In mid-February, after more than half a month of preparation, Yuan Su officially began to mobilize troops and generals to enter Henan.
He arranged for the third brigade of the Zhongyang Army stationed in Huaibei to be responsible for this operation. The commander of the third brigade, Guo Wenyuan, did not lead the team himself. Instead, the deputy brigade commander Dai Fengxiang led the soldiers of the third regiment through Shangqiu, Kaifeng, and then
Go ahead and gather solemnly to stand by.
Guo Wenyuan led the brigade to still be stationed in Huai'an, and followed Yuan Su's instructions to expand reserve forces.
On the latest personnel list submitted by the Third Brigade of the Zhongyang Army in December last year, Yuan Su saw several names that shocked him. He had to admit that Guo Wenyuan played an important role in the construction of the Third Brigade.
After making great efforts, they not only actively promoted junior officers, but also trained a large number of grassroots officers by the teaching team in just half a year, finally giving the Third Brigade a complete system.
In addition to the exceptional promotion of junior officers and the rapid training of the teaching team, Guo Wenyuan even went to various provinces and places to recruit senior officers through various channels. For example, Deputy Brigadier Dai Fengxiang was a graduate of the third phase of the Baoding Army Officer School. After the founding of the Republic of China, he was
Appointed as the principal of Hunan Army Primary School. Through many letters and telegrams, Guo Wenyuan was finally able to recruit Dai Fengxiang to join the 3rd Brigade of the Central Army from Hunan north.
Of course, this is a bit of a fluke. Dai Fengxiang was a cadet at the Baoding Military Academy at the same time as Li Jishen. The two had a very good relationship, and they were strong supporters of the revolutionaries. During the second revolution, he made many
Tan Tingkai was asked to send troops to aid Hubei, but was shelved by Tan Tingkai one by one. In the end, the revolution failed, and Tan Tingkai surrendered without a fight, which disappointed many revolutionaries in Hunan and made them realize that the revolutionaries in the south were loose and incompetent. fu launched the military
Reform and the establishment of the Zhongyang military system. Dai Fengxiang and Cai E both had high hopes for the military reform of the Beiyang Zhengfu, so they gradually changed their stubborn ideas in the past. After Guo Wenyuan's repeated lobbying, he made up his mind to join the Zhongyang.
Yang Army, I look forward to making great achievements.
Yuan Su and his party arrived in Zhengzhou on the afternoon of February 12th. Dai Fengxiang led the three regiment leaders of the Third Brigade to the train station to greet them. Yuan Su only brought a guard company with him on this trip, and then
Also present were Jiang Baili and two of Jiang Baili's military staff.
After getting off the car, he met with Dai Fengxiang. Yuan Su shook hands with the newly appointed deputy brigade commander in a friendly manner and then introduced him to Jiang Baili.
Although Jiang Baili only became the principal of Baoding Army Military Academy after Dai Fengxiang graduated, for Dai Fengxiang, anyone who had been the principal of Baoding Military Academy was his mentor. So he greeted Jiang Baili with great respect and said nothing.
He calls himself "student" everywhere without hiding it.
After chatting at the station for a while, Yuan Su asked Dai Fengxiang to take him to the Third Brigade station immediately.
Just after coming out of the train station, seven or eight more people in luxurious clothes rushed towards me. After some introduction, I found out that these were local officials in Zhengzhou and representatives from the Dudu's Mansion in Kaifeng. The representative of the Dudu's Mansion was named Zhang Zhihe.
He was the second secretary of the Secretariat. As early as when the Third Brigade passed through Kaifeng, he followed the troops to Zhengzhou on Zhang Zhenfang's order to greet Yuan Su.
The first priority for the military officials sent by bfu was to establish good relations. Zhang Zhihe said that he had already booked a banquet tonight, specifically to welcome Yuan Su and others. Yuan Su just responded perfunctorily for a while without making it clear.
I agreed, and since I first arrived in Zhengzhou, I still had a lot of things to deal with.
Then he said goodbye to these officials. Dai Fengxiang had already prepared several carriages. Yuan Su, Jiang Baili and others got on the carriages and headed to the west of the city. The accompanying guards ran behind the carriages.
Along the way, Dai Fengxiang introduced to Yuan Su the situation of the Third Brigade and the current civil unrest situation in Henan.
He said: "Based on the intelligence we have collected in the past few days, as well as the news sent from Kaifeng, there is not much that can be determined. Some local troops and the troops deployed from Zhili have almost no achievements.
