Episode 176 Attack Day

Xiang Xiaoqiang rushed to the Supreme Command in the Purple Mountain Fortress by car, and sat in the car on the road.

As expected, on the day of the signing of the treaty on August 9, the major newspapers published the full text of the Lushun Treaty on the front page. The full text of the treaty is not long, only the first half of the page is used, the second half of the page is the verbal criticism of the political section of the newspapers, the big headline with black and bold "editor's note", these main writers themselves reveal a strong smell of gunpowder, and then several other pages are full of relevant articles, no matter which faction is pouring out anger, the wording is calm and cynical, and the spearhead is basically pointed at the Northern Qing Dynasty, which reversed black and white.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked through a few more newspapers, and found that there were some left-wing views, and the spearhead of questioning was aimed at the Ming negotiation team, accusing them of having no principles, and they could not simply take back prisoners of war, and any black pot could be carried on the entire Ming Empire. Individuals will never have the right to disregard the interests of the state for their own interests. The reason why these officers and soldiers were captured was to defend the country. Now, because they want to come back, they have to exchange the honor of the whole country, isn't it putting the cart before the horse?

In short, there is such a question between the lines: Is personal self-interest more important or national honor more important?

Then he flipped through the next day, August 10, in the paper. Sure enough, at this time, there were many articles that went toe-for-tat, and those articles were criticized for being incomplete. Xiang Xiaoqiang also saw the mainstream idea of the Ming people now, that is, the country is composed of a family and an individual, and if the abstract "national honor" overrides the happiness of this family and a person, then the so-called "national honor" is hypocritical. It is the greatest shame for a country to not be able to protect even its own most specific citizens. The "honor of the state" in exchange for sacrificing the specific interests of the people does not belong to the people as a whole, but only to the rulers themselves.

……

Then he flipped through the newspapers of the past ten days, and this matter has been the focus. Most of the articles contain three emotions: indignation, humiliation, and anticipation.

What to expect? It is expected that the thousands of prisoners of war of the Ming Dynasty will return safely. In addition, there is a general mood that cannot swallow this breath and expects the empire to do something.

A small number of radical views, "clamoring" for the Ming Dynasty to take tough measures against the Northern Qing Dynasty, such as immediately increasing the airdrop of the Taihang Mountain column, expanding the agitation of the southern escape in the rear of the Northern Qing Dynasty, and intensifying the counter-subversion ...... In short, after receiving thousands of prisoners of war, the "Lushun Treaty" will be completely torn up. Some are more radical, and even shout that the Ming Dynasty wants to start a war against the Northern Qing Dynasty and give them a little bit of power. Of course, most of these writers who are clamoring for war do not live along the Yangtze River.

When Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at these titles, his first feeling was: There are so many patriotic and indignant young people who dare to love Ming?

But after taking a closer look at the article, he immediately saw that the articles written by these "angry youths" were still very level. After all, at this time, there is no Internet, no forum, no blog, not who wants to speak, and it can be seen by tens of millions of people immediately if it is posted. At this time, there is also an editing hurdle between the author and the reader. Moreover, the newspaper has a limited space, and all that can be printed are the most high-level articles. That kind of pure utterance is directly rejected or thrown into the wastebasket.

Therefore, the "angry youth articles" that Xiang Xiaoqiang saw in the newspaper cannot be called "angry youth" by the standards of his later generations, but should be called "angry scholars".

And the viewpoint of "going to war" advocated by these "indignant scholars" is analyzed one by one, and how similar is the argument of the "Northern Expeditionary faction" at the highest military and political meeting of the empire! However, after all, they are not professional in military affairs, and they cannot see the power of air supremacy and large-depth mobile warfare like Xiang Xiaoqiang; they mostly analyze it from the political aspect, and the most talked about and the most powerful argument is the four words "what the people want." The thing that can most directly express the aspirations of the people on both sides of the strait is that they fled south at the risk of death that happens every day. In the article, they wrote directly:

"'To live in Daming', this is the dream of every low-level people in the Northern Qing Dynasty. The bottom of the army is no exception. Let's ask, if the Qing soldiers were given a chance to live in the Ming Dynasty, how many would give up? How many people will still have guns in their hands and shoot at our Ming soldiers? No, they won't! They will only see the Ming army as liberators! ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang lay in the leather backrest of the back seat, flicked the newspaper vigorously, and secretly praised:

"Good! This sentence is the most thorough! ”

Zheng Yuxuan had already been taken to attend the press conference, and Xiang Xiaoqiang did not attend because he had received a summons from the headquarters. What is certain is that as soon as the clever mouth of the county lord Zheng Da is painted, coupled with the sad and indignant words of the pear blossom and the rain, everything that happened in the Chifeng prisoner of war camp will be exposed. Now the outside world only sees an urn at the award ceremony, and only knows that it is the brother who died in the prisoner of war camp, and does not know how he died! I just think that such a brother died in the prisoner of war camp!

