According to the current speed of the Second Cavalry Brigade, it is expected to be able to arrive in Shijiazhuang in two days, although the situation in Shijiazhuang Wu Fengling is critical, but Zhao Dongyun also knows that Wu Fengling's telegram can not be fully trusted, Wu Fengling said that the casualty figure has to be at least six or seven folds, two thousand dead and wounded is impossible, Wu Fengling brought out of the customs a total of only about 10,000 troops, if the casualties rate of two thousand casualties is more than 20 percent, this Wu Fengling's troops would have collapsed long ago, there is still time to send a telegram to Zhao Dongyun for help. 、

After all, although Wang Ruxian's troops are only a side of the Beiyang, their combat effectiveness is second-rate when looking at the country, and Wang Ruxian's troops are quite a lot.

From the end of last year to the present, the major warlords in Beiyang are expanding their armies, and not every warlord is trained according to the standards of the regular field army like Zhao Dongyun and Wang Yingkai, for example, although Duan Qirui has no shortage of money in Liangjiang, and the number of recruits and expansions is huge, but the expansion is the Liangjiang Provincial Army, Duan Qirui used prisoners of war and newly recruited soldiers in Liangjiang to expand three Liangjiang Army divisions and two mixed brigades, speaking of the number of division-level troops, now Duan Qirui is much more than several other warlords in Beiyang, However, those Liangjiang armies did not even have a few artillery pieces, and the total number of artillery pieces of the three divisions was not as large as that of the fourth division of Duan Qirui's army.

Wang Ruxian's army expansion model is also very similar to Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen's, from the end of last year to the beginning of the year, his Eighth Division was fully staffed, but the soldiers were enough, and the rifles were also available, but there was an extreme lack of heavy weapons, not to mention the full artillery, not even half of the quota, in addition, he also got a mixed brigade of the Henan Provincial Army, and the equipment of this mixed brigade was even worse, the rifle was a Type 88 rifle, and other old-fashioned single-mounted rifles were also available, and the artillery only had six 57 mm caliber mountain guns.

However, although Wang Ruxian's first division and a mixed brigade are poorly equipped, they have a lot of people, which adds up to a small 20,000 people, and this time the northward reinforcements almost brought the main force, a full 16,700 people.

Compared with Wang Ruxian, Wu Fengling's troops are smaller than Wang Ruxian's, and half of the troops are the Second Mixed Brigade of the Shanxi Provincial Army, which is also second-rate in combat effectiveness.

But now Wu Fengling can still hold on, but after Wang Shizhen's brigade that went north to reinforce arrives in Shijiazhuang, then Wu Fengling will not be very reluctant to resist again.

At the same time, because Zhao Erxun also launched a large-scale offensive against Wu Fengling's troops left behind in Shanxi in the south and west of Shanxi, Wu Fengling was unable to send reinforcements from Shanxi to reinforce Shijiazhuang.

In this case, the reinforcement of the Second Cavalry Brigade is very important to the Shijiazhuang front, and whether Shijiazhuang can hold it directly affects the entire Zhili battle situation, so even if the horses of the Second Cavalry Brigade run away, Zhao Dongyun still has to let the Second Cavalry Brigade continue to go south for reinforcements.

"In two days, this is barely in time!" After Zhao Dongyun determined the time when the Second Cavalry Brigade arrived in Shijiazhuang, he tacitly calculated the information sent by the intelligence department, and the intelligence reality was that Wang Shizhen's troops should arrive in Shijiazhuang two days later.

After ensuring that the development of the Shijiazhuang war was still under his control, Zhao Dongyun once again set his sights on Bazhou and Jingshi.

Today's Jingshi and Bazhou have restrained most of their troops, and they can't wait like this any longer!

Zhao Dongyun pondered for a while and then spoke: "The battle of Bazhou is related to the survival of our army, and it cannot be delayed for a moment. ”

Yang Deming immediately said: "The ministry is ordered!" ”

Zhao Dongyun once again turned his gaze to Meng Enyuan and said: "The Beijing division can't be delayed for too long, now our army has invested one division and two mixed brigades in the direction of the Beijing division, although the total number of troops is about the same as the enemy's army, but the main force of the direct army on the opposite side is only a few thousand remnants of the first division, I hope that the officers and men of the first army will give full play to the spirit of heroic combat and conquer the Beijing division as soon as possible!" ”

When Meng Enyuan heard Zhao Dongyun say this, his old face was also red, Zhao Dongyun's words sounded nothing on the surface, but Meng Enyuan had followed Zhao Dongyun for many years, so he could naturally hear that Zhao Dongyun's words had already expressed a trace of dissatisfaction.

The Battle of Jingshi began in early July and has been going on for many days, although some progress has been made, but it is extremely limited, far from being able to conquer Cheng Dù of Jingshi in one fell swoop, and it is not surprising that Zhao Dongyun is dissatisfied with this.

Meng Enyuan immediately said: "Don't worry, the commander will rush to the front line of the Southern Courtyard to supervise the battle after the meeting, and the officers and men of the First Army must do their best to conquer the Beijing Division!" ”

Zhao Dongyun didn't intend to give Meng Enyuan a chance to be vague, and immediately said: "How long will it take for the First Army to be able to take the Jingshi?" ”

Meng Enyuan was cautious after hearing this, and only after a few breaths did he say: "Within three days, there will definitely be good news from the subordinate department!" ”

Zhao Dongyun ignored Meng Enyuan's words, but said directly: "I'll give you eight days, and then give you the independent heavy artillery battalion and two heavy mortar battalions, and in eight days, my military boots will set foot on the land of the Forbidden City!" ”

Meng Enyuan stood up immediately after hearing this, his face was a little red, and he knew that now was not the time to bargain, but the time to express confidence and loyalty: "The ministry will take the order, and he will definitely win the Jingshi within eight days, and if he doesn't succeed, he will be self-refereed to repay the high hopes of the commander!" ”

Zhao Dongyun waved his hand: "What I want is victory, not your self-determination!" ”

This military meeting, which was dominated by the Battle of Bazhou, finally ended with a request for Meng Enyuan to conquer the Jingshi within a time limit.

