Chapter 342 Pursuit and Delay

In Bengbu City, Duan Qirui looked as usual and was not too depressed because of the defeat of the war in northern Jiangsu. There was no sign of loneliness on him. In the eyes of many subordinates, Duan Qirui was still as confident as when he went south to the two rivers.

But this is only superficial, but Duan Qirui has many complex feelings in his heart. However, as a leader, like Zhao Dongyun, he is very good at hiding these inner thoughts in his heart. He always shows a calm and indifferent appearance in front of outsiders, especially his subordinates, as if he is sleepy in front of him. The bureau is not worth mentioning to him.

It was also because of Duan Qirui's performance that many of the main generals of Anhui who fled from Xuzhou to Xuzhou felt a little relieved. If Duan Qirui's apparent panic or anger at this time, it will greatly affect the confidence of the Anhui army from high-level generals to ordinary soldiers, thus shaking the morale of the army.

So no matter what Duan Qirui thinks in his heart, he can only show one thing, that is, to let others, especially his subordinates, know that Duan Qirui has the ability and confidence to lead them out of the predicament.

This quality is also a necessary quality for leaders!

As a qualified leader and the commander of more than 100,000 troops, Duan Qirui's emotional control is honestly much stronger than Zhao Dongyun. At least Zhao Dongyun usually faces dark when the front-line troops fight unfavorably, but Duan Qirui will not.

So when Duan Qirui said in confident words, "What's the panic? Now that the main force of our army is still there, as long as the Fourth Division is still there, what if we give Su Bei to him Zhao Ziyang? Besides, the Feng army has been fighting for several months, and the morale and supplies have been quite scarce. In this case, even if they reluctantly continue to attack south, we will wait for work with ease, and we will definitely be able to give them a head-on blow in Bengbu to let them know that our fourth division is the number one trump card of Beiyang, and we are the real pillar of Beiyang. !"

Although he said so, Duan Qirui in his heart was very clear that the opposite Fengjun was exhausted and short of bullets and food, but his situation was also not good.

Since Xuzhou broke through the siege, the Feng army behind has been chasing him, forcing him not even dare to go to Suzhou, directly leaving Zhang Huaizhi and quickly flee south. When Zhang Huaizhi found that Duan Qirui's fourth division not only directly gave up Xuzhou, but also ran behind him, it also took the tens of thousands of the fifth division. The main force slipped away. Although there were still thousands of people left in Suzhou, the troops were useless at all. It was not an exaguable to say that they directly threw Suzhou to the Feng army.

Zhang Huaizhi's escape made Duan Qirui try to let Zhang Huaizhi delay the expectation of the main force of the Feng army, and Gu Lanyu's third division of the main force of the Feng army did not stop at all and has been chasing Duan Qirui's fourth division.

In order to stop the pursuit of the Feng army, Duan Qirui was forced to give up the remnants of thousands of the army departments that had just been collected, and let them act as a broken force to cover the fourth division from continuing to escape. Naturally, the remnants of Liangjiang, who served as the broken troops, did not know that they were abandoned again by Duan Qirui, but they also successfully blocked the pace of the Third Division for a day, allowing Duan Qirui's Fourth Division and Gu Lanyu to pull the distance from more than 20 kilometers to more than 40 kilometers.

Since Xuzhou broke out, they ran more than 160 kilometers to the south and finally arrived in Bengbu. At this time, the fourth division was also exhausted. If the soldiers were not allowed to stop and rest, it is estimated that they would not be beaten and collapsed by the Feng army, and they would have to collapse. .

Duan Qirui saw that the Third Division was still at least 50 kilometers away to the north, that is, he ordered a temporary rest in Bengbu. On the one hand, it was to restore the soldiers' strength, and on the other hand, it was also to replenish military supplies.

In the war in northern Jiangsu, the logistics supply of the Anhui army was not as good as that of the Feng army, but because the logistics supply line of the Anhui army was relatively short, relying on the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and other means can barely ensure the supply of the front-line army.

However, since the loss of Suqian, when he broke out with the fourth division and the first brigade of Liangjiang, he only brought a small amount of ammunition, and then broke through to Bengbu.

In terms of food, it was okay. The soldiers carried it with them for a few days. When they retreated, the heavy troops of the Fourth Division also brought part of the food. Before arriving in Bengbu, the army had not cut off grain, but even if the food was cut off, it was not a big problem. If there was no food, it could be purchased locally. Throughout China's modern military history, I have never seen that modern army starved to death.

In the early Ming Dynasty, China was not the end of the Ming Dynasty. Although there were frequent melees at the beginning of the People's Republic of China, basic production, especially agricultural production, was not interrupted on a large scale.

Although the warlord wars in the decades after 1911 are frequent and small-scale, in fact, the impact on the local people's livelihood, especially on agricultural production, is not great, because the warlords in the early days of the people are not the leaders of the exiles. They are warlords and regard their territory as the foundation for hegemony, which is actually good for the people's livelihood and economic development in the jurisdiction. It is of great concern. Yan Xishan and Zhang Zuolin are very obvious examples. They will not trample on the farmers' seedlings like Li Chuang and other bandits at the end of the Ming Dynasty, burn down the farmers' houses, and then incorporate these farmers who have lost their homes into their own displaced people' army, and then shout out to welcome the king who does not accept grain. Slogan. They will not shout the slogan of equal land like those in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then collect all the property in the palace to enjoy, and do any ridiculous things about men and women.

