Beiyang Xiaoxiong

Chapter 382 River Crossing Operation Plan 2

The 200,000 field troops of the Anhui army even exceed the current 170,000 field troops of the Feng army.

It's just that the main force of the two is quite different. The main forces of the Feng army are the 3rd Division, the 9th Division, the 10th Division and the 14th Division that have not yet been tested by large-scale wars. The fourth mixed brigade is barely one of the main forces. Including the cavalry and artillery units, the total number is about 780,000. And only 30,000 to 40,000 can be regarded as the main force of the Anhui army.

The quality of the second-line troops of the two sides is also quite different. Although the 1st Division, 8th Division, 11th Division, 13th Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Feng army are regarded as second-line troops in the Feng army, their combat effectiveness is not bad, at least much stronger than the provincial army of other warlords, although there are also a few provincial troops on the Anhui army The combat effectiveness of the six brigades, such as the Sixth Division of Liangjiang, is not bad, but most of the Liangjiang Provincial Army still can't beat these second-line troops of the Feng army.

Overall, limited by the quality of officers, weapon factors and training level, the overall combat effectiveness of the Anhui army is one level worse than that of the Feng army.

However, in the direction of the two rivers, the gap between the two sides is not so big. Although the Feng army has 170,000 main troops, there are more troops left behind in Henan and the north. The number of troops that can participate in the two rivers is only about 100,000 troops, while the Anhui army on the opposite side gathered in the direction of the two rivers is more than 100,000. With the end of the war in Guangdong, the Anhui army transferred a large number of troops to the north, including the second mixed brigade of the Central Army, the main force second only to the fourth division in the Anhui army.

Although this second mixed brigade is known as a mixed brigade, its actual strength has already expanded to more than 10,000 people. It is not an exaverse to say that it is a division. Like the previous fourth division, the brigade, when it went south to fight, almost half of China has gone through dozens of battles. It has not been defeated in a row and has rich combat experience. The officers and soldiers of the army are of high quality, morale and the level of equipment is not bad. It is said that it is a brigade, but it has two artillery regiments with a total of nearly 40 barrel artillery and no less than 40 heavy machine guns. The mixed brigade of such equipment is also unique in China.

The fourth division and the second mixed brigade are the main force, supplemented by nearly 100,000 provincial troops, which are the main forces of the Anhui army in the direction of the Yangtze River.

In terms of military strength alone, in fact, the Feng army in the direction of the two rivers is less than the Anhui army, but at present, the Feng army is on the offensive, and the Anhui army can only passively defend, which is enough to show that sometimes the number does not mean everything.

Fang Biyong finished talking about the Anhui army and also talked about the situation of the Southern Federation. However, at present, the Southern Federation is not a big problem for Zhao Dongyun. Before Duan Qirui is solved, he will not have direct contact with the Southern Federation. In addition, the recent changes of the Southern Federation are not big. Hubei and Hunan Still the same, Zhang Zhidong's wrist is quite good. He not only blocked Wang Shizhen in Hubei, but also stopped the attack of the Anhui army in Hunan. Zhao Erxun of Shaanxi and Gansu is also good. With a 19th town, Wu Fengling was stunned by the title of patrol envoy of the three provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu, but he could not enter the Shaanxi-Gansu region.

As for Duanfang in the direction of Guangdong and Guangxi, there has been much more tragedy. Since the destruction of the tenth town and Xiliang's defeat and suicide in Chaozhou, Duanfang has been alone. After losing Guangzhou, he can only retreat to the western Guangdong. Fortunately, after taking Guangzhou, Duan Qirui believes that the overall situation of Guangdong has decided to transfer a large number of troops including the second mixed brigade to go back to the north. The Yangtze River defense line left only one Jiang Guiti's sixth mixed brigade and more than 10,000 provincial troops in Guangdong. Otherwise, Duanfang would have lost even Guangxi now.

After Fang Biyong briefly introduced the current deployment of troops in China, the meeting soon entered the topic, that is, the battle plan to cross the river.

