Chapter 255 Arrival of reinforcements

Any war has a purpose, not to say that if you want to start a war, you will start a war. The most fundamental purpose of the war between Zhifeng is that Zhao Dongyun wants to enter the customs, and Zhao Dongyun wants to enter the customs and occupy Zhili, then he forms an irreconcilable contradiction with Wang Yingkai.

This is why when the Feng army first made a strange move in Shanhaiguan, Wang Yingkai directly mobilized his troops to attack Tangshan in the name of taking over Tangshan's defense. The purpose is very obvious, hoping to attack before Zhao Dongyun's main force of Feng's army enters the customs. Ke Tangshan.

Why should we conquer Tangshan? In addition to being the main stronghold of the Feng army in the customs and the bridgehead of the Feng army's march into the capital, Tangshan is also because Tangshan owns the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, an arsenal.

As the largest arsenal in China, Fuyuan Machinery Factory's production capacity has even exceeded that of the Hanyang Arsenal and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau of the other two major arsenals in China. It not only has the ability to produce rifles and bullets on a large scale, but also can produce light and heavy machine guns, pistols, sabers, and heavier The factory also has the ability to mass- produce 75mm tube retreating mountain guns and mortars of various caliber.

Rifles are not bad. Many arsenals in the south, such as the Hanyang and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and even Guangdong Manufacturing Bureau, Sichuan Manufacturing Bureau and Jinling Manufacturing Bureau have been able to produce Type 88 rifles. However, in addition to the Hanyang and Jiangnan factories, the Type 88 rifles produced by the factory bureau are slightly poor in performance, and the price is also very expensive. The key is that the production capacity is very low, often with only 20 per day. Otherwise, the Southern Federation will not be forced to import rifles to foreign countries on a large scale. The combined output of Type 88 rifles of all other factories in China is actually not as good as that of a Fuyuan machine factory.

Hanyang can also produce heavy machine guns in small batches, and Jinling Manufacturing Bureau can occasionally produce a few. In addition, Guangdong Manufacturing Bureau has also begun to imitate Madsen light machine guns, but the output is unsightly. Generally speaking, in addition to Fuyuan Machinery Factory, the production of light and heavy machine guns of other factories in China can be roughly ignored.

In terms of artillery, not to mention those old artillery. In terms of the new barrel retreat gun, in addition to Fuyuan Machinery Factory, only the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau can produce German 75mm tube retreating cannons, but they have been successfully imitated for two years, and now they have just entered the stage of trial production, and the output is extremely limited. As for the 57mm mountaineing fast gun produced by Hanyang Arsenal, the production of this gun is relatively large, but although the gun is called 'fast gun', it is still essentially a retreat gun, and the range and speed of fire are far less than that of the new artillery.

After several times of all domestic arsenals, you can find the important position of Fuyuan Machinery Factory in the domestic military industry. It can be said that a Fuyuan Machinery Factory occupies half of all domestic military products.

Who doesn't want to control such an arsenal? However, last year, in order to protect Tangshan, Zhao Dongyun did not hesitate to put on a deadly battle in order to protect Tangshan. In addition, at that time, the Southern Federation was extremely powerful and shouted for the Northern Expedition every day. Wang Yingkai was forced to give up Tangshan.

Now Zhao Dongyun has entered the customs again, and the two armies have directly torn their faces. Of course, Wang Yingkai has no scruples. He hopes to seize Tangshan and control Fuyuan Machinery Factory as soon as possible.

Controlling the Fuyuan Machine Factory, pulling out the bridgehead of the Feng army's march in the customs, and blocking the Feng army in the east of Tangshan, which is the direct reason why Wang Yingkai ordered the troops to attack Tangshan.

However, after Lu Yongxiang, the commander of the first division responsible for the specific command of operations, stormed Tangshan, he found that Tangshan's tight defense system was far from being able to be broken in a day or two. More importantly, the main force of the Feng army could reach Tangshan at any time, and there was no hope of conquering Tangshan at that time.

At this time, Lu Yongxiang should not consider how to conquer Tangshan, but how to block the Feng army from the capital, but to stop the subsequent attack of the Feng army, so the first thing to consider is how to stop the third division.

Just like everyone knows that this first division is the main force of the direct ace under Wang Yingkai's command, domestic warlords and even ordinary people know that Zhao Dongyun started his career on the third division. This third division is the ace unit under his Zhao Dongyun. As long as Lu Yongxiang stops the offensive of the third division, it is equivalent to the big Half of the Feng army's pace was blocked outside the capital.

Seeing that the 3rd Division was about to arrive in Tangshan, Lu Yongxiang didn't want to be attacked by the 3rd Division when he was tired because of his attack on Tangshan. He needed to withdraw his troops from the front line and then rest to prepare for the war with the 3rd Division!

Lu Yongxiang's determination was resolute. On the morning of the 13th, the direct army on the front line began to gradually withdraw from the front line. In the process of retreating, although Li Chun, the seventh mixed brigade, found that the front line strength of the direct army was gradually decreasing, on the one hand, he did not think that Lu Yongxiang would make such a great determination to withdraw directly. On the other hand, After yesterday's battle, his troops suffered great losses, and there were not many troops. If he chased him rashly, it would be tragic if he was ambushed or shot back. More importantly, his task was not to chase the direct army or something like that, but to defend Tangshan. If Tangshan was destroyed, then he Lu Yongxiang's first division will not escape the end of being dismissed.

So during the whole day on the 13th, Li Chun was extremely cautious. Except for two small counterattacks at the battalion level, there were no other large-scale pursuits, and these two battalion-scale counterattacks were not very smooth.

