Chapter 319 Annihilation War

Cai E's tactics have been revealed at this time. He wanted to use a brigade's troops to attack with strong firepower, so that the enemy would think that this was the main attacking force and attract most of the enemy's defensive attention and troops. Just when the enemy mobilized troops to deal with this feint attack force, the main force launched an annihilation war with the support of artillery from the side and rear.

This is also the main support point that can be created when two divisions attack and achieve complete victory by attacking two divisions with two divisions.

After nearly 300 grenade launchers of two divisions poured thousands of 37mm shells into the opponent's simple marching tent and wooden defense facilities, all the 217th Division and one brigade of the 201st Division launched the first wave of attacks on an Indian division that had quickly pulled up a defense system in the enemy. After half an hour of battle, except for Zhang Qitai Brigade, the casualties of other troops were very small. However, part of the enemy's enemies were caught off guard by thousands of shells during the meal. Some people lost their lives before they even had time to put down their jobs. The subsequent attack for half an hour caused them to lose a lot of people, but their nightmare was not over. After rushing at full speed for more than an hour, the two artillery regiments arrived at the battlefield. Although the maximum caliber was only 87mm, in the battlefield of three or four square kilometers, this was already a god of death that could destroy everything.

The infantry's attack suddenly stopped, and the performance time was given to the artillery for two hours. After more than two hours of battle, Brigadier General Vicente and Brigadier General Sandushi did not wait for the support of another division's troops who had been calling for a long time, only fifty kilometers apart. The Indian division might have been frightened by his call. A division's feint attack force, twice the main attack force, and the 50 kilometers of this ghost place would take at least seven or eight hours to arrive. The commander would definitely not come.

Vicente threw away the pocket watch in despair. The famous saying on it was engraved with his old commander who gave him this pocket watch: "hopeinseadirection, but notatsea." (Note: I hope in the direction of the ocean, but it is definitely not confusion, atsea means confusion.)

This sentence still has a reasonable component in the naval era when the navy galloped across the oceans of the world. However, now the Pacific Fleet has fled back to Europe under the pretext of dealing with the Germans. The Indian Fleet has only an empty reputation, and the direction to the sea is almost the same as suicide. The Chinese have already mastered the sea control in this area. As a soldier, Vicente, of course, knew that the Chinese Fleet had begun to attack Kolkata a few days ago.

So he threw away his pocket watch without hesitation, discussed with Brigadier General Sandushi, and decided to set the direction of the breakthrough in the east, and at least he could rely on friendly forces to help there. If he is lucky, he would arrive in Mandalay in two days. Let's leave it to fate. If the Chinese broke through in the West, which has not made any noise, according to the cunning habits of the Chinese, there would definitely be an ambush force waiting for him.

His estimate is correct. The 2012 Brigade has not been involved in the attack. What he is waiting for is to predict the possible escape from the Chinese and British troops. By then, his brigade will completely cut off their vitality.

Of course, the British just guessed this right. They did not expect that the two young major generals Cai E and Tang Jiyao had no intention of letting them break through and escape. After two hours of being roared by cannons, the British thought they had been waiting for the best time to break through, but what they were waiting for was the final stage of annihilation.

All the troops were put into the attack. After the Indians had been disrupted from the defense system, the 201st and 217th Divisions, which had the opportunity to play since the war started, finally reached the time for the performance. The storm-killing tactics of Li Zongren's troops, commended by Cai E, were fully exerted. In the battle, Li Zongren's troops killed the most enemies and captured the most enemies. In the end, many Indians had almost lost the courage to fight. Looking at the staring of King Kong holding a bright bayonet, rushing towards him with gritted teeth, he shouted terrifyingly and squatted down.

Li Tuanzuo, who has been promoted to the commander of Li Zongren's Independent Regiment, has also become the most glorious person in this battle. His subordinates killed and captured the enemy in the number of troops that exceeded the number of 1,800 people in his independent regiment, and Zhang Fakui's troops were the first in his regiment. This made Bai Chongxi, who had been transferred to the division's general staff, feel a little disappointed.

