Xiao Zhenlei sat down and took a sip of tea and said to Jiang Fangzhen: "I have already given Xu Shaozhen an order to put Xiong Kewu's troops and the 26th Division under the command of Zhang Xiaozhun, and gave Zhang Xiaozhun a period of twenty days for him to fight under the city of Zhengzhou, only in this way can we threaten Feng Guozhang's flank on the eastern front from the west!" ”

Hearing this, Jiang Baili got up and walked to the big map on the wall, took out a pen and drew a few arrows on the map, and then drew two more arrows to point to the east, and after studying it, he turned around and said: "This deployment should be feasible, but Yuan Shikai's current strength still has at least twenty divisions to be mobilized, if we transfer troops from the middle line to attack Feng Guozhang's flank, he has enough troops to block us!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei shook his head: "Twenty divisions are true, but how many people and how many combat effectiveness there are in his twenty divisions, you and I know this, you and I can't fight by issuing guns and ammunition to some people, but what you said is not unreasonable, it is not enough to attack Feng Guozhang's flank from the middle line, so I thought of another way!" ”

"What's the solution?"

Xiao Zhenlei said: "Use naval ships to load the army to carry out landing operations, and insert them into Feng Guozhang's rear!" ”

Jiang Baili thought for a moment when he heard this: "This is a feasible method, but this method contains great risks, and the army in charge of landing operations must have strong combat effectiveness and extremely strong will to fight, and it is very likely that going deep behind enemy lines will not only fail to threaten the enemy, but may be wrapped in dumplings, on the other hand, isn't the navy training?" Do we want them to stop training, and besides, with the size and tonnage of our navy's ships, there are not many land forces."

Xiao Zhenlei nodded and said, "You said that I have considered all these aspects. He also considered directly using the navy to transport an army to land the Zhijing Division in Tianjin, as the saying goes, 'shoot people first and shoot horses first.' Capture the thief and capture the king first', but then I gave up the idea when I thought about it. This idea is not very realistic, on the one hand, we do not have such a large carrying capacity, and on the other hand, the troops transported over are less, if we can't take the Beijing division in time to capture Yuan Shikai, the plan will fail completely, and the army that has been transported is still in danger of annihilation, but I think if we just send an army deep behind Feng Guozhang, as long as we can disrupt Feng Guozhang's rear, it will inevitably cause chaos on the front line of the Beiyang Army, so as to do so. Feng Guozhang will definitely have flaws, if Cai Guodong can seize this opportunity, the rest of the things will be easy to do, what do you say? ”

Jiang Baili pondered for a while and said, "Yes, this method is worth trying, how do you plan to send the troops?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei took a sip of tea and said: "The troops that go deep behind the enemy line must be the elite of the elite, the weapons must be sophisticated, and the firepower must be strong, but they must not carry heavy weapons that affect the rapid march. Artillery, for example! This time I am going to put the 22nd Division in charge of this mission, as long as the infantry, not artillery, and equip them with enough heavy machine guns, mortars, grenadiers, mules and horses! In addition, let the Navy raise enough cargo ships to load soldiers and weapons. Let the naval fleet carry out the escort. If you think it's feasible, I'll leave this plan to you, and I'll ask Sa Zhenbing to come and talk to him personally. Let the Navy work closely together".

"Alright, I'll take care of perfecting this plan!"

August 4th. Sa Zhenbing, who received the notice, came from the Navy Headquarters to the Commander-in-Chief's Office, and Xiao Zhenlei greeted him when he arrived.

"General Sa. This time I called you here because the Army has an operation that requires the cooperation of your Navy! ”

Sa Zhenbing said: "I don't know what kind of action it is? ”

Xiao Zhenlei explained: "In view of the stalemate on the battlefield of the Eastern Front of the Northern Expedition, the General Headquarters decided to organize a surprise army to attack the rear of the Beiyang Army from the sea, and the specific landing location is temporarily secret. ”

"The commander-in-chief has an order, and we, the Navy, of course, will carry it out."

On August 10, Zhang Xiaozhun of the Central Route Army commanded the 31st Division, the 4th Reserve Division, and Xiong Kewu's troops to attack Xuchang, but the 56th and 57th Divisions of the Beiyang Army could not resist and had to retreat northward, until they stopped in Zhengzhou.

On August 13, Zhang Xiaozhun led his troops to Zhengzhou, at this time Zhengzhou has 56, 57 divisions remnants of more than 12,000 people, in addition to the 8th division, 9th division, 12th division, all are fully loaded, plus the original city defense troops in Zhengzhou, a total of more than 50,000 people, when the Northern Expedition Middle Route Army 31st Division, the fourth reserve division, Xiong Kewu arrived at the periphery of Zhengzhou the next day, the 26th Division and the 43rd Division of the Hunan Army also followed, in addition, the remnants of the Hubei army after reorganization became the provisional 91st division and the provisional 92nd division, these two divisions also followed, The total strength of the Central Route Army under Zhang Xiaozhun has reached 70,000.

On the 14th, Xiao Zhenlei sent a telegram from Nanjing, ordering Zhang Xiaozhun of the Central Route Army to divide his troops to attack Luoyang west of Zhengzhou, and solve his worries before making plans. On the one hand, this step could prepare for the eastward advance of the Central Route Army, and on the other hand, it could threaten Cao Kun's troops on the Tongguan side, and if Cao Kun did not want to be caught between the east and the west, he had to cross the Yellow River to the north and retreat to Shanxi.

After receiving the telegram order from the Nanjing General Headquarters, Zhang Xiaozhun ordered Xiong Kewu and the Reserve Fourth Division to move westward to attack Luoyang, Yuan Shikai only deployed one division in Luoyang, because the Northern Expeditionary Army attacked too fast, Lao Yuan had no time to transfer troops to Luoyang to set up defenses, and Luoyang was immediately besieged.

