On October 3, in Xiao County, Xuzhou Prefecture, this small county town that used to be peaceful was full of troops, and Fengjun soldiers wearing blue-gray military uniforms could be seen everywhere.

Since Meng Enyuan led the first army from Zhengzhou in September, along the unfinished Bianluo Railway all the way eastward, and then captured Kaifeng, the capital of Henan Province at that time, it is worth noting that although Kaifeng is the capital of Henan Province at this time, but with the opening of the Jinghan Railway, Zhengzhou's economic, political and military influence has been greatly enhanced, because Zhengzhou is located in the Jinghan Railway, so Wang Ruxian, the governor of Henan, was nominally in Kaifeng, but in fact he worked in Zhengzhou for a long time. In addition, Zhengzhou is also the main gathering place of Wang Ruxian's troops, and Wang Ruxian even gave up sending troops to defend Kaifeng.

And when the Feng army conquered Zhengzhou, this Kaifeng was actually in a state of military blankness, so after the Feng army effortlessly controlled Kaifeng, it continued to go east to Guide, although it encountered several small-scale unknown armed resistance, and also met Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division who fled south all the way to Guide, but finally did not delay the pace of eastward advance.

Wang Zhanyuan led the Seventh Division since the defeat in the Battle of Bazhou, he fled all the way south with the main force of the Seventh Division that broke through, at the beginning he didn't even go to Jinan, Shandong but fled all the way to Guide in Henan, originally he was planning how to get a piece of land from Wang Ruxian's hands to recuperate, but he didn't expect Wang Ruxian to fight more than he imagined, and before he could speak, this Wang Ruxian was captured alive.

Later, he saw the Feng army marching eastward, although Wang Zhanyuan at that time did not know that the eastward advance of the Feng army was to enter northern Jiangsu to participate in the battle of Xuzhou, but he was also frightened enough, the first army led by Meng Enyuan was as high as more than 40,000 people, far from his seventh division of 10,000 people can resist, and why should he resist?

So he simply gave up on Guide again, and then continued south!

At this time, the Feng army marched into northern Jiangsu in a big way, and set up a decisive battle with the Anhui army in the Xuzhou area, and even Zhang Huaizhi's remaining more than 10,000 Lu troops also participated in it and were stationed in Suzhou. So this huge Anhui rear is actually very empty, and in this way, Wang Zhanyuan found an opportunity, he doesn't care what the three armies of Fengwanlu in Xuzhou have become, but now it is a great opportunity to occupy the territory, he can't let it go, so when Xuzhou was fighting, Wang Zhanyuan also secretly occupied a large map of Yingzhou, Anhui, and also crossed the provincial mirror to control some counties and towns in Chenzhou, Henan.

This is not counting, his Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division is still continuing to go south, Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division wolf bèi fled thousands of kilometers, from Zhili Bazhou all the way to Anhui, and now finally has the opportunity to occupy the territory, loot the local cultivation and recuperation, up to Wang Zhanyuan, down to the ordinary soldiers are all like hungry wolves, every place is a big loot of money, and then use this money to do what every warlord is doing: recruit troops!

Wang Zhanyuan took the opportunity to occupy the territory at the junction of Anhui and Henan, and to be honest, whether it was the Feng army, the Lu army, or the Anhui army, he didn't have the heart and strength to deal with him.

Although the Seventh Division is said to be a lost dog, but after all, the strength of the Bazhou War was not damaged, and the more than 10,000 people of the Seventh Division are no worse than any old Beiyang troops, and to be honest, the batch is the original Anhui master Zhang Huaizhi, and now the more than 10,000 people in his hands may not be able to beat Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division.

And the Feng army is now restrained by Duan Qirui, the army gathers in Xuzhou, before Duan Qirui is solved, they cannot enter Anhui, and the third army of the Feng army in the direction of Henan is only two divisions, but it is to control the land of the four wars in Henan, there are more than 20,000 people under the command of Wang Shizhen of Wushengguan in the south, and the southern federation of the Shaanxi and Gansu regions is in the west. And the east side is now this Wang Zhanyuan.

With less than 30,000 troops in the Third Army of the Soviet Feng Army, it is relatively reluctant to maintain the situation in Henan, and it is difficult to clean up Wang Zhanyuan, after all, Wang Zhanyuan has a lot of troops under his hands, and you have fewer people in the Feng Army, for example, if there is only one division, I don't know who wins and who loses, but there are many and can't be sent, so Chen Guangyuan, the commander of the Third Army of the Feng Army, can only turn a blind eye to Wang Zhanyuan, but after conquering Guide, Runing and other prefectures and counties, he did not continue to enter the border areas of Henan and Anhui provinces eastward. Otherwise, without Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division, Chen Guangyuan's Third Army would have invaded the hinterland of Anhui long ago.

