readx; While Chen Jingyundu and a group of high-ranking military and political officials of the Nationalist Army were in Shanghai in order to promote the recovery bonds and the Shanghai Economic Development Zone, a diplomatic reception was held in Dongjiaomin Alley in Yanjing, which was no different from previous diplomatic receptions, and the discussions were mainly focused on the situation in China. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

As a result of the advocacy of Zhu Erdian and Ijiin Hikoyoshi, diplomats in China, including France, Germany, and Russia, reached a preliminary verbal consensus, saying that the protracted war between the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army in southern Jiangsu had seriously affected the interests of various countries in China, and that they were prepared to urge the two sides to hold peace talks as soon as possible to avoid the expansion of the war. It would be better to reach a peace talks agreement between the North and the South as in the first half of the year.

Although this peace talks are still north-south peace talks, the main body of the two sides has changed, the previous peace talks between the Manchu court and the Nanjing Provisional Political Axe, but this time, it has become a peace negotiation between the Beiyang Political Axe and the Nationalist Army. The original Manchu Dynasty has long been swept into the garbage heap of history, and the Nanjing Provisional Political Axe has long been dissipated, and the revolutionaries represented by Sun Wen are now only controlling Anhui and Jiangxi, and the Anhui region is still not very stable, including more than 20,000 Soviet troops in Huang Xing and more than 20,000 people in Anhui to disperse control Anhui, and there are still part of the Beiyang Army along the Jinpu line. Sun Wen's revolutionary party has greatly shrunk, and its influence has long since disappeared a few months ago, not to mention compared with the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army, even Tang Jiyao can't compare.

As a matter of fact, in addition to the foreign envoys who are preparing to urge the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army to do their best for peace talks, other forces in China have also openly announced one after another, hoping that the two sides will hold peace talks as soon as possible and restore a peaceful environment to China.

Huang Xing, who has arrived in Wuhu, Anhui Province, has issued several telegrams, calling on the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army to calm down, and everyone should sit down and talk about something well, why fight for life and death, even Sun Wen has published articles in the newspaper many times, declaring that what China needs most now is peace, as long as China is peaceful, everyone will work together to build the country, and China's rise to the top of the world after the completion of the 100,000-mile railway is just around the corner.

As the third warlord in China, Tang Jiyao sent troops into Sichuan, and at the same time called for peace talks between the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army, and expressed his opposition to the expansion of the war.

The slogans of these local powerhouses were actually shouted before the outbreak of the war, but not many people paid attention to them. And when the national army in southern Jiangsu gained the advantage, it shouted more fiercely, the meaning is also simple and clear, the national army has now occupied most of Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong and southern Shanghai, continue this time in southern Jiangsu to completely defeat the Beiyang Army, and then go north, then the national army will become the next Beiyang Army, such a situation is not willing to see other warlords in the country.

When these people and foreign envoys concentrated on calling for an armistice and peace talks, public opinion in the country also set off a wide range of speculation and discussion about the peace talks, and if we only read the newspapers, we might not be able to see that the peace talks will succeed tomorrow.

But in fact, outsiders say theirs, but the National Army and the Beiyang Army are still fighting their own. Peace talks? Jokes, until the winner is completely decided, any peace talks are unrealistic.

The Nationalist Army needs a victory in southern Jiangsu to establish its military and political position, not only to gain territory in southern Jiangsu, but also to increase the confidence of the people in the controlled areas in the Nationalist Army, and to give hope to many industrial and commercial classes who support the Nationalist Army, that is, the Nationalist Army has the ability and confidence to lead China's future path. And for the internal also needs a victory, for this war the national army has paid too much, almost the entire national army system is running for this war, sacrificing so many soldiers and officers, these losses within the national army can not be ignored, if the final war in southern Jiangsu ends in failure, then the national army may have all kinds of messy thoughts, and may even cause dissatisfaction with the senior generals of the national army.

In particular, if the enthusiastic Kuomintang youths saw the defeat of the Kuomintang or accept unfavorable peace talks in a victorious situation, those young and strong Kuomintang officers who were dizzy would dare to draw their sabers and take to the streets to impose the so-called purging side of the Kuomintang on the high-ranking generals of the Kuomintang. In their opinion, it is impossible for Chen Jingyun after the myth to make mistakes, and only high-level generals like Yuan Fang and Shen Gang can make mistakes.

Therefore, the Nationalist Army cannot be defeated, nor can it take the initiative to negotiate peace in the current situation.

Similarly, the Beiyang Army is almost the same, and even worse than the Nationalist Army, Yuan Shikai's rule is maintained above the Beiyang Army, if the Beiyang Army is defeated, it will be a serious blow to the entire Beiyang political axe, and if there is no advantage before the peace, it will also make many efforts of the Beiyang Army before it go to waste, if it can't successfully suppress the Nationalist Army, then even if the peace is negotiated, then in the face of a huge force south of the Yangtze River in the future, Yuan Shikai will not sleep well, Not to mention dreams like a unified China.

Therefore, the war must continue, and this war must be won and lost.

Therefore, even though the outside world has made a lot of noise, and even after Chen Jingyun has received an inquiry from the British Consul in Shanghai, Sir Fa Lei, about the intention of peace talks, the war between the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army still continues.

