readx; 2-in-1 chapter

---------------------

After three days of mountain marching, Guo Chengdong was indescribably happy when he saw the field under the mountain!

"This damn mountain climber is finally over!" The major adjutant beside Guo Chengdong also showed a relaxed look. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Guo Chengdong looked at the troops marching in front of him and behind him, both the soldiers and officers had exhausted their physical strength after the three-day march, and now after turning over this hilly and mountainous area, as long as they continue to march along the west for a short distance, they can reach the edge of Chaohu Lake, and then they can build a defense line of about three kilometers in the Caijiagang area on the northern outskirts of Chaohu Lake, as long as the Fifth Mixed Brigade holds this defense line, then they can completely cut off the retreat of the defenders in Chaohu Lake and surround them in Chaohu Lake. At that time, the 8th and 9th Divisions attacking head-on will be able to attack with all their strength without any scruples, and it will be possible to encircle and annihilate the defenders in Chaohu!

After all, whether it is the Beiyang Army or the National Army in these years, it is certain that the morale will plummet when the back road is cut off and lacks logistics and ammunition supplies, as for the stubborn defense and not surrendering, it is too much to overestimate the squadron at this time, not to mention the middle ** valve troops in the early period of the Xinhai Republic of China, even in the Anti-Japanese War period decades later, it is impossible to find a few such examples, without national nationalist education and without going through modernization, it is impossible for the army to fight to the death without retreating, and there may be small-scale examples of hundreds of people and thousands of people. But on the scale of tens of thousands of battles, fighting to the death is just an illusion.

At the beginning of the war in Hangzhou, a regiment of the First Division of the National Army was able to hold on after being surrounded by the Zhejiang army, which was based on the background that the rear army was struggling to ask for help, of course, more importantly, they were only surrounded for less than three days, if they were not completely annihilated after a long time, it would be surrendered.

And many generals in the National Army Command also believe that as long as Chaohu Lake is surrounded and their retreat and logistical supply channels are cut off, whether the Beiyang Army in Chaohu can still retain its will to stick to it under the fierce attack of the Eighth and Ninth Divisions is a matter worth putting a question mark, and this question mark is that it is doubtful that they will be able to hold out for a few days, and as for whether the Beiyang Army will fight to the death, no national army general has such an opinion.

"Pass the order and rest in place!" Guo Chengdong continued thoughtfully: "Order the cavalry battalion to go forward five kilometers and explore the surrounding area!" ”

The troops had gone through several days of marching and the physical exertion was enormous, and the baggage of the troops had not yet arrived, so it was necessary to rest here for a while. After all, after leaving the mountain, they will face one big battle after another, and if they are not fully prepared, they will definitely not be able to hold on.

Thinking that the war is coming, Guo Chengdong is heart is a ripple, this battle is not only related to the success or failure of the national army in Chaohu war, but also related to his Guo Chengdong's personal future, if this station wins, then his future is very good, with this qualification is not impossible to become a military commander. If he is defeated, everything will be suspended, and the current brigade commander and major general are estimated to be the focus of his own military career.

After all, he is not a person like Chen Weihua, who was able to get back up after being silent for less than two or three months after suffering a fiasco.

When the troops were resting, Guo Chengdong had already summoned several senior officers of the Fifth Mixed Brigade to discuss the next battle plan, and the commander of the 510th Regiment was the first to say: "After the troops are rested, our regiment will march directly to the southwest, and at most it will be able to reach the outlying area of Caijiagang in half a day, and this area is enough for our troops to establish a preliminary defensive line." Then the main force of the brigade headquarters arrived in the rear with baggage to reinforce our department! ”

Guo Chengdong nodded and said: "It is impossible for our army to appear here for too long, at most it will be discovered by the Beiyang side within a day, so our army must act quickly, and must arrive at Caijiagang within twelve hours, and within twenty-four hours, our brigade must firmly nail to Caijiagang to establish a solid defense line!" ”

The chief of staff of the brigade also said at this time: "We must also report back to the military headquarters, so that the ninth and eighth divisions will also be mobilized to cooperate with our actions!" ”

Four hours later, the 510th Regiment of the Fifth Mixed Brigade took the lead in setting off and headed to the southwest and went straight to Caijiagang on the northern outskirts of Chaohu Lake, while the other main forces of the Fifth Mixed Brigade followed closely after gathering a lot of baggage.

