【169】The Red Flag of the Wind Blows the Earth (25)

After a period of recuperation after the contest, an all-army combat meeting was held. Marx did not attend this conference, his interest in the specific arrangements of the war was far less intense than his interest in books and research, and it was very troublesome to listen to the interpreter at the meeting.

The cadres gathered around a long conference table made of square tables, with a cup of strong tea and a stack of salt-fried soybeans in front of each person, and everyone seemed quiet and happy on a winter morning.

Yao Fan was the first to speak: "We now ask Comrade Bai Xiaoqi, director of the Communications and Intelligence Committee, to tell us about the information we currently have. ”

Bai Xiaoqi is now a probationary party member, and after the decision to merge the White Horse Society into the Shandong Commune under internal pressure, Bai Xiaoqi gained the respect of the Yao Fan system.

"Comrades, judging from the latest information obtained by our Communications and Intelligence Committee, at present, because Zuo Zongtang is using troops in northwest Xinjiang, he has no time to look eastward and contain half of the main force of the Qing army, and we are mainly facing the Huai army group headed by Li Hongzhang."

"Due to the fact that the Manchu government used troops from the east and west, the finances were stretched thin, and the military rations were unsustainable, so that they gave up the autumn and winter seasons suitable for marching. But their knives are ready, it's just that we don't know when they're going to cut at us. ”

"At present, according to the intelligence sent back by the intelligence officers we dispatched, the third battalion of Mo Zushen's 'gentleman' under Shandong Governor Ding Baozhen, the fourth battalion of Li Peirong's 'pei' character, plus Ding Baozhen's Fubiao battalion of foreign guns, with a total strength of 3,000 people deployed in Weifang County, showing a defensive posture."

The Ming army under Li Hongzhang, including a total of 22 horse infantry battalions stationed in Jining and Xuzhou, has now moved eastward, and the ants are moving towards Zhucheng and Rizhao. This Ming army was strong, with a total combat strength of more than 11,000 men, in addition to 20 infantry battalions equipped with artillery, there were also two horse battalions of more than 500 people. ”

Different from the 250-man horse battalion under Ding Baozhen, although the horse battalion of Li Hongzhang's descendants is only half of the horses of Yongding, that is, 2560 horses, his personnel are divided into Ma Yong and Sanyong, and the feeding and care of the horses are relatively better, and the combat ability is stronger. And in addition to short javelins and machetes, their horse teams also have short foreign guns with double barrels, which can shoot on horseback! ”

Li Hainiu snorted when he heard this, and said in a low voice: "That bird thing has a fart on the horse, and it will shoot immediately within thirty steps, and it can be regarded as burning high incense if it can hit a grinding plate." ”

Yao Fan stopped and said, "Manatee, don't intervene, listen to Comrade Bai Xiaoqi continue." ”

Li Hainiu immediately kept silent, he was a little unhappy with Bai Xiaoqi, which everyone could see.

The reason is surprisingly simple, because the commander of the cavalry battalion was designated by Yao Fan as Bai Xiaoqi's husband, Xi Dahu, who was born in the White Horse Club, and Kuang Ruyi, the former deputy commander of the first battalion recommended by Li Hainiu to Yao Fan, was transferred to the cavalry battalion as the deputy battalion commander. You must know that if it is not evenly adjusted, Kuang Ruyi will naturally be the deputy head of the first regiment.

Li Hainiu has no opinion on Hu Guangting, the new deputy head of the current regiment, this is his favorite general, but he is a little unhappy about Kuang Ruyi's flat tone rather than promotion. As for the three company commanders under the cavalry battalion, Xie Jiaxiang, the commander of the first company, and Hou Dingshan, the commander of the third company, were all from the White Horse Club, which also made Li Hainiu very depressed.

