Episode 45: The Three Qins (3) Liberate the Mother River

"The Ming army has entered the pass!!!"

A terrified correspondent report echoed throughout the Qing command. When Emperor Guangwu of the Qing Dynasty heard the report, he sighed and slowly leaned into the chair, his heart filled with desolation. Everyone, from the marshal to the middle and lower-level officers below, was filled with fear and anxiety.

From last night when he heard the Zhengzhou Corps disintegration, especially when he saw the Nanming leaflet message "The first person to enter the pass is a marquis", he understood that the Ming army's entry into the pass will definitely happen within dozens of hours. The Qing Dynasty had no choice but to stop it.

Today, I finally heard this report.

Guangwu leaned his head against the soft leather backrest, looking at the ceiling, thinking only one thing in his mind: the Qing Dynasty lost half of this war... Guanzhong is no longer the Qing Dynasty... Nanming has completely gained a foothold in the north.

He was thinking, 292 years ago, did the "Qing army entered the pass" also echo here in horror? Echoing in horror in this same city? At that moment 292 years ago... those Han people... what would they feel when they heard this sentence?

...

Guangwu shook his head, sat up, and looked at the big map on the wall. He pinched his forehead and vigorously cheered up and planned the next strategy.

As the Ming army entered Guanzhong, the entire Shaanxi would inevitably fall into the hands of the Ming army. The possibility of the Qing Dynasty recapturing it was slim. At least, the Ming army would completely control the entire southern Shaanxi within a few dozen hours. As for northern Shaanxi, Guangwu judged that the Ming army might not have to implement the occupation immediately. Once the Ming army took down southern Shaanxi, the next step of concern would inevitably be to cross the Yellow River to enter Shanxi. The strategic importance of northern Shaanxi is far less than that of Shanxi, and it is a Loess Plateau of hundreds of kilometers. It has backward economy, sparse population, inconvenient transportation, and harsh environment. Moreover, it is the Mu Us Desert and the Yellow River to the north, which are enough to become barriers.

However, even if the Ming army did not occupy northern Shaanxi for a while, the Qing army would have no hope of occupying northern Shaanxi in the short term. The army closest to northern Shaanxi was still the Ming army. Whether it was the Northwest Corps, the Central Plains Corps, or the Beijing-Tianjin Corps, the distance to reinforce northern Shaanxi was much further than that of the Ming army in southern Shaanxi.

Shanxi is the one that needs rapid reinforcement at present.

After hearing the collapse of the Zhengzhou Corps last night, Guangwu judged that the Ming army would inevitably enter the pass, and the Qing Dynasty had no choice but to watch. He immediately made the decision to "break the arm of a hero" and issued an emergency order, ordering the three Yellow River floating bridges between Shanxi and Shaanxi to immediately blow up at all costs. Since Shaanxi is destined to fall into the hands of the Ming army, and the Qing Dynasty has no hope of recapturing it, he simply gritted his teeth and threw Shaanxi to Nanming completely, and made every effort to protect Shanxi.

Shanxi is directly adjacent to the North China Plain, and has high mountains and ridges as barriers. Advance can be used to retreat and defend. As long as Shanxi is in hand, it can threaten the enemy flanks of the North China Plain at any time or reinforce friendly forces on the North China Plain. Guangwu just said that "the Qing Dynasty lost half of the loss." After all, it is a bit exaggerated. Only losing Shaanxi was the Nanming gained a foothold in the north. Moreover, the railway trunk line connecting the eastern and northwest of the Qing Dynasty was circling from the Hetao Plain north of the Yellow River and did not pass through Shaanxi. Therefore, there is no such thing as "separating the connection between the Qing Dynasty and the west". As long as Shanxi is still in hand, with the three barriers of the Yellow River, Luliang Mountain and Taihang Mountain, it can firmly block the Nanming to the west and not threaten the North China Plain.

Before going to bed last night, Guangwu issued an order to urgently draw 5 Eight Banners Divisions from the Beijing-Tianjin Corps and 15 Han military divisions from the Central Plains Shandong Corps, and immediately take a train to enter Shanxi. Originally, the railway network on the North China Plain was quite dense, consisting of two trunk lines running north and south and several branch lines running east and west, in the shape of a "me" and can be called a "rail network". However, in North China, there was only one railway in Shanxi. It was the "Shilu Line" from Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan-Luliang.

