On October 31, in the headquarters of the Anhui Army in Xuzhou, Duan Qirui was listening to the report of his generals with a dark face.

"Since the enemy army conquered our Suqian, the 5th Division of Liangjiang and the 2nd Mixed Brigade of our army gathered troops yesterday to try to counterattack Suqian, but the enemy army has already gathered the main force in Suqian, and the counteroffensive of our army has not been successful."

"In order to avoid the Fifth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade from being further counterattacked by the enemy, the division has been transferred to Suining County to deploy defenses, but the division has suffered heavy losses in a series of battles in the early stage, and the current strength is only about 13,000 people, and there is an extreme lack of heavy weapons!"

Listening to these words, Duan Qirui had already made a judgment in his heart, his Fifth Division of the Liangjiang Army and the Second Mixed Brigade of the Liangjiang Army had been completely disabled, especially the Fifth Division of the Liangjiang Army, I am afraid that not only is there a lack of troops now, but also after a series of successive fiascos in the early stage, the morale of the troops may have fallen to the lowest point.

The Fifth Division of the Liangjiang Army was the first batch of troops to be transferred to fight in northern Jiangsu, and it was initially deployed on the front line of Haizhou and Linyi. But then it was defeated by the 10th Division of the 2nd Army of the Feng Army, and retreated from the realignment to the Muyang line to redeploy the defense, but before it could gain a firm foothold, the 10th Division of the Feng Army caught up again, so the 5th Division of the Liangjiang Army suffered a crushing defeat again, and then retreated to Suqian, and now it was defeated by the 10th Division of the Feng Army in Suqian and was forced to retreat to Suining.

Before the war, the division had nearly 14,000 troops, and although the artillery did not say that it was fully equipped with 54 guns, it also had two battalions and 36 guns, although the artillery was both Japanese and German, but it was extremely rare to unify the caliber of 75 mm, in addition to having more than 30 heavy machine guns.

This kind of troops, this kind of firepower can be regarded as a first-class force in the country, but it is the main force in the Anhui army second only to the fourth division led by Duan Qirui, otherwise it would not have been transferred north by Duan Qirui to participate in the battle with the Feng army for the first time.

However, after a series of attacks by the Feng army, the department now has only more than 8,000 people left, and more importantly, the heavy weapons such as artillery and heavy machine guns are almost completely lost.

In addition, although the losses of the Second Mixed Brigade of the Liangjiang Army were not so large, the firepower of this mixed brigade was relatively average.

Now these two troops are only 13,000 troops in Suining, and there are only 10 artillery pieces, two artillery companies are not in order, and there are only about a dozen heavy machine guns left.

In addition, they need to face the 10th Division, one of the three main forces of the Feng Army, and they could not stop the attack of the 10th Division in a complete state before, and now if the 10th Division of the Feng Army attacks Suining again, the situation of these two troops is estimated to be very bad, because it is more severe than the heavy losses of soldiers and the lack of heavy weapons, their morale has almost fallen to the bottom, Duan Qirui is very suspicious that when the Feng army comes to attack, they may be like those troops of the Southern Federation, they may not even resist and turn around and flee.

However, with the fall of Suining, if he still wanted to block the westward advance of the Feng army and avoid himself from being encircled in Xuzhou, then he had to stop this army.

Just as Duan Qirui was thinking, his subordinate generals proposed another proposal.

"Now that Suqian has fallen, and the enemy's next step will inevitably continue to attack westward, trying to cut off our southern communication channel, and once we don't stop it in Suining, I'm afraid our army is in danger of being surrounded on all sides!" With the rank of lieutenant general, Zhang Yongcheng, the commander of the 1st Division of the Liangjiang Army, stood up and said: "And the current situation in Suining, it may be difficult to stop the attack of the enemy's 10th Division!" ”

"Therefore, in addition to strengthening the defense of Suining, it is best for us to take all possible measures!"

As soon as his words fell, Lei Zhenchun, the commander of the Second Division of the Liangjiang Army on the side, snorted coldly: "Brother Zhang, do you want to say that we should give up Xuzhou?" ”

Zhang Yongcheng didn't look at Lei Zhenchun either, but continued to look at Duan Qirui and said: "Dashuai, now we are facing a siege on both sides in Xuzhou, and Zhang Dashuai in Suzhou is difficult to protect himself in the face of the attack of the Feng army, and it is impossible to reinforce us, and once Suining in the east is also conquered, what will we do then?" ”

In fact, since the news of Suqian was conquered to Xuzhou, there have been many generals of the Anhui army who have sprouted the intention of retreating, although they can barely hold on to Xuzhou, but this is based on the situation of rear security, only the rear is safe, then Xuzhou this bridgehead has strategic value, if even the rear of Suqian, Suzhou, Qingjiangpu have been lost, then Xuzhou has become a lonely city surrounded by the Feng army on all sides!

At that time, it will not be a problem of Xuzhou losing its strategic value, but the problem of tens of thousands of main forces of the Anhui army in Xuzhou City falling into the problem of being completely surrounded and annihilated.

