Chapter 446 Zhang Guotai anyway

The two large-scale battles in Jiangbei and Jiangnan can be said to have spent all the capital accumulated by the Anhui army for many years, losing more than 150,000 troops, and even the two elite troops of the fourth division and the second mixed brigade have lost nearly half.

The Anhui army lost a large number of heavy weapons and equipment, experienced veterans, and high-quality middle and lower-level officers in these two wars, which could not be replenished in a short time.

More importantly, the Anhui army has been beaten by the Feng army in the two wars in Jiangbei and Jiangnan, and the morale of the troops has fallen seriously. In addition to the two units of the fourth division and the second mixed brigade, which can continue to fight tenaciously, the morale of other troops is very worrying.

So, the Anhui army still has the number of nearly ten divisions, but in fact, today's Anhui army is no longer the Anhui army at its peak in the second half of 1907.

Although the Anhui army gathered a lot of troops in Nanchang, adding up to more than 50,000, in fact, even Duan Qirui himself has no hope that Nanchang can resist the attack of the Fourth Army.

"Why hasn't Wuchang taken action yet? Does Zhang Zhidong think that I, Duan Qirui, can he still live alone?" Duan Qirui looked at the situation getting worse day by day, and was even more angry at the Southern Federation in Wuchang's inaction.

In the face of the telegram sent by Duan Qirui to urge him to send troops to Jiangxi, Zhang Zhidong sighed. He already knew that the current Anhui army had reached the eve of collapse. If he did not move, I'm afraid that it would not take two months for the Anhui faction to retreat from Jiangxi and Zhejiang. The next Fujian and Guangdong were definitely It is also impossible to keep it.

Now the Anhui and the Southern Federation are in a cold relationship. Even if he is still dissatisfied with Duan Qirui, he still has to start to move.

However, before considering sending troops to Jiangxi, he still had to leave part of his troops to resist Wang Shizhen's attack.

Zhang Zhidong gathered a lot of troops in Hubei and Hunan. Many generals of the Southern Federation also know that their troops are not good at combat effectiveness. Since their combat effectiveness is not good, they should make up for it by quantity. Therefore, the number of troops under Zhang Zhidong is very large. In Hubei Province alone, the number of troops he gathered exceeds 200,000 people.

In addition, there are nearly 100,000 troops in Hunan.

In terms of the number of troops alone, in fact, Zhang Zhidong of the Southern Federation, Duanfang and Zhao Erxun have reached nearly 600,000 troops, far more than any warlord in the North Sea.

But the number is large, but the combat effectiveness is not good.

If you want to send troops to Jiangxi, if you want to achieve certain results, then the troops sent must be indispensable. You have to be prepared for two to one, or even three to one. Therefore, after Zhang Zhidong made up his mind, he quickly transferred the Fifth Army of the Northern Expedition to Jiangxi to the east. Before leaving, he also enriched several troops to the Fifth Army of the Northern Expedition, making The strength of the Fifth Army of the Northern Expedition reached 80,000.

These 80,000 people sound very scary. You know, the total strength of the Feng army is only about 300,000, and the Second Army of the Feng army in southern Zhejiang is less than 40,000. Meng Enyuan's fourth army in Jiangxi is the strongest, but the total strength is only 70,000, and the fourth army is still There were many ways to get troops. In addition to attacking Nanchang, the Fourth Army also sent the 14th Division to the area of Hengzhou Prefecture.

The Fifth Northern Expedition under Zhang Zhidong set out directly from Hubei. They did not go to Nanchang, but went straight to Jiujiang. This is obviously because he wants to reinforce Zhang Guotai's army in Jiujiang.

However, Zhang Zhidong's dispatch of troops to Jiujiang did not stop the Feng army from attacking Nanchang. On the contrary, it was threatened by the direction of Jiujiang. The combat department has given an order to Meng Enyuan on the front line, asking Meng Enyuan to take Nanchang as soon as possible, and then transfer troops north to reinforce the direction of Jiujiang.

Since the end of the Jiangnan Campaign, Meng Enyuan has also received such a strict order for the first time. He knows very well that in the command system of the Feng army, he is the leader of the army and the number one military boss in the Feng army, but in the Feng army, the combat office is the boss. In the face of the strict order of the combat department, Meng Enyuan did not dare to neglect and quickly gave an order to Gu Lanyu on the front line, asking the Third Division to make a strategic breakthrough as soon as possible.

Meng Enyuan did not dare to neglect, and Gu Lanyu did not dare to neglect. Since the Battle of Jinling, although the Third Division has fought many battles, the intensity is average. In a word, the Third Division has been resting and recovering for two months.

Since his troops are in good condition, Gu Lanyu will not intend to delay for too long. He has to make his performance better so that he can go further, otherwise he will always be limited to the division commander level.

After two days of preparation, on July 28, Gu Lanyu's third division launched its first large-scale general attack on Nanchang, which was different from the peripheral war a few days ago. This time Gu Lanyu put the whole third division into it.

The ace force of the Third Division is nearly 18,000. Even if there are more than 30,000 defenders in Nanchang, it still can't stop the fierce offensive of the Third Division of the Feng Army.

