they are not taken seriously by many generals of the Feng army.

Time passed by bit. That night, the 7th Division of Liangjiang stopped attacking. Lei Zhenchun also received the news that the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division was about to arrive in Ma'anshan. Duan Qirui personally ordered him that the 7th Division of Liangjiang cooperated with the 4th Division to launch an attack tomorrow.

To be honest, this order makes Lei Zhenchun quite depressed!

Why, just because of the word 'cooperation', you should know that his Seventh Division of the Two Rivers will be able to gather the strength of the whole division by tomorrow, and the fourth division's supplementary brigade is only 6,000 people. However, Duan Qirui personally ordered the Seventh Division of Liangjiang to cooperate with the Fourth Division to launch a counterattack.

From this, it can be seen that what is more important between the seventh division and the supplementary brigade in Duan Qirui's heart.

However, Lei Zhenchun did not have the confidence to complain. He led the 7th Division to launch a fierce offensive for two consecutive days since yesterday. However, he only took the outer defense line of the 33rd Regiment, and this defense line was voluntarily abandoned by the 33rd Regiment.

Even if Lei Zhenchun was unwilling to admit it, he also knew that relying on his own Seventh Division of Liangjiang alone did not have the ability to break through the defense line of the 17th Brigade and push the Feng army down the river.

Tonight, all the fronts in Ma'anshan looked amazingly quiet. The Seventh Division of Liangjiang stopped the large-scale offensive and only occasionally launched a small-scale tentative and harassing attack.

And the 17th Brigade is eager for the enemy not to attack, so that they can have more time to rest and replenish.

On that night, the logistics force of the Fourth Army continued to transport supplies to the 17th Brigade on the other side with small ships with torches. Boxes of bullets, shells, grain and other supplies were transported across the river. At the same time, in order to supplement the damage of the 17th Brigade, the 9th Division sent a battalion of infantry to ride on a precious small boat. Only cross the river in order to restore the combat effectiveness of the 17th Brigade.

As soon as the new force of this battalion arrived at the other side, it was sent by Pan Luanqing to reinforce the 34th Regiment in the east, increasing the strength of the eastern defense line to three battalions.

So far, three of the seven infantry battalions that Pan Luanqing can use have been sent to the eastern defense line, three to the western defense line, and one is a strategic reserve.

Although the east and west lines are three infantry battalions, the situation is relatively different. The three infantry battalions under the 33rd Regiment in the west have experienced many days of hard fighting and are in a very bad state. The three battalions of the Eastern Defense Line have been in good condition and have not participated in a tragic defensive battle.

The reason why Pan Luanqing did not send more reinforcements to them when the situation of the 33rd Regiment was so critical is to retain some of the new troops to prepare for the expected Fourth Division.

Now that the fourth division is coming, they will come in handy.

Pan Luanqing knew that it was difficult to stop nearly 20,000 enemy troops by relying on his own 17th Brigade alone, and there was also a supplementary brigade of the attack of the 4th Division, but the 17th Brigade did not mean that they needed to stick to it. They only needed to stick to the day tomorrow, and the floating bridge of the Feng army could be initially built after night. At that time, they will be able to get a lot of supplies and reinforcements.

You only need to keep a day, which is Meng Enyuan's last mission goal for Pan Luanqing!

However, this goal was not so easy to achieve. The next morning, as if the time had been set, at nine o'clock, there was a roar over the positions of both sides, and then countless shells fell from the sky and landed on the position of the 17th Brigade of the Feng Army.

At the same time, the artillery positions of the Fourth Army on the north bank of the Yangtze River also began to fire together, and many shells flew to the sky, and then crossed the sky and landed on the positions of the Anhui army in the distance.

The last stop of the Battle of Crossing the River, which determines the victory or defeat of both sides, is the key battle that determines the victory or defeat of the Anhui War finally broke out!