Episode 23 The First Battle of Annihilation

The first battle of annihilation

Xiang Xiaoqiang turned his head to look at the map and said:

"My Excellency, the key ingredient is air power. Yes, I've always cared about air power. The current situation is that our front, although it cannot be said to be very long, must admit that it is a bit 'fast'. That is, the foundation is not very solid, and the large areas occupied have not been well digested, and they cannot be transformed into a driving force for further operations. In these newly occupied areas, no military stations and supply points along the route have yet to be established. - After all, it's only been a few days since the war started, and we didn't expect to fight so quickly.

"We have never fought this mode of war, and no country in the world has ever fought it. What our officers learned in military academies and trained in peacetime exercises is not what it is now...... Politically speaking, there is a reason for the defeat of the Qing army, but we are soldiers, and we still have to look at the problem from a military perspective. Militarily, how much stronger are we than the Qing army? We are much stronger in terms of quality, but we are absolutely inferior in terms of quantity and war potential.

"Of course, this is just about the ground forces. Of course, our maritime forces have absolute superiority in both quality and quantity, but they play a limited role in the war, and the vast majority of our forces are idle except for blockade and sea bombardment. …… Let's talk about air power. At present, the only thing in this war in which we have an overwhelming advantage in terms of quantity and quality, and who can play a huge role, is air power. You have all seen how in the first days of the war, our air power helped our ground forces to achieve great victories. ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Li Guoliang. Li Guoliang was already excited, and proudly straightened his chest, but he looked left and right quite humbly and lowered his eyes.

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled:

"Duke Ming, Duke Tang, my lords, so the last general thinks that if we want to continue to achieve such an amazing victory in the next few days, that is, to reunite the 200,000 Qing troops in the middle of the siege, there is a certain danger, this is the unstable foundation brought about by our rapid advance, and there may be a situation where we are surrounded but cannot be eaten, or the flanks are counterattacked.

"Of course, it also depends on the will to fight of the Qing army, and the integrity of their troops, that is, the control of the army. Or to put it bluntly, it is combat effectiveness. If we are surrounded by Qing troops who have no will to fight, not wolves but sheep, then no matter how many sheep there are, what danger is there? And I think our ground aviation is the key. Now that the battle line has been lengthened and the combat area has been expanded, can they still maintain a high-intensity air strike against the Qing army as they did in the first few days? This is the key to how we choose our next strategy. …… What do you think? ”

Zhang Zhaoxian nodded approvingly, then turned to Li Guoliang and said with a smile:

"How's it going on Lu Airlines' side? That's right, your side is the key. ”

Tang Yunsheng followed:

"Commander Li, I don't want you to show your determination, you must say the most true certainty. It's okay to be cautious and conservative. The lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers are at stake. ”

Li Guoliang took a slow breath and smiled as calmly as possible:

"The two Commanders of the General Staff, Lord Xiang, my lords, the last general will tell me the real situation of the army aviation. At present, the total number of aircraft that the army can put into the Northern Expedition is about 1,000 fighters, 650 dive bombers, and 400 horizontal bombers. These planes are only for the army aviation, that is, they only need to be put into the current southern theater. The bombing of the railway line in the rear of the Qing Dynasty in the north was carried out by the planes of the HNA Army.

"At present, our first encirclement is only about 10,000 square kilometers. Of course, for the ground forces, 10,000 square kilometers is a very large combat area, but for the aviation forces, 10,000 square kilometers is very small, with a circumference of only 400 kilometers, and it can fly around it in an hour and a half. In such a small area, we can maintain a high density, so that the Qing army inside can not raise its head, and the casualties increase rapidly, and an entire division can lose its formation in a short time. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang interjected and said with a smile:

"We know this very well. Our ground troops have not yet arrived at the place, and thousands of Qing troops in front have surrendered on their own initiative. It's like cutting lard with a quick knife. I don't have much chance to fight. ”

Li Guoliang hurriedly took it and said with a smile:

"I got to the point. True, our air forces were too concentrated. At this stage, the combat area that the army aviation can cover is: in the eastern part of Anhui, the existing encirclement combat area is 10,000 square kilometers; the western and northern parts of Anhui, with an operational area of about 30,000 square kilometers; In the central and northern parts of Henan, the operational area is about 30,000 square kilometers; Hanzhong, Guanzhong, and southern Shaanxi, with an operational area of about 20,000 square kilometers; In the southern part of Shandong, the combat area is about 20,000 square kilometers. It adds up to only about 110,000 square kilometers.