Fortunately, Zhang Lusheng, the commander of the second company, is from the Yaojiazhuang system, and the three deputy company commanders are also Yao Fan's veterans. Yao Fan also told Li Hainiu not to worry: "The revolutionary army is not a private warlord, and our ideological and political education is not in vain. This made Li Hainiu feel a little relieved. Yao Fan could understand Li Hainiu's worries, after all, both the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Twist Army had a large number of rebels.

Bai Xiaoqi's feelings were very calm, and she continued: "In addition, in addition to the main force of the Ming Army led by Liu Shengzao, the 16 battalions of Tang Dingkui's division under Liu Shengzao also set off from Yangzhou and moved north. There are 13 infantry battalions and 3 cavalry battalions. According to intelligence, he was accompanied by a 600-strong flowering artillery battalion of the Qing Army, which was also stationed in Yangzhou. However, the remaining 11 battalions of the Qing Army did not move in Suzhou and Yangzhou, and they should have been temporarily arranged to stay behind. ”

Yao Fan added to the cadres based on his historical knowledge: "This flowering artillery battalion is the largest deterrent force of the Huai army in the Yangtze River area of Yangzhou, used to guard against foreigners in Shanghai, this battalion has 30 12-pounder flowering cannons, and there are four 24-pounder and two 36-pounder flowering cannons!" The flowering cannon is a squatting mortar cannon, which the Qing army called the field chicken cannon, that is, they have 36 field chicken cannons. There are also several foreign battalion officers in the battalion, and I think the artillery strength of this battalion is completely different from the six artillery pieces deployed in the general infantry battalion of the Huai Army, under the guidance of the foreign artillery officers, they should have long-range artillery capability, and the artillery capability at a distance of 1,000 to 1,200 meters is there, but I estimate that they mainly rely on visual observation. I can't say it well on the accuracy, but this kind of thing is completely incomparable with our army's mortars, and it will definitely not be very accurate. ”

After speaking, Yao Fan motioned for Bai Xiaoqi to continue.

Bai Xiaoqi nodded and continued: "The threat to the south is like this, and it is estimated that their total combat strength is in the early 20,000s. It's just that the news from the north is difficult to hear now, and the Qing army has set up cards on the Jiaoji Road and investigated them strictly. ”

Yao Fan said: "Then let me help you say, as far as I know, the only troops in the north of the Huai Army can move." This tree army was newly recruited in 1870 after its disbandment in 1868 and was used to garrison Shanxi, with six infantry battalions. ”

"As for the Sheng army, I know that they have 21 battalions, 15 infantry battalions and 6 cavalry battalions, and they are Li Hongzhang's main force in Tianjin, defending the line from Beijing to Tianjin, to prevent foreigners from attacking Beijing from the sea."

"I think Lao Li is unlikely to pull all these troops of the Sheng Army over, everyone sees that Shanghai, a colonial port, is so far away from Beijing, and he also left 11 battalions of the Qing Army to guard against it, what is Tianjin? Behind is Beijing, and Li Hongzhang must not make any mistakes. ”

"So it's good that half of the 21 battalions of Tianjin's Sheng Army can come, I estimate that his horse team will all come over, and add four infantry battalions, that is, 10 battalions, if all the Shu Army in Shanxi come, it will be a total strength of 16 battalions, more than 8,000 people. There are also three pro-army artillery battalions of Li Hongzhang in Tianjin, about 1,800 people, all of which are foreign artillery, and there is not a single domestic product, I estimate that he is willing to send two over at most. ”

"Therefore, if we count Ding Baozhen's more than 3,000 people, the Qing army on the North Road will probably gather about 12,000 people at most."

"As for the Xun Army and Wu Yi Army in Shaanxi, a total of seven or eight thousand people who have been disabled, I don't think there is any need to worry, Xinjiang is fighting hotly, and it is absolutely impossible for Shaanxi to draw troops to support the Shandong battlefield."

"In terms of time, I estimate that at the end of March and the beginning of April, the Qing army will officially march to encircle and suppress."

Li Jun applauded excitedly: "The chairman has insight! We will win! For a while, there was a warm applause in the conference room.

