At the same time, on the southern border, telegrams from the garrison under attack one after another flew from the air to Beijing.
The frightening words and sentences on these telegrams, even incomplete, only half of the fragments were sent, one after another to the top generals of the Qing army, making them read and guess, becoming more and more frightened.
Troops in the eastern and western sections of the Yangtze River Defense Line reported being attacked. And they were all the same - they were bombarded indiscriminately at first, and then before they could react, tanks rushed very close and asked the soldiers to take them.
It was too late to draw weapons or mount a defense.
The staff officers in the headquarters were sweating profusely, shouting at the top of their voices, tapping the phone receiver and shaking the handle. However, they found that often a call was made to a certain unit on the front line, and they could still get through at that time, waiting for contact.
I called other troops and called back after a while, but I couldn't get through! Even though I got through the second time, a different person answered the phone. The other person spoke with an authentic Nanming accent and said everything was normal here and there was no attack!
This is simply too scary!
Guangwu was so anxious that he stood in front of the big map with a pencil between his teeth, watching the staff draw circles one after another on the map. One red circle, one black circle, and one blue circle.
The places circled in red are the places where the attack report was received. The places circled in black are places where contact has been unreachable. The places circled in blue are places where contact was made but there was no attack.
The small red circles on the picture are now very sporadic, and their distribution is irregular. It seems that the Ming army did not plan to attack across the board, but relied on their mobility advantage to engage in harassment warfare with hammers here and there.
A wave of excitement ran through Guangwu's body... If this is true, that would be great. This shows that they have no confidence to fight against the Qing Dynasty's millions of troops, and they don't know what tricks to play. But if this is true, the people below are panicking like this,
That's so unforgivable.
But he took a closer look and found a problem:
There are many more black circles than red circles.
However, thinking about it, this doesn't mean anything. Today is Sunday, and the lack of contact does not mean that it is occupied. The hinterland of the Qing Dynasty, and even the Beijing-Tianjin defense circle, aren't there also black circles drawn everywhere.
However, the red circles that were attacked were all distributed on the east and west sides, with almost no hundreds of kilometers in the middle. In the middle section, which is the north side of the Dabie Mountains, there were either blue circles or black circles.
In other words, the garrison in this section either could not be contacted or was not attacked. Obviously, the Ming army's attack started from the east and west.
...Well, that's right, the Yangtze River is to the east, the Xiangfan Plain is to the west, and only the Dabie Mountains are in the middle. It is basically impossible for Nanming's army to fight across such a large mountain range. Not to mention those motorized regiments of Nanming, they are just ordinary infantry divisions.
, those baggage and cannons can't get through! We can only leave the middle section empty.
Suddenly, a chill passed through Guangwu's heart:
——Could it be that the two offensives of the Ming army planned to join forces and encircle the Qing army in the middle?
However, he later denied this speculation. The total strength of the Nanming Army was only 2 million. How much could it use to attack? Do you really dare to risk all your capital for an unrealistic "Northern Ding of the Central Plains"?
?It’s so sure?...Can’t it?
Taking a step back, even if Nanming really lost his mind this time and planned to attack the Qing Dynasty with all his strength, and really put all his capital into it, he would have to set aside about 500,000 as a strategic reserve just in case.
The attack failed and retreated, so that they could hold on to the Yangtze River defense line. In addition, they had to be prepared for the Japanese to take advantage of the situation. After all, Nan Ming could only spend 1.5 million at most on the attack.
The Qing Dynasty had about 800,000 troops stationed in the middle section alone. In addition, the garrisons at the east and west ends totaled one million and hundreds of thousands of people. If the Ming army wanted to encircle them, they had to first deal with the enemies and enemies standing in front of them.
More than a million on both sides
The Qing army. The 1.5 million Ming army troops were divided into two groups, each with only a few hundred thousand troops. They were at a disadvantage in terms of strength. If they wanted to encircle the Qing army, they would have to fight long distances and roundabouts on the outside. They were also at a disadvantage in terms of time.
There is also the danger of being attacked from the flank.
In general, it is not easy to encircle an army of nearly 2 million!
After Guangwu cheered himself up like this, he felt a little calmer and less anxious.
