General Xiao Guoxing, the commander of the hot-tempered Guards Corps, almost threw the army-green water cup in his hand by mistake.

"The goal of Eisenhower's campaign was to create a partial breakthrough on the Troon Line, and then to use the local superiority of the multinational force to squeeze our entire line of defense. Old/Jiang you let go of a hole in Derbyshire, that ...... Didn't you take the initiative to give a big gift to the US military? ”

This means that Jiang Yunzhi personally announced the battle plan, and if he changed to someone else, with General Xiao's temper, he had to directly scold him as a traitor.

Jiang Yunzhi is of course very familiar with this old brother's quick temper. This is also the reason why the first three regiment commanders of the Guards, Lao Quan and himself were the first to be appointed commanders, and only Xiao Guoxing was only a general.

"More than brave, lack of strategy, a general who charges into battle, and a talent who is not in command of the army." His Majesty's evaluation of Xiao Guoxing is still relatively objective.

It is better to punish the general than to provoke the general. Jiang Shuai smiled slightly, "Old Xiao, since you have some doubts about the 'Tiger Ben' plan, then, I will give the Guards a most difficult task. Do you dare to take it? ”

"Do you dare to take it? Lao/Jiang, do you look down on me or the Guards Legion? You ......"

Looking at Xiao Guoxing's appearance of blowing his beard and staring, Jiang Yunzhi knew that this guy was messing around, and without His Majesty's bullet pressure, it would be difficult for ordinary people to restrain him. "Yes, Old Xiao, I didn't mean that, I also came out of the Guards Legion, can I belittle the Guards? Listen up! Lao Xiao, in this campaign, our goal does not care about the gains and losses of one river and one city, we want to annihilate a large number of multinational forces and inflict heavy losses on the US army. The key is whether the opening of the Trent River in Derbyshire can be resealed in time in order to lure the enemy into the deep. If it is sealed, we will be able to close the door and fight the dog, and if it can't be sealed, it may be a bamboo fence to draw water. However, it is easy to open it, but it is not easy to seal it again. The troops in charge of this task must not only cut into the waist of the United States, which is constantly crossing the river, but also face the flanking attacks of the American forces on both sides of the river......"

"Okay, Lao/Jiang, you said so much, don't you just want me to lead the team to plug the gap? Don't talk nonsense, this work can only be done by our Guards Legion, and you don't have to worry about changing to other troops, right? ”

Depend on...... In the conference room, the marshals and generals of various countries unanimously raised their middle fingers. Jiang Yunzhi's black face is also darker, Lao Xiao's goods are really rammed, this Nima is simply a group taunting skill, and the hatred value is properly pulled.

"Haha...... Don't get excited, guys, I don't mean to say that your troops are not good at fighting. Facing the enemy on both sides, and withstanding the onslaught of the US army who is very likely to jump over the wall, whoever goes to this job will not suffer casualties! My old Xiao is distressed by everyone, how can he let his brother troops suffer such a big sacrifice? I'm going to go to Lao Xiao for this, and I designated to close the door for you, so you can round the stick and beat the dog well! ”

Seeing the processing of other people in the meeting, Xiao Guoxing also realized that he had put a map cannon, which had provoked the anger of the public, and hurriedly clasped his hands and added a laughing nonsense.

But no one is serious about him. First, it is customary, and it will be abnormal if this thing does not pull a few hatreds one day; The second is that people do have the capital of Dese, and the Han Guards Legion is recognized as the strongest army in the Grand Alliance. Whether it is the combat quality of the soldiers or the command level of the officers, they are absolutely first-class, and what makes people even more speechless is the equipment of others, which is really called a "madness"!

Not to mention the three ace armored armies, they are the three mechanized infantry armies that are slightly lower in the number, and their armor and self-propelled artillery strength far exceed the armored forces of other countries. Not to mention that in the world, the equipment is the most advanced airborne division and army aviation division. And the even more perverted 10th Guards Army, which legend says is the biggest trump card in the Guards Legion.

Although the 10th Guards Army has always been shrouded in a veil of mystery, the Mammoth heavy tanks of the 30th Guards Division, which have already appeared, are enough to shock the world.

