Cao Kun couldn't help but nod after listening to Wu Peifu's words, the strength of the East China Army is indeed the strongest in China at present, and they can win the provinces from their equipment.

Moreover, the equipment of the East China Army was not bought from foreigners, but they made their own equipment, not to mention that they were very rich.

Now that the East China Autonomous Axe has occupied the richest area in the south of the Yangtze River, not to mention this, the industry developed by the East China Autonomous Axe alone is unmatched in China.

All the circumstances show that at this time, the central authorities are completely incapable of suppressing the axe of the East China Autonomous Government, and the central authorities have to act according to the face of the East China Autonomous Political Axe.

Since the East China Autonomous Political Axe supports the central government to carry out the separation of military and government, and does not hesitate to use force to crusade against Zhang Zuolin, once the separation of military and political is realized in the Northeast, which local overseer will dare not comply?

At that time, once the military and government are separated and the central government is in power, Yuan Shikai can do whatever he wants them to do, and now if he is secretly playing ghosts, he will not allow Yuan Shikai to give them small shoes to wear in the future.

Cao Kun, who had figured it out, urgently ordered the Third Division to speed up its march and pursue the East China Army.

As the Shanhaiguan was getting closer and closer, the road conditions were not so good, and the convoy of the East China Army gradually slowed down, waiting for the sappers in front to repair the road.

At this time, Cao Kun led the Third Division all the way to follow, which surprised the four mixed brigades of the East China Army.

Before, they watched Cao Kun's third division on the road, and it was estimated that they would not be able to catch up after staying here for a day, but they did not expect to catch up.

As for Ni Sichong, he is still slowly behind with soldiers and horses!

This political chameleon obviously didn't understand the situation and the direction of the wind this time, and he was resisting Yuan Shikai's separation of military and political affairs! Therefore, just like Cao Kun before, he planned to release water to Zhang Zuolin.

It was getting dark, and the four mixed brigades of the East China Army planned to camp in place. Cao Kun's second division also set up camp in the rear and began to bury pots and cook rice.

Seeing the smoke rising from the barracks of the Beiyang Army, Zhang Yi, the commander of the 1st Mixed Brigade, discussed with the other three brigade commanders and decided to send some supplies to Cao Kun and his 3rd Division.

The 3rd Beiyang Division showed quite good combat sincerity, so the other three brigade commanders did not object, anyway, there were a lot of canned food in the army, enough for four mixed brigades to eat for two months, and if it was not enough, the military headquarters would let the logistics troops send it.

Soon, the East China Army sent a convoy to drive outside the barracks of the Third Division.

Cao Kun was very shocked when he heard that Zhang Yi, the commander of the First Mixed Brigade of the East China Army, was coming, and hurriedly took Wu Peifu and others to meet the convoy of the East China Army.

"I don't know that Brother Zhang is coming, it's really a long way off, don't be surprised." Cao Kun hurriedly greeted him and said to Zhang Yi outside the camp.

Zhang Yi laughed heartily and said, "It's okay, it's our presumptuous visit." I saw you cooking just now, and some brothers in our barracks wanted to eat, so I specially brought some food to exchange some rice and noodles with your third division. ”

Change for food?

This made Cao Kun and Wu Peifu and others behind him very puzzled, and they didn't see the East China Army making rice! I didn't see half a wisp of smoke, why did I send food?

When the truck compartment was opened, Cao Kun and Wu Peifu saw that the back of the truck was full of cans.

"Canned!" These officers of the Third Division are no strangers to canned food, and canned food produced in East China can be seen in major cities across the country, and they all have money, so naturally they often go to buy some to enjoy themselves.

Seeing so many cans, the eyes of the officers of the Third Division lit up, and a brigade commander swallowed his saliva and asked, "You usually eat this?" ”

"I rarely eat in the barracks in peacetime, but I eat this when I go out for exercises and operations, and my brothers are tired of eating." Zhang Yi said with a smile.

"Then thank you Brother Zhang." Cao Kun hurriedly said, and Wu Peifu immediately beckoned the officers on the side to ask someone to carry the cans on the truck.

When they began to carry it, they learned that there were many kinds of canned food in the East China Army, the most of which was canned beef, in addition to nutritious canned food and canned fruit, which were simply readily available, and many of them were not yet available on the market.