At the same time, the command of the Second Army, which received the news that the Fifth Mixed Brigade had arrived on the side of Chaohu, ordered the Ninth Division and the Eighth Division to launch a full-scale attack, and the Chaohu battle began to enter a new ** on the night of the 12th, and the two artillery regiments of the Ninth and Eighth Divisions began to carry out large-scale artillery bombardment of Chaohu Lake, and carried out the most direct artillery support for the front-line infantry units. In the early morning of the 13th, the Ninth Division captured Gushan, a high ground outside Chaohu City, and pulled an artillery battalion up to shell the core area of Chaohu.

The offensive situation south of Chaohu Lake is developing smoothly, but in the north of Chaohu Lake, the 5th Mixed Brigade has ushered in the biggest challenge since the formation of the army!

On the afternoon of the 12th, the 510th Infantry Regiment arrived at Caijiagang, and successfully defeated hundreds of garrisons of the Third Division of the Anhui Provincial Army to capture Caijiagang. However, when Guo Chengdong had just arrived at Caijiagang and had no time to be happy, the reconnaissance cavalry sent out from the front reported that a large number of Beiyang troops had been found ten miles away in the north, and the estimated strength was at least 5,000 or more.

After getting the news, Guo Chengdong was shocked, although he had guessed that he might face reinforcements from the Beiyang Army in the direction of Hefei before coming to Caijiagang, but he didn't expect it to come so quickly.

"Why has there been no news from the Air Force, if this Beiyang Army set off from Hefei, it will be at least three or five days, how can there be no news at all?" Guo Chengdong couldn't help complaining about the Air Force, but what he didn't know was that although there were many planes in the Air Force, the entire southern Anhui and southern Jiangsu regions were so large, and the Air Force's reconnaissance focus was also in Chuzhou and the Jiangbei region, although there were a lot of reconnaissance in the direction of Chaohu Lake, but limited to the range and other reasons, there were relatively few aerial reconnaissance in the area north of Chaohu Lake near Hefei, although there would be planes going to Hefei every day to reconnoitre, but the time to stay in the sky above the target was extremely limited. As a result, the air force's reconnaissance planes were not able to discover Wu Peifu's reinforcements.

Of course, this is also related to Wu Peifu's relatively concealed marching route, when Wu Peifu was the commander of the artillery regiment of the Third Division, he was bombed and reconnoitred by the planes of the National Army, and he also had a set of methods in mind, such as going out day and night, making some camouflage marches, and to a certain extent, it also had the effect of evading aviation reconnaissance.

"It's not easy to do now, there are at least five thousand people in the north, and there is no need to think about it in Chaohu City, we will definitely send troops to attack, and we will not be comfortable under the attack of the two at that time!" One of the battalion commanders below had a sad face.

Their Fifth Mixed Brigade can be regarded as a lone army that has penetrated deeply, dozens of kilometers away from the Fifth Division, close to the Ninth and Eighth Divisions, and less than ten kilometers in a straight line, but there is a Chaohu Lake in between. In the face of a strong enemy from the north and south, it is a question whether the 5th Mixed Brigade can hold out.

Although Guo Chengdong was worried, he had no way to retreat at this time, and immediately said resolutely: "Tell me to go down, work in two shifts, half rest, and half dig fortifications overnight!" The fortifications had to face not only the south, but also the north! This time, we're going to be the nail for a while! is staring at Caijiagang! ”

The Fifth Mixed Brigade quickly centered on Caijiagang and relied on the hilly areas in the northeast to deploy a defensive line, and moved the artillery battalion to a small high ground, while to the southwest of the Fifth Mixed Brigade was an open area about two kilometers wide, and two kilometers away was the water of Chaohu Lake! With the firepower of the 5th Mixed Brigade, it is fully capable of covering two kilometers of open land, and both 75-mm mountain artillery and 80-mm mortars are enough to blockade this area. Whether the defenders in Chaohu Lake want to retreat north, or the Beiyang Army reinforcements in the north want to go south to reinforce, they must pass through this open area. Of course, they had other options, such as bypassing the open area and entering the hilly and mountainous areas like the 5th Mixed Brigade, or going south or north through Chaohu Lake. However, these two choices will take a lot of time, and now the war in Chaohu has reached the most intense point, whether the Beiyang Army wants to retreat or reinforce, it can't afford to delay for so long, one day, two days is enough for more than 10,000 defenders in the city to fall into the point of being completely annihilated.

While making these arrangements, Guo Chengdong once again sent a telegram to the headquarters of the Second Army, asking the Ninth and Eighth Divisions to attack Chaohu as soon as possible!

Although he did not say it explicitly, Guo Chengdong had already hinted that the Fifth Mixed Brigade might be able to hold out for five days in the face of a north-south attack, but it might not be able to hold out even for three days.