A nearly eighty-ton behemoth, a terrifying two 125 mm guns, "meat grinder" articulated tracks, 16 layers of reinforced steel armor, and a "Truss" miniature reactor that can provide strong power.

Aside from its maddeningly clumsy and slow maneuverability, the Mammoth is the true king of land in this era, and nothing can stop it.

On the African battlefield, the "Mammoth" tanks of the 30th Guards Division released billowing black smoke and the screeching noise of metal friction became a lingering nightmare for the soldiers of the multinational force. The Pershing-26 heavy tank, which the Americans are proud of, is like a child's toy in front of the "Mammoth," and even Eisenhower has to admit that "all the existing tanks of the U.S. Army can only be crushed miserably in front of the Han Army's 'Mammoth'." I suspect that even if the Mammoth didn't have those two formidable 125mm guns, there was nothing we could do to deal with it. ”

However, what made Eisenhower happy was that the Mammoth tank was extremely powerful, but the fear in the face of the "Mammoth was not only its enemies, but even the Han army itself felt powerless against the Mammoth", especially the logistics support troops.

No car can load the "Mammoth", and if you want to transfer these behemoths quickly, you can only use special train cars. Moreover, unless it is in the water desert type of Africa, the boundless desert of Yima Pingchuan can make the "mammoth horse" feel galloping. Elsewhere, the role of the Mammoth tank will be greatly limited. For example, in the United Kingdom, where rivers are crisscrossed and waterways are dense. The improvised pontoon bridges of the engineering units simply could not withstand the weight of the "Mammoth".

Therefore, the 30th Guards Division did not join the troops that landed in Britain, but remained in Africa, in the most suitable place for its operation, and swept across the continent under the guidance of the Golden Dragon Banner.

Marshal Wang Yizhe, commander of the Imperial Army in Africa, once said, "With the presence of 'fierce horses', the golden dragon flag can fly on this continent forever." ”

In Britain, on the south bank of the Trent River, there was no "Mammoth" in the 2nd Armored Corps of the Guards Corps and the 4th and 6th Armies of the Mechanized Infantry Corps commanded by General Xiao Guoxing. In addition to the 30th Guards Division, the only other "Mammoth" division in the empire was the 2nd Guards Division, which was stationed in Siberia and was retained as a deterrent to Soviet power after the withdrawal of Allied forces in Siberia in batches after the Treaty of Harbin.

It is precisely because of these terrifying behemoths stationed on the borders of the Golden Horde, the Romanov Kingdom and the Soviet Union that General Chen Shukang, commander of the Imperial Army in Siberia, can sleep peacefully with peace of mind.

But no one will despise the presence of the Guards in Britain because of this. One armored corps, two mechanized infantry corps, it is unrealistic to say that these hundreds of thousands of guards can defeat the multinational force. But if the Guards can't do it, no one will think that their troops will do a better job than the Guards.

Since Eisenhower was anxious for victory and desperate for results to repel the Allied forces, he would let the American troops cross the river and then gather and annihilate them.

Jiang Yunzhi dared to do this, undoubtedly because of the existence of the Han Guards. The strong combat effectiveness of the Guards Army will be the greatest guarantee for the implementation of the "Tiger Ben" plan.

If it were not for the variable of the British 11th Armored Brigade, and if it were not for the great achievements of the special operations commanded by Colonel Kwon Zhiyong, perhaps the two Guards Airborne Divisions would have died in vain.

But for the "Tiger Ben" operation, Jiang Shuai has much more confidence. Although it was also a Guards unit, this time the mission was more dangerous and difficult than the Joville blockade. Compared with the lack of heavy firepower and the lack of support paratroopers, there is the most ace armored corps, there is a mobile infantry corps with more fierce mobile firepower, and there is the fire support of the air force throughout the whole process, "no one can eat the main force of the Guards Corps, and neither can the American army." ”

"If there are 10,000 guards, you are invincible!" Jiang Shuai firmly believes in this.

In order to conceal their own objectives, the Allied forces and the multinational forces launched a number of exploratory attacks on the Trent River in mid-July.

