Episode 51 Ace vs. Ace

For a whole week, this main artery along the south side of the Yangtze River defense line and across the east and west of the Ming Dynasty carried personnel, ammunition, artillery, tanks, food, and ...... Shuttle in both east and west directions.

The Shanghai-Kunming railway is a double-track railway, and its advantages are reflected at this time. Of the six divisions in which the Red side participated, four of them were to be transported from the east. At the same time, a division of the People's Guard Corps and a division of the Army on the Blue Side were also divided into several groups and successively took trains from the vicinity of Nanjing to the east, arriving between Wuxi and Changzhou, where they were stationed.

This time, the 17th, 32nd, 43rd, 71st, 88th, and 121st Divisions of the Ming Army served as the red side, a total of 6 divisions.

The 2nd Division of the Daming People's Guard and the 26th Division of the Daming Army served as the blue side.

The six divisions of the red side were all drawn from the most standard infantry divisions of the Ming Dynasty. That is, an ordinary infantry division with a small number of tanks, armored vehicles and a part of cars, semi-motorized. This type of infantry division was the most numerous and representative in the Ming Army.

The two divisions of the blue side were much stronger. Although the 2nd Division of the People's Guard is not the strongest in the People's Guard, it is a standard armored division.

Of the four existing divisions of the People's Guard, the first and second divisions are armored divisions, and the third and fourth divisions are motorized infantry divisions. Among them, the first division was the strongest and the first to be established, it was a large heavy armored division, numbering about 18,000 people, and the equipment and personnel quality were the best in the Ming army. The second division is the division participating in the exercise, which is a standard armored division with a number of 15,000 people, under the jurisdiction of the division headquarters (including directly subordinate troops), a tank regiment, two motorized infantry regiments, and an artillery regiment.

The 26th Division of the Army, another division that formed the Blue Army, was a strong division of the Capital Garrison, which made great contributions in the defense of Nanjing, and had recently given priority to the completion of motorized redressing, realizing complete motorization, and becoming one of the few fully motorized divisions in the Ming Army. Its division commander Hou Hekun used tough measures to prevent the soldiers of other troops from escaping in the Battle of Zimuzhou, and fought bloodily with his 26th Division to plug the gap in the defense line of Zimuzhou, and he was also seriously wounded, lost an eye, and a leg was also fitted with a prosthesis.

In order to unify the names in the exercise, the six divisions of the Red side were tentatively organized into the Red 1st Division, the Red 2nd Division, the Red 3rd Division, the Red 4th Division, the Red 5th Division, and the Red 6th Division. The two divisions of the blue side were also tentatively numbered as the Blue 1 Division and the Blue 2 Division.

……

On May 28, a Junkers-52 flew on its way from Nanjing to Wuxi. On the plane sat Xiang Xiaoqiang, Li Gensheng, Xiuxiu, Guderian, Rommel and his translator A Tie, as well as a guard squad led by Hu Jiong himself.

The six divisions of the red side had all been deployed a day earlier, and were now arranged, trained, and repaired in their respective defensive positions.

Because Red is the defender, it gets more time to prepare the defense. The Shanghai-Kunming Railway also gave priority to the transportation of the six divisions of the Red Side. Although the two divisions of the blue side were small, they were all transferred until today, and the general headquarters was set up in Wuxi. The front-line headquarters is located in Changzhou. Now Xiang Xiaoqiang is taking a group of people and others, following an auxiliary aircraft deployed to the Blue Army, that is, this Junkers-52, to inspect the Blue Army station.

The commander of the Red side was Marshal Tang Yunsheng, Chief of the General Staff of the Army.

Xiang Xiaoqiang only learned that Old Man Tang had ended up in person three days ago, and he was very shocked at the time. Tang Yunsheng is the supreme commander of the army, and Xiang Xiaoqiang knows that he is definitely not given for nothing, and he is a good hand at commanding wars. Besides, Old Donald's identity is to represent the army, and now he personally commands the red side, so isn't it obviously an exercise for the army to confront the People's Guard?

