When the eldest prince of Qi received the report from the Luo Zhen front line, he did not move even a step inside his headquarters.
He was not as anxious as the third prince, and he had more experience than the third prince - he knew that if he moved rashly, it would definitely cause communication confusion, so he simply stayed where he was.
However, he did not just stay where he was. He sent his confidant Qin Xiong to lead the troops to support the Luo Town battlefield as soon as possible.
In order to ensure that his troops could solve the problem after arriving, the eldest prince also spent a lot of money and directly put the 1st Army in front.
The eldest prince's idea was very straightforward. He felt that it was worthwhile to let Qi's most elite troops clear the way, so that it would be possible to penetrate the Tang army's defense line and recapture Luo Town.
When Qin Xiong set off with his troops, the eldest prince already knew the news of the fall of Luo Town. However, he still felt that with the presence of the 3rd Army and subsequent reinforcements from his 1st Army, Luo Town could still be recaptured.
His basis was that the Tang army came from afar and had an unstable foothold without a solid defense line to rely on. The Qi army also had a strength advantage and should be able to recapture Luozhen and repel the Tang army.
However, after seeing the Tang Army's aircraft, the eldest prince was not so blindly optimistic.
He felt that the Tang army could break through Qi's border defenses in just one day, but Luo Zhen might not be able to defend it.
Therefore, he had his own selfish motives for putting his trusted 1st Army at the front: what he wanted was to send his main force north to Nanye as soon as possible after retaking Luo Town to stabilize his position.
To put it bluntly, instead of saying that the main force of the eldest prince went north to retake Luo Town, it was better to say that it was determined to break out and escape!
What the eldest prince originally thought was that when his troops arrived at Luo Town, Lao San's Third Army would basically recapture Luo Town. He asked the main force of his confidants to quickly flee northward through Luozhen.
But reality slapped him hard in the face: his 1st Army had only left the station for one day, and the Third Prince's 3rd Army collapsed!
The top three main forces of Qi State, a large force with tens of thousands of people, only participated in the battle for one day and were defeated by the enemy!
The 3rd Army is attacking! The enemy is on defense! In this case, the 3rd Army was defeated by the enemy's defenders!
What is even more unbelievable is that the commander of the 3rd Army, Tian Heng, a senior general of Qi State, and his dear brother, all disappeared!
The eldest prince did not think it was a coincidence that these senior commanders disappeared at the same time. In his opinion, these people must have been finished!
The best case scenario is that they are all killed, the worst case scenario is that they are all captured! For the State of Qi, it was a great shame and humiliation for a prince to be captured!
But now he can no longer think about how to deal with the matter of his brother being captured. What he has to consider now is the way out for the 150,000 troops in his hands.
It is impossible to support such a large army by relying only on fragile roads and carriages with severely insufficient transportation capacity.
Therefore, if the eldest prince wants to keep his troops and bring these troops back to defend the royal city, he must consider the feasibility of recapturing Luo Town.
Although the 3rd Army collapsed, he still had the 1st Army and 100,000 men who dared to fight. Coupled with the defeated troops on the Western Front, he can almost assemble an army of more than 100,000 near Luo Town!
He didn't believe that a 100,000-strong army could not recapture a small town called Luo, so he had no intention of considering the option of taking a detour.
"Your Highness! Your Majesty's telegram." An officer walked into the headquarters, stood in front of the eldest prince, and handed over a telegram: "I order you to recapture Luo Town at all costs."
King Jiang Xian of Qi had already learned that Luo Town had been captured by the Tang army, but he still didn't know that his third son had disappeared.
The people below didn't dare to report it, and those who knew about it were also unwilling to say it - what if it really just disappeared and frightened His Majesty the King? Can you afford it?
The lag in communication and the chaos on the battlefield made summarizing and reporting on the battle situation very troublesome. There was some confusion on the Tang Army's side, but it could only be described as a joke on the Qi side.
If the state of Qi is compared to a person, this person's reflex arc is so long that the person is dead before he starts shouting for help. If Qi is compared to an online game, its latency is already so high that when you play in the semi-finals, the champion will receive the prize...
The eldest prince knew that his brother was missing, and the news was delivered through a messenger. When he got the news, it was already the next day.
In this way, the Qi army wasted another whole night in the life-and-death battle for Luo Town.
This night, the people of Qi were gathering their defeated troops, clearing the roads damaged by bombing, and taking the opportunity to let most of the troops who had been walking all day have a good rest and sleep.
Counting the night wasted by the 3rd Army, it means that the Tang Army basically fought for about 9 hours in the three days after occupying Luo Town.
