Before entering the customs battle, Zhao Dongyun, Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui agreed on the preliminary battle plan, which was to deal with the interference of foreign countries as the main goal, relatively speaking, how to conquer the Beijing division is only a secondary goal, as for the defeat of the Manchu Dynasty after conquering the Beijing division, it is not their main goal, at best it can only be said that it will be easy to do when the time comes.

Therefore, although Wang Duan and Zhao have a lot of troops in their hands, for example, Zhao Dongyun has three full towns, but why did they only transfer a third town and temporarily organize a first cavalry to enter the customs? It was because Zhao Dongyun needed to leave two towns in Mukden to guard against the movement of the Japanese and Russian armies.

Similarly, when attacking the Beijing Division, Wang Duan and Zhao also attached great importance to the powers of various countries in Tianjin, Duan Qirui left a mark in Langfang, and Wang Yingkai also left a mark near Tianjin Machang, and Zhao Dongyun directly deployed the First Cavalry Association to the south, although there are still dozens of kilometers away from Tianjin, but the purpose is very obvious, that is, to guard against Tianjin and protect Tangshan in the rear.

The above three people unanimously made this kind of military deployment, of course, there were factors such as stabilizing the rear and keeping the army retreating, but the most important thing was to guard against the intervention of the major powers of various countries.

In order to guard against the possible intervention of the major powers, Wang Duan and Zhao can be said to have transferred a considerable number of troops, especially the main force of Zhao Dongyun, who was guarding against Japan and Russia, and a large number of troops were pinned down in Jinzhou and Tangshan, which can be said to have affected the action of attacking the Beijing division.

Of course, this also has something to do with Zhao Dongyun's previous optimism, he was very confident before entering the customs, thinking that even if there was the betrayal of Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen, but if he united Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai, it should not be a problem to conquer the Beijing Division, so what he considered most before and after entering the customs was not how to say how to conquer the Beijing Division, but how to compete with Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai for the position of the lord of the Beiyang after entering the customs.

But he didn't expect that Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang actually took the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War, played trench defense warfare, and made themselves like the Japanese army in the previous two years.

But if you want to say that you can easily conquer the enemy's defense line, it is nonsense, in front of trenches, machine guns and barbed wire, even if the combat effectiveness of the third town is higher than that of the sixth town, there is no good way, if you want to force the attack, you will basically kill 1,000 enemies and lose 800.

In this case, if Zhao Dongyun wants to make some gains on the front line of Tongzhou, or even quickly break through the enemy's defense line and attack the Beijing Division, then he has to consider other methods.

The first is to increase troops, in other words, to continue to draw troops from outside the customs into the customs, and then form a greater superiority in troops. The second is to draw the First Cavalry Association to join the sequence of attacking the Beijing Division.

However, whether it is the transfer of troops from outside the customs into the customs or the transfer of the First Cavalry Association, then there is a question involved, that is, what if the countries send troops to intervene if their heads are hot?

It's actually not a small possibility!

Since the Gengzi year, during the Guangzong rebellion in 1902, the countries have sent troops to intervene, and the countries have gathered more than 6,000 troops to go south, otherwise Yuan Shikai would not have been so nervous, and directly sent his new army to Guangzong to suppress it, which is to prevent the countries from interfering in the army from finding an excuse to start a war again.

It's only 1906 now, and it's just a few years past, so whether it's Zhao Dongyun, Duan Qirui, or Wang Yingkai, in fact, they are all preventing the countries from repeating the old events of the Gengzi Year.

Once they find an excuse, maybe the Eight-Nation Coalition will come again, and then Britain, France, the United States, and Germany in this coalition will not be able to send too many troops because of the distance, and it is estimated that it will only be a few hundred people, but Japan and Russia can send large armies.

Don't look at the fact that Japan and Russia fought so badly in the past few years, but not long after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, although the Japanese and Russian armies have withdrawn from the three eastern provinces in accordance with the agreement, the Japanese army in Korea and the Russian army in Vladivostok still have hundreds of thousands of troops.

Moreover, once they succeed in intervening and force China to sign the second Xinchou Treaty, the benefits they can reap will be very large, so purely from the perspective of interests, it is very possible for them to send troops to intervene.

Considering military affairs, we have to look ahead and be cautious and cautious, so Zhao Dongyun would rather only bring the third town and the first cavalry into the pass, rather than reduce the defense force of Jinzhou. After entering the customs, he would rather only take a third town to attack the Beijing division, and let the first cavalry return to the front line of Tangshan and Tianjin.

How to say it, take 10,000 steps back and say, if you can't beat the Jingshi, in fact, Zhao Dongyun can't lose anything, the big deal is to stalemate for a period of time and then negotiate, no matter how you talk about it, it won't be bad there.

