Chapter 456 Final Offensive

In Zhili Shijiazhuang, countless soldiers lined up in neat queues. They walked through the street, entered the station, and then boarded the long-awaited train, holding guns, looking excited or nervous or gloomyly crowded in the carriage, some talking in a low voice, and some holding guns and closing their eyes.

When the soldiers boarded the car, Shi Yanglin, the first division commander of the 20th Division, also boarded the first-class carriage accompanied by a group of subordinate officers.

Shiyanglin is also well-known in the Feng army. He has been the director of the combat department for more than a year, leading the combat staff of the combat office to plan many battles in Jiangbei, Jiangnan and so on. Many generals in the Feng army have received orders from the combat office signed with Shi Yanglin's name.

However, although he is famous, the organization of the combat office is originally low and powerful. Shiyanglin has always been just a major general. After the Jiangnan Campaign, Zhao Dongyun rewarded the generals and awarded Shi Yanglin the rank of major general and lieutenant general. After two battles in Jiujiang and Nanchang, Jiangxi, he was awarded four more medals. .

Seeing that China is about to unify, Shi Yanglin is not willing to stay in the battlefield all the time. He urgently wants to take a real position in the field army and write the most direct combat achievements for his resume. Therefore, in early 1909, he hinted to Zhao Dongyun several times that he wanted to work on the front line.

Zhao Dongyun still valued Shi Yanglin. Although he still wants to continue to stay in the combat office to make suggestions for himself, he can't keep him in the combat office all the time, which is not good for Shi Yanglin's subsequent growth. He has not been the division commander of the first division. It is difficult for Shi Yanglin to be promoted to the army. There will be no chance to command the army all the way.

In addition, the 20th Division was newly built at that time, so he appointed Shi Yanglin as the division commander of the 20th Division.

The vacated chief of the combat department has attracted countless people's competition. A large number of young generals and middle generals in the military think are holding this position. Even many generals at the rank of middle-level generals want to have the addiction of commanding the whole army, but most of them are not related to this position. Because this position has very high requirements for quality, generals who are not from a professional background may be able to lead a division to fight or even lead an army to fight, but it is absolutely impossible to coordinate the whole army in modern warfare.

The number of people who are qualified for this position is actually quite limited. In terms of origin, they are either from the Berlin Military Academy in Germany or in the training class. Except for these two people, no one else is qualified to participate in the competition. In terms of seniority, the person must have rich experience, which is not only the experience of leading troops, but also the experience of the chief officer of the field troops, as well as rich staff experience.

In terms of rank, it can't be too high. It can only be the two levels of major general or general.

And this person can't be too famous, otherwise a large number of generals will be unconvinced.

In fact, there are very few people in the whole Feng army who are qualified to compete for this position. He is currently the commander of the 17th Brigade and has experience in Germany. Su Kangyu, including the Berlin Military Academy; Li Xiang, the current commander of the 30th Brigade, and Pan Luanqing, the commander of the 17th Brigade; he used to be the 20th Brigade. The commander of the Ninth Brigade,

Xue Yiping, the current chief of staff of the Fourth Army, is a few people.

These people have several very special characteristics, that is, they have a high starting point and have transferred to a lot of positions. Their promotion is often very fast. They don't need to be promoted at all, especially majors and lieutenant colonels at one level, especially majors and lieutenant colonels. They often transition to one position. After a month, they were transferred, and frequent transfers made their promotion very fast.

Su Kangyun is a typical example,

Su Kangyun, Yuan Shikai was sent to study in Germany. After returning to China, he entered the Feng army. Soon after, he entered the training class. He was one of the most direct trainees in the Feng army. His promotion journey was unmatched by ordinary generals. After returning to China, he served as a fourth-class staff officer in the combat office and was awarded the rank of captain. Later, he entered the training class. After graduation, he was awarded the rank of major and served as the battalion commander of the field force. However, in a few months, he was transferred back to the combat office as a second-class staff officer and promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Later, he was promoted to the Fifth Section Chief of the Operations Department and was promoted to colonel. Not long after his promotion, he was transferred to the Field Force as the head of the Field Force. A few months later, the man was transferred to the 10th Division as the Chief of Staff.

In 1908, he crossed the threshold that most school officers could not cross, was successfully promoted to major general, and then transferred to the commander of the 27th Brigade of the 14th Division.

Soon, the man was transferred to the Fifth Army as Chief of Staff, and the Fifth Army was a surrendered force. Zhang Guotai, the commander, was quite limited. In order to avoid Zhao Dongyun's suspicion, Zhang Guotai often gave up his military power and largely handed over his command to the military chief of staff sent by the command department, that is, Su Kangyun, in this position. Su Kangyun actually commanded the whole Fifth Army in the name of the military chief of staff, which was the most fully trained for him.

After considering many factors, Zhao Dongyun officially appointed Su Kangyun as the director of the Operations Department of the General Staff of the Command and promoted him to the rank of Major General of the Army.

Su Kangyun was promoted, and naturally he rushed back to Beijing to serve, while several other people who thought they were qualified to compete were naturally sad.

