"At present, the situation of our army is still relatively dangerous, although we have received some reinforcements in terms of strength and supplies, but the enemy's reinforcements have also not stopped, according to the news reported by our army's reconnaissance cavalry, the enemy has another brigade in the southeast direction, the number of the brigade is unknown at present, it should be a certain brigade of the Liangjiang Army. At the same time, in the west, the Fourth Mixed Brigade reported that the enemy's Second Mixed Brigade in Wuhu had already reported the traces, and they should be coming towards our army. ”

After a brief explanation by the operational staff officer, Pan Luanqing on the side spoke first: "Commander Quan, according to the opinion of the department, wait for tomorrow morning, we will take the initiative to launch an attack, launch a breakthrough from the enemy's supplementary and seventh division's joint division, and then divide the above two divisions and break them separately. ”

Lin Yongquan did not decide anything directly, but turned his head slightly to the commander of the 18th Brigade Sun Hanchen, Sun Hanchen is an old qualified general in the Feng army, although he was close to Wang Shizhen and Wang Yingkai in the early years, but later he completely fell to Zhao Dongyun like Chen Guangyuan and others, and became an important backbone general of the Feng Army in the early days. He served as the commander of the second co-commander of the first town of the Fengtian Standing Army.

The first town of the Fengtian Standing Army was later renamed the Ninth Division of the Central Army, and the Second Association was renamed the 18th Brigade of the Central Army.

is an old qualified general in the Feng army, and his qualifications can be said to be no worse than those of the Feng army commanders.

When Sun Hanchen saw Lin Yongquan's gaze, he knew that Lin Yongquan wanted to transfer the pressure to himself again, but having worked with Lin Yongquan for many years, he also knew the details of Lin Yongquan, and knew that if Lin Yongquan was forced to make any decision, it would probably not be a good thing.

So he immediately said: "Although our army is relatively tired now, but the morale is acceptable, my 18th Brigade is still in good condition, after tonight's rest, it has replenished enough ammunition and supplies, and is fully capable of launching an attack on the junction between the enemy's supplementary brigade and the 7th Division, at that time, as long as the 17th Brigade is to contain the enemy in front of the enemy, then I am confident that I will lead the troops to fight a roundabout surprise attack!" ”

"It's just, which direction are we going to take a detour?" Fang Qingkun next to him also asked.

"Naturally, it is a soft persimmon pinch, we will make a detour to the right, and at that time we will cooperate with the 33rd Regiment of the 17th Brigade to try to defeat the 7th Division of Liangjiang in the shortest possible time, while the 34th Regiment is to contain the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division to ensure the safety of the left flank of our brigade!"

"I'm afraid that our current strength is still a little less!" Fang Qingkun asked again.

At this time, Lin Yongquan on the side also spoke: "Now that the shape is more favorable to us, it's time to let those Anhui troops know that we are powerful!" ”

The strength of the Feng army lies not in how strong its defensive ability is, but in its offensive ability, and the main forces of the Feng army, such as the 3rd, 9th, and 10th divisions, are all known for being good at attacking.

After Lin Yongquan made a decision, the Ninth Division quickly made preparations, first by transferring some new recruits from the rear to replenish the 17th Brigade and the 18th Brigade, which had suffered considerable losses, and then by taking advantage of this precious night to stock up on a large number of combat weapons, especially ammunition.

In the evening, a mountain artillery battalion of the Ninth Division also successfully crossed the river, and in the second half of the night, another mountain artillery battalion that originally belonged to the First Mixed Brigade began to cross the river, and the two field artillery battalions originally equipped by the Ninth Division could not cross the river in a short period of time, so in order to increase the artillery firepower of the Ninth Division after crossing the river, Meng Enyuan personally transferred the mountain artillery battalion of the First Mixed Brigade to the command of the Ninth Division, otherwise it would be difficult for the Ninth Division to provide sufficient firepower with one mountain artillery battalion of its own.

The equipment in the Feng army is very similar to that of the old Beiyang era, and the artillery of each division is assigned according to one mountain artillery battalion and two field artillery battalions, while the mixed brigade depends on the situation, some are equipped with one mountain artillery battalion, and some are equipped with a battalion mixed with mountain artillery and field artillery.

