Episode 52 June 1st

In the third year of Daming Yifu, on June 1, 1936, at half past three in the morning, the Purple Mountain Fortress,.

Most elderly people always have very little sleep time. Tang Yunsheng, chief of the army's general staff and commander of the Red Army in the "fortress exercise," had already woken up at this time and could no longer sleep, so he simply put on his clothes and got up, went to the war room, turned on the lamp, and studied the exercise map again.

Because the exercise was going on today, he didn't even return to his official residence yesterday, but stayed in the headquarters and repeatedly studied the battle plan until midnight. I woke up early this morning.

When the orderly on duty saw that the marshal had risen, he hurried to make him a pot of weak tea according to his custom, held it to the map table, and then quietly retreated.

Tang Yunsheng looked at the schedule at hand again.

At 7:20, Marshal Zhang Zhaoxian and a group of senior Red Army generals rode to the Forbidden City to meet His Majesty.

At 7:35, accompany His Majesty to breakfast.

At 8:00, accompany Your Majesty back to the Red Army Headquarters of the Purple Mountain Fortress, and in the central command hall of the fortress, Your Majesty will announce the official start of the "Fortress Exercise".

At 8:30, he accompanied His Majesty to inspect the Red Air Defense Artillery units around Nanjing.

……

To some extent, an exercise that will determine the national policy of the Ming Empire in the next few years will begin in a few hours.

Tang Yunsheng, a veteran who has studied military art for half his life, couldn't help but be excited at the moment, and even a little nervous. The last time I was so nervous was during the Battle of Nanjing. In order not to take a wrong step in the future of the Ming Empire, and in order to truly test what the set advocated to Xiaoqiang was, Tang Yunsheng made up his mind and decided that this exercise would be merciless and merciless. He's going to put the most pressure on the Blues, and he's going to overwhelm them.

After all, it's six divisions against two divisions. Moreover, how could he, the marshal, not lose to the German lieutenant colonel.

Tang Yunsheng took out the red side's battle plan again, and finally browsed and looked at it. This battle plan is very thick, with more than 500 pages, including various units, links, and sequences...... From aerial reconnaissance, ground reconnaissance, small-scale fire testing, radio interception after the start of the exercise; to the emplacements of each artillery, the distribution of each tank, the careful calculation of every pillbox, the firing point, the installation of every barbed wire; and then to the logistics and transportation of each division, regiment, battalion, company, and platoon, ammunition supply, transportation route arrangement, and the use of mules and horses......

Also, to what extent should a combat unit be withdrawn and replaced with another combat unit; Substitute ...... for battle-damaged commanders

Almost every detail, every step has been taken into account, it can be called meticulous and meticulous, and the whole plan is as precise as a clock. This was the result of Tang Yunsheng himself and the entire staff team of the Red Party staying up late for several days of hard fighting. Tang Yunsheng believed that the level of this set of operational plans was quite high, and after the exercise, it could be included in the reference book of the Army University as a classic lesson plan.

…… Even Marshal Petain of the World War, who only gave him a few days, was only able to write a battle plan......

……

Tang Yunsheng lowered his head and studied the map one last time.

The confrontation line between the red and blue sides extends from the Yangtze River in the north to Huzhou in the south, and is about 100 kilometers long from north to south. But because there is Lake Tai in the middle, the land "border" is less than 50 kilometers.

The entire border is divided into sections: the northernmost part, all by land, about 40 kilometers long; further south is the water boundary, about 15 km long; The lake is also a land border, about 20 kilometers long; To the south is the mighty Taihu Lake, a 50-kilometre-long water border. Further south of Taihu Lake is Huzhou, which is only about ten kilometers away from the mountains of Zhejiang. When we arrived in the mountains of Zhejiang, it was the boundary of the exercise.

The Blues are most likely to break through from the 40km section. Therefore, Tang Yunsheng deployed the Red Army's most elite Red Second Division, Red Third Division, and two whole divisions here.

