Chapter 553: 553 Changes in the Battle Situation
Chapter 553 Chapter 553 Changes in the battle situation
No one is a fool. Jiang Xian, the king of Qi, has been in office for more than 20 years and has been conscientious in managing the country's affairs. Naturally, he is even less likely to be a fool.
He had keenly noticed before that the possible attack directions of the Tang Army were Luo Zhen and Nanye, so he immediately began to think about how to deal with the situation at hand.
Now Qi State can be said to be very passive, their hinterland is very empty, and there is basically no garrison force.
In order to reinforce Nanye, Jiang Xian even sent out the last troops guarding the royal city. Now the royal city of Qi is so empty that it is simply an undefended city.
Jiang Xian was not naive enough to believe that his more than 20,000 imperial troops could create any miracles in Nanye, because if there was a miracle, it would have happened long ago.
From beginning to end, Jiang Xian had high hopes for the frontline troops to return to the defense, penetrate the Tang Army's defense line from behind, and force the Tang Army to give up its plan to capture Nanye.
In other words, Jiang Xian relied on the third prince and the eldest prince who returned to defend. He believed that his two sons could regain the initiative on the battlefield through a beautiful counterattack.
However, as a king, he cannot naively place all his hopes on a military operation with unknown outcome.
Therefore, while he gave the third prince and the eldest prince a death order, asking them to penetrate the railway between Luozhen and Nanye at all costs, Jiang Xian also gave an order to his second son.
This order is to order the second prince on the eastern front to immediately draw out his elite troops and return to the royal city along the other railway to support him.
You must know that the King's City of Qi is extremely empty, and Jiang Xian cannot let this dangerous situation continue. He will definitely choose the safest and fastest way to mobilize his troops back to the royal city.
At present, it seems that walking to Luo Town may not be the fastest. If the eldest prince and the third prince cannot recapture Luo Town, everything will become a mirror and a castle in the sky.
So, the experienced Jiang Xian transferred the elite 2nd Army in the eastern defense zone back to the royal city almost immediately.
The Tang army is moving, and the Qi army is also moving. Both sides are deploying troops and generals, hoping to strangle the enemy on the opposite side through their own arrangements.
“Report!” A voice sang and woke up King Qi who was sitting in his chair.
In the manor on the outskirts of King Qi's city, Jiang Xian was so sleepy that he could hardly open his eyes. He is almost fifty years old this year, and his body no longer allows him to work too hard.
But the war prevented him from relaxing. He stayed up late every day these past few days, and his whole body had lost weight.
His eyes were covered with dark circles, and there were some grooves on his face. These wrinkles accompanied the opening and closing of his mouth, curling and squirming as if alive: "What happened?"
If Jiang Xian went to sleep, it would be impossible for the attendants to let him be woken up like this. But in order to control first-hand intelligence information, Jiang Xian refused to rest, so he fell asleep in the chair.
“The security troops deployed by our army outside Nanye...were all wiped out.” The officer looked a little ugly and straightened up as he replied.
In fact, these troops are not many. The Qi army's defense troops deployed near Nanye only have one division, which is equivalent to three regiments.
These troops cannot all be placed outside, so the Tang army actually only suffered heavy losses from one to two regiments of the Qi army.
But sometimes things are so mysterious: the Qi army only has so few troops, so they really can't stand the fact that one or even two regiments are wiped out.
Before the Forbidden Army arrived at the front line, almost half of the Qi troops guarding Nanye were wiped out by the main force of the Tang army that rushed towards Nanye.
"..." Because it was already expected, Jiang Xian was not surprised. He just looked at the general who was waiting for him to wake up completely, and then asked: "Where are the forbidden troops?"
“It is estimated that we will have to wait another day before we can reach Nanye.” The officer who came to deliver the news replied with some anxiety.
“I hope they can make it in time.” Jiang Xian sighed, feeling like he was going to die here. He hadn't had a good rest for several days, and his face was full of exhaustion.
He also knew that his troops were moving slowly and there was nothing good he could do in a short period of time, so he could only sigh helplessly after finishing speaking: "Alas..."
Then, he seemed to remember something, turned his head and looked at a minister: "What the people from the Tang Dynasty said on the radio...is it true?"
Just a few hours ago, the Tang Army’s radio station announced a great victory: in the Battle of Luozhen, the Tang Army actually claimed to have killed at least two senior generals of Qi.
It is still unclear whether this matter is true or not, but it is a fact that Jiang Xian cannot contact the Western Front Command.
"That's just a kind of propaganda from the Tang Dynasty, Your Majesty! It's just to shake you and make your judgment wrong!" A minister on the side quickly comforted.
