Yunnan, Baoshan. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info in the general command of the British counterattack.

Cai Ye crossed his arms and looked up at the huge map on the wall, his brows furrowed. The decision made in Chengdu had already been communicated to him, and as a commander at the front, what he had to do now was to command his subordinates and teach the British a painful lesson once again.

But this must also be grasped to a certain degree, not only to make the British feel pain, but also not to make him angry. What's next? Conquer Yangon, threaten the Malay Peninsula? Or continue to attack Imphal to the west, a direct threat to India? But now that the British army is gradually gaining strength in the two places, it really makes it impossible for him to make accurate decisions.

But when his eyes swept over the three words of Mandalay, Cai Yi's frowning brows suddenly relaxed, and his eyes suddenly lit up, and he felt a sense of sudden enlightenment. In an instant, he made a decision. That is, to capture Mandalay with heavy troops, encircle and suppress the main force of the British army stationed here, occupy the whole territory of northern Burma, take advantage of the situation to go south, conquer the defense line built by the British in central Burma, and point to Rangoon, in order to achieve the goal of threatening the Malay Peninsula. Presumably, the British also knew that once the Chinese army launched an attack based in northern Burma, it would be unstoppable from the plateau.

"Telegraphed to Li Gengen that the Second Division immediately set out from Lashio and captured Meimiao. He was reminded that the two infantry divisions of the British Army in Mandalay, one of which was a local brigade that had just been transferred from the Malay Peninsula, were quite impressive. ”

"Telegraphed to Yan Weidong that the 1st Division must arrive in Homalin within two days and join the troops of the 6th Division."

"Telegraphed to Zheng Kaiwen that the situation in Burma was tense, and the 10th Division did not need to continue to rest, and the troops that had already arrived in Kunming should immediately set off for Burma and be ordered to rush to Lashio within five days."

"Telegraph to Li Hongxiang, speed up the march, enter Taunggyi, and join the Fourth Division of Luo Peijin."

With Cai Ye opening his mouth, after some busyness of the communications staff, various orders began to be issued to the divisions in an orderly manner. When he turned around, he saw Chief of Staff Lan Tianwei staring at the map, with a slightly stunned expression, and Cai Yi, who was in a panic, explained his combat intentions to Lan Tianwei in detail.

As soon as Cai Yi's voice fell, Lan Tianwei spoke, just now he had been looking at the map, and now he pointed to the map and said: "Considering the current situation of our army, I think it is not impossible to move the battlefield forward and launch an attack at the same time on the two fronts of Mandalay and Binma, and the logistics line will be increased by hundreds of kilometers, which is still within the tolerance range of our army." It's just that Mandalay is not a big problem, and I think the attacking force is still too weak. ”

"Oh??" Cai Yi's gaze followed Lan Tianwei's fingers on the map, and when he heard his words, he couldn't help but be a little puzzled.

"Pyinmana, located between the Bago Mountains and the Ben Nong Mountains in the central region of Myanmar, in a small basin in the Sitang River Valley, is strategically located by the mountains in the north and Pingchuan in the south. Surrounded by jungle and mountainous areas, it is a great place to defend and difficult to attack. Once the battle begins, our troops will have to deal with not only the British troops in the area, but also the British troops from Yangon going north, and we have to guard against this. ”

"Then let Li Dafu's 12th Division quickly move south into Burma and rush to Taunggyi." Cai Ye nodded, groaned, and immediately made a decision. Leaned a little and said: "Ji Hao, this time I will work hard for you, rush to Lashio, and sit on the front line to command the battle against Mandalay." ”

"Yes!"

Zheng Kaiwen received a telegram from Cai Ye on the train, and his division headquarters was heading south with the last batch of officers and men of the artillery regiment to get on the train. After receiving the telegram, he immediately asked the staff officers to call the political commissar Li Min and the chief of staff Zou Ziliang to his side.

The predecessor of the 10th Division was the Shaanxi People's Army, and after the Communist Progressive Party attacked Shaanxi, all the people's troops in the territory were reorganized. Unlike in the past, when the People's Army was short of guns and artillery, and was starving, the 10th Division is now a standard field infantry division, with a three-three system of establishment, howitzers, mountain artillery, trucks, logistics supplies, and so on, with a total strength of more than 12,000 people. For this operation in Burma, the whole division, from the division commander to the ordinary soldiers, was full of confidence.

