No one is a fool. Jiang Xian, the king of Qi, has been in office for more than 20 years and has been conscientious in running the country's affairs. Naturally, it is impossible for him to be a fool.
He had keenly noticed before that the Tang Army's possible attack direction was Luo Zhen and Nanye, so he immediately began to think about how to deal with the situation at hand.
Now Qi State can be said to be very passive. Their hinterland is very empty and there is basically no garrison force.
In order to reinforce Nanye, Jiang Xian even sent out the last troops guarding the royal city. Now the royal city of Qi is so empty that it is simply an undefended city.
Jiang Xian was not naive enough to believe that his more than 20,000 imperial troops could create any miracles in Nanye, because if there were any miracles, this miracle would have happened long ago.
From beginning to end, Jiang Xian had high hopes for the frontline troops to return to the defense, penetrate the Tang army's defense line from behind, and force the Tang army to give up its plan to capture Nanye.
In other words, Jiang Xian relied on the third prince and the eldest prince who returned to the defense. He believed that his two sons could regain the initiative on the battlefield through a beautiful counterattack.
However, as a king, he cannot naively place all his hopes on a military operation with unknown outcome.
Therefore, while he gave the third prince and the eldest prince a death order to penetrate the railway between Luozhen and Nanye at all costs, Jiang Xian also gave an order to his second son.
This order is to order the second prince on the eastern line to immediately draw out his elite troops and return to the royal city along the other railway to support him.
You must know that the King's City of Qi is extremely empty, and Jiang Xian cannot allow this dangerous situation to continue. He will definitely choose the safest and fastest way to mobilize his troops back to the King's City.
At present, it seems that traveling to Luo Town may not be the fastest. If the eldest prince and the third prince cannot recapture Luo Town, everything will become a mirror and a castle in the sky.
Therefore, the experienced Jiang Xian transferred the elite 2nd Army in the eastern defense zone back to the royal city almost immediately.
The Tang army was moving, and the Qi army was also moving. Both sides were deploying troops and generals, hoping to strangle the enemy on the opposite side through their own arrangements.
"Report!" A voice sang and woke up King Qi who was sitting on the chair.
In the manor on the outskirts of King Qi City, Jiang Xian was so sleepy that he could hardly keep his eyes open. He was almost fifty years old this year, and his body no longer allowed him to work too hard.
But the war prevented him from relaxing. He stayed up late every day for the past few days, and his whole body had lost weight.
His eyes were covered with dark circles, and there were some grooves on his face. These wrinkles accompanied the opening and closing of his mouth, curling and squirming as if they were alive: "What happened?"
If Jiang Xian went to sleep, it would be impossible for the attendants to let him be woken up like this. But Jiang Xian was determined not to rest in order to control the first-hand intelligence information, so he fell asleep on the chair.
"The security troops deployed by our army outside Nanye... were completely wiped out." The officer looked a little ugly and straightened up as he replied.
In fact, there were not many of these troops. The Qi Army's defense troops deployed near Nanye only had one division, which counted as three regiments.
These troops cannot be placed outside, so the Tang army actually only suffered heavy losses from one to two regiments of the Qi army.
But sometimes things are so mysterious: the Qi army only has so few troops, so they really can't stand the fact that one or even two regiments are wiped out.
Before the Forbidden Army arrived at the front line, almost half of the Qi troops guarding Nanye were wiped out by the main force of the Tang army that rushed towards Nanye.
"..." Because it was expected, Jiang Xian was not surprised. He just looked at the general who was waiting for him to wake up completely, and then asked: "Where are the forbidden troops?"
"It's estimated that we will have to wait another day to arrive in Nanye." The officer who came to deliver the news replied with some anxiety.
"I hope they can make it in time." Jiang Xian sighed, feeling that he was going to die here. He hadn't had a good rest for several days, and his face was full of exhaustion.
He also knew that his troops were moving slowly and there was no good solution in a short period of time, so he could only sigh helplessly after finishing speaking: "Alas..."
Then, he seemed to remember something, turned around and looked at a minister: "What the Tang people said on the radio...is it true?"
Just a few hours ago, the Tang Army's radio station announced a great victory: in the Battle of Luozhen, the Tang Army actually claimed to have killed at least two senior Qi generals.
It is unclear whether this incident is true or not, but it is a fact that Jiang Xian cannot contact the Western Front Command.
"That's just a kind of propaganda by the Tang people, Your Majesty! It's just to shake you and make your judgment wrong!" A minister on the side quickly comforted.