In the southern city of Nanjing, the four divisions commanded by Shen Gang, a total of more than 30,000 troops, were slowly compressing the defensive space of Cao Kun's headquarters step by step, and the two sides were fighting each other with bullets and shells. The situation of the war was becoming more and more unfavorable for Cao Kun, in the face of the continuous onslaught of the Nationalist Army, Cao Kun's troops continued to suffer casualties, and more importantly, the lack of ammunition.

Since the Nationalist Army Guard Division attacked the north bank of Nanjing, Cao Kun and Jin Yunpeng's troops had lost their rear supplies, and had been relying on ammunition stocks to fight, but so far, they have lost ammunition supplies for as long as 20 days, and some of the original ammunition stocks have been almost consumed, so this battle is becoming more and more difficult. In addition to constantly shrinking his forces, all Cao Kun could do was to keep sending reports to the Seventh Division, urging them to conquer the north bank of Nanjing as soon as possible.

In the face of Cao Kun's constant urging, Feng Guozhang was also extremely depressed, although Yuan Shikai had given him temporary authorization to command the Seventh Division and the Second Mixed Brigade to attack the north bank of Nanjing, after taking the command, he had no reason to be happy, because so far the north bank of Nanjing was still not captured, and there was no sign of breaking through the defense line of the Nationalist Army even in a short period of time.

Feng Guozhang was depressed, so Lin Chengkun, who was his opponent, was anxious, and the Nationalist Army Headquarters ordered Lin Chengkun to hold on for at least seven days in order to carry out the Nanjing Battle smoothly and achieve the goal of inflicting heavy losses and even annihilating Cao Kun's department. Even this time limit for holding out was further increased with the delay of the battle in Nanjing.

Although the headquarters sent him reinforcements from the 42nd Regiment under the Fourth Division, in the face of twice the strength of the Beiyang Army, the reinforcements of more than 2,000 people were still seriously insufficient. In order to achieve the goal of holding on for a long time, the guard division took the initiative to abandon Jiejiazhuang, and then the main force retreated to Taishan Town, preparing for the final entrenchment operation.

As the weather became colder and colder, on the first day of December, the Beiyang Army conquered the Jiejiazhuang abandoned by the guard division, and after learning that the Jiejiazhuang was conquered, both Yuan Shikai and Cao Kun were relieved, and Yuan Shikai sent a telegram to Feng Guozhang on the same day, in addition to commending the heroic combat of the front-line troops, and ordered Feng Guozhang to command the troops to advance quickly, completely capture the north bank of Nanjing, and restore the supply of Cao Kun's troops.

However, when the Beiyang Army continued to move south after taking Jiejiazhuang in a hurry, it found that the Nationalist Army had established a new defensive line in Taishan Town, and one of the forward regiments was beaten back that day. Faced with this situation, Feng Guozhang gritted his teeth and immediately prepared to invest the main force to attack.

At this time, the casualties of the Beiyang Army were also very large, especially the casualties of the Seventh Division, which was originally a newly established unit, and its combat effectiveness was not as good as that of Cao Kun's Third Division and Jin Yunpeng's Fifth Division. The losses of the 2nd Mixed Brigade were smaller, only one or two hundred people.

In fact, the loss of troops did not seriously affect the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang Army, and more importantly, it was a morale problem. Since Feng Guozhang's defeat in Taishan Town, it can be said that it has caused a chain reaction, which not only put Cao Kun, Jin Yunpeng, and Zhang Xun's troops into a desperate situation, but also seriously affected the morale of other Beiyang troops.

It is very difficult for such a force to capture the north bank of Nanjing, which is defended by seven or eight thousand men, and the time is so tight, and a group of senior Beiyang Army officers are also under great pressure.

But fortunately, this Jiejiazhuang was finally taken, and then as long as Taishan Town was taken down, the battle situation could be laid in one fell swoop, for this reason, Feng Guozhang did not rashly launch a general attack at the first time, but used a day to concentrate the troops, and also had to move the heavy artillery regiment in the rear forward, so that the Beiyang Army troops had heavy firepower support. Feng Guozhang is very clear about Taishan Town, he has held on there for a long time, and it is obvious that it is not enough to conquer Taishan Town with a military advantage, and it must be supported by a large number of heavy artillery.

At the beginning, the guard division invested more than 7,000 people in order to conquer Taishan Town, plus dozens of artillery pieces, and a large number of naval heavy artillery support, Feng Guozhang's strength in defense at that time was only less than 3,000, and there were few supporting artillery.

At present, the national army defending Taishan Town has at least 6,000 troops, and it is also supported by a large number of artillery, in addition to the support of naval heavy artillery. Although the Beiyang Army, the attacking side, was twice as strong as the Nationalist Army, had a lot of heavy weapons and firepower, and even had the support of a heavy artillery regiment, it was still inferior to the original Nationalist Army in terms of firepower superiority.

This is a tough battle, a more fierce battle than the last battle of Taishan Town, both the strength of the two sides and the scale of artillery far exceeded the last battle of Taishan Town.

On December 2, the 7th Division and the 2nd Mixed Brigade of the Beiyang Army under the command of Feng Guozhang officially launched the Battle of Taishan Town, trying to capture Taishan Town, and engaged in a fierce battle with the defending guard division troops.