Most of the warlords of the Republic of China are ambitious, and a rational ambitious person will not do this kind of self-destruction.

Duan Qirui is also a representative figure of this kind of warlord. Although he plundered money on the territory to support the army and expand the army, this kind of raid did not mean that the whole city was directly slaughtered, but by increasing taxes, setting up checkpoints to collect taxes and other means.

Therefore, in the northern Jiangsu region previously under the control of Duan Qirui, basic non-governmental production activities have not been interrupted, especially agricultural production remains at a normal level. In this case, even if the Fourth Division has no military food, it can still collect enough food from the people to supply the army.

In fact, not only did the Anhui army do this, but also the Feng army, which is under more intense logistical pressure, also collected grain in the war zone. This is not that the Feng army has no food in the rear, but that the logistics transportation volume is limited. The logistics department of the Feng army is more willing to use these transportation capacity for ammunition and other materials. As for food, it is purchased on the spot. , or after purchasing from those big grain merchants, the grain merchants will transport them to the war zone by themselves.

For the two armies of Feng and Anhui, the food problem is not big. The logistical factor that really affects their combat ability is not food, but the supply of ammunition.

When the Fourth Division retreated from Xuzhou, although it brought a small amount of ammunition, it consumed a lot along the way. In order to restore the army's ammunition reserves, Duan Qirui had already ordered the military and political officials who stayed in Jinling to urgently mobilize a large number of supplies from Jinling, Shanghai and other Yangtze River to go north by telegram when he broke out of Xuzhou. Bengbu is used to supplement the losses of the Fourth Division.

Now, after the Fourth Division arrives in Bengbu, it can get these supplies.

This is also the main reason why the Fourth Division stayed in Bengbu!

However, despite this, Duan Qirui is already worried in his heart. Others may have confidence in him, but in his heart, he has no confidence in defending the Jiangbei region. If it hadn't been for the purpose of delaying the Feng army's marching south so that he could have more time to transfer troops north, he would not have He stopped in Bengbu, but fled directly back to Jinling, and then relied on the Yangtze River to deploy the defense line.

However, although he has decided to give up the whole Jiangbei in the future, he still needs time to transfer troops from Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other directions to the north to build the Yangtze River defense line. Otherwise, he will run directly to the other side of the Yangtze River and catch up with the Feng army. At that time, a Yangtze River defense line will be so big. How to defend without enough troops?

Once Fengjun is allowed to find a weak place to cross the Yangtze River, then the Yangtze River will become a joke.

So he can't retreat, at least for a short time from Bengbu. He needs to block the south of the Feng army here for a period of time, leaving enough time to build the Yangtze River defense line in the rear.

Duan Qirui did this, and finally let Gu Lanyu, who was chasing behind, breathe a little. To be honest, if Duan Qirui really continued to escape to Jinling, it would be really difficult for him to continue to chase.

His third division is not the fourth division!

The fourth division is running for his life. Except for bringing artillery, the other heavyweights are basically thrown away, but his third division can't do this. Gu Lanyu has to continue to take these heavy troops on the road together, and he dares not send troops to pursue lightly. Otherwise, it would be bad to be killed by Duan Qirui. .

Although the fourth division fled all the way, it was at least an old Beiyang army, and it was also a unit with more than 20,000 troops of the first division and three brigades. If the enemy enters, it will die miserably.

So although he chased all the way, Gu Lanyu was extremely cautious. The main force of the army was concentrated together and chased together with a large number of artillery and other heavy guns.

After learning that the fourth division stopped in Bengbu in front of him, Gu Lanyu was finally relieved. The fourth division in front of him fled tired, and he was also chasing him.

Facing the personal order from Zhao Dongyun from Jurentang, he dared not relax. If the Fourth Division escapes to the south bank of the Yangtze River intact, this is not a good thing for the Feng army's follow-up strategy of the two rivers.

The next night, an infantry regiment of the 6th Brigade of the forward unit of the 3rd Division of the Feng Army had arrived. For a time, there were bright lights inside and outside Bengbu City. The infantry regiment of the Feng army did not know how many Anhui troops were on the opposite side, and the Anhui army did not know how many Feng troops had caught up with them. Besides, it was evening, and the night battle was extremely for both sides. For strangers.

Based on the communication command ability of contemporary soldiers, they play large-scale night battles, especially offensive battles, usually use torches as targets for people. If they don't raise torches, they will collapse before they reach the enemy 100%.

If you want to read night attacks, you can read various ancient romance novels such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In real wars, especially in modern wars, you can't find a night attack battle. Occasionally, some of them are also extremely tragic, and the reason why the well-known night raids are specially written by the National People's Congress. It is because of this successful night attack that it has only appeared once or twice in hundreds of years that I am sorry for countless armies that collapsed before they came to the enemy in the night attack.

The generals of the Anhui army and the Feng army are normal, and there are no evil awesome people, so both sides have bright torches, directly turning the night into daytime, and then starting to sit down.

After a night of support, early the next morning, the Feng army outside the city had changed from a regiment to a brigade, and the other main forces of the Third Division, including the Fifth Brigade and the Artillery Regiment, were already on their way.

One wants to pursue, the other wants to delay time, and the inevitable new round of battle between the two armies of Feng and Anhui is about to start in Bengbu!