In the temporary headquarters of the Second Army of Shanhaiguan, Zhao Dongyun, who was dressed in military uniform, was listening to the report of Fang Biyong of the General Staff Headquarters: "As of noon today, General Meng's Third Division has all boarded the train, and the train carrying the baggage of the Third Artillery Regiment has officially departed at 11 o'clock in the morning.

It is expected that the 5th Infantry Brigade of the vanguard of the 3rd Division will arrive in the Tangshan area in the evening, and it is expected that the 6th Brigade of the 3rd Division will also arrive in Tangshan in the early morning of tomorrow, and some artillery of the 3rd Artillery Regiment will also arrive in Tangshan in the afternoon. ”

"What about the 1st Cavalry Brigade, when will it arrive?" Zhao Dongyun asked.

Fang Bi said: "The transportation mission of the 1st Cavalry Brigade will start in the afternoon and is expected to arrive tomorrow evening. ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded: "With such a tight capacity, you can transport the first division and the first cavalry brigade to the front line within two days, it seems that the work of your staff department has not been relaxed, and the credit of the traffic department should be recorded!" ”

Contemporary warfare, especially large-scale warfare, is extremely dependent on railways, from Shanhaiguan to Tangshan, although this distance is not far, but there are more than 100 kilometers, and the marching speed of mule-horse infantry units carrying a large number of artillery pieces and baggage is generally between 20 and 30 kilometers per day, but there is no way to play the same day and night forced march for hundreds of miles as those lightly armed infantry.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the long-distance mobility ability of modern cavalry is also more tragic, because most of the modern cavalry are single horses, not the ancient Mengyuan, Ming and Qing dynasties of single double riding or even three riding mode, you can change horses to ride, easy to play running hundreds of miles of this kind of thing, although modern cavalry also say the word mobility every day, but this mobility ability generally refers to short-distance mobility ability, as for long-distance running, in fact, it is not better than infantry to go there, daily marching is people leading horses, only when fighting will get on the horse.

Whether it is infantry, cavalry or artillery, the mobility ability in contemporary times is actually quite limited, and this is still talking about mule and horse troops, that is, a large number of mules and horses are responsible for the transportation of baggage and artillery traction of the troops.

Zhao Dongyun's troops are typical mule and horse troops, although the speed of this maneuver is not slow, but it will definitely not go there.

In this case, the large-scale mobility of the troops had to be strictly dependent on rail transportation.

Whether it is Zhao Dongyun entering the customs and going south, or Wang Ruxian and Wang Shizhen going north for reinforcements, in fact, they all have to rely on railway transportation, if they only rely on two legs, it is estimated that it will take several months for Wang Shizhen and Wang Ruxian to walk from the front line in Hubei to Beijing, but after having the railway, the time for them to arrive in Beijing is calculated in days.

In addition, the main reason why the War Department did not worry too much about Duan Qirui and Zhang Huaizhi's troops going north was also because there were no railways on the line of Zhili, Shandong, Anhui, and Jiangsu, and the historical Jinpu line was not still built.

Zhao Dongyun wants to enter the customs to fight, this railway transportation is naturally crucial, but although the railway transportation is fast, but the current capacity of the Jingfeng Railway is still too small, this railway is only a single-track railway, and the train wagon is limited, and the transportation capacity of a single batch can only be said to be average.

Now the General Staff can use all kinds of coordination, the Third Division of the First Army and the First Cavalry Brigade are all sent out in one day, don't look at this time on the surface there is not much meaning, but it is extremely important, to do this requires the various plans of those staff officers of the General Staff, but also needs the vigorous cooperation of the Transportation Department of the General Staff Department and the Railway Department of the Transportation Bureau of the Government Council.

"The subsequent transportation work of the Ninth and Tenth Divisions has also begun to be prepared, but our transportation pressure is too great in the next few days, and the staff has built a special one, in addition to the necessary baggage, the infantry and other personnel should march lightly, so that they can reach the Tangshan area in a shorter time!"

Zhao Dongyun shook his head: "There is no need for this, although it was said that the first one would fight faster, but in order to catch up with the work of the next two days, the troops will fall into a disconnect between personnel and equipment, and it will also make the soldiers' physical fitness drop sharply, it will be more than worth the loss, don't worry, as long as the first army's actions are smooth, then the second army will not make a big difference if it arrives in Tangshan two days earlier or two days later!" ”

In the battle plan formulated by the General Staff, in fact, there will not be many troops participating in the battles in the early and middle periods, because it takes a time process for the Feng army to enter the customs, and before the arrival of the main force of the Feng army, Wang Yingkai will not sit idly by and watch your Feng army enter the customs, so there will inevitably be a battle.

Therefore, there will not be too many troops involved in the battle in the early stage, and it is expected that there will be the 4th Mixed Brigade of Cao Kun's division stationed on the Chengde front, the 7th Mixed Brigade stationed on the Tangshan front, and the 3rd Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade in the first batch of emergency reinforcements.

And while Zhao Dongyun and Fang Biyong were discussing the actions and deployments related to entering the customs, the atmosphere in Tangshan was extremely tense!

In the headquarters of the 7th Mixed Brigade, a large number of officers and heralds came in and out, telephones rarely seen by ordinary people rang from time to time, and the dripping sound of telegraph machines was constantly echoing, and five or six officers were talking about something around a huge sand table.

