Outside Xicong City, Qian Jinhang stood on a high ground, holding a telescope and overlooking the smoky city in the distance.
Behind him stood a row of officers, and even some photographers who accompanied the army. The atmosphere was very good, everyone was talking and laughing, and seemed to be celebrating the glorious victory of their own troops' entry into the city.
This was indeed a great victory. After paying the price of more than 10,000 people, the army of the Dahua Empire finally rushed into the urban area of Xicong and started a cruel and bloody street battle with the Tang army.
Although the artillery fire of the Tang army was very fierce, and despite the heroic fighting of the Tang army, the Dahua army still achieved initial results regardless of the cost.
Although a lot of time was wasted in the Battle of Lijiacun, in the Battle of Xicong, the Dahua army seemed to have caught up a lot.
Time seems to be on Dahua's side again, Tang Jun is clearly at the end of its rope, and everything is progressing according to the planned timetable.
However, there is also a lot of bad news. For example, Qian Jinhang's troops have suffered too many losses and cannot continue their desperate offensive momentum.
If it hadn't been for constant replenishment and maintaining an offensive combat status, Qian Jinhang's troops would have collapsed long ago.
The troops suffered huge losses, it became difficult to replenish ammunition as they moved further away from the supply depot, and the weather was bad. In short, the morale of the Dahua army had begun to decline.
"Too much ammunition is consumed, and the new recruits' combat effectiveness is not enough..." Qian Jinhang put down his binoculars and complained to an officer standing behind him.
"Don't worry, General! The reinforcements have arrived at Lijiacun, two divisions! You can continue the attack soon." The officer clasped his hands behind his back, looked down at the mud on his boots, and said nonchalantly.
This is a prince, the biological brother of Emperor Zhao Kai, and he is the biological brother of the same father and mother. He did a great job in helping Zhao Kai fight for the throne, so he won Zhao Kai's trust.
Zhao Chen didn't care about losing two to three thousand people every day, he was more concerned about the mud on the expensive leather boots on his feet.
"Your Majesty, although there are millions of troops on the southern front, there are more than 400,000 in front of Xicong. This kind of long snake formation always makes people feel that it is not very safe." Qian Jinhang looked worried.
I hope that the prince in front of me will go back and remind the elder brother sitting on the throne to stop micro-managing.
The current military plan to attack the Tang Dynasty was drawn up with the intervention of His Majesty the Emperor, who knew nothing about anything. Everything seemed reasonable, but there was a whiff of wishful thinking everywhere.
The plan is sure that the Tang Kingdom will be affected by the disaster and languish. The plan is sure that the weather in the Tang Kingdom will continue to be bad. The plan is sure that the Tang Kingdom will fall into an unfavorable situation of a three-front war. The plan is also sure that the Great China Empire will become the final winner.
But Qian Jinhang, a frontline general, knew that the Tang State was not as weak as the Great China Empire originally imagined, and the implementation of the offensive plan was also very different from what was planned.
The original plan was to use 200,000 to 300,000 troops to break into Xicong, deal with the Tang army, and then attack the Sishui eastward. Finally, the battle line was pushed to the vicinity of the Sishui, and the terrain advantage was used to stabilize it, threatening Tongcheng and forcing the Tang state to surrender.
However, because the resistance of the Tang Army was very successful, Dahua had to concentrate more troops to break through the Tang Army's defense.
As a result, Dahua's army in the direction of Xicong seemed to be too much - half a million in total! Almost half of the troops assembled by Dahua had gathered around Xicong.
What's even more terrible is that this may not be the final number. As the war progressed, in order to quickly deal with Xicong and then attack Sishui eastward, Zhao Kai ordered troops to be mobilized from various places to prepare to move the troops in the direction of Xicong.
Increase to 700,000 to 800,000!
With such a large number of troops, the required logistics support system cannot be satisfied by the preparations made in the original plan.
Therefore, increasing troops is not necessarily a good thing, at least not until the supply problem is solved.
As the war progressed, the frontline troops of the Great China Empire had clearly felt that their artillery support was not as strong as it was in the first few days of the war.
There are fewer and fewer artillery shells fired, and the caliber is getting smaller and smaller, which makes the attack of Dahua troops more and more weak. If it were not for the street fighting in recent days, these situations may become more and more obvious.
There is no way, transporting one 300mm caliber artillery shell to the front line is much more difficult than transporting two 150mm caliber artillery shells.
In order to transport and supply rations for hundreds of thousands of people, as well as ammunition for individual soldiers, and supplementary new soldiers, the already fragile logistics supplies of the Dahua Army have been overwhelmed for many days.
