With the end of February and the arrival of March, the Feng army's plan to cross the river was already in the final stage of preparation, and the Ninth and Fourteenth Divisions had secretly gone to Hezhou one after another, and Meng Enyuan, who had been transferred to the commander of the Fourth Army, also left Chaohu and led the military headquarters of the Fourth Army, which had just been established for a short time, to go to Hezhou with the Ninth Division.

In order to cover the actions of the Fourth Army, various units of the Feng Army have successively launched a series of early cover and accompanying operations.

On March 2, the first division of the first army, which had been preparing for a long time, officially launched an attack on the enemy in front of Anqing, although the attack in the direction of Anqing was only a companion attack in the Feng army's battle plan for crossing the river, but in order to attract enough attention from the Anhui army, the first division's offensive was launched very fiercely, and on the same day, a regiment was invested to participate in the attack on the Anhui army.

The First Division launched the first large-scale attack of the Feng army this year, which naturally attracted the great attention of the Anhui army on the opposite side!

In the Jinling Liangjiang Patrol Embassy, Duan Qirui and a large number of Anhui officers gathered together!

"Since yesterday, the enemy's first division has launched a large-scale offensive against our Anqing, and the enemy's troops have put no less than 5,000 people into the attack, and the sixth division is under great pressure!"

The Anhui army responsible for defending Anqing has the sixth division of Liangjiang and the provincial army of other two brigades, with a total of about 20,000 people, although the defensive strength of the Anhui army is greater than that of the attacking Feng army, but the gap between the weapons and equipment of the two sides is quite large, although the combat effectiveness of the first division brought out by Lu Yongxiang is not as good as the three main divisions of the Feng army, but after this year's replenishment and recuperation, it is already fully manned, and in terms of personnel and equipment alone, the first division is already the same as the three main forces of the third division, the ninth division, and the tenth division. The combat experience is also quite rich, but in terms of training and morale, it is not as good as the three main divisions.

Although the main force of the Anhui Army on the opposite side, that is, the Sixth Division of Liangjiang, can be regarded as the main force in the Anhui Army, and it is the most capable provincial army in the Liangjiang Provincial Army, it is only a provincial army in the end, and it is normal for it to be difficult in the face of the attack of the First Division of the old Beiyang Army.

However, the difficulties of the Sixth Division did not attract much attention from Duan Qirui!

"Although it is more difficult for Anqing, it is still not a big problem to rely on the Sixth Division to hold Anqing, and the enemy's attack on Anqing is only a companion attack, and now we have to pay attention to the fact that the enemy's main attack force crossing the river is there?" Duan Qirui immediately grasped the core of the problem, the battle in the direction of Anqing was just a battle in the direction of this time, and he could also guess that the Feng army's attack on Anqing was to cover the real main attack force crossing the river.

Otherwise, the Feng army would not have invested one first division in Anqing, but two divisions, or even three divisions or even more troops.

"Where is the enemy's Lin Yongquan division now?" Compared with the battle in the direction of Anqing, Duan Qirui was more concerned about where Lin Yongquan's Ninth Division went.

Because in today's situation, the direction in which the Ninth Division is located is often the direction in which the Feng army crosses the river!

"According to our intelligence, the Ninth Division has left Chaohu at the end of last month, and its current movements are unknown, and there is intelligence that there is an enemy army that left Chaohu and headed for Wuhu, and the preliminary judgment is that the number is tens of thousands, and the department is very likely to be the enemy's Ninth Division, but it may also be the enemy's fourth mixed or the first division!"

Duan Qirui frowned when he heard this: "In this way, it is possible that they decided to cross the river in Wuhu?" ”

"This possibility is relatively large, and there is also intelligence that the enemy army appeared in the Hanshan area, and the scale is not small, although we have not found out their number, but it is very likely that the enemy has been in the limelight recently, the 14th Division, which has left Hanshan, may go to Wuhu in the southwest. In addition, we do not rule out the possibility that the enemy army will land in the vicinity of Dangtu! ”

The generals of the Anhui army still have a relatively high accuracy rate in their speculation on the direction of the Feng army's crossing of the river.

Although limited by factors such as insufficient intelligence, the generals of the Anhui army still judged based on the shape of the Jiangnan region and a small amount of information about the Feng army, that the main direction of the Feng army crossing the river could not be in northern Jiangsu, nor could it be in Anqing, but on the front line of Wuhu, Tongling, and Nanjing, and considering the limited number of Feng troops in Tongling, the first division launched a large-scale offensive in Anqing, so the possibility of the Feng army crossing the river in the direction of Tongling was greatly reduced.

At present, the Anhui army can conclude that the Feng army's river-crossing force is within a range of more than 100 kilometers from Anqing to Jinling, but the problem is that the Anhui army cannot determine the specific location.

Because the terrain of this section of the distance is not much different, the difficulty of crossing the river is also similar, in consideration of the recent frequent movement of the Feng army, the Feng army may be in Wuhu, may also be in Dangtu or even in Jinling West, there are possibilities in these places.

In order to cope with this situation, in addition to stationing the Second Mixed Brigade heavily in Wuhu, the Anhui Army also sent a division in the direction of Dangtu, and also transferred a brigade of the Fourth Division to the west to prepare for deployment in the middle of Dangtu and Jinling.

As soon as it is discovered that the Feng army has crossed the river in any of the above places, then these troops will quickly rush to the place where the Feng army crossed the river, and strive to reach the river crossing area within a day or two at most, and drive the Feng army's early river crossing troops down the Yangtze River before the Feng army successfully erects the pontoon bridge.

This cautious attitude of the Anhui army also made it impossible for the Feng army to smuggle across the river!