From the southern end of Taihu Lake to the mountainous area of Zhejiang, although the 10-kilometer section is not long, because of the long distance from the northern defense line, it is not easy to rush to each other's aid, so a whole division is also deployed here, the Red Fifth Division.

This is the first line of defense.

The second line of defense, the Strategic Reserve, was deployed between the Maoshan Mountains and the Yangtze River, and was held by the remaining two divisions, the 1st Red Division and the 6th Red Division. The Maoshan Mountain Range is a north-south mountain range, 50 kilometers long from north to south, which is a natural barrier for the Red Army's mechanized troops. Further south of Maoshan Mountain, there are three large lakes connected together, Shijiu Lake, Gucheng Lake and Nanhu Lake, which stretch for 60 kilometers from north to south and extend to the mountainous areas of Zhejiang. It can be said that this piece is an insurmountable obstacle for the mechanized and motorized troops of the Blue Army. The Blues would rather go head-to-head with the Red Army from the north than go from the south.

Given the Blues' heavy reliance on roads, Tang Yunsheng focused both lines of defense near the roads. There was less than twenty kilometers between the forward line of defense and the reserves, that is, a day and night. With the help of the well-developed road network north of Maoshan, a forced march of 12-15 hours can form reinforcements to the first line.

As long as the first line of defence can hold out for 15 hours, the pressure will be doubled. In this way, the Blues would be firmly held back and suffer heavy losses in the face of a well-established line of trenches, barbed wire, machine-gun pillboxes, artillery positions, and a dense line of almost 10 kilometers of a division.

No matter how you say it, they only have two divisions, and they can't afford to suffer many casualties.

……

At this time, a staff officer knocked on the door and entered. Tang Yunsheng turned around and frowned:

"Why don't you sleep? Do not rise up all after me, because I have risen. How are you going to do this tomorrow? ”

The staff officer was stunned for a moment and said:

"Your Excellency, yes...... It was Colonel Huang Shuliang, commander of the Sixth Red Division, who called to inquire what time the exercise would start tomorrow. ”

"What tomorrow!" Tang Yunsheng glanced at the wall clock and said angrily, "It's already today!" ”

"Yes...... Yes, my lord," the staff officer shrank his head in fright, "Division Commander Huang did ask what time it would start today." ”

Tang Yunsheng frowned:

"Why, there are still people on the front line who don't know?"

"My lord, Master Huang said that there are still many people on the front line who don't know. Division Commander Huang said: At present, the exercise plan in everyone's hands only has what time we will enter the position and what time we will start reconnaissance, but there is no clear statement on what time the exercise will start. ”

Tang Yunsheng suppressed his anger and said:

"Your Majesty announced the exercise on the radio a few days ago, and they didn't hear it?"

"I heard that, but ...... My lord, Your Majesty's decree only said that the exercise would begin on June 1st, and it really didn't say what time it was...... Therefore, Division Commander Huang asked if it could be understood that as long as it was past midnight and entered today, the exercise would begin. ”

Tang Yunsheng slapped the table and said angrily:

"What a question! It's almost four o'clock now, has the drill begun? …… Well, Your Majesty will announce the start of the exercise at eight o'clock sharp, you know? Go tell him! ”

The staff officer stood up and ran away quickly.

……

Tang Yunsheng was very unhappy, sat down and took a sip of tea slowly.

He calmed down and thought about it, and found that it was really a problem, and His Majesty's official decree really didn't say a few specific points. But fortunately, yesterday the palace sent His Majesty's schedule, which showed that His Majesty would go to the command hall of the fortress at eight o'clock to announce the start of the exercise. Otherwise, I really don't know what time it is.

Tang Yunsheng glanced at the clock on the wall, it was already four o'clock in the morning. Outside the window, instead of pitch black, there was some dark blue color.

He pulled up a piece of paper and signed an order: after six o'clock, the exact time of the start of the exercise was copied to all units on both sides of the red and blue sides.

