Yang Xiaolin chose Qu Tongfeng as a test of Lao Yuan, and he was somewhat suspected of bullying honest people. Qu Tongfeng is from Beiyang, but he is not a descendant of Yuan Shikai. In fact, there are also many open-minded generals in the Beiyang Army who have returned from abroad.

Qu Tongfeng is a very unusual general in the army. When other generals select soldiers, they all choose some who can fight and are in good physical condition. But he is different, his criteria for selecting soldiers are first of all to see if you can recognize words.

This time, in the Zhangjiakou and the Volunteer Army's cooperative operation, Qu Tongfeng's performance was still very good, in the case of the disadvantage of the troops, he relied on a solid defensive line to arrange firepower, in the face of the Russians' powerful assault, he dared to let the Russian troops into the Chinese position, and then accurately deployed a cross-fire network to kill and break through the enemy.

The strength of the Russian five armies in Zhangjiakou has not made the slightest progress, and as the situation in Beijing has changed, the momentum of the Russian attack there has gradually weakened, and their task has changed from attacking Zhangjiakou to containing the Chinese troops living in Zhangjiakou.

Qu Tongfeng is really good, but there is no way.

Yang Xiaolin is sure that once he wins this counterattack battle, although Lao Yuan will not tear off the current harmony between the two sides at once, some small actions will definitely be launched, so he needs to test Lao Yuan first, and at the same time, he really needs to test how much the Russians still have the desire to fight, just because Qu Tongfeng has caught up with both of them.

The Second Army had already been revised and supplemented at this time, and it was supposed to be immediately put into the battlefield to take over the defense line of the Third Front Army according to the plan, but Yang Xiaolin changed the plan. The Third Front of the Beijing Line of Defense continued to hold out, and the First Front was responsible for assisting. Duan Qirui's Second Front Army quietly marched to Zhangjiakou, where it prepared to launch the first real counterattack by the Chinese forces since the beginning of the war.

The Russian Caucasus Army Group had fifteen corps and nearly 200,000 troops. After the outbreak of the battle, except for the five corps attacking Zhangjiakou, the remaining troops were basically in a kind of reserve position, constantly replenishing the troops with serious losses in the front.

General Kizerosky has not used this batch of forces until now, especially when the situation does not seem to be very good, and Kizerosky is very aware of the importance of reserve forces. The Caucasian Front in Beijing basically did not face any vicious battles, and in contrast, the five armies stationed in Zhangjiakou were not so lucky.

Not only have they been fighting the Chinese troops. Heavy casualties. And it was very unfortunate to be selected by Commander Yang as the main direction of this Chinese army assault.

On 3 October, the Second Front Army arrived at Zhangjiakou and the battle began, and the First Army of the Volunteers, which had been in a defensive posture, first launched an attack on the Russian troops, to the north of the Russian salient. The 39th Army of the Russian Caucasian Army launched a diversionary offensive. After breaking through the Russian line for two kilometers, it stalled.

The Russians were not aware of the danger at this time. At this time, the commander on the battlefield believed that this surprise attack was nothing more than the kind of small-scale counterattacks launched by the Chinese troops in the past, and that the aim of the Chinese should be only to regain a small piece of lost territory.

So the Russians immediately mobilized forces for a counteroffensive. More than 20,000 Russian troops, under the cover of five hundred guns, launched a frantic frontal assault on the Chinese troops who broke through the Russian positions, in front of them. The troops of the two brigades of the Chinese Volunteers were waiting solemnly.

After half a day of fierce fighting, the Russian army could not shake the defensive line held by the volunteers and was stagnant.

The Russian side immediately adjusted its strategy, and they used the strength of an army to launch a cut-off attack on the Chinese troops who broke into the Russian position, trying to cut off this group of Chinese from the rear.

The troops of a brigade of the Beiyang Army could not resist the ferocious attack of the Russians, and the first wave of Lao Maozi broke through the defense line of the Beiyang Army, and immediately formed a second attack wave that immediately advanced to the depth, cutting off the retreat and supply lines of the volunteers of the two brigades on the front line.

Qu Tongfeng was really right, he knew the deployment of the entire battle situation, and thought that there was no point in a head-to-head battle with the Russians at this time. The Russian troops that broke through the Chinese positions encountered the Beiyang Army strongholds scattered all the way, and were intercepted by fire from all directions, and the Russian troops exposed to the guns of the Beiyang Army suffered heavy casualties.

Qu Tongfeng believed that his tactics were completely correct, although the volunteers of the two brigades on the front line were cut off from retreating, the amount of ammunition they carried was enough to support the counterattack, and when the trumpet of the counterattack sounded, they did not need to retreat.

However, at this time, Sui Bing deprived Qu Tongfeng of his command on the charge of losing his position and putting the volunteers in danger, which really made Qu Tongfeng very unconvinced, but there was nothing he could do.

That night, when the Second Front, which was already close to the battlefield, advanced north and south, launched a fierce counterattack to cut off the rear route to break through the Soviet army, the Chinese's combat intentions only leaked out at this time, the attacking Russian troops were suddenly cut off, and the retreat of the two armies that broke through the Chinese position was cut off and fell into the encirclement.

In the early morning, the Russian troops launched a frenzied attack outside the encirclement, in a vain attempt to meet the encircled troops to break out of the encirclement, and the battle lasted from the early morning to the next morning, the Russian troops did not make the slightest progress, and the main forces of the three armies took turns to fight with the Chinese troops on a front several tens of kilometers long for six hours, and suffered heavy casualties in the face of the Chinese troops' absolute superiority in strength and firepower, and were unable to fight again, and were forced to abandon the rescue plan.

And the two armies that penetrated deep into the Chinese defense line did not give up at this time, they built fortifications on the spot, gathered troops and prepared to wait for reinforcements, and the Russian general in charge of commanding the battle sent a telegram directly to General Kizerosky: "30,000 brave Russian boys are still fighting!" We are defending the dignity of the Russian military, please don't give up on us! ”

General Kizerosky was really scared! He realized that this was a counterattack launched by Yang Dagui! Whether it was Yang Xiaolin's counteroffensive against Brusinov or Wu Zhaolin's counteroffensive some time ago, in a sense, they were defensive attacks, in order to disrupt the pace of the Russian troops' attacks.

But this time is different, this time it is a Chinese attack with the goal of annihilating a part of the Russian army! If the Chinese are allowed to succeed, then the situation on the battlefield will be completely changed. General Kizerosky reacted immediately, on the one hand, he ordered the Russian troops in Zhangjiakou to rescue the encircled Russian troops from danger at all costs, and on the other hand, he also launched an attack in Beiyang, intending to use the pressure here to force Yang Xiaolin to abandon his strategic intentions in Zhangjiakou.

"At noon today, the Russians launched attacks on all our defensive lines in Beijing, of which Shunyi was their key attack direction, Wu Zhaolin said that the Russians launched more than a dozen attacks within three hours, and the artillery fire was obviously much stronger than a while ago, and the troops guarding Shunyi suffered heavy casualties."

Jiang Baili talked about the current battle situation in front of the map, and gave Yang Xiaolin a suggestion: "Commander, the Russians are attacking too fiercely, and the Third Front Army may not be able to resist it, should we let the First Front Army make some preparations?" ”

Yang Xiaolin was still very lazy when he sat on the chair, and his legs were crossed on the table: "No, don't just say that your brother can't do it." Give Wu Zhaolin a call and say that I believe he can withstand it, and if there is any difficulty, feel free to tell me. ”

Jiang Baili responded: "Yes." ”

"What's the situation in Zhangjiakou now?"

"The Russian troops surrounded by us have been cut off from the outside world, and in the face of the encirclement of our army, the Russian troops fought very tenaciously when they had no way to retreat. The battle did not go too smoothly, and Sui Bing and Duan Qirui said that it would take at least two days to end the battle. ”

Yang Xiaolin put his legs down: "Two days? You tell them that Kizerosky's reinforcements are already on their way to Zhangjiakou, and that in two days he may have to face hundreds of thousands or even two hundred thousand Russian troops. ”

Jiang Baili thought for a moment: "Commander, they must know this way, and you also know General Duan's character, if the battle can end quickly, he will definitely not spare casualties." In my opinion, it would be better for us to transfer another batch of reinforcements. ”

"Where else can we mobilize reinforcements?"

Jiang Baili said: "The Beiyang Army still has a team to mobilize, Shanxi, Yan Xishan. ”

Yang Xiaolin was stunned for a moment, Yan Xishan has been on the stage since the Wuchang Revolution last year, but this guy has been staying in Shanxi, he supports Lao Yuan, supports anti-Russia, he contributed money and materials in Shanxi, but he really didn't contribute.

During this period of time, whether it was Yuan Shikai, Yang Xiaolin or Sun Wen, they really didn't have time to care about him. Commander Yang didn't know what the situation was in Shanxi now, and he really didn't know how much combat strength Shanxi's troops had.

Yan Xishan was a rich man and emperor of Shanxi in history. Jiang Baili said this, Yang Xiaolin suddenly felt that he could do this, he couldn't let this guy stay too comfortable in Shanxi, and transfer his troops out while he hadn't built his kingdom yet!

Just as he was about to give the order, Yuan Shikai's footsteps walked in from outside: "Xiaolin, how is the counterattack?" ”

Yang Xiaolin stood up from his chair at this time: "Yuan Gong rest assured, although there are a little difficulties at present, the grasp of the battle situation is completely within our expectations. Russian reinforcements have gone to reinforce Zhangjiakou, but we can end the battle before their reinforcements arrive. ”

Yuan Shikai walked to the map and looked at it for a while, and after understanding Yang Xiaolin's troop scheduling plan, he nodded: "Well, that's good." Zhiquan sent me a telegram, saying that it is not a problem to encircle and annihilate the two Russian armies, and that this battle has won our team, and Russia's operational disadvantage has reversed the front, is it possible to consider launching a counteroffensive in advance, and there is no need to wait until winter, right? ”

Yang Xiaolin smiled: "Yuan Gong and I thought the same, after the end of this station, the Fourth Front Army was also formed, we held a military parade in Beijing, and by the way, a meeting was held, there are many brothers in our team who have not seen each other before, and it can be regarded as a meeting, and Yuan Gong will also be invited to participate in it at that time." ”

Yuan Shikai responded very casually, and then suddenly asked as if it was even more casual: "Okay, I will definitely come." By the way, let me ask you something, is it okay to fight with Feng in Zhangjiakou? Why did you spare him? (To be continued......)