"I have a low position and a heavy trust from the commander, and I have failed to achieve my mission, so I ask for punishment." Major General Wu Peifu, commander of the 12th Army, who personally led the 36th Division to pursue the fleeing enemy, returned to the headquarters of the group army in Brasov under the urging of Ye Yanbing's telegram.

"It's okay, Lao Wu, good job. Without the interspersed of the 12th Army, there would have been no victory in the Battle of Sinaia! The forced march of 210 miles in three days was still in the mountainous area with rugged roads. I personally drafted a commendation order for the 12th Army, which was issued immediately. The first credit for this battle belongs to you, and without your interspersed in place, it will be a defeat battle. Ye Yanbing smiled and took Wu Peifu's hand, "The enemies who ran away are insignificant, they even discarded the artillery." It's not worth being annoyed, too many captives are also troublesome. The key is that we need to go south quickly, and we must quickly catch Falkingham and Mackensen, and we must not let them slip away. Romania is only half done. ”

"Don't dare to take the first credit, it's still the 7th Army, and the credit is mainly theirs." Seeing Commander Ye's attitude, Wu Peifu's heart finally fell into his stomach.

"You can do it, General Ziyu, Commander Ye's telegram to the country only mentions your name. The president's eyes were like torches, and he found a general. Fan Deping slapped Wu Peifu twice on the shoulder.

Deputy Director Xie Fan praised him, but Wu was ashamed. Compared with the old troops brought out by the president himself, the gap is obvious. ”

Ye Yan lowered his face, "Don't mention any old troops and new troops, they are all members of the big family of the National Defense Force." The President has established a general policy of rotational participation in the war, and all units of the Wehrmacht will take turns to participate in the war, replacing training with war. Then again. Commander Wu, you have to summarize the shortcomings of this battle with the officers. The other forces also need to be summed up. It would be nice if all the 16th Army came up, the lack of troops was the main reason why we missed one and a half divisions of the enemy, and due to time constraints, it was too late to do a detailed post-war analysis, and we were about to launch follow-up operations. ”

"Yes! Please rest assured that the commanders and chiefs of staff will certainly draw lessons from this battle and successfully complete any tasks assigned by the superiors. Wu Peifu replied immediately.

Admiral Ye Yanbing waited until Wu Peifu returned for his operational meeting, which was held at four o'clock in the morning on October 4. This operational meeting, which was attended by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army, General Artemyev, ended. Artemiev used the high-power radio of the Ye Yanbing headquarters to report to General Brusilov the latest battle plan of the Chinese army, and the Chinese army was divided into two routes, and General Ye Yanbing led the 7th Army and the 48th Division of the 16th Army to the north from Brasov and turned east from Mierkurayachuk. Return to the Chernivtsi to Buzeu Boulevard in the Chinese-controlled Zhì. After joining the main forces of the 16th Army, it was put into the Eastern Front. A frontal assault on Army Group Mackensen, with the cooperation of the Russian coalition, constituted the iron pincer on the eastern flank of the new campaign. The 12th Army, which participated in the Battle of Sinaia, moved south along the Brasov-Bucharest road and joined the Xiong Xun group. A frontal assault on Bucharest, constituting the western flank of a new campaign. The two armies will meet in Shumen, an important town in southern Bulgaria, and immediately encircle and annihilate the 12 divisions of the German-Austrian-Turkish and Bulgarian coalition forces.

The new campaign is codenamed "Fudan", which is the name given by Admiral Ye Yanbing.

Lieutenant General Artemiev brought his own telegraph operator, and the telegram sent to General Brusilov was also in Russian code. In the telegram, he frankly admitted that there was little hope of encircling and annihilating the troops of Mackensen and Falkingham, not because he was worried about the combat strength of the Chinese army, which would serve as the main force in the "Fudan" campaign, but about time. In particular, it is expected that it will take time for the two armies of the Chinese army to move to the battlefield on the Eastern Front. It was a helpless move for General Ye to lead his army north first and then eastward, and the Eastern Carpathians caused great trouble for the movement of the troops, and the Chinese army, which had a large number of artillery, could not do without the road.

Although General Artemiev believed that Ye Yanbing had little hope of encircling the enemy, he firmly believed that the recovery of Romania would not be a problem. Perhaps Mackensen's forces withdrew without waiting for the arrival of the Chinese troops. He proposed that Brusilov put the 9th Army under the command of Ye Yanbing in order to straighten out the command structure. He would return to Petersburg as soon as possible to present to the Tsar, the Chief of the General Staff, and the Minister of War about the Battle of Fudan and the changes it had brought about, in order to persuade the base camp to fully cooperate and reconsider the allocation of resources.

In a telegram, Lieutenant General Artemiev described the bright prospects of the "Fudan" campaign. At the end of this battle, the Russian-Sino-Romanian forces will penetrate deep into Bulgarian territory and shake the Balkan front of the Central Powers, which is of great significance. If Bulgaria and Turkey can be settled along the way, the maritime connection between Russia and Britain will be opened, and a large amount of aid will enter Russia through the Dardanelles, is this not the end that the empire dreamed of?

