Chapter 309 Sea Defense and Fruit

Today's meeting is not only about the defense of the three eastern provinces. Zhao Dongyun also emphasized the defense of coastal ports, warning the generals not to ignore the rear defense because of the southward war.

"Yingkou, the defense of the two port cities of Huludao is particularly important. I heard that the public concession authorities on the other side of Lushun plan to demolish the fortress. Let people ask them later to see if their coastal defense guns are sold or not. If they are willing to sell them, they can buy them even if the price is higher, and then install them in various parts of the coast! " Zhao Dongyun's words did not stop there:

"The navy should also pay attention to anti-landing operations. A few days ago, I saw that the purchase of torpedo boats submitted by the Navy Department was good. I have approved this matter. Even if the funds are in this year's special naval funds, um, as for the plan to buy shallow-water gunboats and ocean-going warships, I will wait for a big loan. Let's talk about it when the payment is settled!"

Today's coastal defense is almost equal to zero. As far as the current fleet under the Northern Republican government is concerned, it is okay to fight domestic warlords such as the Southern Federation and Duan Qirui without warships, but it is not worth fighting with the great powers. Therefore, once faced with the landing of foreign interference in the army, the naval ship will basically go to war. There is no return. At most, he sank at the mouth of the river to prevent the enemy fleet from going up the river.

With the strength of the current Chinese navy, it is useless to spend a lot of money to buy one or two cruisers. As for those shallow-water gunships, they can only be used in inland rivers, occasionally supporting an army to fight or something, but it has little effect on coastal defense, and because of the previous Chinese rulers such as Li Hongzhang Zhang Zhidong prefers these shallow-water gunboats, so at present, there are many shallow-water gunboats equipped in the Chinese navy, and there is no need to add them.

If he has money, Zhao Dongyun would rather buy those dozens of tons of fish and 100 tons of mine boats than 700 to 800 tons or even nearly 1,000 tons of shallow water gunboats. After all, those mine boats can at least carry torpedoes. If they can also play night torpedo attacks on the enemy's landing fleet during the war. If the character breaks out and sinks an enemy battleship, it will make a lot of money. If dozens of fish mine boats go to Huludao, Yingkou and other port cities, I think They have to weigh it when they land. After all, even if they lose a warship, it will be a big loss for them.

At present, the strength of coastal defense in the Soviet Union and even the whole of China is limited, so at present, the so-called coastal defense is actually only for a few specific coastal cities, such as Huludao and Yingkou, so it is planned to buy some second-hand coastal defense guns and small torpedo boats as the most basic. As for the coastal defense force, as for the landing in other places, Zhao Dongyun could only stare, at most, urgently mobilized the army to intercept.

Since Lushun became a public concession, directors sent by various countries have formed the board of directors of the public concession. Because the board wants to build Lushun into a public port and strive to compete with the Shanghai public concession, it has always been committed to the economic construction and development of Lushun. Although the previous Lushun Fortress was famous, after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese and Russian troops withdrew one after another, and although there were concession police in the public concession, it was impossible for you to let the concession authorities undertake the maintenance and garrison of such a large Lushun fortress. You should know that this Lushun fortress was full in the Russo-Japanese War. Devastated and collapsed in many places. If you want this fortress to play its role again, you have to invest a lot of money to repair it, and then buy a large number of artillery and heavy machine guns. More importantly, it is useless to station tens of thousands of troops if the fortress is to play such a role.

But there is money in the Lushun Concession to repair and arm an army of tens of thousands of people. Even if there is a rich board of directors, it is better to lay a few more streets and expand the port.

As for the threat of war, it's not to scare yourself. Give Zhao Dongyun a hundred courage to attack Lushun! In the same way, Japan and Russia do not dare to occupy Lushun at the risk of falling out with many great powers at the same time. The authorities in Lushun are too lazy to set up an army, which is worse than the Middle East Railway Company. At least the Middle East Railway Company has a road guard.

So after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the fortress of the conservative Lushun was abandoned. Because the coastal defense heavy guns were ignored, they began to rust under the wind and sun. Finally, in order to raise funds, the Lushun Concession authorities also planned to sell those rusty coastal defense guns as scrap iron.

Zhao Dongyun naturally wants to buy these coastal defense guns and install them in Yingkou and Huludao or other coastal ports. After all, although these coastal defense heavy guns are old-fashioned, and many of them are guns purchased in the pre-Qing era, they are coastal defense heavy guns anyway, which can barely be used. .

Zhao Dongyun had this intention and sent someone to the Lushun concession authorities to ask. As soon as the Lushun concession authorities saw Zhao Dongyun asking for these artillery, they immediately opened their mouths and shouted for a sky-high price. Naturally, the people Zhao Dongyun sent were not stupid people to give as much as they said, so they slowly talked about what Only then can we negotiate a price that both sides are satisfied with, and only God knows.

