Chapter 850: The Decisive Battle of Egypt (2)

"Hurry, hurry, hurry, move fast!" The second lieutenant of Gangmura shouted hoarsely, and beckoned the soldiers to dig a trench fifteen meters in front of him with sapper shovels as fast as possible. The purpose of this ditch is not to hide, but to form an obstacle that can block the enemy's speed, don't underestimate this block, at least to buy time for the soldier to reload a shot.

Although the gap was opened, the enemy's counterattack was extremely fierce, as if human life did not cost money, and in just 20 minutes, five charges were launched, and one after another had no intention of stopping. Just five minutes ago, if it hadn't been for the timely coverage of the regimental mortars, the platoon of Gangcun would have been caught in a hand-to-hand battle with the enemy. In that case, the casualties will be difficult to control, unlike now, when you try to kill and wound the enemy with fire.

There is no contradiction between combat valor and strict implementation of infantry drills, and this is not the first time that this improvised obstacle has been excavated. Digging many times before, they were interrupted by enemy charges. The piles of corpses were piled together to form an improvised barrier, which, together with the trenches being dug, constituted a simple defensive system.

"Akashi, report the casualties." Li Jian appeared beside Second Lieutenant Akashi, who was organizing the soldiers to hurry up to replenish water and build a defense, and Second Lieutenant Akashi, who was waiting for follow-up reinforcements, immediately reported: "Thirteen casualties, no direct casualties, six serious wounded." "This refers to the personnel who have lost their combat effectiveness, an infantry platoon plus forty-one platoon commanders and deputy platoon commanders, and the casualty figure is close to one-third. This is still because of the reason that they are at the forefront, and the tired soldiers are still struggling to prepare for war.

After entering the enemy camp, a new front was formed, and in order to avoid further casualties, the battalion commander ordered the troops to defend in place. Effectively kill and injure the enemy army and create favorable conditions for the general offensive of the follow-up troops. There were five standard infantry battalions below the 48th Regiment, and now there were two battalions at the front, opening the gaps from the left and right sides. The enemy's resistance was very stubborn, and the terrain in the camp was complicated. An order was given from above. The divisional artillery regiment transferred a 75 mountain artillery company to the front, taking advantage of the enemy's eagerness to regain the position to defend and counterattack.

Sure enough, Musardov received a very reluctant order to recapture the lost position. At this time, the troops in his hands were less than 3,000, a full 5,000 troops, and now only one is left intact, and the remaining 4,000 troops are all disabled.

The reality is also true. If the position cannot be recaptured, the enemy is likely to launch a larger attack after receiving reinforcements. The entire battlefield is now being fought everywhere, and the Ming army, which does not have an advantage in troops, has launched a full-scale attack, and from the perspective of the situation, this is the main direction of attack. The reason is simple, the whole prominent camp is located. It is the commanding heights of the whole world.

The task of the 16th Division is to occupy this place and hold this place. Wait for the two artillery regiments directly under them to come up, and then bombard the front of the enemy with heavy artillery. It must be said that this tactical intent is very obvious. The 5,000 elites commanded by the hapless Musadov happened to be on one of the few heights on this battlefield.

"No, I really can't fight, I need reinforcements." Musadov made a request. The generals who were bombarded everywhere and only knew how to ask for help blew up the heads of Mustafa and Ibrahim?

"Now it is obvious that although the Ming army does not have many troops, its guns are hugely powerful. At the moment, the frontal attack is already fierce, Yusuf's 10,000 men. More than half of the casualties have been lost, and the position is still being held. From this, it can be seen that the main direction of the Ming army's assault was on the left flank. This position is relatively high, and it is backed by the Nile, once this direction is broken, a detachment of men and horses can be sent to quickly move north along the river bank, destroy the pontoon bridge here, and cut off the retreat of our army. Ibrahim's analysis is very pertinent, even accurate, Yin Jie has a small number of cavalry, only a thousand cattle, or a makeshift mounted infantry of camels and horses he has scavenged from the local area. In addition, less than 500 scouts were used in a concentrated manner, and more than 1,500 people were ready to go at the moment.

"Tell Cui Xinghao, don't rub it off, give me a complete defeat of the frontal enemy, expand the results of the battle and open the passage for the cavalry." Yin Jie looked a little impatient, this Cui Xinghao's fighting skills are not bad, the problem is that he is too calm.

