Judging from the experience of the Feng Army in previous operations, it is naturally impossible for a Fifth Brigade to defeat the Seventh Division, but it should not be a problem to hold back only a few days, and even when the Seventh Division launches a large-scale attack, it is not a problem for a Fifth Brigade to resist for three to five days and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

This is also the reason why Chen Guangyuan still let the Sixth Brigade rest in Yongqing for a day even when the Fifth Brigade was alone in the south, and agreed to let the Sixth Brigade stay for another day a day later to wait for the arrival of ordnance and ammunition, because Chen Guangyuan and others did not expect the Fifth Brigade to encounter danger at all.

After all, Chen Guangyuan's previous tactical arrangements were no problem, Yongqing was only twenty or thirty kilometers away from Bazhou, and even if the Fifth Brigade was surrounded, it would take a day or two to wait for reinforcements from the Sixth Brigade.

But the problem is that no one thought that the Seventh Division reorganized by Wang Zhanyuan was different from the direct army that the Feng Army had encountered before, and the Fifth Brigade was almost disregarded in the first two days, and was led by the nose by the Seventh Division, although the overall casualties were not large, but the front line, especially the northern front, was defeated and retreated, and finally forced to retreat into the main position of the Fifth Brigade, and in this way, the Fifth Brigade was compressed by Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division to a radius of less than two kilometers, and it was facing a flanking attack from the east, west, and south.

By the time Kong Guanbei, who was in front of him, realized that something was wrong and urgently asked the Yongqing Division for reinforcements, things had already become a little bad.

Of course, this kind of bad thing does not mean that the Fifth Brigade is in danger and will be surrounded and annihilated, but if the Fifth Brigade loses too much, it will be difficult for the Feng army to accept.

Not to mention, as long as the casualties of the Fifth Brigade exceed 10 percent, then the combat effectiveness of the brigade will have a greater impact, and if it is larger to 15 or even 20 percent, then the Fifth Brigade will lose its follow-up offensive capability and will need to stay for a long time to rest and replenish.

Once the 5th Brigade is forced to rest and recuperate due to excessive losses, then there will be one less brigade of troops to fight south in the future!

You must know that although the total strength of the Feng army now exceeds 100,000 people, which looks like a lot, in fact, the troops that the Feng army can draw for subsequent southward operations are extremely limited, even if it is an optimistic estimate, the troops that will go south to Shandong and Henan to fight will not exceed 50,000, and these 50,000 troops will have to be divided into two routes.

Before that, if a certain unit suffered a large loss and was forced to rest, it would greatly affect the follow-up battle plan of the Feng army, and this was difficult for Zhao Dongyun to accept, because he could not wait for the new troops to be completed or the old troops to rest and replenish before going south because of the small number of troops. Now he wants to compete with Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui for time, and if he is one day late, he will have a disadvantage for the future.

However, at this moment, Zhao Dongyun was in a hurry and had no choice, although he was in Langfang, although he could give orders to Chen Guangyuan at the headquarters of the Third Division by wireless telegraph, but his actual command of the troops was limited to the level of divisions and mixed brigades, and as for the communication of troops below the division level, he still relied on the traditional herald to ride horses to transmit orders.

The construction of radio communication in Fengjun began in 1905, when Yuan Shikai was stimulated by the Russo-Japanese War and saw a small amount of radio communication equipment used in the Russo-Japanese War, Yuan Shikai, who has always liked to catch up with the latest trend of the world army, set up a radio training class in 1905 and purchased the wireless telegraph of the Italian Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, and the third town stationed in Jinzhou was also equipped with a wireless telegraph machine at that time.

Later, after Zhao Dongyun served as the general of Shengjing, he successively purchased several wireless telegraph sets from Italy, and started radio classes at the Fengtian Military Academy.

Due to the large size and weight of these wireless telegraphs, and of course, the more important thing is that they are expensive, so at present, in addition to the fixed battalions in the Feng army, such as the fixed cities of Shenyang, Jinzhou, and Tangshan, and the headquarters that accompanied Zhao Dongyun's movement, the field troops are only assigned to the two levels of division and mixed brigade.

As for the communication below the infantry division and mixed brigade, it is still necessary to rely on the traditional communication of the horse herald, of course, if there is a cable telegraph in the place where it is stationed, it can also be telegraphed, but long-range radio is not available.

As for the wired telephone, the Fengjun also has it, but the wired telephone in this era is difficult to carry out long-distance communication, and the price is relatively expensive, and it is impossible to say that it is purchased in large quantities, so the current wired telephone of the Fengjun is generally mainly used to serve the liaison between the artillery unit and the infantry unit.

Moreover, whether it is a telephone or a wireless telegraphy, the above-mentioned ones are actually not very stable, and there are failures almost every day, so don't look at the Fengjun equipped with these new gadgets, but in fact, the transmission of orders, especially the transmission of short and medium distances, is mainly carried by the traditional equestrian heralds.

Faced with the instructions sent by Zhao Dongyun to quickly reinforce the Fifth Brigade from Guò Radio, Chen Guangyuan felt a little worried!

He is not worried about the safety of the Fifth Brigade, in fact, as the supreme commander of the Third Division, Chen Guangyuan knows very well the combat effectiveness of his Third Division, although Kong Guanbei has sent a letter asking for reinforcements, but Chen Guangyuan knows that Kong Guanbei is cautious in nature, and he will use an extremely exaggerated tone when there is nothing to do, but Chen Guangyuan knows that the Fifth Brigade seems to be dangerous on the surface, but in fact it is very safe, at most, the casualties will be greater than expected.

