The plan of Lieutenant General Chelsea, commander of the British Army's eastward march, was as usual and feasible, but he only found the troops of the Independent Division approaching the east of Imphal, and was unaware of the seven brigades of the Independent Division, which had penetrated deep into the interior of the East Indies, and the three brigades of the Independent Division, which were just northwest of Imphal.

On the night of May 20, Imphal, the headquarters of the Eastward Advance Corps, Lieutenant General Chelsea, who had just finished inspecting the defensive line, could not take any rest and was writing a letter to Winston? Churchill and General Brandt, Chief of the General Staff, sent an urgent telegram that the development of the war situation had exceeded his expectations, and Tang Qiuli's troops were approaching the city, which caught him off guard.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, and General Brandes, Chief of the General Staff, today, the situation in the East Indies has changed suddenly, Tang Qiuli's troops have approached the Naga Hills around Imphal, and the troops of our Eastward Advance Corps and assembled in Imphal have only four incomplete divisions and more than 40,000 troops.

"When the Impal defense line is not yet able to resist the attack of the Chinese, its fragility can be imagined, if the Impal is lost, then in the East Indies, there is no area that can stop the footsteps of the Chinese, and the troops are still continuing to build, but it will take quite a long time to reach the Imphal defense line, and relying only on the existing troops and equipment cannot prevent the tragedy from happening."

"Therefore, I earnestly suggest, in the name of the British Empire, that the American troops in the South Pacific send their air forces to participate in the East Indies War, at least, in the early stage of the war, to stop the advance of Tang Qiuli's troops, so that our army can advance eastward, and have ample time to prepare, which is the only feasible way. Otherwise, I dare not guarantee that I will be able to stop the Chinese from attacking the East Indies. ”

"In addition, there is an unfortunate news to report. The fact that Tang Qiuli's troops were able to free up their hands and get out of the Hukang Valley meant that Alexander's troops had been completely wiped out in Sido, and strangely enough, I did not receive any telegram from them. The exact circumstances are unknown. ”

Chelsea is crazy, that damn old bastard Alexander, tossed all the money of the troops stationed in India, take the air force as an example, there are less than twenty planes left, including seven reconnaissance planes that cannot participate in air combat. What do you want to use to fight the Chinese?

Eight brigades of more than 100,000 Chinese soldiers swarmed into the East Indies, and the thought of it made Lieutenant General Chelsea's scalp tingle. Only by pulling the Americans in can we not be defeated, as long as we can catch our breath, there is a way to drag the Chinese, in all fairness, Chelsea's idea is absolutely crazy enough.

Before the telegram could be written, the military staff officer came in and reported, "Your Excellency, Simpson, Shadia, Dinsugiya, Ramga, Dhaka, Kulna, Pokaro, Sajfpur, Jinhati, etc. The report of the commander of the assembled forces was that only a small number of troops could reach Imphal on time because of the shortage of transport vehicles, and the rest of the troops still needed to walk. The time of arrival was forced to delay, please Commander your approval! ”

Chelsea suddenly became furious, and shouted: "Sue the rice buckets, their troops, if they do not reach Imphal on time, so as to affect the course of the battle, they will wait to go to court-martial, and order all troops, no matter what means, to reach Imphal on time, even if they climb, they must be there on time!" ”

Under Chelsea's strict orders, the Anglo-Indian troops at the various assembly sites, who could not wait for the troops to continue to arrive, gathered the existing troops, hurriedly changed their equipment, searched for a vehicle that could be used, and then, drove out of the assembly place one after another, and rushed to Imphal like crazy. …,

Even so, most of the soldiers had to rely on two feet to get to Imphal, because of an order from Chelsea, the assembled British and Indian troops, left the towns, and this qiē, of course, could not hide the eyes of the various detachments of the special operations detachment, all kinds of information, and flew like snowflakes to Luhardin, the East India Campaign Headquarters of the Independent Division.

After reading this information, Tang Qiuli looked up to the sky and laughed, the absolutely advantageous fighter plane finally appeared, the purpose of seizing the East Indies was to obtain a complete area that had not been damaged by the war, and there were ruins and rubble everywhere, not the goal, otherwise, the post-war reconstruction work would be able to drag down most of the energy, not counting the staggering costs.

Now, the Anglo-Indian army has left the towns that can be relied on and defended, giving the troops a good opportunity to annihilate the enemy in the field, so that the destruction of the city has been reduced to a minimum.

