On October 19, on the Loess Official Road in the north of Tongzhou, hundreds of Beiyang Army cavalrymen wearing dark blue military uniforms led their war horses slowly, they were the soldiers of the Fengtian First Cavalry Association under Zhao Dongyun.

Although their uniforms are no different from those of other new armies in China, both officers and soldiers, the uniforms on their arms are temporarily sewn with a white band, which is on the one hand to express the grief over Yuan Shikai's death, but more importantly, it is used to distinguish between friend and foe.

After all, the uniforms of the new army in China are the same in recent years, although Zhao Dongyun and others rebelled, but it is impossible to say that tens of thousands of different styles of military uniforms were prepared in just a few days, so the uniforms worn by the various troops around Zhili are the same, in order to avoid the time when the enemy is not distinguished, so Zhao Dongyun ordered the troops to temporarily sew a white belt on the arm.

At the same time, he has also ordered the Quartermaster Department of the Fengtian Army Headquarters to purchase new military uniforms to replace, in order to be able to distinguish the color of the military uniforms from other new armies in China, the new military uniforms will refer to the color of the new military uniforms of the German Army, the combat uniforms will be 'blue gray', and the dress is also slightly modified, the jacket is to continue the Beiyang tradition, continue to use dark blue, and the pants are changed to black, and the top hat is also changed to a Western-style military cap.

Other details have also been modified, such as the epaulettes changed to a simpler and more intuitive way of combining the frame and the five-pointed star to indicate the military rank, generally speaking, these details are mainly designed to abandon the "feudal dynasty" and "dragon python" These patterns and symbols, and the people in the Quartermaster Department even want to directly copy the style of the German Army's military uniform.

After such a change, the new military uniform of the Fengtian Army, which has not yet been officially promulgated, has the image of the Beiyang Army in people's impression, that is, the image of the Beiyang Army after 1912.

People's impression of the Beiyang Army is not an army that wears an earthy yellow military uniform in summer and a dark blue military uniform in winter, but an army that wears a blue-gray military uniform in winter and summer.

Of course, the new military uniform has just been determined, and it is impossible to distribute it to the troops in time for a while, and now in order to distinguish it from other domestic armies, the Mukden Army can only use the simplest method, that is, to sew a white cloth belt on the original military uniform.

Wang Duan's army is similar, but one of them uses a yellow strip of cloth, while the other uses a red strip of cloth, which has no big meaning, just for the sake of the enemy and me.

Otherwise, the big guys on the battlefield are all dressed in the same appearance, and it is estimated that they will not be able to distinguish between friend and foe in a fight.

These cavalrymen, dressed in dark blue uniforms and with white strips of cloth on their arms, were leading their horses on foot, but at this moment suddenly several horses came galloping in front of them, and in a short time they came to an officer with the leader of the deputy staff.

"My lord, there is an enemy ahead!" The knight, who had arrived in a hurry, gasped.

Hua Yongquan, the leader of the second battalion of the first standard of the First Cavalry Association of the Fengtian Standing Army, immediately showed a cautious look on his face when he heard this: "Where is the enemy, how many people?" ”

The scout cavalry replied: "Located in Huangjiazhuang in front, it is currently marching from east to west, and there is about the strength of an infantry battalion!" ”

"Have they spotted us now?" Hua Yongquan heard that it was an infantry battalion, his face became more cautious, although the cavalry battalion he led was a large-scale cavalry battalion, with more than 600 cavalry, almost equivalent to a cavalry regiment in the west, but if it was against an infantry battalion, it would be fine if the other party was not prepared, but if the other party was prepared, he would not be able to get any benefits!

The scout cavalry said: "Probably not, we found them on the side, and they shouldn't have found us yet!" ”

Immediately, Hua Yongquan nodded, and then made a gesture, and then several officers rode over, and it didn't take long for a map that was obviously drawn improvised to be spread out on a stone slab on the ground.

"The enemy army is located outside Huangjiazhuang, about four kilometers away from us, and the terrain here in the middle is a little undulating, which is why our two sides found them so late, everyone said, see if you want to fight, how to fight!" Hua Yongquan did not act arbitrarily with other middle and senior officers when encountering problems, but convened his officers to discuss.

The reason why he did this was not to say that he was humble or anything, but that he was self-aware. He was born as a bandit, and he came to Zhao Dongyun with the boss Lu Shuanggun, although he spent half a year in the crash course of the Suiying Academy in the third town in the first two years, but in the end it is not as good as those orthodox officers from the school, so it is not a big problem for him to charge with a saber, and he will not blink an eye if he attacks with his subordinates, but if he talks about any tactics, he is really not as good as those officers from the school.

