Chapter 254 We withdraw

The sound of Tangshan's gunfire on the night of the 12th has never stopped. Although the army in this era seriously lacks the ability to fight at night, a large number of fires were lit up in order to attack the direct army, shining the front line as if it were after day and during the day.

Since the failure of the first large-scale attack in the afternoon, after a few hours of rest, the direct army launched another large-scale attack after 830 p.m. The offensive front continued to focus on the south of Tangshan, and the first mixed brigade of the direct army invested in the second infantry regiment as a reserve as the second general rule. The main force of the model attack, the investment of this new force, coupled with the two infantry regiments of the original 1st Division, and the fierce attack launched by the three infantry regiments, put the first regiment of the 7th Mixed Brigade on the southern defense line under great pressure, among which Han Hezhuang, defended by the second battalion of the second regiment, was under the greatest pressure!

"As of 1:00 a.m., 78 people in the second battalion were killed and 170 injured. The casualties were Captain He Jintong, the commander of the first company, Lieutenant Fang Yuyuan, the commander of the third platoon of the second company, and Lieutenant Di Qingyun, the commander of the first platoon of the third platoon. Several other officers, including Lieutenant Li Cung-go, the first platoon leader of the second company, were injured. At present, the battalion has suffered great losses. After 12 hours of fierce fighting, the soldiers have suffered great physical energy and are in urgent need of rest!" Lieutenant Colonel Xue Yiping said suspiciously.

Li Chun said, "In this case, let's withdraw the second battalion first and let the sixth battalion take over the defense line of the second battalion!"

However, another major said, "Bid chief, this sixth battalion is our last and only reserve team. If the sixth battalion is transferred to Han Hezhuang, what if the enemy troops break through from the middle and north?"

Li Chun said, "We don't feel good today. Does the direct army on the opposite side feel good?"

Everyone doesn't have to think about Li Chun's words. The first division and the first mixed brigade under Wang Yingkai can't go there today. As the direct army of the attacking side launched a fierce attack. Although it has the advantage of artillery firepower, the soldiers who fell under the muzzle of the Feng army's heavy machine gun will definitely go there.

Especially in the direction of Hanhezhuang, even if the direct army uses the advantage of troops to adopt rotation attack tactics to avoid a certain force from being severely damaged, but each battalion participating in the exhibition is only dozens of casualties, but in addition, the direct army left at least 300 bodies in the position of Hanhezhuang today, and the injured More.

It is said that killing the enemy is one thousand and 800 self-damaged, and in today's offensive and defensive war, the direct army, as the attacking side, and the soldiers of the direct army often launched a repeated charge in order to conquer a certain position. Although the direct army did not launch a death charge as death as in the Russo-Russian war, but adopted many tactics, but The casualties are still very large. In the past 12 hours, the direct army has killed and injured at least 1,000 people, and the casualty rate has been about 8%.

Although this casualty ratio is nothing in the armies of the great powers, the Japanese army can even continue to attack with more than half of the casualties in the Russo-Japanese War. It is common for the Russian army to have more than half of the casualties in defensive operations and occasional counterattacks. However, the casualty rate of the troops of warlords in China, including the Feng army, is far lower than that of the forces of the great powers. This has nothing to do with tactics, equipment, etc. It is related to the quality of the source of soldiers and beliefs.

In terms of the casualty rate, some small-scale troops, such as battalion-level troops, may suffer 30% or even more than half of the casualties under the outstanding ability of the commander of the troops, but this kind of thing cannot be regarded as a general manifestation of the whole military, but can only be Take it as a special case.

If it is placed on a division and military level, if the domestic warlord troops, whether it is Wang Yingkai's direct army or Zhao Dongyun's Feng army, have little impact on the troops if the casualty rate in ordinary combat operations is less than 5%, and the troops can often maintain high morale and continue to launch attacks.

If the casualties reach 10%, it will seriously affect the morale of the troops. At this time, if the officers are rational enough, they will choose to stop the current offensive tactics and consider adopting other offensive tactics.

If the casualties reach more than 15%, it can basically be concluded that this force has lost its offensive ability. As for the casualty rate of 20% or even 30%, not to mention the attack, it is good not to collapse directly.

Zhao Dongyun also has no good way to solve the army's low casualty rate, because there is actually only one way to solve this problem, that is, to let soldiers have beliefs such as the state, nation, and doctrine.

And do you have these things in contemporary China?

No

The two words "country" and nation are actually very strange to the general public. There is no so-called modern state and national concept in contemporary China. For them, whether it is the former Qing Dynasty, the Southern Federation or the Northern Republican Government, it is actually a kind of 'dynasty', not a 'government'.

Ordinary people don't care whether Guangxu or Wang Yingkai will be emperor or president.

As for modern nationalism, it is even more nonsense. At that time, although many knowledgeable elites would value the word 'nation', ordinary people are not interested in the nation. The so-called Han people, Manchu and Mongolian, and the Tibetans are actually far away for them. For example, many people in later generations are familiar with it. Most of the contradictions between the Han people in the late Qing Dynasty and the Manchu and Han in the late Qing Dynasty were forced by later generations with their own national concepts. In fact, there was no so-called * at that time.

