Episode 8 Nanyang Resistance Battle

At the same time, on the southern border, one after another attacked garrison telegrams, .

The frightened words and sentences on these telegrams, even the incomplete fragments that were only half posted, were sent to the high-ranking generals of the Qing army one after another, making them look at them and guess them, and their hearts became more and more frightened.

In both the eastern and western sections of the Yangtze River defense line, troops reported being attacked. And it's all about the same - first it was bombarded indiscriminately, and then before it could react, the tank rushed very close, and it was too late for the soldiers to pick up arms and defend themselves.

The staff officers in the headquarters were sweating profusely, shouting at the top of their voices, constantly knocking on the telephone receiver and shaking the handle. However, they found that they could often get through when a phone call was made to a certain unit on the front line, and when they contacted other troops and called back after a while, they couldn't get through! Even if I got through the second time, the person who answered the phone was replaced, and the other party spoke with an authentic Nanming accent, saying that everything was normal here and that there was no attack!

It's just horrible!

Guangwu was anxious, biting his pencil and standing in front of the big map, watching the staff officers draw circles after circles on the map. A red circle, a black circle, a blue circle.

The place circled in red is the place where the attack report was received. The place in the black circle is the place that has never been contacted. The place in the blue circle is the place where you are connected, but you are not attacked.

Now the small red circles on the graph are very sporadic and have no pattern in distribution. It seems that the Ming army did not intend to attack on all fronts, but relied on the advantage of maneuver to fight a harassment war with a hammer in the east and a mallet in the west.

Guangwu rolled through his body with a burst of excitement. …… If that's the case, that's great. This shows that they have no confidence to confront the millions of heroes of the Qing Dynasty at all, and they don't know what tricks to play. But if that's the case, it's unforgivable to panic like this.

But he took a closer look and found a problem:

There are many more black circles than red circles.

However, this doesn't mean anything. Today is Sunday, and not being able to get in touch doesn't mean it's occupied. In the hinterland of the Qing Dynasty, and even in the area of the Beijing-Tianjin defense circle, aren't there black circles everywhere.

However, the red circles that were attacked were all distributed on the east and west sides, and there was almost no area of a few hundred kilometers in between. In the middle section, on the north side of the Dabie Mountain Range, there are either blue circles or black circles. In other words, this section of the garrison was either unreachable or not attacked. It is clear that the offensive of the Ming army began from the east and west.

…… Well, that's right, the Yangtze River is in the east, the Xiangfan Plain in the west, and only the Dabie Mountains in the middle. It was basically impossible for Nanming's army to fight across such a large mountain range. Not to mention those motorized regiments in Nanming, they are ordinary infantry divisions, and those baggage and artillery can't get by! Only the middle paragraph can be left blank.

Suddenly, a chill passed through Guangwu's heart:

- Could it be that the Ming army planned to meet the division and encircle the Qing army in the middle of the two-way offensive?

However, he later dismissed this speculation. The total strength of the Nanming Army is 2 million, how much can it take out to attack? Do you really dare to bet on the old book for an unrealistic "Beiding Central Plains"? Is it so sure? …… Can't you?

Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if Nanming is really dizzy this time, and plans to attack the Qing Dynasty with all his might, and really put all the old books together, then he has to set aside about 500,000 as a strategic reserve, in case the attack fails and retreats, so as to stick to the Yangtze River defense line. In addition, we have to guard against possible robbery by the Japanese side. After all, no matter what Nan Ming says, he can only take out 1.5 million at most to attack.

In the middle section alone, the Qing Dynasty had an army of about 800,000. In addition, the garrisons at the east and west ends together also have a million hundreds of thousands of people. If the Ming army wanted to encircle, it first had to deal with the more than one million Qing troops blocking in front of them and on both sides. The 1.5 million Ming soldiers were divided into two routes, and each route could only have a few hundred thousand troops. They were inferior in strength, and if they wanted to encircle the Qing army, they had to fight on the outer line from a long distance, and they were at a disadvantage in terms of time, and there was a danger that their flanks would be attacked together.