Before leaving the station, his former boss, who is now the commander of the second cavalry of the Fengtian First Cavalry Association, warned him that this time he would not fight more than before, and he would discuss with those professional cavalry officers under him more in case of trouble, in short, he would not lose a piece of meat if he discussed a few words with them!

Hua Yongquan opened his mouth to ask, and the following staff leaders and military academies also opened their own mouths, and the first to speak was a young officer Zhou Shuren, only to see him say loudly: "Huangjiazhuang is flat outside, and there are shrubs in the western region as a cover, I think we can fight a surprise attack!" ”

Hua Yongquan frowned when he heard this: "Although there are forests as cover at this time, the terrain is not high, and it is more than four hundred meters away from the passage of the enemy's pass, I am afraid it will be difficult to form a fire suppression!" ”

But that week, the scholar said: "We don't have to stay in the woods, but rush directly to attack!" ”

Hua Yongquan frowned even more when he heard this: "You mean to fight a melee battle?" ”

Hearing Zhou Shuren Jian yì say that he rushed up directly and fought with a saber, Hua Yongquan had to wonder if this kid was born in Japan!

If it was a few years ago, to be precise, before the Russo-Japanese War, cavalry combat continued to use sabers to launch a charge melee is still a feasible tactic, then after the Russo-Japanese War, cavalry combat has completely abandoned immediate melee, in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan and Russia invested tens of thousands of cavalry, but there has never been a large-scale horse melee, most of them are riding horses to quickly maneuver to a certain position, and then set up machine guns to play foot combat, and the cavalry between the two sides of the duel is even less!

Even a bandit-born cavalry officer like Hua Yongquan knows about this situation, but this Zhou Shuren, who graduated from the Japanese army and is also a professional cavalryman, would not know?

Although Hua Yongquan wanted to veto his mention directly, he still said, "Oh, you tell me the reason!" ”

Immediately, Zhou Shuren continued to point to the map and said: "Gentlemen, please see, if we start from here and here, then we can rush directly to the official road, and this section of the road is flat, and we only need to rush over within a few breaths of a distance of more than 400 meters."

Moreover, the ranks of their infantry battalion are relatively long, and they are on the march, so it will be difficult to organize defensive fire in a short time, and even if they have heavy machine guns, they will not have enough time to set them up. In addition, there is no terrain to hide on both sides of the official road, and there are no large number of baggage wagons in their military formation to rely on, so as long as we rush over and kill him by surprise, we can definitely force the enemy to be chaotic, and then disperse, and then pursue and cover the kill, it will be a great success! ”

Another officer next to him said, "What if we are exposed before the attack?" And what if they react faster than we thought? ”

Zhou Shudao: "If it's the former, we can organize firepower on the spot in the woods and fight a foot battle with them, if it's the latter, hmph, do you think my Fengtian's most elite Fifth Association can change from a marching state to a defensive formation in just fifteen seconds?" ”

The officer said, "No! ”

Then Zhou Shuren said unceremoniously: "Do you think that the sixth town trained by Wang Shizhen is more elite than the third town trained by our general?" ”

Although the officer of the team was unconvinced, he had to reply at this time: "Naturally, it is far inferior to the third town of our army!" ”

At this time, Zhou Shuren turned to Hua Yongquan and said: "If you rush out directly to fight a melee battle, it is possible to win a big victory, if you fight an ambush battle hundreds of meters away, at most it is just a small victory, how to decide, and hope that Hua Guan will think deeply!" ”

Hua Yongquan listened to Zhou Shuren's words, and was a little hesitant in his heart, to be honest, according to his thoughts, he was naturally conservative, and it was okay to get an ambush foot battle, although the distance was farther, but it should be able to reap some results, but Zhou Shuren took the initiative to kill and play melee combat, to be honest, the temptation was very great.

In addition to being able to achieve greater results, this is also related to the traditional thinking of cavalry officers, as a cavalry officer, whether they are from bandits or from professional backgrounds, most of them have a dream of galloping horses and wielding sabers to cut at the enemy.

As far as they could tell them, this idea was behind the times, but many cavalry officers were still subconsciously influenced by it.

Looking at this Zhou Shuren, Hua Yongquan knew that this guy looked young, but he was definitely not a hairy young man who had just joined the army, this person was like most of the contemporary officers from the professional class, he applied for the Zhejiang Military Academy when he was young, and then joined the Zhejiang New Army, and then was promoted to Japan's Lu Shi to study, and just graduated and returned to China this year, and he didn't have time to return to Zhejiang to serve, he was recruited by Zhao Dongyun.

And Zhao Dongyun's prestige among the young people in China is still quite good, so this week, like several other classmates, Shuren refused the invitation of the province, that is, the Zhejiang New Army, and then joined the command of Zhao Dongyun in Fengtian, and as soon as he served as an officer of a cavalry team, he was awarded the rank of a regular military academy.