At seven o'clock in the morning of the 8th, more than an hour had passed since the Feng army officially crossed the river, and some of the soldiers of the 33rd Regiment of the Ninth Division, who were the first to row across the river, had already landed on the beachhead, and at this time they were launching an attack on the inland of the beachhead under the leadership of officers at all levels.

However, under the influence of crossing the river, there was a certain confusion in the command of the 33rd Regiment of the guide, and there was a matter of officers not being able to find their subordinate soldiers, and soldiers could not find their direct commanders.

Behind them, the corpses of many fallen soldiers floated in the river, and the blood stained the originally muddy yellow river red.

"What's going on? There is only one battalion on the other side, can't they all rush up? Fang Qingkun's military uniform was still bright at this time, except for the long military boots under his feet that were slightly muddy, he was not covered with mud and water stains like other soldiers in the Feng army.

"The resistance of the Anhui army on the opposite side was quite stubborn, and the first battalion launched two attacks without forcing them to retreat!" The adjutant beside him hurriedly explained.

Fang Qingkun frowned slightly, and then said: "Let the eighty-millimeter mortars from the regiment headquarters go up to help, and be sure to repel them within half an hour, otherwise the safety of the follow-up troops crossing the river will not be guaranteed!" ”

Although the infantry battalion of the 7th Division of the Liangjiang Army of the Anhui Army on the beachhead was not very numerous, its two heavy machine guns posed a great threat to the open and unobstructed troops crossing the river.

Although the Anhui army did not deploy too many main forces here, it only deployed a battalion for vigilance and preparedness, but this infantry battalion had also built thick fortifications before, especially the two machine gun fortresses were extremely strong, so that the Feng army used mortars many times to knock out these two machine gun fire points in vain.

However, if you don't fight the difficulties?

Absolutely not, no matter what, Fang Qingkun needs to take this beachhead of the Anhui army, which is his responsibility as the commander of the first batch of troops crossing the river.

He clearly remembered what Lin Yongquan said to him before setting off at dawn today: "An Qing's visit is the first battle of our army crossing the river, shouldering the important task of opening the way for our army and ensuring that the main force crosses the river smoothly, and I hope that in the near future, I can personally ask the president for An Qing!" ”

The first battle of crossing the river, this is not only Lin Yongquan's trust in him, but also his expectation!

He knew very well that before the war, all the units of the Fourth Army were striving for the opportunity to fight the first battle, because in the eyes of the self-confident generals of the Feng Army, this battle crossing the river was bound to be a complete victory, and the first fighter had no intention of obtaining the most glorious feat.

Whether it was the Ninth Division, the Fourteenth Division, or the First Mixed Brigade, they all competed for the opportunity to go out in the first battle in front of Meng Enyuan, and in the end, the veteran Ninth Division won this important task, and the 33rd Regiment under the Ninth Division was the first batch of tasks to cross the river.

When Lin Yongquan handed over the battle plan of the Ninth Division to Meng Enyuan, Meng Enyuan also smiled when he saw Fang Qingkun's name: "Fang Anqing is still a capable young man, and this time he will definitely not let us down!" ”

Meng Enyuan admired Fang Qingkun before last year, and in the Beijing Division Campaign last year, he seconded Fang Qingkun, then the chief of the Third Section of the Operations Division, to the First Army as an operational staff officer, and after the Beijing Division Campaign, the Quanxu Office officially transferred Fang Qingkun to the First Army, first as an operational staff officer of the First Army Military Headquarters, and then transferred to the 33rd Regiment of the Ninth Division as the commander of the first battalion, and after the Zhengzhou Campaign, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and transferred to the 17th Brigade as chief of staff, and the commander of the 17th Brigade at that time was Yang Deming.

After the Jiangbei Campaign, Yang Deming was transferred to the 14th Division as the division commander, and the former commander of the 33rd Regiment and the 1906 advanced student Pan Luanqing was promoted to the rank of major general and took over the post of commander of the 17th Brigade, while Fang Qingkun took over as the commander of the 33rd Regiment and was promoted to the rank of colonel.

In less than a year, Fang Qingkun even jumped two levels, and was promoted from major to colonel at the beginning of his return, although this speed is not too fast in the Fengjun in the past year, for example, his top boss Pan Luanqing was just a major battalion commander at the beginning of last year's customs, but in the same time, he jumped three levels in a row, and successfully crossed the threshold that many school officers could not cross in their lifetime, and became a major general.

But Fang Qingkun's promotion speed is not slow, you have to know that he only returned to China at the end of 1906, and he really joined the Feng Army for just over a year, and although he was also a student in Germany, he was only an ordinary non-commissioned officer officer in Germany, not a Berlin military cadet like Yang Deming. Many students like him who studied in Germany and Japan only started as captains, and most of them are still mixed in the levels of majors and lieutenant colonels, and not many can be promoted to colonels now.

He was able to squeeze through the competition of many people, and the appointment as the head of the 33rd Regiment was inseparable from the support of Meng Enyuan and Yang Deming, Yang Deming wrote a letter of recommendation to him before leaving, and Meng Enyuan also revealed to the Quanxu Department, saying that this Fang Qingkun's talent was quite good, enough to be competent for the important tasks of any regiment, which allowed him to defeat several senior officers, two of whom were junior colonels from advanced study backgrounds and obtained the position of the 33rd regiment.

