20demayo Chapter 224 Abandoning Changhuan and Retreating to Xinyuan
Chapter 224 Abandoning Changhuan and Retreating to Xinyuan
At the Xinyuan County Command, Tao Yunong hurried into Fang Jian's office and said, "Commander, the Southern Army is approaching Dehua City, and the Northern Army has reached Yanping."
"This time, the Southern and Northern armies have not yet split up their forces. They are all concentrated in Dehua and Yanping."
After listening to Tao Yunong's introduction, Fang Jian couldn't help but frowned, feeling quite helpless: "The Southern Army and the Northern Army are advancing step by step, steadily and steadily, and they will put pressure on us."
"If we fight with all our strength on both fronts and fight with the northern and southern armies in a war of attrition, our army has fewer soldiers and we will be the ones who suffer."
"Once both sides have consumed a certain amount of troops, they will divide their forces to attack other counties, or directly attack Changhuan City and Xinyuan. The Nanshan Army will be in a very passive position."
After pondering for a long time, Fang Jian's eyes became fierce. He thought that he could create loopholes in the north and south and defeat them one by one, so there was no need to use tank troops.
Now it seems that we have no choice but to use tank troops to secure victory.
Thinking of this, he said to Tao Yunong: "Yunong, let all officials from the Changhuan counties retreat to Nanling, and send a telegram to Fang Guoxuan and Cai Tingwu."
"Let Fang Guoxuan's troops withdraw to Pan County, and Cai Tingwu's troops withdraw to Xuan County. At the same time, transfer Fang Guoxuan's Second Division to Xinyuan to build the Xinyuan defense line."
Fang Jian planned to establish a triangular formation in Xinyuan, Panxian and Xuanxian, and abandon other counties.
There are four divisions stationed in Pan County and Xuan County respectively. It is almost impossible for the Southern Army and the Northern Army to take them down in a short time.
It depends on whether the northern and southern armies choose to fight to the death in the two counties or directly attack the source of information.
After the telegram was sent, Fang Guoxuan in Yanping and Cai Tingwu in Dehua immediately arranged for their troops to pack up and prepare for retreat.
In Yanping, inside the headquarters, the Chief of Staff of the First Division asked in confusion: "Division Commander, although the Northern Army has more than 200,000 troops, we also have 100,000 troops. If we retreat before the battle, it may affect the morale of the troops."
"Now our army is attacked from both sides. Even if we can defend against the Northern Army's attack, we will suffer heavy casualties. What should we do?" Fang Guoxuan shook his head slightly.
If we were facing an attack from only the Northern Army or the Southern Army, a fight to the death would be fine. But facing two fronts, blindly fighting on the first front would be an extremely foolish choice.
The Nanshan Army had trucks for transportation, and the troops quickly arrived in Pan County and Xuan County and set up defense lines. The Second Division also took over the defense of Xinyuan and set up four defense lines on the east side.
On October 10, when the Northern and Southern armies launched an attack on the Nanshan Army, they discovered that the Nanshan Army had already retreated, which surprised Chang Yunxian and Wu Peisheng very much.
Facing the Nanshan Army's flight without a fight, the Eighth Army's commander Xie Kanghe was quite disdainful: "The Nanshan Army is just like this. Seeing my army coming in full force, they will only flee in panic."
Wu Peisheng heard this and shook his head helplessly. The Nanshan Army was not afraid of the Northern Army, but the combined forces of the Southern and Northern armies numbered more than 400,000, so they chose to temporarily avoid the front line.
If it weren't for the Southern Army's containment, he wouldn't dare lead his troops deep into the enemy's territory. Even if he went deep into the enemy's territory, he wouldn't dare to divide his troops.
After carefully looking at Feng Huamin's original military deployment, Wu Peisheng honestly felt that there was not much of a problem.
If we were facing warlord troops, we would have broken through many of their defense lines long ago.
However, the Nanshan Army not only blocked the attack of the Northern Army, but also acted quickly in the final counterattack. If Feng Huamin's troops were not too scattered, the Nanshan Army would not have easily eliminated the outer troops.
At the same time, it also gave Wu Peisheng a general understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Nanshan Army. From many battles of the Nanshan Army, he concluded that the Nanshan Army was extremely good at encirclement and annihilation battles.
