Chapter 498: The Battle of Jiangbei Ends

"The U.S. government is on the embankment of us!" Lu Sihua said.

"Oh?" Meng Xiang smiled slightly. Looking at the calm young man sitting in front of him, and thinking that he was the righteous son of Lu Zhengxiang, the Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Beiyang period, Meng Xiang was also very interested.

After the Paris peace talks, Lu Zhengxiang went away with infamy. But judging from some later sources, the responsibility does not lie with him. A weak country has no diplomacy, and when its fist is soft, it will naturally have a small voice. Whoever talks about it is pretty much the same, it's just a difference between fifty and sixty steps.

"After Roosevelt came to power, the United States was already a three-term president. The U.S. government has historically been heavily influenced by tycoons in various industries. But the government of a country, as the concentration of state power, naturally has a great power to counter those tycoons. Presidents who are not willing to be held hostage by the tycoons often form a new power bloc during their term of office. If they are given enough time, it is easy to form an excessive concentration of power, which in turn affects the interests of those tycoons. So normally, a president usually serves only two terms. And after Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, more and more power was concentrated in his hands, and it was already three terms at this time! ”

Lu Sihua once again emphasized Roosevelt's three terms, but there was no trace of waves on Meng Xiang's face as he smiled and listened.

Three-time? Not to mention three sessions. Roosevelt was later a four-term president.

With Roosevelt becoming president for a third term, some of the previous New Deal scruples about the tactics that the tycoons had not used gradually became apparent. But the resistance he encountered was also enormous. When it is not possible to make a breakthrough through some existing laws and regulations, the government often has one trick in its hands, and that is to control the violent machine of the army. Lu Sihua said more and more energetically.

When he was transferred from the Foreign Affairs Office to Meng Xiang's side, Lu Zongxiang, who was invited by the vanguard army from a Belgian monastery to the Diplomatic Academy, repeatedly warned him to be cautious, but the young man's passion began to show itself when he met a good listener.

"According to the US system, in peacetime, the armed forces are greatly constrained, so as not to have a warlord dominance." Lu Sihua thought of the young general sitting in front of him, and suddenly paused, and when he saw that smile, he re-sorted his thoughts and said, "If Roosevelt wants to make a big change, he must need the support of the army." And the power of the army needs a war! ”

Meng Xiang was also very emotional, he sat in this seat and realized this trick of coercing the army to order the people, but the young man in front of him put it up to the point. This era is not the era of information explosion in later generations, and it is good to be able to analyze these through some phenomena. However, he did not expect that in the system and environment of the United States, the military and power would eventually be constrained.

Lincoln, who won the Civil War, did not fall on the eve of victory, and Roosevelt also fell on the eve of World War II, failing to complete his fourth presidency. In that world, the power of money to determine life and death is comparable to that of God.

"When wars are waged, centralized governments are more effective than loose alliances of tycoons. The U.S. government is looking for targets at this time. Lu Sihua continued,

"At this time, the European war is raging, and the United States will not intervene at this time, and they need to wait for a better opportunity to take advantage of this war to make a fortune. Again, the Americans are not just looking at Europe, they are also looking at this side of the Pacific. The geographical location of the United States determines that they will not spare both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Europe and Asia are both places where Americans lay out. Asia's emerging markets and abundant resources are what Americans have always wanted. At this time, when the power of Britain and France in Asia was shrinking, only Soviet Russia was in front of them, and now there are more of us in China! Lu Sihua glanced at Meng Xiang, who was still listening, it was this general who was younger than himself who led the vanguard army to play the prestige of China, which made the Americans have to pay attention to it.

"Soviet Russia, like the United States, is as ambitious as it is for Europe and Asia. However, they relied on land to expand their ambitions in the northern part of Eurasia, while the Americans needed a navy to expand outward, so that they could cross two oceans. Ever since they had airplanes, they've been crossing the skies. Lu Sihua said a little excitedly.

When he first came to the Pioneer Army, he helped the Flying Tigers of the Pioneer Army take care of related affairs, and he knew a lot about aircraft. When he learned about aircraft carriers and planes flying longer and longer, he realized that another human war machine was about to explode.

