Age of Rebirth

In the drawer of the desk of Lieutenant General Chelsea, the commander of the British Army's Eastward Regiment in India, lies a shiny black Colt Type 3 gun. It has a small body and compact structure, but it contains deadly The danger of danger reflects the beauty of violence.

Chelsea pulled the bolt, and a yellow-orange bullet jumped onto the table. He loaded the bullet back into the chamber. At this moment, there was a soft knock on the door of the office. Chelsea Put the **** back in the drawer, and shouted calmly: "Come in!"

A young combat staff officer came in, gave a military salute, looked at the blurred face of His Excellency the Commander under the dim light, and said, "Report to Your Excellency, the reconnaissance plane flying from New Delhi has brought your Excellency the Governor to A letter from you!"

Chelsea opened the letter. It turned out that the Governor General in India was entrusted by the Chief of Staff of the British Army, Admiral Brandes, to send a two-seater light reconnaissance plane to Imphal to pick him up. The letter from the Governor , seems sincere.

"General Chelsea, the situation in the East Indies has developed to this day. It is definitely not the general's fault. It is not a crime of war. It is our ability to reverse the defeat. The military power of the British Empire in the East Indies has been exhausted. The Chinese army has been exhausted. Entering the front line of China and India, this is a momentum that cannot be contained, I am entrusted by the Chief of the General Staff, General Brandes, to send a special plane to pick you up to New Delhi.”[

"There was General Alexander in the past, whose life and death were unknown. I don't want to see such a tragedy happen to you. There is a saying in the Chinese that keeps the green hills alive. The general can accumulate strength in New Delhi. , to make a comeback, and after the domestic situation improves, it will inevitably increase the investment in the South Asian subcontinent's military force. This is an opportunity. I have every reason to believe that the future South Asian subcontinent will still be ruled by generals!"

Chelsea gave a wry smile. He understood His Excellency the Governor's kindness, and was even more grateful to the Chief of Staff, General Brandes, for thinking of him so much.As far as the personal relationship between the two is concerned, this is an unusual move, and my popularity in the General Staff Headquarters is not very good.

But.This means that more than 5 soldiers will be left behind, and to put it mildly, they are ordered to evacuate.To put it bluntly, they ran away, fearing for their own lives, and killed more than [-] soldiers.Lost on the front line, soldiers naturally have the pride of soldiers.Chelsea can't do this anyway, even if they are ordered to return to New Delhi.My time in the British Empire Army is coming to an end.

The headquarters and superiors will not dispose of themselves because of this, but the honor and dignity of soldiers will be lost to Imphal, and they will become the laughing stock of the British Empire army. Do they still have the face to hang out in the army?

Chelsea put down the Governor's letter, thought for a while, and added a sentence after his own letter, "I will use my own way to uphold the dignity of the generals of the British Empire, Chelsea Yu Impal's last letter!" Then, to the staff Said: "Rush to the airport immediately, hand this letter to the pilot, and please pass it on to Prime Minister Churchill and Chief of Staff General Brandes, and let him fly back to New Delhi. Imphal is no longer safe! "

The staff officer opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but was stopped by Chelsea, and then motioned for him to leave, the office door opened, and the light in the corridor suddenly poured in, which was dazzling, and then the light was shut out again.

Of course, Chelsea knows how difficult it is to send a plane when Imphal is surrounded by the troops of the Independent Division. Fortunately, there is a simple runway in the city of Imphal, which can take off Light aircraft, while the sky in East India belongs to Chinese aircraft, and light reconnaissance aircraft can only fly here secretly by taking advantage of the night.

When will the next time come, only God knows. Chelsea understands that he has given up the last chance to escape. He sits back on the chair and writes down the last order in his life.

"Chief of Staff of the Legion, after I died in the line of duty, the command of the troops will be completely handed over to you. If you don't have the determination to live and die with Imphal, you can order the troops to surrender to the Chinese, but, Never try to break out of the siege, as that will only ruin the lives of soldiers, may the Almighty God bless my soldiers of the British Empire, and return home safely!"

There was a muffled gunshot in the corridor of the Legion Headquarters, which was extremely ear-piercing. Two guards quickly rushed into Chelsea's office. What they saw stunned them. Your Excellency, Commander, lying on On the desk, both hands were hanging down forcefully, a pistol was still smoking, and blood was "cuckling" on the temples.

Commander, you shot yourself!The sad news quickly spread throughout the headquarters of the Legion. The other senior officers of the Eastward Legion who came over after hearing the news looked at Chelsea's body with dull expressions and complicated emotions. Their eyes were full of fear.

The chief of staff picked up the blood-stained order and was silent for a long time. He glanced at his former boss and now a corpse with complicated eyes, and said to the staff next to him: "Immediately report the bad news of Lieutenant General Chelsea's suicide to Cabinet and General Staff!"

