Episode 27 Main Direction of Attack

From October 9th to October 15th, in six days, the Ming army of 800,000 against the Qing army of 500,000, plus the comprehensive superiority from the air to the ground, by the 15th, the Qing army south of the Huai River was completely annihilated. There were now endless queues of captives on all roads.

These 500,000 Qing troops, plus the 2-day full-front attack on the 4th and 5th, were annihilated by the Ming army and surrendered to the Ming army about 300,000 Qing troops, as of the 15th, the Ming army has annihilated 800,000 Qing troops.

And this took only 11 days.

This lightning war launched by the Southern Ming Empire really made the whole world stunned. Whether it is the United Kingdom, the United States, France and other Western countries, or Germany, the strategic partner of the Ming Dynasty, or the Soviet Union, which has complicated feelings about the Southern Ming and Northern Expeditions, or Japan watching the fire from across the strait, no matter what their emotions are, they all have a common feeling: that is, it is like watching magic. And it's the kind of magic that transforms people.

Consternation. Can't believe it. Jaw drop.

It was hard for all countries to believe that in their eyes, Nanming, who had always trembled under the authority of the Northern Qing Dynasty and only sought self-preservation, could suddenly show such amazing martial arts this time.

There was no warning in advance, and at dawn there was a sudden all-out attack, as fast as lightning, and within a few days, the aircraft and tanks swept through the Northern Qing Dynasty, and 800,000 Qing troops were annihilated in 11 days.

It's almost like a myth.

One of the most important questions the world wants to ask is: What happened to these two countries? Did the Northern Qing suddenly become weaker, or did the Southern Ming suddenly become stronger?

Germany reacted the fastest. On the 5th, the day after the war, when the whole world was still in shock and could not figure out what was going on, Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag. Although Hitler was quite shocked and worried that Nanming might be caught in a large-scale war and could not afford to continue to intervene in Spain with him, the news was mainly good for him.

Because Hitler intended to form a long-term alliance with Nanming, and in his mind, the unshakable goal was to eliminate the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks, and even the Slavs. And the best thing is that on the other side of the world, there is another power to fight the Soviet Union with him. Originally, Hitler would not have dared to think of this. Because even if Nanming has this meaning, there is still a Beiqing in the middle. But now it's different, Nanming seems to have officially started to slaughter the Northern Qing. It's hard to say whether it will succeed or not, but after all, it opens up the possibility.

When Xiang Xiaoqiang visited Germany, he and Hitler vaguely understood this meaning. At that time, Hitler was just like a young man, who didn't know the sky and was talking crazy. Not to mention that the Ming Dynasty is very far from the border with the Soviet Union, and even Germany has a long way to go from the border with the Soviet Union. (Of course, Hitler himself was quite confident in himself)

But now it seems that the Ming Dynasty has "taken the first step". Daming did not promise Hitler that after the reunification of China, he would have the opportunity to flank the Soviet Union with him in the future. However, regardless of whether Nanming is willing to fight the Soviet Union with Germany in the future, at least this huge possibility has opened the door. Even if the Ming Dynasty did not want to provoke the Soviet Union in the future, then the Soviet Union would have to face a unified power and power in the Far East, and it would turn its attention to the Far East. And Germany's actions in Europe will be much freer.

Germany and the Ming Dynasty are separated from each other at the two ends of the world, and even in the very distant future, there is basically no possibility of geopolitical hegemony. Therefore, Hitler hoped that the Ming Dynasty would become as strong as possible, and that it would be better to be out of control, become a belligerent country, and become a staunch "comrade-in-arms" of Germany in the future. It's a "win-win", and it's clear that one plus one is greater than two.

Compared to these, the in Spain is simply negligible.

In his speech, Hitler praised this as a "great war" and deliberately strengthened the national character of the war, saying that it was "a general reckoning with the oppression of a superior nation against an inferior nation for three hundred years."

Hitler was visibly excited, and cheered hard for Ming's victory.

In the hall of the Congress, under the huge bright red banner of the word "swastika", he stomped his feet and waved his hands, and made violent gestures more than a dozen times a minute, roaring, the muscles on his face were so excited that they were almost shaking, and almost every time he shouted, the "congressmen" in uniform in the entire hall stomped their feet, raised their arms, and shouted in unison, "Long live victory", and the sound almost toppled the roof.

Hitler, on the other hand, stretched out his right arm, wearing a swastika armband, and greeted him proudly to the left and right, but his face was always grim.

The speech conveyed a message to the German people: since the Han nation, which had been oppressed by the inferior Tatar peoples for 300 years, could work hard and fight back, how could the Germanic nations, which were much better than the Han nations in the East, not be able to quickly break the enslavement of the Treaty of Versailles?

Of course, in the last paragraph of his speech, Hitler, as always, made it clear that he loved peace, and how and how...... Germany was the country that felt the pain of war the most in the European War, so it was naturally the one who hated war the most and cherished peace the most......

……

But the reaction of the Soviet Union was very complicated. While the newspapers of various countries were reporting on it at the first time, the Soviet newspapers were silent, as if there was no such thing. It was only on the second day of the war that Izvestia published an article on its sub-page, not yet the kind of unambiguous politicized language, but only a tendentious report.

Stalin was on the sidelines. Stalin was much more rational and dignified than Hitler. He wasn't sure how far the attack would go. Although Nanming's notes to various countries clearly stated that the purpose of the war was to recover all the land, it was after all a political and declarative thing, and could not be regarded as Nanming's real war plan.

Stalin's attitude towards the war was the opposite of Hitler's. There is no doubt that for the Soviet Union, the unification of China by the Southern Ming Dynasty was absolutely bad and absolutely unacceptable. If it really came to that point, even if the Soviet Union gave up meddling in Spain, it would give up its full support for the Northern Qing Dynasty and maintain the division of China.

