Chapter 354 Chuzhou has been down

When the two armies fight, sometimes they are evenly divided at the previous moment, but often the next moment, the whole front will change due to changes in a certain tactical node.

Highland 147 played such a role in the battle between the Third Division and the Tenth Division.

Although the place itself does not have much strategic value, neither side can even put a battalion on this hill.

looking at the more than ten-kilometer-long front of the Third Division and the Fourth Division, although there are not many similar small highland tactical points, there are absolutely many. Even if you take a step back and say that even if the place is lost, it will have little impact on the Fourth Division.

However, the loss of this small highland was a devastating blow to an infantry battalion of the 7th Brigade of the 4th Division!

At this time, even if an infantry battalion was annihilated, it was not a heavy blow to the 4th Division. However, the war situation was linked. The fall of a 147 Heights caused the destruction of the 3rd Battalion of the Anhui Army, and the failure of the battalion led to the collapse of the 14th Regiment of the 7th Brigade, when the 14th Regiment was defeated. After that, it naturally affected the safety of the whole Seventh Brigade.

The day after the loss of 147 Heights, no matter how hard Tang Tianxi tried, he still could not recover the retreat of the 14th Regiment. In the afternoon, with the continuous retreat of the 14th Regiment, the 13th Regiment fell into a siege again.

By this time, Tang Tianxi's 7th Brigade was undoubtedly defeated!

In order to avoid being surrounded by the 13th regiment in heavy siege, Tang Tianxi was forced to order the whole brigade to retreat!

However, it was okay that he did not order the retreat. Although the 7th Brigade, especially the 13th Regiment, had been in danger before the retreat, it could still barely support it. However, when the 7th Brigade began to retreat, it was an organized retreat in the first hour or two, but it was quickly under the step-by-step pursuit of the 6th Brigade. There was a large-scale collapse!

By the evening, Tang Tianxi, the brigade commander of the 7th Brigade, had found that he had lost control of his subordinates, and the whole 7th Brigade had completely collapsed. The troops could only fight separately, either flee or fight, and could not organize a large-scale retreat or resistance.

The complete collapse of the Seventh Brigade was largely due to Tang Tianxi's order to retreat from the whole brigade!

He overestimated the withdrawal ability of his troops!

How well a unit is organized? Don't look at its offensive ability, but at its withdrawal ability. It is rude to say that any unit in modern China, including the three main divisions of the Feng army, is extremely lacking in the ability to retreat. This is why there are few fronts in the melee of domestic warlords. The retreat happened, and no matter how hard it was, few generals chose to retreat directly when they fought.

Tang Tianxi undoubtedly made this tactical mistake. He thought he could retreat hundreds of kilometers from Xuzhou and Fengyang all the way to Chuzhou, and he could also withdraw from here.

But he forgot that the retreat of the 7th Brigade and the withdrawal of the entire 4th Division from Xuzhou and Fengyang were two different things.

When Duan Qirui organized the fourth division to retreat from Xuzhou, it not only did not let the opposite Feng army know, but also left nearly 10,000 people in the whole brigade. It was not until the next day that the Feng army learned that the fourth division had escaped, and after the Feng army took Xuzhou, the fourth division had escaped dozens. Kilometers away.

When Fengyang Mansion retreated, Duan Qirui also sneaked away and left a whole brigade like last time. When Gu Lanyu's third division detected and pursued it, the distance between the two sides had once again opened more than 20 kilometers.

These two retreats have two things in common. First of all, the fourth division of the Anhui army did not fight fiercely with the main force of the Feng army before retreating, and they retreated at night and waited until they ran out of the Feng army to notice it. Secondly, Duan Qirui left a large number of broken troops.

As for the subsequent pursuit, although the Feng army was reluctant to give up, in fact, they could only follow the 4th Division to eat ashes. The two sides did not make direct contact with the pursuit all the way.