Yao Fan stood up and pointed to the map and said: "We must not make the mistake of arrogant soldiers and will be defeated, strategically we are despising the feudal army of the Manchu government, but tactically, we must pay attention to the opponent." ”

"Considering that the Qing army is massing, and the Jiaodong Peninsula east of Qingdao is no longer an enemy that can threaten us, the direction of our army's campaign will be to the northwest and southwest."

"In addition to the newly established 82nd Recoilless Artillery Battalion staying in Qingdao, the third battalion of the 4th Regiment also assisted in staying in Qingdao and Jimo."

"The rest of the main forces will be dispatched in two ways, and the westward troops will take Jiaoxian, Gaomi, and Anqiu in one go, and then attack Weixian."

"After the northbound troops captured Pingdu, they attacked Changyi, and then joined forces with the westward troops in Weixian."

"In this way, the area under the actual control of our army will reach 5,000 to 6,000 square kilometers, and the circular control area will facilitate our effective mobilization of troops to carry out operations in this area."

"The political work cadres and troops of our Shandong Commune will next use this core control area as the core base area to carry out a large-scale crackdown on local tyrants and inferior gentry, and distribute land, agricultural tools, and floating wealth to the poor and middle peasants."

Li Jun nodded heavily and said: "Weixian is a frontier town strictly guarded by more than 3,000 people in Ding Baozhen, as long as Weixian is taken, the surrounding four counties of Shouguang, Changle, Qingzhou, and Linqu, we can fight whichever we want, Ding Baozhen is alone, and he will definitely retreat to Jinan." ”

Yao Fan circled on the map and said: "This battle is mainly based on siege, and by the way, Ding Baozhen is beaten into a bare-bones commander. ”

"Then we adopted the strategy of blocking the south and advancing north, and the south road relied on the line of Jiaoxian, Gaomi, and Anqiu to block the gradually assembled forces of the Huai army in Rizhao and Zhucheng."

"The north road takes Weifang as the center, and eats the surrounding Shouguang, Changle, Qingzhou, and Linqu counties one by one, so as to ensure that there is a fan-shaped strategic buffer in the west of Weixian."

Li Hainiu said: "Next, the Huai army will inevitably attack from the north and south, and we will fight on two fronts, but with the strength of our army, we can win even if we fight on two fronts." ”

Yao Fan said with a smile: "With this occupied area, we can concentrate our forces to quickly attack one direction, let the enemy in the other direction go to occupy the city to report the victory, and when we eat up and kill one of the roads, we can go back and eat a second meal." ”

The cadres of the whole army laughed, they were obviously full of confidence in Yao Fan's plan, and they also very much agreed with this strategy of expanding the strategic buffer zone.

Yao Fan confidently looked at all the cadres in the conference room and said: "After this period of training and training, every cadre and soldier in our whole army has mastered the skills of fighting local tyrants and dividing the fields, but if they fight less, they have no experience, but even if they are not skilled, it doesn't matter, this opportunity has come." ”

"I ask that once this area is taken this time, in addition to actively preparing for war, the whole army will immediately start a large-scale fight against local tyrants and divide the land, and the villages under each county will be screened one by one, and the villages under the land reform will account for half of the villages under the county! For the local tyrants and inferior gentry, in addition to shooting, we must send their families to labor reform to alleviate the current employment pressure. ”

"All women will be sent to the quilt factory in Jimo County to sew cotton clothes, and men will all participate in road construction except for capital crimes and shooting, and the cement road from Jimo to Weifang must be quickly repaired, and the militia force will be responsible for the above detention and supervision of labor reform, and all those who sabotage and resist will be executed."

In the face of the encirclement and suppression of the Huai army, Yao Fan made a heavy hand. He has always pursued a pragmatic policy that varies from time to time, and the moderate policies that he had previously developed in Qingdao and Jimo have begun to change.

"All troops, once there is battle damage, must immediately draw soldiers from the militia and transport regiments to replenish them, and be sure to keep them fully loaded!"