The 6th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the Feng Army, Gu Lanyu was the best at roundabout attacks in the Feng Army during his tenure as the brigade commander, and it was a well-deserved elite unit in the Feng Army.

As a member of the Fourth Division, the Seventh Brigade of the Fourth Division of the Anhui Army, one of the old Beiyang Seven Towns of that year, had already formed an army on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War and had been trained for many years. The department was well-armed, all of which were Fuzao Type 88 rifles, Germany's most advanced tube-retreat field guns and mountain artillery, and German-made or Fu-made heavy machine guns. Because he is the main force of Duan Qirui's lineage, the soldiers' salaries have always been paid at full, and the morale and loyalty of soldiers and officers are very high.

At the beginning of the year, after the unit moved south from Zhili, it moved to Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces. Although the follow-up retreat of the department from Xuzhou, it was also a strategic initiative to retreat, and it was not defeated by the Feng army and fled.

At the beginning of the year, the army of the Southern Federation defeated more than 100,000 troops in the direction of the two rivers with the strength of one division.

Although Tang Tianxi, the commander of the Seventh Brigade, is not well-known among many contemporary generals, he can rise step by step as the brigade commander in the main force of Duan Qirui's lineage of the Fourth Division, which must have his merits.

All the warlords who have left a great reputation in history are not simple characters, and those with ordinary talents have long been wiped out in the warlord melee, so it is possible that they will be famous in the history books.

When the most elite troops of these two armies collide with each other like a tide, they burst into a stormy wave!

On a small hill outside Chuzhou City, Pei Lianying was wearing the blue-gray combat uniform unique to senior generals of the Feng Army, and he was wearing a woolen coat outside, and he was patrolling the front line with more than ten of his subordinates at this time.

A major wearing a blue-gray officer's combat uniform beside him was beside him and said: "Just now we have confirmed through our fire reconnaissance that there is at least one battalion of the enemy under the low slope opposite, and two hours ago they tried to bypass us and attack our flank, but were blocked by our battalion, and now this division has been suppressed by us under that low slope. The headquarters asked for reinforcements to our department, as long as our department had enough machine guns to suppress it, and then send troops to capture this small high ground on the right flank of our position, and deploy heavy machine guns there, we would be able to obtain enough machine gun fire range, and then completely annihilate the enemy troops of the battalion! ”

Pei Lianying listened while looking at the temporary hand-drawn combat map in his hand, and then took out the telescope to observe the surrounding situation, after a while, he put down the telescope, and then looked at a colonel beside him: "Xunrong, what do you think?" ”

The colonel, who was about thirty-three or four years old, wore the same blue-gray combat uniform as the other officers of the Feng Army, an officer's woolen coat, long combat boots, a command knife hanging from his waist, and a Fuzao Model 1905 pistol modeled after the Browning Model 1900 pistol.

This person's name is Lu Jiantang, the word Xunrong, the tenth phase of the old military equipment, the third mixed association was established under Zhao Dongyun, successively served as an infantry officer, infantry battalion management belt, assistant of the supervision and training office, deputy director of the supervision and training department of the General Staff, is one of the early important staff officers under Zhao Dongyun, and participated in the compilation of many new tactics of the Feng army.

Last year, when the large-scale expansion of the Feng Army began, he was promoted, like many middle-ranking officers, and was first transferred to the Fifth Mixed Brigade as a regiment commander, and this year he was transferred to the 12th Regiment of the Third Division as a regiment commander. Although this transfer was a flat transfer, the commander of the 3rd Division and the commander of the 5th Mixed Brigade could not be said to be the same day, and such a transfer could barely be regarded as a half-step promotion.

This person is an officer with the rank of colonel with old qualifications in the Feng army, and the entry battle table is not bad, and he has entered Zhao Dongyun's field of vision with many senior colonels, as a general candidate, if nothing else, with the gradual expansion of the scale of the Feng army, it will not take long for him to become the commander of a brigade.

He is different from Zhao Dongzhi, who also served as the commander of the 11th Regiment in the 6th Brigade, although Zhao Dongzhi was promoted to the commander of the 11th Regiment of the 3rd Division in the Jinan Campaign, the reason why he was able to serve as a senior lieutenant colonel as the commander of the main regiment was not because of how good he was, but because his background was too deep, and as Zhao Dongyun's cousin, he was promoted much easier than Lu Jiantang.

