readx; In the headquarters of the Second Army of the Beiyang Army in Taishan Town, Feng Guozhang frowned and looked at the huge military map on the wall, which covered a large range, covering almost the entire Yangtze River basin, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and other regions. www.biquge.info On this map, there are many arrows, and clearly mark the positions of the various units under the Beiyang Army and the National Army.

Feng Guozhang looked carefully at the map, and his eyes naturally focused on southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui, in this area, there are dense troops on both sides, not only gathered the main forces of the Beiyang Army and the National Army, but also the place where the victory or defeat of the two sides was decided, and the rest of the Hunan and Sichuan battlefields were only secondary, and even the march to Jiujiang on the Hubei side was just a secondary direction that did not hurt the overall situation. The real impact on the victory or defeat of the two sides can only be the southern Jiangsu region of Anhui, as long as it wins here, then the next thing is to become a canal, and there is no other wind and waves.

Just when Feng Guozhang was looking at the map and thinking about the relevant strategy, the adjutant walked over slowly, and then said softly: "General Cao of Anhui is calling!" ”

Feng Guozhang: "Oh! Then he took the message and read it!

"Sixth and Ninth Divisions!" Feng Guozhang said to himself: "Why have you only found the numbers of these two national army units until now?" No news from other troops? ”

Feng Guozhang was a little puzzled, even if the troops under Cao Kun's side were not strong enough to block the enemy's early attack, it was normal, but how could he not even figure out the number of the enemy. Although the intelligence capability of the Beiyang Army is not very good, it is not a secret that after the formation of the Generalissimo Office by the Nanjing Provisional Political Axe, the establishment of the General Headquarters and the direct order to organize and reorganize 20 central divisions and 14 mixed brigades are made public. Chen Jingyun can know that the Beiyang Army has a total of more than a dozen central divisions, and he Feng Guozhang can also know that the descendants of the National Army have a total of 12 divisions and six mixed brigades, and even the numbers are clear.

However, it is one thing to know the number of the units of the National Army, and quite another to where these units are deployed. According to some public or semi-public information, Feng Guozhang is also clear about the general deployment of these troops, such as the Fourth Army in Jiangxi and Hunan, the First Army and the Third Army of the Nationalist Army in southern Jiangsu, and the Second Army in southern Anhui. But the more detailed transfer is not what he can know, especially in July the Nationalist Army carried out a large-scale military transfer, many parts of which were transferred out of the original stationing area, which greatly affected the intelligence source of the Beiyang Army, the original Feng Guozhang pinned great hopes on the Air Force has not brought him too much air intelligence, and yesterday was the Nationalist Air Force carried out a fierce air attack, now the Beiyang Air Force base has been bombed beyond recognition, heavy casualties, a large number of planes on the ground were directly blown up, Sure enough, at noon, the bomber group of the Nationalist Air Force once again arrived over the Beiyang Air Base and carried out a second round of air raids on the empty ground base.

In the case of a serious lack of intelligence support, Feng Guozhang has not yet figured out how many troops the Nationalist Army has invested in security and Wuhu, whether it is about four divisions in his prediction, or whether the front-line troops are now reporting only two divisions, or more.

Before figuring out the movements of the Nationalist Army, Feng Guozhang did not easily mobilize Tang Tianxi's 10th Division and Xu Shuzheng's 11th Division, which were reserves, but was ready to continue to wait and see, and at the same time strictly ordered the troops in the Jiangbei region to strengthen their defenses to prevent the Nationalist Army from crossing the river from southern Jiangsu.

Feng Guozhang's Second Army on the Jiangbei and Jinpu lines did not move, and Cao Kun in Hefei was scratching with a black line: "Why is the 10th Division still not moving, I used to be not thin on Lao Tang!" ”

Wu Peifu, the new commander of the Fifth Brigade beside him, said: "This can't be blamed on Brother Tang, Brother Tang was born in our Third Division, and becoming the commander of the Tenth Division is also recommended by the Protector Army. It's just that now the 10th Division is under the jurisdiction of the Second Army, and Brother Tang's every move has to be nodded by Commander Feng! ”

Wu Peifu continued: "Besides, although the Nationalist Army is menacing in Anqing and Wuhu now, after all, there are only two units of the Nationalist Army, the Sixth Division and the Ninth Division, and if it is only these two divisions, there is no need to worry. Presumably, Commander Feng also thought of this before letting the 10th Division stand still! ”

Of course, Cao Kun knows these things, but he has a very bad premonition, judging from his experience with the National Army, the National Army is definitely not the kind of army that randomly messes with you, and the opposite is Ma Cheng, the commander of the Second Army of the National Army, although Cao Kun doesn't look down on Ma Cheng, he feels that this person's ability is limited, and the only person who can really make him an opponent is Shen Gang in the National Army. But this person has always been Chen Jingyun's confidant, and it is naturally impossible to be entrusted with important tasks by Chen Jingyun all the time. In this case, they only sent two divisions to march into Anhui, no matter how you look at it, it is impossible for these small parts to take Hefei or even Anhui to threaten Jiangbei, and a third division alone can stop them, so Cao Kun guessed that there are definitely more than two divisions.

