After determining whether the Beiyang and Hubei armies had really withdrawn from Jing and Yi and not playing any tricks, Yan Guang ordered the 10th Infantry Division of Peng Xiu's division to stay in Badong, and the 4th Infantry Division to stay in Jingmen. Yang Shan and Zhu Qinglan's 2nd, 3rd, 7th, and 8th Infantry Divisions marched into Jingzhou, while Yan Guang personally led the 1st Guards Division to Yichang.

At the same time, He Wenjun's Sichuan naval army also stayed at the port of Jingzhou County to prevent the enemy from attacking and harassing the Yangtze River waterway, which played a lifeline role............ The logistics supply and transportation of soldiers of the National Social Army are maintained by the Yangtze River waterway, and now the important surname of the Yangtze River waterway is even more important than the Sichuan-Han Railway, which is more than half completed.

At the same time, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others also transported Wang Zhanyuan's division of the second division of the Beiyang Army, Yang Shande's division of the fourth division, Jin Yunpeng's division of the fifth division, Li Chun's division of the sixth division, Zhang Shaozeng's division of the 20th division of the Beiyang Army, and Meng Enyuan's division of the 23rd division of the Beiyang Army, which arrived later, to Qianjiang, and Li Yuanhong's two divisions also moved to Liangshan and Tianmen to guard against the attack of the Nationalist Army from the flank, leaving only the Zhili Mixed Brigade, the Fengtian Mixed Brigade and a division of the Hubei Army with 20,000 men to stay in Wuhan.

Since then, a situation of confrontation has been formed between nearly 50,000 troops of the four divisions of the National Social Army and more than 70,000 troops of the six divisions of the Beiyang Army............ This is also why Li Yuanhong and they don't believe in the Hubei army, and they are afraid that they will appear a figure like Ma Bangde, so they let the three infantry divisions of the Hubei army be stationed in Liangshan, Tianmen and Wuhan respectively...

"There are less than 50,000 people, and we have to deal with 70,000 people, and they are all the elites of Beiyang, I'm afraid this battle is not easy to fight..."

Standing in front of the giant sand table, Feng Nan said with a relaxed expression.

Yan Guang smiled, and the expression on his face was also relaxed.

"Now Hubei has gathered all the main forces of our National Social Army, and Yuan Shikai is the same, more than half of the main forces are in Qianjiang, as long as we can defeat more than half of the main forces, we can not only master the vital Jinghan Railway, destroy the morale of the Beiyang Army, but also let those provincial overseers who are in a wait-and-see state re-stand in line..."

The provincial overseers would cancel the reading power or join Yuan Shikai, originally forced by his military situation, as long as Yan Guang could defeat the Northern Hubei coalition army in Hubei, the provincial overseers would naturally reconsider which side they should stand on............ Yan Guang believes that there will also be Cai Ye among them...

Cai Yi chose to support Yuan Shikai because he believed that only Yuan Shikai could clean up the chaos in China, but if Yuan Shikai was defeated by himself? Beiyang is also in a slump? I'm afraid Cai Ye will have to make another choice. As for some past frictions, at least in Yan Guang's view, Cai is not the kind of person who disregards the interests of the country for personal grievances.

After listening to Yan Guang's words, Feng Nan and the others also nodded in agreement. However, looking at the military momentum of the two armies on the sand table, Feng Nan still frowned.

"It's just that without the artillery support of the navy, I'm afraid Qianjiang won't be so easy to fight..."

However, hearing Feng Nan say this, after looking at the faces of others, Yan Guang was indeed very relaxed.

"Don't forget, we also have machine guns..."

Although the National Socialist Army attaches great importance to the role of machine guns because of Yan Guang, I am afraid that only Yan Guang knows best how powerful the machine gun can be.

"The Somme..."

It was that war that made machine guns the most deterrent weapons in land warfare, especially heavy machine guns like Maxim, which were even more popular in the European theater than large-caliber artillery!!

If artillery is the king of war, then the machine gun is the lawn mower, the lawn mower that harvests life ...

Although the 70,000 men of the Beiyang Army in Qianjiang are more than 20,000 more than their own, and the Beiyang Army is also higher than its own in terms of individual soldier quality, in the face of nearly 2,000 light and heavy machine guns, Yan Guang could not see that his side could lose at all with a small number of Makqin and 75-caliber light guns equipped with the Beiyang Army.

Moreover, the Beiyang Army and other countries in the world are still using the skirmish line tactic, while the National Social Army has begun to experiment with assault group tactics (infiltration tactics). If the commander-in-chief of the Beiyang Army chooses to take the initiative in a momentary heat-up, then every machine gunner will become the most industrious farmer ...

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Just when Yan Guang, Feng Nan and others were pointing fingers at the sand table, as the commander who personally sat in Qianjiang, Feng Guozhang, who was wearing an army lieutenant general's uniform, was also inspecting the progress of the fortifications of the outer positions. And those Beiyang soldiers who were working bare-chested on the battlefield also put down their work and saluted with their legs after seeing Feng Guozhang and his party.

"Your Excellency..."

"Lord Feng..."

"General..."

Looking at these sturdy young men under his command, Feng Guozhang also smiled and nodded.

When the group walked to a trench, the people accompanying them seemed to see that Feng Guozhang wanted to go down to have a look, so Yang Shande, Li Chun and others jumped into the trench one after another, and then made a gesture to take Feng Guozhang down. However, Feng Guozhang, who was in his 50s, waved his hand, and then jumped into the 2-meter-deep trench by himself.

