Since the day the Gui Army occupied Wuzhou, Lu Rongting has regarded Wuzhou as a strategic place to guard the entry and exit of Guangdong and Guangxi. In the past few years, the Gui Army has built a large number of fortifications in Wuzhou. In addition to a large number of ordinary trenches, there are also many
Although the cement fortifications were limited by the financial resources of the Gui army, it was impossible for them to build Wuzhou into a fortress like Lushun and Qingdao. However, the large number of fortifications still made Wuzhou the city with the most complete defense system in southwest China.
In addition to a large number of fortifications, the Gui Army has also invested its main forces here. The 12th Division and the 14th Division are all deployed here. Although there are only two divisions of the Gui Army in Wuzhou, the organization of the Gui Army is different from that of other warlord forces.
In the expansion of the army in recent years, the designation has not been increased, but has been strictly in accordance with the designation given by the Nanjing Republican Government to the Gui Army's Fifth Army, three divisions and three mixed brigades.
The regiments of the Guangxi Army are getting bigger and bigger. Today, although a division of the Guangxi Army has three regiments like the National Army, a regiment of the Guangxi Army has as many as four or five thousand people. It is actually the size of a brigade. Full text hand typed
In this way, the strength of a Guangxi Army division can reach 15,000 to 15,000 people, and a mixed brigade can also reach a scale of nearly 10,000 people. This is still based on the serious shortage of baggage and other technical arms such as artillery in the Guangxi Army.
The vast majority of them are infantry. If we follow the ratio of infantry and artillery and other technical arms of the National Army, then after supplementing the artillery and baggage and other technical auxiliary arms, the first division of the Guangxi Army will be at least 20,000 people. Read the latest chapter
Of course, Lu Rongting would never find so many artillery. In fact, it was precisely because of the lack of artillery power that the Gui army continued to increase the number of infantry in an attempt to offset the National Army's heavy firepower advantage with the advantage of the number of infantry.
The official designation of the Guangxi Army is the Fifth Army. It has the 12th Division, the 13th Division, the 14th Division, the 6th Mixed Brigade, the 7th Mixed Brigade, and the 8th Mixed Brigade. The regular field strength exceeds 100,000, of which the 6th Mixed Brigade is deployed.
He was in Zhuzhou and participated in the Battle of Changsha. It was the main force that blocked the Fourth Mixed Brigade of the National Army from going north to Changsha. Later, it was severely damaged during the National Army's counterattack and was surrounded by the National Army in the direction of Zhuzhou. In the end, although it broke through and went south to Hengyang, it still suffered heavy losses. Only the remaining
Just two to three thousand people [
The Thirteenth Division was deployed on the Zhuzhou front line in Hengyang. One of its regiments was also dispatched to Zhuzhou to participate in the Changsha Battle and was severely damaged together with the Sixth Mixed Brigade. The remaining two regiments of the Thirteenth Division were in Hengyang and the National Army's Third
The losses of these two regiments in the mixed brigade battle were not great. After accepting the defeated troops retreating from Zhuzhou, Lu Rongting organized the defeated troops of the Sixth Mixed Brigade into a regiment and added it to the jurisdiction of the Thirteenth Division. In other words, it was the Sixth Division.
The Mixed Brigade has actually been revoked.
The 7th Mixed Brigade was deployed on the Chenzhou front line to fight with the National Army's 1st Mixed Brigade. However, the fight between the 7th Mixed Brigade and the 1st Mixed Brigade was not too fierce, and both sides still maintained their strength in the confrontation.
The 8th Mixed Brigade fought against Long Jiguang's 24th Mixed Brigade in Nanning.
Apart from the above-mentioned first division and three brigades, the two main divisions of the Gui Army are deployed in Wuzhou, and their front is the first in the National Army and the only one in the National Army to complete the establishment in 1915. There are also
A 14th mixed brigade stationed in Guangzhou for a long time
In fact, the comparison of the strength of the two sides in Wuzhou is not too big. The two divisions of the Gui Army add up to about more than 30,000 people. Plus some other affiliated units of the Gui Army and the artillery regiment under the direct jurisdiction of the Gui Army, the total strength is close to 40,000 people. The National Army has a total strength of nearly 40,000.
The 11th Division has 15,000 men, and the 14th Mixed Brigade has 6,000 men. Combined, the two have more than 21,000 troops. In terms of firepower, the National Army has 48 75mm artillery pieces, including 48.
Twelve 1915-type 75l17 mountain guns with a range of six thousand meters (Japanese Type 41 and the remaining thirty-six are all 1912-type 75l14 mountain guns with a range of less than five thousand meters. In addition to these 75 mm artillery, the National
The army also has a battalion of twelve 120mm heavy mortars, in addition to forty-two 80mm mortars and eighty-six 60mm mortars. Although the Gui army on the opposite side has concentrated almost most of the
The heavy firepower artillery regiments directly under the Fifth Army have been transferred here, but in total they only have more than 20 old and new 57-mm artillery pieces and more than a dozen 75-mm artillery pieces. As for the mortars, there are only self-made mortars.
and more than 20 60mm mortars purchased from the National Army
It can be said that if we just compare the artillery of both sides, the Gui Army is comparable to the National Army in any case. Not only the artillery power is the same, but also the machine gun power. The two divisions of the Gui Army only have more than 30 heavy machine guns in total.
There are also more than 30 light machine guns. However, the National Army's 11th Division alone has 54 heavy machine guns and more than 100 light machine guns.
Although it has an advantage in terms of military strength, the Gui army is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of firepower.
However, at the beginning, the firepower advantage of the National Army was not effectively used. The 11th Division was a 1915-type reorganized division, and its new firepower configuration was completely different from before. More importantly, it was due to the changes in the company and platoon-level organization.
