100,000 people arm in arm, according to the distance of one person and one meter, can be discharged 100 kilometers, that is, 200 miles. If you hold hands with your arms straight, this number can be increased by as much as 1.5 times. It stands to reason that Wu Peifu could not have walked only 40 miles in three days. But a large-scale march is not a complete long snake formation. The march of a large army is first of all to carry out a series of preparations such as route planning with large marching units, and each large marching unit should be divided into a number of small marching units.

Because the division was from Germany, the route planning, scheduling, and material transportation should have been the responsibility of the General Staff. The weather was very hot, and Wu Peifu's chief of staff was sweating and facing Wu Peifu's angry scolding, which was not wronged in theory. The chief of staff didn't dare to say anything on his lips, but he secretly scolded Wu Peifu in his heart. Although the staff headquarters of the Beiyang Army has learned the German staff headquarters system, it is basically better than nothing in actual implementation. The military commanders of the various units hold all the power. As a feudal power system, this is also a normal thing. The power comes from above, then the superior naturally holds all the power, and all subordinates must be unconditionally responsible to the superior. However, modern military command can be said to be incompatible with this system of power. When the Beiyang Army only had six towns and less than 80,000 people, this model might still be able to maintain operations to a certain extent, but when the Beiyang Army expanded to more than one million, the old traditional model was a disaster.

However, these are not reasons, as the Beiyang Army has received a formal Western-style military education, the most basic knowledge of marching can still be understood. However, China in 1915 did not have the basic conditions of railways and highways in China in the 21st century. There are only a few roads that can provide for the march of large troops. As soon as the Beiyang Army left Handan, the People's Party Air Force immediately bombed several arterial roads, and every time the Beiyang Army was bombed and strafed by planes, it began to set up a chaotic system. When there is a mess ahead, the road is blocked. After regrouping, time was lost. But Wu Peifu did not have the courage to send a smaller army to attack alone. An attack on the BJP by 10,000 or 20,000 people is to deliver meat to the door, so that the large army can carry out an effective battle.

This unprecedented situation made Wu Peifu extremely angry, and the anger was annoyed, and the troops could not be deployed or could not be deployed. This resentment was sprinkled on the chief of staff.

Of course, the chief of staff felt wronged, and the Beiyang Army lacked such a large corps combat training. More importantly, the Beiyang Army's war thinking was entirely in battle mode. Hundreds of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of troops on both sides fought along a long front. The People's Party opposite the Beiyang Army did not adopt this model at all, and the war completely presented a situation in which it was waged anytime and anywhere. In the original scout slaughter war, the People's Party attacked everywhere, wandering uncertainly, and their presence could be seen everywhere. Now it's not just the ground, the war is even unfolding in the sky. These new situations have not even had time to be analyzed, let alone figured out how to solve them. As for Wu Peifu, he is still the same, scolding his subordinates for disobeying orders and scolding the chief of staff for being incompetent. The chief of staff thought to himself: The division commanders who obeyed the order are all dying, what is the use of you Wu Peifu continuing to make such a noise?

Wu Peifu is not an incompetent person, he knows very well that he can't solve practical problems after scolding his subordinates when he is in a bad mood. As the supreme commander, Wu Peifu still has a kind of appreciation for his troops. Being able to avoid and regroup without camping and collapsing in repeated dodging and regrouping is already quite remarkable military discipline. However, after tossing and turning for a few days, Wu Peifu's subordinates were fluctuating. can't walk less than 100 miles, for Wu Peifu this is not only a shame, but also a great joke. Wu Peifu firmly believes in the ultimate morale of the war, and now the morale is frustrated, if he can't take the troops to Linzhang, but retreats to Handan in a gloomy manner, then will the Beiyang Army still have to fight after the People's Party's planes appear?

"The all-night march also got Linzhang County." Wu Peifu yelled at the chief of staff.

The chief of staff said with the last sense of responsibility: "Marshal, tonight will definitely not work. Our marching plans are all prepared for the day, and if we don't send many troops, it's useless. More troops have been sent and they are not prepared tonight. It is better to prepare during the day tomorrow and march tomorrow night. ”、

"Send a brigade in the evening." Wu Peifu did not lose his mind. A large-scale march at night is inherently extremely troublesome, not to mention 100,000 people, a division of 20,000 people is a disaster. A brigade of 10,000 people is the limit. Regardless of whether the chief of staff wanted to or not, Wu Peifu ordered the First Brigade of the First Division of the Fourth Army directly under him to march to Linzhang County. This is the unit he believes in the most.

After receiving the order, the officers and men of the first brigade did not have the excitement of "winning glory for Mr. Wu", and the brigade commander could still hold back, and the officers and soldiers below were already talking about it.

"Isn't this a death for us?" Someone said bluntly.

