readx; The brigade headquarters of the ** Brigade of the Third Division of the Beiyang Army was not deployed too close to the river, but was deployed in Yongnan, ten miles north of Wuhu. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info relying on Yongnan to build a forward defense line on the north bank of the Yangtze River, although this distance is still within the range of those large-caliber naval guns, and then the distance is too far, and the national army does not have the ability to accurately indicate the target, so relatively speaking, the ** brigade headquarters deployed in Yongnan can still avoid the long-range artillery attack of the national army.

Then, although the brigade headquarters and the main force were in Yongnan, a small number of troops of the **brigade were still scattered in several places to monitor the Wuhu National Army on the opposite side and prevent the troops of the National Army from launching a sneak attack across the river. The artillery battalion is also deployed on several hills slightly closer, but Wang Chengbin, the commander of the ** brigade, did not expect that the deployed artillery battalion position was actually learned by the national army from the air reconnaissance in advance, and just one round of shelling caused the artillery battalion to lose less than half, forcing the artillery battalion to carry out an emergency transfer.

"What's going on up front? How many people from the National Army crossed the river? Wang Chengbin asked with a frown.

An adjutant beside him said: "The situation ahead is not very clear, but judging from the fact that the national army has gathered more than ten warships on the river, I am afraid that the scale is not small!" To say the least, it is also a scale crossing of more than one division! ”

"Is it one division or two divisions, or is there more national troops to cross the river?" Wang Chengbin seemed to be asking himself, and seemed to be asking a few officers around him, but neither he nor those subordinates could answer his questions.

The reason why Wang Chengbin was obsessed with figuring out how many Nationalist troops had crossed the river was not his own plan, but came from Cao Kun's order. Whether it is Feng Guozhang or Yuan Shikai, or Cao Kun urgently needs to know where the main direction of the national army is, through limited intelligence has been known that the national army is preparing to launch a large-scale river crossing operation in the near future, and the Beiyang Army has also made considerable preparations for this, but before it is clear that the main force of the national army is crossing the river in that direction, most of the main forces of the Beiyang Army dare not be easily mobilized, Tang Tianxi's tenth division has been urgently on standby in Chuzhou, if the main force of the national army crosses the river in southern Jiangsu, Tang Tianxi will lead the 10th Division into Jiangbei, if the main force of the Nationalist Army is to cross the river in southern Anhui, then Tang Tianxi's 10th Division will quickly rush to the southern Anhui region, in addition to Tang Tianxi's 10th Division, Xu Shuzheng's 11th Division, which was originally deployed in Xuzhou, has also set off for the south, and will make further movements according to the main force of the Nationalist Army there.

"If only a brigade or so is crossing the river, then we will stop them! If the Nationalist army crossing the river has more than one division, or even more, then we will fight and retreat, and quickly ask for help, and in the face of the main force of the Nationalist Army, we only need to delay it for ten days and half a month. You don't have to fight with them! After Wang Chengbin finished speaking, he said: "Let the cavalry battalion go forward, be sure to find out the situation of the national army crossing the river, and the communication battalion will send a telegram to Nanjing, asking for air support, and let the air force send planes to investigate the situation!" ”

Wang Chengbin also knew that in the face of the great enemy, his cavalry battalion, which only had more than 100 cavalry, was unlikely to be able to find out all the situation, and the detailed situation had to rely on the planes in Nanjing. It's just that Wang Chengbin also heard that the air force on the Nanjing side seems to have suffered a lot of losses recently, and he doesn't know if he will send planes to conduct reconnaissance.

Wang Chengbin's worry was unnecessary, and when Feng Guozhang received the enemy telegram sent by Wang Chengbin, his eyebrows furrowed: "It's finally here, now the Nationalist Army in the direction of Wuhu has begun to cross the river, although I don't know the scale, but I finally determined a direction." ”

"The order was sent to let the troops in Yangzhou, Nantong and other places strengthen their garrisons and deal with the possible crossing of the river by the enemy at any time, and then send a telegram to Cao Kun in Hefei to ask him to pay attention to the situation of the national army in Anqing and Wuhu. If the main force of the Nationalist Army is discovered, it must be reported as soon as possible, and I will immediately send the 10th Division to support. After Feng Guozhang said that, he continued: "Let's talk to the air force again, and let them send planes to Wuhu and Yangzhou and other Yangtze River areas to investigate!" ”

Feng Guozhang knew that the Air Force had suffered heavy losses some time ago, and in order to avoid even greater losses, the Air Force had greatly reduced its reconnaissance activities. But now that the matter has reached an urgent moment, the air force can no longer hide and preserve its strength, and today Feng Guozhang is bound to make clear the main direction of attack of the national army.

Sure enough, Feng Guozhang was soon informed that the Nationalist Army in the direction of Anqing was also dispatched, and carried out a fierce attack on the second division of the Anhui Army in the local area, and the second division of the Anhui Provincial Army said that the Nationalist Army in the direction of Anqing had dispatched at least tens of thousands of people to attack its defensive line, and the enemy's firepower was extremely fierce, and our troops suffered heavy casualties, and they were afraid that they would not be able to continue to hold on.