In Nottingham, and even in Gainsborough, far downstream, there was a lot of artillery fire and gunsmoke. The multinational force will concentrate hundreds of M1 mountain guns and 155mm Schneider cannons to launch heavy artillery bombardment of Allied positions on the opposite bank and conduct division-sized river crossings.

The Allied artillery responded-for-tat and rushed out of the air force, destroying the artillery positions of several multinational forces. Of course, the multinational forces that tried to cross the river were also stubbornly blocked, and the "Black Widow" MLRS unit once again covered the US army's crossing section with a "flaming kiss," crippling three divisions of the US army on a suspicious mission, which made Eisenhower feel distressed.

It was precisely because of the heavy casualties suffered by these three divisions, which were already tentative attacks, that the officers of the multinational force command agreed that the focus of the Allied defense was on the middle and lower reaches of the Trent River. Coupled with the Northern Fleet's round-the-clock demining operations in the Strait of Dover, Eisenhower also believed that the Allies were indeed amassing heavy forces in the middle and lower reaches, and when the demining was over, they would rely on their powerful naval forces in Western Europe to cooperate with the army along the coastline to attack northward.

There is nothing surprising about this kind of attack, but it is absolutely inexplicable for the European troops stationed in Europe, which lack the support of naval and air forces. In this area, at this time period, the Northern Force Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet of the Han Navy, which have eleven main aircraft carriers, are invincible.

The collapse of the British Navy and the decline of the German Navy, as well as the fear of war by the American Navy, made the Royal Navy of the Han Dynasty a dominant force in this sea area, and even the Italian Navy, which had only two aircraft carriers, could flaunt its might in the Atlantic.

After receiving several second-hand destroyers as gifts from the Great Han, Mussolini even declared that the Italian Navy was the first navy in Europe! This made the commander of the German Navy, Dönitz, grit his teeth.

But the Führer strictly ordered the German Navy to stop operations south of the Strait of Dover. The submarine base in the Bay of Biscay has been abandoned, and the U submarines have all been returned to the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. The aircraft carrier Zeppelin, which had already been officially put into service, had to complete sea trials in the narrow Baltic Sea.

From the tragic but fruitful Atlantic raid to the sudden shift to the other shore to watch the fire, moving a small bench to watch the excitement, the huge role change in the war made Dönitz extremely depressed. Seeing the triumphant appearance of the Italian "traitor" in the newspaper again, I really wanted to send U submarines and sea wolves to sink the two Italian aircraft carriers.

Like Jiang Yunzhi, the German naval commander also had great confidence in his submarine force: they had sunk the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal, but it was not easy for them to deal with the Italians, who could not fight at all? Anyway, does Italy know what a real navy is? What's the use of a good battleship for that bunch of waste!

It's a pity that the Italians didn't know what Dönitz was thinking. Otherwise, with Mussolini's character, after successfully joining the Grand Alliance and entering the honeymoon period with the Han Empire, he would have swelled his confidence, and it is unknown whether he would order Rigziani to fight the German Navy alone!

In fact, it was the Italian Navy that first passed through the Strait of Dover and entered the North Sea, which for hundreds of years was reserved for the British Royal Navy.

The USS Aquila, along with six destroyers, four frigates, and a dozen minesweepers, bypassed Cape North and entered the Royal Navy's Sheppey Island Naval Base as soon as the Strait of Dover was opened.

After getting the news, Eisenhower realized that time was running out for him! Once the Allies launch a three-dimensional offensive by land, sea, and air, the "short-legged" multinational force will inevitably lose all offensive initiative.

Coincidentally, during this period of time, the two sides deliberately avoided Derby County.

The word derby has another meaning in later generations, and is more often used in football club matches in the same city. But in fact, Derby is one of the origins of British thoroughbreds, and in the nineteenth century, the racecourses of many European cities were almost exclusively raced by good horses from Derby, and later "Derby" became synonymous with competition with rivals in the same city.

The battle between the Allies and the multinational forces certainly cannot be considered a "derby", it is a battle between two races, between Eastern and Western ideas and cultures, between two of the most powerful empires in the world today.

