Lei Hu was born in cavalry, and there were two cavalry divisions participating in the operation to exterminate the Huai Army. China has not had a decent cavalry unit for a long time, and Weser knows very little about it, and the artificial insemination of horses is basically from an article on the Internet that resembles a long joke, and the cuirassiers are reading some articles about the Napoleonic era.

At first, the cavalry division of the Liberation Army was dragoons, and the troops relied on war horses to maneuver, and the main force basically dismounted to fight during the battle. The final establishment of the cavalry division was obtained by the "visiting group" sent by the Liberation Army to the French Military Academy. The French Napoleonic cavalry division usually consisted of 2 to 3 brigades, usually under two regiments, each with 3 to 4 squadrons, and a cavalry company below.

Theoretically, there are 800 to 1,200 cavalry regiments, but in wartime the number decreases, generally around 300 to 600; The number of squadrons varied from 75 to 250 men, for example, in 1809 there were 209 squadrons, with an average of 139 men per squadron

Therefore, cavalry divisions are generally 1 or 2,000 men, but there are special circumstances, for example, in 1812 and 1813, the squadrons under the command of some regiments rose to 6 or even 8 squadrons; General Walter's Guards Cavalry Division had four brigades under its command, plus the division's artillery, numbering as many as 5,900 men; Many of the cavalry divisions of the Russian Army were close to 3,000 to 5,000 men.

In addition, there are differences between different types of cavalry, for example, cuirassier brigades generally have a cuirassier regiment.

The Guangfu Army entrusted the open-hearth steelmaking technology and the high-quality ore of the Qiongzhou Shilu Iron Mine, and the steel quality was good. After the stamping technique, one of the standard equipment of all cavalry was armor made of leather and multiple layers of thin steel plates. The whole armor in front of the body has become a "steel bra" that only protects the front chest.

In order to produce enough good horses, the entire grassroots units of the new government have gone into search of huge mares. But the Chinese cavalry tradition has been in decline for too long, and even though the new government has spent a lot of effort, it has only managed to scrape together more than 5,000 decent military horses. In fact, the total number is not only that, those mares are breeding in the horse farm, and the stallions are all in battle. This gender discrimination also led to a shortage of horses on the front lines.

It wasn't until the Hunan army completely defeated the infantry unit of the Twist Army that Lei Hu knew that the Hunan army had run to the area of Chenzhou. On the one hand, he ordered the cavalry troops to set off first to intercept the return of the Hunan army, and Lei Hu hurriedly sent a report to the Military Commission, reporting his plan to annihilate the Hunan army in Henan as much as possible.

The telegram was sent at the highest level, and a call back was received the same day. The Central Military Commission agreed to Lei Hu's plan and temporarily subordinated the Anhui Military Region to the Xuzhou Military Region.

Nanjing is the capital, and according to tradition, Jiangsu should have become a province under the direct administration, but the division of military regions cannot be done in this way, so the Xuzhou Military Region was created as a combat unit. In fact, Jiangsu was divided into two, and southern Jiangsu became a garrison military region with Nanjing as the center. Northern Jiangsu became independent into the Xuzhou Military Region. Fortunately, the Anhui Military Region was originally part of the Huaihe Defense Line Command, and it was only separated after the capture of Xuzhou, and now it is not a big problem that it has returned to the command of the Xuzhou Military Region of Lei Hu.

There were a total of ten corps in the two military regions, five on one side. When the Huai army was annihilated, two armies were sent out, and now that the Huai army was solved, the enemy had no possibility of counterattacking, and the four armies of Huaibei poured out of the nest and rushed straight towards Zeng Guofan's troops.

However, when the large army arrived at Chenzhou, it was empty, and Zeng Guofan's Hunan army was extremely alert, and they did not stop in Chenzhou at all, and on the third day of victory, they set up camp and fled north. Originally, when the Hunan army marched into Chenzhou, it was a rapid march, without any baggage, and at this time, it was a rapid march to rush back, and it ran 120 miles in two days. When the cavalry division discovered Zeng Guofan's large army on the third day, Zeng Guofan simply fled to the area north of Xuchang.

Now the situation becomes very interesting, if the Guangfu army continues to pursue, it will probably be able to catch up with Zeng Guofan's troops when he flees to Zheng County or Kaifeng. At this time, the Yellow River had been diverted for ten years, and the Yellow River originally went south from Kaifeng to Xuzhou. Now the Yellow River continues eastward from Kaifeng to Shandong. If Li Hongzhang really wanted to surrender and the Guangfu Army would solve the Hunan army's troops in the Kaifeng area, then the original commander of the Huaihe defense line, Lei Hu, would become the commander of the Yellow River defense line.

Lei Hu felt that the matter was huge, and immediately sent a report to the Military Commission about the matter. The Military Commission didn't expect the battle situation to change so drastically, and for a while, he felt that he couldn't answer immediately.

"With the Yellow River as the boundary, four-fifths of Henan is in our hands!" Weser said, looking at the map. Henan is a large province with vast land and a large population. Moreover, in the past few years, it has been ravaged by war, and it will take a year and a half to settle down such a large piece of territory. Occupying Henan, naturally it is impossible to let go of the southern part of Shandong.

The original war plan was not so radical, at that time, the wishful thinking of the Guangfu Army was to solve Huaibei, occupy the southern part of Henan, and then make preparations for a few months, imitate the route of the British in the War of the Two Crows, enter the Bohai Sea with the navy, occupy Tianjin, and fight the army to Dezhou and coerce Beijing. If the operational plan for such a focused offensive is changed to a flat plan, the initial disposition of troops will be completely wrong.

