After the loss of Zhengzhou, the Beiyang Group was greatly frightened, the 58th Division of the Beiyang Army in Luoyang was about to be unable to resist the attack of Xiong Kewu and the Reserve Fourth Division, after learning the news of the fall of Zhengzhou, the 58th Division was panicked, the soldiers had no fighting spirit, and their morale was extremely low, and the Reserve Fourth Division launched a fierce attack for two consecutive days, and the 58th Division finally could not resist, the remnants were scattered, and the division commander Wang Chengbin died in the chaos.

Cao Kun thought very clearly, in the gap when the Northern Expeditionary Army had not had time to attack from the east and west, he asked Wu Peifu to lead people to secretly build a simple bridge and pontoon bridge at the crossing of the Yellow River, retreated from Tongguan to the north of the Yellow River overnight, and at the same time sent people to monitor the movements of the Northern Expeditionary Army along the Yellow River, although the water level of the Yellow River was a little high at this time, but he couldn't take care of it much. He did not think that with less than two divisions of his own wounded, he could withstand the rush on both the east and the west.

On August 24, the Northern Expeditionary Army fully occupied the lower reaches of the Yellow River except for Shandong, and the battlefields of the western, middle and eastern fronts were connected into a line.

On August 27, Nanjing issued an order that the Cai Yi Division of the Western Route Army should leave two new integrated divisions to garrison, and Cai Yi's Department crossed the Yellow River and forced into Shanxi. After a short rest, the Central Route Army was ordered to continue to advance north and east, crossing the Yellow River and successively capturing Xinxiang, Hebi, Puyang and other places, so that the forces of the Beiyang Group in Henan were all eradicated.

In the face of the pressing of the Northern Expeditionary Army, Yuan Shikai had to urgently dispatch the 3rd, 12th, 13th, and four divisions to rush south to meet Cai Ye with the remnants of the original 10th and 17th divisions. The 15th, 16th, 60th, and 61st Divisions were also transferred from the Eastern Front to move westward to Caoxian, Dongming, Zhencheng, and Liangshan to deploy defenses to prevent the Central Route Army from attacking the flank of the Beiyang Army's defense line on the Eastern Front.

In addition, Yuan Shikai ordered the 62nd, 63rd, and 66th Divisions to be moved from north-central Hebei to Yanggu and Daming. Prevent the Middle Route Army of the Northern Expedition from continuing to advance northward and break into Hebei.

Unlike the Beiyang Army, which fought less and less, the Middle Route Army of the Northern Expedition fought more and more, and Xiong Kewu's department had returned to the Western Route Army system, and Zhang Xiaozhun of the Central Route Army commanded the 26th Division, the 31st Division, the Fourth Reserve Division, the 43rd Division of the Hunan Army, and the 91st, 92nd, 93rd, and 94th Divisions of the provisional formation, a total of eight divisions, which was more than the troops that Cai Guodong could command on the Eastern Front battlefield.

The Beiyang Army transferred four divisions to command on the Eastern Front, and a hole finally appeared in the defensive line, which made Wu Shiyou, who was in charge of commanding the operation in northern Anhui on the Eastern Front, discover the fighters. He found that there was only one 71st Division left in the Beiyang Army stationed in Yutai, which was a newly formed unit. Recruit training was sent to the battlefield before he had time to complete it.

Wu Shiyou, who received the command of intelligence, immediately asked Cai Guodong for battle, and Cai Guodong quickly agreed to Wu Shiyou's battle plan after careful deliberation and command.

On August 29, Wu Shiyou ordered the 29th Division, one of his most elite troops, to take the lead in attacking the 71st Division of the Beiyang Army stationed in Yutai, and the Eastern Front battlefield officially began. This was the first battle fought on the Eastern Front since the start of the Northern Expedition.

The 29th Division is worthy of being one of the 12 reorganized regular divisions in East China, and its combat effectiveness is definitely not comparable to that of the four reserve divisions and the local armies of other provinces.

The battle lasted only one morning, and the 29th Division used only one regiment of troops to defeat the entire defense line of the 71st Division, and the remnants of the 71st Division retreated back to Jinxiang in panic, and at the same time, the 32nd Division, which had entered the undefended Shangqiu, also marched to Shanxian, and Shanxian only had 15 divisions and one brigade, after learning that the 32nd Division was marching to Shanxian. The 1st Brigade of the 15th Division immediately built defensive trenches outside the city, but for the East China Army, which had already achieved packhorse packing, the speed at which the 15th Division built trenches was too slow. Before the trench was dug up, the 32nd Division had already hit the front, and the 15th Division and the 1st Brigade had to retreat to the city in a panic to defend, and a mountain artillery battalion assigned by the division was not able to transfer and was forced to be thrown outside the city and captured by the 32nd Division.