Lieutenant General Artemiev seems to have anticipated General Brusilov's displeasure, "General Ye's plan is in the highest interests of the Reich." The reason why I started the operation without waiting for your approval was purely out of concern for the situation of the battle. If we fail to annihilate or inflict heavy damage on the enemy forces along the border with Robao, we will lose the opportunity to end the war quickly when Germany sends a large number of reinforcements to Bulgaria. "Lieutenant General Artemiev said this at the end of the telegram." Since August 1914, I have never been more confident in winning the war than I am today. ”

This telegram diluted General Brusilov's joy at the swift victory at the Battle of Sina.

Although he was jealous of the victory achieved by General Ye Yanbing. But he had already sent a telegram to the tsar to apply for a medal for Ye Yanbing. The Chinese did not brag, they really defeated the Austrian 1st Army, capturing 30,000 prisoners alone. Coupled with the victory in the Battle of Ploiesti, the results of the Chinese army's entry into the battlefield were almost in time for the summer "Brusilov" offensive. The cost was much smaller, the losses reported by the Chinese were not credible, and according to the information obtained from the Russian liaison officers who followed the Chinese army, the Chinese casualties were minor and simply not worth mentioning by the standards of the Russian army. They have a completely different way of fighting the Russian army, despising positional warfare and obsessing with annihilating the enemy in motion. This method cannot be learned by the Russian army. At first, General Brusilov Yan Zòng doubted that the follow-up troops of the Chinese army could intercept the Austrians before they could pull Ploiesti on the back, but they did it, and it is said that one of their troops forced a 100-kilometer march on the Khalkha Thousand Mountains in three days, which is really an incredible ability.

The victory at the Battle of Sinaia sealed the victory for Romania. Brusilov no longer had any doubts about the reconquest of Bucharest. From a military point of view, he completely agreed with the deployment of General Ye's "Fudan" campaign. Admiral Ye personally led two armies to strengthen the Eastern Front, showing the overall vision of an excellent commander, without the addition of a new force, the troops would not have been able to recross the vast Danube River and invade Bulgaria.

The reason why Brusilov was unhappy was not because Ye Yanbing cut first and then played. The most important thing in military operations is time, and time is generally more important than troops and weapons. Paying attention to the time factor is admirable, and it is completely correct to seize and annihilate the enemy forces on the southern flank of Romania under the current form, without the slightest problem. What displeased General Brusilov was his premonition of the ambition of the Chinese, who did not want to be Russian vassals and sought to dominate the overall situation. A hurried army group turned the tide of Romania and excited the Anglo-French allies, what if their forces were doubled or multiplied? According to the Petersburg briefing, Chinese Defense Minister General Wang Mingyuan was appointed commander of the expeditionary force, and the 2nd Army was formally formed. It is expected that they will arrive on the front in two months. If the Chinese continue to stage their magical repertoire. Perhaps they could really defeat Bulgaria and Turkey and establish direct ties with Britain and France...... What does this mean for Russia? General Brusilov did not think that this situation was what Petersburg wanted to see.

After thinking all night, General Brusilov drafted a secret telegram to Tsar Nicholas II, proposing to transfer the Chinese expeditionary force back to the Ukrainian direction in the name of recuperation after the end of the fighting in Romania. A "probable" offensive against Bulgaria and Turkey was carried out by the Russian army. The Chinese should fight the tough Germans. And should not enter that sensitive part of South-Eastern Europe.

But the telegram was never sent out. Brusilov suddenly felt that it was too early to think about it. Wait for the Chinese to take Bucharest, and finally have the opportunity to meet the tsar to present their ideas, and. Your own ideas also need to be thought about repeatedly. In the early morning of 5 October, he drafted a telegram to the Ninth Group Army and General Ye Yanbing, approving in principle the plan for the "Fudan" campaign and authorizing Ye Yanbing to take unified command of the previous stage of the "Fudan" campaign. This phase refers to the reconquest of all of Romania.

Major General Wu Peifu was promoted to commander of the 12th Army in June. Among the generals of the Beiyang system, Wu Peifu is the most thorough one of the "Mengshan Army". Among the generals of the same level as him, he is the only one who serves as the commander of the field army, and even Cai Yi, who is highly valued by the president, is now only the deputy army commander and division commander.

The predecessor of the 12th Army was the Fourth Town of Beiyang, and like the 13th Army and the 21st Army, it did not originate from the Mengshan Army. However, more than six years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the factional imprint on the army is fading. Wu Peifu was awarded the Order of Merit of the Second Class for his march into Tibet in 1911, indicating that he was about to be promoted and reused. Sure enough, Wu Peifu was transferred out of Tibet at the end of 1912 and served as the commander of the 20th Division, which was expanded from the 13th Division, and his rank was promoted to major general. At the beginning of 1914, Wu Peifu was transferred to the General Staff Department as Minister of Military Affairs, marking that he had entered the core leadership of the National Defense Force. After the outbreak of the Shandong Campaign, Wu Peifu, who was eager to lead troops to fight, wrote to Long Qian, strongly requesting to go to Shandong, even if it was to give him a brigade. Long Qian invited Wu Peifu to Haiyantang for a meal, fully affirmed his achievements in recent years, and said that the Military Affairs Department is the core department of the General Staff Department after the War Department, and that if you exercise yourself in the headquarters organs, it will help your development, and Shandong should not go, and it is a good thing to want to fight.