"How? I'm not old yet, am I? ”

After jumping into the trench, Feng Guozhang smiled boldly at the generals and officers around him.

However, seeing Feng Guozhang doing this, Wang Zhanyuan and others, who have always known that their old boss should be strong, were not very surprised.

After noticing that several of his subordinates were not surprised, Feng Guozhang pursed his lips and touched the 2-meter-deep trench beside him with his hand.

It is normal to dig trenches to a depth of 2 meters, because unless the conditions do not allow it (geological problems), the trenches are generally more than 2 meters deep (there are many types, and there are breastworks that are less than 2 meters deep). In the case of Padang, it was purely the laziness of Ma Bond's men, otherwise they would not have suffered nearly a thousand casualties in the first shelling.

Feng Guozhang led the elite of the Beiyang Army this time, and it can be said that in addition to the first and third divisions left in Zhili, the elite of Beiyang are now concentrated in Hubei. It is naturally impossible for such an elite to make the mistakes that the Hubei army once made, not to mention that everyone in Beiyang has heard of the power of the artillery of the National Social Army, so the deeper the trenches, the better, and the stronger the fortifications, the better.

However, there is also a trouble after the trench is dug to a depth of 2 meters, that is, the average height of Chinese is only about 160 now, and 170 is already considered tall, and people like Yan Guang who are 185 are no different from giants at this time, so after jumping into the trench, even if the soldiers of the Beiyang Army are tiptoeing, they can't show their heads, they can only step on a small bench to solve the height problem...

It's just that more than 70,000 benches are not so easy to find, so the soldiers of the Beiyang Army dug a half-meter-high step in front of the trench, and they can sit on the steps to rest in peacetime, or use the steps as a table, and stand on the steps to shoot when they are in wartime...

"Okay, that's good."

After inspecting the quality of the fortifications, Feng Guozhang smiled and nodded to one of the battalion commanders in charge of the lot.

Seeing Feng Guozhang treat himself like this, the battalion commander also looked flattered.

patted the battalion commander on the shoulder, Feng Guozhang led people to inspect several other fortifications, and found that the fortifications were all completed very well, and seeing this, Feng Guozhang was also much relieved.

After the group returned to the Qianjiang County Ya, which was used as a temporary headquarters, Wang Zhanyuan, who was seated, smiled at Feng Guozhang.

"My lord, you are too cautious, even without your inspection, would the group of guys below dare to be sloppy?"

"yes." Jin Yunpeng on the side also said with a smile. "Who doesn't know Feng Shijing's name, who doesn't know? What do you have to worry about with your elderly person in charge? In addition to Wang Zhanyuan being a few years younger than Feng Guozhang, Yang Shande, Jin Yunpeng and Li Chun are all in their 30s, and the eldest Yang Shande is only 39 years old, more than ten years younger than Feng Guozhang, so he is not afraid of being said to please Feng Guozhang.

As for Jin Yunpeng, he called Feng Guozhang "Feng Shijing" because Feng Guozhang is a native of Xishijing Village, Hejian, Zhili. In modern China, people like to refer to those who have achieved fame by their place of origin and place of birth. will do this, not only for respect, but also to show that people are precious, where there are celebrities, there will be celebrities to the end of the world.

For example, Li Hongzhang is respectfully called "Li Hefei", Zhang Zhidong is respectfully called "Zhang Nanpi", and there is also a Yuan Shikai, in addition to Yuan Gongbao, he will also be called Yuan Xiangcheng, because he is from Xiangcheng.

Originally, Feng Guozhang was also called "Feng Hejian", in fact, there are indeed many people who call it that, but those friends and colleagues who are close to Feng Guozhang like to call him "Feng Shijing", and Feng Guozhang himself is proud of Shijing Village. (Mao school poet Mao Chang once lectured here, will be called Shijing Village is also for this reason, later Mao Chang found a piece of feng shui treasure here, said to friends that this is the place where the ancient salon is entrenched, one day there will be a dragon flying in the sky, and later this feng shui treasure land is called Huanglong Bay.) n Years later, Feng Guozhang's ancestors moved here, and that piece of Huanglongwan somehow became his family's ancestral grave. Before Feng Guozhang's death, some people said that he was able to rank among the people, all because of this feng shui treasure, Feng Guozhang was superstitious all his life, and naturally he liked the name Feng Shijing... ）

All of you here are Feng Guozhang's colleagues and old subordinates, and they have a close relationship with Feng Guozhang, so they naturally like to use the title "Feng Shijing" to refer to Feng Guozhang.

However, after sitting back in his seat, Feng Guozhang sighed.

"You can't be cautious." Saying that, Feng Guozhang looked at everyone with a serious face. "You all know that because of the incident in Yichang and Jingzhou, now the provincial overseers have begun to look at us with a different eye, if something goes wrong with us in this battle, I'm afraid there will be trouble soon..."

"Trouble, you mean?"

"What else could it be." Hearing Yang Shande say this, Wang Zhanyuan, who was only two years younger than Feng Guozhang, said coldly beside him. "It's nothing more than Tan Yanmin from Hunan and Sun Daoren from Fujian, but I don't know if Zhu Rui from Zhejiang will also jump out at that time, that guy is a slippery head, and he will stand on which side is advantageous. Moreover, the revolutionary parties in Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Anhui have all been defeated by us, and if we can't win this battle in Hubei, I'm afraid that the one surnamed Yan will be able to easily take over these three provinces, and by that time, hum..."

Hearing Wang Zhanyuan say this, Yang Shande, Jin Yunpeng and others also fell silent.

(To be continued)