Chapter 425 Crisis and Opportunity

After sending Cao Kuan away, Zhao Dongyun is still in a bad mood!

In the emergency meeting just now, Fang Biyong, Shi Yanglin and others all felt that the situation of the Fourth Army today was very bad. In order to solve the predicament of the Fourth Army and successfully complete the Jiangnan strategy, it is certain to send more troops, but they have different opinions on how to send more troops.

Although Zhao Dongyun has prepared the whole army for war and is ready to reinforce southern Anhui at any time, in fact, the third army cannot be moved easily. Wu Fengling and Wang Shizhen are not good. Once they learn that the Feng army is in a bitter battle in the south of the Yangtze River and the third army is transferred away, they will know it with their toes. They will take the opportunity to rob, and the Jinghan line will not be guaranteed at that time.

Therefore, if you want to increase troops, in fact, only the 15th Division or other troops around the Beijing Division can be reinforced.

The 15th Division will go south to reinforce the front line. If it is only transported by rail and then walk to southern Anhui, it will take more than half a month. At that time, no one knows if there will be any changes.

And direct reinforcement to southern Anhui is also difficult to completely lay the victory of the Jiangnan strategy. Therefore, Zhao Dongyun needs a new breakthrough point, which is Shanghai!

As long as the navy can ensure the landing of the army, Zhao Dongyun dares to send the 10th Division and 15th Division to Shanghai together, and then give Duan Qirui a fierce abdominal blow. He does not believe that in this case, Duan Qirui dares to draw troops from northern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang to continue to reinforce the Jinling front line.

Although this action is a little risky, once it succeeds, it can completely change the situation in Jiangnan.

Fengjun can't be defeated in the south of the Yangtze River, or even consume too many troops. The domestic situation is changing every day. Zhao Dongyun is unwilling to lose both in Jiangnan and Duan Qirui, and then cheap Wu Fengling and others, so he needs a quick and decisive action.

In this case, the previous plan to land in Shanghai was recalled by Zhao Dongyun!

In the past, he was unwilling to take risks, but he needed a new breakthrough to see the Fourth Army's war in Jinling.

Under the strong intervention of Zhao Dongyun, the Feng army's action was rapid. The 15th Division went to Tianjin to board the ship, and then went directly south under the escort of the navy and prepared to venture to land directly in Shanghai. At that time, the 10th Division will also launch a large-scale river crossing landing operation.

This is a landing battle on a larger scale than the Fourth Army's crossing the river at the beginning, so the command headquarters of the Feng army has been busy, especially the navy.

Although the navy, which was under great pressure from Zhao Dongyun, was reluctant, was also forced to cooperate with the army's actions and prepare to launch a landing operation against Shanghai.

Just as Zhao Dongyun was stimulated by the defeat of the Fourth Mixed Brigade and then took a radical landing operation in Shanghai, Meng Enyuan, who was in the direction of Jinling, also urgently transferred a regiment of the 9th Division and the 3rd Division to the west to block the eastward pace of the Second Mixed Brigade of the Anhui Army.

At the same time, he strictly ordered Lin Pingxiong, commander of the 4th Mixed Brigade, to collect the remnants, and then catch up with the remnants of the 33rd Regiment.

Now the situation of the 4th Mixed Brigade and the 33rd Regiment is very bad. Both of them have experienced a large-scale collapse and are almost defeated by the establishment. Although more than 3,000 remnants have been collected one after another, there is a big gap from their peak.

After Lin Pingxiong collected the remaining soldiers, although he had taken the initiative to send a telegram to Zhao Dongyun requesting his resignation and retirement, Zhao Dongyun did not approve.

Although Zhao Dongyun was extremely dissatisfied with Lin Pingxiong and planned to completely suppress him after the war so that he would never turn over, under such circumstances, he still appeased Lin Pingxiong and encouraged him.

Lin Pingxiong led more than 3,000 remnants to chase the second mixed brigade and also marched eastward.

For a while, the Jinling battle began to be unfavorable to the Feng army!

However, although the situation was relatively critical, Meng Enyuan did not give up his attack on Jinling. The first mixed brigade still advanced rapidly eastward under his order and had already defeated the two regiments of the Liangjiang Army that came to stop it.

