Munitions Empire

No matter how beautiful a dream is, eventually, one must wake up. Ding Hong was awakened by an officer who had rushed over in a hurry, and he was quite reluctant to be roused from sleep. However, as soon as he heard the voice of the other party, he lost any trace of sleepiness.

"My lord! My lord! Disaster! It's a disaster! The Tang Army has crushed our reinforcing troops; we're finished!" The officer who had come to deliver the message was nearly in tears, and it took him tremendous effort to convey his words completely.

In fact, it's not surprising that he was so frightened. Anyone who heard the news that an army of two hundred thousand had been defeated would lose their composure.

On one hand, that was two hundred thousand reinforcements—having one's own reinforcements crushed by the enemy meant they were now utterly isolated. Who could remain calm at such a time? It was natural to feel utterly despairing, right?

On the other hand, that was an army of two hundred thousand! If the outer enemy forces could defeat an army that large, then surely defeating their fifty thousand would be a piece of cake for them. What were they to do?

Before going to sleep, Ding Hong had sent a telegram claiming that he had thwarted the Tang Army's attack at South Wind Pass, but anyone who had experienced that battle knew what really happened.

"What did you say! Say it again!" Ding Hong had just gotten out of bed and was still a bit dazed. He thought he had heard wrongly, so he asked the officer to report again.

Truth be told, listening to such a report again during such times was torture, but the officer faithfully fulfilled Ding Hong's wish, "My lord, it's bad news! The Tang Army has crushed our reinforcements; we now... can only rely on ourselves!"

Hearing his subordinate speak thus, Ding Hong shivered and then he suddenly stood up, moving quickly toward his command post, "Impossible! This cannot be! This cannot be!"

Almost at the same time, having received the news, Qian Jinhang also rose from his bed. He got up woodenly, then dressed and walked into the already crowded command post.

It wasn't a very large room, with a map hung on the wall roughly marking the areas controlled by both military forces.

Next to it was a large table covered with a larger-scale local map, showing the situation in the entire southern region.

The officers who had learned of the news were standing there anxiously, waiting for their general to resolve the difficult issues they now faced.

Qian Jinhang walked among them and then spoke with the response he had contemplated all along, "Everyone, don't panic. I have heard the news, but the situation is not as bad as you all think."

As a veteran general, he certainly knew what kind of end awaited them if the situation collapsed.

So, he had to stabilize these commanders. Only if they believed that there was still hope, could he keep the situation stable and have them continue holding out at Xicong.

"Listen to me!" Seeing that some were still very anxious, Qian Jinhang continued to speak reassuringly, "I'm serious, the situation is not as bad as everyone imagines, so listen to me explain."

Once everyone gradually calmed down, Qian Jinhang continued, "Although the Tang Army has defeated our reinforcing troops, I actually believe that they are unlikely to have taken South Wind Pass."

"If they had taken South Wind Pass, then there would be no need to advance further to Li Family Village. They could simply wait at ease at South Wind Pass for our troops to run into trouble," Qian Jinhang explained clearly, which restored some sanity to the anxious crowd.

"Furthermore! The defeated army of two hundred thousand didn't actually suffer significant losses." Qian Jinhang then spoke about the defeated troops, "Once we regroup, at most we will have lost tens of thousands of soldiers, the rest have just been scattered in the chaos, unable to regroup, that's all."

These were his conjectures, and indeed he guessed a part of the situation correctly. The Tang Army had not taken South Wind Pass, and this was something he had got right.

"After taking Tengyun, Ding Hong will definitely regroup his troops, mainly deploying defenses at South Wind Pass. It's the inevitable choice because we cannot afford to lose South Wind Pass! However, such an arrangement will deplete the surrounding troops, allowing the Tang Army free passage, which is why they bypassed South Wind Pass and appeared at Li Family Village," Qian Jinhang felt more convinced by his own reasoning, which also clarified his thoughts.

"So we still have a chance!" He affirmed his tone and said to his subordinates, "Even though it seems like the Tang Army has surrounded us, we still have a chance!"

Actually, in Qian Jinhang's hands, besides the infantry attacking Xicong, there was a significant portion of the Armored Corps ready to rush toward the Si Shui region after the Xicong campaign concluded.

