When the county seat was twenty-five kilometers east of Tu County, Fang Qingkun frowned: "What the hell is going on with the second battalion, it is okay to lose Chen Zhuang before, but it has only been half a day since it was withdrawn to Lijia Village, how can it be said that it can't be held?" ”

The captain and adjutant on the side said in a low voice: "The second battalion suffered great losses in the previous battle of crossing the river, although it has replenished new soldiers, its combat effectiveness is still very different from the past!" ”

However, Fang Qingkun said: "I know these if you don't say this, but even if our state is worse than before crossing the river, but now is not the time to talk about difficulties, what I want them to hold on!" ”

The 33rd Regiment, as the first unit to cross the river in the battle of crossing the river, has been fighting at the forefront since crossing the river, especially in the first three days, the 33rd Regiment, as the main force to resist the counteroffensive of the 7th Division of Liangjiang, although it is said that it successfully held the position, but the losses were extremely large, and the losses of soldiers and weapons and equipment were not small.

Although it is said that after the Fourth Army successfully crossed the river, the Ministry of Education and the Quartermaster Department replenished the regiment with a large number of soldiers, weapons, and ammunition, but the weapons and ammunition were not bad, but the large number of new recruits replenished was still difficult to completely dissolve into the 33rd Regiment for a while.

An army, especially one that has been in the army for a long time and has experienced many wars, usually has its own unique style or ethos, which are more strict than those of the veterans.

The soldiers in a squad and a platoon often have gone through a long period of running-in training, and after the soldiers have gone through the test of war and blood and fire, they often have deep feelings between soldiers, which is the so-called comradeship.

And after a battle, the comrades-in-arms who used to get along day and night fell, and the surviving veterans did not have time to grieve in their hearts, so they quickly added a few strangers to come in and take their place.

In addition to the emotional rejection, the vast majority of veterans have a very bad attitude towards the recruits, and most of the time they are unreasonable towards the recruits, because those veterans know that these new recruits rarely survive three fierce battles.

Of the thousands of recruits that the Feng Army has replenished to the Ninth Division in the past two years, in fact, the vast majority of them have not survived three battles, more than half of them have been killed or wounded in the first battle of their lives, and only a few have survived the previous battles and become veterans.

Only these surviving recruits can be accepted by the veterans, and then completely integrate into this unit and become the backbone soldiers of the Ninth Division.

Another number, jù, can illustrate how big the gap is between veterans and recruits, and how much it costs for recruits to grow into veterans.

Of the nearly 16,000 men in active duty in the Ninth Division, about 12,000 were veterans who had joined the army before 1905, and about 1,000 soldiers who had survived in the past two years, and of course they have grown into veterans now. In addition, 3,000 people have just been added.

However, in the past two years, the cumulative losses of the 9th Division (wounded and retired, etc.) are about 6,000, of which the proportion of veterans is only about 1,000, and the remaining 5,000 are all newly recruited recruits.

It can be seen that the ratio of casualties between veterans and recruits in this era is huge!

Why was the 9th Division able to become one of the three main divisions of the Feng Army? Not because of how good its equipment level is, in fact, the equipment level of the various units of the Feng Army is relatively similar, the Ninth Division has an artillery regiment with 48 guns, but the 13th Division, which is deployed in Henan, as a second-line force, also has an artillery regiment with 48 guns, and there is not much difference between light and heavy machine guns.

But who dares to say that the combat effectiveness of the 13th Division can be compared to that of the 9th Division?

The reason why the three divisions of the 3rd, 9th, and 10th divisions were able to surpass other Fengjun units and become the absolute main force was because these three troops were all troops from the era of the old standing army, like the soldiers of the 3rd Division who joined the army as early as 1901, and the 9th and 10th divisions generally joined the army in 1903 and 1904.

The vast majority of their soldiers have undergone training for as little as three years or as long as five or six years, and their tactical skills in all aspects are incomparable to those who have just completed their training in the boot camp.

The 33rd Regiment, as the unit of the 9th Division, originally also had a large number of veterans of the Standing Army era, but the losses in the battle of crossing the river were very great, and many old backbone soldiers were killed or wounded, although the Ministry of Education has supplemented a large number of recruits, so that the current 33rd Regiment has a considerable strength on the surface, reaching more than 2,900 people, but only one-third of them are recruits.

Even after more than 10 days of running-in training, it is certain that the combat effectiveness of the 33rd Regiment has dropped a lot compared with the place where the river was crossed.

However, Fang Qingkun himself knew this, and he also believed that the division commander Lin Yongquan also knew this, but the war did not mean that he could do whatever he wanted, no matter whether the battle of the 33rd Regiment fell or not, it had to resist the offensive of the second mixed brigade of the Anhui Army.

There is no if, there is no excuse or reason, he Qingkun must cooperate with the Fourth Mixed Brigade to stop the Second Mixed Brigade of the Anhui Army.

The 33rd Regiment was in a bitter battle, and the 4th Mixed Brigade next to it was not much better, and compared to the 33rd Regiment, the 4th Mixed Brigade was actually under more pressure, because the Mixed Brigade was the main force to resist the offensive of the 2nd Mixed Brigade.

