Episode 28 Feint

On the 15th, the Ming army launched a swift "Western Offensive". On the same day, in the Beijing High Command, Guangwu urgently convened a military meeting. He has always been arbitrary, and he is not sure about the current movement of the Ming army.

Before this offensive, not only Guangwu, but most of the generals in the command also believed that the main direction of the Ming army's next attack was definitely the east. Because it is clear that the eastern battlefield is the Great Plain of North China, which is more suitable for the Ming army to give full play to its mobile advantage. In addition, the eastern battlefield was close to the sea, and as the Ming army's battle line lengthened, it may also need sea transportation as a supplement. Although the coast of Jiangsu is alluvial plains and the coastline is straight, in Shandong, the coastline becomes winding and full of natural harbors.

In addition to these benefits, there are broad offensive prospects in the east. If the Southern Ming really had the ambition to defeat the Qing Dynasty completely, then the eastern part was undoubtedly the closest route to Beijing. If the ambition of the Southern Ming is only to reach the Yellow River, then the Yellow River in the east is much more northerly. The entire Shandong Peninsula is south of the Yellow River. Even if Nanming didn't plan to cross the Yellow River, it would be able to eat enough south of the Yellow River.

And what is there in the Western Theater? If you want terrain without terrain, if you want a future, you have no future. To the north, Zhengzhou is on the edge of the Yellow River, and even if Zhengzhou is occupied, the north of the city is the Yellow River. Now in October, it is still the autumn flood, the river is wide and rapid, and the sediment is rolling, but it is not as easy to build a pontoon bridge as on the Yangtze River. To the west, at most another hit, 100 kilometers, advance to Luoyang. Further west, up to another 130 kilometers, that is Hangu Pass.

Yes, Shanxi and Shaanxi are very empty, and there are no large-scale garrisons. But the Ming army had to be able to enter the pass first. The valley of Hangu Pass is really a husband and a man. At its narrowest point, it was only a few meters wide, and neither of its two tanks could be placed side by side. No matter how powerful the mechanized troops of the Ming army are, they will not enter Hangu Pass, right?

In other words, when the Ming army launched the western offensive, the place where it might be laid was just a few thousand square kilometers, and it was only a palm-sized piece. If we fight from the east, what will be in front of Nanming will be the North China Plain of more than 200,000 square kilometers, which is a broad prospect for advancement.

At the military meeting, the generals were still very unaccustomed to being such a "democratic-master" as Guangwu, and they did not dare to express their opinions for a while. However, in their hearts, most of them were inclined to this as a feint attack by the Ming army, in order to allow the Qing Dynasty to draw troops from the eastern army in Xuzhou and Shangqiu to reinforce Zhengzhou, and then let the Ming army's right army group take the opportunity to attack north and break through into the North China Plain at a relatively small cost.

Guangwu saw that everyone didn't speak, so he first expressed his opinion, that is, he was inclined to the Ming army to feint. As soon as he said that, the rest of it was no problem. A large number of generals were originally inclined to this as a feint, but this time it can be said without scruples. All of a sudden, all sorts of arguments and arguments were gushing out.

There was a major general's staff officer who hesitated to voice a concern:

“…… There is a bridge over the Yellow River in Zhengzhou...... In case the Ming army ......"

As soon as the words were spoken, there was a brief silence. Everyone looked at him. Many people are saying in their hearts: Finally, an ignorant stunned young man picked out this question.

"Huh?"

Guangwu raised his eyes, glanced at him coldly, and then said:

"Songhai, what do you mean?"

Sure enough, after a few seconds of silence, another voice said angrily:

"What do you mean? You say Zhengzhou can't hold it? You want to blow up the bridge right now? ”

The one who spoke was a young man in his twenties, who was Guangwu's younger brother, Prince Shun Yuyi, the one who exchanged hostages with Xiang Xiaoqiang last time.

