Regarding Fangbi Yongjian's postponement of the war in the direction of Bengbu, Zhao Dongyun did not have much sense of identity, because Zhao Dongyun not only needed to consider the problem from a military point of view, but also from a political point of view.

From a military point of view, the Feng army has experienced several major battles since entering the customs, and it can be said that it has reached the point of exhaustion at this time, and it urgently needs time to restore the structure of the fù troops, replenish the lost soldiers and officers, replenish ordnance, ammunition and food, etc., and more importantly, let the front-line troops get a vacation period.

Soldiers and officers are also human beings, and they cannot always fight at the forefront of the battle, and a previous battle in Northern Jiangsu has allowed them to fight for more than three months, which is a great torture for their spirits. Under normal circumstances, the operations of the troops are fought for a while and stopped for a while, and generally speaking, the front-line troops need to be withdrawn for rest and recuperation after fighting continuously on the front line for more than a month.

In the First World War in history, the British army generally had three units rotating to defend the same position on the Western Front, one unit was located in the front-line trenches, one unit was located in the second line of positions as a reserve, and one unit was resting in the rear, and each unit would not fight continuously in the front-line trenches for more than half a month.

Although the environment of the contemporary domestic battlefield is not as cruel as those on the Western Front of World War I, after three months of continuous fighting, it is actually a huge test for the soldiers, and this test is not only physical, but also mental.

Most people only know that the two world wars caused many casualties, but few people will know that there are also many mental patients who were killed and injured by these two world wars!

Therefore, whether from the perspective of logistics supply or other perspectives, the front-line troops of the Feng army have reached the point where they need a large-scale and long-term rest.

This is also the reason why Fang Biyong and many other military generals proposed to Zhao Dongyun to suspend the Bengbu offensive.

However, Zhao Dongyun did not agree, on the contrary, he personally crossed the staff headquarters and ordered Meng Enyuan, asking the First Army to conquer Bengbu as much as possible, and then control the entire Anhui region north of the Yangtze River.

The reason why he forced the troops to continue the southward offensive despite the hard work of the troops was also because of his concerns.

Fang Biyong and others said that the Feng army was exhausted from fighting for three months, but the situation of Duan Qirui's fourth division in Bengbu was also not much better, this fourth division fought with the Feng army in Xuzhou for more than two months, and it was defeated and broke through and fled, which had a greater impact on the morale of the troops.

And from a military point of view, now the vast Jiangbei region such as northern Jiangsu and central Anhui is already empty, after the Anhui army suffered a series of heavy defeats, the strength in the Jiangbei region is very limited, and now it is the time for the Feng army to beat the water dogs, if he takes a break for ten days and half a month, Duan Qirui will also be relieved, and the troops from Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places will arrive, and then the situation of the war in northern Jiangsu will be formed, and the Feng army will be able to hit the Anhui army hard. I don't know how much it will cost.

So at this time, Zhao Dongyun couldn't let the troops stop, he wanted the troops to fight all the way to the Yangtze River, and if it was even possible, he dared to cross the Yangtze River before the reinforcements of the Anhui army went north, and the so-called Yangtze River moat would naturally be self-defeating.

These strategic considerations were ignored by many generals, who usually did not look so far away, in their opinion that the battle of northern Jiangsu had been won, and as for taking the entire Jiangbei region and crossing the Yangtze River, it was too far for them.

In addition to military strategy considerations, Zhao Dongyun also took into account some reactions on the political front, now both at home and abroad are closely watching the progress of the war in the Jiangbei region, at home, everyone is staring at whether Zhao Dongyun can completely take Jiangbei and clean up Duan Qirui, and internationally, especially several countries that are negotiating with China for aftermath loans, are also looking with wide eyes, as long as Zhao Dongyun shows a slight decline, then they will quickly give up the negotiation of the loan to Zhao Dongyun, what are you kidding, You Zhao Dongyun are going to be defeated, how can they take tens of millions of pounds to waste.

The aftermath loans that the Beiyang Republic government is now talking about with the countries can also be regarded as a kind of investment by the great powers in Zhao Dongyun, and only when Zhao Dongyun's power is stabilized can the great powers obtain huge profits from this batch of loans.

The previous Battle of Xuzhou and the entire Northern Jiangsu War, and even the subsequent war process and victory and defeat in the entire Jiangbei region directly affected the subsequent development of Zhao Dongyun's power, and this is particularly important for several international powers, especially those who want to make a lot of money on the aftermath loan.

Since there are great powers looking at their own tables behind their backs, then Zhao Dongyun can only grit his teeth and continue to go south even if he knows that the troops are fighting hard, as long as he has another overwhelming victory, or takes the entire Jiangbei region, then from a strategic level, he will have a great strategic advantage in the future war of China's unification, and then he will be able to attract the great powers to bet on him.

And once they bet on themselves, when the tens of millions of pounds of aftermath loans arrive, with the support of at least 200 million military spending, who else will be able to stop their pace of reunifying China?

