Because the ninth division was cautious, it didn’t say that it was as bold as the seventh division of Liangjiang Army to take a circuitous attack in an attempt to win the first world war, and Jin Yunpeng, who is opposite, also knew that he was cautious in fighting against the three main divisions of Fengjun Army.
As a result, the ninth division and the second HunChengLv in Dangtu played several games with each other, but the scale was not large. After both sides tried to attack, they contracted and formed a stalemate.
However, this is also a good thing for the ninth division. After all, the ninth division is still in a state of recovery. Adding the ninth division does not mean defeating the Second Hunchenglv, but delaying the protection of the rear road and flank of the fourth army. Even if it is successful.
Jin Yunpeng, who is opposite, is almost the same as a few core generals in the Anhui army. He naturally knows the whole strategy of the Anhui army at present, and that is procrastination.
The Anhui army continued to transfer troops from other directions to Dangtu and Jinling, and then remitted superior troops to defeat the fourth army in Fengjun. Before that, the Anhui army adopted delaying tactics and sometimes took the initiative to retreat to avoid the so-called consumption in the early stage
The Anhui army has to drag the ninth division of the fourth army, but the 14th division and the 1st HunChengLv of the fourth army can’t drag them. They have to quickly tear up the western defense line of the Anhui army Jinling and then insert it directly into Jinling to cooperate with the third division of the second army on the north bank of the Yangtze River to launch the Jinling Campaign. If they want to take Jinling, the whole Jiangnan strategy will be half completed.
From a military point of view, Jinling may not be as important as Zhenjiang and Wuhu, but its importance cannot be viewed from a simple military point of view.
Jinling is not only a military town, but also a political city. The vast southern China has great political influence. Taking Jinling means that Fengjun has controlled only two political cities in China.
It is a coincidence that Zhang Dong, a southern federation, controlled Wuchang, and it was only the temporary capital of the southern federation, but it did not have much political influence.
There are two suitable capital cities in contemporary China, one is Jingshi and the other is Jinling, which has something to do with personal wishes but with contemporary national conditions.
It is necessary to make a quick decision. The 14th Division and the 1st Hunchenglv have never stopped attacking since the day they launched the attack. In just a few days, they have already made a dash for dozens of kilometers. There are certainly factors that the Anhui army actively retreated to protect its strength, but it is undeniable that they have already marched into the peripheral areas of Jinling.
It’s an exaggeration to say that Yang De has smelled the foul smell of Qinhuai River!
Chapter four hundred and nine Naval operations
When the Fourth Army continued to engage in fierce fighting with the Anhui Army, he was not idle in the direction of Fengjun, which continued to launch attacks in Anqing, Wuhu and Jinling. Needless to say, the 10th Division along the Yangjiang River launched several small-scale cross-river attacks in March. Although the overall results were not great, and there was one case of being wiped out and even defeated, they succeeded in containing a large number of Anhui troops.
In order to guard against the important Yang River valley crossing the river in Duan Qirui, even if the situation at the front line in southern Anhui is tense, I dare not transfer too many troops now.
However, in this regard, Fengjun still did not meet the huge pressure from the army and other generals, and received more than one million yuan troops to pay the salaries of sailors who had been lacking for a long time, and Zhao Dongyun also got the promise that he would buy more warships from the United States. After that, he always passively avoided the war and served the navy. Finally, he also acted.
They are going to take risks to bombard the Haisong and Shanghai forts and weaken the forces of the Anhui forts in this area. If all goes well, the follow-up navy will directly land the army soldiers in this operation. The navy generals have planned for a long time and have all the capital ships at hand.
On March 11th, a large-scale naval fleet of Fengjun was assembled in Haikou, including the largest cruiser Haiqi in China’s navy, as well as two cruisers Haihao Haichou. In addition, it also took a total of six gunboats and warships to occupy the Soviet navy’s strength.
Yu Haichen, cruiser and destroyer Eagle, several gunboats, they are carrying out the escort method of maritime replenishment from Bohai Sea to Lianyungang in the East China Sea.
