When he received the telegram jointly signed by Xiao Yaonan and Zhang Fulai, Wu Peifu, who was guarding the war room of his headquarters, jumped up. This kind of move is very rare for a tiger general like him, who has been famous for a long time. He looked at the copy of the telegram personally sent by Zhang Xizhen, deputy chief of staff of the First Front Army, who was happy, but his eyebrows gradually twisted: "Impossible, it can't be so weak, there must be something wrong here...... There must be a fraud! ”

In those days, the means of military reconnaissance and communication were very primitive. Reconnaissance mainly relies on scouts and spies, and there is no military short-wave radio station that is easy to carry, only the kind of long-wave radio station that is so large that it is impossible for spies and scouts to carry, even if something is detected, it is impossible to report it to Wu Peifu in time. Therefore, his grasp of the enemy's situation can basically only rely on speculation and temptation, the former is not reliable at all, and the latter seems to be seeing flowers in a fog.

How capable the third division is, he himself knows very well. Although the name of China's first elite is true, compared to the kind of troops with large road goods, the combat effectiveness is two or three times that of the sky! Otherwise, during the Protectorate War in 1916, they would not have been able to defeat Sichuan. As for the combat effectiveness of his opponent, the National Revolutionary Army, judging from the previously known intelligence, it is estimated that it is about the same as the second-rate troops in the Beiyang Army, compared to the 1st Division, the 13th Division, the 15th Division, and those patrol battalions, it is still much stronger, and it is by no means a rabble!

If Zhang Gezhen won a hard-fought battle in this battle, he would feel at ease. But now it's just one round of offensive and it's a big victory, how can you think about it! The Southern Army was either defeated by deception, or it put some kind of scum-like troops in front...... Could it be that they wanted to make themselves think that the troops now advancing west along the Longhai Line were bluffing weak brigades. The real elite is heading north to attack Jinan?

And the conclusion that the enemy wants to get must be the wrong conclusion of the 234th Championship Seeking a Monthly Pass and Subscription! Other words. Is it false for the southern army to attack Jinan in the north, but is it true to advance to Kaifeng in the west?

Just when Wu Peifu was dizzy by the battle situation in front of him, and he couldn't find the north. Cao Kun, Qu Tongfeng, Fu Liangzuo and others, who received the report, all hurried to the war room. Wu Peifu handed the copy newspaper in his hand to Cao Kun and them, and Cao Kun sighed after reading it: "Okay, the first battle was won, it seems that the southern soldiers are not invincible!" Zhang Ziheng fought well in this battle, I want to give him credit! ”

Qu Tongfeng and Fu Liangzuo also echoed and smiled: "Yes, Zhang Ziheng and the Third Division have made great contributions, otherwise we will jointly ask the base camp for merit for them, right?" ”

Both of them are from Anhui and are commanders of the participating armies. It can be regarded as Xu Shuzheng's descendant. In the original history, he fought to the death with Wu Peifu's direct family. In the end, the country of Beiyang was buried! However, in this time and space, Xu Shuzheng and Wu Peifu are now brothers in power (and Feng Yuxiang), and these Anhui characters will naturally be sold in front of Wu Peifu. Wu Peifu looked at the flattering expressions of the two of them, and said with a faint wry smile: "Weiqing, Qingjie." Now is not the time to drink celebratory wine, and I always feel that there is something wrong with this victory, as if the other party deliberately let us win. ”

At this time, Zhang Xizhen walked in with the telegram he had just translated, and reported to Cao Kun and Wu Peifu: "Zhong Shuai, Yu Shuai, Chief of Staff Xiao and Division Commander Zhang have sent another telegram, and in the battle of Zhang Gezhen, our third division killed about 400 enemies. 200 prisoners, more than 300 rifles and pistols of various kinds were captured, and the total casualties of our army were less than 200, of which 83 were killed and 102 were seriously wounded. According to information obtained during the interrogation of the prisoners, the 3rd Division was exchanged with the 1st Division of the newly formed 8th Division of the National Revolutionary Army. The officers and men of the department are all from the border areas of Hunan and Jiangxi...... Their division commander was named Peng Dehua, and the chief of staff was Huang Gongluo, who were originally junior officers at the level of platoon commander and company commander of the Hunan Army. However, it seems that in this division, it is not the division commander who is the largest, but a political commissioner named Cai Hesen is the largest, and there is also a central commissioner named Mao Zd who is also in their ranks, which seems to be bigger than Cai Hesen's official. ”

Wu Peifu's eyebrows raised slightly, and he muttered in a low voice: "Mao ZD? It turned out to be him? ”

They have all heard of this name Cao Kun, Qu Tongfeng, and Fu Liangzuo, and they all know that this surnamed Mao has a little friendship with Wu Peifu, but they haven't heard this name at this time.

