This young soldier was naturally Su Jin, and Su Jin returned a military salute, and then turned his attention to the rows of neatly parked tanks and armored vehicles standing behind Fred.

Nodding with satisfaction, Su Jin said: "Colonel Fred, how is the armored regiment resting now, and the new tankmen are almost running in with the troops, right?" ”

Listening to Su Jin's culture, Fred said solemnly: "Report to Your Excellency General, after more than a month of running-in and rest, the armored regiment has completely recovered its combat effectiveness, and it can even be said that it has been significantly improved compared to the original, but I still think that the scale of the armored regiment is still a little smaller." ”

"Well, that's good!" While Su Jin nodded with satisfaction, he automatically ignored Fred's last sentence.

Su Jin knew what Fred wanted to say, and now Fred was no longer satisfied with just one armored regiment, and just last month he had submitted a report to Su Jin, requesting that the armored regiment be expanded into an armored division.

This armored division has two armored regiments, each equipped with 60 No. 4 tanks, 20 Bobcat reconnaissance vehicles, and 20 No. 2 tanks. In addition, the armored brigade also has four motorized infantry battalions, one air defense battalion, one armored reconnaissance battalion, armored engineer battalion, armored communications battalion, self-propelled artillery battalion, baggage battalion, armored guard company, field maintenance battalion, and supplementary battalion, and requires that the armored division be equipped with at least 50 tracked armored vehicles, and so on.

According to Fred's requirements, the division has a total of 12,365 troops, 10,626 rifles/submachine guns, 798 light and heavy machine guns, 50 light and heavy mortars, 200 tanks of various types, 205 armored vehicles of various types, more than 2,000 cars/trucks/motorcycles/unarmored half-track vehicles, and 100 artillery/anti-aircraft guns/anti-tank guns.

When Su Jin saw this compilation and list, Rao couldn't help but gasp with the thick nerves of Chief Su. If an armored division was to be formed according to Fred's formation, the entire family of the 202nd Army would have to be pasted into it. Not to mention anything else, just the fuel, ammunition, and energy points needed to cash these weapons in the armored division every month could turn Su Jin into a pauper. So Su Jin made a rational decision without thinking. He returned the plan to Fred and informed him that it was impossible to realize, at least at this stage, with the financial resources of the 202nd Army.

It stands to reason that Su Jin has told Fred about the causal relationship, this guy is stunned, and he grinds Su Jin's request to increase this and that, so that Su Jin wants to hide when he sees this German, and in the end, Su Jin has no way to grit his teeth and endure the pain and cash in sixty Sd.kfz.251 half-track light armored vehicles to follow him, which is in exchange for quiet.

But Fred is a typical German soldier. He didn't care at all about the origin of this armored vehicle with a strong German style that he had never seen before, and he devoted himself to intense training after getting these armored vehicles.

Today. When he saw Su Jin coming, he thought that Su Jin was coming to test his training results, so he said: "Your Excellency General, do you want to check the training results of our armored regiment these days?" ”

Su Jin nodded: "It turns out that I have this idea." But now I see you and those vehicles behind you. I knew I didn't need it anymore. Now the armored regiment can already take on some independent combat missions. ”

Ten minutes later, Su Jin was led by Fred to his office, which was a military tent covering an area of thirty square meters, accompanied by Adele and several other battalion commanders of the armored regiment.

"Everyone!"

Su Jin first glanced at them with a bright look, and then said: "You all know the situation in the recent period, after our 347th Division recently raided Anqing and Jingdezhen, and then entered the territory of Zhejiang. Prepare to occupy Hengzhou in order to find a foothold for our army. However, the Japanese were not so honest, and they entangled the 60th and 61st divisions in Kaihua and Jiangshan and the 347th Division respectively.

Although judging from the current situation, our army still occupies the upper peak, the 347th Division has been fighting for two weeks in a row, and it is already a little tired. Moreover, according to the reconnaissance of the air and intelligence departments that we have sent out these days, there is only one garrison wing of the Japanese army stationed in Hengzhou today. Therefore, I intend to send another strong force to launch a surprise attack on Hengyang, and occupy Hengzhou with lightning speed before the Japanese can react! ”

Hearing this, many people present already showed surprise on their faces, and Adele unabashedly smiled.

"Your Excellency, is what you said true? Did you really let our armored regiments conduct independent combat operations? ”

It's no wonder that Adele showed such an excited look. Although the original armored regiment was nominally an army, it also followed Su Jin all the way from Jiujiang to Huangmei and Xianning, and finally returned to Nanchang with a swagger.

