Chapter 218 Songpa returns

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In the early morning of Hanyang, the rumbling sound is endless, and the Hubei Iron and Steel Plant is still in the process of reconstruction and expansion, and the number of chimneys is several times more than before. Next to the Hubei Industrial Company also has a new look, the third phase of the expansion of the intense construction at the same time, the first to complete the first and second phases from the completion of the reconstruction of the machine has hardly stopped, the advanced management mode of the Volkswagen Automobile Plant, the piecework system, the assembly line, three shifts, etc., have appeared in this China at present, and even for a long time in the future will be the largest military complex.

"Did you hear that? Yuan Gongbao recovered from his illness, and yesterday he personally took charge of the government and convened a meeting of senior officials in Beiyang (). Outside the General Staff, not far from the industrial company, two young staff officers in sand-yellow combat uniforms talked quietly as they walked, and the content was, unsurprisingly, the Northern Expedition that had begun.

"I already know." The thinner midshipman glanced at the industrial company proudly, and said, "Last night, the chief of staff called a meeting to discuss this matter, and the commander was very surprised that he would get better so quickly. ”

The slightly chubby partner disagreed: "What's this?" I have always felt that he was speechless after being exposed by the commander as a traitor, so he was pretending to be sick, and of course it would be good to start fighting now. ”

"Not necessarily, all the previous intelligence showed that he was indeed sick, and it was very serious. Last time, our second department also discussed this matter, and invited several doctors to refer to it, and in the end, they all said that if the symptoms are true, even if they are sent to the United States for treatment, it will take at least half a year to get better. ”

"This is weird, does he have any good medicine?"

"It's not impossible, didn't you listen to the 13th Brigade Southwest that time? The deputy chief of the general staff suffered such a serious gunshot wound, and the doctors tried their best but could not stop the bleeding, and finally they sent someone to invite a famous local doctor named Qu Huanzhang to stop the bleeding with homemade medicine. Even the commander was shocked by this incident, and he unexpectedly sent someone to send condolences to help Qu Shen Yi build a pharmaceutical factory so that more people could use the miracle medicine. ”

The slightly fat midshipman staff officer touched his chin and asked nervously: "If Yuan Shikai is really good, will it affect the front line?" ”

"Beiyang with him and without him are two armies, and now Division Commander Yue is already commanding the outskirts of the line from Xinyang to Xinye, and he didn't encounter much resistance the day before yesterday, but there were no casualties in the battle report yesterday afternoon, and the impact is not great?"

"What then? Is it going to be a stalemate? ”

Hearing that his partner was worried, the thinner midshipman snorted coldly: "Hmph! Stalemate, they also deserve it? Now it's just the 13th Brigade and a few regiments, and the 1st and 2nd Divisions haven't contributed yet, so you really have to wait until you start to know how powerful the 8 artillery regiments on the front line are! I told that the chief of staff was most worried not about Henan, but about Nanjing! ”

The fat staff officer nodded, Nanjing is indeed the most worrying, although Nanjing has three divisions, but according to the standards of the National Defense Force, there are actually less than four brigades, and the empty salary has reached an appalling level (). The troops have not been properly trained at all for a year, and their weapons and equipment are very outdated, and they are even inferior to the Southwest National Guard, and it is impossible to hold Nanjing by relying on such a unit, so which troops to send to support has become the key. However, the strength of the national defense force is not so strong that it is unmatched, and at least two brigades must be withdrawn to support Nanjing, so it is necessary to transfer two brigades composed of veterans of the former Gui Army from Hunan, but there are only two new brigades of the Gui Army left in Hunan, so everyone is waiting for the news of the two brigades in Yunnan.

After the outlying battle in the direction of Wusheng Pass began, the General Staff was completely in a state of war, and the officers even walked with the wind, and the wireless transmitter was hardly heard for a moment.

In front of the battle map, Song Ziqing was introducing the current situation to Yang Qiu, and officers such as He Xi, Wu Zhaolin, Zhang Xiaozhun, and Yin Changheng took out their notebooks one after another to record that they either had no task or rushed with troops. Even Jiang Fangzhen came, and for this battle, he specially transferred 70 interns from the National Defense University to join the staff headquarters of various brigades and regiments, taking this opportunity to temper his practical ability.

Song Ziqing pointed to the direction of Wusheng Pass and said: "The battle situation will be divided into two lines, north and south, the northern line is from Guangyuan, Sichuan to Wuxue, Hubei, this area is the area, at present we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 18 mountain brigades on this line, a total of 11 brigades, the total strength is about 60,000, I have ordered the 10th brigade and the 11th brigade to cross the border through Guangyuan to advance to Hanzhong, and strive to take Hanzhong within three weeks and advance to the Baoji line." The 12th Brigade and the 18th Mountain Brigade also entered Shaanxi through Wanyuan and Shiyan, and they would undertake the task of crossing the Qinling Mountains to block the east of Xi'an, cutting off the connection with Tongguan, and taking Tongguan at the same time as launching the Xi'an Campaign, and completing the convergence with the two brigades of the Sixth Division and the Jin Army to cross Kaifeng and Xinxiang.

The 4th and 13th Brigades are in charge of Xinye, the 3rd Brigade has already moved towards Guangshan, Henan, the cavalry regiment will continue to operate in Henan, and the remaining troops will cross the Wusheng Pass and attack Xinyang from tomorrow morning, so as to exert frontal pressure on the First Beiyang Army and ensure that it cannot withdraw its forces to support Shaanxi.

