On 27 October, after the main force of the entire 10th Division was dispatched to launch a four-day fierce attack on Suqian, the remnants of the 5th Division of the Liangjiang Army of the Anhui Army defending the direction of Suqian and new reinforcements came.

In the evening of the same day, the 10th Division broke through Linjiazhuang, an important stronghold of the Anhui army's outer defense line, and you must know that the Suqian defense line is not the Xuzhou defense line, and there are many peripheral strongholds that can be relied on after the Feng army conquers one, and after Linjiazhuang is conquered, the Anhui army is forced to retreat to Suqian City.

At the same time, the Anhui army in Taoyuan County and Qingjiangpu also learned that the main force of the Feng army was gathered in Suqian, and began to try to launch a counteroffensive, and even germinated the idea of counterattacking Muyang.

However, it is clear that once these non-main Anhui troops leave the strong fortifications, they cannot be compared with the Feng army in the field.

If it was Duan Qirui's descendant of the Fourth Division or the Second Mixed Brigade that launched the counteroffensive, or the First Division of the Liangjiang Army in the Liangjiang Army, which was in a better situation, it was possible for them to repel the remaining Feng troops and threaten Muyang, but it was not the main force in the Anhui Army that launched the counteroffensive.

It's not even the Liangjiang Army that Duan Qirui has focused on developing recently, it's just the Zhejiang Provincial Army, although these two divisions together have nearly seven or eight thousand troops, but they are still powerless in the face of more than two thousand left-behind Feng troops.

In the direction of Taoyuan County, the Zhejiang 1st Mixed Brigade of the Anhui Army launched a counterattack against an infantry battalion left behind by the Feng army, and in the offensive battle, the 1st Zhejiang Mixed Brigade, which still continued to charge intensively during the Russo-Japanese War, suffered heavy losses, and suffered casualties of more than 1,000 people under the dense machine-gun fire of the Feng army in less than two hours.

After suffering heavy casualties in the attack, the entire Zhejiang 1st Mixed Brigade was stunned, and then the Feng army seized the opportunity to launch a small-scale counteroffensive, and then, and then this Zhejiang 1st Mixed Brigade completely collapsed......

Even Major Qin Zhongkun, the commander of the second battalion of the 38th Regiment of the 19th Brigade of the Feng Army, who commanded the operation, did not expect that he would be able to completely defeat an entire mixed brigade on the opposite side!

You must know that although the infantry battalion under his command has more strength than the infantry battalions of other warlord troops, it is less than 1,000 people, while the Zhejiang 1st Mixed Brigade on the opposite side has more than 4,000 people, which is more than four to one.

The reason why the 1st Mixed Brigade of Zhejiang suffered such a crushing defeat was related to their lack of experience in fighting with the Feng army, and when they fought in the direction of Taoyuan County before, they relied on strong fortifications for defense, and took the initiative to launch an attack.

And more importantly, at the beginning, they threw in a regiment to launch a fierce attack on the Feng army's position, and they used the old dense charge, which was intercepted by the heavy machine guns of the second infantry battalion of the Feng army, so that they suffered heavy casualties before they could react.

Almost stunned the entire Zhejiang First Mixed Brigade, and then in the face of the next counterattack of the Feng army, the first reaction of those officers and soldiers of the Anhui Army was to turn around and run.

And there were more people who fled, which naturally led to a large-scale collapse, and then in the counterattack and pursuit of the Feng army, there was basically no decent resistance, and when Major Qin Zhongkun led the second battalion to try to make persistent efforts to attack Taoyuan County in the afternoon, more than 1,000 remnants of the Zhejiang First Mixed Brigade in the city simply raised the white flag and surrendered.

An infantry battalion crushed an entire mixed brigade of the enemy in a head-on engagement, killing and wounding more than 1,000 enemy troops and capturing more than 1,000! Such outstanding feats have never been seen since the founding of the Feng Army.

Although the Feng army won more with less, and there were often successful precedents of breaking through the enemy's defense line head-on, it was the first time that such a large gap in forces had occurred.

When the herald sent by Qin Zhongkun reported to his superiors that he had defeated the 1st Mixed Brigade in Zhejiang, killed and wounded more than 1,000 enemy troops, captured more than 1,000 prisoners, and captured Taoyuan County, Wu Peifu, the commander of the 19th Brigade, could hardly believe his eyes.

