The reason for the slow advance of the Second Army was naturally because Du Danqing changed the previous tactics of stupidly defending on the city wall!

Instead of rushing directly above the city walls as before, they began to dig trenches, communication trenches, and build civil forts outside the city walls, and also used some low hills outside the city to build artillery positions for fire.

As for the city wall, they directly used it as an artillery position, in order to only take advantage of the height of the city wall, and they also modified the city wall, piling up a large number of sandbags on the city wall to increase the defensive effect against solid shells and howitzers.

This made the second army attacking outside the city a little uncomfortable!

If you stupidly launch an infantry attack directly, the firepower of the superintendent is not bad, there are not many large-caliber artillery, but there is not much shortage of five-pound field guns, and the bowl mouth cannon and Franc machine gun are even more piles, and the lethal effect of these artillery on the infantry is naturally not bad.

And it is difficult for your own artillery to cover and destroy these Ming troops hiding in trenches and civil forts!

Later, they could only dig trenches in the same way to advance, and then advance to a certain distance and shoot at the Ming army, pulling up the lighter 24-pound howitzers to shoot at close range.

That's a lot of time!

Wang Chaohong is a little hesitant, whether to just rush up directly, although there will be some casualties, but it is better than the current stalemate.

But Wang Chaohong didn't dare to make this kind of decisive battle, the ghost knows how many casualties he would have to pay if he forcibly charged!

He could accept the death of a few hundred people, but if tens of thousands of people were killed or injured, he doubted that the Son of Heaven would be furious, and then directly send himself a cup of poisoned wine!

The Tang Dynasty has always maintained a low casualty rate in battle, even if it is a siege battle, but there are usually not many dead and wounded!

The low casualty rate for a long time and the smooth fighting will inevitably make the generals of the Tang Army have a fear of some difficult battles, especially those that need to bear a high casualty rate.

Li Xuan, who was in Jiujiang, also quickly received a report from the front that the war was not going well!

This report was written by Wang Chaohong himself, giving a detailed account of the many difficulties encountered by the Second Army at present, and at the same time euphemistically proposing whether the Second Army could be given more time to conquer the Huangzhou defense line.

At present, when I saw this report, it was the day before he made instructions on Chen Lifu's case!

Therefore, the current Li Xuan doesn't have the heart to care about the mutual tilting of those officials in Jinling City, and now there are more important things waiting for him to do.

The attack on Huangzhou progressed slowly, and the huge Second Army was almost dragged to the front line of Huangzhou!

It had taken them nearly half a month to kill all the way from Susong to Huangzhou before, and now they have been dragged on for five or six days in Huangzhou, which means that most of the month has been consumed.

Calculating the time, it is almost the middle of December, and if it continues to drag on like this, it is estimated that there will be no way to conquer Huangzhou before the Spring Festival!

Moreover, the battle of Huangzhou is only part of the second phase of the battle plan of a series of southwest campaigns, the second army's attack on Huangzhou is to create an opportunity for the first army to act, if the second army can not inflict heavy damage on the enemy army on the first line of Huangzhou, can not bring more pressure to the superintendent, forcing the Ming army superintendent on the first line of Hanyang to send reinforcements to reinforce Huangzhou, then when the first army lands on the west side of Hanyang, they will be attacked by the main force of the Ming army on the first line of Hanyang.

This is too risky for the subsequent operation plan of the First Army!

Li Xuan thought about it for a long time, and then summoned a group of operational staff officers represented by Lieutenant General Lei Wan to ask their opinions on the battle in Huangzhou!

Lieutenant General Lei Wan said that even though the Second Army encountered some difficulties, these difficulties were not insurmountable, and the Second Army was not allowed to continue to delay in terms of time, so they had to put pressure on the Left Army of the Governor and inflict heavy damage on the department, fearing that the Commander of the Central Army would send reinforcements, or simply break through the Huangzhou defense line and fight all the way to the eastern area of Hanyang.

In this way, we will be able to fight with the landing force of the First Army!

Now the landing force of the First Army, the First Infantry Division, the 10th Infantry Regiment and other units have completed the final preparations, and the Yangtze River Fleet has completely wiped out the remnants of the Ming Army's Supervisory and Biaoshui Division in this section of the Yangtze River Valley, and the ships used to cross the river have also been prepared, and all kinds of ammunition and materials have even been loaded, waiting to launch the river-crossing operation.

However, if they want to cross the river, they need an opportunity, and this opportunity can only be created by the Second Army!

Other operational staff officers also said that the Second Army had no way out, and it had to conquer the first line of Huangzhou before the Spring Festival, even if it could not conquer the first line of Huangzhou, but it must also put heavy pressure on the Left Army of the Governor!

These staff officers of the Operations Department of the Privy Council, proceeding from the overall situation, gave Li Xuan such advice, and after careful consideration, Li Xuan also felt that he was not a mother-in-law and was afraid of casualties.

