On 20 September, the battle for the defense of Alonda continued. The Germans continued to storm the position of the 73rd Regiment, and in the afternoon, Meng Enfan received an order from Zhao Xin to lead the supplementary company to the position of the 1st Battalion, replacing the wounded Dong Xiaomao as the commander of the 1st Battalion.

Three infantry companies of the 1 Battalion suffered heavy casualties during two days of fierce fighting. The first thing Lieutenant Colonel Meng Enfan did when he took command of the position was to replenish the three infantry companies with a supplementary company to restore their combat strength. The 11 Company of the 3rd Battalion, which was temporarily assigned to the 1st Battalion to block the attack, was reorganized. Meng Enfan called a meeting of the four company commanders (two of whom were promoted on the battlefield) and said that the superiors had made the decision to attack Ploiesti, and what we had to do now was to buy time for the main force to enter the attack position, and we just need to hold the current position. Try to keep as few troops as possible on the front line and preserve our strength, otherwise, we will not have a chance to attack with the main force.

The news brought by Meng Enfan made the 1st Battalion excited. It is almost a general practice for troops to be willing to attack rather than to fight. The officers and men of the 1st Battalion were saddened that the battalion commander was wounded and left the team, and they did not want an "outsider" to take them through, but Meng Enfan's rank of lieutenant colonel suppressed them, and it was extremely rare for a lieutenant colonel and battalion commander in the Wehrmacht to be a battalion commander. And Meng Enfan's own practice of staying at the front line to command also made the officers comfortable, and the decision of his superiors could not be questioned on the battlefield, not more than usual.

But the German attack also stopped, and from 4:30 p.m. the German infantry stopped attacking the town of Alonda, and the shelling became sparse. But on the west flank of the 1st Battalion, the battle was still fierce.

"Camp Commander Meng, you are blessed. You see. As soon as you get to the ground, the Germans don't come. Captain Baihe, who led the 2nd Company to stay in the position, said to Meng Enfan.

"I think the Germans are aware of something...... If only Lao Meng had such a face. ”

"I heard that Battalion Commander Meng came down from the Yuan Lords?"

"Yes. I was a company commander at the time. Participated in the military parade of the founding ceremony. Then I was transferred to the Agricultural Reclamation Corps, and I fought hoeing in Heilongjiang for six or seven years, haha, but it was okay, the military status was retained, and the military rank was awarded. ”

Seniority is old enough. Bai He had a lot of respect for Meng Enfan. When he founded the country, he was just a deputy squad leader.

"Battalion commander, you say, is it worth it for us to come here to fight for Lao Maozi?"

"What's worth it or not? Soldiers, it is their duty to obey orders. ”

"You want me to see it. Lao Maozi is not a good thing either. ”

"Didn't you say it over and over again? We're not fighting for someone else. But for the Motherland. The truth in this is deep, and we lieutenant-level officers can't figure it out. Live well and return home with a few medals. By the way, are you married? ”

"Not yet. Divorced. "The love of the white river is low. Originally, he had already decided on a family business. Because of going abroad to fight. I didn't want to involve the other party, so I forcibly withdrew from the marriage, and I heard that the girl was very sad.

"Because you're going abroad?"

"Don't blame people. It's what I'm sticking to. Bullets have no eyes. Delay people in vain. There are four brothers in my house, and there is no shortage of me. ”

"That's what I said. I think my brother seems to be a blessed man, maybe he will be hung up with the rank of major when he returns home. Fighting a war is not a bad thing for us. ”

In just two days, the battalion commander was wounded and left the team, the 1st company commander was killed, and the 3rd company commander was seriously injured, which was just the beginning. Bai He didn't dare to expect that he would be able to go home.

Meng Enfan guessed well. The Germans did realize the trouble. In a telegram to Van Kinghan, the commander of the German 64th Division, Major General Bittgel, who commanded the attack on Alonda, said, "The Chinese troops blocking our troops north of Ploiesti are strong and the offensive of the troops is blocked. Air reconnaissance found a large number of trucks and artillery west of Buzeu, with at least three enemy divisions. Our army does not have an advantage. To ensure the security of Ploiesti, the troops moved to the defense. ”

Falkingham immediately replied and severely reprimanded General Bitgarh, "According to accurate intelligence, the Chinese Expeditionary Force has not yet reached the battle line, and it is their vanguard that appears on the front line of Buzeu, and its purpose is to clamp down on our army to ensure the safety of the rear road of the Russian army's front-line troops on the Danube." It is extremely stupid for the Chinese to advance in order to curry favor with the Russians, and they should break through one and several points by flanking the way, just as we did with the Romanians, and not with the offensive routines that have proven completely ineffective on the Western Front! The Chinese Expeditionary Force must be defeated with a resolute attack and the encirclement must be achieved, and any hesitation is a crime of Yan zhòng! ”

Like many senior officers, General Falkingham hated the treacherous Chinese, and he was eager to teach his former friend a hard lesson on the battlefield. The series of victories since the march into Romania had overwhelmed Falkingham, and because of the innate pride of the white race, Falkingham did not take to heart the judgment of the German General Staff on the combat strength of the Chinese army. He still regarded the Russian coalition forces, caught between him and Army Group Mackensen, as his main adversary, and did not change his established strategy after the appearance of a large number of Chinese troops in the Buzeu direction.

