Episode 54 Breakthrough

The three regiments were equipped with 36 anti-tank guns of various sizes on the ground, but now, despite the calm command and proper handling of the regiment commander, there are only 2 47-mm anti-tank guns. But there were hundreds of tanks on the other side.

The lonely 10 small guns on the position of the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Red Division opened fire one after another, and the sound of tank guns on the opposite side could no longer be described as "one after another". Every second, several cannons were firing, and it had become a chorus.

The crews of each of the RED guns were severely understaffed, and they either escaped or were "killed". But the rest of those who held on to the gun position and opened fire were all soldiers with strong will and good psychological quality. In this way, they turned pale and lowered their heads, hurriedly carrying shells, loading, retracting, observing, aiming, and doing the work of two or three people by themselves. They had never seen this kind of formation, they had never faced this kind of steel torrent, and the shock and tension in their hearts were simply indescribable, and this feeling had never been felt in the defense of Nanjing. If you don't know that this is a drill, you will not only be nervous at the moment, but also extremely frightened.

Not only the artillerymen, but even the exercise referees wearing white steel helmets and armbands, and served by the military police, were also stunned and stunned as they stood by at this moment. If they hadn't been somewhat stunned, the poor 10 small cannons at this moment would have been condemned as none left.

If the standard of the Red Army's defense line was set according to the standard of the Ming army's defense line, such as the Yangtze River defense line, then it must be set that these guns were closely protected by concrete and armored permanent fortifications. Then don't say that there are a hundred tank guns on the opposite side, even if there are ten thousand tank guns, the anti-tank guns of the red side will be unscathed.

But now the standard of the Red Army's defense line is set in accordance with the standard of the Qing army's defense line. And the Qing army was traditionally on the offensive, and the defense line in Jiangbei was not without it, but it was more or less symbolic. Most of the defensive line was just temporary fortifications with sandbag racks and planks, as well as "permanent fortifications" made of bricks. Even a small number of real concrete permanent fortifications are mostly cut corners: thin thickness, less reinforcement, poor quality reinforcement, poor cement quality, poor pouring quality. Therefore, most of the anti-tank guns of the Red Army are now just a few sandbags piled in front of the gun body, and they should have all been destroyed long ago under such intensive artillery fire of the Blue Army.

The drill referees on the red positions reacted one after another and immediately threw themselves into their duties, so that all the 10 anti-tank guns fired by the three regiments were immediately muted.

……

It's almost dawn. The Blues launched a ground offensive at 4:10 and completely broke through the 2nd Red Division's defensive line at 5:00, tearing a 5-kilometre gap in the defensive line and now continuing to expand on both sides.

During these 40 minutes, the command system of the 2nd Red Division at all levels and all parts of its combat units were in a state of confusion and paralysis, and as the armored units of the Blue Army continued to cut and outflank, the structure became more and more chaotic, and a large number of officers and men were captured or "killed" before they could understand what was going on. Now the entire division has no ability to fight back.

To this extent, it can be said that the Red Second Division has been basically defeated.

Now, at the initial breach, the BLU gendarmes are directing traffic, directing the tide of tanks, armoured vehicles, cars, and self-propelled guns, while also leaving the road for the large number of captives, separating people and vehicles from mixing together, in case the already congested traffic is further congested.

More than a dozen planes in the sky flew over in waves. The roar of heaven and the roar of the earth turned the whole battlefield into a huge symphony orchestra.

……

Rommel chose not a weak position for the Red Army, but on the contrary, a strong one. Because there are three roads within two kilometers here. One is the main intercity highway, from Nanjing to Shanghai, called the "Shanghai-Nanjing Highway", which is very wide and very good asphalt road. The other two are small roads not far from the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway and parallel to it, one is Changzhou to Jintan, and the other is Changzhou to Danyang, which is also an asphalt road, but it is not as wide as the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway.

Because the road conditions were the best here, the focus of the Red Army's defense was also here. But Rommel was not an ordinary bold, and he chose to break through here in the past. And it turned out that the Red Army, even the "defensive focus", was not designed at all to defend against such an offensive. A hundred or dozens of tanks, swarming over a short stretch of 5 kilometers, are not yet acceptable to the defenders of this era.

Rommel left a tank battalion and the 2nd Blue Division to clean up the mess of the 2nd Red Division, and he led the 1st Blue Division to turn around and head north, taking the 3rd Red Division stationed in the northern defensive line from behind.

When attacking the defensive positions of the 2nd Red Division, the 3rd Red Division in the north was no better, because it was constantly under the indiscriminate bombardment of aircraft, and its organization and command system could not be organized at all, let alone move south and attack the right flank of the Blue Army. The entire division went from a state of sleep to a state of chaos, not a state of combat. The soldiers climbed out of their tents screaming, watching the dive bombers over their heads howl and pounce, and several small "bombs" smashing on their heads, they were all terrified and fled with their heads covered.

Everyone's mind is that they must not let this thing smash themselves. It's useless to have a steel helmet, throw it down so high, and you have to be stoned to death.

Not only the dive bombers, but also those fighters also swooped down in groups and in turn, and the four bright spots on the nose and wings flashed and spewed tongues of fire. The soldiers weren't too scared of this, after all, unlike dive bombers, if they didn't get it right, they would kill someone. Many soldiers looked up in a daze, watching the fighter jets pounce down from a high place and "strafe" against their scalps.

