Before the Industrial Revolution, there were about 100,000 people in a city in northern China. Now the population under the Ming Dynasty is 400 million, the population of Shanxi is 10 million, and the most populous county is Jincheng, about 270,000 people, which is the southernmost part of Shanxi, and the population is a little more. As for the population of Taiyuan in the north, it is about 150,000, which is far from being comparable with the population of two or three million cities in later generations. A large number of people are distributed in rural areas. This gave the IRA a very good chance.

Talking about the location of Shanxi, this long strip of Shanxi is bounded by the Taihang Mountains in the east, the Zhongtiao Mountains in the south, and the Yellow River and Shaanxi in the west. The north side monitors whether the nomadic tribes cross the Yin Mountains. In the terrain, the Hengyin Mountain in the northwest of the mountain and the Taihang Mountain in the east did not seal the mouth, but left a gap, so there is a city of great strategic significance here in Shanxi - Datong, once Datong is lost, it means that the gap is opened, and this gap is facing Beijing. At that time, Li Zicheng's troops came out of a gap and then crossed the Yellow River, went to Zhangjiakou, and reached Beijing in Xuanhua.

Shanxi, an easy-to-defend city surrounded by mountains, has a very high strategic position. Ren Di's future plan is to march to the north of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the south, and then to Datong Road. From the perspective of Chinese history, there seem to be a lot of reunification from the north to the south, but it seems that there are not many successful examples of fighting from the south to the north. Therefore, Ren Di and a group of rookie staff officers decided to find a few successful examples in history, one is Zhu Yuanzhang, and the other is the battle of Qin to destroy Yan. Both of these battles were attacks on the land of Youyan from the exit of the two mountain ranges of Datong.

Mountains have been an obstacle to transportation throughout the ages. Therefore, the strategy of the ancients can be applied. Ren Di and other commanders in the northern land are not familiar with it, and they are still a little conservative in the face of Taiyuan. This conservatism is still due to Ren Di. Taiyuan City is a very difficult bone to gnaw in Ren Di's impression. In the Rendi plane, the three major battles of the People's Liberation Army in January 1949 were all over, but there was also a Taiyuan Battle in March 1949, which was the largest urban offensive and defensive battle fought by the People's Liberation Army in the War of Liberation. Yan Laoxi can still fight. 250,000 PLA launched an attack on 130,000 Shanxi troops. A total of 45,000 casualties and 36,000 casualties in street fighting. The Huaihai Battle had a maximum of 110,000 casualties, Liaoshen was 69,000, Pingjin was the last battle, the south had fought and the north had also been fought, and the Pingjin Battle was the Kuomintang army was being hanged and beaten, the PLA suffered 39,000 casualties, and 520,000 Kuomintang troops were annihilated.

Judging from the number of casualties, the difficulty of the Taiyuan Battle was not as easy as that of the Pingjin Campaign. Ren Di was too cautious, and due to the influence of this memory before the crossing, he was a little too cautious about this place in Shanxi. It's interesting to be afraid of accidentally losing twenty or thirty thousand troops in a street battle in this place. He began to deepen the land reform, and decided to use the vast rural areas under his control to wrap up the city of Taiyuan. The entire Battle of Taiyuan began in December. It has been dragging on for two months.

Until now, Taiyuan has been dragged out unbearably. The Battle of Taiyuan, where Ren Di crossed the front plane, was from March to October. As for now, it is a harsh winter, Taiyuan City and the nearby Jinzhong City Yangqu City, due to the war, a kind of winter consumables have been consumed, which is coal.

The necessary condition for the formation of large cities before the industrial age was whether there was enough food to supply the surrounding grain-producing areas. After the industrial age, the agglomeration of cities in the high latitudes of the north depends on fuel consumption. Fuel consumption in a small village is a haystack at the door, as well as a little firewood from the surrounding groves. As for the fuel consumption of large cities, it is impossible to rely on firewood. Shanxi is rich in coal. When Hai Song led the industrial age, the coal futures market began to rise here in northern Jinbei. As fuel delivery became easier, the populations of these cities pushed the limits of what could have been done by manpower. Honeycomb coal is a commodity that has begun to enter thousands of households. If you boil water to wash your feet, if you put a fire duct on the fire duct to heat a room of about 40 square meters, you will probably use a little more than a ton of honeycomb coal to save a little bit of burning in winter.

A city of 100,000 people must consume hundreds of thousands of tons of coal in one winter. However, in the second half of 1704, a large number of coal mines in Shanxi had accidents. The IRA has its sights set on these class brethren. The army of iron feet began the liberation of an open-pit coal mine. The two largest coal mines in the northwest of Shanxi are Dongsheng open-pit coal mine and the other is the Jungar coal mine, both of which are unsafe. The capitalists of the Coal Mining Coalition banded together to talk about the coal mine and then put the miners in the mines.

Now the gang who used to whip all the whips have been tried for coal mining. Several large coal mines fell into the hands of the Republican Army. Since Taiyuan has not yet been taken down, the railway has not yet been opened, and the heavy steam machinery cannot be transported to the north. Therefore, these open-pit coal mines are mined in small quantities by the military to supply heating to the army. and heating in cities liberated by the Republican Army. As for the cities near Taiyuan. The coal mine is out of stock.

