Three days later, Mandalay. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Mandalay City, also known as "Wa City", the ancient capital of Myanmar, the capital of Mandalay Province, is also the second largest city in Myanmar, is the place where several ancient dynasties once built the capital, and is also a city where a large number of overseas Chinese gather, located in the central region of Myanmar, it is the material distribution center and the largest transportation center in central Myanmar. The waterway can be traced up to Myitkyina along the Irrawaddy River, reaching Yangon Port in the south, there is a railway to Yangon in the south, Myitkyina and Lashio in the north, and a number of highways meet here, which is an out-and-out strategic location.

In the middle of the city, in the splendor of Mandalay's glittering Old Palace, the headquarters of the 17th Army of the Island Army is located here.

At this time, Lieutenant General Yamashita Fumi, commander of the 17th Army of the Island Army and commander of the 16th Division, Lieutenant General Jun Imamura, commander of the 2nd Division, Lieutenant General Takuma Nishimura, commander of the 1st Guards Division, and the commanders of the 235th, 236th, and 237th Divisions, who had just arrived a few days earlier, were meeting together for an emergency military meeting.

Three days earlier, they had monitored the frequent use of the expeditionary force's radio station, and had been worried that the expeditionary force would attack Mandalay, until yesterday the scouts spotted the expeditionary force's troops advancing rapidly along the banks of the Inovady River towards Mandalay, and confirmed their assumptions.

Since they learned the secret of the expeditionary force's airborne radar, the island army no longer dared to release reconnaissance planes into their defense area, and they could not afford this kind of attrition, so they could only set up more open and hidden posts along the way.

However, north of the Inovady River, after Xibao is the plain area, it is difficult to hide along the way, whether it is a bright card or a secret outpost, and there is almost no danger to defend, so after the island army along the road discovers the expeditionary force, they can only choose to retreat all the way.

The scouts only knew that the expeditionary force was advancing on a large scale, and they knew almost nothing about how many troops there were and what weapons they were equipped with.

Of course, how many expeditionary forces are stationed in northern Burma, which units are they, what weapons are each unit equipped with, and what is the combat effectiveness of the troops? They still know these basic data, after all, it is not once or twice that they have fought against them, and based on these, they can also roughly deduce.

After the defeat in the Battle of Northern Burma, the island army retreated to Mandalay with all its might, building a steel defense line on the outskirts of Mandalay.

Mingong, 30 kilometers north of the west bank of the Inovady River, was held by the 16th Division and the 235th Division.

Ringanqiang and Mengdu in the rear of the Western Front were held by the 236th Division.

The 2nd Division was stationed in Kyaukmy Township, 50 kilometers north of Mandalay, and the 1st Guards Division was stationed in Nanyan Township, 40 kilometers south of Mandalay.

The 237th Division was stationed at the Mandalay base camp as a mobile unit.

At the same time, behind the 2nd Division in Kyaukmy Town to the north, there was also an independent tank wing and the 4th Heavy Artillery Brigade, which was the gateway to Mandalay, and the island army had to defend it strictly.

After the defeat of the Battle of Northern Burma, the island army had long expected that Mandalay would be remembered by the expeditionary force sooner or later, so it had already secretly transported the 4th Heavy Artillery Brigade from China.

In general, Mandalay's island army had six divisions, of which the 16th Division, the 2nd Division, and the 1st Guards Division were all permanent divisions, and the strength of the troops was more than 40,000 men.

However, the other three divisions are not so generous, there are nearly 200 divisions and regiments in the history of the island army, but when the history comes here, the division and regiment formed by the island army are already more than 300, and at least the second division within 200 is still the B division, but the 200 outside are all C or even D divisions, like the 235th division, 236th division, and 237th division.

Type C Division: Expanded by mixed brigades, it has jurisdiction over 3 infantry wings, 1 engineering and 1 artillery wing, generally 5 wings, plus about 15,500 non-combatants at the division and regimental headquarters.

Therefore, although Mandalay has six divisions, the strength of the army is less than 200,000.

Before meeting Jiang Haoran, these more than 100,000 or 200,000 troops may still be able to do something, let alone defend a city, or even attack the city.

In the Battle of Songhu, the island army dispatched nine divisions and two brigades totaling more than 280,000 troops, and nearly 800,000 troops from 75 divisions and nine brigades of the Chinese army lost their armor.

In the Battle of Wuhan, the island army dispatched more than 10 divisions to fight against the 1.2 million Chinese army, but it was still like a bamboo, and it attacked the city and captured countless places in a few months.

It's a pity that these can only be history, since Jiang Haoran was born, this situation has been completely reversed, and the 40th Group Army can defeat a permanent division by pulling out a division, let alone a special operations division that can eat two permanent divisions in one go.

At present, the strength of the expeditionary force in Burma plus the troops directly under the headquarters is full of 30 divisions, with a strength of more than 600,000 troops, including the special operations division, the airborne division, the new third division, and the new fifth division, which are extremely powerful in combat, and these trump card troops in Jiang Haoran's hands.

Although there is a strategic-level heavy artillery brigade and the 1st Guards Division are also equipped with an independent tank wing, the expeditionary force's missiles, helicopters, and Tiger tanks are either the island army's nightmare, or other light weapons are also lagging behind the expeditionary force.

Therefore, at this time, it was found that the large force of the expeditionary force was approaching Mandalay, and the headquarters was panicked, and the division commanders of the three permanent divisions had all suffered losses in the hands of Jiang Haoran, and the losses were not small, and anyone who said that they were not afraid was purely bragging.

But whether you are afraid or not, you have to bite the bullet, and one of the most important reasons why the island people are called perverted people is that they refuse to admit defeat, unless you can beat them all over the ground and can't stand up.

In fact, this battle is an offensive and defensive battle of head-on confrontation, relying on strength to speak, and fighting whose fist is harder.

The tactical thinking had been formulated as early as the construction of the permanent fortifications in the defense area, and the military meeting at this time was actually a brainwashing meeting, and the bushido spirit and militarist ideology of the island army were not covered, they were all instilled from an early age, and it was very useful to deepen and consolidate them at this time.

Although the expeditionary force's operation is inevitably menacing, the locust army is strong and well-equipped, occupies a geographical advantage, takes the defensive position with complete permanent fortifications, and has the support of the third and fifth flight regiments behind it, and even mobilizes naval carrier-based aircraft to carry out assistance at critical moments. Jiang Haoran's conspiracy will not succeed, and victory will eventually belong to the brave and fearless locust warriors.