"Commander Yu, can we keep some of our troops to resist the Wehrmacht's attack? Then concentrate the main forces to destroy the Northeast Army all the way, and then destroy them one by one. Wu Peifu's chief of staff, He Jiajin, suggested.

"It's the only way to do it. If we fail to take out the Wehrmacht all the way in the shortest possible time, our seemingly solid defensive line will become full of holes, which will be very detrimental to the next operation. Wu Peifu's face sank like water, and his heart was full of solemnity. The Northeast Army contains 100,000 elites all the way, so how can it be said that it will be wiped out.

"Yushuai, if we want to act, which way should we choose to attack?" He Jiajin asked.

"The enemy on our side. Although they were very strong in combat with the First Army of the Wehrmacht, their commander, Hu Jingyi, was an unknown person, and if we could concentrate on an all-out attack on them, crushing or destroying them, we would be able to get rid of the disadvantage in the early stage of the war. Wu Peifu's eyebrows revealed a sense of confidence. In the Northeast Army's four-way army, there are two commanders of the army who are not famous, that is, Hu Jingyi, commander of the Left Route Army, and Guo Shanhu, commander of the Right Route Army.

Wu Peifu now feels very fortunate that he has set up his headquarters in Luoyang, facing the right flank of the Beiyang Army, and with the strength in his hands, as long as it operates well, regardless of sacrifices, he can definitely defeat the left route army of the Wehrmacht in the shortest possible time. Then it moved eastward and attacked the Wehrmacht's Second Army from the flank. To tell the truth, although Zhen Zhen is famous all over the world because of the war against Japan, in the eyes of Wu Peifu, Zhen Zhen is just some little ghosts of his own, how can he be the opponent of a veteran like him. In addition, the target of the Second Group Army of the National Defense Army was Zhengzhou, the current capital of Henan, which was guarded by Sun Chuanfang, an important general in his immediate line. There are also 20,000 elite soldiers and nearly 100,000 new soldiers. With such troops, siege field warfare may not be possible, but it is no problem to block the advance of the Wehrmacht in a short period of time. It was precisely because of the recognition of Sun Chuanfang's ability that Wu Peifu would formulate an operational plan to first defeat the enemy in front of him, and then move his army eastward to unite with Sun Chuanfang to flank the Second Army of the National Defense Army.

Another reason why Zhengzhou reassured Wu Peifu was that Cao Kun was sending an army of 100,000 people to Zhengzhou, of which 30,000 were elites, in order to assist Sun Chuanfang in strengthening the defense of Zhengzhou. Now as soon as the war began, the Wehrmacht Four-Way Army advanced together, and the original battle plan of Beiyang was also changed, and Cao Kun's troops were divided into two, a small part of which entered Henan and joined the Zhengzhou front line to block the Second Group Army of the Wehrmacht. The remaining main force marched eastward into the territory of Jiangsu, preparing to block the Fourth Army of the Wehrmacht. As for the Third Army, led by Zhang Zuolin, it was fought by Zhang Xiaozhun's new army. Among the three major battle clusters in Beiyang, Zhang Xiaozhun's troops were the weakest.

Zhang Xiaozhun only had 80,000 soldiers in his hands, which was far inferior to the strength of other battle clusters in Beiyang. Compared with Sun Chuanfang, there is a big gap in the scale of troops, and the reason for this is that it has something to do with the struggle within Beiyang.

In the last battle to quell Zhang Xun's rebellion. In order to ensure the victory of the war, Zhang Xiaozhun carried out a comprehensive reorganization of the new army in the opponent, and the bigwigs of various departments in Beiyang were swept away by Zhang Xiaozhun according to the henchmen inserted into it, and all the commanders of the various departments were replaced by their own henchmen, completely and completely controlling the new army. And in the process of defeating Zhang Xun, the remnants of Zhang Xun's army were absorbed on a large scale, and the strength of the army was expanded again and again, and in just over a month, the strength of the entire new army system expanded from more than 20,000 to more than 80,000, not counting those troops that were not selected to become local security regiments. Under Zhang Xiaozhun's ever-increasing prestige and careful control, the system of the New Army has become a semi-independent force that cannot penetrate the Beiyang needle and cannot be splashed with water. It is precisely because of this that when Beiyang frantically expanded its army, most of the nearly one million recruits were replenished to its troops, and Zhang Xiaozhun's troops did not receive a single soldier.

Faced with this form, Zhang Xiaozhun once called the Beiyang Governor's War Department, asking it to allocate troops in accordance with the governor's strategic deployment. Zhang Xiaozhun's new army, as one of the two horns, should be greatly strengthened. The Beiyang War Department took this as a condition to install Beiyang generals in Zhang Xiaozhun's new army. Wanting to divide and weaken the authority of Xiao Zhun in the army, in the face of this situation, Zhang Xiao Zhun was furious at the same time, drove out all these Beiyang generals who came to make trouble, and at the same time called Feng Guozhang and asked him to uphold justice.

