After the founding of the Hua Kingdom, the previous black dragon flag remained unchanged, and the army still judged their combat effectiveness by how many claws they had. For example, the Shanshan Guards now have the black dragon four-claw flag, second only to the five hundred flags carried by Emperor Tang Ao. The Han general's Black Dragon and Golden Claw flag exists, and its combat power is tyrannical. Thirty thousand people can often fight against three times the number of enemies without the slightest fear, and there is a high chance of victory.
But the Fourth Field Army only has 30,000 people, and it doesn’t even have a black dragon with one claw flag. The flag it is flying now is a clawless black dragon, which looks bare and a bit ugly. Their combat effectiveness is naturally relatively low. Weak, it would be too much for them to face enemies that are three times more powerful.
I knew what Xia Hong was worried about, but Shen Ping'an really didn't want to give up this opportunity. He said, "In this case, you immediately send someone to contact Commander Lei Ming and ask him how confident he is that he can stop the South Vietnamese Army. If they If we have confidence, we will fight here. If we don't have confidence, then we will have no choice but to retreat."
"Nuo, this is good." Xia Hong said in agreement, "Brigade Commander, how many days do we need them to block it?"
"Counting five days from now. The enemy has more than 20,000 troops in Shangdu City, which is no less than ours. It's not like other small cities that only have a thousand or a few thousand people that are easy to attack." Shen After thinking about it for a while, Ping An gave a deadline.
"Promise, I will send someone to take care of it immediately." Xia Hong promised.
They said they were sending someone to do it, but in fact Xia Hong went there in person, so the people he sent were worried because they couldn't explain clearly.
With a dozen soldiers, three horses per person, he arrived in front of Eling Lake in just four hours, where he saw the Fourth Field Army that had just arrived and was spreading its troops.
It is said that the Fourth Army has only one division now. Tang Ao has set up the framework. How far it can develop next depends on how the generals below develop it.
Xia Hong arrived here, and after revealing his identity, soldiers naturally took him to the division headquarters tent. However, there was only Chief of Staff Liu Chen here. When asked where Commander Lei had been, he said he was walking on the Eling Lake to test the ice. .
At this time, Lei Ming was walking on Eling Lake. Eling Lake is narrow from east to west and long from north to south, like a large treasure gourd. The lake covers an area of more than 600 square kilometers, with an average water depth of 17.6 meters and a maximum depth of more than 30 meters.
Of course, it was summer, and now it was freezing, so there was no problem for people and carriages to walk on it.
In other words, the area that the Fourth Field Army needs to defend has increased a lot. An army of 30,000 people seems to be a lot, but in front of this wide lake, dividing it up is nothing. .
Walking on the lake, it seems that you can feel the coldness coming from the soles of your feet. Lei Ming's face is very serious.
After entering Qingzhou, they attacked cities and plundered territory all the way. It seemed that the Fourth Field Army had achieved great results. It captured more than 30 large and small counties and villages, but in fact it did not encounter any decent resistance. In such a battle, It doesn't mean anything, and it would make people blush if they try to take credit for something.
Now that he finally got the order, he had to fight a tough battle, but the natural environment was really not good, which made Lei Ming's mood of wanting to make meritorious service become a little gloomier.
"Hey, it seems we have to think of a way to anger the other side and make them do what we want, so that this battle can continue." As he muttered to himself, Lei Ming's mind began to spin rapidly.
"Commander." The voice of Chief of Staff Liu Chen came from behind, causing Lei Ming to look back and see Liu Chen and another tall man.
"Oh, it turns out to be Commander Xia, why are you here?" Lei Ming recognized Xia Hong. Speaking of which, his qualifications are much older than his own, and he also studied in the gunnery class of Longyuan, so when he saw him, he
, Lei Ming's tone became very polite.
Speaking of which, the rank of a general in the Great China Army is definitely not calculated by the number of troops he leads, but by actual combat power.
Just like the current 1st Firearms Brigade, they fly the Black Dragon Three-claw Flag, so any regiment commander there is no different from the division commander Lei Ming. If you have to compare, he doesn't even have the One-claw Flag.
Lei Ming is still one point behind others.
Lei Ming was polite, and Xia Hong was also polite. He knew that Commander Lei was a person that even His Majesty liked. Otherwise, why would he have jumped from a captured general to a division commander?
Not to mention, the division commander was snatched by himself. The troops originally given to a brigade were recruited into a division by himself, and he was the first unit among the four field armies to form a brigade into a division.
With this hand, no one can underestimate him.
The two met politely and after paying each other a military salute, Xia Hong revealed his purpose of coming.
"Oh, you are not going to withdraw, but you are going to attack the capital?" After hearing that the 1st Firearms Brigade had no intention of withdrawing, Lei Ming asked in surprise.
