There is no doubt that the battle of Suqian, which is not large-scale, has become a turning point in the war between the two armies of Fenghui in northern Jiangsu, since the Feng army conquered Suqian, the Anhui army in the direction of Xuzhou has fallen into great danger, and it is possible to be surrounded and annihilated by the Feng army.

In order to avoid his main forces, especially the Fourth Division, being surrounded and annihilated, Duan Qirui decisively made the decision to abandon Xuzhou and even the entire northern Jiangsu in the future, and then withdraw the troops from Xuzhou.

I have to say that this time Duan Qirui fully embodies the Su zhì of a heroic man of the times, he can get to this day by day is not relying on luck, but his strength far beyond ordinary people, he can take the initiative to give up Xuzhou and even the entire northern Jiangsu, this kind of thing can not be done by ordinary people.

After all, at present, in the war between the two armies of Fengwan in northern Jiangsu, although the Anhui army has always been in a passive state, and it has also suffered successive defeats on the eastern front, the Anhui army has actually resisted the frontal attack of the main force of the Feng army in the main direction, that is, in the direction of Xuzhou.

In the direction of Xuzhou, the Feng army invested the first, third, and ninth divisions, as well as two independent heavy artillery battalions and several independent heavy mortar battalions, and also received sufficient logistical support, and countless shells were fired every day.

However, despite this, the Feng army still failed to overcome the Xuzhou defense line composed of the 4th Division of the Central Army of the Anhui Army and the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the Liangjiang Army.

In the case of the battle of Xuzhou, Duan Qirui made the decision to withdraw his troops on his own initiative, which is not something that ordinary people can do.

His decisiveness reminded Meng Enyuan of Wang Zhanyuan in the Battle of Bazhou, and Wang Zhanyuan at the beginning also fled quickly after seeing that he couldn't be defeated, so that the Feng army could not succeed in leaving the Seventh Division after fighting hard in Bazhou for a long time.

And now, Meng Enyuan was unwilling to let the Battle of Bazhou repeat, so he did not hesitate to order the 10th Division to increase the pace of westward advance, requiring it to conquer Suining within two days.

This made the 10th Division, which had just conquered Suqian, not have time to rest for two days, so it hurriedly set off again to continue westward to Suining!

"A clear order has come from the former enemy headquarters, and they ask us to conquer Suining within two days!" Ren Cungao said: "Now Suining is the remnants of the enemy's Fifth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade, although there are still more than 10,000 people, but there is no need to worry, if we want to conquer Suining, the difficulties we face are not them, but the reinforcements of the Anhui Army, a brigade of the Second Division of the Liangjiang Army!" ”

"According to the report of the 1st Mixed Brigade of the friendly army, there is a main force in the southern direction of Xuzhou that is rapidly moving south, and our cavalry has also successfully found the enemy, and it is believed to be the 2nd Division of the Liangjiang Army, with a size of 4,000 people, but it is not known whether it is the 3rd Brigade or the 4th Brigade of Liangjiang for the time being. However, in addition to the infantry, the unit is supported by at least one artillery battalion, and it is a mixed brigade combat unit! ”

The army under the contemporary Beiyang system, whether it is the Feng army or the Anhui army, or simply the troops of the Southern Federation, their official establishment is the establishment of the old Beiyang army, usually one division, two brigades and four regiments, and this kind of troops are usually based on the infantry brigade as the basic tactical unit when fighting, and the infantry brigade is equipped with artillery battalions and other auxiliary units to form a brigade-level battle group.

The same is true of the Feng army, although the details of the Feng army are not the same as other warlord troops, with mortars and light machine guns, but the overall establishment is still a continuation of the old Beiyang era, which can be seen from the combat operations of the third division and the tenth division, the fifth and sixth brigades of the third division in the Bazhou campaign are fought separately, and the tenth division attacked Haizhou, Muyang and the subsequent Suqian in the northern Jiangsu war, and the 19th and 20th brigades to which they belonged were also separated to carry out their tasks.

To put it simply, the most basic tactical unit of the Feng army is not an infantry regiment or an infantry battalion, but a reinforced infantry brigade, and if an infantry division is used, it is already a strategic unit.

This state of affairs is also the main reason for the rampant presence of the various mixed brigades in the forces of contemporary warlords, since a single mixed brigade is sufficient for tactical tasks in one direction.

The Feng army is like this, and the Anhui army is even more so!

It is not surprising that the troops sent to reinforce Suining this time are a mixed brigade, because it is not possible to have less, and Duan Qirui can't draw out so many troops if there are more, and a mixed brigade is the best choice.

Ren Cungao continued: "This time the time given to us by the command is too tight, and we don't have time to go to Suining, so this time our combat target is not Suining!" ”

Hearing what Ren Cungao said, the commander of the 20th Brigade, Major General Zhou Fulin, said with a puzzled face: "Don't go to Suining? ”

Ren Cungao said: "That's right, although the order given to us by the command is to take Suining, what are they going to do when they take Suining?" It was to block the southern escape of the Anhui army. And if we want to take Suining directly, if this brigade of the enemy army comes up with reinforcements, although we can also take this Suining at that time, the time required is definitely not two days! ”

"So this time, our operational focus should not be on how to conquer Suining, but on this support army!"