The most urgent task is to figure out the scale of the Ming army's attack, that is, the scope and strength of the Ming army. The next step is to organize a defense line in a suitable place.
…
During the offensive on the right, around two o'clock in the afternoon, Qing army reconnaissance planes began to appear sporadically in the sky, flying high and not daring to come down to take a closer look.
The Ming army enjoyed absolute air supremacy all morning, and no one expected that Qing aircraft would appear in the sky. At first, the Ming army soldiers waved and cheered excitedly to the sky as usual. But after a while, they realized something was wrong.
The little plane was flying high in the sky, almost like a small black dot, and there was only one solitary one. The planes I saw in the morning and morning were all in formation, either four in a formation or three in a formation.
, a plane has never appeared alone. Moreover, the plane seems to have no mission now. It does not fly north or south, but just wanders in the east-west direction, and goes back and forth from time to time.
Some of the soldiers on the road were walking with their guns on their shoulders and ignored them. Some were looking up at the sky and talking among themselves. Some young junior officers were also hesitant, wondering whether to call the Army Aviation fighter jets to take a look.
Next to the marching column, an officer's car was also driving forward. A general in the back seat was wearing a straight woolen military uniform and a black cloak, smoking a large cigar and leaning comfortably on the backrest.
Suddenly, he glanced at the sky, immediately took away his cigar, kicked the backrest in front of him, and shouted:
"Stop! Stop! Damn...yes, pull over."
The officer's car turned to the side of the road and stopped. The general stood up, raised his telescope, looked up at the sky, and shouted:
"Come on!"
"have!"
The adjutant sitting next to him quickly stood up.
"Call the 25th Division Air Defense Company and shoot down that plane in the sky!"
"Ah? Military seat?"
"Stop talking nonsense, hurry up! I'll run away later..."
The adjutant immediately picked up the car radio and gave orders to the division's headquarters.
After a while, a series of gunshots came from the front of the queue, and black clouds quickly appeared in the sky around the plane.
The officers and soldiers on the ground all looked up, asking each other and shouting. The plane in the sky turned sideways, quickly climbed up, and flew towards the north without its life.
"Oh my God..." the commander wrapped himself in his cloak and cursed, "Call the Army Aviation and found a Qing army reconnaissance plane! I asked them if they are all awake?"
"Ah...yes!"
…
In the middle of the marching army on the road next to it, a new soldier quietly asked the veteran:
"Who is this commander? He's so cool."
The veteran smiled and said:
"This is the legendary weasel."
"weasel?"
"It was Huang Shuliang, the one who stole the show in the fortress exercise. At that time, the Red Army was completely destroyed by the Blue Army's People's Guard. He single-handedly challenged the People's Guard and made a fool of the People's Guard tank army... He was quickly promoted later.
He is now the commander of our 7th Army."
"Oh! No wonder!"
…
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the two People's Guard armored divisions on the left had already rushed to the outskirts of Nanyang City, stopped their tracks, and set up their positions, preparing to cooperate with the mechanized infantry divisions and motorized infantry divisions behind them in the siege.
Although Nanyang is much larger than Xinye, its defense is far inferior to Xinye. However, for Xinye, you can rush past it regardless of it and wait for the infantry behind to deal with it. But for Nanyang, you must conquer it before you can move forward.
Xinye is in the center of the Xiangfan Plain, open on all sides, with a lot of room for maneuver. But Nanyang is close to the exit of the Xiangfan Plain. More than fifty kilometers further on, you will reach Fangcheng County. And Fangcheng County happens to be guarding Xiangfan
At the exit of the plain, there is a fortress. Southeast of Fangcheng
It is the Dabie Mountains, and the Qinling Mountains are in the northwest. The two giant mountain ranges meet in Fangcheng County. Although they are not high here, they will still bring great obstacles to the mechanized army. The only exit in the middle is Fangcheng County. If you want to rush
When you go to the Henan Plain outside, you must capture Fangcheng.
However, Fangcheng and Nanyang are one behind the other, more than 50 kilometers apart. The two garrisons can respond to each other. If the two armored divisions of the Ming army's leading troops are trapped in the middle, it will be easy to be attacked from both sides. Of course, the premise is that the two places are cleared.
