In Bengbu City, Duan Qirui looked the same as usual, he didn't look too depressed because of the defeat in the war in northern Jiangsu, and he didn't see a trace of loneliness in him, in the eyes of many subordinates, Duan Qirui was still as confident as when he went south to Liangjiang.

But this is only superficial, but Duan Qirui in his heart has many complex feelings, but as a leader, like Zhao Dongyun, he is very good at hiding these inner thoughts in his heart, and he always shows a calm and indifferent appearance in front of outsiders, especially his subordinates, as if the predicament in front of him is not worth mentioning.

It is precisely because of Duan Qirui's appearance that many generals of the main force of the Anhui Army who fled from Xuzhou to Xuzhou all the way felt a little relieved. If Duan Qirui's panic or anger on the surface at this time is like thunder, then it will greatly affect the confidence of the Anhui army from the top of the generals to the ordinary soldiers, and then shake the morale of the army.

So no matter what Duan Qirui thinks in his heart, there can only be one appearance, and that is to let others, especially his subordinates, know that he Duan Qirui has the ability and confidence to lead them out of the predicament.

This kind of su zhì is also a must-have su zhì for a leader!

As a qualified leader and the commander of more than 100,000 troops, Duan Qirui's control in love is honestly much stronger than Zhao Dongyun, at least Zhao Dongyun usually has a black face when the front-line troops are unfavorable, but Duan Qirui is not like this.

So when Duan Qirui said with confident words: "What's the panic, now the main force of our army is still there, as long as the fourth division is still there, even if you give up Northern Jiangsu to Zhao Ziyang." Besides, the Feng army has been fighting for several months, and the morale and supplies of the army are already quite scarce, in this case, even if they reluctantly continue to attack south, we will be able to give them a head-on blow in Bengbu, let them know that our fourth division is the number one trump card of Beiyang, and we are the real pillar of Beiyang! ”

Having said that, Duan Qirui in his heart knew very well that the Feng army on the other side was exhausted and short of ammunition and food, but his own situation was not much better.

Since the breakthrough of Xuzhou, the Feng army behind has been in hot pursuit, forcing him to not even dare to go to Suzhou, directly leaving Zhang Huaizhi and fleeing south, and when Zhang Huaizhi found that Duan Qirui's fourth division not only gave up Xuzhou directly, but also ran behind him, he also slipped away with the main force of the fifth division of less than 10,000 people, although there were still thousands of people left in Suzhou, but the troops were not used at all, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Suzhou was directly lost to the Feng army.

And Zhang Huaizhi's escape made Duan Qirui's expectation of trying to make Zhang Huaizhi drag the main force of the Feng army in vain, and Gu Lanyu's third division in the main force of the Feng army did not stop at all, and kept chasing after Duan Qirui's fourth division.

In order to block the pace of the Feng army's pursuit, Duan Qirui was forced to give up the remnants of the thousands of Liangjiang Army units that had just been collected back, and let them act as the broken rear troops to cover the Fourth Division. Those remnants of Liangjiang who acted as the aftermath force naturally did not know that they were abandoned by Duan Qirui again, but they also successfully blocked the pace of the Third Division for a day, and were able to make the distance between Duan Qirui's Fourth Division and Gu Lanyu from more than 20 kilometers before to more than 40 kilometers.

Since the breakthrough of Xuzhou, they ran all the way south for more than 160 kilometers, and finally arrived at Bengbu, at this time the fourth division was also exhausted, and if the soldiers were not allowed to stop and rest, it was estimated that they would not be defeated and collapsed by the Feng army, and they themselves would have to be tired to collapse.

Duan Qirui saw that the Third Division was still at least fifty kilometers away to the north, that is, he ordered a temporary rest in Bengbu, on the one hand, to allow the soldiers to recover, and on the other hand, to replenish military supplies.

In the war in northern Jiangsu, the logistics supply of the Anhui army was not as good as that of the Feng army, but because the logistics supply line of the Anhui army was relatively short, relying on the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and other means in the early and middle periods could barely ensure the supply of the front-line army.

But since the loss of Suqian, when he Duan Qirui broke out with the Fourth Division and the First Brigade of Liangjiang, he only brought a small amount of ammunition, and then broke through and moved into Bengbu.

Fortunately, the soldiers carried it for several days, and when they retreated, the baggage troops of the Fourth Division also brought some of the food, and before arriving in Bengbu, the army had not run out of food, but even if the food was out of food, it was not a big problem, and if there was no food, it could be purchased on the spot. Throughout China's modern military history, we have never seen that modern army starved to death.

China in the early Republic of China was not the end of the Ming Dynasty, and although there were frequent battles in the early Republic of China, basic production, especially agricultural production, was not interrupted on a large scale.

Although the warlord wars in the decades after Xinhai are frequent and the scale is not small, the impact on the local people's livelihood, especially on agricultural production, is not great, because the warlords in the early Republic of China are not the leaders of the displaced people, they are warlords, and regard their own territory as the foundation of the struggle for hegemony, and they are actually more concerned about the people's livelihood and economic development in the jurisdiction, Yan Xishan and Zhang Zuolin are very obvious examples, they will not trample on the peasants' green seedlings like Li Chuang and other bandits in the late Ming Dynasty, and will not burn down the peasants' houses. Then he included these peasants who had lost their homes into his army of displaced people, and then shouted the slogan of welcoming the king and not paying food. Nor will they shout the slogan of equalizing the land like those in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then collect all the possessions in the palace to enjoy, and even do some ridiculous thing of separating men and women.

