On the day of 6 May, the artillery outside Lingbao City was fired one after another, and although the Beiyang Third Division once again launched a large-scale attack on the People's Army, the officers and men of the 28th Regiment of the People's Army simply fought back the repeated attacks of the Beiyang Army under the condition of waiting for work, relying on solid fortifications and sophisticated equipment in their hands. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

After a day of fierce fighting, Cao Kun did not know what the losses of the People's Army were, but the casualties of six or seven hundred brothers of the Third Division under his command were real. Such a large casualty, while Cao Kun was unexpected, was really distressed.

The Beiyang Army in these years was different from the People's Army, although it also entered the ranks of the modern army, but it still could not completely escape all the categories of soldiers and generals in the feudal army. To put it bluntly, the system is nothing more than Yuan Shikai, the head of the army, commanding some small army leaders below and fighting for their common interests. In this private context, the commanders of all divisions basically regard the troops as private units, and while having more soldiers and more guns brings about a high position of power, the losses of soldiers after the battle naturally have to be replenished by themselves. In this case, for the next battle, Cao Kun had to make careful calculations and make some thoughts.

"Commander, isn't there a way to fight like this?" Tang Tianxi said with a bitter face. You must know that the losses in the past two days were all the officers and soldiers of his Fifth Brigade.

After Cao Kun heard this, he was also annoyed in his heart. Feng Guozhang was in Luoyang, almost three times a day, asking him to take Ruxiang as soon as possible and launch an attack on Tongguan. However, he was blocked outside Lingbao City, and he couldn't move for a whole day, and now even Yuan Shikai sent a telegram to him from Beijing to inquire about relevant matters.

Many people call Cao Kun "Cao San Fool", but this fierce general who usually shows people as a reckless man is not stupid at all. The situation in the south has already shown a one-sided situation, and now the north is also being attacked by the People's Army on two fronts, and he does not think that at present, relying on more than 20 divisions in Beiyang alone will be able to fight over the 15 armies and 45 army divisions of the People's Army. The situation has come to this point, but the battle that should be fought still has to be fought, as a member of the Beiyang Group, he knows the truth of both prosperity and loss. Of course, Cao Kun was unwilling to defeat him with the troops, and it is unknown what will happen in the future, and he does not want to fold his capital here. After thinking about it, Cao Kun decided to pull down his face and ask Feng Guozhang for reinforcements.

"He wants reinforcements? I can't even take a regiment of the People's Army, and I am here to find reinforcements for him? Feng Guozhang, who was in Luoyang, was also angry when he saw the telegram for help sent by Cao Kun.

Feng Guozhang is now under more pressure than Cao Kun. He still doesn't know what the situation is on Suiyuan Duan Zhigui's side, but as far as the current Henan is concerned, the situation is already extremely bad. On the other side of the Yellow River on the north side of his own is the Seventh Army of the People's Army, which has entered Shanxi; On the south side of his own, after entering western Henan from Jingzi Pass, he chased the Beiyang Fifth Division all the way and rushed violently, and it was about to occupy Nanyang and rush to Xinyang. Opening the map, it is not difficult to see that Lingbao's third division and the seventh division that followed him in Shaanzhou already have a taste of being alone. Despite this situation, Feng Guozhang still wanted to defeat the Fourth Army of the People's Army in front of him.

Cao Kun can see, he Feng Guozhang has no reason not to understand, although the general trend of the world has been returned to the Communist Party, but he must give Yuan Shikai an explanation, and he must also prove that the Beiyang Army is not much worse than the People's Army.

"The People's Army in front of the Third Division, I heard that they had fought with the British, and such troops were indeed difficult to fight, and I heard that their equipment was much stronger than ours." A staff officer next to him comforted.

"Give an order to the Lei Zhenchun Department of the Seventh Division, let them rush to Lingbao and conquer Ruxiang as soon as possible after joining the Third Division." Feng Guozhang heard the staff officer's words, looked at the map for a long time before retracting his eyes, and ordered: "In addition, let the Eighth Division rush to Shaanzhou as soon as possible, and be ready to reinforce at any time." ”

Cao Kun was naturally overjoyed to receive Feng Guozhang's reply, but what he didn't know was that that night, although more than 10,000 people from the four infantry regiments of the Beiyang Seventh Division led by Lei Zhenchun plus an artillery battalion arrived at the battlefield, at the same time, the main force of the 10th Division of the People's Army led by Zheng Kaiwen also joined the 28th Regiment that was sticking outside Yangping Town.

In Yangping Town, in the division headquarters of the 10th Division, Zheng Kaiwen, who had taken a short rest, quickly found several regiment commanders under him. He decided that tomorrow he would give a ruthless blow to the Beiyang Army on the opposite side.