At this time, Fang Biyong had already sat down again, and then Shi Yanglin, the chief of the Operations Department, stood up, walked to the large map next to him and said, "President, officers and colleagues.

After many months of planning, according to the many deductions of many colleagues in our combat office, our combat office has formulated a preliminary plan for crossing the river. I hope that today you can put forward more suggestions to improve the crossing of the river combat plan together!"

After saying that, he picked up the baton and pointed to the map and began to say, "According to the repeated deductions of my colleagues in the combat department, it is believed that our army will go south to conquer the south of the Yangtze River. The biggest obstacle is the fourth division of the enemy in the direction of Jinling and the second mixed brigade of the enemy on the front line in Wuhu.

If our army launches a frontal river crossing battle in this place, we will encounter a fierce fire attack by the enemy. Even if we can successfully cross the river, I'm afraid it will suffer heavy losses. In order to avoid heavy losses during the river crossing, all colleagues in the combat department agreed that our army's river crossing must bypass the frontal enemies in Jinling and Wuhu.

Based on this, we selected Taiping Prefecture and Prefecture (now Ma'anshan and County) as the primary river crossing place, which is located between Wuhu and Jinling, about 50 kilometers away from the enemy of Jinling and Wuhu. Once the enemy finds our crossing the river, it will take at least two days to send main troops from the above two places to intercept. . And two days is enough for us to transport the first troops across the river, so as to establish a stable front position in Dangtu and take over the subsequent river crossing troops!"

While speaking, Shi Yanglin took out a detailed military map of Hezhou and nearby areas and continued: "There is still a sandbar on the river in this place, which is about 1.5 kilometers wide. Using this sandbar, it can greatly reduce the difficulty of setting up our pontoon bridge and speed up the erection, and take heavy force in time. The device is transported across the shore.

"In order to cooperate with the smooth development of the river crossing force, our army needs to launch a companion attack in the direction of Wuhu and Jinling to confuse the enemy's sight and delay the enemy's reinforcements!"

"Before that, in order to further confuse the enemy's judgment of our army's river crossing location, our army can launch an appropriate offensive in the direction of northern Jiangsu, and even send naval transport troops to land in Shanghai, and then conquer the Shanghai fort. After conquering the Shanghai fort, it can use ships to carry troops from Nantong to cross the river. Further strengthen the number of troops on the south bank, and then attack the Jiangyin Fort. Once the Jiangyin Fort is captured, the naval ships can enter the Yangtze River Basin and go straight to Jinling to provide frontal naval artillery fire support for our army to cover the main force in the north of the Soviet Union to cross the river.

Shiyanglin's explanation is quite long and slightly dull. From the general direction at the beginning, then talked about the detailed deployment of each division, to the establishment of the logistics supply line, etc., almost taking into account every aspect of the river crossing, and this river crossing battle plan is not only crossing the river, in fact The crossing of the river in the river battle plan is only the beginning, and what is more important later is how to completely conquer the Jiangnan area and annihilate Duan Qirui's fourth division, second mixed brigade and other troops.

The whole battle plan actually contains the detailed battle plan of the Feng army for the next two months in the direction of the two rivers, and even includes the strategic plan for the next six months. For example, after taking Jinling, the battle plan requires the troops to quickly go south and capture Hangzhou, the northern region of Zhejiang. Important cities, at the same time, sent troops to continue to go south to Jiangxi to capture all areas including southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang.

This plan covers more than 50 pages of text description alone, covering the transfer and deployment of all troops of the Feng army.

In more than half an hour of Shi Yanglin's commentary, his throat was so dry that he drank water several times.

"The above statement is the first case of the river crossing operation plan drawn up for my Operations Office. Due to the draft of the plan, there are still many shortcomings. I hope the President, officers and colleagues will forgive and correct them!"

After saying that, Shi Yanglin did not return to his seat. At this time, his work had not been completed. As the specific person in charge of the plan, he had to answer the questions of others present.

And the subsequent questions also made Shi Yanglin, the first person in charge of large-scale strategic planning, feel a lot of pressure. At this time, he felt the pressure of Yang Deming, the former director of the Operations Department.

