On April 6, the Jinling War, which lasted for more than half a month, was still in full swing, and in the southwest urban area of Jinling City, An Yulong was commanding the 3rd Battalion of the 11th Regiment of the 3rd Division to launch an attack on the opposite side of the Anhui army.

Since the day before yesterday, the Third Division and the Fourteenth Division cooperated with each other to launch an attack on the Jinling City, although they were once hindered a lot, but on the whole, it was still relatively gratifying, especially on the side of the Third Division, which had already advanced several blocks in a steady and steady manner, and Gu Lanyu of the Third Division even went to the mouth of Meng Enyuan's crotch, and he would be able to enter the center of the city in another five days, and turn the Anhui army in the city into two.

However, the third division in the city moved smoothly, but Meng Enyuan in the rear did not put the hope of victory on the third division, because even if the third division attacked smoothly, it would still be hindered by many obstacles in the urban area, and then cause great casualties, if the casualties were only those recruits of the 14th division, Meng Enyuan would not scruple anything, but it was very cost-effective to waste the elite troops of the third division in the urban attrition war.

Therefore, although the offensive of the Third Division was relatively smooth, Meng Enyuan did not put too much pressure on Gu Lanyu, and even asked the Third Division to slow down and wait for a while.

What are you waiting for? The 1st Mixed Brigade made a detour to its position, waited for the 9th Division to catch up with the pace of the 1st Mixed Brigade in time, and then took a detour to capture the eastern suburbs of Jinling.

The Feng army is good at attacking, but urban combat is still not their specialty, and what they are really good at is field attack.

In the process of attacking Jinling, in fact, Meng Enyuan only invested a small half of his troops in the urban area, while the First Mixed Brigade and the Ninth Division were invested in the peripheral areas of Jinling, that is, the eastern area of Jinling, to be precise, the line from Jinling to Jurong.

Although the Battle of Jinling was said to revolve around the battle for Jinling, in fact, the battle division that contained more than 100,000 troops on both sides was extremely open, and the battle line exceeded 50 kilometers in one day.

The Feng army actually launched an attack on Jinling, Jurong, and Lishui at the same time, and at the same time blocked the enemy's second mixed brigade at Dangtu.

At present, the 4th Mixed Brigade of the Feng Army and the 33rd Regiment of the 9th Division are on the front line of Dangtu, the 2nd Cavalry Brigade is moving south to Lishui, the 1st Mixed Brigade is marching towards Jurong, the 9th Division is between Jinling and Jurong, the 14th Division is responsible for the main offensive of Jinling City, the 3rd Division is engaged in Jinling City Operations, and the other brigade is fighting with the 9th Division.

In this battle, which was more than 50 kilometers wide, the attack on Jinling itself was actually only a part of it, and the importance of the battle in the direction of Jurong, Lishui, and Dangtu was actually more important than the battle in the direction of Jinling.

Just when Meng Enyuan launched an attack on Jurong and Jinling, Bao Guiqing and Lin Yongquan and other generals of the Feng army did not disappoint Meng Enyuan, they launched an attack on the Anhui army that exceeded their own strength, and the Anhui army was defeated and retreated, and the first mixed brigade conquered Jurong, an important peripheral city in the east of Jinling, on April 8.

The first mixed Lushun lì conquered Jurong, which is related to the deployment of the Anhui army in this direction are the Liangjiang Provincial Army, the main force of the Anhui army is two, the second mixed brigade is in Dangtu, and the fourth division is to shrink in Jinling to resist the attack of the third and fourteenth divisions of the Feng army, so that Duan Qirui can be drawn out to resist the troops of the first mixed brigade and the ninth division is only those of the Anhui army Liangjiang Provincial Army.

Although the combat effectiveness of the First Mixed Brigade is not as strong as that of the Third Division, it is still an old Beiyang unit in any case, and after more than a year of fierce fighting, it has very rich combat experience, and it may be difficult to overcome the defense line of the Fourth Division, but it is still not easy to conquer the Liangjiang Army.

The fall of Jurong made the strategic layout of the Anhui army deteriorate all of a sudden.

In Jinling City, Duan Qirui looked at the sky with his hands behind his back, his face was very heavy at this moment, and the fall of Jurong made many of his strategic layouts come to naught at once.

In his strategy, he wanted to use the Jinling and Jurong lines to drag the offensive of the Feng army, so as to wait for the second mixed brigade to break through the Dangtu line and directly attack the rear road of the Feng army.

However, although the 2nd Mixed Brigade was relatively smooth in the direction of Dangtu, as if it would be able to break through the defense line of the Feng army the next day, what disappointed Duan Qirui day by day was that no matter how hard the 2nd Mixed Brigade tried, it seemed that it could not finally break through the defense line of the 4th Mixed Brigade of the Feng Army.

The second mixed brigade was delayed, which made the passive defensive Anhui army unable to recover the strategic initiative, and after barely supporting it for more than half a month, it finally lost Jurong.

"Did God really abandon me?" Faced with such a bad strategic situation, Duan Qirui couldn't help but feel a pessimistic feeling in his heart.

