Chapter 278 Attack on Overlord

"Have you found out the enemy's number? Which army is it?" Wang Zhanyuan asked with a black face.

"The enemy number has been identified. It is indeed the 6th Brigade of the Third Division of the Feng Army. At present, the headquarters is marching south!"

Although Wang Zhanyuan had expected to be a unit of the Sixth Brigade, it was still incredible to hear the personal confirmation of his subordinates. At the beginning, he thought that the Sixth Brigade would detour to his southeast wing.

But in the first few days, he sent a large number of scouts to this side but failed to find the traces of the 6th Brigade. He did not think that the 6th Brigade flew over the search of his scouts. Since the 6th Brigade was not found in the south, and the 5th Brigade stopped retreating at that time, Wang Zhanyuan recognized himself very much. The detour for the Sixth Brigade is not in the south, but in the north.

In order to avoid the encirclement of the 13th Brigade, he quickly withdrew the 13th Brigade and withdrew the 13th Brigade and deployed it on the northern front, strengthening the north, that is, the left defense line of the 7th Division. At the same time, he sent a large number of scouts to the north to try to find the traces of the 6th Brigade.

Wang Zhanyuan's series of tactical arrangements are based on the fact that the 6th Brigade is detouring to the north, and there is also a 10th Division going south. For this reason, he expected that the northern battlefield would become a key battle area for both sides, or even a decisive victory, so he not only deployed the 13th Brigade in the north battlefield, but also The division's artillery regiment was also deployed in this direction.

However, not long after he completed this tactical deployment, the reconnaissance of the 7th Division found the 6th Brigade in the southeast, which must be said to be greatly beyond his expectation.

"These damn Gu Lanyu and Chen Guangyuan deliberately made a time difference. They were afraid that we would see it early, which delayed for two days. It seems that their appetite is not only a thirteenth brigade, but our entire seventh division!" At this time, Wang Zhanyuan still overestimated Chen Guangyuan and Gu Lanyu, believing that this move was a deliberate arrangement by Feng Jun.

But in fact, the reason why the roundabout operation of the Sixth Brigade was delayed by two days was entirely due to the delay of two days in Yongqing, which was not deliberately arranged by Chen Guangyuan or Gu Lanyu.

All combat plans may basically be executed from beginning to end, and there will always be many changes in the middle, which is a great test of the adaptability of the front-line generals.

Unlike Wang Zhanyuan's thought, Fengjun did not intend to leave a whole 7th Division from the beginning. Their plan was like this: the Fifth Brigade dragged down the 13th Brigade, and then the 10th Division suppressed it. The roundabout of the 6th Brigade was only used to contain the rest of the 7th Division. Their goal was to eat with the 10th Division and the 5th Brigade. Drop off the 13th Brigade.

As long as the 13th Brigade is annihilated, it will be equivalent to hitting the 7th Division.

However, after Wang Zhanyuan retreated the 13th Brigade, the 7th Division reassemated, so that the original battle goal of the Feng army no longer existed. If the battle continues, the goal of the battle is to encircle and annihilate the 7th Division. In fact, with the strength of the two divisions of the Feng army, it does not have the ability to surround the whole The strength required by the 7th Division.

"What should I do now? Should the Sixth Brigade come back or continue to make a detour? Outside Bazhou, Chen Guangyuan, who had arrived at the Fifth Brigade headquarters with the division headquarters and a large number of heavy engineering auxiliary troops, stared at the map and frowned.

Now his mood is not much better than Wang Zhanyuan. The unexpected retreat of the 13th Brigade has almost completely failed his pre-planned combat plan. The 13th Brigade as a target has withdrawn to Bazhou. How can we talk about encircling and annihilating the 13th Brigade?

Chen Guangyuan seems to be questioning now, but the officers below know that this is Chen Guangyuan talking to himself while thinking, so a group of low-down officers shut up and do not answer with a tacit understanding.

Although the temporary division headquarters set up in the wild is actually in a tent, the tent can block ultraviolet rays and can't stop the heat wave. In July, the north is no less hot as the southern provinces. It can be seen from the fact that many soldiers were shirtless when the two armies fought.

However, soldiers can ignore their image, but the officers of the Third Division, especially the middle and senior officers, can't do so. In the hot tent, more than a dozen middle and senior officers present here are all wearing full blue-gray officers' regular uniforms, military hats are placed on the table in front of them, and they sit upright with their hands clenched fists or Spread flat on their thighs, many people's foreheads have already shed sweat, but no one dares to complain. They also listens to Chen Guangyuan's self-spoken expression, but they don't dare to say: "It's so hot, don't talk nonsense and just say what to do!"

The army is a place of deep hierarchy, especially the modern army. In the ancient army, you may see the description of loving soldiers, but you will never see this situation in the modern army. A modern army is usually like this: under the command of officers, soldiers are mechanical and numb. Mu's charge with a rifle, and even a step back will be shot by the officer on the spot.

And when the boss slaps his subordinates in the face, his subordinates can only stand here and be beaten. If you are beaten, you have to take a step forward so that the officer can continue to beat you!

Chen Guangyuan was not as restrained as his subordinates. After picking up a handkerchief and wiping the sweat on his forehead, he casually unbuttoned his collar, and then looked around the officers and continued: "Although our scheduled combat goal has disappeared, our plan to encircle and annihilate the enemy remains unchanged. The Sixth Brigade still needs to continue to take a detour!"