Wu Peifu worked in the Ministry of Military Affairs for two years, and his ability was fully affirmed by General Director Situ. In the spring of 1916, during the major personnel adjustment of the army, Wu Peifu returned to the field army as he wished, and served as the commander of the 12th Army under the Northern Military Region. Wu was a veteran of the army, proficient in military training, honest and able to share weal and woe with soldiers, and soon won the recognition of officers and soldiers. The 12th Army was incorporated into the first echelon of the expeditionary force, Wu Peifu was overjoyed, and it was his lifelong dream to lead the heroic division Yang Wei outside the territory, which was finally realized in the New China Era.

However, the 12th Army's first battle abroad was not ideal. Wu Peifu was extremely annoyed by letting go of a large number of enemies, although objectively the 12th Army undertook the most arduous task, their marching route was the longest, and they were all small roads, but he was very sorry for the unfinished battle of the Beiyang troops. In the later stage of the battle, Wu Peifu personally led the 36th Division to pursue the fleeing enemy, and it was not until Ye Yanbing took two telegrams in a row that he recalled Wu Peifu, who killed the red-eyed.

In Wu Peifu's view, the current days truly reflect the value of a soldier. All hardships and hardships are out of the question.

After the Brasov Conference, Wu Peifu led the 12th Army south at full speed and joined Xiong Xun's group. The "Fudan" campaign had been officially launched, and he hoped to be the main force in the campaign to capture Bucharest. He said at a meeting of officers above the 12th corps level, "Commander Ye didn't blame us for letting the enemy go, and he also credited the first merit in our name, which is really guilty." Well, now that our army has been incorporated into Deputy Commander Xiong's group, the distance to the front line is much closer than that of the 7th and 16th armies. The task of the Bear Group is to capture Bucharest! Do you understand? It was the first enemy capital occupied by the Wehrmacht! I don't know how many times stronger than Lao Tzu's work in Tibet! If someone says that our Chinese army has also entered the capitals of other countries, can North Korean Annam compare with Romania? The big nose in Europe has never looked at us Chinese, and finally there is a chance to raise my eyebrows and exhale my spirits, so I can't miss the great achievement. ”

Wu Peifu arrived in Ploiesti a full day earlier than Xiong Xun had expected, and the 9th and 5th armies had already launched an attack on Bucharest. In order to cover Mackensen's retreat, Falkingham desperately blocked the attack of six Chinese divisions with the strength of three divisions. The Germans showed strong combat effectiveness, and Xiong Xun's two carefully selected breakthrough points were successful, and the continuous autumn rain made the troops soaked in muddy water, which increased the difficulty of the attack.

"Commander Wu came so quickly." Xiong Xun was happy with Wu Peifu's arrival, "You have made a big fortune in the north, but the battle on my side is not going well, especially in the direction of the 9th Army, the enemy's resistance is extremely tenacious, the enemy's firepower is strong, and the terrain is not good for us, and we caught up with this stinky weather." I'm worried that the 'Fudan' planned by Commander Ye has become a rotten egg. You've come just in time, and all six of my divisions are entangled, and they can't be withdrawn and will alarm Fakinhan. The 12th Army's appearance on the northern front proves that your army has strong athletic power, I have an idea," Xiong Xun didn't bother to greet Wu Peifu, and pulled him to the sand table of the temporary zuò, "It's not very accurate, but it's almost the same." If a force were to come from here," he pointed to the east of Bucharest, "it would surely shake his line of defense." The most important thing is to take the bridge over the Danube! Bucharest is a must-take for me, not only because it is the capital of Romania, but also because it is a meeting point of several kilometers, and we cannot do without these roads. ”

Wu Peifu stared at the sand table, "Cheng, please give an order to Deputy Commander Xiong." ”

"Draw one of the strongest divisions, not with heavy artillery, only light machine guns and mortars, and insert them lightly," Lieutenant General Xiong Xun pointed to the city of Gyurgyu, about 70 kilometers south of Bucharest, on the Danube, "with the fastest speed you can, overcome a single difficulty to capture it!" And hold out until the arrival of the main force. I thought, without further ado, just look at the map and understand. ”

"No problem, I'll personally take the 35th Division, this division has the strongest marching strength." Wu Peifu readily agreed.

"Good, good! You are worthy of the president's attention. Xiong Xun looked at Wu Peifu's big bald head, "Say, what are the requirements?" ”

"Can you give me a little more sappers?" Wu Peifu made a reasonable request.

"I'll give you a reinforcement of the best sapper battalion. And give you a Romanian detachment to be your guide. When can I go? ”

"Two hours later." Wu Peifu looked at his watch, "We'll leave in two hours." ”

"Good. If you succeed in this battle, you will surely become famous all over the world. (To be continued......)