For Lieutenant General Chelsea, the commander of the British Army Eastward Advance Corps in India, this chaos is just the beginning of the disaster, he can only watch, one after another, being captured by the troops of the independent division, and helpless, he can't save it, and it is already a special gift from God to be able to keep Imphal!

Lieutenant General Chelsea, who was like an ant on the hot pot, pulled out some context from the smoke of war, and finally judged that Tang Qiuli's battle attempt, Alexander was surrounded in Sido in the Hukang River Valley, which was just a bait to lure the remaining troops of the Indian army to come to the rescue, so as to achieve the goal of completely eliminating the military power of the British Empire in the South Asian subcontinent.

Then, against Alexander's troops, besieged but not attacked, sent a large number of troops, secretly entered the East Indies, first cut off the retreat of the eastward army assembled on the Imphal line, and then, divided and encircled and finally annihilated, sorted out this line of thought, the Hukang River Valley and even the East Indies war situation was clearly revealed, but from Prime Minister Churchill to the General Staff and then to himself, they were all fooled.

However, Lieutenant General Chelsea, who didn't even have time to regret it, relied on Imphal's more than 50,000 troops to confront Tang Qiuli's nearly 200,000 troops, he had no chance of winning at all, and the only thing he could do was to beg the Americans to send planes to the war, and the second-line army could open a channel for himself to retreat to the interior of the Indian continent.

Chelsea shuddered at Tang Qiuli's use of troops, this Chinese is also too terrible, hundreds of thousands of troops, entering the East India region for a few days, he did not even notice it at all. Otherwise. He would not stupidly order all the troops to assemble in Impal and take the initiative to fall into Tang Qiuli's trap.

On the afternoon of May 21, the situation in the East Indies took a new turn, and this change was no less than a catastrophe for Chelsea.

Chelsea received urgent telegrams from Simpson, Saudi Arabia, and Dinsugiya, and the contents of the telegrams were almost identical, "Your Excellency, Commander. At about 3 o'clock this afternoon, on our way to Imphal, we were ambushed by the troops of the Chinese Independent Division, and the troops of the Independent Division came under artillery fire. It was extremely violent, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and they were no longer able to resist the attack of the squadron, so I beg Your Excellency the Commander to immediately send troops to the rescue! Otherwise, our ministry is in danger! ”

The Chelsea lieutenant almost jumped, what? Dhaka, Kulna, Pokaro, Saif Pur, and Jinhati had just been lost, and the battlefield had shifted to Simpson, Shadia, and Dinsugiya, and where did the independent division troops come from, the strength of the three assembly points. Chelsea also understands that they are all divisional formations, and even if they are not fully staffed, there are at least nearly 10,000 troops in each place.

Dare to ambush and also beat his own troops, again and again, the troops used by Tang Qiuli are at least more than 20,000 people in each place, my God, Tang Qiuli actually used nearly 20 divisions and about 300,000 troops in order to deal with himself. With such a simple arithmetic, Lieutenant General Chelsea is not confused, more than 300,000 Chinese soldiers can drown the troops in their hands!

Thanks to Tang Qiuli, he can afford to look up to himself. Chelsea felt not an honour, but a deep sense of powerlessness. He ordered the troops in the Naga hills, which were confronting the troops of the Independent Division, to immediately withdraw to Imphal and hold on to the Imphal terrain conditions.

In the Battle of the East Indies, this was the only correct and timely order given by Lieutenant General Chelsea, at that time, the troops of the 7th and 8th Brigades of the directly subordinate corps were outflanking Imphal at full speed, once the outflanking was completed, the tens of thousands of British and Indian troops on the front line of the Naga Hills did not want to withdraw to Imphal, and could only end up surrounded and annihilated in the field.

It is also true that less than three hours after the hastily withdrawn more than 50,000 troops of the four divisions of the Eastward Advance Corps from the front line of the Naga Hills entered Imphal, and the interspersed troops of the 7th and 8th Brigades directly under the Corps had already formed a situation of encirclement of Imphal from the north and south. …,

Lieutenant General Chelsea repeatedly contacted the troops in the direction of Simpson, Saudi Arabia, and Dinsukiya to inquire about the situation of the battle, but all the telegrams sent out were like a stone sinking into the sea, and there was no news, listening to the monotonous sound of the telegraph operator's "tick, tick", Chelsea sighed, his face was like ashes, and he knew what it meant.

The troops have lost contact, and the only answer is that the whole army has been wiped out, and there is not one left dead, then, the three places of Simpson, Saudi Arabia, and Dingsugia have been lost, and one by one empty cities, Tang Qiuli's troops can easily occupy them without much effort.

Back in the office, Lieutenant General Chelsea locked himself in the room, trying to find a way out of the situation in front of him, the East Indies were full of war, Tang Qiuli was in more than ten locations, within one day, he launched attacks, which he never expected, and in every battlefield, he could form a local advantage in strength and firepower.

