Eight regular infantry divisions of the U.S. Army were annihilated by five Imperial "reserve" divisions in less than two days, a feat that was later recognized as a great miracle on the battlefield. At that time, many people thought that such a result was almost impossible, let alone 100,000 officers and soldiers, even if it was 100,000 pigs, they would have to be slaughtered for several days, right? And how did Gu Xunlei do it? After the war, many people were analyzing this case.

Fundamentally speaking, Gu Xunlei was able to annihilate eight regular US infantry divisions in a day and a half, and the main reason was that he made extremely reasonable use of the two cavalry divisions in his hands. It can be said that in the whole battle, two cavalry divisions played more than ten infantry divisions. Its quick penetration, assault, and tremendous role in dealing with fortifications are difficult for ordinary infantry to do. And Gu Xunlei himself is an expert in armored warfare, and in his hands, the cavalry unit can exert its maximum combat effectiveness.

In addition, the three infantry divisions that participated in the battle did their best, and their performance on the battlefield exceeded Gu Xunlei's expectations. To put it bluntly, it was after the success of the first assault that the troops gained momentum and morale quickly increased, which was perhaps more important to the infantry than better weapons. In the battle, which lasted for a day and a half, the officers and men of the three infantry divisions hardly had any rest and had been fighting continuously, and if it were not for extremely high morale, I am afraid that they would have been unable to hold out for a long time.

The last reason was that the U.S. forces did not organize effective resistance from the beginning, and after the destruction of their front-line headquarters, the U.S. troops fought on their own and were unable to stop the cavalry assault. In addition, the US military has no armored forces, no effective anti-tank means, and no effective anti-tank tactics. Before the battle broke out. The US army was in an offensive state, not a defensive state, did not set up positions in depth, most of the troops were concentrated together and became the key targets of attack, and some units were not even ready for battle!

These factors were the reasons for the rapid rout of the US army, and it can be seen from the results of the battle that the morale of the US army at that time was very low. Of the more than 100,000 U.S. troops, only more than 30,000 were wiped out and more than 50,000 were taken prisoner. Other words. More than 50,000 U.S. troops laid down their arms almost without resistance. In the post-war investigation, at least 20,000 American troops at that time were taken prisoner before receiving the battle order! Moreover, there are definitely not a few US troops who surrendered on their own initiative. If the American troops had been prepared and their morale was high, the number of prisoners would certainly not have been so large. At least, in the more than two years of fighting for the islands before that, there had never been a precedent for a large-scale surrender of U.S. troops before they lost their ability to resist.

There is no word for "mercy" on the battlefield. The loser will lose everything. Gu Xunlei will not have mercy on his opponents, at least not yet. At the same time, the battle is not over, although eight American divisions have already been annihilated, but more American troops are coming.

On the afternoon of 1 July, shortly after the battle ended, Gu Xunlei had just asked the troops to send their losses up. The news reached that another force of American troops had approached the line of defense of the 5th Infantry Division, but did not immediately move south, but prepared to attack in the north. And in this US unit, there is at least one tank division, although most of them are ordinary infantry units, and they have been attacked by carrier-based fighter-bombers along the way, but its strength has reached 12 divisions and nearly 150,000 horses. And Gu Xunlei only had 5 divisions at that time, less than 60,000 officers and soldiers!

"There is no sign that the U.S. military will continue south. It seems that they are ready to concentrate their forces and launch a decisive attack! "Zhang Xiaolin sent out the reconnaissance unit in the afternoon, and at the same time had his 1st Cavalry Division move to the back of the 5th Infantry Division's position." The armored forces of the American army are in front, if we attack now......"

"What are we going to attack now?" Gu Xunlei glanced at Zhang Xiaolin, and at this time, Gu Xunlei had already obtained a list of the losses of each unit. "We have less than 300 tanks left, and we are seriously underarmed. Most of the officers and men have not rested for more than two days in a row, ammunition supplies have not been in place, and artillery has not yet caught up. Attacking at this time is tantamount to suicide! ”

"But......" Zhang Xiaolin hesitated. If we turn defensive, we will be extremely passive. ”

"I know that even if we want to attack, then we have to be ready to attack first."