After reading the order, the chief of staff burst into tears, and said in a sad tone: "Generals, the commander left the order, and the troops are under my command. It happens that everyone is here. Let's go to the conference room. The fate of thousands of soldiers, make a decision!"

On the night of the same day, on the outskirts of Imphal, Tang Qiusheng, the deputy division commander who commanded four brigades directly under his regiment, one brigade of his own regiment, one artillery brigade, and one tank brigade with nearly [-] troops, was holding a military meeting to deploy division commander Tang Qiuli. Order to capture Imphal immediately.

The meeting went smoothly. Imphal is already a ripe melon, and it will fall if you touch it. If it weren't for the division commander to fight it down as soon as possible, and surround it for a month or two, the British and Indian troops will collapse without fighting. The deployment was in place. When the main attacking force was determined, several brigade commanders refused to give in, and there was a lot of quarrel. This involved the question of who would touch the ripe melon.

In particular, Liu Hongzhang, the commander of the first brigade directly under the corps, and Chu Ziye, the commander of the fourth brigade, were so tense. The main attack mission is well-known. When I saw it today, it really lived up to its reputation.

But there is only one direction to take the initiative, and Ouyang Yishan, the commander of the second brigade directly under the corps, and Xiao Jian, the commander of the third brigade, are also eager to try, but they are not as thick-skinned and loud as Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye.

Zhao Shoushan, commander of the No.11 brigade of the Sulu Mobile Corps, feels that he is alone and lonely. There are four people in the regiment directly under him, and there is only one of him. He can't compete. He can only pin his hopes on his commander, pitiful Looking at Tang Qiusheng, the commanders of the artillery brigade and the tank brigade were very stable. The key point was that the infantry was the task of the assault, otherwise, the two would never mind arguing.

Tang Qiusheng was not in a hurry, he smiled and looked at Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye who let go of their voices and put on their advantages. Embarrassed, he said: "Deputy teacher, I'm not presumptuous, I'm used to it, and it's the same in front of the teacher, don't you mind!" [

Tang Qiusheng spoke, "They all want to attack, but there is only one direction for the main attack. This makes it difficult for me. I thought about it. The division commander's intention is to compress the strategic maneuvering space of the Indian Army of Impal as much as possible. It is best to force it to surrender, so my plan is to attack in all four directions, but there must be a brigade as a reserve team."

"The artillery brigade and the tank brigade are divided into regiments and assigned equally to each main attack brigade. Which one of you will make a statement first and be a reserve team? Do you want to promote your initiative?"

When Tang Qiusheng asked this question, Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye, who yelled the loudest, shrank their necks, and there was no movement at that time. Tang Qiusheng smiled, and then said: "Since no one volunteered to serve as the reserve team, then I will Just call the roll!"

Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye looked at Tang Qiusheng nervously. They all knew that the teacher's cousin, the third boss of the independent division, usually looked amiable and soft-spoken, but once he got angry , Even the teacher didn't dare to meet him face to face. If deputy teacher Tang hit him, he would have to admit that he was unlucky.

Tang Qiusheng cast his eyes on Zhao Shoushan, the commander of No.11 Brigade, and said: "Shoushan, you No.11 Brigade, you should serve as the general reserve team for the battle!"

Zhao Shoushan had a dejected look on his face, and Tang Qiusheng also considered many aspects. He would rather his subordinates suffer a little loss than let the brigade commanders directly under the regiment feel unhappy.

He went on to say: "The specific tactics of the attack are as follows. Use fierce artillery fire to destroy the outer positions of the British and Indian troops. Then, I will lead the way with tanks and assault the urban area. I want to emphasize one point in particular. This is not a fierce attack or a violent attack." In the battle, you have to be careful, if that one of you doesn’t take the lives of soldiers seriously, blindly show off personal heroism, causing heavy casualties to the troops, I will not forgive you lightly!”

As he said that, a cold light flashed in Tang Qiusheng's eyes, seeing the four brigade commanders who were directly under the corps, his heart tightened, and he thought to himself: "I have met this good-tempered deputy division commander, and my heart is so hard!"

Finally, Tang Qiusheng said: "The time for the general offensive is set at 53:[-] a.m. tomorrow morning. After the meeting is over, the Chief of Staff Yu will distribute the specific campaign deployment to each of you. After returning to the army, a meeting will be held immediately. , implement it, and report the combat plan to the headquarters."

At 24 o'clock in the morning on May [-]th, behind the positions of the troops of the independent division that surrounded Imphal, the artillery units attached to them, and the artillery regiments of the brigades, were busy. barrel, pointing at Imphal.

The tanks also took off their camouflage. The engines roared, emitting bursts of blue smoke, which mixed with the early morning fog in East India. The positions of the independent division troops were full of busy faces before the battle. scene.

At 23:[-], the closed east gate of Imphal City slowly opened.

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