At twelve o'clock in the morning, Shi Yanglin hurriedly walked into Zhao Dongyun's office with the battle report.

"How's the situation with the Seventeenth Brigade?" Shi Yanglin hadn't spoken yet, Zhao Dongyun just asked first.

"At present, the pressure on the 34th Regiment is very high, and it has been forced to abandon two lines of defense in a row, and although the situation on the 33rd Regiment's side is still relatively stable for the time being, it is not optimistic!" Shi Yanglin said: "However, the Fourth Army has continued to reinforce the south bank since this morning, and a regiment of the 18th Brigade is already crossing the river, and it is expected that the river will be completed in two hours!" ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded: "Well, report to me immediately if there is a new situation!" ”

In the first two days, the Feng army was limited by the shortage of boats crossing the river, and those medium and large ships were used to build pontoon bridges, and could only use small boats to transport troops and supplies, so Meng Enyuan did not send more troops to cross the river, but now the situation is more urgent, and the construction of the pontoon bridge has entered the end, so a large number of ships can be freed up for river crossing transportation, so the Fourth Army has been sending troops to cross the river again since last night, first a battalion, and then one.

Today, the Fourth Army is expected to transport the 18th Brigade across the river, and although the 18th Brigade cannot carry heavy weapons and too many weapons and ammunition when crossing the river, it is still a fresh force and is enough to play a huge role in reinforcing the 17th Brigade.

Another two hours later, Shi Yanglin came in again with a telegram, and then said with a little panic: "The 34th Regiment has been attacked by the enemy's Fourth Division Supplementary Brigade, and has now connected and lost two lines of defense!" ”

Zhao Dongyun was also panicked when he heard this, and then asked, "What about the thirty-third regiment?" What about the 18th Brigade, has the river crossing been completed? ”

Shi Yanglin said: "According to the intelligence of the front, it should be that the 7th Brigade of Liangjiang transferred part of its troops to the south and cooperated with the 4th Division Supplementary Brigade to launch an attack on the right flank of our 34th Regiment. So at present, the situation of the 33rd Regiment is still relatively stable! ”

"The 18th Brigade is still in the process of crossing the river, and some of the troops who have completed the river crossing have quickly rushed to reinforce the 17th Brigade, if nothing else, it should be possible to arrive within two hours to reinforce the 17th Brigade!"

Zhao Dongyun didn't continue to say anything after hearing this, now he is powerless in this situation, what he should have done before has been done Since the outbreak of the battle of crossing the river, all he can do is to watch from the sidelines, waiting for the front-line troops to come back with a battle report, but there is no way to intervene in anything.

Limited by the contemporary level of communication, it is impossible for Zhao Dongyun to remotely command the troops in the rear like Jiang Guangtou in later generations, not that he does not want to do this, but he can't do it, and the contemporary limited intelligence gathering ability and communication level, it is impossible to say that Zhao Dongyun, who is thousands of miles away, can directly command the front-line troops to fight.

As the commander-in-chief of the First Army, what Zhao Dongyun had to do was to formulate an overall strategic plan according to the international and domestic situation, and decide the strategic development direction of the Soviet Union, a military, political, industrial, and commercial interest group, while some other detailed things, such as the battle of crossing the Yangtze River and even the formulation of the Jiangnan strategy, were actually formulated by the General Staff, and Zhao Dongyun only made the final decision.

And when the specific battle is going on now, Zhao Dongyun can only stare at the rear.

In addition to listening to the reports of the front-line war in a timely manner, one of the things Zhao Dongyun did the most was to send personal condolences and encouragement telegrams to the front-line generals, which was nothing more than making various promises: You have won the war, and it is not a dream to be promoted to a knighthood!

Just when Zhao Dongyun of Jingshi was in a hurry.

On the Ma'anshan front line opposite Hezhou, the 17th Brigade suffered the biggest crisis since the formation of the army!