This time Chen Guangyuan is not talking to himself, but has made a decision: "And the task of the Fifth Brigade is to continue to attack Bazhou to cooperate with the attack of the 10th Division!"

After two days of emergency maneuvering, the forward troops of the 10th Division have arrived in the northern periphery of Bazhou. At that time, the 10th Division will definitely launch an attack on Bazhou, and what the 5th Brigade and other troops of the 3rd Division need to do is to cooperate with the 10th Division to launch an attack!

After Chen Guangyuan made the decision to continue the combat, the Sixth Brigade did not stop, but continued to detour to the southwest. At this time, the Sixth Brigade had begun to march to the southwest of Bazhou, trying to cut off the contact between the 7th Division and the south in Bazhou, and preparing to intercept the south escape of the 7th Division!

On the front battlefield, the 10th Division finally arrived north of Bazhou after many days of marching. Due to the lack of carriages, mules and horses, the marching speed of the 10th Division is quite slow. Now it can successfully reach Bazhou in a few days, which is still the 10th Division. It was completed only when the land requisitioned a large number of people's mules and horses and even civilian husbands.

During the Battle of Tangshan, the Feng army showed the problem of weak logistics force, and after the subsequent troops went south to Bazhou, it was even more difficult to get rid of the logistics transportation, especially the serious shortage of military carriages and mules. In order to solve the logistics transportation problem In addition to hiring a large number of civilian husbands to form support groups, the front-line troops have also been temporarily authorized by the headquarters to requisition civilian animals and carriages on the spot to transport artillery, ammunition and other heavy materials.

Speaking of which, the logistics system of the Feng army is much better than that of other warlord troops in China, but it is still seriously insufficient. The main reason for this is that with the large number of technical equipment of the Feng army, there is a large demand for ammunition.

The demand for ammunition, mortars and machine guns, is extremely large, especially those mortars. Although the shells fired are cast iron black gunpowder shells, which are not expensive, but the weight is still there. In addition, the concentrated dependence on mortars in Feng's combat, front-line commanders like to use them urgently. Although there are many benefits of rapid fire to suppress and attack the enemy, it also brings a serious problem, that is, the supply of mortar shells is not available.

During the battle, an infantry company of the front-line troops only carried two mortars. Each mortar group will carry no more than 18 shells. In fact, there is a shortage of logistical supply capacity. The 15 or even less 12 mortar shells carried in the battle are often lost after several rapid shootings. , and some brain-damaged commanders will continue to fire at the time of war crisis. With the speed of more than ten mortars per minute, they can basically shoot out all the shells they carry in a minute, and then watch the play.

In order to solve this problem, in addition to strictly reiterating several times that front-line officers are required to save mortar shells, it is also forced to increase the logistics transportation force. However, the increase of this logistics transportation force is only at the level of the quartermaster's headquarters, but the logistics force establishment of division-level and brigade-level troops is still the same. It's the same.

Because the logistics force of the army is fixed, it is different from the support regiment. At present, a large amount of technical equipment of the Feng army is highly dependent on logistics, especially the logistics transportation force of the division and brigade-level troops. However, the heavy troops at all levels of the Feng army are still formed in the old Beiyang era.

A division only has a heavy battalion, and according to the current level of equipment and ammunition consumption of the Feng army, this division should be a regiment, not a battalion.

However, it is not so easy to increase the number of heavy troops. It won't cost much for the Military Supply Department to support the regiment, but if you want to assign two or even three times the current number of active heavy troops to each division, it will cost more.

You can see the military gap between the Beiyang Army and the Japanese division. The combat organization of the two sides is actually similar, but in wartime, a division was more than 20,000, while a Beiyang division is only more than 13,000. Even a division of the Feng army that has increased the number is less than 14,000.

Although some of the thousands of people are combatants, there are more auxiliary personnel such as logistics and engineering.

Now, if you want the Feng army to play all the combat effectiveness of combatants and provide them with enough combat supplies, then a division of the Feng army will have to increase at least 1,000 heavy personnel. If the number of heavy machine guns and mortar equipment is further increased in the future, So it is impossible to provide logistical supplies for such a division without adding 2,000 people. However, in this way, the number of each division of the Feng army is estimated to be much more than now, and the increase in the number will cause huge pressure on military expenditure, which Zhao Dongyun cannot tolerate.

But you can't help but supply in the battle. The logistics force in the establishment is insufficient, and the support regiment of the Munition Department provides strategic supplies. They are only responsible for transporting ammunition from many preparation warehouses and Tangshan Arsenal in Fengtian to Langfang, and subsequent transportation will not be transported directly. If it is transported to a supply station relatively close to the front line, then the next logistics transportation will have to rely on the troops themselves.

Therefore, the field troops in the Feng army will basically more or less requisition the transportation force of the local people, especially mules, horses, carriages and other tools that can transport shells and ammunition. At the same time, they will also requisition part of the civilian husbands as temporary chiefs. Otherwise, the departments of the Feng army will not be able to replenish ammunition at all when they start a war. .

The 10th Division was able to go all the way south with a large number of artillery and ammunition by expropriation of carriages, chief husband, etc. Although the speed of going south is not so fast, it is not slow.

The marching speed of regular troops with a large number of artillery and shells cannot be compared with those light infantry. If the light infantry force troops, it is possible to move 40 kilometers a day, but it is quite good for troops like the 10th Division to be able to move more than 20 kilometers a day.

When the 10th Division arrived in Bazhou, the Feng army's large-scale attack on Bazhou was officially launched!