Chapter 428 Attack on Shanghai

Wang Zhanyuan led his army eastward into northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu. Strategically, it was very bad news for the Feng Army, especially the Second Army, but this did not affect the Second Army's offensive against Shanghai.

After all, it will take at least half a month for Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division to go to Shanghai. In this short time, what the Feng army needs to face is only the Fourth and Ninth Division of Liangjiang of the Anhui Army.

When the Second Army launched a large-scale offensive against Shanghai, the Fourth Division of Liangjiang could not resist at all. The 9th Division, which Duan Qirui transferred to reinforce from Suzhou, could still arrive in Shanghai, and the Fourth Division of Liangjiang was already defeated from Shanghai.

"Three days, they didn't hold it for three days. What do they eat? More than 10,000 people, even if they stand still and let the opposite Feng army cut, it will have to be killed for a day!" Duan Qirui was quite dissatisfied with the retreat of the Fourth Division of Liangjiang, but what can he do?

It is not unusual that the combat effectiveness of the Liangjiang Army is far inferior to that of the main force of the Fourth Division. Everyone knows that the Fourth Division of the two rivers has at least been guarding Wusong Fort and Shanghai for a total of five days in the face of the absolute superior forces of the Second Army of the Feng Army. This result is for a low combat effectiveness of the Liangjiang Army. It's not bad for the team.

In addition, there is another funny thing, that is, although the Second Army of the Feng Army and the Fourth Division of the Anhui Army fought for five days, the total number of casualties on both sides did not exceed 1,000.

The main reason is that every time the Feng army launched an attack, before it began to fight, the second division of the two rivers of the Anhui army opposite retreated, which was completely different from the situation on the front lines of Dangtu and Jinling. This did not fight much, and naturally many people would be killed or injured.

So after the withdrawal of the fourth division of Liangjiang from Shanghai, they can proudly declare that their main force is intact.

However, after the withdrawal of Shanghai by the Fourth Division of Liangjiang led to the occupation of Shanghai (Huajie) by the Feng army, the impact was huge. First of mentioning the economic and political impact of the city, the loss of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and ports in Shanghai made it extremely difficult for the Anhui army to obtain ammunition supplies in the future. .

The capture of Shanghai has also become the first most influential city since the Feng army launched the Battle of Crossing the River.

After learning that the front-line troops captured Shanghai, Zhao Dongyun's face finally got better after many days of gloomy. At the meeting held that afternoon, he rarely made a few jokes with Zhao E and other subordinates.

With the capture of Shanghai, the Second Army of the Feng Army continued to advance westward, targeting Suzhou, Jiaxing and other cities respectively, further expanding the strategic depth of the Second Army in Shanghai to resist the Ninth Division of Liangjiang from Suzhou and the 7th Division of Wang Zhanyuan, which had not yet arrived.

After the Second Army of the Feng Army completely captured Shanghai, the supply problem of the Second Army of the Feng Army, which had plagued for many days, was also solved. The Soviet Military Supply Department and the Navy jointly organized a large number of supply transportation directly to Shanghai, so that a large number of supplies, especially extremely important ammunition, arrived smoothly to the Second Army of the Feng Army.

Using the convenience of maritime supply, in fact, the Second Army of the Feng army obtained the most favorable supply conditions among many Feng troops in the south of the Yangtze River.

At the same time, the capture of Shanghai also means that it controlled the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, the second largest arsenal in China. When the Fourth Division of Liangjiang withdrew from Shanghai, it was in a hurry and had no time at all, or there was no intention to destroy this extremely important arsenal, so that the Feng army fully accepted it. Arsenal.

The arsenal is directly controlled by the Feng army, which means that the Feng army has the first state-controlled arsenal with complete military production capacity, further reducing the direct influence of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory on the Feng army.

Fengjun just accepted the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and Huatong Industrial Bank, a Soviet state-owned holding bank, announced that it would take full control of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and become the second arsenal controlled by the bank.

At present, in the Soviet state-controlled arsenal, the Middle East Industrial and Commercial Bank controls the Shenyang Arsenal, and Huatong Industrial Bank controls the Baoding Arsenal. Now the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is also accepted by Huatong Industrial Bank and becomes the third state-controlled arsenal.

As for Fuyuan Machinery Factory, this large arsenal with a total output of more than the sum of the above three arsenals has nothing to do with state-owned holdings. It is a very simple private enterprise.

Zhao Dongyun vigorously developed and supported state-controlled arsenals, not only to supply military needs, but also to reduce the impact of Fuyuan Machinery Factory on the Feng army.

This influence is not to say that Fuyuan Machinery Factory is afraid of exerting influence on Fengjun in turn, but that Fengjun needs to avoid the situation that there is only one weapon supplier in China.

The defense industry, like other industries, also needs competition. In the past, Fengjun's military orders were directly handed over to Fuyuan Machinery Factory, but now there is a mode of bidding and procurement.

Although at present, the importance of Fuyuan Machinery Factory to Fengjun cannot be shaken, over time, with the growth of a series of arsenals such as Baoding, Shenyang and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, it is bound to grab orders with Fuyuan Machinery Factory.