The problem is that this railway has to pass through the Taihang Mountains to enter the Jinzhong Plain from east to west. The situation in Shanxi... is basically the Taihang Mountain Column is the leader. Taihang Mountain is even more of the territory of the Taihang Mountain Column. Although compared with the Qing reinforcements, they have few people and poor equipment, the 124-kilometer mountain railway will inevitably become the gates of the five Eight Banners Divisions and 15 Han military divisions.

It is conceivable that there are so many places in these 124-kilometer railways that are built winding among the cliffs. According to the Taihang Mountain Column's control over the Taihang Mountains, it is considered kind to be the one that has been demolished by people and the entire train. The more likely method is: bury explosives at every turn of the railway, wait for military vehicles to pass by, and then a loud bang, people and vehicles were carried, and the entire train was blown off the cliff...

Guangwu thought about it and felt that he could never use the railway. If he used the railway, just one hundred kilometers of mountain road would be enough to kill the Qing reinforcements more than a hundred times.

There is also a road parallel to the entire railway, called "Shilu Highway". Guangwu decided to use the highway. Before the five Eight Banner Divisions and 15 Han military divisions were transferred from their original garrison to Shijiazhuang, the railway could be used. The North China Railway Network was very safe. However, when you arrive in Shijiazhuang, you will go west to Taihang Mountain. He planned to get off the train here, so he walked through the 124-kilometer Taihang Mountains from Shilu Highway.

Walking on the road is still the same line. Although you will definitely be ambushed by the Taihang Mountain Column, after all, it will not be like a train. If you don’t do it well, you will be wiped out. After the troops are ambushed, they will have the opportunity to retreat, fight back, and call for heavy artillery bombardment. Guangwu plans to let the Han military advisor take the lead and the Eight Banners Division supervise the battle behind. This kind of mountain road is on both sides of cliffs and mountains, and behind the supervising team, and they only face the light weapons of the guerrillas. The Han army will never flee.

But then again, the east side of Taihang Mountain is abundant and the vegetation is lush. It is difficult for many people to ambush the mountains on both sides to detect. The guerrillas only need to set up a few machine guns and one or two mortars in the mountains and forests to save hundreds of Qing soldiers’ lives...

...There is still time. 124 kilometers of walking, carrying heavy weapons and supplies... There are a few blocking battles in the middle... One week. If you are lucky, enter the Jinzhong Plain in one week, which is the fastest.

Thinking of this, Guangwu pinched his forehead irritably and sighed heavily. He couldn't help but sigh: It seemed so cost-effective to support the Taihang Mountain Column at a high price! Not to mention anything else, at this critical moment, the Qing Dynasty did not dare to use the railway, which bought time for the Ming army and earned back the price of so many airdrops before.

Guangwu has learned the ability of the Ming army's boat bridge troops to build floating bridges. On the day of the attack, the floating bridges were built on the Yangtze River one day and one night... Of course, it was at the door of Nanming's house. After a long period of sufficient preparation, various materials and equipment were prepared, and transportation was extremely convenient. Now, even the customs clearance was cleared, the logistics troops followed and built bridges... How could this be said, it would take three or four days at the earliest. The Yellow River was much narrower than the Yangtze River, and the Ming army would never build bridges for more than one day. In other words, at most five days, the Ming army would enter Shanxi.

According to the degree of emptiness in Shanxi and the speed of the Ming army's advancement, the Ming army will basically occupy the entire Shanxi area for up to three days. If the Qing Eight Banners Division can enter Shanxi within one week, there will still be hope of saving half of Shanxi. Otherwise... the war will be lost half.

...

Guangwu stood up with a "huhu", walked quickly to the map, staring at the right half of the "Ji" shape of the Yellow River. From top to bottom, there are Wubao County floating bridges on the west side of Luliang City, Longmen floating bridges on the west side of Hejin County, and Fenglingdu floating bridges on the bank of Tongguan.

Did they... really get blown up?

From yesterday's order to now, I have not heard the reward of "has exploded" with my own ears.

A cool air rushed up from behind.

"Come!"

Guangwu shouted suddenly.

"emperor?"

"I issued an order yesterday to order the local garrison troops to blow up three Yellow River floating bridges. Is it rewarding?"