After Ren Cungao finished speaking, Wu Peifu on the side also said: "The division commander means that we will surround the point and send reinforcements?" ”

Unexpectedly, Ren Cungao said: "You are only half right, are we going to help?" But we don't have the extra troops to encircle! ”

Zhou Fulin was puzzled again: "It's just that if we don't maintain pressure in the direction of Suining, what if they attack our army from the north and south?" ”

Ren Cungao said: "Do you think the defenders in Suining still dare to take the initiative to come out and play field battles with us?" ”

As soon as Ren Cungao said this, Zhou Fu Lin also nodded slightly, indeed, the Fifth Division and the Second Mixed Brigade of the Liangjiang Army had been defeated by themselves, and their morale had fallen to the point that they could no longer fall, and it was already considered that Duan Qirui had managed the army in a good way without continuing to escape and redeployed in Suining, and it was unlikely that he would take the initiative to come out to play a field battle with the Feng army. ”

Although the Anhui army can barely resist the attack of the Feng army in the defensive battle, if you leave the fortifications and everyone plays a field battle, the previous battle in Taoyuan County has proved that the Anhui army, especially the other Liangjiang Army except for Duan Qirui's fourth division, has a really average field ability, if they leave the city and those fortifications and come out to play a field battle with the Feng army, it is estimated that the generals of the Feng army can wake up with a smile in their dreams.

"So it's okay to leave a battalion in the direction of Suining to monitor and guard against them, and the others will go north with me, and we will eat their southward reinforcements, but I want to see how the Anhui army in Suining can defend without the reinforcements of this brigade?"

Ren Cungao made such a decision, in addition to considering the limited strength of the enemy army in the direction of Suining, but also because he didn't want to disperse his forces too much, his tenth division is now relatively scattered, leaving a battalion on the Qingjiangpu side, a battalion in Taoyuan County before, and a battalion on the Suqian side.

In this way, he will lose a full number of troops of one regiment and three battalions, so in the follow-up westward operations, he really doesn't want to continue to divide his troops, otherwise he may be broken by the enemy one by one.

He must always keep the main force of the 10th Division undispersed, so that he can maintain his maximum strength regardless of whether he is facing the enemy army in Suining or the enemy army reinforced and loved in the direction of Xuzhou.

After Ren Cungao made a decision, the main force of the 10th Division did not pass through Suining, but bypassed from the north, and the frightened Anhui army in the direction of Suining found that after waiting for more than a day, it still did not find that the opposite Feng army launched an attack on itself, which made many Anhui soldiers who were ready to flee as soon as the battle broke out very confused, this Feng army still can't fight Suining?

However, more officers of the Anhui Army in the direction of Suining thought about another question, that is, the 10th Division of the Feng Army did not come to Suining, so where did they go?

A handful of nimble officers vaguely guessed something, and then involuntarily looked to the northwest, where reinforcements were coming.

Just when the enemy troops in the direction of Suining were puzzled and worried, near Wanglan Town, 30 kilometers northwest of Suining, the Fourth Brigade of the Second Division of the Liangjiang Army was in the greatest danger since the formation of the army.

Since yesterday morning they received an order to rush to reinforce Suining, this force has advanced nearly forty kilometers after twenty-four hours.

This kind of marching speed is already extremely rare for a foot infantryman. After they arrived at Wanglan Town at noon, they asked the soldiers to bury their pots and cook and rest for a short time, and then hurried in the direction of Suining County again.

However, not long after they left the town, they encountered an enemy outside the town!

It was an inconspicuous low hill, but it was also a hill in the low, so it was not until the forward cavalry of the Fourth Brigade personally went up to this hill that they found that there was a large army marching behind them, and the direction of the march was northwest, and the blue-gray military uniforms on their bodies fully showed their identity: Fengjun!

The two armies met unexpectedly outside Wang Lan Town, even Ren Cungao, who was heading northwest, did not expect that the enemy he had been looking for was just a few thousand meters away.

So, naturally, these two armies collided, and soon the explosions and gunshots rang out frequently outside Wang Lan Town, making the people in the town tremble one by one, some hid at home, and some dragged their families to run outside the town, but they didn't know that now the entire northern Jiangsu region and even most of China have become a war zone, where can they flee to?

An encounter broke out between the 10th Division of the Feng Army and the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division of the Liangjiang Army of the Anhui Army, but this battle came and went quickly, only five hours later in the evening, the 39th Regiment under the command of the 20th Brigade of the 10th Division, the main force of the 10th Division, broke through the defense line of the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Division of the Liangjiang Army from the left flank, and then Ren Cungao decisively invested the 37th Regiment of the 19th Brigade as a reserve, and the 4th Brigade, which was already at a disadvantage, soon suffered a large-scale collapse.

The sun has not completely set on the mountain, Ren Cungao's long riding boots have already stepped on the loess streets of Wang Lan Town, as for the Fourth Brigade of Liangjiang, it has completely become history.