Han Baihang received the new order, but when he looked around, he was dumbfounded. It turned out that he had little experience in leading troops. He just ordered to pursue the enemy without thinking about limiting the pursuit distance. At this moment, there were only five or six soldiers left, including Zhou Qing.
People, the other people don’t know where the pursuit went.
He had no choice but to lead the others in a hurry to catch up, and walked along the mountain road for two or three miles. At the bottom of a hillside, he saw He Li and others who were escorting the prisoners back. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the troops' pursuit had achieved great results.
More than twenty prisoners were captured and many trophies were seized.
Before He Li could happily report his merits, Han Baihang said first: "Leave the prisoners to the people behind, give up all the loot, and rush to Tuanhe lightly."
He Li suddenly became anxious: "Platoon leader, is it easy for our brothers to risk their lives to seize something? Let the brothers keep it."
The other two shed chiefs also pleaded for mercy, and the surrounding soldiers looked on eagerly, full of supplications.
Han Baihang glanced at the soldiers around him whose hands were occupied by the trophies, and frowned: "It's not that I'm unreasonable. How can we continue to fight when our brothers look like this? We are in the enemy's hinterland and have a heavy responsibility. We have been exposed in the battle with the enemy just now.
If you follow the track, the enemy may kill you at any time. Once the march slows down, you are always in danger of being intercepted, surrounded and annihilated. Brothers, it is understandable that you don’t know. You who are the shed chiefs will not be unclear. Besides, I have said
, I can't see this little profit from addiction. As long as you catch Duan Qirui, it will be a great achievement. Yu Shuai will definitely not hesitate to reward him. Which one is lighter and which one is heavier?"
He knew that it would be more beneficial to the soldiers to understand him rationally than to teach him something. Sure enough, when the soldiers heard the last sentence, they immediately became energetic and threw away the trophies in their hands without his request.
Han Baihang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Only when he became an officer did he know that sometimes fighting against the enemy is not the most important. How to control the morale of the army is the first skill an officer must master. Just when he was about to give the order to continue marching, he suddenly saw the prisoners.
He couldn't help but have an idea and ordered: "Tear off all the clothes of the prisoners and let the brothers put them on."
The soldiers followed the instructions and stripped the prisoners of their military uniforms. Some of them even spared the prisoners' trousers. They unexpectedly found several pieces of clothing. They were so happy that others followed suit and stripped the prisoners.
Even though Han Baihang felt that this was not a good thing, he turned a blind eye. When the soldiers changed into their Wanjun uniforms, he gave the order and led the troops to run hurriedly to the northeast.
…
Gu'an is located between Beijing, Tianjin and Baoding. In ancient times, it was known as "the first fortified city south of Beijing under the emperor's feet". The county seat was first built in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty. The city wall is 3 miles long and 2 miles wide.
It is 7 meters high and 4 meters thick. There is an urn and a moat outside the city wall. The moat draws water from the Yongding River. It is wide and deep and serves as a strategic military location to shield Beijing.
At this time, Gu'an County was garrisoned by the 15th Army Division. This army has a long history. It was formerly the new Imperial Guard established by the former Qing government to counterbalance the new Beiyang Army. It was later reorganized into the Army's 15th Division in the second year of the Republic of China.
The 15th Division is the direct line unit of the direct leader Feng Guozhang. Since Feng Guozhang died of illness, the division commander Liu Xun has led his army to join Duan Qirui. This time the war between Zhijiang and Anhui began, the 15th Division was deployed as a vanguard from Gu'an to Liulician
area.
Late at night on the eve of the war, the four gates of Gu'an County were closed, the suspension bridge was pulled up, and machine guns were set up with sandbags piled on the battlements. The defenders were extremely heavily guarded, watching closely for any disturbance outside the city.
A group of broken soldiers arrived at the north gate of the county town. The defenders on the city discovered them first. It was dark at night and they could not distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. As if they were facing a powerful enemy, the defenders pointed their machine guns at the broken soldiers and shouted: "Who is this!"
The defeated soldiers shouted: "We are from the Third Division. Open the city gate quickly. If there is any urgent military situation, report it to Commander Liu."
