Although Wu Peifu is not bad, but he can be promoted to a major general, to be honest, there are some tricky factors, he is an officer from artillery, and artillery has always been a technical branch of the army has always been valued by Zhao Dongyun, but in the artillery system, when he becomes a colonel, the head of the artillery regiment is basically the end, after all, there is no artillery brigade and artillery division in the Feng army, and although there are many institutions related to artillery in the command, the chief officer of these institutions is basically the rank of colonel, only the gun department of the ordnance department is less' The rank of general, but this position is civilian, although the position is an officer from artillery, but the civilian is always civilian, and there is only one position.

In this way, it is impossible for artillery officers to continue to be promoted under the artillery system, so if artillery officers want to continue to be promoted, and they still have to become the commander of the real power unit, then they can only serve as the brigade commander of the infantry brigade, the commander of the infantry division, and so on.

In order to appease the artillery officers and solve the problem of the promotion path of the artillery colonel, Zhao Dongyun will promote the artillery officers including Ren Cungao, Liu Tinggui, and Wu Peifu, otherwise, there are so many colonels from the infantry department in the Feng army, and there will be these artillery officers in turn until there are only a handful of senior generals.

Since his family understands his own affairs, Wu Peifu knows that his promotion is full of twists and turns, and it is understandable that he is envious of Su Kangyun, who has a smooth road and a bright future.

And Su Kangyun on the opposite side continued to explain the current Suqian war.

"At present, the enemy forces are mainly stationed in three areas, namely Suqian, where the Fifth Division of the Liangjiang Army and Taoyuan County are stationed, where the Zhejiang First Mixed Brigade and Qingjiangpu are stationed, and the Zhejiang Second Mixed Brigade is stationed there. According to our reconnaissance, the Second Mixed Brigade of the Liangjiang Army, which was newly reinforced by the enemy, has already been stationed in Suqian, and together with the Fifth Division of the Liangjiang Army, it has formed the Suqian defense line. ”

"On the other hand, our army, our 10th Division needs to deal with this front more than 70 kilometers wide at the same time, there is a regiment in the direction of Qingjiangpu, a regiment in the direction of Taoyuan County, and a brigade in the direction of Suqian. Concentrate the main force to conquer Suqian in one fell swoop! ”

After Su Kangyun's words fell, Zhou Fulin, the commander of the Twentieth Brigade next to him, said: "If the two regiments of the Nineteenth Brigade are transferred north, my side can certainly get reinforcements, but what about the defense in the direction of Taoyuan County and Qingjiangpu?" What should the enemy do if the enemy forces go north from these two directions and threaten Muyang in the rear of our army? ”

However, Su Kangyun said: "The two enemy armies in the direction of Qingjiangpu and Taoyuan County are the local provincial armies of Zhejiang, and we can all find out in a series of battles in front of Tongguò that their combat effectiveness is limited, and a few days ago, the 19th Brigade, the 37th Regiment commanded by Colonel Lei Anlin, was able to launch an offensive against the Zhejiang 1st Mixed Brigade in Taoyuan County."

The gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides must also be known to the officers of the Anhui army on the other side, in this case, do they have enough courage to take the initiative? ”

"Moreover, if they take the initiative, it will not be a bad thing for us, but on the contrary, it will be a good thing, as long as they leave the line of defense they formed and have no large number of fortifications to rely on, it will not be difficult to defeat them. If they dare to take the initiative to attack, then we will suspend the attack on Suqian, and then send the main force to eat their attack troops first, once the active attack troops in these two places are annihilated, then we will be able to take advantage of the situation to capture Taoyuan County and Qingjiangpu, and then send the main force north to Suqian, and then the enemy army will only rely on one Suqian, how can we resist the full attack of our division? ”

As a senior staff officer with old qualifications, Su Kangyun still has a very old vision.

Don't look at the two armies of Fengwan and Anhui in northern Jiangsu now, but it has always been the Feng army that takes the initiative to attack, and the Anhui army can only rely on the fortifications built in advance to passively defend, if the Anhui army abandons these fortifications and plays field battles with the Feng army, then the senior generals of the Feng army are naturally very welcome.

The reason why it is so difficult to conquer northern Jiangsu now is because the Anhui army hides in the fortifications as a turtle with a shrunken head, and before occupying an absolute superiority in strength and firepower, it is impossible for the Anhui army to take the initiative to abandon these fortifications and then take the initiative to launch an attack and play field battles with the Feng army.

After Su Kangyun said that, Ren Cungao above was also a little hesitant!

Ren Cungao can be regarded as a relatively low-key senior general in today's Feng Army, but his reputation is far inferior to Gu Lanyu, and unlike Cao Kun, they have rich qualifications that are difficult for ordinary people to surpass. However, he was able to win in one vote and become the commander of the 10th Division, the main division, which naturally has his advantages.

Ren Cungao, like Wu Peifu, is a senior general from artillery, but the reason why he was able to stand out from so many artillery officers and then became the division commander of one of the three main divisions of the Feng Army, in addition to the factors of the great expansion of the Feng Army, is also inseparable from his own ability.

After he came out of the position of commander of the artillery regiment, he successively held important positions in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Quartermasters, successively served as the director of the training department of the Ministry of Education, responsible for the training of recruits in the whole army, and later served as the director of the railway transportation department of the Ministry of Quartermasters, responsible for railway transportation affairs, and then transferred to the commander of the 19th Brigade, and finally after Xu Bangjie was promoted to the high position of commander of the Second Army, he took over the position of commander of the 10th Division.