"We have such an idea. But whether we can make the trip depends on Commander Lei. Whether your Fourth Field Army can block the 100,000 reinforcements from South Vietnam. If you can, we want to give it a try. If not, forget it.
Yes, we will withdraw immediately." Xia Hong said with a smile, but it could be seen that his eyes were full of hope, and he obviously wanted to use this opportunity to show off his skills.
Lei Ming knew what Xia Hong meant, and after pondering for a moment, he asked: "Then how many days do you need our Fourth Army to block it?"
"Not counting today, it's five days." Xia Hong said. According to Brigadier Shen Ping'an, he meant to count today's five days, but Xia Hong intentionally added one more day just to give Lei Ming a chance to bargain.
"Five days?" Lei Ming did not answer immediately after hearing this, but looked to the side of Chief of Staff Liu Chen.
As if he knew what Lei Ming meant, Liu Chen smiled and said, "You don't have to look at me. Your Majesty has already said that military affairs should be decided by the chief military officer."
"Okay." After receiving Liu Chen's support, Lei Ming nodded heavily, "Five days, five days."
"Mr. Lei agreed?" Xia Hong was very surprised. He originally thought that the other party would refuse and would persuade him. No matter how bad the situation was, he would still have to bargain, for example, if the time could be shortened, but he didn't expect that he would just say nothing.
He agreed readily.
"Yes, I agreed. In fact, it is said to be five days, but the South Vietnamese reinforcements are still some distance away from Eling Lake. It is initially estimated that they will not arrive here until the day after tomorrow, and then they will have to rest. The time to actually launch the attack is just
It's only three days, there should be no problem." Lei Ming explained.
Seeing Lei Ming's serious look, Xia Hong's expression became serious and said: "Mr. Lei, if you can, you can, if you can't, you can't. There should be no problem, but this answer is not acceptable."
"Okay, that means there is absolutely no problem. If our Fourth Army cannot defend this place, my division commander will die together with the enemy here." Lei Ming became extremely serious as he spoke, which was tantamount to issuing a military order. The Dahua Army has strict military discipline. If Lei Ming can't do it, there will be only a dead end, and there is absolutely no chance of survival.
"Okay, Commander Lei, I'm glad that the back of our First Firearms Brigade will be handed over to you." Xia Hong was very satisfied with this answer and immediately saluted him with a military salute.
Lei Ming also returned a military salute, "Please rest assured, soldiers of the 1st Firearms Brigade, as long as there is still one person from our Fourth Army, we will never let the 100,000 South Vietnamese reinforcements harass you."
After getting the answer he wanted, Xia Hong left quickly. He also wanted to tell the brigade commander Shen Pingan the news, and then prepare to attack the city.
Liu Chen watched Xia Hong get on his horse and leave, then looked back at Lei Ming and asked, "Sir, are you sure?"
"Yes." Lei Ming chuckled. He indeed had his own plan in mind. If everything goes well, there would be no problem in staying here for three to five days.
"Okay, then let's go back to the big tent. We also need to ask the division commander to tell us the battle plan." Liu Chen nodded. He knew that his division commander had many ideas. It was like changing from a brigade to a division. Under the leadership of Lei Ming, he was the first to complete this task.
According to the rules of the Great China Army, there must be a military plan before a battle. Only after the chief of staff and staff review and approve it, will the military chief lead people to implement it and take control of the military.
This is a means to restrain the general, and at the same time it can avoid the behavior of underestimating the enemy and losing the battle.
In the big tent, in front of the chief of staff and other staff, Lei Ming explained his plan. Then the whole big tent fell into silence.
No one spoke, not because everyone disagreed with the division commander's battle plan, but because the plan was a bit too risky. If one mistake was made, it might affect the entire battlefield, and the South Vietnamese army might be allowed to cross the lake.
If it only involves their Fourth Field Army, it won't matter. At worst, it will be a fight to the death. But if something goes wrong, I'm afraid the First Firearms Brigade won't get any benefits. This is of great concern, and we can't help but treat it with caution. .
"Commander, isn't it too risky?" After a long silence, it was Liu Chen, the chief of staff, who spoke first.
"There is no war without taking risks. No one can guarantee that we will win. It just depends on the winning rate. In someone's opinion, we have a lot of advantages this time. Even though our Fourth Field Army has just formed a division, we have Our soldiers are carefully selected, and many of them are veterans who have been on the battlefield. With the presence of these elite soldiers, as long as the plan is executed well, we have at least a 70% chance of winning this battle, making it worth a gamble."
Listening to Lei Ming's explanation, Liu Chen knew that this was the division commander's decision. Remembering that he had promised Xia Hong before, if he went back on his word now, he would only be looked down upon by others, and the Fourth Field Army would not want to raise its head in the future. Besides, Liu Chen really envied the black dragon claw flag in his heart.
