Before nightfall, Lieutenant General Li Wei, chief of staff of the landing force, rushed to the headquarters of the 1st Assault Group and the headquarters of the Marine Corps Armored Corps stationed south of Fordbridge.

"Lao Li, why are you here?" Yu Dalong put down the canned luncheon meat in his hand, clapped his hands and greeted him.

"No, I'm here to bring you reinforcements." Li Wei pouted behind him, and a long truck on the highway was rumbling.

Yu Dalong shrugged: "It's a supplementary team, it's so fast, my mixed infantry regiment hasn't arrived yet." ”

"Of course it's fast to get in the car, your mixed infantry regiment, I saw them on the road, and they ran to death—I think it's almost there. This is a motorized reinforced battalion, with a reinforced infantry artillery company with ten guns, I asked the battalion commander to check the troops and equipment first, and then report to you later, no problem, right? ”

Yu Dalong said that Li Wei's coming this time was not just as simple as sending reinforcements - the replenishment team itself has a car and gas, could it be that it can't walk without a chief of staff?

"Yes, it's nothing, please take a seat—is Commander Shen okay?" Yu Dalong beckoned Li Wei to sit down in the messy command car.

Li Wei took off his military hat and rubbed his bare head: "Very good, the commander is very satisfied with your progress, and sent me to cheer you up - how is the situation now?" ”

Yu Dalong hurriedly turned on the kerosene lamp and moved closer to the map table: "Please look here, the right-wing Scott detachment has taken control of the West Bridge area west of Pearl City half an hour ago, cutting off the connection between Eva's side and Pearl City, and just received a call from the department five minutes ago, saying that it is fighting fiercely with an enemy force from Eva's side——"

"Here, Pan Guochen's Right Route Army had occupied the western district of Pearl City forty minutes ago, but due to the blowing up of the bridge connecting the western and eastern districts, the troops temporarily stopped the offensive and waited for engineering support."

"Here, here, Shi Guanghua's Middle Route Army and Huang Zhifeng's Left Route Army had already met in the north of Pearl Bridge an hour ago, but they did not capture the enemy's main force, and the enemy army probably noticed something after being assaulted by Pan Guochen's detachment, and suddenly withdrew from the original assembly area and blew up the Pearl Bridge."

Here, Lin Taiping's left flank detachment, with the support of Zhouqiao Company, has successfully crossed the river from the No. 1 crossing point in the upper reaches of the Pearl River, and has set up a double-sided blocking line on the road between the Pearl River and the coast, especially between Pearl City and Honolulu. Just a quarter of an hour before you came, three telegrams were received from the ministry in succession, saying that they were under fierce attack by heavy enemy groups from the east and west, and that reinforcements were urgently needed. Five minutes ago, I had ordered Shi Guanghua's troops and Huang Zhifeng's troops, except for the infantry on foot to contain the enemy south of the Pearl Bridge, to march to the No. 1 crossing point in the upper reaches of the Pearl River, and after crossing the river, they would join Lin Taiping's troops, and temporarily under the unified command of Lin Taiping, so as to completely smash the enemy's counterattack. ”

After listening with his arms crossed, Li Wei nodded: "So, are you sure that you have driven a fairly large heavy army group into your pocket?" ”

"Yes, according to the intercepted clear-code telegrams, I can even confirm that the commander of the enemy's Hawaiian defense, Admiral Scowley, is in the encirclement!"

"Plain code telegram, is it credible?"

"Even if the other party deliberately uses this kind of thing to confuse us, it won't get any benefits, so I'd rather believe it."

Li Wei smiled with satisfaction and put on his military hat: "It seems that you have made up your mind, I can also go back and report with confidence, and hand over the empty truck to me, the beachhead is now full of things, and the most lacking thing is the truck." ”

Yu Dalong nodded again and again: "No problem, I'll call someone to do it—please say hello to Commander Shen." ”

"Get that American general in front of him, there's no better way to say hello." After Li Wei finished speaking, he jumped off the command car briskly.

"Dead or alive?" Yu Dalong poked his head out from behind the curtain and asked.

"You can do it, at least keep a whole face, so that people can recognize it."

"I'm relieved to say that......"

……

In a large mansion on the eastern outskirts of Pearl City, Admiral Scully was restlessly enjoying dinner at his host's house—corn bisque, fish nuggets in tomato sauce and assorted fruit cakes.

This house was the only "lucky house" in Pearl City that had not been damaged in any way after several rounds of air raids during the day, and Scowley's adjutant chose this place as the temporary residence of the commander, not out of superstition, but simply out of the consideration that "because the house was not bombed, the owner should still be at home", so that the discerning old gourmand would not deign to settle the dinner problem with ordinary military rations.

The phone rang, and the adjutant on the side hurriedly threw down his knife and fork to answer, and after a while, he turned back with the microphone and reported: "General, the attack of the 51st Regiment has failed, and the enemy has begun to counterattack...... Fall back. ”

"Tell him that I have ordered the 7th Artillery Company to rush over, and ask him to hold on, and I will personally lead a large force to attack later, and we will definitely be able to break through-"

"Yes......" The adjutant relayed the original relay, but could not hear a response.

"The phone is disconnected."

Scowley sighed, put down his knife and fork, and nodded to his master: "Mr. Cook, thank you and your family for your hospitality, I think I must return to my post immediately." ”

"God bless you, General." The obese Mr. Cook looked worried.

"Don't worry, we'll call back." Scowley nodded inadmissibly.

Call back?

Ever since witnessing the massive offensive formation of the enemy's 'tank' troops on the south bank of the Pearl River, Sculley has completely lost his self-confidence.

The pocket was closed an hour earlier, and before that, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 51st Regiment and two artillery companies from Eva's side rushed to Pearl City, crashed into the pocket, and became a caged bird along with the other five mutilated battalions.

The 1st Battalion of the 53rd Regiment, which was the first to enter the battle, was reduced to less than two companies.

Of the three battalions of the 50th Regiment whose regimental headquarters was destroyed, none of them was able to retain more than half of its combat effectiveness.

As for the 2nd Battalion of the 53rd Regiment, which had collapsed and fled, although with the efforts of Major Blake finally managed to gather most of its strength, the whole battalion was still on the verge of collapse, and the soldiers "no longer had the slightest trust in the officers".

Naturally, the pioneers of the breakthrough could only be carried out by two battalions of the unfought, still vigorous 51st Regiment, and Scowley wanted to gamble, believing that as long as these troops at hand could return to Honolulu, they could still rely on the strong city defense positions for a while.

A week – just hold on for another week! Defend the bottom line of the U.S. Army's honor, one week!

However, the enemy's lightning assault on Pearl City disrupted Scowley's plan, and because the engineers failed to blow up the bridge in the center of the city in time, the defenders had to temporarily call in two artillery batteries that were preparing to go to the east of the encirclement to support the 51st Regiment, and turned back against the enemy tank troops.

As a result, when the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 51st Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the 50th Regiment, which was temporarily attached to the command, attacked the positions on the east side of the encirclement that were jointly garrisoned by tanks and infantry, the artillery supporting in the rear was only 9 cannons that could fire normally, although they came from three companies respectively.

Now, Colonel Mirren also said that he couldn't stand it, and the next thing was only ......