Under the shelling of Deyou Army, Yuan Jun was caught off guard. Although the shelling of Deyou Army was far less intense than that of Yuan Jun, due to Yuan Jun's carelessness, he did not build a complete trench bunker on the position and was immediately beaten to death and casualties.

After the artillery attack, the Deyou army took advantage of the situation to launch an attack. The Yuan army was already hit by the Deyou army's artillery, and it was still able to resist it. It was immediately defeated by the Deyou army. Although the Yuan army on the north bank of Youshui wanted to cross the river to support, the Deyou army had already made arrangements. Before the attack, it sent people to blow up all the floating bridges on the river, so that the Yuan army on the north bank could not be used to be strong. As a result, the Yuan army on the south bank retreated to the occupied Deyou army position, and only with the position defense was the only way to stop the defeat.

Yuan Shikai was also a little anxious at this moment. He was already in sight of victory, but why was he beaten back all at once? At this time, the advisory group suggested to him again that although the south bank of Youshui was defeated, Yuan's army had retreated to the position, and with the original trench fortifications as the support, it was not difficult to defend the position. At this time, all Deyou army was put into the attack on the south bank of Youshui, and the defense of the north bank would inevitably be empty. Therefore, at this time, the troops should be concentrated and the attack on the new defense line of Deyou army on the north bank of Youshui. As long as the new defense line of Deyou army was broken through, the Deyou army would automatically withdraw on the south bank and it would be difficult to hold on. Yuan's army's chances of victory were still quite large.

But at this time, Yuan Shikai hesitated and thought that the advisory group's suggestions were too risky. After all, the position occupied by Deyou Army was under three sides, and the pressure of defense was quite high. If the position was broken, not only would the attacking army be wiped out, but he would probably not even be able to defend his own defense line. Therefore, Yuan Shikai thought about it again and again and finally decided to withdraw the troops on the north bank of Youshui to the position, defend the position first, and revitalize the Dun army before launching an attack.

During this counterattack, the victory of Deyou's army was far beyond the expectations of Rama and Martinez. They had just wanted to repel Yuan's army for a distance, but they actually drove the Yuan army on the south bank of Youshui back to their original positions in one fell swoop. The Yuan army on the north bank also took the initiative to retreat. Not only did the new defense line stabilize, but this victory also greatly increased the morale of Deyou's army and wiped out the decline. So the two of them were a little hot and decided to act and continue to launch an attack and regain their original positions. So the two ordered the Deyou's army to launch an attack on the Yuan army from three directions.

But at this time, Yuan's army on the north bank of Youshui had withdrawn from the position and stabilized its position. Although Yuan Shikai was not enterprising, he was more cautious. In the past few days, he had been setting up the fortifications in the position, which was now useful. Moreover, Yuan Shikai also knew that the position should not be missed, so he risked the danger to personally go to the position to command the battle, and also pulled more than 100 artillery pieces to arrange them in the position, and must defend the current position.

As a result, the Deyou army attacked fiercely for three days. Yuan's army always firmly defended the position with its defense fortifications and powerful firepower. Moreover, Deyou army suffered heavy losses. Seeing this, Rama and Martinez did not dare to attack again, so they had to order the army to retreat to the position to guard.

After the Deyou army withdrew, Yuan Shikai also breathed a sigh of relief, but it was not successful to defend the position, because the Deyou army established another line of defense, and only by breaking through this line of defense can this battle be considered a real success. At this time, the generals under Yuan Shikai were divided into two opinions. Duan Qirui believed that the Deyou army's defense line was just established and its defense was far less than that of the defense line occupied by the Yuan army. Therefore, as long as the Yuan army regained its momentum and launched an attack on the Deyou army's defense line again, there was still a lot of confidence to break it. Feng Guozhang, Cao Kun, Zhang Huaizhi, Zhang Xun and others also agreed to attack again.

Wang Shizhen opposed another attack because although the Deyou Army's defense line was just established, the Deyou Army was prepared now. Even if the Deyou Army's defense line was a little worse, the Deyou Army was not easy to deal with by the number of people. After several days of fierce fighting, Yuan's army was not only tired of the veterans, but also exhausted their spirits. Launching an attack can only consume the troops. It is better to temporarily cease the battle, rest the troops again, and look for other opportunities. This suggestion was supported by the advisory group.

At this time, Yuan Shikai was also in a dilemma, because once the truce was in a truce, all the manpower and material resources invested in this war would be wasted, and it would be easy to find other opportunities; but if he launched another attack, he was indeed not sure. If he could not break through the new defense line of Deyou Army and consumed his troops in vain, it would be more than worth the loss. Therefore, Yuan Shikai thought about it and finally decided to launch an attack to see the effect. If he still acted like the previous assault, he would break through the defense line of Deyou Army. If the Deyou Army had strict defense and was difficult to break through, he would immediately cease to fight and make other plans, so that there would be no big loss.