After Meng Enyuan walked out of the conference room, he walked to Yang Deming's side with a heavy face: "Director Yang, can you lend your staff officers to my first army?" ”

Yang Deming looked at Meng Enyuan, and was a little worried about him, the strength of the First Army attacking the Beijing Division was actually not much, and although Wang Yingkai's troops were defeated by the remnants, there were also 20,000 people, although most of them were useless goods, but the Second Brigade of the First Division was still a hard bone!

Although there are many staff officers of the First Army, there is still a big difference between the professional staff officers and the staff of the General Staff, especially the staff officers of the Operations Department, and although the combat staff officers of other armies, divisions, and brigades are all excellent young officers, they are basically officers trained by the Beiyang Military Academy and the Fengtian Military Academy, but most of the combat staff officers in the Operations Department are international students and advanced students, and the lowest military rank is major, and most of them are lieutenant colonels. If you want to serve in the field army, you are basically a candidate for regiment commander.

Yang Deming thought that there were a lot of people in his operations department, and there was no need to organize large-scale combat plans like the original entry operations and Tangshan battles in the near future, and that a mere Bazhou campaign could not use so many human resources in the operations department, and it was not a big problem to seconded a few people to Meng Enyuan's First Army.

Immediately said: "Of course there is no problem, I'll go back and pick a few for them to assist in the first army!" ”

Meng Enyuan said: "Well, thank you for that, by the way, I heard that Major Fang Qingkun, the head of the three sections under you, is also here, can you transfer him too?" ”

Yang Deming looked at Meng Enyuan with some surprise, he didn't expect that Meng Enyuan, a person at the level of a lieutenant general, still knew those combat staff officers under his combat department, and since he was able to say Fang Qingkun's name today, he must have a deep understanding of this person.

"Commander Meng, you have a good vision, this Fang Anqing's ability is also the top among the colleagues who have returned to Germany this year, since you have spoken, I will let him go to the First Army for a few days!"

Fang Qingkun, the word Anqing, a native of Liaocheng, Shandong, this person is the same as many officers in the Beiyang system, he is a Beiyang man with strong roots, Gengzi years ago when Yuan Shikai served as the governor of Shandong, he was in the Wuwei Right Army, so this person was a talent before joining the army, and he was young and studious and soon entered the Wuwei Right Army Camp School, and at that time Zhao Dongyun was still teaching in the Wuwei Right Army Camp School, so a kind of Cheng dù is said to be one of Zhao Dongyun's early students, Later, the person was sent to Germany to study by Yuan Shikai along with many other students, and Yang Deming, Li Xiang and others were admitted to the Berlin Military Academy, this person studied in Germany is an ordinary non-commissioned officer school, and after returning to China at the beginning of this year, he and Li Xiang, Yi Liangxu, Kang Dianqiao and others went straight to Shenyang to join Zhao Dongyun.

A few months later, on the eve of Fengjun's entry into the customs, due to the imminent entry of the Fengjun army, a large number of officers from the army headquarters, especially the staff department, were transferred to enrich the field troops, and the former chief of the third section of the combat department was transferred to the 10th Division and promoted to the commander of the 39th Regiment, so this Fang Qingkun also took the opportunity to be promoted to the chief of the third section of the combat department.

Because of his outstanding ability, although there are many students who have returned to China to defect to Zhao Dongyun, except for Yang Deming and the other three who are high-achieving students of the Berlin Military Academy, the future is bright, and the promotion of other students in Germany is also very different due to the difference in personal ability. From this, if it is transferred to the field troops, a regiment commander is proper.

Such an outstanding person naturally has a good reputation in the Feng army, but being able to make Meng Enyuan, the commander of the Feng army, value it and personally put it forward, also made Yang Deming a little surprised.

Since Meng Enyuan asked for this person by name, Yang Deming naturally would not interfere with it, and then arranged for Fang Qingkun and three other staff officers from the Operations Department to go to the headquarters of the First Army to temporarily help Meng Enyuan make suggestions.

This arrangement is naturally not a formal transfer, just a temporary secondment, but for Fang Qingkun and others, this move can also be regarded as a good thing to add a strong sum to their resumes, if the battle of attacking the Beijing division goes well, then it will also be of great benefit to their future promotion.

When Meng Enyuan found talents to enrich his staff team, he soon reformulated the plan to attack the Beijing Division, this time the focus of their attack was changed from Nanyuan to the direction of Tongzhou, the reason is that although Nanyuan is convenient for attack, supplies are also convenient, but on the opposite side is the remnants of the first division led by Lu Yongxiang himself, don't look at the remnants, but the second brigade in it is a unit that has not suffered losses in the Tangshan Campaign, which is not easy to fight, and although the enemy in the direction of Tongzhou also has a large number of troops, but they are all the 11th Division, The troops of the 12th Division, although it is a little troublesome to supply this attack, it will be much easier if the supplies are in place.

When Meng Enyuan was asked by Zhao Dongyun to conquer the Beijing Division within eight days, and then the First Army adjusted the existing deployment and tactics on a large scale, the battle in the Bazhou direction also intensified after the Operations Department formally formulated an anti-encirclement operation plan.

As the 6th Brigade changed direction and made a detour to the southeast of Bazhou, trying to detour back to the flank of the 7th Division to carry out counter-encirclement, the 5th Brigade became even more dangerous in the face of the onslaught of the 7th Division!