As soon as the offensive and defensive battle of Rokgandapur began, Konev rushed from Calcutta to Rokgandapur to watch the battle. The 135th Division is the main division of the 76th Army of the Indian Army under the Bengal Army Group, and its combat effectiveness is quite strong for the Indian Red Army. And their opponent is just a Chinese Marine Division, not the famous Chinese armored division, and the formation of this Chinese Marine Division does not seem to be complete, at least the artillery has not arrived, Konev does not believe that there will be no heavy artillery of more than 100mm under the establishment of the Chinese division. However, such a marine division, which did not have all the artillery, still relied on its strong air superiority and skillful artillery infantry and air coordination skills to easily suppress an elite division of the Indian army.

Less than 3 kilometers away, the Chinese infantry in camouflage uniforms launched another offensive, their recoilless guns and mortars should have been placed on the starting position, and the last line of Indian positions outside Rokigandapur was set on fire from close range. The Indian troops in the position could not even raise their heads, they had only two effective means of counterattack, throwing grenades and fighting bayonets!

As for the Indian artillery, there is no hope at all, because the planes of the Chinese army are swaggering and circling in the air, and as long as the artillery positions of the Indian army dare to open fire, the bombs will definitely fall on their heads in less than three minutes. And what made Konev feel strange was that this aircraft did not know whether it was a fighter or a dive bomber, as if the two types of aircraft were combined into one. The I-16s of the Indian Air Force have made several sorties, and these planes have come up with bombs to engage the I-16s. In the end, it was very easy to win. It seems that the Soviet Air Force has no hope of catching up with the fighter performance, and will have to get used to fighting with the enemy having overwhelming air superiority.

However, the 135th Division of the Indian Army had held out for three full days in Rokigandapur. As of midnight yesterday, the 135th Division had more than 7,000 killed, seriously wounded, and missing! If it weren't for the replenishment of 3,000 reservists, Roki Gandapur would have fallen 24 hours ago! As for the losses of the Chinese army, the number reported to Konev here is more than 3,000 people, but Konev feels that this number divided by three is exaggerated. If you want to evaluate the ratio of combat effectiveness of this Chinese Marine Division to the Indian Infantry Division, Konev feels that there is always a 7:1 ratio, that is to say, it takes more than 7 Indian infantry divisions to draw with this Chinese Marine Division, and if you want to defeat this Chinese Marine Division. I am afraid that it is necessary to concentrate more than 10 times the superior forces, and also to take into account their air superiority, it is better to choose the weather of heavy rain for several days to launch the attack......

"Comrade Commander, Comrade Commander......" shouted an Indian Red Army officer with a beard in stiff Russian as he ran and shouted to Konev's side.

"Comrade Sukji Darsingh, what happened?" Konev recognized this Indian officer as Singh, the commander of the 135th Division.

"Can't hold it! I really can't hold it this time! Singh wiped the sweat on his forehead and shouted: "The enemy will soon attack the city of Rokigandapur, and it is not very safe here, please comrade commander move quickly." ”

There are no fortified buildings in the city of Rokkanddapur. There are no city walls, just some low bungalows, and the Chinese's artillery is basically in ruins as soon as the bombing bombs are lost, and you don't even think about street battles, so if the outer positions are lost, the city of Rokigandapur is almost finished.

Seeing that Konev did not say anything. Division Commander Singh gritted his teeth and shouted: "Please rest assured, Comrade Commander, all the commanders and fighters of our 135th Division are determined to fight to the end in the city of Rokigandapur, and the city is dead and people are dying in the city!" ”

Konev narrowed his eyes and looked at the Singh division commander in front of him, the revolutionary determination was not small, and it was no worse than the Soviet comrades. But what's the point of a city dying and a man dying? He snorted coldly and ordered categorically: "Give Roki Gandapur to the Chinese, we don't do the death of the city." That's the fate of the enemy, not ours! Comrade Singh, now I order you to withdraw from the battle with the 135th Division and go to Raipur to recuperate, and more fierce and important battles await you! ”

