Amritsar, East Punjab, India, October 21, 1935.

The sound of thunder exploded in the low dark clouds in the air, and the roar that sounded like a cannonball explosion from a distance seemed to indicate that a duel between the elites of the Chinese and Indian armies was about to unfold in this ancient land. The rain finally fell with a torrential down, enveloping the land on the border between East and West Punjab. Under the heavy rain, all the east-west roads around Amritsar were crowded with large groups of infantry marching troops, as well as countless artillery trucks and trucks transporting supplies. That is the main force of the "Xue Yue Cluster" composed of the 9th Infantry Corps, the 10th Infantry Corps, the 2nd Mountain Army, the 1st Airborne Division and other units of the Chinese National Defense Force, and the end point of their march is Delhi, the capital of the People's Republic of India!

Xue Yue was wearing a raincoat, standing on the side of an off-road vehicle parked on the side of the road, looking at the marching team in the rain, his brows furrowed slightly, this sudden heavy rain did add some variables to this decisive battle. Otherwise, the four squadrons deployed in Srinagar will be able to easily seal the victory. And now it is up to these elite soldiers to decide the outcome on the battlefield.

Chief of Staff Chen Changjie stood beside him and whispered to him the information he had just received and the march of the troops.

"The Indian Guards Army has already set out from Lahore, and the main force of 5 armies and 10 divisions has come out, with a total strength of about 130,000 to 150,000, which is on par with ours. However, the five corps were expanded from the five Guards Infantry Divisions combined with tens of thousands of local forces in East Punjab. There should be no increase in heavy weapons, or 6 artillery regiments, and the combat effectiveness is definitely inferior to ours......"

“…… The 30th Infantry Division has taken Amritsar. I built the battlefield of the decisive battle around the city of Amritsar. It is a plain with a flat river, and there are large wheat fields, and there is nothing dangerous. Moreover, this area has always been inhabited by Sikhs, and in the past, Sikhs and Hindus have always had contradictions, and they sided with the British and Indian authorities in the Indian Revolutionary War, so after the victory of the Indian Revolution, the Indian G brutally suppressed the Sikhs in Amritsar and the entire East Punjab, and the sum of the indicators of various counter-revolutionaries in East Punjab was as high as 15%. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the crackdown, and the surviving Sikhs were all labeled landlords and barred from the Indian GCD and the Indian Red Army. Hence in West Punjab. The support of the Indian Gs was extremely low, and when the 30th Infantry Division attacked Amritsar, the Sikhs in the city revolted accordingly. After our army broke through the city of Amritsar, all the Indian GCDs and the families of party members in the city were killed! ”

"What? What did you say? Xue Yue's brows that had just stretched out suddenly tightened. Snorted: "Why did you kill them all?" How did Zheng Guiting's division commander be? Why didn't his 30th Division come forward to maintain order? Herald. Give Zheng Guiting and the 30th Division a big time! ”

Chen Changjie responded with a wry smile, speaking of which, Zheng Dongguo, the commander of the 30th Division, was also unlucky, he worked hard to take the lead in the front and won the battle, but the credit was not reaped, but because of the excesses of the Indian counter-revolutionaries in Amritsar. However, there is nothing wrong with Xue Yue's punishment, because the relevant regulations of the Wehrmacht have very clear provisions that all Wehrmacht troops stationed in the occupied areas are located. Until the local civil administration system is established, there is an obligation to maintain local civil administration and law and order. Although there are no too high requirements. But you have to get by on the face, right? After all, the current Great China Federation is a democratic constitutional state that "convinces people with virtue".