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 more stable in his heart and less anxious.

The top priority at the moment is to find out the scale of the Ming army's offensive, that is, the scope and strength of the troops. The next step is to organize the line of defense in the right place.

……

On the offensive on the right, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the Qing army's reconnaissance planes began to appear sporadically in the sky, flying high, and they did not dare to come down to take a closer look.

The Ming army enjoyed absolute air supremacy all morning, and no one expected that Qing army planes would appear in the sky. At the beginning, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty waved excitedly to the sky as usual. But after a while, it turned out that something was wrong.

The little plane in the sky flew high, almost a small black dot, and there was only one lonely. The planes seen in the morning and in the morning were all in formation, either in a formation of four or three in a formation, and never a single plane appeared alone. Moreover, now the plane does not seem to have a mission, it does not fly north, it does not fly south, it just goes around in the east-west direction, and one back and forth for a while.

Some of the soldiers on the highway walked with guns on their shoulders and ignored them. Some of them still looked up at the sky and talked about it. Some of the younger junior officers were also hesitating, not knowing whether to call the Army Aviation's fighter jets to take a look.

Next to the marching column, a chief's car also drove forward, and a general in the back seat was wearing a crisp woolen military uniform, wrapped in a black cloak, smoking a large cigar, and leaning comfortably on the backrest.

Suddenly, he glanced at the sky, immediately removed his cigar, and then kicked the back of the back in front of him, shouting:

"Stop! Stop it! ***…… Yes, pull over. ”

The chief's car turned to the side of the road and stopped, and the general stood up, raised his binoculars and looked up at the sky, and exclaimed:

"Come on!"

"Yes!"

The adjutant in the seat next to him hurriedly stood up.

"Call the 25th Division Air Defense Company and bring down that plane in the sky for me!"

"Huh? Throne? ”

"Don't talk nonsense, hurry up! I'll run away later......"

The adjutant immediately picked up the on-board radio and gave orders to the divisional headquarters of this division.

After a while, a series of artillery sounds were heard in 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 high, and flew to the north with no life.

"Oh my God......" The military commander wrapped his cloak and scolded, "Call the army air, I found a Qing army reconnaissance plane!" Have they all woken up? ”

"Ah...... Be! ”

……

In the column of marching troops on the side road, a recruit quietly asked the veteran:

"Who's this chief? So dragged. ”

The veteran grinned and said:

"This is the legendary weasel."

"Weasels?"

"It's Huang Shuliang, the one who was in the limelight in the fortress exercise, when the Red Army let the Blue Army People's Guard be wiped out, he single-handedly challenged the People's Guard, and Leng played the People's Guard tank army around...... Later, he was quickly promoted, and now he is the commander of our 7th Army. ”

"Oh! No wonder! ”

……

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the two armored divisions of the People's Guard Corps on the left had already rushed to the periphery of Nanyang City, stopped their tracks, set up a position, and prepared to cooperate with the mechanized infantry division and the motorized infantry division behind to besiege them.

Although Nanyang is much larger than Xinye, its defense is far inferior to Xinye. However, for Xinye, you can ignore it and rush over first, and wait for the infantry behind to pick it up. But for Nanyang, it must be conquered in order to move forward.

Xinye is located in the middle of the Xiangfan Plain, open on all sides, and has a lot of room for maneuver. Nanyang, however, is close to the exit of the Xiangfan Plain. More than 50 kilometers ahead will be to Fangcheng County. And Fangcheng County is just at the exit of the Xiangfan Plain, which is a key point. The southeast of Fangcheng is Dabie Mountain, and the northwest is Qinling. The two giant mountain ranges meet in Fangcheng County, and although it is not high here, it will still bring great obstacles to the mechanized legion. The only exit in the middle is Fangcheng County. If you want to rush to the Henan Plain outside, you must take the next city.

However, Fangcheng and Nanyang are separated by more than 50 kilometers one after the other, and the two garrisons can echo each other, and if the two armored divisions of the Ming army's vanguard are trapped in the middle, it is easy to suffer from the enemy on their backs. - Of course, the premise is that the Qing armies in both places must fight bravely. Although this is not a great possibility in the light of the situation in the morning, the fate of the two armored divisions must not be bet on luck.

