Episode 58: Build a plank road openly and cross the Chencang secretly

On the evening of the 29th, the Nanjing Commander sent a telegram to order the Ming army in Shanxi to suspend the march and standby on site.

In fact, even without the orders of the Nanjing Command, the Ming army in Shanxi should "suspend the marching and set up defenses on site" at this time. Because it is very simple, it is dark and it is time to camp overnight. Logically speaking, mechanized troops and motorized troops have the ability to go day and night. But that refers to ordinary marching, mobilizing troops, rather than attacking. It is very dangerous for mechanized corps to advance in the enemy's occupied areas at night. The roar of the engine and the long list of headlights will make the marching queue the best target at night. Moreover, once attacked in the dark, it is difficult to fight back.

Although the Ming army now "ordered the troops to stop advancing immediately", the time difference was equivalent to "in vain" overnight.

Now, the Ming army has kept a close eye on the Qing side and forced the Qing side to fulfill its promise.

The Qing side also knew very well that the reason why the Ming side stopped the army first was not because they trusted the Qing side, but because they should have stopped for the night. So Beijing began to procrastinate.

At Wuwang Villa in Nanjing that night, Xiang Xiaoqiang and a few people were making tea and drinking coffee. He didn't plan to go to bed anymore, nor did he let Yonggui go to bed. He stared at him in the conference room and asked him to send electricity to Beijing to urge him.

Yonggui drank a lot of wine at dinner, and was dizzy and yawning. He supported his elbows on the table, and his head was poured down one after another, struggling to support him.

"Mr. Yong!" Xiang Xiaoqiang slapped the table in front of him and shouted, "Wake up! Wake up! Have the Gui army in Hanzhong, Qinling Mountains surrendered?"

Yonggui raised his head with a bitter face, leaned against the chair, and sighed:

"Sir Xiang... I am also the negotiating ambassador at least. What kind of way do you treat guests?... Please arrange a room for me immediately. When I woke up, the Qing army in Qinling surrendered..."

Xiang Xiaoqiang slapped the table again, frightened him, and shouted:

"Come on, make another cup of coffee for Lord Yong! I see Lord Yong still didn't wake up!"

"Sir Xiang..." Yonggui yawned and shook his head and smiled bitterly, "Don't worry, our court will not be idle this night. Nothing can be done, and we have to arrange the surrender of the Qing army in Hanzhong, Qinling Mountains... Alas, Mr. Xiang, although there are not many soldiers, there are tens of thousands of people, scattered in so many places, some have radio stations, and some have no radio stations, and they have to rely on messengers... It's not a telegram in Beijing, but tens of thousands of people surrender at the same time... My Lord Xiang!"

"Ah? You can't surrender with just one telegram?" Xiang Xiaoqiang stared at his eyes, "Oh, you are starting to say this now. Why don't you say this during the daytime negotiation?"

Yonggui is now forced to survive and die, begging:

"My Lord Xiang... Do you need to say this specifically? You think, there are only tens of thousands of people, and they are so dispersed, they are all mountains... I can still look like this even if I think about it! It's not that fast! Lord Xiang, I'm Yonggui begging you, okay? Let me go to bed, otherwise there will be no negotiation tomorrow! It will delay more important things!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that he was drowsy again, and then slapped the table again, frightened him and shouted:

"There is no negotiation? There is no negotiation. There is no negotiation! I don't care what I will talk about tomorrow. I will want Qinling and Hanzhong now. I will want tonight! I will give up my promise and not negotiate tomorrow. I will also want Qinling and Hanzhong tonight! Lord Yong, I tell you, if we can't get Qinling and Hanzhong tonight, you don't want to sleep! If you can't get it tomorrow morning, don't sleep tomorrow morning! When will we get it, when will you go to bed!"

Yonggui seemed to have not heard it, his head tilted to one side and he fell asleep.

"Huh?" Xiang Xiaoqiang got angry, grabbed his shoulder and shook it hard, shouting, "Wake up! Wake up! Tell me to Beijing! Hey!... Let me tell you, if I can't take Qinling Hanzhong tomorrow, I will order the army to advance as usual, and as long as I push it for another day, I will reach Taiyuan! See if your master can spare you?... If Qinling Hanzhong tomorrow does not surrender, we will launch a fierce bombing of the Qing army in the Central Plains, killing tens of thousands of people first! Wake up! Wake up!... We will bomb the Yellow River Bridge tomorrow. As long as the bridge is blown off, two million Central Plains Corps will be confessed to be south of the Yellow River! You are still sleeping, and you can sleep forever when you go back!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at Yonggui still as usual, half-dead, and angry arose from his heart, evil aroused his courage, and gritted his teeth and said:

"Damn it, do you think you're gonna be so damn?"

He turned to the door and shouted:

"Come on!"

Xiuxiu came in and advised:

"Sir, it's already past one o'clock. Go and sleep. I'll just stare at it here."

Wave your hand to Xiaoqiang:

"No, I'm not sleepy! Then what, go to the kitchen and find some refreshing things for Lord Yong! Chili, onion, garlic, and pepper, the better the better!"

Xiuxiu looked at Yonggui's appearance, nodded and went out.

After a while, Xiuxiu brought in a small bottle. She brought a cup of coffee on the table, opened the small bottle, poked a spoonful of paste from it and threw it into the coffee, and then stirred it evenly.

A stimulating smell gradually spread in the room.

Xiang Xiaoqiang picked up the small bottle, looked at the label, and understood. He nodded, very satisfied with what Xiuxiu found.

