Episode 21 Attention! Tank!

At noon on October 6, the Eighth Army of the Ming Army's Right Army Group occupied Huai'an.

Now, the Eighth Army was the farthest advance of the entire right army group, and by this time it was almost 160 kilometers from the Yangtze River behind it. Since the offensive was much smoother than expected, the high command immediately revised the plan and ordered the Eighth Army to continue to advance northwest along the Xuhuai Highway (Xuzhou to Huai'an), bypassing Hongze Lake from the north to the west, and turning southwest to attack Sihong.

This is equivalent to enlarging the encirclement, and even Hongze Lake is packed into it. Of course, the purpose of this is not for a lake, but for an army to appear north of the Huai River, which can flank Bengbu and Fengyang with the Ming army south of the Huai River, and can also produce a huge spiritual deterrent to the Qing army south of the Huai River, so that they can feel encircled and accelerate their collapse.

Of course, by the way, you can also take Sihong Airport.

On October 6, the follow-up units of the Eighth Army "digested" Jiangsu, and many places that had been left behind by the Sixth Division of the People's Guard, but had not yet been occupied, such as Dongtai, Yancheng, Jianhu, Xinghua, Dafeng, Hai'an, and so on, surrendered one after another on this day. At this point, the Ming army had taken two-thirds of Jiangsu on the third day of the war.

To the west of Gaoyou Lake and Hongze Lake, that is, on the Anhui battlefield, the 12th Army still occupied Chuzhou at night, despite the fact that there was no support from the People's Guard armored division for the whole day on the 4th due to pontoon bridges. Then, in the early morning of the 5th, it headed northwest and advanced into the hilly area of the Langya Mountains.

This is no better than the plains of Jiangsu, and the aerial bombardment of the Ming army cannot be so completely unobstructed. In addition, this is along the Jinpu Railway, and the Qing army is still relatively strong, and there are four divisions in Chuzhou alone. Although the four divisions were also blown apart, more than half managed to retreat and hide in the hills behind Chuzhou, hiding from the bombardment through woods and shrubs.

On the morning of the 5th, when Gao Dayi led the First Armored Division of the People's Guard into the Qing army garrison outside Chuzhou, he looked at the empty barracks and said only one sentence:

"If I were Emperor Guangwu, I would definitely give this commander a medal."

Because, he saw that the heavy weapons in the barracks, except for two-thirds that were blown up by the planes, the remaining one-third were missing. Ammunition depots, fuel depots and supply depots have either been emptied or set on fire and are burning.

What's more serious is that of the ten large tank hangars, except for six that were blown up, the remaining four are empty. The tank inside was nowhere to be seen.

Although they also experienced the indiscriminate bombing of bombers, although the barracks were still full of corpses and wounded soldiers everywhere, there were not so many Qing soldiers who remained to surrender to the Ming army like in other places. This retreat is still very level. It appears that at least more than half of the troops were withdrawn relatively intact. The performance was much more decent than that of the Qing army in Jiangsu.

Knowing that the Qing army in Chuzhou had 20-25 heavy tanks retreated into the hilly area of Langya Mountain, Gao Dayi understood what he might face. Although I don't know what the fighting spirit of the Qing army was, these heavy tanks hid in the woods and bushes of the hills, and they were sure that they were ambushed.

He made two decisions at once, first to pull back the Lightning-2 light tank and move the Lightning-3 medium tank to the front as much as possible for a possible tank encounter. Then, he ordered that in the process of advancing, each tank and armored vehicle kept shouting through the loudspeaker: all the Qing tank soldiers who voluntarily surrendered with tanks would be rewarded with 100 Ming Yang each.

This is also one of the characteristics of this Northern Expedition. The Ming army command knew very well that under such a huge disparity between the hearts of the people and the army on both sides, this war would be "half by fighting, and half by shouting." Almost every vehicle of the Ming army was equipped with a simple loudspeaker, which could shout to the Qing army at any time and "shout" the Qing army.

A staff officer next to him hesitated:

"My lord, it doesn't seem that the command department has this policy, right? We ...... it without permission."

Gao Dayi smiled and said:

"None? Let's add it now. Spending a few hundred oceans can reduce the number of brothers killed in battle, and it is worth it. Go back and let Lord Xiang talk to the headquarters, and let the old men approve it. If it is approved, it can be implemented for a long time, and it doesn't matter if it is not approved, then it will be a temporary policy for this campaign. Money...... Let us adults pay out of our own pockets. We adults are so rich, we can still afford a few tanks. Haha......"

……

Entering the hilly terrain, the tanks of the Ming army had an overall advantage in mobility. There were very few places where the Qing army's Balutu and Kubu heavy tanks could go, and they could not go to places with large ups and downs. And the Ming tanks are still on the ground. The infantry of the Panzer Division of the People's Guard Corps reconnoitred the march in front, and the tank regiments drove in the rear, and spread out on both sides of the road, leaving the road for the wheeled vehicle units behind.

Everyone knew that they would encounter the heavy tanks of the Qing army in this area, and they were all nervous as they advanced. But the situation was not as terrible as the soldiers had expected, and the battle continued to begin with sporadic infantry contact battles. The Qing army also fought and retreated, and did not stop to rely on the terrain to fight a good battle with the Ming army. Qing soldiers still surrendered easily.

It seems that although the 20,000 or 30,000 Qing troops withdrew into the hilly area, they still did not restore the formed combat effectiveness of the entire division, and after a short exchange of fire with the Ming army, they either surrendered or retreated, and the battle was below the battalion level. However, there were few tanks and heavy artillery of the Qing army along the way. Except for three or two heavy tanks, which probably drove into the col by mistake and could not climb out, they were blown up by the Qing army themselves, and not a single tank was seen.

In the middle of the vast hilly area, there are also many towns and villages, which were still easily recovered by the Ming army. Gao Dayi judged that the generals of the Qing army must have adopted a realistic line of "preserving strength," and all the most important tasks were to ensure the safe withdrawal of as many troops and heavy equipment as possible to the north. The Qing army in Chuzhou, like the Qing army in other places, must not know the scale of the Ming army's attack, do not know the strategic determination of the Ming army, and see that the Ming army is menacing and the offensive is extremely fierce, so they all have the idea that "heroes do not suffer immediate losses", and they all regard it as the best policy to preserve the troops as well as possible. In their opinion, even if the Ming army is attacking fiercely at the moment, the Qing Dynasty is thousands of miles deep and far exceeds the total strength of the Ming army.

Only one village had a tank battle. This was a battalion of the Qing army, probably lagging behind, surrounded by the Ming army, and retreating into a village in a hurry. The Ming army did not know that this battalion had tanks, and still used multiple tanks and armored vehicles to advance from all roads in the village at the same time, and the iron wall was closed.

But one of the captains first found deep track marks in front of the barn. He yelled no, and immediately ordered to retreat. But by this time it was too late. There was a loud bang in the livestock shed, countless straws flew in the smoke of gunpowder, and the Ming army's Lightning-2 tank had become a fireball.