This telegram immediately roasted Feng Guozhang on the fire! It's not easy for Lao Feng. He is the leader of Beiyang, but he is not a heirloom, and now the authority of some people in the Beiyang government is Feng Guozhang to take into account, and in terms of qualifications, Cao Kun is also an old man in Beiyang, and has a high prestige on both the military and political sides, and Cao Kun can be a man, and has a good reputation in Beiyang, and faintly has the posture of the next generation of leaders in Beiyang after Feng Guozhang. Coupled with Cao Kun's intentional management, this power is becoming more and more obvious.

In addition, Wu Peifu, another general in Beiyang, is Cao Kun's henchman general, and it can be said that most of Beiyang's troops are now under Cao Kun's hands. If Zhang Xiaozhun does not resist the infiltration of the Beiyang forces, and there are the children of bureaucrats who do not fight, Zhang Xiaozhun's life will be much better. But Zhang Xiaozhun is Zhang Xiaozhun after all, and he only recognizes Feng Guozhang alone in the entire Beiyang, so he has been vigilant against these "generals" who have been inserted through the back door since the training of the new army, otherwise how could he be frustrated in wartime, and he will take out all these people at one time and drive them away, and quickly replace his henchmen and generals. It is precisely because of his decisiveness that the whole Beiyang can see Zhang Xiaozhun's ambition, and in addition to his ability to lead the army, the old man of Beiyang faintly sees the rise of the second military strongman, and this military strongman is not from Beiyang, once he gains power, the century-old inheritance of Beiyang will come to an end. Moreover, during this time, Feng Guozhang's health was not very good, which naturally made people pay more attention to the issue of the heir of Beiyang, and the entire Beiyang was optimistic about Cao Kun, and naturally rejected Zhang Xiaozhun.

Feng Guozhang is very clear about these political struggles, but it is precisely because he is clear that it is difficult for him to deal with them, politics and military are different, politics is the art of compromise, all forces compromise with each other, interdependence, and opposition to each other, there are no eternal enemies, no eternal friends, only eternal interests. That's politics. But militarily it's different. Militarily, right is right, wrong is wrong, and there is no vague concept.

Cao Kun has long had the heart to enter politics and has great prestige in the military, so he is indeed the best candidate for the next generation of leading leaders. In the current form, once Feng Guozhang goes or goes into the wilderness, the next leader of Beiyang will be Cao Kun. But that was after Feng Guozhang went into the wilderness, and although Feng Guozhang's health is not very good, his heart is ambitious. It's like an ambitious emperor who wants to make a big deal, but his crown prince is so powerful that it has affected his authority, in order to ensure his rule, it is the best choice to support one side of the power to contain the prince and ensure his authority. And Zhang Xiaozhun is the means that Feng Guozhang cultivated to contain the prince.

Of course, no matter how well Zhang Xiaozhun does and how loyal he is, the forces of Beiyang will still be in the hands of the prince in the future. For the sake of Beiyang, Feng Guozhang will support Zhang Xiaozhun, but he will not really let him threaten Cao Kun's position. Therefore, Feng Guozhang felt indecisive about Zhang Xiaozhun's telegram. The new army is already 80,000 people, and with its influence in Anhui, it is already very strong. With Zhang Xiaozhun's ability, there has been a trend of tail failure. If it continues to be strengthened, it will really support a new force in Beiyang.

Zhang Xiaozhun is a Japanese student, and Japan and the Beiyang Governor's Office are now very close, and more and more Japanese "retired soldiers" are serving as instructors of the Beiyang New Army. At the same time, the representative of the military advisory group sent by Japan to Beiyang and Zhang Xiaozhun were Lu Shi's classmates, and the two had close contacts. These made Zhang Xiaozhun lose a lot of impression points here with Feng Guozhang. Zhang Xiaozhun's ability Feng Guozhang appreciates it very much, otherwise he would not support him on the throne. But for his close contact with the Japanese, Feng Guozhang was very uncomfortable. Now Beiyang is receiving aid from the Japanese, and that is to fight Beijing. Feng Guozhang wants to seek the long-term existence of Beiyang, and Japan wants to see the turmoil in China and have the power to contain and weaken Beijing. The two sides hit it off, and the intimate cooperation between the two sides is really just a mutual use. In his heart, Feng Guozhang is boycotting Japan. This is also the reason why Japan has continued to support Beiyang, and the Beiyang Governor's Office has not betrayed its national interests in the slightest to "express its expression".

For these reasons, Feng Guozhang telegraphed Zhang Xiaozhun that he could freely recruit 20,000 soldiers in northern Anhui and expand his strength to 100,000. At the same time, Feng Guozhang urged the Ministry of Finance to allocate an additional batch of military supplies and silver to Zhang Xiaozhun's troops to appease Zhang Xiaozhun.

When Beiyang was busy adjusting its military deployment and blocking the Northeast Army layer by layer, the various units of the Northeast Army were like bamboos, capturing several county towns in a short period of time.

The slowest advance speed of the Fourth Route Army of the National Defense Army is the First Group Army, because their opponent is Wu Peifu, and Wu Peifu's command is in Luoyang, not far from the Yellow River, so in the surrounding area of Luoyang, the Beiyang army is extremely strong. After the Wehrmacht crossed the river, the pace of advance slowed down, and the march was extremely cautious, and even so, the defense line of the Beiyang was still broken through by the Wehrmacht one by one. The First Group Army of the National Defense Army approached the city of Luoyang with irresistible vigor

(To be continued)