January 10, 1923, 7 o'clock in the morning.
"It's really strange. Why do I feel that overnight, there seems to be no one in the city on the shore. There is not even smoke from the kitchen this morning. These guys don't want to eat?"
Deng Shichang looked at the deserted Zhenjiang City with a hint of doubt on his face.
"Captain, do you think it's because the Zhijun in the city haven't gotten up yet, or the grain depot was destroyed by us yesterday." Vice Captain Wei Yi, who was holding a hot cocoa on the side, also expressed his opinion.
"Something's wrong. Although we have blocked the river now, we can't be careless. Ask someone to lower the lifeboat immediately."
"Then contact the ships Kanglong and Cangrong and ask them to send marines ashore for reconnaissance."
"Yes, Captain!"
You heard it right, during this period, marines were generally stationed on destroyers of various countries, but the number was small, only about 30 to 50 people.
Marine Corps, as the name implies, while these members master maritime combat skills, they will also receive training from the Army and master land combat skills.
Therefore, the Marine Corps has strong sea and land combat capabilities and can exert strong combat effectiveness both at sea and on land.
However, the Marine Corps on the warship is a small maritime support force.
Generally, they are only responsible for small-scale combat tasks such as intelligence collection and special operations.
Ten minutes later, sixty fully armed Marines boarded six BMK-70 motorboats and drove quickly towards the shore of Zhenjiang City.
In Zhenjiang City, most of the buildings were completely destroyed at this moment, and among the ruins and broken walls, burnt-black corpses and broken limbs could be seen everywhere.
Seeing that the city was empty, the Marines quickly dispersed several groups.
Several soldiers who were scouting in the city pointed at the abandoned positions of the Zhili Army and couldn't help but sigh: "Hey, squad leader Huang, the power of our warships and guns is really not bad. That wave of shelling yesterday afternoon probably killed thousands of people." , look at the bombproof holes built by the 29th Division, they were completely blown down."
"No wonder Zhenjiang City is empty now. I guess those guys from the 29th Division just pretended to surrender, and then they all ran away while we weren't paying attention last night."
The soldier known as Lao Huang glanced at the captain Zheng Long and saw that he was staring at a corpse on the ground in a trance and did not notice him, so he chuckled and replied:
"Hehe, we are still just destroyers. If it had been replaced by a battleship, it is estimated that the 29th Division would have been wiped out by those rounds of artillery fire yesterday.
"However, a battleship with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons is probably unable to enter inland rivers."
Not long after, a soldier carrying an MP40 submachine gun and an FM walkie-talkie trotted over, "Report to the squad leader, our 4th squad just found a large number of footprints on the official road to the west outside the city. It seems to be heading straight to the 29th Division. Withdrew to the west."
Upon hearing this, captain Zheng Long took out the combat map from the map bag on his waist and looked at it for a moment.
"Well, the target of the 29th Division should be Jinling City. Jinling City is about 80 kilometers away. They are not a motorized force and cannot run far at all. Report the situation to the captain and let the commander-in-chief deal with them."
"Yes, Captain!"
…
"Master, the telegram just sent by Deng Shichang said that they sent troops to sneak into Zhenjiang City this morning and found that the 29th Division in the city had long disappeared. It is said that they went to Jinling. They pretended to surrender last night."
In the Liyang City advance army barracks, Lu Xiaojia, who was brushing his teeth, heard the report of Wanlong Crest and quickly spat out the foam in his mouth, his face could not be darker.
Last night, he specifically checked the commander of the 29th Division, and found that he was Qi Xieyuan's only son, who had just returned from Fusang, and his name was Qi Lu.
Originally, Lu Xiaojia wanted to capture Qi Lu directly, and then force Qi Xieyuan, the old Biden, to step down.
The results now told him that Qi Lu secretly ran towards Jinling City with the 29th Division.
"Don't worry, the 29th Division relies entirely on two legs to march. It can't escape my Wuzhishan Mountain." After saying this, Lu Xiao entered the temporary headquarters and stared at the map on the table for a moment to think. He immediately made his own plan.
Zhenjiang is 78 kilometers away from Jinling City. Counting from 12 o'clock last night until the departure time of the 29th Division, it is only about 8 hours now.
If you rely on two legs for 8 hours, according to today's physical fitness, how far can you run by forced march?
As far as Lu Xiaojia knows, the peak light infantry forced march record is the famous "Sansuoli Forced March". In November 1950, the Huaguo 113th Division marched 144 miles in about 14 hours.
This is already an unprecedented record of a march that has shocked the world.
We must know that the pace of this forced march of the 113th Division was only an average of 5 kilometers per hour.
As for the current warlord army, the food is not good, and there is no faith blessing.
The 29th Division was on a long-distance forced march. It took eight hours to cover thirty or forty kilometers, and they had to burn incense and worship Buddha.
But Lu Xiaojia's advance army was different. It was a motorized and mechanized force.
Even if the road conditions in China are not that good right now, I think running 30 kilometers per hour is not too much.
Lu Xiaojia made up her mind and immediately decided to take advantage of her mechanization.
Send a mechanized armored force to quickly rush 100 kilometers within 4 hours, arrive at Xuanwu Town outside Jinling City, and wait for the enemy.
"Dragon Emblem, Huang Foyin, you two will immediately transfer 1,800 infantry, 150 tracked armored personnel carriers, and 50 M5A1 Stuart light tanks from the task force. They will not carry artillery. Give them to me. Form a light armored regiment."
"Get me to Xuanwu Town within 4 hours. The 29th Division has to avoid pursuit by the destroyers on the riverside, so Xuanwu Town has become the only way for them to evacuate to Jinling. Can you complete the mission?"
Dragon Emblem, Huang Foyin also replied confidently: "I guarantee to complete the mission!"
After that, the two of them saluted Lu Xiaojia and left in a hurry. After all, the time was quite tight.
Because there are maintenance technicians, all vehicles and tanks of the task force are in a state of combat readiness.
Five minutes later, this temporarily formed light armored force was assembled. After driving out of Liyang City, it rushed towards Xuanwu Town with murderous intent.
Then, Lu Xiaojia looked at Zou Jiekai on the side and asked with some expectation: "Battle Commander Zou, does anyone in your engineering barracks know how to build a boat bridge now?"
When Zou Jiekai heard this, he looked at Lu Xiaojia as if he were a fool, thinking to himself, I am an engineering unit. You ask me if I can build a boat bridge?
"Master, our engineers are specialized in doing this kind of thing, but we don't have pontoon facilities now. I don't know where you want to erect the pontoon bridge, Master."
Lu Xiaojia did not hide it, but expressed her idea of building a boat bridge on the Yangtze River.
Finally, I got some not-so-good news. Zou Jiekai said that it would take at least 18 hours.
The reason is simple. Because the water surface of the Yangtze River Basin in Zhenjiang is wide, it takes a lot of people to build a boat bridge across the Yangtze River, and the engineering battalion is short of manpower.
In addition, the Yangtze River flows very fast, so it is necessary to fix the pontoon bridge horizontally.
"Damn, it turns out it was all a lie."
Lu Xiaojia couldn't help complaining. In his previous life, he saw the JF Army Engineer Brigade erecting a heavy boat bridge on the Yangtze River in just 26 minutes.
He had nothing to do about this. It was probably because the technology of the two pontoons was not at the same level, so he could only order the troops to set off immediately and head to Zhenjiang.
