Chapter 551: 551 Things are serious
Chapter 551 551 Things are getting serious
In fact, very few of Qi's defeated troops actually saw the Tang Army's tanks, because few of those who did see them could actually run out.
Most of them escaped along the way with the defeated troops. They all followed the shouts in a daze. If they ran too slowly, their lives would be lost...
"After a long time, you didn't even see the Tang army, so you became a deserter?" The regiment leader laughed angrily, his tone full of dissatisfaction.
The two deserters didn’t know that their headquarters had been captured by the Tang Army. Now Tang’s tanks were rampaging through the headquarters of Qi’s 3rd Army. In fact, it's right to think about it, how could they know what happened behind them.
At this time, only the Qi army, which had fled from the vicinity of the headquarters, could possibly know that the 3rd Army headquarters was finished.
But even for these Qi troops that were defeated near the headquarters of the 3rd Army, there were very few people who really knew that the headquarters was finished - even if they saw it with their own eyes, they would not dare to spread rumors.
If you misunderstand this, or if what you say is different from what is actually true, it will shake the morale of the army, disrupt the deployment, and affect the situation of the war, isn't that a dead end?
So, as long as you didn’t actually see the Tang army wipe out the headquarters and see the third prince’s head being chopped off, who would dare to say anything nonsense?
At this time, it is the safest and safest thing to honestly say that you don’t know, or that you don’t know clearly...
After much deliberation, he was not in the mood to shoot two deserters from other units, and he did not want to do such a thing, so the commander of the Qi Army waved his hand and told the two defeated soldiers to get out of here.
Then he asked his men to spread out a map and looked at the marks on it carefully, trying to figure out exactly where he was and what exactly he should do.
"Over here, we should be at the headquarters of the 3rd Army... The distance shouldn't be too far..." Looking at the marks on the map, the commander of the Qi Army could barely identify his approximate location.
Their military maps were not accurate. In fact, they did not have access to accurate maps for more than a hundred years.
"Absolutely. Should we get closer?" The officer nodded and then asked.
“What are you doing over there? Just the few of us, let’s ride over and take a look!” Looking at the men, vehicles and horses of the two infantry regiments crowded together around him, the regiment leader motioned to his men to find some horses.
Obviously, being backward still has its advantages. Most of the senior officers of the Qi army have the skill of riding horses, just like the officers of the Beiling faction such as Tiger in the Tang army can ride horses.
Several war horses were brought over in this way, and then the commander of the Qi Army left his army with seven or eight guards and rushed in the general direction of the broken soldiers in the distance.
This journey was actually not easy, because they encountered many disorganized Qi troops who were panicking, and they also heard more and more news from these soldiers.
First of all, they knew that tanks from the Tang Army had attacked the headquarters of the 3rd Army. This news was almost certain.
After confirming the news, the commander of the Qi Army knew that this attack might not go so smoothly.
The headquarters of the 3rd Army was attacked, and the extent of the losses is unclear. If the 3rd Army was in chaos and collapsed, it would probably take more than 2 days just to collect these broken troops.
But if you stay in such a deserted place for two days, it is estimated that the entire army's logistics will have problems, right?
You must know that whether it is Luozhen or Nanye, they are key places for material hoarding. Now that these places have been blocked or lost, the result of the Qi army's supply difficulties is obvious.
Immediately afterwards, they heard that the artillery positions of the 3rd Army had been completely destroyed, and dozens of heavy artillery that had finally been brought up to participate in the battle were lost. Now the Qi Army had almost lost all its heavy fire support.
This is another bad news: the Qi army, which originally did not have an advantage in firepower, now does not even have the means to scare people.
If you simply use infantry and light artillery to attack the enemy's fixed positions, it is basically the same as committing suicide.
The opponent's machine gun firepower can wreak havoc until the end of time, and the opponent's heavy artillery can suppress every charge... In this case, if the Qi army can charge into the formation and destroy the city, then why are they fighting the Tang army? How comfortable it would be to directly destroy the Dahua Empire and dominate the world...
When they arrived at the original headquarters of the 3rd Army and saw the scene in front of them, they realized what kind of disaster they were facing.
Although the Tang army had retreated, what was left behind was simply a mess. Almost all the senior generals of the 3rd Army were killed in action, and hundreds of their bodies were found.
Some regiment-level and division-level officers affiliated with the 3rd Army were sobbing and looking for their superior commanders to identify themselves. Some of the guards of the third prince stood aside with pale faces. They have not found the body of the third prince yet...
