Chapter 431 The Destruction of the Fourth Division Supplementary Brigade

The intensity of this war is even more fierce than when the Feng army launched a general attack on Jinling City. Because the troops are in a high-speed movement, the artillery forces on both sides play a relatively small role, and heavy machine guns and mortars play a greater role.

In the Battle of Jinling, the Feng army not only equipped and used mortars on a large scale, but also the Anhui army was mainly composed of the 4th Division and the 2nd Mixed Brigade. They were also equipped with a large number of mortars. Although the total amount is still not as much as the Feng army, the nearly 100 mortars equipped by the 4th Division still brought a lot to the Feng army. Killing.

After Feng military mortars bullied others for more than a year, they finally tasted the taste of forced artillery bombing, the most obvious of which is that the loss of heavy machine guns has risen rapidly.

From the perspective of logistics and the fierceness of artillery fire, the Tangshan Campaign last year was the highest level of the modern Chinese war. However, in terms of tactical application and the intensity of the battle, the Jinling Campaign of the two armies of Feng and Anhui is the highest military level in contemporary China.

From 1906 to 1907, although Beiyang had already raised troops and civil war broke out in the north and south, everyone had just fought at that time. Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even ordinary officers and senior generals had not fought. However, since the second half of 1907, it has been more than a year of civil war. After that, the troops of major warlords in China have gained extensive practical experience, especially the tactical level of senior generals has risen quite rapidly.

is also the third division, but the third division in 1908 and the third division in 1906 are two different things. Today's third division is not a problem to fight the two third divisions in 1906.

Now in the battle, both sides can be said to have played a real fire, and also played the highest level of tactics representing contemporary China.

It is also a competition for Jinling. If the battle between the Southern Federation and Wu Fengling and Wang Shizhen breaks out, the details of the battle are completely different.

When the Fourth Army of the Feng Army tried its main force to retain the Fourth Division of the Anhui Army, the 10th Division on the other side of Zhenjiang swept the Ninth and 10th Divisions of Zhenjiang with the same fierce offensive as ever.

The Wan army in the direction of Zhenjiang did not hold on longer than the Wan army in Shanghai, Suzhou, Changzhou and other places. A few days later, Ren Cungao of the 10th Division stepped into Zhenjiang, a city known as a military town in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, at this time, the 9th Division of the Feng Army, which has been fighting for a long time, has also reached a stage of exhaustion.

"If the Ninth Division continues to fight, I'm afraid there will be less than half of the remaining troops after the war!" Gu Lanyu, who was beside him, cautiously suggested to Meng Enyuan.

Although it is very important to keep the Fourth Division, it is obviously not cost-effective to compensate the 9th Division, the three main divisions of the Feng Army, in order to retain the Fourth Division.

The state of the 9th Division has not been good since crossing the river. It lost more than 2,000 people in the battle of crossing the river. Later, the 33rd Regiment was transferred to stay in Dangtu. As a result, there were only more than 1,000 people left. Moreover, the remnants of the 33rd Regiment are not in Jinling, but in the west of the second mixed brigade together with the remnants of the fourth mixed brigade.

The 9th Division participated in the Battle of Jinling actually only three infantry regiments. When it attacked Jinling before, it damaged nearly 1,000 people one after another.

Although the Ministry of Education has added more than 1,000 recruits to the Ninth Division in time, the gap between new recruits and veterans is too big.

When the Fourth Division launched a breakthrough battle, in fact, the state of the Ninth Division was already very bad, far from being compared with the peak.

The ninth division in such a state is actually very reluctant to block the full attack of the fourth division.

After thinking for a long time, Meng Enyuan said, "It seems difficult to keep a whole fourth division, but their supplementary brigade will stay anyway!"

The 6th and 7th Brigades of the 4th Division of the Anhui Army are attacking the 9th Division, while the supplementary brigade is blocking the attack of the 3rd Division on the right wing.

Meng Enyuan's words represent that, limited by the tension of troops, in order to avoid causing excessive damage to the 9th Division, he has given up the encirclement and annihilation plan of the entire 4th Division, and then narrowed it to a supplementary brigade that wants to annihilate the 4th Division.

"Order the Third Division to increase its attack and not let their supplementary brigades go. As for the 9th Division, let go of the 6th Brigade and the 7th Brigade pass!" After Meng Enyuan made a quick decision.

The 9th Division, which has been in a bitter battle on the front line, can finally withdraw a little and breathe slowly!

As soon as the Ninth Division withdrew, it means that the 4th Division finally opened a breakout on the southern line. Although this breakout is less than two kilometers wide, it is enough for the Anhui army's breakthrough troops.

The 6th and 7th Brigades of the Fourth Division rushed out of the encirclement without looking back, but when the supplementary brigade also wanted to take the opportunity to retreat.

The third division was chasing closely. At this time, the ninth division also launched a counterattack. The direction of the counterattack was not the fourth division and other Anhui provincial army units, but to the supplementary brigade.

