The various forces in the country were still preparing for each other's little tricks.
Although the Feng lineage was backed by the Wan lineage, he had always been seeking independence. Last year, they had lost two divisions in Suiyuan, which had pained them for a long time. Russia was currently engaged in a civil war in the north, but the White Russians still occupied the Middle East Road and dominated the northeast.
After Xu Shuzheng recovered Outer Mongolia, the war between Beiyang and the People's Army broke out. Some troops returned to help, and the rioters were stirring up trouble again.
Tang Jirao of the southwest was also taking advantage of the instability in the north to constantly clash with Sichuan Province. It was estimated that there would be another big battle between the two sides soon.
The small warlords all had different thoughts, but they still fought for territory and plundered money.
……
It was chaotic outside. Nie Wenzhou had just finished a military meeting.
Ever since the regular army was expanded to 450,000 last year, each army had been training for four months. With the large amount of ammunition and other supplies provided by the People's Army, the overall quality of the soldiers improved rapidly. In addition, most of them were veterans, so their combat strength did not decrease much.
Other than the three independent brigades of the Guards, the other five divisions had three divisions and one independent brigade. In terms of rifles, there were still nearly 100,000 people who were not equipped with the Hwa-1 semi-automatic. Only the 75th Mountain Cannon was fully equipped. Each division only had ten 105mm howitzers, and each army had thirty. As for the 155mm howitzer, only one regiment under the Guards was equipped with it. The number was still too small. The other machine guns and mortars were fully equipped.
The 203mm howitzer battalion was another surprise. At the end of last year, another batch of Dé country technicians arrived. These Krupp artillery manufacturing personnel's skills were indeed worthy of their reputation. Under the operation of the Dé country's technicians, coupled with the advanced equipment, it was easy to manufacture. This was the difference between the two. When the technical personnel of the People's Army still needed to do a lot of experiments, they could easily do it.
These strategic heavy artillery were not light, and towing them was a problem. Fortunately, the car factory had already developed military vehicles. Some were used to carry people, while others were used to drag people. Various models had slowly come out, and now they were equipped with these strategic heavy weapons. Although the number of 203s was still very small, there were already more than a dozen of them. Nie Wenzhou specially selected elite artillery to form a strategic artillery unit to deal with possible changes.
In order to prepare for the upcoming war, Nie Wenzhou, with the cooperation of the General Staff, assigned the five divisions to their respective stations.
The 1st Army governed the 1st Division, 6th Division, 11th Division, and the Independent Brigade. They were stationed in the area from Luoyang to western Henan.
The 2nd Army was under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Division, 7th Division, 12th Division, and the Independent Brigade. They were stationed in Suiyuan.
The 3rd Corps was under the jurisdiction of the 3rd, 8th, 13th Divisions and the Independent Brigade.
The 4th Army had jurisdiction over the 4th Division, 9th Division, 14th Division, and the Independent Brigade. They were stationed in the area from Jinnan to Jinzhong.
The 5th Army governed the 5th Division, 10th Division, 15th Division, and the Independent Brigade. They were stationed in Shaanxi.
The guards were the mobile force, assisting the first division to quickly break through the enemy's defense line.
……
"Young Marshal, there's an urgent message from the front!"
"Yes, what's the matter? Let me take a look!”
Nie Wenzhou took it and looked at it. His face was filled with excitement.
The telegram said that Beiyang had actually taken the lead in provoking them, and the railway that was about to open to traffic in Zhengzhou had been blocked again! All human and merchant traffic had been cut off due to the large army gathering, and the enemy was now approaching the First Army's territory.
"Report, this is an emergency report!"
"Oh, another one? Let me see."
This time, it was a telegram from the Second Army. The general idea was that the Northern Army was approaching. Nie Wenzhou smiled. He estimated that there would definitely be a new telegram coming over later. Beiyang would not just let two armies come over and let the people's army destroy them one by one.
Sure enough, the 3rd and 4th armies sent the same telegrams in the morning, and Nie Wenzhou also called them back for level one combat readiness.
Nie Wenzhou called over a few secretaries and asked them to help draft a few articles to criticize Beiyang for recklessly mobilizing troops to provoke a civil war. He scolded them for selling their country's power in exchange for weapons and disrupting the domestic situation, but they did not think about stabilizing the situation and improving the people's livelihood. In any case, he wanted to scold him on the fishing boat and occupy the high ground.
Thus, in two days, Beiyang and the People's Army fought a big fishing ship battle. Beiyang said that the People's Army did not obey orders and opposed the unification of the central government, while the People's Army exposed the other party's background, including all kinds of corruption and bribery, ignoring the will of the people, and so on.
The fishing boats did not stop, but the northwest was in trouble. Zhang Guangjian, the governor of Gansu Province, and Ningxia had gathered a total of more than 100,000 troops from five garrison envoys along the front lines of Tianshui, Qingyang, and Yinchuan, preparing to send troops to cooperate with Beiyang to attack the People's Army.
This gave Nie Wenzhou a headache. Although there weren't many people and they weren't a threat, it was troublesome for them to disperse the people's army. Without them, the 80,000 soldiers of the 5th army could cooperate with other troops to attack the area in the later stages of the battle. But now, they had to defeat the Northwest Army first.
What was even more unfortunate was that more than 60,000 people directly threatened western Henan and southern Shaanxi from Xiangyang and Shiyan in Hubei. This also restrained a portion of the people's army. Now, only the Sichuan direction was not a problem. After all, they were in a conflict with Tang Jirao of Yunnan and were about to fight.
Nie Wenzhou looked at the news that kept coming back, and his head hurt. It was said that warlords only knew how to make money, but Nie Wenzhou didn't think so. Look at the person who was setting up the plan now. He had calculated the strength of the People's Army very accurately!
However, this was useful because although he calculated the quantity, he did not mention any quality. They had actually overlooked the fact that the people's army could easily defeat the other party even if they fought against two people alone. In this way, the people's army was equivalent to their 800,000-strong army, and the army they had gathered was only about 800,000.
……
conference room
Xiao Liju was analyzing the distribution of forces and firepower on both sides of the map. Beiyang had a total of 170,000 soldiers in the west and south. There were about 200,000 troops in Zhengzhou, and 500,000 troops in Huabei from northeast Henan to west Hebei to Zhang Jiakou. Originally, they wanted to mobilize the Feng army, but unfortunately, the People's Army had eaten up two divisions last year. Now, they were asking for a halt to their advance into the pass on the grounds that they were unable to restore the size of the army and the threat of the White Russians and Japanese troops in the northeast.
The regular army of the People's Army had a strength of 450,000, and the local garrison had about 180,000. Although the local garrison troops could also be sent into the battlefield when necessary, they were all in regiments. If there was no overall organization, the operation might be chaotic, so they would not be used unless they had no choice.
In short, the People's Army was going to fight against two people alone. Unless the Guards joined in, there was no way to form a local advantage in all directions like before.
Therefore, the question that was being discussed now was which direction should the decisive mobile force of the Imperial Guards be placed in!
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