Chapter 351: Northern Tour (I)

The sea is wide and the fish jumps, and the sky is high for the birds to fly.

If you need to describe Zhao Bei's current mood, this sentence is more appropriate, since he crossed into this era, his mood has been relatively depressed, the weakness of the country, the numbness of the people, the dominance of the powers, and the greed of the powerful, all of which made him feel depressed.

But now, Zhao Bei no longer has that sense of depression, he is indeed qualified to be really happy, and this qualification is what he has won single-handedly.

The defeat of the main force of the Beiyang Army in southern Henan, the whole situation has changed, the pan-political alliance of the United Front has really attracted the attention of the world, and the armed forces of the United Front with the Republican Army as the main force have also appeared in people's field of vision with a momentum that swallows thousands of miles like a tiger, and now, basically no one doubts the rise of the United Front, whether it is their own people or enemies.

In such a situation, Zhao Bei's mood is of course very comfortable, and there is even a little pride in the comfort, of course, more self-confidence, an unprecedented self-confidence, he fully believes that he can seize the supreme power of this declining country in a short period of time, and once he grasps this power, he will lead the country to prosperity and strength with his strategic vision that transcends the times.

With this comfortable mood, Zhao Bei embarked on a northern tour, went to central and northern Henan to inspect and comfort those soldiers who fought bravely.

This is still after the war between the north and the south. Leaving Wusheng Pass for the first time, considering the safety of the commander-in-chief, the army accompanying the escort exceeded an infantry regiment, plus the members and deputies of the united front who accompanied the chairman to northern Henan, this northern patrol team used a total of five trains.

Now, Zhao Bei is sitting in the middle of a train. In the ordinary carriage, he studied a military map with Lan Tianwei and other senior officers, and this carriage was actually the current commander-in-chief and general staff of the RUF forces.

"Shanxi, a place of beauty since ancient times, has Taihang in the east. Mountain, there is Luliang Mountain in the west, Heng Mountain in the north, Zhongtiao Mountain in the south, in addition, Wangwu Mountain, Luya Mountain, Taiyue Mountain, Zhoushan and other mountain ranges run through the north and south, east and west, these large and small mountain ranges constitute the 'intertwined' internal and external barriers, plus the Yellow River, Fen River, Zhanghe River, Hutuo River, Sanggan River, the division and isolation of these large and small rivers, this Shanxi is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is also a place where soldiers must fight, occupy Shanxi, you can go north into the grassland, peep into Hebei in the west, the Henan Campaign Our army won a complete victory, the next step in the direction of march, is Shanxi! ”

Zhao Bei pointed to the map and showed everyone his strategy.

Lan Tianwei moved his finger to the map, nodded, and said, "Shanxi terrain. Compared with the terrain of Sichuan, the terrain is more complicated, there are large rivers in the interior of Sichuan to connect the province, although there are many large and small rivers in Shanxi, but there are not many large ships that can be navigated, and they are too far away from each other, since ancient times, attacking Shanxi, they can only rely on land logistics. This Shanxi attack, our army will enter Jin in two ways, all the way from Shaanxi to the east, all the way from Henan to the north, our army to attack Shanxi, must occupy the 'Taihang Eight Mountains', namely: Yiguan Cheng, Taihang Cheng, Bai Cheng, Fu Cheng, Jing Cheng, Feihu Cheng, Pu 'Yin' Chen, Jundu Cheng. This 'Taihang Ba Cheng' is the eight 'Jiao' Tongdao that control the 'Jiao' Tong, and by occupying these places, it controls the internal and external 'Jiao' Tong from Shanxi to the east to Zhili. Last time, the Beiyang Army occupied the whole province of Shanxi in a short period of time under the command of Duan Qirui, which was mainly due to the response of the Shanxi constitutionalists, the battle of Shanxi, the Beiyang Army did not carry out a 'fierce' battle, but this time our army attacked Shanxi, facing the Beiyang troops, they controlled the danger, our army must be prepared for a vicious battle, in my opinion, the battle of Shanxi is much more difficult than the battle of southern Henan. ”

The congregation was silent for a while, and after the battle of southern Henan, they had been. After comprehending the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang Army, most of them were somewhat underestimated by the enemy, but now Lan Tianwei's words poured cold water on everyone, which somewhat calmed them down.