"The reconnaissance cavalry on the front line have found out that the first regiment of the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Direct Army is currently located in the vicinity of Lintingkou, and they are currently marching rapidly to the east.

"There are also a large number of direct troops found in the Linxi area, according to the number speculation, this division should be the fourth regiment of the first division, this fourth regiment appears in the Linxi area, then the third regiment, another regiment belonging to the second brigade, will inevitably be nearby, it is obvious that their purpose is our Yutian defense line."

"Now we only have two battalions of troops in the Yutian defense line, although there are fortifications to rely on, but if the enemy forces invest the strength of a brigade, and it is very likely to be accompanied by at least one battalion or more of artillery troops, then Yutian is in danger!"

At this time, Li Chun, who had never spoken, said: "Since you can't hold it, then withdraw the fifth and sixth battalions." ”

At this time, a young school officer spoke: "The order given to us from above is to defend it to the death, if we retreat rashly!" ”

Unexpectedly, Li Chun glared at him and said sharply: "The marshal asked me to guard Tangshan, not Yutian, major, and don't you want to pass the order?" ”

The reprimanded young major's face was a little red, but the rank in the army was very strict, and he didn't dare to refute anything, so he immediately saluted the military strength and trotted out to prepare to send a telegram to Yutian's troops.

"Hmph, these trainees!" Li Chun looked at the young major, and secretly deprecated in his heart: "All of them are high-eyed and low-handed!" ”

Li Chun, last year when Zhao Dongyun entered the customs to fight, transferred the 'Fengtian Army Second Town' into the customs, the division is the tenth division after the republic, although the division after the republic of the main force transferred back to the Guanwai, but the 20th Brigade of the division was left in Tangshan, and then was reorganized into the 7th Mixed Brigade, and the former 20th Brigade commander Li Chun naturally became the brigade commander of the 7th Mixed Brigade.

Like many veteran military officers, Li Chun, like Xu Bangjie and Cao Kun, sneered at the so-called international students and advanced students, thinking that their hair had not grown together, and they shouted a lot of annoying remarks every day after learning half a catty and eight taels.

Among those international students, especially Yang Deming's ones, aren't they just relying on the juniors of the same school who are handsome, and they all have their tails cocked as if they should be the division commander and brigade commander, and they don't look at how many catties they have.

Although international students are annoying, Li Chun also has to admit that those people do have two brushes, and they are all one set, but the advanced students are even more annoying.

What is a trainee, that is, the students who graduated from the advanced course of the army military academy in the three eastern provinces, because Zhao Dongyun has been teaching in the advanced class for a long time, so the students of these advanced courses naturally have the cheekiness to regard themselves as Zhao Dongyun's students, especially after 1905, after the formal formulation of the regulations of the advanced training class, the determination of the school system and enrollment system, the subsequent three phases of advanced study students are all regarded as Zhao Dongyun's students.

This is nothing, but the courses that these young people learn in the advanced training class are the most cutting-edge military theories of contemporary times, similar to the teaching content of the Berlin Military Academy and the Japanese University of the Mainland, but limited by the ability of the teachers, the gold content of this teaching is naturally weakened and reduced, so that many advanced students seem to know a lot after graduation, and occasionally a few words such as national defense economy will pop out of their mouths, but if you really ask them to explain these things in detail, in fact, most people can't understand what's going on.

To put it simply, these advanced students are half-baked, not up or down, you say they are low-level military talents, people have also learned to command corps-level strategy, you say they are high-level military talents, to be honest, their ability is far inferior to Yang Deming's decent and high-achieving students who graduated from the Berlin Military Academy.

Moreover, most of these people still have an inexplicable sense of superiority, one will regard themselves as Zhao Dongyun's students, the most decent officers in the army, and the other will regard themselves as high-level military talents, eager to beat Liude Sheng, and step on Lu Shisheng, as for the old military equipment in Tianjin and the Beiyang Military Academy, they look down on them even more.

Generally speaking, there are not many people in this group, mainly the graduates of the advanced training class in 1905 and 1906, plus the dozens of graduates scattered in the front, in fact, there will be no more than 150 advanced students in the entire Fengjun, but this group of people is very disliked by the superiors, especially the senior generals who were born in the old military equipment are generally disliked by these advanced students.

But if you don't like it, you can't help it, who makes the scarcity of senior military talents in the Feng army, there are only a few international students from the Berlin Military Academy, and to be honest, Lu Shisheng and the German students from ordinary military academies in Germany are still stuck in company and platoon level tactics in terms of knowledge, so these half-baked trainees will generally be promoted to the rank of major, lieutenant colonel and other military ranks after graduation, and then serve as the chief of staff of the chief officer of each unit and the chief officer at the battalion and regiment level.

In the Seventh Mixed Brigade under Li Chun's command, there are six infantry battalions and an artillery battalion with a total of seven battalion commanders, and there are as many as three trainees.

Putting aside the displeasure in his heart, Li Chun continued: "What is the situation over there in Ninghe? ”

"There is also a large-scale movement of the enemy over there!"

"Well, let them also withdraw and retract all the troops, let's be a shrunken turtle for a while, I want to see what Wang Yingkai can do with us!" Li Chun is very clear about his task, and he has only one task, that is, to ensure the safety of Tangshan, or to ensure the safety of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and the rest are floating clouds.