An encirclement and annihilation campaign requires a large number of troops to complete. The Nanshan Army relied on its powerful firepower to reduce the number of people launching an encirclement and annihilation campaign, but it also required an army equal to or more than that of the enemy to complete the encirclement and annihilation.
Therefore, Wu Peisheng did not dare to send out his troops, for fear of being seized by the Nanshan Army.
Wu Peisheng glanced at the army commanders and ordered, "Okay, continue to lead the troops in pursuit and reach Changhuan City."
"Yes, Commander." Several army commanders immediately integrated their troops and pursued towards Changhuan.
Chang Yunxian of Dehua also did not stay in Dehua, but led his troops directly to Changhuan.
On October 10, the Southern and Northern Armies arrived at Changhuan City and found that the Nanshan Army had also abandoned Changhuan. The Southern and Northern Armies met at the foot of Changhuan City.
"Commander Chang, Commander Xu."
"Commander Wu."
Wu Peisheng and Chang Yunxianxu met for the public. After greeting each other, the three of them sat down and exchanged pleasantries warmly.
Chang Yunxian asked calmly, "Commander Wu, the Nanshan Army retreated so decisively. It seems that they intend to defend the source of the letter to the death. I wonder if you have any good ideas."
Chang Yunxian was naturally familiar with the terrain of Nanshan. He was really troubled by the Nanshan army's guarding of the information source.
The terrain of Xinyuan is easy to defend but difficult to attack, especially in the era of hot weapons, the attacking side has no way to take advantage of weapons and numbers.
Wu Peisheng: "Commander Chang, your Southern Army has more people in this attack on Nanshan. As long as you can defeat the Nanshan Army, our Northern Army is willing to follow your arrangements."
This was just an excuse given by Wu Peisheng. After Lin Zongde's defeat, the Southern Army only dispatched 200,000 troops. If you really want to be precise, the Northern Army had 10,000 more troops.
"Commander Wu is too modest. The Northern Army has dispatched a lot of troops this time." Although Xu Weigong didn't like Wu Peisheng, he didn't show it.
Xu Weigong did not dislike Wu Peisheng alone, but he disliked all the high-ranking officials of the Northern Army.
Of course, as a politician, Xu Weigong behaved decently and had long concealed his joy.
Wu Peisheng smiled and said, "What Commander Xu said is wrong. The Northern Army is smaller than the Southern Army. This is a fact. Why can't we let Commander Chang take the lead?"
The reason why Wu Peisheng praised Chang Yun first was naturally to preserve his strength and let the Southern Army and the Nanshan Army fight each other.
Wu Peisheng was not afraid at all that Chang Yun would let the Northern Army be cannon fodder first. Everyone was not a fool. Even if Chang Yun let them be cannon fodder first, the Northern Army would just withdraw.
While the three were talking, Chen Xiuqing, Chief of Staff of the Southern Army, entered the meeting room.
"Commander, the Nanshan Army has set up defense lines in Pan County and Xuan County and left heavy troops there." Chen Xiuqing came to Chang Yunxian and reported in a low voice.
Chang Yunxian's expression froze: "Is the news reliable?"
"I have sent out three waves of reconnaissance teams and have confirmed that the information is correct." Chen Xiuqing replied.
Before he entered Changhuan, he had sent people to Xinyuan, Xuanxian and other places to investigate the situation.
Chang Yun first told everyone present the news that Chen Xiuqing had found out.
Xu Weigong laughed and said, "The enemy has deployed its troops in Pan County and Xuan County. Isn't it just right for us to go straight to the source of the message?"
Chang Yun ignored Xu Weigong and looked at Wu Peisheng and asked, "Commander Wu, what do you think?"
"The Nanshan Army has big ambitions." Wu Peisheng took a breath.
The Nanshan Army has now deployed heavy troops in Pan County and Xuan County. These two places are close to the mountains and the terrain is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
It doesn't matter that these two places are easy to defend but difficult to attack. There is no point in defending them because the target of the Northern and Southern armies is the source of information, the entire Nanshan Mountain.
The Nanshan Army's deployment of troops in these two counties seemed to be a stupid move, but in fact it was intended to cut off the retreat of the Southern and Northern Armies when they attacked Xinyuan and to encircle and annihilate the two armies.