So Yuan's army made two more days of preparation, on the one hand, gathered troops, and on the other hand, mobilized artillery. This time the attack was the second town. Because in the early battles, the second town attacked on the north bank of Youshui and withdrew its position on its own and was not defeated. Moreover, the troops lost in the early battles were basically supplemented. Yuan Shikai rewarded the soldiers and officers of the second town to boost morale, and concentrated more than 200 artillery pieces to launch an attack on the Deyou Army's defense line on the north bank of Youshui.

But the attack was indeed as frustrated as Wang Shizhen expected. First of all, during the past few days, the Deyou army has been strengthening the construction of the new defense line and growing the new defense line to more than 10 kilometers. Although it has not yet been connected to the original defense line, the gap left is not enough to make the Deyou army break through the Deyou army's defense line. At the same time, the Deyou army also concentrated a large number of artillery on the defense line. The Yuan army could not unscrupulously strike the Deyou army's defense line. Without the cover of artillery fire, it was not easy to break through the Deyou army's defense line with infantry. Therefore, the attack only lasted for one day. Yuan Shikai knew that this attack was not easy to fight, so he completely gave up and ordered the stop of the battle and retreat to the position to defend.

Of course, Deyou's army did not dare to approach Yuan's position, because there was no shelter in the area between the two positions, and no one could gain a foothold, so they could only defend their respective positions and formed a ceasefire in a tacit understanding.

After the truce, both sides were busy relocating positions and replenishing their troops. The Deyou Army was busy connecting the defense line and expanding the depth of their positions; while the Yuan army dug forward trenches and advanced layer by layer to the Deyou Army's defense line.

This war lasted for 12 days. The Yuan army invested about 67,000 troops, killed 11,254 people, injured 23,176 people, disappeared 1,054 people, reduced combat personnel by nearly half, and captured 1,321 enemy soldiers; the Deyou army invested a total of about 100,000 troops, killed 25,132 people, injured 38,156 people, disappeared 2,755 people, reduced combat personnel by more than 60%, but also captured 271 soldiers of the Yuan army.

Judging from the loss of troops on both sides, the Yuan army undoubtedly has a clear advantage. Whether it is the number of casualties or the number of combat personnel reductions, the Deyou army is more than twice that of the Yuan army. However, in terms of combat objectives, although the Yuan army broke through the position of the Deyou army, the Deyou army quickly established and defended the new defense line. Therefore, the Yuan army did not achieve its own combat goal. On the contrary, although the Deyou army paid a significant price, it still blocked the Yuan army's attack and did not allow the Yuan army to make a breakthrough. It can be said that the Deyou army achieved its own combat goal.

However, both sides suffered great losses in this battle, so they were unable to launch large-scale operations in a short period of time, so the positions of both sides returned to peace and entered a situation of mutual resistance.

The military advisory group of the East China Government observed the entire process of the battle, and through the air reconnaissance of the aircraft, they basically understood the movements of both sides during the battle, and also made some suggestions to Yuan Shikai, some adopted by Yuan Shikai, and some rejected, but they also fulfilled their obligations as consultants.

Now that the battle is over, the military advisory group has also sorted out relevant information and recorded the entire battle process in detail. It also attached an analysis and evaluation of the war from the perspective of Yuan Jun.

The advisory group believed that the success of the Yuan army in this war was that, first, it was fully prepared in the early stage, not only prepared enough firepower, but also fully trained the army in close combat; second, it fully played the firepower role of artillery, because in the early stage of the war, the Yuan army's infantry and artillery cooperated very well; third, in the close combat of the trench, it fully utilized the individual firepower of the infantry, and various light and heavy weapons cooperated with each other, achieving a very ideal effect. In the early stage of the war, the Yuan army successfully invaded the Deyou Army's position and broke through the Deyou Army's position. These three points are also worthy of serious study by the People's Army.

However, Yuan's army still did not achieve its combat goals in the end, and there were three reasons. First, after breaking through the Deyou Army's position, Yuan's tactics were too conservative, turning the center of the battle into attacking on both sides, expanding the breakthrough, and failing to continue to attack in depth. This gave Deyou Army time to arrange a new defense line, and he also missed the opportunity to achieve the combat goals; second, when he did not make good efforts to attack the Deyou Army's new defense line, Yuan's position was too close to the Deyou Army's new defense line because it was not built

The perfect position was bombarded by Deyou's army and suffered a heavy blow, which became the turning point of the war; third, the gap in combat effectiveness between the various units of the Yuan army was too large. The second town of the Yuan army, which was responsible for the attack this time, occupied a large amount of resources of the Yuan army. Although the combat effectiveness was enhanced, it invisibly weakened the combat effectiveness of other troops, resulting in the Yuan army mainly relying on these two towns to fight. Once these two towns needed rest, other troops could not stand up, resulting in the weak ability to continue combat.
Chapter completed!