Tang Qiuli said to Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe: "Yuhe, the best time to annihilate the enemy in the field has come, record the following orders, 1. The 8th, 9th, and 10th Brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps will immediately advance to Luharding, and take Simpson, Shadia, and Dinsugia as the targets of the attack, cut off the British and Indian troops in Imphal and Ramga, and retreat to the interior of India. ”

"2. The troops of the 1st to 7th Brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps, after each attacking the target and leaving the current assembly area, seek an opportunity to annihilate them in the field, and in the process of drawing up and implementing the campaign plan, they must be strict and cautious, so as not to make them return to their original assembly areas, relying on the terrain conditions of the city, and stubbornly resisting, the suddenness of the launch of the campaign is particularly important, and the method of ambush can be adopted, and in addition, part of the troops should be divided to seize the above-mentioned towns."

"3. The brigades and units of the Corps directly under the front line at the eastern foot of the Naga Hills are mainly to exert pressure on the British and Indian troops in Imphal and Lambga, and attract the attention of the British and Indian troops in the two places to the Imphal line, so that they cannot rescue the enemy in Simpson, Saddia, Dinsugia and other places, and the specific campaign deployment is to slowly advance to the front line of the Naga Hills with the troops of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Brigades, creating a frontal offensive situation."

"The Fifth and Sixth Brigades, with the Anglo-Indian troops of Lambga, as the operational objective, and the Seventh and Eighth Brigades, with the Anglo-Indian troops of Imphal, as the operational objectives, and the above units adopt the tactics of concealment and detour, encircling the two places, not attacking for the time being, and waiting for orders."

"Fourth, the original combat mission of the Southern Flying Group of the Air Force has been changed as follows: In cooperation with the seven brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps penetrating deep into the interior of India, they will destroy the enemy in the field and provide air fire support, and all the units participating in the battle will seek opportunities to destroy the enemy, and the time of the battle can be determined by themselves, and the battle plan can be reported to the division headquarters."

After recording the order, Zhao Yuhe reminded: "Division commander, I have a different opinion on your last words in the order, this time, we used eighteen brigades of troops, except for the troops of Impal and Ramga, which are relatively concentrated, the rest of the troops are all fighting alone, and the distance between the battlefields is not the same. ”

Tang Qiuli shook his head and said: "Yuhe, you only consider one thing, the upcoming campaign is distributed throughout East India, and even deep into the interior of India, and the Anglo-Indian troops in each assembly area, because they are far and close to Imphal, leave at different times, and after the unified campaign launch time stipulated by our division headquarters, it will inevitably cause some troops to lose the best opportunity to destroy the enemy." ”

"Moreover, in such a vast combat area, each battlefield is in a relatively independent state, the troops of the British and Indian armies, how many or small troops, combat effectiveness is different, how can we carry out unified command, the battlefield chaos is not terrible, as long as the attack objectives of each unit are clear, what we want is chaos, the enemy is chaotic and I am not chaotic, take advantage of the chaos." …,

"It seems to be chaotic, but in fact, the target of the attack is clear, it is the characteristic of the East India Campaign, do not interfere with the specific command of the brigade commanders, as long as the result is fine, Yuhe, you look at it, after the campaign is launched, the time to end the battle is guaranteed, there is a first and there is a last, these days, we have to be busy!"

At about 4 o'clock in the morning on 21 May, the battle of the East Indies Campaign first began more than 30 kilometers southeast of Sajfpur, and the second brigade of the Sulu Mobile Regiment Liao Zhenbang was responsible for attacking the British and Indian troops there, and the detachment directly under the command of Chu Tian, the head of the special operations detachment, happened to be operating in this area.

In the early morning of May in the East Indies, although the sun has not yet come out, the weather has shown a sultry trend, on a thick tree trunk, Liao Zhenbang stamped the wet plank under his feet, and said to Chu Tian beside him: "Captain Chu, are your soldiers very creative, come up with a way to build a command post on a tree, so that the entire battlefield can be seen in the eyes, and troops can be mobilized at any time, not bad, very good!" ”

Chu Tian smiled faintly, being good at using the terrain is the most basic common sense of the soldiers of the special operations detachment, here, a few kilometers away from the battlefield, the location is hidden, many tall trees, you can use it, and you don't have to worry about accidents, you can climb the heights and lookout, and you can also grasp the battlefield situation at any time.

After only a few days of entering the interior of India, Chutian was a little dark and thin, and more than a dozen detachments of the special operations detachment were scattered across tens of thousands of square kilometers of land, and the communication between them all relied on radio and a huge amount of intelligence, all of which had to be gathered to him, and after he selected and summarized them, he would report to the division for instructions.

In addition, it was necessary to avoid the large number of Anglo-Indian troops assembled at Sajfpur, capture prisoners to obtain intelligence, and eliminate scattered Anglo-Indian soldiers.

Chu Tianzheng whispered something to the newspaper operator, Liao Zhenbang suddenly stabbed him, and said excitedly: "Captain Chu, look, the British and Indian soldiers are coming!" ”

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