Episode 100 gnaws the southeast corner

The Nanjing Command, he originally thought, what is there to ask for instructions on this, there is already an order in advance, all Qing troops who are holding civilians hostage, all officers above the rank of lieutenant are executed. He wanted to make the front follow the law with a stroke of the pen, but after thinking about it for a while, he felt that something was wrong.

Why do you ask for instructions ahead? …… By the way, this is the first time that the Qing army has coerced civilians after the promulgation of the "Zhulian Order" by the Northern Qing Dynasty, which is a new special situation. The commander of the Fifth Division was Tian Zhanyuan, and he probably considered that how to deal with this matter would set a precedent for the future, so he was more cautious.

Li Gensheng looked at the details described in the telegram and couldn't make up his mind for a while. To say that these Qing troops are really cornered. On the one hand, the Ming Army's "Order to Save Civilians", and on the other hand, the Qing Army's "Zhulian Order", if you change it to yourself, you really can't think of any third way. Li Gensheng couldn't make up his mind and wanted to report this matter to Xiaoqiang. But it was the second half of the night, and Xiang Xiaoqiang was sleeping, so Li Gensheng asked the front line to take the four lieutenants into custody first, and then make a decision after consulting Xiang Xiaoqiang in the morning.

……

This tank battle in the village was the most serious resistance encountered by the 5th Panzer Division during its entire night advance. For more than two hours, no major resistance was encountered.

A little after five o'clock in the morning, when it was still pitch dark, the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion of the 5th Panzer Division smelled the salty smell coming to their faces. The farmland on both sides is gradually becoming scarce, and in its place, there are large areas of barren land. The headlights shone through, and all I saw was weeds and bushes.

Everything says that it's almost to the coastline.

After marching for another ten minutes, the soil under the feet of the front reconnaissance infantry began to soften, and the sand feeling was significantly enhanced when the boots stepped on it. When I shone it with a flashlight, it was all gray-white sand.

One of the soldiers picked it up, sniffed it, and licked it a little, it tasted bitter and salty.

Have you already reached the beach?

But the headlights were far away, and I didn't see the sea.

The reconnaissance battalion was dispersed into a vast convex surface, and scouts several kilometers away also reported by radio that they were stepping on a large number of salt flats.

According to common sense, even if it is a seaside, it will not be like this. These large salt flats are found only on the shores of saltwater lakes in the arid regions of Central Asia. The seaside climate is humid, and it won't be like this.

The staff officers of the division headquarters were also very strange, they were all immersed in the command vehicle and consulted all kinds of maps and materials. Suddenly, a staff officer suddenly realized:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a salt flat, this may be a salt drying field! To the south of Haizhou and north of Binhai County, the coast is full of salt drying fields! Our vanguard has already marched into the salt drying plant. The reconnaissance battalion in front stepped on not sand, but coarse salt! ”

As soon as he said this, the entire person who commanded the car suddenly realized. When the reconnaissance battalion in front received this news on the radio, they all grabbed a handful of "sand" and put it under the headlights to look at it carefully.

Driving into the salt drying field, it means that it is only a few kilometers from the coastline. Now it is only five o'clock, and the sky is not yet dawn, so it can be said that the task has been completed ahead of schedule, and it has basically advanced smoothly to the seaside.

Sure enough, after another half an hour or so, the frontmost reconnaissance unit drove through the saltworks area, and the leather boots really stepped on the beach.

Bathed in the bitter sea breeze, breathing in the moist and salty air, and listening to the sound of "whooshing" waves, the hearts of all the people in the reconnaissance unit were uncontrollable.

Although it was still dark, the reflection of the moon on the sea in the distance was relatively clear. On the dark sea, a silver splinter sparkled and was beautiful.

In the darkness in the distance, a faint red light could be seen, flashing back and forth. This is the agreed signal, it is the destroyers of the Ming Navy cruising back and forth in the coastal waters of the target coast, lighting red lights to serve as a "lighthouse" for the armored division on land. Seeing this mark, it means that the 5th Panzer Division has reached the correct coast, which is only 25-30 kilometers from Haizhou to the north.

The predetermined location has been reached. At this point, the easternmost section of the Qing army's first line of defense, the Qing army east of Suqian, has been surrounded. The Fifth Panzer Division began to assemble, redeploy its forces, rearrange and adjust its direction, and prepared to launch an attack to the south at dawn to annihilate the Qing troops on the first line of defense.

……

At half past five in the morning, like most important generals, Xiang Xiaoqiang also got up early. While eating breakfast with Li Gensheng, he quickly swept the telegram, raised his eyelids and asked:

"How many lieutenants are coming, four?"

