Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 708 Time is Life
"Report, report to the company commander, the enemy has been spotted ahead!"
"Don't panic, little tiger, drink some water and tell me slowly. How many enemies are there and how far away are they from us?"
"I'm sorry, Captain. This was my first time on the battlefield, and I panicked when I saw the enemy. I didn't see clearly how many there were. But now that I think about it, there were at least a hundred or so of them. Distance? Well, I found them ten miles southwest of here."
"I see. This must be the enemy's scouts. Pass the order. First, report this to the battalion commander. Second, the entire company must enter combat mode!"
In order to transport the jade from Mubang as quickly as possible, the Mubang Military and Civilian Government has been constantly repairing roads for more than 30 years since the Ming Dynasty took over Mubang. Therefore, relying on the good road conditions, Lu Xiangsheng's army advanced very quickly at the beginning. In early July 1641, Lu Xiangsheng's group set out from Kunming. In just one month, more than 200,000 combat troops and more than 100,000 southwestern civilians responsible for logistics support had advanced to a place less than 20 kilometers away from Chiang Mai, Siam.
Since there were as many as ten newly formed divisions in the team, Lu Xiangsheng's marching order was: three newly formed divisions in the front, followed by a regular division, and then three more newly formed divisions... In short, the company led by Zhang Huangyan was the vanguard of the vanguard in this large army of more than 200,000.
Although he had only new soldiers on his hands, Zhang Huangyan was able to control the troops well: for example, during this reconnaissance in front of the enemy, although the scouts were a little panicked when reporting, the basic reporting elements were complete.
After receiving the scout's report, he not only submitted the intelligence as required, but also personally led the team to conduct another reconnaissance on the enemy.
…
"What? There are actually a large number of enemy troops entrenched in Chiang Mai?" After the intelligence from the front was reported to the army headquarters, Lu Xiangsheng was also a little surprised: "Didn't the telegram from Guilin yesterday say that the main force of the Western bandits had all moved south, and the armies of Zhou and Tang had been defeated. So much so that the General Headquarters asked us to speed up our advance?"
"Yes, Commander, but this is what was reported from below."
"Call the headquarters and ask if they have any new information."
"yes."
"Also, which division is at the forefront?"
"Commander, it's the newly formed 11th Division, the division commander is Gu Dali, Marquis of Zhenyuan. The first infantry regiment of this division is led by Xuzhou Jue, the young master of the Duke of Wei. The battalion commander is Li Dingguo, and the company commander is Zhang Huangyan."
"Well, I trust Li Dingguo and Zhang Huangyan to do the job. Let them find out in detail how many people the other side has."
About an hour and a half later, the telegram from the General Directorate had not arrived yet, but the telegram from Gu Dali came first: "Zhang Huangyan, from the Third Company, Third Battalion, First Regiment under my command, led a team to conduct reconnaissance and successfully captured two enemy soldiers. After interrogation, we learned that the enemy troops in Chiang Mai were the reinforcement troops sent by the Western bandits from mainland Europe, with a scale of three divisions. Because the main force of the enemy looted all the food in Chiang Mai when it retreated south five days ago, the three divisions had to send small teams to the suburbs to collect food after arriving here..."
"Bang!" Lu Xiangsheng slammed the table hard and exhaled angrily: "Only five days left! Hey!"
"Commander, what should we do now?"
"What else can I do? Even if the fly meat is small, it is still meat. I will eat these three divisions."
Just as they were preparing to deploy, a telegram from the Guilin General Headquarters arrived: "The headquarters does not know which unit the enemy troops in Chiang Mai belong to. But it can be confirmed that the main force of the enemy is indeed moving south along the Chao Phraya River, and a large amount of territory of Zhou and Tang has fallen. Liu Zhaosun's and Huang Degong's troops are fighting fiercely with the enemy's rear guard troops. Order your troops to speed up and enter the plains as soon as possible to attack together with friendly forces. Do not let the enemy retreat to the coastal areas of Bangkok, please!"
"Call the commander-in-chief back and tell him that the enemy has reinforcements. We will deal with them as quickly as possible and continue south."
"yes!"
After the communications staff went to the telegraph room, Lu Xiangsheng came to the map and stood for a while, then said loudly: "Operations staff, record it."
"Please give your instructions, Commander."