However, today outside Chuzhou, the situation is completely different from the previous two. First of all, the 7th Brigade was forced to retreat under a strong battle. When Tang Tianxi ordered the retreat, there was a cruel offensive and defensive battle between the 7th Brigade and the 6th Brigade, so it was impossible to be secret at all. The Anhui soldiers climbed out of the battle. The trench ran back, and the Feng soldiers behind him immediately began to pursue.

And this time, there was no large number of provincial troops for him to serve Tang Tianxi as a cut-off force. He could only call a battalion to cut-off.

However, facing the attack of the whole 6th Brigade, a battalion can't support it for a long time and will soon collapse completely!

With the combination of many factors, the collapse of the Seventh Brigade has become inevitable. Even if Tang Tianxi has the power of heaven, it is impossible to reorganize the Seventh Brigade and fight again in a short time.

The same situation is put on the three main divisions of the Feng army, but in fact, it's not good to go there!

After less than two hours after the withdrawal order was issued and looking at the chaotic troops, Tang Tianxi actually regretted it. If he did not order the retreat, but continued to stick to it, although it was possible for the entire 13th Regiment to fall into the encirclement of the Feng army, he may not have a chance to wait for the Eighth Brigade. Or supplement the rescue of the brigade.

But at that time, he thought that the whole 7th Brigade should be safely taken away, and from a purely tactical point of view, his choice was not wrong. After all, the 8th Brigade of the friendly army was entangled by the 5th Brigade of the Feng army opposite. Whether it could come over or not was two different matters, and the supplementary brigade was in Chuzhou City before, and it had to rush to reinforce less. It will take half a day, and in half a day, the 13th Regiment will 100% fall into the encirclement of the Feng army. At that time, not to mention the supplementary brigade to rescue, even the whole fourth division in the past will be difficult to save the fate of the 13th Regiment being destroyed.

So Tang Tianxi made up his mind to retreat after considering many factors, because this is the only tactic that can save the current fear.

However, at that time, he forgot a very critical point, that is, the tactics he formulated were feasible, but he did not take into account that with the current quality of the Fourth Division of the Anhui Army, it was impossible to successfully implement such difficult tactics.

The quality of the Fourth Division of the Anhui Army is undoubtedly enough to be one of the first-class strong army among many warlord forces in China. The previous brilliant record of the Fourth Division also fully proves this, but in China, the Fourth Division is a first-class strong army. However, in the world, to be honest, it is not second-rate. It is mostly a third-rate army.

In the past few years, even Zhao Dongyun, a traveler with great confidence, only thought that the Beiyang Army was only half of the combat strength of the German army when comparing the Beiyang Standing Army and the armies of the Great Powers, and this is still based on the premise of having a perfect logistics, and now In fact, it is impossible for the Beiyang army to obtain sufficient logistical supplies, so the actual combat strength still needs to continue to be suppressed, and 30% of the combat power of the contemporary German army will have to be burned.

After the Republic last year, the division of warlords in China was relatively serious. The Feng army absorbed the experience of the Russo-Japanese War, then equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns and mortars, and adopted new infantry tactics. Its combat effectiveness has improved to a certain extent compared with the era of the Beiyang Standing Army, but Zhao Dongyun does not think of his Feng army. The three main divisions can be compared with the world's major armies.

It is enough to have 50% of the combat power of the German army, which can already be laughed at!

As for the fourth division under Duan Qirui's command, although its combat effectiveness is comparable to that of the three main divisions of the Feng army, it has a lot to do with the fourth division's serious overstaffing. At least there are three brigades with more than 20,000 troops, which is not surprising to draw with a division of more than 15,000 people. Under the same force, the combat effectiveness of the Fourth Division is slightly weaker than that of the main force of the Third Division, but the weakness is limited and is not enough to affect the victory or defeat of both sides.

Limited by the overall limitations of domestic military development, both the Feng army and the Anhui army actually lack the quality of implementing difficult tactics!

And there is no doubt that retreating before the battle is a super difficult tactic!

