readx; "Damn heavy rain!" Tang Qiang pulled his foot out of a muddy water, and then stepped into the muddy water again, and the pair of long military boots he was wearing had completely lost their previous light, and they were covered with muddy water, and even the military uniform on his body was stained with a little mud star. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info If this image is placed in the past, Tang Qiang will definitely be unbearable. In the two years since the founding of the Nationalist Army, the tradition of officers who like neat and tidy dresses has intensified, starting from Yuan Fang and then quickly spreading throughout the army.

In such an environment, Tang Qiang is naturally unavoidable, he is a set of bright military uniforms in his body, and he was originally wealthy, not bad for money, these various military uniforms are customized by himself outside, although the style is the same, but the material workmanship is much better than that distributed by the logistics department of the National Army. Since the uniforms of the officers of the National Army were all bought by the officers themselves, and the food expenses had to be paid for by themselves, only the soldiers' uniforms and food were supplied. Therefore, many officers who have spare money in their hands like to go out and order military uniforms.

Of course, this custom-made is only workmanship, the material is better, but the style can never be changed, once the style of the military uniform is changed without permission, it is a violation of military discipline, and it is not as simple as confinement when caught.

At this moment, Tang Qiang's specially customized military uniform was already stained with mud, and if it was a normal time, he would definitely change it as soon as possible, but now that he was marching with the troops, he could only endure and continue to hurry. Not only him, but at this time, few of the seven or eight hundred people in his battalion were clean, all of them were covered in mud and water, and some of them were still wet. Fortunately, it is now April, and the weather is not as cold as in winter, otherwise they will have to die of cold.

"Battalion commander, there is a town in front of you, and it's getting late, let's see if you let the brothers go to the town to rest for one night to drive away the cold and restore their strength!" At this time, the captain and company commander of the third company came over, and he was also dirty.

Tang Qiang took out his pocket watch and looked at it, now the time is already more than five o'clock in the afternoon, they set off from Dangtu County in the morning, as the advance battalion of the whole regiment to continue to march in the direction of Wuhu, but last night's heavy rain made the road extremely muddy, although the first battalion is the advance battalion, and did not carry a large number of heavy weapons and ammunition supplies like the regiment headquarters, the whole battalion only set off with light weapons, basically carried and carried by people. But in spite of this, the difficulty of the road also greatly delayed the marching speed of the troops, which only walked about 20 miles in a daytime, and the soldiers were also very tired, and the physical exertion was extremely great, and although there was no heavy rain in the sky along the way, it was also a light rain, and the water on the ground made many people's bodies a little wet.

It's not summer or autumn, the weather is still very cold, it's easy to fall ill if the clothes are wet, and the physical fitness of the soldiers of the National Army is not bad, but there is no need to make the soldiers suffer when it is not necessary. When many recruits of the National Army first entered the barracks, the biggest shock was that the canteen was open to the supply of steamed buns and white rice, and even there were cases of recruits entering the camp within two days of the recruits eating too much and dying, so that the training department had to stipulate that the recruits would limit the supply of food for ten days before entering the camp, so that they would not die of overeating.

In fact, such an example is not an individual, but a common phenomenon, not only in the national army, but also in other warlord troops, you must know that the life of the poor people in this era is still very difficult, it is the norm to eat not enough all year round, there is white rice to eat every day is already at the level of small landlords, ordinary farmers dry sweet potatoes and coarse grains, shiny white rice can not eat much in a year. And if you join the army, whether it is the National Army or the Beiyang Army or the troops of other warlords, there may be differences in other treatments, and even military salaries may be in arrears, but it is certain that you can eat enough, not to mention the big warlord troops like the Beiyang Army and the National Army, Li Junlie in order to let his subordinates and Huang Xing's troops have enough to eat, he wantonly collected military rations in Jiangxi, even if Jiangxi had just suffered a disaster last year, he didn't soften his heart, and even Sun Wen couldn't stand it and sent a telegram to him to use the hoarded military rations for disaster relief. Li Junlie restrained a little, saying this is not to say how brutal Li Junlie is, the point is: all warlords will try their best to ensure the logistics supply of their troops, regardless of whether the National Army or the Beiyang Army or other warlord troops.

Why were those warlords so easy to recruit in those years? Regardless of whether it is a bandit, a rebel army, or a regular army, as long as the flag is erected, countless poor people will join the army in order to fill their stomachs, and if they can pay enough money to settle in, even those young and middle-aged people with a slightly more prosperous family will not resist this temptation and join the army. They are just for the sake of having enough to eat, but not for the sake of the country and the nation, and even some people even have a dispensable mentality of military salaries, because looking at the whole country, they can do the whole army without arrears of military salaries, and only the national army is the only one who pays the full salary, and even the Beiyang Army has delayed military salaries in the past two years, not to mention other warlords, it is common for them to not get their salaries for a few months, although they occasionally make trouble to make trouble, or even rebel, or burn, kill and loot, but few people leave the army as desertersWhy, it's simple, you may not get money in the army, at most you don't have money to be chic or support your family, but you can't even eat after leaving the army.

