readx; Xinhai Great Warlord 424_Xinhai Great Warlord_

Since the Nationalist Army announced the Northern Expedition in July, the 4th of August officially launched the battle to cross the river, although the battle around Chaohu and Hefei in the previous months around the Anhui side of Cao Kun suffered defeat, but the Anhui war was not defeated like a mountain, Cao Kun's third division and the more than 20,000 Anhui Provincial Army resisted very tenaciously, not only in Chaohu and Hefei blocked the Nationalist Army for several months, but also gave the Nationalist Army heavy casualties, most of the casualties of the Nationalist Army in the past few months were Cao Kun's third division, On the contrary, Feng Guozhang's Second Army, which had heavy troops in the Jiangbei region, far outnumbered Cao Kun's troops under the Anhui Protector's envoy, although its superiority in strength and firepower was far superior to that of Cao Kun, the subordinate troops of the Anhui Protectorate, the casualties inflicted on the Nationalist Army were extremely limited. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info:

Cao Kun's defeat can be said to be not his own fault, but in terms of combat performance, his third division of more than 10,000 people was able to maintain the situation in Anhui for several months under the attack of tens of thousands of the main force of the Second Army of the Nationalist Army. Even when he finally retreated, he Cao Kun withdrew the remaining main force of the Third Division, and after the successful breakthrough, he also killed a horse pistol, causing a regiment of the pursuing Nationalist Army to suffer heavy losses. The successful retreat of the 3rd Division contrasted sharply with the retreat of the Beiyang Army on Jiangbei and Bengbu.

After Cao Kun led the remnants of the Third Division of more than 7,000 people to retreat to Lu'an, because the Nationalist Army at that time had adjusted its strategic focus to Chuzhou, only a Sixth Division was left in Hefei to guard against the Beiyang Army in the direction of Huainan and Lu'an.

As soon as he arrived in Lu'an, Cao Kun immediately rested on the spot, although he could not obtain heavy weapons and other supplements, but he still recruited a lot of soldiers on the spot, replenished most of the personnel of the Fifth Brigade and the Sixth Brigade, and restored the strength to more than 10,000 after a month's rest. And in terms of ordnance, there was no supplement, although Cao Kun pulled down his old face and personally pleaded with Duan Zhigui and got a thousand Hanyang-made rifles from Hubei, and the rifle bullets were also replenished to a certain extent. However, the heavy weapons such as artillery and heavy machine guns cannot be replenished, and the artillery and heavy machine guns are all large items, and the Beiyang Army wants to supplement them, except for the Hanyang Arsenal, which is self-made, but more needs to rely on imports, and the nearby Hubei and Henan regions are not enough for themselves, so it is naturally impossible to vacate heavy weapons to Cao Kun.

Therefore, the 3rd Division of Cao Kun today is extremely depressed compared with the past, and a huge 3rd Artillery Regiment now has only 13 mountain guns, four of which are 57-millimeter mountain guns made in Hanyang, which is very different from the strength of the mountain artillery battalion with a total of more than 70 guns under a division and a mountain artillery battalion under the Reading Brigade before the war. The heavy machine guns are also miserable, now there are only three, and the number of heavy machine guns in the previous Third Division is the largest among all units of the Beiyang Army, as many as 36.

In fact, before July this year, Cao Kun's Third Division had always been the most powerful unit of the Beiyang Army, with not only the Fifth Brigade, the Sixth Brigade, the Third Artillery Regiment, and the Third Cavalry Regiment fully established, but also a Reading Brigade with a standard central mixed brigade formation. There are more than 15,000 combatants, and if we include logistics and supplies such as baggage and engineering as in the same way as the Nationalist Army, the total strength is as high as more than 20,000.

Although a division is only about 12,000 men in peacetime, the total strength of a division will climb to more than 15,000 after a large number of baggage troops are replenished in wartime. It's just that the Beiyang Army in this year usually expands the baggage force, but hands over the baggage and other characters of the unit to the people, and this part of the people is naturally not counted into the total strength.

The same was true of the previous National Army, but now after the reform, the civilians of these transport teams have been directly incorporated into the baggage units of each division, and these personnel are no longer supernumerary, but are counted as ordinary troops.

And why do people say, 'The total strength of a division of Ben will exceed 20,000 people, because people say, 'When a division of Ben calculates the strength of troops, ordinary baggage personnel are counted.'" However, the establishment of the Beiyang Army is completely imitated by the "Ben", and the establishment of the two companies is the same in peacetime, and the establishment of the two families is also similar in wartime, but the Chinese people are accustomed to exaggerating the enemy and belittling themselves.

In fact, the Beiyang divisions, especially the six towns of Beiyang, have almost far exceeded the peaceful establishment since the Xinhai Uprising. It's just that everyone is used to their surnames and ignores this part of the people.

Cao Kun's Third Division was such a unit before the Nationalist Army launched the battle to cross the river, and in addition to the inherent personnel of the unit, there were thousands of civilian men who were responsible for logistics tasks, and the total manpower was more than 20,000.

In addition to the abundant troops, the weapons and equipment of the Third Division were the top in the Beiyang Army, and the artillery strength of a full-fledged artillery regiment and a full-fledged artillery battalion was proud of the country, and even the main force of the Nationalist Army had to be combined by two divisions to be able to match it in artillery strength.

