At noon on October 6, the Eighth Army of the Ming Army's Right Army Group occupied Huai'an, and the leading troops advanced westward to Siyang.
Now, the Eighth Army Group is the furthest advance among the entire right army group. At this time, it is almost 160 kilometers away from the Yangtze River behind it. Since the attack went much more smoothly than expected, the headquarters immediately revised the plan and ordered the Eighth Army Group to advance further.
The group army continued to advance northwest along the Xuhuai Highway (Xuzhou to Huai'an), bypassed Hongze Lake from the north to the west, and turned southwest to attack Sihong.
This is equivalent to enlarging the encirclement, including Hongze Lake. Of course, the purpose of this is not for a lake, but for an army to appear north of the Huaihe River and be able to compete with the Ming army south of the Huaihe River.
A flanking attack on Bengbu and Fengyang could also exert a huge mental deterrent on the Qing army south of the Huaihe River, making them feel like they were surrounded and accelerating their collapse.
Of course, you can also take the Sihong Airport by the way.
On October 6, the follow-up troops of the Eighth Army "digested" Jiangsu. Many places were left behind by the Sixth Division of the People's Guard but had not yet been occupied, such as Dongtai, Yancheng, Jianhu, and Xinghua.
, Dafeng, Hai'an, etc. all surrendered one after another on this day. So far, the Ming army had captured two-thirds of Jiangsu on the third day of the war.
To the west of Gaoyou Lake and Hongze Lake, which is the Anhui battlefield, although there was no support from the People's Guard Armored Division all day on the 4th due to pontoon bridges, the 12th Group Army still occupied Chuzhou in the evening. Then on the 5th
Early in the morning, head northwest and advance into the hilly areas of Langya Mountains.
This place is no better than the plains of Jiangsu, and the Ming army's aerial bombardment cannot provide such a complete view. In addition, this is along the Jinpu Railway, and the Qing army is still relatively strong. There are four divisions in Chuzhou. Although these four
The division was also blown to pieces, but more than half of it successfully retreated and hid in the hilly areas behind Chuzhou, using woods and shrubs to avoid the bombing.
On the morning of the 5th, when Gao Dayiqin led the First Armored Division of the People's Guard into the Qing army's garrison outside Chuzhou City, he looked at the empty military camp and said only one sentence:
"If I were Emperor Guangwu, I would definitely give this army commander a medal."
Because, he saw that except for two-thirds of the heavy weapons in the military camp that were blown up by planes, the remaining one-third was missing. The ammunition depot, fuel depot, and material warehouse had either been emptied,
Or they were all set on fire and burning.
What's more serious is that of the ten large tank depots, except for six that were blown down, the remaining four are empty. The tanks inside are missing.
Although they had experienced indiscriminate bombings by bombers, and although the military camp was still full of corpses and wounded soldiers everywhere, there were not so many Qing soldiers waiting to surrender to the Ming army like in other places. The retreating Qing soldiers
It was still very capable. It seemed that at least more than half of the troops had withdrawn relatively intact. Their performance was much more decent than that of the Qing army in Jiangsu.
Knowing that 20-25 heavy tanks of the Qing army in Chuzhou had withdrawn into the hilly areas of Langya Mountain, Gao Dayi understood what he might face. Although he did not know the fighting spirit of the Qing army in front of him, these heavy tanks were hiding in the woods on the hills.
and bushes, ambushing yourself is certain.
He immediately made two decisions. First, he would move the Lightning-2 light tanks back and move the Lightning-3 medium tanks as far forward as possible to meet possible tank encounters. Then, he ordered each vehicle to move forward during the advance.
Both tanks and armored vehicles kept shouting through loudspeakers: Any Qing tank soldier who surrenders with a tank will be rewarded 100 mingyang per crew member.
This is also one of the characteristics of this Northern Expedition. The Ming Army Headquarters knew very well that with such a huge disparity between the people and the military on both sides, this war was "half based on fighting and half based on shouting." Almost every vehicle of the Ming Army
Simple loudspeakers were installed on them, so they could shout to the Qing army at any time and "call" the Qing army over.
A staff officer next to him hesitated:
"Sir, it seems that the high command does not have this policy? We are doing this without authorization..."
Gao Dayi laughed and said:
"No? Let's add it now. Spending a few hundred mingyang can save a few brothers from being killed in battle. It's worth a lot. I'll tell Mr. Xiang later to tell the headquarters and let those old men approve it. If approved, it can be long-term.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t approve it or not, then it will be treated as a temporary policy for this battle. As for the money... let us adults pay for it out of our own pockets. We adults are so rich, we can still afford a few tanks. Haha..."
…
Entering the hilly areas, the Ming Army's tanks had a comprehensive advantage in mobility. The Qing Army's Balutu and Kubu heavy tanks had very few places to go, and they could not pass through areas with large undulations. However, the Ming Army's tanks still had
As if walking on level ground, the infantry of the People's Guard Armored Division was reconnaissance marching in front, and the tank regiment drove behind and spread out on both sides of the road, leaving the road for the wheeled vehicle troops behind.
Everyone knew that they would encounter heavy tanks of the Qing army in this area, and they were nervous as they advanced. However, the situation was not as terrifying as the soldiers expected, and the battle still started with sporadic infantry contact battles.
The Qing army also fought and retreated, with no intention of stopping and taking advantage of the terrain to have a good fight with the Ming army. The Qing army soldiers still surrendered easily.
It seems that although the 20,000 to 30,000 Qing troops withdrew into the hilly areas, they still have not restored the combat effectiveness of the entire division. When they encountered the Ming troops, they either surrendered or retreated after a brief exchange of fire. The battles were all below the battalion level.
.However, there were very few tanks and heavy artillery of the Qing army seen along the way. Except for a few heavy tanks that probably drove into the col by mistake and could not climb out, and were blown up by the Qing army themselves, no other tanks were seen.
In the middle of the vast hilly area, there were many towns and villages that were still easily recovered by the Ming army. Gao Dayi judged that the Qing generals must have adopted a realistic line of "preserving strength", and the most important thing was to secure as many troops as possible.
and heavy equipment safely evacuated to the north. The Qing army in Chuzhou must be the same as the Qing army in other places. It is unclear about the scale of the Ming army's attack, and it is unclear about the Ming army's attack.
They had strategic determination, and saw that the Ming army was approaching fiercely and its offensive was extremely fierce, so they all adopted the idea of "a good man never suffers immediate losses" and regarded it as the best policy to preserve the troops as intact as possible. In their view, even if the Ming army is currently
The offensive was fierce, but the Qing Dynasty was thousands of miles deep and had a total force that far exceeded that of the Ming army. As long as they were not eaten by the Ming army at the beginning, they would soon counterattack.
Only one village had a tank battle. This was a battalion of the Qing army. It probably fell behind and was surrounded by the Ming army. It retreated hastily into a village. The Ming army did not know that this battalion had tanks, so it continued to use tanks as usual.
Multiple tanks and armored vehicles were approaching from all roads in the village at the same time, and an iron wall surrounded them.
But a vehicle commander first discovered deep track marks in front of the livestock shed. He shouted bad and immediately ordered to retreat. But by this time it was too late. There was a loud noise in the livestock shed, and there were countless straws in the smoke.
Feiwu, this Ming Army Lightning-2 tank has turned into a ball of fire.