Watch Fairy Tail Episode 178: The Soul of Crossing the River
Episode 178 The soul of the battle across the river
This regular meeting initially determined that day d would be October 4th and hour h would be between three and five o'clock in the morning. Then, as Xiang Xiaoqiang wished, it was determined that the People's Guard would be the first to attack at the front of the two-pronged offensive.
, becoming two sharp knives advancing northward.
The advancement schedule formulated by the staff of the General Staff was too conservative in Xiang Xiaoqiang's view. It only advanced more than ten kilometers per day, which was obviously the advancement speed during World War I. Of course, based on the standards of the stalemate battle on the Western Front of World War I,
It seems that advancing more than ten kilometers in one day is already very fast. Obviously, this is the advance speed expected by the staff when there is no advantage over the Qing army along the way.
However, judging from the military common sense of Xiang Xiaoqiang's later generations, when one's own side has air superiority, a high proportion of motorized troops, and concentrated armored troops as the vanguard, facing an opponent like the Qing army, the advancement speed cannot be only ten meters per day.
A few kilometers. The right offensive is advancing from Nanjing to Xuzhou. The 280 kilometers will not take 20 days at all. It will most likely be completed in 5 or 6 days.
However, he did not throw out this shocking figure. This would only weaken his influence in the headquarters. These gray-haired old generals and old marshals would only think that he, a young boy, was not suitable for commanding troops.
It is only suitable for fantasy.
Xiang Xiaoqiang just said as calmly as possible:
"Tang Gong... should we consider whether the advancement speed should be faster when our army has air superiority, a large proportion of motorized troops, and concentrated armored assault forces. We are now formulating a plan and expect to advance ten times a day.
A few kilometers, is it a bit conservative?"
Tang Yunsheng turned to look at Zhang Zhaoxian, with an inquiring look in his eyes. Tang Yunsheng was close to Xiang Xiaoqiang on this point. During the fortress exercise, Tang Yunsheng was deeply impressed by this point. However, Zhang Zhaoxian and most of the generals and staff still held the same views.
They are more conservative and think that advancing more than ten kilometers a day is very fast. Advancing more than twenty kilometers a day is not impossible in their opinion, but it will never be an average speed. It must be played very smoothly and with very good luck.
Only when the time comes can the "advancement peak" appear.
Zhang Zhaoxian pondered:
"This... question has been put forward by several young staff officers. If we look at these factors alone and refer to the experience in the fortress exercise, then our expected advancement speed is a bit conservative. But this time for
The Qing offensive, both in scale and complexity, cannot be matched by a single exercise. I understand what you young people mean. We have almost absolute air superiority, dozens of divisions of motorized troops, and several armored divisions.
Mechanization division, this is synonymous with rapid advancement.
"But the 'rapid advancement' you are looking forward to must be based on one premise: that everything cooperates in an orderly manner without making mistakes. These 155 divisions and 2.3 million people must run as accurately as a clock. And so
The complex coordination of multiple units and arms is something we have never experienced before.
It has been tried. It is also something that has not been tried by any army in the world. I can say right now that these 155 divisions and 2.3 million people cannot run as accurately as a clock. There will definitely be a series of large and small mistakes.
Even secrets are leaked. We can only try to reduce such mistakes, but we cannot completely avoid them.
"Another question is whether we can successfully encircle and annihilate the Qing army on the north bank immediately after the breakthrough. This is the key to the success of our first-stage raid. The Qing army has 100-120 more elite troops stationed on the north side of the Yangtze River defense line.
division, this is still the normal state. Everyone remembers
On the eve of the Qing army's southern invasion at the end of last year, the number of troops pressing on the Yangtze River defense line once reached 350 divisions. However, our total strength participating in the battle against the Qing was only 155 divisions. In terms of strength, we did not form an absolute advantage. This
It placed very high demands on our raid.
"The conservative strategic purpose of our Northern Expedition is to push the Ming and Qing border northward to the Yellow River-Qinling line. Successfully encircling and annihilating these 100-129 divisions of elite Qing troops is half the success of this strategic purpose. Therefore.
The key to our first stage is to successfully encircle and annihilate the Qing army of more than 100 divisions on the north bank, instead of rushing to advance north as fast as possible.
"We must not underestimate the enemy when making plans, and we must not wishfully assume that the enemy will collapse at the first touch. We must fully take into account the possibility of the enemy's tenacious resistance. If we make mistakes during the exercise, we still have the opportunity to make corrections. And this time
It is a bet on the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty. If the attack plan is too hasty and too optimistic and suffers a major failure, or even leads to the disastrous defeat of the Ming Empire, then we will become the sinners of Chinese history... So, everyone, we would rather make the plan carefully.
Be cautious."
Zhang Zhao first made a steady analysis, and when it came to this point, Xiang Xiaoqiang, Tang Yunsheng, and several other young staff officers looked at each other, and they all just nodded, acknowledging that what he said made sense.