The extravagance of the East China Army surprised them, and there were dozens of boxes of vitamin tablets, and Cao Kun didn't understand much when he heard Zhang Yi say that the effect of these vitamin tablets was not understood.

"People who are deficient in vitamins will have sunken lips, but they won't eat this." Zhang Yi saw that they didn't understand, so he explained one-sidedly.

Vitamin tablets are indispensable things for the East China Army to fight, after all, most of the canned food is meat, although there are fruits, but if the battle is tight, it does not mean that there are canned fruits that can be eaten all the time, so vitamin tablets are essential for the East China Army, and long-term lack of vitamins is easy to get night blindness and other symptoms.

Canned food for rice noodles, it's really cheap.

The 3rd Division handed out cans to the soldiers, who almost swallowed their tongues as they ate them.

"It's beef!"

"They usually eat this?"

"Yes! I heard that they are tired of eating and want to eat our rice noodles! ”

"If only I could eat it every day."

"Hey, aren't these Southerners asking us to go to the front to be cannon fodder before they send us canned food?"

"Hell knows."

The soldiers below talked a lot, envying the good treatment of the East China Army, and on the other hand, they were afraid that they would be sent to the front to be cannon fodder, which made many soldiers of the Third Beiyang Division feel agreed.

…… Zhang Zuolin had fallen into a crazy situation, and when he learned that the East China Army was going to form an alliance with the Beiyang Army to exterminate his Feng army, he begged his grandfather to ask for 20,000 38 covers from himself.

At the same time, the bandits on the mountains in the northeast are also pulling strong dings in the northeast.

Under the promise of high-ranking officials Houlu, bandits from all over the Northeast have taken refuge in Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Zuolin himself is also a bandit, and those bandits are not afraid of being clicked by Zhang Zuolin with excuses.

As for what East China Autonomous Axe...... I have heard of it, but I don't have any concept of these bandits, and they are still very unfamiliar with the East China Autonomous Axe.

After urgently mobilizing the bandits in the northeast and pulling a large number of strong men, Zhang Zuolin decided to take the initiative. He has reached an agreement with Ni Sichong and Cao Kun.

Both of them decided to release him into the water, but what Zhang Zuolin didn't expect was that Cao Kun and Wu Peifu had already changed their hexagrams, and now they want to fight for real.

Zhang Zuolin was afraid of the coalition army, but if he faced the East China Army alone, he didn't know how strong the East China Army was, but it shouldn't be too strong.

With this thought, Zhang Zuolin marched towards Shanhaiguan with a cobbled together army of 50,000, intending to block the coalition forces from Shanhaiguan.

At the same time, after a few days of marching, the East China Army also came to Shanhaiguan.

Shanhaiguan is known as the world's first Xiongguan, located in Qinhuangdao in later generations, is the most important pass of the Ming Dynasty, and it is precisely because Wu Sangui, who guarded Shanhaiguan, opened Shanhaiguan and put the Manchu Qing into the pass, which led to the dark regressive era of more than 260 years in China.

Zhang Zuolin rushed to the outside of Shanhaiguan ahead of time, along the Shihe River outside Shanhaiguan, with his back to the Dog River, and laid a defensive line between the two rivers.

Zhang Zuolin is not very good at arranging troops, but there are some soldiers in Zhang Zuolin's army who are guiding them, so this defense line is also well built.

In the narrow corridor, the two sides formally met on September 3.

The four mixed brigades drove to the other side of the Stone River, concentrated all their artillery that day, and launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the other side of the River at dusk of the same day.

One hundred and forty-four pieces of artillery opened fire together, and the scene was absolutely shocking.

As the sky darkened, the distant horizon was illuminated by bursts of fierce firelight, and with each shell, a dazzling flash could be clearly seen on the horizon.

Although the 50,000 Feng troops dug trenches in the Shihe area, and then amateurs are amateurs after all, how many trenches can a group of rabble dig up to withstand shells?

Cao Kun, Wu Peifu and others listened to the rumbling artillery on the front line, looked at the flashes on the horizon in the distance, and their hearts were shocked, such artillery fire is enough to destroy the willpower of an army!

At the beginning of the shelling, the Feng army was killed and wounded. The shelling lasted about twenty minutes, and four mixed brigades sent a detachment of sappers to break through to the front line and begin building pontoon bridges.

