strictlysupreme Chapter 235 Wu Zhichang is ready to run away
Chapter 235 Wu Zhichang is ready to run away
"In just half a month, as of today, there have been only 17 days since the start of the war, and strategic locations such as Xunyang, Hongcheng, Hangzhou, and Shanghu have been lost one after another.
Sinners, you are all sinners of the Party and the country!"
At the military meeting, the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Wu Zhichang, waved the scepter in his hand and pointed at the noses of a group of generals and cursed them.
At this time, no one dared to make a sound and remained silent.
"What? When we need you, none of you speak?
How can we break the deadlock next?"
Wu Zhichang looked around, but still no one spoke, which made him even more angry.
"Your Excellency, President!"
Lieutenant General Lewis, John's military advisor, stepped forward from the seat of honor, and everyone present turned their attention to him.
"From the map, you are already in the strategic encirclement of the Restoration Army.
In the west, towards the Changhe River, the main force of the Fuxing Army was advancing eastward along the Changhe River and launching an attack on Jinling.
Now one of their troops has arrived in Luyang, Anqing Province.
As the capital city of Anqing Province, once Luyang falls, the rear of hundreds of thousands of defenders in the direction of Zhuolu will be threatened.
You are all very clear about the current situation of Madang Fortress.
If Luyang and Madang fall, Nanjing will face direct attack from the Fuxing Army.
The fall of Hongcheng further separated Jinling and Tanzhou.
In addition, with the fall of Shanghai, Nanjing has actually become an isolated area. It is difficult to leave and even more difficult to come in.
If we continue to hold on to Jinling, it will be the end of the Southern Alliance."
These words made Wu Zhichang silent.
As long as you are not illiterate, you can understand the current situation in Jinling by looking at the map.
Attacked from both the east and west, the north is the territory of the Fuxing Army, and the south is the vast Huangshan Mountain Range.
Jinling has become a turtle in a jar.
Just as Lewis said, if we continue to hold on, it will be no different from waiting to die.
But how could Wu Zhichang be willing to give up Nanjing?
Jinling has always been the capital of the SAARC government.
If he ran away, the morale of the millions of troops in Zhuolu, Madang, Jiangyin, Zhenjiang and Jinling areas would inevitably collapse.
The entire SAARC base is completely destroyed.
So in Wu Zhichang's view, this seemed to have become a dead end.
But since Lewis said so, there must be a way to break the deadlock.
Thinking of this, Wu Zhichang's eyes gradually brightened, and he looked at Lewis with a glimmer of hope.
"General Counsel Lewis, do you have any way to break this deadlock?"
He still doesn't want to admit that this is a dead end.
Lieutenant General Ross Lewis shook his head and said, "I only have one solution that is not a solution, and this solution has been agreed upon domestically.
He abandoned Nanjing and ordered the garrison in Tanzhou to withdraw to Lingnan and Lingxi provinces.
Our troops will arrive in Lingnan one after another, plus hundreds of thousands of people from Tanzhou.
Lingxi Province is connected to Gaul's Indochina colony, and also has our Jianggang colony. A large amount of weapons and equipment can be continuously delivered to you.
You can reorganize an army of two million people in the Liangling area.
With our support and the mountainous terrain of Liangling, I believe you will be able to hold on."
Lieutenant General Lewis studied the tactics of the Restoration Army in depth.
He believed that the Southern Alliance was defeated because its territory was too large and its troops were too concentrated on the Changhe defense line.
Therefore, the Fuxing Army seized the opportunity and used its air superiority to transport troops to the weak points in the defense zone.
This is true in Hongcheng and also in Hangzhou.
The fall of Hongcheng resulted in the loss of the direction of Xunyang, and the fall of Hangzhou resulted in the loss of Shanghu.
It would be different if we hid in the area between the two ridges.
Not only is the territory small, but it is mostly mountainous. The terrain advantage greatly limits the armored advantage of the Renaissance Army.
In addition, with their support, we can get a steady supply of reinforcements.
This was the best solution he could think of.
Lieutenant General Lewis's words shocked all the generals.
Abandoning Jinling and retreating a million-strong army to the Liangling Mountains? Wasn't this idea a bit too bold? At least they didn't dare to think about it.
"Isn't there a better way?"
Wu Zhichang's face was as gloomy as water, and he looked at Lieutenant General Lewis with some anger and asked.
If Lewis did not represent the four great powers, he would definitely drag out and execute such people who shook the morale of the army.
Lieutenant General Lewis shook his head decisively and said, "Mr. President, there's an old saying in your ancient country. You should understand better than me the principle of 'if you have green mountains, you will never have to worry about having no firewood to burn,' right?"
Upon hearing this, Wu Zhichang took a deep breath, slowly sat down with his scepter in hand, and fell into deep thought.
At this moment, there was also a fierce struggle in his mind.
After a long pause, he slowly spoke, "I agree with your suggestion, but Jinling must not be handed over to the Renaissance Army. I want to fight a decisive battle with the Renaissance Army here to deplete some of their manpower."
He had already made a great decision to give up Nanjing, but it was absolutely impossible to give up a million-strong army for no reason.