"I think it's better to be a little milder on this order, Commander, or to be more harsh?" Zhao Ge agreed with Yin Jie's opinion and added some ingredients. Yin Jie groaned a little and said to the staff officer beside him: "Pick up Cui Xinghao for me." ”

The phone was quickly connected, and Yin Jie said in an extremely stern tone: "Cui Xinghao, I limit you to take the enemy's position before it gets dark." Otherwise, the fighter plane will be delayed, and military law will be engaged. Cui Xinghao, who was accustomed to fighting steadily, understood the meaning behind this order, and immediately said loudly: "I understand that there is still an hour and a half before dark, and in half an hour, my division will launch a general attack, what other instructions do you have?" ”

"I'll give you command of the 2nd Independent Artillery Regiment, so be it." You can't have to run the horses without giving them some fodder to eat. Although the combat effectiveness of the 16th Division is strong, it can only ensure a beautiful victory when attacking the enemy's strong joint camp and having more powerful firepower. "Understood!" Cui Xinghao put down the phone, glanced at the chief of staff and said, "I'll go to the 48th Regiment, and I'll leave it to you here." ”

"The strength of one battalion from the 46th and 7th regiments will be transferred to a greater grasp."

"No need, the forty-eighth regiment has five infantry battalions, and the other two regiments have only four infantry battalions, so there is no need to increase the strength of Butcher Li. This kid fights, he just likes to keep a hand. Cui Xingguo put a hat on his head and spoke while tidying up: "Contact the Second Artillery Regiment directly under the command of our division." ”

"Wait a minute, let's get the investigation involved." The chief of staff didn't persuade much, Cui Xinghao nodded, and hurried forward with the guard company. At this time, the forty-eighth regiment commander Li Butcher was still complacent. This guy's nickname is not because he likes to kill, but because his father is a pig killer, and when he was studying, he often helped kill pigs and sell meat.

Cui Xinghao rushed into the regiment command post like a whirlwind, and the soldiers along the way saw him facing the general's star, his face was like the bottom of a pot, and no one dared to stop him.

"Butcher Li, you bastard, you were scolded by the commander. If you can still fight this position, if not, get out. Lao Tzu came to be the head of this regiment. Butcher Li was scolded by a stinking head and face, and he was still observing the terrain, and the saliva from behind his back was cold. I was angry, and when I looked back, I saw that it was the division commander, and I was immediately stunned.

"Master's seat. Don't fire me. I'll go to the front, and I'll leave it to you here. Butcher Li hurriedly behaved, and Cui Xinghao didn't talk nonsense with him, sat down on Mazha and said, "I don't care about you, the head of the regiment, and I'm here to watch you command." It's 4:45 a.m., and you still have fifteen minutes to deploy, and before dark, you can't take the position, so I'll personally take the reconnaissance company up. ”

Military orders are like mountains. Without saying a word, Butcher Li immediately picked up the phone, connected the two battalions in his hand as reserves, and repeated Cui Xinghao's order. Fifteen minutes later, 24 105-caliber cannons of the 2nd Artillery Regiment were test-fired, and after three rounds of correction, together with 36 cannons of the divisional artillery regiment, a fierce bombardment began on the positions defended by Musharraf.

"Don't worry about the shells, the barrel is red." Cui Xinghao picked up the phone. Giving orders with a blank face.

This time the shelling lasted for an unusually long time, a full half an hour. The artillery preparation of the expeditionary force was such a defeat for the first time. You must know that India can't make shells, so you have to ship them here from Liaodong, and it takes three months to go up for a trip. So. The use of artillery shells by the expeditionary forces has always been relatively critical.

Since it was decided to lose, it was a one-time fight, and this time Musadov was unlucky, and finally got reinforcements of 5,000 people, but he didn't think that he had just been assembled. The cannonballs on the opposite side rained down. Despite the precautions, major casualties could not be avoided. This time the artillery fire was more intense and longer.

At this time, the Turkish troops in the left and right camps also found out that something was wrong, and each organized a surprise attack to try to reinforce Musadov, but unfortunately it was clearly seen by the hot air balloon in the sky, and the 46th and 7th infantry regiments were timely dispatched to block the reinforcements. This time, Musadov's life was even more sad.

After half an hour of shelling preparations, the artillery fire still did not stop, but continued to lose uncharacteristically, extending the fire. This trick had an unexpected gain, and it happened that a team of 1,000 people was about to fill it in, and it was directly bombarded.