Naturally, the main force of the Soviet navy merged into the sea and opened to the sea, which attracted many people’s attention. Many overseas navies were also aware of what large-scale actions the Soviet navy might take, and all of them sent large and small boats to follow and observe.
It is very interesting that although the foreign navies sent inferior warships, they still have to be tough compared with Soviet naval warships, especially the Germans sent an armored cruiser through the sea, which is a huge ship with a tonnage of 10,000 tons. This warship alone is enough to crush these small miscellaneous fish of the Soviet navy.
As a result, there is a very strange scene in the mouth of the Yangtze River. A large number of warships flying national flags in the back and a small fleet in front are just like a mature man and a kid watching how children fight.
Cheng Biguang, the Haiqi, looked at a large number of foreign ships behind her, and it was very unpleasant. Nima, this is the waters of China and the Yangtze River in the past. However, after an operation by his navy, there were warships from various countries coming to the theatre aboveboard.
However, although Cheng Biguang is upset in his heart, he can also be calm. "No matter who they are, we will hit ourselves!"
As the Cheng Biguang fleet carefully sailed into the Yangtze River, it was not long before it was near the Songhu Fort!
At this moment, the artillery soldiers of the Anhui Army in the Songhu Fort also got the information early, and they were already nervous and boarded the fort before loading the coastal defense guns.
Cheng Biguang, dressed in a white naval officer at this time, watched the distant two battles fort with a high-powered telescope!
"Carry out shelling according to the scheduled plan!" As Cheng Biguang ordered the flagship Haiqi inch naval gun with the largest tonnage to be shelled.
It’s a long distance. This first round of shelling has a big deviation from the scheduled target!
As the distance approaches the rear, those smaller six-inch naval guns continue to fire at the Songhu Fort!
At the same time, clouds of smoke rose from the fort in Songhu, which was caused by the firing of coastal defense guns. The muzzle flame fought back with the coastal defense guns of the Anhui army opposite. Near this small fleet in Cheng Biguang, clouds of high water columns were also aroused.
With the heavy shelling from both sides and watching the battle from behind, naval officers from all over the world are also interested in watching the battle through their own telescopes. After watching it for a long time, a British major just couldn’t help but whisper, "This gun skill is too bad. It took half an hour for both sides to get a hit!"
British naval officers and other naval military attaché s of the great powers watch the battle. It seems that the root of this artillery battle between the Soviet Navy and the coastal defense forces of the Anhui Army is that children play house. Even if you are still so far away, it will be a ghost if you can hit it.
The rumbling cannon is not a battle at all, but an expensive fireworks show!
It was Cheng Biguang’s surprise that foreign troops gathered together to despise the officers. For him, shelling the fort in Shanghai and Shanghai was just a political matter. His biggest thing was not to destroy the fort in Shanghai and Shanghai, but to ensure the safety of his own warships during the battle. He chose to shell as far away as possible, so that the other side’s coastal defense guns effectively threatened his fleet. To be honest, Cheng Biguang didn’t care.
The Soviet navy’s shelling of the fort in Songhu was a political battle, which made many generals in the army quite dissatisfied. Moreover, it was even more difficult to get the navy from Zhao Dong Yun if it always avoided the war passively.
The Soviet navy’s action this time was not successful. As a result, the navy wanted to tell the army generals that we also fought in person. What can we say? That’s because we are short of warships. If you buy us some battleships, I’ll show you army turtles the Songhu Fort in minutes.
Su Haijun and Su Fengjun are two different things. The former is a considerable interest group, and they are only attached to Su Sheng, while the latter is the foundation of Zhao Dong’s cloud-hand force, which strives for the unification of China.
This situation is strong, such as Zhao Dongyun’s short-term change. He didn’t expect the navy to cover the army’s crossing the river with his own heart. Since the pre-Qing Dynasty, China’s naval force was quite central, and it has never fully controlled China’s naval forces. The former Beiyang Navy and Nanyang Navy were all controlled by local governors to some extent. Although the Qing court tried to unify the navy during the New Deal reform period and tried to completely control the navy, it had already ushered in Yuan Shikai before it was completed. This unified navy was even more talked about after the four northern warlords rose up.
