Chapter 406 The First Battle of the 14th Division

Meng Enyuan, as the first in the contemporary Feng army, is now only one of the two regular generals. Meng Enyuan has enough capital to be proud of. He was not limited to the cavalry command. When the four major warlords in the North Sea rose up in 1906, he served as the commander of the third division and became several generals at the highest level of the Feng army. One of the Feng army entered the customs in 1907. He served as the commander of the first army and led the army to fight the Tangshan Campaign, the Beijing Division Campaign, the Shijiazhuang Campaign and the Zhengzhou Campaign. Later, in the battle of Jiangbei, he served as the former commander-in-chief of the enemy and had full authority to coordinate the battle of more than 100,000 Feng troops in Jiangbei, connecting Xuzhou, Suqian, Bengbu, Chuzhou and a series of strategic places in Jiangbei, which completely laid the victory of the Feng army in Jiangbei.

Maybe he does not have any specific tactical command ability. In terms of tactical command, he may not be as good as Gu Lanyu, Yang Deming and Ren Cun, but his ability to coordinate the army to carry out large-scale battles is the first person in the Feng army.

Gu Lanyu, Ren Cungao, Yang Deming and others are at most generals with excellent tactical ability, but Meng Enyuan has grown into a commander after several years of training.

The difference between commanders and generals is two levels.

After Meng Enyuan led the whole army to cross the river, he immediately commanded the troops to continue to rush south!

However, this time, the main force is not the 9th Division, but the 14th Division and the first mixed brigade!

The Ninth Division suffered great losses in the previous days of operations. Although the Ministry of Education had expected this situation and had already prepared 3,000 recruits to make up for the war losses at any time, it would take a certain amount of time to replenish these recruits. In addition, the equipment loss was also large, and more than half of the heavy machine guns alone had been lost. The rest of the light machine guns, mortars and rifles are also very depleted, which need to be supplemented one by one by the Ordnance Department.

Therefore, Meng Enyuan temporarily left the 9th Division on the front line. On the one hand, it was to rest, and on the other hand, it was also used to guard against the second mixed brigade of the Central Army of the Anhui Army coming from Wuhu.

According to the report of the fourth mixed brigade in Wuhu, the main force of the enemy's second mixed brigade in Wuhu has come to the east, leaving only one provincial defense brigade in Wuhu.

It is very obvious that this second mixed brigade wants to go there, which is to come to Dangtu.

Today's Fourth Army is like a knife inserted into the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River of the Anhui army. If the Anhui army does not stop the offensive of the Fourth Army, the Fourth Army can kill all the way to Jinling and Shanghai.

Therefore, after learning that the Feng army was crossing the river in Dangtu, Duan Qirui immediately transferred the 4th Division's supplementary brigade and the 2nd mixed brigade to Dangtu to try to stop the Feng army's offensive.

The strategic situation of today's Fourth Army being attacked by two sides has not changed. The only difference is that the Fourth Army is no longer limited to the beach, but can take the initiative to attack.

Yang Deming, who received the order, launched an attack in the southeast with the 14th Division who had just crossed the river. In front of them was the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division retreating here and a brigade of the Liangjiang Army that had just been reinforced.

The battle between the two armies on the front line of Tu has just stopped for two days, and it broke out again!

Although the 14th Division, which is the main offensive mission this time, is a new force and has not experienced the test of large-scale war, as a force built according to the standards of the main division, the training and equipment level of the 14th Division are comparable to the 3rd Division and the 9th Division. Waiting for a strong army, what is lacking is only experience.

In contrast, offensive warfare is easier to fight than defensive warfare. If new troops fight a difficult defensive battle, they are very easy to collapse. However, if they fight an offensive battle, it will be much smoother.

This can be seen from the performance of the 7th Division of Liangjiang. The 7th Division of Liangjiang, like the 14th Division of the Feng Army, is a new force built as the main force, and also lacks experience in large-scale combat. However, the 7th Division of Liangjiang played an excellent role in the attack in the first two days, forcing Pan Luanqing. The 17th Brigade was once in danger, but when the 9th Division launched a counterattack, it could not support the defensive battle under a huge disadvantage.

Meng Enyuan, who knew the situation of the 14th Division, did not put too much pressure on Yang Deming, because he also knew that the current 14th Division still needs time to grow up, and it may be counterproductive. He believes that as long as the 14th Division fights a few more large-scale battles, it can quickly grow into the same as his 9th Division. The strong army.

After all, although the 14th Division is a new force, its officers are all active officers drawn from all departments of the Feng army, especially the battalion-level officers are experienced generals, but the soldiers are all new soldiers, and it is easy for new recruits to become veterans. As long as they have experienced a few battles, If it is not killed under the threat of shells and bullets, it will become a qualified veteran.

As for the new recruits who died in the previous battles, those who were directly ignored by senior generals such as Meng Enyuan, and the dead soldiers were added.