When Zhao Dongyun in the rear began to strengthen the defense of the three provinces and Zhili because of Japan's actions, the southward battle of the Feng army was still in full swing. In the direction of Henan, since the Feng army captured Zhengzhou, Wang Ruxian was captured and escorted to the capital. After this person was forced to issue a telegram, Zhao Dongyun casually used a The false position of the consultant, um, has actually been placed under house arrest by Zhao Dongyun. If he wants to regain his freedom, it is estimated that he will have to wait until Zhao Dongyun completely unified China or is defeated.

After Wang Ruxian was finished, the troops Wang Shizhen sent to Henan fled all the way to the south, and then directly gave up most of the southern Henan, and then stuck to the front line of Wusheng Pass.

The Feng army did not break anything about Wang Shizhen's move to defend Wusheng Pass. At present, Chen Guangyuan's third army, which is fighting in Henan, annexed nearly 10,000 in front of Xinyang, opposite more than 20,000 Wang Shizhen's troops on the opposite side, while another main division of the Third Army attacked the prefectures and counties in Henan. , successively captured Luoyang, Nanyang, Huaiyang and other prefectures and counties, basically eliminated the remnants of Wang Ruxian and other messy armed forces remaining in Henan, and also wiped out several bandits.

At present, Fengjun's main task in Henan is not only to peep at the Wusheng Pass, but also focus on thoroughly controlling the prefectures and counties in Henan. In addition to military purge, it has also transferred a large number of Soviet officials from Zhili and eastern provinces to go south to Henan to serve, plus many officials to restore the river in the shortest time. In addition, the administrative system in the south, like in Zhili, is to reorganize irregular armed forces in various places, such as patrol camps, banditing battalions, etc., so that the main force of the Feng army can maintain the local regime after withdraws from the prefectures and counties.

After all, the number of main troops of the Feng army is limited, and they are all used to fight on the front line. It is impossible to stay in the rear Fu County for a long time.

The establishment of these patrol forces has also greatly alleviated the chaotic situation in the newly occupied area to some extent. As mentioned above, the source of the patrol forces in the Feng army system is very complex and basically comes from the collection, mainly from the previous patrol battalions, training forces, county teams and other old-style armies, and even There are also bandits, civil regiments, landlords and armed forces, etc. Basically, they can hang up with the army, but the goods that the field army does not like are basically unified by them.

The reason why these old, young and weak with low combat effectiveness were unified into patrol forces is, on the one hand, to increase the Feng army's control over the local area, and on the other hand, it is actually to avoid a large number of exiles and bandits after the war, so as to avoid disaster. As for how to practice after the collection, it is not simple, Zhao Dong The method of reorganization of the army is famous and fierce. In the pre-Qing era, the reorganization of the old army dared to kill hundreds of old troops to make mutiny on the spot. In the process of reorganization of the patrol forces, those patrol officers of the Feng army will naturally not be soft. They killed a few thorns in two ends in three days, and then most of them honestly let them repair the fortifications. Fortifications, dig trenches and dig trenches.

In the direction of Henan, Zhao Dongyun played to consolidate the results and tried to completely control Henan. At the same time, it was similar in Shandong. However, the situation in Shandong was much simpler. Zhang Huaizhi's original method was still relatively fierce. There were not many messy irregular armed forces on the ground in Shandong. Those old The army was basically integrated by Zhang Huaizhi, otherwise his Lu army would not have expanded to more than 30,000, and Shandong was on the front line of the gathering of the main force of the Feng army. No one dared to make trouble under the army, so it was much smoother for Soviet officials to accept Shandong's administrative system.

That is, when the patrol force was recruited, it was found that there were too few that could be collected. In the end, they had to recruit the members of the patrol force to form a patrol force. Otherwise, the three or four patrol regiments needed by Shandong could not be formed.

Fengjun is doing things to consolidate the results of the war in Henan and Shandong provinces, and although the time taken is short, the civil servants in the cabinet are very anxious to make money. As soon as they took the two provinces, they began to gather the finances of the two provinces to subsidize the finances that are now extremely scarce in the Soviet Union.

You should know that there are more than 100,000 troops going south today, and countless bullets and shells are fired every day, and these ammunition and food feed need real gold and silver to buy. In order to maintain the battle in Xuzhou, not only the generals of the two major departments of the command's ordnance and military supplies have tried their best to raise military supplies, even The civil servants in the cabinet are also thinking about how to raise military money every day.

And under this scene, the battle of Xuzhou is in full swing!

On October 1, Gu Lanyu's third division of the Feng army captured Zizhuang, an important stronghold on the perimeter of the Xuzhou defense line, and then went straight to Xuzhou City with other troops of the First Army, thus meeting with the Feng Army attacking from the west on the north side of Xuzhou, and formed a situation of besieging the west, north and east of Xuzhou.

The final general attack on Xuzhou is just around the corner!