"Well, I'd like to see if I take Jinling first or you defeat my western line first!" Meng Enyuan is now engaged in a big gamble like Duan Qirui, a big bet about the victory or defeat of the two armies of Fengwan and the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers.

In the southeast of Jinling, Bao Guiqing was also a little surprised when he looked at Meng Enyuan's combat order. He had already learned that the fourth mixed brigade was defeated in Dangtu. Originally, he thought that Meng Enyuan would let him suspend the offensive and even return to help, but what he did not expect was that Meng Enyuan did not let him return. Instead, he increased the pace of his attack, asked him to cut off the Nanjing-Shanghai railway line within two days, and then turn around and attack Jinling with the 18th Brigade of the 9th Division.

As long as the first mixed brigade cuts off the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway and reaches the edge of the Yangtze River, it means that the Feng army has completed the final siege of Jinling, and then can launch the final general attack on the land in Jinling City from three directions and annihilate the enemy of Jinling in one fell swoop.

As long as the second mixed brigade captures Jinling before breaking through the interception of the western defense line of the Feng army, Meng Enyuan can still proudly claim victory in this crucial battle.

Conversely, if the second mixed brigade breaks through the defense line temporarily deployed by Feng Bureau in the west first, it will be a fiasco for the Feng army that may cause the destruction of the whole army!

In this battle, Meng Enyuan did not fight for the Soviet faction or Zhao Dongyun. He fought for himself!

As time goes by, the battle between the Feng and Anhui armies in the direction of Jinling has become more and more fierce, and countless soldiers die or are injured every day.

On April 13, Bao Guiqing led the first mixed brigade to successfully detour to the Yangtze River and successfully cut off the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway. Although there were nearly 10,000 Anhui troops from Zhenjiang in the east, Bao Guiqing did not care about the enemy behind him, but directly turned around and launched an attack on Jinling in the west.

At this time, Jinling was already completely surrounded by the Feng army. At the same time, most of the troops of the 3rd Division, 9th Division, 14th Division and 1st Mixed Brigade of the Feng Army began to launch the final general attack on Jinling.

When the general attack on Jinling broke out, the 15th Division of the Feng Army was already arriving overseas by boat. In order to catch up, the maritime transportation of the 15th Division was actually chaotic. The ships on board were all rented foreign ships or requisitioned domestic ships, and all the naval warships were once again dispatched, for the tenth The 5th Division and the 10th Division cross the river to provide naval gun cover.

The next day, the second mixed brigade of the Anhui army, led by Jin Yunpeng, had marched less than five kilometers away from Jinling, but here, he encountered tenaciously resistance from the 34th Regiment of the 9th Division and the 12th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the Feng Army.

On the morning of April 15, the 10th Division of the Feng Army took the lead in launching the river crossing battle on the front line of Nantong after many days of preparation. In the afternoon, the 15th Division, under the cover of naval warships, officially landed Shanghai under the artillery fire of the Anhui army's fort.

The failure of the fourth mixed brigade did not make the senior generals of the Feng army frighten. Instead, they took the initiative to launch a large-scale offensive, the siege of Jinling, and the landing in the Shanghai area pushed the whole Jiangnan region to a higher level.

As of April 16, the Feng army has invested in the 3rd Division, 9th Division, 10th Division, 14th Division, 15th Division, 1st Mixed Brigade, 4th Mixed Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Heavy Artillery Battalion and other units in Jiangnan. In addition, the Ministry of Education has continued to maintain the addition of new recruits to the front-line troops. Together with strength and supplementary troops, the total number of troops participating in the war has exceeded 120,000, of which the cumulative casualties have exceeded 20,000!

In order to defend against the attack of the Feng army, the Anhui army also gathered at least 150,000 troops, which are widely distributed in southern Anhui and southern Jiangsu.

Feng and Anhui are competing around Jinling, a city of great political significance. Simply speaking, Jinling itself is not so important, at least militarily. This city is not an important strategic place, nor does it have attributes that are easy to defend and difficult to attack. Compared with cities such as Jinan, Xuzhou and Zhengzhou It is more difficult to defend, so examples of Jinling being conquered can often be seen in history.

