In the combat sequence of the British Imperial Army, unlike the colonial army, the infantry of the native army was often based on battalions, and the artillery was brigades. Pen~fun~Ge www.biquge.info an infantry division of about 20,000 people, under the jurisdiction of three infantry brigades, three artillery brigades, one howitzer brigade, and a number of technical arms. Of these, an infantry brigade of about 5,000 men consisted of four infantry battalions, each with two machine-gun teams, and an artillery brigade with 54 artillery pieces.

After interrogating the prisoners, Huang Yuying learned that the unit that the British army had arrived at the forefront was not a regiment, but a brigade. It was only because the scouts did not know much about the difference in the composition of the British army that they said that it was a regiment when they reported it. The commander of the division, Major General White, had been ordered to recapture Prome and open the northward passage to reinforce the defenders of Mandalay.

Hearing this, Huang Yuying's scalp was numb for a while, and she hurriedly asked the prisoners to be taken down, and after sending a report on the battle situation to the division headquarters, she called a meeting of the commanders of each battalion and company. After Chief of Staff Wei Guangqi briefed the situation, there was a dead silence at the meeting. Of the 20,000 British troops, the Eighth Regiment is now full of more than 3,000 people, and an artillery battalion has been left behind in Donghu, and the disparity in strength is too great.

"Lose his mother!" From Guangxi. Wei Kuifa, the commander of the second battalion from a few famous clans, couldn't help but scold at first: "Regiment commander, what do you say we should do now?" ”

"Yes, Commander. If you say keep, we will keep, and if you say go, we will go. Tao Zhen also babbled on the side.

Hearing Tao Zhen's words, Huang Yuying's face suddenly sank, and she said sharply: "Soldiers, it is our duty to obey orders. I received an order from the division commander to occupy Prome and defend against the enemy in front of me. As he spoke, he slapped his palm on the table and stood up suddenly: "Go?" Where do you want to go? Go home and pick up the baby? Do you believe it or not, I'm going to take you to a court-martial? ”

"No, it's not, Captain." Tao Zhen hurriedly distinguished: "I didn't want to leave, I mean..."

"Say what? What are you talking about? ”

Seeing this scene, Chen Zhenhui, the political commissar sitting next to him, hurriedly pulled Huang Yuying, came out and said: "Okay, Zihe, you can also dissipate your anger, what Battalion Commander Tao means is that everything is only ordered by the regiment headquarters, and we revolutionary soldiers, how can we retreat lightly?" The chief of staff has already briefed you on the relevant situation, and the situation has always been very grim for us, so let the regiment commander now make arrangements for all of us on how to fight the next battle. ”

Seeing that Chen Zhenhui spoke, Huang Yuying couldn't say anything more, so she had to glare at Tao Zhen fiercely and then sit down again to assign tasks, after all, the political commissar was right, the situation was very grim.

"The information has been conveyed to the division headquarters, Division Commander Li and Commander Cai in the theater will know what to do, what we have to do is to rush to repair the fortifications and prepare for a defensive battle. Now I will assign the defensive positions of the battalions, the first battalion to defend the front, the two flanks to be the responsibility of the second and third battalions, the regimental reconnaissance company to be responsible for the Irrawaddy River crossing outside the city, and the rest of the regimental direct units to serve as reserves. Did you hear me clearly? ”

"Yes!" The officers replied in unison.

The Eighth Regiment was preparing intensively for the battle while waiting for the orders of the division headquarters. Two hours later, the order of the division commander Li Hongxiang finally came, ordering Huang Yuying to lead the eighth regiment to defend Prome and not retreat, so as to buy time for the friendly troops on the northern front to completely annihilate the British troops defending the city. At the same time, the telegram also told Huang Yuying that because the reinforcements of the 12th Division would soon arrive at Donghu City, Li Hongxiang specially transferred an infantry battalion of the 7th Regiment and was on his way to Prome.

"That's great!" Huang Yuying held the telegram in her hand, and her face finally showed an excited look.

"It's not easy for the division commander!" Chen Zhenhui said with a wry smile. The 12th Division itself is a newly formed unit, and its combat effectiveness is limited, and in terms of Donghu's strategic position, the pressure on the face will definitely not be much smaller, but in this way, Li Hongxiang still drew out an infantry battalion to support Prome.