In these years, fighting a war is a money, and the reason why the Anhui army expanded so quickly was because Duan Qirui occupied the Jiangnan region in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Why was Zhao Dongyun able to pull up a regular field army of more than 100,000 people. Why did the Southern Federation suffer many crushing defeats in a row, why did their troops fight more and more, and why Zhang Zhidong was able to raise hundreds of thousands, nearly 200,000 troops, and even launched a large-scale counteroffensive against Wang Shizhen across the river at one time, because his subordinates not only controlled Huguang, but also were able to obtain financial support from Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. Why are Duanfang and Xiliang like Xiaoqiang, who can't be defeated, losing consecutive battles, but there are consecutive defeats, because they controlled the Liangjiang and Fujian and Zhejiang regions at the beginning, even now they are supported by Guangdong, a major financial province.

As for Zhao Dongyun, to be honest, the area he controls is not small, the three eastern provinces, Mongolia, Zhili, Shandong, and Henan. As for northern Jiangsu and central and northern Anhui, they are not yet under the complete control of the Feng army for the time being. The above-mentioned provinces under the complete control of the Feng army add up to almost one-third the size of China, but the financial revenue that can raise Zhao Dongyun's army in these areas is not much.

Of the many territories under the control of the Soviet system, the largest contributor to fiscal revenue was Mukden Province, which was the main pillar of Soviet finances from last year to this year. The second is the Tangshan Special Administrative Office, which is the Guannei area controlled by the military after the republic last year, including Tangshan and Chengde, although nominally the above two places still belong to Zhili Province, but last year Zhao Dongyun specially established the Tangshan Special Administrative Office, which is used to govern the above two places, after the Feng army entered the customs, the jurisdiction of the office was expanded again, roughly including the former Qing Dynasty Zhili Yongping Prefecture, Chengde Prefecture, Chifeng Prefecture and other Zhili prefectures and counties, as well as Mongolia Zhuo Suo Tu League, Zhao Wu Da League and other regions, It is larger than the historical Rehe Special Administrative Region, mainly with more Yongping Province.

Although this area is still nominally part of the province for the time being, it is no longer administratively under the jurisdiction of the province, but is directly responsible to the cabinet by the administrative office.

Don't talk about other places in the area of the Tangshan Administrative Office, but Tangshan City is to be highlighted, because there are Fuyuan Machinery Factory, Tangshan Iron and Steel Plant and many coal and iron mining enterprises, in 1906, when the Qing Dynasty was not destroyed, there was already a vague scale of the core heavy industry base in the north, and the contribution of these heavy industries and the drive to other local industries greatly increased the financial revenue of Tangshan City.

In 1907, Tangshan ranked first among all cities in the northern provinces in terms of fiscal revenue, more than Jingshi, and a single Fuyuan machine factory could contribute more than one million yuan to the local government's annual fiscal revenue.

However, in addition to the Fengtian and Tangshan Special Administrative Offices, several other provinces contributed the first amount of fiscal revenue, such as Zhili, except for Tangshan, Tianjin, and Jingshi, and other places were also poor places that could not be scavenged for a few taels of silver. Shandong and Henan, these two provinces are famous in modern China for having a lot of people and few places, or there is nothing, otherwise there would not be so many landless people in these two provinces to go to the northeast to break into the eastern part of the country.

In short, the vast areas of Zhili outside the Guan, Shandong, and Henan are all places full of bitterness, don't expect to be able to scavenge how much money to raise the army.

Compared with the surrounding provinces, it is too hard, although Shanxi in the west is not good, but people have coal, just digging coal can make a lot of money, not to mention Jiangsu in the south, Jiangnan has been a wealth in the past thousand years. Hubei in the southwest is not bad, a famous industrial province in modern China, although Anhui in the middle is not up or down, but it is good to rely on the Yangtze River, Jiangsu and Hubei on the side can also drive the development of Anhui's industrial and commercial economy.

If the situation was a little better, the Feng army under his command of Zhao Dongyun would have already exceeded 200,000 troops and moved towards the scale of 300,000 or even 400,000, so that until now, they can only rely on the foundation laid in the northeast to support the three divisions and three brigades.

In a way, after Zhao Dongyun took control of these territories, he did not bring him much benefit, anyway, he did not have much money to expand his army, on the contrary, in order to support the operation of the central government, the cost is getting bigger and bigger day by day.

So today's Zhao Dongyun is in the same trouble as Yuan Shikai in history: the area of the territory is not small, but it is a poor place, and he can't loot a few dollars!

If you don't have any money, how can you get military expenses to expand the army, in addition to borrowing it when it falls from the sky, the issuance of patriotic bonds is one thing, and this trick foreigners borrow in the name of borrowing money for the aftermath is also another aspect.

In order to be able to get the aftermath loan from foreigners, he Zhao Dongyun had to prove to the foreign powers, especially the British, that he Zhao Dongyun was capable of unifying China and maintaining the peaceful situation at home!

Based on these reasons, Zhao Dongyun once again ordered Meng Enyuan on November 12, asking the First Army to show the spirit of fighting bravely and not being afraid of sacrifice to conquer Bengbu as soon as possible!