Since Meng Enyuan surpassed others as the commander of the First Army in one fell swoop, although the troops under the command of the First Army were transferred back and forth, the command structure of the headquarters of the First Army has never been abolished, and now the specific battle of the siege of the Beijing Division is even more responsible for the First Army, commanding the Ninth Division, the Fourth Mixed Brigade, and the Fifth Mixed Brigade, which has established that Meng Enyuan's status in the Feng Army is second only to Zhao Dongyun, and has surpassed Chen Guangyuan, Lin Yongquan and others.

With Meng Enyuan's precedent, which of the few people behind is not a blind man who wants to sit in the position of military commander!

Especially in the foreseeable future, once the Feng army defeats Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division and conquers the Beijing division, then the next step for the Feng army will definitely continue to move south, in order to control Nanzhili and Shandong, and then continue south to Henan and even Jiangsu, Anhui, Huguang and other places.

Let's not mention how to arrange the southward strategy of the Feng army in the future, but it is inevitable to fight southward, and it is impossible for Zhao Dongyun to personally lead the troops to fight in the south at that time, after all, Zhao Dongyun can also personally serve as the commander of the second army to command the troops to fight, but once he moves into the Beijing division, Zhao Dongyun will sit in Gyeonggi like Wang Yingkai before, and the commander of the southbound troops will inevitably let the following generals serve as the commander-in-chief.

Looking at the passage to the south, no matter which side of the main attack, there is a 90% probability that they will divide their troops to attack Shandong and Henan provinces, and the above two armies may produce two army commanders, even if one of them is taken away by Meng Enyuan, but there is still one left for Chen Guangyuan, Xu Bangjie, and Lin Yongquan to fight for.

In the current matter that can affect the future development prospects, Chen Guangyuan naturally will not take it lightly and is unwilling to leave any bad impression on Zhao Dongyun, so after receiving Zhao Dongyun's order, he led the third division to the south very simply.

The next day, the 5th Brigade of the 3rd Division made contact with the 1st Division of the 7th Division in the northeast direction of Bazhou, which was also the first large-scale engagement between the main infantry units of the two sides.

At the beginning of the battle, the generals on both sides were very conservative, but Kong Guanbei of the Fifth Brigade knew very well that the superiors did not let him launch a decisive charge, but let himself contain the enemy, and although the seventh division did not stay in Bazhou for a long time, it was also two days, and it also built gradual field fortifications, so Kong Guanbei did not launch a large-scale strong attack, but only launched a diversion attack intermittently.

And although this kind of attack could not cause many casualties to the Seventh Division, Wang Zhanyuan frowned at it!

"Can you detect clearly? Opposite is the Fifth Brigade of Kong Guanbei? Wang Zhanyuan's long-term experience in the Fengjun made him extremely familiar with the Fengjun, especially the third division, from the specific establishment to the new tactics and even the name of the battalion commander below. Not to mention that he was the commander of the Fifth Brigade before, and this Kong Guanbei is just his successor.

Although Wang Zhanyuan, who served as the commander of the Fifth Brigade, had been in the air for a long time, he was very clear about the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Brigade, and in fact, in the process of rebuilding the Seventh Division after he returned to Zhili, he greatly imitated the training of the Feng Army, especially in tactical training.

"Let the 28th Regiment in front cheer up, the 5th Brigade on the opposite side is the best at firing in front of the formation, and their mortar unit is the best in the Feng Army, be careful with the protection of heavy machine gun positions and be the right maneuver!" Wang Zhanyuan knew the Fifth Brigade very well.

He knew that although many troops in the Feng army claimed to be the entire field army, the descendants under Zhao Dongyun had always been this third division, compared with other troops, the third division had been in the army for many years, and the soldiers had been trained for many years, and their marksmanship was fed with a large number of bullets over the years, especially the tenth regiment under the fifth brigade, whose infantry shooting accuracy had long ranked first in the Feng army. In addition, the 3rd Division was also the first unit in the Feng army to be equipped with mortars, and over the years it has trained a large number of mortar shooters for friendly forces.

These mortar shooters of the 3rd Division have been playing mortars for two or three years, and although they can't shoot anywhere, under normal circumstances, it is easy to knock out a heavy machine-gun position without strong fortifications in a few rounds of rapid fire.

Although the Fifth Brigade on the opposite side is the elite of the Feng Army, Wang Zhanyuan is not too worried, it is not unreasonable that the theory of trench defense has been rampant in recent years, and even if the Fifth Brigade on the opposite side is elite, it is impossible to break through the position of the 29th Regiment head-on, without killing or wounding more than half.

Wang Zhanyuan was not more worried about Kong Guanbei's Fifth Brigade, he was more worried about Gu Lanyu's Sixth Brigade, to be precise, he was not worried about the Sixth Brigade, but about Gu Lanyu.

Gu Lanyu was unknown before the Battle of Tongzhou last year, this person was born in the camp school of the right army of Wuwei, this background is really not good, in the top level of the Beiyang system today, whether it is the Fengjun or the direct army or several other warlords, the senior generals are mainly Tianjin military students, a few are in Japan, Germany and returned to China, and a very small number are from the Baoding Military Academy, as for the Wuwei Right Army with the camp school of the year, although there are many graduates, but most of them are at the grassroots level, and a few excellent ones will also be recommended to continue their studies, There are very few people like Gu Lanyu, who have jumped to the level of high-level powerful generals without studying all these years.