"Are you sure? Is this a fact? Wu Peifu asked the herald directly.

The herald of the second battalion had a happy face, and immediately said: "At this time, it is true, at nine o'clock in the morning, our army was counterattacked by the enemy outside Taoyuan County, and under the interception of our army's machine gun fire, the charging Anhui army went down in pieces like wheat that was cut, and the corpses of the Anhui army were covered in front of our army's position!" ”

Wu Peifu still couldn't believe that this was true, but he still took the battle report and quickly found Ren Cungao!

Ren Cungao, like him, was also extremely surprised after reading the battle report, but after showing a look of disbelief, his face showed obvious joy.

"This Qin Zhongkun really lived up to the personal teaching of the president, and this level of tactics can be regarded as second to none among the hundreds of battalion commanders in my army!" Ren Cungao naturally didn't know that the victory in Taoyuan County was not because the Feng army was too strong or how awesome Qin Zhongkun was, to be honest, this infantry battalion, this Qin Zhongkun was just average in the Feng army, and the influence of similar infantry battalions and majors was more in the three main divisions, and there were many more than that.

What really created this victory, on the one hand, is that Zhejiang's No. 1 Mixed Brigade is too scummy, and on the other hand, it is estimated that it can only be attributed to luck.

However, 'good luck' is also an indispensable and important ability of a good general, and I have never seen that unlucky guy become a generation of famous generals.

Although there is also a situation in the Feng army that reports good news but not bad news, the situation is not strict, because the high command analyzes the front-line war not only from the officers' battle reports, but also relies on the intelligence of the intelligence department, and basically the results of every large-scale battle will be reported to the high command separately. Moreover, even if there is a situation of reporting good news but not bad news, there is a certain amount of exaggerated results, but taking Taoyuan County and capturing thousands of people is something that Qin Zhongkun will never dare to lie.

Because these two items cannot be faked, if people find out that you did not take Taoyuan County, then a charge of lying about military intelligence is enough to make Qin Zhongkun go to the military court, and if the people of the Ministry of Education do not see so many prisoners, this lie will not be able to be fulfilled.

Therefore, Ren Cungao believes that although this battle report may have a certain amount of moisture, for example, it is very likely that the Zhejiang First Mixed Brigade will not be completely defeated, and the number of enemy troops killed and wounded will be less, but it should be no problem to take Taoyuan County and capture thousands of enemies, and based on these two points, then even if the Zhejiang First Mixed Brigade is not completely defeated, it should lose more than half.

There was no doubt that this was a great victory, a victory that would cause discussion within the entire Feng army, and although the scale of his battle was not large, such a feat would be difficult for even an entire infantry division to achieve, let alone a mere infantry battalion.

Look at the Xuzhou side, where most of the elite troops of the Feng army have gathered, but the enemy troops killed and wounded in the past month will not exceed 5,000, and you have killed and wounded more than 1,000 enemy troops in this area, and captured thousands of people.

So on the same day, Ren Cungao reported the victory to the former enemy headquarters in Xuzhou in the name of the 10th Division, and attached Qin Zhongkun's battle report, and at the same time, he himself also polished a report and handed it over.

This big victory, Qin Zhongkun is not the only one who can take credit from it, but also senior generals such as Wu Peifu, Ren Cungao and Su Kangyun can also benefit a lot.

Of course, this kind of credit is impossible for Ren Cungao to get him promoted, but at least it can relieve the pressure exerted on him by his superiors.

The battle in the direction of Taoyuan County was quickly reported to the Second Army and the former enemy headquarters in Xuzhou, and then it was quickly reported to the high command by telegram, and the next morning, when Zhao Dongyun listened to the military briefing, he learned the news.

"Qin Zhongkun, I remember that I just graduated from the advanced training class this year, I didn't expect that he would achieve such a good result in less than half a year after he got out of the army, good!" After Zhao Dongyun read the war report, he was in a good mood, he rarely paid attention to middle and low-level officers on weekdays, but today he was very interested in this Qin Zhongkun.

