Episode 18 Entering the Water Network Zone!

On October 5th, D+1, the Ming army conquered Yangzhou and brought the shock to the Qing army, coupled with the introduction of two-level ruthless moves, first of all, no matter how defeated the Qing army was in front of them, they did not dare to hold civilians hostage. Even if a small number of Qing troops retreated into the towns and villages to resist, the first thing to do was to quickly drive the local residents out and clear the battlefield. Some villagers were reluctant to leave, so the Qing army threatened to set fire to their houses. Secondly, the Qing army surrendered much more. Although at present, it is mainly a small formation, mainly battalions, companies, and platoons.

In this case, the Ming army had no scruples and could let go of its hands and feet to fight, and its combat advantages were fully brought into play. After taking Yangzhou on the right side, the bridge connecting Yangzhou and Jiangdu on the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was obtained. According to the predetermined battle plan, the Sixth Mechanized Division of the People's Guard, led the lightly armed Eighth Group Army, composed of seven lightly armed motorized infantry divisions, across the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal to the east bank and into the water network zone in southern Jiangsu.

The targets of the 8th Light Group Army were Baoying and Dongtai. These were the two easternmost regiment-level airfields of the Qing army. It is also the two largest airports in the East.

Regiment-level airports can generally be called "strategic-level" airports. Because ordinary military airfields are just a permanent brigade. And the regimental airfield is permanently stationed in an aviation regiment.

The establishment of the Air Force, taking the fighter unit as an example, is the smallest establishment of the "formation", which is divided into a two-plane formation (one long plane and one wingman) and a four-plane formation (two two-plane formations). Upward is the "squadron", which generally consists of three or four formations, 12-16 aircraft. Further up are the "brigades", consisting of three or four squadrons, generally thirty or forty aircraft. Generally, a brigade has a ** airport.

Further up, there is the aviation regiment. The aviation regiment consisted of three to four brigades, and the total number of aircraft was more than a hundred. The aviation regiment is the largest tactical unit. Further up, there are the air divisions, the air corps, and the largest air force unit: the air force. The air force is roughly equivalent to the "military district" of the army. However, with the strength of the air forces of various countries in the 30s, they have not yet reached such a large unit. Such a large air force unit was only possible in the later 40s in World War II.

There are 13 such regiment-level airports in the entire Northern Qing Dynasty. Among them, there are 6 "first-line airports" closest to Nanming: Dongtai Airport, Baoying Airport, Sihong Airport, Fengyang Airport, Hefei Airport, and Lu'an Airport. These six airfields were also bombed twice in the early Ming and Qing wars at the beginning of the year and in the early morning of the D-day.

There are 5 "second-tier airports" far from the border: Xuzhou Airport, Xuchang Airport, Zhengzhou Airport, Hanzhong Airport, and Xianyang Airport.

There are two "third-tier airports" further afield: Tangshan Airport and Dongying Airport. These two airfields are mainly to defend the Beijing-Tianjin defense circle, although they are very far from the border of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but they are very close to the coastline, and the Ming army has aircraft carriers. Therefore, like the airport above, it did not escape the bombing of the Ming army in the early morning of the D day.

At present, an important goal of the Ming Army's right army group is to seize six regimental airfields on the first line. With these six large airports, the air supremacy of the Ming army can be extended to the hinterland of the Northern Qing Dynasty.

……

The water network zone in southern Jiangsu did not hold back the motorized troops of the Ming army as the Qing army had hoped. The Ming army's long-term high-load training in the Jiangnan water network area, high morale, and determination to fight all the way to Beijing played a huge role. Although it is also a water network area in southern Jiangsu, it is already in the north of the Yangtze River after all, and it is not as dense as the south of the Yangtze River. Moreover, most of these "water nets" are small ditches a few feet wide, which can be easily made accessible by boat and bridge engineers.

The river is more than five meters wide, and there are stone bridges over the river at intervals. More than half of the stone bridges – as long as they are made of stone rather than wood – can support the 6.5-ton Lightning-1 light tank and the 7-ton Hurricane-36 armored vehicle. Even lighter trucks are no problem.

"Civil war is to beat the hearts of the people" is now vividly expressed in the march of the Eighth Light Army. The appearance of the Ming army made the people along the way ecstatic and rushed to lead the way for them. Every time they came to a river, there would be many local villagers surrounding it, telling the Ming army in a gossiping voice: where the river goes, it will be narrowed, and if you can drive it directly, there will be a bridge on either side, which side of the bridge is a stone bridge, which side of the bridge is a wooden bridge, and where the bridge was blown up when the Qing army retreated, and where it has not been blown up......

In addition to the local people, the planes of the Ming army constantly patrolled the air, acting as "clairvoyants" for the ground troops, and constantly feeding back the traffic situation ahead.

