Chapter 380: New Outlook of the Ministry of Rites (XVI)
The sky in Henan Province is usually clear at the end of June of the lunar calendar. There is neither industrial smog nor smoke from burning wheat straw at this time. However, General Urban felt that the transparent sky above his head was gloomy, like the darkness before a rainstorm.
Upon learning that the Chinese army had captured the solid inner fortress, General Urban's fighting spirit had not yet subsided. Then, upon learning that the Chinese army's attacking troops were approaching, General Urban also managed to calm down and ask about the situation.
When he rode to the front line on horseback and saw the Chinese army advancing in horizontal formations, which were the most familiar formation of the Qing army, without haste or delay under the bombardment of artillery, General Urban suddenly felt despair in his heart.
If the Qing army had a complete fortification at this time, the Chinese army's main force would be effectively blocked outside the trenches. If the Chinese army continued to attack like the two desperate troops before, General Urban could still use his superior forces to carry out close combat.
However, at the moment, the Qing army had the Chinese Army's assault troops occupying the strong camp inside, and the Chinese Army's regular troops pressing in outside. Although the Qing army had the advantage in manpower, it was already in a situation where it was stretched to its limits.
If they used several times the number of troops to guard the Chinese army inside, they could only deal with the Chinese army's main troops with a very limited advantage. General Urban could certainly think that the Qing army still had the upper hand at this time. But it was easy to deceive others, but it was very difficult to deceive yourself. General Urban knew the strength of the Chinese army in the volley gun battle.
But there was no other way. Even though he knew it would not work, General Urban still ordered some Qing troops to surround the Chinese army in the core camp, while the rest of the troops relied on trenches to fight the Chinese army.
The Qing army was not panicked at this time, or rather, the Qing army commanders were not panicked. After all, they still had trenches to use. They had used trenches to fight the Chinese army before.
But things were different from what they thought, the firing density of the Chinese army was much higher than that of the Qing army, and the artillery fired fiercely into the Qing army's position.
The Qing army commanders still had the will to fight, but the soldiers were a little discouraged. They were in the trenches and only started firing when there were gaps in the bombardment.
Such shooting did not stop the advance of the Chinese army. When the Chinese army began shooting at a closer distance, the accuracy was several times higher.
When the Chinese Army grenadiers threw grenades into the Qing Army's trenches, the Qing Army ignored the officers' orders . Those who were not killed or injured turned around and climbed up the inner side of the trench and fled towards the second trench.
The Chinese army did not dare to be careless this time. After occupying the first trench, they carefully checked and made sure that there were no Qing troops in the caves where the soldiers were hiding before continuing the attack.
The three divisions surrounded the Qing army on three sides, slowly squeezing the Qing army's line. In just half an hour, they drove the Qing army out of the second trench and into the third trench.
Good news for the Chinese army was bad news for the Qing army. There was constant news of losing positions. The red cannons were inconvenient to move and fell into the hands of the Chinese army. The Qing army officers who commanded the battle also suffered heavy casualties. When the news of casualties of the garrison, the general, and even the deputy general reached General Urban, Urban hated himself for not decisively choosing to withdraw his troops when the Chinese army approached.
If the third trench could not be defended, the Qing army would be in a desperate situation. General Urban immediately ordered, "Order the personal troops to lead the charge to the west, cut a gap, and let everyone rush out!"
Although the Qing army was in chaos at this time, it had not yet collapsed. When the generals heard the news, they knew that the position could no longer be defended. Although they were extremely helpless, they had no choice but to break through.
The Huaxia Army previously adopted a siege mode of "surrounding three sides and leaving one side missing". Although the force was only one-third of the Qing Army, the Huaxia Army had such spirit. However, the gap left was the gap on the east side.
Because if the Qing army fled eastward, it would be impossible for them to escape the encirclement and turn back to the west. They would definitely continue to flee eastward. Waiting for the Qing army in the east was another army of the Chinese army.
Although Urban was not very clear about the deployment of the Chinese army, he knew that he must not go to the gap in the east. The reason was simple. The enemy would definitely choose the plan that was most beneficial to them. For the Qing army, even if they wanted to break out, it would be best to break out to the west and retreat all the way back to Hulao Pass.
