Chapter 28

Guo Songling stood in the frontline command post, dumbfounded as he watched his attacking forces scatter like melting snow in the spring sun from the front line.

These soldiers were all new troops that he and Zhang Xueliang had trained over more than two years with a large amount of money in Northeast China, not those old Feng Army troops that could retreat as quickly as the wind.

However, in just over half an hour of fighting, out of the two battalions and over a thousand soldiers committed to the front line, only two or three hundred managed to escape. The two hundred or so troops trapped on the other side of the canal could not retreat and could only surrender to save their lives.

The flanking attack forces also scattered. The soldiers who escaped reported that they had suffered a brutal artillery barrage, with the entire ice surface being blown apart, and most of the troops had sunk to the bottom of the lake before they could even reach the shore.

The worst hit was the artillery position, where an entire artillery regiment was completely wiped out, both men and guns. Without long-range firepower, Guo Songling's forces could only passively endure the bombardment. The opposing artillery seemed to be firing without restraint, raining shells onto the Feng Army positions with great accuracy! The observers and calculators in the 6th Division's artillery were all experienced former German artillerymen.

Guo Songling now fully understood Zhang Zongchang's feelings, truly a miserable experience. However, now was not the time for reflection; the pressing issue was how to continue the battle or to call it off and retreat to Baoding.

After the 6th Division's artillery dealt with the Feng Army's artillery regiment, they adjusted their parameters and began firing on the second-line forces in the Feng Army's starting positions!

When planning this operation, Guo Songling had only brought two infantry regiments and one artillery regiment. When they arrived yesterday, they had only hastily set up some offensive positions, with no trenches or other fortifications. Now, it was too late to dig. The infantry, exposed on the open plain, could only lie on the ground and endure the artillery bombardment.

Although there were only twelve 105mm howitzers, each shell had a destruction radius of at least several dozen meters. The flying shrapnel and the massive shock waves caused significant casualties among the Feng Army, who were on the verge of morale collapse, unable to fight back.

Most of the elite and veteran soldiers in Guo Songling's forces were concentrated in the flanking attack units, and now most of them had not returned. The main force had lost over a thousand soldiers in the recent offensive! Those still alive were no longer capable of continuing the fight.

Guo Songling quickly regained his composure and made a decision: to leave a small number of alert forces to monitor the front line of the canal, while the rest retreated beyond the range of the enemy's artillery to regroup and await reinforcements. The orders were quickly passed down to the various units, and the already precarious situation of the fleeing troops suddenly exploded! Thousands of soldiers fled like a receding tide, abandoning all kinds of supplies on the ground, and the morale-collapsed units lost all command.

Guo Songling did not expect this to happen. By the time he realized something was wrong, it was already too late to stop it. Faced with the fleeing troops, he could only sigh and hurriedly leave under the protection of his guards. If he didn't leave quickly, he might not be able to leave at all.

Gao Yang, still observing the battlefield, noticed through his binoculars that the Feng Army on the opposite side was suddenly all running backward. Before he could understand what was happening, Beigel had already put down his binoculars and excitedly said, "The enemy has collapsed! Immediately launch an attack to pursue the fleeing enemy." He then rushed out of the command post and personally led a battalion stationed in the rear as a reserve force to cross the river in trucks.

Witnessing the entire battle, Gao Yang gained a deeper understanding of the power of artillery and machine guns. "Indeed, artillery is the soul of the army." Gao Yang sat in front of the map, pondering what to do if his forces encountered an enemy with even stronger artillery. Should he buy more powerful artillery for a direct confrontation, or use aircraft for bombing?

The powerful artillery was not only difficult to purchase but also hard to transport given the current state of the country's transportation. As for aircraft, the current aircraft performance was very poor. To rely on aircraft to gain the initiative, he would have to buy them from the original timeline. However, even if he bought the aircraft, there weren't enough skilled personnel to use them—pilots, ground crew, and ground command all required people. If he used only bio-warriors, there wouldn't be enough energy points. Gao Yang, with his hands on the table, stared blankly ahead, his mind empty.

The battle started and ended quickly. After dark, Beigel's pursuit forces gradually returned, each vehicle escorting varying numbers of prisoners and supplies. Soon, Beigel came to the command post to report the results to Gao Yang: "The enemy has been completely defeated. Preliminary statistics show that over 1,500 enemy soldiers were eliminated, and several hundred are missing. A total of over 2,000 enemy soldiers were captured, and various supplies are still being counted."

"Who is the highest-ranking prisoner?" Gao Yang asked.

"A major battalion commander," Beigel replied.

"Too bad, no big fish," Gao Yang said, dissatisfied with the rapid retreat of the Feng Army's officers.

Gao Yang quickly left the front line at Hanzhuang Bridge and returned to the command post in Xuzhou, leaving the post-battle cleanup to Beigel. Gao Yang had many things to handle. The bullet production line he had purchased was already installed at the Jinling Arsenal and would soon begin production. However, the issue of artillery shells needed to be resolved quickly.