, they have not yet been able to completely figure out the specific location of the enemy. What is certain at present is that a rebel force has moved to Shaanxi, which was confirmed by a message sent from Shaanxi. In addition, there is a large area in southwest Henan
There are still frequent armed rebels in the mountainous areas. According to my personal speculation, there should be at least three groups of armed rebels in Henan."
Yuan Su's face was not very good. He asked seriously: "I heard that the Bailang Rebellion happened at the beginning of last year. For a whole year, the local troops still can't figure out the enemy's situation?"
Dai Fengxiang shook his head helplessly and said with a hint of ridicule: "The combat effectiveness of the local armies in Henan Province is not as good as those swordsmen and bandits in southern Henan. Most of the soldiers are soldiers from the former Qinglu Battalion. Not only are their equipment backwards,
And their quality is extremely poor. I have personally visited a camp of the 19th Infantry Brigade. To put it simply, they are just a mob."
Jiang Baili on the side sighed and said with a sad tone: "This is the case in most local armies. The soldiers have no concept of soldiers and are just trying to make a living. When it comes time to go into battle to kill the enemy, these people are all afraid.
It is impossible to achieve anything if we are afraid of our feet. The civil unrest in Henan is not due to the strength and cunning of the people's army, but to the cowardice and incompetence of our army."
Dai Fengxiang said with deep approval: "What Mr. Jiang said is absolutely true. Alas, if things go on like this, it will be difficult to defend the city, let alone annihilate these rebels."
Yuan Su immediately asked: "The government from other provinces dispatched two troops to Henan. The first troop was originally stationed in the 11th town in Henan Province, which was transferred to Hubei during the Battle of Ganning.
Later, due to civil unrest in the province, a brigade was hurriedly mobilized to return reinforcements. Xu Jinxun, commander of the brigade, and his troops had just moved north along the Beijing-Hankou Line, but were unexpectedly ambushed by Bai Lang's main force outside Xuchang City, and the entire army was wiped out. Xu Jinxun
He has been shot by Governor Zhang."
Yuan Su took a deep breath, his face darkened but he said nothing.
Dai Fengxiang then continued: "In December, another unit was transferred from Anhui. It was the 14th Army Division that had just been reorganized in the 14th Town. It was the military counselor of the General Staff Headquarters and succeeded Mr. Jiang as the principal of Baoding Military Academy.
Principal Qu's headquarters could help some situations at first. However, as the militia became more and more powerful and the various militia were broken into pieces and even penetrated into Anhui Province, the 14th Division was unable to take into account the overall situation for a while, and the war situation worsened.
Make passive."
The Principal Qu he was talking about was Qu Tongfeng, the current principal of Baoding Military Academy. Yuan Su had met him before in Bei Jing, but he did not expect that Qu Tongfeng was in Bei Jing while the troops were participating in the encirclement and suppression of Bai Lang in Henan.
Uprising. I don't know whether the troops were entrusted to the division's management, or whether they were commanded remotely from beijing.
"What's the situation of the Fourteenth Division now?" Jiang Baili asked.
"The 14th Division is currently mainly guarding the border between Henan and Anhui. There are several groups of militiamen active around it. If they take the initiative to attack, they will be led around by the militia. Therefore, they can only stay in place, almost unable to move.
." Dai Fengxiang said.
"How many towns in Henan Province have fallen to the enemy right now?" Yuan Su asked again after a slight pause.
Before leaving for the south, he did some homework and learned about the current impact of the Bailang Uprising on various provinces.
It can be said that Bai Lang's uprising is not like ordinary banditry, which attacks a town, robs things and then runs away. The purpose of this kind of military operation in the nature of peasant uprising is to capture cities and territories. It is said that when Bai Lang was at his most powerful, he once
Conquering eight towns in a row, he became the "Emperor of the Earth" who ruled over the land.
For the government, they not only want to search and suppress the civilian army hiding in the mountains, but also take back the fallen towns. Although the momentum of the civilian army has been reduced in recent times, the large towns that were captured before are all
They were all recovered, and the civilian army also broke into pieces and divided into several groups and began to fight guerrillas and make strategic shifts. However, some small towns in remote places were still firmly controlled by the civilian army.
It is relatively easy to attack towns head-on. Compared with lurking in the mountains and forests, at least the target is more concentrated. But this is the case. The government has nothing to do with the civilian army. Most of the large towns that were captured before were Bailang and others.