The defenders did not dare to be careless and hurriedly contacted the division headquarters on the phone. The night-time staff officer ran to the door of Liu Xun's house and shouted: "Division Commander, there are more than ten broken troops coming down from the city. They claim to be from the third division. I have urgent military information to inform you."
Report."
Liu Xun woke up from his sleep. After listening to the words of his staff, he suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart. The third division's defense area was on the Zhuozhou line. How could there be a broken army coming to Gu'an, which was a hundred miles away? He hurriedly put on his clothes and came out.
A phone call was given to the city gate defenders: "Strengthen the guard and let people in."
There were only a dozen of them, so he was sure of his deception. After calling the defenders, he ordered the radio station to contact the Third Division to verify the situation.
Not long after, the defeated troops were brought to the division headquarters. Liu Xun asked in person. The defeated troops first reported their unit numbers and names, and then told about the incident of a sneak attack by the Zhili army on the mountain road they were defending. Liu Xun was quite surprised after hearing this and hurriedly rushed to the military
In front of the map, I looked and looked at the place mentioned by the defeated soldiers. I couldn't help but frown and said to myself: "What is the enemy's intention?"
At this moment, the telegraph operator came over quickly holding the newly translated message: "Report to the division commander, the Third Division has called back."
Liu Xun read the telegram several lines at a time. In the telegram, the Third Division confirmed the identity of the defeated troops, and stated that it had noticed a change in the main force of the Zhili Army in Gaobeidian, and had sent troops to chase the enemy troops who appeared. He asked the 15th Division to respond.
Cooperate with interception.
"Transmit my order to order each regiment to pay close attention to the situation in the defense area to prevent enemy penetration. Order the cavalry battalion and the fifth regiment to search in the direction where the enemy may appear." Liu Xun's eyes had been patrolling the map, and suddenly a place name jumped out to him.
Eyes: "Tuanhe!"
The doubts in his heart suddenly became clear. The enemy army appeared silently behind Zhuozhou. Their intentions were certainly not small. They were most likely heading towards Tuanhe River. Most of the senior generals of the Dingguo Army were meeting there.
There was only the guard under the supervision of Duan, and the force was very weak. If the enemy suddenly attacked, the consequences would be disastrous.
"Quick, contact the headquarters immediately: there are enemies in Zhuozhou and Gu'an, and they are very likely to go to the commander-in-chief. Please be on guard. The headquarters has sent troops to protect you!" Liu Xun gave the order loudly.
, suddenly sneered: "What a cunning and insidious Wu Xiucai, he was almost tricked by you."
He raised his eyebrows and said: "Give me the Third Emergency Division: The enemy's intention has become clear. They are heading towards the Tuanhe River. It is judged that this is just a small front unit of the Zhili Army. Its main force has probably entered Zhuozhou. I hope it can be concentrated
You and I have two armies to attack the enemy together."
…
Wu Peifu immediately led his troops to advance after receiving the telegram from the vanguard selection team. But before he left the mountainous area of Zhuozhou, he detected a large number of Anhui troops outflanking him. He reacted keenly, and his combat intention must have been exposed.
There were two choices before him at this moment. One was to continue forward and head straight towards Tuanhe, and the other was to retreat decisively. He couldn't help but hesitate. Although he liked to use surprise troops, he also knew that surprise troops meant taking risks and defeating the Anhui War.
It was a matter of life and death and the honor and disgrace of the group. Is the risk worth taking? He thought for a long time and decisively ordered: "The entire army retreats immediately!"
The chief of staff hesitated for a moment and said, "Shuai Yu, what should we do if we withdraw the vanguard selection team?"
Wu Peifu said without thinking: "Continue the surprise attack on Tuanhe and capture Duan Qirui alive."
The chief of staff understood that Yushuai was abandoning his car to protect him. How could he attack Tuanhe by surprise with just a few hundred men in the vanguard? He was afraid that he would be encircled and wiped out by the Anhui army before he even got close to Tuanhe.
, he couldn't help but observe a moment of silence for the officers and soldiers of the Selection Team, but he admired Wu Peifu's decision in his heart. Although the surprise attack on Tuanhe failed, it was enough to scare Duan Qirui, and achieved a tactical head start.