"Follow me!" Li Jian was the first to jump over the trench, and after the soldiers followed, the horizontal formation was not chaotic, and continued to trot forward.

At a distance of less than a hundred meters, that is, a trot of thirty seconds, during this time, the four mortars of the regiment bombarded fiercely, and the Montini machine guns were intensively used, aiming at a point of fierce strafing. The attack was ferocious and fast, and Musadov was caught off guard. By the time he urgently called in a thousand-man squad to meet the attack, the first line of defense, which had been finally consolidated, had changed hands.

Li Jian and his soldiers, who rushed to the front, encountered the enemy who was counterattacking, and they were still fighting hand-to-hand just now, and they didn't have time to reload at all. All that could be done was to throw a grenade over, blow up a man on his back, and then plunge into it with a bayonet in the face of a sparse javelin projection and a firing gun.

Hand-to-hand combat is enough to make every soldier's blood boil, especially when the commander rushes to the front. Second Lieutenant Akashi subconsciously rushed forward, stabbing an enemy with the rifle in his hand, covering Li Jian's left side, and Gangcun on the right side was also doing the same thing, and the two even blocked half of Li Jian's body with their bodies.

More soldiers rushed forward, throwing grenades forward, blocking the way behind enemy lines, and bayonets rushing forward and killing. Butcher Li threw three infantry battalions into battle in one go, and did not dare to rush forward to kill regardless of them, not thinking about casualties at all.

In the huge camp, the two armies were mixed together, and Musadov at this time had no advantage in strength. Although he threw all his forces into battle, the tide of the battle did not turn around, one thousand troops after another were routed, and more than a hundred heads of the routs were chopped, but they still could not stop the rout of the troops.

In the end, Musadov was forcibly pulled out of the battlefield by a dozen of his own soldiers, thrown on his horse, and forced out of the battlefield. The green flag symbolizing Musadov in the camp was blown up by a grenade, and as it fell, the entire Turkish army on the position collapsed. Although they still had scimitars in their hands, they no longer had the courage to continue fighting. The bearded soldiers scrambled to drop their weapons and turned to flee.

Butcher Li took advantage of the victory to pursue, and only stopped his position before dark, and the battlefield situation at this time has undergone fundamental changes. A huge hole was torn open on the left side of Mustafa's army, and the Ming army could pass through it at any time and make a detour to the flank.

"I suggest that the elite cavalry be sent out to defend the pontoon bridge over the Nile." Ibrahim made this suggestion to Mustafa almost as soon as he heard of Mussadov's defeat. At this time, the battlefield was still scorching in general. In fact, this is an effect deliberately created by Yin Jie. Otherwise, with the firepower of the Ming army, a full-scale attack was released, and the frontal enemy could be defeated in one afternoon. Now, he finally deliberately sent out cavalry to copy behind enemy lines.

"Commander, I propose to continue the attack at night, forcing the enemy commander-in-chief not to easily send out his cavalry. You know, he has no more than 10,000 elite cavalry in his hands. So far, this cavalry unit has not moved. As the chief of staff, Zhao Ge was very competent and put forward the key points of the problem in a timely manner.

"Based on the current battlefield situation, I think this idea makes a lot of sense. In this way, if we continue to explain and let the 16th and 17th divisions launch an attack overnight, we can be a little more violent and disrupt the opponent's deployment. By the way, what's that Pasha called? ”

"I don't remember either, the name is very long, and there are four pronunciations of Mustafa." Zhao Ge smiled with a relaxed expression, after landing in Egypt, a large number of Arab businessmen took the initiative to take refuge in order to "liberate", and the goods were not only grain, but also many leading parties who spoke Turkish (tujue).

"Very well, the merchant named Abdullah can dispose of the captured cold weapons to him cheaply." Yin Jie's train of thought was very jumpy, and he thought of this at once. Zhao Ge nodded in agreement and said, "Good idea, let the Arabs toss, even if it is good to distract a little energy." In addition, it is suggested that the Indian side be urged to bring over the 17th Division and the supplementary sick as soon as possible. ”

It was already completely dark, and Mustafa and Ibrahim had just finished deploying when they heard the sound of heavy artillery.

Boom, boom, deafening cannon sound, unexpectedly close. When I looked up, I saw that a shell had landed less than fifty meters from the big tent, where there were exactly several tents, and after the shell directly destroyed one tent, it also set fire to two tents around it. (To be continued......)