"These provincial armies are really a bunch of waste, and more than 10,000 people in a division can't hold it for a day!" Feng Guozhang had anger on his face: "But they say that the enemy army in the direction of Anqing is at least three times their own, and they say that there are at least 30,000 people, but with the exaggerated behavior of these provincial troops, it is impossible for the national army to have more than 30,000 people, but there should be 20,000 people smaller, according to the establishment of the national army, I am afraid it is the size of two divisions!" ”

"There is no need to cross the river in Anqing, you can directly advance to the north, and it is normal for the national army to deploy more than two divisions there!" Wang Ruxian continued: "However, the main force of the national army is numerous, and the strength is not under our army, so it is impossible for these two divisions to complete the northward operation, and it may be a partial division. And in the direction of the main force, if there is no news of the large-scale crossing of the river by the National Army from Yangzhou, it must be Wuhu! ”

Feng Guozhang also nodded: "It should be Wuhu!" However, although the national army has a lot of troops, it is still heavily deployed in southern Jiangsu, and there should not be too many troops in this Wuhu direction, at most two divisions. If my guess is correct, I'm afraid that Chen Jingyun is fighting two soldiers to become one, and the final goal is to seek Hefei. ”

War has broken out, and today fighting has broken out in Wuhu and Anqing one after another, and there is no doubt that the Nationalist Army will launch a large-scale offensive in Anhui. Through limited information, although Feng Guozhang, Cao Kun and others still don't know how many troops the Nationalist Army has crossed the river to the north this time, they can guess how much, however, there is still no news of the Nationalist Army crossing the river on a large scale in Yangzhou, which makes Feng Guozhang extremely worried!

"According to the intelligence some time ago, the four divisions of the First Army of the National Army are still deployed in southern Jiangsu, and the two divisions of the Third Army in the south, if you add the guard division of the National Army and several other troops, the main force of the National Army is still gathered in southern Jiangsu. Relatively speaking, the three or four divisions on the Anhui side were only secondary directions. Army commander, do you see if the Nationalist Army wants to send a high-profile attack on Hefei, Anhui, contain the troops of our army in the direction of Anhui, and also lure the 10th and 11th divisions of our army to Anhui. When the time comes, their national army will gather the main force to cross the river from southern Jiangsu, and when the time comes, our army will face the enemy's superior forces in the north of the river, and we will not be able to get reinforcements in a short time, I'm afraid? Jin Yunpeng expressed his worries.

Yes, if Hefei, Anhui Province is not the main direction of attack of the National Army, but only a partial division, once the 10th and 11th Divisions go to Anhui, then it will be difficult for Feng Guozhang, the Second Army of the Beiyang Army in Jiangbei, to get reinforcements in a short time. Such a possible surname made Feng Guozhang hesitate, and for a while, he did not dare to easily let the 10th Division of Chuzhou and the 11th Division of Bengbu enter Anhui.

"Let's wait until the Air Force finds out the situation!" Feng Guozhang calmed down, this is a big war, he must not be as willful as last year, since he is still not sure of the movement of the national army, then he will not change to respond to all changes, he will not lose Jiangbei, Chuzhou and Bengbu in hand, he can ensure that the Jinpu line is not lost. At that time, even if Anhui Hefei is lost, it will not be a big deal.

Feng Guozhang anxiously waited for the air force to send back the news, although the people of the Beiyang Air Force did not want to fight, but the order from Feng Guozhang personally made them unable to refuse, and immediately sent two planes to the direction of Wuhu in a row, and two planes to the direction of Yangzhou, intending to find out how large the two national armies crossed the river.

After taking off, these four planes flew north for a while, and then turned to the east and west, basically avoiding the airspace patrolled by the Nationalist planes north of Nanjing and over the Yangtze River. As soon as possible, they did not encounter the planes of the Nationalist Army, but the two planes heading to Wuhu were not very lucky, and they had just flown to the west not long ago, and they were on their way to meet two D5A fighters on air patrol. In order to completely block the airspace near Nanjing, except for a few areas near Taishan Town, where the Beiyang Army's ground anti-aircraft fire was extremely strong, the Nationalist Army's fighter patrols have been extended to the Yangtze River and part of the airspace extending to the north bank of Nanjing. It is precisely because of the expansion of this patrol range of the Nationalist Air Force that the activities of the Beiyang Army have been greatly restricted, and sometimes even a single plane cannot be dispatched in a day, and when the plane is dispatched, it is also tried to avoid the patrol fighters of the Nationalist Army at dawn or dusk in the morning.

From a distance, I saw two biplane fighters of the Nationalist Army rushing towards them, and the pilot of the pigeon plane of the Beiyang Air Force panicked, and then quickly turned around and wanted to flee back. However, the two D5A planes of the National Army did not kill when they saw the planes of the Beiyang Army as usual, but controlled the speed and followed from a distance, not coming up to fight but not leaving, just following behind.