……

After leaving the Rokigandapur front, Konev did not return to his headquarters in Raipur, but went directly to Fort William in Calcutta. This was an order from the command of the Indian Northeast Front, and Blyukhel was planning a war of annihilation against the Chinese army, and Konev was ordered to observe the combat effectiveness of the Chinese landing force. In the war room at Fort Wilhelm, Konev reported what he had seen and heard on the Rokigandapur front, as well as his personal assessment and analysis of the gap in combat effectiveness between the Chinese and Indian armies. It takes 10 times as many troops to defeat the Chinese army? And they also choose to strike when their sea and air superiority cannot be used to exert their power! But...... There are at least 15 to 200,000 Chinese troops who landed in the Bay of Bengal, right? The follow-up troops are still coming, how many people are there in the Indian Northeast Front? There are only 1 million in total, so it is impossible for them all to be mobilized to the Bay of Bengal to fight a decisive battle with the Chinese army, right? There are still four or five hundred thousand Chinese troops in Imphal, and if they are allowed to invade Bengal, how many people will it take to drive them out? Four or five million! What a joke, if the Chinese army is really so strong, how did the Indian Red Army drive them out that day?

Konev shook his head and said with a puzzled face: "Comrade commander, I don't know how the Indian Red Army drove out the Chinese invaders last time, and I have not fought with the Chinese Expeditionary Force in India, so I am not qualified to comment. But I fought with their Northwest Front in Central Asia, and in the Battle of the Alaresa River in October 1932, our army was slightly superior in numbers, the number of artillery, tanks, and armored vehicles was basically the same as that of the opponent, and the opponent's air superiority was not particularly strong, and it was defeated by the Chinese, and 3 army groups were annihilated! If it weren't for the timely arrival of reinforcements, the remaining 3 armies would probably have been wiped out! ”

He accentuated his tone: "The squadron I saw on the Rokigandapur front is stronger than it was 3 years ago...... Their infantry has more firepower and is more skilled in coordination with artillery and air force. They did not send tanks, armored vehicles. So I'm not sure how much progress has been made in the armored forces of the Chinese army. But their Air Force is several times stronger than it was 3 years ago! He turned his gaze to Pavlov: "Comrade Pavlov, you fought with the most elite troops of the Chinese in Siberia. I think you have more say in the real combat power of the squadron than I do, right? ”

Blyukhel and Carya looked at Pavlov at the same time, and the latter's face showed an extremely heavy sadness, and finally a gritted tooth expression. Blyukhel did not ask anything more, and of course the senior commander of the Soviet Red Army at his level knew about the situation of the Nizhny Udinsk counterattack - the more than one million troops of the Soviet Eastern Front were crushed by hundreds of thousands of Chinese armored troops, and the entire Eastern Front battlefield was thus completely passive, and if it were not for the Chinese's intention to waterproof, the Krasnoyarsk fortress would have been lost now.

"Comrade Konev is quite right that it takes 10 times more troops to defeat the enemy. If you want to annihilate it, you need to use at least 15 times the enemy's strength! Blyukhel walked to the front of the map and stared at it for a long time before taking a deep breath and saying, "Although the enemy is strong and I am weak, we still have a chance, because this is India, and there are hundreds of millions of Indian people standing behind us." This is an invincible force! After saying these encouraging words, he took a whip and swiped lightly on the Hooghly River on the map: "The enemy landed not only on the island of Sagar, but also on the port of Dicka on the west bank of the Hooghly River, and then advanced along the Dicka-Ganti-Demlugh to the west of the city of Calcutta, and together with the troops marching along the east bank of the Hooghly River, they formed a flank attack on Calcutta. But at the same time their forces are scattered. The two armies were separated by the Hooghly River, and the course of the Hooghly River was blocked by us, the Chinese warships could not enter, and it was the rainy season, and the Hooghly River was flooded with water. As a result, the downstream river is wide, and it is not so easy to erect a pontoon bridge. Therefore, it should be difficult for their two-way army to echo. This is our chance! We're going to break them all! ”

……

At this time, Peng Dhuai was also in the former enemy headquarters on Sagar Island, and Pan Wenzhao, chief of staff of the front army and commander of the Bengal cluster, Zhao Zongyang, commander of the First Armored Cavalry Army, Yusuf, commander-in-chief of the East Indian Liberation Army, Sheng Shicai, chief of staff of the East Indian Liberation Army, and others gathered around the map table to discuss the military situation.