Before the Xinhai Revolution, there was only one chaotic contradiction in China for thousands of years, that is, the contradiction between the ruling class and the ruled class.

This statement applies not only to ancient China, but also to most of the wars and disputes between ancient and modern times around the world.

To some extent, all kinds of doctrines, beliefs and other messy things cultivated by later generations since childhood are actually a kind of spiritual brainwashing imposed by the control class on the controlled class. All kinds of doctrines and beliefs are excellent control tools.

The most representative example is Christianity. These Christians have the same God, but they have dozens of teachings and have evolved into various versions of Christianity, such as Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy. Why are there so many sectarian branches? The conscience of heaven and earth is definitely not Jehovah. It is because the ruling class of different times and regions wants the people to believe in the religion that they are allowed to believe in, and they need to strengthen their rule.

If people have faith, in fact, everyone can be their own God.

Whether it is religious beliefs, national beliefs or national beliefs, these beliefs need to take a long time to cultivate and strengthen. Contemporary China obviously has not yet reached this point. Zhao Dongyun wants soldiers to shout 'Long live China or the Chinese nation to launch a charge. It is estimated that it will take decades to brainwash the people before this possibility.

Zhao Dongyun did not have so much time, so he chose the simplest way, that is, to still imitate ancient times, establish personal loyalty and faith, and let the soldiers fight for him, Zhao Dongyun.

Although the effect is far less than those various doctrines on Gundam, the better is that the operation is simple and the time required is short enough for Zhao Dongyun to build an army that has been loyal to him in just a few years.

As for training a force that can be loyal to the country and the nation, to be honest, Zhao Dongyun does not have the ability and time to make his army work for the illusory concepts of a country and nation, which is just a concept.

Of course, modern China is not without a national concept. Well, for example, group fights between two neighboring villages often occur. Large-scale guest fighting in the south is very famous.

If history China wants to form a modern national concept and national concept, or after the 1911 Revolution, well, to be precise, it should be after the May 4th Movement. As for the past, the two words "state and nation" are basically slogans shouted by high-ranking politicians.

With contemporary Chinese warlord forces without national and national concepts, you can't expect them to have the same high casualties rate as the forces of the great powers.

The direct army has now suffered 8% casualties. This figure may not seem very big, but it has greatly weakened the direct army's ability to continue to launch a large-scale attack.

Now, although the direct army has made a big breakthrough on the southern front, it has not completely torn the defense line of the Feng army. Although the Hanhezhuang direction, as the strategic support point of the southern front, has lost the first line of defense, and now the second line of defense is also crumbling, but it has finally been defended anyway.

In this case, if the direct army wants to launch a third large-scale attack, it will have to replenish ammunition and soldiers, which will take time.

And time is also what Fengjun needs most!

and Li Chun expected that after 1 a.m., in addition to a few pieces of fire and sporadic harassing and tentative attacks, the direct army has stopped the large-scale attack.

At 5 a.m., the 9th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the Walking Army all night finally arrived at the front line of Tangshan. The regiment had just arrived in Tangshan. Although the division was also exhausted by marching all night, the 7th Mixed Brigade, which had been fighting fiercely for a day, suffered a lot of casualties, and morale generally declined. Li Chun's 7th Mixed Brigade Reinforcement is urgently needed.

So although the 9th Regiment was exhausted, it still went to the front line at the first time!

The arrival of the Ninth Regiment failed to hide the direct army only a few hundred meters away. Soon, the front-line headquarters of the 1st Division, Lu Yongxiang, who had not slept all night, was red in his eyes and his eyes were full of blood on the map!

"Confirm the number of Fengjun's reinforcements?" Lu Yongxiang asked in a hoarse voice.

"According to the reconnaissance of the front-line troops and the information we learned from Tangshan, the source should be an infantry regiment of the Third Division. We don't know exactly which regiment!" The staff officer next to him answered carefully.

"Where are the other troops of the Third Division now?" Lu Yongxiang continued.

"All the troops of the Third Division of the Feng Army left Tangshan by train yesterday morning and morning. According to the itinerary, they should be able to fall down today, but we have not yet received accurate information from other troops of the Third Division. When the reconnaissance cavalry tried to bypass Tangshan yesterday, they were attacked by the Feng army cavalry. "Interception." The combat staff continued to answer.

Lu Yongxiang was worried about the Feng army in Zunhua and was more worried that the cavalry troops he sent would encounter the two cavalry brigades of the Feng army, so he did not dare to send large-scale cavalry troops. He only sent a few cavalry scattered eastward to investigate, but some of the reconnaissance cavalry were attacked by the cavalry company under the jurisdiction of the 7th Mixed Brigade. Interception, even if some reconnaissance cavalry successfully advanced eastward, it was a big question mark whether they could find the movement of the Third Division in the night last night.

Looking at the blank space in the east of Tangshan, Lu Yongxiang can guess that the Third Division is near this area, and he is more worried about the cavalry brigade that Fengjun left west yesterday, looking at the huge blank area between Tangshan and Zunhua.

Lu Yongxiang frowned for a long time, then raised his head, and then looked at many other officers and said in a low voice, "We will withdraw!"