The staff officer dared not neglect and went to investigate immediately. After a moment, he returned to the report and said:

"Report to the Emperor, at two o'clock in the morning, the Fenglingdu floating bridge garrison troops replied that the Fenglingdu floating bridge had blown up. At that time, the emperor had already been asleep, and the staff officer on duty was afraid of disturbing the emperor's rest, so he did not..."

"Okay, OK, Fengling Dui was blown up, where are the two?"

"The emperor...slave...slave didn't find reports from those two places..."

Guangwu was upset and shouted:

"Go and ask if the power generation is blown up!"

"Yeah!"

"It doesn't matter if the Wubao pontoon bridge in northern Shaanxi, the Longkou pontoon bridge in southern Shaanxi must be blown up!"

"Yeah!"

...

Throughout the afternoon of the 25th, the large Ming army "flying" through Hangu Pass and Tongguan at an extremely fast speed and rushed into Guanzhong. Now the Nanjing Command and the Beijing Command understand as well: time is life!

When passing Tongguan, the Ming soldiers stood in the armored vehicles, holding the armored board and looking to the right.

On the right side of the highway, between the dams on both sides is a loess beach. On the wide loess beach, there is a yellowish "belt" winding - the legendary Yellow River.

...The mother river of the Chinese nation.

Although the upstream is rainy and the autumn flood has entered, the eyes of these Ming soldiers, the Yellow River in front of them is still soothing and calm, like a yellow satin, stretching on the wide river beach.

The officers and soldiers of the Ming army saw the Yellow River for the first time. They always felt that the legendary Yellow River in front of them was not like the Yellow River they read in textbooks since childhood, and they did not even think they were roaring and rushing like they imagined.

They were used to seeing the Yangtze River and felt that even if the Yellow River is in a good water season, it would not be able to compare with the usual water volume of the Yangtze River. In the Yangtze River, even when the water volume is minimal, there were obviously waves on the river surface, pushing each other forward. It was for the sake of "the waves of the Yangtze River pushing the waves of the previous waves". But the Yellow River in front of them was like a kind old woman, watching the long-lost children appear in front of her, rubbing hands on her apron, grinning and smiling happily, revealing her broken teeth and deep wrinkles on her face.

Looking at the "Mother River" that I met in books since I was a child, the male soldiers of the Ming army were already excited, and the female soldiers showed their true feelings. Many girls had sour noses and tears on their faces.

...

"Look, our mother river..."

In the political work team, a little girl sat in the communication car, plucked the cabin, looked at the Yellow River under the embankment, and said in tears.

"Well," another little female soldier beside her was also sensational. She looked down seriously, but said emotionally, "Three hundred years ago, a group of barbarians snatched our Yellow River mother... We fled to the south, and the Yangtze River mother opened her arms to protect us, shelter us from the wind and rain, and continued to nurture us... We will not forget our adoptive mother, but we must save our biological mother... that is the Yellow River..."

This little girl is also very talented and very sensational. She often incites herself to cry when she is sensational, so she was selected into the political team to persuade her to surrender and call. At this moment, with such sensationalism that she devoted to, none of the girls in the carriage could cry.

Suddenly, the radio in the car rang out, and the voice of the chief above shouted:

"All of the matters, Nanjing urgently ordered that Guanzhong will not be occupied for the time being. Turn around and head north to seize the Longmen Floating Bridge! Do you understand?"

"Sir!" The squad leader of the little female soldiers immediately grabbed the microphone and asked, "Has the Longmen Floating Bridge not been blown up yet?"

"No, but it's too soon. The Taihang Mountain Column is fighting fiercely with the Qing army's garrison troops. If we go and grab it quickly, the pontoon bridge will be blown up at any time!"

"Yes! I understand!"

After hanging up the microphone, several young female soldiers in the car exploded immediately.

"Isn't you going to be able to restore Guanzhong?"

"What about Guanzhong? I can't escape there. I will be liberated sooner or later! The key now is to enter Shanxi!"

"Then, how do we change our next slogan?"

"There is no use in the Guanzhong Restoration...that is called 'Restoration of Mother River'!"

"No, it's better not to 'restorate', it's better to 'liberation'!"

"Yes, it's called 'Liberating Mother River'!"

...

On the afternoon of the 25th, the Ming army had just passed Tongguan and turned around urgently, heading north along the "l-shaped" turn of the Yellow River, robbing the Longkou floating bridge 120 kilometers north of.
Chapter completed!