Now Zhao Dongyun has not said that he wants to completely control the navy in a short time. He needs the navy to maintain a good attitude towards himself. How can I put it? It is enough for him not to turn his head to Duan Qirui or the Confederacy.
In this big environment, the Soviet Navy’s shelling of the Songhu fort naturally became anticlimactic. Cheng Biguang led a fleet of more than ten warships to shell the Songhu fort for about three hours, and after that, he didn’t even scratch the skin of his own warship, and he didn’t get hurt at all. He just declared his return without being watered much.
When the news came to the capital, Zhao Dongping, the chief of the ordnance department of the high command, was furious. "These sons of bitches just gave them millions of classics and bought them hundreds of thousands of ammunition and coal. So they showed me this?"
This time, Cheng Biguang Fleet spent a lot of money on burning coal and firing artillery shells, but as a result, the battery in Songhu was still intact, which made the generals who had always been dissatisfied with the navy even more dissatisfied with the navy.
However, Zhao Dongyun is not so concerned about this result because he didn’t expect the navy to make any achievements before. What he needs is a political attitude of the navy.
If the navy is willing to go out and fight, then it means that the navy is still facing itself, and it is not worried that the navy will suddenly defect and then run to Duan Qirui
Although the army generals were extremely dissatisfied with the navy’s anticlimactic behavior this time, Zhao Dongyun sent a message to Cheng Biguang, who led the fleet in the distance, praising the navy’s brave spirit and saying that the navy’s action had effectively hit the enemy’s morale!
Still, the Haiqi led the fleet to prepare to return to Cheng Biguang. After receiving this letter, his face could not help burning. Perhaps it was because he felt that it was really bad to explain to Zhao Dongyun that night, he led the fleet to the mouth of the Yangtze River again, and the next day, he ventured close to a distance and launched another shelling on the Songhu Fort.
This time, the shelling was short, but it took only about an hour from the cannon to the evacuation. However, compared with yesterday, it achieved certain actual results. Many six-inch artillery shells accurately landed on the Songhu Fort, causing hundreds of casualties among the soldiers of the Anhui Army Fort. Although the Haiqi itself was hit by a shell from the Songhu Fort counterattack, the damage was not great, but several soldiers were injured.
After the evacuation, Cheng Biguang led the fleet to officially return.
Compared with the navy, it is a fierce battle to prepare for the Soviet army forces passively.
Since the beginning of March, troops from many directions have launched fierce attacks on the Anhui army, and the fourth army has attacked the river.
Whether Zhao Dongyun wants to unify China or rely on the army and navy is just an ornament.
On March 15th, the 14th Division and the 1st Huncheng Brigade suffered many days of hard work and suffered more than a thousand casualties. Finally, they broke through the line of the 4th Division Supplementary Brigade and more than 10,000 Anhui troops, and then captured a series of areas on the periphery of southwest Jinling, pushing the front line to the area from Fenghuang Mountain to Tianjiashan, which is nearly a foot behind the south bank of Jinling.
In the face of the rapid advance of the Fourth Army and the second Hunchenglv being blocked by the ninth division of Fengjun Army, Duan Qirui once again showed amazing decisiveness when the Dangtu line broke into Maanshan.
In order to defend Jinling, especially Jinling City on the south bank of the Yangtze River, he voluntarily gave up Jinling City on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which he had been holding for many months.
Chapter four hundred and ten The third division crossing the river
Jinling, a city along the Yangtze River, is divided into the north bank and the south bank of the Yangtze River, but the south bank city is the main part of Jinling, and the north bank part is much less important.
The former Duan Qirui continued to stick to the North Shore City mainly because it nailed a bridgehead in the North Shore. On the one hand, it attracted and contained the main forces of Fengjun, and on the other hand, it could have a good starting position when it counterattacked the Northern Expedition.
However, now that the Fourth Army of the People’s Republic of China has reached the periphery of Jinling, if a large number of troops are invested in the north shore area, it will seem that the loss will outweigh the gain.
As a result, Duan Qirui decisively withdrew the Fourth Division of Liangjiang, the fourth division on the north shore.