Cao Kun smiled and said to Wu Peifu: "Ziyu, it seems that this new Eighth Division is the weakest unit in the Southern Army...... However, the 3rd Division still made a great contribution to defeating them. Otherwise, let's learn from the surname Chang and blow it hard, and say that we annihilated 100,000 rebellious troops in Shangqiu! ”

Wu Peifu smiled bitterly: "Zhong Shuai, let's not be busy bragging now, we still have to find out the truth of the southern soldiers." As he spoke, he turned around and asked Zhang Xizhen: "Where is the Northern Route Army of the Southern Army advancing now?" ”

"It's time to Qufu! General Zhang Zizhi (Zhang Huaizhi), the overseer of Shandong, had already sent an urgent telegram. Zhang Xizhen took out another copy of the newspaper from a paper clip under her arm and handed it to Wu Peifu.

"It's already in Qufu, and it's more than 200 miles away from Jinan, so it's three days if it's faster, and it's five days if it's slow!" Wu Peifu took the newspaper and looked at it, it was just a few simple sentences. In addition to reporting the news of the loss of Qufu (in fact, no one guarded it), it was to report to Wu Peifu in an emergency. There is not even a word of the reality of this southern army, which is advancing north along the Jinpu line.

"Ziyu, Zhang Zizhi's Fifth Division is not a force that can fight, it has not fought any battles since the Republic of China, and it has been lazy in Shandong in the past few years. The year before last, when the encirclement and suppression of the calves, there was also a case of soldiers selling rifles to bandits! I'm afraid that I won't be able to hold Jinan for a few days with such soldiers, and if this Jinan is lost, Shandong will be lost! Cao Kun spoke, and Qu Tongfeng and Fu Liangzuo nodded frequently. Zhang Huaizhi's Fifth Division is indeed a bit of a tofu scum now, they can't hold Jinan, and Jinan and Shandong must not be lost! Therefore, the reinforcement of Jinan is indeed a top priority.

However, Wu Peifu was a little hesitant, he slowly shook his head and said: "Now the direction of the main attack of the Southern Army is unknown, and the mobile forces in our hands are limited. Now to reinforce Shandong, what if the main attack of the Southern Army is in Kaifeng? Our nine divisions here can't withstand Chang Ruiqing's hundreds of thousands of troops! ”

While he was talking, a staff officer of the headquarters of the First Front Army hurriedly rushed in and reported loudly: "Report! Chief of Staff Xiao and Commander Zhang of the Third Division sent an urgent telegram. They had just repelled a counteroffensive by the Southern Army on the front line of Zhangge Town! Now he has taken advantage of the victory to pursue the vicinity of the county seat of Yucheng County! Chief of Staff Xiao and Division Commander Zhang asked for instructions, do you want to attack Yucheng? ”

"Oh?" Cao Kun, Fu Liangzuo and Qu Tongfeng were all stunned when they heard this. looked at each other, and they all felt that Zhang Fulai and Xiao Yaonan were a little aggressive.

"Hit!" Wu Peifu thought for a moment, and finally nodded heavily: "Just fight Yucheng!" However, let Zhang Fulai spread the scout cavalry farther away, and withdraw from the battle immediately if he found something wrong. Also, let the 5th Brigade of the 3rd Division advance to Shangqiu, and the 3rd Division of the participating army to Lankao. ”

"Ziyu, do you want to send immediate reinforcements from Jinan?" Cao Kun did not interfere with Wu Peifu's decision to attack Yucheng, but once again offered to reinforce Jinan.

Wu Peifu frowned and thought for a moment, then shook his head at Cao Kun: "Zhong Shuai, let's take another look." Wait for the results of the battle in Yucheng to come out. ”

……

In fact, before Wu Peifu ordered the attack on Yucheng. The detachment commanded by Zhang Fulai and Xiao Yaonan had already begun to attack the city. On the morning of 10 February, they fought with the New Eighth Division of the Southern Army in Zhangge Town, and it took less than two hours to defeat a regiment deployed by the New Eighth Division in Zhangge. Around lunchtime, another part of the New Eighth Division appeared to the east of Zhangge Town, probably to pick up the friendly troops withdrawn from Zhangge Town. Zhang Fulai discussed with Xiao Yaonan, and then sent a regiment of troops with four 75mm guns to attack. This time, the two sides only made contact, and the southern army retreated in a panic, but there were not many losses. Zhang Fulai and Xiao Yaonan, who won both battles, greatly increased their confidence, so they took advantage of the victory to pursue. Zhangge Town is only a dozen miles away from Yucheng County, and at 5 o'clock in the afternoon of February 10, they have already advanced outside Yucheng County.

