Chapter 770: 770 Tang Army changes formation
Chapter 770 Chapter 770 The Tang Army changes formation
If you simply look at the map, the Tang Army's offensive posture near Fengjiang is easy to understand. Part of the Tang Army has already invaded the city, while the Tang Army on both wings is trying to separate the city from the actual line of control of the Dahua Empire.
Along the edge of the city, the Tang Army's 1st Armored Division was unstoppable, taking over a quarter of the city's perimeter at an almost unstoppable speed. On the other side, the Tang Army's 5th Armored Division was attacking at a slightly slower pace. But it also penetrated the defense line of the Dahua defenders.
In less than half a month, Fengjiang City went from being more than ten kilometers away from the front line to being almost semi-surrounded.
Its two wings are all Tang Army troops. If the Tang Army is compared to sea water, then Fengjiang City becomes a peninsula hanging on the sea.
The Dahua garrison stationed in Fengjiang City was resisting tenaciously. After receiving the assurance from their commanders that "the Tang Army will not continue to use white phosphorus bombs," they gradually regained their courage to fight.
But their defense line has been breached, the Tang army has entered the city and controlled a large area, so the Dahua troops have lost the best opportunity to drive the Tang army out of Fengjiang City.
The fighting between the two sides was fierce in the city. Soldiers from the Tang Army and the Dahua Army fought repeatedly block by block. Sometimes it took several hours to fight for a two-story building.
Of course, such cruel competitions are still rare after all. Because of the characteristics of the city's buildings, Fengjiang City is destined to never become Stalingrad, and the Chinese army cannot rely on this city to fight the Tang army for too long.
Most of the houses in this city are one-story, and more than half are wooden structures. It has not changed much from a few decades ago. All changes are concentrated in the hastily developed industrial areas on the outskirts of the city.
That's why Fengjiang City lost so many buildings during the white phosphorus bombing, caused such a big fire, and was so tragic that people collapsed.
Because there are not that many brick and stone structures, there are not that many buildings, and there are not that complex urban structures, there are countless less possibilities for street fighting based on blocks.
At this point, Fengjiang City is different from Beiyuan City in Qi State. Because Beiyuan City is a coastal city, in order to prevent disasters caused by sea wind, a large number of stones are used to build houses, and the urban environment is much more complex.
In Fengjiang City, the structure of an entire building is often destroyed with two grenades or one artillery shell. It becomes very difficult to hold on and rely on it to fight.
Of course, this environment also created some troubles for the attack: the buildings that were taken down were not easy to use, and most of them became dangerous buildings and lost their use.
Feng Kezhi’s idea is simple: since there is a possibility that Fengjiang cannot be defended, then destroy the city. This prevented the Tang Army from using urban buildings to spend the winter, minimizing the advantages that the Tang Army gained after occupying the city.
Because the great general of the Dahua Empire himself was supervising the battle in Fengjiang, the battle ideas of the Dahua army were very clear.
When they abandon certain neighborhoods, they often plant bombs in advance, or use grenades to destroy these buildings or turn them into dangerous buildings.
The parts that were not destroyed in time would be mobilized for artillery bombardment later, in an effort to prevent the Tang army from using the area they occupied.
This idea was especially obvious when the two sides competed for Fengjiang Railway Station. When the tanks of the Tang Army began to approach Fengjiang Railway Station, the Dahua engineers immediately blew up the station without even a moment's hesitation.
By the time the Tang Army's tanks covered the grenadiers and captured the train station, the place was in ruins, and even the broken rails had been snatched away.
What Tang Jun got were some unrecognizable platforms, broken stone rubble, some remaining wooden boards and half-collapsed waiting rooms and other buildings.
“The opponent is not trying to keep Fengjiang, but destroying everything that can be used before losing it.” Standing in front of the map, several generals helplessly reported the recent battle situation to Burton.
“Their purpose is very clear, that is, they are not going to let us rely on Fengjiang to spend the winter in a month or two.” Another general shook his head and said.
Boton looked at the bearded commander of the 7th Army and asked him what he thought: "Your troops have been fighting in urban areas. What do you think?"
"This is completely different from the battles I am familiar with. To be honest, I am not very used to this form of war. This is not fighting for a city, but destroying it." The bearded commander sighed and said.
"In the past, when we went to war, we usually fought in the wild. As long as the opponent's field troops were eliminated, the war would often end." He paused for a few seconds, as if recalling the time he spent in Beiling: "At that time The purpose of war is to determine the winner..."
"We are also deciding the winner now." Bolton felt that the other party's thinking was a bit too old-fashioned.
