Age of Rebirth

Lieutenant General Chelsea, the commander of the British Army's Eastward Expedition in India, has been in a good mood these days. His attitude towards his subordinates is very kind, and he has restored the polite temperament of a British gentleman.

Adams' telegram was not ineffective at all. At the very least, it aroused the vigilance of Lieutenant General Chelsea. For him, it is no longer important for him to go east to Sido in the Hukang Valley to rescue the besieged Alexander's troops. Whether it was a trap or not, I reminded myself that the war situation in East India has changed. The Chinese are indeed advancing westward as Alexander said. The future battlefield is obviously not in Xiduo, but in Imphal.

The speed of troop assembly obviously satisfies the commander. The troops in southern India are gathered in Pokaro, Saifpur, and Zhenhati, and the troops in western India are gathered in Dhaka and Kulna. Gathering directly at Imphal saved a lot of time, and correspondingly reduced the logistical pressure on Imphal. The food, drink and camping of [-] to [-] soldiers is not a small amount.

Because Imphal is the location of the headquarters of the Eastward Army, there are more troops assembled. So far, there have been two numbers of troops, most of which have rushed here. The strength of Imphal has reached more than [-] People, but this is obviously not enough. To stop the Chinese from invading East India, this amount of troops cannot even constitute a decent line of defense.

Compared with the hundreds of kilometers of Imphal's border facing the India-Myanmar border, two dissatisfied divisions are far from enough. Therefore, Lieutenant General Chelsea issued an order to fight in Simpson, Saudia, Dingsuji As long as the troops assembled in Asia, Ramgarh and other places reach more than two-thirds of the establishment, they will immediately march to Imphal. [

According to Lieutenant General Chelsea's vision, before the independent division forces can eat Alexander's troops, at least five divisions of more than 6 troops must be assembled on the front line of Imphal before he can form the first line of defense.The troops that arrived later formed the second line of defense. So far, Chelsea's strategic direction.It has been completely transferred from the rescue of Alexander's troops to the defense of the independent division troops attacking the East India.

But this is not enough. Even if the existing troops stationed in India are collected, there are only about 10 people, which is not a bad quality of soldiers.At best, there were about 7 to [-] available troops. Chelsea looked at the troop deployment table and felt guilty for a while. He couldn't determine whether the Chinese had the ambition to invade the East India.

But his overall strategic deployment must focus on this possibility becoming a reality. The Imphal line of defense requires a large number of troops to fill the gap.But there are only so many troops on hand.

After weighing the pros and cons, Lieutenant General Chelsea.In the name of the commander of the Eastward Army Corps stationed in India, a document was issued to the Governor-General of India to recruit all Indian reserve soldiers, including the semi-militarized National Guard, to be included in the field force sequence. Before the end of May, an army must be formed. The second-line army of about 25 people marched to the Imphal defense line.

As for where so many soldiers come from, this is not a matter for Lieutenant General Chelsea, but a matter for the Governor of the British Empire in India.Chelsea now has dual identities. On the one hand, he is an imperial envoy with a constitutional order;Lieutenant General Chelsea, I don't mind changing partners.

By May [-]th, the British and Indian troops assembled in Imphal had reached more than [-] people. On the same day, Tang Qiuli, who was in the small town of Luhading, received information from Chutian. "The division pointed out that our special warfare detachment has detected that the British and Indian troops assembled in Simpson, Saudia, Dingsugiya, and Ramgarh will leave for Imphal before they are all assembled. The specific reasons are as follows: Investigation is ongoing."

Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe had his own judgment on this information, and he said to Tang Qiuli: "Master, based on the information from Captain Chu, can we make the following judgments? In the crisis of Alexander's troops, after only nearly half of the troops were assembled, before all the troops were assembled, there was an attempt to go to the battlefield of Xiduo to rescue Alexander?"

Tang Qiuli shook his head and said: "That's not the case. The troops of the eight brigades directly under the Corps marched along the left bank of the Hukang River Valley with great fanfare for a whole day and night. No matter how distraught Alexander is, he will also judge our direction of action. He will not fail to send a warning to Chelsea, regardless of whether Chelsea believes Alexander's warning, at least he understands that Sido is no longer important."

"Besides, Chelsea should be aware that Sido is probably a trap. His troops rushed there in a hurry, and there may not be any good results. This is another new change. Looking at Chelsea's deployment, he wants to be on the front line of Imphal. Build a line of defense against us, Yuhe, the only place we have an advantage is the seven brigades that entered the East India region in advance, so far, no targets have been exposed."