However, behind the seeming danger of the Fifth Brigade, Chen Guangyuan saw an opportunity, an opportunity to severely damage or even annihilate the Seventh Division!

Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division is now attacking the Fifth Brigade from all sides, and the Fifth Brigade is certainly dangerous, but it has also contained the Seventh Division in disguise, and the Seventh Division must have divided its troops in order to flank the Fifth Brigade in a roundabout way, according to Kong Guanbei's battle report and Chen Guangyuan's speculation, this Seventh Division is at least divided into three parts, of which the 13th Brigade, the main force of the detour, is in the northwest of the Fifth Brigade, and the distance between it and other units of the Seventh Division is at least five kilometers away.

Don't look at it on the plains, it is not worth five kilometers at a glance, but in a specific battle, these five kilometers are enough to decide the victory or defeat.

As long as the Fifth Brigade can hold on, then when the Sixth Brigade under his command turns back to the flank, and the 10th Division going south in the direction of Liuquan is about to arrive, even if the entire 7th Division cannot be left at that time, there should be a considerable possibility of counter-encircling the 13th Brigade.

However, these judgments are Chen Guangyuan's own judgments, but in fact, Zhao Dongyun instructed him to quickly reinforce the Fifth Brigade, if he said that he went against Zhao Dongyun's instructions and tried to counter-encircle the 13th Brigade, I am afraid that Zhao Dongyun would be dissatisfied.

This is where Chen Guangyuan feels worried!

As a mixed in the Fengjun system, it is very important to be able to fight, but it is more important to make Zhao Dongyun trust, you don't see Lin Yongquan, this person's military talent is really average in the Fengjun to be honest, in terms of military command ability alone, Lin Yongquan is among the many generals in the Fengjun, and it is estimated that he can't even rank in the top twenty.

And this is also known to everyone, otherwise Zhao Dongyun would not have specially assigned many senior combat staff officers to the Ninth Division commanded by Lin Yongquan, in order to supplement Lin Yongquan's lack of military command ability.

However, this deficiency did not affect Lin Yongquan's rise step by step, although Lin Yongquan failed to obtain the position of co-unification during the third town period, but Lin Yongquan has been sitting in the education department for many years, and his power has long been on par with Meng Enyuan and others, and last year Zhao Dongyun directly appointed him as the commander of the Ninth Division, you must know that Lin Yongquan has not commanded the troops for several years at that time, and he has no experience in commanding divisions and brigades before.

But relying on his loyalty to Zhao Dongyun, he was stunned to let him pass a large number of generals in the Feng army, and then became one of the three division commanders of the Feng army, and successively served as the commander of the defense of Jinzhou and the commander of the defense of Harbin.

Lin Yongquan held an important position under the condition of average ability, and the most important thing was that Zhao Dongyun trusted him enough, and trusted him to the point that he knew that his ability was average, but even if Lin Yongquan was specially assigned to a staff team full of talents to assist him in combat, he would have to lift him up.

These are enough to prove that if you want to mix well in the Soviet army, ability is important, but Zhao Dongyun's trust is even more important.

Therefore, although Chen Guangyuan wanted to play a bold outflanking in his heart, he did not dare to make a decision privately, but quickly proposed this combat plan to Zhao Dongyun through a wireless telegram, he did not have the courage to hide that Zhao Dongyun used the Fifth Brigade as a bait to play the trick of outflanking the Seventh Division, and he couldn't play it alone, if he wanted to succeed, he had to have the cooperation of Xu Bangjie's Tenth Division.

After Zhao Dongyun received Chen Guangyuan's proposal, he did not refuse or approve it immediately, but called Fang Biyong, Yang Deming and others over.

"From the point of view of the department, General Chen's plan may succeed, but there is also a certain risk, if the detour attack force is slow, or if there is an unplanned change in the defense line of the Fifth Brigade, then the Fifth Brigade will be completely in danger, and I am afraid that the bait of the Fifth Brigade will be eaten at that time!" Fang Biyong worried: "Now that our army has a clear strategic advantage, it can also control Zhili without these dangerous tactics!" ”

The key to using the Fifth Brigade as a bait to carry out an anti-encirclement operation against the Seventh Division is not whether or not it can successfully counter-encircle the Seventh Division, but that the bait of the Fifth Brigade cannot be eaten. If the bait of the Fifth Brigade is eaten, then even if the entire Seventh Division is encircled and annihilated, it will be a complete defeat for the Feng army.

In today's strategic situation of the two armies, the advantage of the Feng army is already very obvious, even if it continues to fight step by step, it is still possible to take the Zhili army, and it is impossible to take a risk with a fifth brigade.

However, Meng Enyuan on the side also spoke, although Meng Enyuan was the commander of the First Army, and the war in Bazhou had little to do with him, but Meng Enyuan was one of the few senior generals in the Feng army, and Zhao Dongyun also wanted to hear what he had to say at this critical moment.

"It is true that our army has gained a strategic advantage in Zhili now, but if the Seventh Division is not left, then in the future, Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division is very likely to return to Shandong, and after some time, Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui's troops will also go north to Shandong, and when our army goes south to Shandong, it will encounter great resistance. If the pressure in the Shandong direction is great, then the troops we can put into Shijiazhuang and even Henan in the future will be reduced.

If we can take advantage of our current advantage to annihilate Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division in one fell swoop, then going south to Shandong in the future will be tantamount to entering a no-man's land, and it may even be possible to seize Jinan ahead of Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui, and lay the foundation for Shandong's victory in one fell swoop! ”

After Meng Enyuan's voice fell, Zhao Dongyun continued to ponder, and then raised his head and said to Yang Deming: "What about the opinion of the combat department?" ”