At the beginning, Zhao Dongyun personally selected him as the commander of the 10th Division, in addition to his rich service experience, it was also related to his command Su zhì in the Tangshan Battle and the Bazhou Campaign. The 10th Division was in the Feng army, and was known for being good at frontal attacks, just as Gu Lanyu led the army to be extremely good at roundabout attacks, and in the months before entering the pass, Ren Cungao was famous for being good at frontal attacks in the upper echelons of the Feng army. At the beginning, it was he who led the troops to break through the direction of the direct army in Tangshan head-on, and broke the first brigade of the first division of the direct army, and then laid the foundation for the victory of the Tangshan campaign.

In the Battle of Bazhou and the subsequent Battle of Jinan, this person also showed extraordinary frontal attack ability, breaking through the enemy's defense line several times in a row, and then laying the foundation for victory.

Of course, some people may say that this is all the credit of the division commander Xu Bangjie, but Ren Cungao, who was the commander of the 19th Brigade at the time, was the front-line commander of this series of battles.

With these many merits, he was able to surpass many major generals in the Feng Army, and was promoted to division commander at the same time as Gu Lanyu, one as the commander of the third division and the other as the commander of the tenth division.

In the early stage of the Northern Jiangsu Campaign, after the 10th Division won a series of important strategic points such as Pizhou, Haizhou, and Muyang, Zhao Dongyun was specially promoted to lieutenant general in the army in recognition of him, and was awarded four honors. In this way, the name of the division commander of the 'Zhong' General has been confirmed, and there is no need to stare at the rank of 'general and Zhong' like several other division commanders.

He is also the second senior general to be promoted to lieutenant general after Gu Lanyu entered the customs battle this year.

Looking at the several division commanders of the Fengjun Army, Lu Yongxiang, commander of the First Division, Lin Yongquan, commander of the Ninth Division, Gu Lanyu, commander of the Third Division, and Ren Cungao, commander of the Tenth Division, are all lieutenant generals of the army, while the remaining ones include He Zonglian, commander of the Eighth Division, Cao Kun, commander of the 11th Division, and Liu Tinggui, commander of the 13th Division, all of whom have the rank of major general and general of the army.

As for the commanders of other mixed brigades, some are army major generals, and a few who have deep qualifications or other special factors are army major generals plus lieutenant generals, such as Bao Guiqing, commander of the first mixed brigade, he was originally a major army general, but after taking the initiative to surrender to Zhao Dongyun, he was awarded the rank of army major 'general plus zhong', and there is also the seventh mixed brigade Li Chun, because he withstood the attack of more than 20,000 direct troops with a mere brigade in the early stage of the Tangshan Campaign, so he was also born a first-class and awarded the rank of army major 'general plus middle'.

As for the other mixed brigade commanders, they are all major generals of the army, just like the commanders of other infantry brigades, the heads of various divisions of the high command, and the chiefs of staff of various armies.

Therefore, if you analyze it carefully, you will find that the scope of application of the rank system in the Feng army is somewhat fixed, that is, it is limited to the three positions of mixed brigade commander, infantry division commander and army commander, and the other basically rarely have additional ranks. In addition, there is a relatively special circumstance that the posthumous award is posthumously awarded, and since the entry into the customs battle, many officers with the rank of colonel have been posthumously awarded the rank of colonel and major general after they have been killed.

What is interesting is that in addition to posthumously, the Fengjun has not yet awarded the rank of colonel and major general to officers on active duty, which is currently only used posthumously after the death, and this rank is also the lowest level of the award, because the Fengjun does not add titles to active officers, and officers at the rank of lieutenant colonel and major are generally directly posthumously awarded colonels and lieutenant colonels after they die, and there will be no situation where the army lieutenant colonel and colonel are added.

Generally speaking, the current Fengjun rank system is still relatively special, based on Western military ranks, but it integrates the traditional Chinese rank system, but there are various restrictions, and Western countries, Japan, and even the historical Beiyang, the Republic of China have more obvious differences.

As the division commander of the three main divisions in the Feng army, and one of the few most powerful lieutenant generals in the Feng army, Ren Cungao enjoys a transcendent status while also bearing huge pressure unknown to outsiders.

Suqian has been unable to attack for a long time, not only Xu Bangjie of the military department has called many times to inquire, but even the headquarters has called many times to inquire, and more importantly, even the Secretariat of the Presidential Office has sent Zhao Dongyun's telegram of condolences.

On the surface, these are all telegrams of inquiry or condolences, but Ren Cungao understands very well that this is Shangfeng is dissatisfied with the fact that the Tenth Division has not been able to attack Suqian for a long time, and is urging him to take Suqian as much as possible!

In the face of the personal pressure of Shangfeng, especially Zhao Dongyun, it was impossible for Ren Cungao to remain indifferent, he had to take Suqian as much as possible, and then cooperate with the 1st Mixed Brigade to continue to advance westward, so as to completely cut off the connection between the enemy army in Xuzhou and the enemy army in the south.

Otherwise, a disposition that is unfavorable in combat will have to be carried on your back, once Zhao Dongyun is given the impression that the battle is ineffective, then don't expect to be able to become the commander of the first army like Xu Bangjie and Meng Enyuan in the future, and make meritorious contributions.

It's just that the question now is, how should he take Suqian?

With less than 15,000 troops in his hands, how could he break through the enemy's defense line, which had already exceeded 30,000 troops, and then take Suqian?