In November, the First Army of the Chinese Army, with the Third Division of the Royal Army as the main force, launched a large-scale attack from the southeastern part of Henan and the northern Anhui region to the southern and central areas of Henan at the same time.

On November 13, the main force of the First Army of the Chinese Army, that is, the Third Division, together with the three auxiliary defense divisions, a total of more than 20,000 people, attacked Kaifeng Fucheng, and Nade, the commander of the Third Town of the Qing Army and the Minister of Military Affairs of Jiangnan and North of the Yangtze River, led a total of more than 16,000 new troops including the Third Town, the Sixth Town, and the First Association of the New Army, as well as tens of thousands of old armies such as the Green Battalion, the Regiment Training, and the Eight Banners.

On November 16, the First Army broke through the Qing army's defenses and entered Kaifeng City, and Nader was forced to lead more than 10,000 remnants of troops to flee west to Zhengzhou.

Shen Chiyun, commander of the First Army of the Chinese Army, led his troops in pursuit, and arrived at the city of Zhengzhou on November 20, launching a large-scale attack on the enemy in Zhengzhou on the same day.

Nader was forced to lead the remnants of his headquarters, as well as the Sixth Town First Association stationed in Zhengzhou, the First Association of Henan Training, and several Green Battalion regiments to meet the battle, and after five days of fierce fighting, the Chinese army broke through the city and annihilated a large number of enemy living forces.

After the city was broken, Nader could not gather the remnants of the army and retreat, so he could only lead about 1,000 guards of his headquarters to flee north, and the rest of his troops were all annihilated or captured.

From November 13 to the end of November 26, after the two battles of Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, the First Army can be said to have annihilated all the main forces of the Qing court in Henan, and its results were even more brilliant than those in Shandong.

In the two battles of Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, the Chinese army killed about 7,000 enemy soldiers and captured about 20,000 prisoners, and tens of thousands of enemy troops fled without knowing what happened. And Nader took only a thousand troops.

At that time, the new army of the Qing army in Henan Province was only 20,000 people, and now it can be said that all of them have been annihilated. Although there are still many chaotic Qing troops or local regimental training and other armed forces in various parts of Henan, they no longer pose any threat to the Chinese army.

After taking Zhengzhou. The 3rd Division was divided into multiple routes, and the three infantry regiments under its command led one or two auxiliary defense divisions to attack in the west, north, and south directions.

And a number of auxiliary defense divisions from the direction of northern Anhui also successfully captured many prefectures and counties in southern Henan!

Although the combat effectiveness of the auxiliary defense forces in the Chinese army has become more and more unable to keep up with the pace of the main force of the Chinese army, even when Shi Qingxuan is now leading the Sixth Army to fight, he will not let the auxiliary defense force follow.

But even if these auxiliary defense forces have poor combat effectiveness, they can't beat other new armies in the country, but they are also regular troops, and it is barely feasible to deal with the green battalion and regimental training that are worse than them, of course, if they are going to fight bandits such as the Twist Army, they have to say otherwise, because the combat effectiveness of the bandits in these years is much stronger than that of the green battalion of the Qing army.

In the entire Henan campaign. The Auxiliary Defense Army, which had not been able to gain attention for a long time, once again demonstrated its value, because the Royal Army involved in the attack on the hinterland of Henan had only one third division, and the third division undertook the main strategic breakthrough mission, and its core tactical goal was to attack Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, and Luoyang.

However, it is impossible for a huge Henan to have only the above three cities, in addition to these places, there are also large areas, and it is impossible for the Chinese army to let the third division go down one county by one in these places, so after defeating the main force of the Qing army, the follow-up is responsible for conquering many prefectures and counties, and the armed forces that carry out actual military control over all parts of Henan are the auxiliary defense forces that are not taken seriously.

Although the combat effectiveness of the auxiliary defense force in the Chinese army is not good. But the victory lies in the large number of them, for so many years, tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of prisoners can be captured in a large-scale battle, and these prisoners will basically be reorganized into the auxiliary defense force. That is to say, every time the Chinese army fights a large-scale battle with the Qing army, it can basically have several more numbers of auxiliary defense divisions.

Now the number of the auxiliary defense division in the Chinese army has been sent to as many as fifty-three!

There are so many assistant defense divisions. Although most of them are not good in combat, there are also a small number of auxiliary divisions whose combat effectiveness is still quite good.

For example, the 9th and 19th Divisions. The early days of these two divisions were not very good, but they were always on the front lines with the Royal Army. There are more wars, more losses, and more supplements.

Taking the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division as an example, this unit is one of the few auxiliary divisions in the Chinese Army that can fight tough battles, and has participated in almost most of the large-scale battles of the Northern Expedition.

After last year's battle in northern Jiangsu, the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division received a large number of soldiers and weapons from the original Qing Army and the New Army, and in the recent Battle of Jinan, it was supplemented with a number of soldiers and weapons from the Qing Army's New Army.

The Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division is also the first auxiliary defense division unit in the Chinese Army to have artillery, cavalry, baggage and other auxiliary forces, and is mainly equipped with flintlock pistols and smoothbore firing guns captured from the Qing army, and the artillery is also mainly made by the Qing army.

From soldiers to weapons, in fact, the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division is the new army of the Qing Army in the Chinese Army, the only difference is that the officers in it are all officers of the Royal Army.

After the Battle of Jinan, after the initial training, the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division has marched all the way to the north alone, located on the east side of the main force of the Sixth Army, providing flank cover for the Sixth Army.

In other words, after the Battle of Jinan, the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division already initially possessed the ability to fight independently, which was completely different from other auxiliary divisions in the Chinese Army.

