"How's it going?" Zhao Chen hadn't looked so pretty in a long time: he turned around a little in front of the mirror, and the White Blade Medal on his chest looked so comfortable.
The adjutant wanted to remind his chief officer that the White Blade Medal was divided into three levels. Later, some higher "accessories" were added. Zhao Chen's medal was still far from the highest level.
But he didn't dare to say that. Instead, he said: "The general is in good condition and looks very energetic."
Today, Zhao Chen is going to meet with the commanders of the six divisions who have returned from the front line, as well as all the commanders of the group army. This is an important meeting of the group army. What is discussed is how to continue the offensive after the Nanshan Port is truly relieved.
The instructions of the General Staff were: to hold on to the Qin army, not to easily allow the Qin army to withdraw from the Chu area, to consume the Qin army and create opportunities for subsequent operations.
Zhao Chen understood the meaning of this policy. To put it simply, it was to contain the Qin army and prevent Zhang Xuan from running away!
The actual operation is much more complicated, because whether Qin Jun can run, whether he wants to run, and whether he can run in the end is not decided by Tang Jun.
The highest strategy of the Tang army was to contain Zhang Xuan's army in Chu as much as possible, prevent them from returning to Shu, and strengthen the defense of Shu.
Of course, there are many side tasks: it is best to eliminate a large number of Qin troops, let the Qin army continue to bleed, and constantly reinforce Chu.
The theme of Zhao Chen's meeting is also very clear: he needs to let his troops attack, but he cannot attack too hard and cannot drive away Zhang Xuan's troops.
…
Zhang Xuan has actually moved his headquarters out of Yecheng. On the one hand, he is afraid that the special forces of the Tang Army will actually enter the city and capture him. On the other hand, Yecheng is indeed not safe.
Today's senior generals of the Qin State, especially those fighting in the Chu region, are actually very conflicted: Set up a headquarters in the city, for fear of being attacked by missiles, bombing, or being directly killed by the Tang Army's special forces.
But if the headquarters is placed in the wild, they are even more afraid: small units of the Tang Army are everywhere. If they bump into their headquarters one day, wouldn't they be killed by the other party in vain?
The level of protection inside the city is higher, but it is easy to be attacked intensively; outside the city, it is more hidden and easy to disperse, but there is also the worry of being harassed and attacked.
In short, Qin's commanders no longer want to continue on such a day, they hope to retreat, or at least resolve the current crisis.
Zhang Xuanke does not have the ability to solve the current crisis. If he had this ability, he would have used it long ago: in fact, it is difficult for him to even command all the troops now. The Tang Army's electromagnetic interference operations are simply crushing the Qin Army's communication equipment. .
If it weren't for some phone lines, Zhang Xuan wouldn't even be able to find his troops. Even with a phone, it was still very difficult for him to mobilize all the troops.
"Another deduction...deduction...Chen Li will always target me." In the Qin Army headquarters, compared to Zhao Chen's comfort, Zhang Xuan's state seemed a little irritable. He suddenly dropped the report in his hand on the ground and cursed angrily.
He hoped to get reinforcements of 100,000 troops, but now they only have 30,000. In such a state of refueling, he had no way to organize a decent counterattack.
The Tang army's attack was so smooth that Zhang Xuan desperately needed a counterattack to stabilize his position, but he couldn't do it...
His troops have been shrinking and retreating. Although the speed is very slow, the losses are indeed huge, and the situation looks getting worse.
Judging from the map, there are actually only a few "lines" left in his actual control area. Except for a few railway lines and highway lines, the Qin army no longer dared to enter mountainous areas easily.
As long as the Tang army attacks, it is very easy to cut off the communication lines. The Qin army may be divided and surrounded at any time. Zhang Xuan has been working hard to avoid such a situation.
But his troops are always insufficient. Even though he has hundreds of thousands of troops, there are too many places to defend. These troops cannot be assembled, and even if they are assembled, they cannot mount a decent counterattack.
Most of the time, the Qin army could only incompetently bombard those uninhabited hills and forests to vent their pent-up emotions.
"Your Majesty has tried his best. I heard that some ministers did not agree to continue mobilizing the troops..." the adjutant explained in a low voice.
"What the hell do they know? They can only confuse His Majesty! It's because of idiots like them that the front line has become so corrupt!" Zhang Xuan interrupted the adjutant and gave his own evaluation of those civil servants.
"The Tang Army had established a defense line around Nanshan Port the day before yesterday. Our troops withdrew from the area without any large-scale exchange of fire." The adjutant saw Zhang Xuan's ugly face and immediately found a more favorable topic: "We The retreat was successful, ammunition and supplies were preserved, and there was almost no loss."
This is good news. Because they were well prepared, the Qin army was not determined at all to besiege Nanshan Port. In fact, the encirclement had long existed in name only.
If the standard was only the circulation of personnel or a small amount of materials, then the Nanshan Port encirclement would have been broken through long ago. However, now, the Qin army outside Nanshan Port has retreated, and the battle of Nanshan Port is completely over.
"This is good news..." Zhang Xuan's expression actually improved a bit. His troops were already doing well. After all, it all depends on the support of his peers.
The northern line was defeated from Xiajuan to Wangdu in one breath, the middle line of Ruishu was about to be lost, and the southern line where Zhang Xuan was still fighting in Chu was already a very good result.
But recently, he has also felt an inexplicable pressure: Ruishu will be lost in the next two days. If Ruishu is lost, there will be a Tang army behind him.
Once the Tang army entering Shu moves south, Shu will not be safe. Shu is Zhang Xuan's rear area. If Shu is lost, Zhang Xuan's troops will actually be surrounded.
Therefore, Zhang Xuan has recently considered withdrawing to Shu. Although the loss of Chu Di was a very passive thing in public opinion, Zhang Xuan no longer cared about it.
He and the security forces behind him who maintained the supply line totaled nearly one million. If the retreat went smoothly, these forces could also be used to defend Shu.
But if he was surrounded in the mountains and forests of Chudi, it would be equivalent to saying that hundreds of thousands of troops were wasted. This is not a concept at all.
So Zhang Xuan sent a message to Emperor Qin Yingduo, stating his interests and hopes that Yingduo would approve his retreat. But this news, which was related to the life and death of Zhang Xuan's nearly one million troops, fell into disgrace.
——
Updated chapter.
(End of chapter)