…
"Whether the raid on D-Day was successful or not," Tang Yunsheng said, "engineers occupy a key position. Engineers are the soul of our cross-river operations. The right army group is to break through the river. The key is to build a pontoon bridge so that the assault boats can seize the beachhead on the other side.
position
After that, a large number of tanks and armored vehicles were quickly delivered. The left army group is a ground breakthrough. The key is to clear the minefields and blast away the anti-tank cement obstacles. The engineer tasks of the left army group are relatively simple. The key is the right
.
"We are preparing to form 9 engineering brigades, 7 of which will be allocated to the right army group. They will brave artillery fire and erect 80 pontoon bridges on the 240-kilometer offensive front. This will be an unprecedented pontoon bridge project. Of course
, these 9 engineers
The brigade was formed under extreme confidentiality. In the name of building bridges, opening roads, and building airports on Sumatra Island, we drew from the engineering battalions of various troops. It will be completed by the end of this month, and it will be a month before the construction of pontoon bridges begins.
Intensify training and push through.”
Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately replied:
"The end will be here."
Tang Yunsheng said:
"In fact, your People's Guard is the key to cooperating with the pontoon bridge troops. Because it can be said that these 80 pontoon bridges are for your tanks and armored vehicles. Your tanks and armored vehicles also have to brave artillery fire. First of all,
Rush over the erected pontoon bridge to expand the landing area for the cars and infantry behind. You go back and prepare. The People's Guard will train with these engineer brigades within a week. They practice building bridges, and you practice crossing bridges."
"Yes... Uh, Mr. Tang, has the training location for crossing the river been selected?"
"The preliminary idea is to train on this section of the Yangtze River between Yueyang and Jingzhou. We have the south and north banks of this section of the Yangtze River in our hands. It is far away from the land defense line in the north, and this section is also relatively remote. Haha, look at it.
?”
Xiang Xiaoqiang was startled:
"Ah? Training at home?"
Tang Yunsheng and Zhang Zhao were also startled:
"What you mean...is it possible to train abroad?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled and said:
"Yeah! Oh, it's not a foreign country, it's just our new overseas territory. I mean, why don't we really go to Sumatra to train?"
With his words, the generals and officers in the conference room all started whispering, some shook their heads, and some agreed.
Xiang Xiaoqiang then smiled and said:
"The most important thing for us right now is to keep it secret. With our Ming Dynasty's economic prosperity, if you choose any river in the country, even if you avoid the city, there will still be many villages on both sides of the river, and there will be boats on the river. Seven engineering brigades
With tens of thousands of people, it is impossible to train in isolation. Moreover,
In any city in the Ming Dynasty, there are more or less spies from the Northern Qing Dynasty. Tens of thousands of soldiers gathered together for more than a month and practiced building pontoon bridges on the river every day. Within a few days, a large number of reporters came to find out.
It will definitely reach the ears of the Beiqing spies... Our purpose will be guessed at once.
"It would be completely different if we trained on Sumatra Island. The original reason why we removed engineering soldiers from each army was to go to Sumatra Island to build roads and bridges. Is Sumatra Island a new territory in Southeast Asia that we just acquired?
It’s a barren land, so it’s reasonable for us to invest heavily in construction. No one would think twice about it. And Sumatra
The island is sparsely populated, densely covered with jungles, and has many rivers. In particular, although the rivers on the island are not long, they have huge volumes of water and gentle banks, which is in line with the characteristics of the Yangtze River. Moreover, the width of a river varies greatly, from a few hundred meters wide.
It is up to us to choose from several kilometers wide. We can choose the river section for training at will according to the width of the river to be attacked.
"The people on Sumatra are very sparsely populated, and if there are any, they are all indigenous. It can be said that there is not a single spy on the entire island. We can easily circle a large area and then seal it off. If there are indigenous people, we can just drive them out. That's it.
Let alone a month of training, even if it takes several years, as long as we don’t leak the secrets ourselves, that’s fine.”
After he finished speaking, the conference room started discussing enthusiastically. This idea can be said to be very creative and feasible. But it also has shortcomings. The first is that it is more troublesome and has to go back and forth. The second is that the five armored divisions of the People's Guard are
It is difficult for six mechanized divisions to follow them to Nanyang for training.
Zhang Zhao first touched his chin and pondered. After a while, he said:
"Then your People's Guard won't follow you to Nanyang for training, right?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang lowered his head and thought for a moment, then nodded:
"Yes, I'm afraid it won't be possible... We only have a little more than a month in total. Thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, and cars will be transported to Nanyang and then back... There is not enough time on the road, let alone training."
Tang Yunsheng stared at him and asked:
"Then do you think it's safe to cross the pontoon without intensive training?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded firmly and said:
"This is completely certain. Crossing a bridge is not like building a bridge, and it is not a difficult operation. And when our armored soldiers were in school, crossing the pontoon bridge was a basic training subject. In addition, everyone also remembers that when we crossed the river to attack Pukou at the beginning of the year, I
The armored force cooperated very well with the pontoon bridge force, and there were no accidents... In addition, I think that as our offensive force, the most important thing is not to cross the bridge, but to advance after crossing the bridge. If trained
, we should spend more time on deep offensive training."
Tang Yunsheng nodded and looked at Zhang Zhao for a moment. Zhang Zhao looked at the crowd first and asked: