Chapter 257 Liu Xianshi at both ends of the first mouse
Wu Xintian is a powerful general in Beiyang, and the 14th Brigade in his hands is also a strong army. Otherwise, he would not be sent to guard the important place of Hankou. Now Wu Xintian has 12,000 soldiers, which does not look good.
There are only a few, but the elite troops are less than 6,000. After fighting with the Hubei Army, they are now only more than 4,500. It is wishful thinking to rely on this small force to block the Sichuan Army's surging offensive, but Lao Yuan
A death order had been issued, requiring Wu Xintian to defend the position. At the same time, he also made Wu Xintian a hereditary and replaceable marquis, hoping that with the stimulation of the title, Wu Xintian would work for him.
Zhang Jingyao also repeatedly ordered Wu Xintian to hold on. In this way, Wu Xintian had no way out and could only bite the bullet and fight to the death. He concentrated his main efforts on Hankou Railway Station. This was the most critical point.
Two lines of defense were set up, and a large number of machine guns and artillery were prepared to defend the enemy to the death.
There is now a large amount of inventory in Hankou, and the supply of arms is also very sufficient, so it is not painful at all to fight, which also caused huge trouble to the Hubei army. It took Xia Douyin a day and a half to occupy only half of the station, and the remaining
If you go down, you won't be able to break through.
After Zhu Qinglan led the Sichuan army to arrive, he carefully investigated the situation on both sides. Zhu Qinglan turned back to Wang Huai, who was in charge of the attack and said: "Commander Wang, the Hankou Railway Station is of great importance. It must be captured quickly. If necessary, let me use it."
Even if the artillery bombards the station, it must be taken down!"
"Don't worry, I will definitely complete the task!"
Wang Huai immediately organized the Sichuan Army's artillery to bombard the railway station to suppress it, and then used mortars to clear Beiyang's fortifications one by one. The quality of the Sichuan Army's artillery was obviously much better than that of the Hubei Army. The artillery fire was very accurate.
Three machine gun positions were blown away, and the number of casualties in the Beiyang Army reached hundreds. The firepower was suddenly greatly weakened.
The Sichuan Army immediately began to charge. The Sichuan Army in gray military uniforms seemed to be like waves, constantly hitting the Beiyang Army's position. The Beiyang Army quickly disintegrated and the ice disappeared. Wu Xintian was really furious when he saw it, and hurriedly moved his guards
They all threw themselves into the battle, trying to reverse the decline.
At this moment, there was a roar of engines in the air. The Sichuan Air Force arrived at this time. The Sichuan Air Force's aircraft now have a range of more than 200 kilometers and cannot take off from Hankou. It felt like Henan was bombing the Lu-Han Railway.
, but chose to take off from Xiangfan, and after the bombing was successful, they immediately flew towards Hankou.
The Air Force arrived in Hankou at this time, which was too much of a deterrent to the Beiyang Army. Some of them already knew that this weapon blew up the Lu-Han Railway and blocked the reinforcements of the 3rd Beiyang Division. Now the planes have arrived at them again.
Above their heads, these soldiers were worried about when planes would drop bombs on them.
The leader of the air force was Wang Yue, who bombed a Japanese warship last time. This time he was still the first to drop the bomb. However, now that the Sichuan Army and the Beiyang Army were at odds, blindly dropping bombs could easily cause accidental damage, so he first lowered the altitude of the plane to 200 meters.
After carefully choosing the moment, they dropped two bombs. The other planes also followed suit. Dozens of bombs fell from the sky and landed behind the Beiyang Army's position, stirring up dust all over the sky.
Suddenly the Beiyang Army could no longer bear it. Facing the fierce artillery fire of the Sichuan Army, they could barely hold on. But now faced with this situation where they could only be beaten, they could no longer bear it and retreated one after another.
No matter how Wu Xintian tried to stop him, it was of no use. That was how the army was defeated.
Wu Xintian was also coerced and began to flee. The Sichuan Army took the opportunity to launch an attack. The Hubei Army also cooperated with the Sichuan Army. Soon the entire Hankou completely fell into the hands of the Sichuan Army. Zhu Qinglan sent engineers to quickly repair the Hankou Railway Station, and at the same time sent manpower to take over the building.
warehouse to appease the people in Hankou.
In this battle, Sichuan successfully occupied Hankou, wiping out a total of 3,150 Beiyang troops and capturing 5,200 people. All the remaining Beiyang troops fled. The seizures were even more astonishing. Thirty thousand rifles and bullets were seized.
Five million rounds, 20 75mm mountain guns, 35 Maxim machine guns, 2.4 million yuan, 400 small yellow croakers, 500,000 dan of grain, and 1,000 boxes of opium.
Including military uniforms, tents, horses and other supplies, the total value is more than 15 million yuan. It can be said that the Sichuan Army got most of the supplies Yuan Shikai prepared for the two Beiyang armies in one fell swoop. Without this batch of supplies, Ma Jiceng and Long
Ji Guang's troops also lost their logistical support and fell into trouble, which greatly relieved Cai E's pressure. Zhang Jingyao, who was still holding on in Wuchang, also became extremely passive, trapped in the isolated city, with supplies cut off, and no one could do anything.
It will last too long.
As soon as the Sichuan Army entered the war, it showed strong combat effectiveness and excellent strategic vision. After taking Hankou, the connection between the north and the south of Beiyang was immediately cut off. Beiyang fell into unprecedented passivity, and Beiyang's strategic posture of encircling the southwest also disappeared.
Totally broken.
The defense team was greatly encouraged. After receiving the report, Cai E was very happy and hurriedly commanded the army to launch an all-out attack on Ma Jizeng and won consecutive battles. At this time, the most frightened person was Liu Xianshi. He did not expect that the Beiyang Army would be so unbearable.
one strike.
The scale of this war to protect the country is several times larger than in history, especially after Sichuan sent troops, starting from Shaanxi and Gansu in the north to Guangdong and Guangxi in the south are all front lines. This is a huge test for Beiyang.
At the same time, it was also a test for the three southwest provinces. Most of the materials needed to participate in the war had to be provided by Sichuan. At the same time, Sichuan also had to ensure normal exports to the Allied Powers, so supplies were relatively tight. What was worse was that the roads in the southwest were difficult, so it was inevitable that the distribution would not be sufficient.
It is reasonable. Liu Xianshi's Guizhou army attacked Guangxi, which was the farthest away from Sichuan and the weakest. Naturally, they got the least. Liu Xianshi was naturally a little dissatisfied.
Old and new grudges were added together. Liu Xianshi was unable to work hard during the battle, and even wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight. After Beiyang exhausted the power of Cai E and Qiao Yu, he could take charge of Guizhou again, and even
His power expanded to the entire southwest, so Liu Xianshi secretly colluded with the Beiyang Army.
The Beiyang Army fighting on the southern front was mainly the troops of Guangdong and Guangxi. Long Jinguang, the eldest brother of Long Jiguang, the governor of Guangdong, was appointed as the commander of the first division of the Guangdong Army and also served as the Yunnan investigation envoy. He led the Guangdong Army into Guangxi and then attacked Guizhou and Yunnan.
Lu Rongting, the most powerful man in Guangxi, was not satisfied with Yuan Shikai, especially when Yuan Shikai appointed Long Jiguang as the governor of Guangdong, which made this contradiction almost public. From the moment Cai E announced du li, Lu Rongting started to act. Not only did he not follow the old rules
Yuan Shikai wanted to attack Yunnan and Guizhou together, but instead discussed with the old troops to oppose Yuan Shikai.
It was precisely this situation that only Long Jinguang's troops attacked Liu Xianshi, but Liu Xianshi secretly reached a compromise with Long Jinguang at this time. The two sides pretended to fight a fake war, and the Guizhou army pretended to retreat, hoping to introduce the Hubei army into the southwest. At the same time,
Liu Xianshi informed Long Jinguang about the Qinzhou Shipyard.
Qinzhou Shipyard was originally the product of cooperation between Sichuan and the United Kingdom. It bought equipment from the United States, introduced technology from the United Kingdom, and used sites in Guangdong. Now Qinzhou Shipyard has begun producing cargo ships, and the first batch of cargo ships will soon be shipped to Europe.
By participating in the transportation work on the Atlantic route, it can be said that Qinzhou Shipyard has already begun to make money.
Liu Xianshi secretly sent people to monitor the movements in Sichuan. He was also very clear about the value of this kind of shipyard and how much effort Qiao Yu had put into it. Now it was an enclave. Therefore, Liu Xianshi gave Long Jiguang an idea and asked him to lead his army to attack.
As long as the Qinzhou Shipyard is taken over, the huge wealth of the shipyard will belong to Long Jiguang. At least he can get a share of the profits, and it can also increase the maritime power of the Guangdong Army, which is a great benefit to the Guangdong Army.
Moreover, Liu Xianshi also told Long Jiguang in the letter that as long as the supply of cargo ships could be guaranteed, Britain would not care who owned the shipyard. This letter was sent to the governor of Guangdong, Long Jiguang, through Long Jinguang.
After getting the letter, Long Jiguang also hurriedly summoned his men to discuss it. According to the agreement, Qinzhou Shipyard only paid Guangdong Zheng Fu five hundred taels of silver every year. At first, Long Jiguang didn't know the value of this place. What happened to Long Jiguang now?
No matter how awkward you want to be, now that the opportunity is right in front of you, Long Jiguang is becoming more and more tempted by this piece of fat.
After careful discussion with his men, Long Jiguang finally decided to lead eight thousand Guangdong troops to attack the Qinzhou Shipyard. The Guangdong troops arrived at the outskirts of the Qinzhou Shipyard in a big way. Long Jiguang thought that this small shipyard would be destroyed as soon as his army passed by.
It can be won without even having to fight. If foreigners stop it, Long Jiguang has already thought about it. At worst, he only needs his own share of the benefits. Is it possible that such a shipyard should not give him hundreds of thousands of yuan every year, especially
Now that the shipyard has begun to generate profits, as the ruler of Guangdong, taking 500 taels of silver isn't an insult to my own intelligence.
However, Long Jiguang didn't know that he had made a huge mistake this time. With Qiao Yu's cautious character, how could he not pay attention to this enclave? Moreover, this enclave also carries the Chinese people's naval dream. It is absolutely
There can't be any problems.
Therefore, Sichuan sent Pan Wenhua to lead a group of Sichuan troops to set up defenses at the shipyard long before the war broke out. Now the five kilometers around the Qinzhou Shipyard are covered with a large number of fortifications, including open and hidden forts, and two barbed wire fences on the outermost perimeter.
There are only more than 1,300 Sichuan troops guarding the shipyard, but even a division of troops cannot hope to capture the shipyard's defenses quickly.
Long Jiguang saw that the opponent was preparing for battle, and he also regretted it. It seemed that Liu Xianshi was really not a good person. Is the Qinzhou Shipyard easy to fight? But at this time, Long Jiguang could not retreat and immediately began to organize an attack.
Guangdong has a developed economy, and the equipment of the Cantonese army is not bad. Artillery began to bombard the defensive positions of the Sichuan army. Under the cover of artillery fire, the Cantonese army rushed towards the outer positions of the shipyard in a chaotic manner.
Pan Wenhua was holding a telescope at this time and observing the situation carefully. After seeing the poor formation of the Guangdong army, Pan Wenhua also showed a sneer at the corner of his mouth. It seemed that it was time for him to make a contribution.