"At this time, there was still a strong Germany between Soviet Russia and the United States, and the main strength of Soviet Russia was in Europe, and the Germans and Soviet Russians would inevitably collide on the European continent. Also on the Asian continent, it is us and people that are colliding at this time. Although the human navy has always been the embankment of the Americans, it is our vanguard army that maintains the victorious advantage on the continent. If we add our powerful air force, we have the strength to threaten Southeast Asia. Americans, no, it should be said that this US administration has taken us seriously. Lu Si said solemnly.

"The Americans are just layout, it's not a big deal! And the Germans, and even the Russians, were a greater threat to them! Meng Xiang said with a smile, Lu Sihua's analysis made him think a lot of things in combination with later generations. These are just strategic adjustments made by the Americans, who feel a little threatened. Their focus is still on the old powers.

"Our vanguard army is not a regular Chinese government, so the United States only needs to cooperate with the central government, and it can use the constitution and general justice to restrain us, unless it is ......" Lu Sihua hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Unless we form a new government." But that's ......."

"In that case, whether we are fighting civilly or martial, we will have to fight with the central government for a period of time, and for the time being, we will not pose much of a threat to the Americans, and at most we will be entangled with people on the land of China." Pharmacist Tang, who had been listening quietly for a while, interjected and smiled.

"Uh, yes!" Lu Sihua knew that there were some things he shouldn't say. Meng Xiang called him just to refer to the intentions behind some of the Americans' actions, and did not ask him to talk about the domestic affairs of the vanguard army.

However, in the joint theater, many people are persuading Meng Xiang. There are also some soldiers who also hope that Meng Xiang will become the leader of the pinnacle of China, so that their hometown, which has not yet been classified as a subsistence allowance, can also live a good life.

In their opinion, the vanguard army already has such a strong force, it should sweep everything away, unify the whole country, and let the whole country bathe in the sunshine of the subsistence allowance.

Wu Peifu once confronted Meng Xiang with his theory of unifying the whole country by force.

And Cai Yuanpei and others directly proposed that Meng Xiang should participate in the election and replace Lao Jiang as the leader of Huaxia. In their opinion, it is obvious that Meng Xiang is more suitable and obedient to the will of the constitution than Lao Jiang.

"This is not the time to be the target of public criticism!" Pharmacist Tang disapproves of Meng Xiang's rapid appearance, "The subsistence allowance policy has not reached the point where everyone knows about it. A lot of the ignorance in the countryside is beyond your imagination. If it is forced, it will only break out into a large-scale civil war, although the vanguard army can win with strong force and suppress all the noise, but in the end it will lose part of the people's hearts and minds, and also leave many hidden dangers. In addition, the comparison of the subsistence allowance shows its preciousness, and it is also the time to eliminate many internal and external problems. Moreover, our strength is limited after all, and if some places cannot meet the standard of subsistence allowance, it is easy to smash the brand. So the best thing is to be able to move forward steadily. When you slowly occupy the surroundings, you don't need to fight for the rest, and the final seat is yours. ”

Meng Xiang deepened his belief that even a junior high school student in later generations could understand the meaning of the subsistence allowance, but in many remote areas, the people still chose to believe in those squires. Their will determines the actions of the villagers. And the subsistence allowance harmed their interests, causing more than one act to occur in the joint theater of operations. It's all the squires who take the lead. Unless it is the political work cadres of the vanguard army who carry out propaganda and measures in the villages and villages, otherwise the subsistence allowance will be a mere formality, and only a few people will be fattened.

It will take time to popularize and implement these, where is it possible to raise your arms and shout, and the people will flock to obey? That's just the middle and upper classes, even the young students. And most of the people at the bottom do not believe in slogans, they only believe in the reality that unfolds in front of their eyes.

"It's easy to fight the world, but it's hard to rule the world! Meals should be eaten in one bite to be easy to digest and good for the body. It's easy to choke when you swallow it. Tang Yaoshi said with the old god there.

The vanguard army does not have the strength to implement various policies such as the subsistence allowance to the whole country at once, so it can only eat and digest it step by step, and fight steadily and steadily. Many Chinese people may not be able to leave the county seat in their lifetime, but the news of the neighboring county is still very well-informed. It was by virtue of the influence of word of mouth that the occupied areas could be easily accepted, and the territory of the joint theater was expanded again and again.

It is precisely because of the accumulation of two years that the vanguard army has the ability to digest a larger territory, although it is somewhat unrealistic to swallow the whole country, but it is still no problem to swallow the areas north of the Yangtze River and south of the Huai River.