However, it has only been a few months, after a Chaohu Battle and a Hefei Campaign, Cao Kun's third division has lost its essence, especially the heavy weapons and equipment, resulting in Cao Kun, who is now in Lu'an, frowning all day long, and when he heard that the Sixth Division of the National Army left Hefei and came directly to Lu'an, Cao Kun frowned even more.

"Dashuai, this Lu'an place is barren, and there is no strong city to defend, I think it should be ......" It is not the first time that Wu Peifu has suggested that Cao Kun leave Lu'an.

However, Cao Kun has not agreed before, mainly because the previous Third Division has experienced several major battles and urgently needs to rest and replenish, but now that the Nationalist Army is pressing, Cao Kun also has the idea of retreating again, and the Jinpu line has been withdrawn to Xuzhou, and Huainan has also been lost. Although it is said that only one Sixth Division of the National Army is coming, even if he can block it once, the next time the National Army will inevitably mobilize more troops, and he can even make a detour behind his own back in an attempt to encircle and annihilate himself.

The entire situation in Anhui is no longer possible, and whether he Cao Kun guards this Lu'an or not can no longer affect the overall situation, the only way to do this now is to save the seeds of the Third Division. 、

But the crux of the matter is, now the 3rd Division will be able to go there? Is it with Hubei or to Henan?

If you go to Hubei, there is Duan Zhigui there, and now Feng Guozhang's second army in the Beiyang system has been defeated, and only the remnants of the defeated army will be left in Xuzhou, so that Duan Zhigui's first army, which is deployed on the Jinghan line and based in Hubei, has become the largest force in the Beiyang system.

If it was before, Cao Kun didn't bother to give Duan Zhigui a look, but now that the Third Division is only left with the remnants of the defeated generals, and even the ammunition is Duan Zhigui's help in terms of affection, if he goes to Hubei now, he will not only send people under the fence, but may even have to obey Duan Zhigui's orders, this is what Cao Kun can't bear.

If you don't go to Hubei, Anhui can't stay, so you will be left with Henan.

Henan originally had no military strength, although Yuan Shikai trained a ninth division based on the Henan New Army after Xinhai, but the strength was not good, plus there was a brigade deployed in northern Anhui, there is now only one brigade in Henan Province, and then there are two or three divisions of the Henan Provincial Army.

After thinking carefully in his heart, Cao Kun decided to leave Lu'an, leave Anhui, the land of right and wrong, go directly to the south of Henan, and then approach the Jinghan line and control Xinyang. In this way, with such a fast territory in the southern region of Henan, it will also be able to recover its strength faster, and if the main force of the national army attacks in the future, relying on the Jinghan line, there will be a lot of room for turnover.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Cao Kun took the initiative to avoid the battle with nearly 10,000 people of the Third Division and retreated to the direction of Xinyang, Henan, while Huainan had also been taken by the National Army and was rapidly marching towards Fuyang. Seeing that the Nationalist Army was menacing, it did not even fight, and retreated directly to the north and retreated back to Henan, thus showing that the Beiyang Army had completely retreated from Anhui.

In the direction of Qingjiangpu, since the defeat of the Beiyang Army at Bengbu and the preparation of the Beiyang Army to rebuild the defense line at Xuzhou as a support point, the Beiyang Army of Qingjiangpu has already begun to retreat to the north. Zhang Xun was not pitted in this retreat, on the contrary, this time he pitted the 39th Brigade of the 20th Division, and he withdrew with people but left the 39th Brigade behind, causing the 39th Brigade to fall into the encirclement of the Third Army of the National Army, and finally had to announce surrender.

The surrender of the 39th Brigade has not attracted the attention of many bigwigs, even Pan Juying, the lieutenant general and division commander of the 20th Division, has surrendered, and the surrender of a brigade under the 20th Division is not a big deal.

Zhang Xun fled all the way north, and did not even listen to the orders of the War Department to go to Xuzhou, but went directly north to prepare to enter Shandong!

The capture of Qingjiangpu, Huainan, Lu'an, Fuyang and other areas indicated that the Nationalist Army had generally controlled most of the Anhui and Jiangsu provinces. Although the main force of the Nationalist Army has not yet extended to all corners of the two provinces, and even the Nationalist Army in northern Anhui has not yet been fully controlled, and even Xuzhou in northern Jiangsu has gathered a large number of Beiyang Army, and there are still many Beiyang Troops under Duan Zhigui in the western region of Anqing, Anhui, but this has not affected the fact that the Nationalist Army controls these two provinces.

At this time, other areas controlled by the Nationalist Army were added: Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, eastern Guangdong, and eastern Hainan and Hunan. At this time, the control area of the Nationalist Army was far larger than that of other warlords, including Beiyang, which was nominally controlled by the central government, and almost all of the areas under the control of the Nationalist Army were large coastal developed economic provinces, and both the population and taxes were far more than those of other regions.

In terms of the control area, the national army is already the largest warlord in the country, and in terms of the number of troops, although the national army with 200,000 troops is not as good as the Beiyang system in terms of total strength, but after several months of war, the national army continues to grow, and many of the main forces of the Beiyang army have either been completely annihilated or severely damaged, and the strength has not only increased but rapidly decreased.

And if you add the Dian Army and the Gui Army, the Nanjing Republican Political Axe, which was jointly formed by the alliance of the three major warlords in the south, has occupied most of China, and the complete victory of the Northern Expedition seems to be imminent!

Xinhai Great Warlord 424_Xinhai Great Warlord_