The 17th Brigade has been fighting hard for three days since crossing the river, and now it has been attacked from both sides by the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division and the 7th Division of Liangjiang, with a total of more than 20,000 troops.

"When will the troops of the Eighteenth Brigade arrive?" Pan Luanqing is no longer as calm as before, and now he is wearing a general's coat and directly inspecting the battle line of the 34th Regiment with a large number of officers.

The adjutant next to him said: "A battalion of the 35th Regiment of the 18th Brigade is about to arrive, and it is expected that we will be able to reinforce my 34th Regiment in half an hour!" The next two battalions of the 35th Regiment are expected to arrive in a month and a half! ”

Although the 18th Brigade had successfully crossed the river, the battle site of the Fengwan and Anhui armies was not on the beachhead, but about 5 kilometers outside the beachhead. This distance is just the maximum support distance of the artillery on the north bank of the Feng army, and at the same time, the artillery of the Anhui army will not threaten the safety of the troops crossing the river and the erection of the pontoon bridge because of the insufficient range.

In this way, if the ammunition supply and personnel reinforcements in the rear want to reach the front line, they still need to advance about five kilometers or so after getting off the ship, five kilometers, which is the walking speed of ordinary people, but the overall marching speed of the army has always been inferior to the speed of a single person, and it is very easy for ordinary people to walk thirty or forty kilometers a day, but for a heavily armed army, the daily marching speed is generally around twenty-five kilometers, and if you want to reach thirty or forty kilometers, you need to march lightly.

After the troops of the 18th Brigade disembarked, it took a certain amount of time to gather their troops, and then they were able to go to the front line according to the various combat orders, and even if they marched lightly, it would take at least an hour or even more than an hour and a half.

However, now the situation of the 17th Brigade has reached the most critical moment, and an hour, two hours can change the outcome of the battle.

Pan Luanqing braved the fire of war to inspect the front line, encouraging every officer and soldier he met, telling them that we were sure to win this battle, that the enemy's current fierce attack was only the last dying struggle, as long as we waited for the successful erection of the pontoon bridge, and a large number of main forces and supplies in the rear crossed the river, then we could usher in a complete victory.

When the 17th Brigade was using its last bit of energy to resist the attack of the Anhui army, Meng Enyuan on the north bank also walked to the riverside, and beside him was Fang Biyun, the commander of the task force.

"Colonel, how long will it take for your pontoon bridge to be completed?" Meng En didn't have much politeness, and asked Fang Biyun directly as soon as he came up: "I need you to give me an accurate time, you must know that my troops are all ready, just waiting for your pontoon!" ”

After hearing this, Fang Biyun looked back slightly, and behind them were tens of thousands of soldiers of the Fourth Army and tens of thousands of people carrying burdens and pushing wheelbarrows, these people had been preparing since this morning, waiting for the moment when the pontoon bridge was successfully erected.

As long as the pontoon bridge is successfully erected, then these people will be able to quickly cross the Yangtze River, and a large number of combat soldiers will cross the river while sending a large amount of ammunition and supplies to the other side.

At present, the total number of Feng troops hoarded in the direction of Hezhou is quite large, in addition to the inherent field troops of the Fourth Army, there are also more than 10,000 people organized by the Ministry of Quartermasters, and these people will cross the Yangtze River with the Fourth Army to provide the Fourth Army with the task of transporting supplies south of the Yangtze River.

In fact, in order to support the Fourth Army's mission of crossing the river in the south, far more than 10,000 people were mobilized and requisitioned, and Hezhou was located on the edge of the Yangtze River, and the nearest supply transfer station was hundreds of kilometers away.

In order to transport ammunition and grain to the Yangtze River, the Feng army specially opened up the Ru'an supply line, and in order to provide ammunition supplies to the Fourth Army, the Quartermaster Department opened up two transportation routes from Lu'an to Hezhou and Chuzhou to Hezhou, and the number of civilians traveling back and forth to these two supply lines exceeded 50,000.