"Check! Send a telegram to the eldest prince! Let him find his third brother, and... find Tian Heng! No matter what, call me back as soon as you find him!" Jiang Xian emphasized stubbornly. He didn't think,
What problems would happen to my valued son and general at the same time?
"Yes!" The minister quickly lowered his head and said no more words.
…
"Have you verified your identity? If this is a joke, it will have a great impact on morale." Outside Anpu, inside the commander-in-chief of the Tang Army, Loew was discussing the same matter with several of his staff officers.
The bodies of the third prince, Tian Heng and others have now been processed and put on the train back to the Tang Dynasty. The Tang army will definitely make good use of the results of this battle to publicize their military victory.
Looking at the photos, a staff officer said with certainty: "The styles of military uniforms do match up. I think at least these two generals... should be authentic."
The Tang Army had previously obtained the military uniform styles of Qi's senior generals through intelligence agencies. They could easily tell that the military uniforms on these corpses did belong to Qi's senior generals.
Another staff officer was concerned about the body of the third prince: "Then the Qi royal family's military uniforms... won't be publicized?"
Regarding the verification of the results of the battle, the Tang Army was very rigorous and cautious - Tang Mo did not want to see his troops make a joke like sinking the Ark Royal because of greed for credit.
So when they saw the body of the third prince wearing a royal-style military uniform, the Tang Army's propaganda department did not publicize it immediately.
In fact, they only reported the killing of two senior generals of Qi State, and did not mention the killing of the third prince of Qi State.
"You're kidding, how can you not publicize it? What a great victory this is? What a great honor this is!" Loew snorted and said.
Of course, publicity must be vigorously promoted, and the glory of the Tang Kingdom must be announced to the world in an unprecedented way.
That's right, the propaganda department of the Tang Dynasty plans to directly publish the photo of the third prince's corpse, or use an unprecedented color printing method.
Although it was a bit bloody, the visual impact was simply overwhelming. After the evidence was conclusive, we announced that the third prince had been killed.
At this time, another staff officer asked his colleagues around him, his tone full of envy: "Second Class Hussars Medal?"
That's a second-level medal! With this kind of medal, if you don't kneel before an official, you'll get a subsidy. So far, the entire army doesn't have one!
The staff officer sitting next to him felt a sour taste in his mouth: "General Redman proposed to directly award the first-class Hussars Medal..."
"This kid Liu Guozhu! You are so lucky!" Loew couldn't help but sigh after hearing these conversations. As the chief of staff, he could not go to the front line to charge into battle.
In fact, as one of the elders of the Datang Group, when Loew took people out, Tang Mo only had a hundred or so guards. So it was impossible for Loew to have the Medal of the White Blade or the Medal of Hussars, which was also his regret.
.
The staff officers on the side all echoed: "Who says it's not the case!"
"But I still want to criticize him! It would be great if he caught someone alive." At this time, a staff officer said reluctantly.
Loew glanced at the officer and felt that the officer was a little confused: "What are you thinking about? What are you thinking about? In that kind of environment, asking the armored soldiers to catch people alive is a bit too much, isn't it?"
The officer was also a bachelor. He spread his hands and still felt unwillingly: "Oh, I know that too, but I still regret it... After all, it would be great if we really caught him alive."
"Who says it's not the case... What about medals? Are they awarded at the first level?" When it comes to evaluating medals, the opinion of their staff is very important.
Loew waved his hand and gave his opinion: "Wait, wait for the newspaper...or rather, wait for His Majesty's intention."
"Okay!" Seeing the boss speaking, everyone immediately agreed.
On the flank of Luozhen, Liu Guozhu's crews were still scrubbing their tanks in the 1st Battalion and 1st Company of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Armored Division.
Although they had washed the air intake grille on the hull behind the turret of their tank, they could still smell the smell of corpses.
I don’t know if it was a misunderstanding or some other reason. They also put something on the ground when transporting the body, but it was still of no use. Everyone just felt that it smelled, so they had to wipe it again...
"Boss, tell me...this time, can we get another medal back?" The loader asked curiously while rubbing the gap in the grille with a rag.
"How do I know..." Liu Guozhu also kept wiping his car: "That thing is not under my control..."
While he was talking, he wiped the motor oil on his hand from the car. At this moment, he raised his head and wiped his cheek subconsciously.
Then, he put a big face on himself without even realizing it.
The mechanical and electrical man who came back from fetching water immediately laughed, his smile was bright and unbridled.
Amid their laughter, another group of ten Stuka dive bombers roared over their heads and flew towards the Qi army's position in the distance.
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There is no status today, so I will update twice for the time being, and I will make up for the outstanding debt tomorrow.