Episode 4 Go back to Liaodong and recover all of China!

By 5:30 a.m. on the D-day, within half an hour, the last one still in the landing battle was the section between Nanjing and Ma'anshan. Because there are the Ming army's Zimu Continent and Xinjizhou fortresses on this section of the Yangtze River, the Qing army's river defense on the opposite bank is relatively strong.

At this time, the sky was basically bright, so the legendary "air superiority" of the Ming army made a magnificent appearance in the first battle to support the ground.

The Ming army quickly gathered a group of 36 dive bombers and a squadron of 16 fighters to indiscriminately bomb and strafe the Qing army's 10-kilometer-wide position along the river. In the good visibility during the day, the results of the long-term hard training of the Ming army's aviation units were vividly displayed. Under the "surgical" precision strikes of the Ming army's dive bombers, in less than five minutes, the Qing army's 10-kilometer-wide river defense collapsed. From officers to soldiers, all collapsed.

After the bombardment, there were only four kinds of people left on the river beach: the first was the dead Qing soldiers, the second was the crippled Qing soldiers, the third was the Qing soldiers who had a nervous breakdown, and the fourth was the Ming soldiers who rushed to the river beach like wolves and tigers.

On the 450-kilometer-long bank from Anqing to Zhenjiang, five large landing sites have been built and are rapidly expanding to both sides. In the middle of the Qing army-controlled area, it quickly turned into an isolated island.

The military police of the Ming army quickly established order on the river beach, diverted traffic, and cleared the landing ground for the sappers and state bridge troops to build pontoon bridges. At the same time, a large number of Qing prisoners were also brought over.

More assault boats landed on the river beach, and the soldiers on board jumped down, took off their life jackets and threw them back into the boat, and paddled their legs up the river embankment. The driver drove the assault boat back to the opposite shore to transport troops again.

In addition to assault boats, many larger diesel barges have appeared on the river. These barges carry the most urgent heavy weapons, such as light artillery, mortars, heavy machine guns, ammunition, engineering equipment, tanks to support the infantry, and so on. On the east and south banks, the boat-bridge troops were already busy. Five breakthrough areas, the beginning of ten pontoon bridges, have already appeared on the surface of the river.

The sappers of the bridge unit were as excited as the infantry. They wore life jackets, helmets, and worked hard. The crane stretched out a long steel arm and lifted the plates, on which sappers stood. These sappers held small flags, whistles in their mouths, and waved their arms to direct the crane to lower in the correct position. The loudspeaker on the crane played an impassioned military song, and the surrounding sappers sang in unison as they worked, and everyone was full of light and energy. The infantry on both sides also brightened their eyes excitedly, lined up in a neat line to board the assault boat, sang military songs, and went to the land controlled by the Northern Qing Dynasty.

This was the first time since 1644 that the morale of a million-strong Ming army was so high on the frontal side of the Yangtze River, hundreds of kilometers long.

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High in the sky, there were dozens of swarms of bombers and fighters roaring by. They were already advancing to the target in depth, bombing the railway junction on the Jinpu line to prevent the Qing army from reacting and moving troops south.

At low altitude, there were groups of three whizzing dive bombers. These dive bombers were all used to open the way and hit the forward station for the advancing Ming army.

In places where the ground forces of the Ming army have not yet arrived, the terrifying screams in the air are always heard first. These "devils in the air" screamed and volleyed down, strafing and dropping black bombs, and a large area of the Qing army barracks collapsed, and countless Qing soldiers were killed, wounded, and buried alive. Ammunition depots, garages, and livestock sheds also exploded in the bombs, and flames soared into the sky. Bloodied horses and mules rushed out of the shed and ran around.

The ammunition depot exploded like a crater, one after another, and one fireball after another rushed into the sky.

The Qing soldiers rushed out of the barracks with their buttocks and heads covered, rolling and crawling on the ground, looking for a place to hide. No one tried to organize the army at all, everyone cared only about their own lives, and drilled wherever it was safe. Wherever the Ming planes went, the Qing troops below were completely devoid of formation and became a plate of scattered sand that only cared about fleeing for their lives. At this time, although it was still an army, it was no different from the common people.

Along with the dive bombers, there were more agile fighters. The sweat left over from the hard training of these fighter pilots was all recovered at this time. One by one, they played their tricks, pressing the plane low, almost grazing the treetops and rooftops, and you could see the expressions of the soldiers running below. The four machine guns of the fighter jets spewed tongues of fire as much as they could, and the bullets blew up two clouds of dust on the ground, and the Qing soldiers below scattered and fled like rats that had blown up their nests, leaving corpses in their wakes.

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The first hour of fighting went unusually well, as most of the Qing troops were asleep, almost rushed to the bed by the Ming army and lifted from the bed. The Qing troops who reacted were basically blown out of the bed by bombs. They were still looking for clothes, guns, and commanders with their bare buttocks, and the Ming army rushed to the front. So Hulala, all surrendered in a daze.

Due to the excessive concentration of the long-range tank units of the People's Guard, they could not pass until the pontoon bridge was erected. Now the barges are carrying the supporting infantry tanks of various divisions of the army. There were only 32 vehicles per division, which was very sporadic on the long offensive front, and could be transported across the river with relative ease.

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Now the tank units in the Ming army are divided into two types, one is the infantry tank unit for close support, and the second is the long-range tank unit.

