Chapter 171: One battle to determine the southwest (I)

In the Guiyang Fifth Division Command, which was making the final preparations for encirclement and annihilation of Tang Jiyao's troops, the staff members were getting more and more busy as they came in and out. While they were mobilizing the Fifth Division and the newly built Eighth Mountain Brigade, the General Staff Department, far away in Wuchang, also took action. After the Third Division One Brigade was moved to Yuping, Guidong, the Second Brigade also received an order to start moving towards Huaihua. At the same time, the Seventh Infantry Brigade, which had been suppressing bandits in western Hunan, was asked to suspend all operations within five days. At the same time, in order to ensure the safety of Hunan, the First Division and the Second Division, which were always regarded as the absolute ace of the National Defense Forces, were also destined to be reorganized by the field division, and also took a boat from Hanyang to Xiangtan overnight.

In addition, the Sixth Infantry Brigade, which shocked Dali, Yunnan by Sichuan, had a total of seven brigades, and more than 30,000 troops were directly aimed at Yunnan and Guizhou. Such a large mobilization could naturally be hidden from the outside world. Whether in Beijing or Nanjing, they all knew that this war in Guizhou would be inevitable.

If the war is limited to Guizhou, it would be fine. The question is whether Yang Qiu would take this opportunity to defeat the Yunnan army in one fell swoop and even Yunnan swallowed it? In fact, everyone had the answer in their hearts as soon as the question was raised. No one could resist the temptation of integrating Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Sichuan (later called Xikang, easy to read) and the special administrative regions into one. Once these four provinces and regions are controlled by Yang Qiu, it means that the National Defense Force will officially have a large rear that accounts for more than one-quarter of the country's population and is rich in resources! It also means that he truly has the confidence and strength to confront the north!

Nanjing custody fu was worried about the restart of the civil war, and sent telegrams to Wuchang many times to ask for explanation of the reasons for the military's mobilization, and expressed his willingness to mediate the conflict between the Yunnan Army and the National Defense Forces. He even suggested that Guizhou and Xikang should be handed over to Yang Qiu, and the three provinces' inspection envoys were upgraded to four provinces (Xikang had not yet established a province, but was just a special zone).

When Yuan Shikai learned of the large-scale mobilization of the National Defense Force, he used the central power to demand that Yang Qiu withdraw his troops immediately, and said that Yunnan and Cai E were provinces and governors under the central jurisdiction. This mobilization had exceeded the scope of the power of the inspectors of the three provinces. Duan Qirui, the Minister of the Army, even said in an interview with British reporters that it was not ruled out that the use of force would be interfered with this civil war, and then he ordered the Second Division of the Beiyang and the Fifth Division to be prepared to attack Wusheng Pass, and ordered Ni Sichong to take Henan to detour to attack Hubei at any time.

Ni Si rushed forward, and Anhui Governor Bai Wenmo hurriedly reorganized the army. Since there was only one division left in Anhui, he was afraid that Bai Wenmo would be overthrown by Ni's army, which hated the Democratic Party, and the three divisions in Nanjing also began to be on guard. When the war between the north and the south came again, Wuchang continued to remain silent, neither explaining the reasons for the army's mobilization nor agreeing to mediate. Even Zhang Taiyan, the chief of education of the three provinces who claimed to be crazy, would write a few words in the newspapers almost every day to mock Zhang Taiyan, the chief of education in Nanjing and Beijing. This time, he completely shut his mouth.

This trend even affected Britain and France. As Yunnan penetrated deep into the Southeast Peninsula, the two countries that had huge interests in East India began to worry that as the Defence Force continued to grow, it would affect the interests of the two countries here. Therefore, they condemned their representatives to negotiate and asked Yang Qiu to explain the military actions. However, because of their mortal enemy, Germany supported the Defence Force operations with a high profile, and even accelerated the delivery of weapons and ammunition to Yang Qiu.

The violent southwest shock made the Beijing Presidential Palace full of sorrow. Duan Qirui, Lu Jianzhang, Cao Kun, Duan Zhigui and other officers came. Even Feng Guozhang, who had not shown up for a long time, sat next to him, pointing at the front of the southwest map hanging on the wall to discuss the situation. In front of these old Beiyang, the new Chen Huan seemed out of place, but his words were sharp. There was no need to be a bad general in the analysis. He said: "His Eighth Brigade does not need to be expected, and the Seventh Brigade is not reliable in Xikang. The snowy mountains over there are not all year round. Although the Seventh Brigade participated in the Anmin Operation, it is impossible to attack Dali with a new infantry brigade through mountains and rivers. So this time the main force is the Third Division, two brigades, the Fifth Division and the Sixth Brigade.