Even though they still might not be a match for the Renaissance Army, they had to consume some of the Renaissance Army anyway and could not let this million-strong army fall into the hands of the Renaissance Army.
Four hours later, orders were sent out from Jinling to all directions.
In the direction of Zhuolu, Zhang Kui, commander of the Fourth Corps responsible for defending the area, received the order to retreat to Fengyang, Shouchun and Luyang to organize a defense line.
These three places form a triangle, and Shouchun is the key node connecting Luyang and Fengyang.
The direction of this triangle can just block the Fuxing Army's army coming from Changhe and Jinpu Line.
This is their organization's first line of defense.
The second line of defense is the long river.
More than 300,000 troops will be transferred to Changhe to rely on the terrain to block the enemy step by step and delay the offensive of the Renaissance Army, regardless of casualties and at all costs.
The third line of defense is centered around the two fortresses of Jiangyin and Zhenjiang and Taihu Lake, which can directly block the Fuxing Army heading towards Shanghai.
These three lines of defense are all centered in Jinling, firmly blocking the Fuxing Army outside.
These three lines of defense were also what Wu Zhichang planned to use to fight a war of attrition with the Fuxing Army.
In order to prevent the paratroopers and helicopters of the Fuxing Army from airborne, they also deployed a corps of more than 100,000 troops in the surrounding areas of Jinling to protect the safety of Jinling.
Wherever the Renaissance Army airdrops, this corps will rush there at the fastest speed.
The defenders in the direction of Tanzhou also received orders to retreat along the Guangdong-Hankou Railway to Lingling, Binzhou, and Shaozhou, connecting the three places and relying on the mountainous terrain to block the offensive of the Fuxing Army.
Among them, Lingling is the northern gate of Lingxi Province. Going south along the Hunan-Guangxi Railway from Lingling is Jingjiang, the capital of Lingxi Province.
The role of Binzhou is the same as that of Shouchun, which is to connect Lingling and Shaozhou instead of fighting each other separately.
Shaozhou is the northern gate of Lingnan Province. A map of the Fuxing Army/Southern Alliance's defenses shows the Southern Alliance has made very careful arrangements, with Lieutenant General Lewis contributing significantly.
However, Lieutenant General Lewis was well aware that most of this series of deployments were not made by him, but by a senior combat staff officer under him.
The name of this senior operations staff officer was Bernard Law Montgomery, with the rank of colonel.
But as his immediate superior, the credit should of course belong to him, and Montgomery only needs to reap the benefits.
After the order was issued, the Southern Alliance Army around Zhuolu, Tanzhou and Jinling began large-scale mobilization.
The defenders in the direction of Zhuolu took advantage of the night to begin a large-scale evacuation, directly abandoning Zhuolu and Tanzhou.
This change also attracted the attention of Jiang Hua and Ling Liang.
"Why would they voluntarily give up Tanzhou and Zhuolu?"
Faced with this change, Jiang Hua was very confused.
Based on his understanding of the Southern Alliance, how could Jinling's northern gate simply give up such a strategic location as Zhuolu?
As for giving up Tanzhou, it is understandable.
After all, Tanzhou was facing a pincer attack from the Third and Seventh Armies with a force of more than 100,000 men, and was in danger of being destroyed.
“Although Zhuolu is the northern gate of Jinling, the defense line here is already precarious. It will cost a lot to hold on to it.
Their purpose can basically be seen from their series of deployments.
That is to shrink the defense line and prepare for a decisive battle."
After in-depth research, Ling Liang directly pointed out the true intention of the Southern Alliance.
"A decisive battle with them? It seems they also know that they are at the end of their rope."
After hearing Ling Liang's explanation, Jiang Hua suddenly realized.
“It should be more than that.”
Jiang Hua looked at Ling Liang with a puzzled look.
“If you follow their train of thought about the decisive battle, it’s not hard to see that Wu Zhichang wants to give up Nanjing.
Moreover, he took the initiative to give up Tanzhou at this time, definitely wanting to preserve the hundreds of thousands of troops here.
The purpose of preserving military strength is to retreat to the two ridges.
The Liangling area has many mountainous terrains, which is advantageous for the defenders.
Among them, Lingxi is backed by the Indochina Peninsula, and Lingnan has Yangcheng Bay and Jianggang, making it easy to obtain support from Western powers.
Jiang Hua listened to Ling Liang's explanation and looked at the map at the same time, his eyes becoming brighter and brighter.
Clear lines of thought formed in my mind.
The series of actions taken by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation can be fully explained.
As expected of the strategic master of the Red Alert base, he is awesome!
This strategic analysis ability is simply unbeatable.
"If they want to fight a decisive battle, their goal is to use the trapped million-strong army to fight a war of attrition with us.
We cannot get caught up in a war of attrition; we must win quickly and decisively.
Do you have any solution?"
Ling Liang nodded and said, "No matter how they arrange it, Jinling is the core of the entire battle, so we only need to focus on the core.
As long as Jinling is threatened, they will inevitably be thrown into disarray, and even the most sophisticated defenses will crumble."