As the director of the combat department, he is known as the most powerful major general in the Soviet Feng army. Although he is extremely beautiful, he is responsible for the actual command of the whole Feng army, and the pressure he is also under is also huge.

Since he took office as the head of the combat department, he hasn't taken a day off. Most of the time, he even sleeps in the staff. Every day, he is busy with all kinds of strategic arrangements and planning, and more importantly, any decision will affect the survival of the front-line army. This power What brings is a huge responsibility. If the front-line troops are defeated because of the combat plan of the combat office, then Shi Yanglin estimated that he will immediately change from the most prominent major general of the Feng army to a street mouse shouted by everyone.

Not everyone can bear the pressure caused by his responsibility.

Soon, the question came. The first person to speak was Caokun, the first division commander of the 15th Division. This person is also the highest-ranking field officer in today's conference room. The commanders of the southern subordinate units are unable to escape north to attend the meeting, so to a certain extent Caokun also represents the southern forces. Chief officials at all levels.

If our army crosses the river in southern Anhui and Zhou, it is only 50 kilometers away from the enemies of Jinling and Wuhu, and the combat department believes that it will take two days for the enemy to reach Dangtu from 50 kilometers away, Cao does not agree with this.

There is no doubt that once the enemy finds the location of our army crossing the river, it is bound to do its best to intercept it. In this case, the enemy cannot march as usual, but will adopt the mode of marching lightly and marching day and night. Whether it is our army, Anhui or other armies, the light troops will march day and night. Next, there is a situation of marching 40 kilometers a day. Last year, when the enemy's fourth division retreated and our third division pursued it, there was a record of forcing more than 40 kilometers a day. Therefore, once our army crosses the river in Hezhou, the enemy's arrival to intercept is likely to be a day and a half or even a day. If so, it will have a significant impact on the river crossing force, and may even lead to the failure of crossing the river! Are you too optimistic about this battle?"

Although Cao Kuan's speech did not directly deny the feasibility of crossing the river in Hezhou and Dangtu, he also retained great doubts!

If you want to avoid the enemies of Jinling and Wuhu, and want to cut them off and separate the two main forces of the Anhui army, this idea is good, but it is extremely difficult. Not to mention cutting off the connection between the fourth division and the second mixed brigade, it is estimated that the crossing force will be attacked by the fourth division and the second mixed brigade. Attack, at that time, the end of the Feng army's crossing troops will be the end of the whole army!

In the face of Cao Kui's doubts, Shi Yanglin immediately explained: "The combat department has considered the emergence of this situation, and we have two solutions to this. The first is that although it is impossible for the first troops to carry a large number of artillery, it is still not a problem to carry a large number of heavy machine guns and mortars. The first batch of assaults have been carried by ships. After Jiang's troops crossed the river, the first thing was to open up front positions, use machine guns to defend, and defend the enemy's counterattack.

Second, before crossing the river, our army will also launch large-scale companion attacks in Wuhu and Jinling to attract the enemy's attention in the early stage, while in the later stage, it will delay the enemy's withdrawal of the main forces to reinforce the direction of Dangtu.

Under the attack of the main force of our army, Duan Qirui is unlikely to transfer the main forces such as the fourth division and the second mixed brigade to Dangtu for reinforcement!"

Shi Yanglin did not speak very much, because the war was full of uncertainty. Before the fight, Shiyang could not be sure whether the companion attack in the direction of Jinling and Wuhu could firmly contain the fourth division and the second mixed brigade. He just thought that this possibility was not great!

And in war, no one dares to say that their prediction is 100% correct, but as long as there is a greater chance of success, as a qualified general, he should do it without hesitation.

After hearing this, although Cao Kuang still disagreed with Shi Yanglin's opinions, he did not continue to argue, because what he had to do today was to express their opinions on behalf of the generals of the field troops of the vast southern lower army. As long as Zhao Dongyun knew these opinions, there was no need to argue directly with Shi Yanglin. What, that's not his task.

However, Cao Kui stopped talking, and Cheng Biguang, the naval director beside him, opened his mouth with a difficult face.