Episode 193 Countdown

Since September 15, Xiang Xiaoqiang publicly announced the execution of 16 Northern Qing officials, and openly declared that Guangwu "has the ability to rush at himself", himself, his family, all the senior officials of the People's Guard, and the entire military and political leadership of the Ming Dynasty, as high-level officials, the original security guards have been quite tight, and this time it is like a great enemy.

Originally, the People's Guard only had two bulletproof cars, namely Xiang Xiaoqiang and 14 Gege's cars. But on the day of the 15th, before he spoke to Xiaoqiang, ten more Yuhua Skull-brand bulletproof cars drove into the compound of the People's Guard Headquarters and the barracks outside the city. Now not only Xiang Xiaoqiang and Fourteen Gege, but also the stomachache, snail, Li Gensheng, Li Changgui, and the three old men, each with one. The remaining three were reserved for mobility, mainly for Qiuyun and Xiuxiu, as well as other temporary uses in the headquarters.

In the past few days, the business of Yuhua Chong's bulletproof car has been very prosperous. Cabinet ministers used to have bulletproof vehicles, but the top brass of the military generally did not. Now they are buying from it. There are also royal nobles, plus some wealthy people in the people, who feel that they may become the "prey" of the Northern Qing Dynasty, are also buying.

Xiang Xiaoqiang also paid out of his own pocket and bought a bulletproof car for his father-in-law Qiu Laohu and mother-in-law Shang Xiaojun. He gave "three orders" to his subordinates and his family: he must pay attention to safety and reduce unnecessary outings. If you have to go out in person, you must take a bulletproof car and bring a car of guards.

Shang Xiaojun can also understand Xiang Xiaoqiang's intention to provoke an assassination war. In her understanding, this is a provocation carried out by Da Ming in order to tear up the "Lushun Treaty". In her opinion, signing the humiliating "Lushun Treaty" with the Northern Qing Dynasty was originally an expedient measure, in order to rescue the captured officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. Now that the officers and soldiers have been rescued, this kind of treaty must be torn up quickly. It's nothing more than an excuse. Shang Xiaojun's "consciousness" in this regard is still very high. In her opinion, such an excuse is dangerous at the moment, but it is still very appreciable. The "fly in the ointment" is that his family has lost their freedom since then and has to live under the protection of the "first family".

Qiu Laohu is not so highly conscious. He didn't understand the significance of his son-in-law's doing, but he knew that he had become a killer target for some reason. Although he was originally a gang boss, he was also something that many people wanted to kill, but after all, the level was different, and he belonged to the gang level. Now it is better to be a potential target of assassination by another country's secret service. Qiu Laohu complained to his son-in-law very much, but when Xiang Xiaoqiang accompanied him with a smiling face, saying that this bulletproof car was paid for by himself and he would honor his father-in-law from then on, Qiu Laohu's face looked better.

But neither Shang Xiaojun nor Qiu Laohu guessed that Xiang Xiaoqiang provoked this "assassination war", not only to let Daming successfully tear up the "Lushun Treaty", but also to release a smoke screen for the upcoming blitzkrieg against Qing.

Generally speaking, the smoke screen before the blitzkrieg is to create a peaceful atmosphere as much as possible and increase mutual trust between the two sides. But this time, Xiang Xiaoqiang and the commander's plan were the opposite, and they had to increase the tension before the blitzkrieg.

Because of such a large-scale military build-up, it is certainly impossible to conceal it. The only thing that can be done is to find a plausible reason. If the two sides move troops on a large scale when relations between the two sides are very relaxed, then the other side will be vigilant at once. And now in this situation, the tension between the two sides is just right, in the eyes of the Northern Qing, it is normal for Nanming to transfer troops, just for self-defense, and will never believe that Nanming is going to attack.

……

There was originally a spy from the Northern Qing Dynasty in the headquarters of the People's Guard, and since Xiang Xiaoqiang seized the list, he had been staring at this spy with a stomachache. First, he was used to transmit false information to the Northern Qing Dynasty for a while, and then he was going to plan a war against the Qing, and a large amount of confidential information had to be kept secret, and it was too dangerous to put him in the same position, so he was transferred to another department, ostensibly promoted, but he no longer had access to confidential documents.