Songhai turned pale with fright:

"Lord Shun...... That's not what the minions meant...... Minion...... The minion just said that he planned ahead of time just in case......"

"Planning?" Yu Yi glared and said, "What did you plan to do earlier?" What do you mean? What do you want? ”

Someone next to him immediately followed the righteous words and reprimanded angrily:

"Are you saying that the Qing Dynasty can't keep the south of the Yellow River? Or did the Qing Dynasty not be able to keep the north of the Yellow River? Or will Nanming fight all the way to Beijing? ”

"You mean that the Qing Dynasty can't beat Nanming anyway, so it's better to blow up the bridge early and stay to the north of the Yellow River to be safe?"

"Are you saying that there are so many of us, and the direction of the Ming army's main attack has been wrong? Do you want to say that so many of us are inferior to you? Do you want to say, even the emperor...... Even the emperor is wrong? ”

Song Hai was so frightened that he knelt on the ground all of a sudden, his whole body was like a sifting chaff, and he said in a trembling voice:

"The Emperor...... Emperor...... Minion...... The slave deserves death...... Don't you dare...... Slave ......"

Hirotake said impatiently:

"Okay, okay, I didn't say what I was going to do with you, you get up, tell me what you mean...... Do you think the Zhengzhou Corps really can't hold it? ”

"No, no, no," Song Hai shook his head in fright, didn't dare to get up, and said in a trembling voice on the ground, "The Zhengzhou Corps is the elite division of the Qing Dynasty, and the south of the Yellow River must be as stable as a rock!" ”

"Rock solid?" Guangwu frowned and said, "How is it as stable as a rock?" You talk about it. ”

Songhai's face was sweating like rain, he raised his sleeves to wipe it, and said casually:

"Your Majesty...... The Zhengzhou Corps is ...... It is composed of the children of Guanzhong, and it has been ...... since ancient times Since ancient times, there have been poems as evidence...... 'The Qin army endured hard fighting', and the soldiers of Qin were the most capable of fighting...... This is what Bai Juyi sighed as early as the Tang Dynasty......"

Yu Yan was very active in showing off:

"This is Du Fu's famous article "Soldier Chariot Travel", not Bai Juyi. In addition, the Qin army endured hard fighting, and was driven away from dogs and chickens. ’”

Songhai was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly thanked Yu Yan:

"Yes, yes, it's Du Fu, it's Du Fu...... Thank you for mentioning it, the prince is very knowledgeable, and he really admires the slaves...... Your Majesty, I think that the Nanming barbarian, the cream soldier who has lived a superior life since childhood, saw my Guanxi soldiers of the Qing Dynasty, is it not like a sheep seeing a tiger? ”

"Kansai Heroes?" Guangwu said lightly, "The garrisons of Jiangsu and Anhui have a lot of 'Guanxi heroes', and they surrender faster than anyone else......"

Songhai became nervous again, he held back for a few seconds, came up with the words, and immediately said:

"Your Majesty, this is because ...... Because of the tradition of garrisoning troops in other places in the Qing Dynasty, it is very effective to maintain stability, but when foreign enemies invade, if they are not local soldiers, they may not be so strong, because they are not defending their hometown...... However, Zhengzhou is different, the Zhengzhou Corps guards the main road to Guanzhong and Sanqin, and this kind of battle to protect the family and defend the country is the easiest to stimulate the fighting spirit of the soldiers. …… Yes, Your Majesty, look at the battle in the first ten days, and the surrender of our Qing army has become a common practice...... Is it true that our army is not as strong as the Ming army? Definitely not, just because the soldiers are not defending their hometown and lack fighting spirit...... And now in Zhengzhou, the soldiers are not only defending their hometown, but also the brave children of Guanxi, the two factors are combined into one, and the battle will be as brave as a tiger, truly showing the demeanor of my Qing Dynasty soldiers! ”

These words were extremely good, and the surrounding large group of people could no longer say anything. Even Guangwu smiled and nodded slightly.