Major General Bittegel stopped the attack in the Alonda direction. He studied the situation with his staff officers and decided that the casualties in the frontal assault were too great. It was decided to place the main forces on the line of attack of the Austrians, transfer an infantry regiment reinforced with engineers, first break through the positions on the western flank of Alonda, and then take a roundabout approach to defeat the frontal Chinese army. That night, the Germans urgently adjusted their deployment and transferred more light artillery out of the 64th Division to the Austrians. The Austrian army has now become a burden on the German army, and the support of the German army is needed in both the offensive and the defensive, and the formation of the three army groups to attack Romania by the high command has implemented the idea that the German-Austrian Tubao army must be mixed and the German army as the core can give full play to its combat effectiveness.

But General Bitgarh did not expect that the Chinese would launch an attack on Ploiesti. His decision to divide his troops on the western flank turned out to be a stern mistake.

The offensive was launched on the night of 21 September. After arriving at Alonda Town, Xiong Xun listened to Brigadier General Qin Feng's attack at night. The 25th and 27th Divisions were ordered to attack on the east and west roads along the main road to Ploiesti. The 25th Division was on the right side of the road, the 27th Division was on the left side of the road, and behind the 27th Division there was a 14th Division to follow. The 26th Division of the 9th Army took over the defensive line of the original 25th Division on the western flank of Alonda, ensuring the safety of the flank of the main force and launching a counterattack against the Austrians.

The main opponent of the offensive was the Germans. The main forces of the offensive were the 27th Division instead of the 25th. The reason for the night attack was taken. It is based on the judgment that the German attack position is less than 10 kilometers away from our army's position, the mines planted by our army have been basically destroyed by the German army, the German army in the offensive state should not have built a strong defensive line, the Wehrmacht has a wide range of night training subjects, the troops are accustomed to night operations, and the most important thing is that the night attack can achieve the greatest suddenness.

Considering the advantage of the comparison of forces, and even more considering that the heavy artillery regiment under the army had not yet arrived at the front line, Xiong Xun categorically adopted Qin Feng's opinion and adopted a rare form of night attack in the first large corps offensive campaign of the expeditionary force to fight in Europe.

Bitger never expected the Chinese army to advance so quickly and attack at night with a large corps. In general. When the training level and fighting will of both sides are basically the same. The outcome of the two sides is predictable, and the main factor in calculation is the comparison of forces and firepower. If the Chinese army adopts conventional tactics, it will be able to capture Ploiesti, regardless of casualties, and the time will be much longer than the actual battle. The results were also very different.

Surprise is always the secret of victory.

Entering 1916. The number of infantry battalions in each German infantry division has been reduced from 12 to 9. After the transfer of a regiment. After a series of battles, the German 64th Division, which had not yet been fully replenished, immediately showed defeat in the face of the onslaught of two divisions of the 9th Army, and the more critical factor was that the German army's deployment was offensive and the defensive line was very weak. There was no defensive position with a system of depth, because the Germans were always on the offensive, and not even mines were laid in front of the position.

The opponent's 9th Army is the best equipped and most rigorously trained all-training army of the Chinese National Defense Force, which surpassed the German army in both individual firepower and long-range artillery, especially the Chinese army's attack was completely different from that of the European army, which relied on artillery support, and the German army fell into a great panic. The attack of the Chinese army was launched suddenly at night, without the usual artillery preparation, but quietly touched in the form of detachments, and when the German front found the enemy's tracks, the distance was already very close, and by the time the shots rang out, the Chinese had already approached the trenches and soon entered a brutal close combat. The Chinese attack was not spread out in full force, but concentrated on a few points, and after the forward detachment broke into the German position and tore a small opening, the follow-up troops poured into this opening and continued to attack in depth. Night fighting is one of the Wehrmacht's specialties, it is a regular training subject, and there is a set of mature tactics, but the German army is strictly uncomfortable. The artillery could not be supported, and it became a complete duel between the infantry.

By 5 a.m., the 27th Division, which was attacking from the eastern flank of the road, had completely torn apart the German lines. Despite the successive telegrams from General Falkingham ordering Bitgger to hold the line and wait for reinforcements, the Germans were in a state of confusion, with every battalion and company entangled with the superior Chinese army, and almost all communication with the higher authorities was cut off. Bitgger's division headquarters was also attacked by the infiltrated Chinese army. General Bitgarh could not even give the troops the order to retreat.

