The battle in Suixian County started on the last day of April. The Fifth Division divided into two groups and crossed the Han River to attack the official road between Suixian County and Xiangyang from the west. They occupied Xihe Town along the way and pushed towards the western suburbs of Suixian County;
The other road is responsible for taking the initiative towards Suixian County from the front, and is also responsible for establishing military depots and logistics stations on the way, so that the logistics route can be opened as soon as possible after occupying Suixian County.
Although Jiang Baili is the supreme commander of the Fifth Division, after all, he has only taken over the Fifth Division for a short time. The only troops he can truly control are the guard regiment directly under the division and the artillery battalion directly under the division. Even these two troops are still
After a period of extensive blood exchange, I could barely hold it in my hand.
Fortunately, although the regimental commanders and brigade commanders below worked independently and sometimes refuted Jiang Baili's orders, after all, logistics and military pay were in Jiang Baili's hands. If he really wanted to put pressure on him, he could only obey orders. At most, it was because of his mentality.
It's just that the efficiency of work seems very negative. Jiang Baili is not a person who is ignorant of current affairs. Because of this, the current situation is very stressful for him, because every order he makes must be carefully considered, and the function of the order must be considered.
, but also to ensure that subordinates can accept and execute orders with peace of mind.
Fortunately, there are not many troops stationed in Suixian County. Originally, Cao Kun had no intention of setting up a defense line here. He planned to use Suixian County as a transportation artery as a bait to lure the Central Guards to concentrate their forces and attack here. In this way,
It can be trapped and surrounded by Xiangyang and Hankou.
But later, after a period of research and intelligence collection, it was discovered that the offensive line of the Central Guards was very impressive. From the very beginning, they had to take care of both sides, and they assumed a posture of fighting a big battle. For this reason, they had to attack Suixian County
Keep an extra hand, whether it's delaying time, or cooperating with tactics, in short, it's all about preparing for unexpected events.
Cao Kun transferred Sun Jianye, commander of the 6th Brigade of the Hubei Army under Wang Zhanyuan, to station in Suixian County. Although Sun Jianye acted very quickly, it only took three days to gather all the troops in Suixian County, and he barely managed to secure several important positions in Suixian County.
A defensive line was set up in the suburbs. Two of his regiments set up field positions outside Anju at the fork of the Han River and the Yangtze River, and the other regiment set up a street fighting defensive line in Anju Town. His combat strategy was obvious, hoping to close the guard
The army was attracted to Anju Town for a decisive battle.
Another regiment of the Sixth Brigade huddled in Sui County and arranged street fighting, forming a third line of defense.
Just the day before the Guards launched their attack, Sun Jianye hurriedly sent a telegram to Hubei, asking whether the battle in Suixian County would be fought or not. The reason why there was such a telegram was because Cao Kun started it
Because he had not made up his mind, he did not advocate setting up defenses in Suixian County at the beginning. Later, he just hoped to send a response force to stay in Suixian County as a support force. Sun Jianye left in a hurry and did not ask whether he would be the main defender or the main support officer.
Or maybe according to what Wang Zhanyuan said, it was just taking care of logistics and transportation.
In fact, Wang Zhanyuan has selfish motives. He is willing to follow Cao Kun in this major change in Beiyang, but he does not want to affect his own strength. Now the Guards are targeting Suixian County, but Cao Kun has dispatched him
A brigade stationed in Suixian County was clearly using his men as artillery fire.
Precisely because there was a certain self-interest conflict between Cao Kun and Wang Zhanyuan, the final message sent from Hankou to Suixian County asked Sun Jianye to adapt to the situation. This made Sun Jianye look very embarrassed. What does it mean to act according to circumstances? Do whatever you see.
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If Sun Jianye now has clear battle instructions, although there are more enemies than himself in this battle, it is not necessarily impossible to fight. According to the defensive line he has set up now, he is definitely very insightful and capable. The Guards troops are divided
Of the two routes, one must first capture Anju Town before crossing the river. If one does not set up a logistics base in Anju and goes directly to Suixian County, he will definitely suffer heavy losses.
After all, the Sixth Brigade still had twelve cannons and occupied favorable terrain. Not to mention the fact that the Guards needed enough rafts to cross the river, even if there were rafts, they would all be destroyed with a few cannons.
Although Hubei's terrain is not dangerous, as a place of the Fourth World War, a transportation hub, and with many branch rivers of the Yangtze River, it requires careful strategic deployment to successfully fight battles and tactical operations. Especially Sun Jianye's troops have been fighting all year round.
When stationed in the central area of Hubei Province, we have already figured out the route in Anju Town. Even if the two regiments here cannot hold on, they will all retreat to the town to engage in street fighting. Sooner or later, the enemy troops will be confused and delayed for a period of time.
But now, Sun Jianye doesn't know whether he should fight or not. Should he listen to the orders of Cao Kun, the chairman of the Beiyang Military Reform Commission, or the orders of his old boss, Wang Zhanyuan? Furthermore, if he really doesn't fight well, then
Will I have to take the blame again afterwards? This is a very complicated matter.
However, the Guards did not give Sun Jianye any room to think, so they came over the next day.
The Guards troops on the west and middle roads were almost unimpeded, and they advanced thirty miles in one day.
That night, a brigade on the West Road of the Guards Army approached the edge of the Yangtze River in Anju Town. As long as they saw the river, no matter whether it was wide or narrow, fast or slow, all the soldiers in this brigade couldn't help but become nervous, because they
Knowing that the war was about to begin, the Fifth Division was stationed in the north all year round and was naturally not good at water warfare. Faced with such natural defensive fortresses, the enemy generals would definitely fortify them.
What's more, it doesn't require many troops to set up defenses. As long as there is a heavy machine gun and a cannon, it is enough to harass the journey across the river.
