Major General Charles, commander of a British Army division stationed in the Straits Settlements, graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst of the British Empire and has always been known for his steadiness. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 After receiving orders from home to be appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces in Burma, Charles soon arrived in Burma by boat with his boys.

He already had a rough understanding of the Empire's terrible situation in Burma, and he already had a rough understanding of it on the way to Burma. At that time, he was still relatively optimistic, and in his mind, with the two British brigades in his hands, as well as the Anglo-Indian army and the Anglo-Burmese army that assisted him, even if he could not completely defeat the Chinese army, he wanted to thwart their attack and hold the existing defensive line. But after thinking about Yangon, the deterioration of the battle situation was completely beyond his imagination.

At that time, the whole of northern Myanmar, except for Mandalay, was under the control of the Chinese army. The 7th and 9th Anglo-Indian Divisions were completely annihilated, the 3rd Division and the Burmese Division were also severely damaged, and the three Anglo-Indian brigades did not need to be mentioned. At this time, there were still troops in Burma that were still fighting in Burma, but they were the 8th Division of the Anglo-Indian Army stationed in Ringanqiang, and the two brigades that they had just brought from the Malay Peninsula. The Chinese army, which had already captured Taunggyi, could attack from the flanks at any time to occupy Pyinmana, cut off the connection between Yangon and Mandalay, and threaten the safety of both places. All of this made Charles's heart begin to cast a shadow on the future war situation in Myanmar.

Charles, who realized that something was wrong, sent a telegram asking for help to the country, and immediately led two brigades of troops north, one of which was stationed in Mandalay and the other brigade in Pyinmana, regardless of the current situation that the troops had just disembarked from in Yangon.

To this day, Charles can still vividly remember the terrible things he saw when he first led his troops into Pimma. At that time, Pinmana was already in chaos, the streets were full of thrown clothes and fleeing people, and the wind was constantly rolling up the confetti on the ground. A group of British routs, apparently Indians, were stopped at the checkpoint. His dark skin, with a foul smell all over his body, looked blankly at the British troops who were constantly marching into the city of Pinmana, and also numbly watched his commander read orders there.

"You filthy Indian pigs..." The officer's shouting and scolding continued to drift into Charles's ears with the wind blowing.

At that time, although the London side was still a little undecided, Charles quickly reorganized his troops on the battlefield, and replaced the commanders of three divisions and brigades of the Anglo-Indian Army and the Anglo-Burmese Army in one fell swoop to eliminate the defeat in the troops. But all of this is not as confident as the reinforcements that have arrived one after another. Fortunately, the Chinese army did not attack again during this time, so there was time for Charles to rearrange the defenses.

Today is the eighteenth day of Major General Charles's tenure, and he took a group of staff officers from the headquarters all the way to Pyinmana, and came to this position only 1,000 meters away from the Chinese army's defense line to observe.

Gently putting down the binoculars in his hand, Charles turned his head to look at Colonel Smith, the regimental commander in charge of this section of the defensive line, and asked, "Colonel, what do you think of the Chinese troops stationed on the opposite side?" ”

"On the opposite side is a battalion of the 11th Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division of the Southwest Chinese Army, they are well-equipped and have strong firepower, and in the early stage of the operation, their performance is quite extraordinary, successively defeating the troops of two divisions and a brigade of the Imperial British and Indian Army, and it is said that they have created a precedent of a company of soldiers chasing the soldiers of one of our regiments." When he said this, Smith frowned slightly, and he was quite disdainful of the British and Indian troops.

"A company chasing a regiment of the Anglo-Indian army?" Charles kept chewing on this sentence in his mouth, which showed that he was also quite shocked by it. You know, a regiment of the Anglo-Indian army was chased and beaten by more than 100 Chinese troops, at least more than 3,000 people? Is it not a weapon in their hands that they have sticks? Even if it's 3,000 pigs, that's not something more than 100 people can catch up, right? Charles really couldn't figure this out.

Listening to the words in the commander's mouth, Smith was also very helpless in his heart, he had been stationed here for more than ten days, and there would be several conflicts with the Chinese army intermittently during this time. These days, although he does not have a clear understanding of these Chinese troops, he still has intuitive feelings.

Seeing that the British army was deploying troops to stabilize the defense lines in various places, the Chinese army had not made any major movements except for small-scale infiltration operations at the defense lines of the two armies. After stabilizing the defensive line, Charles wondered whether to conduct a tentative offensive to find out the strength and deployment of the Chinese army. Charles has a solid personality and he doesn't like to take risks. When he returned from the front-line inspection, he was a little unsure of his thoughts.