Although the Feng army lacks money to maintain too much army, it does not mean that the Feng army lacks military resources. In fact, there are still tens of thousands of recruits in many new barracks controlled by the Soviet Ministry of Education. Once the front-line troops are damaged, they can immediately replenish them.

As long as Zhao Dongyun is willing, he can recruit hundreds of thousands of recruits to replenish troops at any time.

Of course, the same situation also applies to other warlord troops. Why was Duan Qirui able to re-raise a force of more than 200,000 people in less than half a year after the defeat in Jiangbei?

How to put it, the domestic army lacks guns and cannons, but there is no shortage of soldiers to serve as cannon fodder!

But not that there is no shortage of people does not mean that you can maintain an unlimited number of troops, because it costs money to maintain troops, and people have to pay money to become soldiers. In the contemporary domestic army, the salary expenses of the army is huge.

As for conscription without giving money, the practice of playing conscripts is not feasible in today's China. If you don't have money, even if you blow to the sky, they won't work for you. If you want to play the conscript system, it is still possible to implement it after unification and let the people have the most basic national and national consciousness.

Although the recruits of the 14th Division are valued, they are just cannon fodder before they grow into veterans!

Even if Yang Deming, the division commander of the 14th Division, suffered great casualties after seeing his troops launched the attack, he did not show much pity, because he knew that only the soldiers who survived the grinding of blood and fire were the roots of the 14th Division becoming the ace force. Ben.

When the 14th Division launched a frontal attack, Bao Guiqing's first mixed brigade also played the old tactics of the Feng army, that is, a roundabout attack.

Although Bao Guiqing's first mixed brigade was formerly a direct army, after more than a year of war, it has been no different from other Feng army. Its soldier training and fighting will belong to the second-line level of the Feng army, which is not comparable to the ace force of the 9th Division of the Feng army, but it is still slightly stronger than the new unit of the 14th Division. This is also the reason why Meng Enyuan asked Bao Guiqing's first mixed brigade to take on a roundabout mission.

When the 14th Division launched a frontal attack and the first mixed brigade detoured from the side, the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division opposite and the Anhui army of another brigade saw that the opportunity was not good. They did not stubbornly resist, but simply retreated again.

Although Duan Qirui of Jinling was very dissatisfied with the battle situation, he did not express his dissatisfaction with the withdrawal of the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division, because if he personally commanded the troops, he would also choose to withdraw voluntarily.

Now that the success of the Feng army crossing the river has been decided. What I have to consider is not how to drive the Feng army off the river and eliminate the Fourth Army, but how to block the offensive of the Fourth Army and defend a series of important towns in the south of the Yangtze River such as Jinling.

Now the Anhui army is withdrawing troops from all directions to gather in the direction of Dangtu, which takes a certain amount of time. Before the time is ripe, it is very irrational to consume the troops little by little in the battle with the Fourth Army.

The active retreat of the Anhui army made the Fourth Army's offensive unstoppable!

In just three days, the 14th Division rushed 20 kilometers to the northeast and arrived at Lulang Town, and the first mixed brigade on the right wing of the 14th Division also captured Zhumen Town.

In addition, the Second Cavalry Brigade under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Army went all the way forward, sweeping a large area east of Zhumen Town.

The above three parts formed three pointed heads to launch an attack on Jinling!

In the west, the 9th Division continued to rest in Dangtu, and according to the report of the 9th Division, traces of the second mixed brigade of the Anhui Army have been found in the south of Dangtu.

The Ninth Division did not take the initiative to fight, but deployed heavy troops on a hilly mountain east of Dangtu County and the county seat. Lin Yongquan's intention was to use the Guxi River to fight a defensive battle. Although the Guxi River is only a tributary of the Yangtze River, it is also a major obstacle to form a second mixed brigade, which can be used by the Feng army. The natural fortifications, coupled with a hilly hill to the east of the county, as long as the artillery firepower is set up, it is enough to cover the vast open area in the south. If the second mixed brigade wants to attack Dangtu, it will be hit by fierce artillery fire from the Feng army before it enters the starting position.

The 9th Division has been hit a lot before. Lin Yongquan needs time to restore the combat effectiveness of the 9th Division, so this battle is not a big victory, but only stability!

However, after the opposite Anhui army's second mixed brigade arrived in the south of Dangtu, they did not launch a direct attack recklessly. After tentatively sending a battalion to carry out a fire test attack and was hit by the Feng army, they simply gave up the large-scale attack, and then turned east to try to find a Feng army. Cross the river in places where troops are weak.

After all, there are many places where the first line can cross the river, and it is impossible for a 9th Division of the Feng Army to build dozens of kilometers of defense lines like iron barrels.

The battles on the east and west lines of the Fourth Army are carried out in accordance with the strategic plan formulated by the Operations Department of the Commander-in-Chief, and the other armies of the Feng Army are not idle.

The First Army in the direction of Anqing continued to attack Anqing and Wuhu, and the Second Army in the direction of northern Jiangsu also launched a fierce offensive against Jinling.