It's just that sneaking across the river can't succeed, but it doesn't mean that the Feng army can't cross the river, and it doesn't mean that the Feng army doesn't need to keep the location of the river crossing secret.

Anyway, the Feng army is on the north bank of the Yangtze River, it is possible to cross the river here, and it is possible to cross the river there, and this possibility of virtual reality is enough to contain most of the energy of the Anhui army.

In order to cover the Fourth Army's river-crossing operation in Hezhou, in addition to the large-scale accompanying attack of the First Division in Anqing, two days later, in the direction of Jinling, the main force of the Second Army of the Feng Army, that is, the Third Division, sent troops to attack the outer defense line of Jinling, and before the large-scale attack of the infantry, a larger-scale artillery bombardment operation was also launched.

And that's not even counting the fact that the next day, the troops of the 10th Division in the direction of Nantong launched a medium-sized river crossing operation with dozens of boats collected.

In just three or four days, large-scale battles broke out in various places along the Yangtze River, especially the offensive of the Second Army in the direction of Jinling was quite fierce.

However, the more fierce the Feng army's accompanying attack in the above-mentioned areas, the more the generals of the Anhui army on the opposite side stared at Wuhu and Dangtu and other directions, and in recent days, the Anhui army has dispatched a large number of rangers in Wuhu, Dangtu, Hezhou and other places to closely monitor this section of the river of more than 100 kilometers.

At this time, whether it was Duan Qirui or other Anhui army generals, they all knew that the large-scale crossing of the river by the Feng army was coming!

In fact, it was true that on March 5, in Taiping Province and Zhou, five or six kilometers away from the river, a large number of Fengjun troops were stationed to rest.

In the courtyard of a farmhouse, the temporary headquarters of the Fourth Army was erected!

"When will the 4th Separate Mortar Battalion arrive?" Meng Enyuan asked his subordinates while looking at a military map that Feng Jun could map and map the surrounding areas of Hezhou.

"The 4th Independent Mortar Battalion has now arrived 10 kilometers away from our rear, and together with the artillery battalion of the 1st Mixed Brigade, it is expected to arrive at noon tomorrow!"

Meng Enyuan nodded: "How are the two artillery regiments of the Third Independent Mortar Battalion prepared?" ”

"At present, the 9th Artillery Regiment and the 14th Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Independent Mortar Battalion are ready and can quickly maneuver to the predetermined position at any time!"

In order to ensure secrecy, after Meng Enyuan arrived in Hezhou, he completely blocked the surrounding areas of Hezhou, and at the same time, in order to avoid arousing the vigilance of the enemy, he did not set up the artillery unit to the riverside in advance, but only found the predetermined position in advance, and after the preparations for crossing the river were properly completed, he quickly went to the predetermined artillery position to provide artillery support for the troops crossing the river.

But now, including the artillery and the troops of the 9th and 14th Divisions, are still in Hezhou, and they are still five or six kilometers away from the river.

Because they still had to wait for the arrival of the Fourth Mixed Brigade, and more importantly, they had to build some small wooden boats and even bamboo rafts on the spot for the early work of crossing the river.

In order to cross the river, the Fourth Army can be said to have spent great painstaking efforts, and it was far from enough to collect the existing ships from the local area, so it could only use local materials and build small wooden boats and even bamboo rafts on its own.

Anyway, this is only a river-crossing operation, not a sea-crossing operation, and there is no need for any large ships, special landing ships, transport ships, etc., any small wooden boat or even a bamboo raft can be used, as for the transportation of artillery and other heavy weapons, then we can only wait for the completion of the erection of large pontoon bridges before they can be transported across the river.

On 6 March, the 1st Mixed Brigade also arrived in Hezhou, and on the evening of the same day, Meng Enyuan once again sent a secret telegram to the high headquarters, saying that the 4th Army was fully prepared and could cross the river at any time.

In the evening of the same day, Zhao Dongyun once again convened a military meeting of the high command, and after more than two hours of this meeting, Zhao Dongyun signed his name on the battle plan for crossing the river and officially approved the Fourth Army to carry out the operation of crossing the river.

After receiving a reply from the General Headquarters the next day approving the plan, Meng Enyuan convened a military meeting of the Fourth Army and above to discuss and determine a detailed plan for crossing the river.

After all, although the operational plan for crossing the river formulated by the Operations Department of the General Headquarters was already very detailed, it was only a plan of a strategic nature, and the real detailed operational plan for crossing the river in Hezhou had to be formulated by the Fourth Army itself.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Ninth Division of the Fourth Army convened an enlarged military meeting of all the officers, at which Lin Yongquan officially informed the officers of the Ninth Division that the plan to cross the river had been officially launched, and the Ninth Division was the first batch of troops to cross the river.

In the afternoon of the same day, the 9th Division rested in advance, and at 11 o'clock that night, the 9th Division began to eat early, and at 12 o'clock in the evening, the 9th Division officially left the station and went to the riverside.

In order to avoid a gap between the Anhui army on the opposite side, the Ninth Division did not advance with torches, but relied on the previous detailed reconnaissance and the faint starlight to advance, although there were prerequisites for multi-party reconnaissance, and the detailed marching route had been determined, but there was still a lot of chaos, so that the Ninth Division spent five or six hours on this short five kilometers, and did not arrive at the river until the eve of dawn.

As the 9th Division arrived at the river, arrived with the army, and quickly deployed 80-mm and 120-mm mortars and fired dense shells at the opposite bank, the soldiers also pushed the river into the river in bamboo rows and small wooden boats, and then sat on it and slid the river with wooden pulp.

In the dawn sun, hundreds of bamboo rafts and wooden boats shine dazzlingly on the Yangtze River like waves!