"In these 110,000 square kilometers, only a few point-shaped targets need to be attacked by multiple aircraft, and a large area can be passed by patrol fighters. The status quo is that our aircraft are a bit wasteful, and there are too few concentrated combat points. The Qing army in the middle section, which we were preparing to encircle, was actually within our scope of operations. What we need to do now is nothing more than to put this area within the scope of key operations and increase the intensity of air strikes. In this way, our aircraft can also be configured in the most efficient state, rather than so centralized. ”

Tang Yunsheng asked:

"If the Qing army in the north of Dabie Mountain is included in the scope of key strikes, will it weaken the blow to the Qing army in the eastern encirclement?"

Li Guoliang smiled:

"The General Staff can rest assured. Tactical bombing is no better than strategic bombing, and it is not that the longer and more bombing you have, the better. It has a saturation that means that the positions that need to be bombed are always changing, and the area is shrinking. Xiang just gave an example of cutting butter with a quick knife, and the last general will also give an example. Tactical bombing is like mincing meat. A large piece of meat is placed there, and the first dozens of knives are chopped down to see the most effect, and you can watch a large piece of whole meat quickly turn into a small piece. But later, as the pieces of meat get smaller and more crumbled, we feel that even if we chop a few hundred more knives, it doesn't change much. …… That's how it feels. Now, half of the Qing army in the encirclement has become minced meat, one-third has become small pieces of meat, and the other third is still relatively large, but there is no need to spend a lot of effort to cut hundreds of knives. We should use our strength to chop another large piece of new meat, which is still very whole. ”

When Li Guoliang said the second half, everyone in the circle laughed. Everyone understood what he meant. The metaphor, while vulgar and a bit bloody, is apt.

On the night of the 7th, the Supreme Command of the Ming Army made a decision not to annihilate the 300,000 Qing troops in the eastern encirclement for the time being, but to realize the meeting of the left and right army groups in central Henan as soon as possible, and to pocket the 200,000 Qing troops in the southern part of Henan.

……

Great Plains!

Great Plains as far as the eye can see!

The legendary Great Plain of North China, which is a flat river, is finally in front of the mechanized troops of the Ming army.

This is not a plain full of water networks and hills like the south of Wuyue River, nor is it a plain surrounded by mountains like Jianghan, Sichuan, and Xiangfan, but a real great plain. It's the kind of big plain that drives a tank for three days and three nights, and will not be blocked by a mountain or a river.

The army group on the left that had just emerged from the mountains felt very refreshed.

The right army group, which had just come out of the water network area, also felt very refreshed.

They all now understand what it means to be truly "pushing".

From the morning of the 8th, the two army groups were moving towards each other on the Great Plains. Led by the First Division of the People's Guard (Armored Division), the Second Division of the People's Guard (Armored Division), the Fifth Division of the People's Guard (Armored Division), the Sixth Division of the People's Guard (Mechanized Division), the Eighth Division of the People's Guard (Mechanized Division), and the Ninth Division of the People's Guard, more than 2,000 tanks and armored vehicles formed a battle formation and galloped through the fields. Behind all the roads, on the dirt roads in the countryside, are the endless military vehicles and towing artillery of the motorized infantry division.

Overhead, there were batches of bombers roaring by. Higher, are fighter jets as small as black dots. These were all taken off from the Xiangfan Plain Field Airfield and the Sihong Airfield. In addition to ready-made airfields such as Sihong airfield, more fighter jets have taken off from field airfields that have just been taken over and bulldozed on land.

……

The resident Qing troops pressed on the defense line of the Yangtze River in the Southern Ming Dynasty were divided into three categories.

The first group was stationed opposite the Eastern Sector defensive line. This category is the strongest, and it is ready to cross the river and invade at any time.

The second type is the Qing army stationed in the Xiangfan Plain, because Xiangfan is a gap between Dabie Mountain and Daba Mountain, and it is relatively easy to enter the Nanming, Wuhan and Jingzhou Plains. This type of Qing army was slightly inferior, but it also belonged to the more elite units of the Han army.

