The Lightning-3 medium tank rolled over the rubble and marched on the "street", followed by dozens of infantrymen from a platoon, following cautiously. A few dozen meters behind, an armored vehicle carrying a 120mm mortar followed slowly.
Open, and once you encounter resistance, suppress it immediately.
This can no longer be regarded as a "street". This area has been repeatedly bombarded by artillery fire from the Qing and Ming armies. The surface is already filled with rubble, bricks, broken cement, and lengths of steel bars protruding from the broken floors.
Come out, show your teeth and claws.
The buildings on both sides of the street were not tall to begin with, but now they look even shorter. Where there are window openings, the outside of the window openings are scorched black. In more buildings, even the window openings and walls are missing, and the floor slabs and load-bearing walls inside are directly visible.
"Boom - bang!"
The infantrymen behind the tank were startled. Dozens of guns were pointed at the sound at the top right. They saw a floor slab on the second floor slowly breaking and falling off the steel bars. A broken cabinet on it slid down with a "crash" and was smashed.
When it hit the ground, a puff of smoke and dust rose up.
The soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and continued to move forward. However, the soldier closest to the cabinet suddenly heard a strange sound. It seemed like a cry.
At first he thought he heard it wrong, but as the tank in front drove a little further, the crying gradually became clearer, as if it was in that cabinet.
"Hey, come here!"
He called out to the two companions in front of him, and the three of them came over together, and they were all sure that the crying came from the closet. The large closet fell to the ground, falling from the second floor, and was broken.
The leading private first-class soldier opened the cabinet door twice without saying a word, and the three of them were shocked.
Lying in the cabinet was a little girl, naked, about fourteen or fifteen years old, her body covered in dust, her thighs covered in blood, her eyes wide open, her whole body twitching, crying and coughing.
Every time I cough, a lot of blood droplets come out of my mouth.
The three soldiers were shocked and speechless. The first-class soldier reacted and hurried forward and shouted:
"Hey, there's another civilian here!"
The soldiers in front stopped. A squad leader knocked the tank with the butt of his rifle. The tank stopped, and the tank commander leaned out.
Two squads stood guard around the tank, and one squad quickly ran over. When the platoon leader saw this situation, without saying a word, he first pulled out a sheet from under a floor slab and covered the little girl. Then he knelt down and asked
road:
"Miss, why are you still here?...How are you?"
The little girl's face was as white as paper, her eyes were wide open, her chest twitched for a long time, and then she vomited blood and said forcefully:
"I...I'm here to pick off my parents...they...qing..."
"Then Qinglu entered the city?"
"Uh-huh!"
"You...you were caught by them?"
"Uh-huh……"
The little girl nodded with difficulty. There was no trace of shame or anger on her face. She just widened her eyes and gasped for air. There was more and more blood foaming around her mouth.
The surrounding soldiers had gloomy faces and no one spoke, but their chests were almost burned with anger.
The military doctor on duty squeezed in and squatted down, making everyone else stay away. He then lifted up the bed sheet, checked her briefly, and then covered her again.
He stood up and whispered to the platoon leader:
"The spine and sternum are broken, the pleura is penetrated, and it is no longer possible."
The platoon leader knelt down, grabbed her cold hand, and said softly:
"Miss,... you are dying and you won't live for a while. Let's avenge you, okay?"
The little girl nodded hard, with two big tears rolling into her hair.
The platoon leader continued without emotion:
"Tell me, what did you see? How many people were there in Qinglu? Have they all left?"
The soldiers nearby saw that the little girl was about to die, and the platoon leader still asked like this, as if he wanted to ask everything he could before she died, and they felt very unbearable.
The little girl's face became paler and paler, she gasped for air and said with difficulty:
"When the cannon was fired... they all... left... I... hid in the cupboard..."
Suddenly, she tried hard to raise her head, spraying blood and said loudly:
"Sister...sister...let them tie them behind the tank...tow them away...you...help me save my sister..."
After saying that, the back of his head fell on the cabinet, his eyes dimmed, and his breathing became weaker and weaker.
"What did you say?" The platoon leader was shocked, "You said the Qinglu had tanks?... Hey, hey!"
He shook the little girl's body vigorously, but she had no reaction. The military doctor squatted down, pushed the officer away angrily, and pressed his fingers on the little girl's carotid artery. After a while, he said:
"She's dead."
The surrounding soldiers were in a rage, but the platoon leader loudly ordered:
"Commander, go to the battalion headquarters and report to Commander Shi that the Qing captives may have tanks! The number is unknown!"
…
When the Qing army had news of tanks, they immediately reported to Xiang Xiaoqiang's headquarters. Within ten minutes, the messenger rushed to the tank battalion headquarters, the mechanized infantry regiment headquarters, and the field headquarters of Xiang Xiaoqiang and Li Gensheng.
Since it was the same messenger, Xiang Xiaoqiang heard exactly what happened at that time. How he found the little girl, what the platoon leader asked, what the little girl said, to what extent he finally asked, etc.
Then, he threw the pencil in Xiaoqiang's hand onto the map table and sat down slowly.
"What's your platoon leader's name?"
he asked.
"Platoon leader of the 1st platoon of the 2nd company of the 3rd battalion of the 1st Motorized Rifle Regiment, Xu Xiangde."
The messenger replied anxiously.
Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded:
"Go back and tell you Platoon Commander Xu. He asked a very good question. I will remember him. Platoon leader of the First Regiment, Third Battalion, Second Company and First Platoon, Xu Xiangde."
The messenger breathed a sigh of relief, saluted and left.
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at his subordinates who were looking at each other in the command car:
"What do you think?"