The British army in Burma greatly increased its strength, but the Chinese on the opposite side were not idle these times. Charles already knew that the Chinese had sent two more divisions of troops into Burma this time. Up to now, the Chinese troops in Myanmar have reached the size of seven divisions.

While the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the British army in Burma was pondering, the Southwest Army, with some intensive arrangements, all units were fully prepared for the upcoming battle.

The characteristics of the southwest army's daring to fight at night and dare to fight in close combat gave Cai Ye enough confidence to choose the time of attack at night. The campaign will be launched from two directions at the same time, and the western front will be commanded by Li Gengen of the 2nd and 10th Divisions, with the main purpose of capturing Mandalay and coercing Ringanqiang; On the eastern front, Lan Tianwei commanded the 3rd, 4th, and 12th Divisions, with the main purpose of capturing Pyinmana, Loikaw, and Taungoo, and threatening Rangoon.

At midnight on August 17, 1912. The artillery bombardment of the Chinese army without warning completely broke the law of never shelling the British army at night for half a month, and also broke the dream that the British soldiers had begun with great difficulty in tense nerves.

The Chinese artillery, which had been shelling according to the coordinates that had been reconnoitred for a long time, kept pouring shells into the British positions with 155mm grenades and 105mm howitzers in accordance with the mission area assigned by the artillery commander of the front headquarters. The British artillery, which was stunned by the sudden artillery bombardment, was under the focused care of the artillery of the Southwestern Army, and the sparse counterattack did not play a role at all.

On the Eastern Front, on the Pyinmana battlefield, the unit that assumed the main attack task was the 10th Regiment of the 4th Division, and the 1st Battalion of the 10th Regiment was the sharp knife unit of the entire attacking force.

When the earth-shattering shelling finally stopped, Sun Decai and his more than 1,000 men had already entered the assault position. It was only 200 meters away from the British line, and the distance of 200 meters made it impossible for Major Sun Decai and his soldiers to see the British positions in the distance at night.

"The first and second companies are divided into two directions, left and right, the third company is in the center, and the whole battalion will attack with me." Sun Decai raised his right hand and waved, his voice landed, and he took the lead in standing up and rushing forward.

At this time, the heavy machine guns on the battalion machine gun positions also opened fire at the right time, roaring and spitting out long tongues of fire to attract the attention of the remaining British troops. In the dark night, the light from the muzzle of the heavy machine gun was always the most attractive, and sporadic gunfire began to ring out on the British positions, and the British troops who reacted finally opened fire to counterattack. The bullets fired from the muzzles of the soldiers on both sides began to fly continuously in the dark night with an uninterrupted "thump" sound.

However, this kind of counterattack will not pose any threat to the attacking Chinese army at all. In the face of the fierce offensive of the Chinese army, the British army, which had lost its temper by artillery fire, did not last long and began to collapse on the whole front. And as the assault force tore through the British defensive line, the attacking troops who had been waiting for a long time began to break through the open gap, and after striking and rushing, the British troops who could not react were divided and surrounded.

By daybreak, the Chinese army, which had annihilated the encircled British troops outside the city, had finally completed the siege of Pyinmana.

On his way to Yangon, Major General Charles received an urgent telegram from both Mandalay and Pyinmana almost simultaneously. From the telegram he already learned that the Chinese army had officially launched an offensive on all fronts in the early morning.

Although there were some surprises, Charles was more at ease than accidents, after all, the enemy who had already revealed his intentions was much easier to deal with. The perimeter of Pinmana has all fallen, and Mandalay has not fallen, but it seems that it is only a matter of time. Despite this, Charles didn't care at this time, and instead showed a confident smile on his face.

In fact, before the outbreak of this battle, he made relevant deployments according to his own ideas. That is to fight a protracted war of attrition. In his mind, the Chinese army entered Burma to fight, and the transportation lines were long, and it was extremely difficult to supply logistics, and it was impossible to carry out long-term and effective operations. In contrast, the British army was much more well supplied, as long as it could ensure the logistical baggage of the two places, and defended the city with two well-equipped and powerful local brigades, the other troops were delayed on the periphery and consumed the offensive of the Chinese army. When the Chinese army's logistical supplies were exhausted and they took the initiative to retreat, it was the time for the British army to counterattack.

To be honest, Charles's move did choke the weakness of the Chinese army and hit seven inches. But the truth is, not everything will turn out as expected. Because soon, Charles received a telegram again: the fortification was lost, and the Chinese army was advancing to the east.