Chapter 386 Thousand Sails Race

With the end of February and the arrival of March, the Feng army's cross-river battle plan has reached the final stage of preparation. The 9th Division and the 14th Division have secretly gone to Hezhou one after another. Meng Enyuan, who was transferred as the commander of the Fourth Army, also left Chaohu and led the headquarters of the Fourth Army, which had just been established, to go with the 9th Division. State.

In order to cover the actions of the Fourth Army, the various departments of the Feng army have launched a series of preliminary cover-up operations.

On March 2, the first division of the first army, which had been preparing for a long time, officially launched an attack on the face-to-face enemy of Anqing. Although the attack in the direction of Anqing was only a companion attack in the Feng army's river crossing battle plan, in order to attract enough attention from the Anhui army, the first division launched a very fierce offensive and participated in a regiment on the same day. And the attack on the Anhui army.

The First Division launched the first large-scale attack of the Feng army since this year, which naturally attracted the great attention of the Anhui army opposite!

In the Jinling Two Rivers Inspection Office, Duan Qirui and a large number of Anhui officers gathered together!

"Starting yesterday, the enemy's 1st Division has launched a large-scale offensive against Anqing. The enemy has put no less than 5,000 troops into the attack, and the sixth division is under great pressure!"

The Anhui army responsible for defending Anqing has two provincial armies of the Sixth Division and two brigades, with a total of about 20,000. Although the defensive strength of the Anhui army exceeds that of the attacking Feng army, there is a large gap in weapons and equipment between the two sides. Although the combat effectiveness of the first division brought by Lu Yongxiang is not as good as the three masters of the Feng army. The strength division, but after this year's supplementary rest, it is already full of personnel. In terms of personnel and equipment, the First Division has been the same as the three main forces of the Third Division, the Ninth Division and the Tenth Division. The combat experience is also quite rich, but it is not as good as the three main divisions in terms of training and morale.

Although the main force of the Anhui Army, that is, the Sixth Division of Liangjiang, is also the main force in the Anhui Army and the most capable provincial army in the Liangjiang Provincial Army, it is only a provincial army. In the face of the attack of the First Division of the old Beiyang Army, it is normal to be difficult.

However, the difficulties of the Sixth Division did not attract much attention from Duan Qirui!

"Although Anqing is more difficult, it is not a big problem to rely on the Sixth Division to defend Anqing, and the enemy's attack on Anqing is only a companion attack. Now we should pay attention to where is the enemy's main attack force crossing the river?" Duan Qirui suddenly grasped the core of the problem. The battle in the direction of Anqing was just a battle in this direction. He could also guess that the Feng army's attack on Anqing was to cover the real main attack force crossing the river.

Otherwise, the Feng army will not be a first division in Anqing, but two divisions, even three divisions and even more troops.

"Where is the enemy's Lin Yongquan's department now?" Compared with the war in Anqing, Duan Qirui was more concerned about Lin Yongquan's Ninth Division going there.

Because in today's situation, the direction of the Ninth Division is often the direction of Fengjun crossing the river!

"According to our intelligence, the 9th Division left Chaohu at the end of last month. The current movement is unknown. In addition, there is intelligence that an enemy left Chaohu for Wuhu. It was initially determined that there were tens of thousands of people. This division is most likely to be the ninth division of the enemy, but it may also be the fourth mixed formation of the enemy or It is the army of the First Division!"

Duan Qirui frowned after hearing this: "So, they may decide the direction of crossing the river in Wuhu?"

"This may be large. In addition, there is also intelligence that the enemy appears in the Hanshan area, and the scale is not small. Although we have not yet identified their numbers, it is very likely that the 14th Division of the enemy has been in the limelight recently. The headquarters has left Hanshan and may go to Wuhu in the southwest. In addition, we do not rule out the possibility that the enemy will land nearby in Dangtu!"

The generals of the Anhui army's speculation on the direction of Feng's crossing the river still has a relatively large accuracy.

Although limited by factors such as lack of intelligence, the generals of the Anhui army are still judged based on the situation in the south of the Yangtze River and a small amount of information about the Feng army. The main direction of crossing the Feng army cannot be in northern Jiangsu or Anqing, but on the front line of Wuhu, Tongling and Nanjing, and considering that Tongling is facing The number of Feng army is limited, and the first division launched a large-scale offensive in Anqing, so the possibility of Feng army crossing the river in the direction of Tongling is greatly reduced.

At present, it can be concluded that the Feng army's crossing force is within hundreds of kilometers from Anqing to Jinling. However, the problem is that the Anhui army cannot determine the specific location.

Because the terrain of this distance is not much different, and the difficulty of crossing the river is similar. Considering the recent frequent mobilization of the Feng army, the Feng army may be in Wuhu, or even in Dangtu, even in the west of Jinling.

In response to this situation, in addition to stationing heavy troops of the second mixed brigade in Wuhu, the Anhui army also sent a division in the direction of Dangtu, and also dispatched a brigade of the fourth division to the west to prepare for defense in the middle of Dangtu and Jinling.

As long as they find the Feng army crossing the river in any of the above places, these troops will quickly rush to the site of the Feng army crossing the river, strive to reach the river crossing area within a day or two at most, and drive the Feng army's previous river crossing troops off the Yangtze River before the Feng army successfully set up the pontoon bridge.

This cautious attitude of the Anhui army also made it impossible for Fengjun to smuggle across the river!

