Wang Zhanyuan's decision was decisive and fast, he thought that even if he couldn't eat the Fifth Brigade of Kong Guanbei with the strength of one division, but in the face of the attack of two divisions of the Feng Army, it should not be a problem to hold Bazhou!

After all, in the war of this era, the defending side occupies a great tactical advantage, and it is very common to block two with one, and it is impossible to surround himself with the strength of two divisions of the Feng army, so Wang Zhanyuan feels that he should be safe in Bazhou.

In addition, if he held and contained the two main divisions of the Feng army in Bazhou, then he would be able to greatly reduce the pressure on the Beijing division and buy time for the defense in the direction of the Beijing division.

What to do in the buying time?

Waiting for Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen from Henan and Hubei, as well as Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui from the direction of the two rivers in Shandong, to go north!

As long as he and the Beijing division dragged Wang Ruxian to take Shijiazhuang, then Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen's troops could continue to quickly go north to reinforce the Beijing division and themselves, and then the Zhili dilemma would be solved.

It is precisely this factor that made Wang Zhanyuan never have the idea of withdrawing his troops before, even if he was besieged by the two divisions of the Feng army from many sides, he never wavered!

But the current situation is completely different from what he expected, first of all, Wu Fengling on the Shijiazhuang side is like Xiaoqiang who can't be killed, after receiving reinforcements from the second cavalry brigade of the Feng army of 2,000 people, he is stunned to continue to defend Shijiazhuang with inferior troops, so that Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen, who are followed by reinforcements, will not be able to move north.

Of course, Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen's troops could actually leave the railway and bypass Shijiazhuang on foot, but in this case, not to mention that the northbound troops bypassing Shijiazhuang would face the danger of being cut off from the supply line or even surrounded, and if there was no railway transportation alone, their pace of going north would be unbearable.

Shijiazhuang is not far from the Beijing Division, but there are hundreds of kilometers, at that time, the second cavalry brigade of the Feng army in order to rush to Shijiazhuang reinforcements, along the way to run dead thousands of horses, and when they arrived in Shijiazhuang, the second cavalry brigade has only more than 100 cavalry left, the rest are the foot cavalry that has lost horses.

If Wang Ruxian and his troops wanted to leave the railway and go north, they would not be able to reach the Beijing Division for half a month, and this half a month was enough for Wu Fengling and the direct army to join forces to kill the troops of Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen, who were alone in the north, several times.

The more than 20,000 people of Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen have not been able to take Shijiazhuang for a long time, which means that Wang Yingkai has been unable to get reinforcements for a long time, and it is a matter of time before the Beijing division is taken by the Feng army, and after the Beijing division is lost, the other main forces of the Feng army will go south to reinforce Shijiazhuang and Bazhou, not to mention Shijiazhuang.

But in that case, Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division, which was in Bazhou, would be dangerous.

Although Wang Zhanyuan was confident that the two divisions of the Feng army on the opposite side would not be able to keep him, if the Feng army had another division, there would really be no way to break through at that time.

And this situation became even stricter after the defense line of the 28th Regiment was broken through, and now the two divisions against the Feng army are not completely defeated, but they are also very reluctant, if the Feng army comes to reinforce the troops, then they may not really be defeated in Bazhou.

Now in this situation, they are unable to break through the Feng army to intercept and reinforce the Beijing Division, and Wang Ruxian and they have no way to break through Shijiazhuang to reinforce the Beijing Division, as for Zhang Huaizhi and Duan Qirui's troops to go north to the Beijing Division, it is not much sense to continue to delay time in this case.

Faced with such a situation, Wang Zhanyuan quickly made a decision, that is, thirty-six plans to go ahead!

Wang Zhanyuan's withdrawal once again surprised most people, and just like the retreat of the 13th Brigade at the beginning, the retreat of the 7th Division was decisive and rapid, and in the evening of the same day, the 13th Brigade launched a large-scale counteroffensive on the frontal front, and the scale of the counteroffensive was extremely large, and the direct army also carried out fierce artillery bombardment at the expense of shells, which once made the front-line officers of the 10th Division think that the 7th Division had drawn troops from other fronts and wanted to launch a large-scale counteroffensive from the north or even break through the interception of the 10th Division and go north.

