Section 82 Operational Plans

"The most suitable location is at the foot of Chengmai County, and the second is at the stone mountain halfway between Qiongshan and Chengmai." The east gate blows rain and points at two places with a whip.

"According to the map data and the investigation of the special investigation team, the stone mountain is 112.5 meters above sea level, and it is a single extinct volcano of the cone type, with a slope of 31 degrees to 55 degrees, and the vegetation is mainly deciduous and evergreen mixed forest. The nearest post road is 362.4 meters away. Intercepting the officers and troops here, the Fubo army can have the advantage of terrain. ”

As the whip of the rain blows at the east gate, the officers cast their eyes on a small hill on the sand table, where the post road winds its way through the foothills, and there is a large open space at the southern foot of the hillside.

"Please look at the slideshow."

With his voice, photographs of the rocky mountains taken on the spot appeared on the curtain wall, including on-site photos of the shape of the mountain, the mountain, the distance and direction between the mountain and the post road, and other angles.

The people present have just seen the topographic map of the sand table, and now they look at the field photos, and when they compare the two, they have a more specific impression.

"Shishan is 17 kilometers away from Qiongshan County to the east and 16 kilometers away from Chengmai County to the west, which is equivalent to the middle section from Qiongshan to Chengmai. Fighting here our side has a certain geographical advantage, and the artillery can be placed on the top of the mountain. An observation post is set up at the top of the mountain, equipped with high-powered telescopes, which can monitor the situation within a radius of more than 10 kilometers. ”

Everyone looked at the slide lantern intently, and some people began to discuss where to set up the formation.

Judging from the sand table and photos, there is a large open space in the north of the mountain, and the main force is lined up here enough to force the Ming army to fight. Together with the fire support of artillery, the advantage is very obvious.

"There will be a battle here, and once the enemy is broken, they will scatter and run." Someone objected, "This is an inland area, and it is a rolling hilly area, and the vegetation is quite dense from the photographs, and it will be difficult for the enemy to take prisoners once they are dispersed." ”

"Our soldiers are trained according to the tactics of lining up to shoot." Fu Sansi coughed, he was a former PLA company commander, he had been in the recruit camp for a long time, and he was very good at training soldiers. He is currently the Director of Training. Because there are not enough professional soldiers, he temporarily acted as the commander of the fifth battalion in this army expansion, "About half of the soldiers in the army have been recruited in the last three months, and most of them are still relatively new to conducting skirmish operations in complex terrain. Once a pursuit interception operation was launched, the battle infantry was almost useless and had to rely on grenadiers and light infantry. ”

"I think it's better to fight under Chengmai City," Zhu Quanxing said, this person is in his thirties, born as a small clerk, with a beard and small eyes, he is the commander of the sixth battalion of the newly formed infantry, and he has no actual combat experience at all. relied on the fanatical practice of queue tactics to shoot in line, and became the acting battalion commander.

The terrain under the city of Chengmai is flat, which is easy for the poorly trained troops to carry out maneuver and combat, and the county town of Chengmai is very close to the sea, so it can get the support of the navy, in contrast, the stone mountain is more than 20 kilometers away from the coastline, and the navy can't even watch the excitement. Not to mention support.

"This is a photo of Chengmai County and its surroundings." The east gate blew rain and replaced the slide lantern with Chengmai County. Chengmai County is located on the riverside only three or four kilometers away from the sea, the post road comes from the south, passes through the south gate of Chengmai County and then turns west.

To defeat the enemy here, part of the defeated army will try to rush into Chengmai County, relying on the city to hold on and wait for reinforcements, and part of it will retreat along the post road in the direction of Qiongshan County.

According to one of the many plans drawn up by the General Staff, a small number of troops and artillery would be ambushed in advance near the rocky hill or other favorable terrain to form an interception line, and intercept the enemy when they broke and fled here, and at the same time take advantage of the situation to force the defeated army to surrender.

However, such a plan would lead to a further division of forces, and it is highly doubtful that a small number of troops would be able to form a thin blockade line to stop a desperate rout in the context of the overall lack of troops.