The 13th Brigade was responsible for the offensive force on the west route, and the brigade commander was Dai Dingguo. Dai Dingguo was only a staff officer at the brigade before, and was quickly promoted to brigade commander after the Zhengzhou Incident. The 13th Brigade captured the border areas of Hubei and Henan provinces.
After Loujiang Town, the brigade headquarters was set up here, and then ordered the commanders of the two regiments under his command to slow down the pace of the attack, and first sent a large number of scouts to explore the south bank of Anju Town.
In fact, Sun Jianye set up a psychological operation on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Anju Town. He blew up all the two bridges leading from Anju Town to the south bank, and then the troops retreated five miles and set up formations outside the suburbs of Anju Town.
There were no defense forces along the entire river, because Sun Jianye knew that the Guards would definitely bombard the north bank with artillery. With his own limited strength, he naturally had to think more about the soldiers.
Originally, the generals who were leading the battle would be a little unhappy, especially Dai Dingguo, who was an impatient person. But since he was chosen to lead the battle, he naturally could not live up to his reputation of being promoted quickly, so now Dai Dingguo is still very anxious, looking forward to his success.
Fight a good battle and establish your true prestige as a brigade commander.
However, the scouts sent out to explore the south bank of the Yangtze River for a long time. Because it was getting late, they could not see what was going on. However, they felt that the north bank was too quiet and seemed to be a scam. So the scouts reported to the group leader.
Unable to make up his mind, he reported it to the brigade commander.
Dai Dingguo was a little impatient, so he asked the artillerymen to fire a few shots over the north bank.
The Thirty-seventh Brigade only had six mountain guns in total, but it had a lot of shells, almost three thousand rounds. So the first round of artillery fire was in the dark and fired more than twenty rounds to the other side of the Yangtze River. Only successive explosions and flames were seen on the north bank.
Soaring into the sky, many small villages and wild forests were on fire.
However, there still seemed to be no movement on the north bank, so the regiment leader decided to send people to cross the river. However, the scouts searched along the river for a long time and found that the bridges had been blown up. They only found a few rafts in several riverside fishing villages.
The scouts took advantage of the darkness to row a raft across the Yangtze River. When they arrived at the north bank, they found that there was no trace of the enemy at all. They circled back and forth and found nothing.
When Dai Dingguo learned the news, he speculated that the troops stationed in Suixian County might escape. After all, Sun Jianye only had one brigade in his hands, and this brigade was not organized according to the Central Brigade, with a total strength of only 5,000 people.
Immediately, he ordered two regiments under his command to cross the river overnight. Due to the lack of rafts, even if he found many fishing villages along the south bank to beg for boats, the number was far from sufficient. The entire process of crossing the river seemed very slow. Fortunately, the river
It is a branch of the Han River, which is also a branch of the Yangtze River. The river is not too fast. Even if there are not enough rafts, the soldiers can jump into the water and hold the rafts on both sides to cross the river.
Dai Dingguo knew that the ancient art of war emphasized the importance of striking halfway across the river, so he was very careful when crossing the river at first. However, in the second half of the night, he still found nothing unusual, and his idea of guessing that the enemy was escaping became even more firm.
A brigade of more than 4,000 people crossed the river overnight, which lasted for more than eight hours. When each group of soldiers arrived at the north bank, some soldiers had not come over because their commanders had not come, and some did not know what they were doing after crossing the river, so they all gathered together.
It was noisy all night on the beach on the north shore.
After all the soldiers crossed the river, the sky became slightly brighter. The soldiers who were tired from the night thought they could rest for a while. However, Dai Dingguo insisted that the soldiers continue marching and tried to reach Sui County before the afternoon. So the soldiers
I had no choice but to continue moving forward while sleepily staring at the freezing weather in early January.
Because Dai Dingguo judged that the enemy troops had fled, the vanguard troops advanced directly towards Anju Town. However, when they were still two miles away from Anju Town, the troops of Sun Jianye's two regiments, who had already been waiting for work, faced these guards who were not prepared.
The army launched a surprise attack.
The battle lasted for more than thirty minutes. The Guards were caught off guard and the leading troops immediately collapsed. The troops behind did not know what was happening in front. They only heard loud gunshots and screams, plus the fleeing troops.
The vanguard troops ambush while shouting randomly, and more than 4,000 people suddenly became a chaos.
Fortunately, the two regiment commanders organized the machine gun company and the sword squad at the regiment headquarters to stop the fleeing vanguard and stopped the chaos in time. However, after this raid, the Guardsmen were completely alert.
, I didn’t dare to continue heading towards Anju Town for a while.
The regiment leader ordered the officers to temporarily organize the soldiers, retreat to several fishing villages on the north coast, and station themselves here first. It was just getting dark at this time, and it was impossible to tell how many enemies there were in Anju Town, and
The soldiers were tired all night, and many of them were sick from the cold and needed to rest.
In fact, if Sun Jianye ordered his two regiments stationed outside Anju Town to pursue the Guards at this time, the Guards on the west route would have been beaten into the Yangtze River. But it is precisely because Sun Jianye did not dare to go too far.
, there was hesitation in his heart, so he strictly ordered his subordinates to expand the war and just carry out conservative defense.
In the next few days, the Guards on the West Road organized several charges. Under the cover of six cannons, they planned to suppress Anju Town in one fell swoop. However, the more impatient Dai Dingguo became, the less smooth the battle became.
The weather was cold last night, the supply of follow-up supplies was insufficient, and the soldiers did not have enough places to sleep at night.
In the end, the two sides fought for several days, but the Guards did not move forward, and Sun Jianye's two regiments did not retreat. The stalemate on the West Road continued like this.