"Adjust the formation of the entire army. Order the 28th Division and the newly formed 10th, 11th, and 12th Divisions to move quickly southward from 30 kilometers west of Chiang Mai City. The 29th Division and the newly formed 13th, 14th, and 15th Divisions to move quickly southward from 30 kilometers east of Chiang Mai City. The 30th, 31st Divisions, and the five subsequent newly formed divisions, must advance to a point about 10 kilometers due north of Chiang Mai City today. At 6 a.m. tomorrow, all three routes will attack simultaneously! We will strive to resolve the battle within two days."
"Yes, sir!"
At first, when Lu Xiangsheng knew that he had as many as ten newly formed divisions, he was a little trembling. But after more than a month of marching, he found that these ten newly formed divisions might be lacking in combat skills. But in terms of discipline and willpower, they were actually not far behind those regular troops.
Commander Lu, who was greatly confident, immediately made a battle plan of encirclement from three directions after learning that the enemy had only 45,000 troops.
As the telegram from the army headquarters came in, more than ten divisions and more than 200,000 troops quickly became busy.
All this, of course, did not escape the notice of the EU troops gathered in Chiang Mai.
The commander of this EU army is the Duke of Alvaro from Spain. The Duke's ancestor is the famous De Bazin. However, the ancestor is wise, but his descendants...
When the support troops led by him crossed the Rakhine Mountains and the Shan Plateau, on the one hand, the terrain was indeed not conducive to the march of a large army. On the other hand, the Duke's ability to lead troops was indeed very average. Durenni, who was in charge of the rear of the main army, urged him many times in Chiang Mai, but he just couldn't speed up the march. Seeing that Liu Zhaosun and Huang Degong's army had already rushed over, Durenni had no choice but to wait for him until the agreed time, but seeing that he still didn't come, he could only leave some food for himself and withdraw first.
Who knew that the Duke was late and mismanaged the military rations on the way, so that the three divisions were almost hungry for most of the day before they entered Chiang Mai. After the army entered Chiang Mai, the hungry soldiers beat up the logistics quartermaster left by Durrenni, and the troops who entered the city first looted all the little food.
So His Excellency the Duke had to stay in Chiang Mai temporarily and sent out a large number of small teams to collect food.
Now, the small team he sent out was caught by Zhang Huangyan, and then he naturally learned the news that a large number of Ming troops were approaching from the north.
"God, didn't they say the Chinese were in the south? Didn't that Durenne say that the enemy had about 400,000 troops and were about to join forces, so he had no choice but to move south in advance? Liar, this shameless liar! The main force of the Chinese is clearly in the north. This Frenchman clearly wants us to hold off the enemy's main force first to facilitate his own retreat!"
"Sir, no matter what Lord Durreny thinks, what should we do now?"
"What else can we do? We must quickly organize a retreat! Send a telegram to His Majesty Gustav, accusing the French of their shameless act of deserting the battlefield and harming our friendly forces, and requesting the main corps to send a strong force to the north to support our retreat to the south!"
"Sir, the telegram can be sent immediately. But our troops are too scattered because of the food collection problem. It will take at least half a day to gather them together."
"Then hurry up and gather them. Also, let the German division push to the due north. Hey, what did His Majesty give me? A Polish division and a British division. Can these troops fight? Relatively speaking, I trust the Germans more."
"yes!"
On the morning of August 11, 1641, Lu Xiangsheng's group encountered three divisions led by Duke Alvaro.
At noon on the 11th, more than a dozen divisions of Lu Xiangsheng's group, especially the eight divisions that were arranged to encircle the enemy from the south, began to rush forward at a rapid speed.
At this time, Duke Alvaro had just ordered the troops to gather.
Late at night on the 11th, the three divisions of the EU reinforcements that had regrouped began to retreat overnight. They had to retreat overnight. Gustav, who had retreated to the south to only 30 kilometers from Bangkok, sent a harsh telegram to Duke Alvaro that afternoon: Your unit is seriously behind schedule, and you are ordered to retreat immediately. The rear of the main army is currently being entangled by 400,000 enemy troops, and the front still needs to cooperate with the navy to capture Bangkok, where the Chinese Central and Southern Governor's Office is located, so it is unable to send reinforcements to respond. At present, the Chinese army entangled with us has not yet cut off the traffic from Chiang Mai to Ayutthaya, but it is unknown when this road will be cut off. Therefore, your unit should seize every opportunity to go south as soon as possible to join us!
After receiving the telegram, the Duke could no longer maintain his aristocratic elegance. Late that night, although there were still several small teams that had not been assembled, he still led his troops out of the city at night.
Then, when his troops were only five or six kilometers away from Chiang Mai City, they were hit head-on by the newly formed 11th Division !