"The key to the Battle of East India is not to disperse the British and Indian troops. Gathering and annihilating them is the most ideal effect. Can the seven brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps penetrate into the central part of the Indian mainland? Before Chelsea realized it, the siege of Dhaka, Khulna and other places was the key to the East India campaign. If this step was taken well, it would be tantamount to closing the gate from the East India to the inland of India, and Chelsea would have no chance to run away. "

Zhao Yuhe said: "Master, I still don't understand. Could it be that the British just sit back and watch Alexander be wiped out by us? The purpose of forming the Eastward Army was to rescue Alexander, and they just gave up. How can the British be reconciled?"

Tang Qiuli smiled mockingly and said, "So what if you are not willing? Alexander was besieged in Xiduo, and it was a dead end. He could be rescued. Chelsea was very smart. He was afraid of repeating the same mistakes as Alexander, so he changed the deployment of the campaign. , instead of going east for rescue, instead of going west to prevent us from going west to East India, this is safer. Didn’t you see him desperately going to Imphal to gather troops? It is to build a blocking line of defense on the front line of Imphal.”

At this point, Zhao Yuhe had fully understood that the division commander adjusted the battle deployment in time and ordered the troops to encircle them separately. The five British and Indian army assembly areas near the interior of India had already expected this.

Tang Qiuli continued: "I am only worried about one thing. The seven brigades that penetrated into the interior of India, from the direction of Ledo, Sujiya, Gamai, and Xintaiji, interspersed long distances. The troops did not carry heavy equipment and fought tough battles. I’m afraid I’ll suffer a loss when I’m here, so I can only ask Le Yiqin’s air force to provide air fire support. Fortunately, the British and Indian troops are second-rate troops, and they are not a hard nut to crack. If I fight the Japanese army, I will never Will make this risky game!"

Zhao Yuhe said with a smile: "Master, you don't have to worry about this. Commander Le has sent a telegram that his bomber and fighter units are ready. He just waits for the commander's order to blow up several targets into ruins. Ground troops open the way!"

Tang Qiuli also laughed, and said: "This Le Yiqinna, when he heard the battle, his eyes lit up. However, in the previous air battle in northern Burma, he killed the air power of the British and Indian troops in advance. By the way, Yuhe, when will the three brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps transferred from Xiduo reach Luhardin?"

Zhao Yuhe replied concisely: "According to their current driving speed, they will arrive here by [-] o'clock tomorrow evening at the latest."

Tang Qiuli suddenly smiled, and said: "Yuhe, order the troops directly under the corps to march westward into the East India with great fanfare, but not too fast, so as to attract Chelsea's attention and cover the Sulu mobile corps. "

"Also, order Deputy Division Commander Tang, Alexander's troops, to lose the role of bait. The troops in Xiduo should be dealt with on the spot. As for such a fight, the Xiduo Campaign Command will decide on its own. After the battle, the troops will Go west now!" [

Up to now, whether it is Tang Qiuli or Chelsea, they have a general understanding of the opponent's deployment. Chelsea turned from offense to defense and built a defense line in Imphal. However, Tang Qiuli's early layout will become a fatal move.

At noon on May [-]th, at Xiduo in the Hukang Valley, the headquarters of Lieutenant General Tang Qiusheng, the deputy commander of the Independent Division and the commander-in-chief of the Xiduo Campaign, Yu Guanghan, the chief of staff, hurried in, "Deputy division commander, received an urgent call from the division commander , Alexander’s troops, have lost their role as bait, ordered us to annihilate them on the spot, and then the troops will immediately march west! The combat deployment is decided by yourself!”

Tang Qiusheng was not surprised. Ever since Tang Qiuli ordered the eight brigades of the directly subordinate corps to march westward along the left bank of the Hukang River Valley, not afraid of revealing their intentions, he had already realized that there was no further delay in the Xiduo battlefield. meaning.

Alexander and the tens of thousands of British and Indian remnants have completed their mission. From the heart, with six well-equipped field brigades with more than [-] troops, they attacked and were surrounded for three days and lost all their heavy equipment and tanks. , Morale dropped to the lowest point, and the tens of thousands of British and Indian troops who were waiting to die, even a peaceful person like Tang Qiusheng, couldn't lift their spirits.

According to Tang Qiusheng's way of thinking, in this battle, Fan didn't need to make a big move. Alexander was already a ripe melon, and he would fall if he touched it. It might be better to solve it in another way. His way was to persuade him to surrender.

Of course, if you want Alexander and the tens of thousands of British and Indian soldiers to surrender willingly and without any sense of resistance, you must show their due strength and deter them. Soldiers believe in strength. Fraud is a meaningless joke.

What Tang Qiusheng had to do was to put on a big scene that would make Alexander and his officers and soldiers tremble and feel incontinent when they saw it.

(to be continued) (to be continued...)