Episode 91 First Sight of a Tough Battle

Suxian, Suining, .

As far as the eye can see, there are endless plains, and there is not a single mountain in sight. This was the first time that the two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties engaged in a large-scale head-to-head duel on the North China Plain.

The sky was gray, separated by heavy gunpowder smoke and dust, and the rising sun was blood-red and blood-red, and there was a gloomy cloud. The dive bomber screamed, drilling up and down in the rapidly billowing black smoke.

The land was devastated. The tanks roared, their butts puffing green smoke, and they formed loose formations and struggled through the potholed fields. The wide tracks flicked the dirt quickly, the barrels of the guns pressed low, pointed forward, and fired a shot at the Qing position from time to time.

In the middle of the tank formation, huge columns of smoke rose one after another, and every few moments a tank shuddered, then stopped, and then flames erupted. I don't know if it was a mine or an anti-tank gun.

Now is the time for the artillery of the Qing army to pour down. On the battlefield in the Central Plains, the Qing army concentrated about 50,000 artillery pieces of various calibers, almost constituting a set of large-depth echelon defensive firepower system.

During the Jianghuai Campaign, the first stage of the war, because the Ming army attacked suddenly, the Qing army had no time to deploy, so it basically existed in a "point" shape, and the personnel and equipment were concentrated in the permanent military camps near the city and county seat in accordance with the state of peacetime. When the Ming army attacked in the air, they all went straight to it, and there was no need to look for it. The personnel were annihilated in the barracks, and the equipment was blown up in the warehouses, and the effect was very ideal.

But now, the Qing army has entered a state of war and is unfolding in the shape of a "face". The artillery of the Central Plains Corps was too much, it was too scattered, and it was too well hidden. Before this attack, the heavy artillery of the Ming army's aerial reconnaissance obtained the precise position only accounted for about 20%. Now half of these two heavy artillery pieces have been wiped out in the initial bombardment. In other words, at present, ninety percent of the heavy artillery of the Central Plains Corps is intact. And other small and medium-caliber artillery that was easy to conceal, except for the losses in the preparation of the Ming army's firepower, were almost undamaged.

It can be said that the time has come to really test the Ming army.

……

The defense line of the Central Plains Corps of the Qing Army relies on the Yellow River in the west, the Yellow Sea in the east, and runs through Heze, Dingtao, Shangqiu, Yongcheng, Suxian, Suining, Suqian, Guanyun and Haizhou from west to east, with a total length of about 520 kilometers, slightly forming a gentle arc-shaped convex surface to the south, which can also be barely called a gentle "protrusion".

On this line of defense, the Shangqiu-Suxian-Suqian section was the key defense section of the Qing army. Because the front and back of this place is Xuzhou, and there is the only north-south artery in the east: the Jinpu Railway. The Ming army broke through in other directions, and the pressure on automobile transportation was greater. But if there is a breakthrough here, the ready-made railway will be ready for use in no time. So the interest of the Ming army to break through here is also the greatest.

On this key section of the defensive line, the Qing artillery reached an average of 45 guns per 100 meters. In the strip closest to the Xuzhou and Jinpu railways, the density of artillery reached 60 guns per 100 meters. And that's just the various anti-tank guns, mortars and howitzers, not counting anti-aircraft guns.

Behind the front-line trenches, anti-tank guns were densely arranged, a few meters away. Along the long trenches, the flames of the muzzles of the guns flashed incessantly, and from the sky, it looked like a long firecracker had exploded on the ground. Behind the anti-tank positions and infantry positions, the howitzer positions of the Qing army were also pouring shells into the Ming tank group like a boiling pot.

In the sky, the Ming army's dive bombers were in groups of three, braving dense anti-aircraft artillery fire, rushing down like crazy. The Ming army fought hard for this campaign, and dispatched 630 dive bombers. But the battlefield is too vast. In the first few tens of minutes, the battlefield can guarantee about one bomber per square kilometer, but as more and more dive bombers return due to ammunition, fuel, malfunction, and other reasons, plus those shot down, the number of bombers over the entire battlefield plummets.

Two hours after the attack, only a quarter of the dive bombers were still over the battlefield. A quarter of them returned to the battlefield after the first round of bombing, refueling, reloading, and a short rest for the pilots. From this time on, 150-200 dive bombers were regularly maintained over the battlefield throughout the campaign - this was already ideal.

At present, these 150 dive bombers have to face more than 50 anti-aircraft guns on average, and their danger can be imagined.

By half past eight in the morning, the Ming army, having paid the price of 42 dive bombers shot down and 65 tanks and 70 armored personnel carriers destroyed, advanced two kilometers north, about 10 kilometers from Suxian. The Ming army again encountered fierce resistance from the Qing army.

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The Ming army was obviously not used to such fierce resistance by the Qing army. They're used to a way of charging and then grabbing prisoners all over the hills. Now that he suddenly encountered a tough battle, although he would not be beaten and turn around and run, everyone from officers to soldiers was very confused while fighting hard. They don't know what's wrong with the Qing army, why it's suddenly so capable of fighting.

Tank Regiment of the 2nd Division of the People's Guard, Field Regiment Headquarters.