Not to mention that decades ago, when the rebelled, the Taiping army conquered Jinling, and the Qing army counterattacked and came back. If we talk about future generations, the civilian army also conquered the city during the 1911 Revolution. Several changes of hands is enough to show that the city is really not easy to defend.

But this city does not have military strategic value and is not easy to defend, so why do the Qing army, the Taiping army, the people's army and the current Anhui army have to defend Jinling?

Because this city is the heart of the Jiangnan region and the only city in southern China with great political influence. As a city with only two cities that can be used as capitals, Jinling, like Jingshi, is unmatched by other cities.

In addition, Jinling can also be regarded as the core pillar of the south of the Yangtze River, especially the southern Jiangsu region. Guarding the west gate and Jinling is equivalent to defending the extensive southern Jiangsu area east of your best.

Although the area of southern Jiangsu is not large, it can provide tens of millions of tax revenue every year, which cannot be ignored by every ruler.

The combination of economy and politics has caused the Feng army to want to conquer the city, while the Anhui army wants to defend the city.

Even if Jurong was broken through at the beginning, and the second mixed brigade had not broken through the Dangtu defense line of Feng Anhui. When the Jinling defenders faced the risk of being surrounded and isolated, Duan Qirui did not say that he would give up Jinling, but chose to continue to defend.

By now, Duan Qirui has no intention of retreating. The second mixed brigade is less than five kilometers away from Jinling. As long as he can receive the second mixed brigade to tear up the western defense line of the Feng army, it is uncertain who will win or lose this battle.

However, he did not expect that Zhao Dongyun's determination would be so resolute. When he learned that the Fourth Mixed Brigade was defeated and the Fourth Army was in trouble, Zhao Dongyun did not withdraw or continue to send troops to southern Anhui to reinforce, but directly transferred troops from the north and then transferred troops in Shanghai. The district and the 10th Division launched a landing battle together.

After Duan Qirui learned about this risky behavior, he also secretly scolded Zhao Dongyun as a madman. He wanted to overwhelm all his bets in Jiangnan.

However, although this behavior is very risky, the effect is great.

With the reluctant cooperation of the navy, the 10th Division and the 15th Division launched a landing operation at the same time. One was to cross the river, and the other was to land directly from the ship. In order to cover the landing of the army, Cheng Biguang transferred all the warships in the navy that could be operated, even those auxiliary ships with only a few machine guns. They were all transferred to provide fire cover for the army when landing.

And before departure, according to Zhao Dongyun's personal instructions, the navy brought all the shells that could be carried, and made it clear that the navy must shoot out all the shells in this battle. If he dared to keep the shells and bring them back, he would be angry.

In addition, he gave Cheng Biguang a secret warning: that is, if this landing operation fails, Zhao Dongyun will be very angry. At that time, he will not say that he will not give military expenses to the navy or build ships. At that time, Zhao Dongyun will wave his butcher knife and cut at the generals of the navy.

So although he was psychologically reluctant, Cheng Biguang did not dare to disobey Zhao Dongyun's personal orders.

After raiding all the ships capable of firing artillery and bringing them to Shanghai, Cheng Biguang led the fleet to risk approaching the Wusong battery fort to carry out a large-scale shelling.

When the fleet carried out a large-scale shelling on the Wusong Fort, the transport ship also approached the shore with artillery fire, and then the soldiers of the 15th Division on the ship began to slide to the shore in small boats and officially launched a large-scale landing operation.

After Cheng Biguang saw that the army soldiers had almost landed, he led the fleet to withdraw slightly. At this time, his fleet had already suffered a lot from Shanghai. The Hairong was hit by multiple shells, and the superstructure was beaten into a sieve. Even the six-inch main gun was damaged, and dozens of sailors were killed and injured.

This time, Cheng Biguang's fleet was full of strength. These craters on the warship were enough to cross Zhao Dongyun, so when the army's advance troops landed successfully, he led the fleet to withdraw.

The fleet is at a loss for shelling with fleets and forts, and it has to rely on the army to really take down this Wusong battery.

When Cao Kui landed, he did not stay on the warship, but landed with the 29th Brigade. As soon as he stepped on the shore, he issued the first combat order: "Take the Wusong Fort and open the way for the brothers of the navy!"