Since September 15th, Xiang Xiaoqiang's safety has become the overriding core, such a Northern Qing spy can no longer be placed in the headquarters, and he will not look up and see Xiang Xiaoqiang every day. With a stomachache, he simply applied to Xiao Qiang and transferred the spy to the Xiaoling Wei military camp, completely blocking the possibility of him assassinating Xiang Xiaoqiang.

But, despite this, the Grim Reaper is still in full swing and approaching Xiang Xiaoqiang as scheduled. Twice I passed by him.

From September 15th to September 20th, in just five days, six Northern Qing spies tried to murder Xiang Xiaoqiang. But fortunately, these Northern Qing spies were all on the list, and they had been under the surveillance of the security team, and the security team arrested them all when they were just about to act.

But on the night of September 21, on the way back to Xiang Xiaoqiang from the headquarters, the car was driving on the road, and suddenly a violent explosion occurred in front of the car, and the loud noise shook the sky, and the bulletproof car weighing several tons was almost overturned by the air wave. The glass of the apartments on both sides of the road shattered all over the road, shining like a sky full of stars.

Immediately afterward, a huge object fell from the sky and slammed into the road in front of the car, sparks splashed everywhere, almost smashing the asphalt into a large crater.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was in a panic in the car, leaning on the back of the seat in front of him, staring at the black thing on the road in front of the car - it was a sewer cover. The cast iron ones have been broken into two or three pieces. A few meters ahead, smoke billowed from an open sewer opening.

Whistles sounded on all sides, and police officers blew their sirens and came running from all directions. Hu Jiong, who was in the front seat, was also frightened, and turned around and shouted loudly:

"How are you, my lord? Are you alright, my lord? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang was woken up by him and roared loudly:

"The bomb in the manhole cover was detonated with wires! The killer is nearby! Let them catch it! ”

Hu Jiong immediately rolled down the window of the car and shouted to the police outside the car:

"The Northern Qing spies want to blow up General Xiang! People are nearby, go catch them! ”

A group of policemen immediately divided into several directions, carrying batons and rushing into the alleys on both sides. The remaining two police officers stayed behind to check for casualties at the scene.

Hu Jiong had already picked up the radio in the car to call for reinforcements. A few minutes later, several truckloads of People's Guard guards were the first to arrive from the headquarters, and without saying a word, the pioneer car surrounded the area, then jumped out of the car and began to search the streets and alleys for suspicious elements. Soon, the agents of the security team, the personnel of the East Factory, the police of the Ministry of the Interior, and the military police of the capital garrison all arrived one after another, and the encirclement continued to expand, and at the same time, all the city gates were checked.

"It's not that we haven't seen it, it's a new one sent to Nanjing."

Xiang Xiaoqiang said fiercely.

The car could still drive, and under the heavy escort of the brigade, it returned to the headquarters in embarrassment.

That night, Xiang Xiaoqiang received a call from Zhu Yourong from the palace. When she heard that Xiang Xiaoqiang was almost killed, she was so nervous that she almost choked up.

……

Beginning early the next morning, the police presence on the streets of Nanjing doubled, patrolling intensively on the main thoroughfares frequented by military and political dignitaries, focusing on areas where bombs might be planted. Like this sewer explosion, it was obviously the Beiqing spies who pretended to be sewer maintenance personnel and lay down to pretend to be **. But in the future, that possibility no longer exists.

But on the 23rd, only one day later, something more dangerous happened.

On the way to the headquarters in Xiang Xiaoqiang's car, he was suddenly knocked hard, and then flames burst out from the front cover of the car. Xiang Xiaoqiang and Hu Jiong immediately pushed the car door and rushed out of the car with their waists. In this case, if you don't get off, you have to get off.

But as soon as he rushed out of the car, a bullet flew towards Xiaoqiang's ear. Before Xiang Xiaoqiang could react to what was going on, there were three more gunshots in his ears.

Immediately after that, in a window on the second floor of the roadside, a man fell down the street. Shot three times in the body, already dead.

Xiang Xiaoqiang turned his face and saw that Hu Jiong's box gun was already in his hand, and the muzzle of the gun was still smoking.