In the battle of southern Henan, the United Front was basically fighting on the inside and attacking on the offensive. Shanxi, which is fighting on the outside line, is a severe test for logistics and intelligence work.

This enterprising Central Plains, a. The road to world domination is still a bit bumpy, not to mention the position of the great powers must also be taken into account.

"You don't have to worry, the battle of Shanxi, the United Front General Affairs Committee also fully supports, although they will not fight, but they have political strength. On the one hand, we will send troops into Shanxi to fight, and on the other hand, we must also unite all forces that can be united, and use them to instigate local officials and powerful figures in Shanxi. ”

The battle in southern Henan showed that the commander-in-chief's strategic vision was always correct, and the prestige of the commander-in-chief was established step by step by the results of his achievements.

With regard to Shanxi, now that this grand strategy has been decided, the remaining specific operational and military plans will be 'handed over' to these high-ranking officers to draw up, and there is no need for the commander-in-chief to 'do the work'.

Zhao Bei walked to the car window and looked at the field, the summer harvest has passed, the summer is almost over, and the autumn harvest is not far away, the field is golden, and the heavy ears are swaying with the wind, like a gentle sea 'wave', which makes Zhao Bei's mood more comfortable.

Qin Sihu, his personal bodyguard, stepped forward and whispered in Zhao Bei's ear: "Commander-in-chief, just now the train conductor came over and said that it is less than twenty miles away from Zhengzhou, should we go directly to the train station, or stop outside the train station?" ”

"Go straight to the train station." Zhao Bei reined in his mind and straightened his military uniform.

"Everyone, we will be in Zhengzhou soon, now, pay attention to the appearance of the soldiers, the train in front of us arrived more than ten minutes before us, presumably when we arrived at the train station, the military band and reporters were there, we as the victors, we can't have a good public image, right?"

After being reminded by the commander-in-chief, the officers hurriedly tidied up each other's military appearance, and some officers with too long hair also shaved their heads with razors with the help of the guards, and then wiped their faces with hot "hair" towels, and this look was also glowing.

Zhengzhou, which was occupied by RUF forces last night, has not been fought fiercely.

Because the governor of Henan, Zhao Kui, rebelled, and announced in Kaifeng, the province, to join the united front to defend the parliament and defend the constitution, and tens of thousands of troops under his command were transformed from the "Northern Army" to the "Southern Army", and became the enemy of the Beiyang Army and Yuan Shikai.

As a result, Bao Guiqing, who had originally vowed to coexist with Zhengzhou, immediately withdrew from the Zhengzhou front line with his fourth brigade and threw thousands of miscellaneous troops down.

The main general of the Northern Army in Zhengzhou escaped the Yellow River, and the defense line of Zhengzhou suddenly collapsed, and all the troops of the Northern Army either escaped the Yellow River with them, or surrendered to the United Front troops, and Zhengzhou changed hands like this.

Since there were largely no 'fierce' fighting in the vicinity of Zhengzhou, when the train in which the commander-in-chief was travelling entered the station, he was greeted by an intact railway station, and the city was just as peaceful.

In the sonorous military music, Zhao Bei was the first to step out of the carriage, with one foot on the boarding board, the other on the gray ground of the platform, one hand on the armed belt around his waist, and the other hand on the railing. A group of journalists, "protected" by the soldiers, recorded this moment of historical 'sexuality' with cameras mounted in front of them.

"Victor in the Far East!"

This is the headline of a story given by a German journalist, and there is nothing more appropriate than this short sentence, and the implication is self-explanatory.

There were many people who came to greet the commander-in-chief, except for the people on the United Front, the leading figures in Zhengzhou basically came, and even the Zhao Governor of Kaifeng also sent his cronies over and gave the commander-in-chief a meeting gift.

This meeting gift is a big living person, named Zhang Zhenfang, who is the cousin of Yuan Shikai, the provisional president of the Republic of China.

