This morning, when Xu Teng learned that the northern wing was under heavy attack, he had already started making various preparations.
But the preparations at that time were mainly to reinforce the northern flank. For this reason, he was already preparing to mobilize about 10,000 troops to go north.
But in the afternoon, Xu Teng learned that the northern wing troops were semi-surrounded. At this time, Xu Teng actually wanted to mobilize his troops to go north, break the encirclement of the Southern Navy, and regain contact with the northern wing defenders.
However, the reinforcements were still on the way, and the defenders on the northern flank were completely destroyed.
Faced with this situation, Xu Teng did not hesitate at all and directly ordered his troops to prepare to retreat.
Because he knew that after the northern wing was defeated, once the opponent's roundabout troops reached his rear, the remaining 100,000 people under his command would also be surrounded.
However, retreat was not easy. After several hours of hard work, he was able to mobilize about 30,000 people to leave the front line. Among these 30,000 people, 20,000 were originally to reinforce the northern flank.
As for other troops, they are still fighting on the front lines with the frontal troops of the South China Sea Navy.
If we retreat rashly, the enemy will pursue us, and the retreat will turn into a rout within minutes.
For this reason, Xu Teng made preparations while setting the time for retreat in one hour, that is, after dark.
After dark, rely on the cover of darkness, use various deceptive actions to withdraw the troops from the front line, and then run away.
However, what Xu Teng did not expect was that the Southern Navy on the opposite side was so urgent.
They didn't even wait for the roundabout troops to be in place, and they couldn't wait to launch a full-scale attack.
Under an all-out attack, could Xu Teng be able to withdraw his remaining approximately 70,000 troops from the front line?
This is naturally possible. After all, with a retreat order, the frontline troops can just run away.
But if you do this, it will basically be the same as collapse. The Southern Navy on the opposite side will not just watch its retreat. They will launch a fierce offensive and pursue it.
Moreover, time is tight, and heavy weapons such as artillery cannot be taken away when retreating. It is even difficult to take away ammunition, food, etc. In this way, even if the troops withdraw, they will not be able to maintain their combat effectiveness in the future.
What if you don't retreat?
It is definitely possible to resist for a while. Even if the Hetai Army does not have breech-loaded artillery, it is still equipped with Fuyuan rifles and smoothbore cannons on a large scale, and there are also dozens of front-loaded rifled cannons. They rely on trenches and other defenses to carry out stubborn resistance.
, I dare not say it will take too long, but I should be able to keep it for a few days.
After four or five days of waiting, Xu Teng was still confident about this.
But the problem is, holding on to it is useless!
Tens of thousands of other people's outflanking troops have already reached behind them. After they roundabout and cut off their retreat, the 100,000 of them will be unable to advance or retreat, and will be completely surrounded.
In this case, it is neither possible to withdraw nor to defend!
This is what makes Xu Teng despair!
Listening to the increasingly intensive explosions ahead, Xu Teng suppressed all his thoughts and walked out of the headquarters. Then he took out his binoculars and looked ahead. This look immediately changed his face.
Through the telescope, he saw a section of the defense line ahead, with many huge clouds of smoke and dust rising up in succession. The huge explosion power directly blew this section of the defense line to pieces, even silently.
This is the 150mm heavy artillery of the South Korean Navy!
Under such heavy artillery, ordinary fortifications are like paper. Even if they are not directly killed by shrapnel, even if the soldiers hide in the anti-gun holes of the trench, they will still be shocked to death.
Immediately afterwards, he saw a group of soldiers from the South China Navy launching a charge in a scattered and disorderly formation. However, at the Hetai Army defense line in front of the South China Sea Navy, not many people fired back at this time.
Most of the soldiers in the defense line had been killed and injured by direct and violent shelling.
Although the remaining soldiers resisted, the resistance did not last long. As soon as the Southern Navy's charge began, they were still two to three hundred meters away from our own defense line, and our remaining soldiers ran out of the trenches one by one.
Where do they go?
Instead of launching a counterattack, they ran towards the rear.
Xu Teng moved the telescope in his hand and looked at another section of the defense line. It was a defensive position built on the original fortifications. It was very strong and had multiple artillery deployed.
Even though these artillery pieces are smoothbore cannons, or small and medium-caliber smoothbore cannons, they are still very lethal.
However, at this time, the position was also in a mess. Not only the infantry defense line in the front was bombarded by artillery, but the artillery position in the back was also blown into ruins. The artillery and gun mounts were separated. As for the artillerymen, they suffered heavy casualties.
The enemy's infantry was coming up, and when these enemy troops charged, they seemed to be carrying a small-caliber mortar, firing shells at the remaining lines of defense.
Xu Teng was not surprised by the mortars and the like, but they seemed to have a lot of small cannons, because the shells were very dense. After a while, at least twenty or thirty shells fell on a small section of the defense line.
But Xu Teng was not too surprised by this, because he soon saw that this section of the defense line, which was about 100 meters long, was finished...
The infantry of the Southern Navy, supported by artillery, launched a charge in a very strange and scattered formation, and finally occupied the defense line.
At this time, Xu Teng's face was very ugly. It was not the first day that he saw the Southern Navy. It was not even the first day that his troops fought with the Southern Navy. In the past many days, his troops even fought against the enemy twice.
After launching an active attack, our own cavalry also had many battles with the Southern Navy cavalry. At the same time, many small and medium-sized peripheral battles broke out between the two sides.
However, this has never happened!
Although the two early probing attacks failed, the scene was not that ugly. At that time, Xu Teng felt that the South China Navy was still very good at defense in this war.
Strictly speaking, the cavalry and small-scale battles between the two sides were going back and forth, and sometimes the Hetai Army still had the upper hand.
But why is it that when the South Korean Navy launches a full-scale offensive, its own defense line is like a bubble, bursting as soon as it is poked?
Don't have even a little bit of resistance?
Xu Teng couldn't understand it at all!
At this time, Xu Teng had no idea that compared to defensive operations, the South Korean Navy was actually better at offensive operations, and in offensive operations, they were better at positional warfare or critical battles in which both sides set their postures. Relatively speaking, mobile operations in the wild