The southern front is the biggest problem, and at present three divisions in Nanjing, one division of the Zhejiang Army, and one brigade of the Shanghai Army have begun to be mobilized, but I personally think it is doubtful whether they will be able to fight. According to our intelligence, these units have not been systematically trained for more than a year, and their weapons and equipment are outdated, but the Beiyang entrenched in Xuzhou has reached more than 70,000, including Cao Kun, Ni Sichong, and Zhang Xun, three notoriously ruthless troops. Since there is no news from Anhui so far, Li Liejun in Jiangxi refuses to cooperate, Fujian is also slow to move, and Chen Jiongming in Guangdong cannot send troops if he wants to deal with Long Jiguang, so if we don't support it, Nanjing will definitely fall in a month at most. ”

Song Ziqing's fingers quickly moved to the border between Guangxi and Guangdong: "This is the third battlefield, Long Jiguang's troops have been moving frequently in the past few days, we think he is likely to launch at the same time as Chen Jiongming returns to Guangdong, and the 7th, 9th and 16th brigades of the third division are ready to enter." Therefore, we must now draw at least two brigades from the northern front to support Nanjing. ”

"We have four newly formed Guijun brigades in Hunan, two of which have completed three months of preliminary reorganization and training, and the new brigades have just completed their formation and are undergoing training. There are still four brigades in Yunnan, of which two brigades of the fifth division will certainly not be withdrawn, and the numbers and establishment of the two brigades of the Yunnan army have been reorganized, and most of them are veterans, and the tactical quality shown in the operation in the past few months is also very good, but they will not be able to rush back until at least mid-April. Of course, we are not without troops, the establishment and personnel of the two guard divisions are all in place, and the two brigades, the 101st and 103rd brigades, have the ability to deploy in combat because they are veterans drawn from various divisions. ”

Song Ziqing put down his hand, looked at Yang Qiu and said, "At present, our biggest problem is not in Beiyang, but in Jiangxi!" Li Liejun's statement and lack of cooperation triggered burnout in Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang. So! My opinion is that we should send four brigades to defeat the Gan army in advance, so that we can release at least five brigades, and we can also let the southern front understand our determination! ”

Yang Qiu knew that the biggest problem at the moment was Li Liejun, but he didn't express his position immediately, but asked, "Have I made the troop reorganization plan ready?" ”

Song Ziqing replied: "The numbers of the first to fifth divisions remain unchanged, the 16th Brigade will be deployed in Hainan for tropical training after the war as planned, the 17th Brigade will be deployed for plateau operations, and the 18th Brigade is already a mountain brigade, so it will continue to maintain the original number, the Sixth Division will be assigned to Yan Xishan and the 19th to 21st Brigades will be under the jurisdiction of the four Guijun brigades in Hunan, and the four Guijun brigades in Hunan will be temporarily organized into 22 to 24 infantry brigades, of which 22 and 23 are veterans, and the two brigades of the Yunnan Army will be temporarily organized into 25 and 26 infantry brigades. Our suggestion is not to organize divisions for the time being, because after this battle, there will definitely be many new units to join in, and the numbers and sequences will be dispersed, and the units can no longer continue to maintain a single provincial and municipal establishment, and it will be more convenient to adopt the temporary numbers in the future. The four brigades of the Guards Division are the 101st to 104th brigades. ”

"Have you calculated how much time it will take to defeat the Gan army?"

Song Ziqing analyzed: "The quality of the soldiers of the Jiangxi army is good, Li Liejun is also the only province in the southeast to ensure that the troops are trained every day, the total strength is about 5 mixed brigades, but the conditions and economic restrictions cause insufficient equipment, the whole army only has 50 57 mm mountain guns, 6 Jinling Manufacturing Bureau imitation 75 mm tube guns, 120 mm coastal defense guns on the river batteries, and 2 German-made 210 mm fortress guns purchased by the Qing army in the early years, in addition to the rifle models are also inconsistent, In the past, all the ammunition supply had to be supported by Nanjing and Guangdong, and we are now under the orders of the central government, which also has an impact on their military morale (). ”

After hearing this, Wu Zhaolin agreed: "I took the opportunity to see the Gan army last time, and the quality of the soldiers is good, but the loss is in the equipment. If you want to fight a quick battle, you must have more than four brigades, and I think that the 2nd Brigade can rush to Nanjing first, and at the same time, let the 101st and 102nd Brigades of the Guard Division go to Jiujiang, and the 22nd and 23rd Brigades go to Pingxiang, forming a two-front attack on Nanchang, and Li Liejun will not last more than a month. ”

"He can't hold it, but Nanjing can't hold it either." Jiang Fangzhen hugged his chest and said seriously: "Don't look too much at Beiyang's ability, we can still count on them to delay the internal strife when Yuan Shikai is sick, but now we want to rely on a brigade to lead a few miscellaneous divisions, even if the fleet is mobilized to blockade the river, Huainan, Bengbu, Hefei, Huaiyin, Yangzhou and these places will all fall within a month!" ”

Zhang Xiaozhun also nodded: "Baili is right, if you want to move Li Liejun, then my opinion is to first cross Anqing and go to Tongling to attack Hefei, so that the Beiyang Second Army will have to divide its troops into southern Anhui, and Nanjing will be under a lot of pressure." ”

"There's one more problem." Song Ziqing glanced at the many officers and said, "Commander, you have appointed Yue Peng as the commander-in-chief of the northern front, Cai Jimin needs to take care of the Guangdong side, and we lack a commander to go to Nanjing." ”

A soldier bears a nest of bears. The pressure on the southern front was already huge, and it really needed an officer who could hold the position, who to send? He Xi? Zhang Xiaozhun, still. Before Yang Qiu looked at Jiang Fangzhen, the salute of the guards suddenly sounded outside, and then a slight cough came, Cai Yi walked in wearing a yellow tweed coat, and said with a smile: "Songpo has nothing to do, you might as well let me go to Nanjing." ”

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