Located in Bazhou, west of Tianjin, the army that has been wearing the classic blue-gray military uniform of Beiyang is marching north on foot, and from their marching direction, military uniforms, and equipment, it can be judged lightly, this is Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division.

At this time, although there are countless chaotic armies in the country, and there are many troops wearing blue-gray military uniforms, but the troops that can still be equipped with a water of Japanese-made 30-year-old rifles and Japanese-made 31-year-old artillery have traveled all over China, and there is only the direct army under Wang Yingkai, and the troops under Wang Yingkai's command who can appear in Zhili at this moment are only Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division.

"Division commander, should we stop and rest for a day, the brothers are already tired after a long journey of hundreds of miles, and now they are close to the Langfang area of the Beijing-Feng Railway, and the forward reconnaissance cavalry has already discovered the traces of the Fengjun's activities, and you have to be careful!" The adjutant next to him stepped forward and said.

Wang Zhanyuan looked at the long queue on the road, pondered for a while, and then said, "Well, pass the order and rest on the spot for three hours!" ”

Wang Zhanyuan also knew that his troops were tired, and it was strange that the soldiers were not tired, but Wang Zhanyuan couldn't stop and rest for a few days because the soldiers were not in good health, and now the situation in Beijing was quite bad, Wang Yingkai sent a telegram to himself almost every day some time ago to ask him to go north quickly, and then simply sent a herald to give the order.

And from Wang Yingkai's words, Wang Zhanyuan can also feel the crisis of the Beijing Division.

Since the disastrous defeat of the direct army in the first battle of Tangshan, even the morale of the first division and the second brigade of the first division that has not been damaged has been affected by Yanzhòng, not to mention several other troops, the first division and the first brigade of the first division that fled back are now even more heard a gunshot Those soldiers have to tremble, the combat effectiveness of the 11th and 12th divisions has been fully proven in the Tangshan Campaign, that is, although the combat effectiveness exceeds that of the Zhili Provincial Army, there is still a considerable distance from those old Beiyang troops, At that time, nearly 10,000 people of the 11th Division could not break through the interception of the 2,000 dismounted infantry of the Second Cavalry Brigade of the Feng Army, and the reinforcement of Huanxizhuang failed. The 12th Division was chased and beaten by the 5th Mixed Brigade of the Feng Army.

In such a big backdrop, although the defenders of the Beijing Division, who had gathered the remnants of the defeated troops mentioned above, had a large number of troops, their morale was worrying, and it was very important that there was a shortage of heavy weapons, especially artillery and heavy machine guns.

At the beginning of the Tangshan Campaign, although most of the troops of the direct army successfully retreated, but the people left does not mean that they can also pull the artillery away, in fact, when the direct army retreats, it is often down heavy machine guns, artillery retreats alone, a few sensible people still know to blow up the artillery and then run, but still leave the artillery and heavy machine guns that are not fun to be captured by the Feng army.

At present, the total number of direct troops guarding the Beijing division is not small, with a total of more than 20,000 people, but the division's artillery is only more than 30 pieces, and there are only 30 heavy machine guns, and most of these heavy weapons are weapons retained by the Second Brigade of the First Division led by Lu Yongxiang at the beginning, and the heavy weapons of other units are basically lost.

The artillery, heavy machine guns, rifles and ammunition captured by the Feng army in the first battle of Tangshan were enough for the Feng army to arm a Japanese armourer, which shows how much the direct army lost in the first battle of Tangshan.

It can also show how weak the guard force of the Jingshi is now!

And he Wang Zhanyuan can't do things and ignore the fall of the Jingshi, his Wang Zhanyuan's status in the direct army is the same as Chen Guangyuan's status in the Feng army, and Wang Yingkai is very important to his support, in the early years, Wang Yingkai pushed him to the third town and the fifth association of the co-ordination, thus allowing him to ascend to the ranks of senior generals in Beiyang.

According to common sense, Wang Zhanyuan has served in the third town under Zhao Dongyun for many years, and he should have become a member of the Soviet Fengjun a long time ago, but in fact this is not the case, serving there does not mean that he is anyone, such as Cao Kun and He Zonglian, they were still in the Beijing Banner Standing Army \ Seventh Town, but others still know that they are the backbone generals of the Soviet system, and they were detained by Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen under house arrest as soon as possible after the republic last year, otherwise this seventh town would have to be brought to the Soviet system by these two people.

Wang Zhanyuan's experience is very similar to Cao Kun and He Zonglian, although he served in the third town under Zhao Dongyun, but everyone knows that he is Wang Yingkai's henchman, and Zhao Dongyun's many years of wooing him have not been effective, so during the republic last year, Zhao Dongyun did not hesitate to deprive Wang Zhanyuan of his military power, first arranged to serve in the Ministry of Education, and then simply put him under house arrest, if it weren't for the agreement reached between Zhao Dongyun and Wang Yingkai and others in Tianjin last year, it is estimated that this Wang Zhanyuan is still under house arrest by Zhao Dongyun.

