Episode 73: Resistance

With the cooperation of intensive bombing of the Blue Air Force, the Red Fourth Division was cut directly from the front by Hou Hekun's Blue Second Division with half of the division's tanks, armored vehicles, assault cannons, and a whole division's motorized infantry, and then annihilated them in pieces.

Immediately afterwards, Lan Second Division bypassed Taihu Lake from the east and headed south to the back of the Red Fifth Division. Lan First Division followed behind to clean up the end of the Red Fourth Division.

On June 2, at 2:00 p.m. the second day of the fortress exercise, the Blue Army Command officially announced that the Red Fourth Division was annihilated.

At 6:30 pm, the Blue Army Command announced that the Red Fifth Division had been annihilated.

However, in these two battles, the opponent has built a defense line. Although it is very simple, it also has a lot of head-on taste. In addition, the number of armored divisions in the second division of the Blue Division is far less than that of the first division of the Blue Division, so the losses are a little bigger, reaching more than ten percent.

Up to this point, the only remaining troops of the Red Army was the empty shell huddled in Xinmengzhuang and the Red Sixth Division with more than one thousand people.

In order to completely annihilate the last remaining number of the Red Army, Rommel ordered two Blue Army divisions to surround Zhuangzi and start a fierce attack with its absolute superior force.

...

The Red Army headquarters in Nanjing Zijinshan Fortress is much deserted now. It is completely less hustle and bustle than the previous day. The phone rings are one after another and people are running around.

Everyone sat there, staring at the phone in front of them, or looking through documents. Occasionally, a telephone rang out, and an officer answered it, simply asked a few questions and answers, then put it down, and then continued to do what he should do.

On the huge map, there were almost no red villains, only a large number of blue villains and small tanks. Only in the place of Xinmengzhuang, there was a red villain alone, with the number: Red Sixth Division next to it.

The two little female officers on the map were just sitting there, holding a long indicator pole, waiting for a commander to receive a call, and then according to the instructions, they also removed the last red villain.

As we all know, the Red Army lost completely this time. And it lost so quickly, with eight divisions and more than 100,000 people, one-sidedly decided the victory and defeat in just two days.

...

"Everyone wants to say something?" Tang Yunsheng sat in the small conference room, sipping tea lightly, "What do you think?"

"Sir, the Blue Army is acting like a rogue," said a colonel. "It was said that the exercise would start at 8 o'clock, and they fought in the middle of the night in advance. There was no such thing in the exercise."

After he finished speaking, several officers nodded, whispered in a low voice, and felt deeply. However, most of the officers present remained silent. The conference room was still dead.

Tang Yunsheng didn't say anything, but continued to drink tea, while looking around at everyone, signaling them to continue expressing their opinions.

Another short colonel glanced at Tang Yunsheng and then looked at everyone, thinking it was time for him to speak:

"If you explain this simply, it seems to be far-fetched. My subordinates believe that the Blues will win this time. They should win in new equipment and new tactics."

As soon as this said, everyone at the conference table turned to look at him. Although this colonel had never seen him, most people nodded in agreement.

The colonel then said:

"If the battle between the Blue Army and the Red Second Division and the Red Third Division was "scoundrels", then will the battles with the Red Sixth Division, the Red First Division, the Red Fourth Division, and the Red Fifth Division be won by playing rogues? Or, if the Blue Army did not "scoundrels", but instead attacked at 8 o'clock in a regular manner, can the Red Second Division and the Red Third Division block them? Can the next four divisions escape the fate of being annihilated?

"Everyone knows that this exercise is not for training, but for testing new tactics. Since it is an experiment, in order to accurately test the test results, we must do everything possible to simulate the most realistic conditions. I just said, 'How can there be such exercises in exercises', right? There are very few exercises like this, but real wars are like this."

The colonel just now couldn't hold it in, and said coldly:

"So according to your opinion, our six divisions were destroyed by two divisions within two days. It's not that they are rogues, but we are too incompetent?"

"Of course not!" said the second colonel, "our command did not make any major mistakes, and our officers and soldiers fought very hard. However, the Blue Army's attack method was something we had never seen before. The sky was in their hands, and they could blow us as much as they wanted. Those few anti-aircraft guns were useless at all. Before our troops could see the shadow of the enemy, they lost most of their heavy weapons, vehicles, ammunition supplies, and a large number of soldiers.

"We are all semi-motorized infantry divisions, and it is no problem to march thirty kilometers a day and night, but under their bombs and strafing, it is good to travel six or seven kilometers a day. And the combat effectiveness and morale have dropped to the lowest point. -- This is because they have transferred most of the planes away and transferred to other places to cooperate with their ground troops to annihilate other divisions. If they have transferred all the planes above our heads, then we will not just be unable to walk."

He heard his tone a little strange, as if he was from the front line. A major general asked:

"Who are you……"

"General," said the colonel, "I am Huang Shuliang, the commander of the Red Sixth Division."

When he heard this name, the entire conference table looked at him and looked at him.

For two days, the name Huang Shuliang has appeared more and more frequently in the Red Army command. As several other divisions were wiped out one after another, his Red Sixth Division became the only red point supported on the huge map.

"You also know that I advocate ending the exercise," Tang Yunsheng said slowly, "because it is clear that there is no need for us to continue fighting anymore. Now we have a nominal division left. If we don't even have a nominal division in one hour or two hours, it will be a real defeat. There are many exercises in our military history, and it can be said that there has never been this level."

He looked at Huang Shuliang and said:

"But Chief Huang firmly opposed the early end of the exercise. He had a completely different view. So I sent a car to pick him up and express my opinion."

Uncle Huang looked around and laughed:

"It's not easy to run out. At that time, they hadn't surrounded the village. Now it would take a little more effort to run back....My lords, although we only have the last thousand people left, we occupy the most favorable terrain - the settlement. Our six divisions were annihilated by the Blue Army. One of the biggest problems was that there was no defensive position when we encountered them. If one of our divisions could take the initiative to stop and build a simple line of defense before, it would definitely be defeated, but it would not be defeated so badly, and the Blue Army would also suffer great losses. Just like the Red Fourth Division and the Red Fifth Division.

"But the defensive positions they have built has a little bit of it. In one night, they could not dig qualified trenches, neither wide nor deep, they could not protect people well, nor could they stop tanks, and there was only one. Most soldiers could only say that there was a fox pit. But sirs, look at the places occupied by my Red Sixth Division, houses, buildings, stables, granaries... Is there any more ideal defensive positions than this? In addition, it is a settlement, the Blue Army's aviation bombs and heavy artillery cannot be used, and they can only fight with us with lives and light weapons...

"Haha, sirs, don't underestimate the more than a thousand of us. Some of our more than a thousand people have machine guns, artillery, ammunition, and excellent terrain. It is not impossible to consume three or five thousand of them and half of the division by relying on this. Yes, we will definitely lose this exercise, but if we let me resist for a while in the end, we will at least lose less ugly."
Chapter completed!