The town of Callenbridge, south of Scotland.

In a wooded area northwest of the town lurks a reconnaissance detachment of the reconnaissance company directly under the 209th Infantry Regiment of the Scottish Army. They had been holding out for a full day since the Coalition captured Callumbridge, the 209th Regiment, and friendly forces. Their task was to closely monitor the opponent's every move and to find ways to transmit information back to the regimental headquarters, but due to the poor radio communication, their communication with the rear was intermittent.

The commander of this reconnaissance squad is the burly Master Chief Edren Loy. He had served in the Scottish Army for 11 years, and his military skills and professional ethics were impeccable, but because his education level was too low and he did not know how to flatter, he became a typical "hardcore non-commissioned officer", meaning those old non-commissioned officers who could not advance to the ranks of officers until they retired.

At noon, seeing that the coalition troops in and outside the town were still buried in the fortifications, Roy lay in the bushes, covering his face with his military hat, and wanted to take a nap, but he didn't want to sleep deeply, until he was slapped on the shoulder, and he woke up violently.

Seeing the faces of the subordinate soldiers and hearing the faint sound of gunshots, Roy hurriedly asked, "What's wrong?" What's the situation? The enemy is coming? ”

"No, it's not, judging by the direction of the sound, it seems that our people are breaking out!" The soldier who woke him up replied.

"Breakout? The order is to hold on for three days, and this is only the next day! Roy's eyes widened.

"yes, I don't know what's going on!"

Roy frowned and thought for a while: "Well, maybe it's because the supply has been cut off by the enemy, and I really can't hold on!" However, the enemy occupied the communications and consolidated the position, and it was very difficult for our troops to break through! ”

With that, Roy cautiously got up, hunched over to the edge of the woods, and surveyed the outside with a telescope.

It's about 30 kilometres to Dumfries, where gunfire can be heard, and the exchange of fire isn't too far away.

"It seems to be just a fire reconnaissance, or a breakout of a small unorganized force." Roy muttered to himself.

The town of Cullenbridge, with more than 200 buildings, large and small, is only three or four kilometers from the woods. The reason why Lowy's reconnaissance team was able to lurk here for a day is inevitably related to the clear-cut operational deployment of the coalition forces: after the capture of the town of Calinbridge, the coalition armored mechanized troops quickly moved westward along the road, presumably to give full play to the essence of "blitzkrieg" and cut off the retreat of the first-line defenders of Scotland as quickly as possible, so as to eliminate the living force of the Scottish army and avoid falling into a battle of attrition The coalition troops left behind in the town of Calinbridge used the fortifications abandoned by the defenders to reconstruct the ring defense system. Towed artillery and wheeled rocket artillery were deployed, and within the range of the artillery, the coalition forces relied on the terrain to build a number of defensive positions, and in the case of a relative concentration of troops, they did not conduct a dragnet search of the surrounding villages and woods, but set up fixed guard posts and mobile patrol units, together with aviation units dispatched day and night to monitor the battlefield in real time, and firmly grasped the initiative on the battlefield.

From this point of view, until the situation changes, as long as Roy and his soldiers remain "quiet", it is unlikely that the coalition forces that control this area will come here to "trouble" them.

According to Lowy's observation, the coalition forces in Calinbridge Town had only two or three battalions at the beginning, but after receiving reinforcements, they increased to three or four thousand, and there were fifty or sixty artillery pieces of various types, and more than 100 combat vehicles and armored vehicles.

Thinking of this, Roy hurriedly picked up a pen and drew in his notebook, tore off the page, and then called a senior soldier and ordered: "Steven, you and John ride a bicycle by yourself, try to find the regimental headquarters, and give this to them." If the commanders of the regimental headquarters do not have special instructions, after completing the task, you will stay at the regimental headquarters and wait for us, and you don't have to come back here. ”

Without hesitation, the senior soldier took over the task, and then saluted: "Good luck to everyone!" ”

Roy returned the salute and said, "Good luck to you too!" ”

After the two soldiers left, Roy fell to one knee and continued to observe the situation outside from a hidden position at the edge of the woods. After a short time, the gunfire in the direction of Dumfries fell until it died down completely.

"The breakout failed." Roy muttered to himself, "Were they all captured, or did they retreat on their own initiative?" ”

Here, no one can answer his doubts.

At about four o'clock in the afternoon, the sound of battle was heard again in the direction of Dumfries, and this time there were not only gunshots, but also quite dense explosions, and the fire and smoke produced by the explosion appeared in the sight, which was relatively far away at first, and as the sky gradually darkened, the position of the fierce exchange of fire between the two sides continued to move westward, and in some relatively open places, Roy even saw the combat vehicles and soldiers of both sides.