In the end, they still had to flee westwards. Running eastwards would only turn a defeated army into scattered soldiers running around. Once the troops were completely scattered, even if there were no enemy troops chasing them, they would not be able to gather them together for ten days or half a month.
A brutal breakout battle then broke out between the Qing army and the Chinese army.
From the perspective of the Huaxia Army, a group of Qing soldiers in distinctive armor rushed over first. The clothes were familiar. The Huaxia Army equipped its troops with cotton armor captured from the Eight Banners in the early days. Copper nails were nailed on the beaten cotton, which provided quite good protection against bows and arrows and early matchlock guns. So when the Huaxia Army was able to launch a large-scale field battle, the first row of troops wore this.
But times have changed. The Chinese army's uniforms at this time had a lot of leather bags, with steel plates inserted inside, which were called "defense vests." Because the leather bags looked like a vest, in Shandong and Henan, this thing was also called a vest.
Seeing that the enemy was the elite of the Eight Banners, there was no need to say anything, just fire their muskets. It didn't take long for these elite troops to be beaten to death.
However, the role of the elite is not necessarily just to complete the most difficult operations. With this elite Qing army leading the way, the Qing army formed a breakout column. Even if the Qing army in the front was defeated, the ones behind still charged forward. Not to mention, this group of Qing army elites are indeed elites. Even if they died, they died on the road to charge.
The Qing troops behind them shouted and cursed, and like wild horses, they attacked the trenches occupied by the Huaxia Army in several directions. Even the use of grenades could only slightly hinder the Qing army's offensive momentum.
At this moment, the Chinese army formation suddenly moved aside, revealing the cannon that had just been pushed up. At such a distance of several dozen meters, the cannon did not need to fire at all. It only needed to use the long-prepared slots to block the position and move the muzzle forward horizontally.
The Huaxia Army's field troops had long since changed their equipment, and the artillery units were uniformly equipped with 10-jin cannons. Later, the 10-jin cannons were changed to standard 120mm caliber cast cannons.
The shells with a diameter of 120 mm, or 12 cm, whizzed out and penetrated the people and armor in the front row directly. After penetrating several people in succession, and even ten people, the last unlucky guy was not penetrated, but his body absorbed all the kinetic energy, and the place where he was hit exploded directly.
Blood and flesh flew everywhere in the Qing army's breakout troops. Every time a shell passed by, an entire row of Qing soldiers was knocked down.
The Chinese army didn't even need to aim, they just fired. The rate of fire reached five rounds per minute. Five guns were pushed up at first, and soon the follow-up artillery battalion pushed up 21 of the 36 guns. Even before the morale of the Qing army was exhausted, the 21 guns fired more than 300 shells in three minutes. Together with the almost same number of shells fired by the artillery that arrived earlier, the Qing army's breakout troops were beaten to death.
Thousands of once-vibrant lives fell before the Chinese army. Blood, body parts, pierced bodies, and exploded bodies formed a Shura field filled with corpses.
The Chinese army's initial boiling fighting spirit was completely dissipated by this Shura scene. As for the Qing troops at the rear, they were already screaming and fleeing, not even daring to turn their heads to take another look at the scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
At this time, the Huaxia Army launched a fierce attack from the north and south. As the main force pressed forward, the Huaxia Army in the central camp of the Qing Army rushed out in two directions and launched a fierce attack from behind the Qing Army.
If the officers and soldiers of the Huaxia Army fell into an unconscious state of simply obeying orders when firing volleys, the Qing Army was worse than the Huaxia Army. At least there was equality between officers and soldiers within the Huaxia Army, and at least Huo Chong had been trying to build a democratic atmosphere within the army through various methods. Especially after the establishment of the Ministry of Rites, people full of positive energy were selected to become the core of leading the Huaxia Army's ethos and consolidating the Huaxia Army's military spirit.
In the Qing army, which was under an absolute hierarchy, the soldiers had only one rule: to follow orders. They had to do whatever the officers told them to do, not to mention being able to adapt to circumstances. Even if they were slightly disobedient, or even if the officers disliked them, they would be severely punished.
