"You are hereby ordered to hold on to Xinyang, maintain the current front, and not allow the Chinese army to enter Henan. Wu Changchun, commander of the Third Army of the Beiyang Army, threw away the telegram, scolded secretly, and said to the two division commanders: "Lord Gongbao's meaning is very clear, Henan is the hinterland of the Central Plains, and it cannot be abandoned. ”

Cao Kun, the commander of the 20th Division, scratched his head: "Commander, there is no one else here, so I will say it directly." The task of our army is to defend Henan, two infantry divisions, less than 30,000 people, to defend the vast area from Xinyang to Nanyang, in this line from Henan to Hubei, there is no defense of favorable terrain at all, a large plain, there is a hill near Tongbai County, but there is no danger in the Xinyang and Nanyang areas. With our troops, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold it! ”

Zhang Zuolin, commander of the 21st Division, was even more upright: "The main force of the first army and the second army of Lord Gong Bao are located on the line from Baoding in Hebei to Jinan in Shandong, and we will put our third army in Henan, making it clear that we are delaying the time of the Chinese army and waiting for the Japanese and Russian troops to enter the customs, we are outcasts!" Besides, the British's loan of tens of millions of pounds is enough to arm another 200,000 troops, and they can replace all the weapons of the Beiyang Army, at least a little more artillery. Look at our Third Army again, one artillery regiment of my 21st Division has 25 mountain guns, and it's a fart! All kinds of materials are short of two pounds for us, and then look at him He Zonglian, who led people to train recruits in Tianjin, I heard that even those recruits are better equipped than us, and there is a meal of meat every three days, isn't it favoritism for Lord Gongbao? ”

Zhang Zuolin, who was full of swearing, was a lot more restrained after entering the Beiyang Army, when he participated in the First Sino-Japanese War and defected to the disciple of Ma Yuliang of Song Qingyi's army, and became a cavalryman. After the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, he fled to Liaoxi, and with the help of his father-in-law Zhao Zhanyuan, he set up a large regiment (equivalent to a security regiment) to fight against the local horse bandits. Rise to fame. Just when Zhang Zuolin's warlord career was on the rise, he accidentally made a feud with the Japanese, he brought a large amount of money to get back together with the Japanese, but he didn't expect to be hacked by the Japanese, and then fled again with hundreds of remnants and entered the Guannai. Defected to the Beiyang Army. In the Beiyang Army, which was lined with hills, Zhang Zuolin stood out with his flexible mind and excellent quality and became the commander of the newly established 21st Division.

"Yuting said cautiously, Lord Gong Bao must have his considerations for such an arrangement, your department defends the Xinyang area, complaining is complaining, we are soldiers, and it is our duty to obey orders. Don't take it lightly. Wu Changchun said.

Zhang Zuolin sighed in his heart, the purchaser and Yuan Shikai have the same virtue, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Chinese army is assembled in the Xiaogan area south of Xinyang, which is the closest to Xinyang, and there was once a regiment of Chinese troops stationed here, and they are very familiar with the terrain. Therefore, the primary target of the Chinese army must be Xinyang, and Wu Changchun asked Cao Kun to defend the Nanyang area. made it clear that Lao Tzu was sent to death. In the end, he is a descendant of Beiyang, and he joined halfway. Count it as a fart! If you are in a hurry, Lao Tzu simply let go of the defense line, let the Chinese army drive straight in, and be a good bird himself! Look at Lao Tzu's literary brilliance, idioms and allusions are set in one set, who said that Lao Tzu is a big old man and Lao Tzu slapped him to death!

In fact, Wu Changchun and Cao Kun made the same plan, and Yuan Shikai also had a secret message. didn't let Zhang Zuolin see it. The above means that Cao Kun's troops defended Nanyang to stabilize Zhang Zuolin's heart, and when the battle began, Cao Kun and Wu Changchun took the opportunity to retreat, arrived in Zhengzhou, and relied on the Yellow River to organize a defensive line. As for Zhang Zuolin and his 21st Division. I had to give up painfully, and I didn't spend too many resources to equip the 21st Division anyway.

The battle of Henan can only be regarded as an appetizer for the Chinese army, and there are also heavy groups of anti-China allied forces near Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin, if the Japanese and Russian armies all enter the customs, plus the 200,000 troops hastily formed by Yuan Shikai, it will be about 600,000 people, which can be called a large corps operation.

The Central Plains in May is full of sunshine and cloudless, which is really a good weather for battlefield fighting. At the beginning of April, several spring rains eased the drought in the Central Plains, and by this time the water had already evaporated, and the First Division of the Sixth Army of the Chinese Army set out from Xiaogan, and the new army, a semi-mechanized and half-mule-horse-based unit, was not slow, and had arrived in Dawu County in the border area of Hubei and Henan four hours later. At this time, the 1st Division and 1st Regiment of the Forward Force had already crossed the border and entered Henan to test and reconnoiter the defense of the Beiyang Army on the opposite side.