The Trent River is hundreds of kilometers long, but both sides seem to have chosen the battlefield in Derby County, which seems to be deliberately contributing to the real Derby battle.

July 22, a day in the world's military history, is a day worth remembering. Especially for the British.

Of course, this is not just the Duke of Wellington, who commanded the British, Portuguese and Spanish forces on July 22, 1812, to defeat the French army at Salamanca in southern Spain, laying the foundation for the complete defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo three years later.

It was also because on this day in 1943, the decisive battle of Britain officially began. On the Allied side, it was called the Battle of the Trent River, while the British preferred to call it the Battle of Derby or the Battle of Black and White.

In the riverbed plains south of Derbyshire, a sudden river crossing by the Multinational Force was a great success. The positions of the Spanish troops defending the south bank of the Trent River were broken through by the American 7th Army within two hours. Subsequently, the 12th Armored Division of the U.S. Army and Canada's only armored brigade crossed the river one after another. The Trent River flows through this section of Derbyshire and has a gentle flow due to the flat plains. This reduced the difficulties for the U.S. bridging force, which is one of the reasons why Eisenhower chose to break through at Derbyshire.

The early morning offensive actually turned into a mere river crossing by the multinational force after 10 a.m. Two divisions of Spanish troops collapsed in the face of the ferocious offensive of the U.S. 7th Army, and then the Allies organized a number of counterattacks, including a joint attack by the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the reorganized British Army, all of which were repulsed by the U.S. Army. The experienced American lieutenant general Scott was not in a hurry to move forward, but built a blocking position several kilometers wide on the south bank of the Trent River, behind which was a river crossing area of more than ten square kilometers.

With this temporary position, the U.S. 7th Army blocked all the menacing Allied forces in the future, successfully covered the armored forces behind it to cross the river, and expanded the military power of the multinational force on the south bank.

Until the sun set, the multinational forces withstood the bombing of the Allied air forces, and by virtue of the bombing, they blew up dozens of pontoon bridges and crossed the Trent River with more than 200,000 Allied troops of more than 200,000 countries.

The M4 tanks of the U.S. 12th Armored Division and the Canadian Armored Brigade completed a rapid intersperse, and the Allied forces that were about to assemble at Loveborough were again routed, and if it were not for the commander of the 7th Army, Lieutenant General Scott, who was too cautious and stopped the armored division that was too far away from the main forces, the multinational forces would have been able to approach the important city of Leicester even after dark - one of the two final objectives of the multinational force commander Eisenhower in this campaign.

When the battle report came, there was jubilation in the Edinburgh Multinational Force General Headquarters, and the Allied fighting power seemed to be boasted too much, and it turned out that except for the Han army, the troops of other countries were still vulnerable.

Eisenhower did not think so, although the fighting at the front showed that the Allies did organize a number of counterattacks and charged bravely at the cost of casualties to press back to their positions on the south bank. But Mr. Commander still felt that something was wrong, and the battle process seemed to be a little too smooth!

This can be explained by the fact that the elite of the Allied forces were concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Trent, preparing for an offensive. "But...... Would the commander of the Allied forces, Marshal Jiang Yunzhi, the famous Han god of war, make such a low-level mistake? To hand over all such a large gap to the Spanish or even the British army to garrison? ”

The general's thoughts were interrupted by a report on the first day's combat casualties handed in by a staff officer. By 6 p.m., the casualties of the American forces crossing the river had reached 13,000, most of them caused by the Allied air forces. In the Trent River, which is not too wide, it is full of corpses of American soldiers, and even caused the water level near the pontoon bridge to rise.

Lieutenant General Scott had to send a regiment of American troops in a hovercraft to wave the corpses of the soldiers who had died in battle, and the river was already stained red.

At the same time, at least one corps of Allied troops had already appeared in Melleton, less than fifty kilometres from Loveborough, and at Birmingham, the reorganized English Army was rapidly massing by rail.

This Eisenhower became even more worried, and he was worried that this was a trap for the Allies.

"Find out the location of the main forces of the Han army, it is the Han army, the army of the Han Empire, especially their guards regiments." Fearing that the staff officer in charge of recording would not hear clearly, Eisenhower emphasized several sentences in a row.