There is only one reason why this person was able to be promoted so quickly, that is, this person was one of the first officers to follow Zhao Dongyun, and when Zhao Dongyun was the commander of the second battalion of the Wuwei Right Army in 1901, Gu Lanyu was one of the officers under him.

And then with Zhao Dongyun's step by step ascension, he is also rising, although limited by academic qualifications, qualifications let him only serve as the commander of the Sixth Brigade last year, but this person in the Tongzhou Campaign is very eye-catching, he led the Sixth Brigade in the Tongzhou Campaign at that time in the roundabout operation can be called a classic example of roundabout operations to outflank the enemy, and even by the Fengjun Military Academy as a typical example of research and study.

Although limited by the limited overall size of the Feng army, it is unlikely that Gu Lanyu will soar into the sky, but when he shows this kind of tactical literacy, Zhao Dongyun will almost definitely use him in the future, and he will be the number one player of the next division commander in the Feng army system.

Wang Zhanyuan knew about Gu Lanyu, but after understanding it, he was even more worried, what was Gu Lanyu famous for inside and outside the Fengjun? Four words 'roundabout combat'.

Therefore, after the front line troops only discovered Kong Guanbei's Fifth Brigade, Wang Zhanyuan almost subconsciously thought that Gu Lanyu's Sixth Brigade might be in a detour.

And when he thought of this possibility, Wang Zhanyuan thought that there was far more than the third division of the Feng army, and there was a tenth division nearby that did not appear, if he was dragged in Bazhou, then Xu Bangjie's tenth division and Gu Lanyu's sixth division would come up in a roundabout way, wouldn't he be surrounded like Bao Guiqing in Huanxizhuang at the beginning.

Wang Zhanyuan, who had a very strong sense of crisis, quickly reacted, and when the 28th Regiment of the front line and the Fifth Brigade of the Feng Army were engaged in battle, Wang Zhanyuan quickly transferred the troops of the 13th Brigade to the northeast, and its strategic purpose was very obvious, that is, if Chen Guangyuan's Third Division sent the Sixth Brigade to make a detour, then Wang Zhanyuan would also play a detour, and it would not be certain who would successfully attack the enemy's flank in a roundabout way.

What's more, Wang Zhanyuan sent the 28th Regiment to the frontal front, and the 13th Brigade made a detour to the northeast, and he still had a 27th Regiment as a reserve under his hand.

Wang Zhanyuan faced a possible threat, and did not turn around and run as soon as possible, because if he wanted to flee south, then it would mean that his rescue operation to rescue the Beijing Division had completely failed, Wang Yingkai was estimated to be unable to resist in a few days on the Beijing Division's side, and it would be a complete rout, if it was to break west and go north, the third division behind him would definitely not give up the pursuit, and when the time came, it would not be a retreat to the west, but a big collapse.

The most obvious example is the Tangshan Campaign, Lu Yongxiang's second brigade retreated, although Lu Yongxiang's second brigade ran back intact, but the other direct troops suffered heavy losses, not to mention that the first mixed brigade was surrounded and annihilated, and even the 11th and 12th divisions suffered a lot of losses in the process of retreating, and the 12th division even had a regiment surrendered directly.

In evaluating the combat effectiveness of an army, the offensive and defensive capabilities are secondary, and the ability to retreat is actually the ability to retreat that can best reflect the combat effectiveness of an army.

Wang Zhanyuan knows very well about his own Seventh Division, defensive or offensive warfare is okay, but if you play retreat, nine times out of ten it will become a major collapse of the whole front, which is why there are few generals in contemporary domestic battles who play such a thing as large-scale retreat, not because they don't want to retreat, but because they can't retreat.

Even with a large number of casualties and the enemy's death, it is better than retreating!

From a strategic and tactical point of view, it is not a good choice for Wang Zhanyuan to retreat, of course, it is not a good thing to sit back and watch the main force of the Feng army slowly surround it, and now what Wang Zhanyuan has done is to take advantage of the fact that the other troops of the Feng army have not come up, and first beat down the sharp spirit of the third division, many generals of the Feng army, including Gu Lanyu, like to play a roundabout attack, and he Wang Zhanyuan was also a member of the generals of the Feng army before, and he is not much worse than other generals of the Feng army to play a roundabout attack.

So what Chen Guangyuan, the commander of the Third Division, didn't expect was that his original intention was only to contain Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division, but he hadn't sent the main force to attack, this Gu Lanyu's Sixth Brigade was still behind, but the Fifth Brigade of the front-line troops reported that Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division had hit, and as soon as it struck, it was a ferocious left hook, and its 13th Brigade was not on the northern front of Bazhou as Chen Guangyuan had imagined, but directly killed the flank of the Fifth Brigade.

For a time, the Battle of Bazhou turned out to be Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division attacking the Fifth Brigade Headquarters of the Third Division in a roundabout way, and in less than two days, the Fifth Brigade of the Third Division was in danger!