Chapter 274 Bait and Anti-Encirclement
According to the experience of the Feng army's past combat, it is naturally impossible for a fifth brigade to defeat the seventh division, but it should not be a problem to contain it for a few days. Even when the seventh division launches a large-scale attack, it is not a problem for a fifth brigade to resist three or five days and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.
This is also the reason why Chen Guangyuan still let the 6th Brigade rest for a day in Yongqing when the 5th Brigade went south alone, and once again agreed to let the 6th Brigade stay for another day to wait for the arrival of ordnance and ammunition, because Chen Guangyuan and others did not expect that the 5th Brigade would be in danger at all.
After all, Chen Guangyuan's previous tactical arrangement is no problem. Yongqing is only 20 or 30 kilometers away from Bazhou. Even if the Fifth Brigade is surrounded, it will take a day or two to wait for the reinforcements of the Sixth Brigade.
But the problem is that no one thought that the 7th Division reorganised by Wang Zhanyuan was different from the direct army originally encountered by the Feng army. In the first two days, the Fifth Brigade was almost ignored and beaten by the nose by the 7th Division. Although the overall casualties were not large, the front line, especially the northern front line, was defeated one after another. Finally, it was forced to retreat into the main position of the Fifth Brigade. In this way, the Fifth Brigade was compressed by Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division to a radius of less than two kilometers, and it was facing attack on the east, west and south.
When Kong Jingbei, who was waiting in front of him, realized that something was not good and urgently requested reinforcements from the Yongqing Division, things had become a little bad.
Of course, this bad situation does not mean that the Fifth Brigade is in danger and will be surrounded and annihilated, but if the Fifth Brigade loses too much, it will be difficult for the Feng army to accept it.
Not to mention, as long as the casualties of the 5th Brigade are more than 10%, the combat effectiveness of the brigade will have a greater impact. If it reaches 15 or even 20 percent, the 5th Brigade will lose its subsequent offensive ability and need to stay for a long period of rest and replenishment.
Once the Fifth Brigade is forced to rest because of excessive losses, there will be one less brigade to fight south!
You should know that although the total strength of the Feng army now exceeds 100,000, which looks like a lot, in fact, the number of troops that the Feng army can deploy for the subsequent southward operations is extremely limited. Even if it is optimistic, the number of troops to fight south to Shandong and Henan will not exceed 50,000, and these 50,000 will still get troops. Two roads.
Before that, if a unit suffered great losses and was forced to rest, it would greatly affect the Feng army's follow-up southward operation plan, which was difficult for Zhao Dongyun to accept, because he could not wait for the new army to be built or the old army to rest and replenished because of the lack of troops. Then go south. Now he wants to compete with Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui for time, which will be one more disadvantage for the future.
However, at this moment, Zhao Dongyun is anxious and has no choice. He is in Langfang. Although he can give orders to Chen Guangyuan of the Third Division Division by radio, his actual command of the troops is limited to the level of division and mixed brigades. As for the communication of troops below the division, he still relies on traditional messengers to ride horses. Pass the command.
The construction of radio communication in Fengjun began in 1905, when Yuan Shikai was stimulated by the Russo-Japanese War and saw a small amount of radio communication equipment used in the Russo-Japanese War. Yuan Shikai, who has always liked to catch up with the latest trend of the world army, established wireless in 1905. The electric training course and purchased a radio machine from Marconi Radio Telegraph Company in Italy. At that time, the third town in Jinzhou was also equipped with a radio telegraph.
After Zhao Dongyun became General Shengjing, he successively purchased several radios from Italy and began radio classes at Fengtian Military Academy. So far, the radio communication equipment in Fengjun has been relatively popular compared with other warlords in China.
Limited by the large volume and weight of these radios, of course, what is more important is the high price. Therefore, at present, in addition to the fixed camp, such as in fixed cities such as Shenyang, Jinzhou and Tangshan, and the headquarters accompanying Zhao Dongyun's movement, the field troops are only assigned to There are two levels of division and mixed brigade.
As for the communication below the infantry division and the mixed brigade, it still has to rely on the traditional equestrian messenger communication. Of course, if there is a cable telegraph in the place where it is stationed, it is also possible to use a telegram, but there is no long-distance radio.
As for the wired telephone Fengjun, it is also available, but the wired telephone in this era is difficult to carry out long-distance communication, and the price is relatively expensive. It is impossible to say that it is impossible to purchase large quantities, so the current cable telephone in Fengjun generally mainly serves the communication between artillery and infantry units.
Moreover, the above-mentioned telephone and radio are actually not stable, and there are malfunctions almost every day, so even if the Fengjun is equipped with these new things, in fact, the transmission of orders, especially the transmission of medium and short distances, is mainly carried by traditional horse-riding messengers and letters.
Chen Guangyuan felt a little worried in the face of Zhao Dongyun's instructions sent by radio to him to quickly reinforce the Fifth Brigade!
He is not worried about the safety of the Fifth Brigade. In fact, as the highest commander of the Third Division, Chen Guangyuan knows the combat effectiveness of his Third Division very well. Although Kong Guanbei has already wrote to request reinforcements in front of him, Chen Guangyuan knows that Kong Guanbei is cautious and will use an extremely exaggerated tone if he has nothing to do, but It was Chen Guangyuan who knew that the Fifth Brigade seemed to be dangerous on the surface, but in fact it was very safe. At most, the casualties would be greater than expected.
