Because the development of artillery in the Fuzhou Arsenal has not been smooth, although a 75-millimeter 14-caliber mountain gun has been trial-produced, the low output is almost unbearable, and it is even impossible to replenish the losses of the divisions in a short period of time, so the Nationalist Army has put the hope of increasing firepower on mortars, and now the generals in the army are greatly satisfied with the 80-millimeter mortars and 60-millimeter mortars equipped with a large number of them, but the 100-millimeter mortars originally planned to be equipped are not high in price. It was not accepted by the Nationalist Army, and later the Fuzhou Arsenal continued to develop and developed a 120-mm heavy mortar with a larger caliber.

But since the situation in southern Jiangsu has become more and more tense, the equipment department has increased the amount of procurement, and the Fuzhou Arsenal has worked overtime to produce nearly 30 120 mm heavy mortars, which have been organized into two battalions for emergency training, and the war in southern Jiangsu broke out before the army was formed, and then they set off from Fuzhou to Hangzhou with the 1005 howitzer regiment, one battalion of the howitzer regiment went to Lishui, two battalions went to Zhenjiang, and the 120 mm mortars were also divided into two, and a battalion on the Zhenjiang side, The remaining battalion was assigned to the Guards Division.

In the past two days, the howitzer regiment has been transported by rail to Houzhenjiang, and the howitzer regiment has begun to build artillery positions, and only today will it begin to carry out the first actual combat artillery bombardment when it is ready.

Shen Gang was still very satisfied with this reinforced howitzer regiment, and with the support of this howitzer regiment, even after the main force of the navy was taken to Nanjing by Sa Zhenbing, Zhenjiang's artillery superiority would not be weakened too much.

Toward evening, because the artillery of the Beiyang Army, which had evaded reconnaissance by the planes during the day, also removed the branches and other cover of the artillery one after another, and began to shoot according to the daytime mark, an artillery regiment of the Beiyang Army was full of 54 guns, the artillery regiment of Cao Kun's Third Division was full of 75 mm field artillery and mountain artillery, and Zhang Xun's Eighth Division had a 75 mm field artillery battalion, a 75 mm mountain artillery battalion, and a 57 mm mountain artillery battalion. These two add up to more than 100 artillery pieces, even if some of the artillery of the 3rd Division was knocked out by the National Army some time ago, but there are still **10 artillery pieces.

After nightfall, the artillery began to bombard the positions of the National Army, and the artillery of the National Army began to return fire. Although the number of 75 field artillery and mountain artillery was not as good as that of the Beiyang Army, the National Army had a lot of mortars as supplements, which also offset the disadvantages of field artillery and mountain artillery to a certain extent.

However, the previous national army has always had naval artillery support, so it has always occupied the artillery advantage, not to mention that now there is a howitzer regiment that has been reinforced.

After nightfall, in addition to shelling each other, the two sides also engaged in a small-scale night battle, and both sides suffered casualties on both sides.

And this night, the huge fleet led by Sa Zhenbing led by the Haiqi arrived twenty miles below the Zhenjiang River, although the Yangtze River waterway is busy, Sa Zhenbing's fleet movements are concerned by everyone, but due to the secrecy of the situation, and the fact that it was night and night in Shanghai, the transport ships were camouflaged when sailing on the Yangtze River waterway, and the guard division also ordered the soldiers not to go on the deck at will, so walking on the Yangtze River waterway during the day, people just thought that Sa Zhenbing's fleet was going to Zhenjiang to transport supplies, I didn't expect that there would be a guard division on this large fleet.

Of course, if this fleet directly transports troops to Nanjing, it will definitely not work, after Zhenjiang, especially near Nanjing, there is a battery controlled by the Beiyang Army, and then Sa Zhenbing's fleet may have to sail carefully all the way and start an artillery battle, and the guard division will continue to stay on the transport ship, if a transport ship is sunk, everything will be over.

Therefore, for the sake of insurance, Sa Zhenbing's fleet only transported the guard division to the lower reaches of Zhenjiang, and then chose to land in the southeast area of Yangzhou, although such a large-scale landing began at night, but it could not be completed in one night, this landing was not just a person ashore, and all kinds of heavy weapons and equipment had to be transported, although Lin Chengkun and other officers of the guard division were anxiously urging and urging, and the guard division was also through sea transportation, and had some experience in landing operations and had conducted many trainings. However, there was still a lot of disclosure, and the landing continued until the next day, so when the vanguard of the first regiment of the guard division had already arrived in Yangzhou, the follow-up landing was still going on, and a large number of national troops and navies were working how to quickly unload artillery and other heavy weapons and equipment.

On the morning of November 10, the first regiment of the guard division that landed first last night arrived in Yangzhou, Chen Jingfei had a cold face, although he had not slept all night, and the landing operation after a night was a rapid march to Yangzhou, but Chen Jingfei still did not have a tired look on his face, the reason was very simple, for the landing last night and today's action, he slept for a full day during the day yesterday, but the soldiers under him were not so good. After a day of floating in the Yangtze River from the time they boarded the ship in Shanghai, it was impossible for the soldiers to get a broad rest environment like Chen Jingfei, because many soldiers were crowded in the small cargo compartment, and it was impossible to rest well.