However, since the Nationalist Army launched the battle of crossing the river on August 5, it has been August 7 now, almost three days have passed, the second division of the Anhui Provincial Army deployed in the direction of Anqing in the front-line troops has been continuously retreated for 30 miles, Huaining County has been lost, and is preparing to withdraw to Tongcheng, although the loss of troops is not much, and most of the main force has been preserved, but Ren Jiu has not figured out how many enemy troops are attacking from the direction of Anqing, but there are many, so far only the number of the sixth division of the national army has been determined, Whether there will be more troops is not clear. The third division of the brigade has also been evacuated from Yongnan, Yongnan is too close to the Yangtze River, and it is a plain area, not suitable for defense, the brigade did not plan to defend along the Yangtze River, the main thing is to prevent the national army from crossing the river on a small scale sneak attack and surveillance, once the main force of the national army crosses the river, the brigade will immediately withdraw to the Chaohu area, using the hilly terrain there to defend.

In Chaohu, the third division of the Anhui Provincial Army has been deployed in advance, and the relevant defense line has been constructed in advance. According to Cao Kun's own predictions, the defense line had been built in advance, and there was also the advantage of terrain, it was easy to resist one division of the Nationalist Army with this 15,000 or so troops, and even two divisions of the Nationalist Army could hold on.

** During the retreat of the brigade, it only came into contact with the troops of the Ninth Division of the National Army, and the cavalry battalion sent out did not find relevant information due to heavy losses.

Therefore, on the third day, Cao Kun still did not get the news of how many Nationalist troops crossed the river to attack in front, and he was cautious, so he still asked Feng Guozhang for help, asking him to send Tang Tianxi's 10th Division stationed in Chuzhou to the west to cooperate with his own 3rd Division to fight. However, Cao Kun was cautious, and Feng Guozhang was also cautious, so he rejected Cao Kun's request, saying that the situation was unclear and the reserves should not be moved lightly.

Under such circumstances, Cao Kun on the one hand ordered the Second Division of the Anhui Provincial Army to establish a new defensive line after withdrawing to Tongcheng, and sent the Sixth Brigade from Hefei to the area around Shucheng to prepare for reinforcements to the Second Division of the Anhui Provincial Army. In the direction of Chaohu, he is not too worried, Chaohu has a ** brigade and the third division of the Anhui Provincial Army, the strength is not weak, if the national army wants to take it, even if it is a few divisions to besiege it, it will take a while.

In addition to urging the 20th and 23rd Divisions to speed up their southward movement, they also ordered Duan Zhigui in Hubei to take relevant actions, ordering him to send a section eastward to threaten Jiujiang, and then to threaten Nanchang, and even to cut off the retreat of the Nationalist army's troops in the Anqing direction along the south. In addition, Duan Zhigui also sent the 11th Brigade of the 6th Division to prepare to enter Sichuan, although Tang Jiyao suffered heavy losses in Sichuan, but also successively conquered several important areas, the 6th Army's troops have threatened Yucheng, and according to the current momentum of development, if the Beiyang Army does not personally enter Sichuan to resist the Yunnan army, Yucheng will soon be occupied by the Yunnan army, and even Chengdu will be occupied by the Yunnan army, and the situation in Sichuan will not be good at that time. For this reason, Duan Zhigui had already sent the 11th Brigade into Yucheng as early as July, and with the troops of the 11th Brigade and other small Sichuan warlords in Yucheng, it was very difficult for the Dian army to take Yucheng.

The actions of Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei and other provinces are only secondary directions, and will not have a great impact on the overall layout of the two sides, and the areas where the Beiyang Army and the Nationalist Army decide the victory or defeat are still southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui.

In the first three days, the Nationalist Army had already invested more than four divisions of the army, more than 10 warships and most of the air force, and such a huge troop movement was not comparable to other provinces. The reason why the Beiyang Army has not discovered that the Nationalist Army has invested so many land forces in the Anhui region is that only the Sixth and Ninth Divisions of the Nationalist Army are now engaged in front-line operations, and the Fifth Division, the Eighth Division, the Fifth Mixed Brigade, and even the Ninth Division's artillery regiment that have crossed the river in the follow-up are still in the process of urgently crossing the river.

On the first day, the three infantry regiments of the 9th Division crossed the river lightly, and on the second day, the second pontoon bridge was successfully erected, which was much larger than the first pontoon bridge, and was able to withstand the crossing of heavy weapons and equipment. When the artillery regiment of the 9th Division crossed the river on the second pontoon bridge, the sappers of the Nationalist Army did not stop, but kept building a third, larger pontoon bridge.

The crossing of the river by the troops of the Second Army lasted for three days, and after the Ninth Artillery Regiment of the Ninth Division crossed the river, it advanced according to the order of the Second Army Headquarters, aiming directly at Chaohu!