Considering that this kind of artillery firepower is not bad to use in the northern plains, but in the south, especially after entering the southern hills, water networks, mountains, and other terrain operations, the mobility of field artillery is bound to be greatly limited, and the high command has already begun to consider further increasing the number of mountain artillery deployments of some southbound troops and reducing the number of field guns.

Otherwise, this kind of troops with two field artillery battalions and one mountain artillery battalion will be greatly restricted in their mobility in the southern region.

After being reinforced by two mountain artillery battalions, the Ninth Division, which had already crossed the river, finally had the ability to launch an attack alone, instead of being limited to fighting along the Yangtze River as before, so as to get artillery support from the north bank.

At 8 o'clock the next morning, more than 60 75-mm field guns of the Feng army deployed on the north bank of the Yangtze River opened fire one after another, and this also announced that the Ninth Division had officially entered the counteroffensive stage.

And the reason why it did not attack on the eve of dawn as in the past was not because the Ninth Division did not want to attack on the eve of dawn, but because the Ninth Division was not ready at that time.

In order to prepare for this counteroffensive, the Ninth Division was busy all night, and in addition to transporting and supplying a large amount of ammunition, it also transported two mountain artillery battalions and a 120-millimeter mortar battalion across the river.

After these weapons and ammunition are transported across the river, some continue to travel about five kilometres to the front line, which takes time.

By the time the Ninth Division was ready, it was already more than seven o'clock in the morning, and it could be said that the Ninth Division was ready at the post, and it immediately launched an attack!

As the field artillery on the north bank opened fire, more than 30 mountain guns, more than 10 120-mm mortars, and an even larger number of 80-mm mortars from the two mountain artillery battalions that had crossed the river and were deployed close to the deployment also opened fire one after another, and almost in an instant, hundreds of shells fell on the position of the Anhui army on the opposite side, and as the shelling continued, in the following 10 minutes, the various artillery pieces of the Feng army fired thousands of shells at the position of the Anhui army on the opposite side.

While the artillery continued to fire, the infantry regiment of the 36th Regiment of the 18th Brigade of the 9th Division of the front line also began to charge!

The attack of the Feng army was different from that of other warlord troops, most of the attacks of other troops were based on battalions and regiments, and although they would be dispersed when they charged, they were actually the same old skirmish tactics of the Franco-Prussian War, focusing on the sheer scale of the battle, and they could charge at the same time on a front of several kilometers at the same time.

However, the offensive tactics of the Feng army, which is equipped with light machine guns on a large scale, are different, and the Feng army's offensive has always disliked large-scale all-out attacks, and generally plays key breakthroughs.

Specifically, it is to use the squad light machine gun and the company to control the 60-millimeter mortar as the core, and at the same time, the Feng army has a habit that the front-line commander likes to concentrate the equipment, especially mortars and machine guns, on a certain unit, but use this unit as a sharp knife to tear through a certain point of the enemy's defense line, and finally completely break through the direction of the enemy army with a point and a line.

This tactic is often able to concentrate more than one regiment of machine guns and mortars, especially light machine guns, in an infantry battalion, and in the normal establishment there is only one in each platoon, but in fact, in the actual combat and practical practice of the Feng army, especially when taking a key breakthrough attack, it is often to transfer light machine guns from other units, and then enrich them into the attacking troops, so that each squad has a heavy machine gun.

Although the 36th Regiment, which was the main force of the attack, had less than 3,000 men, it had more than 100 artillery pieces in the rear to provide them with artillery support, and in addition they themselves concentrated more than 20 80-mm mortars, and the first battalion of the main attacking force had one light machine gun in each squad and three 60-mm mortars in each company.

When the 9th Division strengthened most of its weapons and equipment to the 36th Regiment, this also led to the fact that the firepower of the 36th Regiment was actually far superior to that of the army of this era. In the face of such an attack with firepower, even if there is a strong army like the Fourth Division Supplementary Brigade on the opposite side, it is difficult to resist.

Yesterday, the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division of the Anhui Army allowed the 17th Brigade of the 9th Division of the Feng Army to experience the fierce offensive of the 4th Division that swept through the south.

It's also funny to say, the Fourth Division Supplementary Brigade and the Ninth Division are actually better at attacking than their defensive capabilities, the only difference is that the Ninth Division blocked the attack of the Fourth Division Supplementary Brigade, but the Fourth Division Supplementary Brigade failed to block the attack of the Ninth Division.

