() "The battle plan I laid out before was to use Xiaogan as the barrier and main battlefield. Yuan Su personally led the army from Guangshan south to attack Hankou, and he must capture Macheng first. Macheng and Xiaogan are one hundred and fifty miles apart, and they are facing each other.
And the right position. If Yuan Su wants to attack Hankou directly, Wuchang can use roundabout ways to contain it, and Xiaogan's garrison can take the opportunity to sneak attack Macheng." Cao Kun said with a decent analysis.
"How should Sui County's troops respond?" Wang Zhanyuan asked again.
"It is necessary to keep troops in the rear in Suixian County to guard against attacks from Xiangyang. If the remaining troops attack Hankou, they must first pass through the Xiaogan defense line. Therefore, I put down heavy troops in Xiaogan, defending in the west and attacking in the east. It doesn't matter how many troops there are in Hankou.
Anyway, as long as the sense of filial piety is not lost, Hankou will be safe on land. Even if Macheng captures Wuchang, if we really want to attack Hankou, we will need troops crossing the river. At least we have some naval cover here, and it is impossible for Yuan Su to easily cross the defense line of the Yangtze River.
." Cao Kun said with confidence. He still used the same old thinking in marching and fighting. Even though his current military strength is not as good as that of the Guards, as the attacking party, he must spend more troops to achieve a certain offensive.
On the Xiaogan defense line, he released the First Army of the Beiyang Military Reform Commission. After he had previously placed Duan Zhigui under house arrest, he took over Duan Zhigui's troops, and at the same time cooperated with part of his old troops and part of the Hubei Army. The First Army had three
Each division has a total of about 40,000 people. In the past three months, a dense defense fortification has been built in Xiaogan, and the main position has even been reinforced with concrete.
Even though Suixian's battle was too fast, far exceeding original expectations, and causing some psychological worries. However, Cao Kun was still confident that he could successfully hold back the Guards on Xiaogan's side.
The defensive fortifications are conservatively estimated to last for more than two months. This estimate is not his personal conjecture, but a conclusion reached through joint discussions among engineers who designed the defensive positions, staff officers at all levels, and even foreign consultants.
"I know you have spent a lot of effort on Xiaogan, but I always think that you can't pin all your hopes on one position." Wang Zhanyuan said worriedly.
"You are always so unfounded. All we can do now is predict the deployment of defenses. If something else goes wrong, we can't just rely on guessing now. When Xiaogan can no longer defend it, we can still retreat to Hankou.
I don’t believe we can’t delay him in street fighting for a year and a half.” Cao Kun said loudly.
Wang Zhanyuan originally wanted to say something, but he also realized that he was too mother-in-law. Cao Kun was right. Many things cannot be predicted, and it is impossible to rely on guesswork now. Now that the arrow is on the string and has to be fired, he can only follow it.
Cao Kun took it one step at a time. He really put a lot of effort into the defense at Xiaogan, and there were also a lot of troops stationed at Hankou. To a certain extent, they could continuously reinforce the Xiaogan defense line, which might be able to delay the war.
He now had to consider a retreat first, that is, if he really reached Hankou, should he continue to stay in Hankou and take charge, or should he leave the war to the people below and retreat to other places in the south.
After Jiang Baili's Fifth Division captured Suixian County, it took another three or four days to move all the troops into the area.
In fact, during the entire battle against Suixian, there were only about four regiments that actually served as offensive troops. In addition to the rest of the troops serving as reserve units, the remaining brigade had not even moved from the previous station.
Now, it is precisely because the Fifth Division has to wait for the lagging brigade that it has delayed the entire schedule.
Although Jiang Baili was very angry, he finally chose to control his emotions in response to these anticipated situations. Of course, his method of running the army was not to indulge these old troops. The key was to polish the troops through subsequent battles, and at the same time use casualties to
Conduct a major blood change for the army. Only after the blood change can we begin to rebuild military discipline and style.
By the end of April, Jiang Baili basically completed the task of opening the strategic channel. The Fifth Division not only established a firm foothold in Suixian County, but also divided its troops into two groups to assume offensive and defensive postures. The 14th Brigade, which finally arrived in Suixian County, was responsible for garrisoning Suixian County.
In the northwest of the county, we must guard against the enemy threat from Xiangyang. The 13th and 15th brigades turned to the east, preparing to engage in the second phase of operations and open the strategic channel from Suixian to Xiaogan. In addition, the 13th and 15th brigades connected to Xiangyang from Suixian
Along the way, telegraph stations, military depots, and logistics transfer stations were all in place.
Yuan Su, who was still in Zhengzhou, also transferred the general headquarters to Xinyang on the day when the good news came from Suixian County, leaving only Lu Jin in Zhengzhou to be responsible for the dispatching of general logistics. When the general headquarters was settled in Zhengzhou, he immediately issued an order.
Orders were given to mobilize the 1st Corps and the 10th Division to begin the march.