Unlike Bong Jun’s difficulty in crossing the Yangtze River, Duan Qirui searched a large number of ships on both sides of the Yangtze River before the war. In addition, their artillery units were all deployed on the south bank without carrying heavy artillery across the river, so it was necessary to transport combat soldiers across the river, so that the retreat could be successfully completed, even without pontoon bridge, and the combat soldiers on the north bank could be easily withdrawn smoothly.
Of course, in this process, we can’t sacrifice a part of the broken troops. Naturally, the broken troops can’t be the main force of the Fourth Division and the Sixth Brigade, but the provincial army of the First Division of Liangjiang.
Speaking of it, the First Division of Liangjiang River is also unlucky. Since the war with Fengjun, it has always been to bear the rear troops in Jiangbei. After reconstruction, it is once again sacrificed. The second brigade was annihilated by the third division of Fengjun because of the rear troops.
When the first division of Liangjiang was first established, Duan Qirui incorporated a large number of confederate troops into Jiangbei after South Jiangsu. After World War I, the two brigades were completely destroyed. After the battle of Jiangbei, the remnants were retreated to Jinling, and the establishment of the first division of Liangjiang was restored. Duan Qirui transferred the same wounded Jiangbei Huncheng Brigade into the first division of Liangjiang. In addition, the second brigade was built on the basis of the first Huncheng Brigade of Jiangxi Army by recruiting new recruits.
In this way, the establishment of the first division of Liangjiang was restored. After the defeat of Jiangbei Campaign last year, Duan Qirui vigorously reorganized the military system, and almost all the miscellaneous troops were cancelled. What’s more, the Jiangxi Army and the Zhejiang Army Department were cancelled and unified, and the Liangjiang Army Institute was rebuilt at the same time. The second division of Liangjiang was also rebuilt at the same time. The second division of Liangjiang accepted the remnants of the first mixed brigade of Zhejiang and the second mixed brigade of Zhejiang, and recruited new recruits. Before the foundation was rebuilt, it was stationed in Lishui, and after the Anhui army crossed the river, Jinling was reinforced in the north. At present,
Although a whole brigade force was lost in the process of retreating from the north shore, Duan Qirui didn’t care that these two rivers and provinces came to be expendable cannon fodder troops in his heart, and the key moment was to sacrifice the main force of the fourth division without losing it, so he would continue to fight with Fengjun.
Duan Qirui took the initiative to withdraw from the north bank of Jinling, which is equivalent to taking the initiative to give the north bank of Jinling to Fengjun, which also allows Fengjun to pull out the last nail of the Anhui army in northern Jiangsu and serve the army one step at a time, so that he can put his energy into conquering Jinling.
"Now the 14th Division has marched into the periphery of Jinling and has the ability to meet the third division crossing the river in the west of Jinling!" Shi Yanglin, the capital of Jurentang, soon discussed the latest round of war plans with Zhao Dongyun.
That is, the third division also took over Jiang Lai and launched an offensive against Jinling.
"Is it too difficult to cross the river directly to the west of Jinling?" Zhao Dongyun still has concerns about this. "I remember that there are several gunboats of the Anhui army in Jinling. If you are shelled by enemy gunboats when crossing the river, how can you ensure the safety of the troops crossing the river?"
Shi Yanglin said, "According to our intelligence service, many Anhui gunboats moored in Jinling in the past two days have reinforced the sea along the south of the Yangtze River. At present, there are only two or three gunboats in the area. At that time, we need our field artillery to cover enough enemy gunboats, even if we have the courage to stop them, our artillery is confident to intercept them!"
Zhao Dongyun wanted to think, but didn’t speak, indicating the default.
In the direction of Jinling, the artillery strength of Fengjun is not weak, and the first heavy artillery battalion is deployed in the direction of Jinling. In addition, there are 75mm field guns of the third division, the fourteenth division and the fourth Huncheng Brigade. These guns may be nothing for warships with thick skin and thick flesh, but they are still powerful for those shallow-water gunboats with hundreds of tons.
Those gunboats are generally equipped with 100 mm or 120 mm naval guns and some three-inch naval guns. Although the range and firing rate of naval guns are good, the number of Fengjun field guns is enough because of the contemporary army field guns.