February 27th, Chaohu Lake in northern Anhui.

This city located in the north of the Yangtze River has become an important garrison of the Feng army in the past month, and after the Feng army marched south to the Jiangbei area and prepared to cross the river, although the official crossing site had not been determined before, it still gathered a large number of troops of the First Army in the Chaohu area, because whether it was crossing the river from Wuhu or crossing the river by detour and Zhou, Chaohu was the main starting point of the First Army.

A few days ago, after Zhao Dongyun formally approved the operational plan for crossing the river by the Operations Department, according to the operational plan for crossing the river drawn up by the Operations Division, Hezhou in Taiping Province was selected as the starting point for crossing the river.

In order to prevent the Anhui army from discovering the detailed location of the Feng army's crossing to the south of the Yangtze River in advance, not only the plan to cross the river was kept secret, but also the detailed location of the river crossing was kept secret.

Even the chief officer of the front-line troops like Gu Lanyu didn't know that the Command had determined Hezhou as the final place to cross the river.

However, when Lin Yongquan, the ninth division stationed in Chaohu, received an order to ask the unit to go to Hezhou secretly, Lin Yongquan, as the chief officer, also roughly guessed that the headquarters had planned to use Hezhou as the final place to cross the river.

However, although he had some speculation in his heart, he still consciously did not say it to anyone, and also carried out the final destination of this secret march to the subordinate officers of the Ninth Division, and only issued an order to secretly march eastward at night, and the destination was not said there.

When the Ninth Division secretly left Chaohu and went to Hezhou along Hanshan, the rest of the First Army also made a large-scale move.

In the Juren Hall of the West Garden of the Beijing Division, Shi Yanglin was reporting to Zhao Dongyun on the current movements of the various departments of the Feng Army.

"At present, the 9th Division has secretly left Chaohu and is on its way to Hezhou, and when they arrive at Hanshan, they will go to Hezhou with the 14th Division.

In addition, the 1st Mixed Brigade, which was originally stationed in the southeast of Chuzhou, has also left the station and headed for Hezhou.

The Second Cavalry Brigade stationed in Hefei has also finished its rest and is heading for Hezhou.

Together with the 3rd and 4th separate mortar battalions that were transferred together with the 9th and 14th Divisions, they constituted the main force of our army to cross the river in Hezhou.

In order to cross the river smoothly, the high command has transferred the engineering units of various units and formed an engineering regiment to build pontoon bridges for the battle of crossing the river, so as to ensure that the pontoon bridges will be erected within a short time after the troops crossing the river launch an attack. ”

"In accordance with the president's previous instructions, the Operations Office, together with the Quanxu Office, has transferred more than 30 senior combat staff officers from various departments of the General Headquarters and various armies of the southbound troops to join the temporary river crossing command, but the commanders of the various departments of the temporary river crossing command still need the president's discretion!"

Shi Yanglin's words continued: "In order to cooperate with the river crossing operation in the direction of Hezhou, the northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu regions have also carried out relevant transfers, and the 10th Division has strengthened the troops in the Nantong direction, and has now collected many small boats that can be used to cross the river, and can launch a small-scale river crossing harassment operation in the Nantong direction at any time!" ”

"In the Jinling direction, the 3rd Division, the 16th Division, the 20th Brigade of the 10th Division, and the 2nd Heavy Artillery Regiment are already actively preparing for battle, and it is expected that they will be ready to complete combat readiness within five days, and then they will be able to launch a large-scale attack on the enemy in Jinling!"

"In the direction of Wuhu, the Fourth Mixed Brigade of our army has left Chaohu for Wuhu, so that the Second Mixed Brigade of the enemy, which is in the direction of Hezhou, will be restrained in that direction after crossing the river to reinforce in the direction of Dangtu."

"In the direction of Anqing, the First Division has launched a small-scale exploratory attack on the land of Anqing!"

"In order to further strengthen the strength of our army in the direction of Jiangbei, our army has transferred the 13th Division to move eastward, and it is expected to arrive in Hefei within two weeks, and then go south to Hezhou or east to Jinling depending on the situation. After the departure of the 13th Division, the defense in the Xinyang direction will be replaced by the 15th Division. ”

After hearing this, Zhao Dongyun also put down the report in his hand, and then said: "You remember, in view of the current situation of the troops, the Fourth Army is specially ordered to be established to command the Hezhou River Crossing Force, which has jurisdiction over the Ninth Division, the Fourteenth Division, the First Mixed Brigade, the Second Cavalry Brigade, the Third and Fourth Mortar Battalions, and the Independent Engineering Regiment. ”

"In addition, the 13th Division will be transferred to the command of the First Army, and the 15th Division will be transferred to the command of the Third Army."

Zhao Dongyun did not directly tell Shi Yanglin about the candidate for the commander of the newly established Fourth Army, because this had nothing to do with Shi Yanglin.

For the newly established Fourth Army, this is the need of the current war situation, before the Feng army in the Jiangbei region only had the First Army and the Second Army, and these two armies were responsible for northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui respectively, but because the deployment of the troops of these two armies was quite scattered, moving hundreds of kilometers was a huge challenge for the command system.

In this era, although there were radio, wired and other communication facilities, it was difficult to achieve timely communication hundreds of kilometers away, so it was impossible to remotely command the front-line troops in Chuzhou or Hefei.