He didn't understand why he worked so hard to expand the army, train the army, and why the trained army still couldn't defeat the Anhui army, he didn't understand why so many people were so optimistic about Zhao Dongyun, the great powers gave him loans for the aftermath, and countless young people went north to serve Zhao Dongyun.

Those students who have returned to China in the past two years, especially the many official students sent out in the Yuan Shikai era, will choose to go north to serve Zhao Dongyun, except for a very few who will choose to go to the Southern Federation and the Anhui Army.

If it's Wang Yingkai who he's up to, it's okay, but why is he Zhao Dongyun?

Duan Qirui is unwilling, but what can he do if he is unwilling now!

The many thoughts in my heart have not changed the reality that the Anhui army is now in a predicament!

Looking at the map again, he couldn't help but think, did he really want to give up Jinling, give up the entire Jiangnan, and then flee to Fujian, Zhejiang and even Guangdong?

In this case, what is the difference between himself and Duanfang and Xiliang, who were defeated by themselves at the beginning?

Even if the wolf bèi fled to Fujian and Zhejiang, how could he face the follow-up southward offensive of the Feng army at that time, and after losing the tax-paying land of Jiangnan, how could he only rely on Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong to support the army that had always been enough to fight against the Feng army?

The importance of Jiangnan in this era is self-evident, who controls Jiangnan can be said to be who controls half of the world's wealth, why should the Anhui army defend the Yangtze River, why should the Feng army invest more than 100,000 troops to fight across the Yangtze River, in order not to fight for the ownership of the Jiangnan region.

It's just that now, Duan Qirui no longer sees his hope of victory.

Perhaps, it's time to think about the next step in your strategy!

Duan Qirui sighed deeply, then turned around and walked back, saying to the outside world as he walked, "Call them all in!" ”

He now needs the collective wisdom of many generals of the Anhui army to formulate the best follow-up strategy for the Anhui army.

Just when Duan Qirui was saddened in the face of Jurong's loss, other warlords in the country also learned the news that Jurong was captured by the Feng army.

The warlords who were able to mix in this era still had the most basic strategic vision, and they only needed to look at the map to know that the loss of Jurong would be fatal to the Anhui army, because the next Feng army only needed to continue to advance in the northeast direction, which would be enough to cut off the land connection between Zhenjiang and Jinling, especially the vital Nanjing-Shanghai railway.

The Nanjing-Shanghai Railway, which was originally to be opened to traffic in the month, was opened to traffic a month earlier than in the past due to the impact of the war, and then opened to traffic at the end of February.

Although it is said that this railway was built and operated by the British, but for Duan Qirui, this railway has great military strategic value, so he began to make it convenient for the British since last year, and even sent the army to recruit strong men to help the British build roads, and it is the kind that does not charge wages.

With the strong assistance of Duan Qirui, the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway was opened to traffic just after the Spring Festival, and this railway made the mobilization of troops and logistics transportation of the Anhui army more convenient.

Especially in terms of logistical supply, the ordnance and ammunition of the Anhui army mainly come from two parts, one part is imported like other warlords, mainly based on Japanese ordnance, and there is also a part of German ordnance, these ordnance can only be disembarked in Shanghai now, because at present, countries have declared neutrality in China's civil war, even if it is Japan's own ships under the pressure of the British, they dare not blatantly use their own ships to help Duan Qirui transport arms in the Yangtze River, Duan Qirui also tried to use domestic ships, and then use British captains to drive, But it was still detained by the Feng army.

Although the countries are currently saying that they are neutral, the countries, especially the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the United States, have made their attitude clear, that is, they support finding Dongyun to unify China, and only Japan himself supports Duan Qirui out of the idea of plunging China into chaos.

Therefore, for the sake of insurance, Duan Qirui's foreign procurement of arms was generally disembarked in Shanghai, and then transported by railway to Jinling, Zhenjiang and other important towns along the Yangtze River.

In addition to imports, another major source of arms for the Anhui army is self-production, mainly the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau is backward in technology, the equipment is outdated, and the scale is not large, and the output is limited, but the output of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is very large, and the factory is currently the only two factories in China that can produce their own 75-millimeter tube retreat field guns, and the ordnance and ammunition produced by the bureau greatly supplement the consumption of the Anhui army.

However, whether they are imported or self-produced, these ordnance and ammunition need to be transported to Jinling by the Nanjing-Shanghai railway.

If the Jinghan Railway and the shipping from Tianjin to Haizhou are the lifelines of the southbound troops of the Feng Army, then the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway is the lifeline of the Jinling and Anhui Forces.

In particular, the Jinling War lasted for more than half a month, and after the ammunition stored by the Anhui army in Jinling City had been almost consumed, the ammunition transported by the Guò-Ninghu Railway was even more important to the Anhui army.

Once the Feng army continues to advance eastward and cut off this railway, the Anhui army in Jinling will lose an extremely important supply of ammunition and can only be trapped in the dead city of Jinling.

At that time, even if the Feng army does not take the initiative to attack, I am afraid that the Anhui army will take the initiative to retreat in order to avoid falling into the fate of total annihilation.

These things that can be easily judged on the map can be seen by the warlords one by one.