The identities of both red and blue sides have been tried to fade by Xiang Xiaoqiang. He thought that the commander of the Red side was a military commander, or a group army commander. But now that Old Man Tang is personally on the field, Xiang Xiaoqiang has no bottom for a while, and I don't know what they think.

Xiang Xiaoqiang went to Mr. Lu to visit Tang Yunsheng on the same day and chatted with him. Tang Yunsheng followed Xiang Xiaoqiang and told him not to worry, Tang Yunsheng personally commanded the red side, which was also what Ming Gong meant. Zhang Zhaoxian attached great importance to this exercise, and also knew that Xiang Xiaoqiang's side was an armored division and a motorized infantry division, and the strength was indeed very strong, so he decided to strengthen the red side and let a boss-level person take command.

Tang Yunsheng hinted to Xiaoqiang that the reason why Ming Gong could make it more difficult for the blue side was that he was ready to use the results of this exercise as an important basis for whether to fight against the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, let Xiang Xiaoqiang get rid of all concerns, don't think about the identity of the People's Guard and the Army, whether there will be antagonistic emotions, just let go of your hands and fight well, and the more beautiful the fight, the better. Xiang Xiaoqiang can also choose a commander of the Blue Army by himself, whether it is the People's Guard or the Army, as long as he can fight, he doesn't have to care about his identity.

This is because the difference in quality and quantity between the red and blue sides in this exercise is far greater than the difference in quality and quantity between the Ming and Qing armies. As long as the blue side can win beautifully over the red side this time, then planning the Ming Dynasty against the Qing Dynasty will be much more persuasive to all parties.

Xiang Xiaoqiang suddenly understood, and when he walked out of General Staff Officer Lu, his whole body was full of energy.

……

Who will command the blue side? Definitely not on my own. Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that he would eat a few taels of dry rice. Li Gensheng, I'm afraid it won't work either. If he is in charge of the daily work, military expansion, training, and so on of the People's Guard, he is indeed very competent. But in terms of military command, his level can probably only be regarded as mediocre.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was hesitant to tell Li Gensheng, Li Gensheng found him first, and took the initiative to suggest that Xiang Xiaoqiang not let himself be the commander of the blue side. The reason is that the victory or defeat of this exercise is of great significance, and it has a direct bearing on the consideration of the Qing operation proposal. He recommended Staff Officer Rommel to Xiang Xiaoqiang to be the commander of the Blue Side.

Li Gensheng's attitude of ignoring personal momentary humiliation is very appreciative to Xiaoqiang. In addition, Colonel Rommel, recommended by Li Gensheng, is also one of the candidates for commander of the blue side in Xiang Xiaoqiang's mind. In fact, in addition to Rommel, there are two more ideal candidates in Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart: one is Division Commander Hou Hekun and the other is Major General Guderian.

Hou Hekun's command skills in the defense of Nanjing, as well as the appearance and training of the 26th Division of the Army, are quite rare in the army.

But after all, Xiang Xiaoqiang still knows little about Hou Hekun. What is to be waged now is such a high-intensity, long-distance, and much more complex battle, which requires more superb command art and a very strong offensive spirit. Xiang Xiaoqiang doesn't know if Hou Hekun is competent for this kind of requirement. If it was an ordinary exercise, Xiang Xiaoqiang would let it go and hand it over to Hou Hekun to command, and maybe he could find a military genius. But now it's a must-lose. Xiang Xiaoqiang decided to be cautious.

In fact, in Xiang Xiaoqiang's mind, the best candidate to serve as this kind of "blitzkrieg" is the "blitzkrieg hero" Guderian himself. Guderian's current theoretical level of armored warfare and his practical command ability have reached a considerable height. Xiang Xiaoqiang felt that this exercise and this kind of task were tailor-made for him.

But after all, Guderian's time in Daming was too short, only more than twenty days, and he was not familiar with the army he was going to command at all. It is taboo for a soldier not to know the soldiers, which means that he cannot command the army. Xiang Xiaoqiang thought about it, deeply regretted, and still vetoed Guderian. But Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that if Guderian had come a year earlier, no, half a year, he would have been able to lead the Blue Army to chase and kill all the way at this moment, and beat the Red Army to the point that there was no scum left.

