In fact, very few of Qi's defeated troops actually saw the Tang Army's tanks, because few of those who actually saw them could actually run out.
Most of them escaped along the way with the defeated soldiers. When they heard the shouts, they ran in confusion. If they ran too slowly, their lives would be lost...
"After doing this for a long time, you didn't even see Tang Jun, so you became a deserter?" The regiment leader laughed angrily, his tone full of dissatisfaction.
The two deserters didn't know that their headquarters had been taken over by the Tang Army. Now Tang's tanks were rampaging through the headquarters of Qi's 3rd Army. In fact, it's right to think about it, how could they know what happened behind them.
At this time, only the Qi army, which had fled from the vicinity of the headquarters, could possibly know that the 3rd Army headquarters was finished.
But even among these Qi troops that were defeated near the 3rd Army headquarters, there were very few people who really knew that the headquarters was finished - even if they saw it with their own eyes, they would not dare to spread rumors.
If you misunderstand this, or if what you say is different from what is actually true, it will shake the morale of the army, disrupt the deployment, and affect the war situation, isn't that a death penalty?
So, as long as you didn't actually see the Tang army wipe out the headquarters and see the third prince's head being chopped off, who would dare to say anything?
At this time, it is the safest and safest thing to honestly say that you don’t know, or that you don’t know clearly...
After much deliberation, he was not in the mood to shoot two deserters from other units, and he did not want to do such a thing of overstepping his authority, so the commander of the Qi Army waved his hand and told the two defeated soldiers to get out of here.
Then he asked his men to help spread out a map, and carefully looked at the marks on it, trying to figure out exactly where he was and what exactly he should do.
"Go over here and you should be at the headquarters of the 3rd Army... The distance shouldn't be too far..." Looking at the marks on the map, the commander of the Qi Army could barely identify his approximate location.
Their military maps are not accurate. In fact, they have not had access to accurate maps for more than a hundred years.
"That's about right. Should we get closer?" The officer nodded and then asked.
"What are you doing over here? Just a few of us, let's ride over and take a look!" Looking at the men, vehicles, cattle and horses of the two infantry regiments crowded together around him, the regiment leader motioned to his men to find some horses.
Obviously, there are advantages to being backward. Most of the senior officers of the Qi army have the skill of riding horses, just like the officers of the Beiling faction such as Tiger in the Tang army can ride horses.
Several war horses were led over like this, and then the commander of the Qi Army took seven or eight guards and left his army and rushed in the general direction of the defeated soldiers in the distance.
This journey was actually not easy, because they encountered many disorganized Qi troops who were panicking and were getting more and more information from these soldiers.
Siluke
First of all, they knew that tanks from the Tang Army had attacked the headquarters of the 3rd Army. This news was almost confirmed.
After confirming the news, the commander of the Qi Army knew that this attack might not go so smoothly.
The headquarters of the 3rd Army was attacked, and it is not clear how much the losses were. If the 3rd Army was in chaos and collapsed, it would probably take more than 2 days just to collect these broken troops.
But staying in such a barren place for two days would probably cause problems with the entire army's logistics, right?
You know, whether it is Luozhen or Nanye, they are key places for material hoarding. Now that these places have been blocked or lost, it is obvious that the Qi army's supplies are facing difficulties.
Immediately afterwards, they heard that the artillery positions of the 3rd Army had been completely destroyed, and dozens of heavy artillery that had finally been brought up to participate in the battle were lost. Now the Qi Army had almost lost all its heavy fire support.
This is another bad news: the Qi army, which originally had no advantage in firepower, now doesn't even have the means to scare people.
If you simply use infantry and light artillery to attack the enemy's fixed positions, it is basically the same as committing suicide.
The opponent's machine gun firepower can wreak havoc until the end of time, and the opponent's heavy artillery can suppress every charge... In this case, if the Qi army can charge into the formation and destroy the city, then why are they fighting the Tang army? How comfortable it would be to directly destroy the Dahua Empire and dominate the world...
When they arrived at the original headquarters of the 3rd Army and saw the scene in front of them, they realized what kind of disaster they were facing.
Although the Tang army had retreated, what was left behind was simply a mess. Almost all the senior generals of the 3rd Army were killed, and hundreds of their bodies were found.
Some regiment-level and division-level officers affiliated with the 3rd Army were sobbing and looking for their superior commanders to identify themselves. Some of the Third Prince's guards stood aside with livid faces. They still haven't found the Third Prince's body...