……

On the vast right-flank theater of operations, south of Shandong, the battlefield was divided into two halves by Gaoyou Lake and Hongze Lake. To the east of the two lakes is Jiangsu, and to the west of the two lakes is Anhui.

Most of the Qing army's forces were mainly concentrated west of the two lakes, that is, along the Anhui-Jinpu railway. To the west of the two lakes, in the central and southern parts of Jiangsu, the Qing army did not have many garrisons due to the dense water network, the fact that it was a plain, no strategic points, no railways, and no places along the coast that could be used as ports. Therefore, once the Ming army was able to overcome the troubles caused by the water network, the advance speed was not slow at all.

It was in such a water network that the average speed of the Eighth Light Army on October 5 reached 10 kilometers per hour. The Sixth Division of the People's Guard, which is a sharp knife unit, occupies the right to use the Huaitai Highway. By taking advantage of this highway from Huai'an to Taixing, we completely avoided the trouble of the water network obstruction, and traveled at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour, and reached Gaoyou County at noon.

Gaoyou County is backed by Gaoyou Lake, just on the edge of the Huaitai Highway. On the east side of the highway is the barracks of the Qing army. Because Huaitai Highway (Huai'an to Taizhou), Yanjing Highway (Yancheng to Jingjiang), Haitong Highway [Haizhou (later Lianyungang) to Tongzhou], are three high-quality highways in the north-south direction of the entire southern Jiangsu water network zone. With these three roads, mechanized troops can move quickly. Gaoyou is also a choke point guarding the Huaitai Highway, where a Han army division of the Qing army has been stationed for a long time: the 48th Division.

This division has been repeatedly frequented by dive bombers since the early hours of yesterday morning. Although there are not many planes coming at one time, it is expensive and non-stop. By now at noon today, it has been subjected to more than 30 hours of terrorist bombing, and it has basically been blown up invisible.

At about eleven o'clock in the afternoon, the bombardment in the sky gradually stopped. On the Huaitai Highway outside the city, light tanks appeared in the distance. The 6th Division of the People's Guard arrived.

At this time, the side of the highway was already full of wounded soldiers of the Qing army, their legs were short and their arms were broken, or sitting or lying, stretching for a large area. The white sheets were hung by them on the trees and acted as white flags. As tanks and armored vehicles drove along the road, countless remnants of the Qing army poured up from both sides and stopped in the middle of the road ahead, holding white sheets demanding surrender and treating the wounded. The Ming tanks had to shoot them in the air again and again to drive them down the road and allow the large force to continue to pass.

The commander of the reconnaissance battalion, sitting in a commander's car and carrying an armored car behind him, drove over with a rumble, stood on the car and asked the wounded soldiers of the Qing army below:

"Hey, how many of you are there? What about the others? Are there still troops in the city? ”

The wounded soldiers of the Qing army below immediately shouted:

"Sir......

"We ......"

"He ......"

"Give us ......"

"Poor poor ......"

"We want to ......"

"Ran away......"

"In ......"

The commander of the reconnaissance battalion was on fire, raised his submachine gun, and pointed it at the sky, and the surroundings immediately quieted down.

"Damn, I can only say it alone! You, say it! ”

One of the selected soldiers sat on the ground, his face covered in blood and his head wrapped in gauze. He looked at the wielded submachine gun and said timidly:

"Long ...... Sir, it was already dispersed, and the division commander ran north with the brothers in the morning, and most of the brothers did not want to follow, and they all wanted to stay and wait for the barbarians...... Oh no, no, wait for the king, wait for the king...... We all want to vote for Daming. ”

The battalion commander nodded, and then asked:

"How many people remained? Where are they? ”

"Sir, there are at least six or seven thousand of us left, but they are all scattered, and no one can find anyone...... There are also Liuzhuang across the highway, and there are also ...... on the south side of Guanzhuang and Xu Bridge."

The reconnaissance battalion commander was satisfied, nodded and smiled:

"Excellent! You're doing the right thing. …… Hey, what's going on in the city? Why is it still smoking? ”

The Qing soldier immediately said:

"Sir, that's none of our business...... Before you arrived in the morning, our division headquarters withdrew...... Then there was chaos in Gaoyou City, and the common people all rose up to make trouble, and surrounded the county government yamen, the police station, the tax yamen, and other yamen, saying that they would settle the general accounts, pull out those who were officials, and break their bones and ashes...... No, the county government building was burned, and the homes of those who were officials, as well as the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth aunts who were officials...... Their houses were also smashed and burned...... The streets are full of dead people! None of the brethren dared to stay in the city, but they all went to sit by the side of the highway...... The brothers didn't dare to throw guns, but not to defend themselves! ”

As soon as the battalion commander heard this, he immediately knew that Gaoyou City was also the same as Nanyang City, and there was a matter of the people liquidating the official government. He didn't care about sending someone to report to the division headquarters, he directly took out a roll of the Ming National Flag from the car and unfolded it, beckoned to a squad leader next to him, and said:

"You take your brothers, go into the city with these Qing soldiers, go to the top of the city, pull down the Manchu flag, plant our flag, and then shout 'Gaoyou has recovered', and come back quickly, our division still has to rush forward. You don't have to worry about the affairs in the city, there are army divisions in the back to take care of it. Just go! I'm watching here. ”

"Yes!"

