The two-in-one chapter, originally planned to be written as two chapters, but the plot is not very good, so I just sent it directly to one chapter, and it was better to treat it as a plus! ――

"When did they cross the river? Why is there no news at all? Feng Guozhang was very dissatisfied with his subordinates' intelligence gathering ability, but he was dissatisfied, and he could only endure asking other news first: "How is Yangzhou doing, can you get in touch?" ”

The officer subordinate to the Second Army bowed his head and replied: "Not for the time being, it is expected that Yangzhou has been occupied by the National Army and the telegraph office has been blocked!" ”

"Did the Nationalist Army on the north shore find out if it was the unit of the Nationalist Army?" Feng Guozhang continued to ask.

The adjutant replied: "At present, there is limited information, and it is not yet known which national army unit it is." ”

Hearing this, Feng Guozhang looked at the map with a heavy face and pondered, no matter how the Nationalist Army crossed the river, but now it is very certain that at least one regiment of the Nationalist Army has arrived on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and occupied Yangzhou, and also defeated part of the defenders of the Eighth Division in the Yizheng area, and the enemy army that can quickly defeat one regiment of Zhang Xun's Eighth Division should have at least one mixed brigade of five or six thousand people.

It was not fun for such a large-scale enemy army to appear on the north bank of the Yangtze River, he stared at the map, did they want to take the north bank of Nanjing? Blockade of the Jinpu line?

As soon as he thought of this possible surname, Feng Guozhang's forehead began to break out in a cold sweat, and he walked around the room, thinking about whether Nanjing could be defended, and what trouble would be caused if he joined the north bank of Nanjing and was occupied by the Nationalist Army.

After thinking for a while, he said to the adjutant beside him: "Call Jin Yunpeng of the Fifth Division and ask him to send a regiment back to Nanjing to help." Call Cao Kun and Zhang Xun in Zhenjiang again and ask them to take Zhenjiang as soon as possible! Feng Guozhang thought for a while and said, "I want to see the results in three days!" ”

The two divisions have been in Zhenjiang for more than half a month, and there has been no progress at all, such progress makes Feng Guozhang unable to explain, and if it continues to drag on like this, I am afraid that there will be more variables, and it is necessary to transfer troops back to Nanjing as soon as possible after taking Zhenjiang to prevent accidents.

As for the safety of Nanjing, Feng Guozhang was not very worried for a while, Nanjing was originally the base camp of his Second Army, and there were thousands of troops directly under the military headquarters and other auxiliary troops.

However, for the sake of insurance, he still transferred a regiment of Jin Yunpeng's Fifth Division back to defend Nanjing, so that Nanjing has two regiments and other affiliated troops, adding up to nearly 6,000 troops, and the Nationalist Army has the confidence to block even if a division comes to Feng Guozhang.

The most important thing for Feng Guozhang now is to take Zhenjiang as soon as possible, as long as Zhenjiang is taken, Cao Kun's third division and Zhang Xun's eighth division will be free, and he will be able to use at least one force for mobile operations, instead of the three divisions being held back by the national army as now, and there is no way to carry out roundabout mobile operations.

After receiving Feng Guozhang's order, Cao Kun and Zhang Xun were depressed, Feng Guozhang has been urging them to conquer Zhenjiang as soon as possible almost every day in the past few days, and this time it was actually limited to take Zhenjiang within three days, which made Cao Kun and Zhang Xun feel bitter and couldn't say it, if they could easily take Zhenjiang, they would have taken it a long time ago, why wait until now.

But a military order is a military order, not to mention that Cao Kun has also learned that a part of the Nationalist Army has crossed the Yangtze River and appeared on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and looking at the march route of the Nationalist Army, it is obvious that it is heading straight for Nanjing, and the situation seems to have changed all of a sudden.

Can this Nanjing resist the attack of the Nationalist Army, Cao Kun also knows a little about the defensive strength of Nanjing, but he does not know how many troops the Nationalist Army on the other side of the river has sent to attack Nanjing, if there is only about one brigade of troops, there should be no problem in Nanjing, but if it is said that there is a national army of more than one division to attack Nanjing, then Nanjing will be dangerous.

After fighting the Nationalist Army for so many days, Cao Kun from the previous contempt to attention, almost saw with his own eyes that the Nationalist Army had a momentum of getting bigger and stronger, and his third division was like a bamboo, but as the Nationalist Army held on to the core position of Zhenjiang, the battle seemed to be deadlocked, and the casualty ratio of the two sides began to approach, and later due to the presence of the Nationalist Army's aircraft reconnaissance, so that the Beiyang Army did not dare to fire casually during the day, and the artillery attack was greatly reduced.