"It's dark to run dozens of miles to get to the People's Party, what are we going to do when we get there?" This is a more subtle statement.

"What if the People's Party sets up an ambush?" There is a greater concern for the dangers that may be encountered in the military operation itself.

However, there was no way for the lower-level officers and soldiers to oppose the brigade commander's order, let alone oppose the order of Wu Peifu and Wu Boss. Whether they liked it or not, the troops were finally mobilized, and at about nine o'clock in the evening, many officers and soldiers had to embark on the journey with a grumbling stomach in the time they usually drank and gambled.

In the summer, the evenings are not cold, and the wind can even be called quite cool. The 1st Brigade began to set off in battalion units. Fearing discovery on the road, the troops fired only minimal torches. Without the air raids of the aircraft, the march was indeed a lot more reassuring. The road was also surprisingly safe, and the entire army cautiously walked out for more than ten miles, without even encountering a single shadow. Many soldiers of the Beiyang Army, who were originally worried, finally relieved their hearts. Thinking about it, there are still more than 20 miles away from Linzhang County, and the People's Party will definitely not be so alert in the middle of the night.

This was of course wrong, and the reconnaissance battalion of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had discovered the Beiyang Army at least half an hour earlier, and had been following them for a while. The reconnaissance battalions are elite, and theoretically they are not designed to carry out large-scale attacks. Chai Qingguo also did not want this force to be used in a meaningless war of attrition.

"If there is no large-scale sortie in Beiyang, don't attack." The reconnaissance battalion would not be so stupid as a moth to a fire to attack a force more than a dozen times its size. But the reconnaissance battalion was also extremely puzzled by the "bravery" of the vanguard of this Beiyang Army. "Did the Beiyang Army just send a unit to die? Don't they have a follow-up force? ”

However, in the information transmitted by the People's Party's field call, the Beiyang Army simply sent a unit over. This force was obviously the elite of Beiyang, and although the speed of the night march was not fast, they actually walked more than ten miles and did not disperse. The People's Party's long-distance march mode at night was that the comrades in the back dragged the marching backpacks of the comrades in front to maintain the speed of the march, and the Beiyang Army actually walked over like this. However, this is not to say that the march of the Beiyang Army was flawless, and their officers almost kept shouting, and the sound of their whereabouts was as clear as the location mark.

"We've got to stop it, right? Do you just let them go to Linzhang County like this? I didn't expect this group of enemies to go so fast. The comrades of the reconnaissance unit asked a question, "Looking at the way they march during the day, I thought they would not be able to go fast." ”

"It's only taken four or five hours to walk more than ten miles, is this still called fast? After changing our troops, we have walked out for thirty miles. "The commander of the reconnaissance battalion thought this question was too stupid.

"So what do we do now?" Comrade continued to ask.

"Wait for the call." The battalion commander gave a standard answer angrily.

The field telephone of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army covered a distance of more than 30 miles around Linzhang County. Now that the intelligence has arrived, all that remains is to wait.

The Linzhang County Headquarters has repeatedly confirmed that the Beiyang Army has only sent one brigade of troops, and there is also bad news in this good news. This traveling army was four or five miles away, and it was unrealistic to annihilate it in one fell swoop, and the march speed on the North China Plain was very fast, and once the battle was fought in daylight, it would be difficult not to let Wu Peifu's reinforcements come up.

"Is it a war of annihilation or a siege to send reinforcements?" Chai Qingguo asked his comrades.

"The Beiyang Army still has a certain ability to march. I'm afraid it's not so easy to encircle the point and send reinforcements. It's better to let this Beiyang army go. I'll talk about it when it's dawn. ”

"The knife is not fast and cuts slowly. No matter how small a fly is, it is meat. Not to mention that the fly isn't that small. ”

"Or now let's prepare a bigger pocket array? Waiting to put all the Beiyang Army in. ”

There were all kinds of suggestions, and there was a lot of discussion in the headquarters.

In the end, Xiong Mingyang spoke, "Now we don't know ourselves, but we don't know each other." The performance of the Beiyang Army is too difficult to predict. Chairman Chen has always emphasized concentrating four or five times the enemy's forces to fight a war of rapid annihilation. In this case, I suggest that this Beiyang Army be annihilated, and if the situation must be improvised, the key is to weaken the Beiyang Army to the greatest extent in a short period of time. It's a stupid idea, but it's useful. ”

Since all the comrades chose to attack, Xiong Mingyang's proposal was easily supported. Chai Qingguo also did not object to this plan, "Comrades, we are not as good as Chairman Chen in the war, so we can't chew it if we are greedy." We're here with the Beiyang Army. Kill them little by little. ”

No one objected to this plan, and the fate of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of the 4th Beiyang Army was decided.