Therefore, when Division Commander Wu and Regiment Commander Li Hong rushed out, they were determined to force the Chinese army to death. However, after the Qing army in the front was defeated, what was revealed was the Qing army with its backs to the Chinese army. Those Qing soldiers obeyed military orders and fought like puppets.
Until they were knocked down row by row from behind, the Qing army turned around and just jumped up and down in fear and shouted: "The bandits are coming from behind, but there are no low-ranking officers to organize a counterattack immediately."
At this point, General Urban's men were in complete disarray. The elite troops had been exhausted in the direction of the assault, and the remaining Qing troops were simply unable to cope with the attack of the Chinese army, which was several times more mobile and flexible.
When the officers could not find the soldiers and the soldiers could not find the officers, the Qing army collapsed in an instant. The Qing army, which had been fighting back and forth with the Huaxia army, looked like wolves and tigers. However, these Qing soldiers turned from carnivorous beasts into panicked sheep in an instant, unconsciously fleeing with the fleeing crowd.
The Chinese army, under the leadership of the commanders of various units, began to violently kill the enemy. Such killing made the Qing army run around even more mindlessly.
General Urban already knew that he was defeated. When he decided to use his military advantage to engage in a battle of wits and courage with the Chinese Army, and when the Chinese Army commandos broke through the gaps that had been left, Urban had already been defeated.
In such despair, Urban stopped trying to recruit troops. He knew very well that it was impossible to recruit troops and any efforts would be in vain.
General Urban adjusted his helmet, drew his saber, and called out to the few promoted men around him, "Are you from Manchuria?"
Although they didn't know what General Urban was going to do, the elite Qing army shouted in unison: "Yes!"
"Okay! Since you are Manchu men, follow me to kill the enemy!" After Urban shouted, he urged his horses and rushed towards the nearest Chinese army without caring whether his subordinates followed him or not.
Seeing that there were only a dozen or so Chinese soldiers, all of them infantry, General Urban urged his horse to charge forward. He thought these people would flee, after all, they were infantry, and would instinctively avoid the cavalry's attack.
Unexpectedly, when they saw Urban rushing over, the Chinese army seemed to react instinctively. They immediately formed small formations of three people and raised their rifles with bayonets at the same time, trying to resist the impact of the horses.
Just as General Urban was about to strike the infantry with his saber, the horses reared up in front of the small bayonet array, and the general was caught off guard and thrown off.
As soon as he landed, before the general could recover from his dizziness, many Chinese soldiers rushed over, and two of them held General Urban down. General Urban, who was determined to die, became a prisoner.
At the cost of more than 1,600 casualties, a 30,000-man army wiped out 100,000 Qing troops. Among the 100,000 Qing troops, more than 70,000 were captured, and the remaining 20,000 were killed.
After seeing this number, Huo Chong suddenly remembered a sentence in his mind, "Even if 50,000 pigs were released, the Communist Party would not be able to catch them all in three days."
This was Wang Yaowu’s famous saying back then, or it could be said to be a curse that was widely circulated.
The People's Liberation Army faced more than 50,000 Chiang Kai-shek troops in the Battle of Wuhu, and it took only three days to completely wipe them out. 40,000 people were captured and more than 10,000 were annihilated. Afterwards, Wang Yaowu, a capable general of the Kuomintang and commander of the Pacification Zone, complained that even if 50,000 pigs were released, the Communist Party would not be able to catch them all in three days, while more than 50,000 living people were wiped out in three days. This battle is also famous for Wang Yaowu's angry words of "50,000 pigs".
Huo Chong had fought a battle with more than 10,000 men against 100,000 men before. Although he won in the end, it was a battle of crushing rather than annihilation.
Now that I see that after the establishment of the Ministry of Rites system, the Chinese army led by the Ministry of Rites has finally achieved such results, the joy in my heart is indescribable.
People say that good generals are hard to find. Huo Chong felt that this was true in the era when this view was proposed. Because in backward organizations, good generals are hard to find.
However, once there is a combat-capable organization, the seedlings of good generals will naturally emerge from it. It is precisely because there has never been a combat-capable organization before that good generals are so rare. After all, those who are good at fighting do not have great achievements.