Gu Xunlei lowered his head and looked at the map for a while, he also did not approve of passive defense, from the beginning, Gu Xunlei did not want to be passively defensive, otherwise he would not take the initiative to attack. The biggest problem now is that his troops need time to rest, they need time to replenish ammunition and fuel, and the most important artillery is still on the way to transfer. What made him even more troubled was that the two reinforced infantry divisions could only arrive at night at the earliest, and the reinforcements of the Marine Corps did not know where they were. If he defends passively, then he has a good chance of losing the battle.

The US army has at least one tank division, and perhaps a motorized infantry division. That is, the US army has about 300 tanks, of which the number of heavy tanks will not be small. As long as Bradley makes use of this armored force, then Gu Xunlei will be in trouble. This is also what Gu Xunlei is most worried about. In the face of a rapid assault by armored forces, any passive defense is futile, and the most effective way to deal with armored forces is to attack, use assault to deal with assault, and then it will be up to whose armored forces are more powerful. The problem is here, if he chooses to attack, then Gu Xunlei's current strength is not enough to win, but if he doesn't choose to attack, then he can only wait for defeat.

After thinking about it for a while, Gu Xunlei had a general idea, whether it was attacking or defending, we had to delay the attack of the US army as much as possible, at least until the sixth and seventh infantry divisions arrived, so that there would be two more infantry divisions of fresh troops, and the hope of victory would be greater. Gu Xunlei did not think about getting the support of the Marine Corps, and even thought that the Eighth Infantry Division would most likely not be able to reach the battlefield in time, so he only considered using seven divisions and less than 90,000 officers and soldiers to fight a decisive battle with the 12 divisions of the US army.

"Let the 4th Infantry Division strengthen the defense line of the 5th Infantry Division and use the positions of the American army to extend the depth of defense, when will our artillery be able to keep up?"

"It's going to take three hours at the earliest." Zhang Xiaolin's answer was swift.

"Then we'll have to find a way to fight for a few more hours, preferably after the 6th and 7th Infantry Divisions arrive, and then fight the Americans." Gu Xunlei glanced at Zhang Xiaolin

"If you want to delay the offensive of the American army. Then the most effective way is to launch several small-scale counterattacks to disrupt the preparations for the US offensive and make the US military have to spend more time preparing for the attack. ”

Gu Xunlei nodded slightly. "This is the only way, I'll personally lead the Second Cavalry Division to ...... later."

"Let me go, the 2nd Cavalry Division is in reserve, and in the previous battles, the 2nd Cavalry Division suffered greater losses than ours."

Gu Xunlei smiled and shook his head. "It seems that you also know how to fight for merit."

Zhang Xiaolin scratched his scalp, and then laughed.

"Okay, I'll leave this task to you." Gu Xunlei grabbed Zhang Xiaolin's shoulder. "Putting in at most one cavalry camp at a time, and adopting a hit-and-run tactic, in the first three hours, you must be extremely cautious not to fall into the ambush circle set up by the American army. After the artillery arrives, your task is to provide the artillery with the coordinates of the concentration points of American troops and the points of material stockpiling. Then let the artillerymen do something to contribute. If you encounter the American army, you must get out of the battle as soon as possible, arrange the troops to respond, and in addition, I will try to arrange artillery to provide cover for you. ”

Zhang Xiaolin is still very clear about these basic tactics, and he is originally a more cautious commander, at least much better than Weng Yu.

That same evening. Several cavalry battalions of the 1st Cavalry Division were dispatched in turn, and Zhang Xiaolin personally commanded almost every assault operation. The scale of each assault is not large, and the assault distance is not very far, and all assault operations have a common characteristic, that is, "fast"! Of these raids, the longest one took less than an hour, and the shortest lasted only half an hour at a time. The purpose of all the assaults was to turn the U.S. forces to the defensive, and to force the U.S. forces to deploy more defensive forces on the front lines, so that the U.S. forces could not organize the offensive with all their might.

From nine o'clock. Five divisions of artillery units successively reached the front. Gu Xunlei concentrated these artillery units behind the defensive line of the Fifth Infantry Division, 10 to 15 kilometers away from the American army. And this distance is exactly within the range of large-caliber howitzers. Then. Artillery also joined the battle.

