Chapter 189: Before the General Attack
While the garrisons in major cities were encircling the concessions and investigating British and French personnel in China, Huang Bai also received orders from the Wehrmacht Operations General Staff.
After reading the fateful content, Huang Bai's face was full of smiles again.
These days, the Praetorian Guards have been fighting the autumn wind, attacking only a little distance every day, and the entire Praetorian Guard feels extremely uncomfortable, and there is a feeling of fighting mosquitoes with anti-aircraft guns. The offense can't be as enjoyable as possible, the original strength is very strong, only asking you to play three points, and you can't play too unrestrained, which will make people comfortable.
Now this paper order is equivalent to a liberation clause, to annihilate the enemy in one day, and to advance as much as you want to occupy the territory. This is equivalent to removing the tight spell that Chen Shao put on the Praetorian Guard, can Huang Bai be unhappy? As for the so-called persuasion and the like above, Huang Bai ignored it as much as possible. The Praetorian Guards finally managed to get a big battle, how could it end hastily. What's more, I don't know how long I will have to wait for the next war, and if I don't fight to my heart's content now, I don't know if there will be a chance in the future.
However, in terms of orders, Huang Bai also intends to comply with all of them, and the matter of surrender can be done again when the fight is almost over.
After the joy, Huang Bai seemed a little lacking in interest, now the British and French forces no longer have much strength, at most there are thirty or forty thousand people. And the defensive line has been compressed into a radius of only a few kilometers, although there are powerful fortifications, but these things are paper tigers for the Janissaries.
From the beginning of the war to the present, at least 100,000 of the 200,000 British and French troops have been killed or wounded, and 50,000 or 60,000 British and French soldiers have "enjoyed" prisoner treatment in the Chinese rear. Compared with the 60,000 or 70,000 troops of the Praetorian Guard, those 30,000 or 40,000 people are indeed not enough to even plug their teeth. What's more, there are two armies of reserve troops around, which are also eyeing each other. If they weren't allowed to participate, Huang Bai could expect that even if he won, Chen Shao would repair him well.
Huang Bai looked at the time, it was already twelve o'clock at noon, it was the soldier's lunch time, and Huang Bai also went out to eat something hastily. Like many generals and leading officers, Huang Bai eats with soldiers, and unless he doesn't have time, he will ask someone to deliver food to the headquarters.
After lunch, Huang Bai immediately summoned all the officers to the meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, Huang Bai gave an explanation of the orders of the General Staff of Operations.
Suddenly, the entire makeshift conference room was full of people, and the commanders of various divisions wanted to compete for the priority attack task, and they could all see that this attack was completely the last attack. If the second or third echelon is left behind, it is very likely that in this war, their mission is over.
"At the beginning of the general attack, it should be our first division. Our 1st Division, as the fist unit of the Praetorian Guard, will definitely not sit on the cold bench in the back. ”
"Our Second Division is not a vegetarian, and it is not only your first division that can fight, and our Second Division is resolutely at the forefront and has set an example for the vast number of army brothers."
"If you want to say that this general attack must give us three divisions, your first and second divisions have played the most in the previous battles, and our third division will definitely not let go of this opportunity this time."
Although the commanders of the three infantry divisions are usually good friends, in this case, even if their brothers come, they don't have to discuss.
In the conference room, only the commander of the armored division and the commander of the heavy artillery division did not say a word, and the heavy artillery division appeared every day, so there was no need to fight. The armored division has to fight or not, anyway, there are armored vehicles fighting in front, and the tanks can't be blamed.
There is no need for some other people to fight, they are all commanders of some special forces, and when they should play, they will naturally meet, and it will be the same whether they fight or not.
As for the commanders and fighters of the two reserve armies, they didn't speak, anyway, they had a chance to play, and there was no need to fight for these.
In the final meeting, the commanders of the three Praetorian Guards became the protagonists. The three of you say a word, and the confrontation continues.
"Okay, don't quarrel, what to fight. There is no priority in this battle. We have surrounded the Anglo-French forces, and a radius of several kilometers can be the direction of the attack. The two corps of the reserve attacked the southeast and southeast sides, and the northwest side was under the responsibility of the Janissaries, and the armored forces coordinated the attack on all sides. Huang Bai didn't mean to listen any further, but directly interrupted the chatter of his subordinates. Speaking of this, he raised his hand to look at the time and said, "It's half past twelve, and the start time of the general attack is set at half past one." I ordered: the heavy artillery division, in combination with all the artillery units, must begin the attack forty-five minutes before the artillery strike, and the shelling must be carried out until the beginning of the general attack. The attacking unit must arrive at the designated attack position before the end of the shelling, and the cessation of the artillery is the order for the general attack. At the same time, in order to carry out the orders of the General Staff, the Air Force will also dispatch a large number of bombers and fighters to cooperate with the attack. ”
Huang Bai's words made the three division commanders in the conference room who were originally arguing all stopped, and they could fight during the discussion, but once the commander spoke, everyone had to keep their mouths shut. By the time Huang Bai began to issue orders, the entire conference room was silent.
