After the 14th Division went south, it did not go to the Yangtze River front line where the Feng army and the Anhui army had the most fierce confrontation at the first time, but stayed in Henan to suppress the bandits, which made many people incomprehensible.

Many people believe that the 14th Division spent huge manpower and material resources to form an elite unit of the Soviet Department, and that the resources invested by the Soviet Department in the 14th Division even exceeded the combined resources of the 11th and 12th Divisions. Such a force should assume even more important responsibilities.

Where is the most important place for the Soviet Union in contemporary times?

Yangtze River frontline!

Especially in Jinling and Anqing, these two places serve as the bridgehead of the Yangtze River defense line of the Anhui army, attracting the main forces of the two armies of Fengwan and Anhui!

A unit like the 14th Division should go to a place like Jinling or Anqing, so why did it go to Henan to suppress bandits?

However, outsiders do not understand that it will not change the decision of the Feng Army Command, or that it will not be able to change Zhao Dongyun's decision!

It is precisely because the 14th Division is so important that Zhao Dongyun wants to let this unit officially enter the brutal southern front battlefield, so as to accumulate more combat experience, let the soldiers see blood, let the officers adapt to the atmosphere of the battlefield, and at the worst, let the troops increase their experience in live ammunition shooting!

From the time they arrived in Henan, the units of the 14th Division carried out a large-scale activity in various parts of Henan, especially in the southern Henan region, and they invested heavily in the elimination of all informal armed forces, whether they were bandits or militia groups and security regiments organized by the landlords and gentry themselves.

Most of the above-mentioned informal armed forces chose to surrender in the face of the 14th Division's purging of the 14th Division, especially the local armed forces such as the militia and security regiments organized by the landlords and gentry, after all, a considerable part of these local armed forces were also forced to form for self-preservation, and not everyone was quite a bandit or had the ambition to be a warlord.

On the one hand, the old and weak were dismissed, and the young and strong among them were selected and reorganized into patrol police units, which for a time caused the number of patrol police units in Henan to rise rapidly, and at the beginning there were only four patrol regiments, the 21st Patrol Regiment, the 22nd Patrol Police Regiment, the 23rd Patrol Police Regiment, and the 24th Patrol Regiment, with a total of 4,000 people. Now, not only have the above four patrol regiments been supplemented to full strength, but also a new patrol regiment and a patrol cavalry company have been formed. As a result, the total number of patrol troops under the jurisdiction of the Zhengzhou Garrison Command has reached more than 8,000, and the number of patrol troops under its jurisdiction is second only to Fengtian Province.

Those bandits and local armed forces chose to throw themselves in, and naturally there were also those who chose to resist like Qi Yunzhuang, and these local armed forces who chose to resist naturally ended up no better, and they were all eliminated one by one by the local 14th Division and the regular army sent by the Third Army.

In less than half a month, most of the bandits, militia groups and other local armed forces in Henan, especially in southern Henan, have been wiped out!

With the purge of the local armed forces in Henan, it also means that the Soviet system has truly realized its rule over the whole of Henan.

"At present, the public security situation in southern Henan has been greatly improved, and a series of illegal armed forces entrenched in this area have been destroyed by our army. In the Xiyuan Juren Hall, Fang Biyong held the report and said so.

"Although there are still some small-scale illegal armed forces who have fled into the Dabie Mountain area, the Zhengzhou Garrison Command has sent two patrol police regiments deep into the Dabie Mountains to continue to clean up, even if it cannot completely solve these illegal armed forces who have fled for a while, it is enough to prevent them from threatening our 'Ru'an supply line'." Fang Biyong continued to report.

