The 3rd Division itself was one of the most elite standing field divisions in the Japanese Army, and later merged with the powerful Tachimi Detachment, and then the friendly forces of North Korea also sent some soldiers to supplement it one after another (now Katsura Taro's teacher, Yama Prefecture Aritomo, has returned to China to take power, even if Katsumi Naofumi, who has a conflict with Katsura Taro, can only swallow his anger and actively cooperate, let alone other generals). At its peak, the total strength exceeded 28,000 people, which was almost equivalent to three field divisions before the First Sino-Japanese War, and even according to the calculation of the expanded establishment after the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, it was equivalent to one and a half field divisions, which was about to catch up with the strength of an army.

After the merger of the Lijian detachment, the main combat force of the third division included six infantry wings and two cavalry brigades, totaling about 24,000 people, and then first lost a complete cavalry brigade in the battle of the Jinzhou Isthmus, and not long ago in the process of attacking the Fengtian defense line with all its might, it suffered unprecedented heavy losses, and specially transferred elites from other infantry wings to replenish the two main infantry wings that had lost most of the troops, and the number of people who escaped back by luck was less than half of the wing

Coupled with the damage caused by the shelling that had just ended, and the fact that the situation was not particularly serious and was not sent back home (due to the loss of sea supremacy, almost all of them were forced to stay in Korea for a long time, so the mortality rate of the seriously wounded was extremely high). ), the thousands of people who stayed in the army to recuperate from the wounded and sick, Katsura Taro now has a pitiful number of soldiers on hand, the infantry is less than 5,000 people at full capacity, and although the cavalry is still complete, but a small brigade, even if there are not many people in the full number, how much role can it play?

Although he was afraid that he would be shelled again if he stayed in the camp, Katsura Taro was more worried about being routed by the enemy in a state of disarray, so he stiffened his head and seized on the peace that he didn't know how long he would last after the shelling, and readjusted his organization as quickly as possible.

Katsura Taro had already looked down on the two infantry wings of the Ritsumi detachment, and now that he had a good reason, he naturally unceremoniously revoked the establishment of the detachment, and then selected two thousand relatively elite soldiers from the auxiliary arms and the lightly wounded to supplement it, and then changed the establishment of the infantry wing back to the pre-war model, and finally had four fully equipped infantry wings available again, although the configuration was very low, but at least all kinds of basic tactics could be played, and Katsura Taro finally regained a little confidence.

Well, this little confidence is only enough for Katsura Taro to order the whole army to retreat with confidence, as for continuing the attack? The whole of the Third Division has been frightened, and even if Katsura Taro dares to make such a "chaotic order", the following may not be able to carry it out honestly, and it is not even impossible to mutiny because of this. Katsura Taro's mobilization before coming to Mukden was quite effective, but after the defeat, it made him gain more resentment and resentment, and his prestige in the army was also severely damaged, and it was no longer possible to be as arbitrary as before.

The Third Division came to attack Mukden to solve the problem of military rations, but now it has returned in vain, and the problem of lack of military rations is naturally even more serious. In particular, the previous shelling also destroyed a large amount of baggage, including military rations, and the remaining military rations of the Third Division were only enough to meet the needs of four or five days, which was also "thankful" to the fact that many people had died in these days, which objectively reduced the demand, otherwise the situation would have been even worse. However, in the current sinister situation, how dare Katsura Taro divide his troops to the countryside to raise food? He can only live one day at a time, and take his subordinates to escape from the enemy's reconnaissance range first

The only thing that made Katsura Taro happy was that the Chinese army did not take advantage of the situation to launch an attack after the shelling, giving the 3rd Division a chance to ease up, otherwise it would not be retreating now, but collapsing.

In his opinion, although simple artillery bombardment killed and injured many Japanese troops, there has never been a ground war in the world that was won by artillery alone, and it was definitely a serious mistake not to take the opportunity to send infantry to attack and defeat the Japanese army in one go.

But Yuan Shikai quickly figured out the purpose of the rebel army's doing, "Pingqing, in fact, this shelling of the Japanese is only secondary, and the main thing is to show us."

Wang Shizhen immediately reacted, after the arrival of the cadre regiment, the reorganization of the Fengtian Qing army was about to begin, and at this time, with that shocking and crazy shelling of Liwei, it could indeed greatly reduce the resistance in the work.

But Wang Shizhen still has a lot of complaints about the rebel army's approach, "But if you do this, it is still militarily disadvantageous, right?" If you take advantage of the situation to attack directly, it is likely that the Japanese army has been completely defeated, and now although the Japanese army has suffered some losses, it still has a chance to retreat, and the Japanese army will accumulate some experience after being shelled once, and I am afraid that it will not have such a good effect in the future. ”

Although Yuan Shikai had never heard the wise saying "military is the continuation of politics", he already knew this truth well, and he only laughed and said nothing when he heard it.

However, Wang Shizhen's next words made Yuan Shikai a little puzzled, "That's right! Wouldn't it be more powerful to defeat the Japanese army in one go? Why didn't they fight? ”

After thinking about it, Yuan Shikai came to a conclusion that he couldn't believe, "Could it be that they didn't have the certainty of capturing the Japanese camp?" So you chose a more secure way to stand your way? But it shouldn't be! With the quality of the Datong Party Army, even if the troops are smaller, it should not be difficult to deal with the chaotic puppet army of more than 20,000 days, right? ”

Not to mention, Yuan Shikai really guessed eight or nine, but this "no absolute certainty" is based on the personal opinion of the head of the cadre regiment, that is, the big political commissar assigned to Yuan Shikai, and sure enough, the biochemical soldiers are synonymous with prudence and conservatism!

However, it cannot be said that such a decision must be wrong, the cadre regiment is a seed that cannot be directly put into the battlefield, so there are only two regiments of troops left to use, and at least one map must be set aside to guard against the cavalry sent out by the devil to protect the periphery.

And it is worth mentioning that the cavalry regiment of Commander Zhang is actually only dragoons, that is, mounted infantry (only the first cavalry brigade in the rebel army is a horse infantry all-rounder), what is really good at is actually foot combat, and they have to deal with the Japanese cavalry brigade, even if they have nearly three times the strength advantage, they are not sure of victory in the field, especially at that time, everyone did not expect that thousands of puppet cavalry would actually run away by themselves, if they are also included, a cavalry regiment is really a little difficult (to be continued). )