If it weren't for the high quality and sufficient quantity of railways in the Tang Kingdom, the Dahua Empire's offensive forces might have collapsed themselves.
"If you can capture Xicong as soon as possible, these problems will not be a problem." Prince Zhao Chen raised his head and looked at the city with black smoke under the clouds in the distance.
The rain has just stopped, the air is still full of moist smell, and the city in the distance finally begins to smoke, all of which makes people feel relaxed and happy.
"I heard that the rain in the south has eased a lot. How is the situation over there in Chu?" Qian Jinhang didn't want to mention his attack, so he changed the topic.
He really didn't want to say anything more. He heard that the commander opposite was a general named Tiger, an officer under the command of Fischero, a nobleman from the North Ridge of the Laite Empire.
However, he later followed Tang Mo and never gained much fame. However, after Qian Jinhang faced off against Tiger, he realized that he was definitely a famous general in the world.
The opponent's tactics are not fierce, but give people a sense of being law-abiding. All the plans and arrangements seem to be traceable, but the combination seems to be the correct answer as the optimal solution.
This Tiger general's style of dispatching troops was so steady that it made Qian Jinhang panic. It was a sense of cruel reality that he had seen through everything but could not break free of the shackles.
Qian Jinhang could probably guess what Tiger wanted to do every time, but he just couldn't stop it, and he couldn't take countermeasures. In the end, he could only act according to Tiger's script, and even he could see it
The ending Tiger had prepared for him.
This is also the reason why Qian Jinhang is worried about the safety of his two wings: he feels that Tiger is preparing to surround him, and the armored troops in the hands of Redman, another Tang general in the north, are Tiger's life-threatening weapons hanging over Qian Jinhang's head.
Sharp blade.
Once the rain stops, the weather improves, and the Tang Dynasty recovers, under the cover of the air force, Redman's troops may really be surrounded near Xicong if they quickly move south.
By then, hundreds of thousands of troops will be wiped out, and the southern part of the Great China Empire will be in a very dangerous situation.
In fact, the Great China Empire was not unprepared. The 200,000 elites seconded from the Qin State were actually used to fill the defense line.
However, due to bad weather and transportation capacity, these Qin troops are still on the road, and it will take some time to reach their scheduled location.
During this period, whether the rainfall in the Tang Kingdom will stop is a metaphysical question.
If God blesses the Great China Empire and allows the rain in the Tang Kingdom to continue, then the Great China Empire does have hope of winning this war.
But if the weather conforms to objective laws, and the rain in the Tang Kingdom has stopped for so long, then the Great China Empire may fall into passivity.
The thing is just like this, but as a person involved, Qian Jinhang's feelings are more obvious than others.
"Counting on the Chu State? Don't think too much. As long as they can hold back part of the Tang State's troops, they will probably come to us for support if they really fight." Zhao Chen gave his own evaluation disapprovingly.
To be honest, as a prince, Zhao Chen is still very discerning. He is much better than those second-generation officials who are just waiting to die, but he has to maintain his image of a playboy. This is his alternative to his brother.
Respected and beloved”.
"No matter what, please let Han Zhiyuan hold on to the north... don't let anything happen." Qian Jinhang heard artillery shells flying over his head, and his own artillery began to shell the city in front of him again.
Although it was wet and the ground was covered with rain, the shells still raised huge plumes of smoke. From a distance, the entire Xicong seemed to be shrouded in the powerful firepower of the Dahua Empire.
The ground shook slightly, and a low and loud noise exploded in the distance. Another battle in the city began with the explosion of artillery shells, and a brutal fight began.
Qian Jinhang couldn't see this. He could only see the black smoke raised by the shells in the city of Xicong. He didn't know how many soldiers rushed out of the ruins and took steps toward the enemy.
On the other side of Xicong, Tiger was also looking at this city from a distance, which was destined to be abandoned as a bait in the plan.
One-third of it is now in ruins, and in the foreseeable future it is likely that all of it will be in ruins, and nothing will remain.
After the war is over, this place will be rebuilt, and a brand new city will be reborn from the ruins. As a hub city for oil pipelines, it will become richer and more splendid.
But now, the suffering suffered by this city cannot be alleviated at all. The soldiers of the Tang Army stationed in this city with almost no civilians have to stop the Dahua army in this city that has been turned into a fortress for a month!
"Send another division into Xicong! Let's take it as the 28th Infantry Division! Remember! Don't fight too hard and scare the enemy away! Be weaker, act more realistic, and attract the enemy as much as possible.
Come here!" Tiger ordered the adjutant behind him without looking back.
"Yes! General!" The adjutant stood at attention and saluted, then grabbed the phone receiver on the table: "Hello? Pick me up from the 28th Infantry Division headquarters."