Chapter 311 The Beginning of Xuzhou

During his tenure as the director of the Operations Department, Yang Deming has participated in countless of the highest strategic military meetings of the command department. Now it is naturally difficult for him to face a regional battle-level combat conference. He stood up and walked calmly to the map on the wall and said loudly:

"All officers and colleagues also know that although our army has gathered on the front line of Xuzhou, and the number of troops is unprecedented, the opposite Anhui army has also gathered at least 80,000 troops on the front line of Xuzhou in Jiangbei, and according to the intelligence reality of the intelligence office, the Anhui army is still continuing to draw troops from other parts of the two rivers. Help the front line of northern Jiangsu!

In addition to the Anhui army in northern Jiangsu, there are more than 10,000 people of Zhang Huaizhi's Lu army on the front line of Suzhou. However, it is worth noting that with Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division entering Anhui, there seems to be some conflicts with the Lu army. The information of the Intelligence Office shows that the Lu army has begun to gather the troops originally reinforced on the front line of Suzhou in Fengyang Prefecture. It is used to guard against Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division. From this perspective, it also reduces a small amount of pressure on our army to a certain extent!"

"However, Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division is located in the junction of Henan and Anhui, which also makes the commander's plan to send a part of the Third Army deep into the hinterland of Anhui. If the two are compatible, it will have little impact on our army overall!"

"At present, the strategic core of our army is still in northern Jiangsu, especially the front line of Xuzhou. Since the 10th Division of our army captured Pizhou in the past, the flank danger of our army attacking Xuzhou from the east has been eliminated, and the first army of our army in the west will certainly face the flank danger of the Lu army in Suzhou, but the Lu army There is no sign of leaving north now. Even if we go north, as long as our army divides into a brigade, it is enough to stop the department.

In terms of physical strength, many parts of our army have been resting for many days. The whole army is full of physical strength. In terms of morale, our army has not been defeated since entering the customs. Both officers and soldiers are highly morale, and they all have the determination to fight for the death of the president!

In terms of ordnance and soldiers, although all departments of our army have been damaged in the entry and southward operations, after many personnel replenishment and the addition of sincere soldiers, all departments have basically maintained a full state of personnel. We have always been equipped with light weapons, and although there is a slight loss in heavy weapons, after Most of the losses of enemy artillery, heavy machine guns and other weapons urgently transported by the Ordnance Department have been replenished. Most of the heavy weapons of our military departments have been replenished. Although the status of our military departments is not as good as before entering the customs, they are still full.

In terms of logistics, the munitions department and the Ordnance Department of the Commander's Department have used the Beijing-Han Railway, maritime transportation, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and other directions to provide a large number of supplies for our combat troops. The front-line troops have hoarded more than 150 shells per barrel artillery, and medium-sized mortars have hoarded more than 80 shells per medium-sized mortars, and heavy aircraft Each gun has more than 3,000 bullets, more than 500 light machine gun bullets, and an average of more than 150 rifle bullets. The grain and fodder is enough for our army's existing cavalry and logistics horses for half a month, and the soldiers' rations for ten days. With the ammunition, grain and other logistics materials currently hoarded on the front line, it is enough for us to launch a large-scale battle that lasts half a month!

Combined with the above, the Ministry of Professional Affairs believes that it has met the conditions to launch a general attack on Xuzhou!"

Yang Deming continued: "Because the command requires us to act cautiously, and it does not give us too tight a time limit, the ministry believes that the attack should be based on step by step, Xu Butuzhi.

First of all, in the first step, we should send the 20th Brigade to capture Pizhou to continue westward, completely block the connection between Suqian and the southwest of Xuzhou, and cut off the passage of the Anhui army from Suqian to Xuzhou. At the same time, the 19th Brigade should continue to go south from the dangerous Suqian and Qingjiangpu area in the east to contain the Anhui army. Continue the troops and logistical supplies reinforced by the two rivers!

In the second step, we should send a brigade south to Suzhou to prevent Zhang Huaizhi's troops from going north to reinforce the Lu army in the direction of Suzhou..."

As Yang Deming gradually said slowly, it was not only a battle of Xuzhou, but also a whole battle of northern Jiangsu around Xuzhou!

The battle between the Feng army, the Anhui army and the Lu army is to compete for a large-scale decisive battle between the two sides of Xuzhou, but in fact, the battlefield is not only in Xuzhou, but all over the northern Jiangsu region and the Suzhou area in northern Anhui, although the width of the battlefield has reached more than 200 kilometers, although However, the two sides do not have many troops to participate in the war, and the three parties do not add up to 200,000, which cannot be compared with the Xuzhou Campaign in the Anti-Japanese War in the later world and the Huaihai Campaign in the Communist Civil War, but it is already an unprecedented large-scale battle for contemporary China.

