Episode 86 Fire Attack Plan

Early in the morning of November 20th, when Fourteen Gege saw Xiang Xiaoqiang, he suddenly withdrew from everyone, pulled him to a small conference room, and said to him with a solemn expression:

"Reliable intelligence from Beijing,."

Xiang Xiaoqiang still hasn't figured out what it means.

"What...... Who went to Taiyuan? ”

Fourteen Gege didn't say a word, walked to the map frame by the wall, picked up the pole and pointed to the location too far in the middle of Shanxi, and knocked "pop":

"Here, the five Eight Banner Divisions are the lead, and there are fifteen Han army divisions behind, which are already stationed in the mountains and forests in the northeast and northwest of Taiyuan. It is only a few kilometers away from Taiyuan City. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was stunned for a moment, and smiled a little weakly:

"Honey, don't be kidding."

Fourteen Gege didn't answer, just stared at him coldly, and his expression didn't look like a joke at all.

Xiang Xiaoqiang stared at Fourteen Gege for a few seconds, and immediately woke up.

His heart was beating so fast that he shuddered and pulled out a cigarette, put it to his mouth, and stared straight at the map.

Fourteen calmly reached over a lighter and lit it for him.

Xiang Xiaoqiang slowly sat in the chair, took a puff of cigarette, touched his forehead, and asked:

"When? Where did the news come from? Is it reliable? ”

Fourteen Gege also pulled up a chair, sat down across from him, and said:

"It should be reliable, it's the new line of Gwade. You know, although Guardsin is not a military general, he is also a minister of military aircraft, and he can often enter the headquarters to see the emperor. The intelligence showed that Guadxin had met the emperor for something else, and that the emperor was talking to two other generals in front of the map, and he was waiting next to him and heard it. Listening to the tone, this army has been lying in ambush north of Taiyuan for some days. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang took the triangle board and measured it twice on the map, counted it a few times with his fingers, and said:

"Impossible! Where did they get into Shanxi from? The mountain road from Shijiazhuang to Shanxi is in the hands of the Taihang Mountain Column...... However, even if they come around from the north and go to Datong...... Then this whole way is also within the range of our reconnaissance plane, there is no reason to slip from under our noses to Taiyuan! ”

Fourteen Gege also groaned and said:

"This, the information doesn't say that much. It is estimated that Guadxin is already good to listen to a few words on the side, and it is impossible to listen to the cause and effect. Unless...... Guard's new trick on us. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang took a hard puff of cigarette, puffed the smoke and said:

"No, Guadxin doesn't dare to fool us. …… If he dares to play tricks on us, he must have the consciousness to successfully escape to a foreign country with his whole family, and live on high security for the rest of his life. ”

Fourteen Gege nodded and said:

In this case, then we have to accept the fact that 20 divisions of the Qing army appeared north of Taiyuan. …… Xiaoqiang, there is nothing wrong with the aviation forces, right? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately grabbed a telephone next to him and ordered to connect Li Guoliang. Soon, he had a phone call with Li Guoliang in front of Fourteen Gege.

"No," Xiang Xiaoqiang hung up the phone and said solemnly to Fourteen Gege, "Li Guoliang patted his chest and assured that he has been carrying out non-stop reconnaissance flights within 300 kilometers north of the battle line these days. Including the northern part of Shanxi. No anomalies were found. ”

Then, he lowered his head and muttered incredulously:

"That is to say...... These twenty divisions...... Three or four hundred thousand people...... So much heavy equipment...... Just day and night, relying on the dense mountains and forests of Shanxi, he managed to evade our aerial reconnaissance and touched the north of Taiyuan...... Once there is no longer any delay at the negotiation table, we can occupy Taiyuan as soon as possible, hold the Taiyuan Pass, and confront us, making it difficult for us to attack the northern part of Shanxi......"

He suddenly raised his head and asked in disbelief:

"But with such a long distance and such a large force, how did they keep the secret? Why didn't the people along the way find out? ”

Fourteen Gege muttered:

"Two reasons. First, this unit is all elite and strong, and the proportion of the Eight Banners Division is very high. Although there are only five Eight Banner Divisions in terms of the number of divisions, the establishment of the Eight Banner Divisions is relatively large, with about 20,000 people in each division, while the Han Army Division has only about 12,000. Moreover, the Han army division must also be the elite part of the transfer. Second, even if the people see it along the way, we only have intelligence officers in big cities and important transportation hubs, and the countryside is a blind spot. The north side is also a regional blockade, and you can't leave the area without road blocks. Even if the people somewhere see it, the news can't get out. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang thought and nodded. He put his hand on the phone, hesitated for a moment, then picked up the receiver and let Li Guoliang be connected again.

"Commander Li, it's me. There is a task entrusted to you Lu Hang, and you personally arrange it, and you must keep it a secret strictly...... Two reconnaissance planes were sent to the northern part of Shanxi to reconnoitre, and they carefully reconnoitred along the highway from Taiyuan to Datong, flying lower and slower, checking the road surface tracks, and inspecting the land between the mountains and forests on the highway to see if there were any signs of large troops and heavy equipment driving by...... Yes, yes, I'm skeptical, it's very likely...... Without further ado, arrange as soon as possible...... Be sure to keep it a secret! Okay, hard work. ”

Then he hung up the phone and sat staring at each other.

