Chapter 750: The Battle in Xuzhou

On this day, the 12th Elite Division of the Kinki Railway Group Army completed assembly in Huaibei. The vanguard had already advanced towards Xuzhou. The subsequent troops successively arranged encirclements from the southwest, southeast and east directions of Xuzhou in regiments.

Cao Kun rode his war horses all the way to Xiaoxian in the southern suburbs of Xuzhou. He jumped off his horse at the entrance of the courtyard of the front enemy command post. He had just been wearing a second-level army general uniform that had just been issued. He had a dark face and didn't care about pitying his new military uniform. He strode into the main gate of the command post. When the officers who were busy working in the hall saw it, they quickly put down their work and stood attentively saluting.

"Where is Wang Chengbin?" Cao Kun waved the whip in his hand and signaled everyone to continue to be busy, but he asked coldly, "His grandma, it's been a few days, and Xuzhou has not been in any way at all. Do you have to go online to supervise the army in person?"

Wang Chengbin, whose original name was Chengbin, was named Xiaobo, was from Xingcheng, Fengtian, and was the second general of General Kuang Wu and Xun, was an army general, former deputy envoy of the Luyu Submission, and was a second class of infantry in the Baoding Quick-Successful Martial Preparation School. He graduated from the second class of Army University.

In 1903, he entered the Beijing Normal School. In October 1904, he was admitted to the Infantry Department of Class 2 of the Baoding Quick Martial Preparation School. After graduation, he was promoted to the Second Class of Class 2 of the Officers Academy (the second phase of the Army University). After graduation, he served as the platoon leader of the Imperial Guards, a third-class staff officer of the Third Town (the commander Cao Kun), and the 11th Regiment of the 6th Brigade of the Third Division (the commander Cao Kun) (the commander Zhang Hongkui), and was re-appointed as the Army Infantry Colonel on February 10, 1913.

"Commander, Deputy Commander Wang has already visited the front line." A young adjutant of staff said carefully.

"Where is the Chief of Staff of the Division?" Cao Kun's face was not good at all and continued to question.

At this time, several senior officers rushed to the back hall, and the head was Xiong Bingqi, the chief of staff of the 12th Division.

Xiong Bingqi was Cao Kun's old subordinate. Before, because of Chen Tiaoyuan's existence in the New Eighth Division, he only served as the director of the Military Control Commission. After the establishment of the Kinki Railway Group Army, he had the opportunity to take office. When he saw Cao Kun coming from Huaibei City in person, he was immediately quite frightened and hurriedly came forward to salute.

"Commander, why are you here? I didn't inform you before, so I'll go and greet you."

"His grandma, don't talk nonsense. I want to ask you, why haven't you attacked Xuzhou yet? Do you know that today was the day when Wu Zheng was happy, and I planned to rush back to Nanjing to have this wedding banquet, so I let you grandsons disturb you." Cao Kun scolded angrily.

"This... the commander didn't know. Deputy Commander Wang sent a telegram to the city yesterday to persuade Zhang Xun to surrender. He didn't wait for a reply today. Zhang Xun is an old member of the Wuwei Army. The world is already peaceful. It would be better if the matter in Xuzhou can be resolved peacefully." Xiong Bingqi quickly explained.

"An old man from Wuweijun? Is he your old boss or your old classmate? Don't fucking fart. Why didn't this kid think that we were old people when he attacked Nanjing? Waiting for his reply to the telegram, if he had the intention, he would have surrendered long ago. Do you have to wait for us to surround Xuzhou?" Cao Kun said coldly, his tone not at all polite.

"Yes, yes, I'll inform Deputy Commander Wang about this." Xiong Bingqi could see that Cao Kun was going to take serious action this time. Anyway, he was not familiar with Zhang Xun. Since Zhang Xun has been reluctant to reply to the telegram, he can't blame himself for being ruthless and unrighteous.

"Transfer my order directly. After the artillery was in place, the troops rushed to the death. Each unit launched a series of breakthroughs according to the original attack. I only gave you two days. If you can't enter Xuzhou City, you can't think about it." Cao Kun said sternly.

Half an hour later, the four artillery positions arranged by the vanguard began to fire at Xuzhou, and the infantry soldiers from each offensive point began to assault the city under the cover of artillery fire. Although the 12th Division was all from the Beiyang Army, they were all elite soldiers trained by Feng Guozhang using the prosperous places in Jiangsu. Both weapons and equipment and the quality of the soldiers were much stronger than ordinary local troops. In the early years, Feng Guozhang was close to the relationship with Britain and the United States and purchased many British and American weapons for his direct troops. In recent years, he has been reluctant to send them to the battlefield. It was not until today to consolidate the safety of Kinki.