"I'm not talking about this." Big Beard also felt that he was a bit hypocritical: "I mean, if it were ten years ago, the commanders of the Dahua Empire would have given up on Fengjiang long ago. They would have sent envoys, Sued for peace with us."
The wars of that era were small in scale because the troops' advancement speed, firepower, troop strength and logistical supplies could not keep up.
Even if victory is achieved on the battlefield, the attacker cannot arbitrarily expand the victory in a local area into a comprehensive victory. Therefore, even if they win a battle, the losing side can only pay compensation and seek peace, lose one or two cities, and even redeem the lost cities with compensation or slaves.
Today, ten years later, the scale of the war has completely escalated. The size of the army invested in a war is a thousand times larger than before! The benefits that the victorious party needs to obtain are naturally hundreds of times greater than before.
Logistics enhanced by ships, trains, and automobiles can support a vast all-out war. The combat effectiveness of the army enhanced by advanced machine guns, artillery, and even tanks and aircraft will naturally be far greater than before.
"But now, they are fighting us in the city, and relying on such decisions, they have consumed my troops and destroyed the city I am about to capture. This makes me feel that I have not completed the goal of the attack." After thinking for a while, , the bearded man expressed his feelings.
"I think so too. If we continue to fight with them repeatedly in the city, what we get before winter will be a big ruin instead of Fengjiang City." Bolton nodded and agreed with the bearded man. The view behind.
Then he changed the topic, pointed at the two wings of Fengjiang City and continued: "So I then changed my tactics and started to use armored forces to launch attacks on both wings, trying to surround Fengjiang, and first drive the man named Feng Kezhi out of Fengjiang City. "
In fact, this was the purpose of the Tang army's attempt to encircle Fengjiang: Bolton felt that as an imperial general, Feng Kezhi would definitely not put himself in danger. He would definitely retreat his headquarters to a safe place before the city was surrounded. Place to go.
Once Feng Kezhi left Fengjiang, under the pressure of being surrounded and without Feng Kezhi's supervision, the determination of the Fengjiang defenders to carry out the order to scorch Fengjiang City would be shaken and flaws would be exposed.
Compared to the street battle with the Dahua Army in Fengjiang City, Burton still felt that the Tang Army in the field seemed to be better able to use its fists and kicks and give full play to its own advantages.
In fact, this is indeed the case.
After fighting fiercely with the Tang army for almost two or three months, the Qin army that came from afar seemed to be tired of the old soldiers and lost its energy.
Although they received supplies from Dahua, they were still "guest armies" and were not as convenient as previously planned.
You must know that the reason why the Qin army came was not like this: their purpose of coming here was to take advantage of the situation, not to provide help in times of trouble!
The original promise given by Dahua to the Qin Army was that the Dahua Army would invade the territory of the Tang State, and the Qin Army, as a reserve force, would enter the battlefield at the critical moment and crush the Tang Army's last line of defense.
At that time, the Great China Empire will take away the Tang State’s land and population, and the Qin Army will take away the Tang State’s wealth. The technology will be shared with everyone, and the whole family will be happy.
But the current situation is: the Tang Kingdom is obviously the victorious party, the battle line has been pushed to the Fengjiang line, the Great China Empire has been completely defeated, and the situation has become very clear.
So the Qin army could neither obtain a large amount of Tang's wealth as agreed, nor could it obtain the technology it desired. It was a waste of both men and money.
In addition, there are also logistical supply issues. The Qin army came from afar and did not need too much supplies in the plan. It only needed to appear on the battlefield at the critical moment and serve as the decisive force to crush the Tang army, which was about to collapse.
Even in the logistics supply plan of the Dahua Empire, no special plan to provide supplies to the Qin army was drawn up too seriously.
As a result, the Qin army ended up as a reserve force to fill the collapsed central defense line of the Great China Empire, which was completely different from what was planned.
The Dahua transportation line, which was already overloaded, was already very strenuous to ensure the supply of its own troops. Where was there any extra energy to waste on Qin's "guest troops".
In this case, fighting against a favorable wind is not a big problem, but fighting against a headwind is a different story.
Since the weapons and ammunition of the Qin Army are the same as those of the Dahua Empire, they can also borrow some from the Dahua Army for use. But other things are not easy to handle. After all, the Dahua Army is not rich either.
For example, the Dahua Empire itself did not have enough of medicines, and the Qin army did not carry much, so they consumed them all. After all, the idea is to take advantage of the situation. Who needs a lot of medicine when things are going smoothly?
But who could have imagined that what they fought in the end would be a tough battle, a cruel defensive battle, and the medicines they brought would immediately be completely insufficient.
This directly affected the Qin army’s fighting will: the wounded could not receive good treatment, so who would dare to continue risking their lives?
(End of this chapter)