The third division was the troops that fought Xiaogan. Zhang Tingfu, He Xifan and Xiong Bingkun were also outstanding officers in Hubei, with combat effectiveness second only to the 1st and 2nd Divisions. The fifth division was the foundation of the Hubei Pioneer Brigade and the Sichuan New Army. The division commander Su Xiaohu was a newcomer and graduated from the Hubei Gaowu Preparation School. I heard that Jiang Baili still recognized him after going there, not to mention that he had Yin Changheng help. Moreover, they fought with the Yunnan Army in the mountains in southwest Guizhou for half a year and have been using small rotation methods to hone the troops. The analysis from the previous battle for Guiyang is still good. The newly formed 7th Infantry Brigade seems to be a new unit later, but the brigade commander Hang Zhi was an old man from Yang Qiu's family. Xiaogan later transferred more than 300 veteran backbones, which can defeat the bandits in western Hunan... It is no worse than the fifth division."

Chen Huan continued: "Yang Qiu used the third brigade of the first division, with a 16-person squad. Each brigade has a full 5,516 people! There are 2,000 more people than the mixed associations in the southwest. This time, there are six brigades, plus several security groups, which has exceeded 40,000! Cai Songpo only has three mixed associations and some security groups left. Tang Jiyao's troops have also suffered heavy losses in the past six months. Cai E's two additional troops can show how much consumption it consumes! He claims to be 20,000, but I estimate that it is at most 15,000, and most of them are local bandits and the defeated soldiers of the Guiyang army behind. The two sides have a total of only 30,000. Even if the gap in the armed forces is not included, they may be doomed this time."

"***, I think I'd just send troops to support Cai Songpo! I'll fight on the charge of launching a civil war!" Duan Zhigui said angrily.

Yuan Shikai looked at his "godson", turned his head and asked, "Er'an, is Zhigui's method feasible?"

Chen Huan thought for a while and said, "It is feasible from the perspective of the three provinces. Currently, we have the Fifth Division in Xinyang, two regiments of the Second Division, and the 25th Battalion of Hubei, which was originally formed and incorporated into the Wuwei Right Army. After more than half a year of drills, we can also pull out. Shaanxi and Shanxi can draw a mixed brigade each, and with Ni Sichong's men, we can invest 40,000 troops to Wushengguan and Hubei in one go! The problem now is..." He did not hide his worries and said, "Yang Qiu can fight Yunnan and Guizhou without considering the surrounding Jiangxi and Anhui.

But we are the Central Army. Once we take action, we will inevitably move our whole body. Once Ni Sichong detours Henan, who can guarantee that Bai Wenmo will not take the opportunity to take over northern Anhui? Nanjing has three divisions and a guard regiment, Jiangxi has two divisions and one mixed association, Guangdong three divisions, plus Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian have one division each. After the Democratic Party abolished, the military force of twelve to fifteen divisions! Although Nanjing wants Yang Qiu to stop, their troops did not move, and even the nearest Jiangxi and Guangdong did not interfere, which shows that... they are still guarding against us."

After hearing this, Lu Jianzhang said, "Why are you worried about so many things? Just fight and fight. After fighting, we can never build again!"

"Don't talk nonsense. The election is about to be coming. The Democratic Party is now eyeing us. At this time..." Yuan Shikai sighed, but his eyes glanced at Liang Shiyi of the Ministry of Finance. Liang Shiyi followed him for many years, claiming to be a Beiyang money bag. He understood as soon as he saw it: "The last time the British loan was used to rebuild the fourth, sixth and twenty towns. Zhiquan formed a new army to train troops and took out a large piece, and the rest were all purchased from Japan. Unless it could wait until the end of next month, the third batch of 3 million pounds loans that Zhuerdian agreed to would be in place, and he could still grit his teeth and fight."

"At the end of next month, the daylily is cold!" Duan Zhigui refused to give in: "Yungui Mountain is high and dense forests, but it has been more than half a year before. Yang Qiu has already tightened his pockets. No matter how capable Cai Songpo is, he can't hold on for a month!"

Yuan Shikai also had a headache and turned his head and asked, "Huafu, you have fought with Yang Qiu in Hubei, so you can see..."