This Chinese's way of using troops, treacherous and dangerous, fierce and ruthless, the rhythm of the battlefield is interlocking, if it is not for the current troops and soldiers, or well-equipped troops, can there be a possibility of victory in this war, or in other words, a draw with Tang Qiuli, the answer makes Chelsea very frustrated, the same is not good.

Tang Qiuli divided and surrounded, each broke this hand, and had completely grasped the initiative on the battlefield, dividing his more than 100,000 troops into scattered pieces, and being beaten passively everywhere, now, only Impal and Lambga were left, and there was no fighting, was Tang Qiuli deliberately not attacking, or did he use his forces to reach the limit?

No matter what the situation is, Lieutenant General Chelsea does not have a sense of ease, all the strategic points of the East Indies are basically lost, and the lonely Imphal and Lambgar are also two dead places, and they can't support it for a longer period of time, as long as Tang Qiuli is willing, he can attack at any time.

"Bang bang bang!" There was a knock on the office door, and Chelsea frowned impatiently and shouted, "Come in!" ”

A British colonel, holding a telegram, hurried in, looked at Chelsea's gray face, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and said: "Your Excellency, I have received a telegram from the commander of the defenders of Ramgar, on the way to Imphal, our unit was ambushed and surrounded by the superior forces of the independent division of the squadron, and the battle was extremely fierce, and our unit tried to break through in the direction of Imphal and Lambgar many times, but without success. ”

"By about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, after more than two hours of fierce fighting, our unit suffered heavy casualties, and more than half of the troops were lost.

Chelsea leaned back heavily, and finally came, and the defenders of Lambgar were also fiercely attacked, that is to say, all the troop concentrations in the East Indies, except for Imphal, were all targeted by Tang Qiuli's troops without exception, and Imphal became a real lonely city.

However, the troops in the direction of Ramgar could not help but come to the rescue, which was the fastest and most well-equipped division of more than 13,000 troops, and Imphal were at odds with each other, and if the whole army was destroyed, what would they do to hold Imphal.

Chelsea cheered up and began to lay out a plan to rescue the troops in the direction of Lambga, he had more than 50,000 troops in four divisions, and he must not come out of the nest, so he sent out two divisions of more than 20,000 troops, Lambga could not go back, he could only open the road back to Imphal, and while Tang Qiuli's troops were still in other places, when they were attacking the city, it was a blessing in misfortune to receive this force into Imphal 1...,

At this moment, a major officer with a panicked face broke in, "Your Excellency, Commander, I have received a report from the troops in all positions on the front of Imphal that a large number of independent division troops are approaching all around Imphal, and we are surrounded!" ”

With a "snap", Lieutenant General Chelsea broke the pencil in his hand heavily, threw it on the combat map, and sat down in a chair with a face like ashes, his eyes closed, and he didn't say a word.

The colonel's officer cautiously asked, "Your Excellency Commander, are we still going out of Impal to rescue Ramgar's troops according to the plan?" ”

Chelsea suddenly jumped to his feet and roared hoarsely: "Stupid! We are already surrounded by Chinese, ask for help, how to save? Before leaving Imphal, they will fall into the encirclement of the independent division, call back to Lambga's troops, or resist to the end, all killed, or in order to save the lives of the soldiers, surrender to the Chinese, at the discretion of the commander of the unit, and the corps headquarters will not interfere! ”

After speaking, Chelsea sat back in his chair like a deflated ball, and said to himself: "Only Imphal is the last survivor, what is the fate of the future, it depends on fate!" ”

By the evening of 21 May, as the gunfire on the battlefield of Ramgar had subsided, the 5th and 6th Brigades of the Corps directly under the Corps had completely annihilated more than 13,000 men of the 1st Division of the British and Indian Army at the cost of less than 2,000 casualties, of which more than 5,000 were killed on the spot and more than 7,000 were captured.

In all fairness, the troops of the 2nd Division of the Eastward Advance Army, which were mainly Indian soldiers, were quite strong in combat and resisted the most fiercely, and the 5th and 6th Brigades were able to capture so many prisoners, and thanks to the orders of Lieutenant General Chelsea, the British division commander wisely chose to disarm and surrender in a desperate situation.

Otherwise, under the overwhelming artillery cover of the two brigades and four heavy artillery regiments, plus the artillery battalions and rocket artillery battalions of each regiment, and the hundreds of artillery pieces and dozens of "Thunder" rocket artillery, the British and Indian soldiers of the Second Division would definitely not have survived.

At this point, in the East Indies, except for Imphal, all the troops of the Anglo-Indian Army Eastward Advance Corps, as well as various strategic points, fell into the hands of the independent division, and the first phase of the East Indies Campaign was successfully concluded.

(To be continued) (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )