The battle on the 13th made Yuan Shikai, who had already arrived at the headquarters of the third town of Liu Zhimiao, feel bad! I thought that Li Chun and Feng Guozhang would achieve decisive results after entering the battle, but who expected that the two cutting-edge towns would fight for a day and only advance to Lixudi, and the opponent's dense defense line was not shaken at all!

"Barbed wire, barbed wire, one barbed wire will make you like this!" Yuan Shikai, who rarely yelled at his subordinates, slapped the table and shouted at the three commanders, "I don't listen to all that you say!" All I tell you is that life and death have come! Either kill Shandong and quickly transfer the troops to the south! Or the big guys are together! You've been with me for so many years, why don't you understand this truth? Now it's not for the imperial court, it's for us to fight Beiyang! If we don't win this battle, our group will be finished, and everyone's net worth and life will be played! ”

"Don't worry!" Feng Guozhang got up and walked to the map, "To be honest, I didn't use all my strength today, I wanted to try the enemy's virtual and real ......"

Li Chun, who suffered a big loss, said coldly, "Tried it out?" ”

"Yes!" Feng Guozhang knocked on the table, "The combat effectiveness of this brigade in front of me is average, I captured one of their wounded soldiers and interrogated some interesting things." Seventy percent of his company, which was made up of veterans and recruits recruited before the war, said the other two companies in the battalion were similar. ”

This result made Yuan Shikai even more ashamed! The situation is roughly grasped, according to the establishment of the Sixth Division that has been figured out, the total strength has exceeded 30,000 people! How could there be so many soldiers in Shandong before? Although Shandong is a monolith, it is not that the situation is not grasped at all. It can only be explained that it was hastily recruited before the war. But it was this Sixth Division, which was more than half of the recruits, who resisted him for four days!

Four days! How many miles should the main force of Long Qian on the southern front advance?

"The marshal used most of the artillery in Zhong Shan, and today I deliberately hid the artillery, and found that the opponent's artillery is not much, so it gives us an opportunity." Feng Guozhang pointed to the map and said, "Overnight, transfer the artillery mark on the east side of Liu Zhimiao, plus my own firepower, and concentrate on attacking a little!" Chen Xiao's idea is good, it must be pierced like an awl, and the troops cannot be divided equally! I tried it out today. The enemy in this direction is the weakest! I concentrated the most artillery. The largest number of infantry, start later tomorrow, let Xiushan and Zhong Shan move first, it is best to absorb the few reserves in Ye Yanbing's hands. Then I'll move again - twelve o'clock at noon! Tear the hole in one fell swoop. Break through to the rear of the XVI Brigade. Meet Cao Laosan! Feng Guozhang smiled and clapped his hands, "The barbed wire is powerful, let's break through a little." I also opened the bite of the dog day with my teeth! ”

Li Chun and Cao Kun were moved by what Feng Guozhang said, and leaned over to study the map, Cao Kun raised his head and said to Yuan Shikai, "Okay, Fu Shuai's method will work!" ”

Yuan Shikai was also excited, "Okay, just do it according to Huafu!" Immediately give the order and transfer the cannon that Huafu wants! Hire Qing, you can do this matter yourself. ”

On 14 August, the Battle of Dezhou continued, but the battle was concentrated in the direction of Li Chun and Cao Kun, that is, in the direction of the 17th and 16th Brigades of the 6th Division, and Feng Guozhang's 4th Town was quiet all morning, except for a few small exchanges of fire in a few sections, and the 18th Brigade spent a quiet morning.

In view of the negative attitude of the Fourth Town yesterday, Duan Baochang, the commander of the 18th Brigade, reported to the division headquarters, speculating that there was a problem in the Fourth Town, perhaps because there was a contradiction between Feng Guozhang and Yuan Shikai, or maybe it was the Fourth Town, where Feng's command was not moving, and it was not his basic force. For the Beiyang generals, the Mengshan Army, which has a very high level of intelligence, has collected a lot of their origins, resumes, specialties, and personal relations and contradictions with each other. Because the Shandong Army was facing the main force of Beiyang, the officers above the regimental commander received a top-secret pamphlet from the Military Intelligence Bureau, detailing the generals of various towns in Beiyang. Duan Baochang knew that the Feng clan had a high status in the Beiyang system, and he was the superior of Li Chun and Cao Kun, and Yuan Shikai's hardcore, but now Feng's state could not help but make the Eighteenth Brigade suspicious.

Ye Yanbing had already moved the command post forward to Dezhou City, and set up telephones with the brigades, and he didn't care about the report of the 18th Brigade, which was focused on the other two brigades in fierce battles. Ye Yanbing remembered one of the most important factors, and that was time! Time is now biased towards itself, and the longer the Battle of Texas drags on, the better it will be for you. Therefore, he said to Brigade Commander Duan on the phone, don't take the initiative to provoke him, don't fight back against the lost front-line positions, it's best if he doesn't attack, if there is no movement in the afternoon, you prepare a battalion for me, a battalion with strong offensive power, ready to switch to the direction of the 16th Brigade, Lao Xue fought very hard, and more than half of his 48th Regiment suffered casualties!

Brigade Commander Duan said that there was no problem, so I would arrange it and listen to the orders of the division headquarters at any time.

But at noon, the 18th Brigade came under fire from the 4th Town. At least 70 artillery pieces bombarded the 53rd Regiment of the 18th Brigade, at least two of which were heavy howitzers of 150mm caliber, and when a shell fell, it was a large crater with a diameter of more than 10 meters, and the anti-artillery holes dug in accordance with the regulations were easily collapsed, and the barbed wire fence arranged about 60 meters in front of the trench was shattered under repeated bombardment, and the defensive positions of the 3rd Battalion of the 53rd Regiment were the key targets of the Fourth Town, and at least 50 people of the 7th Company were killed, most of whom were shocked to death or buried in the soil and suffocated. The 8th and 9th companies also suffered heavy casualties, and the commander of the 8th company and a platoon commander were killed by the shelling. The 53rd Regiment's telephone lines connecting the brigade headquarters and division headquarters were all blown up, and the regimental headquarters was also hit by an artillery shell.

Without waiting for the artillery bombardment to extend, Feng Guozhang immediately ordered the 13th Standard to launch an attack on the position of the 53rd Regiment, and the spearhead of the attack was aimed at the 3rd Battalion, which was the breakthrough point that Feng Guozhang and his officers repeatedly compared and selected. The reason why the third battalion was chosen was because the battalion was defending a high ground, and by occupying this place, it could strike the defenders on both flanks with firepower, expand the breakthrough and cover the troops for a deep assault.

The breakthrough was properly chosen, the artillery fire was well organized, and the attacking force was the main force of the fourth town, and Feng Guozhang's well-planned tactics were miraculously effective. The 13th Standard easily captured the position of the three battalions, and captured about 80 people, and before the soldiers who were mostly recruits could wake up from the heavy shelling, the Beiyang soldiers rushed up. The commander of the 1st Battalion of the 13th Standard, who personally led the charge, gave the signal. According to the liaison signal determined by the prior study, the artillery was required to continue to extend the attack on the target in depth, cover the impact of his troops, and basically eliminate the resistance of the 3rd Battalion of the 53rd Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the 13th Standard began to divide its troops to attack the left and right flanks along the communication trenches damaged by artillery fire to expand the breakthrough, and the 2nd Battalion that followed up attacked the second line position of the Mengshan Army.

The 53rd Regiment was indeed a weak regiment, mainly due to the high proportion of recruits. Feng Guozhang does have his own set of tactical research, and the effect is obvious! Only an hour after the start of the battle. The thirteen marks are to occupy all the predetermined breaches and repel counterattacks from both flanks. The troops maintained their vigorous attacking force, and the troops of the two battalions advanced to the first-line position and crossed the second-line position 200 meters behind. The Seventh Association urgently transferred to the 14th standard, and entered the depth of the Mengshan Army's position along the passage opened by the 13th standard, and Feng Guozhang still had a backhand. He used the 16th standard of Chen Guangyuan's division of the 8th Association to the position of the 53rd Regiment again. Concentrate on this team that has been messed up.

The input of Beiyang reserve forces. Making the 53rd Regiment more passive, the 2nd Battalion withstood assaults from both the breakthrough and the front, at 1:20 p.m. After breaking through the position of the second battalion, one battalion was left to attack the last battalion of the 53rd Regiment, and the main force crossed the first-line position and joined the attack on the second-line position of the 18th Brigade.

The commander of the 53rd Regiment avoided the disaster in the shelter because he went to the position of the first battalion, and he roughly knew that his first-line position had been completely broken through, and he immediately led the guard company to counterattack in the direction of the second battalion, and the Beiyang 16 standard scuffle together, the officers and soldiers of both sides fought in the broken traffic trench, and the red-eyed guard company threw grenades at close range, bringing huge casualties to the 16 standard, but the guard company, which was mostly a veteran, bleed out within half an hour, and the regiment commander was killed by three bullets. In addition to the position of the first battalion, the position of the 53rd Regiment fell two hours after the start of the battle, and the main force of the 4th Town poured in along the open opening of the 53rd Regiment, because the main force of the 53rd Regiment did not have time to withdraw in an orderly manner, and the weak second-line position could not block the attack of Beiyang, and was immediately broken through.

Once you break through the rearmost line of defense of the 18th Brigade, you can reach the city of Texas in just one hour! There were not many combat soldiers there anymore, because the Sixth Division faced the three towns of Beiyang, and the reserve force was not sufficient.

On the rearmost line of defense was the 54th Regiment of the 18th Brigade. The 18th Brigade had the same formation as the 16th Brigade, with two regiments in front and one regiment in the back. The first and second lines of defense were both defense areas of the first two regiments (52nd and 53rd), and the plan stipulated that after using the first line of defense to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, the troops would gradually move to the second line of defense for a lasting stay. The third line of defense was guarded by the third regiment, which was also tasked with reinforcing the former enemy, and if the second line of defense was breached, the 54th regiment was to be tasked with counterattack operations.

But the second line of defense soon fell short. The reason was that the 53rd Regiment was paralyzed before it had time to retreat! When a large number of enemy troops rushed to the rearmost line of defense under the cover of artillery fire, the 54th Regiment was faced with a difficult choice, whether to counterattack or hold on to the spot. There was no time to understand the situation in detail, and without receiving instructions from the brigade headquarters or even the division headquarters (the telephone line was broken), the commander of the 54th Regiment made a decision to cancel the counterattack plan and stick to the spot.

This decision saved the XVIII Brigade from collapse. Although the 53rd Regiment fell into a catastrophe, the 54th Regiment relied on the existing positions to block the two targets of the Beiyang Army.

When the communication line was restored, the 54th Regiment received two different orders, and the brigade commander Duan Baochang ordered the 54th Regiment to attack and restore the second line position to meet the 53rd Regiment in the bitter battle. But five minutes later, Ye Yanbing's phone call instructed the 54th Regiment to hold on to the third line of defense, and if an enemy soldier crossed the line, he would be killed!

The order of the division commander is, of course, heavier than that of the brigade commander. The 54th Regiment reported to the brigade headquarters on the one hand, and on the other hand, canceled the order to attack and held on the spot.

Brigade Commander Duan Baochang is a native of Shanxi, and Yan Shulin, who laid down Hengyang, is a group of Shanxi soldiers who joined the Mengshan Army, and the "21" reorganization entered the reserve force and was formed in the fifth town, Ning Shijun replaced Lushan in the northeast as the commander of the reserve, Duan Baochang became a senior officer of the reserve and served as the regiment commander, and the Shandong Army was greatly expanded and promoted to brigade commander. Judging from the resume, the promotion speed of Duan Baochang's group exceeded that of the main force of the Mengshan Army, which brought a problem, in terms of the ability to lead the army to fight, he might as well stay in the fifth town and slowly rise up to the companions.

Duan Baochang and Yan Shulin and others have the title of Shanxi Gang in the Mengshan Army, which is of course passed on privately, because Long Qian's ancestral home is Shanxi, although they are not the mainstream, but they have also become the climate, most of the Shanxi soldiers recruited near Taiyuan and Niangzi Pass have taken leadership positions, but there are not many in the combat troops, and more have entered the logistics and baggage series, and it may be impossible to say that there are factors in the Song and Jin Kingdoms. Duan Baochang and Yan Shulin were the leaders of this small group because they held the highest positions.

After confirming that the 53rd Regiment had been broken through, Duan Baochang made an erroneous command, and he immediately ordered the 52nd Regiment, the main force of the 18th Brigade, to counterattack the 53rd Regiment's breakthrough on a lateral basis, while mobilizing troops such as the brigade headquarters guard battalion and the engineer battalion, and he personally led the frontal counterattack against the breakthrough. He also hoped to restore his position, at least to bring out the remnants of the 53rd Regiment! The responsibility for losing a regiment was too great for him to bear, so that this brigade commander with a strong sense of responsibility adopted the method of destroying the troops, regardless of the already clear battle situation.

There is also a Beiyang standard in front of the 52nd Regiment, the 15th Standard, and at the same time that the 4th Town pressed all the three infantry signs to the 53rd Regiment and made a breakthrough, the 15th Biao also launched an attack on the 52nd Regiment. At this time, the 52nd Regiment was unable to draw troops to counterattack the opening of the 53rd Regiment! However, the order of the brigade headquarters must be carried out, so the commander of the 52nd regiment ordered the first battalion attached to the regimental headquarters guard company to carry out the brigade commander's counterattack order, and the main force of the regiment still needed to guard the first-line position. It was a stupid decision! The most reasonable deployment is to retreat to the second-line positions immediately after repelling the first wave of attack of the 15th mark, and it is by no means a division of troops to counterattack! As a result, the 18th Brigade brought even greater disaster, the counterattack of the 52nd Regiment was ineffective, the troops suffered heavy losses, and their main position was broken through by the 15th Standard. This is not the worst, the counterattack personally organized by Brigade Commander Duan was defeated, resulting in his own serious injuries, and he died before he could be sent down to the health company. Now there is only one fifty-fourth regiment left of the organized troops of the eighteenth brigade!

Ye Yanbing couldn't care about the other two directions, and released the general reserve that he had been pinching in his hand, which was a reinforced regiment composed of the 51st Regiment (two battalions) of the 17th Brigade, the division headquarters guard battalion, the engineer battalion and other troops, and learned that Duan Baochang was killed in battle, and the last line of defense was in danger, Ye Yanbing personally led this reinforced regiment to all dispatch to reinforce the 18th Brigade. In time, Ye Yanbing's fresh force arrived at the position before the collapse of the 54th Regiment, and nearly 3,000 new troops were invested to contain the attack of the Beiyang Seventh Association (which had strengthened the 16th standard), which had already shown fatigue.

Unwilling to be defeated, Feng Guozhang launched another attack, and the attack before sunset on the 14th was a disaster for Beiyang, and the main casualties of the Fourth Town appeared in this major attack, the dense blockade artillery fire combined with the defenders' machine guns and mortars knocked down the attackers in pieces, and a layer of gray corpses was laid in front of the position of the 54th Regiment. After dark, Feng Guozhang ended the attack and switched to defense on the spot.

Ye Yanbing, who had exhausted his energy (Ye Yanbing slept less than three hours a day since the war began on the 10th), called the Jinan Military Headquarters that night, "The position of the 18th Brigade has been raided. Duan Baochang was killed, the 53rd Regiment was basically wiped out, and the 52nd Regiment and the 54th Regiment lost nearly half. Request immediate reinforcements from HQ! ”

This order shocked the military department. Texas can't afford to lose, that's not to be considered, but where are the reserves? Mobilize the Seventh Division? After Ning Shijun, Zhang Yulin and others urgently studied, they decided to send the student corps. The reason why this regiment is called the Cadet Corps is that it was formed mainly by the newly enrolled students of the Armed Forces Academy, and the whole regiment has about 2,000 people (supplemented by 1,400 reservists and recruits), and has been transferred to the south of Texas to stand by as a reserve in case of emergency. However, the right to use this regiment was not in the 6th Division, but was in the hands of the military headquarters.

In view of the fiasco of the 18th Brigade, Ning Shijun ordered the regiment to be transferred to the 6th Division immediately. (To be continued......)