Song Hai breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, raised his arm and wiped a handful of cold sweat on his head, and said in his heart that this catastrophe could be regarded as over. I am soft-spoken, and when I don't know how deep the water is in the future, I must not talk stupidly.

Then, according to his own judgment, Guangwu and a cadre of generals formulated a battle plan according to the assumption that the Ming army would attack the east and feint to attack the west.

……

At the same time that the Ming Army's Left Army Group attacked the Zhengzhou Corps, the Ming Army's dive bomber formation, escorted by fighters, carried out a fierce bombardment of the railway north of the Yellow River in Zhengzhou, preventing the Qing army from going south to the Yellow River through this railway and entering Zhengzhou for support.

The Ming army launched an advance airfield south of the newly occupied Xuchang, from which the combat radius of fighters could be extended all the way to Xingtai. The stations south of Xingtai: Shahe, Wu'an, Cixian, Anyang, Tangyin, Hebi, Qixian, Weihui, Xinxiang, and almost half of the Jingnan Railway were all under the threat of Ming bombers.

The forward airfield, which was improvised by a bulldozer, was naturally not large in scale and could not accommodate too many fighters, that is, two squadrons, less than thirty aircraft. But then again, it doesn't take too many planes to bomb a linear fixed target like a railway. It was these less than 30 fighters, escorting two squadrons of dive bombers, who did nothing all day on the 15th, and the fighters were on guard in all directions to drive away the Qing fighters who occasionally came out to play with their lives.

Although the target of the railway is fixed, it is extremely difficult to bomb accurately. Because it's not like a building, a vehicle, or something, even if it doesn't hit directly, a near-miss shock wave can cause damage. Railroad stuff, as long as you don't drop the bomb 100 percent in the middle of the two rails, it's not harmful at all. It's a lot more demanding than throwing a bomb into a trench. The trenches are even wider.

Throughout the day, two groups of planes replaced repeated bombing, and although it did not cause much damage to the railway itself, it kept the Qing army from using the railway throughout the day. In the morning, there was also a column of Qing troops spraying white gas and trying to brave the bombardment to rush south, but it was first strafed by fighter planes for several kilometers, and hundreds of Qing soldiers were directly killed in the carriage, and finally a bomb landed more than one meter away on the left side of the front of the car.

If there is no train on the tracks, this near-miss bullet will not deal any damage to the tracks. But now the tall body of the train has become the best carrier of the shock wave, and it is lifted off the track at once, overturned out of the roadbed, and followed by the carriages behind it.

Then, those Qing soldiers who crawled out in a hurry with their heads covered in blood became the best targets for the planes in the sky, and there was no place to hide on either side. Bombs and strafing roared down, and corpses were strewn all over the field on both sides of the railway, and rivers of blood flowed like rivers.

On this train, the Qing army company of a brigade on the train overturned and fired bombs, and almost all the troops were wiped out.

So throughout the day, the railway south of Xingtai was idle, and no more trains appeared on it.

……

All day on the 15th, the Ming army attacked the periphery of the Zhengzhou Corps, but in fact did not make much effort. Except for the buzzing bombers and the heavy artillery bombardment, there was not much movement on the ground, and the cluster of tanks that had worked well in the previous stage did not appear. Moreover, the Ming army did not directly attack the front of the Zhengzhou Corps, that is, the south, but always circled around the east from the south, as if it was still very interested in Kaifeng, Lankao, and Shangqiu in the east.

At the same time, in the Eastern Theater of Operations, there was silence in the south of the Xuzhou Corps, and the Ming army did not move at all. It's just that there are constantly fighters in the sky to protect the dive bombers from flying quickly, dropping a few bombs.

At sea, Qing fighter jets flying out of the Shandong Peninsula once again spotted the Ming convoy on the Yellow Sea. This time it was ten freighters.

Guangwu made a comprehensive judgment and firmly believed in his own expectations. The Ming army was a feint in the western theater. The real direction of attack is in the east.