Zhao Dongyun said: "This time the public security strengthening operation in southern Henan has been effective, and the 14th Division has fought quite well. However, the Ru'an supply line is related to the strategic security of tens of thousands of troops of the First Army, and the 14th Division does not know that it has been stationed in southern Henan, and it always has to continue to march eastward into An, so the security maintenance of the Ru'an supply line in the future not only needs the vigorous maintenance of the Third Army, but also the cooperation of the local garrison! ”

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Munitions proposed to move the supply transit center further south to Xinyang in Runing Province, so that the ordnance produced or imported ordnance produced by Fuchang could reach Xinyang through the Jingbong Railway and the Jinghan Railway, and then depart from here and pass through Gwangju, Luanzhou, and Anqing Province and finally be delivered to the First Army.

This supply line of more than 400 kilometers long is quite acceptable in terms of terrain because it bypasses the Dabie Mountain, but although it has been dyed in the Dabie Mountain, there are many small bandits in the Dabie Mountain at this moment, and these bandits are certainly not worth mentioning in the war, but if they rob the logistics and transport convoy of the Feng army, it will also be a troublesome matter.

Therefore, although the 14th Division has wiped out all the large and small informal forces on this line, there are still many small bandits who have escaped into the Dabie Mountains, so although this supply line has been successfully opened up at present, the safety and security work cannot be ignored.

Fang Biyong said: "The Zhengzhou Garrison Command has already dispatched two patrol regiments to the front line of Runing and Gwangju, and will prepare to enter the Dabie Mountain operation in the near future. Lu'an is even more garrisoned by the regular army of our first army, I believe there will not be too many problems! ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "The first army has a heavy task, and now it can draw troops to garrison Lu'an, but in the follow-up war, it will inevitably be no time to take care of Lu'an and other places behind, and the maintenance task of the rear supply line still needs to be undertaken by the patrol force." Isn't the 28th Patrol Police Regiment on the Anhui side already organized and sent to Lu'an? Although Ruzhou and Gwangju in Henan now have one division of the Third Army stationed and two patrol regiments, the Dabie Yamagata shì is complicated, and the situation should not be underestimated. ”

Fang Biyong was also a little puzzled when he heard this: "Let them send a patrol police regiment to station and change the line, in this way, there will only be two patrol police regiments and one patrol cavalry company left in other directions of Henan, I'm afraid it will be difficult to suppress the place!" ”

Zhao Dongyun didn't care: "It's okay, aren't the five patrol police regiments in Henan now all fully staffed, and the Jinghan Line doesn't need their patrol force to be responsible, plus the previous large-scale local armed forces have been wiped out, just to suppress the locality, if you maintain law and order, the two patrol police regiments are already very sufficient, and if there is a problem, there is still a third army!" ”

Zhao Dongyun is still relatively confident in the control of the situation in Henan, don't look at the chaos in Henan some time ago, but that's because before, whether it was the Feng army, the Hubei army or even the Southern Federation, they didn't have any mind to manage local affairs, and they all focused on dealing with each other's enemies, and the same was true for the Feng army, after entering Henan, the Third Army was limited by strategic limitations, and it has always been heavily garrisoned on the Jinghan line, and it can be said that it did not pay much attention to other prefectures and counties in Henan.

It was precisely because the attention of the Feng army was absent that the local armed forces in Henan had the opportunity to develop and be arrogant, but when the Feng army stopped in the Jiangbei War for a while, and there was a strategic need to open up and maintain the supply line of Ru'an, it did not hesitate to vigorously strangle the local illegal armed forces in Henan.

Now the local armed forces in Henan have basically been wiped out, and only a little bandit force remains in the Dabie Mountains, so the patrol force of the Zhengzhou Garrison Command is enough to control the situation in the future.

The Third Army did not dare to transfer the main force to leave the Jinghan Line, but there was still no problem in sending a few infantry battalions out to suppress bandits.

Therefore, even in the worst-case scenario, the Soviet system can guarantee the control of Henan and the complete control of the Jinghan line, in this case, Zhao Dongyun naturally focuses on the safety of the Ru'an supply line, and continues to deploy troops to maintain the safety of the supply line.