The waves caused by Shi Yanglin's departure from the combat office as the commander of the 20th Division naturally had nothing to do with Shi Yanglin himself. After he became the commander of the 20th Division, he took great pains to build the 20th Division into the main force.

When Zhao Dongyun formed the 20th Division, he had the idea of building a main division. Due to the success of the 14th Division and the 15th Division, Zhao Dongyun saw that the cost and energy required to form a new main division were far more labor-saving than making a surrendered army and second-rate army into the main force.

Therefore, when the 20th Division was formed, he imitated the previous example of the 14th Division and the 15th Division. At the beginning, Zhao Dongyun assigned a large number of advanced weapons to this force, making 88 rifles, 75mm field guns imported from Germany, 75 mm mountain cannons, and 08. Heavy machine guns, Type 09 light machine guns, improved new-caliber mortars imported from Germany to shoot balloons, as well as various pistols and grenades.

and equipped with the newly produced Mauser 7.9*57IS bullet of Baoding Arsenal as the bullet of the Type 08 heavy machine gun and the Type 09 light machine gun.

In the past, a large number of rifles and machine guns used in the Feng army were uniformly using Mauser's seven or nine round round round bullets. However, since the introduction of the Spencer heavy machine gun, that is, the famous MG08 heavy machine gun, Fuyuan Machinery Factory began to imitate it according to the patent authorization, and the imitation Spindaw machine gun was named ' 1908 heavy machine gun' is called 'Blessing 08 heavy machine gun', or directly referred to as '08 heavy machine gun'

The difference between this gun and the Type 01 heavy machine gun is that it was originally designed with the standard 79-point bullet in the German army, that is, the Mauser 7.92*57IS rifle bullet. When the gun was introduced, in order to be compatible with a large number of 79 round round bullets in China, the German factory was required to modify some details of the design. The machine gun introduced can use seven-nine-point bullets and is also compatible with seven-nine round bullets.

The 07 light machine gun, that is, the improved version of the Madsen light machine gun, is not the main improvement in performance, but to make the gun compatible with firing seven or nine pointed bullets.

In fact, Tangshan Industrial Company is also starting to improve the Type 88 rifle that is being produced in large quantities. The main emulation object is the Mauser 98K rifle, improving the magazine mechanism and gunbore to be able to fire seven or nine pointed bullets, hoping to use the improved rifle and Jiangnan Arsenal and other domestic His Arsenal competes for the military's orders for the next generation of rifles.

It is equipped with the Type 08 heavy machine gun and the Type 07 light machine gun. In terms of equipment, the 20th Division of the improved mortar has actually surpassed other Feng army troops. You should know that the third division, one of the three main divisions of the Feng army, is still using the old 01 heavy machine gun.

Not only is the equipment advanced and fully equipped, but the soldiers are also recruited from Shandong and Henan provinces according to the standards of the old Beiyang era.

The standard of recruitment has high requirements for physical height and physique. At the same time, it does not accept people with no origin such as exiles and soldiers. If you want to become a soldier, you have to ask the signatures of village head and Zhuang Lao for protection.

The gap between these newly recruited soldiers and the soldiers directly selected from the surrender army is very large, and the plasticity is relatively strong. Often these soldiers are used to prepare new main divisions or to supplement the main forces such as the Third Division.

In terms of officers, in addition to selecting experienced officers from major troops, the outstanding graduates who graduated from Fengtian Military Academy this year are also given priority to the 20th Division.

Such a force that has transferred a large number of elite personnel and spent a lot of money to form is naturally highly valued by Zhao Dongyun.

Shi Yanglin's ability to serve as the division commander of this team is inseparable from the support of Zhao Dongyun.

Sitting in the first-class carriage and looking at the subordinates coming and going outside the window, I couldn't help but remember what Zhao Dongyun said to himself a few days ago before he left Beijing.

"This time I went to Jin Province, and I thought about it in advance!"

Shi Yanglin is very clear that the meaning of what Zhao Dongyun said to him is that he is not eager to win. Now Fengjun is very optimistic about the war in Shanxi and Hubei. As long as he fights steadily, he can successfully win. There is no need to use any strange tricks to pursue victory as before.

Although Shi Yanglin knew that he wanted to fight steadily, he still hoped that he could win a beautiful battle and win a prestigious reputation with Gu Lanyu and Yang Deming.

Today, there are many generals in the Feng army. There are many brigade commanders above the rank of major generals, mixed brigade commanders, military chiefs of staff, and division commanders. There are nearly 100 senior generals serving in the field troops. Among them, there are many generals who have won battles, but they are highly sought after within the Feng army and are highly valued by Zhao Dongyun. In view, there are only a handful of generals who focus on training, and Gu Lanyu is only one of them. Ren Cung-gao, Yang Deming, Wu Peifu and a few others can be counted as half.

In this battle, Shi Yanglin also wanted to gain his prestige, so he begged Gu Lanyu to fight and won the first opportunity of the 20th Division to advance.

While Shiyanglin was thinking, a major walked in his carriage and said, "Xushuai, the brothers of the 77th Regiment and the Artillery Regiment are ready to board the car!"