Irregular, intervaled shelling produces a delaying effect no worse than a surprise attack of a cavalry unit. Zhang Xiaolin also sent the location of the US army's troop assembly points, material hoarding centers, and front-line command posts to the artillery units in accordance with Gu Xunlei's orders, so that the artillery could more effectively exert the power of heavy artillery.

From the second half of the night, Gu Xunlei also organized some self-propelled guns, allowing them to follow behind Zhang Xiaolin's assault troops and shell the US troops at close range. The effect is even more pronounced. From the beginning of the artillery participation in the war, the US army had to think about how to deal with those artillery of the Tang Empire.

Before the wee hours of the morning. The artillery of both sides engaged in a fierce artillery battle, as a result of which both sides were defeated. The self-propelled guns of the Tang Imperial Army were mainly of two calibers, one was a 155-mm heavy gun, and the other was a 100-mm medium gun. The U.S. artillery is mainly equipped with 155 mm and 105 mm guns. The main difference between the artillery of the two sides is not very different in terms of performance, especially in terms of firing range, the main difference is that the Gu Xunlei Corps is mainly equipped with self-propelled guns, while the US army is mostly equipped with towed artillery. This had a great impact on the artillery battle between the two sides, because the US artillery could not quickly move its position, and in many cases it was passively beaten, although it also caused a lot of losses to the opponent, but in general, the losses of the US artillery were greater, but the number of US artillery was more!

The battle in front of him was in full swing, but Gu Xunlei was thinking about how to fight the battle during the day.

Initially, he had several ideas, and the main tendency was to play defensive counter-attacks. That is, the infantry division was used to block the attack of the American army in the front, and then the two cavalry divisions cooperated with other infantry divisions to surprise the American army on the flank. This is the same as his previous tactics, but there is a problem with this, that is, the previous battles were all American infantry, and the offensive ability of the American army was quite limited, and now he has to deal with an American army with armored forces, if the American army breaks through the frontal defense line, then his flank assault is almost dead.

By the second half of the night, the 6th and 7th Infantry Divisions had arrived, and they had brought with them a large amount of baggage supplies, the most important of which was naturally the hundreds of tons of ammunition sent to the artillery and fuel to the armored units. Both infantry divisions were fully manned, and the officers and men were physically strong, and there was no problem with morale. What makes Gu Xunlei even happier is that the Eighth Infantry Division is also about to arrive, and it is expected to arrive at seven o'clock in the morning, that is, by then, he will have eight divisions and 100,000 troops!

In addition to these reinforcements that arrived one after another, there was another factor that influenced Gu Xunlei's decision, and that was the combat effectiveness of the US military in the night battle. Zhang Xiaolin's several surprise attacks did not encounter major trouble, and judging from Zhang Xiaolin's reaction, the scale of the US army's armored forces is limited, and the combat effectiveness of the troops is not high. Then, in the artillery battle before dawn, Zhang Xiaolin's judgment was confirmed that the quality of the US army was indeed not very good.

It was these two factors that finally made Gu Xunlei make a bold decision: to fight a face-to-face battle with the American army, use the attack to deal with the enemy's attack, and to attack before the enemy. After clarifying this idea, Gu Xunlei immediately redeployed several troops in his hands.

The 1st Cavalry Division was to the west and was responsible for encircling the American right flank. The 6th Infantry Division and the 7th Infantry Division were in the middle of the front, relying on the cover of artillery to directly assault the American positions. The 2nd Cavalry Division was on the east side of the front and was responsible for encircling the left flank of the American army. In addition, the 4th Infantry Division and the 5th Infantry Division served as campaign reserves, while the 3rd Infantry Division was still responsible for the rear defense line, and the 8th Infantry Division, which was about to arrive, was responsible for transporting combat materials to the front-line combat units, in addition to cleaning the battlefield, transporting the wounded, taking over prisoners of war, and other tedious tasks.

The troops were deployed in place by eight o'clock, and Gu Xunlei boarded his tank again, and he set the time for the attack to be ten o'clock. Before the troops attacked, the artillery would provide 20 minutes of artillery readiness, and the bombers of the HNA would arrive at half past eight. What Gu Xunlei didn't expect was that Bradley's attack time was only five minutes later than him!