As a result, in the evening of the same day, the front-line troops of the 10th Division were forced to go on the defensive, while keeping a close eye on the possible night attack of the 13th Brigade.

However, they had no idea that Wang Zhanyuan's 13th Brigade had just made a false shot and played a huge counterattack, and as soon as night came, the 13th Brigade quietly withdrew from the front line except for leaving a small number of troops to continue to play a small-scale counteroffensive to gain momentum.

At that time, a large number of front-line officers of the 13th Brigade still thought that the 7th Division was brewing a large-scale counteroffensive, and many people believed that the 7th Division's counteroffensive might be coming at dawn tomorrow, so they were busy deploying the defensive line this night, and many officers did not sleep all night directing the soldiers to dig trenches to strengthen the defensive line, after all, the strong offensive ability that the 7th Division had attacked the 5th Brigade before was still more fearful of the other officers of the Feng Army.

The same situation is still on the side of the 28th Regiment!

However, before dawn and even in the morning afterward, the Feng army, especially the 10th Division, could not wait for the expected counteroffensive of the 7th Division, and when the front line troops launched a tentative attack, they found that the opposite direct front was empty.

"He actually ran away?" Xu Bangjie couldn't believe the situation reported by his subordinates: "Didn't you say last night that the Seventh Division was going to launch a large-scale counteroffensive?" How did it all change overnight! ”

No need to ask, now at this time, everyone understands that the offensive yesterday evening was a false gesture by the Seventh Division, not for a counteroffensive but for the withdrawal of troops!

"They must have retreated at night, and when we attacked reactionary in the morning, we found that there was only one battalion left of the enemy on the opposite side, and this battalion also launched a night attack on us last night!" Zhou Fulin, the commander of the 20th Brigade on the side, said: "Obviously, this battalion is their broken rear force!" ”

Ren Cungao, the commander of the 19th Brigade, also said: "Not only did the 13th Brigade retreat last night, but the 28th Regiment of the enemy on the 5th Brigade also withdrew. But the enemy did not go far, and at present, Brother Gu's 6th Brigade is still fighting with the enemy's 27th Regiment on the southern front of Bazhou, which shows that they did not go too far yesterday! ”

"He Wang Zhanyuan thinks that we are people, come when you want, leave if you want, hum!" Xu Bangjie, who felt that he had been tricked, was in a very bad mood, if he was escaped by Wang Zhanyuanshun, although his side might achieve certain results, but from a strategic point of view, this battle of Bazhou would be a complete failure.

The reason why the Feng army launched the Battle of Bazhou and blocked Wang Zhanyuan from going north to reinforce the Beijing Division was only secondary, and the more important thing was that the Feng army hoped to hit the seventh division in one fell swoop, so as to create favorable conditions for the follow-up march into Shandong and the southern Zhili region, if Wang Zhanyuan's troops could not escape, this means that the Feng army will be blocked by the seventh division in the process of going south in the future, and this back and forth will consume more time, and then Duan Qirui and Zhang Huaizhi's troops will enter and completely control Shandong.

So Xu Bangjie couldn't let the Seventh Division escape intact!

"Lao Zhou, your twentieth brigade immediately pursues lightly, be sure to catch up with and entangle the enemy's main force, let my brother, your nineteenth brigade quickly solve the broken battalion for me, and then catch up with the twentieth brigade!"

When Xu Bangjie ordered the troops to pursue for the first time, Chen Guangyuan also found out that it was not a second, and the decision he made was similar to Xu Bangjie, that is, to order the Fifth Brigade to break through the interception of the troops after the direct army was broken and go south to pursue.

At the same time, he ordered Gu Lanyu of the Sixth Brigade to ask the Sixth Brigade to be sure to entangle the main force of the Seventh Division!

But Wang Zhanyuan thought differently from them, when he retreated last night, he did not lead his troops to retreat south, but led his troops to retreat from the southwest, and he did not take the 27th Regiment with him.

In fact, the officers and men of the 27th Regiment did not know that the main force of the 7th Division had retreated, why?

Because Wang Zhanyuan needs a broken rear force to cover the retreat of the main force!

Xu Bangjie and Chen Guangyuan both thought that Wang Zhanyuan was breaking through from the south, otherwise they would not have let the 27th Regiment hold on, so the 20th and 5th Brigades of the 10th Brigade quickly arrived on the southern front of Bazhou and participated in the siege of the 27th Regiment.

