Looking at the soldiers of the Anhui Army who appeared one after another in the distance, Fang Qingkun showed a trace of sadness on his face!

Since the early afternoon, a large number of Anhui soldiers wearing dark blue military uniforms have appeared in front of his position, and it is a good thing to say that these Anhui troops will attack as soon as they arrive, because this will form a kind of refueling tactic, which is a good thing for the small number of troops of the Feng army crossing the river.

However, what worried Fang Qingkun was that the Anhui army on the opposite side did not say that they were in a hurry to attack, but stopped a few kilometers away from the Feng army, and then made various pre-offensive deployments on the one hand, and waited for the arrival of the follow-up troops on the other.

When Fang Qingkun tried to launch an active attack, due to the long distance and the open terrain, the Anhui army on the opposite side was able to react in time and make corresponding tactical deployments to target, which successfully forced Fang Qingkun to stop the idea of taking the initiative.

However, as time passed, the Anhui army on the opposite side gathered more and more, from a battalion at the beginning, to a regiment, and then to a brigade, this is not counting, and finally Fang Qingkun saw the enemy artillery unit also appear from his binoculars.

"Now on, the real test is coming!" Although Fang Qingkun was worried in his heart, in front of his subordinates, he put away these worried expressions and showed his confidence as always!

Under the influence of Fang Qingkun's self-confidence, although the officers of the 33rd Regiment were also beating drums in their hearts and had a lot of worries about the follow-up war, they did not have any messy thoughts that should not be there.

And the stability of the officers is also a direct stability of the soldiers' confidence!

After all, ordinary soldiers did not know that they were about to face an attack by an enemy force of more than a brigade of troops, and they could only get a few words from the officers.

And the officers told them not to worry, when they come up, we will fuck it, don't worry, our reinforcements are about to arrive, and after our main army crosses the river, the whole Jiangnan will be ours.

However, there are also some more clever soldiers who cannot be noticed from the nervous expressions of the officers and the Anhui soldiers who keep appearing in the distance, and this time the situation is a little different from usual.

The biggest difference is that this time they did not take the initiative to attack, which is something that rarely happened in the previous combat history of the Ninth Division.

However, the soldiers who saw that things were different were a small minority, and most of them were still digging trenches and building defensive lines according to the orders of the officers.

In Ma'anshan, a few kilometers away from Xishan, the temporary command headquarters of the 17th Brigade, the operational staff officers were already busy, and the heralds were constantly running in and out, and these heralds were rushing around this small beachhead on the war horses that had spent a great deal of money to transport across the river, and at the same time transmitting all kinds of battle reports from Pan Luanqing to the officers of the various front-line departments.

In the headquarters, Pan Luanqing also sat in the main seat with a cautious expression, and below him were Colonel Qu Ganyun, commander of the 34th Regiment, Colonel Qu Zhiqing, chief of staff of the 17th Brigade, and other officers of the 17th Brigade.

"The pressure on the 33rd Regiment is still too heavy, plus their ammunition consumption is extremely high, the soldiers have gone through many battles, and their morale has also dropped, if they only let them resist the attack of the main force of the Liangjiang Seventh Division alone, I am afraid it is still too reluctant!" Colonel Qu Zhiqing said expressionlessly.

Pan Luanqing immediately said: "Although the 33rd Regiment is a little more difficult, we only have one brigade, not only to guard against this Liangjiang Seventh Division, but also to reserve enough troops to block the Anhui army troops from the east." Unlike the counteroffensive force of the Anhui Army in the west, which was only the 7th Division of Liangjiang, the troops of the 4th Division came from the east. ”

"I don't need to say more about what kind of troops the Fourth Division is, we must pay enough attention to it!" Pan Luanqing said: "Now that the enemy army has not launched a large-scale counterattack, we still have a certain amount of time, as long as we wait for the deployment of our artillery units on the north bank, then we will be able to get sufficient artillery support, and it will be much easier to fight at that time." ”

The deployment of the artillery units of the Feng army was more difficult than expected, and yesterday, the artillery units of the Feng army were still deployed six or seven kilometers away, although after maneuvering last night and this morning, they did not walk much at night, and when they almost reached the shore, they found that the soil was relatively muddy, and the wheels of many artillery mounts were deeply immersed in the mud, and no matter how the horses dragged out, they could not pull out, and finally had to send a large number of soldiers to help.

However, if the artillery to be deployed by the Feng army is only one or two, then the problem is not big, but the key thing is that the artillery that the Feng army needs to deploy in front is as high as dozens of guns!

In order to provide sufficient artillery support to the 17th Brigade on the south bank and alleviate the disadvantage of the 17th Brigade's lack of strength and ammunition, the Fourth Army gathered all the field artillery, not only the two field artillery battalions of the Ninth Division itself, but even one field artillery battalion of the 14th Division was also transferred, and the three battalions were 48 guns.

These 75-mm field guns don't seem to be big, but in fact they are not light, they are all about a ton of guys, and they are maneuvering in the muddy field, and the speed is unbearable.