Just as he was secretly praying for his troops, the nearby town of Cullumbridge suddenly resounded like the rumble of war drums. Magnified by the quadruple telescope, the artillery positions on the east side of the town were lined up with howitzers spraying orange flames and gray-white gunsmoke in turn, while the self-propelled guns parked under the camouflage net were also slanting forward at a higher rate of fire.

Roy observes as he writes in his notebook with a yellowed cover. Although his marking method was somewhat different from that of the officers who came out of the military academy, this kind of hand-drawn map of the enemy's situation was sent to the regiment headquarters, and the veteran staff officers were able to accurately identify the content of the intelligence.

"Chief, I just received half a telegram signed by Dumfries Operational Command!" The Messenger came to Roy's side with a tired and heavy face.

The so-called "half-copy telegram" usually refers to a telegram that is incomplete or has ambiguity in important content.

Roy turned his head to look at the comms: "Bad news? ”

The Messenger replied with his expression.

Roy took a deep breath, took the handwritten scratch paper from the communications soldier's hand, and quickly scanned it.

"Ten o'clock tonight is the total breakthrough?"

"That's right, ten o'clock, I'm sure, but ......," the communications man paused, "we're so close to them that we can't get the full telegram yet, and the command in the rear must be in a worse situation, if they don't receive the telegram at all......"

Roy also thought of this possibility, and he glanced back into the woods, and ordered, "Go and help me get Kim over!" ”

After a while, a tall, lanky corporal arrived at Roy with an SM-44 submachine gun modeled after Breda.

Roy handed the corporal a scratch paper with half of the telegram written on it, then bowed his head and filled in some of the contents in his notebook, tearing off the pages for the second time that day.

"Go ahead, bring the news and intelligence back to the regimental headquarters, and if you encounter friendly troops, if they can contact their superiors, you can hand them over." After that, Roy lowered his head and thought for a while, "You take Neil and Greg and ride your bike, and be careful to avoid enemy patrols!" It's getting dark, you need to hurry! ”

"I understand!" The corporal folded the two pieces of paper and put them in his breast pocket, looked in the direction of Dumfries, and turned away decisively.

Seeing the best of the Scouting Squad's best men depart with two brave soldiers, Roy redirects his attention to the town of Cullenbridge. The Allied artillery units were still firing at a distance with impunity, not at all fearing a backfire or air attack from the adversary, and the situation was not only so bad, but Roy saw the billowing dust on the road east of the town of Callumbridge, and carefully identified it as an enemy armoured column, and the chariots at the head of the row, which he had seen in the technical atlas, were the "Irish Leopards" developed and equipped by the new United Kingdom. Except for another new tank developed by the country, the "Irish Tiger", and the "Germanic Warrior", which was in service with the Germans at the same time, no tank can match it, and even few tanks can threaten its safety, which shows how advanced this tank is!

15 Irish Leopards, 22 Mule armoured personnel carriers, 9 Shield self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery vehicles, 6 Rhino heavy self-propelled guns, 20 six-wheeled delivery trucks (half of which are suspected to be carrying multiple rocket launchers...... Roy recorded in his notebook the enemy he had spotted. Just one day earlier, the Coalition had raided the town of Callumbridge with armoured units of similar size, and a single charge had crushed two Scottish infantry regiments and an artillery reinforced battalion. Such armored forces are not only good at rapid assault, high-speed penetration, and strong attack and grabbing points, but also have a much higher defensive ability and defensive efficiency than ordinary troops dominated by infantry, and they can give the opponent a great psychological deterrent no matter where they appear.

With that in mind, Loy marked a very sloppy line at the bottom of the page: Absolute forbidden area to avoid in the breakout of Calinbridge Town!

After hesitating for a long time, Roy called the signal soldier: "Can you find a way to send a report to Dumfries Operational Command?" ”

"The enemy's radio interference is very strong, and we need to try multiple backup frequencies to be able to contact them, provided that their radio equipment is still functional," replied frankly. The big problem is...... We are almost under the nose of the enemy, and as soon as we send a report, the enemy will immediately detect our position and surround us from all directions. If it was all dark, we would have evacuated as soon as we had sent the report, and we might be able to get rid of the enemy's pursuit, but now ......"

Dusk was approaching, night had not yet arrived, and there were only three paths before Roy: send the report late, not send the report, or send it immediately.

Roy gritted his teeth and said, "It's about the survival of tens of thousands of our soldiers, we have to take a risk." ”

The signal soldier thought for a while and said freely: "Although the enemy may not even give us a chance to surrender and send us to the sky with one shot, for the sake of those brothers who have held out for two days and one night under the enemy's artillery fire, and for the ultimate victory with little hope, I am willing to take a risk with you!" ”

Roy nodded solemnly: "Take a risk!" ”