"Check! Send a telegram to the eldest prince! Let him find his third brother, and...find Tian Heng! No matter what, call me back as soon as you find him!" Jiang Xian emphasized stubbornly. He didn't think anything would go wrong with his beloved son and general at the same time.
“Yes!” The minister quickly lowered his head and said nothing.
"Have you verified your identity? If this is a joke, it will have a great impact on morale." Outside Anpu, in the commander-in-chief of the Tang Army, Loew was discussing the same thing with several of his staff officers.
The bodies of the third prince and Tian Heng and others have now been processed and put on the train back to Tang Dynasty. The Tang army will definitely make good use of the results of this victory to publicize their military victory.
Looking at the photos, a staff officer said with certainty: "The styles of military uniforms are indeed right. I think at least these two generals... should be authentic."
The Tang Army had previously obtained the military uniforms of Qi's senior generals through intelligence agencies. They could easily tell that the military uniforms on these corpses did belong to Qi's senior generals.
Another staff officer was concerned about the body of the third prince: "Then the military uniforms of King Qi's royal family... won't be publicized?"
Concerning the verification of the results of the battle, the Tang Army was very rigorous and cautious - Tang Mo did not want to see his troops make a joke like sinking the Ark Royal because of greed for credit.
So when they saw the body of the third prince wearing a royal-style military uniform, the Tang Army's propaganda department did not publicize it immediately.
Even, they only reported the killing of two senior generals of Qi State, but did not mention the killing of the third prince of Qi State.
"You are kidding, how can you not publicize it? What a great victory this is? What a great honor this is!" Loew snorted and said.
Of course, publicity must be vigorously promoted, and the glory of the Tang Kingdom must be announced to the world in an unprecedented way.
That's right, the propaganda department of the Tang Dynasty planned to publish the photo of the third prince's corpse directly, using an unprecedented color printing method.
Although it is a bit bloody, the visual impact is simply overwhelming. After the evidence is conclusive, it will be announced that the third prince has been killed.
At this time, another staff officer asked his colleagues, his tone full of envy: "Second Class Hussars Medal?"
That is a second-level medal! With this kind of medal, if you don't kneel before an official, you will get a subsidy. So far, the entire army does not have one!
The staff officer sitting next to him felt a sour taste in his mouth: "General Redman proposed to directly award the first-class Hussars Medal..."
“Liu Guozhu! You’re so lucky!” Loew couldn’t help but sigh after hearing these conversations. As chief of staff, he cannot go to the front lines to charge into battle.
In fact, as one of the elders of the Datang Group, when Loew took people out, Tang Mo only had a hundred or ten guards. Therefore, Loew cannot have the Order of the White Blade or the Order of the Hussars, which is also his regret.
The staff officers on the side all echoed: "Who says it's not the case!"
"But I still want to criticize him! It would be great if we caught him alive." At this time, a staff officer said reluctantly.
Loew glanced at the officer and felt that the officer was a little confused: "What are you thinking about? What are you thinking about? In that kind of environment, asking the armored soldiers to catch people alive is a bit too much, isn't it?"
The officer was also a bachelor. He spread his hands and still felt unwillingly: "Oh, I know that too, but I still feel sorry for him... After all, it would be great if he really caught someone alive."
“Who says it’s not the case... What about the medal? Should we still give it to the first level?” When evaluating medals, the opinion of their staff is very important.
Loew waved his hand and gave his opinion: "Wait, wait for the newspaper...or rather, wait for His Majesty's wish."
“Okay!” Seeing the boss speaking, everyone immediately agreed.
On the flank of Luozhen, Liu Guozhu’s crews were still scrubbing their tanks in the 1st Battalion and 1st Company of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Armored Division.
Even though they had washed the air intake grille on the hull behind the turret of their tank, they could still smell the smell of corpses.
I don’t know if it was an illusion or some other reason. They also put something on the ground when transporting the corpse, but it was still of no use. Everyone just felt it smelled so they had to rub it again...
“Boss, you say...this time, can we get another medal back?” The loader asked curiously while rubbing the gap in the grille with a rag.
"How do I know..." Liu Guozhu also kept wiping his car: "That thing is not under my control..."
While he was speaking, he was wiping the motor oil on his hands from the car. At this moment, he raised his head and wiped his cheeks subconsciously.
Then, he put a big face on himself without even realizing it.
The mechanical and electrical man who came back from fetching water immediately laughed, his smile was bright and unbridled.
Amid their laughter, another group of ten Stuka dive bombers roared over their heads and flew towards the Qi army's position in the distance.
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There is no status today, so I will update twice for the time being, and I will make up for the outstanding debt tomorrow.
(End of this chapter)