Two days later, Yuan Su and Jiang Baili arrived at the temporary station of the First Regiment on the northeastern outskirts of Ningling County.
The Second Cavalry Regiment of the Third Brigade and Li Qian's troops have been deployed from Ningling County to the southwest suburbs of Shangqiu in the past few days. The entire deployment operation can be said to be swaggering all the way, and the momentum is very strong. Its purpose is to attract Shangqiu
Civilian troops in the north pay attention. The two regiments that led by the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and Li Qian did not really approach Shangqiu City. They only occupied several towns and commanding heights outside the city, and then stopped to set up their positions.
The headquarters of the First Regiment temporarily stayed outside the suburbs of Ningling County, while the men and horses of the First Regiment and the Third Regiment, under the leadership of Dai Fengxiang, had quietly detoured to the northeast and advanced to the north of Shangqiu.
Yuan Su got off his horse and walked into the temporary headquarters tent of the First Regiment with Jiang Baili.
The officers currently staying in the headquarters' tent are all civilian officers from the three regiments, and the person in charge of the headquarters is Dai Fengxiang's adjutant Wen Qin. Wen Qin came to the gate of the headquarters early to greet Yuan Su, Jiang Baili and others
, after the two came in, they immediately reported the second telegram received from the reconnaissance team in the early morning of this morning.
"The reconnaissance team has determined the distribution of the civilian army. However, because the areas controlled by the civilian army are strictly inspected, the reconnaissance team cannot sneak into the civilian army, so it cannot determine the specific strength and armament of the civilian army." Wen Qin said from the side.
The Communications Office took the original text of the incoming call and said to Yuan Su.
"What's the general situation?" Yuan Su did not pick up the original telegram, but signaled Wen Qin to hand the document directly to Jiang Baili.
"Commander, please take a look, this is the distribution of the civilian army that was just marked on the map." Wen Qin brought Yuan Su and Jiang Baili to the simple map table that had been set up nearby, and pointed at the red marks on the map.
Yuan Su and Jiang Baili looked at the map carefully for a while. It can be seen from the marks on the map that Wang Ze's civilian army is currently mainly entrenched in the towns in the north of Shangqiu. In Shangqiu City, they are concentrated to the north of Suiyang, and to Suiyang.
The river is the boundary. What is certain is that the civilian army controls all channels on the north bank of the Suihe River, including bridges, ferries and shallow water areas.
As for the northern part of Shangqiu, there are about three towns and several villages. In almost every town, the villages are guarded by militiamen. It can be imagined that most of these militiamen are locals, and their purpose is to hold a piece of land in their respective homes.
"The Suihe River is just a small river, and the area of the river is not large. It can be bypassed. Of course, this is just a plan to attack Shangqiu City. Since the first and third regiments want to cut in from the northeast, the Suihe River is basically
It won't have any hindrance." Jiang Baili said calmly.
"Where are the First Regiment and the Third Regiment?" Yuan Su asked Wen Qin.
"At present, the third regiment has arrived at Tangzhuang, and the first regiment has to go further north, near the Litang River. Brigadier Dai also sent back a telegram just now, hoping that the governor and Mr. Jiang can decide to launch an attack as soon as possible, preferably tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
It can be started. Otherwise, the whereabouts of the First Regiment and the Third Regiment will be exposed," Wen Qin said.
"Immediately send a message to the 19th Division and ask them to launch a feint attack early tomorrow morning. Then send a message to the 1st and 3rd Regiments to launch a surprise attack tomorrow afternoon." Yuan Su gave the order decisively.
"Yes." Wen Qin responded solemnly, and immediately turned around and ordered the telegraph operator to send the telegram.
"Brother Baili, in your opinion, how long will this battle last?" Yuan Su then asked Jiang Baili.
"If everything goes well, there will be results within three days." Jiang Baili said confidently.
"Brother Baili, what kind of trouble do you think will happen?" Yuan Su asked again.
"It's hard to say, but what I'm worried about is that we currently don't know much about the situation of the civilian army in Henan Province. This is not just something we don't understand, but even the armies in various places in Henan Province don't understand the general information.
I heard that the civilian army is moving to Shaanxi, but it is still unknown how many civilian troops have actually been transferred and how many have not been transferred." Jiang Baili analyzed.
"What you said makes sense. I hope there will be no accidents within these three days." Yuan Su said.
At four o'clock in the morning the next day, Yuan Su was woken up by the orderlies. Regarding the battle that was about to start in a few hours, he had decided to go to the front line to supervise the battle in person. After washing up and eating something, he and Jiang Baili took the lead
With a team of police guards, everyone rode towards the northeast on horseback.