But they didn't know that when they besieged the 27th Regiment, the main force of the 7th Division led by Wang Zhanyuan had already jumped out of the encirclement of Bazhou and had already appeared in Xiongxian County, 30 kilometers away.

And at this time, the Battle of Bazhou, which lasted for nearly ten days, came to an end!

However, the result of this battle was that both sides were not satisfied, and after learning that Wang Zhanyuan led the main force of the Seventh Division to successfully break through, and did not hit the Seventh Division as hard as originally planned, Zhao Dongyun, who was in Langfang, was very angry, and sent a telegram of condolences to Chen Guangyuan, the supreme commander in charge of the Battle of Bazhou, on the same day, although the content of the telegram was to praise the troops of the Third Division and the Tenth Division for their courage in fighting and successfully destroying more than 2,000 enemies, hoping that Chen Jun would continue to work hard and not disappoint the country and the nation.

The words of Zhao Dongyun's telegram to Chen Guangyuan were extremely formulaic, and they did not use approachable words like before, and this is a very obvious signal, that is, Zhao Dongyun is quite dissatisfied with Chen Guangyuan's command!

The purpose of the Feng army in launching the Battle of Bazhou was very clear, although it did not expect to completely encircle and annihilate the Seventh Division, but it also had to inflict heavy damage on the Seventh Division. In this way, it can create favorable conditions for the follow-up southward operation, but now although the Seventh Division has left more than 2,000 people in Bazhou, and even a 27th Regiment has been surrounded and annihilated, to be honest, although this is a lot of losses for the Seventh Division, it is also the main force of the Seventh Division.

The retreat of the 7th Division was different from the retreat of the 1st Division, and at that time, Lu Yongxiang's 1st Division retreated, as it said, rather than a beaten wolf bèi and fled, and there was no time to take with it a large number of heavy weapons, especially the two artillery battalions assigned to the 1st Brigade to fight were almost completely lost. However, as for the Seventh Division, their artillery units left ahead of schedule, and the heavy machine guns of the infantry were all taken away, mainly these technical weapons were still there, and the backbone was still there, even if it was a loss of an infantry regiment, it didn't take a month to relieve the Seventh Division.

In these years, it is extremely difficult for you to expand an artillery regiment, but if you want to expand an infantry regiment, it will be much less difficult, and Wang Zhanyuan will not have to spend much effort, he will directly transfer a battalion from other troops, and then a new 27th regiment can be reorganized, and another two or three thousand soldiers will be recruited, and his seventh division will be able to restore its original combat effectiveness.

As for the source of recruits, during the war, the Feng army was able to recruit recruits while fighting, and most of the other warlords did the same, Wang Zhanyuan also imitated the Feng army in Shandong to create a new barracks, but there were thousands of people in training, and after replenishment, the combat effectiveness of the seventh division could be restored soon.

However, the First Division also suffered considerable losses, and its artillery, heavy machine guns, and other weapons were almost completely lost, and this First Division was absolutely unable to recover its combat effectiveness in the same short time as the Seventh Division.

The Seventh Division was not hit hard, and Zhao Dongyun was naturally dissatisfied.

On the other side of the war, Wang Yingkai was also seriously dissatisfied with Wang Zhanyuan's retreat, because Wang Zhanyuan's retreat was almost a complete failure of the plan to rescue the Beijing Division!

Today's Jingshi is like a lonely boat in the desert, fully surrounded by the Feng army!

And as the losses increased and the officers and soldiers knew that there were no more reinforcements, the direct army in the Beijing division finally underwent a large-scale shake.

On July 13, with the cooperation of He Zonglian's 5th Mixed Brigade and Cao Kun's 4th Mixed Brigade, they successfully defeated more than 6,000 people of the 11th Division and captured Tongzhou!

On the 14th, the Feng army broke through the multiple lines of defense of the remnants of the direct army in a row, and fought all the way to Chaoyangmen.

At this time, it can basically be announced that the defense of the Beijing Division of the direct army has been retreated and broken, even if the remnants of the first division in the direction of Nanyuan are still resisting, but it cannot change the fact that the Feng army has entered the Beijing Division from the eastern battle of the Beijing Division!