As one of the Tianjin agreements, after Wang Zhanyuan was sent out of the country by Zhao Dongyun, he was immediately reused by Wang Yingkai, and without saying a word, he immediately became the commander of the Seventh Division.

This courtesy and reuse is indispensable for Wang Zhanyuan!

Even after seeing Wang Yingkai's defeat and retreat in the Zhifeng War, the follow-up battle situation is not optimistic, but Wang Zhanyuan still did not sit idly by like Zhang Huaizhi last year, and even insisted on going north quickly regardless of the construction of the Seventh Division's subordinates to 'take one step at a time to see one step at a time'.

The Beiyang generals of this era, especially the older generation of Beiyang generals, still retain a strong atmosphere of Confucian feudal generals, although they are all vying for power and profit, but they still attach great importance to certain things, such as the word Xinyi and Zhi'entubao, and these things are not needed or even need to be thrown away for a modern warlord.

Therefore, it is not without reason that Wang Zhanyuan is different from Zhang Huaizhi, Zhang Huaizhi was able to develop from Wang Yingkai's subordinate general to a warlord outside in just one year.

One of the most critical is that last year, Zhang Huaizhi did not regard himself as a subordinate of Wang Yingkai, but regarded himself as an ally, first controlling Shandong, and then going south to control Anhui this year.

However, although Wang Zhanyuan was in a hurry to go north for reinforcements, as he got closer and closer to the Feng army, he also began to camp step by step, lest he be defeated by the Feng army before he arrived in Beijing.

Not to mention, Zhao Dongyun really thinks so!

I've heard a lot about this kind of thing, but it's the first time I've done it!

"Now the situation on the Jingshi side is stable, and the progress of the Fourth Mixed Brigade and the Fifth Mixed Brigade is going well, and it is expected that it will not be long before last year's Tongzhou victory can be repeated!" Yang Deming said: "Although the offensive of the Ninth Division on the front was blocked, it also contained most of the remaining main forces under Wang Yingkai, so that it would be able to create a chance for Tongzhou!" ”

"If we attack according to the existing strength of the Beijing Division, although it may take more time, it will be enough to take it, in this case, it is completely feasible for us to transfer the third and tenth divisions to participate in the southward operation!"

Zhao Dongyun nodded and said: "Now our troops are tense and we can't surround the enemy like the Tangshan Campaign, so this time my request is to completely defeat Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division, and it is best to inflict heavy losses on the department!" ”

"Now that the 3rd and 10th Divisions have rested for many days, the 3rd Division has been replenished with a considerable number of troops and weapons, and with the 3rd Division as the main force, it should not be a problem to attack the 7th Division!" Yang Deming continued.

When Zhao Dongyun heard this, he frowned slightly: "Only the third division has been supplemented?" What about the 10th Division, hasn't it replenished its lost men and weapons? The 10th Division has been resting for many days, why hasn't it completed the replenishment of battle damage? ”

Yang Deming was a little embarrassed when he heard this, because he was not from the Ministry of Education, the Ordnance Department, or the Quartermaster Department, so he could not control the losses of the troops and replenish these things, and he did not even know the specific situation, he only received a report from various departments, saying how many people had been replenished in the Third Division, and then judging the combat effectiveness of each unit, and then arranging the battle plan, at least he did not know the specific situation of replenishing the losses.

The scale of the Feng army is not small now, the total number of people is more than 100,000, and because it has the stable territory of the three eastern provinces, and the military and political system has always been complete, so it is said that the Feng army is now on the regular, and all the rules and regulations are everything, Zhao Dongyun's three eastern provinces patrol the embassy, including the subordinate government affairs and army headquarters, already have the ability of a country to exercise the power of the military power.

In this system, the military uses the army headquarters as a framework, and then sets up a large number of departments in it, and the powers of these departments have been distributed, but there is no way to break the inherent framework.

For example, in the extremely important recruitment and salary, Zhao Dongyun in order to consolidate his military power, in the third town, he had already begun to weaken the power of the commander of the army, especially in the recruitment and salary, these two powers originally belonged to the commander of the army, but Zhao Dongyun got the headquarters, and the Ministry of Education and the Ordnance Department were responsible.

In order to prevent the subordinate generals from becoming bigger, the centralized payment of salaries to the salary office of the ordnance department is directly distributed to the soldiers' accounts of the Fengtian Bank or to the salary offices of the various units, which also directly prevents the soldiers from thinking that they are taking the salary of the commander of the unit, and this is very important. Those soldiers all knew that they were taking Zhao Dongyun's salary, eating Zhao Dongyun's food, and wearing Zhao Dongyun's clothes.

Zhao Dongyun not only needs the allegiance of commanders at all levels, but he also needs the direct allegiance of ordinary soldiers, not just the step-by-step indirect allegiance.