The 1st Infantry Division had already entered the range of Tengxian County, and the 2nd Infantry Division, which continued to advance from Zhaigongfang, also began to clear the outlying strongholds of the Japanese army. Zhao Zhi didn't expect to be able to break through the position of Zhaigongfang and take Tengchong City in one day, and he could complete the siege of Tengchong in one day, which was already the best news.

As the commander-in-chief of this operation, Zhao Zhi set up his front-line command after arriving at the outskirts of Tengchong, and after nightfall, all the officers above the regimental level under Lei Ting were summoned here for a meeting. The officers were deeply sympathetic but unable to help the plight of Mohr, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, but everyone obviously learned Mohr's lesson. Before rushing to the meeting, the officers had apparently washed their faces and changed their uniforms, and the fast-moving ones even took a shower before coming to the meeting.

Zhao Zhi, who was sitting at the top of the center, should be quite satisfied with the appearance of the officers, and after the people arrived, Zhao Zhi did not speak, but nodded at Xiao Ziyun who was standing beside him, signaling that the meeting could start. After Xiao Ziyun first saluted everyone, he introduced himself: "Contemptible Xiao Ziyun, the operational staff officer of the headquarters, let's introduce the specific information of Tengchong for the commanders" Zhao Zhi has a few young officers from the national army on his side, which is not a secret in the thunder, but there are few people who really know Xiao Ziyun's name, and Xiao Ziyun's self-introduction at this time is very necessary.

Xiao Ziyun picked up a baton and walked to the sand table that had just been made, and said loudly: "Tengchong City, since the Ming Dynasty orthodox years began to build, the city walls are all built with Qingfang boulders. After more than 500 years, it is still exceptionally strong. The city wall is divided into four gates, each with a majestic tower, the attic guards the door, and the gate is covered with cast iron pulp. In addition, Tengchong is regarded as a permanent defensive position under the management of the Japanese defense forces, although it is not a step by step fortress, but the entire city wall is a fortification is a fact, after more than half a year of planned construction, regardless of the four mountain barriers on the periphery, that is, Tengchong County itself is a permanent fortification system with reasonable layout and solid structure"

After listening to Xiao Ziyun's introduction, the officers present began to talk about it, and all the officers of the Second Division who participated in the attack on the Zhaigongfang position knew that the defense of Tengchong County would be very strong, but they did not expect it to be so strong, if they attacked with simple infantry, the casualties of the troops were probably unimaginable.

Most of the officers had no bottom in their hearts, only Harry, who commanded the artillery group, couldn't help but ask loudly: "Staff Officer Xiao, although the geographical location of Tengchong is very important, it is not important enough for the Japanese army to gather heavy troops, since the Japanese army gathers heavy troops for defense, then Tengchong's fortifications may not be as strong as you say, I personally think you are alarmist, I doubt that the Japanese army can create a so-called fortress cluster in Tengchong, if there is such a strong fortification, I believe that my artillery group can also bombard them like butter for a long time." ”

Harry's words made the officers who had just been frightened by Xiao Ziyun's introduction suddenly fall into a discussion, but Zhao Zhi did not have the slightest intention of interfering. All the information in Tengchong was provided by the military commander and the Thunder Scout, and the authenticity was naturally unquestionable, how to gnaw Tengchong's bone at the lowest cost, Zhao Zhi kept thinking in his heart, and today he planned to listen to the opinions of the people below. Relying too much on cluster artillery fire is not a good thing for the Jewish troops, on the one hand, because of the ammunition problem, and on the other hand, it will make the soldiers dependent, and it is not a good start for the next operation.

Xiao Ziyun, who was confident, smiled at Harry slightly, and then said: "Why did the Japanese army build such strong fortifications in Tengchong, that is, with a small number of troops, with many and strong fortifications, to hold the Yunnan-Burma border defense line. Since Japan launched the Pacific War, the Japanese army has forcibly occupied the vast land of Southeast Asia in one go, and its strength is no longer enough to allocate defense, and the Japanese army can use very few troops in the South Seas.

"Less than a year after the Japanese army entered Burma, it deployed heavy troops with the intention of directly taking the important Indian city of Imphal, one to open the door to attack India, and the other to completely cut off China's access to foreign aid. Tengchong is China's inherent territory, and the line between Tengchong and Longling is the main passage to attack Burma, so in order to be able to hold on to this place with a small number of troops, the Japanese army has to strengthen and build fortifications.