Nanyang must be taken first.

And in fact, it seems that the defenders of Nanyang do not intend to surrender without a fight. Stretching for several kilometres outside the city, it appears that at least two trenches have been dug and barbed wire has been pulled up.

The commanders of the Ming army looked through the binoculars, and countless Qing troops in the trenches were moving up and down, their steel helmets shining, and the soil of spades and shovels constantly flying out of the trenches. They are also deepening the trenches.

In the first trench, one or two thousand Qing soldiers were lying nervously outside, rifles ready to shoot. Maxim machine guns were also rolled out one by one, and several Qing soldiers were running in front of the trenches with cats on their backs, piling sandbags in front of these machine guns.

It's really not a major garrison. The strength of the Qing army did not seem to be very large, and judging by the telescope, they had very few anti-tank guns outside the trenches. The artillery that can be seen at present is dozens of 37mm anti-tank guns.

The Ming troops were not subjected to heavy artillery shelling at present, and only sporadic mortar shells fell between the tanks. Probably, the heavy howitzers of the Qing army in Nanyang have been blown up by bombers.

After all, this is nearly 100 kilometers away from the border of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it should be Xinye who is responsible for the first-line defense task. But it is precisely because the officers and generals of Xinye came here to spend the weekend that Xinye easily surrendered and the Ming army drove straight in, and now they all want to fight a decent battle in Nanyang, and it is best to block the Ming army, and they can't stop it, and they plan to hit it hard, so that they can explain the past to the emperor, so as not to be punished for serious crimes.

Now in Nanyang City, the density of senior officers is quite large, but the garrison is not much, only about one division. There are so many big bodhisattvas in the small temple, so the control over the soldiers below is so strong, even if the soldiers are pressing, the Qing soldiers below do not dare to flee or surrender to the enemy.

……

Thirty dive bombers in the sky spun around, roaring, demonstrating air supremacy.

Suddenly, as if they had been ordered, they began to line up and reverse downward, screaming, and rushing straight into the Qing army's position outside the city.

The Qing officers and soldiers below were already frightened, holding their heads and huddled in the trenches, waiting for the earth to shake the mountains and the explosion.

Suddenly, the cluster overhead whistled again and pulled up.

The Qing soldiers looked up in a hurry, and countless papers flew in the sky. It should be a flyer.

Leaflets flew all over the sky and slowly landed inside and outside the city. The Qing soldiers in the trenches picked up leaflets one after another to read, and those who were illiterate were read by others. But before they could take a second look, shouts were heard in the distance:

"You can't pick it up! No one can pick it up! Can't even watch! Whoever sees it will be shot! …… It's all a lie, you can't see it, you can't pass it on, you can't believe it! …… Again, no one can pick it up! I threw everything I picked up! A minute later, whoever still has it in their hands will be shot! …… Say it again......"

The Qing soldiers who had already picked it up in their hands had their faces as white as dirt, and they threw them far away from them, as if there was a plague on them. The Qing soldiers who didn't pick it up all showed happy looks.

The voice of the officer shouted from the loudspeaker sounded from the position:

"Brethren...... Resist me...... We can't go back any further, if we go back, the chief won't be able to spare us! The imperial court can't spare our chief! …… Whoever wants to run away, think about your parents, think about your family...... Daddy raised you so big, you want them to be implicated with you? …… The Ming army has a total of so many troops, don't look at their menacing, they caught us off guard, and they won't last at all! …… We have an army of 10 million in the Qing Dynasty, which is invincible in the world, and it is a blink of an eye to beat the Ming army back to our hometown! …… Brothers, let's fight this battle well, and give the Ming army a little bit of strength, that is, we have made the first contribution! When you go back, you can make meritorious contributions and be rewarded, and glorify your ancestors...... The military commander spoke, and those who knocked out a tank of the Ming Army, regardless of the officers and soldiers, will be promoted to the third level and rewarded with 300 yuan! ”