In less than two hours after the Ninth Division launched its official large-scale counteroffensive, the 36th Regiment, the forward attacking force, had advanced about a kilometer continuously, destroying two lines of defense of the Fourth Division's supplementary brigade and killing and wounding at least 400 enemy troops.

And this is not the key, the more critical is the breakthrough of the 36th Regiment, which has cut off the connection between the supplementary brigade of the 4th Division and the 7th Division of Liangjiang, the junction of the two has been pierced by the 9th Division, and then the 35th Regiment of the 18th Brigade has also followed, further expanding the gap in this junction.

By 12 o'clock in the afternoon, the Feng army had succeeded in opening a gap about one kilometer wide and advanced about three kilometers forward.

And this is not over, after getting the news that the 18th Brigade is attacking Shunlì, the 17th Brigade led by Pan Luanqing also launched a large-scale attack on the 7th Division of Liangjiang in front of it.

In response, the 36th Regiment of the 18th Brigade began to attack to the right in a roundabout way, and finally formed a two-sided attack with the 17th Brigade.

Perhaps the total strength of the 9th Division participating in the operation was not as large as the 4th Division's Supplementary Brigade and the Liangjiang 7th Division combined, but the 36th Regiment of Tongguò successfully cut off the 4th Division's Supplementary Brigade and the Liangjiang 7th Division after a detour, and formed a force advantage on some local key fronts.

In particular, the 13th Brigade and 1st Regiment of the right flank of the Liangjiang Seventh Division were attacked from three sides by the 36th, 35th, and 34th Regiments of the Feng Army.

Although the Liangjiang Seventh Division was a unit formed by Duan Qirui with high hopes, and its equipment level and training were not bad, it was the first time to participate in a large-scale war, and it lacked experience.

In just two hours, the regiment completely collapsed!

After learning of the collapse of the enemy's right flank, Pan Luanqing decisively threw in the 33rd Regiment to further intensify the offensive of the 7th Division of Liangjiang.

At this time, if you look at the map, the Feng army is dominated by the 36th Regiment, forming a huge arrow to raid along Huaguo Mountain and Xishan area. The 35th Regiment was behind the 36th Regiment, resisting the counterattack of the 4th Division's supplementary brigade in the area of Huaguoshan and Cihu. In addition, the 34th Regiment of the Feng Army launched a frontal attack on the 7th Division of Liangjiang on the west bank of Yushan Lake, and the 33rd Regiment launched an attack on the 7th Division of Liangjiang in the area of Rentouji.

The battle line on which fierce fighting broke out spread almost more than 10 kilometers wide.

In this fierce battle between the two sides, the 7th Division of Liangjiang was routed on the right flank, and the 36th Regiment of the 36th Regiment made a rapid surprise attack all the way to the southwest without anyone being able to stop it.

If the 36th Regiment of the Feng Army was allowed to continue to detour to the southwest, then they would be able to make a detour all the way behind the 7th Division of Liangjiang, and then the entire 7th Division of Liangjiang would be attacked from behind and completely fall into the encirclement of the Feng Army.

"Damn it!" Lei Zhenchun angrily threw down the binoculars in his hand, and then turned over and got on his horse: "Order the 14th Brigade to immediately turn towards me and concentrate on me!" ”

The adjutant on the side showed doubts after hearing this: "If you let the 14th Brigade retreat now, I'm afraid it will be pursued by the enemy!" ”

Lei Zhenchun snorted coldly: "If you don't leave, you will have to be made dumplings by others!" ”

With Lei Zhenchun's order, the Liangjiang Seventh Division quickly withdrew from the front line, and naturally suffered huge casualties in the process of retreating, but suffering a part of the casualties was nothing compared to being surrounded and completely annihilated.

Lei Zhenchun was bent on leaving, but Lin Yongquan wanted to leave him behind, so he immediately ordered the 17th Brigade to launch a fierce attack and pursuit, and at the same time asked the 36th Regiment to speed up the detour and try to intercept the 7th Division of Liangjiang that was fleeing west.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, in Meishan, three kilometers south of Yuhuahu, the 36th Regiment collided violently with the 7th Division of Liangjiang!

One wants to go, the other wants to escape, which leads the two sides to any retreat at all, and as soon as they meet, they each do their best, and then a tragic battle breaks out.