Li Gensheng replied:

"Four. The Qing army originally had two companies, and now there is only one company commander and three platoon commanders left. The others are dead. ”

"And you mean, let them go?"

"That's not what I meant," Li Gensheng said, "My lord, since the Fifth Division sent a telegram back to ask for instructions, it means that they also think that it seems inappropriate to execute them like this. The situation of the Qing army is now different from before, they cannot surrender, otherwise the whole family will be killed. My lord, at this time, should we make some changes? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang read the telegram carefully, pondered for a moment, and said:

"No, those dozens of ordinary people can't die in vain, they can't be crippled in vain. Whoever let them hide in the residential areas to fight, will not let the common people come out. If you don't want to surrender, that's okay, if it's a man, everyone pulls it out and fights. Or you want to take advantage of the favorable environment of the building, but at least get civilians out of the battlefield. In this way, it is impossible to pull the back of civilians on their backs, and then they are cornered. This precedent cannot be set. If this precedent is not opened, then at least the Qing army is cornered, and this precedent is set, and the Qing army tastes the sweetness and begins to do this, and we are the ones who are cornered. …… Call back and ask them to execute the four lieutenants as usual, and call the entire Qing army as usual to warn them. ”

Li Gensheng took the telegram, hesitated for a moment, wanted to say something but didn't say anything, only said "yes", or went back.

Twenty minutes later, the four Qing lieutenants were executed by the gendarmerie of the Fifth Panzer Division. The death sentence was then widely circulated in the form of a telegram. All levels of command of the Qing army will receive it.

At six o'clock in the morning, shelling and bombardment began at the same time. This 120-kilometer-long and 15-kilometer-wide narrow enclosed area has once again fallen into the earth-shaking mountains and billowing gunsmoke. Unlike the last offensive, this time the Qing army on the front line had cut off the rear transportation and also cut off the retreat route. The Ming army executed four Qing army officers who were holding civilians hostage, and the news had just spread throughout the command departments of the Qing army. Now the Qing army in the encirclement has lost all fighting spirit.

After an hour of fire preparation, at seven o'clock, from the north and south sides, the Ming army, with two armored divisions as the backbone and 20 motorized infantry divisions as a coordinated force, advanced from the north and south sides at the same time.

Although the Qing army's position was very long, it was only 15 kilometers wide on average, which meant that there was no depth left. By 12 noon, the entire strip was divided into 11 blocks of various sizes. At this point, this battle of annihilation is basically won.

While the Ming army increased its troops to consolidate its position, it used airplanes to scatter leaflets in the sky.

This is a new leaflet printed in accordance with the new situation in the new era. The central idea is that we know that the Qing court issued a cruel order of "one person surrenders, and the whole family is involved". This order is not only contrary to public international law, but also to basic human ethics, and can be said to be dehumanizing. But because of this, you need to surrender on a large scale. Only in this way can the evil regime that kidnaps your family perish more quickly. The sooner and more you surrender, the sooner your homeland will be liberated and your families will be safer. There are hundreds of thousands, even if you surrender together, with the efficiency of the Qing court, you may not be able to identify who surrendered and who died before you perished, let alone go all over the country to threaten your family.

Sure enough, after this batch of new leaflets was dropped, the will of the Qing soldiers in the encirclement to break through was significantly weakened, and several of the encirclement surrendered smoothly.

By about four o'clock in the afternoon, almost all the Qing troops on the first line east of Suqian had surrendered. In this battle, a total of 12 divisions of the Qing army were annihilated, four of which were the Eight Banner Division. More than 160,000 Qing troops were killed and captured.

Next, the Ming army on the right was not idle all night, busy transporting prisoners, consolidating the position on the left flank, preventing the main force of the Qing army in the direction of Xuzhou on the west from counterattacking, repairing damaged roads and bridges, establishing supply depots, and building the advance airfield...... In short, a series of work was in the service of the next offensive - to continue the offensive to the north, to break through the second line of defense of the Central Plains Corps, to seize Haizhou (Lianyungang), and to obtain a sea port on the way forward.

The high command, which had been nervous for several days, was now also half relieved. This battle was fought less than the upper and more than the lower. Compared with the Jianghuai Campaign in the first stage, this kind of offensive speed and casualty rate can be regarded as a "bitter battle". But compared with the real "hard battle" on the first day of the Central Plains War, this was almost a tailwind.

Anyway, the Central Plains Corps of the Qing Army, which was looking at the discus, was finally gnawed off in the southeast corner.