Chapter 410 Crossing the River

As a city along the Yangtze River, Jinling is divided into the north bank and the south bank of the Yangtze River, but the urban area on the south bank is the main part of Jinling, and the importance of the north bank is much weaker.

Previously, Duan Qirui continued to stick to the northern coastal urban area, mainly in order to nail a nail the northern coastal area. As a bridgehead, on the one hand, it attracted and contained the main force of the Feng army, and on the other hand, it was also a good starting position for the future counterattack on the Northern Expedition.

But now that the fourth army of the Feng army has reached the periphery of Jinling, and if a large number of troops are invested in the north coast area, it will not be worth the loss.

So, Duan Qirui decisively withdrew the Fourth Division located on the north bank and the Fourth Division of Liangjiang.

is very different from the Feng army wanting to overcome the difficulties of the Yangtze River. Duan Qirui raided a large number of ships on both sides of the Yangtze River before the war. In addition, their artillery troops were deployed on the south bank. They did not need to carry heavy artillery across the river. They only needed to transport combat soldiers across the river to successfully complete the retreat, so even if Without a pontoon bridge, it is easy to withdraw the fighters from the north coast.

Of course, in this process, it is inevitable to sacrifice part of the broken troops. Naturally, the sacrificed troops cannot be the main force of the Sixth Brigade of the Fourth Division, but the provincial army of the First Division of Liangjiang.

Speaking of which, the first division of the two rivers is also quite unlucky. Since the battle with the Feng army, it has always served as a broken rear unit. When it was in Jiangbei, it was disabled because it served as a broken rear unit. Now, it has been sacrificed again. Its second brigade has been completely annihilated by the third division of the Feng army because of the break.

The first division of the two rivers was first formed by a large number of southern federations after Duan Qirui went south to Jiangsu. After the First World War, both brigades were completely disabled, and the remnants retreated to Jinling after the Jiangbei Campaign. In order to restore the establishment of the first division of the two rivers, Duan Qirui transferred the Jiangbei mixed brigade, which was also suffered a lot, into the first division of the two rivers, which should be the first brigade of the first division of the two rivers. In addition, the second brigade was built on the basis of recruiting new soldiers and the first mixed brigade of the Jiangxi Army.

In this way, the establishment of the First Division of Liangjiang was restored. After the defeat of the Jiangbei Campaign last year, Duan Qirui vigorously rectified the military system and almost abolished the numbers of all miscellaneous troops. The Jiangxi Army, Zhejiang Army and so on were all abolished and unified into the Liangjiang Army. Therefore, not only the first division was rebuilt, but also the second division of the two rivers was also rebuilt at the same time. The second division of the two rivers has successively accepted the remnants of the first mixed brigade of Zhejiang and the second mixed brigade of Zhejiang, plus the recruited recruits for reconstruction. Previously, they were stationed in Lishui, and the Anhui army went north to reinforce Jinling after crossing the river. At present, it is supplemented with the fourth division. Brigades fight together.

Although he lost a whole brigade in the process of retreating from the north coast, Duan Qirui didn't care about this. In his heart, these Liangjiang provincial armies were originally wasted cannon fodder troops, which were sacrificed at the critical moment. As long as the main force of the Fourth Division did not lose, he still had the confidence to continue to fight with the Feng army. .

Duan Qirui took the initiative to withdraw from the north shore of Jinling, which is equivalent to taking the initiative to cede the north shore area of Jinling to the Feng army, which also let the Feng army pull out the last nail of the Anhui army in northern Jiangsu. Next, the Feng army can focus all its energy on how to conquer Jinling.

"Now the 14th Division has entered the outer area of Jinling and has the ability to meet the third division to cross the river in the west area of Jinling!" Jingshi Jurentang, Shi Yanglin soon proposed the latest round of battle plan to Zhao Dongyun.

That is to take over Jiang with the third division, and then launch a comprehensive offensive against Jinling.

"Will it be too difficult to cross the river directly to the west of Jinling?" Zhao Dongyun still had concerns about this: "I remember that there are several gunboats of the Anhui army in Jinling. If they are bombarded by enemy gunboats when crossing the river, how can they ensure the safety of the crossing force?"

Shi Yanglin said: "According to the information of our intelligence office, in the past two days, many Anhui gunboats moored in Jinling have reinforced Shanghai along the south of the Yangtze River. At present, there are only two or three gunboats in this area. At that time, only need our field artillery to cover enough. Even if the enemy's gunboats have the courage to stop them, but Our artillery is also confident to intercept them!"

After thinking about it, Zhao Dongyun didn't say anything, indicating his default.

In the direction of Jinling, the artillery strength of the Feng army is not weak. The first heavy artillery battalion is deployed in the direction of Jinling. In addition, there are 75mm field guns of the 3rd Division, 14th Division and 4th Mixed Brigade. These guns may be nothing for thick-skinned large tonnage warships, but for those with only a few hundred tons The power of the water gunship is still acceptable.

Those gunships are generally equipped with 100 mm or 120 mm naval guns, as well as some three-inch naval guns. Although the range and speed of naval guns are good due to the field guns of the same era, the number of field guns of the Feng army is enough.

On the front line of Jinling, the Feng army can gather about 100 75mm guns, including 16 100mm field cannons. If the gunboats of the Anhui army on the opposite side come to stop it, it will only be more than 10 or 20 guns. One-on-one can't beat you. Can't I beat you by ten or one? .

As for the other field guns of the Anhui army, they are basically deployed in the east of Jinling. It is impossible to venture to deploy to the west of Jinling near the front line. If they take the risk of deploying forward, the Feng army will not cross the river first. The 14th Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade will attack directly forward and destroy these artillery positions first. Say.