But now, the situation is not clear, and Stalin still needs to be observed. What Stalin didn't want to see was just a unified China. On the premise that there is no reunification, it is a good thing for the two sides to fight a war and lose both. In his traditional view, the Northern Qing Dynasty was too strong, and the Southern Ming Dynasty was too weak. In addition, the Soviet Union borders the Northern Qing Dynasty again, and it is definitely not a good thing that the Northern Qing Dynasty is too strong. At this time, the Southern Ming attacked the Northern Qing Dynasty, which could balance the forces of the two sides, which was the best.

On the contrary, if the Southern Ming suffered a great defeat, but was pursued all the way south by the Northern Qing Dynasty, and there was a danger of unifying China by the Northern Qing, Stalin would have to consider increasing troops on the Soviet-Qing border, putting pressure on the Northern Qing, and pulling the Southern Ming along.

Therefore, the scheming Stalin only let the publication of such a tepid article be regarded as a gesture and, by the way, demonstrate the Soviet Union's consistent "anti-war and peace-loving" position.

……

Both the German and Soviet media were heavily regulated, so that both had only one voice, but the opposite. In countries where the media in Britain, the United States, France, and other countries are open, the media are arguing with a hundred schools of thought, and there is nothing to say. Although Japan began to become more and more extreme militaristic after February 26 this year, the media was not yet under control at this time. The Japanese people are also very concerned about politics and think that they are "responsible." Moreover, because the two sides of the war are on the edge of Japan, if something happens on the East Asian continent, Japan will pay more attention than the Western countries.

Western newspapers talk about the war largely from the point of view of "good and evil", especially in the American media. There are quite a few people who say that Americans are like a bunch of naïve big kids, always fantasizing that the world is made up of dragons and knights, and that they are on the side of knights. Unlike the Eurasian countries, which have been brought up in misery and have already had a lot of accidents, the young United States is still very accustomed to dividing the countries of the world into "good countries" and "bad countries." At this time, the Southern Ming and Northern Qing Dynasty were obviously "good countries" and "bad countries". Most newspapers in the United States also vigorously reported and commented, and the newspapers published cartoons one after another.

Japanese newspapers say the opposite. The citizens of the imperial kingdom who grew up drinking wolf milk looked at the problem and did not consider the factors of good and evil at all. They look at the problem entirely from the perspective of "the law of the jungle" and "the law of the jungle". The newspapers have been debating the question of whether this is a crisis or an opportunity for Japan. If Nanming really has the ability to unify China, then do we just watch them unify like this? What can we, Japan, gain from this war? If we do, how? Nanming holds the Strait of Malacca and holds the throat of Great Japan, what should we do? ……

There are even quite a few very "indignant" articles that directly put forward Japan's plan to attack the East Asian continent: Japan should attack whom first and then whom, and how it should fight first...... In the end, he also wept blood and pleaded with the "relevant departments" to see it and march to the Imperial Palace of His Majesty the Emperor on behalf of 100 million people.

In short, the patriotic fervor of the whole of Japan was vented in this war. From middle- and lower-ranking officers in the army to middle school students, they all looked at it and were eager for the Imperial Japanese Army to immediately attack the East Asian continent and join this round of competition for the future of the imperial country.

……

Zhengzhou, like Xuzhou, is also another major garrison in the Central Plains. Zhengzhou is the intersection of the Qinqi Railway (Xi'an to Weihai) and the Jingnan Railway (Beijing to Nanyang), with Luoyang to the west and Hanguguan to the west. It can be said that as a military location, Zhengzhou's status is no less than that of Xuzhou. The Qing army's regular garrison from Hangu Pass to Luoyang, Zhengzhou, and Xinxiang had 20 divisions, which had already been connected with the Xuzhou Corps in the east, forming a strong defensive belt.

Although Zhengzhou's military strength is still relatively weak compared to Xuzhou, there is a reason for weakness. The terrain here is not as good as the North China Plain in the east, but the Taihang Mountains in the north, the Qinling Mountains in the south, and the long and narrow Hornmouth Plain in the middle, which is narrower and narrower to the west, and finally shrinks into a pass like Hangu Pass and Tongguan. Since then, it has not been able to accommodate a large corps like Xuzhou, and secondly, it is also the terrain of "one man is the pass, ten thousand people are not open", and the north of Zhengzhou is the Yellow River. Guangwu still has a lot of confidence here. He believed that if the Ming army attacked next, it would definitely concentrate its forces and attack from the east, that is, from the area of Xuzhou and Shangqiu. And in that area, an army of nearly a million has been gathered, and it is digging a defensive line day and night.

In addition, with the possibility of the Ming army landing in Shandong, the east will be even more heavy. More troops are still being assembled in Xuzhou. Guangwu's idea was that, no matter what, let's first accumulate as many troops here as possible. If the Ming army's attack on Shandong was imminent, troops could be transferred from Xuzhou into the Shandong Peninsula nearby.

The largest tank factory in the Northern Qing Dynasty, the Zhangjiakou Arsenal, has new tanks loaded onto flatbed trains every day, from the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway and the Jinpu Railway to the south, and sent to the Xuzhou Corps.

In the next step, if the Ming army wants to attack north, whether from the east (Xuzhou) or from the west (Zhengzhou), it will face a tough battle. The kind of tailwind fight of the first ten days seems to be gone.

……

On the 15th, on the eleventh day of the war, the Ming Army's Left Army Group suddenly turned around, turned northwest from the north of Dabie Mountain, and went straight to Xuchang. At noon on the 15th, Xuchang was conquered. The troops approached Zhengzhou in the north. Obviously, for the next main direction of attack, the Ming army has already made a choice.