Valley Emperor

Xuanping twenty-eighth August, Mid-Autumn Festival.

On this day, all parts of the Tang Dynasty were decorated with lanterns to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.

On the front line of the Western Regions, the soldiers of the 14th Army and more than 30,000 railway workers are still fighting on the front line of the railway.

Because of the urgency of time, it is necessary to build the railway to Hami before the temperature in winter. It is better to leave time for siege, so as to take Hami City before winter comes, and then spend the winter directly in Hami City.

Therefore, since the start of the Western Expedition, the soldiers and railway workers on the front line have never been idle, especially the railway workers who have undertaken the main construction tasks. They are actually more fatigued than the soldiers and soldiers of the 14th Army.

The soldiers of the 14th Army actually only helped to build roads, but their main task was to protect the railway line, so with the construction of the railway, the 14th Army began to send troops to stay behind.

This kind of staying behind is not fixed, but will be rotated with the troops who build roads in front. Basically, a unit will build roads on the front line for half a month, and then arrange to be stationed in the rear to protect the railway.

This can prevent the soldiers from getting too tired. On the other hand, it can prevent the soldiers from building roads for a long time and being unable to train, resulting in the regression of tactical skills. Arranging garrison tasks at intervals can also restore the combat effectiveness of the troops.

This kind of rotation strategy can keep the troops fighting, and can also make the soldiers exhausted.

But the railway workers of 20,000 to 30,000 people can't do this. They are here to build the road, and the time is tight. Often, they will start working as soon as it is dawn, and will not stop until night falls.

Although it is said that the workers employed by the Railway Corporation are also strong and hard-working peasant men, and they try their best to maintain the same treatment as military soldiers in terms of food, but they can't stand the continuous work for several months. .

Therefore, starting last month, the Railway Corporation also adopted a rotation policy, recruiting workers from the rear and sending them to the construction site, and then transferring the front-line workers back. Case.

The task is urgent, even if today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the construction site on the front line is still busy, at most it is just meals.

But for some of the 14th Army troops stationed in the rear, this Mid-Autumn Festival is still somewhat interesting.

Bi Zhian took the troops for another rotation. After working on the front-line construction site for half a month, he was transferred back to the rear to rest and garrison in the early days of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Naturally, Bi Zhi'an was very busy in the days when he just returned from the defense. He had to deploy the defense of the railway station and arrange a large number of soldiers to stand guard along the line.

His unit was in charge of the No. 18 railway station, which, as the name suggested, was the eighteenth railway station on the extension line of the Northwest Railway.

However, the railway station on the extension line of the Northwest Railway is not the same as the railway station in the mainland. The railway station here is a railway station if it sounds good, but it is more like a fortress on the railway line.

Basically, they are built on dangerous terrain, or near bridges, but the surrounding areas are basically deserted.

Railway stations are generally built with train parking lots, platforms, various warehouses, and barracks.

The size of the railway station depends on the importance of the railway station. For example, the No. 26 railway station is only 50 kilometers away from the front line. It is very huge, because this place is the strategic support point determined by the military, and it is also the material transfer station closest to the front line.

A large amount of supplies, ammunition, food and grass are hoarded there, and the troops are quite strong. There is an infantry regiment, an artillery battalion, a cavalry regiment, a baggage battalion, and the headquarters of the 14th Army. The troop strength reached nearly 10,000 people.

This is only a standing force, and there are still a large number of troops in the surrounding small and medium-sized railway stations that can be supported at any time.

The No. 18 railway station where Bi Zhian was located was naturally not a large-scale railway station, but a medium-sized railway station, and he thought it was far from the front line, so there were not many troops stationed there, only his battalion.

Even Bi Zhi'an's infantry battalion is not only responsible for this railway station. The nearby No. 19 railway station is also his defense area. However, the No. 19 railway station is a small railway station with a very small scale. Its train The main function of the parking lot is for railway dispatching.

In addition to being responsible for the defense of the railway station, his troops also need to be responsible for a total of 30 kilometers of railway lines before and after, deploying a post at a distance of several hundred meters. Each post is assigned six people to stand guard, and it is divided into three shifts a day. The daily task is to Keep an eye on the railway line to prevent Tatar spies from sneaking in and sabotaging the railway.

This 30-kilometer railway line requires more than 300 soldiers on guard along the line alone. There is also a team stationed at the No. 19 railway station, so the number of soldiers left in the No. 18 railway station is only more than 400. Just people.

However, the No. 18 railway station is a medium-sized railway station. According to convention, there is an armed train stationed there. That armed train has more than 200 troops and dozens of artillery pieces.

On the northwest extension line, every medium and above railway station will be stationed with armed trains, and an entire regiment of armed trains will be deployed along the entire extension line.

In addition, there are cavalry troops stationed, and there are reconnaissance and roaming guards on the periphery.

In order to protect this railway line, the Fourteenth Army has deployed a lot of troops.