In the thirties, there was generally no such division among the first teams, and the tank units were only all supporting infantry tank units. This is also the arrangement made by Xiang Xiaoqiang when upgrading the Ming army according to the Soviet army's theory of large-depth operations and the actual experience of World War II later.

The "close support infantry tank unit" in the Ming army is a tank battalion in each motorized infantry division, with 32 Lightning-3 heavy tanks. These 32 tanks will always accompany the infantry division, providing combat support to the infantry, and the role will be tactical in nature. Now the tank forces of various countries are of this kind.

The "long-range tank troops" in the Ming army basically refer to the five armored divisions and five mechanized infantry divisions of the People's Guard.

The ten divisions of the People's Guard concentrated half of all the tanks of the Ming army. The Panzer Division had two tank regiments per division, about 200 medium and heavy tanks. Mechanized infantry divisions have a light tank regiment in each division, about 100 light tanks. They undertook the task of breaking through at a long distance and in great depth, that is, the vanguard and main force of the "blitzkrieg". Their role is of a strategic nature.

According to the wishes of Li Gensheng and Gao Dayi, these five mechanized infantry divisions should also be called "armored divisions", or at least "light armored divisions". So the People's Guard has ten armored divisions.

But Xiang Xiaoqiang never agreed. These five infantry divisions were formed later, and the tanks equipped were all "Lightning-1" light tanks eliminated by the armored division, and there were very few Lightning-2s. And there are only 100 vehicles in total, which is not enough for the standards of the "armored division" in terms of quality and quantity.

He knew that the Germans called this kind of division "Panzergrenadier Division", but he couldn't stand the strange name "Grenadier", so he adopted the name "Mechanized Infantry Division". In fact, in addition to tanks, the soldiers of these five divisions are also completely equipped with armored personnel carriers, and the artillery is also self-propelled guns, which fully meets the standards of "mechanized infantry".

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The infantry tanks of various divisions were successively transported to the north and west banks, roaring and spewing green smoke, and drove up the river embankment from the planks to join the infantry offensive.

The appearance of tanks on the battlefield is a huge incentive for the morale of your own infantry. Even the current victorious, one-sided tailwind battle is no exception.

On the dirt roads, on the roads, and in the fields, there were marching Ming soldiers everywhere.

There was the roar of a tank engine behind him, and the soldiers with rifles all turned their heads and cheered when they saw that it was a tank, waving their rifles and steel helmets, and whistling wildly. The commander of the tank was also exposed outside the turret, grinning triumphantly, and bowed his hands to the brothers below, as if he had won the championship and rode home on a big horse.

"Sir," one of the infantrymen shouted to the commander of the tank, "do you know where our attack is targeting?" ”

The commander didn't know. However, he pointed forward very eloquently, and shouted heroically:

"I know, it's Beijing!"

Suddenly, the surrounding soldiers cheered wildly, and their worship of this commander reached the extreme.

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As soon as this case was opened, there were soldiers around who kept shouting:

"How can it be enough to hit Beijing! Fight back to the gates! ”

"Regain Liaodong!"

"Reclaim all of Nurgandus!"

"Fight all the way to Russia!"

"Knock back all the land that the Qing captives cut out!"

"That's right! Not an inch less! ”

"Go back to Liaodong and recover all of China!"

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Overhead, there are planes whizzing by from time to time. Every time a plane passed, the Ming officers and soldiers below raised their heads and waved and cheered.

The soldiers knew very well who they relied on to win so easily, with so few casualties. Now in their eyes, as long as there is their own plane in the sky, it means that there will be victory ahead.

Correspondingly, there is a queue of Qing prisoners of war in sight. These soldiers were disgraced, unclothed, covered in blood, with short legs and broken arms, carrying crutches and stretchers, supporting each other, and marching in opposite directions on the main road.

In the first hour and a half of the beginning of the war of unification, there were victories everywhere. Except for victory or victory.

Soon, the slogan "Fight back to Liaodong and recover all of China" spread hundreds of kilometers to the front of the attack. Inspired by this slogan, morale was high across the board.

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At 6:30 a.m. on October 4, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ming Empire officially summoned the ambassadors of the world's major powers to Ming.

These diplomats, who have always had a keen sense of politics, have sensed that something big is about to happen since yesterday's radio silence, and they are all waiting for this moment. Now, they were all gathered in the foreign secretary's drawing-room, each with a ghost, glancing at each other, not talking, waiting for the moment when the door would open.

At 6:40, the door to the Chancellor's office opened. Foreign Minister He Ziguang came out, greeted the ambassadors very solemnly and politely, and then without too many greetings, several secretaries behind him presented each ambassador with a gorgeous gilded document.

When the ambassadors received it, they all felt heavy. Sure enough, something big happened.

When I opened it, it was an official note.

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Your Excellency Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of State XX,

At the behest of Her Majesty the Empress, I hereby inform Your Excellency that at 5:00 a.m. this morning, our country has begun a war to recover the occupied territories in the north, to eliminate the rebels of the puppet Qing Dynasty, and to rescue the people in the occupied areas.

In the civil war, the expatriates and various assets of your country in the areas controlled by the puppet Qing Dynasty will be protected by the government forces of our empire.

In this just war, Her Majesty the Empress and all her subjects will, as always, cherish the friendship of your country and fulfill the various agreements and obligations between the two countries.

On my behalf, I would like to convey on my behalf the greetings of Her Majesty the Queen (Your Excellency the President/Prime Minister) of your country.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest respect to you.

——

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ming Empire He Ziguang