When it was learned that the 1st Brigade had been attacked, the 2nd Brigade of the 15th Division stationed in Cao County immediately sent a regiment to reinforce it, but unfortunately this amount of strength was not enough for an elite unit like the 32nd Division. The 32nd Division detached part of its forces to besiege Shanxian and ambushed the 15th Division, 2nd Brigade and 1st Regiment that came to reinforce with a large force. The regiment was completely surrounded and annihilated in the course of a morning.

The 1st Brigade of the 15th Division, which lost its artillery unit, was besieged in Shanxian County and was in panic all day, under the overwhelming artillery fire of the 32nd Division, the city defense troops suffered heavy losses, and after the 32nd Division's attack for two consecutive days, more than 2,000 people were left to forcibly break through After losing a large number of personnel, only more than 1,200 people were left to retreat to Jinxiang in the northeast, and their division commander was left in Cao County in the southwest.

Liu Xun, the commander of the 15th Division in Cao County, only had one regiment of infantry left, in addition to a cavalry regiment, an engineer battalion, a baggage battalion, and an artillery battalion. When the 1st Brigade was besieged in Shanxian, Liu Xun could not reinforce at all, so he could only watch the 1st Brigade being besieged, just because the troops in his hands were too small and the troops were too scattered.

After weighing, Liu Xun sent a telegram to Feng Guozhang requesting that he retreat back to Jinxiang, Feng Guozhang also considered that Liu Xun's current strength was not the opponent of the 32nd Division at all, in order to avoid the 32nd Division being eaten, Feng Guozhang ordered Liu Xun to retreat to Heze and Wang Tingzhen's 16th Division and Cao Ying's 60th Division were horns of each other, and these three divisions happened to be distributed in three corners of a triangle, and one of them was attacked. Two more divisions could be reinforced at any time.

The 29th Division that captured Yutai continued to march, and the remnants of the 71st Division and more than 1,000 people of the 15th Division hiding in Jinxiang barely resisted in Jinxiang for two days and had to retreat until Jining to gain a firm foothold, but due to the large retreat of the 71st Division and the 15th Division, a very favorable fighter was created for the Eastern Route Army of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Without the remnants of the 71st Division, the 29th Division immediately marched eastward, collecting a large number of fishing boats on the shore of Weishan Lake, and the troops of a regiment captured Weishan County on the east side of Weishan Lake with lightning speed and gained a firm foothold. Feng Guozhang was completely unprepared that the 29th Division would use the fishing boats on Weishan Lake to cross Weishan Lake in a north-south direction.

After learning the news of the loss of Weishan County, Feng Guozhang was shocked, and he immediately mobilized troops to recapture Weishan. But at this time, the large force of the 29th Division had crossed Weishan Lake, and even all the heavy weapons had been transported, and the original balanced confrontation situation was finally broken, and the 29th Division attacked the western flank of the Eastern Front of the Beiyang Army, which caught Feng Guozhang off guard.

Looking at the 29th Division that was about to arrive under Zaozhuang City, he could only tear down the east wall and make up the west wall, but his headquarters was located in Zaozhuang. Now the 29th Division is close at hand, if you don't transfer troops to block it. His headquarters can only be transferred, but the consequences of the transfer of the headquarters are catastrophic, and the soldiers in front must think that the headquarters have been withdrawn, so what else is there to do in this battle? And the headquarters was withdrawn from Zaozhuang. Militarily, it meant leaving the backs of the two elite divisions of the Beiyang 3rd and 4th Divisions in Taierzhuang to the Northern Expeditionary Army, and once this was done, the 3rd and 4th Beiyang Divisions were likely to be surrounded and annihilated.

If you want to draw troops from other resistances, it is necessary to be nearby, too far to arrive in time, and the number of troops cannot be too small, at least one division of troops is required, and you can only transfer the 19th Division stationed in Lanling. Lei Zhenchun, the commander of the 19th Division, is a strong martial artist and can't let go of his hands. This person followed Yuan Shikai very early. is a die-hard supporter of Yuan Shikai, in the original history, he was the commander of the 7th Division of Beiyang.

If you want to talk about qualifications. Lei Zhenchun is not lower than Feng Guozhang, but Feng Guozhang's Biqu Pavilion www.biquge.info is higher than Lei Zhenchun, when the small station is training, Feng Guozhang is one of the main instructors, and Lei Zhenchun is the rear officer of the third battalion of the right wing of the infantry.

Many of Lei Zhenchun's subordinates in the former Xiaozhan period have now become division commanders, and some of them have higher official positions than him. Of course, he was extremely unhappy in his heart, especially Feng Guozhang. Until now, he is only a division commander, and Feng Guozhang has already commanded ten divisions.

After receiving Feng Guozhang's order, Lei Zhenchun was intent on embarrassing Feng Guozhang, he ordered the troops to travel only thirty miles a day, and walked from Lanling to Zaozhuang for two days before arriving, and when he arrived, Feng Guozhang's defense line in the west of Zaozhuang was already in danger, but fortunately he arrived in time to avoid the doom of Zaozhuang being broken by the 29th Division.