Tonight, the second round of anger against the Northern Qing Dynasty will sweep through the Ming Dynasty and rush out of Asia and into the world. …… Of course, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Northern Qing Dynasty will definitely refute the rumors as soon as possible, and solemnly refute the "vicious slander" of the Southern Ming.

……

Entering the conference room of the headquarters in the Purple Mountain Fortress, the regular military meeting was going on, and it was Tang Yunsheng who presided over it. Ever since the Ming Dynasty secretly set the national policy of the Northern Expedition, this kind of regular military meeting has been held every day in the high headquarters, and the latest progress of the battle plan for the army and navy staff officers every day has to be discussed and perfected at the meeting.

Xiang Xiaoqiang and Zhang Zhaoxian both came after attending the award ceremony for returned officers and soldiers, and almost entered the conference room with their front and back feet. Seeing Zhang Shuai coming in, all the generals stood up and saluted, and Zhang Zhao waved his hand first and asked everyone to continue.

But everyone's eyes were more focused on Xiang Xiaoqiang. Xiang Xiaoqiang and Zheng Yuxuan have been envoys to the Northern Qing Dynasty these days, and they have always been the focus of the Ming Dynasty. Later, the mission came back first, and the two did not come back, it is said that they were taken to the summer resort to meet the Emperor of the Northern Qing Dynasty, and the contact was interrupted for so many days, which cast a veil of mystery on them. And it is precisely because of the two of them's "lonely man and widow" itinerary that it has provided excellent material for many tabloids to fabricate scandals.

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled at everyone very humbly, said hello, pulled a chair by himself, and found a vacant place to sit down.

As soon as he heard it, he understood why he had been called to this meeting. Because this time we have to make a more important decision, we must invite all the relevant generals, everyone will see how it is, and if it is okay, we will make a decision.

Tang Yunsheng continued:

“…… So, there are two factors that have decided that we will set our 'Attack Day' on October 4th. First of all, in the previous military meeting, we had already decided to set the time for the offensive in October. This is determined by factors such as our preparations, the agricultural time of the Northern Qing Dynasty, and the geographical environment of North China in autumn and winter. It is recommended on the 4th because the 4th is the first Sunday of October. Like us, many departments of the Qing army had a holiday on weekends, and many officers who were stationed close to home would take advantage of this to go home.

"Although the holiday only starts on Sunday, many officers will buy tickets and leave on Saturday night. This situation is both for us and for the Qing army. But the military discipline of the Qing army was much more lax than ours, and this was much more serious than ours. Except for a small number of elite ace troops, the military discipline is a little better, and most of the officers of the troops, whether they go home or not, must not be found on Saturday night. Most of them returned to the cities and counties where they were stationed to have fun, and they did not return to the army until noon on Monday. This is a common phenomenon.

"Therefore, if the attack was launched on Sunday, and it was a lightning strike, the command system of the Qing army, which was in a semi-paralyzed state, would be overwhelming. In this regard, I would like to thank Commander Xiang Xiaoqiang for first proposing the concept of 'blitzkrieg' and allowing me to experience the power firsthand during the fortress exercise. ”

As soon as he said this, everyone turned their faces to look at Xiao Qiang. Xiang Xiaoqiang was stunned, looked at Tang Yunsheng who was smiling faintly, and felt that he should be kind, so he made a look like a junior, scratched the back of his head, and smiled embarrassedly:

"Tang Gong praised it."

Tang Yunsheng smiled, and then said:

"The second reason is that some information about Emperor Guangwu's 'Great Exercise of the Century' has come in the past few days. The intelligence is more reliable, it is about the length of the exercise. At present, Guangwu has set the length of this exercise at about three months, and the scope of the exercise will start from the Beijing-Tianjin-Tang area in North China, and then move all the way south, spanning the three provinces of Zhili, Shanxi, and Henan, and finally focus on the north of Xiangfan, that is, the north of the middle section of our Yangtze River defense line. The scale is unprecedented.

"This exercise has been prepared for two and a half months in the Northern Qing Dynasty, and as an exercise, two and a half months is already a long time. Since the total length of the exercise is three months, we analyze that it will definitely start in September and end around November, and it is unlikely to drag on until October. Otherwise, the exercise will have to be carried out in the freezing weather of December and January in North China, and the effectiveness of the exercise will be greatly reduced.

"Because of this situation, it also provides us with the best opportunity to hide the reason for the transfer. We were attacking in October, and if the big exercises of the Northern Qing Dynasty had started in September, we would have every reason to move a large number of troops to the Yangtze River defense line in late September and assemble in the area where we were to attack. In this way, both the Northern Qing Dynasty and the outside world will understand this as our fear of the Northern Qing exercise, and we are afraid that the Northern Qing Dynasty will invade the south under the pretext of the exercise, and we will have to take defensive measures as a last resort. In this way, our attempts at a surprise attack will receive the best results. ”

……