War, how can there be immortals!

Back then, when their Tang Dynasty King Division first started, it was not a desperate battle that led to today's situation.

At the same time, as the operational staff officers said, the second phase of the Southwest Campaign has now reached the most critical moment, and the Second Army cannot drop the chain!

Therefore, at this time, the various units of the First Army had already launched operations one after another, and the First Army was the main force of the river-crossing troops, ready to cross the Yangtze River at any time and capture the area west of Hanyang.

At the same time, the Second Infantry Division had already left Yuezhou, and under the cover of the navy, they were rapidly advancing westward along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and they were rushing to Jingzhou!

The plans have already been launched, and up to now, because of the distance and backward communications, in fact, Li Xuan has no way to control the actions of the various units of the First Army, no matter whether the Second Army's battle goes smoothly or not, they will carry out operations according to the predetermined plan.

If nothing else, around the 25th of December, the 2nd Infantry Division will officially reach Jingzhou City, and then launch an attack on the city!

And a little earlier, the third mixed group will also cross the river and kill Anluzhou!

The First Infantry Division and other troops will also launch a battle to cross the river during this period of time!

In other words, in the short ten days before the Spring Festival, the units of the First Army will be deployed one after another according to the plan!

Once the chain on the side of the Second Army drops, then Zhang Yue will be able to calmly mobilize all troops to resist the offensive of the First Army, thus causing a stalemate in the battle situation, which the Tang Army absolutely does not want to see.

They must inflict heavy casualties on the Left Army of the Governor of Huangzhou before the Spring Festival, or even more accurately, before December 20, and create huge pressure on them, forcing the Governor of Hanyang to send reinforcements to Huangzhou, or they dare not act rashly and move westward to reinforce Jingzhou or Anluzhou.

The many operational plans of the second stage are linked one by one, and the various departments of the First Army must not make a mess, and the Second Army must not drop the chain, otherwise, the previous achievements will be wasted!

Even if it has water superiority, even if the Tang Army fails in the battle, it can basically rely on the Yangtze River to retreat, but this is not what the Privy Council Operations Department wants, nor does it Li Xuan want.

So after pondering for a while, he called the first commander of the Fifth Army, Lieutenant General Chen Keqiao, and as soon as Chen Keqiao entered his office, Li Xuan asked him: "How is the preparation of the Fifth Army?" ”

The Fifth Army was a strategic reserve for the Southwest Campaign, and according to the Privy Council's battle plan, the appearance time of this army would be at the earliest in the decisive battle of Hanyang.

But now, due to the situation, Li Xuan plans to use this strategic reserve now!

Hearing Li Xuan's question, Chen Keqiao didn't know that it was time for him to lead the Fifth Army to the battlefield, so he immediately raised his head and said: "The 35,000 soldiers of the Fifth Army are training hard day and night, ready to fight for Your Majesty at any time!" ”

"Good!"

Li Xuan, who was dressed in a military uniform, turned around, then pointed to the large map on the wall and said, "Then you are ready to prepare and lead the army to set off westward tomorrow!" ”

To go west, that is to go to Huangzhou.

This is not what Chen Keqiao expected!

The Second Army on the front line of Huangzhou was in trouble, as a senior general of the Tang Army, one of the only few army lieutenant generals, he naturally knew very well, the Second Army was unable to open the situation for a long time, and if he wanted to send reinforcements to them, he could only send his own Fifth Army up.

At this time, Li Xuan did not put down his hand pointing to the map, but said: "However, I didn't ask you to assist the Second Army in attacking the Huangzhou defense line, I want you to bypass the Huangzhou defense line, directly pass the Yangtze River, and land from here under the cover of the navy!" ”

At this time, Li Xuan's hand pointed to a place on the huge map!

It is an area in the northwest of Huanggang County, Huangzhou Prefecture, and in the center of many villages, there is a market town formed by the spontaneous gathering of nearby villagers: Tuanfeng Town.

It's a small place with no name, and even the name on the map is one size smaller, and you can't see it clearly unless you look closely.

Li Xuan pointed to this place and said: "Landing here, cut off the connection between the Huangzhou line and the Hanyang line, and launch an attack on the enemy forces on the Huangzhou defense line from behind!" ”

After that, Li Xuan stared at Chen Keqiao and said, "I want to use the 50,000 pseudo-Ming thieves on the front line of Huangzhou to make a big dumpling!" ”

"And your Fifth Army is the dumpling skin!"

After hearing this, Chen Keqiao's face showed obvious cautiousness, which was different from what he expected, it was not a simple reinforcement, but a direct rearing to cut off the rear of the left army of the superintendent.

And in this way, the pressure on the more than 30,000 recruits of the Fifth Army is even greater!

But after he took a deep breath, his face was resolute: "The minister obeys the order!" ”

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