readx; The southeast of Chaohu Lake is close to the Yangtze River is a large open field area, this kind of place is naturally not suitable for the Beiyang Army to carry out defensive operations, so the ** brigade simply withdrew from this area and entered the Chaohu area, ready to rely on this hilly terrain for defensive operations. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Although the main force has withdrawn to Chaohu, there are still a lot of sporadic troops of the Beiyang Army in this wilderness area, the most important of which is naturally the cavalry battalion under the ** Brigade of the Third Division of the Beiyang Army.

According to the establishment of the Beiyang Army, the Third Division has a fully equipped cavalry regiment, and the two infantry brigades under it will not be directly assigned to the cavalry establishment, and the command will temporarily strengthen the cavalry units in wartime, just like the artillery regiment, the infantry companies will be temporarily assigned to one artillery battalion after another, and the mode of forming mixed brigades will be used to conduct operations on one front. When Cao Kun organized and trained this ** brigade, he was directly assigned to the ** brigade with auxiliary establishments such as artillery battalions and cavalry battalions, and at the beginning it was a mixed brigade model, because Cao Kun himself had to make a mixed brigade, and the military expenses spent were all looted from the localities, and although the small treasury of the third division was not small, it could not make this ** brigade as full as those central mixed brigades, and there was nothing lacking. The artillery battalion was okay, but Cao Kun finally raised eighteen guns. Although half of them are 57 mm Hanyang orogenic artillery, but to be able to equip the ** brigade under the division with an artillery battalion, it is enough to see that Cao Kun's means are not small, you must know that some other Beiyang Army units of their own artillery regiments are not able to be fully established, the Beiyang Army has been greatly expanded in recent years, and there are many equipment lost in successive battles, although it has spent a lot of money on continuous imports, but it cannot meet the artillery needs of so many armies.

The artillery department has expanded, and the cavalry unit naturally followed, the third division itself has a full cavalry regiment, and the losses in the war in southern Jiangsu are not small, and even the commander of the cavalry regiment, Sun Dianrong, was injured, but after the war, Yuan Shikai asked people to give people, asked for money to give money, and soon the third division was full of formation, and then when Cao Kun expanded the ** brigade himself, he also built a cavalry battalion at will, but the cavalry was more difficult to get than the artillery, and the cavalry battalion of the ** brigade was not able to be fully prepared before the national army crossed the river. Later, on the first day of the Nationalist Army's crossing of the river, the commander of the ** Brigade usually sent Wang Chengbin to investigate the situation, but before he could get close, he was blocked by the fierce artillery fire of the Nationalist Army, and then was beaten by the Ninth Division with machine guns for a while, and withdrew with heavy losses.

Up to now, there are only less than 100 cavalry left, but despite this, the cavalry strength of this ** brigade is far superior to the cavalry battalion belonging to the 9th Division of the advance force of the National Army.

If it is said that the Nationalist Army is far superior to the Beiyang Army in navy and air force, comparable to the Beiyang Army in artillery, and almost the same in infantry and even in heavy machine guns and light machine guns, then in cavalry, the two are not at the same level at all.

At present, the largest cavalry establishment of the National Army and even the ** cavalry regiment directly under the Command, the whole regiment has no more than 1,000 cavalry. Among the subordinate divisions, the casual establishment table said that each division should be assigned a cavalry battalion, but in fact, except for a few main divisions, the other units were not fully staffed at all, and the cavalry battalions of many divisions were empty, most of them could not be ridden, and most of them were also used as scouts.

The cavalry of the national army can not develop, this is also limited by hardware, there is no so-called horse farm in the area controlled by the national army, and there are no other suitable areas to import horses, the national army can not even meet the needs of the horses, including the first division of the ace troops, the artillery regiment is not enough to transport horses, forced to choose a large number of mules, and even donkeys and other livestock, not to mention riding horses, these few war horses are the national army tried its best to collect. The main division of the Nationalist Army was unable to make its cavalry battalion fully established, and the Ninth Division established later had no way to make the cavalry battalion of its subordinate cavalry fully staffed, and there was not even a single company, only two platoons of more than 80 cavalry.

The cavalry establishment of the National Army is different from that of the Beiyang Army, the Beiyang Army follows the old system of the former Qing Dynasty, and the National Army also follows the old system of the former Qing Dynasty at the beginning, but because the cavalry is really insufficient, the cavalry establishment is reduced, and the division is equipped with a cavalry battalion, with three cavalry companies, each cavalry company has jurisdiction over three cavalry platoons, each platoon has 40 people, and it can achieve more than 500 cavalry if it is full. The ** cavalry regiment is temporarily attached to two cavalry battalions, with a total of 1,000 cavalry forces.

At this time, the only two cavalry platoons of the cavalry battalion of the 9th Division were slowly moving north under the leadership of a captain company commander, and like most of the cavalry battalions of the Nationalist Army, these cavalrymen did not come out to seek any decisive battle between cavalry or other combat missions, they only came out to reconnoitre.

However, when this cavalry company passed through the field, the same cavalry in the distance had already dismounted and hid in the field, and one of the major of the Beiyang Army looked at the Nationalist cavalry company slowly passing in the distance with a telescope, and looked at the Nationalist cavalry passing in front of him, and his face showed a trace of unwillingness. If it had been a few days ago, before his cavalry battalion had not been severely damaged, he would definitely not hesitate to lead his cavalry to a strong attack and completely defeat the cavalry of the National Army who didn't even seem to be able to ride a horse, but now he didn't dare.