After thinking about it for a while, Zhao Dongyun still signed his name on this battle plan. Seeing that Zhao Dongyun signed his name, Shi Yanglin was also relieved.

Although Zhao Dongyun rarely refutes the various combat plans proposed by the Operations Department, he sometimes refutes them, and once it is refuted, it represents the work mistakes of the Operations Office, which is very unfavorable to Shi Yanglin.

The combat department has a special status, and Shi Yanglin has also been under great pressure. The inferior and powerful ones are stared by many generals, especially those major generals who peep at the position of the director of the combat department. They are eager for Shi Yanglin to make mistakes and then take over this position with great future.

After Zhao Dongyun approved the river crossing plan of the Third Division, the Operations Department issued relevant operational instructions!

After Xu Bangjie on the north shore of Jinling received the battle order, although he was a little worried about it, he did not dare to say that he directly violated the order of the battle department.

The order of the Operations Department of the Commander's Department is the highest order of the army. Each order issued can be said to represent Zhao Dongyun's direct order.

However, since he wants to cross the river, he has to communicate with Meng Enyuan, who is on the south bank. After all, the crossing of the river of the third division still needs to be vigorously answered by the 14th division.

On October 16, eight days after the Fourth Army officially crossed the river, the 14th Division began to take over the third division to cross the river in the Yangtze River section west of Jinling.

is different from the difficulties of crossing the river in Hezhou and Dangtu. Because the crossing of the river of the third division does not carry artillery and other heavy weapons and equipment that must be carried by pontoon bridges, anyway, those artillery deployed on the north bank can also shell Jinling, so the light crossing of the river of the third division mainly relies on ship transportation, and what is needed after crossing the river There is also a temporary supply of ammunition for the Fourth Army.

As for the construction of the pontoon bridge, I'm afraid we have to wait until Jinling is taken.

When he realized that the third division of the Feng army opposite was going to cross the river, Duan Qirui immediately ordered the troops to launch a counterattack against the Feng army west of Jinling, and also asked the three shallow-water gunboats stationed in Jinling to shell and intercept them.

The Feng army was also well prepared for the Anhui army's counterattack and sent gunboats to intercept. The 14th Division had already set up a strong defense line to resist the Anhui army's counterattack. In addition, the Feng army's more than ten 100mm cannons and a large number of 75mm shells also began to concentrate on the three gunboats. Strike and stop the three gunboats from going up the river.

The Yangtze River is so big. Although the three gunboats are small in tonnage, they are at least dozens of meters long and wide. They can't move at all in the narrow Yangtze River. With the dense shells falling, they can't effectively avoid them at all, although the shells fired by the Feng army are not very powerful for warships. But the key is that these three gunboats are not big, and their protection capabilities are also very limited.

As soon as it ventured up a few kilometers, the first gunboat had been hit by more than a dozen shells. Although it would not be sunk or something, the superstructure was also scarred, and more importantly, the sailors were killed and injured.

The Anhui naval officers who led the team saw a bad opportunity and immediately led the small fleet back.

After repelling the attack of the Anhui artillery ships, the Third Division can cross the river without danger.

With the transportation of various ships back and forth, more than 10,000 combatants of the Third Division finally continued to arrive at the south bank of the Yangtze River and successfully merged with the 14th Division.

The reason why crossing the river so smoothly is still related to the fact that the Third Division did not carry artillery, cavalry and a large number of vehicles to cross the river. They just transported infantry and other combatants across the river easily, which naturally reduced the difficulty of crossing the river.

The total number of the third division is 16,000. In fact, only about 10,000 people have crossed the river. Most of the artillery, cavalry, engineering, heavyweight and other troops are actually still on the north shore.

However, most of the 10,000 people crossing the river are front-line fighters such as infantry, so after receiving reinforcements from the Third Division, the number of front-line fighters of the Feng army on the south bank of the Yangtze River is still considerable.

As soon as the third division crossed the river, the Feng army began to officially launch a large-scale attack on Jinling.

They intend to go south to Jinling, a political and military town, thus laying the foundation for the success of the whole Jiangnan strategy.

However, the Feng army was dedicated to attack, and the Anhui army would not foolishly wait for the Feng army to come to kill and surrender. Duan Qirui took the 4th Division as the main force, and then pulled up the provincial army troops of the Anhui army such as the 1st Division of Liangjiang, and fought with the 3rd Division, 14th Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Feng Army.

And such a large-scale battle with a total number of troops of more than 100,000 people will naturally not end in a day or two if there is no miracle. They will compete around a series of peripheral tactical points in Jinling. For the Feng army, as long as these peripheral tactical points are taken first, and finally It can officially attack Jinling City.

Although these peripheral battles are also very fierce, they last for a long time and are mostly small-scale battles. On the surface, it seems that the battle between the two armies of Feng and Anhui in Jinling has fallen into a stalemate stage.

Coincidentally, the direction of Jinling is the same, and the direction of Anqing, Wuhu and Dangtu is the same. Although the fighting between the Feng and Anhui armies is still continuing, it has generally calmed down. What broke out is a small but very fierce battle. There is no large-scale roundabout attack as before, and even annihilation. The situation of an enemy division appeared.

This situation has tended to be a war of attrition, which means that the morale and organization of both sides are better, and that the logistics supply of both sides is better than that of both sides has more military expenditure.

Therefore, the front line fell into such a war of attrition. When the overall situation was relatively calm, the logistics departments of the Feng and Anhui armies were extremely busy, especially the Feng army with thousands of kilometers of supply lines. In order to maintain the combat needs of the front line troops, there were almost hundreds of thousands of people from Tangshan to Jinling front line. Busy, hand-handed, and transported ammunition from the north to the southern front line little by little, which is undoubtedly a great pressure for Hong Putao, the chief of the munitions department.