It was around seven o'clock in the morning when the group arrived at Tangzhuang. The sun was high in the sky, but the air was still thin and cold.
The Third Regiment left a communications team here in Tangzhuang, responsible for connecting telegraph lines and ensuring communication facilities. After meeting with the communications team, Yuan Su inquired about the movements of the Third Regiment and was told that the Third Regiment had followed the order in the early morning.
The first regiment began to advance towards the designated combat area in the north of Shangqiu. It would take several hours to advance on foot from Tangzhuang to the nearest village and town in the north of Shangqiu. According to the plan of Dai Fengxiang and the two regiment leaders, they set off first and
After arriving at the combat area, take a short rest, and then officially launch a surprise attack at the hour.
Yuan Su also asked about the situation of the 17th Division and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment south of Shangqiu. The communication team has not received exact information yet, but since the order from the former enemy headquarters yesterday was to launch a feint attack in the morning, it should have been launched by now.
Only when you get up.
After taking a short rest in Tangzhuang, Yuan Su and Jiang Baili continued to rush northeast, aiming to catch up with the first and third regiments and strive to personally take charge of the situation before the attack.
As early as three days ago, the reconnaissance team sent by the Third Brigade not only actively collected intelligence information, but also followed Yuan Su's order to spread the news in Shangqiu that the Third Brigade of the Central Yang Army would take relief measures to alleviate the civilian food shortage.
In order to increase the credibility of this news, the reconnaissance team also publicized Yuan Su's previous disaster relief cases in Shanhaiguan, and also pointed out that tens of thousands of dan relief grains had been mobilized in Kaifeng.
The people in Shangqiu don't know much about Yuan Su. At this stage, China's communications are still very backward, and all news relies on extremely limited reports from local newspapers. Yuan Su's actions in Shanhaiguan back then were only reported in some places where communications are very developed.
Only then will there be reports. And it’s been so long, and it’s unlikely that anyone can still remember it so clearly.
Fortunately, the investigation team did a good job, not only spreading such news everywhere, but also giving a detailed introduction to the Shanhaiguan disaster relief process that year. After these three days of brewing and fermentation, Yuan Su's reputation has spread to some extent.
Regardless of whether it is the civilian army or ordinary people, whether it is the common people who support the civilian army or the timid common people, they finally know who Yuan Su is.
However, the publicity and dissemination of information in the past few days can only be said to have played a very small role.
The turmoil in Henan Province has reached the point where farmers and common people are revolting, which shows how low the credibility of the government has been.
The common people's first reaction towards the government and officials is that they are beasts that only "eat the common people", "try their best to steal the people's fat", and "suck blood and gnaw bones". Even if there are so-called good officials, they are very few.
, or they are bragging by spending money. Compared with the former, ordinary people are more willing to lean towards the latter.
However, Yuan Su did not expect to restore the people's confidence in the government in a short time. He even believed that the people's distrust of the government had a long history, even in the next few decades or hundreds of years. Those who spread the news
The purpose is just to set the stage and let all the people know that they are not completely hopeless.
When the 17th Division and the Second Cavalry Regiment launched a mighty attack from the south of Shangqiu at a little after eight o'clock in the morning, the common people both inside and outside the city stayed away early in the morning. Even those who refused to give way
The common people quickly locked their windows and hid in the innermost rooms, closing their eyes and praying to God that the war would end soon.
The Seventeenth Division had a total strength of less than 5,000 troops. Although Li Qian ordered the entire army to attack to demonstrate his great move to attract the enemy, only the two regiments with less than 2,000 troops in the front actually launched an attack on Shangqiu South City.
Not only that, even these two regiments stopped moving forward when they were still a long way away from the city walls of Nancheng, and each of them just fired randomly forward from a long distance away.
On the other hand, the Second Cavalry Regiment of the Third Brigade strictly followed the order of the feint attack and successively advanced from the east, and broke into the city in less than half an hour. The Second Cavalry Regiment knew that there were not many enemies on the south side of the city, so it was placed randomly outside the city.
Even if a gun cannot scare the enemy, it may accidentally injure civilians.
The cavalry regiment has about 400 horses, some of which are reserved for logistics and preparation. Only about 300 horses are actually used in combat. Moreover, the cavalry training time of the third brigade is very short, and this cavalry regiment does not have the qualifications at all.
The basic tactics and experience of cavalry combat can be regarded as an infantry advancing on horseback.dd