It is not difficult to understand why the battle of Xuzhou is mentioned, but the fighting between the two sides in the early stage was concentrated in the peripheral areas of Xuzhou and other fronts in northern Jiangsu, because other fronts can directly affect the final battle between the two sides in Xuzhou.

The Feng army tried to defeat the main force of the Anhui army in Xuzhou and suppress the expansion momentum of Duan Qirui. The Anhui army also tried to rely on the nail of Xuzhou to block the Feng army, so as to get more time to take the southern provinces and digest the fruits of victory in the two rivers. For either side, they are tolerant I can't stand failure!

With the outbreak of battles in the periphery of Xuzhou, the Feng army's attack on the city of Xuzhou itself also began.

On October 6, after thousands of kilometers of maneuvers, railway transportation and horse traction, the Feng army finally pulled more than 20 100 mm cannons of two independent heavy artillery battalions to the front line of Xuzhou, and set up the western suburbs of Xuzhou to launch the first round of large-scale shelling of Xuzhou.

Subsequently, a large number of 75mm field battles gathered by various troops in the Feng army also set up positions one after another, carrying out large-scale shelling on Xuzhou in the distance!

The combined number of 75mm and 100mm field guns of the First Army and the Second Army is as high as more than 100, which is actually more than the mountain cannons in their hands. At the beginning of the pre-Qing Dynasty, whether it is the Beiyang Standing Army, the Fengtian Standing Army or the new army of other provinces according to the Beiyang organization, its steps The artillery regiment of the division is generally composed of two field artillery battalions and a mountain gun battalion, while the regular troops of modern warlords are basically organized in the Beiyang era. Although the details of each warlord are different, they are basically similar, so under normal circumstances, their field guns are generally comparable to those in a unit. There are many mountain cannons.

But this situation can only be said to be the most ideal situation. Only a few main divisions of the Feng army and several divisions under Wang Yingkai can do this, and only a few direct troops under the warlords of the old Beiyang era can do this, and the rest are left regardless. Whether it is the newly expanded troops of the warlords in Beiyang, or the southern federal troops adapted by the new army in the pre-Qing era, in fact, there is an extreme shortage of artillery units. An infantry division is full of 54 75mm artillery, and there must be two field artillery battalions, and they can't even make up 57 mm artillery pieces. Camp.

In fact, this situation is also reflected in the mixed brigades of various warlords, including the mixed brigades of the Feng army, which are actually equipped with mountain guns, and few are rarely said to be equipped with field guns.

However, today's artillery outside Xuzhou is an exception. The Feng army is an elite army in China, and these troops are the elite in the Feng army. The troops participating in the war are basically the main force of the Feng army, and the artillery units of each branch are basically full, although there are many sources of artillery equipment. It is diverse, but in any case, every infantry division can also have three battalions of artillery, but at this point, the troops of other warlords in China are not as good as those.

Why do people regard the Feng army as the strongest warlord in China? It is not only because of the large number of the Feng army. In fact, the number of Feng army is not large. The total strength of the Southern Federation is more than that of the Feng army. The total strength of the Anhui army is less than 100,000, which is no less than that of the Feng army. The Chinese people regard the Feng army as the strongest army in China. Because the predecessor of the Feng army was the third town and the two towns of Fengtian Standing Army, which are the three old Beiyang troops, and the Feng army expanded on this basis, whether it is well-trained officers and soldiers or weapons and equipment, is actually much better than other warlord troops.

In addition, Zhao Dongyun's ability to search for money is not small, and his ability to spend money is even greater. In recent years, he has raided the three eastern provinces and armed his troops into the strongest army in China. Among other things, the Feng army alone has nearly 300 75mm guns that are not enough for other troops in China. In parallel. There are also more than 100,000 people in the Anhui army, but the number of artillery is only more than 100. Not to mention that there are still many 57mm mountain cannons and old-style retreat guns in it. In terms of quantity, it is not even the Feng army.

Not to mention that the Feng army still has more than 20 100mm cannons, which are more expensive than the 150mm howitzers. Except for fortresses, coastal defense and the navy, only talk about the army, in fact, the Japanese army and the Russian army in the Far East do not have many cannons of the same caliber.

Why do those warlords in China regard Zhao Dongyun as the biggest threat? Whether it is Wang Yingkai or Duan Qirui or Wang Shizhen, Wang Ruxian, Zhang Huaizhi and others do not need to be encouraged by others to unite to deal with Zhao Dongyun. It is not that Zhao Dongyun is ugly and disgusting, but because Fengjun's strength is too strong. If we don't unite to resist, sooner or later, it will be cleaned up by Zhao Dongyun one by one.

This is the same as they united against Zhao Dongyun last year. Although the time has been a year apart, it has not changed much in essence.

With hundreds of field artillery shelling Xuzhou, tens of thousands of soldiers in blue-gray military uniforms also launched their first attack on Xuzhou in the bronze whistles of officers on three 30-kilometer-long fronts in the east, north and west!