On the fourth day, the Qi army was still not ready for battle. They continued to be harassed by Tang army's planes, and had to be wary of possible Tang army counterattacks.
No one wants to become the next commander of the 3rd Army, so the remaining commanders of the Qi Army on the Western Front are very cautious in arranging their headquarters.
On the fifth day, a total of 40,000 people from the Western Front of the Qi Army, including the remnants of the 3rd Army, crowded around Luo Town. They almost ate up all the dry food they brought.
What's even more tragic is that because the follow-up troops are still crowding in this direction, the follow-up food transport teams cannot squeeze in, and replenishing rations has become a new problem.
It took the Qi army a full half a year to mobilize troops to the border. Now, if they want to complete such a large-scale gathering operation in just seven or eight days, it will be a test for the command and dispatch of the entire army.
In fact, everything Qi Jun performed failed! They almost ruined themselves.
On the 6th day, before the Qi army's attack started, the hungry vanguard almost mutinied and almost beat to death the Qi officer who commanded them.
Until this time, the main force of the direct lineage that the eldest prince had high hopes for, Qi's most elite 1st Army, was still jammed on the road, still more than 40 kilometers away from Luo Town.
Tang Jun did not waste precious time. While the Qi troops were dilly-dallying on the spot, the Tang army was methodically reinforcing its defenses in the direction of Luozhen.
First of all, the armored troops of the Tang Army stationed in Luo Town re-reinforced the defense line. Not only did they build two peripheral defense lines, they also repaired the train station in Luo Town! The built roads and railways ensured the transportation of the Tang army.
Secondly, the infantry units that arrived later strengthened the garrison strength of Luo Town - on the fifth day of the Battle of Luo Town, the Tang Army here already had 3 infantry regiments with more than 6,000 people, and strengthened artillery provided fire support. !
Finally, after maintenance and replenishment, the tank unit of the 1st Armored Division basically restored its combat effectiveness, with more than 200 tanks standing ready. This was no longer a strength gap that the Qi army could make up for by relying on numbers.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Tang army has also assembled heavy troops in Luozhen, and has even surpassed the Qi army in terms of artillery.
Of course, Qi State does not know all this. That's why the eldest prince is still confident that his troops can retake Luo Town and open up transportation lines.
"Let the following troops continue to move forward! Go up along the railway and highway!" The eldest prince took the telegram and ordered.
Because the Tang army concentrated its air force to bomb the Qi army near Luo Town, the Tang air force faced by the eldest prince was very small and did not pose much of a threat.
This is also the biggest reason why he still has the confidence to gather troops to continue to reinforce Luo Zhen: many Qi troops on the western front collapsed when they heard the strange screams of the Stuka, and there was no need for Tang planes to drop bombs.
"In addition... Your Highness... there is still no news from the Western Front Command." The officer who came to deliver the telegram did not leave and continued to report.
He was the officer in charge of telegraphs, so he was also responsible for finding the commander on the Western Front and restoring contact. He has not contacted the third prince and Tian Heng until now, so he can only bite the bullet and speak.
"The Sword Comes"
"I... Got it! You send a telegram to General Qin Xiong in my name, ordering him to ensure his personal safety after arriving at the front line..." The eldest prince was afraid that his confidant would follow Tian Heng's footsteps. He also warned: "Let him try his best to find my brother, General Tian Heng and others..."
"Yes! I understand!" The officer stood at attention and saluted, then turned and left the command post. He simply didn't believe that at this time, any so-called miracle could happen to the third prince. In his opinion, the third prince was probably caught, or worse, beaten to death.
After the eldest prince watched his men leave, he looked up and down at the underground command bunker behind the central defense line.
Although the environment is not beautiful, it is safe and solid. It has a concrete-reinforced roof, electric lighting inside, and looks modern. Here you can at least take a shower every day, enjoy electric lighting, and at least don't have to sleep in a tent.
According to the plan, he will leave here soon. Once Qin Xiong sets up camp, the eldest prince should set out to catch up and move his headquarters to the place where Qin Xiong settled.
The temporary headquarters was unsafe and uncomfortable... Thinking again about his missing brother, the eldest prince suddenly became melancholy.
Whether his trip to Luo Town this time will be a blessing or a curse all depends on whether his 1st Army can achieve the results he expects.
At the same time, His Royal Highness the Second Prince, who had been stationed on the Eastern Front and had suffered no losses, received a telegram from the Royal City.
The content of the telegram was simple, ordering him to immediately mobilize his troops and retreat by train as quickly as possible. Qi's next move came earlier than expected.