After the establishment of the Kinki Railway Group Army, all five elite divisions under their jurisdiction were given priority ration. Not only did they have new winter clothes, they could also enjoy welfare benefits such as special cigarettes and tea. Some troops were also equipped with new cannons, mortars, light machine guns and automatic rifles. This greatly encouraged the morale of the Beiyang Army. They finally jumped from local troops to the main force of the defense center. Many officers were eager to perform. As the saying goes, the near-water tower will get the moon first, and working in a job near Kinki is easier to get promoted, and attacking Xuzhou is a rare opportunity.

Cao Kun still had some understanding of Zhang Xun's Xuzhou army. This army was completely a remnant of the Jiang Defense Battalion in the late Qing Dynasty. It had no equipment and no food and salary. More importantly, this army inherited all the bad habits of the old army in the late Qing Dynasty. The military style was not intact and the military discipline was scattered. It was already notorious in Xuzhou. Using the twelve elite divisions to deal with these remnants was almost as simple as the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves. However, Cao Kun still had some concerns. After all, the twelfth division was reorganized from three old divisions, and there was a lot of understanding between officers and soldiers, and the team structure was still not in tune with each other, so it was difficult to ensure that the command was smooth like before. So he deliberately gave a two-day deadline, which was very abundant.

After receiving the order on the front line, Wang Chengbin personally directed the artillery to bombard Xuzhou. After several shells came down, the defensive positions in the suburbs of Xuzhou immediately scattered like tofu. After only half an hour, the outer defense line began to collapse. The Xuzhou defenders ran away in a mess and quickly fled. The infantry team began to charge towards the city and were blocked by the second wave of defenders near the ancient city walls of Xuzhou and the main roads of the suburbs of the city. However, the firepower of the enemy's stronghold did not stop the attack from being too long. The subsequent troops transferred mortars, and two rounds of volleys fired overturned several heavy machine guns of the Xuzhou army.

The Xuzhou army did not even master the most basic queuing shooting. Without the firepower suppression of heavy machine guns, the soldiers were in a panic. Most of them did not even dare to poke their heads out of the cover, but just raised their rifles and fired guns outside the cover.

The vanguard company of the 12th Division began to install bayonets on the rifle. The company commander personally selected several strong soldiers with American shotguns and launched a charge from the flank to the strongholds under the city wall. The Xuzhou defenders could only hear the shouts approaching step by step. The soldiers on the front line were so scared that they shivered and moved backwards, but they made the officers block the way and shouted and asked the soldiers to defend the defense line. In this way, the soldiers in Xuzhou did not want to fight, and the ones behind could not escape, and pushed and shoved into a hodgepodge.

The vanguard company rushed to the front of the stronghold without much casualties, first threw a round of grenades, then roared and picked up the bayonet and climbed over the barrier of the stronghold, and stabbed the Xuzhou defenders behind them. The Xuzhou defenders did not even have time to load the bayonets, so they could only block them with gun poles, and soon one after another was overturned to the ground. The vanguard soldiers holding shotguns stared at the crowded soldiers and fired, "Boom Boom Boom Boom" shots flew around, and could hit the enemy with their eyes closed.

"I'll keep your fucking braids, and I'll keep your fucking braids. Today, I'll not only have to peel your braids, but also my head!"

"The hatred of sneak attack on Nanjing is to be paid for your blood debt today!"

"Avenge my brother who died in Nanjing in battle, I will stab your mother to death."

"You are still running? Run, run, I'll see how you run. I'll destroy your legs first."

The defense line of the city wall quickly collapsed, and the defenders of Xuzhou died, fled, and surrendered. The vanguard of the 12th Division fought fiercely, and they were killed when they encountered enemy troops during the attack, and even raised their hands to surrender and begged for mercy. Only after breaking through the defense line and the subsequent troops followed up were successively suppressed and captured.

Nancheng was first broken through, and the soldiers of the elite division quickly occupied the streets and alleys, controlling major traffic arteries and important facilities.

However, after entering the city, the soldiers gradually showed the temperament of the Beiyang Army. In addition to the several main companies continuing to attack the city, many subsequent soldiers began to scratch everywhere, breaking the door and robbing the shops. There were countless people living in the houses, and many soldiers even felt at ease. When the Xuzhou Army occupied Nanjing for several days, they must have regained this anger today.

At first, the soldiers were just robbing, and occasionally they only beat the rebels, and did not hurt their lives. However, as the robbers became more and more jealous, some soldiers gradually lost their minds, and once they found the rebels, they stabbed them to death with bayonets. What's more, they became beastly when they found a young and beautiful woman and took turns to commit violence. But everyone knows that raping x*** women is a serious crime, and they dare not do such things too obvious. Most of them are doing things that break into a private house and close the door.

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Chapter completed!