Only six armies and 100,000 men are needed for the key offensive, and now only to solve the Henan problem will require six armies. Together with the troops attacking the southern part of Shandong, the total strength was 12 armies and 200,000 men. The consumption of 200,000 people is not simply multiplied by two, but according to everyone's experience, the logistical pressure must be multiplied by at least three.

Hu Chenghe, with a black old face, said to Wei Ze very unhappily: "Governor, can we not let the State Council get involved this time?" You just give an order and transfer the budget directly. ”

Wei Ze actually has this impulse, which can turn the original law and order war into a war of annihilation, and from another point of view, it can also greatly save the war budget. It's just that the war of the Northern Expedition has not been arranged so much this year, and the military expenditure in the next few years will not be less, but it will just go out early and late.

Resisting a strong impulse, Wei Ze patiently said to Hu Chenghe: "I set this rule, and you must abide by this rule." I will convene a meeting to discuss this issue, and the Military Commission will do what it needs to do now. I think it's imperative to mobilize troops from other provinces as soon as possible. ”

Hu Chenghe sighed, he actually knew that with Wei Ze's persuasiveness, he really had to "convince comrades", and he would definitely be able to convince him. The most unhappy thing for him is that Wei Ze must go through this cutscene. It's just that Wei Ze's attitude is firm, and Hu Chenghe can't have to go against it, he said: "Veterans are generally discharged from the army in August, and the official discharge is in September." We can order that after this postponement of discharge, we will immediately have enough troops. The troops of each province are under the direct command of the provincial military districts and move further north, and the new troops are responsible for the defense of the provinces, but there are only 200,000 people, and the number of retired troops can just make up for this shortfall. ”

"Let Lei Hu do a good job, don't let us make such a big fuss, and finally miss. That's a joke! Weeser said almost casually.

It took two days to convince the bureau and the State Council, and the State Council finally agreed to expand the budget. But as soon as Bi Qingshan drafted and signed the document to the Ministry of Finance, Lei Hu's telegram came again, and the Xiang army found that something was wrong, so he didn't go to Kaifeng at all, but ran straight to Zheng County. The remaining troops of the Hunan army in Zheng County were prepared, a large number of ships were collected, and the Hunan army crossed the river at Huayuankou. The cavalry units of the Guangfu Army only annihilated more than 1,000 troops who did not have time to cross the river south of the Yellow River, and the main force of the Hunan army escaped the Yellow River at the last moment.

Wesser's words at the time were just casual remarks, and he didn't want his "prophecy" to come true at all. After the annihilation of the Hunan army north of the Yellow River, the last three fighting units of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Huai Army, the Hunan Army, and the Mongolian Eight Banners, were all destroyed. The rest is the legendary "full of more than 10,000 people, more than 10,000 invincible" 450,000 Eight Banner Army. These ridiculous armies are masters of creating military jokes on the battlefield. The Northern Expedition could have been made as easy as possible.

Unexpectedly, the Hunan army was the Hunan army, Zeng Guofan was not confused at all at this time, the retreat time he chose was really impeccable, if it was one day later, the Hunan army might be annihilated south of the Yellow River. But just one day, the Hunan army escaped.

Now the problem becomes that the Liberation Army was thrown south of the Yellow River as one of the basic conditions for expanding the war budget, and the annihilation of the Hunan Army on the south bank of the Yellow River was a complete failure. Wei Ze is not a faceless guy, he himself swore and bragged in the political bureau, and the reality ruthlessly made Wei Ze's strategic prediction for the first time. This made Wei Ze angry enough, he kicked down a chair for the first time, and rushed out the door angrily.

The secretaries were dumbfounded, the first time they saw Wei Zedu do such a thing, everyone was not only shocked, but also frightened. An angry Weeser is very different from an angry Weescher, and there is a reason for being angry, and the main reason is from the outside. Anger is a completely different thing, and that kind of emotion is the emotion that comes from within. For at least a moment, Weser looked like an angry lion, violently attacking any living creature around him.

Just when the secretaries looked at each other in fear, not knowing what to do at all, they saw Wei Ze striding back to the office with a black face. Picking up the kicked chair, Weser sat down on the chair, rubbing his face vigorously, barely squeezing out a smile. He said to the secretaries, "None of you are allowed to go out and talk about my kicking of the chair today, do you hear?" ”

The secretaries looked at each other, and they didn't know whether Wei Ze was talking in his heart or angry. Seeing that the secretaries didn't understand, Wei Ze could only continue to explain: "Isn't it because of the political commissar Lei Hu who is fighting this time, I didn't expect it to be normal." I'm angry because I didn't think about it myself, and I took what didn't happen as if it had happened, and it wasn't that Commissar Leihu embarrassed me, but I made myself ashamed. What if you dare to tell me about kicking the chair? ”

The secretaries listened to what Weeser said seriously, and they felt that Weeser had not lost his rationality. But the muscles on Wei Ze's face twitched a little, and at first glance, he looked angry, and everyone lost confidence in their judgment. So no one dared to answer Weeser's question.

Wei Ze was originally forcibly suppressing his anger, but now seeing the secretary's frightened appearance, he was even more annoyed, rolled his eyes, and Wei Ze said loudly: "This news is out, few people will say that I am wrong, I am afraid that most people will say that Lei Hu's actions made me angry, and Lei Hu's political commissar is wrong." Right is right, wrong is wrong! My fault can't let others carry the black pot, so I'll tell you again now, no one is allowed to say anything about me kicking the chair! ”