"Ike, don't rush! Our intelligence shows that the Jingzhou and Yanzhou regiments of the Han Kingdom that landed in Britain are still in the Worth Bay area, and the Xuzhou regiment is even farther away in Wales. Two of the three Airborne Corps had returned to Spain to recuperate, and the 9th Guards Airborne Corps, which had not previously been engaged in combat, was still stationed in the London area. The rest of the Guards are currently concentrated on the other side in Nottingham and are in a standoff with us. ”

The chief of staff of the multinational force, US Army General Feridenda, came over in time and performed his duties as chief of staff very well.

"Opposite Nottingham? What are the number of troops? After listening to the chief of staff's report, the tight string in Eisenhower's heart did not relax.

"The 2nd Armored Army, the 4th Mechanized Infantry Corps, and the 6th Mechanized Infantry Corps of the Han Guards Corps, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force sent by that Meiling lady." For this almost public information, Feridenda opened his mouth and came immediately, but the US military intelligence department was also keeping an eye on the Han army. For the Chinese Expeditionary Force, Feridenda's impression is only that "they are the troops of that charming Meiling Meishi." ”

"What kind of combat power can they have, who were once beaten by the Japanese? Isn't there an idiom among the Han people that they mix rotten fish into a bucket and sell them as good fish, they are just a school of rotten fish! "The battle on the line showed that the Allies had indeed organized several counterattacks and had charged bravely at the cost of casualties to press back to their positions on the south bank. But Mr. Commander still felt that something was wrong, and the battle process seemed to be a little too smooth!

This can be explained by the fact that the elite of the Allied forces were concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Trent, preparing for an offensive. "But...... Would the commander of the Allied forces, Marshal Jiang Yunzhi, the famous Han god of war, make such a low-level mistake? To hand over all such a large gap to the Spanish or even the British army to garrison? ”

The general's thoughts were interrupted by a report on the first day's combat casualties handed in by a staff officer. By 6 p.m., the casualties of the American forces crossing the river had reached 13,000, most of them caused by the Allied air forces. In the Trent River, which is not too wide, it is full of corpses of American soldiers, and even caused the water level near the pontoon bridge to rise.

Lieutenant General Scott had to send a regiment of American troops in a hovercraft to wave the corpses of the soldiers who had died in battle, and the river was already stained red.

At the same time, at least one corps of Allied troops had already appeared in Melleton, less than fifty kilometres from Loveborough, and at Birmingham, the reorganized English Army was rapidly massing by rail.

This Eisenhower became even more worried, and he was worried that this was a trap for the Allies.

"Find out the location of the main forces of the Han army, it is the Han army, the army of the Han Empire, especially their guards regiments." Fearing that the staff officer in charge of recording would not hear clearly, Eisenhower emphasized several sentences in a row.

"Ike, don't rush! Our intelligence shows that the Jingzhou and Yanzhou regiments of the Han Kingdom that landed in Britain are still in the Worth Bay area, and the Xuzhou regiment is even farther away in Wales. Two of the three Airborne Corps had returned to Spain to recuperate, and the 9th Guards Airborne Corps, which had not previously been engaged in combat, was still stationed in the London area. The rest of the Guards are currently concentrated on the other side in Nottingham and are in a standoff with us. ”

The chief of staff of the multinational force, US Army General Feridenda, came over in time and performed his duties as chief of staff very well.

"Opposite Nottingham? What are the number of troops? After listening to the chief of staff's report, the tight string in Eisenhower's heart did not relax.

"The 2nd Armored Army, the 4th Mechanized Infantry Corps, and the 6th Mechanized Infantry Corps of the Han Guards Corps, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force sent by that Meiling lady." For this almost public information, Feridenda opened his mouth and came immediately, but the US military intelligence department was also keeping an eye on the Han army. For the Chinese Expeditionary Force, Feridenda's impression is only that "they are the troops of that charming Meiling Meishi." ”

"What kind of combat power can they have, who were once beaten by the Japanese? Isn't there an idiom among the Han people that they mix rotten fish into a bucket and sell them as good fish, they are just a school of rotten fish! ”