0p0 Chapter 365 Two Banks of the Yellow River
Chapter 365 Two Banks of the Yellow River
As Cao Zhongsan was imprisoned and Wu Ziyu fled, the Zhili army in the Zhili area was like a headless snake. After a surge, they either collapsed or surrendered.
In just three or four days, the whole of Zhili was in the hands of Fengjun.
There is a saying that if you win Longwangshu, then if you win Zhili, you will naturally look at Yu Province.
Therefore, it didn't take long for the main force of the Feng army to go south in two ways, marching towards Lu Province and Henan Province respectively.
Lin Hongfei didn't care about Lu Province's affairs, after all, it wasn't his territory.
But Yu Province is different. This place has just been laid down by Lin Hongfei not long ago, and it has not been fully digested, and the related fortifications have only been repaired in sevens and eighties.
The one who stayed behind in Yu Province was Zhang Sanduo, Major General of the Shanling Army, who was one of the first [-] soldiers from Lu Province who followed Lin Hongfei.
Since then, he has repeatedly made military exploits. First, he was promoted by Lin Hongfei to be the captain of the salt police brigade stationed in Wuhan. Because he did a good job in the salt police brigade, he was successively promoted to deputy brigade commander and brigade commander by Lin Hongfei.
Zhang Sanduo was relatively cautious in fighting, and his drive was a little lacking. This character made him the best defensive commander.
That's why Lin Hongfei left him in Yu Province to take charge of the defense work in Yu Province.
Facing the menacing main force of the Feng army, Zhang Sanduo did not panic. He has experienced many major battles over the years, and several times he was in a disadvantaged force.
But so what, under the command of Marshal Lin, he wiped out those powerful enemies one by one.
This time, it's the same!
If Feng Jun dares to come, I dare to make them cry and retreat!
There were more than 8 Fengjun troops attacking Henan Province this time, but Zhang Sanduo had less than 8000 troops at his disposal, a disparity of almost one to ten.
At this time, in a spacious war room, Zhang Sanduo was discussing the strategy of defending against the enemy intensely with the officers and staff of the brigade headquarters.
"Traveler, according to the latest news, the commander-in-chief is rushing to help with more than 1 reinforcements, and has now reached the border of Anhui Province!"
"Quan Shuai also personally led 4 reinforcements from Shaanxi Province to rush to our side, and they have now arrived in the direction of southern Shaanxi."
Zhang Sanduo roughly estimated the time, then heaved a sigh of relief and said, "At this speed, Commander Quan and Shuai Quan will arrive in Yu Province within five days."
"So, we must use the more than 8000 people at hand to block Fengjun for more than 5 days."
Having said that, Zhang Sanduo looked up at the crowd, then pointed to the map behind him and said:
"Look, the terrain in the northern part of Yu Province is flat, and there is basically no danger to defend. If we defend the Feng army here, we will only let the Feng army take advantage of their strength on the great plain."
"When the time comes, we'll just wait to be made dumplings!"
While listening, everyone nodded slightly in agreement.
"So, let's simply abandon the area in northern Henan, go back directly to the south of the Yellow River, build fortifications on several crossings of the Yellow River, and use the natural danger of the Yellow River to defend Fengjun."
"In addition, send another army to deploy defenses in the Pingdingshan area to prevent the Fengjun from opening up the traffic arteries from western Henan to Lingnan Province."
"When we persist until the reinforcements arrive, we can immediately launch a counterattack and take back all the lost land in Yu Province!"
After finishing speaking, Zhang Sanduo looked at the crowd and said, "How about it, do you have any suggestions and ideas?"
Everyone thought about it for a while, and a staff officer said, "Giving up Yubei is really hard to accept."
"But with our current strength, this is already the best choice."
"Yes, the layout of the travel seats is perfect!"
"Just do as you say, brigade department!"
Everyone, you speak to me.
"Okay, then immediately send power to the two regiments in northern Henan, and let them quickly withdraw to the south of the Yellow River."
"Then arrange the rest of the troops to immediately enter the various ferries to build fortifications. We must complete the fortifications before the arrival of Fengjun!"
"Everyone, pay special attention to this place!"
Zhang Sanduo focused on the approximate location of Zhengzhou: "This is the Yellow River Bridge on the Ping-Han Railway. We must set up heavy guards here to prevent the Fengjun from using this as a breakthrough to invade the southern Henan area."
Hearing this, a staff officer suggested: "Do you want to blow up the bridge?"
"In this way, Fengjun can only cross the river by ferry!"