Xue Yue then smiled slightly, and said in a low voice: "Jieshan, it is necessary to punish Zheng Guiting, but I also know that the fault is not his...... In this case, you can send a report to the Ministry of Defense in the name of the two of us, explaining the special situation in the eastern and western Punjab regions of India, where the common people have too deep grievances with India and G, which makes us very embarrassed and difficult to deal with. He thought for a moment, and then said, "Since the common people here do not support the Indian G, then let's put the battlefield around Amritsar." Let Zheng Guiting's 30th Division continue to take the lead, so as to make up for the mistakes! ”

"Well, well, that's the best, the 30th Division is a Far Eastern Army, and more than half of them are soldiers of the He clan, and the style couldn't be more fierce!" Xue Yue nodded again and again: "Pass the order, all troops will stop advancing eastward, and immediately concentrate on Amritsar, this is the battlefield where we will fight to the death with the Indian Guards Army!" He opened the door of the SUV and stepped forward: "Let's go, go to the city of Amritsar, where my former enemy headquarters is located!" ”

……

The sound of the wind, the rain, the thunder, the shouts of killing, and the crackling of gunfire like popping beans. Under the storm, at the junction of East and West Punjab, after daylight fell on October 23, 1935, the vanguard of the Indian Red Army Guards Army collided with the alert troops sent by the "Xue Yue Cluster" of the Assimilation Army, and launched the bloodiest battle.

Amritsar and Lahore are no more than forty or fifty kilometers away in a straight line, with a flat river in between, and not even a larger river. In the case of a rapid march, the Guards Army could rush from Lahore to Amritsar in just one day. This little time was obviously not enough for Xue Yue's three armies and one division to complete the deployment and arrange the battlefield. Therefore, in order to buy time for the troops to deploy their defenses, the 30th Division, which had "made a mistake" in Amritsar, was sent to delay the opponent's movements.

And Pavlov also made the greatest determination, according to the weather forecast, this heavy rain can last until October 25 at most, and then there will be cloudless sunny days! Once the Chinese's Orion attack aircraft returns to the air, his army of more than 100,000 will not be able to eat and go around! Therefore, the scale of the vanguard he sent was also quite large, with a full division, and it was also the "No. 1" in the entire Guards Army, the First Guards Division of the Indian Red Army. Just by looking at the number, you know that it is the elite of the elite! Although a part of the backbone and heavy weapons were transferred to form the 101st Guards Division in the recent emergency expansion, many officers and soldiers of the local troops of West Punjab, which were not very reliable in terms of political and combat effectiveness, were also crammed in. However, the old foundation of the 1st Guards Division is still there, and the combat effectiveness has not been reduced much. Moreover, the whole division (excluding the officers and soldiers who had just been plugged into West Punjab) was holding back their strength and wanted to teach a hard lesson to the Chinese imperialist aggressors who had invaded India! Therefore, after encountering the Chinese army's alert troops, the 1st Guards Division immediately completed its deployment on the march, and the scale of the battalion and company level was combined with the alert search screen of the 30th Infantry Division of the Chinese Army. The 30th Division of the Chinese Army had just suffered a "sullen loss" in the city of Amritsar, and was holding back a fire with nowhere to sprinkle, and now it was just using the Indian Red Army sent to the door as a punching bag. The battle between the small forces of the two sides immediately began on the entire front west of Amritsar, and the battle was extremely fierce from the beginning. The sound of heavy firing from the Soviet-made M1910 Maxim heavy machine gun. The screeching sound of the Chinese Army's Type 34 general-purpose machine gun as if tearing linen, as well as the sound of various light and heavy artillery firing at each other, and the earth-shattering shouts of killing suddenly resounded. Staff officers at all levels on both sides also arrived at the front line at the first time under the cover of the troops and began to observe the terrain and the reality of the opponent. The situation is obvious. The Indian army in Lahore ventured out to fight a decisive battle, indicating that the city of Delhi must be empty. So Amritsar's first battle is about the outcome of the whole war! Both sides will definitely put all their strength into it, because they have no way back!

At noon on the 23rd, General Pavlov, commander of the Indian Guards Army, personally went to the front line to observe the face-to-face situation. This battle cannot be lost in any way. So he must grasp the most real situation on the front line. So as to make the most perfect deployment!