It was only later that I found out that there was actually an anti-tank gun hidden in that window! The killer used an anti-tank gun to shoot at the bulletproof car, and originally wanted to kill Xiang Xiaoqiang directly in the car, but he didn't hit it accurately and hit the engine. The gasoline engine was hit by an armor-piercing bullet and immediately caught fire, forcing Xiang Xiaoqiang out of the car. At this time, the killer saw the opportunity and directly pulled out his pistol and shot at Xiang Xiaoqiang. As soon as the first shot was fired, Hu Jiong had already found his target and fired three shots at him, killing him instantly.

After these two incidents, Zhu Yourong immediately issued a decree to upgrade Xiaoqiang's security level, increase the allocation, and protect him and his family according to the level of the head of government. In other words, Xiang Xiaoqiang's current security level is the same as Shen Rongxuan's. Now when Xiang Xiaoqiang goes out, at least three identical bulletproof vehicles are dispatched at the same time, lined up in front and back, and Xiang Xiaoqiang is sitting on any of them. It's a very traditional and effective thing to do*.

"For the Northern Expedition, Lao Tzu gambled his life and his life," Xiang Xiaoqiang stared at the location of Beijing on the map, flicking his finger fiercely, while thinking, "We must eradicate the Northern Qing regime within five years, otherwise we will be in trouble." Five years later, as soon as I left, the Northern Qing Dynasty was never extinguished, so it would be difficult for my wives to have a safe life no matter how far they hid to the ends of the earth. ”

……

It's only a week until D-Day. On September 26, all 155 divisions participating in the Qing operation were assembled and entered their predetermined positions.

The engineer brigades that went to Nanyang for assault training have also returned to Daming one after another in the past few days and entered their respective predetermined positions.

On September 27, at this last moment, from the high command downwards, the war plan began to inform the senior officers of the participating units, and issued their respective combat missions and assigned offensive targets. However, it was only down to the division level, and the entire Ming army below still did not know anything about the Northern Expedition.

It was not until this time that most of the officers above the general level of the Ming army suddenly realized that the panic atmosphere that had been in place for so many days was all a smokescreen, and it turned out that it was not the Qing army that wanted to invade the south, but the Ming army that wanted to go north!

An exciting, high morale quickly spread among the top echelons of the Ming army.

After the Qing army's large-scale exercise began, the Ming army's reconnaissance flights in the sky of the Northern Qing Dynasty also intensified in a grand manner. The excuse is very simple: With such a big move by more than 100 divisions in the Northern Qing Dynasty, how could Daming rest assured? It is certainly necessary to constantly reconnoiter and monitor its movements.

The reconnaissance planes were mainly dispatched from two directions: one was to take off from the Changshan Islands off the coast of Liaodong and fly westward to reconnoiter the movements of the Qing army's troops in the northern areas of Beijing, Tianjin, and Zhili. The other is to take off from the south side of the Yangtze River defense line and fly north, mainly to reconnoiter the Qing army's deployment within a few hundred kilometers to the north. According to the reconnaissance reports sent back every day, on the large map in the command hall of the Purple Mountain Fortress, those small markers of various shapes will make different changes.

Two aircraft carriers also set sail from the East China Sea Fleet, escorted by one cruiser and six destroyers, in two sub-fleets, cruising north along the Yellow Sea. As two maritime activity airports, they threaten the coast and depth of the Northern Qing Dynasty at any time.

On September 28th, five days before D-Day, Nanming began to notify the backbone of the spy network and the leaders of the main underground organizations lurking in the Northern Qing Dynasty, and conveyed their respective tasks to them.

1. Continue to provide all the information of the local Qing army;

2. Assassinate all Qing army officers and heads of various government agencies that can be killed;

3. Key members should keep the radio station open at all times. Members of the branch of the organization should ensure that they always have someone to listen to the radio and pay close attention to the various codes of Nanming Radio;

4. The backbone members of each organization shall receive the airdrop at a specific time and place in accordance with the instructions of the radio, and quickly distribute the airdrop materials (**, detonators, guns, etc.) to each member;

5. As soon as the agreed verses representing the code are heard, all underground forces immediately take action to dismantle the railway rails, cut the telephone lines in their respective mission areas, and blow up the power equipment in their respective mission areas.

……