After counting the results of the battle, Cai E suddenly became bold and bold. Two divisions attacked two divisions, achieving an impressive record of annihilation of more than 7,000 enemies and capturing more than 10,000 enemies. Two brigadier generals committed suicide together, captured more than 30 British officers from the colonel. He summoned the educator and reported the record truthfully, and asked the two new divisions to be controlled by themselves. He also explained in an understatement why the order of the Army Command was not implemented on-site.

With his identity and such impressive record, the Army Command has absolutely no reason to be accurate. But this made Lu Yongxiang and Cao Kun feel a little unhappy, and his label of showing off was also set.

There is a reason why the British reinforcements did not arrive. While they were asking for help here, Mandalay could no longer hold on. Lieutenant General Paul, the defense commander of Mandalay, suddenly found that the offensive pressure he encountered that day was almost twice as strong as the previous few days. The Chinese launched a series of attacks that day, as if they were crazy, and there were several more troops involved in the attack. It seemed that the Chinese were under some pressure, which made his defense line suddenly increase. The large-scale shelling made his troops unable to raise their heads, and the Chinese seemed to have reinforcements of more than two divisions arrived, which made the situation faced by Lieutenant General Paul suddenly become dangerous.

This is of course a forced attack posture made by the 21st Army due to the strict orders of the Front Command to attract the opponent's attention and attack efforts made for the rear progress of the 22nd Army, especially the security of the two advance divisions.

This also played a certain role. At least the three Indian divisions east of the Chapeng stronghold have received strict orders from Lieutenant General Paul. They tried their best to reinforce Mandalay, so there was no possibility of going back to rescue Brigadier General Vicente and Brigadier Sandushi.

Cai E's Battle of Fame, the Chapeng Annihilation Battle achieved impressive results under such enemy-wealth circumstances. With only more than 3,000 casualties on his own, he annihilated and captured more than 20,000 enemies. This record also laid the foundation for his next development in the army.

After reporting to Beijing at all levels, I expressed my very satisfied attitude towards the record of this deliberately cultivated young man. Under the influence of my attitude, the Army Department sent a commendation telegram to the Front Command, and ordered the Second Front Army and the Navy Pacific Fleet to strive to end the Southern War in the next six months. The key areas of the Empire should be transferred to the Central Asia, the South Asian subcontinent and the Middle East.

Of course, the Army was confident in completing this task, but the Navy still had not found the remaining ships of the enemy. The British and French fleets seemed to have disappeared from the Bay of Bengal, which was incompatible with the judgment of the Navy's General Staff and the situation encountered by the Army. If the other navy gave up the Bay of Bengal, if they gave Myanmar to China, there would be no possibility of increasing troops to Myanmar and fighting so tenaciously.

Therefore, Major General Murrayqing insisted that the British navy was still in a place along this sea area that had not been searched yet, but India's east coastline is so long that it is impossible to search everywhere. In the case of urgent needing effective support for the army's war, it is even more impossible to organize too many naval forces to complete this search operation of looking for a needle in a haystack.

After summoning the submarine force, he and his staff set up several points, all of which were harbors with sufficient freshwater and coal-fired food supplies based on the information. They believed that the British fleet could not hide in the sea indefinitely or in other ports that could not be effectively supplied. They still had to maintain their survival ability in several important ports. So after asking for permission from Liu Buchan, the submarine force commander Brigadier General Huang Jianxun, also handed over the formation of twelve submarines, using the equipment of the four battleships at hand, the twelve cruisers, plus the twelve submarines, Moriqing began to use submarines for peripheral reconnaissance, and the fleet as a rapid strike force to establish a huge search network. The primary focus is of course the original search blank area in the area from Asia to Ceylon.

The basis of this strategy is that after completing the clearance of the coastal areas, the main naval fleet will focus on tactical cutting and shelling of the coastal areas of Bangladesh. In the coastal areas of Bangladesh, there is no living space for the British and French fleets. From a plan, this is not wrong, and the basis of judgment cannot be wrong. The British and French navies either need to support the army on the shore or be prepared to take back the retreat of these troops. In any case, they will not escape the fate of being discovered by the Chinese Navy.

Part 1 of the Navy and a construction company from Hubei are busy establishing a temporary simple stronghold on the newly occupied Andaman Islands. As a transit and reserve port for the future Indian Ocean fleet, the triangle formed by these three points has completely grasped the entire Bay of Bengal.