Another plan of the General Staff: to use the mobility and battlefield control of the Fubo Army to defeat the enemy army under the city of Chengmai, and then use the mobile combat of the troops -- if necessary, cooperate with armed agricultural vehicles to block the post road to Qiongshan, vacate a gap in the direction of Chengmai County, and force most of its defeated troops to flee into Chengmai County.

In this way, a situation of cage city operations was formed. More than 10,000 horses fled into the small Chengmai, there was no food and grass and no rescuers, under the superior artillery fire of the Fubo army, it was soon able to force it to surrender, and even if it did not surrender, it could quickly break the city.

Although this has broken a county seat in Daming, it is only a county seat after all. If you die a county master, the shock will not be too big. After the battle is over, Dake can withdraw from the county seat, so that later officials can declare "revenge".

"I personally have an opinion." Someone raised their hand.

"Please." Dongmen Blowing Rain saw that this person was Zhu Mingxia, the commander of the fourth battalion, with extremely short hair and dark and rough skin. Very tough, this person is from the armed police, and he is very experienced in squad and platoon tactics.

"First of all, the enemy may not surrender. If the enemy does not surrender, the siege will inevitably result in heavy casualties. "We do have an artillery advantage, but with the fire of 12-pounder cannons and 24-pounder howitzers, we obviously can't destroy the walls." The soldiers still had to climb the city to break into the city. If the enemy is more stubborn, the street fighting after our army climbs the city and enters the city can bring more losses to our army. ”

He strode to the sand table: "My suggestion is that after the enemy army is defeated, take advantage of the characteristics of our army's high machine power, and quickly squeeze the remnants of the Ming army to the 'Jedi' after defeating the enemy, forming an encirclement and total annihilation." It is not uncommon in military history for a small number of troops to surround a large group of fleeing enemy forces. ”

The crowd watched intently as his whip moved.

"I studied the geographical information prepared by the General Staff, and there is a place that is very suitable." He pointed to the Hexiazi triangle in the south of the county seat on the sand table, "This place is surrounded by water on three sides, and it will be difficult for the enemy to break through once they enter it. Our army will be able to effectively form a siege of the enemy with a small number of troops. ”

"It's too small, and the river isn't deep enough." Dongmen Fuyu said, "According to the report of the reconnaissance team, the average depth of this river is only 1~1.2 meters, and it can barely be crossed. ”

"Then press it to the beach." Zhu Mingxia said.

This proposal aroused the approval of the majority, firstly they all felt that ordering the soldiers to carry ladders to climb the city was likely to suffer heavy casualties, and secondly, forcing the enemy to retreat to the sea could be supported by naval warships. Under the siege of both land and sea and the artillery fire of the superior warships of the navy, the enemy's morale will fall further, and it will be easy to surrender in large numbers.

The General Staff immediately studied it and revised the plan.

There is a small peninsula called Xiaoyingchang in the northwest of Chengmai County, forcing the enemy into this place, and the Fubo army only needs naval ships and a small number of infantry to form a siege posture.

Zuihou He Ming decided to start a battle with the Ming army under Chengmai County, and his determination was: to launch the main force in the south of Chengmai County, defeat the main force of the Ming army in the battle, and then force the enemy to retreat to the seaside Xiaoyingchang or the county town with mobile forces, so as to achieve the goal of gathering and annihilating.

It was decided that the total strength of the battle would be five infantry battalions. In addition to the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 2nd Infantry Battalions, the Lingao Garrison Battalion that stayed at Lingao, and the infantry training team to train new recruits, the infantry units of the Fubo Army were dispatched.

The artillery dispatched three field artillery batteries, and a supplementary company was formed by the artillery training team, which carried up to 20 artillery guns as a replacement reserve in addition to the artillery cadets.

In addition to Ye Mengyan's detachment, the special investigation team was transferred to Bei Wei to personally command a detachment.

Panda commanded the engineer company. Originally, he wanted to set up another infrastructure engineering corps, but time was running out, and the executive committee decided to temporarily subordinate the engineering team building roads in Chengmai County to him with personnel and equipment.

The auxiliary forces of the Fubo Army were large and consisted of cooks, transports, health teams and stretcher teams, most of which were conscripted militiamen. It was organized into a field army logistics column. Jia Mofei served as the commander-in-chief of the logistics column, and this person previously worked in the logistics industry and had considerable experience in organizing material transfers.

