Episode 56 The fox meets the weasel

At 8 o'clock in the morning of June 1, the north of the 2nd Red Division, which had been blown into a pool of rotten persimmons, was torn and divided into nine pieces by the 1st Blue Armored Division in an area of 20 kilometers.

Of course, this is just a guess made by Blue based on the number and size of the split blocks. In fact, during the two-and-a-half-hour non-stop bombing and strafing, the Red Third Division no longer had a complete formation above the platoon level.

The 2nd Blue Division, reinforced by a tank battalion, was assigned by Rommel to stay behind to "clean up" the paralyzed 2nd and 3rd Red Divisions, and then went south to meet the approaching 4th and 5th Red Divisions. Rommel himself did not delay, and led the 1st Blue Division to continue to advance westward along the road, meet the 1st and 6th Red Divisions, break through or crush them, and then drive to Nanjing, winning the exercise.

The 1st Blue Division was an armored division, and after a tank battalion was assigned to the 2nd Red Division, there were still two battalions with a total of 90 tanks, which were still the main armored force. The main armored force is always in the front and plays the role of a "butter knife". Rommel mastered this very well.

The tanks and armored vehicles of the 1st Blue Division, scattered in battle formation, "rumbled" through the fields on both sides of the road. The wheeled vehicles of the 1st Blue Division lined up on the road, following behind the armored units.

The advance speed of the entire division is currently 20 kilometers per hour.

Such a speed was unimaginable for an ordinary infantry division. The average infantry division can only travel 15-20 kilometers in a day, and the fastest lightly armed column is only 25-30 kilometers at most. But for mechanized and motorized engineers, these distances can be covered in just an hour.

The Red Reserve, the 1st and 6th Red Divisions, was only 20 kilometers away.

At present, there are only blue planes in the sky, and in the entire exercise battlefield more than 100 kilometers long, every part of the Red Army is where, how many people there are, what they are doing, and where they are going, all under the noses of the Blue Army. Therefore, the 1st Blue Division did not even need reconnaissance, and rushed forward directly at maximum speed.

……

The tracks of the Lightning-3 tank "rumbled" through the fields, and where they passed, like a combine harvester, large swaths of crops fell and were crushed in the dirt.

And there are nearly 100 such "combine harvesters", scattered in the farmland on both sides of the road, very separated. The destruction of crops is not small.

Now the fields are full of summer grain, and they will be harvested in two or three months. Now the growth is very good, and the green is loved.

In the distance, on the ridges, many peasants stood, their necks straight, watching the large expanses of tanks and armored vehicles drive past their fields. Some looked at it in a daze, and some pointed and talked loudly. There are also many young people jumping excitedly to watch.

They didn't know if they were distressed about the crops, or if they had never seen such a big formation, and they were already stunned. Probably both. Because the local government has already informed them that there will be military exercises in the next few days, and some crops may be destroyed. But no matter how much is damaged, the government will pay 1.5 times the amount of compensation. Except for some instinctive pity, the peasants were not worried about their losses.

But the mood of the soldiers on the armored vehicles was constantly heavy. Most of them, whether they were armored or infantry, were the children of peasants. Now they are wearing steel helmets, wearing military uniforms, and sitting in armored vehicles and trucks, but now they are all standing up, leaning on the side of the car, silently looking at the crops in the fields that are constantly being overwhelmed by tanks. The excitement of the big raid and the winning streak just now has dissipated a lot.

……

More than 10 kilometers away from the vanguard of the 1st Blue Division, the 6th Red Division was struggling under the "ravage" of the planes overhead, moving forward almost inch by inch.

On both sides of the road, long lines had already scattered and collapsed in the fields. At least a third of the cars, carriages, and artillery pieces on the highway have now been declared "blown up."

Easily, nine dive bombers overhead flew away.

Division Commander Huang Shuliang raised his head from the temporary foxhole that the soldiers had just dug, covered his steel helmet, held a straw stick in his mouth, and squinted his eyes and swept the sky. Several staff officers of the division headquarters next to them also cautiously raised their heads from their respective foxholes.

On the ballade pit, two exercise referees wearing armbands stared at them with fierce eyes, hoping that they would have the honor of personally pronouncing the death of a division commander.

But this Huang Shuliang is really slipping like a weasel, just not giving them a chance. From the first round of air raids just an hour ago, he immediately jumped out of the car screaming like a coward, and at the same time ordered all the staff officers of the division headquarters to join him and plunge into the farmland by the roadside. After the first round of air raids passed, he seemed to have expected that the air raids would never be counted like this, and immediately asked the soldiers to dig temporary foxholes for the division headquarters to hide.

After the first round of air raids, he looked up and saw that many vehicles, mules, horses, and artillery on the road had been tied with red cloths that represented the destruction by the exercise judges. There were also many infantry on both sides, who were also under the supervision of the exercise referee, scolding and wearing death signs and lying aside.

Huang Shuliang immediately asked the herald to pass it on, and ordered the whole division to be in an air defense state immediately, and all regiments closely observed the sky and sounded the air defense alarm as soon as possible. As soon as the whole division heard the air defense siren, it had to immediately disperse to lie down and hide on both sides of the road. At the same time, 12 20-mm anti-aircraft guns of the divisional anti-aircraft company fired at enemy aircraft.