Therefore, there is no reason not to find the British and French fleets.

This triangle search plan officially begins on July 5. According to the plan, the search will last for a month, and this month is reserved for the Army to deal with the land enemies on Myanmar. If the Army cannot complete this task within one month, the search plan will be postponed.

All they eat is that the British and French fleets must always provide support to the army. They have no reason to send more than 20 Indian divisions to Myanmar to die in vain.

But seven or eight days passed, and a unit of the 22nd Army had conquered Minjian and formed a strategic encirclement with the 21st Army from both east and west directions. Lieutenant General Paul's troops were cut off and there was no hope of supply. When the destruction was in sight, the Indians had already begun a commotion. Some soldiers had even shaken their white pants without permission, but the navy still did not find anything.

But in Beijing, I encountered a difficult problem. US President William Taft will visit China in August. In early July, when he sent a special envoy to Beijing to discuss matters such as the visiting itinerary and meeting arrangements with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he suddenly proposed to meet me on July 9, hoping to get permission. Of course, I had no reason to refuse, so I met him.

But the special envoy, lawyer Watson, expressed his hope to be a middleman between China and the UK so that Britain could end the Siam Battle decently. This made me feel a sharp increase. If I agree, the soldiers fighting in the south will be about to make a big dumpling. How would I feel when I get this imperial edict?

But if you disagree, Watson's words clearly meant that this request was tied to President Taft's visit itinerary. If the arrangements for the head of state meeting between China and the United States were cancelled, this would be a blow to the current good relationship between China and the United States. Moreover, the United States appeared as a peacemaker. According to the general moral point of view, I really have no reason to reject him.

So I had to ask lawyer Watson to give me a few more days to consider, and he agreed to me. At the subsequent imperial meeting, I confessed the current issues to several important military ministers and stated that I would not consider them for more than three days. The two marshals, Zai Wen and Xu Shichang, Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang, understood what I meant and issued a general offensive order to the front line troops that night.

On the morning of July 10, a unit of nearly 200,000 troops each of the 21st and 22nd Army launched a general attack on the defense line of more than 70 kilometers built by the British and Indian troops in Mandalay from east, west and north. Even the airships that had been transferred to the logistics department were loaded with aviation bombs and planes of the Volunteer Air Force to participate in the bombing of the enemy's defense line. On the ground, there were 1,200 artillery pieces pouring fire on the enemy's positions and fortifications for a morning. By around 12:00 pm, the infantry, who had just finished lunch, began to charge.

The battle lasted throughout the afternoon. After breaking through the east defense line of the city, part of the 21st Army had already begun to enter street fighting. The Indian army seemed to have taken stimulants and fought with the infantry like crazy. The local indigenous people seemed to have no tendency. Whether it was Chinese or Indians, they all ran away without a trace like rabbits hiding from wolves.

It lasted until the evening, and most of the battles did not end completely, especially in the defense line that had been broken in the east of the city. The 213th Division did not defend the fortifications that had been taken down and took back a counter-attack organized by the Indian army. In this day's offensive and defensive battle, nearly 10,000 people were killed or injured. This was unimaginable in the war a few days ago.

The British and Indians in Mandalay seemed to know that they had angered the Chinese a long time ago. Once the city was broken, the ones waiting for them would never have any good endings, so they fought to the death.

The siege of the city is a clear instruction since ancient times. If you siege on all sides, you will still fight with beasts, let alone humans. However, the Chinese commander never expected that these Indians would still fight with beasts like trapped on three sides.

To the south of Mandalay City is the wide Irrawaddy River.

The Irrawaddy River is called Dulong River in China. It is more than 2,700 kilometers long after entering Myanmar. Among them, it can be navigated from Myanmar below. It can be said that it is the mother river of Myanmar. The more than 1,000 kilometers of river section below Mandalay nourishes the surrounding area. This section is also the most developed area in Myanmar. It was after the British conquered Yangon that the Wei River directly controlled the entire Myanmar. Mandalay, as a core important town in central Myanmar, was also the British who spent the most time here.

Myanmar is an important barrier to curbing the development of Asian forces towards the Indian Ocean, so the war to conquer Myanmar this time by the Second Front Army is so difficult.