When the herald sent Wu Peifu's telegram from the temporary headquarters of the Third Division in Zhangge Town to the front line in Yucheng. This small county town is already in a mess! Eighteen 75mm gram mountain guns or French fast guns fired two or three hundred shells, and the officers and men of the New Eighth Division guarding Yucheng County seemed to be in chaos on the position!

Their appearance seems to be worse than when they were in Zhangge Town in the morning, after all, the vast majority of the officers and men of this division were ordinary workers and peasants not long ago. After the formation of the army, it did not undergo the necessary military training. There were no qualified officers and non-commissioned officers to act as the backbone, and they were more armed workers and peasants than a regular army. It is no problem to suppress the resistance of the landlord class and maintain order in the city. But in the face of such regular operations, artillery fire was covered, and the infantry advanced under the cover of machine-gun fire. The attack was closely coordinated with all kinds of firepower, so that they could not even stand on the wall, and they retreated towards the buildings in the county town, as if they were preparing for a street fight.

When the infantry of the Beiyang Army, which was advancing in a straggler line on the plain west of the city, saw this scene, their morale was greatly boosted and they let out a loud cheer. And the defenders of the new Eighth Division in Yucheng County almost lost the will to fight before they started a close combat with their opponents. Even those political cadres and officers did not have much energy, and while shouting some revolutionary slogans with little energy, they kept looking behind them, as if waiting for the order to retreat......

Zhang Fulai rode on a horse, held a telescope and looked at the miserable appearance of the opponent's defeat, and shook his head incessantly: "What a broken army, it is a group of rabble, and the bandits here in Henan are stronger than them!" If the southern soldiers are all virtuous with them, we Beiyang will not be sad to pass this level...... Pass the order, let the brothers work harder and end the battle quickly, and we will spend the night in Yucheng tonight. ”

Xiao Yaonan reminded lightly on the side: "It's not that we haven't encountered the southern soldiers, when we were in Sichuan, Hubei, and Hunan, we fought against the southern soldiers of various names, and it was as easy to get it back as it is to win it now?" I think there's a scam in this! This weak army must have been used by Chang to lure us. Ziheng, have all the detectives dispersed? Did you find anything? ”

Zhang Fulai sighed, waved his hand and said: "Where is it so fast, my scout cavalry takes the Longhai Railway as the starting point, and scatters 30 miles to the north and south, and it will take several hours to go back and forth." However, if they really want to find anything, they will also fire a warning gun, and I have also arranged a lot of open posts and secret posts in the places of 10 miles and 20 miles north and south of the Longhai Railway...... It's not so easy for the Southern Army to outflank us from both flanks. ”

……

And at this time, February 10, 1919 at 8:00 p.m.

Chang Ruiqing was standing in front of the huge map of the Huanghuai region with his hands behind his back, and he was silent all the time. All around him, there was a constant ringing of telephones. The voice of giving an order, asking about the situation. But this commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army. Now it seems that there is no distraction at all, just quietly thinking about something. His complexion looked unusually solemn, although over the years, he had always thought himself to be a first-class military strategist in China and even in the world, but he had never commanded a real battle! The previous battle with Zhang Xun's pigtailed army in Beijing could be regarded as a small and medium-sized battle at best, and the battle to pacify the southwest did not take place any fierce engagements at all. And now, Chang Da military strategist, who was actually commanding a large army for the first time, has faced Wu Peifu, a real first-class military strategist in Chinese history in this era! And shouldering the heavy responsibility of the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army, he must also be in this war against the Central Plains. The more than 300,000 Beiyang troops commanded by Wu Peifu were completely defeated. Because of China and himself. All need an unprecedented victory to end the troubled times since the Republic of China!

On the map, the latest developments in the battle have been marked in detail. The Northern Advance Corps commanded by Bai Chongxi and the Western Advance Corps commanded by Wang Junhao formed a huge blue arrow, which extended out to Shandong and Henan with Xuzhou as the starting point. Among them, the Northern Advance Corps marched all the way without encountering any effective resistance. Now it is advancing towards Tai'an, the southern gate of Jinan. However, the westward marching corps along the Longhai Road encountered the elite 3rd Division of the Northern Army in Zhangge Town, east of Shangqiu County. The New Eighth Division, the vanguard of the Western Advance Corps, was even more defeated at the touch of a button, and fought a record of three defeats in one day, retreating all the way from Zhangge Town to Yucheng County, and after a little resistance, it immediately abandoned Yucheng and prepared to retreat in the direction of Dangshan...... There are a lot of defeats that look like they're falling.