In order to keep the order, Fuyuan Machinery Factory will spend efforts to improve technology to develop new products and reduce production costs, which is extremely important for the subsequent development of national defense in China.

Because the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau did not suffer much damage, and even when Fengjun entered Shanghai, the arsenal was still in normal production, so it could continue production without too many changes to supply all kinds of ammunition for Fengjun.

Of course, in order to further improve the technical and management capabilities of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, the owner of Huatong Industrial Bank will definitely change the management of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and send technicians to the factory.

"At present, the situation of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is still relatively good, with the ability to produce 50 Type 88 rifles, 30,000 rounds of 77 bullets and 20,000 rounds of 65 bullets, and the ability to mass-produce 57 mm and 75 mm shells on a large scale. It has the technology of producing 75mm tube retreating field guns and mountaineers, but the scale is too small, and the monthly output is only a few.

The bureau also has the ability to imitate and produce 60mm and 80mm mortars, Madsen light machine guns, and MG01 heavy machine guns, but the output is small and has not yet formed a large-scale mass production!

It is worth noting that in addition to producing various weapons and ammunition used by the army, the bureau also has the ability to produce large-caliber naval guns and warships.

Zhao Dongping, the head of the Ordnance Department, who is responsible for ordnance procurement, reported to Zhao Dongyun: "Although the bureau mainly produces rifles and ammunition at present, its technical capabilities in all aspects are not weak. As long as we continue to invest a certain amount of funds to purchase equipment and train technicians, it has full potential to grow into Hefu Factory in the future. The same big factory!"

Zhao Dongping said this well. Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, like Fuyuan Machinery Factory, is a relatively comprehensive large arsenal, which can produce rifles, shells, bullets, army artillery, naval guns and even 1,000-ton gunships, covering more than Fuyuan. .

"According to the plan of Huatong Industrial Bank, after their removal of the management of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, they plan to divide the bureau into two, separate the army business and shipbuilding business, and establish Jiangnan Arsenal and Jiangnan Shipyard respectively!"

Zhao Dongyun also put down the plan sent by Huatong Industrial Bank at this time. Zhao Dongyun also supported the idea that Huatong Industrial Bank intends to split the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

The current Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is too large and involves too many businesses, resulting in excessive dispersion of technology and funds. Shipbuilding and gun manufacturing are not suitable for each other.

I think it's okay, but you should also pay attention to proportion when splitting, which should not affect the existing production capacity. As for the funds for expanding production and maintaining operations, I will ask Huatong Industrial Bank to give a certain amount of capital increase. Later, your Ordnance Department also added the factory during the bidding!"

Although Shenyang, Baoding and Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau are all state-owned assets, the operation of these enterprises is still mainly pure commercial operation. This military order also requires bidding. As for many ordnance of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau requiscated by Fengjun before bidding, compensation will be given in the future.

The addition of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has increased the number of professional arsenals under the control of the Soviet Union to four, which will undoubtedly greatly strengthen the proportion of weapons and ammunition of the subsequent Feng army.

Just when Huatong Industrial Bank planned to rectify the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and split the operation, the Feng army's offensive did not stop. Jinling was still in a stalemate, and the main breakthrough was in the Second Army of the Feng Army.

After the 10th Division advanced to the west, it once again defeated the Ninth Division of Liangjiang, and then captured Suzhou. The 15th Division also defeated the 4th Division of Liangjiang again in Jiaxing and successfully occupied Jiaxing. The 4th Division of Liangjiang, as in Shanghai, turned around and ran away without two shots, making Duan Qirui angry. Even Wang Zhanyuan, who was still on the road, was very dissatisfied. He still hoped that the Anhui army around Shanghai could slightly block the Second Army of the Feng Army for a few days.

However, after seeing that the Feng army took Jiaxing, Wang Zhanyuan, who had successfully marched into Hangzhou, suspended and began to rest. There was also be more important to make money and recruit on the spot to continue to increase his strength. He did not want to go straight to Jiaxing to fight with the Feng army in a tired state.

Wang Zhanyuan's caution has to be said to be rational. Since the landing of Shanghai, the Second Army of the Feng Army has established a series of complete strategic depths in Jiaxing after a continuous capture of Suzhou, which is not so easy to fight.

More importantly, Wang Zhanyuan himself had only more than 20,000 people, and he was not confident that he could win alone against the Second Army of the Feng Army. He also expected Duan Qirui to gather more Anhui troops to cooperate with him.

However, the performance of the Anhui army was much worse than he expected. The fiasco of the Fourth Division and the Ninth Division of Liangjiang made the Anhui army no longer have large-scale troops available in this area.

Duan Qirui had the intention to transfer the 10th Division of Liangjiang in the direction of Zhenjiang to the east, but the situation in Jinling was not good, so after thinking about it for half a day, he still did not transfer the 10th Division to Shanghai, but continued to let the 10th Division march towards Jinling to attack the first mixed brigade of the Feng army from behind. , to relieve the siege of Jinling.