……

A squad of Ming soldiers held the Ming flag, surrounded by thousands of Qing soldiers on both sides, and went straight into Gaoyou County.

They didn't go to the city either, they just climbed up to the city gate, tore down the dirty Northern Qing Triangle Dragon Flag, and then raised the Ming flag.

The squad leader stood on the city tower, waved his hand down very chicly, and shouted loudly:

"I announce that Gaoyou has recovered ————!!!"

Suddenly, the cheers below almost turned the sky upside down. The firecracker shops in the city have long been looted, and now the city and outside the city are drowned in the explosion of firecrackers.

The reconnaissance battalion commander was on the side of the road, and he saw through the telescope that the Manchu flag was lowered on the city in the distance, and the Ming flag was raised, grinning.

"Write it down," he looked at his watch, turned his face to the communications soldier next to him and smiled, "At 11:45 p.m., the third squad of the second platoon of the third company of the reconnaissance battalion of the Sixth Division of the People's Guard, with a force of 10 people, recovered Gaoyou County, an important military town in the Northern Qing Dynasty!" ”

A major of the Qing army below wiped the blood on his face, and he didn't know whether it was sarcasm or sycophancy, and said with a smile:

"What a brave man, sir! One class took down a county! It is really the one who is blocked to break, and the one who is attacked is ambushed, and the invincible army in the world ......"

The reconnaissance battalion commander glanced at him and laughed:

"Invincible? Invincible fart! Look at the reaction of the common people, look at the reaction of your brothers! I tell you, you are defeated by yourselves! You are not defeated on the battlefield at all, when you are an official and corrupt ** buy and sell officials, this battle has already been lost! What if there are a thousand divisions? What about 10,000 divisions? Damn, they all have to be defeated like this one by one! You see, if I say something wrong, I'll write my last name upside down. ”

As if confirming his words, there was a commotion in the distance, and everyone looked in the direction of the county seat. I saw that on the main road, the crowds of ordinary people rushed over, and the ten Ming soldiers who entered the city were carried high, everyone was smiling, and their faces were flushed with excitement, and each person's neck was full of red dates, flatbread, eggs, and cigarettes in their arms.

……

On the left side, the Ming army's left army group stopped in front of Fangcheng, not in a hurry to attack, but as if to persuade surrender. Above the Qing army's position in Fangcheng, planes kept dropping leaflets, propagating the two policy orders of "Saving Civilians Order" and "Uprising Bonus" to the Qing army.

The commander of the 32nd Army of the Qing army stationed in Fangcheng was Yierjueluo-Huizhang, and the Ming army had great hopes for him. Because his home is in Xuchang, but since he served as the commander of the Fangcheng garrison, he has also built villas in the garrison like other generals. Yesterday was Sunday, and he brought his wife and children from Xuchang to Fangcheng. This is equivalent to no family burden, as long as you surrender, the whole family is safe.

Fangcheng is located in the mountain pass and is not very easy to fight. Of course, the Ming army has a great advantage from the air to the ground, not that it can't be frozen, but if it should be fought, there will be a lot of casualties, and it will delay a lot of time. Therefore, the Ming army offered a very high price to this Huizhang commander. As long as he leads his troops to surrender, in addition to retaining all vested interests and rewarding 500,000 Mingyang, he will also add 100,000 Mingyang.

In the morning, the Ming army sent envoys into Fangcheng to persuade them to surrender. They kept saying to Hui Zhang, you are very lucky, the first wife and children are by your side, and you have no worries. Second, there has been no active uprising at the level of the commander of the Qing army before you, and you are the first. In order to make a good start for this first one, we are willing to give you a leading role in the following, and we are willing to give you greater benefits...... You must seize the opportunity, the fight has not started yet, surrendering is still an active uprising, if the fight starts, then it can only be regarded as captured, and there is nothing......

However, this Commander Huizhang was still very hesitant. He didn't seem to think that this "first surrendered commander" was an honor, but that it was a very shameful thing. And he also wants to take advantage of this to knock a little more. I grinded all morning, but I didn't agree.

But what he didn't understand was why the Ming army also seemed to be very calm and not in a hurry at all.