Gao Dayi said:
"Sir, I believe that in such a short period of time, the Qing forces will not have many tanks in the city. Each of their tanks must be transported by a special large tugboat. Moreover, there have been no reports of Qing tanks being found ashore.
Observation report. First, it shows that they currently have very few such ships. Second, the area they used for tank landing is so narrow that the defense lines on both sides of our gap and the city walls cannot be observed."
"As for the tanks they may have transported, I think they are the 'Barutu' heavy tank or the 'Kubu' medium tank, which are more likely. Because these two tanks have relatively strong firepower.
, better protection, suitable for use as an infantry tank and used in street fighting."
Xiang Xiaoqiang knew what kind of opponent he would probably encounter. "Balutu" means warrior in Manchu, and "Kubu" means wrestling a big man. They are both heavyweights.
As the commander of the main armored forces of the Ming Army, Xiang Xiaoqiang knew his opponent's main tanks very well.
The Balutu heavy tank weighs 34 tons, which is 3 tons heavier than the Ming Army's "Thunder" tank of the same level. It is equipped with a 57mm anti-tank gun, the thickest part of the armor reaches 65mm, and the maximum road speed is 28 kilometers per hour.
The Kubu medium tank weighs 27 tons, which is 5 tons heavier than the Ming Army's "Lightning-3" tank of the same class. It is equipped with a 47mm anti-tank gun, the thickest part of the armor reaches 55mm, and the maximum road speed is 30 kilometers per hour.
The strongest tank in Xiang Xiaoqiang's hands, the Lightning-3 medium tank, has a total weight of only 22 tons, the thickest armor is only 40 mm, and the gun is only 47 mm. The only advantage is mobility. The maximum speed of the Lightning-3 on the road is
40 kilometers.
That's it. Xiang Xiaoqiang currently has only 13 Lightning-3s in his hands. The other 52 are all weaker "Lightning-2" light tanks.
It can be said that the number one advantage we currently have is quantity. - At present, quantity is definitely dominant, although we don’t know how big this advantage is.
The second advantage is that the mobility of our tanks greatly exceeds that of our opponents: the road speed is 40 kilometers per hour. These two behemoths of the Qing army are 12 kilometers and 10 kilometers slower than their own tanks respectively. And Xiang Xiaoqiang knows that they are both
Ordinary narrow tracks, but in order to adapt to the hilly and muddy conditions in the south of the Yangtze River, our tanks all have wide tracks suitable for off-roading.
It is conceivable that with the higher speed and wide tracks, your tank will have a lot of advantages in off-road performance in battles on such rubble piles.
...But overall, the quality is a disadvantage.
The tank industry of the Northern Qing Dynasty was higher than that of the Southern Ming Dynasty. There was no way to help it. They were a mainland country and traditionally paid more attention to tanks than the Southern Ming Dynasty. The Southern Ming Dynasty invested too much money in the navy and the Yangtze River defense line.
But how do I teach Zhu Yourong? - The strongest weapon of a tank is not its artillery or armor, but its mobility.
Xiang Xiaoqiang first let Gao Dayi, the "armor expert" of this era, let go of the command, and he planned to observe it first. He watched Gao Dayi giving various orders to the front on the phone, and he sat aside, calmed down, and recalled Gudry
Ann's text.
Those are classic textbooks written by Guderian, the father of German armored forces and the "Blitz Hero", after his experience in World War II and combining theory with practice. In Gao Dayi's era, this was considered the "Nine Yin Manual".
Environments such as cities, woods, and dense fog will make tanks weaker and infantry stronger.
Similarly, this environment will also make strong tanks weaker and make weak tanks stronger.
…
The notification that the Qing army might have heavy tanks was immediately distributed to all units. Now the tank platoons advancing in the Stone City area are even more cautious.
Gao Dayi has ordered the withdrawal of the only 13 Lightning-3 vehicles and replaced them with Lightning-2s at the front.
Since knowing that they may encounter a strong enemy, the mission of the People's Guard armored troops has changed. It is no longer to chase and destroy enemy infantry, but to conduct reconnaissance.
On a street full of rubble, a Lightning-2 light tank "clacked" the broken bricks and drove forward at a very slow speed. The infantry behind them opened a large distance and carried anti-tank guns.
, carrying a machine gun, followed cautiously.
Behind it is a 57mm self-propelled gun. This is a 57mm anti-tank gun mounted on the chassis of the "Lightning-2". It is open and only the front is semi-armored.
Even this kind of anti-tank gun has only the same firepower as the "Barutu" tank, and its armor is even more incomparable.
From time to time, a stray bullet would fall on the street, and the dust kicked up by the explosion would make the front area completely white, making it impossible to see how far away it was.
Whenever this happens, the tank at the front will stop and dare not move forward. It must wait until the smoke and dust dissipates and the end of the street can be seen before it dares to continue moving.
This feeling is like a hunter walking carefully in a dense forest, alert to the bear that is nearby.
A stray bullet hit the small building on the roadside in front. The building collapsed suddenly, and thick dust rushed over, covering the tank and the infantry behind it, covering half of the street.
After a while, the dust gradually dissipated, and a burly gray figure appeared vaguely, less than twenty meters in front of "Lightning-2".
"Barutu" heavy tank!
The commander of the Lightning-2 felt dizzy and shouted:
After one shot was fired, the small 37mm shell hit the opponent's front armor plate and bounced out. The commander shouted in horror:
"Run! Run!"
Lightning-2 puffed out green smoke and quickly fell backwards, trying to fall into an alley on the side of the road.
But the Qing army's "Balutu" rotated the turret, lowered the barrel, and the fire flashed. The front armor plate of the Lightning-2 was smashed open, and a ball of fire exploded, which was submerged in the fireworks.