As the seasons change, the weather gets hotter and hotter.
The war in Hubei was still fierce, and continuous large-scale battles broke out in Xiangyang, Xiaogan, and Wuchang. As the offensive intensity of the Guards increased every day, the casualties caused by both sides also increased day by day. By the sixth
In mid-month, the war in Hubei weakened slightly, and the fundamental reason was not that the two sides consumed too much fighting, but because the weather was too hot, which caused many corpses that could not be collected on the battlefield to deteriorate, triggering a regional plague.
Plague epidemics occurred in many places, and the most serious one was Xiaogan.
Xiaogan's strong defense line made the Guardsmen pay a huge price for every inch they advanced. Also because of the positional warfare, the bodies left behind in the charging areas between the two armies were often unable to be brought back. There was no one to follow up.
Dare to go forward and clean up, even though Jiang Baili sent three telegrams to Xiaogan, hoping that Cao Kun's defenders could reach a consensus, and both sides would send cleanup troops to deal with these stinking corpses.
However, Cao Kun refused again and again, and even uttered wild words that as long as the Guards dared to leave the bunker, no matter what they did, they would immediately open fire to stop it.
As a result, the environment on the Xiaogan battlefield became increasingly bad. Both the Guards and the enemy troops on the Xiaogan defense line were poisoned one after another, and the number could be said to be geometrically doubling every day. Summer wind direction
The changes were endless, coupled with heavy rains from time to time, the plague penetrated everywhere with the wind and rain. Even the self-righteous enemy troops hiding behind the concrete positions soon tasted the pain.
Jiang Baili held three consecutive staff meetings to discuss how to deal with the health problems that are getting worse.
The plague is extremely contagious, and most soldiers gather very densely. Not to mention that it is difficult to isolate. Once one person becomes ill, it means that other people close to him will most likely also be infected with the disease. This
The health and medical conditions in that era were very backward. Even though the Guards had a relatively complete military medical system and special preparation measures to deal with battlefield plagues, it happened that something like this happened at the most tense time of the war. It was really disruptive.
Many plans of attack.
Not only that, because in the previous month, the Guards launched many large-scale charge operations in order to expand the scale of the battlefield and create more fire pressure. The purpose of such operations was to exchange the lives of soldiers for attack
Although they made some progress, they successfully completed the construction of trenches within 100 meters in front of the enemy's position, and also successfully captured flanking positions. However, the casualties caused were too heavy, and the number of troops was almost the same.
All have a tendency to be inferior to the defending army.
Therefore, all logistics resources were concentrated and a large number of new troops were mobilized from the north to fill the front line.
These recruits first come from Zhili Province. After all, the reserve system in Zhili Province is the most complete in China. At the same time, Yuan Su also vigorously supported this series of work in the past few years, training militiamen and cultivating ideas. Others of the Guards
Several divisions are going to undergo a major change of blood, and of course they have to be deployed from these direct areas.
The transportation resources connecting the north to the south were almost all occupied by new recruits. As a result, the logistics military medical system was very scarce in resources and failed to effectively control the spread of the plague in the army in the first time. When the situation on the front line became worse and worse, this would
The hasty allocation of medical resources was somewhat late.
In desperation, Jiang Baili could only adopt some very pessimistic coping methods. All soldiers who were seriously ill and dying were cleared away. Those who were still conscious and capable of action immediately formed a death squad and carried explosives after leaving a suicide note and confirming their pension.
and grenades, focusing on launching surprise attacks on enemy positions at night.
Although this method treats the symptoms rather than the root cause, it does curb the development of the plague to a certain extent. At the same time, it finally brings out the residual heat of these soldiers. When these death squads rush into the enemy's positions and detonate explosives, the destructive power created cannot be underestimated.
.Even if they failed to cause damage, their corpses caused a lot of trouble to the enemy's trenches.
The outbreak of the plague caused the Xiaogan War to cool down significantly, and the frontline command headquarters even began to prepare for retreat.
However, the plague did not only affect the Guards. It was also bad for the enemy troops on the Xiaogan Defense Line. Although the plague initially spread towards the Guards positions, the enemy army did not have a complete military medical system.
On the one hand, there was no plan and sufficient common sense to contain the plague. Therefore, what started as a small-scale infection soon developed out of control as the weather became extremely hot for a few days.
In addition, the concrete fortifications have great sealing properties. Once attacked by the plague, the impact will be a series of consequences. In less than half a month, the situation of the Xiaogan defense line was instantly worse than that of the Guards.
Even worse.
By late June, the Guards spared no effort to increase medical treatment and invest in all aspects of funding to contain the epidemic. This included purchasing relevant medicinal materials, hiring many doctors in nearby towns to prepare medicines for delivery to the front line, and even inviting Western doctors with high salaries from the north to Henan.
Organized relevant medical research and implemented treatment plans. Finally, the epidemic was barely controlled.
However, controlling the epidemic does not mean completely eradicating the epidemic. This will still take a long and excessive time.
Not only that, as the war continued and the weather became hotter and hotter, the plague was extinguished and then reappeared. After special statistics from the Guards General Headquarters and cooperation with various medical institutions,
Research and discussion show that the current plague situation will last at least three months, and during these three months, a huge amount of money must be spent to maintain control of the epidemic. According to the current situation, the daily expenditure will be at least five
Ten thousand yuan. Of course, this cost will gradually decrease as the epidemic situation improves, but it is not a small amount after all.
Even if the Guards had strong economic and logistical resources, the enemy troops at the Xiaogan Defense Line and the Beiyang Military Reform Committee members at Hankou in the rear were obviously even more burdensome for them. In particular, the frontline officers lacked the awareness to contain the plague, which led to the plague.
The situation is becoming more and more serious, and the price they pay will definitely not be any better than that of the Guards.