In Zhengzhou, Zhang Xiaozhun commanded the 26th Division, the 43rd Division of the Hunan Army, and the 91st and 92nd Divisions to launch attacks from the south and west, and the 31st Division rested in Xinzheng.

Don't look at the 50,000 Beiyang Army in Zhengzhou, but to defend such a large city, 100,000 troops are not too much, and it is impossible for 50,000 people to defend impenetrable, the only way is to shrink the defense line, abandon the towns around Zhengzhou, and deploy directly outside Zhengzhou.

Responsible for the garrison of Zhengzhou is Zhang Huaizhi, Yuan Shikai originally wanted to invite Wang Shizhen, the head of the three heroes of Beiyang, to go out of the mountain to Zhengzhou to command, but Wang Shizhen refused to accept the order, and Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang are suspected of sitting big and not obeying orders, Feng Guozhang has already commanded eight divisions on the Eastern Front battlefield, with a total strength of nearly 100,000 people, which has made Yuan Shikai very taboo, if Duan Qirui is ordered to go to Kaifeng to command, he is worried that Duan Qirui will be difficult to restrain again, and he wants to transfer Zhang Huaizhi, who is in charge of Shandong affairs, to Zhengzhou to command.

Zhang Huaizhi used to be the head of the horseman squad of the army to raise horses, called Benme, and was later selected to study in the first phase of the artillery department of the Tianjin Armed Forces Academy.

When Yuan Shikai was training at the small station, he was elected as the commander of the army, and later served as the commander of the Beiyang Mountain Artillery Team. In August 1900, the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing, Zhang Huaizhi led the artillery team seconded to the Wuwei Chinese Army to attack the embassy in Dongjiaomin Lane, and when the Empress Dowager Cixi fled from Beijing with the Guangxu Emperor and the princes and ministers, Zhang Huaizhi led the troops to supervise the battle and contain the enemy army. In 1902, he served as the fourth standard commander of the Beiyang Standing Army's Zuozhen Infantry Team. In 1903, he was promoted to the commander of the Beiyang Standing Army, and was ordered to Shandong to form the Fifth Town of the Beiyang Standing Army. In 1904, Zhang Huaizhi was transferred to the commander of the Shanhaiguan Defense Battalion. In July 1905, he became the Acting Commander of the Second Town of the Army. In September 1906, he served as the commander of the Fourth Mixed Association of the Southern Army, and participated in the Zhangde Autumn Exercise. In 1907, Zhang Huaizhi went to Japan to visit the exercises of the Japanese Army University, and after returning to China, he served as the first assistant commander of the first town of the Beiyang Standing Army. In 1909, he served as the commander of the fifth town of Beiyang. In 1910, the army was stationed in Tianjin. On February 29, 1911, he was appointed as the commander of the Zhili Mixed Association; On October 3, the Qing court appointed Zhang Huaizhi as the governor of Gansu. After Yuan Shikai's comeback, he was transferred to the commander-in-chief of Tianjin Town, and after the peace between the north and the south, he was transferred to Shandong as the deputy minister of defense of Shandong.

It can be seen from Zhang Huaizhi's resume that he still belongs to the Beiyang lineage, but his status is worse than that of the Beiyang Sanjie.

The commander of the Eighth Division of the Beiyang Army is Wang Ruxian, the commander of the Ninth Division is Kong Geng, and the commander of the 12th Division is Chen Guangyuan, among these three people, Wang Ruxian is directly serving Yuan Shikai, Kong Geng is the person of Yan Xishan, the governor of Shaanxi, Chen Guangyuan is Feng Guozhang's person, Li Tiancai, the commander of the 56th Division, is only appreciated by Yuan Shikai, but he is not loyal to Yuan Shikai, and Li Jin, the commander of the 57th Division, is an old soldier of the original Qing court, and joined Yuan Shikai after the fall of the Qing court, as for how much loyalty to Yuan Shikai is only known to him.

Judging from his qualifications and close relationship with Yuan Shikai, Zhang Huaizhi is much stronger than these people, and he has also received a new-style military education, so his views and understanding of the current war are much deeper than those of other veteran soldiers, which is also the reason why Yuan Shikai transferred Zhang Huaizhi to Zhengzhou to sit in Zhengzhou.

However, Zhang Huaizhi made a fatal mistake when he first came, he deployed more than 12,000 remnants of Li Tiancai and Li Jincai, who retreated from Xuchang, on the five-kilometer defense line outside the southern gate of Zhengzhou, and this is the main direction of attack of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

When Zhang Xiaozhun ordered the 26th Division to attack Li Tiancai and Li Jincai's troops, the three defense lines outside the city defended by these two troops were broken through the first line of defense within one day, and very few soldiers deployed in the first line of defense were able to escape to the second line of defense, especially Li Jincai's troops suffered extremely heavy losses in the daytime battle, which made Li Jincai feel that the Beiyang side was very strict in excluding dissidents, and he was afraid that even if he could get out this time, he was afraid that he would be used as a scapegoat if he went back, so it was better to surrender to the Northern Expeditionary Army.

So that night, Li Jincai secretly sent someone to contact the opposite Northern Expeditionary Army, preparing for a battlefield uprising, Zhang Xiaozhun confirmed that Li Jincai was overjoyed after sincere surrender, the two troops carried out a secret handover in the middle of the night, and the positions of the southeast defense line outside the South City Gate all fell into the hands of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which made the Li Tiancai Department defending in the southwest defense line outside the South City Gate suddenly attacked by the Northern Expeditionary Army from the side in the battle the next day, and the defense line outside the South Gate outside Zhengzhou City suddenly collapsed, and the Northern Expeditionary Army arrived directly under the city. (To be continued......) R1292