Van Kruse was arranging his troops in Saint-Lo when he received a telegram from Binghan I and Yangmu I, ordering him to defend Saint-Lo at all costs!
Fancruz, who originally planned to continue retreating south with his troops, knew that he could not leave this time. He had to fight to the death here! The main reason why Yangmu I tolerated his failure was because of his loyalty, but if he repeatedly disobeyed His Majesty the Emperor,
Order, there is a big question mark on his loyalty.
In fact, Van Kruse is of course loyal. He is a die-hard supporter of Yangmu I, so there is no problem with his loyalty.
So in the past few days, he had no plans to leave. He issued a series of orders, ordering the troops to build new lines of defense as much as possible, preparing to defend this city, which was actually very rich in supplies.
Saint-Lo is a fortress city, and its defense facilities are very complete. Although the south of the city was the focus of defense before, a large number of reinforced concrete fortifications were still built in the north of the city.
These permanent fortifications were carefully built by the dwarves. There were a large number of bunkers and trenches reinforced with cement. The sturdiness shocked the elven soldiers stationed in these bunkers.
If these elven soldiers were allowed to attack such fortifications, they might have to pay the price of thousands of deaths in order to make a little progress.
In order to strengthen these defense lines, Van Cruz also took out a large amount of barbed wire from the warehouse in Saint-Lo and laid it in the north of the city, giving these bunker defenses more tactical depth.
The only thing that makes Van Cruz a little dissatisfied is that behind these solid defense lines, the anti-aircraft gun positions are of outdated design ideas, the density is not dense enough to conceal the facilities, and the facilities are also very sloppy. It seems that they cannot deal with the human air force at all.
There is nothing that can be done about this, because when this fortress was originally built, the imaginary enemy of the dwarves was the elves, and there was no such terrible aerial threat at all.
So Van Kruse has been reinforcing these defense lines recently, taking out the cannons from the warehouse and transporting them to the positions to strengthen the defense of these positions.
On the other side, the elf general still showed his ability: he sent some troops north, carrying supplies, reunited the fleeing troops, regrouped, and launched a delayed operation against the Tang army on the spot.
Of course, these troops could not directly block the advancement of the Tang Army, but they did create some trouble for the Tang Army.
They blew up bridges, destroyed roads, and tried to slow down the Tang army's march south. It was precisely because of their tactics that Hogg's 1st Army was delayed on the road for several days.
Also because of their efforts, the elven reinforcements are approaching Saint Lo. The rout seems to be about to be stopped, and the elves seem to have stabilized their position.
In Van Kruse's office, an officer knocked on the door excitedly and came in. He stood at attention and saluted and reported: "General! Good news! Our reinforcements are already less than 100 kilometers away! In addition, today, Air Force planes have arrived
arrive."
Their airport was not bombed by the Tang army. In order to support their operations, the dwarves deployed 40 Il attack aircraft, and the elves deployed 40 FW-190 fighter attack aircraft and deployed them at the Saint-Lo Airport.
With these aircraft, the Elf troops can at least harass the Tang army's ground troops a few more times, buying more time for subsequent reinforcements.
After hearing the good news, Van Kruse smiled. It seemed that all the news he had heard recently was good news, and it seemed like it was a good thing.
Counting the troops performing harassment operations on the periphery, he already has more than 40,000 troops in hand. Adding the dwarf city defense troops, the total strength is close to 60,000!
As long as he can stabilize his position, the avant-garde troops of the Elf 4th Army will arrive in a few days. By then, the reinforcements can really be said to be continuous. He has hundreds of thousands of troops who can fight against the Tang army in the reinforced concrete fortifications of Saint Luo.
Fight consumption.
This was much more comfortable than fighting in the field. Relying on the dwarves' fortifications, he could hold on here for at least ten days... Such a long time was enough for the flanking troops of the dwarves and elves to encircle and attack the Tang army of Saint Luo.
According to Van Kruse's inference, the most likely choice for the Tang Army is to give up the attack on Saint Lo and shrink back when the flanks are threatened. If such a thing really happens, then he will become a great man who can hold on to Saint Lo.
hero!
everything will get better!
Thinking of this, Van Cruz couldn't help but clenched his fists! He wanted to get back his lost honor! Get His Majesty the Emperor's trust back! Maybe... he might even be awarded the rank of marshal after the battle.
!
"Prepare a sumptuous dinner for the pilots who have arrived!" Van Kruse ordered with a smile: "I will personally pick up the wind for them! Great! We have finally stabilized the situation! We can finally breathe a sigh of relief."
…
"Watch your diet! There is an operation tonight!" During dinner, Xiang Ziyu checked the operation map again, confirmed the target of his attack, and inspected his troops.
The soldiers were very excited because they had not had a decent mission for more than a month: ground mobilization did not count. For paratroopers, jumping out of the cabin and fighting behind enemy lines was the real mission.
"Yes! Sir!" A few paratroopers who were stuffing energy bars into their backpacks replied to their superiors with a smile. Tonight they would board the plane again and conduct a large-scale parachute drop.
Perhaps such an opportunity will never come again in the future, so everyone cherishes this opportunity very much. Yesterday, all the paratroopers conducted a large-scale recovery training. They took off from the airport near the station and completed a parachute drop near Benn
exercise.
This route is almost exactly the distance from the station to Saint-Lo. Then all the paratrooper commanders were assigned their own tasks, including satellite maps and various field photos.
For the Tang Army, intelligence is very easy to obtain. The Tang Army has recently been using aircraft to reconnoiter the Saint Luo area, but this reconnaissance was submerged in bombing missions, and the elves didn't pay attention at all.
"Check the supplies and ammunition for the last time! Confirm the letters left behind! Then prepare to board the plane!" Xiang Ziyu walked back to his position and put on his parachute with the help of others.
All the equipment has been fixed. The IL transport planes waiting aside are next to each other, and the hatches at the rear have been opened. The paratroopers beside the airport runway have helped each other to pull up their comrades...