"Commander-in-chief, the enemy is weaker than imagined, and the weapons and equipment and soldiers are not as good as at the beginning of the year, the 1st Marine Division and the 1st North Korean Division are fighting smoothly, and they have advanced to the vicinity of Fulda and Demlug...... "Pan Wenzhao pointed to the map with a whip to briefly introduce the situation on the battlefield, and then said: "However, Fulda and Demlug are not expected to be easy to fight, because the Hooghly River divides into a tributary called the Rubnarayan River in Nurpur, a small town south of Ferda." Thus beyond Nurpur to the north, the Hooghly River narrows by almost half, and it is much easier to assume that the pontoon bridge is also much easier. And the surface of the Lubnarayan River is not too wide, and there are also conditions for pontoon bridges, so that we can erect them separately, and the armies of the east and west can echo each other from afar. Therefore, the headquarters estimated that the Indian Red Army should deploy heavy troops at Ferda and Demlug to engage in a decisive battle with our army. ”

Zhao Zongyang took over the topic and said: "Commander-in-chief, the department thinks that the enemy is likely to lure the enemy into the depths, and the 1st Marine Division has fought more than 80 kilometers along the Hooghly River. The 1st North Korean Division is even more powerful, and it has advanced hundreds of kilometers since the landing! This is only two infantry divisions, and they do not even have heavy artillery. Even if India is weak, it will not be weak to this extent. I think there must be a ghost in here, so let's be careful and wait for my armored cavalry corps to land before making plans. ”

Peng Dhuai said coldly: "Of course the Indians will not be so weak, otherwise the United States and Britain would not have suffered so much in the Middle East, I heard that the loss of troops is one million!" ”

Sheng Shicai interjected: "This Indian has always killed 1,000 enemies and lost 3,000 in wars, and the United States and Britain sent 1 million in the Middle East, so wouldn't the Indian Red Army have to lose 2 or 3 million?" Perhaps their elite has been lost in the Middle East, so the forces remaining in India are weak. ”

"It's definitely weaker than it was." Pan Wenzhao nodded and said: "Before the founding of the Indian Army, the total strength of the Indian Red Army did not exceed 5 million, but now there are more than 3 million Indian Red Army in the Middle East alone, and it is estimated that there are more than 6 million Indian Red Army in India itself, and the Indian Army has also sent at least four or five million soldiers to the Soviet Union...... That's fourteen or five million in total. The strength of the army has been multiplied by three in less than a year, and if you can maintain the original combat effectiveness, there will be a ghost! ”

"That's right." Zhao Zongyang thought about it and felt that Pan Wenzhao's words made sense. "The original Indian Red Army was established with the Soviet Red Army as the backbone, and even the military commanders above were all served by Soviets, and the artillery was also Soviet, and the weapons and equipment were also good, and the combat effectiveness was about half that of the Soviet Army, right?"

"But Blyukhel is still there!" Peng Dhuai's voice was not loud, but it revealed a kind of stunning majesty: "Although Blyukhel did not go to a military school, he is a famous general who has really experienced a hundred battles. His talent is probably still above Tukhachevsky's. And the most remarkable thing is that Blyukhel makes good use of weak soldiers! With strong soldiers, anyone can bully the weak, and with weak soldiers, the weak to break the strong is the real general! In the art of military command, I am inferior to Blyukhel, and you are even worse. Not even in our entire Wehrmacht can find a single person who can match it! So as long as he is still in India, the Indian Red Army is not easy to deal with, do you understand? ”

This makes Blyukhel a little high, but it is also true! It is indeed the most difficult to defeat a strong army with a weak army, on the contrary, it does not take much military skill to command a strong army to bully the weak. If Blyukhel had commanded the Soviet Red Army to defeat Britain and the United States in the Middle East, General Peng would not necessarily be convinced. But the people commanded India and Ah San to defeat Britain and the United States! Although there was a double advantage in numbers, and the command of the British and American sides was also full of mistakes, it was still very remarkable to win a great victory in destroying millions of enemies, and Peng Dhuai felt that if he was allowed to replace the command of Blyukher, he would definitely not be able to win such a big battle!