With a sufficient supply of food, coupled with proper physical training, it is normal for the soldiers of the army to be physically better than ordinary people, and the food of the national army is much higher than that of other warlord troops.

But even if the physical fitness is better, there is no need to let the soldiers endure the suffering, otherwise it will easily affect the morale of the complainants.

So Tang Qiang ordered to be stationed in the town in front of him, and rest for one night first, anyway, he had already gone out of the main force of the regiment headquarters for twenty miles, and there was no need to be too aggressive, he had already obtained this credit when he was Tu, and the rank of lieutenant colonel and the bronze medal of the double sword had already arrived, so there was no need to risk his future.

After all, Wuhu is more than ten miles away, and Wuhu, as the main city controlled by Huang Xing, is also one of the three cities where Huang Xing concentrated his troops, where it was said that there were already four or five thousand people, and now it is tens of thousands, and it is still in the process of gathering troops, and these are all known by the air force's reconnaissance planes through reconnaissance for several days in a row. In the face of such a heavily garrisoned city, Tang Qiang didn't think that he could go too deep with a battalion of seven or eight hundred people.

Not only his battalion, but even the entire 52nd Regiment was only used as a diversion force, and the combat plan formulated by the Operations Division did not expect the 52nd Regiment to be able to take Wuhu, nor even planned to let the 52nd Regiment take the initiative to attack Wuhu, the main task of the 52nd Regiment was to contain the Soviet troops in Wuhu, so that they could not support the Soviet troops in Xuancheng, and if necessary, block the reinforcements of the Soviet troops in Xuancheng in Wuhu. Ensure that the 9th Division can quickly and without losing too much to take the claim, and then continue to march to Wuhu, then the 52nd Regiment will cooperate with the 9th Division to capture Wuhu, before that, the task of the 52nd Regiment is to contain the Soviet army in Wuhu.

Therefore, after taking Dangtu, the 52nd Regiment did not rush into the army, but only sent an advance battalion to the west, and the 52nd Regiment was also afraid that it would go too fast, and the Soviet troops in Wuhu came out to attack them regardless of Xuancheng's life or death. You must know that before the departure of the 52nd Regiment, although a part of the machine guns and mountain artillery were strengthened to form a mixed regiment, the total strength was only more than 3,000, and the Soviet troops in Wuhu were less than 10,000, and they continued to increase, this was not a life-and-death battle, and the 52nd Regiment did not need to risk using inferior forces to confront the enemy's absolute superior forces, and the attack on Xuancheng would have to wait for the arrival of the Ninth Division.

At this time, the Ninth Division has also entered the vicinity of Xuancheng, before the 14th National Army issued a formal crusade and power, the Ninth Division has gone out of Hangzhou to Anji County near Anhui, and the crusade and power came out to enter the territory of Anhui, and it took four days to arrive near Xuancheng.

In the temporary headquarters of the 9th Division, Zhuang Xianhe and a group of officers of the 9th Division were pointing on a map, and the chief of staff of the 9th Division was introducing the current battle situation:

"According to the reconnaissance intelligence of the air force, it can already be determined that the Soviet army has adopted the tactic of shrinking the defensive line and concentrating its forces for defense, and after the Soviet army has collected its troops from various places, it will mainly concentrate its forces in Wuhu, Xuancheng, and Anqing. Among these three locations, Wuhu has the strongest troops, and has gathered at least more than 15,000 Soviet troops, while our frontal Xuancheng area also has nearly 10,000 troops. The number of troops in the Anqing area is unknown, but there are at least 5,000 or more. However, it is worth noting that at this time, the Soviet army has not yet completed its strategic contraction, and a large number of troops are still rushing to the above Wuhu and Xuancheng lines. According to the initial intelligence of the Military Intelligence Service, the total strength of the three divisions of the Soviet Army, plus a number of local troops, was at least 50,000. If the Soviet army completes the strategic contraction, then at least 20,000 Soviet troops will be gathered in Xuancheng, at least 20,000 in Wuhu, and tens of thousands of troops in Anqing and other regions.

According to the order of the General Staff, our department must take Xuancheng within ten days, and must arrive in Wuhu before May to start the Wuhu War! ”

Zhuang Xianhe waved his hand at this time, signaled the chief of staff to stop, and then said himself: "The time limit of the staff is related to the entire southern Anhui strategy, so our department must implement it unconditionally." And we can only reach Wuhu after taking Xuancheng Houhai for a while, so there is not much time left for us. ”

Although the Ninth Division had not participated in the battle, based on the pride of the National Army, they thought that it was no problem for them to take Xuancheng, so the other party had twice as many troops, but the time limit was so tight, so it would be very difficult to take it within ten days. Now that four of the ten days have passed, how can I take Xuancheng with less than six days left? It's a conundrum.