But then again, Lu Jiantang, who is also the head of the regiment, as a senior colonel, has already stepped into the threshold of a major general with half a foot, and Zhao Dongzhi's words are even a qiē shun lì, but it will be several years away from the young general.

Lu Jiantang heard Pei Lianying's question, and immediately said: "The post department thinks that this move is feasible, the seventh brigade on the opposite side is even more difficult than we expected, in the previous battle between our regiment and the enemy army on the opposite side, although the overall progress was relatively smooth, but the progress was not great, and now one of their battalions has ventured into our noses, if we can take the opportunity to launch a counteroffensive, there is a great possibility that we can severely damage or even annihilate the battalion." ”

He didn't finish his words, but paused slightly and continued: "Even if the enemy army senses our intention to send to rescue, but according to the terrain here, it will be more difficult for them to come to the rescue, and it will not be of much use if they come to the rescue, but if the enemy forces draw more than two battalions, then it will be equivalent to weakening the forces in other directions, and then our army can find opportunities in other directions to break through the enemy's battle line in one fell swoop!" ”

Pei Lianying nodded slightly when he heard this, although he didn't think that he could encircle and annihilate the opposite battalion in one fell swoop, but he should have the opportunity to cause chaos in the dispatch of the enemy's battle line, and then create an opportunity for the troops in other directions to break through.

The battle between the Sixth Brigade and the Seventh Brigade did not last long, and it was only a few hours when the battle was full, but the battle between the Third and Fourth Divisions was not a day or two, and there were several battles in Xuzhou. And during the battle, Pei Lianying also found that this fourth division was worthy of being the number one trump card main force under Duan Qirui's command, whether it was the soldiers or the officers, the tactical literacy was not inferior to his own side at all, although his own side occupied the weapon advantage of mortars and light machine guns, but on the whole it was still comparable.

Such a formidable enemy is worthy of your own attention!

Pei Lianying and Gu Lanyu are different people, Gu Lanyu doesn't care whether he is arrogant or confident, but in Gu Lanyu's eyes, the Fourth Division is the same as those troops such as the First Division, the Fifth Division, the Sixth Division, and the Seventh Division, no matter how strong they are, they will become defeated under their own subordinates, so Gu Lanyu will not hesitate to order the troops to attack the Fourth Division!

And Pei Lianying is much more cautious by nature, and he pays more attention to the Seventh Brigade, of course, this is not to say that he is afraid of the Seventh Brigade, but that he thinks that the Seventh Brigade is already worthy of his own cautious treatment, and he is not so arrogant that he thinks that he has the chance to win before he starts fighting like Gu Lanyu.

It's just that his cautiousness also affects the impression that others have of him, after all, those commanders will always prefer generals who are full of confidence, well, and can win battles. The most typical is Gu Lanyu, this person is always full of self-confidence at any time, this self-confidence can even be said to be arrogant, in the face of any strong enemy, he can always maintain an optimistic self-confidence, and then without fear to lead the troops to attack boldly, defeating strong enemies again and again.

Without this kind of confidence that is almost arrogant, it is impossible for Gu Lanyu to create successful results in roundabout attacks again and again, after all, a roundabout attack can also be regarded as a lone army, and if there is no confidence in rushing forward all the way without fearlessness, it is impossible to lead the troops to succeed again and again, not to mention the success of the roundabout, if you don't do it well, you will lose yourself in it.

As a general, although tactical literacy is also very important, but character is also very important, a person who is cowering is difficult to act as the commander of the army, and it is even more difficult to be qualified for the heavy task of being the vanguard of the army and going deep into the army alone.

It is reasonable that such Gu Lanyu was appreciated and reused by Zhao Dongyun.

However, Pei Lianying is cautious, and he has no intention of letting go of this good opportunity, but his tactical mobilization should be more conservative!

He asked the 12th Regiment to be reinforced with a battalion in an attempt to capture the hill on the right flank in order to gain a bridgehead position with heavy machine guns.

If this is replaced by Gu Lanyu to personally command, it is estimated that Gu Lanyu will order the 12th Regiment to launch a general attack as a whole, in order to destroy the infantry battalion of the 7th Brigade of the Anhui Army, which was suppressed and unable to move, in the shortest possible time, and then gather forces to break through the position of the 7th Brigade in one fell swoop.