At this time, none of the infantry divisions had much experience in air defense. And the infantry division had its own anti-aircraft artillery units, albeit only 12 pieces, which was already quite a luxury in this era. This is still Tang Yunsheng's consideration of the Blue Army's air superiority, and the additional configuration of the Red Army.

The interval between the Blues' air strikes was short, and a second wave arrived a few minutes later. The Red officers and men who had just gotten up and walked had to disperse and rush to both sides of the road, lying down and hiding.

The second air raid was again "dead and wounded". However, as Huang Shuliang's order was quickly passed down, by the time of the fourth and fifth air raids of the Blue Army, the air defense sirens sounded in time, and the casualties of the Red Sixth Division were greatly reduced, except for the equipment vehicles parked on the road and still being seriously damaged.

……

"Alright, the alarm is off! …… Alarm dismissed! ……”

Shouts were heard from far and near. The soldiers in the fields on both sides got up with a curse, bounced off the dirt on their bodies, and continued to walk in line with their guns.

Huang Shuliang's temporary division headquarters was located next to these foxholes. So far, the divisional command system has been unscathed, unlike the unlucky Red Second Division and the Red Third Division, which had their families "beheaded" at the beginning. Although the Red Sixth Division has suffered considerable losses, its entire command structure is still perfect, its structure is still very sound, and it can carry out orders and prohibitions, and its advance and retreat are based on evidence.

"How far are we?"

Huang Shuliang chewed a straw stick, pressed the map on a "scrapped" carriage, and asked the staff officers around him.

"Commander, please look," said a staff officer, pointing to the map, "we are here now, and in front of us is Hengtang, which is ten kilometers away from Luoxi. ”

"Do you estimate that the enemy's vanguard has arrived in Luoxi?"

The staff officer took the compass and measured it on the map, and calculated:

"The enemy had the main forces of the Lightning-3 tanks. The maximum speed on the road of the Lightning-3 is 40 kilometers per hour. But it is impossible for their tanks to drive on the road. First, the road should be left to wheeled vehicles, and second, it is close to us, and they cannot let the tanks on the road form an ordinary marching column, but must be scattered in battle formation. The maximum off-road speed of the Lightning-3 in such fields is 25 km/h. But that's the highest, and it's impossible for the actual enemy to drive so fast. Otherwise, their fuel and maintenance pressure will be greater. Therefore, their estimated speed is 20 kilometers per hour. It is impossible to cross Luoxi at this moment. But there shouldn't be much worse. ”

Uncle Huang nodded brightly, and just as he was about to say something, the air defense siren sounded in the distance again. Without saying a word, he immediately jumped into the foxhole with his head in his hands. Several other staff officers also grabbed the map and jumped into their respective foxholes.

The long marching column now spread out like a swarm of ants, rushing from the road to the fields on both sides. At the same time, 12 machine guns in the distance rang out.

In the sky, several fighters rushed down in turn with tongues of fire, and then they dropped several "bomblets" each, like dive bombers.

Many soldiers knelt up from the fields, craned their necks and cursed:

"Damn, the fighter jets also dropped bombs! What the hell! ”

But Huang Shuliang and other senior officers understand that many fighter jets can also be equipped with bombs, such as the kingfisher of the Ming army. The difference is that the weight is relatively small.

It is now clear that the Blues are not happy with the dozens of dive bombers, and there is no enemy in the sky anyway, so they simply add small bombs to the fighters. As a result, the number of "dive bombers" of the Blues was equal to a doubling.

……

"Alert dismissed...... Alarm dismissed ......"

There was another shout in the distance.

"Damn, don't let people live!" A staff officer stood up from the foxhole, spat out a mouthful of dirty spit, and scolded, "Let the family be pressed and beaten, let alone march, you can't even lift your head!" If you go on like this, it's good to be able to walk five miles a day! ”

Huang Shuliang got out of the foxhole, shook the soil on the steel helmet, and said with a smile:

"Don't worry, we're going slow, and the Blues don't want to go fast! …… Come, come, I'll tell you......"

He finished talking to a few of the staff officers, and several of them couldn't help but laugh.

"Master, your trick is really too bad."

"It's okay, it's okay...... Soldiers don't get tired of cheating...... That German, some kind of 'fog fox', attacked ahead of time and played yin with us. Then I'll play with them and see if it's his fox yin or my old yellow yin! Pinch hahaha......"

Several people from the division headquarters burst out laughing again.

……

The Blues' vanguard tank units "rumbled" through the fields, each commander standing on the turret with his arms on top of the turret, majestic and high.

Suddenly, the voice of the tank commander in the front row came from the headphones:

"Attention, there is a ...... ahead"

His voice paused, and then he said in disbelief:

"There was a ...... There was a ......"

The company commander of this tank company was impatient, frowned and asked:

"What happened?"

"There was a ...... A lot of farmers. ”

"Peasant?!"

"Yes, peasants," said the captain in the front row, "they were gathered in groups on the highway and in front of us, thousands of them, as if they were carrying all kinds of farm implements...... There are also many old men and old ladies who sleep in the ...... Sleep on the road. Sir, don't you stop first? ”