The Stone River is not big, and the pontoon bridge is very easy to repair.

The stopped artillery fire began to bombard the opposite bank of the pontoon bridge built by the sappers, and the Feng troops there were so blown up that they did not dare to raise their heads, and some bandits and strong men were so bombed by the artillery that they even fled frantically backwards despite the restraints.

These deserters were arrested and shot by Zhang Zuolin one by one, but many of them managed to escape in the dark.

The sappers quickly repaired the pontoon bridge, and Cao Kun was waiting for the East China Army to let them rush to the front! After all, with such a fierce artillery, it is nothing to rush to the front as cannon fodder, after all, it can win.

But what they didn't expect was that the East China Army actually rushed first.

The 1st Mixed Brigade crossed the river first, like a sharp knife inserted into the other side of the Shihe River, and the artillery fire behind began to cover the 1st Mixed Brigade with advanced fire.

This tactic of coordinated infantry has been trained many times, and due to the presence of walkie-talkies, it is rare to accidentally bomb friendly forces.

"Call the howitzer battalion, there is a bunker ahead, the coordinates are ......" A scout crawled on the ground, looked at a bunker in the distance that was spraying muzzle flames, and picked up the walkie-talkie carried by the deputy to call for fire.

Less than a minute after the scout screamed, the cannonball fell in the sky with a babbling sound, and then there was a loud bang.

"Did you hit the target?" Artillery positions used walkie-talkies to contact scouts at the front.

"Deviate from the target, please correct Zhu Yuan, ...... left" The bunker two hundred meters in front of the scout was not blown up, so it was reported to Xiu Zheng Zhu Yuan.

"Understood."

On the artillery requisition, an artillery battery of the howitzer battalion began to correct the Zhuyuan, and soon the shelling continued.

I saw six shells flying through the sky one after another, accurately smashing on the bunker, and after six loud bangs, the bunker quickly stopped firing and was silent.

"Rush, rush, rush."

The company commander in that position fired a flare into the distance, waved his arms and shouted, and rushed forward with his company's soldiers.

Feng's army has long been blown up by ferocious artillery, and those who are blind in the dark will not fight.

The East China Army was well-equipped, flares were fired one after another, the front was bombarded, and the infantry slowly advanced in the rear, and soon tore a big hole in the position of the Feng army.

Tearing through the defensive line of the Feng army, the East China Army, which rushed through the defense line, began to go around the rear of the defense line on the left and right sides of the Feng army, encircling and annihilating the Feng army.

The four mixed brigades crossed the river one by one and rushed to the battlefield to fight, and the Feng army, which had been torn apart from the defensive line, had fallen into a state of no command.

Zhang Zuolin was in command behind the Dog River, but at this time his army had fallen into chaos, and his command could not be carried out at all in the black light, and those irregular heralds even ran halfway, and when they saw the fierce artillery fire in front of them, they turned around and ran into the dim night.

The result of an army's defensive line being torn apart is terrifying, and if the gap cannot be plugged in time, then it can only retreat to the second line of defense.

If you don't retreat, once you are surrounded, your supplies will be cut off, and you will be attacked from the belly, so it will be very easy to destroy.

Zhang Zuolin didn't have this awareness, but those in the Feng army said that he had this consciousness, and hurriedly asked Zhang Zuolin to retreat the army to the second line of defense.

Zhang Zuolin followed the guidance, but the front line was already extremely chaotic at this time, and even the soldiers could not find the generals, and they would not be able to find the soldiers.

The four mixed brigades of the East China Army, which moved quickly, rushed across the Shihe River, quickly surrounded the Feng troops who had no time to retreat, and killed them from behind, beating these Feng troops to the point that they didn't know where to run, and some even jumped into the Shihe.

Cao Kun's Beiyang 3rd Division looked behind for a long time and found that there was gunfire on the front line, and by the time they reacted, the four mixed brigades of the East China Army had all rushed across the Shihe.

Wu Peifu watched it for a long time, and suddenly became anxious, this is a tailwind! There is merit in fighting casually, and he hurriedly suggested that Cao Kun cross the river to fight.

Cao Kun only understood at this time, and hurriedly ordered the whole army to cross the river.

