Episode 178 The soul of crossing the river

This regular meeting preliminarily determined that the D day would be October 4th, and the h hour would be between 3 and 5 o'clock in the morning, and then, as Xiang Xiaoqiang wished, it was determined that the People's Guard would take the lead in attacking the front of the two offensives.

The advance schedule drawn up by the staff officers of the General Staff is too conservative in Xiang Xiaoqiang's opinion. Only a dozen kilometers per day were advanced, which was obviously the same as the advance speed of the First World War. Of course, judging by the standards of the stalemate on the Western Front in World War I, advancing more than ten kilometers a day is already a very fast speed. Obviously, this is still the speed of advance that the staff officers expected when there was no superior Qing army along the way.

However, judging from the military common sense of Xiang Xiaoqiang's later generations, under the condition that his own side has air superiority, a high proportion of motorized troops, and a concentrated armored force as the vanguard, in the face of an opponent like the Qing army, the advance speed cannot be only more than ten kilometers per day. The right-wing offensive advanced from Nanjing to Xuzhou, and the 280 kilometers did not take 20 days at all, and it was very likely that it would be completed in 5 or 6 days.

However, he did not throw out this shocking number. This would only weaken his influence in the High Command. These gray-haired old generals and marshals will only think that he, a hairy boy, is not suitable for commanding troops, but only suitable for fantasies.

Xiang Xiaoqiang just tried to be as serious as possible and said:

"Tang Gong...... Should we consider whether our army should advance faster with air superiority, a large proportion of motorized troops, and a concentrated armored assault force? We are now making a plan to advance more than a dozen kilometers a day, is it a bit conservative? ”

Tang Yunsheng turned his head to look at Zhang Zhaoxian, with an inquiring meaning in his eyes. Tang Yunsheng is close to Xiang Xiaoqiang's view on this point. During the fortress exercise, Tang Yunsheng was extremely impressed by this point. However, Zhang Zhaoxian and most of the generals and staff officers were still relatively conservative, believing that it was already very fast to advance more than ten kilometers a day. It is not impossible for them to advance more than 20 kilometers a day, but it will never be an average speed, and it must be a "peak of advancement" when the game is very smooth and very lucky.

Zhang Zhaoxian muttered:

"This ...... The question of standing up has also been raised by several young staff officers. If we look at these factors alone, and then refer to the experience of the Fortress exercise, then our expected pace of advance is somewhat conservative. However, this offensive against the Qing Dynasty, no matter the scale or complexity, is incomparable with a single exercise. I understand what you young people mean, we have almost absolute air superiority, dozens of divisions of motorized troops, as well as a few armored divisions, mechanized divisions, which are all synonymous with rapid advance.

"But the 'rapid advance' you expect must be based on the premise that everything is coordinated in an orderly manner, that there are no mistakes, and that the 155 divisions and 2.3 million men must run as accurately as a clock. And the complex coordination of so many units and so many arms is something we have never tried before. It has not been tried by any army in the world. I can say now that these 155 divisions and 2.3 million men cannot run as accurately as a clock. There will be a series of big and small mistakes, and even leaks. We can only try to minimize such mistakes, but we cannot completely avoid them.

"Another question is whether we can successfully encircle and annihilate the Qing army on the north bank immediately after the breakthrough. This was the key to the success of our first phase of raids. The Qing army had 100-120 more elite divisions stationed on the north side of the Yangtze River defense line, which was still the norm. Everyone remembers that on the eve of the Qing army's southern invasion at the end of last year, the army that pressed on the Yangtze River defense line once reached 350 divisions. The total number of troops we participated in the Qing operation was only 155 divisions, and in terms of troops, we did not form an absolute superiority. This places high demands on our raids.

"The conservative strategic purpose of our Northern Expedition is to push the border of the Ming and Qing dynasties northward to the Yellow River-Qinling line. The successful encirclement and annihilation of the elite Qing army of 100-129 divisions was half of the success. Therefore, the key to our first stage is to successfully encircle and annihilate the Qing army of more than 100 divisions on the north bank, rather than rushing to advance as quickly as possible to the north.

"We must not take the enemy lightly in our plans, and we must not wishfully assume that the enemy will collapse at the slightest touch. It is necessary to take into account the possibility of stubborn resistance from the enemy. If we make mistakes during the exercise, we have a chance to correct them. And this time is to bet on the national fortunes of the Ming Dynasty, once the offensive plan is too rash and too optimistic, and suffers a major defeat, or even leads to the defeat of the Ming Empire, then we will become sinners in Chinese history. …… So, folks, we'd rather be cautious about our plans. ”

Zhang Zhaoxian made a steady analysis, and when it came to this, Xiang Xiaoqiang, Tang Yunsheng, and several other young staff officers looked at each other, and they all nodded, acquiescing that what he said made sense.

……

"The success of the raid on D-Day," Tang Yunsheng said, "the sappers are in a key position. Engineers are the soul of our river-crossing operations. Army Group Right was to break through on the river, and the key was to build pontoon bridges so that a large number of tanks and armored vehicles could be quickly thrown over after the assault boats had seized the beachhead on the opposite bank. Army Group Left was a ground breakthrough, the key was to clear minefields and blast down concrete obstacles from anti-tanks. The task of the sappers of Army Group on the left was relatively simple, the key was on the right.