In addition, the artillery units of the Feng army also encountered another problem, that is, the pre-calculated artillery positions were all soft soil, and the artillery positions needed a strong, stable flat land, which forced the Feng army to spend a lot of time in order to build artillery positions.

The addition of these piles also led to great trouble for the forward troops of the artillery unit of the Feng army, which was scheduled to be arranged before 12 o'clock at noon, but now it was already 14 o'clock in the afternoon, and the Feng army only prepared the artillery of one battalion, and the artillery of the other two battalions was still behind.

Intensive artillery support is the key to whether the 17th Brigade can hold the beachhead!

Before the artillery on the north bank was not fully prepared, the situation of Pan Luanqing's 17th Brigade could be said to be very unoptimistic.

"The main force of the Liangjiang Seventh Division in the west has gradually gathered, brigade commander, do you want to transfer two battalions from my regiment to reinforce the 33rd Regiment, and leave one battalion here to prepare for the unexpected?"

Pan Luanqing didn't answer immediately, but turned his head and asked, "How many scouts are sent to the east?" Isn't there any news coming back yet? ”

Qu Zhiqing on the side said: "We have sent nine scouts to the east, all of them are the most elite scouts selected by the military department from the whole army, but there is still no news coming back!" ”

In order to support the intelligence gathering capability of the 17th Brigade after crossing the river, Meng Enyuan specially ordered the selection of more than a dozen of the most elite cavalry from the cavalry regiments and battalions under the 9th Division, the 14th Division, and the 1st Mixed Brigade. The horses of these cavalry and heralds were sent across the river, and the Fourth Army dispatched several large ships to transport the horses across the river. At present, in the troops crossing the river, not even the mount of Pan Luanqing, a high-ranking general, has crossed the river, let alone other middle- and lower-level officers, and at present, only the mounts of the herald and the scout cavalry have crossed the river with the troops.

Pan Luanqing said: "In this case, then stay vigilant in the east now, your 34th Regiment is ready to prepare, transfer a battalion to support the 33rd Regiment, and send another battalion to the east." ”

At present, there are only six infantry battalions in Pan Luanqing's available troops, and now the four are ready to be placed on the western front, and only one battalion is placed on the eastern front, and the remaining battalion is the last reserve in his hands, and this reserve must not be used until the most critical moment.

After Pan Luanqing made this decision, the second battalion of the 34th Regiment was to quickly follow the order to go to Rentouji on the Eastern Front to reinforce the 33rd Regiment!

As the 17th Brigade was deploying its troops, on a small hill outside Rentouji on the west side of Ma'anshan, a group of senior officers of the Anhui Army wearing dark blue military uniforms were also holding binoculars to observe the Fengjun troops in the direction of Rentouji.

Lei Zhenchun wore the dark blue general's combat uniform of the old Beiyang era, with the epaulettes of the army lieutenant general, but his lieutenant general and the Anhui army, the Jin army and many other generals have the same military ranks, all belong to the warlords privately, his military rank in the Beijing Army Quanxu Office is the army major general, this major general rank is the republic at the end of 1906, Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun, Wang Shizhen and others reached a secret agreement, and other warlord generals were awarded, as for the later Zhao Dongyun when he was in charge of the Beijing Division, Zhao Dongyun naturally would not give Lei Zhenchun and others any awards.

Therefore, most of the other warlord generals in the contemporary era except for Fengjun have two military ranks, one is the military rank granted by the local warlord privately, and the other is the military rank officially registered in the military department of the War Department.

Lei Zhenchun served as the commander of the Second Division of the Liangjiang Army last year, and after the Jiangbei Campaign, the Second Division of the Liangjiang Army was defeated, and even sometimes it was completely annihilated, but Duan Qirui also knew that the second division was defeated and it was not Lei Zhenchun who was at fault, so after the Second Division was defeated, this Lei Zhenchun was not left out in the cold, but was directly transferred to the newly established Liangjiang Seventh Division as a division commander.

Standing around Lei Zhenchun were naturally the officers of the Liangjiang Seventh Division.

All of these people were holding binoculars and observing the Feng army on the head rock several kilometers away, and it was only after a long time that they put down the binoculars one after another.

Lei Zhenchun said: "The troops are almost ready, first send a battalion to test their firepower, and then let the artillery units in the rear prepare for artillery coverage at any time!" ”

Although Lei Zhenchun had seven or eight thousand troops at this time, in the battle of Jiangbei, the strong combat effectiveness of the Feng army brought him a deep impact, and when he knew that he was facing the ninth division, one of the three main forces of the Feng army, he was more cautious, and did not rashly launch an attack because his strength exceeded that of the other party.

Under the order of Lei Zhenchun, the Anhui army soon had a battalion come out!

Fang Qingkun also saw the Feng army on the opposite side launching an attack at this moment, and he naturally knew that this should be the enemy's firepower to test the troops, so he immediately said: "Pass the order, don't open fire without authorization, let Lao Tzu fight, and immediately transfer the position after the first wave of heavy machine guns!" ”

As the combat orders of the two sides were issued one after another, the front-line troops of both sides soon launched the first exchange of fire!

Once again, the sound of gunfire and explosions rang out over the tiny man's head!