During the period when measures were taken to contain the plague, the fighting in Xiaogan did not stop completely, but the offensive plan compared to the previous large-scale charge was shelved. As for the artillery unit of the Guards, it still spared no effort to bombard the Xiaogan defense line.
, combined with the plague situation, put a lot of pressure on the enemy.
Finally, on this day at the end of June, the two regiments that had been ambushing the flanks of Xiaogan's defense line took advantage of the vacancy in Xiaogan's frontal defense line and mobilized troops from the flanks to fill the void. They took advantage of every opportunity to launch a crucial surprise attack. They successfully broke through Xiaogan's flank defense line.
With a position of more than 500 meters, they completely wiped out a regiment of enemy troops stationed here.
Not only that, the Guards took advantage of the opportunity to break through the flank defense line and continued to advance along the traffic lanes of the enemy's trenches, even pushing the front line into the hinterland of the Xiaogan defense line. This round completely confused the defending enemy troops. The so-called
Even such a strong defense line was sometimes broken through, and once it was broken through, it was out of control.
Xiong Bingqi, who was in command of Xiaogan, was completely at a loss. On the one hand, he had to worry about the epidemic situation, and on the other hand, he also had to worry about the occupation of the Guards and cutting off logistics transportation in several places in the northeast. Although the Beiyang Military Reform Commission was famous, it did not have enough back-up force after all.
, did not have such huge economic support and did not have that many reserve troops. Previously, forced recruitment led to widespread civil unrest, and the revolutionaries took the opportunity to incite common people to revolt. As a result, the supply of additional troops in the rear was intermittent, and the plague on the front line caused
The casualties are constant.
In his opinion, the Xiaogan Defense Line has truly come to an end. Currently, the frontline troops are insufficient, the rear support is insufficient, and traffic at key positions has been broken through and cut off, and the situation is still out of control.
By the afternoon of that day, Xiong Bingqi had completely lost the confidence to continue fighting. However, he could not give up the defense line rashly because of this. After all, there were still tens of thousands of soldiers fighting on the front line, and the Guards were so close. Once ordered to retreat, they would inevitably
It evolved into a situation of complete defeat and collapse. At that time, it was really too late to regret it.
In desperation, he had no choice but to think of a way. On the pretext of going to Hankou in person to ask for backup and supplements, he handed over the command to the deputy commander and returned to Hankou overnight. Before leaving, he also made a special announcement.
He wrote a telegram lamenting the lack of troops and supplies on the front line and the panic caused by the raging plague. He also complained about the delay in reinforcements and medical resources in the rear. He had to go to Hankou in person to present his case to Chairman Cao.
This message immediately flipped his role from passive to active.
The Guards fought fiercely at Xiaogan for two months, killing more than 7,000 soldiers and injuring nearly 30,000. They had long been saddened by the stubbornness of the Xiaogan defense line, but now they finally broke through the position and occupied enough ground.
After rushing into the traffic artery, the troops of all walks of life were naturally confident. Jiang Baili immediately ordered to use diversionary firepower from the front, and continuously dispatched two regiments and the guard regiment directly under the headquarters, and rushed to Sanhan Town. From here, along the open road
The gap continued to launch an advance attack, aiming to completely defeat the eastern position of Xiaogan's defense line within two days.
In order to break through the flank positions of Xiaogan's defense line, the four regiments adopted a strategy of taking turns to attack, almost seamlessly maintaining a continuous attack. Originally, the morale of the defenders had been greatly damaged. After the gap was opened in the position, the morale was even worse.
A big drop. In addition, many of the supplementary troops in the garrison were forced conscripts without training. These people originally hated the Beiyang Army and had no intention of being cannon fodder. Therefore, as the war in the east expanded, the number of soldiers immediately appeared.
A deserter.
Even though some officers were encountered and shouted down during the escape, before the officers could draw out their guns to stop the deserters, these deserters were already so angry that they could not suppress their anger and took action first, beating those who stopped them to death with bayonets and rifle butts.
The battle in the east continued for three days and three nights, and finally the above combat mission was completed before dawn.
With the complete fall of the eastern flank positions of the Xiaogan Defense Line, the front and back of the entire Xiaogan Defense Line were exposed.
Whether it is the frontal position or the western position, the southern position is suddenly stripped of the defensive power of the trenches and can only engage in face-to-face combat with the Guards. Not only that, they also have to face a double attack from the Guards. Many defenders
I was worried that if things continued like this, the entire position would be cut into two sections by the Guards, and then they would be completely surrounded, without even a chance to escape.
Several frontline regiment headquarters were unable to contact the headquarters. Even if they contacted the headquarters, the top commander Xiong Bingqi was no longer there, and the deputy commander had already found an excuse to leave. No one issued reasonable orders at all. As a result, the morale of the military was completely chaotic.
, the escape situation was no longer like the previous few days, where it was just small groups escaping, but now it was a company or a battalion escaping.
As for those soldiers who couldn't escape, they simply chose to surrender. Anyway, as long as they could survive.
By July 7, the Xiaogan position was completely lost.
Jiang Baili used less than 15,000 available troops on hand to annihilate more than 4,000 enemy troops on the Xiaogan Defense Line and capture more than 20,000 enemy troops. After paying an extremely heavy price, he finally overcame this major difficulty. And
At this time, the Fifth Division and the First Corps were seriously injured. In addition, the aftermath of the Xiaogan battle was heavy, so they were unable to move to Hankou immediately. They could only stop at Xiaogan for reorganization.
However, Xiaogan's breakthrough brought great morale to the entire Guards. This means that the next attack on Hankou is no longer far away, and the so-called Beiyang Military Reform Commission's farce has come to an end. This internal conflict in Beiyang has finally come to an end.