This scorching summer this year is destined to get hotter again. On the last day of July, almost all cities with high-level officials stationed in Beijing, Naha, Shanghai, Jiangning, etc., received a distant telegram!
Zuo Zongtang, who was fighting in the vast deserts of the Western Regions, had been silent for more than half a year, when suddenly a shocking telegram was sent!
"Victory in Dihua! Encirclement and annihilation of Agubai's main force of 50,000 people, Agubai fled to southern Xinjiang in panic!"
"The northern border of the Western Region is recovered!"
"The trade route to Tacheng is open again! There is no need to worry about Northern Xinjiang. We will win a great battle at Dingding!"
After Zai Chun received the telegram, he knocked over the bowl of cheese cake in his hand and said, "Is it true or false? Did Zuo Jigao falsely report the number? Really 60,000 people were wiped out?"
Zai Chun knew what war was like, and he also knew how braggadocious soldiers were in this era. Encirclement, annihilation, and defeat were completely different concepts!
In ancient wars, sometimes both sides invested 100,000 troops, but in the end, only 10,000 or 20,000 people died after fighting for more than a month. If one side could not bear the pressure, it would naturally withdraw its troops!
As long as the soldiers who were withdrawn are still alive and have been trained for a few months, they can still continue to fight. And this kind of victory that only hurts the flesh and bones, will be whitewashed by the commander into some epic victory, and the bullshit will be blown to the sky!
This is a routine that all soldiers know, just to deceive the superiors and conceal the truth!
But these coaches, especially experienced coaches like Zuo Zongtang, cannot easily use the word "encirclement and annihilation". Once they dare to use the word "encirclement and annihilation", it shows that this victory will definitely stand the test and can make Your court can check it at will!
In encirclement and annihilation, no one can escape. From officers to soldiers, you have to keep all the corpses and prisoners of the establishment. The officers, prisoners, and soldier corpses at every level, you put them together to form a big army!
As long as the encirclement and annihilation campaign is successful, the enemy will not have flesh wounds but directly remove their arms and thighs, destroying the seeds of an army!
If the military structure is lost, there will be no way to restore it later!
"Your Majesty! What Zuo Zongtang reported was an encirclement and annihilation, a great victory. The entire northern Xinjiang was recovered, and the roads leading to Tacheng were smooth and safe!"
"Everything in Northern Xinjiang is safe, and Dihua Mansion has returned to the hands of the imperial court!" Er Mao shouted excitedly.
"Hahaha... ok, ok... Marshal Zuo really embarrassed the Qing Dynasty. He really won, really won! He immediately called a meeting of military ministers to discuss how to reward the army for the Western Expedition!"
The Forbidden City suddenly became beaming with joy. The capital was excited by the good news and caroused all night long. Zai Chun opened the curfew for three consecutive days, so people could play all night long.
The first telegram was just to announce the good news, but the next few days were full of detailed telegrams, recording the entire process of the war, including casualties on both sides, material consumption and other details!
Zuo Zongtang's victory also caused a sensation in Jiangnan. Don't forget that the Western Region Development Bank is invested by Chinese businessmen. There is a special bond being issued in the stock market!
Great victory in Dihua, good news about the recovery of northern Xinjiang! This directly stimulated the capital market to surge forward, and all stocks related to the concept of the Western Regions all skyrocketed!
Interestingly, an ordinary cannery in Naha was recognized by the market as a Western Region concept stock just because it accepted an order to produce canned fruits for the Western Region Army, and its stock price doubled in three trading days!
It’s evident how high the market frenzy is!
Xiao Letian was in Naha at the moment, and he was naturally very pleased after receiving the telegram. The Western Region is an indivisible territory of China, not only because of the endless oil and mines underground, but more importantly because of geopolitics!
The larger the area of the Western Regions, the greater the barrier effect on the Central Plains. The more areas controlled by the Han people in the Western Regions, Tibet, and the Mongolian Plateau, the safer they will be!
That’s such a big strategic buffer zone!
"Where is our information? Has it been sent..." Xiao Letian asked anxiously.
"Bringing... the first batch of spies who infiltrated the Western Region Bank have sent us detailed telegrams, even more detailed than those sent to the Forbidden City!"
The Bank of the Western Regions advanced with Zuo Zongtang's army. The war to pacify the Western Regions showed that it was apparently fought by the Qing Dynasty, but anyone with a discerning eye knew that the Qing Dynasty would not be defeated without the Chinese Manchus.
In fact, the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not provide much military expenditure for the army marching to the west. Most of the expenditure was raised by Zuo Jigao himself. In addition to the input of money and grain from various provinces, the remaining half was raised by the Chinese capital market!
Money and food are provided by the Chinese, and even more so arms!
According to each piece of intelligence, almost all the credit was given to the 88-caliber breech-loaded field artillery provided by the Chinese!
This kind of Chinese-made artillery that imitates Prussian breech-loading steel cannons has a caliber of only 88 mm, but the shells used are the latest custom-loaded ammunition, high-explosive #charges!
It has a fast rate of fire, a long range, and high accuracy... The most important thing is that the caliber has been reduced and the weight of the artillery has also been reduced. It can be mounted directly on a two-wheeled vehicle and can be easily pulled away by a horse!
Xiao Letian is really worthy of Zuo Zongtang. Almost 90% of the artillery produced in Tanggu Industrial Zone is limited to the Western Regions!
In the Battle of Dihua, Liu Jintang and Xu Zhanbiao were the vanguard. There were more than 20,000 people in total, but they brought a full 220 88 artillery pieces!
At this time, Dihua, also known as Urumqi in later generations, was Aguba's last important stronghold in northern Xinjiang. Hami, Turpan, and Zhenxifu had all been recovered by Zuo Zongtang.
The frightened Agubai began to desperately recruit elite troops from Dihua. These 60,000 troops were already all Agubai's capital!
Seeing Zuo Zongtang's 20,000 vanguard dare to approach Dihua, Agubai arrogantly ordered an attack. The 60,000-strong army charged like a fan, pulling out long yellow sand smoke in the desert.
What made Agubai even more ecstatic was that the Qing army's position directly in front of the 60,000-strong army actually had only a few soldiers, with a thin layer of antlers and sandbags arranged, and only a few sporadic cannons behind it.
The main cavalry of the Qing army were actually scattered on both wings and moved quickly into the distance.
"The Qing army is trying to escape... they have given up on the central army... the whole army is going to fight..."
The ignorant Agubai had no idea what kind of terrifying firepower was in front of him!
Facing the main force of Aguba was a carefully camouflaged artillery position. The vanguard army concentrated more than 200 artillery pieces and used a camouflage net made of burnt yellow hay to hide these artillery pieces in the yellow sand in the sky!
Rear-mounted artillery only made its official debut during the Franco-Prussian War. Now even Tsarist Russia does not have the equipment, let alone the Turkish warlords in Central Asia like Agub!
The ambush soldiers received the order and acted in unison. The camouflage grass net was lifted. More than 200 black guns were pointed at the 60,000 enemy troops. A steel flame fell from the sky and almost burned the entire desert!
Boom boom boom... boom boom boom...
Load, fire, load, fire again... There is no need to adjust the shooting elements in the dense charging crowd, and you don't need to aim!
The powerful rate of fire of the breech-loaded artillery has exceeded the imagination of these Central Asian Turkish warlords!