This Qin Zhongkun can be regarded as a relatively decent middle-level officer in the Fengtian Army, first applied for the Fengtian Military Academy, served in the third division after graduating from the crash course, and then was admitted to the advanced training class, he was a 1907 trainee who just graduated this year, and after graduation, he entered the tenth division to serve, and served as a battalion commander with the rank of major like most recent graduates.

To be honest, when the person was in the advanced class, his grades could only be regarded as average, and his graduation grades were only ranked in more than 30, which was far less well-known than Zhao Dongyun like the top few outstanding students, and now it was unexpected for everyone to be able to make a splash.

Faced with the necessity of motivating the morale of the front, Zhao Dongyun decided to carry out large-scale propaganda about this victory!

"Quanxu is here, we must pay attention to the rewards for meritorious personnel, I think this Qin Zhongkun can be promoted to one level!" Although Zhao Dongyun called someone from the Quanxu Department to personally order the promotion of Qin Zhongkun, he didn't say much, after all, Fengjun is a regular army with its own promotion system, especially for the appointment and promotion of middle and lower-level officers, it basically has a complete set of processes and routines, even those who are favored by the military bigwigs still have to honestly follow the promotion process stipulated by the Quanxu Department, it is impossible to say that today you are still a captain, tomorrow you will be a major, and then the day after tomorrow you will become a colonel.

This kind of thing can only occur in other warlord forces in contemporary China, and it cannot occur in the Feng army.

This Qin Zhongkun was promoted to a military rank with such a battle alone, which can be said to be the biggest reward, which can make him struggle for several years less than others, and more importantly, with such a military merit, with Zhao Dongyun's personal attention, then the follow-up Quanxuan Office will definitely give priority to his appointment and promotion, which is equivalent to letting him embark on a broad road.

As for other meritorious personnel, several grassroots officers can also be promoted or even awarded medals, but it is unlikely that senior officers will be promoted with this, at most, it will add a plus point in Zhao Dongyun's heart, and when Zhao Dongyun considers the promotion and appointment of senior generals, they will have more opportunities.

The development of the battle in Taoyuan County surprised everyone, the former Ren Cungao also planned to completely conquer Suqian, and he also fought Suqian's defenders were defeated and retreated, and the capture of Suqian was just around the corner, at this time came the news that Taoyuan County was conquered, which greatly affected the morale of both sides.

The morale of the Feng army naturally increased the attack on Suqian, and the Anhui army that learned the news did not dare to give up the fortifications and play field battles with the Feng army, and even the Anhui army that had just planned to launch a counteroffensive on the Qingjiangpu side fled back to Qingjiangpu overnight, and then honestly continued to hide behind the fortifications.

Although strategically speaking, the battle of Taoyuan County did not affect the development of the Suqian war too much, and it was even more difficult to affect the development of the entire war in northern Jiangsu, but this small battle can be regarded as a turning point in the Suqian campaign, and even a turning point in the entire war in northern Jiangsu.

On October 29, the 10th Division, with high morale, conquered Suqian, and the remnants of the 5th Division of the Liangjiang Army and the 2nd Mixed Brigade of the Liangjiang Army of the Anhui Army fled to the southwest.

In the First Battle of Suqian, the Anhui army left behind more than 700 corpses and nearly 1,000 seriously wounded people who could not be taken away, while the main force of the 10th Division lost more than 300 people killed and more than 400 seriously wounded.

In terms of results, it is not even as good as the results achieved by an infantry battalion in Qin Zhongkun District, and its own casualties are incomparably comparable, the 10th Division attacked Suqian with more than 700 casualties, but Qin Zhongkun's second battalion only suffered less than 100 casualties.

It can also be seen from this why a battalion-level battle alarmed Zhao Dongyun, and even let Zhao Dongyun personally open his mouth to promote Qin Zhongkun's military rank.

After taking Suqian, it means that the southern part of Xuzhou has opened the door to the 10th Division, and the subsequent 10th Division can continue to advance westward to cut off the connection between Xuzhou and the southern region, so the tens of thousands of Anhui troops in Xuzhou will be encircled.

Once the main force of the Anhui army in the direction of Xuzhou is annihilated, then there will be no force in the entire northern Jiangsu region that can stop the southward pace of the Feng army!