On the first day of crossing the river, his cavalry battalion suffered heavy losses, and now there is no surplus of less than a hundred cavalry, which is comparable to the cavalry strength of the Nationalist army in front of him, but he still has a more important task, he needs to find out the strength of the Nationalist army, not to fight a charge-style decisive battle with an enemy cavalry unit.

If there are no accidents, then these two cavalry units of equal size will cross over, each carrying out their own reconnaissance mission, but anything can happen in war, and all kinds of accidents are always accompanied by surprise.

I don't know when, a shout suddenly came from the cavalry ranks of the National Army on the opposite side: "There is an enemy!" ”

Although the distance was a little far, and the cavalry of the Beiyang Army had all dismounted and carried out a certain amount of secrecy, Ren Jiu let a cavalry of the National Army find out, and immediately shouted out a loud warning. At that moment, the cavalry of the Nationalist Army on the opposite side left and scattered in formation, and then in the next moment, several horsemen turned their horses and turned their heads in the direction of the cavalry of the Beiyang Army.

The battalion commander of the major of the Beiyang Army turned dark and scolded: "Bastard! Then he shouted: "Get on the horse!" Rush over! ”

Both of them are already within a kilometer, and the Beiyang Army was found purely because the eyes of the cavalry of the National Army were too good, and now, after this distance is discovered, there is no need to continue to hide, either get on the horse and gallop away, or get on the horse and rush forward to fight with the National Army!

The major of the Beiyang Army did not choose to turn around and flee, if he fled to the rear, he could not carry out the reconnaissance mission, if he fled to the front, the cavalry of the National Army would inevitably follow, both sides were cavalry, it was impossible to pull down too much distance, and it was naturally impossible to secretly carry out the reconnaissance mission if he was followed by a retreat.

Then the only option left is to fight!

The major turned over on his horse, drew his saber and skillfully pulled a knife flower, at this time nearly a hundred horsemen behind him had all mounted their horses, and most of the cavalrymen had already drawn their sabers. In modern cavalry, although the cavalry spear is already an important part, for the upcoming cavalry duel in close combat, the cavalry spear is far less useful than the saber.

The major looked back at the elite cavalry he belonged to, then clamped his feet and swung his saber forward: "Kill!" ”

In an instant, dozens of Beiyang cavalry wearing cyan uniforms poured towards the cavalry of the Nationalist Army like a tide, and the cavalry battalion of the Ninth Division obviously did not expect to encounter a large cavalry force of the Beiyang Army here, and it seemed that it was still a cavalry unit that had been in ambush for a long time. Although the cavalry captain and company commander had graduated from the cavalry department of the Fuzhou Military Academy last year, the school period of the Fuzhou Military Academy was too short, only three months, and it was good to teach infantry officers in these three months, but it was worse for cavalry and artillery officers. If artillery officers can still fire their guns in the rear and learn slowly, then cavalry officers who often appear at the forefront of the battlefield to carry out reconnaissance missions rarely have such opportunities to grow up slowly.

Seeing the sudden appearance of a large force of cavalry, the face of the captain and company commander of the National Army changed greatly, and he shouted: "Prepare for war, prepare for war......"

Then the cavalry of the national army, although a little flustered, immediately assembled as usual training, and had already taken out their cavalry guns!

It can already be seen from here that one cavalry is charging forward with a saber brandish, while the other cavalry is the first to take out a cavalry gun and prepare to intercept and shoot!

Victory or defeat has not been predicted in too many words, the cavalry of the Beiyang Army under the leadership of the battalion commander of the major, brandishing a cold and shining saber jumped out of the field, the horse pistol in the hands of the cavalry of the National Army did not have a few shooting opportunities, at this time the captain and company commander of the National Army also seemed to notice that something was wrong, and immediately shouted: "Abandon the gun, draw the knife and charge!" ”

However, it was already late, the cavalry's charge also needed to be slowly accelerated, the Beiyang Army came slowly from a distance, and then suddenly accelerated after approaching hundreds of meters, the speed had increased to extremely fast, and when the cavalry of the National Army reacted to charge forward with a drawn knife, there was not enough time and distance for them, and as soon as the war horse ran, the Beiyang Army cavalry on the opposite side had already rushed to the front with a saber.

The battalion commander of the Beiyang Army Major looked at the pile of National Army cavalry in front of him, and a sneer appeared on his face: "Vulnerable!" Then he slashed a cavalryman of the Nationalist army who had come from the hedge, and blood gushed out, exuding a charming bright color in the sunlight.

The captain of the national army at this time the saber in his hand was also stained with the blood of a Beiyang Army cavalry, not only his saber was stained with blood, but also on his face, after a charge, the captain and company commander looked left and right, and found that the cavalry under his command was less than half. The cavalry of the Beiyang Army on the opposite side had regrouped and was preparing to launch a second charge towards them. In such a situation, the captain and company commander also knew that it was impossible to do it, and immediately shouted: "Withdraw!" ”

Three days after the Nationalist Army crossed the river in Wuhu, the first head-to-head exchange occurred between the two sides, mainly cavalry, and in this battle, the cavalry of the Nationalist Army suffered a heavy defeat!