Sheng Shicai, chief of staff of the East Indies Liberation Army, seemed to hear something from Peng Dhuai's words. interjected: "Commander-in-chief, what do you mean. As long as Blyukhel left India, the Indian Red Army would be easy to deal with? Peng Dhuai was stunned for a moment, nodded and smiled bitterly: "Of course!" Even if Tukhachevsky came to India, he would not be my opponent, because Tukhachevsky did not understand the national conditions of India, nor was he familiar with the situation of the Indian Red Army, except for Blyukher, no one could use the Indian soldiers so well! But we are not Trotsky, so why should Blyukhel be removed from his post? ”

Sheng Shicai smiled slightly: "Commander-in-chief, have you forgotten what Jì Blyukhel's position was when the Indian People's Republic was established?" He paused for a moment and asked himself: "At that time, he was the commander-in-chief of the Indian Front of the Soviet Union and the commander-in-chief of the Indian Red Army, and he was on an equal or even slightly higher level than Lu Yi, but now Blyukhel is only the commander of the Northeast Front of the Indian Red Army." ”

Peng Dhuai nodded and said: "No matter how good Blyukhel is, he is not an Indian, how can Lu Yi be willing to hand over the most important military power to a foreigner?" ”

Sheng Shicai said: "Since this is the case, then we have a way to invite this Blyukhel back to China." ”

"It's not easy, it's not easy, Lu Yi is also a wise leader, and he won't do anything about destroying the Great Wall." Peng Dhuai shook his head again and again. He had been dealing with the Indian GCD for more than a year, and of course he knew who Lu Yi was, although he was not as good as Chang Ruiqing and Trotsky, but he was not an ordinary person, and if he had not grasped the two main lines of caste oppression and land contradictions, the Indian revolution would never have won so easily.

Sheng Shicai shook his head and said with a smile: "Commander-in-chief, my subordinates have been responsible for collecting intelligence on the Indian side for the past two years, and I have paid special attention to the situation of Lu Yi and other Indian leaders...... In the eyes of his subordinates, Lu Yi was indeed wise before the victory of the Indian Revolution, and did not make a major mistake in making heavy decisions. But after Yin G sat firmly in the world, this great leader of Yin G became less and less wise in doing things. To be more precise, Lu Yi is becoming more and more arrogant, more and more happy, and more and more detached from reality. This situation became even more severe after the Second Middle East War, and Trotsky took advantage of Ruy's arrogance and great joy to tie India to the Soviet chariot step by step. We might as well use these two points to drive Blyukhel out of India! ”

Peng Dhuai frowned and said, "Chief of Staff Sheng, what do you want to do?" ”

"We can bomb Delhi, the capital of the Indian GCD, not only drop bombs but also drop leaflets to promote the East Indian Islan Revolution, call on the all-India Muslins to launch a jihad, and we can hype up the crushing defeat of the Indian Red Army in the Himalayas. In short, we must make Lu Yi, the great leader, lose face! ”

"But the big airports in Hotan and Kashgar haven't been built yet." Pan Wenzhao interjected: "And the H-7 long-range bomber has not been finalized and put into production, and we have no bomber that can threaten Delhi!" ”

"Use the broken airfield on Sagar Island, the Indians haven't destroyed it thoroughly, and it can be repaired. It was built by the British before the victory of the Indian Revolution, and it could take off and land bombers, and the maximum range of the bomber was more than 3,000 kilometers, enough to fly from Sagar Island to Delhi to drop bombs and drop leaflets. In order to maintain his image as a great leader, Ruyi will definitely force Blyuhel to counterattack the Bay of Bengal, and when the time comes, as long as we defeat Blyuhel's counterattack, Ruyi will definitely remove Blyuhel from his post! ”

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