Those Liangjiang Provincial Army, like many of its predecessors, had just met the war for two days and collapsed again with a large number of casualties, which made Jin Yunpeng, the commander in charge of the defense of Nanchang, quite helpless. He also knew in his heart that the Liangjiang Provincial Army could not fight, but he did not expect that it would be so bad. In the fourth Under the fierce attack of the army, Nanchang was declared lost in less than three days, creating a domestic warlord war, and the fastest chance of losing an important strategic city.

In the case of the large-scale defeat of the Liangjiang troops under his command, he could only rely on the second mixed brigade and could not help the situation. In the end, he could only take the second mixed brigade to flee to Fuzhou. As for the other Liangjiang provincial army, the 8th Division retreated relatively early, so it was able to escape to Xinyu. However, the rest of the branches However, the team did not have such good luck. It was defeated and captured.

The Nanchang Campaign took only three days, but the Anhui army lost a record loss of more than 30,000 people from three divisions here.

The 11th Division, 12th Division and 13th Division of Liangjiang have become historical dust and disappeared in this world.

On the same day, Duan Qirui also got another piece of news, that is, in the direction of Zhejiang, the Fourth Division was forced to give up Jinhua and continue to retreat south. The 10th Division of the Soviet Second Army successfully captured Jinhua, an important city in central Zhejiang.

Upon learning the news that Nanchang and Jinhua had lost one after another, Duan Qirui was speechless for a long time. He seemed to see last year's scene replay this year.

Last year, I led the 4th Division and the 2nd Mixed Brigade and other troops south to Jiangxi and Zhejiang. They also made the same rapid progress as the current Feng army. They almost couldn't meet a round of enemies all the way south and occupied most of southern China in just half a year. At the beginning, they still felt that the south Fang Federation is a mob and is not worth mentioning.

However, now he seems to have followed in the footsteps of the Southern Federation, and he can't stop the attack of the Feng army in Jiangxi and Zhejiang.

Do you really want to withdraw from the domestic political stage?

He is unwilling!

However, what if he is unwilling? Now he thinks of Xiliang, who committed suicide in Chaozhou, and Lei Zhenchun, who committed suicide in the defeat. Maybe he will follow in their footsteps!

If Duan Qirui only sees the dawn of defeat now, then Duan Qirui will be really desperate in the next two months.

On August 1, Lu Yongxiang of the First Army of the Feng Army led the first division to capture the Madang Fort, which was crucial for the Jiujiang Campaign, and then took Peng Ze. Zhang Guotai's troops were forced to retreat to the Hukou area. On August 5, the Feng army captured Fuzhou, the 7th 14th Division of the Feng Army captured Hengzhou, and then the third division of the Feng army went north. Jiujiang successfully captured Yongxiu, De'an and other important towns in the south of the Jiujiang River, and successfully arrived in the south of the Jiujiang River on August 16.

On August 17, Lu Yongxiang's First Army launched a large-scale offensive against Hukou. The Anhui army had no retreat and no ammunition in it. Finally, a large-scale surrender occurred again.

On the evening, Zhang Guotai was placed under house arrest by his subordinates. Several brigade commanders and regimental commanders of his subordinates forged Zhang Guotai's signatures to announce the surrender of the whole army, and issued a telegram in the name of Zhang Guotai, saying that the domestic unification trend was the general trend, and Zhang Guotai did not dare to stop the historical trend, so he announced that his subordinates were Anhui anyway. Loyalty to the central government.

After the release of this fake telegram in the name of Zhang Guotai, it caused great turmoil in China. Duan Qirui scolded Zhang Guotai as a traitor, betrayed the great cause of the republic and betrayed Yuan Gong's last wishes.

After Zhang Guotai learned about the telegram, he sighed deeply. Things have developed to this point, which is no longer beyond his control. Now he has completely lost control of the Anhui army in Hukou. Several brigade commanders and many regimental commanders of the Hukou Anhui army have launched several representatives to negotiate with the Feng army. The content is not to surrender, but how to surrender. Those Anhui generals asked to take the initiative to surrender to the central government and asked the Soviet Union to give them the number of the Central Army and maintain a certain military independence.

Naturally, the Soviets will not accept this. It is okay to take the initiative to give the number to the Central Army, but it is impossible for you to maintain independence. Fengjun has never set such a precedent.

In the end, this deadlock was broken by Zhang Guotai. Although Zhang Guotai was very dissatisfied with the surrender of his subordinates, he also knew that his continued stubborn resistance would soon be the end of the destruction of the whole army, and the telegram issued by his subordinates in his name directly pushed him to the forefront of the storm. Duan Qirui thought that he had In the case of being a traitor, he had no room to turn around. Later, he gritted his teeth and was cruel and directly surrendered to Fengjun.

He has only two requirements, one is to follow the precedent of the 16th Division and reorganize the surrender force into a Central Army force, and the second is that he must also be the commander of this unit.

However, it is not required to maintain the independence of many middle and high-level generals, which is equivalent to Zhang Guotai's subordinates selling Zhang Guotai, but now Zhang Guotai has sold those subordinates.