Xiao Ziyun paused for a moment and continued: "Although the area of Tengchong County is small, the city is full of fortresses, and even the streets and alleys, or the large houses and courtyards of the people, have all been built by the Japanese. Even if our army successfully attacked the fort and was able to capture several of the fortress groups, it was not helpful for the overall defense of the Japanese army, and according to the information sent back by the scouts, the Japanese army had ordered the Japanese troops deployed in Tengchong and its surroundings to begin to shrink the defensive line and retract Tengchong City. Judging from the situation at this time, if we want to attack Tengchong, I am afraid that it will cause a lot of casualties."

In the midst of everyone's discussions, Zhao Zhi, who had been sitting speechless, finally spoke, "What Staff Officer Xiao Chen just introduced is what I want to say to you, Tengchong is connected to Longling here, if we can't take Tengchong as soon as possible and cut off the access to the first line of the Japanese army to reinforce Longling, then it will inevitably affect the attack of the first division on Longling, and I will find everyone today, I just want to hear everyone's suggestions."

Xiao Ziyun's previous intelligence summary gave the officers attending the meeting a preliminary impression that to attack such an enemy army, on the premise of ensuring that there would be no heavy casualties, no one present was obviously not sure. Zhao Zhi knew that although this battle was to save others and save himself, it was actually equivalent to taking chestnuts from the fire. That is, the Japanese army must not feel the threat from the thunder, but also be able to threaten and shock the Japanese army, so that it does not dare to fight the thunder head-on.

"What? Don't have anything to say? Zhao Zhi took out a cigar and put it in his mouth, which was a new habit of his, and he was always used to holding a cigar in his mouth when thinking about problems. As the commander of this battle, Zhao Zhi was naturally very concerned about Tengchong's attack and defense, but Zhao Zhi paid more attention to the attitude of the officers at this time. The great victory of the defense line of the Zhai Gongfang made the officers see the power of the artillery cluster, and Harry's speech just now obviously represents the voice of many officers at this time, they think that when the large-caliber artillery cluster fires, the Japanese army's strong fortress is not worth mentioning.

"What I want is to take Tengchong, not to destroy it with artillery fire" Zhao Zhi is right, once the artillery group bombards Tengchong, while destroying the Japanese army's strong fortresses, the small Tengchong City will also be destroyed by artillery fire. "Taking Tengchong and Longling is only our first step, many of you have been reorganized from the road escort team to the legion, you should know the terrain of Burma. Myanmar is mountainous, forested and swampy, and in such a terrain, it is difficult for our large-caliber artillery to be deployed in clusters like today, and there will be no artillery groups to rely on at that time, so will this battle not be fought? ”

The first officer to bow his head was Harry, who had just spoken, the commander of the artillery group and the backbone of the Thunder who had always preached the supremacy of firepower. With more than ten years of experience as a professional artillery commander in France, he saw his own shortcomings from Zhao Zhi's words, France was the first country to use artillery group tactics, and Napoleon was convinced of this at the beginning. But that was in the European theater, Burma is a small place, mountainous, forested and swampy, and many terrains are not conducive to the assembly and deployment of artillery groups at all, and it seems that the supremacy of firepower that he has been preaching before needs to be drawn based on the actual terrain.

"Our infantry has been issued with the best weapons in the world today, our engineers have also developed bulletproof equipment for everyone, and we also have repeating sniper rifles that can be equipped with silencers, in terms of infantry firepower configuration, we are stronger than the Japanese army" Zhao Zhi looked around at the officers present, and continued slowly, "Large-caliber artillery can only be an auxiliary means when we attack, and we can't rely on them too much, otherwise once the artillery group is not assembled in place or because of ammunition problems, Soldiers who are accustomed to artillery fire will not be able to face the Japanese attack, which is something I don't want to see."

"The soldiers' mindset needs to be reversed, but now, as officers, you need to change your mindset first. I'm not saying that Harry's proposal for the supremacy of firepower is wrong, I'm just saying that our infantry can't rely too much on strong artillery support. You know, our large-caliber artillery and shells are all from the European theater, it is the aid of Germany and the United States, Burma is now controlled by the Japanese army, which means that we will not be able to get aid from Europe through the Yunnan-Burma road in the short term, the shells will always run out one day, if we have not taken Burma by then, what should we do? ”

"That's all for today's meeting, everyone go back and think about what I said, the specific plan of action for attacking Tengchong, I will inform you tomorrow morning" Zhao Zhi took Xiao Ziyun and a few of their young staff officers to leave the headquarters in advance, but Harry and they sat for a while before slowly dispersed. Everyone looked preoccupied and thoughtful when they left, and it seemed that Zhao Zhi's words touched them a lot.

"I'm hungry, go get me something to eat" Looking at the distant backs of the officers, Zhao Zhi, who was hidden in the shadows, smiled evilly, hoping that what he said today could really cause the officers to reflect, the troops under the command of Thunder should be the world's first-class strong army, not a ragtag army that relies on heavy artillery groups for everything.