Chapter 210: Choice! The will of the Empire! (iv)

The successive victories since the beginning of the war have made the officers and men of the armored units generally proud and complacent, and they have not only extreme contempt for the Russian troops in front of them, but also often despise the friendly troops of other arms of the armed forces.

At the same time, in order to ensure the mobility of in-depth assault and reduce the pressure on logistical supply, the armored corps has long used the "Flying Thunder" and "Flying Wolf" light combat vehicles and ultra-light machine-gun combat vehicles such as "Jiehu" and "Hound Dog" as its main equipment. Although these vehicles are more mobile and consume less supplies, they have limited armor and firepower, and are increasingly vulnerable to the Russian army's evolving anti-tank capabilities.

In addition, the lack of motorized infantry and mobile artillery that can closely accompany the tank assault also limits the depth assault power of the tank unit.

Each armored brigade with two tank battalions under its jurisdiction has another motorized infantry battalion, and the mobile artillery battalion under its jurisdiction is equipped with artillery and mortars, and the amount of support for this part of the brigade is already somewhat thin compared with the nearly 100 combat vehicles of the whole brigade, and under the premise that advanced technical equipment in the early stage of the war gives priority to supplementing the troops of the Siberian theater, the equipment level of the armored brigades in the Central Asian theater is actually uneven.

For example, by the time of the 1916 offensive, more than half of the armored brigades of the Central Asian Front had equipped the towed artillery of the mobile artillery battalion with half-track or full-track tractors, while only about one-third of the armored brigades had replaced one towed artillery battery in the mobile artillery battalion with a self-propelled artillery battery, and only one-third of the armored brigades had equipped their motorized infantry with half-track armored personnel carriers.

As a result, motorized infantry and motorized artillery units, which are capable of accompanying tank units in long-distance off-road assaults, are quite limited in strength - it has been proven that infantry and artillery units in ordinary trucks or wagons cannot accompany tank assaults in the field far from the road.

In order to maximize the strength of the assault group, the commander sometimes had to carry the infantry on the vehicle, which would tow the artillery, but there was not much space on the light and ultralight vehicles that were the main equipment for the infantry, and the additional task of towing the artillery would also seriously affect the vehicle's mobility

As a remedy, cavalry units were assigned to assault groups in formation, sometimes even to an entire cavalry brigade for a chariot battalion, but many problems were exposed in actual combat: the cavalry targets on the battlefield were too obvious and vulnerable to enemy fire; Cavalry needs to be constantly foddered regardless of whether they are moving or not, and in areas where it is difficult to collect fodder on the spot, it will put a heavy burden on the supply; Dismounted cavalry was far less effective than infantry......

In fact, even the Northern Army, which has been given priority in replenishing equipment, is plagued by a lack of support capacity, and in Lu Kaiping's view, the original armored force establishment and equipment system can obviously no longer meet the actual needs of the current battlefield.

After careful consideration, regardless of the burden he carried, Lu Kaiping presented Liang Tianhe with a letter of 10,000 words, detailing his thoughts on reforming the imperial armored forces. However, two months later, the journey was long, and apart from the increase in the number of half-track armored personnel carriers and half-track and full-track tractors in the troops, Lu Kaiping had not been able to see any signs of a fundamental change in the situation he was worried about for the time being.

By the end of May, the front had advanced thousands of kilometers to Orenburg, at which point the supply lines of the Chinese army began to tighten, and the reinforced Russian army built a new line of defense along the Ural River with Orenburg as the center.

Break through this line of defense, and then capture the water and land junction on the Volga River - Samara, and then march to the water transportation center of the lower Volga River - Tsaritsyn (that is, the famous Stalingrad in the history of World War II in another time and space, renamed Volgograd after the collapse of the Soviet Union), while cutting off the rear route of the Russian Caucasian Front, completely cut off the Don-Volga water transportation system, so that the resources of Ukraine and the Caucasus cannot be transported to Moscow and St. Petersburg through this efficient and cheap passage.