"Now that the situation in southern Henan has calmed down, and the Ru'an supply line has been opened, what is the follow-up battle plan of the 14th Division, what is your staff's opinion?" After Zhao Dongyun closed the report in his hand on the strengthening of public security in southern Henan, he raised his head and asked Fang Biyong.

Fang Biyong was also slightly stunned when he heard this, he didn't expect that Zhao Dongyun would directly ask about the follow-up combat arrangements of the 14th Division.

You must know that Zhao Dongyun is a busy man, and the military affairs he usually asks about generally involve strategic directions, and he rarely says that he will pay attention to the movements of a specific unit.

Generally speaking, Zhao Dongyun's question is generally "How is the expansion and reorganization of the army going?" "What is the situation of the First Army in the southern direction of Anhui?" "What strategic plan does the General Staff have for the follow-up river crossing operation?" Even if you ask about a specific unit, you generally ask about the general situation, for example, when you were in the Chuzhou Campaign, you were asked how the situation was with the Third Division? Did you win? However, the Third Division would not normally be asked what battle plan it had formulated to attack Chuzhou.

In other words, Zhao Dongyun generally does not ask about the specific combat plan of a specific unit.

However, after thinking about it, Fang Biyong was relieved, and it was naturally not surprising that the 14th Division, as a force that had endured many expectations, was focused on by Zhao Dongyun.

If the 14th Division is under the command of the 1st Army, the 2nd Army, and the 3rd Army, then the War Office will not be able to directly obtain the division's battle plan report, but this 14th Division is not currently under the command of any army, but is directly under the command of the General Headquarters like several other units of the Feng Army.

There are three major armies in the Feng army, but there are also many units directly under the command of the command, such as the 1st Cavalry Brigade stationed in Chahar, the 5th Mixed Brigade stationed in Tianjin Machang, the 7th Mixed Brigade stationed in Nanyuan, the 9th Mixed Brigade stationed in Tangshan, the 10th Mixed Brigade stationed in Shenyang, and the 11th Mixed Brigade stationed in Shijiazhuang.

In other words, the 14th Division will not be responsible for the Third Army or the First Army, but will be directly responsible to the High Command, and its operations will be directly responsible for the Operations Division under the General Staff Department.

Therefore, Fang Biyong is still relatively clear about the specific battle plan of the 14th Division!

"According to the operational plan of the Operations Department, after the end of the public security operation in southern Henan, the 14th Division will rest in Guangzhou for about half a month, and then move east to Liuhe and Hefei in Anhui Province to garrison, and then decide to reinforce Anqing or Jinling according to the development of the war situation. As for the strategic arrangement of the division, I have the same opinion as Director Shi of the Operations Department, that is, to serve as the strategic reserve of our army! ”

Fang Bi Yonghe Chief of Operations Shi Yanglin's ideas are still relatively cautious and conservative, and they regard the 14th Division as a strategic reserve, which fully embodies the basic essence of a general: think about defeat before thinking about victory!

Their top priority is not what to do after victory after launching the river-crossing operation, but what to do once the river-crossing operation encounters setbacks, and even when the river-crossing troops suffer a crushing defeat and the front-line troops encounter a counteroffensive and collapse, then the Feng army will need a strong force to force the storm!

And this unit is the 14th Division!

Zhao Dongyun also nodded after hearing this, he still agreed with Fang Biyong and Shi Yanglin's caution, after all, no one can say clearly about the things on the battlefield, don't look at the early Feng army's successive battles, but no one knows whether the follow-up Feng army will be able to maintain victory forever.

When Duan Qirui went south to fight last year, he was not in high spirits, and the fourth division under his command went south to fight in five provinces, and he did not taste a defeat after dozens of battles, but he was still cleaned up by himself in Jiangbei in December last year.

And who can guarantee that he Zhao Dongyun is not the next Duan Qirui, and the third division is not the next fourth division!

So the necessary caution is still needed!

It was only necessary to exercise caution, but it was too wasteful to place the 14th Division, the main combat force on which high hopes had been placed, at Hefei, a hundred miles from the front line.