Age of Rebirth

Hearing Liao Zhenbang's words, Chu Tian felt a little strange. The area where the second brigade set up an ambush was the only way from Saifpur to Imphal. The British and Indian troops would definitely take this way when they assembled in Imphal. It's a matter of time. Is it necessary to be excited and surprised in Liao Commander's tone?

Chu Tian didn't pay much attention, Liao Zhenbang stabbed him a few more times, and said: "Captain Chu, look quickly, my old Liao has also fought for eight or nine years, and I have never seen such a march. Eyesight!"

Chu Tian curiously raised his binoculars to look, "Puchi" was amused, this was probably the first time since he led the detachment to go deep into the Indian mainland, he was sincerely happy. The army unit, designated as the Fourth Division of the Indian Army, has a full strength of more than [-] troops. Now it is more than [-] people, which is normal. The rest are still gathering. The key is the British and Indian troops. The composition of the army's marching ranks made him laugh.

It's not bad. The soldiers of the British and Indian Army have all got transportation instead of walking, but there are all kinds of transportation. Some of them are trucks, which are crowded with water, and some are riding bicycles. What surprised people was that the soldiers of the British and Indian Army actually used ox carts and donkey carts as means of transportation. What's more, they even rode donkeys dangling in the marching ranks.

Cars, trucks pulling artillery, bicycles, ox carts and donkey carts, soldiers riding donkeys, the sound of truck whistles, soldiers driving cattle and donkeys, all mixed together, forming a strange scene under the first dawn. Seeing the scenery, Chu Tian couldn't help shaking his head. [

And the British-Indian troops that came out of Saifpur didn’t even send any top soldiers. There were more than [-] people, and they dragged on the road for more than ten kilometers. They were marching and fighting. .It was more relaxing than an outing. The bullock cart blocked the way of the truck, and the piercing sound of the whistle caused the soldiers on both sides to curse each other.There was a lot of noise.

Chu Tian put down the binoculars, looked at Liao Zhenbang who was laughing happily, and asked, "Brigade Commander Liao, the target has appeared, are you going to fight like this?"

Liao Zhenbang stopped laughing, and replied: "Captain Chu, just these bastards who are full of bastards. Look, is it a posture of preparing for war? Ambushes, the old routine, pinching the head and tail, cutting the waist, it turns out that I I’m still a little worried, it’s not easy to fight without heavy weapons, and I don’t need them now, light and heavy machine guns and mortars can kill more than half of the British and Indian troops, and the rest will be the last assault. Eat it in one bite!”

Chu Tian reminded: "Brigade Commander Liao, do you want to call the air force for air fire support? It's safer to fight. Our special warfare detachment requests to participate in the battle. It's nothing to do anyway, so you can assign tasks!"

Liao Zhenbang grinned and said: "This is just a bunch of stuff, it's not worth the money. You don't need to bother with the air force. You can save as much as you can! Our strength exceeds that of the British and Indian troops by more than 7000 people. It's another ambush to make their dumplings." , with [-]% certainty, I said Captain Chu, you can spare me, your soldiers. In the eyes of the division commander, each one is like a baby bump. If there are casualties, the division commander will not eat me? This It's purely infantry work, so it's overkill for your special operations detachment to join!"

Seeing that Chu Tian didn't insist any longer, Liao Zhenbang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then said to the combat staff: "Order, the first regiment will cut off the head, the second regiment will cut off the tail, the third regiment and the brigade directly under the brigade will attack in the middle. Within an hour, the battle will be over, and the fourth regiment will leave the battlefield immediately after the battle starts, and occupy Saifpur, and I will spend the night in the city today!"

The soldiers of the British and Indian Army who were walking in the front were dangling on various means of transportation. Suddenly there was a strange whistling sound in the sky. If they were veterans with rich combat experience, they would definitely be able to hear it. It was several rounds. The sound of mortars falling head-on, but the rookies stationed in the Fourth Division of the Indian Army probably haven't even seen mortars a few times.

All of them stared in bewildered eyes, groping around for any movement, "Boom, boom!" A series of loud noises erupted in the marching ranks of the British and Indian troops. In the smoke column, the bodies of British and Indian soldiers flew into the air. Although the heavy artillery regiment of Liao Zhenbang's brigade stayed in Magao, with only a few hundred mortars, they launched a salvo of heavy artillery regiments.

The British and Indian soldiers in front were crying and howling, and they were in a mess. The entire British and Indian army hadn't reacted yet. Then, behind them, there was another earth-shattering loud noise. They beat back and forth, and the panicked British and Indian soldiers Soldiers ran towards the center in a panic, huddled together, and some ran around without thinking, trying to find a hiding place.

Liao Zhenbang laughed loudly, and ordered: "The third regiment and the brigade directly under the brigade, cut through the waist, and be clean!"