The battle in Hubei did make Feng Guozhang look much older. After returning to Beijing, he didn't even take over the imperial guards and left them to Duan Qirui to deal with them. He was at home to take care of his old age. If Yuan Shikai hadn't sent someone to ask for it personally, he wouldn't want to care anymore. Since he had asked now, he could only advise: "Wusheng Pass is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Yang Qiu has a division and two artillery regiments there. It is not a problem to defend for the first half of the month. At this time, the Fourth Division in Sichuan can come down. It is necessary to go to Wuxue to enter Hubei from Anhui, but Wuxue stationed a division and a brigade, and it is still a brigade of the Hui Party in Nanjing, which is not easy to fight. Although nearly half of Yang Qiu's troops have passed, he has no strength. He has four security regiments in Hubei, and there are about three divisions at home! Don't forget that he has a navy division. If Yang Qiu cannot be solved within a month... the Hui Party will definitely counterattack!"

Seeing that he had been saying something bad, Duan Qirui was a little angry and said, "Hua Fu doesn't need to be so ambitious, right? No matter how hard he can fight Yang Qiu, he is also a group of young boys under him. Can we, the old world, still be afraid of him?"

Feng Guozhang had no intention of quarreling with him and said, "I'm afraid, but the opportunity for taking the initiative to attack has not yet arrived. Guozhang only has two strategies. The best strategy is to send people to Guangdong immediately and persuade troops to Guangxi. In addition, if Wang Zhixiang goes to see Lu Rongting, as long as the three 2,000 troops from Guangxi and Guangxi are pulled to the border of Guizhou, Yang Qiu will definitely be afraid! Even if he continues to fight, he must not lose Guangxi! The worst strategy is to start fighting immediately regardless of it, but in this way..." He glanced at Chen Huan and said, "Just prepare to start a full battle between Jinpu Line and northern Anhui."

After listening to everyone's opinions, Yuan Shikai sighed. He suddenly realized that there were too many things blocking the way! The president sounded nice, but it seemed different from what he thought at the beginning. He looked at the map and glanced at it over and over again.

When the north was still clueless, the southwest had already been tightly wound up. Yang Qiuzheng and Jiang Baili, Su Xiaohu and Yin Changheng discussed the deployment in the Guiyang Command of the Fifth Division, and a crisp report interrupted everyone's thoughts.

"Report!"

Turning his head, Ming Zhao, who was transferred to the headquarters for service for outstanding performance during this period, stood at the door: "Report to the commander, division commander, and the second brigade's reconnaissance company report, and found that an enemy brigade began to retreat in the direction of Nandan. The remaining troops are also gradually evacuating to the borders of Guizhou and Guangxi. This is a detailed reconnaissance report."

After changing the mountain division, the Fifth Division was training and fighting for nearly half a year. Seeing that the Yunwu Mountain had already formed an encirclement of Duyun, the enemy suddenly stepped southward... Could it be that they were going to take a detour back to Yunnan? Only Jiang Fangzhen suddenly stood up straight, looked at the direction of the movement of Tang Jiyao's troops and pointed at the map. He recalled Yang Qiu's repeated questions about Guangxi before, and said in surprise: "They... are going to enter Guangxi! Are they crazy?"

In just one short sentence, it exploded in everyone's ears like thunder. Yin Changheng and Su Xiaohu quickly looked at the map and figured out the meaning of the telegram over and over again. Most of the officers widened their eyes and couldn't believe it. Only Yang Qiu suddenly smiled and looked at him and suddenly stood up: "After all, the mantis is a mantis and cannot fly into the sky."

"Change command!"

While the officers stood up, they ordered him to clearly jump out of his mouth: "From noon tomorrow, the teaching regiment of the Fifth Division, the First Brigade, and the First Brigade launched an attack from Shuicheng to Xuanwei, Yunnan. The Second Brigade and the Third Brigade set off immediately and chased each other in parallel in Libo and Rongjiang, telling the troops. Don't chase too quickly, pay attention to maintaining physical strength to ensure the troops safely enter Guangxi! The Third Brigade, the Second Brigade, and the Seventh Infantry Brigade gave up their original mission and immediately moved to Andong on the Hunan side of the Guangxi border. Send a telegram to the Third Brigade of the First Division, do not stop in Xiangtan, and immediately organize ships to go to the Xiangjiang River to turn Xiaoshui, gather in Jianghua to stand by! The Eighth Mountain Brigade, the Sixth, Seventh, and Eleventh Regiments of the National Guards are the general reserve team!"

"Tell all the soldiers participating in the war! Is the Southwest ours...it depends on this battle!"

This series of clear commands completely negated the Duyun and Libo decisive battle plan that the troops had done before, and all the soldiers pointed to one place... Guilin!

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