The First Brigade of the First Corps and the Tenth Division formed the First Route Army, commanded by Chen Wenian. The remaining two brigades of the First Corps were personally commanded by Yuan Su. The First Route Army had already concentrated in Guangshan earlier, and now
After receiving the order, they immediately set off south, taking Macheng directly and then turning to attack Wuchang. The main force of the First Corps quickly arrived in Suixian County and cooperated with the Fifth Division to prepare to attack Hankou via Xiaogan. At the same time, the Second Division in Nanyang also received
Ordered to launch a diversionary attack on Xiangyang.
Even though the Zhongyang Guards was a hastily put together force, it was riddled with internal conflicts. The various departments were stationed separately all year round, and there was an extremely lack of tacit understanding. They had just experienced the great changes of the Zhengzhou Incident, so that the people inside the army were even more scattered.
.However, fortunately, Yuan Su had a detailed division of labor, thorough consideration, and arranged both primary and secondary tasks in place, so he could at least implement orders and prohibitions to a certain extent during marching operations.
As for the other divisions below, they are only going to carry out auxiliary attacks anyway. The ones who really play the main role are Yuan Su's direct troops. As long as they are not used as cannon fodder, everything else is easy to negotiate.
By May 2nd, the leading troops of Jiang Baili's Fifth Division had arrived at the front line of Xiaogan, and the reconnaissance troops even had some friction with Xiaogan's defenders. On the same day, the main force of the First Corps had arrived in Suixian County one after another.
, and following closely behind the eastward marching troops of the Fifth Division, they began to march towards Xiaogan.
However, there was only a small friction on Xiaogan's side. When they tried to attack, it was Chen Wennian's First Route Army who fought hard in Macheng. Although there were not many defenders in Macheng, most of them were local troops and policemen, but there was still a lot of fighting in Hankou.
A death order was issued not to allow Macheng to surrender directly to the Guards. At the same time, Cao Kun also specially dispatched two regiments of reinforcements to the surrounding areas of Macheng to harass the leading troops of the First Route Army with all their strength. The so-called big fight was only for the First Route Army.
There was a battle between the vanguard of the First Army and the Macheng local army and reinforcements, but the battle was still fierce.
The battle in Macheng seemed to have no control from the beginning. When the front reconnaissance unit engaged in firefights with the enemy on the outskirts of the city, a regiment commander who followed closely seemed to have suppressed his anger and immediately ordered the entire regiment to go into battle. . Heavy machine guns and all the artillery that could be used were used, artillery fire, intensive gunfire, and an overwhelming confrontation began.
Fortunately, the enemy troops in Macheng did not set up positions in advance. They only used some sandbags and rocks to temporarily build a defensive stronghold in the suburbs. In fact, they did not show any intention to defend strictly. However, although they did not defend strictly on the surface, I mean, but when it came time to fight, the defenders didn't show any signs of collapse.
The Pioneer Regiment of the First Army launched two charging attacks, but they were repulsed by the enemy troops hiding behind the temporary stronghold. The charging troops did not even get close to the outskirts of the city.
The leader of the Pioneer Regiment became angry and sent scouts along the town to conduct more detailed surveys to see if there were enemy defenses at other places entering the city, or if there were other paths through which to launch detours and sneak attacks.
From the battle in the morning until the afternoon, although the weather was not too hot, it had rained for several days in a row, but now the sun was high, which was somewhat uncomfortable. After two o'clock in the afternoon, the Pioneer The regiment temporarily stopped the attack and waited patiently for the scouts to report more detailed information.
It was not until night that the reconnaissance troops sent out gradually returned.
As expected, the enemy forces in Macheng set up defenses on all the nearby roads, and even intimidated the common people to go into battle to defend themselves against the enemy. It is said that the current situation in Macheng City is very chaotic, although not all places entering the city are covered. The enemy is guarding it, but the remaining passage must be detoured for 20 to 30 miles.
Nowadays, the vanguard regiment has insufficient troops and cannot divide its troops to conduct long-distance roundabout operations. It can only send a telegram to the rear to urge the follow-up troops to arrive as soon as possible. At the same time, it orders the three cannons accompanying the regiment to concentrate their firepower and attack the enemy's strongholds in front without any restrictions. When launching an artillery attack, as long as the gun barrel does not fire and the shells are not fired, the artillery fire will continue.
Although the three cannons were all small-caliber cannons, the Pioneer Regiment carried a lot of shells. Moreover, the terrain on the Macheng side was very open, which was the time when the artillery was at its best. So starting from the afternoon, the Pioneer Regiment and the enemy at the main gate The troops faced each other about 300 meters apart, while the three cannons of the Pioneer Regiment kept roaring from the rear. They fired continuously for an hour during the day, then rested for an hour and then continued to fire. Even at night , the three cannons also fired half a base number at regular intervals.
For the vanguard regiment, since they have already fought hard, they must maintain their momentum. According to the regiment leader's intention, all the artillery shells must be fired before the follow-up troops arrive. Anyway, the Central Guards do not need to attack at all. Heart shortage of supplies.