"When I came to you so late, I mainly wanted to talk about tomorrow's combat matters." After Zheng Kaiwen made a start, he said to the chief of staff beside him: "Next, the chief of staff will tell you about the relevant situation first!" ”

The chief of staff nodded and got up, walked to the military map hanging on the wall behind him, waved his hand at the map and said: "According to the order of the military headquarters, at present, our division has all assembled in the periphery of Lingbao and the area of Yangping Township, Xiyan Township and Wumu Township where the Beiyang Army is confronted. The task is very clear, that is, to defeat the enemy in front of you as soon as possible, capture Lingbao, Shaanzhou and other places, and clear the way for the main force of the whole army to attack Luoyang and Kaifeng in the east. ”

"In addition, according to the latest intelligence, the 7th Division of the Beiyang Army has also arrived on the battlefield. What we have to face is the nearly 20,000 Beiyang Army, which already has more than 70 75 mountain guns. ”

Beiyang 7th Division? When the heads of several regiments present heard this, they couldn't help frowning. This news is indeed a bit of a surprise for them.

"Although there are many Beiyang troops, they are not to be worried, but their artillery is a big threat to us. If you can defeat it first, you should be seventy or eighty percent sure of this battle. It was Li Wanxiang, the commander of the 28th Regiment, who spoke. After fighting with the Beiyang Third Division for a day, the opponent's details had already been touched by him. At this time, he was completely confident and used one regiment to chase two regiments of the Beiyang Army. Of course, Li Wanxiang's confidence is not unreasonable, and aside from the equipment and the quality of the troops, this is also related to the difference in the establishment of the two armies. Although a division of the Beiyang Army has two brigades and four regiments, one regiment has only 2,000 people, while a division of the People's Army has three regiments, but one regiment has more than 3,000 people.

As soon as Li Wanxiang said this, everyone turned their attention to Zhang Fang, the head of the artillery regiment, the former commander of the Shaanxi People's Army. Zhang Fu did not answer immediately, but glanced at the division commander Zheng Kaiwen and said, "Our regiment will definitely do its best to suppress the Beiyang artillery." But if you want to completely destroy it, you can't know the location of its artillery positions in advance. ”

"Knowing about the artillery positions in advance?" Hearing this, Zheng Kaiwen pondered for a moment and said, "I will contact the Air Force and ask them to send planes to help us reconnoitre." ”

Aerial reconnaissance? The Air Force fights with the Army? This is undoubtedly a new topic for all of you.

On the morning of May 7, outside Lingbao City.

"Brother Chaoyan (Lei Zhenchun), this time my brother owes you a favor." Cao Kun held his saber in his hand, looked at the artillery who were busy building positions in the distance, and said enthusiastically to Lei Zhenchun, the commander of the Seventh Division beside him. Cao Kun was really grateful to Lei Zhenchun, he didn't expect that Lei Zhenchun would come here overnight and bring three of the four infantry regiments of the Seventh Division and the only artillery battalion.

Although the personal relationship between the two is average, they are both generals of the Beiyang lineage, and they can usually get by on face. At that moment, Lei Zhenchun was also smiling, and said politely: "Zhong Shan (Cao Kunzi) brother, you are tired, brother, I work day and night, what I want is to be able to come to help you earlier!" ”

"Then thank you, brother. You and I will launch an offensive today and take down this rebel army! Cao Kun said this, his expression was very serious.

Lei Zhenchun also nodded and said, "Well, I'll go and prepare later, and directly take down the Yangping Town in front of me in one go." ”

While the two were talking, there was a sudden "buzzing" sound in the sky. Seeing that many soldiers stopped what they were doing and pointed at the sky, Cao Kun also hurriedly raised his head to look at the sky, but saw a strange big bird flying around overhead. Although he didn't know it, there was no shortage of knowledgeable officers in the Beiyang Army, and soon, a young staff officer shouted: "Airplane, this is an airplane!" ”

While the staff officer shouted, several officers also looked at the plane with binoculars, and when they saw the red five-pointed star on the plane, their hearts were immediately alarmed. The meaning of this red five-pointed star is very clear to them, since the symbol of the People's Army appears on the plane in the sky, then there is no doubt that this plane belongs to the military aircraft of the People's Army. However, even though they understood this, they didn't know how to deal with the plane in the sky for a while, and they didn't know what the plane was doing when it was swaying.

The Beiyang Army on the ground did not know the purpose of the plane's wandering, but the pilot on the plane, who belonged to the 7th Brigade of the 3rd Flying Regiment of the 1st Division of the People's Air Force, did not forget his mission of coming out to reconnoiter the position of the Beiyang Army's artillery positions. After discovering the abnormality on the ground, lowering the altitude, and taking out the telescope for a detailed observation, he quickly climbed the altitude and returned to Tongguan in a leisurely manner.

In these years, airplanes are still a very new thing, and ordinary Chinese have rarely heard of it, let alone seen it. The incident of this plane coming above the head of the Beiyang Army did not have too many surprises, except for bringing doubts to Cao Kun and some strange jokes to the soldiers.

However, they would never have thought that the information of their artillery position was quickly sent to Zheng Kaiwen.