When the Fourth Army continued to engage in fierce battles with the Anhui Army, the Feng troops in other directions were not idle, and the Feng troops in Anqing, Wuhu, Jinling and other directions continued to launch attacks, not to mention that the 10th Division in the Yangtze River area had already launched many small-scale river-crossing and disturbance operations in March. Although the overall results were not large, and there was an example of being completely annihilated by a company, they successfully contained a large number of Anhui troops.

In order to prevent the Feng army from crossing the Yangtze River in the crucial Yangtze River valley, Duan Qirui did not dare to transfer too many troops to leave, even when the battle situation on the southern Anhui front was tense.

However, the Feng army was still not satisfied with this, and under the huge pressure of the army and other generals, and received more than one million yuan in military expenses, the salaries of sailors who were not in need for a long time, and the promise that Zhao Dongyun would use the aftermath loan from the United States to buy a number of warships, the Feng navy, which had always been passive and avoided war, finally began to act.

They were ready to risk shelling the Songhu Fort in Shanghai to weaken the strength of the Anhui Army Fort in this area, and if they did their best, then the follow-up navy would directly carry the army soldiers to land directly. For this operation, the group of generals of the navy planned for a long time, and brought all the capital ships on hand with them.

On 11 March, Shanghai Haikou brought together a large naval fleet of the Feng Army, including the largest cruiser Haiqi in the contemporary Chinese Navy, in addition to the two cruisers Hairong and Haichou, in addition to a total of six gunboats. The above warship forces accounted for eighty percent of the strength of the Soviet navy.

The rest of the cruiser Haichen, the destroyer Flying Eagle, and several gunboats, who were carrying out a shipping supply and escort mission from the Bohai Sea to Lianyungang in the East China Sea, could not be withdrawn.

The main force of the Soviet navy gathered in the sea of the sea outside Shanghai, which naturally attracted the attention of many people, and many foreign navies anchored in Shanghai were also aware of what large-scale actions the Soviet navy might take, so they sent large and small ships to follow and observe.

And what is very interesting is that although the navies of the great powers only sent inferior warships, they still have to be stronger than the warships of the Soviet Navy, especially the Germans sent an armored cruiser passing through Shanghai, which is a giant ship with a tonnage of tens of thousands of tons, and this battleship alone is enough to crush these small miscellaneous fish of the Soviet Navy.

So there was a very strange scene in the mouth of the Yangtze River in Shanghai, where a large number of warships flying the flags of various countries followed a small fleet in front, just like a man in the prime of life watching how the children fought.

On the Haiqi, Cheng Biguang looked at the large number of foreign warships following behind, and felt very uncomfortable, Nima This is China's waters, and in the past it was the Yangtze River, but when his navy carried out an operation, there were warships from various countries behind him to watch the show.

Although Biguang was unhappy in his heart, he could only keep a calm face: "Don't worry about them, we will beat our own!" ”

As Cheng Biguang's fleet cautiously sailed into the Yangtze River, it didn't take long to approach the Songhu Fort!

At this moment, on the Songhu Fort, the artillery soldiers of the Anhui Army also got the information early, and they were already nervously boarding the fort one by one, and they were loading the coastal defense guns in advance.

Cheng Biguang was wearing a white naval officer's dress at this time, and he was observing the Songhu Fort in the distance with a high-powered telescope!

"Shelling according to the predetermined plan!" With Cheng Biguang's order, the eight-inch naval guns on the Haiqi, the flagship of the largest tonnage, began shelling.

It's just that the distance is far, and this first round of shelling deviates greatly from the predetermined target!

As the distance approached, the relatively small six-inch naval guns in the rear also continued to fire at the Songhu Fort!

At the same time, clouds of smoke also rose on the Songhu Fort, which were the muzzle flames caused by the firing of the coastal defense artillery, and as the Anhui military coastal defense artillery on the opposite side returned fire, Cheng Biguang's small fleet also began to stir up high water columns nearby.

As the two sides began to bombard fiercely, the naval officers of the various countries who followed behind to watch the battle also watched the battle with great interest, but after watching it for a long time, a British major couldn't help but mutter: "This artillery skill is too bad, this has been fought for half an hour, and neither side has even achieved a single hit!" ”

In the eyes of the British naval officers and other military attachés of the navies of the great powers, this artillery battle between the Soviet Navy and the coastal defense units of the Anhui Army was simply a child's play.

The rumbling of cannons, the smoke of gunpowder in the sky, this is not a battle at all, at best it is an expensive fireworks display!

Cheng Biguang didn't care about the disdain of the foreign army gathering officers, because for him, coming to shell the Songhu Fort was just a political task, and his biggest task was not to knock out the Songhu Fort, but to ensure the safety of his own warships during the battle, so he chose to shell at the distance possible, so that the opponent's coastal defense artillery could not effectively threaten his fleet, as for how many of his shells would hit, to be honest, Cheng Biguang didn't care.

