On the evening of November 16, after arriving in Jurong and preparing to continue northward to cut off the retreat of Cao Kun's Third Division, Lin Zhaomin's division of the Seventh Division of the Nationalist Army had not yet begun to act, and the front-line troops had already been ambushed by nearly 1,000 cavalry troops sent by Cao Kun, and a battalion of troops was ambushed by the cavalry regiment under Cao Kun's Third Division on the march.

By the time the main force of the 72nd Regiment in the rear arrived, more than half of the more than 700 people in the vanguard battalion had been lost, most of whom were killed or wounded by the charge of the opposing cavalry when they were first ambushed.

This unexpected loss made Lin Zhaomin furious, on the one hand, while collecting the defeated troops of the vanguard battalion, it was also to let the main force of the Seventh Division wait solemnly, and also sent the division's reconnaissance cavalry battalion to search for this cavalry unit.

Since it was night, he could not ask the aviation unit of the Lishui base in the rear to conduct reconnaissance, so he could only wait for dawn.

In a woodland northeast of Jurong, Li Dianrong, commander of the cavalry regiment of the Third Division of the Beiyang Army, was drinking with Tang Tianxi, commander of the Fifth Infantry Brigade, and Zhang Muhan, commander of the Ninth Infantry Regiment, under the dim kerosene lamp.

"Come on, Brother Li, your ambush can be regarded as beating out the military might of our old Beiyang!" Tang Tianxi raised the wine with a rough large porcelain bowl: "Come, you and I have another drink!" ”

Li Dianrong was also full of smiles: "Hehe, there and there, it's just a coincidence, it just so happened that they were put into our ambush circle, otherwise it wouldn't have gone so well!" ”

Zhang Muhan on the side shook his head and said: "Who said that, this luck is also a kind of strength, even if someone else gives him a thousand horses, he can't beat this effect!" ”

Li Dianrong also smiled and said, "There, there!" "But in my heart I also admire myself very much, since the third division went south, except for the first few days in the periphery of Zhenjiang fought quite well, the back has not been smooth, the occasional attack is also to kill 1,000 enemies and lose 800, in Zhenjiang side of the war of attrition. However, today he successfully ambushed the Nationalist Army at a small cost, killing and wounding at least three or four hundred Nationalist troops, while his own casualties were only dozens.

Speaking of this ambush, it can be regarded as Li Dianrong's luck, his cavalry unit has not participated in the battle since he arrived in Zhenjiang, but has been roaming in the rear to protect the railway transportation line in the rear, and occasionally detours to the southeast to attack the supply line of the Nationalist army from Zhenjiang to Shanghai, but it has not been very effective.

However, since the Seventh Division of the Nationalist Army turned to capture Jurong, his cavalry unit was immediately sent out by Cao Kun as a vanguard, and in order to conceal his whereabouts, he took the way of setting off in the evening and marching at night.

"Although one of their battalions was defeated this time, there are tens of thousands of national troops who came to Jurong this time, and according to their numbers, it should be the seventh division of the national army." Tang Tianxi sighed a little when he said this: "Now we have an infantry regiment, even if you add Brother Li, your cavalry unit and the artillery of the brigade headquarters, it is only the scale of a small mixed brigade of 4,000 people. This is 10,000 people smaller than the Upper National Army, I'm afraid there will be a fight! ”

The Beiyang Army has the same combat method as ordinary armies, generally speaking, when sending troops in a certain direction to carry out tactical tasks, it will generally choose to form a mixed regiment with an infantry regiment plus relevant artillery and attached baggage engineers. If the task is too heavy, then two infantry regiments plus cavalry, artillery and other related units are deployed to form a mixed brigade to fight. Originally, if the 7th Division of the Nationalist Army in the Jurong area was to be blocked, then at least a mixed brigade should be dispatched. However, now Cao Kun's hands are short of troops, and the 3rd and 8th Divisions of the Beiyang Army have also lost about 3,000 troops in the previous Zhenjiang operation, and now they add up to only more than 20,000 people, and they still have to deal with the 1st and 4th Divisions of the Nationalist Army in the direction of Zhenjiang head-on, and they are at a disadvantage in terms of strength and firepower, so it is impossible to draw too many troops out.

The transfer of an infantry regiment and related artillery units was already very tense, so after ordering Tang Tianxi, the commander of the Fifth Brigade, to be the commander of the mixed brigade, the cavalry regiment was assigned to Tang Tianxi, so that there were more than 4,000 people in total.

As for whether these more than 4,000 people can contain and block the Seventh Division of the National Army, Cao Kun has no bottom in his heart, and Tang Tianxi himself is also panicked. Tang Tianxi had fought fiercely with the Nationalist Army on the Zhenjiang front, and he also had some understanding of the Nationalist Army; although their soldier training and the command of officers at all levels were not as good as the old and spicy Third Division of the Beiyang Army, they were not far behind, and what they lacked was only the easy experience of battle. In addition, in terms of the same strength, the Nationalist Army's light weapons firepower has even surpassed the Beiyang Army, even if the heavy-armed Nationalist Army is not inferior to the Beiyang Army because of the temporary reinforcement of the 105 howitzer regiment and a large number of mortars.