Feng Guozhang was originally on fire, but Lei Zhenchun finally came at a critical moment, but it did not cause irreparable consequences, but even so, Feng Guozhang's defensive force in Zaozhuang had suffered heavy losses.

Lei Zhenchun's caution of being transferred to Zaozhuang was quickly found out by the people of the Military Intelligence Bureau, and the information was transmitted to Cai Guodong's hands as quickly as possible, and Cai Guodong immediately gave Wu Shiyou an order to let the 29th Division rest for a day, give up attacking Zaozhuang, and turn south along the east bank of Weishan Lake the next night to attack the rear of the Beiyang 3rd Division and the 4th Division in Taierzhuang.

Zaozhuang is not far from Taierzhuang, the 29th Division took a day off the next day after receiving the order, and did not continue to attack Zaozhuang, and the Lei Zhenchun Department that had just arrived only wanted to work without contribution, and did not take the initiative to attack the 29th Division, in fact, Lei Zhenchun did not want to, but thought about waiting for a good rest and then fighting with the 29th Division.

On the evening of September 2, it was dark at eight o'clock, and after dark, the 29th Division, which had already had dinner and was ready, quietly withdrew from its position and quickly advanced southward, only on the position west of Zaozhuang, so it set up a suspicious array to confuse Feng Guozhang and Lei Zhenchun.

At about 6 o'clock in the morning of September 3, the 29th Division arrived at Malantun near Taierzhuang, but because the heavy artillery troops had not yet arrived, the division commander was careful of the lack of support from the heavy artillery troops and fell short, and the march was all night, all the officers and soldiers were hungry and sleepy, so they let all the officers and soldiers eat some dry food and rest, but for the sake of secrecy, the 29th Division sent people to block the road to Taierzhuang, and was only allowed to enter and not leave.

At noon, the field artillery regiment and the mountain artillery battalions of each regiment arrived one after another, and then the baggage troops also arrived, so the senior management of the division headquarters sent a telegram to Cai Guodong, and they agreed to launch an attack from the north and south at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Feng Guozhang, who was in Zaozhuang, was still wondering why the 29th Division had not moved for two consecutive days, but there were people moving around the position, occasionally firing a few shots to this side, and he did not know at all that the 29th Division was no longer in place, and had already arrived near Taierzhuang.

Feng Guozhang is finally a relatively shrewd person, he has doubts in his heart, and ordered Lei Zhenchun to send a battalion of troops to launch a tentative attack on the position of the 29th Division, but the news that came back surprised him, there is only one squad of people on the position of the 29th Division, these people quickly rode away after Lei Zhenchun sent a battalion to attack, how can two legs catch up with four legs?

Zaozhuang, headquarters of the Second Army of the Beiyang Army.

"What do you say? The 29th Division is missing? Feng Guozhang was taken aback when he heard the news.

The staff officer said, "Yes, my lord! ”

Feng Guozhang hurriedly asked, "Where did the 29th Division go?" Say it! ”

"It's not clear for the time being, my lord, I've already sent someone to check, the 29th Division is not on the position, more than 10,000 people and heavy artillery troops will definitely leave traces when they leave, I believe we will soon know the direction of their departure!"

Feng Guozhang felt a chill in his heart at this time, as long as the 29th Division did not cross Weishan Lake and leave westward, no matter which direction it advanced, it would cause great damage to his deployment, what he was most worried about was that the 29th was going south to attack the back of the 3rd and 4th Divisions of Beiyang, if so, I was only afraid that the 3rd Division and the 4th Division would be more auspicious, you must know that in the face of a two-sided attack, I am afraid that no army in this world can withstand it, and what is even more terrible is that one side will attack first and attract all the attention of the defenders, On the other side, taking advantage of the defenders' full attention being drawn to the front, and then suddenly protruding from behind, no army could retreat in such a situation.

took out his pocket watch and looked at it, Feng Guozhang said: "It's 2:40, I'll give you twenty minutes, you must determine the direction in which the 29th Division will leave!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

When Feng Guozhang learned the news that the 29th Division was indeed moving south along the lake, it was already half past three in the afternoon, he immediately ordered the staff officer to let the messenger to Lu Jianzhang and Yang Shande, these two people were the commander of the 3rd Division and the commander of the 4th Division, Yang Shande was originally in the Zhejiang New Army as an assistant commander, but later he was squeezed out by Cai Guodong and returned to the capital to continue to eat under Yuan Shikai, last year Yuan Shikai made him the commander of the 4th Division, but unfortunately when Lu Jianzhang and Yang Shande received Feng Guozhang's telegram, it was too late.

The battle of Taierzhuang started at three o'clock in the afternoon, and the reason why this time was chosen was because of the weather, and three o'clock was the time when I was drowsy. Before, the north and the south only confronted each other here, and did not open fire, and both sides seemed to have been used to it, but the sudden battle broke the confrontation here, so all the attention of the 3rd and 4th Beiyang Divisions was attracted by the 21st and 23rd Divisions attacking from the opposite side. (To be continued) R580