At present, in the Feng Army, a considerable part of the positions of middle-level officers, especially the positions of battalion commander and regiment commander, are held by trainees. You think, the lowest number of advanced students who have just graduated is a major, and the positions assigned after graduation are mostly battalion commanders, which is enough to squeeze out most of the battalion commanders' shares. And the words of the regiment commander are also full of a large number of trainees, not only do they have the quality of the trainees surpassing ordinary officers, but also according to Zhao Dongyun's hints intentionally or unintentionally, they are greatly inclined to trainees when promoting officers.

It was not an easy task to snatch the position of the 33rd Regiment from among the trainees.

However, Meng Enyuan's attention and Lin Yongquan's trust all brought great pressure to Fang Qingkun, and he couldn't imagine what kind of consequences would happen if he made a mistake when crossing the river.

So failure is unacceptable!

If one battalion is not enough, then two or three mortars are not enough for two battalions, then five, six or even more, in short, he must crush the current enemy forces in the shortest possible time, and then advance inland, expand the strategic depth for the beachhead crossing the river, and avoid the subsequent river-crossing troops from being hit by the enemy's machine-gun fire and possible artillery strikes in the follow-up.

Although the infantry battalion of the Liangjiang Seventh Division was fairly well equipped and trained, it also maintained its composure at the beginning of the battle, and did not turn around and flee like most provincial troops, but adopted the tactics of resolute resistance.

There is no doubt that their stubborn resistance caused great trouble to the first batch of troops crossing the river, that is, the 33rd Regiment commanded by Fang Qingkun, and even threatened the smooth progress of the subsequent river crossing for a time.

However, even if they were superficial, they were only a battalion, and the first batch of troops crossing the river of the Feng army had a full 33rd regiment, which was far superior to their infantry battalion in terms of strength and firepower.

When Fang Qingkun assembled two battalions of the 33rd Regiment and six 80-millimeter mortars to launch an offensive against the infantry battalion of the 7th Division of Liangjiang, as the shells continued to fall and the casualties were expected to continue to increase, this infantry battalion finally collapsed like all armies.

After nearly 100 casualties, this infantry battalion with more than 800 troops finally collapsed in a new round of charge of the 33rd Regiment, no matter how much those Anhui army officers shouted, they could not stop those Anhui soldiers from turning around and fleeing!

In fact, the appearance of the infantry battalion of the Anhui army is already quite good, although they only resisted for about an hour and a half, but they successfully killed and wounded more than 200 Feng troops who crossed the river, and their own casualties were less than 100 people, and the casualty ratio was about two to one, which should be regarded as the first time that such a big gap appeared in the many battles between the two armies of Feng and Anhui.

This was replaced by any Anhui army, and even Duan Qirui's Fourth Division here would be difficult to achieve similar results.

However, their stubborn resistance was not very effective, just an infantry battalion, not to mention blocking the crossing of tens of thousands of troops of the Fourth Army, just the first batch of the 33rd Regiment to cross the river was enough to clean them up, so they collapsed after suffering nearly 100 casualties.

The Anhui army of this battalion collapsed, abandoned their position and fled directly to the southwest, but Fang Qingkun's expression did not show a happy expression.

Because he knew that this was just the beginning, and his task was not only to repel this small infantry battalion, but his main task was to advance inland, establish a solid beachhead, and block the subsequent counteroffensive of the Anhui army, so as to cover the crossing of the river.

"Immediately advance to the southwest!" Fang Qingkun quickly issued a new order: "The first battalion marched along the river, captured the first line of Xuejiawa and set up defenses, the second battalion attacked the first line of Kehuaguo Mountain in the east and deployed defenses, and the second battalion followed me to Yushan Lake to pursue and clear the remnants of the enemy!" ”

After Fang Qingkun's order was issued, the officers and men of the 33rd Regiment did not rest, but slightly reorganized on the beachhead, so that after the troops slightly restored the command system, the battalions quickly advanced to the southwest, and they wanted to block the eastward advance of the 7th Division of the Liangjiang Army in the direction of Dangtu, so as to cover the follow-up troops' smooth crossing of the river! ”

When Fang Qingkun commanded the troops to advance in depth and expand the beachhead, Meng Enyuan on the north bank also said to a tall colonel with a beard: "Commander Fang, the 33rd Regiment on the front line has consolidated the beachhead position, and no enemy troops have been found on Xiaohuangzhou, so your engineering regiment can start the pontoon bridge erection operation along the way!" ”

The engineering regiment has transferred almost most of the professional boat and bridge troops in the Feng army, although limited by the contemporary technical level, their level of erecting pontoon bridges is also limited, but this is the only professional boat and bridge force that the Feng army can come up with, and whether the main force of the Fourth Army can cross the river depends on whether this task force can erect the pontoon bridge in a short time.

Only by erecting the pontoon bridge will the main forces of the Fourth Army, including the 18th Brigade of the 9th Division, the 14th Division, and the 1st Mixed Brigade waiting to cross the river, be able to cross the river.

And whether the artillery and baggage can cross the river smoothly or not, this is the key to the Fourth Army's battle to cross the river, not just send thousands of people to cross the river in wooden boats and bamboo rafts, to be precise, the 33rd Regiment that crossed the river in the first batch, and the 34th Regiment that crossed the river by boat in the future, their task is to cover and protect the boat bridge troops to be able to erect the pontoon bridge along the river.

If the pontoon bridge cannot be erected, the follow-up troops will not be able to cross the river, not to mention, the 17th Brigade that crossed the river first will be pushed back into the Yangtze River due to lack of ammunition!