After listening to it, Fang Biyun looked at the situation of Fangzheng’s river industry. Then he didn’t speak, but took out the design drawings he carried with him for a little while before saying, "Stop the river’s core stake industry first, and then iron it after the sand is loaded into the river. In addition, you should urge the later generations to let them transport the wooden cases quickly!"
Fang Biyun didn’t show any surprise about many technical problems, which were several kilometers wide. It took only one or two days to build a pontoon bridge on the Yangtze River, and it still needed to be able to make up to one ton of multiple guns cross the pontoon bridge smoothly. It is conceivable that from the very beginning, he didn’t recognize how smooth the construction process would be, and it was expected that various problems would occur during the construction process.
However, Fang Biyun was already prepared for this. This time, he arrived in Hezhou more than a month ago and led several technical officers to personally and repeatedly explore many rivers in the state. At the same time, he also found out the water level. According to this information, he finally designed the design of the pontoon bridge. At the same time, he also prepared many emergency plans with many technical officers to deal with various problems that may arise in the process of erecting the pontoon bridge.
Fang Biyun’s personal command is not only to coordinate the construction arrangement, but also to solve many technical problems at any time. As a result, a small section of bridge deck has appeared one after another on the original flat river, and this bridge deck continues to extend to the south bank
In the design, this pontoon bridge will greatly benefit the river center and shorten the overall length of the pontoon bridge. Simply put, this pontoon bridge is divided into two sections, one section is connected to Xiaohuangzhou from the north bank and the other section is connected to the south bank from Xiaohuangzhou. Considering that Xiaohuangzhou is an alluvial sandbar with soft and muddy soil and weighs a ton of 75mm, it is possible that the cannon wheels will fall into the middle, which will affect the overall crossing speed, and this problem will have to be solved at the same time.
Because of the urgency, it is impossible to say that it is more convenient to transport wooden planks directly than to transport sand, and it is also necessary to build a pontoon bridge deck. Although the overall number of wooden planks is large, these Woods can all be prepared. Before the fourth army was successfully established, the Ministry of Quartermaster Construction had organized manpower and prepared a large number of wooden planks in the state to obtain the wood needed to build a pontoon bridge and make ships for troops to cross the river. The army almost cut down all the excellent wood in the surrounding areas of the state.
While the task force was nervously setting up the pontoon bridge, soldiers from another regiment of the 17th Brigade, that is, the 14th Regiment, boarded the boat one after another and rowed towards the other side.
The fourth army and the state plan for crossing the river approved the crossing as the ninth division, and the ninth division was divided into two batches. The seventeenth brigade will be responsible for crossing the river lightly. They will carry guns, heavy machine guns and 10mm mortars to cross the river, but they can’t carry guns, and even mountain guns can’t carry horses to cross the river.
After the 17th Brigade crosses the river, they will carry infantry guns, mortars and machine guns with them to establish preliminary beachhead fortifications and expand the beachhead for about five kilometers. After the arrival of reinforcements from the Anhui army, they will carry out artillery strikes on the troops crossing the river by erecting pontoons.
However, transporting the 17th Brigade across the river may last until the afternoon, and some of the larger wooden boats in the subsequent boats will pontoon the piers, while the rest of the small boats will continue to transport bombs, artillery shells and other war weapons back and forth to maintain the 17th Brigade’s south bank war.
In this process, the actual efficiency of the ship is relatively low. It takes a long time to cross the river first, and often the ship has to rely on manpower to pull them to swim after returning from the south bank to the north bank before crossing the river for the second time.
Because the Yangtze River water is a mobile boat, crossing the river is not a straight line from the north bank to the south bank and then back to the north bank, but a diagonal movement. After the boat moves obliquely to the south bank and then from the south bank to the north bank, it is often several kilometers away from the original starting point. At this time, it is necessary to pull or move the boat to the starting point, so that a round of crossing can be carried out.
Therefore, although there are a large number of small boats and bamboo rafts in Fengjun Institute, their weight is low, and many bamboo rafts are not suitable for transporting ammunition. It is a very troublesome and inefficient thing to maintain supplies for ships.
If we only rely on these makeshift wooden boats and bamboo rafts to support an entire division’s combat materials, Meng Enyuan would have sent an entire ninth division all at once, and we must send a seventeenth brigade first. It’s not that he doesn’t want to get the ninth division across the river, but that the transportation capacity is limited.
After the 17th Brigade is transported, the remaining ships will be used to transport supplies to maintain the 17th Brigade. If some ships are also divided to transport the 10th Brigade of the 9th Division, the soldiers in the front line will get less war materials. Fortunately, the soldiers can carry dozens of them to support the battle for a while, but the machine guns, mortars and artillery shells will be very troublesome.
In this way, it is not a good thing for many troops to travel light directly.
Based on this consideration, the Ninth Division of the Institute arranged for the 17th Brigade to cross the river. However, after the 17th Brigade crossed the river, it was limited by the lack of ammunition. Moreover, it was considered that if we continued to go deep into the southern shore, we would not get our own artillery fire support. After all, the Fourth Army did not administer a millimeter cannon. There were two heavy artillery battalions in Fengjun, one in Anqing and one in Jinling. All of them were common 75mm field guns. Although the models were different, the general range was kilometers.