Most of the warlords of the Republic of China are careerists, and a sane careerist will not do such a self-destructive thing.

Duan Qirui is also a representative figure of this kind of warlord, although he wantonly looted money on the territory to raise the army and expand the army, but this kind of looting does not mean that the entire city is directly slaughtered, but through guò to increase taxes, set up checkpoints to collect taxes and other means.

Therefore, in the northern Jiangsu region, which was previously under the control of Duan Qirui, the basic civilian production activities were not interrupted, especially the agricultural production remained at a normal level, in this case, even if the Fourth Division had no military rations, it was able to collect enough food from the people to supply the army.

In fact, not only did the Anhui army do this, but the Feng army, which was under more intense logistical pressure, also vigorously collected grain in the war zone, not that the Feng army did not have food in the rear, but that the amount of logistics transportation was limited, and the logistics department of the Feng army was more willing to use these transportation capacity for the transportation of ammunition and other materials, and as for the grain, it was purchased locally, or purchased from those large grain merchants and transported to the war zone by the grain merchants themselves.

For the Fengwan and Anhui armies, the food problem is not a big one, and the logistical factor that really affects their combat capability is not food, but the supply of ammunition.

When the Fourth Division retreated from Xuzhou, although it brought a small amount of ammunition, it consumed a lot along the way, in order to restore the ammunition reserves of the troops, Duan Qirui had already sent a telegram to order the military and political officials who stayed in Jinling to urgently mobilize a large amount of supplies from Jinling, Shanghai and other along the Yangtze River to Bengbu to supplement the losses of the Fourth Division.

Now that the Fourth Division arrives in Bengbu, it will be able to get these supplies.

This is also the main reason why the Fourth Division stopped in Bengbu!

However, despite this, Duan Qirui was already worried in his heart, others might have confidence in him, but in his heart, he had no confidence in holding the Jiangbei region, if it wasn't for delaying the pace of Feng's army going south, so that he would have more time to draw troops north, he would not stop in Bengbu, but fled back to Jinling directly, and then relied on the Yangtze River trench to deploy a defensive line.

It's just that although he has decided to give up the entire Jiangbei in the future, he still needs time now, and he needs a time to transfer troops from Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other directions to the north to build a defense line on the Yangtze River, otherwise he will run directly to the other side of the Yangtze River, and the Feng army will be able to catch up with the hind foot.

And once the Feng army finds a weak place to cross the Yangtze River, then the Yangtze River moat will become a joke.

Therefore, he can't retreat, at least not from Bengbu for a short time, he needs to block the southward pace of Feng's army here for a while, leaving enough time for the rear to build a defense line on the Yangtze River.

Duan Qirui did this, and finally let Gu Lanyu, who was panting after him, breathe a sigh of relief, to be honest, if Duan Qirui really continued to flee to Jinling, he would really not be able to continue chasing.

His third division is not the fourth!

The fourth division is fleeing for his life, except for bringing artillery, the rest of the baggage is basically thrown away, but his third division can't do this, he Gu Lanyu has to continue to take these baggage troops on the road together, and he doesn't dare to send troops to pursue lightly, otherwise it will not be good to be killed by Duan Qirui.

Although the fourth division of the people fled all the way, it was the old Beiyang troops, and it was also a unit with more than 20,000 troops in one division and three brigades.

Therefore, although he chased all the way, Gu Lanyu was extremely cautious, and the main forces of the troops were all concentrated together, and they also pursued together with a large number of artillery and other baggage.

After learning that the Fourth Division had stopped in Bengbu in front, Gu Lanyu was finally relieved, the Fourth Division in front was exhausted from escaping, and he was chasing after him enough.

Faced with a personal order from Zhao Dongyun from Jurentang, he didn't dare to relax, if the Fourth Division escaped to the south bank of the Yangtze River intact, it would not be a good thing for the Feng army's follow-up Liangjiang Raid.

On the evening of the next day, an infantry regiment of the 6th Brigade of the forward unit of the 3rd Division of the Feng Army had arrived, and for a time the lights were bright inside and outside the city of Bengbu, and the infantry regiment of the Feng Army did not know how many Anhui troops were on the opposite side, and the Anhui Army did not know how many Feng troops had caught up.

Based on the communication and command ability of contemporary soldiers, large-scale night battles, especially offensive battles, usually hold torches to people as targets, and if they do not raise torches, they will collapse 100% before they can get in front of the enemy.

If you want to watch the night attack, you can read various ancient romance novels such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or something, in real wars, especially in modern wars, a hundred examples of war can not find a night raid battle, and occasionally a few are also extremely tragic, and the reason why those well-known night raids are written about by people is because this kind of successful night raid has only appeared once or twice in hundreds of years, and it is simply sorry for the countless armies that collapsed before they got in front of the enemy in the night raid.

The generals of both the Anhui army and the Feng army are quite normal, and there are no demonic cowmen, so both sides are bright torches, and directly turn the night into day, and then start to play meditation.

After a night of confrontation, early the next morning, the Feng army outside the city had already changed from a regiment to a brigade, while the other main forces of the Third Division, including the Fifth Brigade and the Artillery Regiment, were already on their way.

One wants to pursue, the other wants to delay time, and the inevitable new round of battle between the two armies of Fengwan is about to start in Bengbu!