The reason why the Soviet Navy went out to shell the Songhu Fort was a political task. The Soviet navy, which had been fighting for a long time, did nothing, which made many army generals quite dissatisfied, and if they always passively avoided war, it would be even more difficult to get naval military funds from Zhao Dongyun.

Therefore, this action of the Soviet Navy is not about the result, but about the fact that the Navy wants to tell the generals of the army, and we also went up to fight it in person, as for why we can't beat it? That's because we lack warships, if you buy us a few battleships, I'll take down the Songhu Fort in minutes and show it to you army turtles.

The Soviet navy and the Soviet army are two different things, the former is a rather independent interest group, and they are only dependent on the Soviet system to survive. The latter's army is the descendant force of Zhao Dongyun, and the foundation of his struggle for hegemony and unification of China lies.

This situation is as strong as Zhao Dongyun cannot be changed in a short period of time, he did not expect the navy to be with his own heart, desperately covering the army to cross the river or something. Since the beginning of the pre-Qing Dynasty, China's naval power is quite independent, the central power has never completely controlled China's naval forces, the previous Beiyang Naval Division, Nanyang Naval Division and other certain Cheng dù are local governors and control of the local navy, although the Qing court tried to unify the navy during the New Deal reform period, in order to completely control the navy, but before it was completed, Yuan Shikai was assassinated, and after the four major warlords of Beiyang raised troops, this unified navy was impossible to talk about.

The current Zhao Dongyun didn't say that he wanted to completely control the navy in a short period of time, he just needed the navy to maintain a good attitude towards himself. How can you say that these naval wall grasses don't turn their heads Duan Qirui or the Southern Federation, then it is enough for him.

After Cheng Biguang led a fleet of more than 10 warships to shell the Songhu Fort for about three hours, he did not even scratch the skin of the battery, his own warship was not injured in the slightest, and he was not even watered before announcing his return.

When the news reached the Beijing Division, Zhao Dongping, the chief of the Ordnance Department of the Command, was furious: "These eight lambs, Lao Tzu just approved millions of funds for them, and also purchased ammunition and coal worth hundreds of thousands for them, so they will show me this?" ”

Cheng Biguang's fleet spent a lot of money for this operation, and the amount of coal burned and shells fired was not a small amount, but as a result, the Songhu Fort was still intact, which made the generals of the Fengjun Army, who had always been dissatisfied with the navy, even more dissatisfied with the navy.

However, Zhao Dongyun didn't care much about this result, because he hadn't expected the navy to make any achievements before, all he needed was a political attitude of the navy.

As long as the navy is willing to go out to fight, then it means that the navy is at least facing itself, and he doesn't have to worry about the navy suddenly defecting, and then he runs to join Duan Qirui.

Therefore, although the army general was extremely dissatisfied with the navy's anticlimactic temperament, Zhao Dongyun still sent a telegram to Cheng Biguang, who led the fleet from afar, praising the navy's brave spirit, saying that this action of the navy had effectively dealt a blow to the morale of the enemy!

Still on the Haiqi, Cheng Biguang, who led the fleet to prepare to return home, received this telegram, his face couldn't help but be hot, maybe he felt that it was really difficult to explain to Zhao Dongyun that he was like this, so that night he led the fleet to the mouth of the Yangtze River again, and at dawn the next day, he ventured closer to a distance, and launched another artillery bombardment of the Songhu Fort.

The time of this artillery bombardment was relatively short, from the opening of the cannon to the evacuation of only about an hour, but compared with yesterday, it was a certain actual result, a number of eight-inch shells and many six-inch shells accurately fell on the Songhu Fort, causing hundreds of casualties among the soldiers of the Anhui Fort, although the Haiqi itself was also hit by the Songhu Fort's counterattack and hit a shell, but the damage was not large, only a few soldiers were injured.

After the evacuation, Cheng Biguang led the fleet to officially return home.

Compared with the passive preparations for war on the side of the navy, the army units of the Soviet Union fought fiercely.

Since the beginning of March, the Feng troops in many directions on the Jiangbei front have launched fierce offensives against the Anhui army, especially the Fourth Army's river-crossing attack.

Zhao Dongyun wants to unify China, relying on the army, and the navy is just an embellishment.

On 15 March, after many days of hard fighting and more than 1,000 casualties, the 14th Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade finally broke through the defensive line of the 4th Division's Supplementary Brigade and the rest of the troops of the Provincial Army of nearly 10,000 Wanwan Army, and then captured a series of areas in the southwestern periphery of Jinling, and advanced the battle line to the area from Phoenix Mountain to Tianjiashan.

In the face of the rapid advance of the Fourth Army, and the Second Mixed Brigade was blocked by the Ninth Division of the Feng Army on the Dangtu line, and was unable to break through to the Ma'anshan area, Duan Qirui once again showed amazing decisiveness.

In order to defend Jinling, especially the Jinling urban area on the south bank of the Yangtze River, he took the initiative to abandon the Jinling urban area on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which had been held for many months.