Originally, Zhang Zhenfang rushed to Kaifeng from Zhengzhou yesterday, trying to win over Zhao Wei to continue to serve Yuan Shikai, but did not wait for his train to arrive in Kaifeng, Zhao Wei was already impatient to rebel, Zhang Zhenfang heard the news, and hurriedly ordered the train to turn around, but there was no station to turn around, so he could only drive the car back, but before he drove far, Zhao Wei's cavalry troops stopped the train, Zhang Zhenfang did this and took prisoners, Zhao Wei didn't even see him, so he let his subordinates escort him to Zhengzhou.

For this historical celebrity, Zhao Bei was polite, not only ordered him to loosen the tie, but also brought him to the garrison headquarters and chatted with the commander-in-chief.

The Zhengzhou Garrison Headquarters was the city defense headquarters that Bao Guiqing had set up next to the railway station, and Bao Guiqing fled in such a hurry that he didn't even have time to destroy the documents and telegrams, and they all fell into the hands of the RUF troops.

"Mr. Zhang, you have drafted these telegrams, right? However, he understands the general righteousness, but the proposal of 'division between the north and the south' is a bit too wishful. ”

Zhao Bei took the drafts of several telegrams handed over by the staff officer and 'handed them over' to Zhang Zhenfang.

Zhang Zhenfang took the draft of the telegram and glanced at it twice, but smiled bitterly. The manuscript of this telegram was indeed sent by him, and the recipient of the telegram was Yuan Shikai, and the content was basically the same, all of which persuaded Yuan Shikai to seek peace with the south as soon as possible and end the war.

Can you not understand the righteousness? Through the battle in southern Henan, Zhang Zhenfang, who was originally ambitious to compete with the southern ** party, understood that the Beiyang Army was embroidered with a 'flower' pillow, bright on the surface, but it was defeated on the inside.

Faith is the most important thing at all times, and if you lose it, you will lose your courage.

Zhang Zhenfang lost confidence and courage, so he began to suggest that Yuan Shikai negotiate peace with the powerful factions in the south and come to a "division of the north and the south", with the north ruling the north and the united front ruling the south, and the well water of the two sides does not interfere with the river water.

Of course, this is a dream, because the United Front will not agree, and Zhao Bei will not agree.

"Mr. Zhang, then please take a telegram to Yuan Xiangcheng with the password, and tell him that if he wants to fight, then, our ** soldiers will accompany him to the end! If the great powers intervene, we ** soldiers will never be afraid, and we will turn this civil war into a real national war! ”

The commander-in-chief's order was beyond doubt, so Zhang Zhenfang had no choice but to draw up a telegram, pick out one from the pile of seized codebooks, and 'hand' it over to a telegraph officer.

But before the telegraph officer could start taking a telegram, two red-faced and thick-necked ** soldiers came to the commander-in-chief to complain.

The plaintiff is Zou Runyou, commander of the armored train battalion, and the defendant is Zhu Daniu, commander of the special operations regiment, on charges of "dereliction of duty."

Before Bao Guiqing retreated, he ordered the engineering battalion to blow up the peach' Hua'yu Yellow River Iron Bridge, in order to block the dreaded armored train, although only one pier was blown up, but the iron bridge is indeed no longer open to traffic, as a result, Zou Runyou's pursuit of the Beiyang rout of the action can not be implemented, anger nowhere to vent, after looking for a turn, he stared at Zhu Daniu, so he came to sue, because in his opinion, since Zhu Daniu's special operations battalion has been ordered to protect the iron bridge, then it should do its duty, but now, the Beiyang Army successfully blew up a bridge pier, this is Zhu Daniu's dereliction of duty, originally Zou Runyou planned to go to the military judge, but heard that the commander-in-chief arrived in Zhengzhou, so he directly handed the paper to the commander-in-chief, after all, the order to protect the iron bridge was given by the commander-in-chief himself.

"Bao Guiqing dared to blow up the bridge?"

Zhao Bei was also taken aback, he really didn't expect the Beiyang Army to have the courage to blow up the bridge, the current Jinghan Line is still the property of the Belgian consortium in legal theory, railways and bridges are, in the past, the first military demolition of the railway had caused protests from Belgium and France, and now, even the Beiyang Army has the courage to blow up the bridge, which really surprised Zhao Bei.

It seems that the Beiyang side has basically reached a desperate situation where the dog jumps over the wall in a hurry, and in order to stop the pursuing soldiers, they have even ignored the "state 'diplomatic relations'".