In fact, what Chen Zhenhui said was not wrong at all, Li Hongxiang was really not easy, and after receiving Huang Yuying's report, he also had a numb scalp. Feelings told him that the Eighth Regiment should leave, leave quickly, and move closer to the main force of Donghu City; But reason told him that the Eighth Regiment must stay, and that it must be nailed to Prome like a nail, to intercept the British army's northward advance, and to gain time for the siege of the brother army.

After discussing with Du Zhongqi, the political commissar who was also bitter, Li Hongxiang, who was bitter in his heart, reported this information to Cai Yi, the commander of the theater in Baoshan, Yunnan. And Cai's call back is very simple and clear: stick to Prome!!

This answer was cruel, three exclamation points in a row, so that Li Hongxiang already knew the meaning of his superiors, and the Eighth Regiment had to fight a tough battle. Li Hongxiang would not watch his 3,000 subordinates fight alone, and after some careful consideration, he sent an infantry battalion to reinforce Prome. Even so, Li Hongxiang already had a faint premonition about what kind of price the Eighth Regiment would pay in this battle. Fortunately, the telegram that the 12th Division was about to arrive was sent by Cai Ye later made Li Hongxiang breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Hongxiang's timely reinforcements added a lot of confidence to Huang Yuying, and also strengthened his plan to compete with the British elite army in Prome. It's just that Huang Yuying was not waiting for reinforcements first, but the vanguard of the British army.

The British arrived in Prome at nightfall. It was only after the loss of an elite company that the vanguard remembered the fact that Prome was occupied by Chinese troops. This made the British brigade commander Abt extremely angry, and he was also extremely dissatisfied with Charles, the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-Burmese army. Now give the Chinese an elite company at a time, how can this not make him feel heartache.

The British army who arrived first not only had an infantry brigade, but was also accompanied by an artillery brigade. Huang Yuying, who knew that this battle was difficult to fight, decided to take advantage of the unstable foothold of the British army to strike first and attack at night. At this time, compared with the British army, both in terms of equipment and numbers, it was a big difference compared to the eighth regiment of the opposing side. This strengthened Huang Yuying's determination to fight the night attack.

It was also the bad luck of the British army. After drifting at sea for more than half a month, they finally got off the ship, but before they could rest, they were caught up on the battlefield again by Charles. After arriving in Prome, setting up camp, arranging patrols, and having a hasty dinner, the British GIs were quickly put to sleep because of the fatigue of the ship's drift and the journey.

In the middle of the night, the British military camp suddenly burst into gunfire, and Huang Yuying personally commanded the first and second battalions to attack the British position from the north, east and west. Awakened in their sleep, the panicked British troops hurriedly resisted, but it was still too late at this time. In the fire, the sound of killing shook the sky, people shuttled, explosions came and went, and the attacking officers and soldiers opened the way with white blades, shooting from a distance and picking at close range, without giving the British troops any time to breathe. The panicked brigade commander Abt did not care about getting dressed, carried his pistol, and commanded the guards directly under the brigade headquarters to set up positions and launch snipers. Not long after Huang Yuying commanded the troops to fire at the British again, the commander of the first battalion, Tao Zhen, led two companies to intervene from the flank of Abt after killing the enemy in front of him. In this way, the defense line that Abt hastily established immediately collapsed, and under the cover of the staff officers, Abt fled, and the British army that had lost his command was even more chaotic.

It is no wonder that Abt was careless, the soldiers were too tired to cross the sea, and they hurried one after another, not to mention the resting soldiers, even the patrolling troops were also drowsy, and they were easily touched by the soldiers of the reconnaissance company.

Looking at the trembling British prisoners not far away, Huang Yuying breathed a sigh of relief. These days, Huang Yuying has always held a fire in her heart, and this night attack, aside from other captures, the biggest gain is to blow up the 54 guns of the British artillery brigade. knocked out one-third of the British artillery at once, which made Huang Yuying have to breathe a sigh of relief.

Huang Yuying's night attack made White, the commander of the British division who led the troops in the follow-up, lose his arrogance, and realized that the Chinese army was not easy to deal with, and his actions became cautious. He couldn't help but be careless, and a night attack caused him to lose half of the strength of the brigade and a third of the artillery, which can be described as a small injury. White was cautious, but this caused great displeasure from Charles, the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-Burmese army.