When Zhang Sanduo heard this, he immediately shook his head and said, "No, this railway bridge is not easy to build. If it is blown up, future generations will scold our ancestors."
"So, we must stick to it, and we must block Fengjun for more than five days!"
"do you understand?"
"understand!"
With the shouts in the brigade headquarters, everyone immediately became busy.
As the order came out, the garrisons of the two regiments in northern Henan immediately retreated. After reaching the bank of the Yellow River, hundreds of ferries were already waiting here.
These ferries were recruited by Zhang Sanduo's special troops. Originally, when the ferrymen learned that there was going to be a war and they were going to pick up the soldiers from northern Henan, they were all afraid of dying, for fear that they would be killed by bullets. What did they say? Also refused to go.
But when the Shanling Army took out the bright ocean, the boatmen rushed to sign up one after another. Everyone was still so afraid of death, but there was no way, the Shanling Army gave too much!
Soon, all the ferry boats on both sides of the Yellow River were requisitioned by the Shanling Army. Many boatmen learned that driving a boat for the Shanling Army could earn a lot of money, so they all volunteered to sign up.
The turbulent and turbid Yellow River was flowing, and the ferries were in the hands of experienced boatmen, like tamed horses, smoothly transporting two regiments and more than [-] troops back to the south bank of the Yellow River.
Then, Zhang Sanduo specially ordered that all the ferry boats be carried to the river bank, and Fengjun should not leave any boat that could cross the river, so that Fengjun would have a headache to cross the river.
The boatmen did not object, after all, the Shanling Army gave them another sum of money for chartering the boat.
"very nice!"
"Our Marshal Lin's team is good!"
"Yeah, give us so much money!"
"In the future, if something like this happens, I will come again!"
"Me too!"
The boatmen chatted with each other while feeling the heavy ocean in their arms.
Sure enough, when the vanguard of the Feng army entered the territory of Yu Province, they found that they had not encountered any resistance along the way, and the Shanling Army that was originally stationed here seemed to have disappeared out of thin air.
It was Ma Yuechuan and Jin Lianshan who led the vanguard of the Fengjun. As Lin Hongfei's old classmates, the Fengjun veteran thought that the two of them should be very familiar with Lin Hongfei's combat strategy.
So it was decided that the two of them would go ahead with their troops and fight Lin Hongfei first to test the opponent's strength.
However, after walking for most of the day in northern Henan, let alone fighting, I didn't even see a single person.
On the flat road, soldiers of the Feng army lined up in several columns and marched towards the south with great strides.
On the side of the road, two cars were parked in an open space. On the front of one of the cars, there was a battle map of Yu Province. Ma Yuechuan pointed to the map and said:
"Now that we have arrived in Qi County, we still haven't found any trace of the Shanling Army."
"I think the Shanling Army should have voluntarily abandoned the northern Henan area, otherwise there is no way to explain our march so smoothly."
Jin Lianshan frowned slightly, stroked the stubble on his chin and said, "When we were in the military academy, Hongfei was the most popular when it came to talking about ghost ideas."
"I'm now worried that Hongfei's abandonment of Northern Henan is a lie, and it's true to lure the enemy to go deep. Oh, no, it's true to lure us to go deep."
"If we launch an attack while we are marching, then we will definitely suffer a big loss!"
Ma Yuechuan nodded slightly: "We have to guard against his move."
At this time, Jin Lianshan pointed to the mountainous area in the northern part of Qi County and said, "I suggest that we stop marching and send out reconnaissance troops to go to Yunmeng Mountain and Paomaling to do some reconnaissance."
"The terrain in northern Henan is relatively flat, and this is the only place where a large number of troops can be hidden."
In the last Zhifeng war, Lin Hongfei's performance on the battlefield could be called fierce. In addition, Ma Yuechuan and Jin Lianshan knew Lin Hongfei quite well, so they took every step very cautiously.
Ma Yuechuan agreed with Jin Lianshan's idea, so he ordered the whole army to camp in place, and sent several small troops into the mountain for reconnaissance.
However, it only stayed for more than a day, and the troops sent by Ma Yuechuan to the south for reconnaissance sent back a message:
"The Shanling army has all crossed the Yellow River, and there is no defense in northern Henan!"
It stands to reason that after receiving the news, Ma Yuechuan, Jin Lianshan and the others should have led their troops directly southward.
But no!
Ma Yuechuan worried that this was a rumor deliberately spread by Lin Hongfei's Shanling Army. If he believed it, he marched without any worries.
If the Shanling Army made a surprise attack, he didn't guarantee that he would be able to stop it if he was caught off guard.
So it is better to believe what is there than to believe what is not.