Qian Qing was also happy to see Huo Chong happy. But while she was happy, she secretly sent someone to tell her old brothers, "Don't hold on to the casualties. That's all I have to say. If you don't have eyes, I won't clean up your mess!"
After hearing this, the old brothers also knew which people were being talked about. There are all kinds of people in the world. There are thorns everywhere, especially when it comes to so-called face, these people are particularly sharp.
Everything that needs to be said has been said, and the old brothers are waiting to see what happens with all kinds of thoughts.
However, to the surprise of the old brothers, Huo Chong did not ask them to come out and praise the younger generation. He just handed the battle report to the old brothers and let them analyze it themselves.
The old brothers who stayed in the Military Commission secretly told the old brothers in the military academy that the Ministry of War was preparing to mobilize troops to reinforce Hebei. The situation in Hebei was not optimistic.
Of course, the old brothers in the military academy were not convinced, especially when Hebei had adopted all the positive methods, why was the situation in Hebei not optimistic!
Everyone had fought for several years, and when they compared the two sides, they could immediately see the difference. Some people who were already angry shouted, "This is not right! Why is the right way not as good as the crooked way... uh..."
The reason why he didn't say anything more was because he saw others glaring at him. No matter how troublesome he was, he still needed someone to protect him. If there was really no one to help him, he would have been kicked out long ago.
The troublemakers dared to make trouble because they had some ability, not because they only knew how to make trouble. Seeing that he had aroused public anger, the troublemaker looked at the people who usually helped him, and they also glared at him. He became depressed and muttered, "This is all taught by His Majesty, how can there be such a big difference!"
Seeing that the troublemaker didn't say anything nonsense, the old brothers continued to discuss. The combat mode of the Hebei Huaxia Army was very traditional, and the Huaxia Army's tactics of queuing and shooting were impeccable. Even though they suffered a loss, they paid full attention to the changes of the Qing army in the subsequent attacks.
In contrast, Henan's young players really followed Huo Chong's situation and really used close combat and assault warfare as the fulcrum of tactics.
When someone brought up the term "tactical fulcrum", the old brothers who had studied in the military academy for so long had to admit that there really was such a thinking model.
Nothing can be established without a fulcrum. This is what is called "relying on".
The old brothers relied on the invincible line shooting, and all they learned in the army was how to make the line shooting work to the greatest extent possible. Until Huo Chong suddenly changed in the past two years and made a huge change to the war model he created.
"What's wrong with this tactic?" Finally, someone raised the question that no one was willing to ask in a hoarse voice.
"Isn't it just asking people to rush up? What's so difficult about that?" someone answered unhappily.
You don't need to look, just listen to the voice to know that it is not the troublemakers who speak, but the brothers who are unanimously regarded as more honest and honest.
Indeed, only a relatively honest person can say such a thing. We have all been to the battlefield, and of course we know that the army must be disciplined. However, knowing that they will die, they still let people rush forward. This kind of thing can be done but not said. Especially, the person who is being ordered should not know it.
But even the dumbest people on the battlefield knew that they would die if they went forward, and all those guys who obeyed orders completely died.
But the words of the Hanzhi brothers did give me an idea. These young people in Henan can really organize people who are not afraid of death. Don't look at these people's youth, they are really good at commanding people!
However, even the troublemakers didn't dare to say such words, and everyone was not so honest. They could only concentrate on studying the battle reports.
Soon, everyone discovered that Hebei had indeed organized a death squad. The death squad was not ineffective, but the effect was very weak. Compared with the death squad assault of two regiments in Henan, the scale was much smaller. At most, it was the scale of a battalion.
Why is this happening? Everyone has similar opinions. With such a powerful force, wouldn't it be better to put it in the front?
The slightest mistake will lead to the destruction of the army. Whoever does this is a fool! !
That is, the guys in Henan actually have such troops. How dare they use such troops to send people to their deaths!
Especially, these guys who wanted to die really dared to die. The old brothers couldn't help but sigh, and the troublemaker finally couldn't hold it back and muttered: "This is really a lame donkey against a broken mill!"
