Zhang Xuan was indeed on the verge of tears. He commanded nearly a million troops. There were two main directions of attack. The first was Nanshan Port, the Tang enclave on the Chu coastline. The second was to pass through the Chu land and attack from the south.
Within the Tang Empire.
But so far, these two strategic goals have not been achieved. In other words, they are still far from being achieved.
The troops besieging Nanshan Port were blocked by the Chu State's mountain troops. The progress up to this point was relatively smooth. After all, they were getting closer and closer to Nanshan Port.
But then the Qin army, which was preparing to invade the Tang Empire, ran into the Tang mountain troops at the end of the mountainous area, and something went wrong.
The mountain troops of the Tang Army are really two different concepts from those of Chu and Qin: relying on Chinook helicopters, the Tang Army can even hoist 105 mm caliber howitzers to the top of the mountain to set up positions. In addition, there is fire support from armed helicopters.
, the combat effectiveness of both sides is not at the same level at all.
The mountain troops of the Tang Army were overwhelming and pushed the Qin Army back to the vicinity of the Chu capital in one breath. Relying on the city, the Qin Army managed to gain a foothold, but the situation was always passive.
It was originally expected that the navy could go north to cut off the supplies of Nanshan Port, but the combined fleet has not yet set off. Tonight, Sun Guang, the garrison commander of Qingluan Port, actually sent a message requesting Zhang Xuan's support...
"I fucking support him! Support! I still want support! I'm attacking! Attack! How can there be anything about taking troops away from the attacking troops?" Zhang Xuan roared in the office
road.
In fact, it's not surprising that he became angry. Recently, the Qin Army has been deploying troops from the southern front. After all, the hole in the north is really too big.
The 4th Armored Corps, which was initially given to Zhang Xuan, was directly transferred because it was a reserve unit and was located relatively far back. It did not participate in the battle...
There is no way, who told Zhang Xuan that the main combat areas before were in the mountains. The armored troops are not needed. Isn't it wrong to transfer support to other directions?
The armored troops were transferred, and Zhang Xuan said nothing except being depressed for a while. Everyone knew that fighting in the northern theater would be stressful, and this was something he had thought of before the war started.
But what happened next made Zhang Xuan angry: in addition to the armored troops, two infantry corps also had to be transferred. This suddenly caused Zhang Xuan's southern cluster, with a total strength of about 1.2 million, to suffer a sharp reduction in strength.
It’s around 1 million.
He was also responsible for attacking Nanshan Port and withstanding the pressure from the Tang Army's mountain troops in the north. The situation suddenly became passive.
But this was just the beginning of the nightmare: as the war situation in the north deteriorated rapidly, entering Shu city became precarious. Although this was not the only connection between the Qin army and Shu, it was an important passage for the Tang army to enter Shu from the flank.
Once this passage is opened, the flanks of Zhang Xuan's troops entering Chu will be in danger, so Emperor Qin Yingduo urgently ordered Zhang Xuan to mobilize troops to strengthen the defense of Shu City.
Zhang Xuan, who knew the importance of entering Shu city, had no choice but to mobilize troops to rush back to Shu city. This transfer consisted of 250,000 elite soldiers and generals.
He hadn't seen Nanshan Port yet, but as a result, all the Qin troops in Chu State were forced to go on the defensive. Due to lack of troops, many areas that were finally captured were forced to abandon many areas.
In fact, the Qin Army on the southern front had more than these troops withdrawn, because it was easier to camouflage and deploy defenses in mountain warfare, and most of the heavy artillery units that were not very useful were also withdrawn.
The most disgusting thing is that the air force responsible for supporting Zhang Xuan was mobilized faster: Zhang Xuan had launched air attacks on Nanshan Port from time to time. Although the losses were heavy, it did put a lot of pressure on Nanshan Port.
As the war situation changed, the bomber force suffered too much losses and was reluctant to dispatch. The fighter force was transferred to the northern theater. Of the more than 900 aircraft that supported Zhang Xuan, only less than 400 were left in the end.
As a result, in such a state, even a garrison commander stationed at the port now dared to come to Zhang Xuan to ask for a plane!
"There must be something wrong with the United Fleet." Zhang Xuan's chief of staff said solemnly: "Otherwise, Sun Guang would not have come to us to ask for support."
After all, Sun Guang was a capable general, and there was a consensus within the Qin army on this. Sun Guang was originally transferred to the navy because of his ability.
"That's not possible! It's midnight, the Air Force is on the move, how can I explain if something goes wrong?" Zhang Xuan sat back in his seat and gasped.
Most of his anger has subsided, but his position is still the same: even if he nods in agreement, most aircraft can only be dispatched during the day. This is due to capacity constraints and has nothing to do with other matters.
"The Navy's combined fleet has 10 aircraft carriers and 700 aircraft. If they wait until dawn, do they still need our support? It is probably because they encountered the Tang Empire's fleet and were unable to fight at night, so they rushed to the hospital because of their illness."
The chief of staff guessed.
"They can't fight at night, and neither can we!" Zhang Xuan was almost angry. Those in the Air Force who can take off at night are all elites. How many such pilots are there in the entire southern theater now?
Even if there is, what kind of support will be used? Fighters? Just stop making trouble, okay? What can the fighter pilots do when they fly over? Make two circles and return home?
Bombers? The Air Force doesn’t even have torpedoes, and it hasn’t organized sea attack training. It may not be of any use if we go there during the day. Wouldn’t it be in vain if we go there in the dark at night?
Besides, he now organizes the plane to fly over, refills the fuel, mounts bombs, debugs the equipment, communicates information, and the sky is bright...
"We can't blame them. There really aren't many troops in the coastal defense belt, and there are also few aircraft." The chief of staff still knew something about the situation.
There are only a hundred or so aircraft in the entire coastal area, and it's not much if they are all concentrated together. What's more, these troops have little training, lack of aircraft and personnel, and their combat effectiveness is very poor.
The only elite ones are a dozen or so jet fighters, but I heard from friends in the Air Force that these fighter jets were dispatched during the day and knocked down many friendly aircraft...
"You mean to take off some planes immediately and let them go for support?" Zhang Xuan frowned and looked at the chief of staff.
The chief of staff coughed and persuaded: "It's unreasonable not to provide support. If something goes wrong with the combined fleet, the beach behind us will be in danger."
After thinking about it in his mind, it turned out that this was indeed the case. Zhang Xuan took a breath and said impatiently: "Then let the air force deployed in Fengcheng deploy 10 Type 17 bombers to support it."
"Okay!" The chief of staff was also very satisfied with this arrangement, nodded and said, "I will go and pass the order right away."