After the battles of Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, the 19th Auxiliary Defense Division was already fully reorganized into line infantry, and established cavalry, artillery, baggage and other auxiliary units, which was the second auxiliary division in the Chinese Army after the Ninth Auxiliary Defense Division with initial independent combat capability.

In view of the changes in the 9th and 19th Auxiliary Defense Divisions, the High Command has already suggested that the two auxiliary divisions be regularized and reorganized, and officially give the Royal Army the number so that the soldiers can get the treatment they deserve.

This is because the Chinese Army's general policy towards the Manchu soldiers captured in northern Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and other places is to strive to let them join the Royal Army, and the Royal Army at the front will only be assigned to the Ninth and Nineteenth Auxiliary Divisions when the Royal Army is full.

But it cannot be said that the same prisoners of the Forces nouvelles were borne. Those who enter the Royal Army can get military salaries, and the new army prisoners who enter the 9th and 19th Auxiliary Defense Divisions have no money to be used as cannon fodder?

However, this arrangement and the change in the number are too difficult to determine. At present, there is only such a statement on the part of the high command, but the concrete implementation is definitely unlikely.

However, in order to further strengthen the combat effectiveness of the two auxiliary defense divisions. At the same time, in order to solve the problem of the treatment of the soldiers of the 9th and 19th Auxiliary Defense Divisions, the various departments of the High Command have held a special meeting on this issue, and it has been determined that the soldiers of the two auxiliary defense divisions will be treated equally with the soldiers of the Royal Army.

That is, military salary, food and other treatments are comparable to the Royal Army!

There are more than 50 auxiliary defense divisions in the Chinese army, and only two auxiliary defense divisions have this treatment, and the other auxiliary defense divisions can basically only be used as cannon fodder, and there is basically no need to expect them to be able to fight independently.

Fortunately, the Chinese army has enough auxiliary defense divisions, and if the quality is insufficient, the quantity will be made up, and their main combat targets, that is, the green battalion and regimental training in the Qing army, are even more scum. In case of encountering a small number of relatively tough bandits, most of the time there is also a Royal Army to suppress the formation.

In addition, there are so many prisoners of the Chinese army, if they are not reorganized into an auxiliary defense force, the Chinese army will really not be able to deal with these prisoners of war, and this will not be possible, because they will either run back to the Qing army to continue to fight the Chinese army, or they will simply fall into the grass and endanger the place.

And it can't be locked up, this random battle can capture thousands or even tens of thousands of prisoners of war, which requires great manpower and material resources if they are all locked up. The Chinese army did not have so many spare soldiers to watch and take prisoners.

As for the direction of the reorganization of the auxiliary defense division in the future, the Chinese army has already had a position, except for a very small number of auxiliary defense divisions with acceptable combat effectiveness will be reorganized into the Royal Army, and some barely acceptable auxiliary defense divisions will be reorganized into local garrison units after the war. The remaining old and weak soldiers will be disbanded on the spot and let them return to their hometowns.

However, the newly established Xuzhou Railway Company at the Jiangnan Mining Company said that if the military was willing to provide defense divisions or prisoners of war to help build the railway. They were willing to accept a large number of soldiers of the Auxiliary Defense Division as railway workers to build roads, and to reorganize the Auxiliary Defense Division into a labor engineering unit similar to that of the Construction Corps in later generations. This can also be regarded as a direction of adaptation.

The First Army relied on the Third Division and the Second Cavalry Regiment as the main force, supplemented by a large number of auxiliary defense divisions to carry out the Henan Raid. The other main division of the First Army, the 1st Division of the Royal Army, also successfully marched into the Daimyofu of Zhili, and then conquered the Daimyofu Castle, which was only guarded by two or three thousand local regiments, and continued to attack westward into Zhangdefu and other places in the north of Henan.

At the beginning of December, after the 1st Division left the 3rd Infantry Regiment, its main forces continued to move north to catch up with the 6th Army!

The 3rd Infantry Regiment was given an artillery company and a baggage battalion left by the 1st Division, and will continue to operate in the northern part of Henan.

In order to further increase the independent combat capability of the Third Infantry Regiment, the Chinese Army High Command will set up a brand-new mixed brigade with the Third Infantry Regiment as the core, which will be called the Sixth Mixed Brigade, and the Third Infantry Regiment will be split into two infantry regiments, and the Military Training Department will supplement more than 2,000 recruits, officers, artillery, baggage, and other related auxiliary units.

And this is also the second officially formed mixed brigade in the Chinese army!

As for why the number is the Sixth Mixed Brigade, it is because the First Mixed Brigade to the Fifth Mixed Brigade have already put forward the formation plan in the first half of the year, although so far in addition to the First Mixed Brigade, the other Second to Fifth Mixed Brigades have not been formally formed, but the number has already been occupied, so the mixed brigade formed in northern Henan can only use the number of the Sixth Mixed Brigade.

After the 3rd Infantry Regiment was reorganized into the 6th Mixed Brigade, the 1st Division rebuilt the 3rd Infantry Regiment, which was partly composed of soldiers of the Qing Army New Army captured in the Shandong Campaign, and partly recruited from several new barracks in northern Jiangsu by the Military Training Department, and the infantry regiment's weapons would be the most advanced 1858 Linde rifle in the Chinese army. That is, a breech-loading rifled rifle.

At the same time, in early December, the General Headquarters carried out a large-scale readjustment of the troops fighting in several northern provinces, and incorporated the First Division into the operational sequence of the Sixth Army, so as to increase the strength of the Sixth Army to fight northward. (To be continued......)