If all the troops of the Nationalist Army were as strong as the First Division of the Nationalist Army in front of them, then Cao Kun expected that breaking the stalemate in southern Jiangsu would require at least the same number of troops as the Nationalist Army, instead of fighting more with less.

Although they were worried about Nanjing, Feng Guozhang did not transfer his and Zhang Xun's troops back to defense, but transferred Lishui's Fifth Division back to defense, and ordered them to speed up the capture of Zhenjiang, so they could only let go of their worries about Nanjing and put all their minds on how to conquer Zhenjiang.

Since Feng Guozhang gave only three days, Cao Kun and Zhang Xun quickly formulated a new plan, and launched a large-scale night attack that night, although it was very difficult for both sides to fight a field battle in this year, but during the day because of the presence of the Nationalist army's aircraft, the artillery of the Beiyang Army did not dare to fire at will, and it would be tragic for the infantry to charge without artillery support. Therefore, in recent times, the Beiyang Army usually chooses to attack in the evening and fight at night, and during the day, it tries to avoid fighting and hide in the trenches.

However, the Zhenjiang defense line has been operated by the Nationalist Army for more than half a month, and the trenches are digging more and more, and they are becoming more and more complicated, and the Nationalist Army has limited supplies in the direction of Zhenjiang, so it not only urgently transported a large amount of cement and barbed wire from Fuzhou to build the defense line, but even urgently transferred some material reserves from the Fifth Division in Fujian and the Third Division in Guangzhou for the war in southern Jiangsu. After the First Division lost a large number of heavy weapons, Chen Jingyun personally ordered an artillery battalion and two heavy machine gun batteries of the Fifth Division remaining in Fujian to be urgently transported to Zhenjiang by sea to replenish the First Division.

After such a long stalemate, the defense line of the Nationalist Army has been a bit of the outline of the trench system of the Western Front of World War I, although it is not as strong and complex as the Western Front of World War I in terms of heavy artillery and fortifications, but it is not something that the Beiyang Army can easily conquer today.

After fighting down overnight, Cao Kun's Third Division only advanced a few dozen meters after paying more than 500 casualties, and even the longest section was only a few hundred meters, although the progress was very small and the casualties were large, but Cao Kun did not stop retreating, but was ready to rest for a while during the day and continue to fight at night, he did not believe that with more than 20,000 people of the Third and Eighth Divisions, he would not be able to take this Zhenjiang.

Cao Kun was determined to take Zhenjiang, and Shen Gang and Li Jimin on the opposite side also felt huge pressure, and the recent battle plan of the National Army was formulated by him, he knew very well the important surname of Zhenjiang, and knew that he had to defend Zhenjiang before the guard division took Nanjing, otherwise if Zhenjiang was lost, then the guard division would not say whether it could conquer Nanjing, and there would even be a danger of annihilation.

Therefore, Zhenjiang cannot be lost.

In the face of the large-scale attack of the 3rd Division and the 8th Division, Shen Gang had already put most of the reserves on hand into it, and now there were only two battalions of reserves left, but when the front was tight everywhere, he threw the remaining two battalions into the front line in less than one night. By the 11th of November, Shen Gang no longer had any reserves on hand.

In order to get more reinforcements, Shen Gang not only asked the staff to send more recruits, but also suggested that Chen Jingyun send the 43rd Regiment of the Fourth Division to Zhenjiang to reinforce it, but this suggestion was directly rejected by Chen Jingyun.

This 43rd regiment is the last reserve that he Chen Jingyun kept, and it can be regarded as his last life-saving force, even if Zhenjiang is defeated on the whole line, he will not send this regiment out, and when the time comes, he still expects this regiment to be able to protect him from the battlefield, and even more expects that when the situation is fully collapsed in the future, Hangzhou will not have no troops at all.

After all, no one can say who will win the war in southern Jiangsu, Chen Jingyun must take into account the situation after the defeat, if the southern Jiangsu region is really defeated, then he plans to defend in Hangzhou again, in order to collect the remnants, if the follow-up is still not good, he will take these remnants to retreat to the mountainous areas of southern Zhejiang, with the Sixth Division as the main force, and the remnants of the troops to use the terrain of the mountainous areas of southern Zhejiang to resist.