Meng Xiang didn't pay much attention to the battles in Anhui and Northern Jiangsu that were fighting fiercely at this time. By the third day, the big picture was decided.

The remnants of the 20th and 32nd Divisions of the Devils took over the 14th Independent Mixed Brigade that was trapped in Yancheng by the Pioneer Marines and withdrew southward together. After being blocked by the vanguard armies of Xinghua and Hai'an, they had less than 20,000 men left. And when they first stepped into Taizhou, Sun Tongxuan's 12th Army and Hu Minghe's New Tenth Army rushed in behind, and in the end they struggled with less than 10,000 people and fled into Jingjiang. There is also a whole division guarding the Nantong area. The vanguard army behind stopped the pursuit and turned to attack Jiangdu.

Before sunset on August 3, only a 40th division guarded the surrounding Yangzhou was also conquered. In the face of the vanguard army attacking from the direction of Pukou, the more than 2,000 remnants of the devil could only withdraw to Zhenjiang on the opposite side.

With the emergency repair of the Huaihe Railway Bridge in Bengbu on the 3rd, it can be temporarily opened to traffic. Although those prefabricated constructions according to the drawings could temporarily repair the original railway bridge on the Huai River, where the piers were not damaged, and could not be too heavy, they had already connected the Jinpu line, a large passage for the vanguard army to go south. Rows of trains emitted black smoke, mobilized troops, and transported truckloads of military supplies all the way to the Yangtze River.

The soldiers of the vanguard army who came down from the Jinpu railway line quickly deployed everywhere and cleaned up the remnants of devils and puppet troops in various areas.

On the morning of the 3rd, Hefei was captured by the 30th Army of Sun Lianzhong's old lineage led by Chi Fengcheng. And the devils in Huainan still insisted until noon on the 3rd before they were cleaned up by Feng Anbang's 42nd Army. The stubbornness of the devil has also made Huainan a hellish killing ground. Some later described the smell of blood in the soil that had not gone away for more than a year.

Although the 3rd Division ran out of a 6th Wing, they were heavily damaged in Hefei, although in the end more than 400 people followed the remnants of the 3,000-odd 36th Division that rushed out of Hefei to Chaohu, but in Chaohu was beaten by Liu Ruming's 68th Army, and by the time the 11th Independent Mixed Journey retreated to Yuxikou with the last remnants of the defeated general, the Third Division was already finished.

Two divisions and one independent mixed brigade were finally left with more than 8,000 men, guarding Yuxikou, which had gradually been surrounded by the vanguard army. This forced Shunroku Hata to give the order to withdraw to the south of the Yangtze River. The reason is to be responsible for protecting Wuhu on the other side.

Rat Yi's team's attack on Wuhu and Dangtu and other places, although it was only a feint, also made the devil feel pressure. If there is a loss here, let the vanguard army rush across the Yangtze River, then the loss is not as simple as the land north of the Yangtze River. Although the land in the north of the Yangtze River was lost, with the help of the natural risk of the Yangtze River, the transportation channel south of the Yangtze River could still be maintained.

Even if the Yangtze River waterway is dangerous, land transportation south of the Yangtze River can also ensure the safety of Okamura Ningji.

After more than two days of fighting, too many troops were lost, and people could not afford to be injured.

Anqing's 27th Division had already begun to retreat last night, but under the attack of artillery fire and aircraft from the shore of the vanguard army, only more than 7,000 people had withdrawn across the river in three days. The others did not sink into the river to feed the fish, even if they were annihilated by the new army in the city of Anqing.

The level of street fighting of the vanguard army is getting higher and higher, and it is easy to capture these cities that have not been fortified on a large scale. At most, it is to clear out the remnants of the enemy and maintain law and order.

On the 5th, when the devils in Yuxikou paid the price of half of their people and withdrew more than 4,000 people, the other places in Jiangbei had already begun to clean up the battlefield.

When the 6th came, the gunfire in various places gradually calmed down. Except for the remnants of the 20th Division and a relatively complete 39th Division, a total of more than 20,000 people are still stationed in Nantong, and the troops in Jiangbei have been almost cleaned up.

Of course, this is only to the east of the Wangjiang River. After the new army that occupied Anqing quickly conquered Wangjiang, Taihu and other places, it stopped and began to confront the devils in Huangmei, Jiujiang and other places.

