A Dream of Jinling Chapter 340 Retreat (17)

Next chapter

Deputy Head Shi Qian jumped off the motorcycle and stood by the river. It was a river that flowed through a rocky beach, and for Major Shi Qian, the river was neither wide nor narrow. Carrying his rifle, Major Shi Qian lit a cigarette for himself and walked to the edge of the bushes by the river as he smoked. Some of the troops next to him tightened their trouser legs with straps and began to wade across the river, while others quickly followed Shi Qian to the side of the bushes, drawing their knives as they went.

The steel edge of the knife is good, and those hard miscellaneous trees are quickly cut off. Fix the lower end of the branch with a machete, and Shi Qian and the others went back to the river. At this time, the comrades in charge of crossing the river and exploring the way were already soaked, and the surface of the river could seem to be steady, but it was difficult to describe what it looked like under the water, which could not be seen by the naked eye. It's not uncommon to cross a river with a rope, slip, or get stuck in the depths of the river.

It took a long time for the troops to find a shoal to cross the river. Motorcycles and trucks are not easy to climb up and down to the riverbank, and then drive to the edge of the shoal, and carefully cross the shallow. Shi Qian made several signs in a row, and then led the troops to insert wooden sticks as symbols in the riverbed.

Although it was already late, Shi Qian still ordered to set off. The river is not a very good defensive position, although the terrain here is relatively difficult. But the sound of the river made it easier for the enemy to approach, and the motorized infantry marching guys, although they had a lot of convenience, were too large to be easily spotted by the river. If he hadn't crossed the river, Captain Shi Qian could still consider defending by the river, and since he had already crossed the river, he would have to walk a little further.

The fighters of the unit did not say anything, after such a passage of troops and battles, everyone was already tired. None of the comrades spoke, and some had even begun to doze off.

Just before the sun was about to set, the troops found a camping spot. The barbed wire fence on the truck was dragged out of the basic defensive edge of the subordinates, and everyone was ready to take advantage of this sleepiness to rest quickly. June 26 is just a few days after the summer solstice, which is the longest day and the shortest night. The troops hurried to rest so that they could continue their advance before dawn.

The correspondent had already telegraphed to the rear, informing him of the approximate position of the vanguard at this time. The follow-up units of the 2nd Division have already begun to engage the enemy's infantry, at least the division headquarters believes that the American troops belong to the rookie level and are ready to outflank these rookie Americans. Since it is a rookie that is easy to eliminate, the troops see no reason to give the enemy a chance to grow.

Shi Qian and the comrades of the party committee held a meeting to discuss, and everyone determined that the situation at this time should correspond to those situations. After forming a unified opinion, Shi Qian, as the military chief, took out the corresponding points and discussed with everyone what should be done and what had already been done in accordance with the training content of the past few days. has done it and will see if it is in place. If you haven't done it, hurry up and make up for it.

After training for so long, all of this was done before nine o'clock in the dark day. After the vigil was arranged, they went to sleep. Shi Qian had a hobby of brushing his teeth and washing his face again, so he slept a little late.

At one o'clock in the middle of the night, Shi Qian was pushed awake. It was his turn to patrol. The patrol took Shi Qian an hour, and after the shift was completed, Shi Qian returned to his bunk and fell asleep again a few minutes later.

As soon as it was dawn, Shi Qian woke up. Eat and rest with everyone according to the regulations. At half past seven in the morning, the advance party of the follow-up troops was finally seen. After a slight handover between the two sides, Shi Qian immediately led his troops to continue to advance.

All military operations were carried out in accordance with previous training, and all military operations were in order. Within two days, the 24th Army of 50,000 men surrounded the 20,000-strong US Federal Army. The 20,000 U.S. federal troops were in disarray when they found out about the crisis, and their leader, a brave man, even a clever man, ordered the federal army to begin a breakout along the easiest route to retreat.

This reaction is one of the more than a dozen sets of countermeasures that the 24th Army has planned long ago, and what follows is an offensive and defensive battle in which the enemy is working hard to break through and our side is very serious about blocking. In response to the enemy's offensive, the 24th Army not only let the blood of the enemy who broke through the encirclement flow, but also took down the key points of the encirclement one by one.

Major Shi Qian was in charge of seizing the high ground on the enemy's flank, and the complexity of the battle was lower than training. During the training, the Liberation Army desperately used heavy machine guns to form a defensive line composed of firing points. The Yankees in reality naively thought that placing some infantry in seemingly dangerous terrain could achieve the combat effect of being a one-man battle.

If it had been 30 years earlier or had faced the armies of other countries, this fighting concept would probably still be valid, and the Yankees would have had a great hope of holding the hill. However, when the snipers and heavy machine guns of the Liberation Army beat the Yankees into a daze, the infantry quickly approached and broke through the defense line of the US Federal Army, and the US Federal Army, which did not understand what was going on, was attacked from above and below, and was destroyed in a short time.

Occupied the main points, laid barbed wire and minefields in front of dark, and the end finally began. The Americans, who realized that something was wrong, did not dare to face the squadrons with superior forces during the day, and during the continuous daytime, these squadrons dealt a heavy blow to the Yankees in every battle. So the U.S. Federal Army chose to fight at night.

So the Yankees launched an attack on barbed wire and machine-gun positions, towards minefields and machine-gun positions. The beginning ends as tragically as described in the textbooks, with human beings being torn by iron barbs or shrapnel cut by mines, and bathed in a storm of death with heavy machine guns and shells.

The battle ended with organized resistance from the enemy, and the last remnants were completed by the Japanese servant army under the command of Yuan Weiting and others. More than 20,000 soldiers of the U.S. Federal Army were buried in the crater.

In the report of the battle, there are only two things that everyone pays attention to. The application of training for oneself and one's troops in battle, and the rewards that oneself and one's troops can receive for this battle.

Shi Qian was still a little excited before he set off, and he only felt tired at this time. Of course, he is satisfied with his exploits and has considerable expectations for future promotions. However, the war is fought like this, and each step requires the commander's attention to complete the work, and this concentration is very energy-intensive. In the whole battle, except for the initial encounter that allowed Shi Qian to give full play to the human hunting instinct, the other battles did not bring Shi Qian any excitement and fresh feelings. When war becomes a mere executory military operation, when war becomes a mere job, Major Shi Qian feels a kind of boredom, and the emptiness and great exhaustion that boredom brings.

Under this emptiness and exhaustion, Shi Qian felt that he suddenly understood Wei Jianjun's feelings. Of course, he would obey the order to continue the fight now, but once the troops reached the rear and entered the stage of rest and retirement, Shi Qian also wanted to leave the troops. War was once considered by Shi Qian to be victory and glory, and it was a place where all one's intelligence and mental strength could be brought into play. Now that Shi Qian has reached a state, this glory and romance are gone.

The annihilation of 20,000 people is nothing to the Guangfu Army, and in more than half a year of fighting, the Guangfu Army killed at least five or six hundred thousand American ** teams. As for the rest of the fighters, there are hundreds of thousands. 20,000 people is only a few percent of a million people.

However, for the American bigwigs in Shengton, China, more than 20,000 people is not such a simple number. Although this unit does not have the elite of the federal army on the front line, it is also considered to be a very effective unit. After encountering the Chinese, this unit did send a telegram to Hua Shengton. After fierce battles with the Chinese and being surrounded by the Chinese, he took several telegrams back and forth.

Two days after learning of the siege, the reconnaissance unit arrived on the battlefield and found only places where the bodies were buried. After digging open, the soil layer was full of dead bodies of Union troops. According to the reconnaissance generals, one of the first ten people was frightened crazy, and two became mentally abnormal.

It has to be said that the current commander-in-chief of the Federal Army, US President Garfield, has a very volatile situation. This is for heroes who fought in the Civil War to know about the war, or at least the war during the Civil War. To completely annihilate a force of 20,000 men in two days requires ten times the strength of the force, a strong will to fight.

Now the Chinese have surrounded Sault Saint Mary and sent troops to carry out a devastating blow to this US federal army. So how much combat effectiveness does the squadron with heavy losses still have?

President Garfield didn't want to serve another term, but he was actually puzzled that he could be re-elected. The president, who tried to give the federal government more powers, was strongly opposed by the Senate and was also criticized in the House of Representatives. But there were still people willing to support him to continue his work, and this support and opposition made it difficult for President Garfield to determine who was an enemy and who was a friend.

However, all along with the war, everything has changed. Many people value President Garfield's status as a hero of the Civil War, and before President Garfield could speak, many people have publicly expressed their support. President Garfield, of course, wanted to be able to serve his country, but with so much bad news on the front, Garfield himself didn't have the courage to persevere.

Faced with the current situation, Garfield asked Lincoln Jr., the son of President Lincoln next to him, "Your Excellency Secretary of War, how much do you think the squadron lost when it besieged our rescue troops?" ”

Whether it was Secretary of War Lincoln Jr., or Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt, both showed expressions that were not too sad. Just as President Garfield wanted to say, if the Chinese want to annihilate the 20,000-strong US Federal Army, there must be one-to-one casualties. If the Chinese also lost 20,000 combat strength, then in the direction of the aid force not long ago, the Chinese would probably have much less troops.

Not only these three people, but also the staff officers of the US War Department, and those in the White House of the United States have similar opinions. After some discussion, on July 7, 1889, orders were received from the headquarters in Chicago. Let the five divisions under the command of Chicago begin to move north, with the aim of reaching the perimeter of the Sue Ste. Mary encirclement and cooperating with the U.S. water forces on Lake Michigan to rescue the elite American troops besieged at Sault St. Mary.