After the sound of mortars stopped, there was the howling sound of light and heavy machine guns. At about [-]:[-] in the morning, the ambush in the southeast of Saifpur ended smoothly. The second brigade wiped out the fourth army stationed in India with slight casualties. The division had more than [-] people, of whom more than [-] were killed and more than [-] were captured. The entire battle process lasted an hour and a half before it was over. At the same time, the fourth regiment of the second brigade successfully occupied Saiyi, which was already an empty city Fu Boolean.

The battle started so suddenly that Lieutenant General Chelsea, the commander of the [-]th Division of the British Indian Army, did not even have time to warn and report.

After receiving Liao Zhenbang's telegram, Tang Qiuli, who was at the Luharding headquarters, was happy and said to Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe: "Okay, Liao Zhenbang won the first battle, and he has made a good start. I will send an order to reward. At the same time, order Liao Zhenbang's brigade, deployed along the western part of Saifpur, guarding against enemy troops from the interior of India."

As Liao Zhenbang's second brigade fired the first shot of the East India Campaign, troops from other directions launched a swift and violent attack on the British and Indian troops who left the assembly area and assembled in the direction of Imphal. By noon that day, The [-]st Brigade of the Sulu Mobile Corps wiped out the British and Indian troops in the area and occupied Dhaka.

The third brigade troops, after annihilating most of the divisions of the British and Indian troops in the field, entered and occupied Khulna. The fourth and fifth brigades, with their superior strength, attacked Pokaro when the British and Indian troops had not yet left the assembly area. A sudden attack was launched, and after four hours of fighting, more than [-] British and Indian troops in the area were wiped out, and Pokaro was occupied.

The sixth brigade and the seventh brigade fought against the British and Indian troops of Zhenhati. After annihilating part of them in the field, they immediately surrounded Zhenhati. Among the five attack targets, Zhenhati was the most defensive town , about [-] British and Indian troops resisted desperately, and the troops attacked for two hours without success. Finally, Le Yiqin's air force was called to provide air fire support.

After five hours of fierce fighting, the sixth brigade and the seventh brigade of the Sulu Mobile Corps wiped out the British and Indian defenders of Zhenhati and occupied Zhenhati. The troops of the brigade have all completed the campaign objectives. Dhaka, Khulna, Pokaro, Saifpur, and Zhenhati, five important towns close to the interior of the Indian mainland, fell into the hands of the independent division.

Immediately, the division commander Tang Qiuli ordered the ministries to build a front about [-] kilometers long from Dhaka at the southern foot of the Himalayas in the north to Zhenhati at the mouth of the Ganges River with the existing occupied area as the center. , From the Indian mainland, it was cut across the board, and all the passages for the Eastward Army to retreat to the interior of the Indian mainland were blocked.

There were frequent alarms. Lieutenant General Chelsea, the commander of the Eastward Army Regiment stationed in Imphal, received urgent telegrams from all over the country. He couldn't believe it was true. According to the information he had, Tang Qiuli entered the East India region. The troops, with only eight brigades, are still on the front line of the Naga hills, confronting their own troops. The independent division troops that attacked Dhaka, Kulna, Pokaro, Saifpur, and Zhenhati, did they come from the sky? fell? [

What's more, the five assembly points of the appeal are two to three hundred kilometers away from Imphal. Tang Qiuli actually gave up the target near Imphal, and attacked the appeal area first. What does that mean? His troops have already entered ahead of time. They entered the East India region, but it was their own intelligence and reconnaissance department, which did not discover it.

Chelsea has a good idea of ​​the strength of the five assembly points. If there are no 8000 or [-] troops, the entire army can be wiped out within a few hours. The troops used by Tang Qiuli must have at least one division in each place. Calculated in this way, there are already fifteen divisions with more than [-] independent divisions entering the East India region. The sweat on Chelsea's face has come down.

Chelsea realized the seriousness of the problem. Dhaka, Khulna, Pokaro, Saifpur, and Zhenhati were lost. Their eastward army and the passage to the interior of the Indian mainland were all blocked, that is, It is said that the entire East India region was cut off from the Indian mainland by Tang Qiuli, and Imphal has become a place of death.

Frightened, Chelsea appealed to the British Cabinet and the General Staff, and repeatedly begged Prime Minister Churchill to persuade the American planes to join the war. At the same time, he ordered the second-line army troops that were being assembled to immediately send troops to Darfur with the strength they had assembled. Ka, Khulna, Pokaro, Saifpur, Zhenhati and other places launched a counter-offensive, and it was necessary to recapture the above-mentioned areas to ensure the smooth flow between the Eastward Army and the interior of the Indian mainland.

Chelsea was a little overwhelmed. He had already realized that Tang Qiuli had designed traps and traps one after another during the entire process of fighting against the Indian army. After that, it was my turn to be unlucky, and the rear was cut off. Any commander would understand the seriousness of the problem.

On the morning of May 21, during this unusual half-day, the entire land of East India was rumbling with gunfire, and almost half of the British and Indian army assembly points were attacked by independent divisions and fell one after another.

Lieutenant General Chelsea, the commander of the Eastward Regiment of the British and Indian Army, looked at the chaos, his eyes were straightened, and he didn't know where to start.

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