After Tang Yunsheng signed, he tore it off with a "swish", then pressed the bell on the table and called the staff officer in.

Who knew that after a long time after the bell was ringed, the staff officer just now was not there.

Impatiently, he pressed hard a few more times.

After a few seconds, the orderly came in:

"Adult ......"

Tang Yunsheng saw that it was an orderly, and frowned:

"My name is Staff Officer, what are you doing here?"

The orderly said with some nervousness:

"My lord, there was an emergency call just now, and the staff officer went to answer it. My lord, what do you command? ”

Tang Yunsheng waved his hand:

"Okay, you go down first, wait for him to answer the phone, and ask him to come over."

……

Between the Yangtze River and the lake, on the border of the Red and Blue armies, the Red Second Division defended the ground.

Barbed wire, trenches and machine gun emplacements and pillboxes are tightly arranged here. It's just that because it's an exercise, it's just a temporary bunker built with sandbags and planks to replace the permanent bunker. During the exercise, their "strike resistance" was adjusted to be as strong as that of the permanent bunkers.

Behind the pitch-black position, anti-tank guns were pointed to the east. On the other side of the battle line, it may be the Blues who are eyeing the tiger.

It's just that behind these gun emplacements, in the trenches, and in the pillboxes, there are either no soldiers, or a small number of soldiers are sleeping. More soldiers slept in field tents behind the trenches. It was only because there were not enough tents that some unlucky people slept in the trenches.

All the officers and men of the Red Army have received orders to sleep well tonight, recuperate their spirits, and prepare for tomorrow's exercise.

Only now, an unusual sound interrupted the sleep of some of the soldiers.

A "buzzing" sound was faintly heard from a distance.

Gradually, louder and louder.

……

"Hmm......"

In the tent, where he was sleeping well, a GI rubbed his eyes, rolled over, muttered two muttered mutters in his mouth, and fell asleep again.

The snoring in the tent was like thunder, but the "buzzing" outside was getting louder and louder, and it had become a kind of roar, completely covering the snoring in the tent.

Another soldier sat up with a "whirl", hung his head for a long time, scratched his head, got out of his sleeping bag, and staggered out to urinate.

As he stepped out of the tent, he suddenly heard a loud roar in the sky.

He was a little stunned and looked up at the sky. It was still dark in the sky, with only a few stars, and nothing else could be seen.

But nearby, quite a few soldiers had come out of the tents, and they were all like him, sleepy-eyed, looking at the sky inexplicably, and at each other.

"What's going on?"

"Who knows."

"Capture the airstrike?"

"Nonsense, how can the Qingyu air raid come from the east."

"It's not a drill, is it?"

"Cut, what time is it? Exercise! ”

"The drill has begun, right? It's June 1st. ”

"I heard it didn't start until eight o'clock."

"Eight o'clock? Who do you kid listen to? ”

"That's it...... Listen to that ...... who said it."

……

More and more soldiers were woken up, got out of their tents, and looked up at the sky.

Not to mention, if you have good eyes, you can really see some dark shadows passing by under the starlight.

After a while, the roar faded into silence and finally disappeared to the west. There was only a group of soldiers left beside the trench who were confused by the second monk.

As to whether this was part of the exercise, many of the junior officers present also had diametrically opposed opinions. Some insisted that this was an exercise, and that the planes of the red side had already passed; Some said that the exercise would not begin until 8 o'clock, and that these planes might be a normal deployment of the army aviation. Others firmly believe that this is a large-scale invasion by the Qing captives......

However, they unanimously agreed to report to their superiors immediately.

The herald ran in the direction of the battalion headquarters. After a while, another herald ran back from a distance and received an order from the regimental headquarters: the matter of the plane had been reported upwards. Now order everyone to continue sleeping, recuperate and prepare for tomorrow's exercise.

The soldiers muttered and slipped back into their tents, forcing themselves back to sleep.