The soldiers often subconsciously squatted down when the plane passed by, and then stood up again, watching in amazement as the fighter pulled up and flew into the distance. There are few who lie on the spot in strict accordance with the training.

But then they will be very unlucky, and the referees of the exercise, who reacted, rushed over from behind, yelling and ordering them to take out the "Killed" sign and put it on, and then lie down.

Soon, there were already "corpses" on the position.

Dozens of dive bombers took turns to pounce on the 20-kilometer-long position, strafing and dropping bombs. From the sky, there is already gunsmoke and pillars of smoke below. Around each pillar of smoke, there will be a drill referee ordering the soldiers who did not escape in time to "lie down and play dead". Near the smoke-emitting bomb sites, there were "corpses" lying all over the place.

But just like the situation of the 2nd Red Division, there were also a large number of soldiers in the 3rd Red Division who were "unconscious", and the bombs were still running when they were thrown around. If it were a real bomb, they would have been reduced to a few pieces and flew into the sky.

……

Nanjing, Red Command.

Tang Yunsheng looked at the map expressionlessly, looking at a large pile of front-line reports in front of him.

The reports were fragmented, fragmentary, contradictory, and new ones were constantly being sent in.

Half an hour ago, I received a phone call from the Danyang and Jurong airports almost at the same time, saying that they had been attacked by blue bombers, and that most of the planes had been judged to have been "destroyed."

That is, the planes of the red side, now there are only a dozen left, completely lost the sky.

The command room outside was noisy, and a large group of communications staff officers wore headphones and held microphones, shaking their handles and shouting angrily:

"Hey, hey, hey! Hey, hey, hey! ”

"I'm a wild goose! I'm a wild goose! Tiger, please reply! ……”

"Falcon, please reply! Falcon ......"

"How many casualties do you have there? What, don't know? ……”

"I'm an elephant, I'm an elephant......"

"What kind of troops does the other side have?"

“…… What are you? How do you call me to report? ”

"Okay, I'll write it down......"

"Hey,, the phone is ......"

"Hey, where's your captain? What the? I don't know? …… What unit do you have? Yes? Cooking class? …… How did it go...... Where is your regimental headquarters? ”

……

A staff officer, sweating profusely, came in and complained:

"My lord, pause the exercise, what is this? Blue attacks early, clearly cheating......"

Tang Yunsheng raised his head and said in a gloomy voice:

"Attack early? What does it mean to attack early? When there is a real war, can the enemy tell you what time and what time to attack? …… Get back to work! Don't talk nonsense, fight the battle well! ”

The staff officer withdrew.

Tang Yunsheng held his forehead and thought for a moment, grabbed the phone on the table, and said hesitantly:

"Pick me up in the palace. …… Hey, I'm Tang Yunsheng, Chief of General Staff, did Your Majesty get up? Ah, that's great, please pick me up Your Majesty. ”

After a while, Zhu Yourong's voice came from the other end:

"Tang Qing?"

"Ah, Your Majesty, it's Wei Chen."

"Hehe, is there anything wrong with Tang Aiqing so early?"

"Your Majesty," Tang Yunsheng said lightly, "Tomorrow at eight o'clock, you may not have to come to the headquarters to announce the start of the exercise. ”

"Oh? Why? ”

Tang Yunsheng briefly explained that the Blue Army had already launched an attack.

Zhu Yourong kept groaning on the phone and did not speak. After a while, he said:

"Tang Qing, what do you think?"

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that from the side of the Blue Army, there is nothing wrong with what has been done. After all, the official communiqué of the exercise only said that the exercise would begin on 1 June, but did not specify what time it was. As for Your Majesty's itinerary for today, it was decided yesterday. We can assume that the Blues did not know that you were going to announce the start of the exercise at 8 o'clock this morning. They chose a time that they thought was most appropriate. …… In addition, the minister felt that if we really attacked the Qingqing, it would never be possible to tell the Qingqing in advance the accurate time. Don't say what time it is, it's impossible to tell even what day of the month it is. At the moment, the red side of the minister already knows the date of the opponent's attack, which is already very good. ”

Zhu Yourong was silent for a while, and said with a smile:

"Tang Aiqing, I am very pleased. Because my army chief of staff is a responsible person, and he didn't come to quarrel with me because he encountered a little unfairness. …… Tang Aiqing, I will still come to you in the morning. But you don't have to worry about me, just concentrate on directing the exercise. ”

Tang Yunsheng put down the phone and wiped the cold sweat on his forehead.

Listening to His Majesty's tone, the blue side attacked in advance and played the side ball, His Majesty knew in advance, and had already acquiesced. …… Fortunately, I said those words well. Now, His Majesty should feel very good about himself.

He let out a sigh of relief and looked down at the map. The dissatisfaction caused by the Blues' undeclared war just now is now more than half comfortable.

However, he decided to knock on Xiang Xiaoqiang.

Tang Yunsheng was just about to pick up the microphone again when the phone rang suddenly. He grabbed the microphone and said:

"I'm Tang Yunsheng."

"Hey, Tang Gong, I'm ...... The students are very good! Tang Gong, listen to me......"