When the 12th Regiment sent reinforcements and launched a fierce attack on the hill on the right flank of the Anhui army, Tang Tianxi on the opposite side also saw the danger of the infantry battalion under his command.

"We can't go on like this, if we drag it out any longer, once the enemy forces seize the right flank salient, then the third battalion will be in crisis, and then a whole battalion will be directly exposed to the enemy's heavy machine gun fire!" Tang Tianxi did not hesitate, after learning that the Feng army was trying to encircle and annihilate a third battalion under his command, he immediately ordered: "Let the 14th Regiment draw another battalion out, go south to rescue the 3rd battalion, and the 13th Regiment will increase the offensive intensity of the enemy's frontal front, and they can't be allowed to draw out any more troops!" ”

For a time, around the fate of the third battalion of the 14th Regiment of the 7th Brigade of the 4th Division of the Anhui Army, the two armies of Fengwan and Anhui combined nearly 10,000 people and quickly took action, one side wanted to completely annihilate one of the enemy's battalions, and the other wanted to keep this battalion while looking for opportunities to break through in other directions.

On the positions of both sides, the sound of all kinds of gunfire became more intensive, and the sound of grenades and mortar shells exploding was also heard one after another.

Interestingly, not only the Feng army has mortars and hand grenades, but the seventh brigade of the fourth division on the opposite side also has these equipment, hand 'grenades' began to be used by Yuan Shikai in the Beiyang Standing Army era to equip Beiyang towns on a large scale, although the Feng army completely controlled the Fuyuan machine after the republic last year, but the hand 'grenade' thing has no technical content, not to mention the regular arsenals of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, even small folk workshops can be produced, but the quality is slightly inferior, It's just that no matter how bad the quality is, it is much better than the various informal hand-held grenades that the soldiers themselves transformed from artillery shells on the front line of the Japanese army during the Russo-Japanese War.

In terms of mortars, there is only one Fuyuan machine factory in the world for large-scale production, but Duan Qirui has ordered him to control the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau under Zhanì a few months ago, and the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau began to imitate mortars, although the output and performance are unsatisfactory, but there are also twenty or thirty sixty mortars manufactured by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau successively equipped with various divisions of the Anhui Army, of which the fourth division is equipped with more. In addition, during the long battle with the Feng army, they also captured some weapons from the Feng army, which naturally included mortars and light machine guns.

Therefore, although mortars and light machine guns are extremely rare in the Anhui army, it cannot be said that there are none, and most of them were brought to the fourth division by Duan Qirui, after all, this fourth division is Duan Qirui's descendant, and if there are any good things, it is naturally given priority to equip the fourth division.

However, the number of mortars and light machine guns in the Fourth Division is too small, especially when compared with the main force of the Feng Army, such as the Third Division, there is no way to compare at all, and a battalion of the Fourth Division on the opposite side is only two or three 60-mm mortars, but a company of the Third Division of the Feng Army has three 60-mm mortars.

In this way, the 3rd Division of the Feng Army has a great advantage in natural firepower!

It's just that in the face of a strong army like the Fourth Division, it is difficult to turn the firepower advantage of mere mortars and light machine guns into a tactical advantage, let alone a strategic advantage, because the Fourth Division and the Third Division are the main forces, and there are dozens of artillery pieces behind them that can provide fire support in ordinary battles.

However, in today's battle of narrow roads, and in this kind of small-scale battle of battalion size, the firepower superiority of the 3rd Division was fully manifested, and the infantry, under the cover of 60-mm mortars and 80-mm mortars, and with the support of light and heavy machine gun fire, launched attacks again and again on the hills defended by the enemy.

When evening approached, the 1st Battalion of the 12th Regiment of the Feng Army had already planted the battle flag of the Feng Army on this hill on the right flank!

Then, on the one hand, it organized troops to strengthen the fortifications and prepare to intercept the enemy's counterattack, and on the other hand, it unceremoniously erected four heavy machine guns directly above it.

On the north side of this small hill is a small flat land, and in a large open area five or six hundred meters away, seven or eight hundred soldiers of the Anhui army lying in the trenches and temporarily digging trenches have been directly exposed to the heavy machine gun fire of the Feng army!

With the characteristic clicking sound of the Makqin heavy machine gun, tracer bullets drew a faint light in the evening air, guiding countless bullets to spray on the infantry battalion of the Anhui army.