The third type is the Qing army stationed on the north side of Dabie Mountain. The Qing army in this area is also very large, but it is not for the purpose of fighting from Dabie Mountain, but for the sake of quickly increasing the strength of the side in a short period of time no matter which place is fought at the east and west ends. This type of Qing army belongs to the second- and third-rate troops.

The fourth type is stationed in the western section of the Yangtze River defense line, on the north side of the Daba Mountain and the Hengduan Mountains. Because the lofty mountains and mountains of the western section of the defense line are hundreds of kilometers wide, and there are often high mountains and valleys above, and under the abyss are raging rapids, and there is not even a chain bridge. Don't talk about the army, even if you let people crawl over empty-handed, it's luck not to fall to your death. It is impossible for the Ming and Qing armies to fight no matter where they want to fight. Therefore, the Qing army's troops here are the weakest in terms of strength and quality, and it is basically a long time before there is a post, and there are a few old, weak, sick and disabled people stationed in the outpost.

……

In the face of more than 2,000 tanks and armored vehicles of the Ming army and thousands of bombers and fighters roaring from the sky, the second-rate Han army in front of them had almost no resistance and was defeated. Routed all the way on the Great Plains for more than two hundred kilometers. By noon on the 9th, in just one day and one morning, the Ming army's two-way offensive had completed their respective advances of more than 100 kilometers and joined forces in Fuyang County, northwest Anhui.

More than 200,000 Qing troops were encircled in the northern part of the Dabie Mountains, a narrow area more than 200 kilometers long and less than 30 kilometers wide, and they were divided into three sections.

It can also be said that the Qing troops south of the Huai River were all pocketed, and the total number was about 500,000.

The first war of mass annihilation of the War of Unification began.

The Ming army did not stop, closed the siege at noon on the 9th, and launched a general attack in the afternoon. And it went day and night, from afternoon to night, to early morning, and then to the morning, morning, and noon of the 10th...... During the day, the "surgical" precision bombing of dive bombers, with the rapid advance of 20,000 artillery pieces, 1,000 tanks, and 1,500 armored vehicles, from the easternmost Gaoyou Lake and Hongze Lake to the westernmost Dabie Mountain, the narrow battlefield was divided into five major parts, and then gradually divided into dozens of small pieces......

At night, it was a large-scale bombing by horizontal bombers.

Especially at night, the Qing troops in the encirclement felt unprecedented terror. First the entire black sky roared, then the sky was full of dazzling flares, and then there were explosions on the ground......

Under this dense "hail bomb", hiding in trenches and foxholes does not seem to be of much use. Still, small bombs would fall in, killing several people in one piece......

The Qing troops north of Dabie Mountain had been ordered to attack the attacking Ming troops at the east and west ends, but they had been marching slowly on the roads for the past few days, and the roads were crowded with carriages, equipment, and endless marching columns. Before the 9th, although they were also bombed, they were all in the nature of an attack and harassment, and they were intended to slow down the march, and they only had to take shelter when the planes came. However, after the 9th, the bombing suddenly became "frenzied," and the planes in the sky no longer appeared in two or three waves, but a large group of planes, killing dozens or hundreds of people at a time.

After the group left, in addition to the craters and corpses in one place, there were countless flying leaflets.

Even the soldiers of the Qing army who couldn't read a single word now understood it. The Ming army is now clear that it is going to be completely annihilated. From the afternoon of the 9th, none of the Qing troops in the encirclement could control their own troops. The troops below abandoned their wagons and heavy equipment on the road and fled to the neighbouring towns and villages for refuge. They guessed that the Ming army would not have bombed these settlements. And it is true that the Ming army did not actually bomb the settlements.

Although this could not eliminate the Qing army, it completely disrupted the Qing army and scattered it in hundreds of towns and thousands of villages. Both officers and soldiers know that it is dangerous to be exposed to the wilderness, and it is absolutely safe to hide in residential areas. And under such uninterrupted blows, the separation of this kind of organization is irreversible, and once the army is dispersed, it will be impossible to concentrate it on its original state.

The leaflet of the Ming army, basically every literate Qing soldier had one hidden in his pocket. The illiterate Qing army also spread all over the country.

"Wrapped up in civilians, caught by the Ming army and going to be shot!"

"What do you mean by holding civilians hostage?"

"It's to play scoundrels when you are fighting, and get into the pile of ordinary people!"