After the meeting, the entire camp of the Chinese National Defense Forces in the Lang Son area was mobilized. Especially here in the heavy artillery division, the technicians are doing the final inspection of the artillery, and the artillerymen are arranging the shells one by one, and the firing angle is the best step to determine.
Opposite the Anglo-French defensive positions were naturally the defensive positions of the Wehrmacht, which were all taken from the Anglo-French forces, and were very stable with a simple repair. On the Wehrmacht positions, the attacking soldiers had already begun to assemble, received sufficient ammunition from the logistics units, checked the weapons and equipment, and every soldier was in high spirits and ready to begin the battle, which was about to end.
Nearly 100 H-2 planes supporting airfields in Guangxi have completed their formation in the air and are heading for the target. The two squadrons of Fangchenggang's Warhawk-2 also began to set off, adding a strong touch to this battle.
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There was not a single Vietnamese in the British defensive position, those Vietnamese had long since run out, and at this point, the British and French forces did not have the heart to care about the so-called Vietnamese. They have to face a flood of attacks every day, which has exhausted them to deal with.
There is also a very important issue at the present for them, food. This was also a reason for the Vietnamese to escape, many British, French and Indian soldiers had not eaten for a day, and the visible roots of the trees had been gnawed away. Tens of thousands of troops were blocked here, tightly surrounded on all sides, and the stored food was quickly depleted. And it has cut off contact with the rear, and it has also cut off food sources. Eating weeds is what they eat three times a day.
Compared with the high morale of the Wehrmacht, the morale of the British, French and Indian soldiers was low. One by one, they hid in the trenches or bunkers with expressionless faces, their eyes unfocused, as if nothing could attract their attention. Hunger and death are mercilessly entangled with them, they have had enough of such days, and if it weren't for the fact that the officers have been pressing, not wanting to let their families bear undeserved infamy, it is estimated that many people have taken the initiative to go out and surrender.
But those officers are not having a good time, and these things are not up to them. They would also like to hear the order to surrender, having lost any faith in such a war. Although they also knew that they had to persevere, they felt that life was so fragile in the face of endless artillery fire.
Haig and Gammelin were hiding in the underground fortifications, and like other British and French soldiers, there was not a single intact building on the ground at this time, and all of them had been destroyed by artillery fire after more than ten days of fighting. These days, they are accustomed to hiding in the dark underground like rats, enjoying that brief period of peace.
This morning, a telegram came from the British and French, revealing to Ganmalin and Haig about the reinforcements. The two men kept the matter a secret and announced among the soldiers that reinforcements had landed in Myanmar and would arrive soon.
Then came the news that the two men held on to their last position, and the two countries had decided to start negotiations with China. Britain and France have repeatedly ordered that Britain and France must keep the last bargaining chips.
"Even if the Chinese army does not attack, as long as it surrounds us, we will not be able to hold out for even three days. When the time comes, when we are too hungry to resist, they can come up and accept the fruits of victory. Damn war, damn parliament, damn politicians, to hell with it. In the darkness of the underground, only the faint light shone brightly, and Haig roared fiercely, and his already old face looked bloodless. At this time, Haig's hair was not tidied up, and he was scattered, and his hideous face was matched in the dark underground, which fully met the requirements of making a horror movie.
"Alas! What's the use of saying that now. The 200,000 reinforcements are gone, hunger is nothing, how can heartache sum up my heart at this time. After hearing the telegram from the locality, Gan Malin suddenly felt like a knife, and this feeling was still very strong. Those 200,000 reinforcements were not only their hope, but also the 200,000 lives that were buried at the bottom of the sea without saying a word. Afterwards, Gan Molin asked himself in his heart: Can this be blamed on China? Gammelin's answer to himself was: no. Because Gan Malin knew that this was war, and if he had such an opportunity himself, he would definitely not be relentless.
"See what God does!" Haig thought about it for a long, long time, but there was no way to change the situation. I don't know how much my hair has fallen out of my hair, and there is hair falling all over my shoulders.
"Alas!" Gan Molin just sighed again and didn't say anything more, what else could he do but resign himself to fate so far. Counteroffensive? You don't see how many Chinese soldiers are surrounded by them. And once out of the trenches, how many soldiers will actually attack, and how many soldiers will surrender directly.
(To be continued)