However, this war of annihilation did not begin with an offensive, the combat engineer units of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army first inserted between the 1st Brigade and the Beiyang Field Group, carried out minelaying on several roads, and simply created an obstacle belt with a hole punch imitating the Luoyang shovel, and arranged blocking positions behind the obstacle belt. Only then did the blocking troops quietly enter the blocking position, and only after the vanguard of the Beiyang Army planned to insert their wings and make it difficult to fly, the annihilation battle was announced.

At this time, the sky was already bright, and the Beiyang Army was still more than ten miles away from Linzhang County. After walking all night, they also felt exhausted. And the officers and soldiers alike discovered something that was jaw-dropping. All the farmland near Linzhang County has been harvested. In the vicinity of Handan, which was controlled by the Beiyang Army, the farmland had not yet been harvested, and the golden wheat fields were patchy one by one. This was also a reason for the slow march of the Beiyang Army, Wu Peifu strictly ordered that the army was not allowed to trample on the farmland, and violators were severely punished. The senior officers of the Beiyang Army all know that without this year's harvest, Handan's food supply is very tight. After this night march, everyone was sleepy and tired, and their spirits were quite nervous, and they didn't even notice the changes in the surrounding scenery. Looking at the wheat fields after harvesting, the Beiyang Army could not help but be surprised, this was a rural area in Hebei that the People's Party had never reached, and the newly arrived People's Party had completely controlled the rural areas of Linzhang County.

The surprise did not last long, and several muffled explosions were heard in the distance, the sound of which came from the rear of the Beiyang Army. After another moment, there was a burst of gunfire. The same from the rear. The Beiyang Army did not dare to advance again, and the brigade commander ordered the troops to stand by on the spot, and then ordered the reconnaissance cavalry to hurry up to see what was going on. The scout cavalry soon returned with the heralds who had departed earlier. The Beiyang Army did not pay attention to the back road, and when the sky was slightly bright, the brigade commander sent the cavalry back to contact Wu Peifu. When I went, I was a squad of cavalrymen, and I brought back only two people.

"Brigade commander, the People's Party has cut off our back road." The herald's voice was filled with tears, "We went by a squad and encountered an ambush. It's also thanks to the explosion ahead, everyone is more careful. Otherwise, I won't be able to come back. ”

"Why did it explode in front?" The commander of the 1st Brigade asked.

The herald replied in shock: "We don't know, but we saw that there were brothers from Beiyang who were stopped in the distance." I didn't see who they were fighting against. On the contrary, when we approached, many people from the People's Party suddenly appeared on the side of the road, and the brothers in front were not careful, and they were all killed. ”

The commander of the First Brigade was shocked when he heard this, and he did not dare to continue to attack Linzhang County, so he ordered: "The rear team will become the front team and rush back." ”

Although they didn't sleep all night, the news that the back road had been cut off still lifted the spirit of the Beiyang Army, and they were still marching in columns, because it was dawn, and the troop queue was more dense and compact. The brigade commander's order was quickly carried out, and the troops quickly turned around and began to move towards the way they came.

After Chai Qingguo got the news, he didn't continue to give orders, the military plan has already begun to be implemented, and it depends on the performance of the front-line commanders. He raised his head and asked Political Commissar Xiong Mingyang, "Old Xiong, you said that when we encounter this situation in our troops, how many people can run back to their deaths without running back the same way?" ”

Xiong Mingyang was stopped by this question, and he thought for a while before he replied with a wry smile: "Chairman Chen will definitely not do such a thing." ”

Chai Qingguo was amused by Xiong Mingyang, "Isn't this nonsense, let me ask you how many of us don't make such stupidity." ”

"It's not stupid, normal people do it." Xiong Mingyang replied, "The enemy situation is unknown, and we must not be able to continue to move forward, and those who can find a shortcut to go back can be regarded as using their brains." ”

Chai Qingguo shook his head, "Why can't you move forward, make a gesture of continuing to move forward, and then suddenly turn diagonally forward, and then intersperse it and turn again." Isn't that the best option? If the Beiyang Army does this, we will have a headache. ”

"Your assumption is not right, this is what you would do if you know your opponent. We know that we can finish arranging the position in an hour or two, do you know that the Beiyang Army? If I am surrounded by the Beiyang Army, I will definitely try to see if I can break out. Xiong Mingyang replied.

"What if you encounter an enemy like our People's Party?" Chai Qingguo continued to ask.

On this question, Xiong Mingyang was silent for a while before replying: "If it were against an enemy like our People's Party, I would never agree to fight like this." Second, if I am surrounded, I will only build a defensive position on the spot. I'm sure you'll come to my rescue, Lao Chai. ”

Chai Qingguo nodded deeply, "I think the same as you." ”