However, everyone, including Fred, was a little dissatisfied in their hearts, because in the Jiujiang Campaign, the armored regiment was only used as a forward and auxiliary force, and did not give full play to the advantages of the armored force of rapid advance, occupation of key targets, and destruction of the enemy's vital forces. This has to be said to be a pity, now when I hear that Su Jin actually intends to send them out as an offensive or even decisive force, this shows that Su Jin has really regarded them as a main force that does not rely on infantry and can fight independently, which is very rare in Huaxia, which has always been an infantry to conquer the world.

"Yes!" Su Jin smiled and nodded, looking at the excited crowd and said in a very affirmative tone: "I know that in Germany, we have begun to try to use the armored forces as a force that can fight independently, and have begun to try and operate in theory and practice, although we in Huaxia are still in their infancy in this regard, but this does not prevent us from exploring and trying in this regard, this time I am handing over this task to you is to see if the armored regiment has the ability to independently complete a decisive battle and achieve victory!" ”

Although Su Jin said this in a smiling tone, everyone present could hear his subtext. If they fight this battle well, the armored regiment will be able to carry a heavier burden in the future, and even be expanded, if not, then it is better to stay honestly.

In the end, Su Jin's voice sounded slowly: "This time, not only will the battle armored regiment be dispatched, but I can also ask the Black Crow Squadron and the Tiger Shark Squadron to support you and do my best to provide you with air support." ”

Several fierce eyes passed to each other in the eyes of everyone, and finally converged into a common meaning, this Hengzhou must not only be taken down, but also fought beautifully......

Su Jin and the 202nd Army were basically satisfied with the results achieved by the 347th Division, but for Lieutenant General Tanaka Kuichi, the commander of the 23rd Army in Hangzhou, the news was not very good. Although the 60th and 61st divisions were only third-rate divisions, it is inexplicable that more than 20,000 men and horses of the two divisions were defeated and retreated by the Chinese army with only one division.

Tanaka Kuichi's mood now is like knocking over a seasonet, it can be said that it is full of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty, he looked at Takao Murata who was standing by the side with his hands down, the chief of staff who swore before the war that he could use two divisions to encircle and annihilate the other party, is now standing there with his head hanging his head and not saying a word.

Seeing the other party's appearance, Tanaka Jiuichi, who originally wanted to reprimand the other party fiercely, didn't speak, just sat on the chair and gasped, and only said in a rough voice after a while: "Murata-kun, what do you have to say about the successive defeats of the 60th Division and the 61st Division?" ”

Takao Murata, who was blushing, bowed sharply to Tanaka and said loudly: "Your Excellency Commander, I'm really sorry, this time I made a mistake in judgment and caused trouble for you and the 23rd Army!" I am willing to accept any punishment from you, even if I am asked to have my disembowelment! ”

Seeing that Takashi Murata apologized to himself seriously, Tanaka Kuichi's face also softened, and he sighed lightly: "Forget it, you can't be blamed for this matter, if you, the chief of staff, have to disembowel, then wouldn't my responsibility as a commander be greater?" In my opinion, our mistake this time was to underestimate the combat effectiveness of the Jingguan troops, and at the same time overestimate the combat effectiveness of the 60th and 61st Divisions. A third-rate division is a third-rate division, and the gap between it and a standing division is huge. ”

"And that's not all." Takashi Murata also said with a bitter face: "The loss of infantry is not enough, but the loss of our aircraft is not small, the loss of more than 30 bombers and more than 10 fighters is not small. Just now, Lieutenant General Hidera Obata, commander of the Fifth Flying Division, called and said that they could no longer send large-scale planes to support us in the short term, and asked for our forgiveness. ”

"Yaga!" Kuichi Tanaka couldn't help but take the case, "It's just that they lost dozens of planes, are they going to retreat?" Did the hundreds of planes of the Fifth Flying Division be wiped out? ”

"Not really." Looking at the angry Tanaka Kuichi, Murata Takashi said with a bitter face: "His Excellency Hidera Obata said that recently they received an order from the Front Army to concentrate most of their forces to support a major battle that the Eleventh Army is preparing to launch. ”

"The Great Battle?" Kuichi Tanaka couldn't help but sneer: "How big?" ”

Takashi Murata shook his head and said, "I don't know how big it is, but it is said that this battle was personally planned by Commander Kazuichiro Sonobe, and he is preparing to attack Changsha!" (To be continued.) )