The total number of troops participating in the battle was 10,000. Of these, there were 4,500 infantrymen, 750 artillerymen, and 200 engineers. In addition, there are 400 infantry artillery engineers and technicians, and the rest are auxiliary personnel for transportation, sanitation, rear guard, and military industry.

The Navy dispatched two 8154s, four brigs, and twelve dhows patrol boats, and at the same time a naval battalion was on standby at Bopu as a general reserve to enter the battle as appropriate.

In accordance with the regulations on the establishment issued in advance, the field army has reorganized and adjusted all its units, and the basic tactical unit of the field army has been formally established as follows: eight companies per battalion: one company each for grenadiers and light infantry, and the rest for battle infantry companies. This is a typical compilation of the era of queue shooting. A grenadier must not only be "strong and brave and good at fighting", but also a real "grenadier". As for the light infantry, the standard of the era of lining up for shooting was the use of rifled rifles, short and nimble, and composed of soldiers trained in skirmisher combat. However, since the Fubo army was already fully equipped with rifled rifles, and the skirmish tactics were also fully trained, the light infantry was only a kind of special name for skirmishing.

Each infantry company consisted of 3 officers, 5 non-commissioned officers, 1 drummer, 1 flutist, and 90 soldiers. In this way, the number of fighters in the battalion is about 800. It can roughly complete the combat mission of its own.

In order to motivate the soldiers with a sense of honor, grenadiers and light infantry were given special clothing ornaments, and the grenadiers were distributed with red cords, and the light infantry was green. There is hardly beauty in hanging on the soldiers in rudimentary gray uniforms.

"Let's make do with it, and we'll change our outfits when we're done fighting. The soldiers were dressed literally like flour bags. Not at all mighty. After inspecting the troops, Wen Desi made a big comment on the issue of clothing, "The officer's appearance is too earthy, and he just has a command knife." It's not at all different. The positions of officers and non-commissioned officers must be very conspicuous in line to be shot and killed, so as to boost morale."

"Put a feather on the officer's helmet?" He Ming's mind couldn't turn around, he vaguely remembered that in the movies he had seen, there were feathers or something like a feather duster on the hats of the officers who lined up to be shot.

"It's too ugly, you need a proper hat or helmet to use feathers, what does a feather look like in a helmet," said Wen Deji dissatisfied, "for the time being, use a knot on the helmet to decorate." Look for the information, I remember someone who has a lot of research on this."

After the completion of the establishment, the Senate held a solemn ceremony to award the military flag in Mayuan, and awarded the army flag to the battalions.

The military flag is bright red, and in the center is a large yellow five-pointed star that symbolizes the spread of the wormhole that radiates light, and on the five-pointed star is a clenched fist raised by Xiangshang, symbolizing the armed forces of the empire. A long strip of white cloth with the number of the camp written on it is sewn close to the flagpole. The flagpole is a long white pole topped by a bronze double-headed eagle, symbolizing the imperial power that looks over the eastern and western hemispheres. The double-headed eagle stands on a bronze wreath of oak leaves, and in the center of the wreath is the number of troops in Roman characters. Under the double-headed eagle, an additional golden ribbon can be used to mark the honorary titles and medals of the battalion.

In addition to the battalion flag, each battalion can also have its own battalion flag, with any design, as a special emblem for the battalion. This caused a wave of totemic frenzy, and the five battalions that participated in the battle had some animals and some with patterns, and for a time there was a lot of fun, because the commanders and company commanders of each battalion had different aesthetic tastes, such as the double bear underpants flag, the Shenglong hiccup flag, and other strange flags were introduced one after another, and in view of the fact that the quarrel was inconclusive for a while, the General Staff had to temporarily ask everyone not to continue the endless discussion on this issue -- wait until the battle was over.

Infantry companies below the battalion level are also issued with company flags, which are smaller in size than battalion flags. The company flag does not symbolize the power of the Senate like the battalion flag, but only the symbol of the troops.

After the ceremony of awarding the military flag, the field army held a military parade in Mayuan, and the whole army carried out an infantry formation in half a battalion, and smoke and dust billowed on the exercise ground and the sound of artillery rumbled. The people in the vicinity all knew that the Australians or thieves in Lingao were about to fight with the official army.