This internationalist fighter who supported the Indian revolution was indeed desperate. It is a pity that his level of command can only be regarded as third-rate, in the first Middle East battle, in the later Nizhny Udinsk counterattack was extremely dull, in history because the Western Front under his command was defeated by the German army within a week and went to a military court, because he was sentenced to death for national crimes. In this time and space, he has to shoulder the mission of saving the national fortunes of the People's Republic of India, I really don't know if his life is miserable or the Indian GCD is unlucky?

In Pavlov's telescope eyepieces, the battlefield in the rain was in chaos. Due to poor visibility, he was unable to grasp much of the situation. I saw huge fireballs rising into the air. It should be that both sides are using artillery to bombard. Judging by the point of impact of the shells, the artillery of the 1st Guards Division of the Indian Army was clearly at a disadvantage.

Now the artillery regiment of the 1st Guards Division is flooded, with only 20 cannons, among which there are 4 45mm anti-tank guns. There are only 16 real suppression guns, which are 8 76.2mm field guns, 4 122mm howitzers and 4 152mm howitzers. Compared with the 54 suppressed artillery pieces of a Chinese infantry division (36 105mm howitzers and 18 155mm howitzers), it is a big difference, and it is normal to be unable to defeat the opponent.

However, the situation of infantry hand-to-hand combat seems to be that the Red Army soldiers in India also suffered losses, and an infantry company of the Indian army was defeated by a similar number of Chinese troops under Pavlov's nose! The two sides even fought a white-knuckle battle with bayonets. The opponent encountered by the Indian army was not the elite of the Chinese army using Type 31 automatic rifles, but the ordinary Chinese army using Type 38 rifles, and the figure was similar to that of the Indian army. But as soon as the white blade was handed over, the verdict was made! Steel to the Chinese army with less gas brandished bayonets and chased the butt of the Indian revolutionary fighters with less steel and more gas! There were even a few undetermined revolutionary fighters who threw away their rifles and surrendered to the Chinese army on their knees!

Pavlov's face suddenly turned cold, and the staff around him and the division of the 1st Guards Cavalry Division, Das. Benegy could feel a chill coming over the Soviet general. Pavlov turned his head and glanced coldly at a few people: "What do you think?" The senior officers around him all looked at each other. Commander of the 1st Guards Division. Benegie stubbornly explained: "Comrade Commander...... After the last expansion of our division, many officers and men of the local troops of West Punjab came in, and their su zhì was very poor, and these must have been the ones who surrendered to the enemy just now...... Moreover, the Chinese troops we encountered were also quite fierce, especially good at close combat and white-knuckle combat, and it seemed that they were not quite the same as the legend, and the comrades were not very comfortable for a while......" He suddenly fell silent, as if he had noticed Pavlov's cold eyes. His head was lowered.

Everyone knows that the emblem of the elite infantry unit of the Chinese army is the Type 31 automatic rifle. The Airborne Forces, the Marine Corps, Panzergrenadiers and some Mountain Soldiers use these powerful automatic rifles. However, the Chinese infantry who were pressing the Indian army in front of them were using the old-fashioned Type 38 rifle and MP-18 submachine gun! Obviously, it is the most ordinary infantry, and even this kind of unit can suppress the most elite infantry in India. What hope is there for this war?

Pavlov said coldly: "Have you found out the other party's number?" ”

Das. Benegie shook his head: "Not yet...... Front, no prisoners were caught in front, so it was impossible to find out the number ......"

"No captives!?" Pavlov's face was even more ugly, and now at least twenty or thirty thousand people were fighting in the pouring rain. It stands to reason that it is easy to catch a prisoner, but after fighting for a long time, I didn't catch a single enemy! What does this mean? It shows that you have suffered a big loss on your side! I'm afraid that none of the melee ended in a victory for the troops of the 1st Indian Guards Division!