"We are preparing to form 9 engineer brigades, of which 7 brigades will be allocated to Army Group Right. They will brave artillery fire and erect 80 pontoon bridges on a 240-kilometer offensive front. This will be an unprecedented bridge project. Of course, these nine engineer brigades were formed under extreme secrecy, and we drew them from the engineer battalions of various units in the name of building bridges, roads, and airfields on the island of Sumatra. It will be completed by the end of this month, and the one-month intensive training for building the pontoon bridge will begin. Stand out. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately replied:

"The end will be."

唐云生 says:

"Stand up, with the cooperation of the Zhouqiao troops, your People's Guard is the key. Because these 80 pontoons, so to speak, are framed for your tanks and armored vehicles. Your tanks and armored vehicles must also brave artillery fire and be the first to rush over the erected pontoon bridges to expand the landing ground for the cars and infantry behind. You go back and prepare, the People's Guard will train with these engineer brigades within a week. They practice building bridges, and you practice crossing bridges. ”

"Yes. …… Uh, Tang Gong, has the training location for crossing the river been chosen? ”

"The preliminary plan is to train on the Yangtze River between Yueyang and Jingzhou. This section of the south bank of the Yangtze River and the north bank are in our hands, and it is relatively far away from the land defense line in the north, and this section is also relatively remote. Hehe, what do you think? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was stunned:

"Huh? Training at home? ”

Tang Yunsheng and Zhang Zhaoxian were also stunned:

"What do you mean...... Is it difficult to train abroad? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled:

"Yes! Oh, it's not a foreign country, it's just a new territory overseas. I mean, why don't we really train on the island of Sumatra? ”

As soon as he said a word, the generals and officers in the conference room all whispered, some shook their heads, and some agreed.

Xiang Xiaoqiang then smiled:

"The most important thing for us at the moment is confidentiality. With the economic prosperity of our Ming Dynasty, if you choose any river in the country, even if you avoid the city, there are still many villages on both sides of the river, and boats will inevitably come and go on the river. Seven engineer brigades numbered tens of thousands of people, and it was impossible to train them in a closed field. And in any city in the Ming Dynasty, there are more or less Northern Qing spies. In this way, tens of thousands of soldiers have been together for more than a month, practicing building pontoon bridges on the river every day, and within a few days, a large number of reporters will come to explore the situation, and it will definitely reach the ears of the spies of the Northern Qing Dynasty...... Our purpose will be guessed at a moment.

"If you train in Sumatra, it's completely different. The original reason for us to remove the sappers from the troops was to go to Sumatra to build roads and bridges. Sumatra is a new territory in the South Seas that we have just acquired, and it is still barren land, and it is reasonable for us to build it on a large scale, and no one will think much about it. And Sumatra is sparsely populated, densely forested, and has many rivers. In particular, although the river on the island is not long, the volume of water is huge, and the banks are gentle, which is very in line with the characteristics of the Yangtze River. And the width of a river varies greatly, from a few hundred meters wide to several kilometers wide, the choice is yours. We can choose the section of the river to train on at will according to the width of the attacking river.

"Sumatra is very sparsely populated, and if anything, it is all indigenous. It can be said that there is not a single spy on the whole island. We can easily circle a large area and seal it off, and if there are natives, we can just drive it out. In this way, not to mention training for a month, even if it is a few years of training, as long as we don't leak secrets, that's fine. ”

After he finished speaking, there was a lively discussion in the conference room. This idea can be said to be creative, but it is also feasible. However, there are also shortcomings, the first is that it is more troublesome, and it has to be tossed back and forth, and the second is that it is difficult for the five armored divisions and six mechanized divisions of the People's Guard to follow to Nanyang to participate in training.

Zhang Zhao touched his chin first and groaned. After a moment he said:

"Then your People's Guards won't also go to Nanyang for training, right?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang bowed his head and pondered for a moment, then nodded:

"yes, I'm afraid not...... There was only a little more than a month left, and thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles were transported to Nanyang and back...... There is not enough time on the road, let alone training. ”

Tang Yunsheng stared at him and asked:

"Then do you think it's safe to train the pontoon bridge in a special intensive way?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded firmly and said:

"That's totally certain. Crossing a bridge is not like building a bridge, it is not a difficult operation. And when our armored corps was in school, crossing the pontoon bridge was a basic training subject. In addition, you also remember that when we crossed the river to attack Pukou at the beginning of the year, our armored troops cooperated very well with the Zhouqiao troops, and there were no accidents. …… In addition, I think that the most important thing for our offensive force is not to cross the bridge, but to advance after crossing the bridge. If we are training, we should spend more time on attacking in great depth. ”

Tang Yunsheng nodded and looked at Zhang Zhao first. Zhang Zhao looked at everyone first and asked:

"What do you see? What do you think? ”

All the generals nodded their heads, all agreeing with this point of view.