Apart from the cost, what if others refused to sell them? Rongge was tight-lipped and only indicated that he would consider the favorable terms offered by Gao Yang, but did not mention selling the artillery shell production line.

Additionally, the new forces on the opposite side were completely unknown to him, indicating a failure in intelligence. Upon returning to the command post, Gao Yang sent a telegram to Yang Dong in Nanjing, ordering him to immediately move north to Beidu to conduct intelligence work. The message had just been sent when he received intelligence from Duan Dajun through a secret channel: "It turns out it was Guo the Devil." Gao Yang muttered. The battle was already over, and the information was useless!

Two days later, the lunar New Year arrived, and Gao Yang had already returned to Nanjing by train. That evening, he attended a banquet hosted by the elites of Nanjing to celebrate the New Year.

On the fourth day of the New Year, he attended the expansion ceremony of the Jinling Arsenal. With the addition of six new bullet production lines, the arsenal's ammunition production could now meet the needs of Gao Yang's forces. The urgent issue now was the production of artillery shells.

The front line in Xuzhou temporarily ceased fire, and both sides celebrated the New Year across the canal. However, their moods were different. On the 6th Division's side, Gao Yang gave each soldier a month's pay as a holiday bonus, and supplies were abundant. The soldiers could eat meat every day and receive a pack of cigarettes each day.

On the Feng Army's side, it was a different scene. In the icy and snowy weather, the recently defeated Guo Songling and Zhang Zongchang had no mood to provide their subordinates with good food and drink, let alone holiday bonuses. The morale of the Feng Army was extremely low, with some soldiers deserting, others looting villages in groups, and even some secretly crossing the river to surrender to the 6th Division.

Guo Songling had not given up. Although his division had suffered heavy losses in the previous battle, he still planned to try again after a subsequent division arrived in Zaozhuang. After all, becoming a provincial governor was much better than being Zhang Xueliang's deputy commander. As for the casualties, he did not care; he could always recruit more soldiers.

Just as Guo Songling was actively mobilizing troops and looking for weaknesses in Gao Yang's defenses to launch another southern offensive, the Shandong governor, Zhang Zongchang, arrived at his command post.

"Brother Guo, I won't say any empty words during the New Year. This time, I came on behalf of my subordinates to tell you that they don't want to continue the fight. I have decided to retreat to Jinan," Zhang Zongchang said, shocking Guo Songling.

"Governor Zhang, I am the frontline commander appointed by the Marshal. If you retreat without orders, it will be hard to explain to the Marshal," Guo Songling threatened, regaining his composure.

"Hehe, Commander Guo, we haven't mistreated you. To help you become the governor of Jiangsu, I have lost at least three to four thousand men. I also helped you pin down the high-ranking young man in Tai'erzhuang! I thought that with your large army, you could defeat him, but you couldn't even hold out for a day! Hehe, helping you is a favor, not an obligation! As for the Marshal, I will deal with him myself. Goodbye!" Governor Zhang said, turned, and left, leaving Commander Guo standing alone in the room, his face dark.

Guo Songling had originally planned to continue his operations near Hanzhuang Bridge. He had deployed all his forces along this line, with one flank by Weishan Lake and the other by Zhang Zongchang. However, now that Zhang Zongchang was leaving, the entire flank was exposed. If the 6th Division's main force crossed the canal and launched a flanking attack from Tai'erzhuang, it would be all over.

That night, Governor Zhang led his troops back to Jinan. Guo Songling's forces were left to face the 6th Division alone. With no choice, Guo Songling gathered his troops and retreated to Zaozhuang to fortify, while also reporting to the Marshal in Beidu and requesting reinforcements.

At this point, all parties had received reports of the battle at Hanzhuang Bridge. While marveling at the combat capability of Gao Yang's forces, the Marshal was also very dissatisfied with Guo Songling, who had been defeated in less than a day, a great embarrassment. Yang Yuting and others also criticized Guo Songling in front of the Marshal.

That night, Duan Dajun invited the Marshal for tea. Duan Dajun suggested that as allies against the Zhili clique, the Anhui and Feng armies should not fight each other, as it would only make the remaining Zhili forces and the public laugh. The two Marshals chatted and drank tea for nearly two hours.

The next day, the Feng clique publicly announced that they recognized Gao Yang as the Inspector of the Lower Yangtze and Governor of Jiangsu. With his dream of becoming a governor shattered, Guo Songling had no choice but to lead the prisoners released by Gao Yang back to Baoding. However, his dissatisfaction with the Marshal and the Feng Army commanders began to grow.

The anti-Zhili war that began in September of last year, which swept across much of the country, came to an end. After the war, Gao Yang moved the 6th Division back to the Nanjing area for rest and recuperation. He promoted Beigel to the rank of colonel and appointed him as the chief of staff of the 6th Division, awarded combat medals to the participating soldiers, and commended a large number of combatants for their contributions.

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