With the Fubo army in the horses, the soldiers are motivating. After more than two months of preparation, the officers and troops assembled in Guangzhou finally began a large-scale sea crossing operation in June 1630.

Whether it is the reconnaissance detachment of the special reconnaissance unit that is ambushed outside the county seat of Qiongshan and the Qianhu Office in Haikou, the intelligence organization in Qiongshan County, and even the intelligence personnel in Guangzhou, they are all issuing warnings that the main force of the official army has begun to cross the sea and assemble.

The guards and townsmen in Qiongshan, Chengmai, Wenchang and other places were also assembling in the direction of Haikou. According to the latest report, the official army will hold a large flag parade in Haikou at the end of June of the solar calendar.

As is customary, after the Great Parade of the Flag, the army will set off - a great war is imminent.

The sound of the cannon woke up Gou Chengxuan, who was sleeping soundly. He quickly got up. Get dressed. After Lai Da volunteered to go to Lingao to inquire about the military situation and launched the Xiangyong, his situation became better and better, although there was no clear announcement, but He Rubin seemed to have treated him as a guest, not only allocated him an old man in his fifties for him to send, but the supply was much more generous than at the beginning. Although it is not as good as the official staff, it is at least better than the average soldier.

Because he was not an official staff member and was not an officer, he did not need to attend meetings as usual, and He Rubin would only summon him when he needed his consultation. Gou Chengxuan's life was very casual.

At the end of June, he crossed the sea with He Rubin's Chinese army to Qiongzhou Mansion. After returning to Qiongzhou Mansion, he spent almost every day and night in extreme excitement, thinking that he had been hiding in Tibet like a mouse for more than two years, not only risking the danger of being hunted by thieves, but also suffering the eyes of others, and now he was going back to his hometown with the army, and the excitement was indescribable.

From the beginning of his Chinese army crossing the sea, the Weisuo Cao army and the Xiangyong army mobilized from the counties in the northeast of Qiongzhou arrived at the Qiongshan camp one after another.

He Rubin gathered the army outside Qiongshan County, and in order to express his attitude of going to Rongji in person, he set up his tent outside the city, instead of occupying the houses in the city.

On the fields outside the county seat, the barracks of the officers and soldiers were one after another, day and night, drums and horns were in the sky, people shouted and horses neighed, and there was a tense atmosphere before the war.

Gou Chengxuan's military camp is the location of He Rubin's Chinese military camp, located on a small hillside. Sunward leeward. Standing in front of the tent, you can overlook the entire school field in front of the Zhongjun Village.

Although the formal drill and flag sacrifice did not begin until midnight, the soldiers who were still sleeping in their respective tents had been awakened by the sound of cannons and horns just now, and they came out of the tents one after another. As a result, the camps became crowded again, and people shouted and neighed.

Some of the soldiers were in a hurry to put on their clothes, some were in a hurry to run to the thatch to relieve their hands, and some were so fast that they were already around the men with rice bowls and ready to eat, and some were packed up with knives and guns, wore helmets and armor, scrubbed firearms, and prepared saddles for war horses...... And all that. As they moved, all kinds of voices, footsteps, and the clamming of utensils rang out in a noisy.

Gou Chengxuan had never seen such a scene, and when he saw such a magnificent scene, he thought that the prestige of the official army was so strong, and it was probably difficult to resist the firearms of the thieves. He looked excitedly.

I saw that a small group of men and horses had begun to assemble in the school field, and the battalions were mobilized from the mainland, the old weapons and armor were the local guards, and the villagers were only wearing cloth uniforms and holding a variety of weapons. No matter which way they go, they all carry all kinds of flags.

"Woo--woo--woo--" The long trumpet sounded again. Gou Chengxuan looked over and found that an earthen platform had been built on the school grounds, which was about to be used for military parades and flags. Curtains were erected on the stage, and seats were arranged. On the left and right, there are many large and small flags. A wide staircase runs diagonally from the front to the ground. In front of the altar to the left, there is also a giant flagpole. On the one hand, the Chinese army was sitting in the morning breeze, making the sound of hunting.