-- These were the strategic objectives of the Central Asian Front in the second half of 1916.

"In my opinion, the biggest lesson of the battle of Jusare is that some commanders lack the ability to deal with unexpected situations, and are frightened by the sudden loss in front of them. At the critical moment, confidence was shaken and he stopped moving, and as a result, he missed the opportunity, delayed the plan, and messed up the overall situation. ”

In the face of the discouraged performance of the generals, Liang Tianhe was unceremonious, and pointed the finger at Lu Kaiping, who he usually cared for.

"I can't believe it, so what can I believe? Our situation is not much better than that of the Northern Army, and we are not satisfied? ”

"Even if it is mired in quagmire and difficulties, after seven days, in order to prevent the enemy troops on the Ural defense line from having the opportunity to go south to reinforce the enemy in Orenburg, the Northern Army will still forcibly launch an offensive on all fronts."

"Friendly forces are preparing to fight for our chance of victory with their sacrifices! We are hesitating here, twisting and pinching, is this still a man, is it still an emperor? ”

The commander's reprimand made the generals bow their heads in shame - except for one person, who was only in his thirties in a rare and conspicuous three-color uniform, but with the rank of major general, tall and thin, with a broad face, and a rebellious and detached air in his eyes.

His name is Liang Gensheng, former commander of the Ninth Special Service Wing of the Army Air Force, who personally led his troops to carry out the operation of seizing bridges behind enemy lines in the Battle of Oahu, the Battle of Malaya, and the Battle of Irkutsk, and played a key role in the victory of the battle.

As a member of the Crossing Group and one of the "Six" of His Majesty's henchmen under the current NV Emperor, Liang Gensheng really doesn't have to be in awe of Liang Tianhe, who is also a member of the Crossing Group but is burdened with the burden of Liu Bailiang's party's 'August Incident', not to mention that this time, Liang Tianhe still asks him.

Automatically ignoring Liang Gensheng's proud posture, Liang Tianhe snatched the horsewhip from Yan Canglong's hand and pointed left and right with great momentum.

"The plan was very simple, the Fifth Army would pin down the enemy in front of Orenburg with one unit, launch an attack on the section of the Gorodishe to Dedurovka river west of Orenburg, and hold the defenders in the hilly area on the north bank of the river."

"At the same time, the 1st Guards Army stormed the section of the Vyazovka to Ostrovnoye river east of Orenburg with all its strength, and immediately after forming a breakthrough, threw itself into the assault group of the 2nd Panzer Army in order to develop victory."

"The assault group should quickly cross the triangular plain between the Ural and Oren rivers, cross the Oren River in the vicinity of Sakmara, pass through Svetley, and make a detour to the section of the Calgala-Perevolotsky railway north-west of Orenburg, cutting off in one fell swoop the line of the enemy in front of Orenburg. Then, they coordinated with the frontal attack of the Fifth Army and the Janissary First Army to divide and encircle the enemy and annihilate it. ”

Liang Tianhe paused here, raised his head and looked around at the generals: "I said it clearly enough, right?" ”

Xu Soul, Zhao Minhe, and Yan Meng nodded at the same time.

Liang Tianhe glanced at Lieutenant General Yongyang, commander of the Army's Second Air Group, who was dressed in a sky blue uniform, and waved his horsewhip to the sky: "In this operation, the task of the Second Air Group is to ensure the in-depth advance of the assault group with all its strength, regardless of all conditions, and at all costs, understand?" ”

Fang Yongyang's feet were together, and his body flicked: "Understood, the second air group will do its best to meet all the requirements of the assault cluster!" ”

At the end, Liang Tianhe's gaze, which was obviously much kinder, fell on Liang Gensheng's face.

"In this operation, we will also receive the support of the special operations force directly under the base camp, the specific situation will be explained by Commander Liang, who came from the Beijing Division, Commander Liang, please-"

…… A！ ~！