Das. Benegie sighed: "Comrade commander, you may not imagine that the enemy who fought with our division today is very tenacious!" No matter how hard you fight, you won't retreat. I'd rather die than be a prisoner, so the comrades in front have not captured a prisoner until now...... These enemies are really reactionary to the extreme! ”

"Nonsense!" Pavlov was about to blow up the Indian Ah San in front of him, who was obviously a second- and third-tier unit of the Chinese army. And not some Panzergrenadier division. The 1st Guards Division, which has always been known as the "First Division of India", can't beat it, and it is said that the opponent is stubborn! It seems that this 1st Guards Division has exhausted its sharpness in the city of Delhi in the past two years. He frowned, and he had no confidence in the decisive battle that was about to begin, and muttered: "Comrade Lu Yi and the Central Committee of India and G have high hopes for us...... If we can't defeat the enemy here. Then they will storm Delhi! Delhi now has only one division of the regular army and a hundred thousand workers' Red Guards. I can't hold it at all. As soon as Delhi is lost, the Indian revolution will be ......" He sighed and said to his chief of staff: "It seems that it is not possible to take the initiative to attack, it is better to set up the troops for defense, let them attack first, as long as they can hold on, there will be a chance." ”

"Comrade commander, we can't defend it, and we can't hold it!" Sharapov, the chief of staff of the Guards Army next to him, suddenly reminded: "The weather forecast says. This kind of heavy rain lasted until the 25th at most, and then there were consecutive sunny days. The enemy's air force will return to the battlefield! He gritted his teeth and said, "Let's either storm at any cost, or leave here before the enemy has launched an offensive and go back to defend Delhi!" ”

Pavlov was silent for a moment, but still shook his head and said: "Arrange defense, I believe that the enemy will not wait for the weather to clear up before attacking, as long as we can inflict heavy losses on the enemy in these two days of defensive battles, it is possible to save the passive situation." ”

……

At this time, behind the Chinese army front, Xue Yue put down the binoculars, exhaled, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face: "What kind of guards group army, it turned out to be a bunch of useless embroidered pillows, according to their way of playing, we will win this battle." Now it depends on whether the reinforcements of the Indian army will arrive in Delhi before us. ”

Several Chinese army officers around him were also full of arrogance, and they also had satisfied smiles on their faces. The officers lowered their binoculars and pointed to the place where the battle was raging in front of them, and laughed and cursed.

"Commander, when will our 1st Airborne Division go up? This little bit of destruction of the Indian Ah San can not be wiped out by the brothers of the 10th Army. ”

"Lao Du, your 1st Airborne Division has already made great contributions in Kashmir, and a lieutenant general can't run away, so why are you in a hurry? The Indian A-3 here is still left to our 10th Army Bao Yuan. ”

Xue Yue scolded with a smile when he heard this: "You Guan Tiequan is already a lieutenant general, so let's leave some credit for other brothers!" His tone sank: "Everyone, I have already seen the enemy situation, do you have any comments to mention?" Whether it's offensive or defensive, let's talk about it. ”

Several officers looked at each other, and the first to speak was Guan Linzheng, the commander of the 10th Army: "In my opinion, we should attack, concentrate all our efforts to break the enemy in front of us in the shortest possible time, and then go straight to Delhi to win the second battle in one fell swoop!" ”

"Yes, we should attack! The Indian Guards Army is nothing more than that, and it is by no means our opponent. ”

"Although the attack will suffer heavy casualties at this time, it is still worth it, we can't give the Indians time to strengthen the defense of Delhi!"

Apparently, these young generals of the Chinese Defense Forces have now set their sights on Delhi, the capital of India. Xue Yue nodded, and the corners of his mouth tightened: "Okay!" Since everyone agrees with this, let's take the offensive and fight! This time, the first formation was given to Guan Yudong's 10th Army, Liu Linshu's (Liu Huan)'s 9th Army outflanked the right flank of the Indian Army, Chen Ziliang (Chen Mingren)'s 2nd Mountain Army printed the left flank, and Du Guangting's 1st Airborne Division as a reserve. Most of them went back and prepared well, and the attack began at 3 a.m. tomorrow, and the artillery preparation before the infantry attack was 15 minutes. Let's march more than 1,000 kilometers from Central Asia to fight, just for tomorrow's battle, no one is allowed to drop the chain at a critical moment, you know! ”

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