Along the pontoon bridge erected by the East China Army, the 3rd Beiyang Division also crossed the Shihe River, and the officers and men of the 3rd Beiyang Division shouted and killed the front line, but they ran for a long time and found ...... The Feng army has already been annihilated for the most part.

Many of the Feng troops had obediently raised their hands and crawled out of the tofu dregs trenches, and many of the Feng troops had retreated to the second line of defense.

The second line of defense was to use the Dog River as a blocking line, and the Feng army lined up along the line, and retreated from the south, or rather, the army that had returned from the rout crossed the river and was immediately incorporated into the second line of defense.

However, the second line of defense was even rougher than the first, because it was too hastily arranged, and the Feng army had no heavy firepower, and there were only two more machine guns.

After breaking through the first line of defense of the Feng army, the East China Army temporarily stopped the offensive and began to clear the remnants of the first line of defense.

After the arrival of the Beiyang Third Army, it also joined the ranks.

Along the way, they saw many corpses blown to pieces by shells, some killed by bullets, and many killed by grenades fired from the grenades fired by the East China military grenadiers.

The entire line of defense was littered with corpses, and not many surrendered in time.

After all, the black light is blind, and with the help of the faint moonlight, only a relatively vague image can be seen, and the persuasion of the East China Army to surrender does not have such a great effect.

Moreover, the pace of this night battle was relatively fast, and most of the Feng troops who did not have time to retreat were killed on the first line of defense.

The sound of the battle gradually subsided, and the East China Army did not continue to organize the offensive, after all, the night battle could easily disrupt the troops.

In this night battle, the East China Army was taken by surprise and did not suffer too many casualties, but if it continued to attack the second line of defense of the Feng army, there would definitely be some chaos, so the four brigade commanders decided to attack the second line of defense of the Feng army after discussion.

It was soon dawn, and the East China Army and the Beiyang Third Division began to clean up the battlefield.

The Feng army, which had re-laid the defensive line on the north bank of the Dog River, was also counting the losses, and as soon as it was counted at dawn, Zhang Zuolin's face was a little pale.

"The army of 50,000 was beaten to only 30,000." Zhang Zuolin's hands trembled a little, and the lightning offensive of the East China Army just came up gave Zhang Zuolin a head start, which made Zhang Zuolin's brain still a little dizzy.

If it weren't for the two rivers there, and those who had been routed had not been stopped, I am afraid that there would not have been even 10,000 people running by now.

Even he did not expect that the East China Army would have such a high combat quality. After receiving the report, the army had no choice but to reassess the combat effectiveness of the East China Army.

The East China Army has an artillery density that does not belong to the Army, which is obviously not a good thing for the Army.

However, a night battle only made the army realize this, after all, the night was too chaotic, and the process of this battle was not even clear to the eye, so the army could not get more information.

On the side of the East China Army, after cleaning up the battlefield, more than 12,000 corpses were found on the battlefield, and at the same time, there were still many corpses in Shihe that had not been salvaged.

Early in the morning, the military dogs of the East China Army began to drag the corpses back and forth to the burial pit, where the Beiyang Third Division also cleaned the battlefield, but the soldiers often groped into the pockets of the dead.

It really made them touch a lot of things.

The gendarmes of the East China Army did not stop them, but the soldiers of the East China Army did not touch the pockets of the dead at all, and concentrated on carrying the corpse to the car, and let the military dog pull the body to the burial pit for burial.

Although the Beiyang Third Division and the East China Army were on an equal footing, after this battle, the Beiyang Third Division was naturally shorter, and Cao Kun intended to win a good impression from the East China Autonomous Political Axe, so he did not put on a stand at all.

"There will be a feint at nine o'clock in the morning." Zhang Yi said to Cao Kun.

"Feint?" Cao Kun was a little confused, does this need a feint?

"The casualties will be too great if you rush to attack, so the 3rd and 4th mixed brigades will cross the river from the upper reaches of the dog river, and then detour to the back of the Feng army to outflank the left flank." Zhang Yi said that the tactics of outflanking the two flanks can greatly reduce casualties, today is a daytime attack, the opponent's weapons are not too bad, the strong attack consumes artillery shells, and may also cause some unnecessary casualties, so today's attack is set to outflank from the left flank.

(To be continued)