When the Feng army in the Tu direction fell into a bitter battle, and even the danger of not being able to hold it, the other troops of the Feng army launched a larger offensive towards Jinling.

Lin Yongquan had just arrived at the periphery of Jinling with the Ninth Division, and after resting for the night, the troops of the Ninth Division were engaged in the offensive on the periphery of Jinling.

With the reinforcement of the Feng army, the Battle of Jinling, which was originally in a stalemate, also slowly changed.

"According to the battle reports of the front-line departments, at present our army is in the Jinling direction and has gathered four troops, the 3rd, 9th, 14th, and 1st Mixed Brigades, which have a total of about 150 75-mm guns, and a heavy artillery battalion to provide long-range artillery support."

"As of noon today, our army has conquered more than 20 positions on the enemy's Jinling perimeter defense line, killed and wounded at least 2,000 enemy troops, and destroyed more than 10 enemy artillery pieces!"

Listening to Fang Biyong's report, Zhao Dongyun didn't feel the slightest joy, he had already invested heavy troops in the direction of Jinling, and the troops participating in the battle were all the main force of the Feng army, with a total strength of more than 50,000 people.

However, it was still difficult to gather heavy troops to attack Jinling, which was only defended by the enemy's fourth division and several provincial army divisions, and it was not even hit under Jinling City after launching a large-scale attack for a week, which made Zhao Dongyun happy.

Not to mention that in order to support the direction of Jinling, the troops in the direction of Dangtu were withdrawn, and the current defense line of Dangtu is in danger.

Zhao Dongyun carefully looked at the battle reports of the troops on the front line, and after half a day, he didn't speak, and directly waved his hand to let Fang Biyong go out.

The Battle of Jinling has been carried out to this point, Zhao Dongyun's own opinion is no longer important, whether he is happy or angry, it is difficult to directly affect the development of the Jinling Battle Situation, and now he is like a gambler who has put most of his value on the gambling table, waiting for the flop, whether he wins or loses, he can no longer control himself.

After Fang Biyong went out, Zhao Dongyun didn't wait long for the map alone, and he soon met with another important general of the military.

The person who came was Major General Qin Linjun, who had a relatively weak sense of existence in the Feng Army, and who was currently the head of the Establishment Division of the General Staff Department of the General Headquarters.

Qin Linjun, this person graduated from the Third Mixed Association with the camp school in his early years, and then was selected by Zhao Dongyun to study in Germany, after returning to China, like many students studying in Germany, on the one hand, he served as a teacher at the Fengtian Military Academy and served in the headquarters on the other hand, he served as a combat staff officer in the Operations Department in his early years, and later transferred to the chief of the Establishment Section, after the establishment of the Command, the Establishment Section was upgraded to the Establishment Division, he is still the director, and his military rank is also accumulated to the current army major general.

This man is different from most of the high-ranking generals in the Feng army, he actually has no experience in field troops, he has always been in the headquarters, and he has been specializing in some purely theoretical issues all year round.

For more than two years, he has been in charge of the Establishment Service and has participated in and been responsible for a number of organizational improvements in the Fengjun.

Today, he found Zhao Dongyun for the natural issue of compilation.

As soon as he sat down, he didn't even drink tea, Qin Linjun just took out a stack of thick reports and said: "According to the many combat reports of our army in the past six months, the department deeply feels that there are some problems in the existing establishment of our army, which will greatly affect the operations of the front-line troops!" ”

For Qin Linjun, a person who has stayed in the headquarters all the year round, Zhao Dongyun has actually seen him a lot of times, knowing that this person likes to go straight to the core of the problem, and will not talk about all kinds of worries after talking about it like other generals and officials.

"In the previous battle of crossing the river, the 9th Division continued to suffer from the problem of insufficient supplies, not only during the stage of ammunition transportation across the river, but also after the ammunition was transported across the river, the 9th Division lacked the ability to transport these ammunition to the front line several kilometers away."

Zhao Dongyun did not interrupt him, but continued to listen.

Qin Linjun continued: "Since our army has installed mortars and light machine guns on a large scale, the consumption of ammunition has further increased. ”

"Therefore, the Ministry of Duty will further increase the number of baggage troops in the future, so as to be able to effectively complete the supply task of the troops!"

At this time, Zhao Dongyun spoke: "Oh, tell me, what do you think of the establishment office!" ”

Qin Linjun immediately handed over a report: "This is the new establishment of our army in the future formulated by our colleagues in the establishment department, and I would like to invite the president to take a look!" ”

Zhao Dongyun took it and opened it, and he hadn't read the details below, but he saw this sentence at the beginning: If we want to fully give full play to the effectiveness of our army's existing weapons and equipment, and at the same time do not change our army's basic infantry tactics, then in the future, our army's division-level troops need to grow to at least 18,000 people, so that we can give full play to our army's firepower and improve our army's combat effectiveness!

Seeing this sentence, Zhao Dongyun didn't read the details below, so he said directly: "Eighteen thousand? Isn't this a big step, we just increased the strength of the divisional troops to 16,000 last year! ”