For this reason, Ma Cheng was so anxious that in addition to sending telegrams to the Fifth Mixed Brigade to carry forward the heroic fighting spirit of the Nationalist Army, on the other hand, he continuously sent telegrams to the Ninth and Eighth Divisions urging them to accelerate the offensive, and even sent telegrams to the Nanjing Command to request air support for air bombing.

This aerial bombardment was not requested for the Ninth and Eighth Divisions, but for the Fifth Mixed Brigade, the Ninth Division and the Eighth Division fought in Chaohu for many years, although the losses were not small, but the losses of the Beiyang Army in Chaohu Lake were even greater, according to the relevant battle reports, the two divisions together have annihilated more than 6,000 defenders in the city, and it is not too much of a problem to take Chaohu, and Chaohu Lake has already fallen into a situation of street fighting, and aerial bombardment does not play a big role. But for the 5th Mixed Brigade, the aerial bombardment was extremely effective air support.

After receiving the order from the high command, the air force did not dare to delay the fact that it began to prepare for the sortie of the aircraft group that night, and it was expected to send two bombing squadrons as the main bombing force, and at the same time sent two fighter squadrons to escort the attack, and there were also two reconnaissance planes to lead the way. In the Nanjing base of the Nationalist Air Force, there were only three bombing squadrons at this time, and since the start of the war, they have fought many times and lost several bombers, although the Fuzhou Aircraft Factory has also replenished several planes in a month, but the bombing force of the Nationalist Air Force has not been able to expand much compared with the pre-war period. Now taking out two squadrons of B3 bombers is already the maximum force that the Air Force can come up with.

At dawn the next day, that is, on 13 August, the neatly arranged planes at the airfield of the air force base in Nanjing took off one after another, and then, under the leadership of the pilot plane, flew west along the south bank of the Yangtze River, and then crossed the Yangtze River in the middle and flew toward Chaohu Lake in the northwest direction. After more than an hour of flight, the group finally arrived over Chaohu Lake, but the group did not stay over Chaohu Lake but directly crossed Chaohu Lake.

When the group arrived over Caijiagang, it began to reduce its altitude, and the pilot of the pilot aircraft at this time had already seen Caijiagang and the Nationalist soldiers in the dark brown and green uniforms in Caijiagang. And just a few kilometers north of Caijiagang, a large group of Beiyang troops wearing blue and gray military uniforms were coming towards the south.

The leader of the group to carry out the mission is the first wing of the 3rd Bombing Squadron Captain Shan Jizhong, he was also a second lieutenant officer of the Army, and then was selected to enter the Air Force, of course, the Air Force at that time was still part of the Army, after entering the aviation school to graduate, is the first phase of the Air Force Aviation School, successively served as an ordinary pilot, squad leader, squadron leader, the rank is also promoted to lieutenant colonel, the 3rd Bombing Squadron he led is the first squadron equipped with B3 bombers, and it is also the squadron that performs the most bombing missions, And the results of the bombing were extremely rich.

This time, after Shan Jizhong led the group to the sky over Caijiagang, there was not much hesitation, and directly led the group to the Beiyang Army not far away, and thirty bombers directly lowered the altitude to bomb, because the place was in a state of marching, it was impossible to set up a fixed air defense machine gun setting, and it was difficult to organize the interception of air defense fire in the face of a sudden air attack, which is also the reason why Shan Jizhong did not hesitate to attack directly. It would not take a minute or two to fly over the head of the Beiyang Army and drop bombs, and during this time, the Beiyang Army was categorically incapable of organizing anti-aircraft fire to intercept them.

In fact, before the bomber group lowered its altitude to bomb, the eight D5A fighters of the two squads had already made an extremely agile and rapid turn, and then dived directly towards these Beiyang troops, and in a short time the machine guns on their noses had already opened fire, sweeping the Beiyang troops on the ground, which were already in a state of panic!

Looking at the National Army plane whizzing over his head and spraying bullets, Wu Peifu hated it so much, but now there was no time for him to scold!

"Quick, add up the machine guns and take those planes down!" Wu Peifu shouted loudly, trying to get his troops to conduct air defense operations as soon as possible.

At present, the Beiyang Army has purchased a lot of Madsen light machine guns, and in the latest CĀO dictionary of the Beiyang Army, it is ordered to use light machine guns in combat for air defense operations, and when there is no air threat, it can be transferred to ground engagement.