Not only the body of the third prince, but also the body of Tian Heng, the commander of the Qi Army on the Western Front, was also not found. The body of the commander of the 3rd Army was also not found...
Things are so desperate. The entire command system of the Qi Army on the Western Front has been destroyed, and nothing is left. Nowadays, the 50,000 Qi troops without anyone to command are stuck in the wilderness like headless flies. They don’t have many decent supplies or heavy artillery, and they are bombarded by enemy planes every day.
What makes people even more desperate is that there are more than 50,000 Qi troops advancing towards them along the positions and roads. These troops are commanded by the famous general Qin Xiong of Qi State, and His Royal Highness the Grand Prince assisted by Qin Xiong!
With the help of the 2nd Company, the 1st Armored Battalion transported away dozens of corpses with different styles of military uniforms that could be found.
There are even some guards here, because their costumes are also different. It is the first time for Liu Guozhu and others to see the guards of Qi State, so of course they cannot tell them apart.
At this moment, the Qi State's 3rd Army, which had been attacking Luozhen's outer defense line at all costs, could no longer hold on.
After losing the fire support of heavy artillery, the Qi officers and soldiers fought hard for more than an hour under the firepower of the Tang army. In the end, they had to retreat due to heavy casualties and returned to their starting position.
"Those **** in the rear who are afraid of death! If they fire a few more shots, the outer positions will be ours!" Commander Qi clenched his fist and smashed it on the wall of a temporary observation trench, causing wisps of soil to fall off. fall.
"There must be something wrong behind the scenes, otherwise... it shouldn't be..." Beside the officer, his adjutant explained.
Logically speaking, even if the artillery position is afraid of death and stops the artillery bombardment due to fear of the Tang Army's plane bombing, the military headquarters next to the artillery position will send people to urge the artillery to continue firing.
Even if they retreat 10,000 steps and the enemy's attack really makes it difficult for the artillery to continue, the command headquarters should also issue an order for them to stop the attack and withdraw to avoid more unnecessary casualties.
But neither of these things happened, which seemed very strange. Neither the commander in charge of Qi's elite 3rd Army nor General Tian Heng were idiots and could not make such a low-level mistake.
Obviously, the Qi division commander who was responsible for commanding the offensive operations also figured out the reason.
He frowned and murmured: "Something's wrong! Why haven't the messengers sent to contact us come back yet? Send more people! Find out..."
Before he could finish his words, the messenger on the other side hurried back and stood at attention in front of him and saluted: "Sir!"
“Speak!” the division commander hurriedly ordered.
“Our army headquarters was attacked, and the rear guard was in chaos. I could not find General Tian Heng, nor the military commander…” the messenger reported.
“What?” The division commander who was commanding the frontline battle was shocked and his eyes widened after hearing the report.
The officer on the side quickly asked: "Were we attacked by airstrikes? Were they bombed by enemy planes?"
"Listen, I heard from the scattered soldiers that there were Tang Army tanks... The scene was very chaotic, and he said he didn't see it... But I asked several people, and they all said there were Tang Army tanks." The messenger continued to answer.
"Not good!" The division commander finally reacted and immediately shouted in a mournful voice. After shouting, he immediately ordered: "Retreat! Take the organized troops and take back the headquarters first!"
The officer did not dare to delay, and immediately sent out several messengers to order the troops who had not participated in the battle during the initial attack to assemble and quickly retreat in the direction of the military headquarters.
At the same time, the commander of Qi Corps, who returned to his regiment headquarters with bad news, became even more confused. He didn't find Tian Heng, nor did he get his new mission as expected.
He didn't know whether he should continue to march towards Luozhen, then launch an attack when he encountered the Tang army, and continue to attack Luozhen.
They don't know where to camp and where to put their troops - the Qi army here is gathering more and more, and it is obvious that a large amount of open space is needed to camp.
If he hesitated a little longer, the Qi army that came later would have taken up almost all the available space.
Thinking of this, he finally decided to get the troops off the road immediately, set up tents in a place that looked good, and wait for the exact order to arrive before considering the follow-up actions.
Just when he arranged for his troops to rest on the spot and unloaded the baggage from the carriage, he finally received a piece of definite news: Someone saw with his own eyes that General Tian Heng and His Highness the Third Prince died in battle!
As a result, the morale of the entire Qi army was shaken, and everyone looked at a loss. At this moment, the commanders of Qi State all had a desperate thought in their hearts: "It's over! The matter is serious!"
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An additional chapter, continue tomorrow
(End of this chapter)