Therefore, although Wang Zhanyuan has a play-watching attitude towards the hegemony between the Feng army and the Anhui army, and hopes that they will both lose, it is undeniable that Wang Zhanyuan himself has had a certain impact on the war in northern Jiangsu, and he may not have noticed this influence himself, but the high-level generals in the Feng army frowned at this!

A certain courtyard in Xiao County, Xuzhou, this former mansion that I don't know which landlord and old wealth has been requisitioned by the Feng army at this time, serving as the former enemy headquarters, and there is a signboard hanging at the door of this courtyard, the first one is "Xuzhou Former Enemy Headquarters of the Command".

In the headquarters, in addition to seeing a large group of Fengjun officers who were busy greening, the stars were shining in the conference room of the main hall at this time, and a large group of senior generals of the Soviet Fengjun were sitting together.

There are more than ten senior generals sitting on both sides of the rectangular table, each of them is wearing the unique blue-gray officer uniform of the Feng army, and the epaulettes on the shoulders are not the kind of vertical epaulettes of other warlords in China, but horizontal epaulettes.

Although many of these people are ranked, such as Xu Bangjie is a lieutenant 'general plus' general, but the meaning of this additional title is that the member 'will be able to enjoy the courtesy of the 'general' level and do the work that 'will be done', but the salary is still issued according to the rank of the lieutenant general, and the rank recorded in the Quanxu Department is still the lieutenant general. Therefore, there will be no difference between the officer's dress and epaulettes and Meng Enyuan's real 'Shang'.

The military of the northern republic extended the title system from the former Qing Dynasty, Wang Yingkai era enabled, and by Zhao Dongyun large-scale use, Zhao Dongyun used the title system on the one hand to show that his position as president is regular, although he used force to oust Wang Yingkai from power, but from the constitutional point of view, his presidency is Wang Yingkai after the voluntary resignation, with the vice president automatically promoted, in order to reflect this legitimacy, so he has continued many of the etiquette policies of the Wang Yingkai era. On the other hand, it is also to control the number of high-ranking generals in the army.

After all, there are only a dozen or twenty generals in those armies with a size of millions, but now the major warlords of the northern republican government are combined, and there are already seven or eight generals, and don't look at Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui fighting, but these two are at most infighting, and the relationship between the northern republican government and the southern federation is completely different. Whether it is the era of Wang Yingkai or the Quanxu Bureau under the control of Zhao Dongyun's era, they actually recognize Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen for their rank of general, of course, don't expect Wang Yingkai and Zhao Dongyun to pay them salaries.

There are already so many senior generals, and now Zhao Dongyun doesn't want to get out more than a dozen generals at once, this war has only started less than a year, if the war continues, the senior generals will not be able to fly all over the sky in the future, how can they promote their subordinates to the military rank when the time comes, so this is the use of the rank system, which is regarded as artificially increasing the rank of the general, increasing the difficulty of the ordinary 'general' to be promoted to the general, and the same is true for the young 'general' to be promoted to the 'general'.

However, this situation can only be seen in the official text, but it is difficult to distinguish between the 'will and the 'zhong' on the official card and the 'will' on the appearance, so in today's conference room, you can see two 'generals', and then up to five or six 'generals'.

These people are naturally the main senior generals of the First Army and the Second Army of the Feng Army today, and since the two main forces of the Feng Army successfully met in the north of Xuzhou a few days ago, Meng Enyuan has convened such a strategic meeting between the top leaders of the two armies to discuss the specific operational plan for attacking Xuzhou.

Meng Enyuan, who was above, looked at the many subordinates and colleagues below, and then his eyes fell on Yang Deming, and then said: "Deming, you talk about it first!" ”

Although Yang Deming is only a young general among the people present, everyone here knows that this Yang Deming is not simple, this person has served as the director of the Operations Department for a long time, and he is a junior of the same school that the marshal values very much, and this person does not look at his low rank and young people, but in fact, he single-handedly planned many battles after entering the customs, including the Tangshan Campaign, the Jingshi Campaign, the Bazhou Campaign, and the Shijiazhuang Campaign.

Don't look at the above-mentioned battles, all of which are fought by the generals in the field army, but the early planning and strategic arrangement are all the business of the combat department, even if it is the head of an army like Meng Enyuan, he just acts according to the order!

Now Yang Deming was sent by Zhao Dongyun to the 17th Brigade as a brigade commander, but anyone with a discerning eye knows that this brigade commander is just a gilded position, and with a little mixed qualifications, it is estimated that he will be promoted immediately.

After Yang Deming took office as the commander of the 17th Brigade, with the outbreak of the Xuzhou Campaign, Zhao Dongyun was also worried that there was no qualified senior staff officer in the former enemy headquarters, so he personally appointed Yang Deming as the chief of staff of the Xuzhou former enemy headquarters.

Please note this appointment, he is not transferred, but concurrently! In other words, on the one hand, the position of the commander of the 17th Brigade is mixed with seniority and gilded, but on the other hand, it is also reused by Zhao Dongyun.