Originally, I thought that the Seventh Division of the Nationalist Army in Jurong was also the same as the First Division and the Fourth Division of the Nationalist Army in Zhenjiang, but I didn't expect that on the first day, Li Dianrong's cavalry regiment made a good start.

At this time, Zhang Muhan said: "I have inquired carefully before, this Seventh Division of the National Army is a new unit, not an old descendant of Chen Jingyun when he started. ”

For example, the National Army now has seven regular divisions and one guard division, but the specific situation of these troops is somewhat uncertain, and it can only be postponed from some vague information, for example, everyone knows that the troops that Chen Jingyun started are three divisions, and the numbers are the first, second, and third divisions of the Nationalist Army, and the combat class is far stronger than the newly established divisions in the back.

Zhang Muhan continued: "This seventh division was established after Chen Jingyun conquered northern Zhejiang, and the old backbone is the original Zhejiang troops, well, it is Zhu Rui and the local troops in Zhejiang. It is conceivable that the combat effectiveness of this kind of unit will certainly not be comparable with several other units of the National Army! ”

Li Dianrong also nodded and said: "This is also true, Zhenjiang is the first division of the National Army, which is the number one trump card of the National Army, but although we fought harder, they fled in all directions if they didn't rely on the fortifications and troop supplies in Zhenjiang far more than us, this Zhenjiang would have been taken down a long time ago!" ”

Tang Tianxi said: "If this is the case, then it seems that this time it will not be so dangerous!" ”

"Well, but what's next?" Zhang Muhan asked.

Tang Tianxi said: "Before I came, the division commander had already warned me that our task is one, that is, to keep the back road of the army, as long as the seventh division of the national army is dragged down, then the task will be completed!" ”

After Tang Tianxi finished speaking, Zhang Muhan and Li Dianrong both nodded, and Li Dianrong said: "We have few troops, and it is definitely not possible to fight hard, but it should not be a problem to drag the other party for ten days and half a month!" ”

Zhang Muhan also said: "In this case, I'm afraid you will have to rely more on Brother Li's cavalry troops!" ”

Li Dianrong said: "Yes, this is all Li's business, it should be!" ”

After a while of discussion, the three of them made a preliminary plan, because the task given to them by Cao Kun was not to recapture Jurong, but to block the Nationalist Army from continuing to move north, and to keep the way for the third and eighth divisions to retreat westward, then they would not take the initiative to fight Jurong, it was a purely thankless matter, the three of them pondered the map, and simply stopped in Dazhuo Town, and then the Ninth Infantry Regiment and other troops dug fortifications, ready to plant a nail here. Then Li Dianrong's cavalry troops attacked in the area of Dazhuo Town and Jurong, so as to give full play to the maximum power of the cavalry.

In this way, if the Seventh Division of the National Army wants to continue northward, it must pull out the nail of Dazhuo Town, otherwise even if it is bypassed, it will not be able to perform because it is threatened by Tang Tianxi's Fifth Brigade at any time, and even the entire supply line will be threatened by Li Dianrong's nearly 1,000 cavalry.

In fact, the threat of nearly a thousand cavalry did give Lin Zhaomin a headache, if the main force of his army was exhausted, the other cavalry would naturally be no threat, but he had a huge seventh division of nearly 10,000 people, so he couldn't go together every day, all kinds of tactical deployment were basically based on battalions, and once these small-scale troops on the periphery were attacked by cavalry, it would be quite troublesome.

The cavalry in this year is still a great threat, and the real reason for the cavalry to withdraw from the main battlefield is due to the Western Front of Europe during the First World War, the cavalry did not play any role at all in the trench warfare, but at the same time in the open field of the Eastern Front of Europe, the cavalry units of Germany and Russia still played a big role, and even in the war between Poland and the Soviet Union in the twenties, the Polish cavalry still played an important role, making the Soviet Union fall short and achieving the last glory of the cavalry branch. What really made the cavalry completely withdraw from the battlefield was that the tank slowly matured and completely replaced the cavalry.

Today, cavalry units still play an important role, especially in China's domestic battlefields, where firepower is not strong, and elite cavalry units are still a big problem for infantry.

Lin Zhaomin had no choice but to suspend his northward journey, and now Jurong rested for one night, and urgently telegraphed the aviation units at the Lishui base in the rear, asking them to conduct aerial reconnaissance in the Jurong area after dawn tomorrow.

The Seventh Division of the Nationalist Army was blocked in Jurong, but the battle in Nanjing also reached a stalemate.