The Third Division, which is a descendant of the Beiyang Army, is naturally equipped with a lot of Madsen light machine guns, and Wu Peifu also brought a light machine gun company with him this time. However, the planes of the Nationalist Army came too fast, and before the bombers came, they were swept back and forth by the fighters of the Nationalist Army, although there were not many casualties, but they successfully created chaos, and there were soldiers of the Beiyang Army running around everywhere, and the soldiers of the machine gun company were also scattered a lot, and when the bomber group of the Nationalist Army was approaching, only a few three or five machine guns began to fire at the air.

At this time, the bomber group of the Nationalist Army had already dropped a large number of 50-kilogram aerial bombs, and a series of bombs exploded one after another, and in just a few minutes, Wu Peifu's troops were bombed by nearly 200 50-kilogram aerial bombs, which instantly turned this area into a sea of fire, and the flames and smoke shrouded this area for a long time.

The bomber group quickly climbed up and climbed after dropping the bomb in just a few minutes, but on the way, a bomber hit the engine on the right side because it was previously hit by the anti-aircraft fire of the Beiyang Army, and the engine quickly caught fire and crashed directly, Shan Jizhong looked at which B3 bomber was already on fire and fell to the ground, sighed and closed his eyes!

Some are always lost! This is already the second B3 bomber lost in his squadron!

However, he knew that even if he lost a bomber, today's bombing mission was a perfect success, and at least half of the thousands of Beiyang troops on the ground were enveloped in the bombing range, and such a large-scale simultaneous bombardment was much more effective than the continuous shelling of the army artillery, mainly because the 50-kilogram aerial bomb was far more powerful than the army's 75-millimeter artillery and 80-millimeter mortar.

The airplanes did not stay after climbing high, and went back directly, the time for the planes to stay in the air was limited, and the time for the bombing was more than 100 kilometers, and there would not be a lot of fuel left when they returned to Nanjing, and in order to avoid a shortage of fuel, it was the only rational way to go back after dropping the bombs.

The air force group flew away, and Guo Chengdong, who was a few kilometers away, looked at the smoke and dust in the distance with a telescope and was dumbfounded, and only said after a long time: "These boys of the Air Force are too ruthless, and they have dropped so many bombs in just a while!" ”

The adjutant next to him was also amazed by the power of the aerial bombardment and said: "I think this bombing can at least reimburse a small half of the Beiyang Army!" ”

"It shouldn't be possible to kill and injure too many people directly, but there must be chaos, I think we can take the opportunity to send troops, maybe we can pick up a leak!" The commander of the 520th regiment next to him said so.

Guo Chengdong nodded and said: "While they are dizzy from being bombed, we will go and pick up some cheap, so that a battalion will be sent out of the 520 regiment, and then a mortar company will be attached to it, and it will go north to test the attack, and if the situation is not good, we will immediately retreat!" ”

Wu Peifu was bombed and scolded his mother, there were fires and Huichen after the explosion everywhere, and many people were injured or killed, and a bomb happened to fall next to him, he Wu Peifu was not next to him, but the five or six Beiyang Army soldiers there were reimbursed.

Just as Wu Peifu was investigating the losses and organizing the team, there were suddenly several explosions, and many Beiyang Army soldiers, including Wu Peifu, were shocked in their hearts: "Could it be that those National Army planes are back?" ”

However, upon closer inspection, it was revealed that it was only three or five explosions, and that it was an artillery bombardment rather than an air raid. Finding that it was not an air raid, Wu Peifu was slightly determined, and immediately ordered the troops to carry out a counterattack operation.

Although Wu Peifu's troops have experienced a lot of bombing, only about one-third of the troops in the central part of the country have been shrouded in it, and the rest of the troops are fine, his troops have more than 6,000 people, although the casualties in the bombing just now are slightly larger, but only three or four hundred people have been killed and wounded, and the losses are not large, and the real consequence is to disrupt the troops.

After Wu Peifu dispatched troops to counterattack, the battalion under the 520th Regiment also accepted it when it saw it, and after killing and wounding more than 100 people in the chaos, it quickly retreated, and then fled back to Caijiagang, while the artillery unit of the Fifth Mixed Brigade also shelled the pursuing Beiyang Army to provide support for the front-line infantry.

In the afternoon, Wu Peifu, who had gathered his troops, had already arrived in front of Caijiagang, and then launched a tentative attack!

At this point, the battle in the three directions of the Xianji area, the south of Chaohu Lake, and the north of Chaohu Caijiagang has broken out in an all-round way, and the two sides have gathered tens of thousands of troops to fight here, striving for the victory of the first battle of the Anhui war!