"Ah, then we're holding civilians hostage like this?"

"Let's not count! Anyway, when the Ming army comes, let's surrender directly, maybe it won't be counted! ”

"Didn't the Ming army say that only officers were shot?"

"Who did you listen to, the officers and the soldiers were all killed!"

……

The officers of the Qing army, who were hiding in some county towns, often gathered in groups of three or five, carefully tuning the radio in their rooms, while listening in horror to the Ming planes flying overhead, and listening to the sound of bombs and artillery in the distance.

A soft female voice came out of the radio, with a glutinous Jiangnan flavor:

"Brethren of the Qing army, come here...... There is no other way out for you...... For the soldiers who lay down their arms, Daming guarantees the safety of your lives, guarantees that you are treated well, and that your injuries will be properly treated...... Really, the brothers who have already surrendered say that the food in the Ming prisoner of war camp is better than that in the original barracks...... As for the officers, as long as you lead your brothers to lay down their arms and stop resisting in a timely manner, the Ming will recognize your vested interests, that is, your title will be retained, and your existing property, whether from a legitimate source or not, as long as it is not directly robbed in this war, we will respect it...... Regardless of officers and soldiers, the Ming Dynasty will accept you as new citizens and enjoy the same treatment as Ming citizens......"

A group of middle- and lower-ranking officers of the Qing army, guarding a radio, discussed:

"They say that they admit our vested interests, that is, these soft things in our suitcases are still ours?"

"What, you want to join the Ming Army?"

"What? I think what's wrong? Don't you *** don't want to? Who doesn't want to be abnormal. ”

"! You're fucking ......."

"Forget it, it's all brothers......"

"Damn, it's better to say than to sing! Bluffing! ”

"Tsk, this little lady, her voice is seductive enough......"

"Nanming little lady, don't say it, it's really good to get two......"

"It's easy to do, let's throw it over, with the softness in the box, who can't marry a few openly? If you want money, you have money, you want people, and they are all from military schools, so they are also literate and literate, both civil and military......"

"I don't know if it's true...... I'm afraid that if I really surrender the gun and throw it over, I will change my face when the time comes. Find an excuse, once the property is collected, you have nowhere to go. ”

"Cut, it's Nanming, you should be our court? Talking is the same as farting? ”

"Anyway, the world is as black as crows, and the court in the world is generally cheap...... No matter how good the court is, it is also composed of officials, how many good things are there in officials? I don't have as much as you think, I just need to save my life and give me another errand to eat......"

"Generally black? Generally black, why are we running desperately to others? Why don't you see people running desperately to us? ”

……

At this time, Nanming's propaganda was finished, and he began to replay this paragraph again. An officer smacked his lips and reached out to adjust the table.

An impassioned male voice came from the speaker:

"This is Daqing Radio! …… At present, the invincible army of our Great Qing Dynasty has achieved a major victory in the south! Nanming's small-scale harassment of my border has been a shameful failure!! At present, our Qing army is gaining momentum and is winning victories on all fronts!! …… In the past few days, rumors have frequently spread throughout the Qing Dynasty, such as how large the Southern Ming army was and how fast the attack was...... and other ridiculous statements have also been smashed in the good news of the soldiers in front of the Qing Dynasty!

"The clowns of the Southern Ming Dynasty who fabricated these rumors in an attempt to shake the morale of the people of the Qing Dynasty saw the failure of their rumors at this moment, and they were in a state of disgrace and panic...... As for the new rumors that have just appeared, such as how many people in our Qing army have fallen into the encirclement and will soon be wiped out, etc., etc., etc., it is not worth refuting...... We advise the Nanming conspirators who fabricated these rumors not to waste their ...... again."

"You're fucking an x!!"

An officer slammed the radio, stopping the sound abruptly. He scolded:

"Damn, it's okay to brag about it, I'm still bragging at this time! **！ The lives of the brothers are not as valuable as the faces of the court! Guys, hear me, we're working hard, it's such a disgusting bunch! ”

"Cut, I already knew."

"Invest in Da Ming, invest in Da Ming! At least Da Ming wasn't so disgusting. Are there any hesitations? ”

"Cast Daming."

"Cast Daming."

"Yes, let's pull the brothers to ...... When the time comes, I will bring my brothers to throw them over, and I will hear that there will be a reward......"

……