People voluntarily gave up, which gave the government the opportunity to recover. As for the towns that were still occupied by the civilian army, the government would not and did not dare to take rash action. In the final analysis, after a whole year of dealing with the offensive of the civilian army, the local governments had long been
I'm scared.
"What is certain at present is that many towns in the southwestern mountainous area are controlled by the militia. As for the big towns, a telegram was sent from Kaifeng yesterday saying that Shangqiu was occupied by the militia. A telegram was also sent from Anhui.
It was also said that several counties near Haozhou were held hostage by the civilian army." Dai Fengxiang said, but his tone was filled with suspicion.
"Shangqiu? Haozhou? When you set out from Huaibei, don't you just pass through the place between Shangqiu and Haozhou?" Yuan Su was also very confused, and he asked in a more serious tone.
"Exactly. The Fourteenth Division is currently stationed in Yongcheng, Xiayi and Tangxian. They also sent a telegram before saying that Shangqiu was definitely occupied by a civilian army, but they were not sure about Haozhou.
Situation. Originally, when our troops were marching, we were also very worried about encountering unexpected events on the way, so the initial plan was to take a detour to Zhili Province. But then a business in Huaibei just came back and said that there was no civilian army in Shangqiu, at least
We didn't find anything going on in the south. In the end, our third brigade was divided into three batches, and the cavalry went out to explore first, and we didn't encounter any enemies until we arrived in Kaifeng." Dai Fengxiang explained.
"Why do people in Kaifeng think that there are civilian troops in Shangqiu?" Jiang Baili asked.
"At the end of last month, a cavalry regiment under the command of Governor Zhang had a firefight with the civilian army in Ningling. The cavalry regiment detected that the civilian army had retreated into Shangqiu City." Dai Fengxiang said.
"In short, this matter cannot be taken lightly." Yuan Su said slowly.
Later, Dai Fengxiang introduced the entire defense line of the Henan Zhengfu Army to block the enemy. In Henan Province, in addition to the 14th Division of Qu Tongfeng mentioned before, the other one in Henan Province is the Zhang Xiyuan Division of the 10th Division of the Zhongyang Army, which is being prepared.
He Fenglin's 11th Division of the Zhongyang Army, and Zhang Zhenfang's 19th Division of the Governor's Army. The two divisions of Zhang Xiyuan and He Fenglin have not yet been officially designated as the Zhongyang Army, but have only set up zhongyang at the headquarters.
It is just a preparatory office for two army divisions. Whether it is organization or personnel arrangement, it basically maintains the old system.
Precisely because we are in the process of preparing the Central Yang Army, the previous designations of Zhang Xiyuan and He Fenglin have been abandoned, but the new Central Yang Army designations have not yet been equipped, so in the end they are still nameless troops. In the official message sent to Kaifeng and Bei Jing
, they are only referred to as "Zhang Xiyuan's Department" and "He Fenglin's Department".
Each of these two men has two brigades of troops under their command. After receiving the order to expand last year, the strength of the troops has been expanded from 3,000 to 5,000, and from 4,000 to 7,000. He Fenglin has the largest number of troops, but in terms of
However, Zhang Xiyuan's troops have the best and most complete military equipment. These two groups of troops were originally the troops that Yuan Shikai pinned his hopes on, and they were also the direct troops ordered by Yuan Shikai. However, the reason why Yuan Shikai was furious was that these two groups of troops failed to live up to expectations.
, fought with the Bailang People's Army for a year, and fought more than twenty battles, big and small, without winning a single victory.
The most tragic incident was when Zhang Xiyuan rushed to support Xu Jinxun's brigade in Xuchang, two of Zhang Xiyuan's most elite regiments actually went in the wrong direction. Not only did it indirectly lead to the annihilation of Xu Jinxun's brigade, but it also gave Bai Lang's main army a chance to breathe and turn around to fight.
A counter-siege was launched. More than 300 people from Zhang Xiyuan's two regiments were killed, one deputy commander and two staff officers were killed, and most of the baggage and supplies were robbed.
It seems that Yuan Shikai came here to save the face of these two units that were about to be established as the Zhong Yang Army, so as not to let foreigners and the South think that the "Zhong Yang Army" was nothing more than that, so he had to let Zhang Zhenfang take the blame, and denounced Zhang Zhenfang's bad command.