After days of fighting, the soldiers were already very tired. A large number of materials and local security maintenance also need to be arranged. So on the 6th, the battle, which lasted for more than five days, came to an end for the time being.

"They can't be expected to stop, we should evacuate our people across the river as soon as possible!" Shunroku Hata looked at the list of casualties one by one, and his face turned pale.

Attempts to maintain the Yangtze River also failed. Even if they tried to withdraw, they suffered heavy losses under the artillery fire and aircraft attacks of the vanguard army. Thinking that the Japanese troops fighting in Nantong, Huangmei, Xishui and other places might be surrounded by the vanguard army and annihilated one by one, Hata Shunroku couldn't hold his breath. I am going to withdraw it all.

"Reserve more vitality for the Empire!" He was much older for a while. His resignation is a foregone conclusion, but before stepping down, it is better for him to give this evacuation order.

In this battle, seven divisions and regiments, including the 3rd, 20th, 27th, 32nd, 36th, 35th, and 39th divisions, and three independent mixed brigades, were defeated by the vanguard army in one go, and more than 150,000 people were annihilated.

But it lifted the spirits of the Chinese people again, ran to tell each other, firecrackers rang out, and celebrated all night.

After this war, people were no longer able to think about North China and other places. Although the army, after a few months of training, you can take up arms to fight. But the gap between such recruits and veterans is huge. Sticking to those recruits is about the same as sending them to death. Moreover, the vanguard army fought a war of annihilation, losing the help of the veterans in the team, and the training of those recruits was extremely difficult.

The division of the 30th sequence is that there are too many recruits and reserves, which leads to weak combat effectiveness, which makes the devil lose so badly.

"The sacrifice is too great, and the recruits just need to hone more!" Meng Xiang was also looking at the total number of casualties of the vanguard army at this time, and the casualties of the battle at this time reached more than 40,000. Thanks to the good medical system of the Vanguard, more than 16,000 people were killed. This number would have been even lower had it not been for the fact that the majority of those killed were recruits.

Among them, it is also because of the backbone of the clones. This time, there were more than 3,000 vacancies for the clones at once, which made Meng Xiang feel distressed for a while.

Although others are already very satisfied with the ratio of one to ten. But Meng Xiang knew that the same was true for Americans in World War II, and he didn't think it was unusual.

If you really want to face the United States, or even Soviet Russia, will the war losses be so low?

Although people pay enough attention to the vanguard army, the equipment is much worse than that of the vanguard army. The vast majority of the vanguard troops participating in the attack this time are elites who have completed motorized rest, even if there are new recruits among them, they can't stop these are the true colors of the strong army under Meng Xiang's command. Compared with the vanguard, all that was left was a frantic attack.

Especially in the battle of Pukou, the vanguard army was surrounded behind enemy lines, and in the face of the crazy counterattack of the devils, the parachute troops paid more than 2,000 lives in Pukou alone, plus other troops, and the lives of more than 3,700 pioneer soldiers fell in such a small place as Pukou.

In contrast, although Huainan, Bengbu, Huai'an and other places have many fortresses of devils, and there are some troubles to overcome, the vast majority of those who fall are devils. The vanguard army, which has experienced street fighting and siege fortress training, has an absolute advantage in heavy firepower, and all it needs is to spend some time breaking down the devil's fortress one by one.

In the battles in other places, the devil's 38 big cover against the armored combat vehicles of the vanguard army can only end up with hatred. Although the rivers and rivers, those heavy tanks can not be used, but the performance of amphibious tanks and amphibious combat vehicles is eye-catching, coupled with the rapid attack of motorized troops, more flowers, people are unable to guard against it, regardless of their heads, the command is chaotic, only to successfully conquer so many cities.

By all accounts, the vanguard army has no reason to be invincible. We continue to maintain a winning stance against people.

It is easy to deal with people, and against the armies of Soviet Russia and other European and American countries, in the face of fierce artillery fire and the roar of armored combat vehicles, will the vanguard still be victorious?

Meng Xiang is also constantly making comparisons and thinking in his mind.

At this time, the army can only be called the whetstone of the vanguard army, and in the case of low losses, with the help of the ferocity of the little devils, it is just to let the recruits adapt to the atmosphere of the battlefield as soon as possible. A bigger modern war is yet to come. That's the real test!