In the temporary headquarters of the Fifth Brigade in the eastern part of Bazhou, Kong Guanbei looked at the division headquarters orders sent by the heralds, and his thick eyebrows couldn't stretch for a long time.

"The latest order from the division headquarters requires us to resist the enemy's attack, and hold off the enemy, so as to buy time for the detour of friendly troops!" Kong Guanbei's voice just fell.

Shi Congbin, the commander of the Ninth Regiment below, showed a puzzled look on his face: "The Sixth Brigade did not come to reinforce us, but took a detour?" ”

Pei Lianying, commander of the 10th Regiment, said: "Although it is understandable that the division headquarters wants to carry out a roundabout and heavy damage to the enemy's 7th Division, I am afraid that the situation on our side will not be very good!" ”

The 5th Brigade faced the onslaught of the 7th Division, the frontal defense line was fine, the enemy only invested one infantry regiment, but in the flank and rear position the enemy invested a whole 13th Brigade, the right flank of the 5th Brigade was defeated a few days ago, and finally forced to retreat to the main position.

In this way, although the Fifth Brigade is conducive to defense after the shrinkage of its strength, it also compresses the combat space considerably, and the Seventh Division can gather more troops to attack the Fifth Brigade.

And what made the Fifth Brigade feel the pressure was not only the disadvantage in troops, or even the dilemma of multi-front operations, but the fact that the Seventh Division on the opposite side knew the tactics of the Fifth Brigade very well, and the offensive tactics adopted were almost a copy of the offensive tactics of the Feng Army.

Although the Feng army attacked the enemy in this way, it was the first time that the enemy had been beaten like this, which made the Fifth Brigade extremely uncomfortable in the face of the attack of the Seventh Division, and many of the defensive tactics used against the First Division and the First Mixed Brigade of the Direct Army did not work.

Before finding a good defense method, in order to avoid excessive casualties among the troops, the officers of the Fifth Brigade such as Kong Weibei often retreated quickly when the situation was not good, which was also the fundamental reason for the defeat and retreat of the Fifth Brigade in the early stage.

The battle lasted for many days, and although the Fifth Brigade suffered few casualties, it lost a lot of positions, and the frequent retreats further affected the morale of the troops.

In the face of the worries of his subordinates, Kong Guanbei naturally couldn't show a panicked feeling, I saw him wave his hand, what are you afraid of, now the situation of our brigade is quite stable, and the casualties are not large, if he wants to eat our fifth brigade in one go, it depends on whether he has this appetite! ”

"And the order of the division headquarters also said, this time in addition to the sixth brigade to carry out a roundabout operation, but the other auxiliary units of the division headquarters will still come to support us, and the troops of the tenth division are not far away, and they will be able to arrive in Bazhou to support our army in two days. As long as we survive these two days, then what awaits us is a great victory, and then you will definitely have a strong record in the military merit book of all of you here! ”

After Pei Lianying heard this, she also eased her worries slightly, and she was vaguely looking forward to the situation after her big victory.

He Pei Lianying's qualifications in the Soviet Feng Army are not bad, he can Gu Lanyu and Kong Weibei are both veterans of the machine gun battalion era, and his promotion speed in the past few years is not much different from Gu Lanyu and Kong Weibei, but after last year, the situation has changed, with Gu Lanyu and Kong Weibei successively promoted to the brigade commanders of the two brigades under the Third Division, but he is only a regiment commander.

Although he is the commander of the Ninth Regiment of the Third Division, his qualifications are deep enough, and he is also considered to be the top few regiment commanders in the Feng military system, but the military rank is still a colonel, and he seems to be only one foot away from the major generals, but there are many officers in the Feng Military Academy, but there are only a few generals?

Just as the promotion of a lieutenant to a major is a threshold, the promotion of a colonel to a major is also a threshold, and the vast majority of officers in the Feng army are actually unable to cross this threshold during their lifetime.

Although Pei Lianying has old qualifications, he didn't get promoted to brigade commander when the Feng army expanded last year, and then became a major general, who dares to say that he will have the opportunity to cross this threshold in the future, maybe he has been in the position of colonel for many years, and finally got a consoling promotion because he has accumulated enough qualifications, but this also means that the gap between him and Kong Weibei, Gu Lanyu and others is getting bigger and bigger.

Back then, everyone started with Dashuai, but now he is the only one left to climb in the school officials, he is unwilling!

Pei Lianying is ambitious, especially now when the first division of the provincial army and the first and second mixed brigades are newly organized, although these three troops are provincial troops, but they are only different numbers, Pei Lianying knows that these three troops are built according to the regular field troops, and the new formation of these three troops coincides with the large-scale entry of the Feng army, so many key positions have not yet been determined.

Among the commanders of one division, two infantry brigades, and two mixed brigade commanders, only the first brigade of the first division has determined the brigade commander, and there are still three brigade commanders.

Pei Lianying is one of them, he thinks that his qualifications are not less, although his ability to command operations is not top-notch, but it is above the average level, Zhao Dongyun has a lot of trust in him, but what he lacks is real combat exploits.

If you play well in the Battle of Bazhou this time, you will definitely be able to add a lot of points to your heart, and when you consider the above three brigade commander candidates, you will be able to occupy an advantage.

Pei Lianying was thinking about what others naturally didn't know, Kong Yubei continued: "Now our task is to hold on, now we have been retreating for many days in a row, and there is no way to retreat, we have to resist in the next two days no matter what, without my personal order, the front-line troops are not allowed to retreat without authorization, otherwise I will personally send him to the military court!" ”

After the Fifth Brigade was ready to stop the pace of retreat and turn to stubborn resistance, Wang Zhanyuan on the opposite side also smelled danger.

"Why didn't they retreat?" Wang Zhanyuan looked at the map and thought.

A few days ago, Wang Zhanyuan thought that the Third Division had been reorganized outside Bazhou, and the Sixth Brigade had already carried out a roundabout operation, at that time he did not know that the Sixth Brigade was still in Yongqing, and his face enemy was only the Fifth Brigade, but after many days of continuous fighting, he found that the Sixth Brigade on the opposite side had not appeared, and the Fifth Brigade had been defeated and retreated by himself.

This kind of thing is very unusual in Wang Zhanyuan's opinion!

On the battlefield, it is impossible for the generals on both sides to know all the enemy's movements thoroughly, and basically they can only rely on a small amount of intelligence plus even a blind guess, guessing correctly is good, guessing wrong will win the jackpot, and if it is not good, it will be a situation of defeat and collapse.

"The 10th Division is definitely to the north, but what about the 6th Brigade? Where are they? ”

Wang Zhanyuan didn't expect that the Sixth Brigade was still in Yongqing before, and he was delayed for two days, which led him to completely lose control of the movement of the Sixth Brigade.

And considering that the commander of the Sixth Brigade, Gu Lanyu, is best at attacking in a roundabout way, Wang Zhanyuan thinks that the Sixth Brigade must be making a detour around, but where did they take a detour? Is it south or north?

If it was the south, then it should have appeared the day before yesterday and yesterday, why hasn't there been any trace of the Sixth Brigade now, is it the north?

Wang Zhanyuan looked at the large blank space in the northeast of Bazhou on the map, if the Sixth Brigade appeared here, then his 13th Brigade might be flanked and endangered, and then I am afraid that it would not be his own flank attack on the Fifth Brigade, but the 13th Brigade would be alone and fall into the flank attack of the Fifth Brigade and the Sixth Brigade.

Considering that the Fifth Brigade has now suddenly stopped retreating and then resisted his own attack, then Wang Zhanyuan is even more certain that the Sixth Brigade must have returned to a certain position and is about to launch a flank attack on itself with the Fifth Brigade.

And it's the most likely to be in the north!

Wang Zhanyuan decided that the Sixth Brigade was in the north, but in fact the Sixth Brigade was bypassing Bazhou and making a detour to the south!

However, although he guessed the wrong direction of the Sixth Brigade, Wang Zhanyuan realized that he had fallen into danger, the difference was that Wang Zhanyuan still thought that the 13th Brigade was in danger, he didn't know that the appetite of the Feng army was very big, and it was the entire Seventh Division that surrounded him.

"The Fifth Brigade has been attacked for a long time, and now the enemy's main force is about to surround it, and the Thirteenth Brigade should be withdrawn!" Wang Zhanyuan already knew at this moment that his plan to swallow up and severely damage the Fifth Brigade in one fell swoop was no longer likely to succeed, and although the Fifth Brigade had been defeated and retreated by himself in the past three or four days, and his own troops had also achieved good results, there was still a great distance from severely inflicting heavy damage on the Fifth Brigade.

It's time to end the offense!

Wang Zhanyuan's strong sense of crisis made him make a decision that surprised many generals of the two armies, and he ordered the 13th Brigade, which was attacking the flank of the 5th Brigade, to retreat!

You must know that the 13th Brigade fought very smoothly before, and even went so smoothly that the 5th Brigade was prepared to suffer large-scale losses and defend its position.

However, Wang Zhanyuan chose to retreat at this time!

And because the retreat was carried out when the wind was smooth, this retreat action was relatively feasible for the Beiyang army, which was not good at retreating, after the Fifth Brigade found out the retreat intention of the 13th Brigade, because their task was not only to resist the 13th Brigade, but also to contain the Seventh Division, so it was also appropriate to launch a counteroffensive, and successively achieved the results of killing and wounding hundreds of enemy troops, but it allowed the 13th Brigade to successfully retreat from the starting position.

As a result, after the first phase of the Battle of Bazhou, both sides returned to the situation they had been a few days earlier, with the only change being that both sides had lost hundreds of men.

However, when Wang Zhanyuan ordered the 13th Brigade to retreat, when he found that the 5th Brigade was trying to counterattack and contain himself, he was even more determined that the 6th Brigade and even the 10th Division were already making a detour to his flank and rear positions.

On July 8, just as the 6th Brigade was about to return to the rear of the Bazhou flank, the reconnaissance cavalry of the 7th Division finally found the 6th Brigade near Gaojia Village in the east of Bazhou.

For a while, the whole of the Seventh Division was extremely nervous!