There was still no movement on the Navy. They did not discover the British and French fleets that they should have discovered as expected.

The first thing they discovered was the army troops. When they were about to commit to the next day's attack the next morning, they saw warships flying with star and striped flags on the river more than 400 meters wide in the south of Mandalay.

Americans? Xiong Kewu, the commander of the 3rd Regiment of the 203rd Division, who was closest to the southern river, cursed in his hometown dialect, "Bran Ban Ban, aren't Americans our old friends? What are they here to do? Seeing a small group of Indian soldiers boarding the ship one after another, he wanted to fight but didn't dare to fight, so he told the battalion commander of the battalion beside him, "Liu Xiang, you can keep an eye on me, I'll go to the division headquarters!"

In this way, the Army Command learned that the American fleet had begun to load Indians to retreat after less than 8 o'clock in the morning.

Army Commander Lu Rongting ordered the front troops to fire and warn that the ship would not be allowed to be opened, and other troops began to attack the city without any response.

When I received a telegram in Beijing, I realized why Americans wanted to be peacemakers. They seemed to be helping the British through this difficulty.

However, when did their fleet reach Asia? Just when I was in trouble, I suddenly thought of this question.

I urgently ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give a note to the US Minister and asked someone to tell him that lawyer Watson came to see me.

In the palace, I scolded him with a calm face, but Watson spread his hands with innocent expressions that he was unaware of this, and said that he did not know that the navy would have such a bold action recently, and that he must have made some mistakes. I hope that your country can do it with caution and make a decision after making a suitable conclusion.

I felt fooled, and I could no longer restrain the Americans with a very innocent expression. I sneered and said, "Okay, since that's the case, I will let the troops detain them first, and then wait for your investigation."

Watson's face changed, and he was stunned to see me turning around and leaving, and then he begged: "His Majesty, these fleets are likely to be the act of the British and French troops impersonating the flag of the United States of America. But as a country with good relations with your country and Britain, the United States of America hopes that your country can allow these poor Indians to return to China. I can personally promise to His Majesty the Great Emperor on behalf of President Taft that these Indian troops will not be used to attack your army."

"You represent? Do you promise?" I turned around and said, "Don't you think your promise is too late? Do you dare to play with me?"

Perhaps because he had never seen the ruler at the top of the pyramid of power, lawyer Watson seemed very scared, and his legs trembled and said helplessly: "Please... Please... Please be sure to save the face of the United States of America..."

His ugly performance made me calm down. Now is the critical moment to fight for the United States. There is no need to break up with the United States for these 100,000 Indian Assassin and the United States. They must have taken the huge benefits from Britain and took the risk of guilty China to help them. No wonder the navy's meticulous search website did not capture the shadow of the British and French navy. It turned out that they dared to hide in the inland rivers when Yangon was lost and the downstream exit was cut off! No wonder they didn't need to replenish coal, and of course they didn't need to replenish fuel when they were in trouble all day!

I thought to myself, and the expression on my face also changed. Seeing that I was silent, Watson knew that things had turned around and gradually recovered his calmness, he stuttered: "This is also what President Taft means. Out of common belief, the United States has the responsibility to save these God's people..."

"Okay, don't say anything more-" I waved my hand, and I had a conclusion in my heart. Seeing such an old foreign devil in his fifties performing in front of me, I felt disgusted. I kept saying my opinion on handling it: "This matter can give you face. Indians can let them go, but the procedures still have to go. They must be captured and then released, otherwise I will not be able to explain to the army. Secondly, the release time cannot be earlier than the end of the war, out of the

For respect for the United States of America, I can consider taking these prisoners of war together with China and the United States. The location is in Hawaii and the expenses are borne by our Greater China. Finally, whether those naval ships are your naval forces, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate whether your country's army should not appear in Asia, nor should it appear there. According to me, it is the British and French army that impersonate your country's name. I am very indignant and determined to teach them a lesson on your country's behalf. This is unwilling!"

"But your Majesty--" Watson patiently listened to my voice and found a chance to speak. How could I let him speak more? He lowered his face and turned around and walked, saying, "That's it, you can convey the original text to the President. I have a golden word and no change is possible!"
Chapter completed!