This place in Taiyuan is definitely in the north of China. At least in the eyes of most Chinese, it is the north. For the cold winter in the north, Ren Di, a hometown north of the Yangtze River and south of the Huai River, every winter to face the cold air in the south is deeply wary of the harsh winter in the north, especially the mustachioed Napoleon's invincible army has frozen into dogs. Ren Di even decided to prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare. The intention is to start a war when the spring is warm. In winter, we wore cotton clothes, built heating barracks, and occasionally came out to organize the construction of railways and highways. In the war, the northerners are frost-resistant, have a high race value, can roll in the ice and snow, take off their bodies, and dare to swim in the water. Well, this is the habitual thinking of a group of southerners in Rendi's staff, and this habitual thinking confuses frost resistance with suitability for cold life.

The frost resistance of northerners may be due to the high lipid content of the skin, which does not freeze easily. For example, in the ranks of the Republican Army, some people from Jianghuai have their hands frozen like fish scales, and comrades from Shaanxi and Jin have red hands as if they have natural antifreeze. Northerners have strong bodies, have a lot of power when exercising, and their bodies emit more heat, making it easier to resist the cold. But that doesn't mean they consume less energy. The body still needs to be kept warm. Energy needs to be supplied in abundance. The energy of wine is the greatest, so the working men in the north can drink alcohol.

Everyone is a 37 degree Celsius constant temperature animal, lack of supplies, should be cowardly in winter.

This year, the snow in the northern land is beautiful, as evidenced by poetry. Ahem, don't talk nonsense. The last straw that defeated Cao Yucheng in Shanxi turned out to be a shortage of fuel. This winter, Chinese New Year's Eve, the coldest temperature at night reached minus 16 degrees Celsius. What is the concept, the ice of the pond is ten centimeters thick and can stand people. The iron bucket placed outdoors is not wearing gloves and hurts to the touch. After five seconds, you can't tell the difference between hot and cold, and the pain is the same as the pain when you touch hot water. If you don't eat enough on this day, no matter how much you put on your clothes, you will feel the chill hit your whole body.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the leaflets scattered by the Republican Army to Taiyuan City contained a set of almost New Year's greetings and words of peaceful persuasion. There is propaganda about preferential treatment of prisoners. As a result, a few days later, the Shanxi Imperial Army of more than a dozen people and dozens of people began to desert. Hold a gun to the head of the Republican Army, and then gulp down the hot and sour soup of cabbage in the prisoner camp, and happily nibble on steamed buns. The republican army has gradually determined that Taiyuan City has now been pulled out of the cold.

Industrial warfare, especially the kind that has the potential to be fought for a year, is not a war with as many guns and ammunition as it takes. In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the soldiers with guns, all aspects must be considered in advance. So after realizing that Taiyuan City is not as strong as I imagined. Ren Di's Republican Army randomly began to plan an attack, only to begin the attack ten days later.

There was a loud sound of thunder, and the sound of large pieces of rocks and bricks breaking was mixed with it. Cao Yucheng, who was reading in the study, changed his face and watched the smoke and clouds raised by the artillery fire in the distance. Putting down the book, his eyes gradually calmed down, and he said slowly and calmly: "It's finally here." ”

When the Imperial Army in the city got up from the bed under the whistle of the officer, coldly holding their guns, and hurriedly ran out to assemble and prepare the whole team, the Republican Army had already blown up the exit with blasters and explosive packs.

The individual recoilless cannon is really an artifact, and this thing is especially accurate in the hands of soldiers. Basically, where the enemy's machine-gun bunkers fired, one soldier set up the barrel and the other soldier stuffed the shells, and the iron pipe was pointed. A puff of turbid smoke erupted from behind, and a fist of cannonballs burst out of the muzzle of fire in front of it and rushed straight forward. The explosives of this small cannonball smashed the bunker in one fell swoop like a hammer hitting a basin. Of course, most of the bunkers did not fire, but stretched out their white flags and waved. This winter, I can't stretch my hands, my hungry eyes are glazed, and no one wants to die for the emperor Lao Tzu, who is far away in the south.

As for the city gate, after the demolition team broke it, the huge city gate snapped like a slap, kicking up a large cloud of dust, and the Republican army rushed into the ancient city through the open city gate.

As for Cao Yucheng, it was very interesting, and when the Republicans rushed to his room, they happened to see him preparing to put the hanging rope around his neck. As for the fact that the Republican Army was so noisy when it attacked his yard, he didn't set it before, and he didn't do it until the Republican Army kicked the door. It was the Republican soldiers who were able to save them.

Hearing the soldier's report on the process of capturing the largest Ming army general of the Jin army, Ren Di smiled, but the pen in his hand quickly wrote, "Cao Yucheng, the general of the Ming army in Jin Province, committed suicide in defeat and was captured by our army." Two days later, the war report appeared in the newspapers of the Republic. This was followed by an appearance in the newspapers of the Southern Empire. At the same time, the analysis department set up by Haisong in the Sasebo Northeast Asia Strategic Command began to be busy.