……

The only remaining candidate is Rommel. Rommel is different from Guderian, he has been in Daming for several months, and in the defense of Nanjing, he also personally led the army to participate in the actual battle, arranged troops in the fog in the southern suburbs, and completely annihilated a Eight Banners Division, and achieved remarkable results. He still had the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Wehrmacht, but in Daming, he had risen to the rank of colonel.

In addition, Xiang Xiaoqiang gave him the nickname "Fog Fox", which has now been called in the People's Guard.

During these months, Rommel had been obsessed with soaking in the armored forces, and was no longer familiar with the two armored divisions and the two motorized infantry divisions of the People's Guard. Moreover, after several months of hard study and a perfect language environment, Rommel's Chinese level has improved significantly, especially the level of listening and speaking has improved by leaps and bounds, and now he is able to carry out basic communication, and he has mastered all kinds of military terms. Xiang Xiaoqiang thinks that it should not be an exaggeration to say that he is now at the level of "Chinese level 4".

Rommel was a hard-working man, and generally didn't get more than four hours of sleep a day during these months. …… He was like a lion holding his strength. This is the impression Xiang Xiaoqiang himself made.

Besides, in such an important task as an exercise, he must be forced to have an interpreter. to prevent his two knives from making mistakes in Chinese.

……

In the roar of the plane, Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at Rommel and Guderian in front of him, and was extremely satisfied. Two of the best generals of World War II are now sitting in front of him. One has already been able to use it, and the other will be integrated with the Ming army in time and become the most terrifying war machine in the war against the Qing.

……

The plane landed at a military airfield in the western suburbs of Wuxi. This airfield will be one of five airports used by the Blues for the exercise. A few kilometers further west is the town of Yangshan, where the headquarters of the Blue Army is located.

With the roar of the huge propeller, Xiang Xiaoqiang appeared first at the cabin door.

Dozens of senior officers of the Blue Army below lined up neatly, "snapping" one by one, facing Xiang Xiaoqiang.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was very satisfied, smiled and waved down, and then walked down the gangway. Behind him, Li Gensheng, Guderian, and Rommel walked down......

In the middle of dozens of officers, a young colonel in his thirties wearing an eye patch, holding a cane, took a step forward with his legs, looked at Xiang Xiaoqiang, saluted him, and said coldly:

"Your Excellency General, all the senior commanders of the Blue Army of the 'Fortress Exercise' have been assembled and are waiting for your orders."

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, looked at the division commander with one eye and one prosthetic leg, did not return the salute, but stretched out a hand, held his hand tightly, shook it twice, and patted his arm vigorously at the same time, and said in a deep voice:

"General Hou, hard work!"

Hou Hekun's eyes were still cold, and he introduced other officers to Xiang Xiaoqiang, including Xiang Xiaoqiang's own subordinate, the commander of the Second Division of the People's Guard.

Xiang Xiaoqiang also introduced the commander of the Blue Army: Colonel Rommel. There is also General Guderian, who will observe the exercises with him.

Immediately afterwards, a group of officers got into the car and began to review the air power that the Blues were proud of.

Eight sidecar motorcycles open the road ahead, and more than a dozen cars line up in a long line, driving at medium speed on the vast airport runway.

Running to two columns, dive bombers with their heads held high were parked. In front of each plane, the crew stood upright and saluted the convoy.

The planes were spotlessly clean, and the cockpit glass reflected the dazzling sunlight. The crew members were held high, full of spirits and high morale.

Dive bombers were launched one after the other, all the way into the distance, with little end in sight.

Xiang Xiaoqiang stood up from the convertible car and saluted the pilots on either side. Immediately afterwards, the senior officers in each sedan stood up and saluted the pilots on either side.

The pilots on both sides began to cheer in unison, and a loud roar broke through the sky.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang's chest center was surging, and the blood was boiling. His mind suddenly flashed to Goering's unbeatable declaration after reviewing the Nazi Air Force before the German "Sea Lion Operation":

-- If we lose this war, we deserve to be kicked home.