However, behind the seemingly dangerousness of the Fifth Brigade, Chen Guangyuan saw an opportunity to hit and even annihilate the 7th Division!
Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division now attacks the Fifth Brigade from multiple sides. Although the 5th Brigade is dangerous, it also restrains the 7th Division in disguise, and the 7th Division must need to divide troops in order to circuitously attack the 5th Brigade. According to Kong Guanbei's war report and Chen Guangyuan's speculation, the 7th Division is at least divided into three divisions. Among them, the 13th Brigade is located in the northwest of the 5th Brigade and is at least five kilometers away from other troops of the 7th Division.
Although it is not worth five kilometers at a glance on the plain, these five kilometers are enough to determine the victory or defeat in the specific battle.
As long as the 5th Brigade can support it, then when the 6th Brigade under its command detours to the flank, and the 10th Division south of Liuquan is about to arrive, even if the whole 7th Division cannot be left, there should be a considerable possibility of anti-encircling the 13th Brigade.
However, these judgments are Chen Guangyuan's own judgments. However, in fact, Zhao Dongyun instructed him to quickly reinforce the Fifth Brigade. If he tried to surround the 13th Brigade against Zhao Dongyun's instructions, I'm afraid Zhao Dongyun would be dissatisfied.
This is where Chen Guangyuan is worried!
As a player in the Feng army system, it is very important to be able to fight, but it is more important to make Zhao Dongyun trust. Don't you see Lin Yongquan. To tell the truth, this person's military talent is really ordinary in the Feng army. In terms of military command ability alone, Lin Yongquan is not even among the top 20 generals of the Feng army.
And this is also well known to everyone. Otherwise, Zhao Dongyun would not have been specially assigned many senior combat staff officers for the 9th Division commanded by Lin Yongquan, in order to supplement Lin Yongquan's lack of military command ability.
However, this deficiency has not affected Lin Yongquan's step by step. Although Lin Yongquan failed to obtain the position of co-integration in the third town period, Lin Yongquan has been in the education department for many years. His power has been comparable to Meng Enyuan and others for a long time. Last year, Zhao Dongyun directly appointed him as the ninth division commander. He knew that Lin Yongquan had not commanded the troops for several years at that time, and he had no previous experience in commanding divisions and brigades.
However, relying on his loyalty to Zhao Dongyun, he passed the first generals in the Feng army and became one of the three divisions of the Feng army, and successively served as the defense commander of Jinzhou, Harbin defense commander and other important positions.
Lin Yongquan holds an important position under the condition of general ability. The most important thing is that Zhao Dongyun trusts him enough to know that his ability is average, but even if Lin Yongquan is specially assigned to a talented staff team to assist him in the battle, he will be lifted up.
These are enough to prove that ability is important to live well in the Soviet army, but Zhao Dongyun's trust is more important.
So although Chen Guangyuan wanted to play a bold envoy in his heart, he did not dare to make a decision without permission, but quickly put forward this combat proposal to Zhao Dongyun through a radio. He did not have the courage to play the trick of enveting the 7th Division with the 5th Brigade as bait without Zhao Dongyun, and he could not play it alone. If it succeeds, it will have to cooperate with Xu Bangjie's 10th Division.
After receiving Chen Guangyuan's suggestion, Zhao Dongyun did not refuse or approve it immediately, but called Fang Biyong, Yang Deming and others over.
"From the perspective of the Ministry of Service, General Chen's plan may be successful, but there are also certain risks. If the action of the offensive troops is slow, or there are unplanned changes in the defense line of the Fifth Brigade, then the Fifth Brigade will be completely in danger, and I'm afraid that the bait of the Fifth Brigade will be eaten!" Fang Biyong was worried and said, "Now our army has obvious strategic advantages, and we can control Zhili without these dangerous tactics!"
The key to carrying out the anti-encirclement operation against the 7th Division with the 5th Brigade as bait is not whether it can successfully surround the 7th Division, but that the bait of the 5th Brigade cannot be eaten. If the bait of the Fifth Brigade is eaten, it will be a complete failure for the whole 7th Division.
In today's strategic situation of the two armies, the advantages of the Feng army are already very obvious. Even if they continue to fight step by step, it is still stable to take Zhili, and there is no risk taking a fifth brigade.
However, Meng Enyuan, who was beside him, also opened his mouth. Although Meng Enyuan was the commander of the First Army, and the Bazhou war had nothing to do with him, Meng Enyuan, as one of the few senior generals in the Feng army, Zhao Dongyun also wanted to hear what he said at this critical moment.
"It is true that our army has gained a strategic advantage in Zhili, but if we don't leave the 7th Division, it is very likely that Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division will return to Shandong in the future, and in the future, Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui's troops will also go north to Shandong. At that time, when our army goes south to Shandong, it will suffer greatly. Resistance. If the pressure in Shandong is great, the number of troops we can devote to Shijiazhuang and even Henan in the future will be reduced.
If we can take advantage of our current advantageous period to annihilate Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division in one fell swoop, then going south to Shandong in the future is equivalent to entering no one's land, and it may even rush ahead of Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui to seize Jinan and lay the victory of Shandong in one fell swoop!"
After Meng Enyuan's voice fell, Zhao Dongyun continued to meditate, and then looked up to Yang Deming and said, "What's the opinion of the combat department?"