Although the overall Suzhì of the Feng army was stronger than that of other warlord troops in the country, the strength was limited, and there was no insurmountable huge difference.

Purely from the point of view of Su zhì, if the German army in the great powers is ten, then the Japanese army has six points, and the Feng army is at most about four points, even if it is exactly the same weapon, twice the number of Feng troops will definitely not be able to defeat the German army.

This is the overall gap between officers and soldiers, and it is not so easy to change.

If the Feng army is only four points, then the Anhui army is at most about three points.

Four points seem to be higher than three points, but in fact it is only half a catty and eight taels, in specific battles, this kind of su zhì can not form an absolute tactical and strategic advantage, and the fight depends on the weapons and equipment of both sides and the use of tactics, and often kill a thousand enemies and lose eight hundred.

In the many large-scale battles between the two armies of Feng and Anhui, the Anhui army suffered great losses, but the Feng army itself was not much better, the battle of Jiangbei was fine, but in the first battle of Jiangnan, the seventeenth brigade of the ninth division can be said to be disabled, the fourteenth division lost more than a quarter, and the fourth mixed brigade was almost completely annihilated.

The reason why the Feng army did not seem to have suffered much losses after the war was because the Feng army had been replenishing the front-line troops since the outbreak of the battle, and after the war, a large number of prisoners of war were brought in, so after the Jiangnan Campaign, the strength of the Feng army on the Jiangnan front line not only decreased, but also increased a lot.

The reason for this situation is not that the losses of the Feng army are small, but that the Feng army has a large replenishment capacity.

In many battles, the reason why the Feng army was able to achieve decisive victories was largely due to the superiority of weapons and logistics, not to mention logistics, but also weapons.

At present, the reason why the Feng army is proud of the others is because he has enough artillery and guns, and other warlords, even if they are the Anhui army before the Jiangnan Campaign, they have only more than 100 barreled artillery, but how many barreled artillery did the Feng army have before the Jiangnan Campaign? At least 400 guns, the number of artillery pieces put into the Jiangnan campaign was nearly 250, and this is not counting the naval artillery support provided by the navy.

In addition to the barreled artillery, the Feng army's more artillery advantage lies in mortars, and the Feng army invested nearly 1,000 mortars of various calibers in the Jiangnan Campaign, which is very advanced for this era.

In addition, many heavy machine guns and light machine guns can also form a great tactical advantage, although the major warlords have heavy machine guns, but even Duan Qirui, who was rich before, can only be the two main forces under the command of heavy machine guns, light machine guns, other troops depend on the ability of the commander of each unit, the ability is strong, and the people who can compete for more funds from Duan Qirui are better in all kinds of weapons and equipment of the troops they lead, and some of them are not very capable, or they are not Duan Qirui's descendant generals, The level of equipment of his troops is much worse.

In addition to the Fourth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade, among the other units of the Liangjiang Provincial Army, there are only two that are better equipped, that is, the Sixth Division of Liangjiang and the Seventh Division of Liangjiang. The Sixth Division of Liangjiang is well equipped, and that is because this unit has been fighting in Jiangxi and Guangdong since its establishment, and it is the primary meritorious unit of the Anhui Department to take Guangdong, and it has rich combat experience and has won many battles.

The Seventh Division of Liangjiang was originally Duan Qirui in order to build a new main division for the construction of a great amount of manpower and material resources to build the troops, the level of equipment was very good at the beginning of its establishment, not to mention anything else, at least the artillery and heavy machine guns are full, but unfortunately the luck of the Seventh Division of Liangjiang is really not very good, the first battle is to meet the three aces of the Feng Army, the Ninth Division, and finally suffered the fate of the whole army in the battle of Dangtu, even the division commander Lei Zhenchun was defeated and committed suicide.

During the Battle of Anqing, he blocked the first division of the first army of the Feng army for several months, if it were not for the strategic defeat of the Anhui army in the entire Jiangnan region, thus leading Anqing to hang alone on the north bank of the Yangtze River, forcing the sixth division of Liangjiang to take the initiative to abandon Anqing in order to avoid the fate of being encircled and annihilated.

After retreating from Anqing to the southwest, the 6th Division of Liangjiang received a new order, that is, to hold Jiujiang, and the 3rd Division of Liangjiang and two independent infantry regiments received this order, these two infantry regiments were formed by the Anhui Army in Jiangxi last year, originally Duan Qirui wanted to follow Zhao Dongyun to engage in patrol infantry regiments, but later the strength of Jiangxi was tight, so they simply strengthened these two infantry regiments of the nature of the garrison, and finally reorganized into the first independent regiment and the second independent regiment of Liangjiang. The strength of each regiment reached more than three thousand people.

Two infantry divisions, two independent regiments, and then some local garrison troops in Jiujiang, Madang Fortress garrison, and paramilitary troops such as military police, the Anhui army invested about 50,000 defensive troops on the first line of Jiujiang, with about 60 artillery pieces.

The person in charge of commanding these troops in the Jiujiang Campaign was Zhang Guotai, another member of the Anhui army.