Chen Jingyun of the 43rd Regiment did not let go, and it was too late to come over from Fuzhou and then the Fifth Division, and besides, Fujian's hometown must also be guarded by troops, and if all the troops are withdrawn, it is difficult to guarantee that nothing will happen.

After counting it in such a circle, you will find that Shen Gang has no reinforcements.

"Brother Li, it's all up to us now!" Shen Gang took off the white gloves that were stained with blood on his hands, and then took off the officer's coat on his body, and blood stains were faintly visible on the coat.

As soon as Li Jimin looked like this, he immediately asked, "What, is it injured?" ”

Shen Gang shook his head: "That's it!" Not at all! Chen Jingyun has already clearly forbidden officers at the school level to fight in the line of fire in person, and violators will be punished, and those who are serious will be directly removed from their posts. The role of a middle and senior officer is not that you fight with a gun, but that of command, if a middle and senior officer casually rushes to the battlefield for personal heroism and dies, in addition to bringing a huge morale blow to the army, it will also lead the troops to lose command, even if a temporarily promoted officer replaces the command, but it will seriously affect the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Therefore, officers at or above the level of the national army battalion will not personally carry guns to fight under normal circumstances, and the matter of charging with soldiers is more of a company commander, platoon commander and other grass-roots officers and senior non-commissioned officers.

"Just went to the medical camp!" Shen Gang said: "Alas, the fight during this period of time was too bad, and the casualties of the troops were very heavy. ”

Li Jimin also sighed and said: "The staff department has already replenished us with at least 5,000 people, but now you and I are still short of troops!" ”

In fact, there were not many wounded soldiers left in the Zhenjiang medical camp, only a few hundred, and many more wounded soldiers were transferred to Shanghai and Hangzhou, and now Chen Jingyun has ordered military supervision of the medical resources in Shanghai's Chinese boundary, including Western-style hospitals, traditional Chinese medicine clinics, and even medicine halls, so that they can accept a large number of wounded soldiers from the Nationalist Army. Of course, this is not free, the National Army will pay for the treatment of these wounded soldiers according to a certain percentage, to ensure that these hospitals, medical centers do not lose money, but if you want to make money from the wounded soldiers of the National Army, it is impossible.

Based on the medical level of this era, a considerable part of these wounded soldiers will not survive, in the era when antibiotics were not invented, the wound itself is nothing, but the most fatal is the infection of the wound, because the wound on the battlefield often can not be effectively cared for at the first time, so many soldiers' wounds will be infected, maybe only finger injuries at first, but then the entire palm is rotten, and the small arm may not be saved after sawing off the palm, and then sawed off one by one, If you're lucky, you'll lose an arm, and if you're unlucky, sawing off your entire arm won't stop the infection from spreading, and you'll die in agony.

Therefore, in this era on the battlefield, there is no essential difference between being shot in the torso and being shot in the hands and feet.

In the days before antibiotics were invented, minor injuries were just as fatal as major injuries.

Shen Gang didn't know how many of the thousands of wounded soldiers would survive, and he didn't have time to think about whether those wounded soldiers could survive, and he didn't even care. It doesn't matter if he is cold-blooded, or whether he is ruthless, but now he is more concerned about the morale of the army, and more concerned about the victory or defeat of Zhenjiang.

"How's it going?" Shen Gang took off his coat, washed his face, and turned to ask Li Jimin.

Li Jimin said: "Now the situation on the 11th regiment side is a little urgent, and Cao Yangqing has called for help many times!" ”

Shen Gang walked over and looked at the latest map of the situation between the enemy and us, and then said: "Your 41st Regiment can get closer to the 11th Regiment, and the 2nd Battalion under the 41st Regiment can directly join the defense line of the 1st Battalion of the 11th Regiment to strengthen the defense!" ”

Although Chen Jingyun did not give a clear specification, but the war in Zhenjiang has always been the responsibility of the commander of the first division, before Chen Weihua, and later became Shen Gang, and based on Chen Jingyun's favor for Shen Gang, although Li Jimin has some taste in his heart, he will not show it, the focus of these is to agree to this battle, as long as he wins in Zhenjiang, he Shen Gang has merit, but I Li Jimin's credit can't run, and after the expansion of the national army, it is not easy to catch a commander.