Once north of the Yangtze River, the traffic situation becomes worse, and although it is a plain, there are still many roads that are not suitable for motorized vehicles such as trucks. After entering Henan, the problem was even greater, and the commander of the first infantry regiment, Le Fei, urged him many times to speed up, but unfortunately it took a lot of time to fill the potholes. The regimental artillery and baggage battalions were the guarantee of combat effectiveness and had to follow the advance, and the brothers of the engineering battalion did their best, but the ranks still looked like snails from a distance.

"Company Commander Gao, expand the investigation range to two thousand meters, and report back in time if you find the situation!" Le Fei ordered the reconnaissance company that on this endless plain, with few vegetation as tall as people in the fields and wilderness, and a few groves and a village dotted in the distance, this was not a place to ambush, and the role of the reconnaissance company was to reconnoiter areas outside the line of sight and be prepared.

The soldiers of the reconnaissance company mounted their horses and scattered. Before the start of the Northern Expedition, an operational staff officer pointed out that the northern region was not suitable for mechanized troops to advance, although the terrain was relatively flat, the traffic situation was very bad, and the mechanized troops had a very large need for logistical support. The rash pursuit of mechanization is likely to lead to logistical supply difficulties and a decline in combat effectiveness.

The General Staff Department adopted this staff officer's opinion, but in fact, it does not need to be said that the General Staff does not intend to popularize mechanized equipment on a large scale, and it cannot do so from the point of view of industrial production alone. The resources invested in the military were limited, and Lu Liang was not prepared to transfer the state system to a wartime system, because the country had a weak foundation and could not afford the attrition brought about by the national war. In fact, to a certain extent, the basis of the rule of Lu Liang and the Zhenguo Party is the support of the people, and once they enter the wartime system, it is difficult to say whether the rule of the Zhenguo Party will be challenged.

As a result, most of the troops participating in the war adopted a half-mechanical, half-mule-horse approach. Most of the artillery is towed by trucks, in addition, the command layer and communication center are equipped with jeeps and trucks, the baggage troops also have some trucks, and other transport forces and mobile forces are composed of mules, horses and bicycles. Later battles proved that bicycles were suitable for large troop maneuvers, but not for reconnaissance troops, because they were slow, physically exerted, limited by terrain, and difficult to break away from cavalry in battle. Therefore, the cavalry, an ancient type of troops, once again entered the sequence of the Chinese army, and the war horses plundered from Kyushu Island and the horses from Jeju Island became the main tools of the cavalry.

This cannot be said to be a regression of the army, but rather a very important quality that can be adapted to the changes that have taken place in the operational conditions, and that it is not confined to one point and is flexible.

The spies of the Beiyang Army, who were hiding in that small village more than 2,000 meters away, looked at the vague Chinese army brigade in the telescope, and although they could not see clearly, they could distinguish the cannons towed by trucks.

"Cao! What a fucking wealth, little Dezi, you see, I saw thirty-five cannons alone, and this is still a regimental unit, more than one of our divisions! ”

"Da Shunzi, what are you yelling about, the telescope is in your hand, can I see it? I said almost, let's withdraw, don't let people block it. ”

"The courage is smaller than that of a rabbit, Lao Tzu followed our division commander across Liaoxi back then, I haven't seen any scenes, how can you say that he is also a hero from Cangzhou, don't be scared by the Chinese army."

Xiao Dezi tugged at the hem of Da Shunzi's military uniform, and Da Shunzi turned back impatiently: "What are you doing, I'll give you the telescope later!" ”

"No, don't just look at the cannon, look at the right, is someone coming?"

"Hey, Niang, cavalry, more than a dozen, run!" Seeing that the situation was not good, the two immediately ran out of the hiding house, and there were two horses behind the village, and the spies of the Chinese army who ran there could not catch up.

An hour and a half later, Zhang Zuolin received a report from the spies that about a regiment of the Chinese army had crossed Lijiazhai and was about half an hour's journey from Xinyang.

"Yuting, you have an idea, there are more than 30 cannons in a regiment of the Chinese army, and the number of mortars and machine guns is too many to count, we can't bury Yuan Shikai!" Zhang Zuoxiang, commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the 21st Division, said.

"Yes, eldest brother, he Yuan Shikai is unkind, you can't blame us for being unjust, how can you have a future in the Chinese army than Beiyang." Ma Zhanshan, the commander of the cavalry regiment, also persuaded.

Seeing that his brothers said this, Zhang Zuolin also made up his mind that the main officers of the 21st Division were all brothers brought by him from Liaoxi, and these were the capital for him to gain a firm foothold in this troubled era, and he must not be buried with Yuan Shikai.

"Brothers, Lao Tzu decided to surrender to the Chinese army, but I am afraid that I will be looked down upon if I surrender without a fight, let's have a good fight with the Chinese army under Xinyang City, so that the Chinese army can see the ability of our brothers, so that after surrendering, you can also have a good future, what do you say?" (To be continued.) )

PS: Friends, for work reasons, I can only upload two chapters a day these days, and then resume three chapters a day, please forgive me!