There is no way to arrange so many troops to garrison. The Tatars have not stopped in the past few months, and the cavalry of the Tatars has been operating along the railway for a long time.

In the past few months, there have been countless small-scale battles with dozens of people on both sides, and even medium-to-large-scale battles between the cavalry on both sides have been fought three or four times.

It is difficult for both sides to say that they have taken advantage of this kind of small and medium-scale battle, because this kind of small and medium-scale battle is full of too many accidents, and it relies more on the personal qualities of soldiers and grass-roots officers.

So the fight is actually half a catty on both sides.

Cumulatively, there were at least one or two thousand casualties on the Tatar side, while the Tang army actually suffered thousands of casualties.

If such a loss is placed in overseas operations, it is a huge loss, but for the war between the Western Regions and the Tatars, it is not worth mentioning.

Thousands of people were killed and wounded on the front line, and they were replenished immediately later. It also kept the 14th Army and other units always full. I heard that there are many soldiers from the garrison waiting to be replenished.

More importantly, this harassment operation did not have any impact on the strategic plan of the Great Tang West Expedition.

The speed of railway construction has not slowed down in the slightest. The person in charge sent by the railway company is optimistic that they will be able to repair the railway under Hami City in one and a half months at most, that is, by October.

In other words, it only took them a few months to build hundreds of kilometers of railway!

Such a speed is inseparable from Datang's overwhelming support.

The Railway Corporation almost doesn't consider any cost, and a large amount of machinery and equipment are shipped up. When the machinery and equipment are broken, they will use new equipment directly, even if they are repaired, they will be thrown away first. On the other hand, wait for the follow-up to slowly arrange people to repair it.

When people are tired, the reserve personnel with good physical fitness are directly adjusted from the rear to the front line to repair the road.

In short, the machinery and equipment are replaced when they are broken, and the people are rotated when they are tired.

Even the railway head office has specially developed several large-scale equipment for rapid railway laying.

And the military side is also full of support, such as direct support for food.

Then he personally mobilized the troops to help build the road. Although the troops did not understand these technical things, the soldiers were all young and strong men, and there was nothing to say about doing earthwork.

Moreover, he also undertook blasting operations. When encountering a hillside in power, the military was too lazy to dig it, and directly buried a large amount of explosives and exploded it directly.

When encountering some canyons, rivers and other places that need to be bridged, the military's boat bridge team will go directly to the field, and they will be able to erect a steel bridge for you within a few days.

Simple, rude, and fast, these are the characteristics of the military and the railway company when they built the extension line of the Northwest Railway.

It is precisely because of this that it can be repaired so quickly.

As time passed, the Mid-Autumn Festival passed, and Chongyang passed.

When Bi Zhian led the troops and finished the construction task again, he originally thought that he would be transferred to the rear as before, but this time he received the transfer order.

Continue west, go there?

Go to Hami!

After getting the news, Bi Zhian was quite excited. After working as a subcontractor for so many days, he finally had the opportunity to fight on the front line.

In mid-September, the front end of the extension line of the Northwest Railway was only 60 kilometers away from Hami City. This distance could no longer stop Chen Bing of the Datang Army from outside Hami City!

Although this distance is still relatively far, UU read www.uukanshu.com, but the Western Expedition troops are also fully prepared, and a large number of heavy four-wheeled carriages have been prepared early. These four-wheeled carriages are transported to the front line by train, and then Take on the task of supplying and transporting the last section of the road.

One day after Bi Zhian marched with his troops, he saw Ying Yikang again.

Ying Yikang was also very happy at this time, and even had a very good attitude towards Bi Zhian and other subordinates. You must know that in the past few months, Ying Yikang's mentality has not been very good, and he will curse at every turn.

Ying Yikang was in a good mood, of course, because he fought hard at the military affairs meeting the day before yesterday, and even did not hesitate to issue a military order. In the end, he persuaded Lu Yuzhi to give his 30th Infantry Division a chance.

An opportunity to go to Hami City and participate in the siege battle.

And his 30th Infantry Division will be one of the four infantry divisions participating in the siege, and even the only infantry division under the 14th Army that participated in the battle.

Even the 14th Division didn't get this chance!

Of course, in fact, it cannot be said that the 14th Division did not have this opportunity, but they have a more important task, which is to protect the logistics line.

Protecting the logistics line in the rear seems impossible to fight, but it is actually more important than fighting fortifications, because the cavalry of the Tartars are not vegetarian and are driven to a dead end. If they organize a large number of cavalry to attack the railway construction site and even the logistics supply Standing is not impossible.

At that time, it is inevitable that the main force will be required to resist.

The Fourteenth Division undertakes such a task!

But Ying Yikang didn't care about this, he only knew that he was finally able to go to the front line.

After suffering for several months, he finally got the chance, so as soon as he received the order, he started to assemble the troops, and then headed towards Hami City!