If today's situation is replaced by a first-class army, such as the French army and the German army, it is not difficult to retreat smoothly through superb tactics. Even if it is replaced by a second-rate Japanese army, as long as the commander is not stupid, then with the quality and tactical execution ability of the Japanese army, it should also There is a 70% or 80% chance of withdrawal.

However, if the 7th Brigade of the Anhui Army wants to do it, it is difficult to reach the sky!

Unfortunately, most of the domestic generals ignore or do not want to admit it. They all think that their tactics are superb, but they have never thought that the troops they command have the quality to carry out these difficult tactics.

Therefore, looking at the modern history of China, you will find many such cases: the commander put forward extremely superb tactics, and then the subordinate troops executed a mess led to a fiasco, among which the withdrawal cases are more obvious. Throughout the history of the war, few warlord troops can successfully execute the pre-front retreat, and basically retreat. It's all turned into a collapse.

It doesn't matter whether Tang Tianxi overestimated the quality of his subordinates or deliberately ignored this point. The important thing is that the 7th Brigade has completely collapsed!

Faced with the collapse of Tang Tianxi's 7th Brigade, although Duan Qirui couldn't wait to kill Tang Tianxi 10,000 times, he had no time to be angry at the moment of life and death, but ordered Chuzhou Supplementary Brigade to urgently pick up the remnants of the 7th Brigade with a black face.

Since the 7th Brigade has been defeated, the first plan to play a counterattack through the 7th Brigade's roundabout attack will naturally come to nothing. Now the most important thing is to take the remaining main force of the 4th Division back to Jinling.

The defeat of the 7th Brigade almost abolished one-third of the combat strength of the Fourth Division.

In the battle outside Chuzhou, although the 7th Brigade was only defeated, the subsequent collapse led to the establishment of the brigade being completely dispersed. Even Tang Tianxi was nowhere to be found. I don't know if he was afraid that Duan Qirui would send him to a military court to escape or die in a chaotic army. Anyway, no one has seen this person again after that day. .

Duan Qirui spent a lot of effort to collect more than 2,000 remnants of the 7th Brigade one after another, but these remnants were dejected and morale, and machine guns and other supporting weapons were lost, and even many disabled soldiers even threw their rifles.

This seventh brigade has been completely abolished!

Even if it can be rebuilt, it is the same as the 7th Division under Wang Zhanyuan and the original 7th Division under Feng Guozhang. The rebuilt 7th Brigade is not the previous 7th Brigade.

The 7th Brigade was severely damaged. Although Duan Qirui hated Gu Lanyu on the opposite side, he also knew that Chuzhou could not stay for a long time, so he soon took the rest of the main force of the Fourth Division and the first mixed brigade of the Liangjiang Army.

This time, the Fourth Division was aboveboard. Although the 7th Brigade of the Fourth Division was severely damaged, the eighth and the supplementary brigade were still intact, and the main force was in office. In addition, there was the first mixed brigade of the Liangjiang Army as a cover, adding up to nearly 30,000 people.

In addition, outside Chuzhou City, in order to seriously hit the 7th Brigade, Gu Lanyu's third division also used up the last trace of milk. The physical consumption of the soldiers is nothing. The key is that the food and ammunition carried by the army have been exhausted. They were originally chasing lightly and did not bring too much at all. With so much weight, soldiers often only have dozens of bullets they carry with them, and they only have a few days of food rations they carry with them.

In the first battle outside Chuzhou, the Third Division consumed a large amount of ammunition. Now the situation of the Third Division has reached a relatively dangerous level. If the Fourth Division continues to give them another horse gun, the Third Division will have a tragedy.

So although Gu Lanyu was dissatisfied, he could only see Duan Qirui retreat, and then led the army into Chuzhou, which was voluntarily abandoned by the Anhui army.

Soon, the relevant war reports of the Chuzhou Campaign were delivered to Zhao Dongyun in time!

After looking at it, Zhao Dongyun nodded slightly: "Chuzhou has come down, and this land in Jiangbei has been reached!"