……

After a morning of negotiations, during the lunch break, after eating, I found Xiang Xiaoqiang with a stomachache, and quietly sent him Li Guoliang's aerial reconnaissance report.

Li Guoliang selected and dispatched ace pilots of two detachments to Linfen Airport, and then took off from Linfen Airport and divided into four waves and eight planes to take turns to reconnoiter the Taiyuan-Datong highway. He chose an old-fashioned open-cockpit biplane, so he could keep the speed very slow. These are all ace pilots, not only have the ability to control the speed of the aircraft almost at the stall critical point, but also "zero altitude flight", that is, a height of more than ten meters, and the altimeter shows "0".

The pilot drove the plane not much faster than the car, and the belly of the plane almost grazed the treetops. The machine gunner in the back seat leaned out and took pictures about ten meters down.

In the previous routine flight reconnaissance, reconnaissance planes flew high in the sky to see if there were any enemy troop movements below, and they never swooped down to look for these clues. But this time, today, there was no need to go back to wash the photos at all, and the pilot himself found countless "clues" on the spot.

The inferior asphalt road was covered with tire tracks of heavy artillery, large vehicles, tank tracks, and even narrow wheels resembling 37 guns.

And along the way, whenever you get closer to the highway and the mountain forest, the land under the highway is covered with deeper ruts and indentations, close to the edge of the mountain forest, and occasionally you can find a lot of garbage and batches of feces.

All these things were completely invisible to normal aerial reconnaissance in the past.

Xiang Xiaoqiang finished reading the report, looked at the thick stack of big photos, and saw these countless "clues" with his own eyes.

"Well done," he patted his stomachache on the shoulder, and then ordered, "Call Hu Jiong, prepare the car for me, I'm going to the fortress." ”

Then he looked at his watch and said:

"There was less than an hour left in the lunch break, and it was too late. When I turned around, I said that I was not feeling well, I had seen a doctor, and the negotiations were postponed in the afternoon. ”

……

In a conference room of the headquarters, a circle of highest-ranking generals sat at the table, all listening to Xiang Xiaoqiang's report in horror, watching Xiang Xiaoqiang holding a pole in front of the map and pointing fingers.

Xiang Xiaoqiang pointed to the map, foamed at the mouth, and then ordered the lights to be turned off, and the photo was shown to the adults with a slide projector, so that everyone could see with their own eyes what was on the ground in the northwestern part of Shanxi.

When he put the slideshow, he didn't forget to give Li Guoliang a share of the credit, after all, it was Lu Hang's photo taken by himself.

After reading dozens of photos, Xiang Xiaoqiang ordered to turn on the lights. The generals immediately had a heated discussion.

Some people advocate questioning the Qing side at the negotiating table and at the same time releasing these photos to the press, so as to give the Qing a political hand. Some people advocate that regardless of that, mobilize bomber formations to make a surprise attack, and carry out a carpet bombing of the mountains and forests north of Taiyuan that may be hiding the Qing army, saying that this is called "whether he has dates or not, he will hit a pole first." Subsequently, the Shanxi Ming army was launched to storm Taiyuan, striving to capture Taiyuan in one fell swoop and open the passage into Beishanxi.

Preliminary opinions have been formed, with one faction advocating playing the political card and the other faction advocating playing the military card. Those who advocate playing the political card mean that they will use this incident as an opportunity to smear the Northern Qing Dynasty in the international community and strive to push the US arms procurement step forward. However, it seems a pity that those who advocate playing the military card think that such a good opportunity is just to play this political card. The situation on the American side does not necessarily take a turn for the better because of this incident.

Li Guoliang's opinion is the most resolute. He asked the General Staff for permission to plan a fire offensive operation, dispatching two or three hundred bombers at a time, loaded with incendiary bombs, and setting fire to all the mountains and forests around the north of Taiyuan. Now in November, the weather in Shanxi is dry, and a spark can ignite a forest fire. The elite of the Qing army of such twenty divisions was no different from hiding in the woods. Even if you can't burn them all, even if you burn a third of them, you're making a lot of money.

However, the generals of the "political faction" also pointed out that this was too cruel and would lose too much moral points. The Geneva Conventions explicitly prohibit the use of incendiary weapons, and they can be used as auxiliary in peacetime, but now tens of thousands of people are burned alive at once, and they are immediately targeted by the public. Moreover, now the weather is dry and dry, the northwest wind is cold, and Taiyuan is surrounded by mountains, the east is connected to the Taihang Mountains, and the west is connected to the Luliang Mountains, and the fire cannot be controlled at all. If it causes a catastrophe, then we are sinners.

It's still the old rule, the generals argued, Zhang Zhaoxian, Tang Yunsheng, and Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't participate, they just listened.

But Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart has been pulled over by the "military faction". Especially Li Guoliang's "fire attack plan" is simply too evil and too hateful, and it came to Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart at once. If it weren't for the "political faction" that put forward the factor of forest fires, he would almost have spoken out in favor of it.

Xiang Xiaoqiang pricked up his ears and listened carefully to every speech at the negotiation table, trying to capture the basis from it that could support the "fire attack plan". He also stared at the map with wide eyes, trying to find a basis for refuting the "fire theory" from the mountainous environment around Taiyuan.

At the same time, a voice in his heart kept shouting:

Burn! Burn!! Burn!!! Burn those *** !!