It's just that you can't cross the river secretly, but it doesn't mean that Fengjun can't cross the river, and it doesn't mean that Fengjun doesn't need to keep secrets about the location of crossing the river.

War, this is a virtual reality. Anyway, the Feng army is on the north bank of the Yangtze River. It is possible to cross the river here or there. This virtual possibility is enough to contain most of the energy of the Anhui army.

In order to cover the Fourth Army's crossing of the river in Hezhou, in addition to the large-scale accompanying attack launched by the First Division in Anqing, two days later, in the direction of Jinling, the main force of the Second Army of the Feng Army, that is, the Third Division, sent troops to attack the outer defense line of Jinling on a large scale, and before the large-scale attack by the infantry, Larger shelling operations have also been launched.

That doesn't matter. The next day, the troops of the 10th Division in the direction of Nantong launched a medium-sized river crossing with dozens of ships collected.

In just three or four days, large-scale wars broke out in various parts of the Yangtze River, especially the offensive of the Second Army in the direction of Jinling was quite fierce. At first glance, I thought that the Feng army was really going to cross the river here.

However, the Feng army's accompanying attack in the above aspects became more and more fierce. The generals of the Anhui army on the opposite side opened their eyes and stared at the direction of Wuhu and Dangtu. Recently, the Anhui army has sent a large number of riders in Wuhu, Dangtu, Hezhou and other places to closely monitor this section of more than 100 kilometers of the river.

At this time, both Duan Qirui and other Anhui generals knew that Fengjun's large-scale river crossing was coming!

In fact, it is true. On March 5, Taiping Prefecture and Prefecture, five or six kilometers away from the river, a large number of Feng troops were stationed and resting.

In a farmyard, the temporary headquarters of the Fourth Army was set up!

"When will the Fourth Independent Mortar Battalion arrive?" Meng Enyuan looked at the most detailed military map of the surrounding areas of the state that the Feng army could map and map, while asking his subordinates.

"The fourth independent mortar battalion has now arrived ten kilometers behind me. Together with the artillery battalion of the first mixed brigade, it is expected to arrive smoothly at noon tomorrow!"

Meng Enyuan nodded: "How are the two artillery regiments in the Third Independent Mortar Battalion?"

"At present, the 9th Artillery Regiment, the 14th Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Independent Mortar Battalion are ready to quickly maneuver to the predetermined position at any time!"

In order to ensure the secrecy, Meng Enyuan completely blocked the surrounding areas of Hezhou after arriving in Hezhou. At the same time, in order to avoid the vigilance of the enemy, he did not set up the artillery troops by the river in advance, but only found the scheduled position in advance. After the preparations for crossing the river, he quickly went to the reserved artillery position. , to provide artillery support for the troops crossing the river.

But now, the artillery and the troops of the 9th and 14th Division are still in Hezhou, five or six kilometers away from the river.

Because they still have to wait for the arrival of the fourth hybrid brigade, and more importantly, they have to build some small wooden boats and even bamboo rafes on the spot for the early river crossing.

In order to cross the river, the Fourth Army can be said to have spent a lot of painstaking efforts. It is far from collecting existing boats from the local area. It can only be used to take local materials and build small wooden boats or even bamboo rafes.

Anyway, this is just a river crossing, not a sea crossing battle, and there is no need for large ships, special landing ships, transport ships, etc. Any small wooden boats or even bamboo platoons can be used. As for the transportation of heavy weapons such as artillery, it can only wait for the large pontoon bridge to be set up before it can be transported across the river.

On March 6, the first mixed brigade also arrived in Hezhou. That night, Meng Enyuan once again issued a secret telegram to the commander-in-chief, saying that the Fourth Army was fully prepared to cross the river at any time.

On the evening, Zhao Dongyun held another military meeting of the command. More than two hours after the meeting, Zhao Dongyun signed his name on the river crossing plan and officially approved the Fourth Army to start the river crossing.

The next day, after receiving a reply from the commander-in-chief's approval plan, Meng Enyuan convened a military meeting above the brigade commander of the Fourth Army to discuss and determine the detailed river crossing plan.

After all, although the river crossing battle plan formulated by the Operations Department of the Commander's Department is very detailed, it is only a strategic plan. The real detailed river crossing battle plan with the state must be formulated by the Fourth Army itself.

In the afternoon of that day, the 9th Division of the Fourth Army convened all officers to hold an expanded military meeting. At the meeting, Lin Yongquan officially informed the officers of the 9th Division that the plan to cross the river had been officially launched, and the Ninth Division was the first batch of troops to cross the river.

In the afternoon of the same day, the ninth division rested in advance. At 11 p.m. that night, the ninth division began to eat in advance. At 12 p.m., the ninth division officially left the station and went to the riverside.

In order to avoid a gap between the Anhui army on the opposite side, the Ninth Division did not hold a torch to move forward, but relied on the previous detailed reconnaissance and the faint starlight to move forward. Although there was a premise for multiple reconnaissance, the detailed march route had been determined, but there was still a lot of chaos, so that the Ninth Division was in this short Wugong It took five or six hours to reach the riverside until dawn.

As the 9th Division arrived at the river, arrived with the army, and quickly launched 80mm and 120mm mortars and fired dense shells on the opposite bank, the soldiers also pushed bamboo platoons and wooden boats into the river, and then sat up and struggled to slide the river with wood pulp.

In the dawn sun, hundreds of bamboo rows and wooden boats shine brightly on the Yangtze River like waves!