In fact, this number is quite small, in order to maintain the entire Feng army to launch the Jiangnan strategy, the Ministry of Munitions has invested nearly 30,000 active logistics troops and more than 300,000 people in Jiangbei, Henan, Shandong and other places, including railway transportation, sea transportation, river transportation, land and foot transportation.

In order to ensure the safety of the above-mentioned logistical supply lines, the Feng army invested the entire Third Army and dozens of patrol units of more than 30,000 people.

No matter what era of war, logistics always comes first, especially in this era, no matter how good the tactics are, they are based on sufficient logistics.

Specifically, in the current battle of crossing the river, why the Feng army was in a hurry to erect a pontoon bridge was not because it was convenient to send a large number of supplies across the river after having a pontoon bridge.

The amount of supplies consumed by an army is very large, and the main force like the Ninth Division needs to consume about 50 tons per day, while the 17th Brigade is in the midst of non-stop fierce fighting, and the daily consumption of ammunition, food, and other supplies is more than 50 tons.

Fifty tons may be a matter of a few trucks for later generations, but it is a great challenge for the transportation capacity of the Feng army in this era, especially for the transportation capacity of the Feng army, which can only rely on small boats to cross the river and manpower to carry the clouds.

In any case, how long the pontoon bridge can be erected will directly determine the success of the Fourth Army's strategy of crossing the river.

Fang Biyun didn't answer immediately, but was silent for a while before gritting his teeth and saying, "If the reinforcement work of the pontoon bridge is suspended and only personnel are required to pass, I am confident that it will be completed at seven o'clock in the evening!" ”

Meng Enyuan knew that even if he put pressure on Fang Biyun again, it would be impossible for him to make the erection of the pontoon bridge much faster out of thin air, so he immediately said: "Okay! ”

Then he turned to the other officers and said, "Let the troops prepare torches, and as soon as the pontoon bridge is completed, they will immediately cross the river overnight!" ”

Time passed bit by bit, and the artillery on both sides of the Yangtze River in Hezhou and Ma'anshan never stopped, and as time crossed the river, the front-line generals of the Fengwan and Anhui armies became more and more anxious.

The Anhui army saw that it had been unable to attack for a long time, and it had gradually invested all its troops, and Lei Zhenchun was already red-eyed and personally led the supervision team to the front line.

In the face of the increasingly fierce fortifications of the Anhui army, the 17th Brigade of the Feng Army is also becoming more and more sad, and the continuous casualties and lack of ammunition have become difficult problems for the 17th Brigade to overcome.

The 34th Regiment had already retreated three times in a row, and even after being reinforced by a battalion of the 18th Brigade, it was still difficult to withstand the full attack of the 4th Division's supplementary brigade.

However, when the two regiments of the 18th Brigade crossed the river one after another and entered the battle, the situation on the front began to stabilize.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, after receiving a small number of reinforcements, the 33rd Regiment also tried to carry out a small counteroffensive and returned to a small formation.

At six o'clock in the evening, Lei Zhenchun looked at the Fengjun position in front of him and sighed deeply, the front of the Fengjun position was already covered with corpses, and those were the corpses of the soldiers under his command.

What made him sigh was not the heavy casualties of his own troops, but through the telescope, he had already seen that on the Yangtze River in the distance, a pontoon bridge had gradually taken shape, at most, it would only take an hour or two at most, and the pontoon bridge of the Feng army would be able to be successfully built along the lì, and then the Feng army would be able to pass through the damn pontoon bridge to quickly reinforce the south bank from the north bank.

At this time, Lei Zhenchun already knew that it was impossible to drive the Feng army down the Yangtze River, and what he needed to think about next was not how to drive the Feng army down the river, but how to block the Feng army's river-crossing offensive, at least until the Second Mixed Brigade and the other two brigades of the Fourth Division and other Anhui troops arrived.

After taking a deep breath, he immediately ordered: "Pass the order, suspend the offensive and prepare to switch to defensive operations!" ”