Zhang Guotai, in 1906 Yuan Shikai was assassinated, the four major warlords of Beiyang were the fourth town of the Beiyang Standing Army before the fourth cavalry standard command, after the four major warlords of Beiyang raised troops, he led the fourth cavalry standard to fight straight down, Duan Qirui led the fourth division and the second mixed brigade south to Liangjiang, he quickly accumulated merit and was promoted to the commander of the first division of Liangjiang, and when Duan Qirui was organized into the sixth division of Liangjiang, he was transferred to the sixth division as the commander of the twelfth brigade of the sixth division of the Liangjiang Army, and soon accumulated merit and was promoted to the commander of the sixth division of the Liangjiang Army, and led the 6th Division of Liangjiang to take Guangdong.

Later, Zhang Guotai led the 6th Division of Liangjiang to garrison Anqing, although Anqing was lost in the end, but his table was still remarkable, especially in the strategic defeat of the Anhui army in Jiangnan, all troops, including the 4th Division, were in an unfavorable situation, and the 6th Division of Liangjiang was also considered to be excellent.

Therefore, when Zhang Guotai led the Sixth Division of Liangjiang to leave Anqing and move to Jiujiang, in order to further envelop Zhang Guotai, Duan Qirui promoted him to the rank of general of the army.

At the same time, Duan Qirui also appointed him as the 'Jiujiang Town Guardian', with full responsibility for the affairs of the Jiujiang Campaign.

From Zhang Guotai's appointment, in fact, we can see Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui's attitude towards senior generals, in the process of fighting in the south, Zhao Dongyun has never appointed senior generals as 'garrison commander' and 'town guard envoy' and other positions, at most he will set up a former enemy command in a large-scale battle, and appoint senior generals at the front as commanders, deputy commanders, chief of staff and other positions of the former enemy command headquarters, but this kind of affairs is a simple military command affair, and it is temporary. However, Zhang Guotai's appointment is equivalent to a miniature version of a provincial overseer and protector, and it is also long-term.

After Zhang Guotai presided over the defense of Jiujiang, he could see at a glance that the reason for guarding Jiujiang was to defend northern Jiangxi, as long as the Anhui army held Jiujiang, it would be able to firmly nail a nail in northern Jiangxi, forcing the Feng army not to dare to go straight to the hinterland of Nanchang in Jiangxi.

And if you want to hold Jiujiang, you have to defend Pengze first, because Jiujiang is surrounded by mountains and rivers on all sides, and it is very difficult for the Feng army to attack, but the Feng army is not stupid, as long as they land in the south of Jiujiang from Panyang Lake, they can completely block Jiujiang from the south, plus the Feng army artillery blockade from the Yangtze River and Panyang Lake, then this Jiujiang is equivalent to being completely surrounded, and a Jiujiang that is surrounded and does not get any foreign aid will definitely not be able to support it for a long time.

Therefore, if you want to guard Jiujiang, you can't just guard Jiujiang itself, you must first guard Pengze.

And if you want to hold Peng Ze, you have to hold the most critical tactical point, Madang Fort.

Based on this situation, Zhang Guotai put his only main force, the Liangjiang Sixth Division, in Madang Fort, in order to be able to block the attacking troops of the Feng army in Madang Fort.

But what he didn't expect was that Lu Yongxiang's determination to attack was more determined than he imagined, and although Lu Yongxiang was able to draw not many troops, he was supported by a heavy artillery battalion.

When the divisional artillery regiment of the 1st Division and the 1st Heavy Artillery Battalion cooperated with each other to launch a large-scale artillery bombardment of Madang Battery, the 6th Division of Liangjiang was also very overwhelmed.

And that's not all, what really worries Zhang Guotai is that when the First Division of the Feng Army was attacking Madang Fort, the Eighth Division, another unit of Lu Yongxiang's First Army, had already begun a detour, they were going to bypass Madang and then go straight to Hukou.

Lu Yongxiang's tactic was very simple, that is, to drag the 6th Division of Liangjiang in front of Madang, and then use the 8th Division to make a large-scale detour and go straight to the mouth of the lake.

As long as the mouth of the lake is taken, it will be equivalent to cutting off Peng Ze's enemy's retreat, and he wants to see whether Zhang Guotai's Liangjiang Sixth Division will return or not.

If he doesn't retreat, he will unceremoniously give him a total annihilation, and if he retreats, it is much better to fight a pursuit battle than to fight a tough battle.

In the countless great victories in history, the heavy casualties of the losing side are not because of the defeat in the frontal battle, but often in the retreat stage, and then completely collapsed.

What Lu Yongxiang wants is the retreat of the Sixth Division of Liangjiang, as long as he retreats, then he can find an opportunity to turn the retreat of the Sixth Division of Liangjiang into a rout, as long as the retreat of the Sixth Division of Liangjiang becomes a rout, even if there are not too many people left in the Sixth Division of Liangjiang at that time, it is enough to make a good start to the Jiujiang Campaign, as long as the morale of the Sixth Division of Liangjiang is defeated, the follow-up battle will be much easier.

At this time, the military intelligence gathering capabilities of both sides are not good, but such a big movement of Lu Yongxiang's First Army will always make the reconnaissance personnel on the opposite side perceive, and on July 13, Zhang Guotai got a report from the front-line reconnaissance cavalry, saying that a large number of Feng troops were found in Yang Zi in the south of Pengze, and according to the flag and the reality of the capture, this unit is the Eighth Division of the Central Army that rarely appears in front of outsiders in the Feng army.