In other words, the Dahua military forces in the Xicong region actually had quite a few armored units. Now, if Qian Jinhang was willing to commit these armored units and turn their spearheads towards Li Family Village, he still had a great chance to break through.

At least, that's what he believed.

But what he didn't know was that the Tang Army had deployed an armored division to Li Family Village, specifically the elite 2nd Armored Division.

With this force holding the fort, it was unlikely that Dahua's military could break through the Tang Army's defenses. The main reason for Qian Jinhang's misjudgment was his lack of understanding of the true strength of the Tang forces.

Of course, even if Qian Jinhang knew that the Tang Army had indeed encircled his troops, he had to keep speaking tough.

Otherwise, what could he say? Could he tell his subordinates, "Brothers, we're done for, the Tang Army has surrounded us, we can only wait for death, go back and write your last letters?"

Don't joke around, even at the last moment, he had to keep deceiving, not only all his subordinates but also himself.

In the eyes of this comparatively experienced senior commander, Dahua's military situation was actually very dire, and any decision was a risk.

Some might think that breaking out was the most important thing at this time? But that's not really the case! Blindly mobilizing troops for a breakout is also very risky.

If it were so easy to mobilize troops, like playing a game with the click of a mouse, then anyone could be a commander, right?

Firstly, the troops supporting the encirclement from all sides cannot be easily withdrawn. These troops need to hold their ground and ensure the basic strategic depth of their side.

At the same time, the most capable troops must be quickly drawn out and moved to the direction where the breakout is needed—this requires speed, yet it must be as secret as possible.

Everyone understands the principle—if one carelessly reveals the intention to breakout and escape, the actual combat strength of the troops supporting the encirclement will be known only to heaven.

After quickly and secretly withdrawing the main force under the premise of maintaining secrecy, what follows is to have these forces choose the weakest direction of the enemy's encirclement to start the breakout. Whether they can win is another matter.

In Qian Jinhang's situation, the actual battlefield was like this: Dahua's forces currently occupied half of Xicong, with many troops stationed in the city. In this weather, this was the best choice.

To breakout, one had to expose a troop in the wilderness and engage in field battles with the Tang Army from Li Family Village. This was actually very disadvantageous because Dahua's combat effectiveness was noticeably weaker in field battles.

Whether they could defeat the enemy was completely unknown, and Qian Jinhang himself was not sure, so he had to consider the outcome of a failed breakout.

On the other hand, he now had no way to breakout: the roads leading to South Wind Pass were filled with fleeing soldiers, and it would take at least two days to gather them. How could his troops move along the crowded roads for combat without cleaning up these defeated troops?

Moreover, he had just found out about the troops' defeat, and he still did not know what stance General Feng Kezhi or the Emperor had taken.

As a commander of hundreds of thousands of troops, all he could actually do was wait: only after the people above made decisions could he carry out the next command and deployment.

The simplest question: had the higher-ups told you to run? If General Feng Kezhi ordered him to continue aggressively attacking Xicong, but he abandoned Xicong and broke out early, then even if he led his troops to breakthrough successfully, he would still be considered a deserter, a criminal deserving of death.

Another issue, if he abandoned Xicong and led his troops to breakout, the situation with hundreds of thousands of troops moving to the wilderness would be worse than staying put.

This was an army of hundreds of thousands, consuming astronomical amounts of food daily. If he abandoned the city and camped in the wilderness, the mobility and self-sustenance would decline severely. By the time they reached Li Family Village, the situation would likely have changed drastically.

So he could only wait here honestly, much like Marshal Paulus who waited in place for a month. His situation in Xicong compared to Paulus' was strikingly similar.

They both had to consider the weather, while also facing pressure from domestic higher-ups. In short, they could not make flexible decisions about their own fate, but had to honestly wait for others to decide their life or death.

However, after hearing their superior's explanation, many of Dahua's senior commanders calmed down.

In their view, it was indeed true: they still had hundreds of thousands of troops, and there was no historical precedent for such a large number of forces being encircled.

Therefore, many of them, after realizing the situation, were very optimistic. They believed that it would be very easy for hundreds of thousands of troops to breakout no matter what.

But what they didn't know was that many details in Qian Jinhang's explanation were actually wrong. For instance, half of the defeated Dahua troops had become captives of the Tang Army. So, the forces returning to Xicong were not as numerous as they imagined.