In this way, the 3rd Division of the 9th Division of the Feng Army, which originally surrounded the 4th Division and other Anhui troops, was equivalent to gathering most of its troops to surround the supplementary brigade.

Although the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division is also the main force, it is only part of the 4th Division, with a total strength of only more than 7,000. In the face of the siege of several times the 3rd Division and the 9th Division, no matter how strong the supplementary brigade is, it cannot stop the fate of destruction.

When he learned that the supplementary brigade was entangled and surrounded, Duan Qirui already knew that this supplementary brigade was over!

He did not say that he would send troops back to rescue the supplementary brigade, because he knew that it was useless to do so, not only could it not be rescued, but it was also likely to trap the other two brigades of the Fourth Division.

As a military commander, he needs the determination of a strong man to break his wrist. In the past, Duan Qirui abandoned those Liangjiang provincial troops cruel enough, but now he abandons the supplementary brigade is also quickly and decisively.

He did not look back at all and directly took other troops of the Fourth Division and more than 10,000 escaped troops to Jurong and Lishui.

At this time, although Meng Enyuan had the intention to pursue, in order to completely annihilate the supplementary brigade and more than 10,000 other Liangjiang troops remaining in Jinling, he also had to watch Duan Qirui lead the army to escape.

Up to now, the Battle of Jinling has come to an end.

On the same day and the next day, although the supplementary brigade of the Fourth Division and more than 10,000 other troops of the Anhui Army desperately wanted to reopen the gap and break through the siege, they were still firmly blocked by the Feng army. On the third day, the 4th Division supplementary brigade, which suffered heavy losses and run out of ammunition, finally could not hold on.

First, a battalion began to collapse, then a regiment, and then the whole 4th Division supplementary brigade collapsed!

However, the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division also saved its face as the main force of the Anhui army, and did not surrender on a large scale until its final collapse.

After that, more than 10,000 other Anhui troops had already surrendered on a small scale yesterday, followed by the surrender of a regiment and a brigade.

The battle report of capturing Jinling, annihilating the supplementary brigade of the Fourth Division, and capturing nearly 20,000 enemy troops was soon sent to Jurentang of Beijing.

In the face of such a happy event, Zhao Dongyun is naturally in a good mood. Once he is in a good mood, the civilian generals of Fengjun naturally have many benefits.

The victory of the Battle of Jinling also means that the Jiangnan strategy, which has lasted for many months, has won more than half of the time. In the future, you only need to sweep the autumn wind to sweep the fallen leaves to control the whole south of the Yangtze River. After controlling the Yangtze River, it has a decisive advantage for the subsequent development of the Soviet system.

After winning Jiangnan, Zhao Dongyun will naturally not be stingy with the rewards of his meritorious literary ministers and generals, and his rewards are very generous.

The first is to reward a series of front-line generals such as Meng Enyuan and Gu Lanyu who have made contributions in front-line combat, but this award is not a military rank, but an honorary award for military merit medals and medals. Because the military rank is not promoted. Fengjun, like the old Beiyang era, has strict control over the military rank. Except for those nominal advisers, most of the other generals are strictly cooperating with positions and ranks. If you promote your generals to the rank, you have to find him a higher position, and At present, all senior general positions in the Feng army are staffed, and it is difficult to vacate such positions as military commanders, division commanders and brigade commanders without large-scale military expansion.

And this is also the reason why Zhao Dongyun implemented the military rank system at the beginning, in order to provide more military ranks for his generals. For example, when he first served as a division commander, he was a major general and a lieutenant general. When you make contributions, you can be promoted to a lieutenant general. When he first served as a military commander, he was a lieutenant general and a general. If you make a contribution, you can be promoted to a general to avoid the situation of no promotion.

Based on the difficulty of promotion, and now the division-level generals fighting in the south of the Yangtze River are generally high. The three main divisions are lieutenant generals. Yang Deming, commander of the 14th Division, and Cao Kuang, commander of the 15th Division, are major generals and lieutenant generals, but they have just become division commanders of these two divisions, especially Yang Deming's promotion speed has been very fast. If he is promoted quickly to a lieutenant general now, I'm afraid it will arouse the opposition of many senior generals, especially the generals from the old Wubei background.

Therefore, after this battle, Zhao Dongyun did not intend to promote the senior generals on the front line, and the rewards for senior generals were mainly medals and medals.

Zhao Dongyun immediately awarded the title of Meng Enyuanxun, Gu Lanyuxun, Lin Yongquanxun, and Ren Cungaoxun. Basically, the division commanders of these main divisions have been promoted to the first level.

At the same time, they were also awarded the White Lion Medal, among which Meng Enyuan was awarded the Three-Star White Lion Medal, which is the highest-level military merit medal currently awarded in the Feng army system. As for the higher-level Golden Dragon Medal, Zhao Dongyun does not intend to set this precedent at present.