Shen Gang continued to look at the map, and said after a while: "Wait for two hours, let the 42nd Regiment fight another small counterattack, and beat back the Beiyang Army here, so as not to be caught off guard and threaten the safety of the howitzer regiment!" ”

When Shen Gang and Li Jimin were making the latest tactical arrangements, Lin Chengkun was riding another high-headed white horse, followed by a group of senior officers of the guard division, and on the main road next to him, a large number of guard divisions were marching in three columns.

When Chen Jingyun borrowed money from him and purchased a large number of artillery, he also imported a batch of military horses, most of which were carrying military horses, and only dozens of them were riding horses, Chen Jingyun left these dozens of riding horses in the Governor's Mansion, which were usually used by the guards, and occasionally let the heralds of the headquarters use it, and later saw that Lin Chengkun liked one of the war horses with white hair all over his body, so he simply gave this horse to Lin Chengkun.

After Lin Chengkun and the others rode over a small hill, they saw a boulder platform in front of them, and the surname Suo took a slight break after getting off the horse over there, this rest was not to let people rest, but to let the horse rest.

At this time, Lin Chengkun had already asked the adjutant beside him to take out the military map, and after comparing it back and forth, he said: "You should be able to reach [***] at night!" ”

Yu Ruofei on the side also said: "After two consecutive days of marching, the physical exertion of the soldiers is very great, and you can see if you are resting for one night in [***]!" ”

When the first regiment of the guard division attacked Yangzhou as the vanguard of the whole division, the main force of the guard division was still busy unloading heavy weapons and equipment by the river, and it was busy until noon, when the guard division got all the equipment off the boat, and then the troops set off to Yangzhou one after another, and after resting for only six hours at night, they marched again, and because of the hurry, Let the troops go a lot faster, and the physical exertion of the soldiers is very large.

Lin Chengkun naturally knew the situation of his troops, and immediately said: "Rest in [***] tonight!" ”

"Also, where are Chen Jingfei and the reconnaissance cavalry battalion now?" Lin Chengkun asked the adjutant beside him.

The adjutant beside him replied: "According to the telegram sent by Regiment Commander Chen, they have captured the county seat of [***] six hours ago, and now they have left [***] and are heading for Nanjing. The last news of the Scout Cavalry Battalion came through the 1st Regiment, which had by that time reached the outskirts of Nanking and had now turned north as ordered. ”

The 1st Regiment of the Guard Division is the vanguard of the whole army, it is advancing lightly, and the speed of the march is much faster than that of the main force of the Guard Division with a large number of heavy weapons and equipment, while the reconnaissance cavalry battalion of the Guard Division is faster, and their combat objectives are to move north along the Jinpu Line, attack the logistics supply line of the Beiyang Army, block the rapid southward movement of the Beiyang Army's reinforcements from Chuzhou, Anhui, and destroy the railway lines if necessary, such as blowing up the railroad tracks, blowing up the railway bridges, and so on. However, if the bridge is really to be blown up and the railway is destroyed, then it cannot be openly admitted that the national army did it.

In these years, most of China's railway lines belonged to the capital of various countries, and the warlords fought back and forth in the melee of the Republic of China for decades, but the trains on the Jinpu Line and the Longhai Line were still operating normally, and the warlords had to greet the railway company first even if they wanted to use their troops to transport the railway. Yuan Shikai is also the same, the train transporting troops to the south and transporting a large number of supplies to the south must be negotiated with the railway company, and they cannot be messed around, of course, if the front military situation is urgent, and the railway company refuses to cooperate with the military transportation, the troops below must force them to cooperate with guns and bullets. However, generally speaking, this kind of thing does not happen, as long as Yuan Shikai pays the freight, the railway company is very willing to help him transport troops and transport supplies and military supplies. The same thing happened in southern Jiangsu under the control of the Nationalist Army, such as the railway line from Hangzhou to Shanghai and Shanghai to Zhenjiang.

Therefore, until the last resort, it is better not to do the sabotage of the railway, and even if you want to do it, you can't do it in your own name, and if it is known, you will be beaten to death and not admit it.

When the Guard Division arrived at [***], the first regiment of the Guard Division had already left [***] and went to the outskirts of Nanjing. At the same time, Feng Guozhang had already transferred a regiment from the south bank of Nanjing to Pukou on the north bank, and gathered some other auxiliary troops, adding up to about 4,000 people to step up the deployment of fortifications in Pukou, and Jin Yunpeng's Fifth Division also sent a regiment to urgently return to the direction of Nanjing.

The Nanjing War is about to break out!