If he is really unlucky and defeated, he will at most flee back to the northeast, but as long as he locks the Shanhaiguan, then the disputes in the customs will not affect him, and he will still have a chance to try to enter the customs for a few more years.

But this has a premise that he has to defend his hometown in the northeast first, so it is impossible for him to transfer all the main forces of the Feng army to the Guannei, and he is not like Zhang Xueliang's loser as a lost dog.

The most basic requirement for a qualified warlord is to hold his own territory, and then you can talk about reunification, the country and the nation, and so on. If you give the land directly to others without firing a shot, it doesn't matter if you give it to the Japanese himself or to Jiang Guangtou, it will be an unforgivable thing!

When the warlord thinks it's like this, it's a fart, and he hangs himself.

Well, in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, Zhang Xueliang was a negative example among the domestic warlords, well, not that he was good or bad, but because he was so stupid, he had to wonder if his IQ was abnormal.

Zhao Dongyun's IQ is naturally normal, so don't look at him running to the gate to set off this bloody storm, but in fact, his top priority is the safety of his own territory!

"The First Cavalry Association is not moving, after all, Tangshan can't be defended, not to mention anything else, even if it is for the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, we have to deploy a certain number of troops there!" Zhao Dongyun frowned and said.

Yang Deming, who was on the side, continued: "The First Cavalry Association is a mobile force, if it is limited to the southern front, I am afraid it will limit their combat effectiveness, if the Tangshan front line is really to be defended, can we transfer another standard from Shanhaiguan to help defend Tangshan, and the vacancy on the Tangshan side can be deployed from outside the customs!" ”

Yang Deming continued to insist on sending troops to Zhao Dongyun to reinforce the front line of the Beijing Division.

Zhao Dongyun didn't speak, but turned his head and asked Fang Biyong: "What's the situation with the Fourth Mixed Association and the Fifth Mixed Association?" ”

Fang Biyong said: "Now the Fourth Mixed Association has accepted two battalion recruits from the Education Department and the first artillery team, and is currently undergoing emergency training in Jinzhou, and the Fifth Mixed Association has accepted a battalion of recruits, and according to the order of the headquarters, it is currently preparing to go to Fengtian and Liaoyang to deploy defenses. ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded after hearing this: "It seems that the work of compilation and training has made progress!" ”

After Yuan Shikai was assassinated, Zhao Dongyun waved his hand to expand the two mixed associations, and in order to form an army, he adopted the traditional method of expanding the army in Beiyang, that is, directly transferring a part of the active troops as the backbone, and then expanding a new army on this basis.

The Fourth Mixed Association and the Fifth Mixed Association respectively transferred an infantry standard and an artillery team from the first and second towns of Fengtian, and a small number of other auxiliary arms were also transferred, and then expanded on this basis.

"Fengtian and Liaoyang can't do without regular troops, this fifth mixed association still has to continue to deploy in the past, as for this fourth mixed association!" Zhao Dongyun paused slightly when he said this, he was going to send this Fourth Mixed Association to the Yingkou area to deploy defenses, but now the troops in the Guannai side are tight, so he can only change the original plan.

"Call He Zonglian and ask him to lead his troops to move to Shanhaiguan!"

"Let the two battalions of the twelfth target move from Shanhaiguan to Tangshan!"

"Transfer Lao Meng's cavalry to the north to cooperate with the third town to fight!"

The core of this deployment is to coordinate He Zonglian's fourth mixed formation to Shanhaiguan, but this fourth mixed association is said to be a mixed association, but in fact, there is only one infantry standard that can be played now, and the newly recruited troops have not had time to train!

Thanks to the railway inside and outside the Guan, Zhao Dongyun's speed of mobilizing troops is still very fast, He Zonglian's Fourth Mixed Association received Zhao Dongyun's telegram order, the next day is to board the train to Shanhaiguan to take over the defense, and the original two battalions of the 12th standard stationed in Shanhaiguan also continued to move west after handing over the defense, and then arrived in Tangshan, officially taking over the defense of Tangshan.

And Meng Enyuan's cavalry association was finally able to pull out, and then quickly maneuvered north, but they did not stop in Tongzhou, but continued to go north to the Mapo area, and then turned west to Shahe, Yangfang and other places, and after successively ending several small-scale garrisons in the north of the Beijing Division, they successfully blocked the northern part of the Beijing Division, and joined the cavalry unit of the first town of Wang Yingkai's department that attacked from the west in the Sujiatuo area.

At this time, the entire Jingshi was already completely surrounded by the allied forces of Wang Duan and Zhao!