Lu Yongxiang is not an incompetent person. Naturally, he will not even arrange the troops when withdrawing. In fact, the withdrawal process of the first division and the first mixed brigade is quite orderly, and a large number of broken troops are also arranged, resulting in setbacks in the two battalion-level counterattacks arranged by Li Chun, although the counterattack was achieved. It has achieved certain results, but its own casualties are not small.

This withdrawal and small-scale counterattack continued until the arrival of the rest of the main force of the Third Division in the evening. Together, not only the chief officers of the Third Division at all levels this year, but also the headquarters personnel of the First Army arrived in Tangshan in the evening under the leadership of Meng Enyuan.

"At present, according to the intelligence information previously obtained by our army, it can be determined that the main force of the first division and the first mixed brigade belonging to the direct army is currently staying in Huanxizhuang, Zhaojiakou and Dazhuangzi, about three kilometers to five kilometers away from the front positions of our army. And it has been learned that the direct army has begun to dig fortifications and build preliminary civil works on the front line!"

Xue Yiping, the chief of staff of the 7th Mixed Brigade, is doing what only combat staff officers usually do, that is, to return the military situation at the military conference. After all, the people attending the military meeting today are all senior generals, including Meng Enyuan, the commander of the First Army, and Chen Guangyuan, the commander of the Third Division. General, the commander of the 5th Brigade, Major General Kong Guanbei, the commander of the 6th Brigade, General Li Chun, the commander of the 7th Mixed Brigade, Major General Lu Chengtong, the commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, and Major General Yang Shande, the Chief of Staff of the First Army, are all the generals under the current command of the First Army.

In addition to these chief officers and generals, there are also some officers, including Colonel Qin Bingyun, Chief of Staff of the Third Division, Lieutenant Colonel Xue Yiping, Chief of Staff of the 7th Mixed Brigade, and three chiefs of staff of the 5th Brigade, 6th Brigade and 1st Cavalry Brigade, as well as chief officers of various departments in the First Army.

More than ten people present are the top commanders of the First Army of the Feng Army. Among the people here, Xue Yiping's rank is the lowest lieutenant colonel. In addition, he is the chief of staff of the 7th Mixed Brigade, and he knows more about various military conditions in the past day than other staff officers, so the military information report before this meeting is up to him. Solved.

"It seems that Lu Yongxiang is a little bold. He ran away without turning around when he saw our third division coming!" Meng Enyuan smiled and tried to relax the officers present. Don't always be straight, but the big enemy, including Chen Guangyuan and Li Chun, were in any mood to joke there. Hearing Meng Enyuan's laughter, they just echoed a few words.

Xue Yiping continued: "And the intelligence department has received news that the 22nd Brigade of the 11th Division of the Feng Army has left the capital to enter the east. At present, the movement is unknown. The headquarters of the 12th Division is still in Beijing, and there is no trace of mobilization!"

"As far as I know, the two newly formed divisions of the direct army have not yet formed an army, have they?" Chen Guangyuan asked.

Xue Yiping said: "It is true that it has not fully formed an army. According to the information of the Intelligence Department, these two divisions officially began to train after the Spring Festival. The 11th Division was formed slightly faster and has now become a brigade. However, it is worth noting that the expansion method of the direct army is different from that of our Feng army. Their recruits are not assigned in the same arrangement, that is to say, the two divisions have actually recruited a different number of new recruits in the near future, but these recruits are still in training and have not officially formed a military. If the situation is tense, It is also possible for Wang Yingkai to use troops composed of untrained recruits.

Since the end of last year, the expansion between the Feng army and the direct army has been almost all tit-for-tat. Wang Yingkai was busy replenishing personnel and weapons for the first mixed brigade and the seventh division at the beginning of last year. Zhao Dongyun was also busy with the plan of the third division and the fifth brigade. After the beginning of the year, Wang Yingkai came up with a plan for the new two divisions, and Zhao Dongyun also launched it first. The plan to expand one division was added, and then the plan to expand two mixed brigades was added. Finally, the plan of one division and two mixed brigades was used to deal with Wang Yingkai's expansion plan of the two divisions.

The scale of the expansion of the two armies is actually roughly the same, and the time is almost the same. Zhao Dongyun's two-range brigade plan has just started, and Wang Yingkai's two divisions plan is naturally not good enough to go there. Up to now, Zhao Dongyun's two-range brigade has been organized into only two infantry regiments, and Wang Yingkai's two divisions plan is only It's just a brigade.

But the difference between the two is that Zhao Dongyun's first division and two mixed brigades are not organized, which means that there are no personnel and equipment, only an empty shelf, because a large number of new recruits are still waiting to be trained in the new barracks, but as long as the recruits in the new barracks complete the training and then assigned If the troops are equipped with weapons, the combat effectiveness can be formed after two months of emergency grinding, and the new troops formed in this way are relatively average in combat effectiveness, which will not cause a huge gap due to the different training capabilities of officers of each unit.

There is no new barracks system on the side of the direct army. The recruits recruited by the army need to train themselves, so they may soon be able to reach full personnel, but to form combat effectiveness often require a lot of training by the troops themselves, and the time required for training and what water soldiers can reach after completing the training. Ping depends on the personal ability of the chief officer of the army. The chief officer of some troops has outstanding ability, and the quality of the soldiers is also very strong, while some officers are mediocre, and the soldiers brought out naturally can't go there, which results in the combat effectiveness of other warlords in Beiyang, including the direct army, led by different generals. It is completely different.

"The 11th Division and the 12th Division are not worry. What we have to consider now is how to deal with the first division and the first mixed brigade. These two troops are hard bones and are not easy to fight!" Meng Enyuan said, "And we also need to pay attention. Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division has urgently gone north. It won't be long before this 7th Division can reach the Beijing Division. We must defeat Lu Yongxiang's troops before the 7th Division arrives!"