However, in the secret telegram sent by the Western Advance Corps to the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army, it did not admit that it had lost the battle, but claimed that the new Eighth Division was "luring the enemy to go deep"! Uh, from the map. The Beiyang Third Division seems to be a little lone and deep, but it is not too deep, and the enemy situation west of Yucheng is not clear now, maybe Wu Peifu has ordered the army to follow up. As for the two main forces of the Western Advance Corps, the main force of the Fifth Army now opened to Shanxian in the northeast of Yucheng, and the main force of the Seventh Army advanced to Xiayi in the southwest of Yucheng. In addition, the Fifth and Seventh Armies also transferred one division each to form a central detachment, which was commanded by Xia Wei, deputy commander of the Fifth Army, who graduated from the third phase of Baoding, and placed it along the Longhai Railway in the middle of the road. The Westward Advance Corps really put on a "crescent formation" with two wings open and a slight back in the middle, which was a bit of a possibility to encircle the main force of the Beiyang Third Division.

It seems that Wang Junhao let the weak soldiers of the New Eighth Division take the lead, not only to play "virtual and real" psychological warfare with Wu Peifu, but also to lure the enemy into deep encirclement and annihilation!

But this Beiyang Third Division is not a soft persimmon, even if it is surrounded by more than 100,000 troops, it will always be able to resist for a few days, right? Moreover, the Beiyang Third Division is still Wu Peifu's heart, if he lets himself be surrounded near Yucheng, Wu Peifu will not jump over the wall in a hurry and take the main force of the Beiyang Army near Kaifeng to relieve the siege? In this way, the "virtual army" of Longhailu will have to undertake the task of a decisive battle...... Can the two armies of the westward marching corps, as well as the three armies near Xuzhou, defeat Wu Peifu's nine divisions before the Second Army of the Beiyang Army and the Beiyang Army near Beijing and Tianjin reach the Longhai Road battlefield? Chang Ruiqing thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't make up his mind.

At this time, the loud voice of Lu Yixuan's German-style military boots came from behind him, waking Chang Ruiqing up from his contemplation. He turned his head to look at his chief of staff, the other party must have come to urge him to make up his mind, the opportunity on the battlefield is fleeting! Lu Yixuan's brows were also tightly locked, and his face was full of anxious expressions: "Yaoru, make up your mind to fight!" We have already gathered 7 divisions near Yucheng, and there is probably only a 3rd division on the Beiyang side...... There are 150 kilometers from Yucheng to Kaifeng, although there is the Longhai Railway to transfer troops, but we don't know how slow the Beiyang Army's response is. Wu Peifu has now scattered and deployed his troops, and it is not so easy to move, and many of the division commanders and brigade commanders below him have fornicated with us, even if they don't have fornication with us, they all have their own little abacus. Therefore, it is impossible for the movements of all units to be consistent, and without three or five days, it is impossible for Wu Peifu to concentrate the eight divisions around Kaifeng and move! By the time they arrived at Yucheng, the Third Division had already collapsed! He handed Chang Ruiqing a copy of the telegram and said in a low voice: "The secret telegram forwarded by the Military Commission, Feng Yuxiang has agreed to lead his troops to participate in the national revolution!" He will soon leave Beijing with his troops to reinforce Jinan, but he will definitely try his best to delay his arrival at the battlefield...... As long as we defeat Wu Peifu's main force, he will lead his troops to join us. ”

Chang Ruiqing's eyebrows raised slightly, took the top-secret telegram, glanced at it hurriedly, and said lightly: "What a defective general, this calculation is really fine...... He wanted to take advantage of Wu Peifu's defeat to gather the rest of Beiyang under his leadership, right? Well, just give him a chance! He turned his gaze to the map and gave an order in a calm voice: "Inform Wang Junhao, Chen Jiji, and Zhang Minda that the headquarters approves their plan for the siege and annihilation of Yucheng!" Order all the armies near Xuzhou to complete the assembly within 12 hours and prepare for battle! The corps was ordered to march north, except for one corps to continue to the north and make a gesture of going north to Jinan, and the other two corps immediately turned south and returned to Xuzhou. (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )rv！！！