"Come on, Lord Yong," he grabbed Yonggui's shoulder, straightened him, and shook his head, "Drink a cup of coffee and refresh yourself!"

As he said that, he winked at Xiuxiu. One of them was holding Yonggui's nose and the other holding coffee. Without saying a word, he forced Yonggui to fill half a cup of "dongdongdongdongdongdong".

Yonggui jumped up as if he was shocked by an electric shock. His nose and chin were full of coffee, but he didn't even bother to cough. He just howled, squatting on the ground like an orangutan, waving his hands up and down, and patting the ground desperately, his face flushed, and his tears flowed out, his screams getting more and more miserable, like killing a pig.

Seeing Yonggui's miserable situation, Xiang Xiaoqiang was a little confused. He approached Xiuxiu and asked in a low voice:

"Hey, you just put a spoonful of them, why did you react so much?"

Xiuxiu was also a little nervous, picked up the bottle again, looked at it and said:

"Yeah, it's...it's very strong."

"Extremely strong? OK, I need this effect!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at Yonggui who was not allowed to survive on the ground and said with gritted teeth:

"I told you to play a dog with me, damn..."

After a while, Yonggui got up with tears on his face, held a cup of tea on the table and poured it down. After filling it, he threw away the tea cup, then rushed to the other end of the table, picked up another cup of tea and poured it down.

After filling two cups of tea, Yonggui was breathing, his face was filled with tears and snot. He yelled at Xiaoqiang while coughing:

"What did you give me some drink!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang said coldly:

"What I give you is not coffee, but mustard."

"What? Lonely?"

"Yes, it's also called loneliness," Xiang Xiaoqiang made a gesture, asking Xiuxiu to take away the mustard, and then said, "Now let you wake up first and send me a report to Beijing immediately! If you don't know the truth again, you will not only be lonely when drinking coffee, but I will let you smoke, drink tea, and eat instant noodles!"

...

All night, Xiang Xiaoqiang, Xiuxiu, and three people fought with Yongguiche**, but they didn't let him sleep. They forced him to send newspapers to Beijing to inquire and urged him, in short, they must let the Qing army in Qinling and Hanzhong surrender before dawn.

In the telegram, Xiang Xiaoqiang kept reiterating the "ultimatum" to Guangwu: at 6:00 a.m. on the 30th, the Ming army would send troops to accept Hanzhong and Qinling at the same time. If there was a little resistance, the Ming army would declare the agreement invalid and would order the Shanxi army to advance as usual.

The purpose of Guangwu peace talks was to gain time, so naturally we had to seize every opportunity to delay time. He had already decided that he would not bother tonight, and then drag it out first, and wait until tomorrow morning to start giving up Hanzhong one after another. The transfer of Hanzhong will definitely be delayed for one or two days, and the Qinling Mountains will be delayed for one or two days. The essence of it is: it is not that I will not give up, but that there will be a process one after another. In this way, the Ming army in Shanxi will advance, and it will not be necessary to not advance. In this way, time will come out.

But no one expected that the top leaders of the Ming army were so serious. Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't sleep and forced Yonggui to send a telegram all night, and he had to take over the entire Qinling Mountains and Hanzhong before dawn. Yonggui had already sent a call for help to Beijing in the telegram, saying that he must wake up the emperor, otherwise the slave would not live tomorrow...

Seeing Lord Yonggui say this, the duty officer of the Beijing Command had to wake up Guangwu.

Guangwu was called at three o'clock in the morning and was furious. After reading several telegrams from Yonggui, he understood the seriousness of the matter. After weighing the pros and cons, he finally felt that the Ming army was not just talking about it. If they could not get any practical things before dawn, it would really make the Shanxi army continue to advance. In that way, he would stop the Ming army first and then use the plan of delaying the time with negotiations, and it would be difficult to stop the Ming army at that time. The Ming army had to occupy most of Shanxi before talking.

He weighed it again, looked at the map under the desk lamp, and immediately sent an order: I sent an order to Hanzhong, asking the Qing army there to put down its weapons, and surrender to the Ming army at dawn. As for the Qing army in the Qinling Mountains, he planned to drag it away first and prevent them from surrendering for the time being. It was possible for the Ming army to take over Hanzhong Basin to temporarily fill their mouths. Just taking over the Hanzhong Basin would take two days. During this period, they would not turn against each other and let the Ming army in Shanxi continue to advance.

At the same time, Guangwu asked again:

"Where has our army been?"

The staff officer next to him certainly understood which unit the emperor was asking. He whispered:

"Go back to the emperor, I have already entered Shanxi... I will be able to arrive in Datong tomorrow night..."

"Well," Guangwu nodded, "The marching at night is tolerated by a little slower speed, but it must be kept confidential and not allowed to be noticed by people in the towns along the way."

“Wait.”

"During the day, the troops must be careful of concealment. They must all withdraw from the highway and camp in the mountains and forests next to them... They cannot allow the Ming army's plane to reconnaise a soldier."

“Wait.”

"Okay, go back. Come and call me if you have important things."

Guangwu rubbed his face, yawned, sent the staff officer away, lay back on the bed, and turned off the desk lamp. He thought in his mind:

This is called the construction of a plank road in the dark, crossing Chencang secretly... You are unkind in the South Ming Dynasty, don't blame me for being unrighteous in the Qing Dynasty. As long as your Ming army's Mojian Division cannot march all night, my Qing infantry division can march secretly at night and camp during the day... Although the speed is slow, as long as the negotiations last ten or eight days, when your Shanxi Ming army wakes up, my Qing army has occupied all the places opposite you...
Chapter completed!