In fact, Zhang Zhenfang's tribe was huddled in Kaifeng at that time. It was really because Shangqiu fell and it was more than a hundred miles away from Kaifeng, so it was extremely worried.
After dozens of disastrous defeats, Zhang Xiyuan's troops were severely weakened and had been holding on to Zhengzhou since September last year. It was not until Bai Lang retreated from Xuchang that he detached some troops to take over Xuchang.
As for He Fenglin, he is only a little better than Zhang Xiyuan. The reason why he is better is that he did not suffer heavy losses due to a small mistake like Zhang Xiyuan. He Fenglin is still a man of backbone. All the generals in Henan dare not take on the task of encircling and suppressing the militia in the mountainous areas.
At that time, he shouldered this heavy responsibility without hesitation.
For more than half a year, his troops were basically concentrated near the southwest mountainous area, and the reason for most of the battle failures was that under pressure from the central government, he had to rush into the mountains to organize encirclement and suppression operations. As a result, the civilian army ambushed him every time.
Success. From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, his troops held fast to the southwest mountainous border, using strategic defense and siege as the main means. Although there were no major achievements, they successfully blocked the civilian army from entering the central area of Henan.
Not only that, but to a certain extent, it was precisely because of He Fenglin's insistence and interception that a large number of militiamen in the southwestern mountainous areas were cut off from food and grass supplies, and completely lost contact with the militiamen in the east, and had to start moving to Shaanxi.
In general, the current situation in Henan has eased, but it is not because it is beneficial for the government to suppress it. On the contrary, Bai Lang considered that the situation in Henan Province was difficult to open, so he took the initiative to choose a strategic shift, which gave the government a chance to breathe.
.Except for the above-mentioned troops, the rest of the troops are old camps from local states and counties, which are the lowest quality. To say that Bai Lang is most happy about the transfer, there is nothing more than the old camps from these local states and counties.
, finally no longer have to go through “birth and death”.
The third brigade is located in a barracks in the western suburbs of the city. It used to be the headquarters of Zhang Xiyuan's troops. Later, Zhang Xiyuan transferred his troops to Xuchang, thus vacating this camp area.
The group arrived at the camp. Yuan Su, accompanied by Dai Fengxiang, walked out of the carriage. He saw that the camp was not too big. With nearly 3,500 people in the three regiments of the Third Brigade, it seemed a bit crowded. There were only a few dozen barracks.
, many soldiers can only set up tents in the open air. However, although the conditions are not good, the order in the camp is orderly, and the soldiers standing guard at the entrance of the camp are full of energy and high-spirited.
Yuan Su was very pleased with this scene. It seemed that Guo Wenyuan was indeed a person who knew how to train troops. It took only half a year to train a newly formed army. Of course, having a door panel does not mean that it has strength.
, there is still some suspense about the real combat effectiveness of the third brigade. After all, it is a new brigade.
Arriving at the temporary brigade headquarters command post, Yuan Su was anxious for all the officers above the brigade and battalion headquarters to attend the meeting. He first solemnly introduced Jiang Baili, saying that Jiang Baili would serve as the top military adviser and at the same time grant him the opportunity to directly participate in military decision-making.
special powers. Afterwards, he made a general overview of the current situation in Henan Province, and then began to discuss the future military direction of the Third Brigade.
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Dai Fengxiang (1881-1962), also known as Zhongqi and Guangye, was a Han nationality from Dongxiang (now Beishan Town), Changsha County, Hunan. He was an early senior general of the Kuomintang and a military educator. He had great ambitions, was good at literature and martial arts, and witnessed the changes of the Qing court.
Ignorant and stupid, determined to expel the Tartars and restore China.
Zhang Xiyuan graduated from the Baoding Military Academy and later served as an instructor of the New Army in Dingwu. In the third year of Xuantong (1911), he served as the 58th standard commander of the 29th Mixed Association of the Henan New Army. In October of the same year, he participated in the Wuchang Uprising to suppress pressure.
Due to his meritorious service, he was promoted to the commander of the 29th Mixed Association. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), the Mixed Association was reorganized into the Mixed Brigade, and Zhang Xiyuan remained as the commander of the 29th Brigade. In December of the same year, he was promoted to the commander of the First Division of the Henan Army. During the Republic of China
In the third year of the Republic of China (1914), he participated in the suppression of the Bailang Uprising. In September of the same year, he was appointed as the commander of the Ninth Division. In the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916), he was appointed as the commander of the Second Brigade of the Gyeonggi Infantry Brigade.dd