This range also determines that even if the Fengjun artillery directly sets up its position by the river, the distance that the Fengjun artillery can support after being separated by a Yangtze River several kilometers wide is quite limited.
Although the 17th Brigade, especially the 10th Regiment, quickly launched an attack to seize several tactical points after crossing the river, their scope of activities was still limited to five kilometers from the landing point. After seizing the tactical points, they just didn’t move on, but all the soldiers in the army waved sappers’ shovels and dug trenches to build machine gun positions.
They want to stop the seventh division of the two rivers of the Anhui army or other troops of the Anhui army that may be reinforced here!
If the 17th Brigade can block the counter-offensive troops of the Anhui Army, then the task force can continue the construction and erect the pontoon bridge. Once the pontoon bridge is erected, the main force of the fourth army will immediately cross the river. At that time, cavalry and artillery will cross the river with a large amount of ammunition. Only then can it be said that the fourth army has successfully crossed the river.
Now, although the 17th Brigade has passed a 10th regiment, it is far from saying that the plan to cross the river has been successful!
Feng Jun was so prepared and the Anhui Army didn’t let them down. It was only a few hours later at noon that Fang Qingkun saw a large number of Anhui Army troops from the north through his telescope!
Chapter three hundred and ninety Delay and fierce fighting
The landing place of the Fourth Army of the Soviet Union crossing the river and the other side of the state are about two kilometers north of Maanshan in eastern dangtu county. After the 17th Brigade of Fengjun expanded to the southwest by five kilometers, the expected range of intercepting the Anhui Army is about the area of Maanshan in later generations.
And the deployment of troops in this area of the Anhui Army? The deployment of the Anhui Army in Dangtu is the entire Seventh Division of the Liangjiang Army. Of course, it is impossible for a 10,000-person Seventh Division of the Liangjiang Army to get together and hide in the head of dangtu county City, but it is scattered along the Yangtze River to form a Yangtze River defense line of more than 20 kilometers
The key protection area in this Dangtu defense line is Dangtu county, where there is the 14th brigade of the two rivers army, an entire brigade artillery regiment and other troops, which are the key garrison areas of the Anhui army in Dangtu direction. It is not only to prevent Fengjun from directly landing in Dangtu, but also the 14th brigade artillery and other troops are the main mobile reinforcements of Dangtu defense line. Once it is found that Fengjun has landed from other directions on a large scale, the 14th brigade artillery and other troops must quickly March to reinforce. Of course, they do not mean that they will directly defeat Fengjun, but everyone knows that once Fengjun crosses the river, it is bound to be a large-scale crossing force.
On such a scale, Fengjun is definitely not a mere one. The Seventh Division of Liangjiang can defeat even it is very difficult to stop Fengjun’s troops from crossing the river.
So what is the Seventh Division of Liangjiang once Fengjun landed in Dangtu?
A word drag!
The requirements are not high. If the Seventh Division of the Liangjiang Army can drag the Fengjun troops across the river for two days, the troops from Wuhu and Jinling will be able to arrive initially. If it can be delayed for three days, the second Hunchenglv and the fourth division of the Central Army, the main force of the Anhui Army, will be able to arrive one after another. As the main force of the Anhui Army resists Duan Qirui, it is sure to stop the Fengjun attack momentum. Of course, this is Duan Qirui’s conservative estimation. He still wants to annihilate the Fengjun troops across the river in one fell swoop.
Because it almost represents the strategic turning point of the Jiangsu-Anhui War. Once the Anhui army can annihilate the Fengjun troops who crossed the river and suffered heavy losses, Fengjun can never launch the battle of crossing the river again in a short time. Although the Anhui army is not strong enough to launch a large-scale counterattack and then recover the Jiangbei area, it can at least make the Jiangsu-Anhui War enter a strategic stalemate again.
At that time, it was very precious for Duan Qirui. He took Guangdong to rectify when it was needed in the near future, completely incorporated Guangdong, a rich province, into his own ruling body, and then relied on more than half of southern China. He was confident that his financial resources would surpass that of the Soviet Union, and then he expanded more troops and waited for the right to actually launch the Northern Expedition.
The deployment of the Anhui Army’s entire Yangtze River defense line has clearly reflected this strategic thinking
The Anhui Army, the vast defense line of the Yangtze River, is the key to protect several areas, while the fourth division and the second Hunchenglv, the two main forces, are regarded as mobile troops, and they go there when they cross the river.
Specifically, the tactical deployment of the Seventh Division of Liangjiang River in Dangtu direction also reflects this thinking, that is, the main force is deployed in dangtu county City and a small number of troops are deployed in other areas. The purpose of deploying troops by these battalions is not to stop Fengjun from crossing the river, but to serve as an early warning.
The Anhui Infantry Battalion deployed by the Ma ‘anshan River is a unit of this nature.
They found that in the first time when Fengjun crossed the river, he had already sent his soldiers to Dangtu to report!