In addition, the source of the river-crossing troops in Hezhou is rather complicated, and they are drawn from the First Army, the Second Army, and the direct jurisdiction of the General Headquarters, so in order to avoid confusion in the command system of the river-crossing troops, it is necessary to separate them into an army.

The establishment of the Fourth Army is necessary, but the choice of the commander made Zhao Dongyun hesitate for a while, according to the qualifications, this should be the commander of the Ninth Division, Lieutenant General Lin Yongquan, will be promoted to the commander, but Lin Yongquan's ability Zhao Dongyun knows very well that it is already very reluctant to become a division commander, if he is allowed to be a army commander and coordinate the war in a strategic direction, the consequences will be absolutely unimaginable.

Lin Yongquan has been able to occupy the position of the commander of the Ninth Division, the main division, not because of his talent, but because of his qualifications and loyalty to follow Zhao Dongyun first. It can be said that among all the division commanders and mixed brigade commanders of the Feng Army, Lin Yongquan's talent is at the bottom level.

Otherwise, Gu Lanyu and Ren Cungao, who are both commanders of the three main divisions, are famous at home and abroad, but why is he Lin Yongquan unknown! In particular, Gu Lanyu's name has spread to all the warlords in the country, and he is known as the most dazzling young general in the Beiyang Soviet system, and Xiao Shixi of the Southern Federation can be regarded as a representative of the famous generals of the south and the north.

Don't look at Lin Yongquan, who is now the commander of the Ninth Division, those arrogant Soviet generals don't say anything, but if they are promoted to army commander beyond Gu Lanyu and others, I am afraid it will cause a big stir.

In the Su department, although qualifications and loyalty are important, talent is even more important, if you only have qualifications and loyalty, you Lin Yongquan can completely learn from Li San, although people don't learn and don't have skills, but no one opposes Li San as the director of the secretariat.

At the beginning, Zhao Dongyun insisted on supporting Lin Yongquan to serve as the commander of the Ninth Division, the main purpose was to control the troops, and now, the Soviet system with Zhao Dongyun as the core has taken shape, and if nothing big happens, Zhao Dongyun still has greater confidence in controlling the existing troops, so at this time, there is no need to resist the opposition of many subordinates to support Lin Yongquan to take the position, simply put, this Lin Yongquan has lost the value of use.

Therefore, Zhao Dongyun did not choose Lin Yongquan as the commander of the Fourth Army, but continued to reuse Meng Enyuan, and transferred Meng Enyuan, the commander of the First Army, as the commander of the Fourth Army, to coordinate the affairs of the Hezhou River crossing operation.

Meng Enyuan was appointed as the commander of the Fourth Army, this appointment was expected by many people, after all, although there are many high-ranking generals in the contemporary Feng Army, they have experience in commanding military-level troops, and at the same time have enough qualifications to suppress Yang Deming, Lin Yongquan and others, and Meng Enyuan is the most suitable person among them.

Meng Enyuan was transferred to the Fourth Army as the commander, so that the position of commander of the First Army was vacated, but unlike Meng Enyuan's appointment in the Fourth Army, which was expected by many people, the new commander of the First Army was beyond the expectations of many people, and he was Lu Yongxiang, the commander of the First Division.

Who is Lo Wing Cheung? His name is well-known to many people in China, and as a former direct general, he has fought with Fengjun in Tangshan.

Later, he surrendered to Zhao Dongyun, and he also knew that people had to bow their heads under the roof, and he mostly did not speak at the combat meetings of the basic First Army, as long as he was ordered to fight by the superiors, he would fight as he pleased, and he did not like to install and train his own people like many high-level Soviet generals, and even stopped contacting many old departments of the direct army, and properly became a turtle with a shrunken head, so that in the past six months, he has a relatively weak sense of existence in the Soviet army.

However, although this person is very peaceful, but the ability to fight is not bad at all, he was able to take the first division in Tangshan and the Feng army, which is far superior to his own troops and equipment, and after retreating to the Beijing division, he can also take the remnants of the first division to stop the attack of the main force of the first army of the Feng army in Nanyuan, if it is not for the Feng army to detour through Tongzhou to attack the Beijing division, maybe Lu Yongxiang will really let Lu Yongxiang hold the Beijing division.

This person undoubtedly left a very deep impression on the Soviet generals, and even more so on Zhao Dongyun.

If it weren't for the love of talent recruitment, Zhao Dongyun would not have accepted the surrender of the First Division at the beginning, let alone retained Lu Yongxiang's position as the commander of the First Division, and now he would not have replenished the armament of the First Division, so that the establishment of the First Division would have expanded to more than 15,000 people, and the artillery regiment would have been restored to completeness, becoming a unit second only to the four main divisions.

is also a surrender to the army, and the treatment of Lu Yongxiang's first division and Zhang Dianru's sixteenth division is very different.

After observing for half a year, Zhao Dongyun also thought that it was time to pull Lu Yongxiang out and slip away, after all, no matter what, this is a rare general in the contemporary Feng army, he is the only third general in the Feng army today with experience in commanding army-level troops after Meng Enyuan and Chen Guangyuan, although his experience comes from the original Tangshan Campaign.

Zhao Dongyun's bold appointment shocked the jaws of many Soviet generals, and even when Lu Yongxiang himself received the telegram from Ju Rentang, his mouth was half open, and he didn't react for a long time!