Ma Yuechuan waited another day until the troops who went to Yunmeng Mountain for reconnaissance came back and clearly informed that there were no enemy troops ambushing there, and then he gave the order to march.
And time was wasted like that.
When he and Jin Lianshan led the team to the north bank of the Yellow River, the Shanling Army not only successfully crossed the river, but also built fortifications at each ferry.
The most important thing is that there is no ferry boat that can cross the river on the north bank of the Yellow River!
Those ferries were all hired by the Shanling Army at a high price, and they are still on the south bank of the Yellow River!
"Oops!"
"We worried too much and lost the opportunity!"
Ma Yuechuan slapped his forehead suddenly and said.
Jin Lianshan also had his eyes closed with an irritable expression on his face. The cautiousness of the two of them did not have a good effect, but instead made Feng Jun stuck on the north bank of the Yellow River.
No way!
The living cannot be suffocated by urine!
In desperation, Ma Yuechuan sent a telegram to the Fengjun who attacked Lu Province, asking them to call for a ferry in Lu Province.
At the same time, Jin Lianshan sent engineers to look for narrow river channels to see if they could build floating bridges to cross the river.
If it is not possible to build a floating bridge, you can also cut down trees to make a raft. Although it is not as safe as a ferry, it can carry people across the river anyway!
As for the railway bridge connecting the two banks of the Yellow River, Jin Lianshan could guess with his toes that the Shanling Army must have set up heavy guards there.
The bridge deck was flat and there was no cover. If they wanted to rush across the bridge, Feng Jun would have to suffer huge losses.
After all, from the past to the present, most of the bridge guards took advantage of it, and those who crossed the bridge basically died.
Near a relatively calm river, Fengjun's engineers were hurrying to build a pontoon bridge. During this time, they investigated several places, and this was the most suitable location.
However, the engineers and soldiers of Fengjun didn't feel very happy. Instead, they all looked nervous, their ears could not wait to prick up, and their eyes would glance at the other side of the river from time to time.
Just when everyone was nervous, they heard a series of booming sounds on the other side of the river, followed by a sharp piercing sound!
"Get out of the way!"
"The Shanling Army is fucking cannoning again!"
Several veterans immediately shouted loudly!
Immediately, the engineers quickly put down the work at hand, and rushed to the bunker not far away one by one.
Accompanied by bursts of explosions, the surrounding area was suddenly filled with dust, and even the ground trembled slightly.
A few Fengjun soldiers felt the vibration on the ground while fanning the dust flying in front of them, and couldn't help cursing:
"The fucking Shanling army is endless, isn't it!"
"How many shells do they have? It's been three days and they haven't finished shooting yet!"
"If this continues, we will be bombarded to death sooner or later!"
"Be content!"
"I heard yesterday that a group of brothers went to attack the Yellow River Bridge."
"As a result, the bridge was not knocked down, but seventy or eighty brothers died instead."
"We've survived until now!"
Happiness is based on comparison. Compared with those brothers who attacked the bridge, everyone is quite happy. At least it will take some time for the shells to hit from the other side of the river. This time is enough for everyone to find a bunker.
"I said, don't we have artillery in our barracks?"
"Why don't you confront the Shanling Army!"
A sapper asked, frowning.
An elderly engineer squad leader said: "There are guns, but I heard that there are not many shells."
"It's said that the gang in the logistics are greedy for the money to buy the shells, so that they dare not fire the shells lightly."
"What the hell!"
"Who is greedy? Isn't this cheating our brothers!"
"Don't let me know who it is, I know, I have to shoot him twice!"
The engineers and soldiers looked very angry. After all, if they could have artillery cover from their side, they wouldn't need to hide around like mice.
As a result, the construction progress of the pontoon bridge has been greatly delayed, and sometimes it has to be remade because the dowry gift for building the bridge was destroyed by shells.
At this time, the time has come to the fifth day, and more than 1 people led by Lin Hongfei have boarded the train in Yu Province, and are now rushing to the area of the Yellow River Bridge at full speed.
And Wu Yongquan in Shaanxi Province also just arrived in Luoyang with more than 4 people, and joined forces with the Shanling Army stationed here.
After hearing the news, Zhang Sanduo's brows that had been frowned for five days finally relaxed, and the heavy pressure on his shoulders seemed to disappear instantly at this moment.
However, before he could catch his breath, a new battle report came: "The Feng army has conquered Jinan, and Lu Province has announced that it will accept the leadership of the old commander of the Feng army."
"General Zhang Zongchang led more than 2 people from the west of Lu to the east of Henan!"