The so-called regimental headquarters is a couple of armored command vehicles parked there. The staff officers and communications officers of the regimental headquarters were crowded inside, shouting into the microphone, and they were very busy.

In the distance, there is smoke and dust that obscure the sky. The ground shook beneath his feet, and occasionally one or two grenades landed nearby, shaking the ground and causing the roofs of several armored vehicles to "clank" and the dirt fell for a while. The officers in the car did not react too much except for holding on to the table and subconsciously squatting down, and after the explosion, they were still noisy, shouting, and ordering.

Shi Shengli thought that the caliber of the periscope on the roof of the armored car was too small and the field of vision was too narrow, so he asked people to put a large-caliber cannon mirror outside the car, and there were no sandbags around, so he personally squatted there to observe the battle situation ahead.

This is a vantage point from which you can observe far away.

Another shell exploded a few dozen meters away, and a little dirt fell on Shi Shengli's head. But he was wearing a steel helmet and didn't feel anything.

The staff officer next to him couldn't stand it anymore and had to pull him back to the armored car.

"Tuanza!" The staff officer was also anxious, and his speech was unpleasant, and he shouted while pulling him, "Are you planning to die in battle?" ”

"Wait! Wait! Shi Shengli clinged to the cannon mirror, waved his hand away, and shouted, "I'll take two more looks!" Wait...... Go! Go! I don't care about you!! ”

Another shell exploded, this time it fell closer, and Shi Shengli and this staff officer both subconsciously fell to the ground, falling into the dirt. This time Shi Shengli no longer insisted, and was "hijacked" back into the armored car by the staff officer.

"This kind of battle," Shi Shengli waved his hand unsatisfactorily, "is what every soldier with a sense of honor is eager to fight!" …… Damn it! Directly opposite our section, there are at least 30 genuine Eight Banner Divisions! Behind the Eight Banners Division, there are at least 30 Han Army Divisions! The ratio of Manchu to Han is one to one! ......*** We only have 3 armored divisions and 12 infantry divisions...... There are not as many people as others, artillery as there are others, tanks as there are others, that is, there are more planes than others...... Phew, a mouthful of dirt ......"

Underneath the high slope of the regimental headquarters were broken barbed wire, all of which had been broken away by tanks. The winding trenches were filled with the corpses of Qing soldiers. Every other section, the trenches were either filled with sandbags or planked. Military trucks carrying Ming soldiers drove through the trenches, swaying in the potholed ground, and moving forward with difficulty. There were shells exploding in front of and on the left and right.

Every once in a while, a military vehicle would be shot and exploded. In the smoke and fireballs, severed arms and stumps were thrown everywhere.

Shi Shengli stood at the door of the car, looking at the corpses of Qing soldiers in the trench with binoculars. He wanted to find out the reason: why the Qing army was suddenly so able to fight.

Although the numbers on the uniforms and flags of those corpses show that they are the Eight Banners Division, what about the Eight Banners Division, and the Ming Army has not fought with the Eight Banners Division. Whether it is the People's Guard, or Shi Shengli himself, he and the Eight Banners Division are old opponents. said that the Eight Banners Division was powerful, but it was only compared with the Qing Army and the Han Army. In terms of combat effectiveness, at best, it is only the level of the Ming army's army divisions. Even if some may be a little stronger than the Ming army division, it will not be so exaggerated.

What's even more outrageous is that from the beginning of the early morning to the present, not many prisoners have been caught.

Some of the ones that have been caught are also surrounded on all sides and cannot break through completely, and they will surrender as a last resort. The kind of voluntary surrender that used to be completely absent today.

Even if it was the Eight Banners Division, it was not so brave when it was defended in Nanjing! After more than a month, the Qing army seems to have suddenly become a "normal army" with a sense of honor.

"Damn, if we play like this in the future, we can't afford to fight!"

Shi Shengli looked at the map, looked at the length of more than 700 kilometers from here to Beijing, and said fiercely.

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In the headquarters, a group of generals also looked at the big map, as if they had not recovered from the discomfort of encountering a tough battle.

"Damn, if we play like this in the future, we can't afford to fight!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang also pinched his chin, looked at the map, and said fiercely.

"Two kilometers in two hours! One kilometer per hour! He continued to grit his teeth and cursed secretly, "***, have we become weaker, or have the Qing army become stronger?" ”

……

However, on the contrary, in the Shanxi battlefield in the west, the Ming army marched all the way and maintained the style of "blitzkrieg" since the D-day.

At about nine o'clock in the morning of the 11th and 27th, Taiyuan was recovered.

Taiyuan City is stuck in the middle of the mountain passes of two mountains, and the mechanized division of the Ming army could not bypass it, so it had to pass through the center of the city, and reluctantly came to a "city entry style".

Everything is familiar. Ecstatic people, firecrackers filled with gunsmoke, citizens eating pot pulp on both sides of the road, and constantly throwing cigarettes, apples, and hard-boiled eggs from tanks and armored vehicles...... However, unlike the previous entry into the city, this time the Ming army rushed through Taiyuan City in a hurry, so that it could "sweep the mountains and fields to catch prisoners" in the northern suburbs, and could not give the Shanxi Corps a chance to repair and breathe. They don't have time to grind around.