Not only the body of the third prince, but actually the body of Tian Heng, the commander of the Qi Army on the Western Front, was also not found. Also not found was the body of the commander of the 3rd Army...
Things were so desperate. The entire command system of the Qi Army on the Western Front was wiped out, and nothing was left.
Nowadays, the 50,000 Qi army without anyone to command is stuck in the wilderness like headless flies. There are not many decent supplies, not many heavy artillery, and they are bombarded by enemy planes every day.
What makes people even more desperate is that there are more than 50,000 Qi troops advancing towards them along the positions and roads. These troops are commanded by Qin Xiong, the famous general of Qi State, and His Royal Highness, the eldest prince of Qin Xiong on the left!
Thanks to the help of the 2nd Company, the 1st Armored Battalion transported away dozens of corpses with different military uniform styles that could be found.
There are even some guards here, because their costumes are also different. It is the first time for Liu Guozhu and others to see the guards of Qi State, so of course they cannot tell them apart.
At this moment, the Qi State's 3rd Army, which had been attacking at all costs on the outer defense line of Luo Town, finally could not hold on any longer.
After losing the fire support of heavy artillery, the Qi officers and soldiers fought hard for more than an hour under the firepower of the Tang army. In the end, they had to retreat due to heavy casualties and returned to their starting position.
"Those bastards in the rear who are afraid of death! If they fire a few more shots, the outer positions will be ours!" Commander Qi clenched his fist and smashed it on the wall of a temporary observation trench, causing wisps of soil to fall off. fall.
"There must be something wrong behind the scenes, otherwise... it shouldn't be..." Beside the officer, his adjutant explained.
Logically speaking, even if the artillery position was afraid of death and stopped the artillery bombardment due to fear of the Tang Army's plane bombing, the military headquarters next to the artillery position would send people to urge the artillery to continue firing.
Even if they retreat 10,000 steps and the enemy's attack really makes it difficult for the artillery to continue, then the headquarters should issue an order for them to stop the attack and withdraw to avoid more unnecessary casualties.
But neither of those things happened, which seemed very strange. Neither the commander in charge of Qi's elite 3rd Army nor General Tian Heng were idiots and could not make such a low-level mistake.
Obviously, the Qi division commander who was responsible for commanding the offensive operations also figured out the reason.
He frowned and murmured: "Something's wrong! Why haven't the messengers sent to contact us come back yet? Send more people! Find out..."
Before he could finish his words, the messenger on the other side hurried back and stood at attention in front of him and saluted: "Sir!"
"Speak!" the teacher quickly ordered.
"Our army headquarters was attacked, and the rearguard was in chaos. I could not find General Tian Heng, nor the Army Commander..." the messenger reported.
"What?" The division commander who was commanding the frontline battle was shocked when he heard the report, and his eyes widened.
The officer on the side quickly asked: "Were we attacked by airstrikes? Were they bombed by enemy planes?"
"Listen, I heard from the soldiers who collapsed that there were Tang Army tanks... The scene was very chaotic, and he said he didn't see it... But I asked several people, and they all said there were Tang Army tanks." The messenger continued to answer. road.
"Not good!" The division commander finally came to his senses and immediately cried out. After shouting, he immediately ordered: "Retreat! Take the organic troops and take back the headquarters first!"
The officer did not dare to delay, and immediately sent out several messengers, ordering the troops who had not participated in the battle during the initial attack to assemble and retreat in the direction of the military headquarters.
At the same time, Commander Qi, who returned to his regiment headquarters with bad news, became even more confused. He didn't find Tian Heng, nor did he get his new mission as expected.
He didn't know whether he should continue to march towards Luozhen, then launch an attack when he encountered the Tang army, and continue to attack Luozhen.
I don't know where to camp and where to put the troops - the Qi army here is gathering more and more, and it is obvious that a large amount of open space is needed to camp.
If he hesitated a little longer, the Qi army that arrived later would have taken up almost all the available space.
Thinking of this, he finally decided to get the troops off the road immediately, set up tents in a place that looked good, and wait for the exact order to arrive before considering subsequent actions.
Just when he arranged for his troops to rest on the spot and unloaded the baggage from the carriage, he finally received the definite news: Someone saw with his own eyes that General Tian Heng and His Highness the Third Prince died in battle!
As a result, the morale of the entire Qi army was shaken, and everyone looked at a loss. At this moment, the commanders of Qi State all had a desperate thought in their hearts: "It's over! The matter is serious!"
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One more chapter to be updated and will continue tomorrow