After a brief discussion, the three immediately telegraphed the three infantry regiments that had arrived in Yunnan and rushed to Burma, asking them to speed up and rush to Lashio.

As the closest city to China, Lashio is inhabited by a large number of overseas Chinese, who are naturally natural allies of the southwestern army. As the battle line moved forward and the situation in the city stabilized, the residents who had fled began to drag their families back again. And when they learned that the Southwest Army was stationed in Lashio, the jubilant overseas Chinese quickly organized themselves to help the Southwest Army do what they could.

At this time, on the road outside the city of Lashio, the marching was the officers and men of the Sixth Division who had been on the road for several days after getting off the train from Kunming. For these officers and soldiers who are accustomed to seeing the scenery of northern China and have never been abroad in their lives, everything in Myanmar is new. Although they abide by strict military discipline, they still look at everything here with novel eyes along the way. Looking at the Burmese people wearing tube skirts and driving ox carts, Wang Derong's mood as the queue marched was extremely complicated.

As a former team officer in the third town of Beiyang, Wang Derong has no dislike for the revolutionary party, but he also doesn't like it much, and he also has his own pride.

At that time, Yuan Shikai did his best to build the Beiyang New Army, which reached the level of modernization in terms of military system, equipment, training, and the quality of officers and soldiers. And Wang Derong, after graduating from the Beiyang Army Crash School, was able to directly enter the Beiyang New Army as an officer, and his personal military quality was quite excellent.

In the eyes of the Beiyang Army, what Nanyang Eighth Town, what People's Army will be a party, in front of the powerful Beiyang Army, it is all a fart. After the revolution broke out in the south, for the Beiyang New Army, which really launched a rebellion in the south, the people's army was indeed a rabble with loose military discipline. The only Hubei People's Army that is more resistant to fighting, its predecessor is the Eighth Town of the Nanyang New Army.

Frankly speaking, as a hot-blooded young officer with patriotic feelings, Wang Derong did not want to fight such a civil war. But the so-called people in the rivers and lakes can't help themselves; In the army, it is difficult to disobey the military life. Don't want to, the bullish Beiyang New Army, the Sixth Town, the Twelfth Association and the Third Town, suffered the first fiasco since the founding of the army in the battle of Tongguan in the attack on the Shaanxi People's Army. It was in this battle that Wang Derong himself became a prisoner of the Southwest Army. That is, in this battle, Wang Derong, who has always admired the bayonet charge of the Japanese, was deeply taught a lesson by the Southwest Army, which advocated artillery. Before he could see the figure of the Southwestern Army, he was stunned by a cannonball and became a prisoner.

In the prisoner of war camp, as a low-ranking officer, Wang Derong, who became a prisoner, did not receive more attention. Unlike the Beiyang Army, which cut off the heads of prisoners when they caught them, the Southwest Army could be said to treat them extremely favorably. Sleeping well, dressing well, eating well, treating injuries and illnesses, in addition to normal exercises, there is also some revolutionary ideological education, all of which makes Wang Derong feel like he is in a dream. Wang Derong was very disgusted with that ideological education at first, but as a hot-blooded soldier, he listened a lot and became very interested in the policies of the Communist Party, especially the part about nationalism, and his thinking finally slowly changed.

After that, things were also very simple, as the southwest completed the occupation of Shaanxi and began the reorganization of the Shaanxi People's Army, Wang Derong and most of the Beiyang soldiers who were inspired by the Communist Party to stay were incorporated into the 10th Division and became a member of the glorious Southwest Army.

And because of his own excellent military quality, Wang Derong became a platoon commander of the 10th Division. After several months of reorganization and training, it was at this time that Wang Derong learned the truth about the establishment, equipment, and combat effectiveness of the main divisions of the Southwest Army, and at the same time, he was shocked in his heart, and at the same time, he also truly had a sense of belonging to the Southwest Army.

This time, he went south with the whole army of the 10th Division to fight in Burma, fighting for the country in the real sense, and for Wang Derong, who advocates the mission of soldiers, that kind of mood is also complicated that ordinary people cannot understand.