Lieutenant General Xiong Xun, who arrived at the front line and commanded nearby, was actually unable to grasp the detailed battle situation, and the battle situation reported by various divisions and regiments was chaotic and even contradictory. However, he still correctly judged that the troops had completely broken through the enemy line and were annihilating the enemy forces in sections. He gave an order to the 27th Division, which was following the 14th Division, to concentrate the main forces on the main road and break through along the road, aiming at Ploiesti!

The 14th Division is Xiong Xun's old unit, formerly known as the 5th Brigade of the 14th Division. Xiong Xun served as the commander of the 5th Division for a long time. The blow of the 14th Division from the main road was fatal, and after entering the battlefield, the division crossed the still melee line from the center, leaving the still resisting Germans to the troops of the 9th Army, and pounced on Ploiesti. Bitgger's artillery units at the rear of the battle line were the first to suffer, and the artillerymen were helpless against the swarming Chinese infantry, and were wiped out before they could even blow up the artillery. Subsequently, General Bitgarh and the main officers of the 64th Division, who fled back to Ploiesti under the desperate protection of the guards, were chased and captured by the forward troops of the 14th Division. At 11 a.m., the 14th Division rushed into Ploiesti. This great honor fell to the head of the 5 Army.

The resistance of the German 64th Infantry Division ended at about 1 p.m., and the division was largely annihilated, with the exception of a regiment of about 700 men who fled the battlefield. With no order to retreat or break out, the disciplined German troops resisted until noon the next day, and after determining that the situation was completely hopeless, the German commanders surrendered, and about 5,000 Germans were captured. This phenomenon attracted Xiong Xun's attention, and according to the internal report of the Shandong Campaign, the Japanese army rarely surrendered in formation, but the German army did. According to the order of Lieutenant General Xiong Xun, the German prisoners of war were treated preferentially, and the commanders of the 27th and 25th divisions of the Chinese army openly said to the German prisoners, "We still treat you as friends." The exchange of troops between the two countries is a matter for the superiors, and it has nothing to do with you.

Lieutenant General Xiong Xun did not care about the joy of the victory, and immediately began to arrange for the encirclement and annihilation of the Austrian army on the western flank. Now it was relatively simple, the defeat of the German army on the eastern flank led the panic of the Austrians, they were powerless in the face of the attack of the 26th Division, when the 25th Division pounced from the east, the Austrian army also collapsed, rushed towards the west, the heavy firearms were basically discarded, about 3,000 people of the division were captured, and the rest fled except for those who were killed.

The Battle of Ploiesti came to a swift end in a way that neither side expected. The entire campaign, including the German-Austrian attack on the town of Alonda, lasted only four days. General Falkingham's two divisions on the northern front were in ashes. As soon as the Chinese Expeditionary Force appeared, it gave both the enemy and us a huge shock with a stunning start.

The gains of the campaign were enormous, and as far as the expeditionary force was concerned, the grain, oil, and ammunition stored in Ploiesti basically fell into the hands of the expeditionary force. These things are urgently needed by the Chinese army. In particular, the seizure of a large number of refined oil products has greatly eased the pressure on logistics. The German logistics units remaining in Ploiesti did not burn a large number of supplies because they did not receive orders. The rigidity of the Germans is evident. No wonder the British ridiculed the Germans as mechanical, dull, mindless, and submissive.

The consequences of the campaign were severe for the Germans. It was not just the loss of two divisions. Ploiesti was lost, and Bucharest was exposed under the guns of the Chinese army. General Falkingham's rear was threatened and he had to quickly turn back the three divisions that were advancing eastward to defend Bucharest. The danger of the Russian coalition forces, which were retreating under the pressure of the Mackensen Danube Army, was basically eliminated. Germany's Romanian strategy basically failed, and the Chinese army successfully broke through in the middle, and the three armies that had entered Romania that were originally perfectly coordinated were cut off.

General Brusilov, commander of the Russian Southwestern Front, who received the battle report, was overjoyed and immediately ordered Admiral Ye Yanbing to continue to attack southward and seize Bucharest. At the same time, the retreating 9th Army of the Russian army was ordered to stop retreating and enter the counteroffensive. As a result of the unexpected success of the Chinese army in Ploiesti, General Brusilov saw hope for saving the situation in Romania. Romania's salvage, regardless of its strategic significance, would be a great encouragement to the Allied armies, which were still at a loss on land.

However, after analyzing the situation, Ye Yanbing put forward another plan, and for the first time, the Chinese Expeditionary Force had strategic differences with the Russian high command. (To be continued......)