At the same time, the two infantry battalions stationed in Xishan and Jiuhuashan are also heading for Maanshan quickly. These two infantry battalions and the former Maanshan infantry battalion belong to the 25th Infantry Regiment of the 13th Brigade of the Seventh Division of Liangjiang.
The 25th Infantry Regiment of Liangjiang Army is the main force deployed by Anhui Army in Ma ‘anshan area.
It was reported that the commander of the regiment, which belongs to the 2nd Battalion, did not dare to neglect when he found a large number of Fengjun troops crossing the river. He immediately led two regiments to Ma ‘anshan, but they were still a little late. By the time they arrived, nearly two hours had passed since Fengjun troops crossed the river. At this time, the 33rd Fengjun regiment had successfully landed on the shore and pushed to the southwest to expand the depth of beach defense.
In this case, going to the first battalion of the 33rd regiment of the Fengjun Army in Los Angeles to seize the head and chasing the enemy remnants to the Yushan Lake line, the second battalion of the 33rd regiment of the Fengjun Army is in direct confrontation with the 25th regiment of the Anhui Army.
Fang Qingkun, who commanded the whole regiment from the rear, looked at the telescope and was wearing a dark blue army. The Anhui army roughly estimated that there were many reinforcements this time. Just because it has been found that there are only a few thousand people, considering that the Anhui army is not a group of people, let Fang Qingkun go to several places. Fang Qingkun estimated that the enemy should be a regiment.
Fang Qingkun is as conceited as many officers serving in the army. He doesn’t think that just one Anhui infantry battalion can compete with his two battalions. But this is an emergency. He doesn’t mean to defeat many enemy troops, but to stick to the beachhead position. Fang Qingkun also wants to wait for the rear troops to set up a pontoon and cross the river when the Anhui army wants to delay.
However, although both of them want to delay, there is one difference, that is, when Fang Qingkun’s 33rd regiment wants to delay, it takes Yushan Lake and Rentouji and other areas to form a preliminary defensive position before securing the beachhead position.
However, the Anhui army on the other side has to delay, but they are not blindly avoiding the war. On the contrary, it is very necessary for them to take a stake in delaying the offensive of Fengjun, especially in the early stage, when Fengjun crossed the river on the first day, Li Fengjun tried to attack Fengjun’s troops crossing the river as much as possible. It is best to directly attack Fengjun’s troops crossing the river and slow down the speed of Fengjun’s main force crossing the river.
To put it simply, the contradiction between the two lies in the fact that the Anhui army wants to delay blocking the troops of Fengjun crossing the river on the beach, while the 33 rd regiment of Fengjun has already crossed the river needs to stop the Anhui army from delaying the follow-up reinforcements of the Anhui army.
When these factors are combined, a very interesting situation appears, that is, although both commanders have been ordered to delay, they really want to do so. However, in fact, since the two sides contacted each other, fierce fighting broke out.
The first battalion and the second battalion of the 33rd regiment of the Fengjun Army met in Yushan Lake and Rentouji. After the 25th regiment of the Anhui Liangjiang Army was rapidly reinforced in the south, the two sides did not exercise restraint and even did not conduct fire tests. As soon as they met, they fought directly.
After the machine gun stopped clicking, it was once again that the Yangtze River rang, accompanied by a crisp gun and occasional explosions.
In these explosions, the main reason is that the two sides have been throwing grenades at the main players, but they have always been extravagant in the army, so that mortar shells are fired less. This is not because Fang Qingkun doesn’t like mortars, but because the existing mortar shells in his hands are limited and he can’t wave at will.
Now, all the ammunition of the 33rd Regiment is carried by the former. Although it is said that it was well prepared before departure, the crossing of the river destroyed the two machine gun fortresses that brought great casualties to the Fengjun. The 33rd Regiment has already consumed a lot of shells, and the senior generals of the Fengjun before crossing the river, including Meng Enyuan and Lin Yong, agreed that the counterattack of the Anhui Army would be very fast and fierce. Once the main enemy forces came to counterattack, they could rely on the 17th Brigade.
Considering that there is no pontoon bridge to transport ammunition by a small number of ships, the ammunition, especially mortar shells, that the 17th Brigade can fight in the next three days will be very tight.
Apart from the anti-aircraft gunfight, Fang Qingkun doesn’t want to wave his precious mortars unless there is too much need!
Fang Qingkun resisted too many mortar rounds, so the pressure on the front infantry of the 33rd regiment was naturally great. Perhaps the troops in Fengjun, especially the three main divisions, had long been used to attacking with mortar fire cover, and now they really felt a little unaccustomed without it.
But they have to fight if they are not used to it. They spread out with their cats around their waists and then try to carry out a platoon-level circuitous attack. Occasionally, 60 mm mortars are used to fight the Anhui army’s machine guns. This is the case. It’s not a day or two since the Anhui army fought the Fengjun army. It’s all six months before and after. In addition to copying and equipping the Fengjun 60 mm mortars, they have also improved many machine gun tactics specifically for these tactics.