The army must fight bravely. Although this possibility is not high based on the situation throughout the morning, the fate of the two armored divisions must not be left to chance.
Nanyang must be captured first.
From the facts, it seems that the Nanyang defenders do not intend to surrender without a fight. For several kilometers outside the city, it seems that at least two trenches have been dug and barbed wire fences have been pulled up.
The commanders of the Ming army looked through their telescopes from a distance. Countless Qing troops in the trenches were moving up and down, their helmets were shining, and spade after spade of soil kept flying out of the trenches. They were still deepening the trenches.
In the first trench, one or two thousand Qing soldiers were lying nervously outside, holding rifles and preparing to shoot. Maxim machine guns were also pushed out one by one, and several Qing soldiers were running in front of the trench with their waists bent.
, pile sandbags in front of these machine guns.
This is really not a major garrison. The Qing army does not seem to have many troops. Looking through binoculars, they have very few anti-tank guns set up outside the trenches. The only artillery that can be seen so far is just a few dozen.
37mm anti-tank gun.
The Ming army has not yet been bombarded by heavy artillery. Only sporadic mortar shells fell between the tanks. Probably the heavy howitzers of the Nanyang Qing army have been blown up by bombers.
After all, this place is nearly 100 kilometers away from the border between Ming and Qing Dynasties. The one who should be responsible for the first line of defense should be Xinye. But it was precisely because the officers and generals of Xinye came here to spend the weekend that Xinye surrendered easily and the Ming army marched straight in.
, now they all want to fight a decent battle in Nanyang. It is best if they can block the Ming army. If they can't block it, they also plan to inflict heavy damage. At least they can explain the past to the emperor and avoid being punished with serious crimes.
Now in Nanyang City, the density of senior officers is quite high, but the garrison is not many, only about one division. There are so many great Bodhisattvas in the small temple, so they have such strong control over the soldiers below. Even if the soldiers are pressing down, the soldiers below will be cleared.
No one dared to escape or surrender to the enemy.
…
Thirty dive bombers circled and roared in the sky, demonstrating air superiority.
Suddenly, as if they had received an order, they began to line up and turn downwards, screaming, and plunged straight into the Qing army's position outside the city.
The Qing officers and soldiers below were so frightened that they were holding their heads and huddled in the trenches, waiting for the big explosion that would shake the earth and the mountains.
Suddenly, the cluster overhead roared again and pulled up.
The Qing soldiers looked up hastily and saw countless pieces of paper flying in the sky. They should be leaflets.
The leaflets were flying all over the sky and slowly falling inside and outside the city. The Qing soldiers in the trenches picked up the leaflets one after another and read them. Those who were illiterate asked others to read them. But before they could take a second look, high-pitched voices came one after another in the distance.
call:
"No one can pick it up! No one can pick it up! Let alone look at it! Anyone who looks at it will be shot!... It's all lies. You can't read it, you can't pass it on, you can't believe it!... I say it again, no one can pick it up! If you pick it up, you can't pick it up!
Throw them all away to me! Whoever is still holding them after one minute will be shot!... Say it again..."
The Qing soldiers who had picked it up had pale faces and threw it away from them one after another, as if there was a plague on it. The Qing soldiers who had not picked it up all looked happy.
The voice of an officer shouting through a loudspeaker sounded from the position:
"Brothers... hold on... we can't retreat any further. If we retreat any further, the commander will not be able to spare us! The court will not be able to spare our commander either! ... Who wants to escape? Think about your parents, think about it
Your family... Your parents have raised you so big, and you want them to be implicated with you?... The Ming army only has a few soldiers in total. Even though they are so menacing, they caught us by surprise.
,
It won't last!... We in the Qing Dynasty have an army of 10 million, which is invincible in the world. It's only a matter of a blink of an eye to send the Ming army back to their hometown!... Brothers, let's fight this battle well and show the Ming army how powerful it is.
, that means you have made a great contribution! You all can go back and be rewarded for your meritorious service, and honor your ancestors... The Commander-in-Chief has spoken. Anyone who knocks out a Ming Army tank, regardless of officer or soldier, will be promoted to the third level and be rewarded with 300 yuan!"