The tactics of the grassroots troops that the National Army had used for many years became inapplicable. Especially after the battalion's fourth company became the battalion's third company, many middle-level officers of the National Army were unable to adapt, resulting in many problems when commanding operations.
question
Military operations are a systematic and complex project. In many cases, infantry drills and various tactical plans are strictly followed for operations. It is by no means that frontline officers can take command on a whim. In 1915, the new organization had just begun to adapt to this type of organization.
The infantry drill code and various tactical plans have not yet been obtained by the staff headquarters with enough combat experience to guide each unit, so they have to rely on the 11th Division to figure it out while fighting.
In this case, the 11th Division had strong firepower, but it was unable to use its huge machine guns and mortars. On the opposite side of the Gui Army, although the firepower was not very good, they had been operating fortifications and construction in Wuzhou for many years.
It is quite complete that the combination of these two situations caused the 11th Division to make little progress in the early stages of attacking Wuzhou. However, as the 11th Division slowly started to fight, its combat experience increased rapidly, especially the grassroots officers on the front line.
After mastering how to use its powerful machine guns and mortar firepower, the progress of the 11th Division was much smoother.
By November, the National Army had almost cleared the Gui Army's outlying positions in Wuzhou. When the General Staff formally issued an order for a full-scale counterattack against the National Army in the Changsha area, Li Lianyang's Twelfth Army also took the opportunity to launch an offensive in Guangxi.
The 11th Division, which had been resting for several days after a large-scale offensive, once again launched a large-scale attack on Wuzhou. The 14th Mixed Brigade, which had been serving as a reserve, also deployed a regiment to participate in the offensive operation.
Although the two divisions of the Gui Army resisted very tenaciously, and the large number of fortifications they built also brought considerable trouble to the National Army, the Twelfth Army relied on its strong firepower advantage to smash open the Walnut Ten in Wuzhou with artillery.
On January 9, the day the National Army occupied Changsha, the 11th Division also broke through the last line of defense deployed by the Gui Army in Wuzhou.
The next day, the Gui Army finally gave up on resisting in Wuzhou and retreated. On the same day, the 11th Division occupied Wuzhou. Although the 11th Division occupied Wuzhou for longer than the half month that Chen Jingyun had set for Li Lianyang, at any rate, it was finally possible.
Got off
In this battle, the combined casualties of Li Lianyang's 12th Army's 11th Division and 14th Mixed Brigade were less than 1,000 and less than 2,000, of which only 500 were killed, while the Gui Army on the opposite side suffered more than 20,000 casualties.
At least 5,000 to 6,000 people were killed and more than 10,000 people were injured. The reason why the casualty ratio on both sides was so high was because Li Lianyang was more cautious at first and did not attack hard. Later, he also gave full play to the powerful firepower of the 11th Division. In other words, the 11th Division
The division replaced its own casualties with howling artillery and guns. This style of play meant that the 11th Division's casualties were not high, but it consumed more than twice as much artillery and other combat materials as other main forces of the National Army. Almost every day, it consumed nearly
Seventy or eighty tons of combat supplies, while other main divisions of the National Army only consume thirty or forty tons of supplies a day.
After the Twelfth Army captured Wuzhou, it meant that the eastern gate of Guangxi had been opened to the National Army. The Twelfth Army could enter the hinterland of Guangxi. The strategic situation of the Gui Army suddenly became extremely unfavorable.
Lu Rongting and Tang Jiyao were gathering the last troops and preparing to build the next line of defense to stop the National Army. However, although the two of them were unwilling to fail, from a military perspective they had already failed.
The Yunnan Army has fought back from a main force of 200,000 before the war to only 100,000 left now. Less than 100,000 Gui Army has also been beaten down to only 78,000 or 80,000 left. Before, when they had more troops, they could not stop the National Army.
Now that the attack has lost more than half of its troops, it is more likely to block the National Army's attack.
In November, when the temperature in the north has begun to drop and it has even begun to snow and freeze in the northeast, the war in the southwest of China is still in full swing. However, at this time, the war seems to have turned into a one-sided marching competition of the National Army.
Large-scale wars have rarely occurred. The Thirteenth Division of the Gui Army in the Hengyang area was quickly defeated when faced with the attack of more than 10,000 Nationalist troops after receiving reinforcements. Then the Thirteenth Division mutinied. The commander of the 131st Regiment of the Thirteenth Division led
The soldiers assassinated the commander of the 13th Division and several other senior generals and then announced their surrender to the National Army.
This naturally involved the efforts of the intelligence personnel in the Military Intelligence Division, and the commander of the 131st Regiment was immediately awarded the rank of major general by the National Army and promoted to the commander of the 13th Division [
The mutiny and surrender of the Thirteenth Division was like a huge boulder thrown into the originally calm water. Although small-scale surrenders and mutinies had occurred from time to time after the defeat of the convoys, there had never been a surrender at the division and brigade level. However, the Thirteenth Division had never seen a surrender.
The teacher set this precedent and thus created a wave of protecting large-scale land.
Two days later, a brigade of the Yunnan Army who resisted in the lake area announced its surrender at the last moment of destruction. Shortly after, the 7th Mixed Brigade of the Gui Army in Chenzhou announced its surrender. A brigade of the Yunnan Army announced its surrender again.
In just a few days, tens of thousands of people in the Yunnan Army successively announced their surrender. By the time the National Army arrived at the front line in Huaihua, there were only more than 20,000 Yunnan troops left in Hunan.
When Lin Chengkun was about to launch a general attack on Huaihua, Xie Ruyi also announced his surrender.