Zhang Yongcheng continued: "Although we have suffered a slight loss on the Suqian front line now, our main force is still there, as long as we are determined to break through, a single 10th Division will not be able to stop us. As long as we can bring the main force back, then we can re-establish the defensive line in Bengbu, Nanjing, Yangzhou and other places, and even if the battle situation is urgent, we can completely retreat to the south of the Yangtze River, relying on the Yangtze River moat, it will be much easier to block the Feng army from moving south! ”

As soon as Zhang Yongcheng's words came out, he was immediately opposed by many people, and Tang Tianxi, who was appointed by Duan Qirui as the commander of the Fifth Brigade of the Fourth Division, directly retorted: "According to your meaning, we not only want to give up Xuzhou, but also give up the entire northern Jiangsu and even the entire Anhui region north of the Yangtze River?" ”

"Although our army is difficult now, how easy is it for the Feng army on the other side? If they could take Xuzhou, they would have taken it a long time ago, why bother spending a few months with us in northern Jiangsu, now that the Feng army has not yet come over, you yourself will retreat without a fight, and give the entire area north of the Yangtze River to Zhao Ziyang empty-handed, hmph, I want to ask, whose salary are you taking! ”

Being accused by Tang Tianxi like this, Zhang Yongcheng's face instantly turned red, and he immediately said: "Hmph, if you don't leave, will you wait for others to completely surround us?" How will the lives of these more than 40,000 soldiers be preserved at that time? ”

Then he said to Duan Qirui: "Dashuai, the situation is critical now, Suqian has fallen, even if Suining can hold for another three or five days, it can't change the current strategic situation, and the plan today is to go up, just like the old saying: stay in the green mountains without worrying about no firewood!" ”

"As long as our Anhui army still has an army of 100,000, we will not be defeated!"

Seeing that Duan Qirui had fallen into deep thought, Zhang Yongcheng continued: "Now our strategic core is not to counterattack Shandong and Zhili, nor to say how many Feng troops to eliminate, but to block the pace of the Feng army to the south. ”

"What we have to do now is to delay the time, until we take down several provinces in the south, especially Guangdong, as long as it can be delayed, even if it is given to him by northern Jiangsu and north-central Anhui Zhao Ziyang?"

Duan Qirui listened to these words, and calculated the gains and losses in his heart, if he could continue to hold Xuzhou, it would naturally be the best, but the first thing to consider for the generals was not what would happen if he won, but what would happen if he lost, once Suining was lost, his more than 40,000 troops in Xuzhou would be completely surrounded and annihilated, and this situation was unacceptable to Duan Qirui.

If you lose northern Jiangsu, the financial impact on yourself will not be too great, because this year, Jiangsu's main financial income is concentrated in southern Jiangsu, that is, the south of the Yangtze River, although northern Jiangsu is better than other provinces, but much worse than southern Jiangsu. As for Anhui, it was not his Duan Qirui's territory, it was Zhang Huaizhi's territory, and he didn't feel distressed if he lost Duan Qirui.

If you can win Guangdong, relying on the income of Guangdong, a major tax province, plus Zhejiang or southern Jiangsu, well, and then Jiangxi and Fujian make up a fraction, then the financial income in your own territory in the future is still very considerable, at least there is no problem to surpass Zhao Ziyang.

Don't look at the territory occupied by Zhao Dongyun, the three eastern provinces, Zhili, Shandong, Henan, and may add a northern Jiangsu and central and northern Anhui in the future, but the financial income collected by these places is far less than the total income of southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, and southern Anhui.

As long as it can drag on for a year and a half, and he relies on the financial revenues of these provinces to continue to expand the army, he still doesn't know which of the two armies in Fengwan will be strong and which is weak.

But there's an upfront to this, and that's how to drag it out?

You Duan Qirui want to delay, but why did Zhao Dongyun launch the Northern Jiangsu Campaign, in order to suppress your Duan Qirui's development momentum, and not give you time to rectify the territory and develop and expand the army.

If he had lost the main force, especially the Fourth Division, in Xuzhou, then the huge Jiangsu and Anhui regions would not have the troops to stop the Feng army from moving south.

Thinking of this, Duan Qirui had already made a secret decision in his heart, just like Zhang Yongcheng said, stay in Qingshan without worrying about no firewood, as long as he keeps the main force, then what if he withdraws from northern Jiangsu, then he can rely on the Yangtze River moat to continue to drag it out, drag it until he takes Guangdong, develops and expands the army, and then counterattacks.

After Duan Qirui made this decision, he quickly made corresponding tactical arrangements, first of all, he sent a brigade to Suining, and if the Anhui army wanted to withdraw, he had to keep the retreat first, so as not to let the 10th Division kill all the way to block the retreat of his main force. In addition, he began to shrink his defensive line in Xuzhou, and then began to gradually withdraw his troops.

It's just that this kind of large-scale retreat is not to say that it can be withdrawn, and the Feng army on the opposite side is not a fool, the Feng army on the front line in Xuzhou soon found that the Anhui army on the opposite side had signs of large-scale retreat, and after this situation was reported to Meng Enyuan's side, Meng Enyuan did not show joy on his face, but a cautious face: "We must not let them escape, our army has been fighting for two months, for more than just a Xuzhou." I'm going to leave this fourth division behind! ”

"Order Ren Cungao of the 10th Division, let him conquer Suining within two days, and then march to the northwest, and strive to intercept the southern retreat of the Anhui army after joining up with the 1st Mixed Brigade!"