Seeing that the brothers under his hands looked tired, Chen Jingfei cheered up and said: "Brothers, our guard division is not an ordinary national army, we are the commander's guard troops, and we are the commander's most trusted and valued troops, and our guard division is confident that we have the ability to take Yangzhou!" ”

"After taking Yangzhou, we can get half a day's rest!" Chen Jingfei continued: "This battle is related to the survival of our national army, and if the battle is won, the commander will never let down our brothers!" ”

In order to stimulate the will to fight of the guard division, before the guard division set out, not only Chen Jingyun personally paraded the troops, but then personally met with officers of all sizes, and even went to the grassroots units to visit the soldiers.

Chen Jingfei's first regiment of the guard division had just arrived in Yangzhou, and the defenders of the Beiyang Army in Yangzhou found out, but there were not many Beiyang troops in Yangzhou City, and only one battalion of troops was stationed.

After Chen Jingfei's First Regiment of the Guard Division captured Yangzhou, the follow-up Guard Division troops also arrived in Yangzhou from the riverside one after another, and after resting for four hours, the First Regiment of Chen Jingfei's Guard Division set off on the march again, and before Chen Jingfei, the reconnaissance cavalry battalion of the Guard Division had already set off for two hours.

Because Chen Jingfei attacked Yangzhou too quickly and blocked the telegraph office, the news of the loss of Yangzhou did not spread quickly. However, the news of the successful capture of Yangzhou by the guard division quickly reached the ears of Chen Jingyun in Shanghai.

"Okay, send a telegram to Lin Chengkun, let him continue to work hard, and hope to conquer Nanjing as soon as possible!" Chen Jingyun was also in a good mood after learning about it, and even had the mood to watch a Yue Opera with a group of famous gentry in Shanghai, and the voice of Yiyiyaya, who had never been disliked, would sound less disgusting.

"Commander, Lishui and Zhenjiang have also started to fight according to the plan!" Liang Xunqin reported the latest battle situation to Chen Jingyun.

In order to cooperate with the western offensive strategy of the guard division, the Nationalist Army in the Zhenjiang and Lishui directions launched a large-scale counterattack according to the predetermined plan, and Shen Gangdu and Li Jimin in the Zhenjiang direction formulated a large-scale counterattack operation.

The 1st and 4th Divisions of the Nationalist Army launched a large-scale counterattack with the support of numerous artillery pieces, and the navy, which passed through Zhenjiang and would soon continue to Nanjing, also took time to provide artillery support.

Originally, it had always been the Beiyang Army attacking, the Nationalist Army was on the defensive, so many days the Beiyang Army has been a little accustomed to it, and it is inevitable that there will be some laxity under the habitual surname, and a careless situation, a battalion under Cao Kun's third division will be surrounded by the first division commanded by Shen Gang, Cao Kun was greatly annoyed by this, and hurriedly sent troops to send generals, and cooperated with Zhang Xun to save this battalion, but even if it was rescued, only half of the dead and wounded remained, and Cao Kun was busy for a long time before the situation was stabilized again.

This counteroffensive caused Cao Kun's 3rd Division to suffer a lot of losses, one battalion was severely damaged, and then some of the other troops also suffered great casualties, so that the total number of casualties was seven or eight hundred.

Cao Kun's third division suffered a lot of losses, and Zhang Xun's eighth division was also very large, and after half a day of fierce fighting, the last count showed that there were five or six hundred dead and wounded.

This counterattack of the National Army at least knocked out more than 1,000 troops of the Beiyang Army, which can be described as a rich result, but at the same time, the casualties of the National Army itself are not small, especially the 13th Regiment of the First Division, which is the main force of the counteroffensive, this is Xu Jingqing's old army, Xu Jingqing personally led the team to launch a frontal raid that day, although it almost encircled and annihilated a battalion of the Beiyang Army, but its own casualties were also many, the first division added up to **100 casualties, and the fourth division also had some casualties. This counterattack is a battle of killing 1,000 enemies and losing 800 of yourself.

However, through this battle, it was announced that the national army had moved away from the situation of passive defense and was capable of organizing a large-scale attack.

In such a situation, Cao Kun and Zhang Xun are more cautious.

On the Lishui side, after Lin Zhaomin and Ma Cheng cooperated to fight a counterattack, the results were not as great as those on the Zhenjiang side, but their own casualties were not large, at most they were ordinary containment attacks, and as soon as the counterattack was completed, Lin Zhaomin received an order from the headquarters to go out of the Jurong area and threaten the retreat of Cao Kun and Zhang Xun in the direction of Zhenjiang and the logistics supply line.

On the evening of 10 November, the 1st Regiment of the Guards Division, led by Chen Jingfei, arrived in the Yizheng area and exchanged fire with the main force of a regiment of Zhang Xun's 8th Division stationed there.

This regiment is the regiment that Zhang Xun left on the north bank of the Yangtze River to defend and monitor, and one battalion was previously assigned to garrison Hangzhou, and there were two battalions of troops on the Yizheng side, which quickly collapsed under the blow of the first regiment of the guard division, and the remnants soon fled westward. At this time, the news of the National Army's appearance on the north bank of the Yangtze River finally came to Feng Guozhang's desk.