Episode 62 Dilemma

At half past two in the afternoon, the Red Sixth Division arrived at Xinmengzhuang with more than 9,000 men left due to repeated air raids. At present, four or five thousand prisoners have surrendered, more than 2,000 have been "killed," and more than 1,000 have been scattered and fled in all directions. In addition, there should be more than 1,000 people who have retreated to Xinmengzhuang.

These more than 1,000 people were obviously the elite of the whole division, and they still did not panic and spontaneously gathered together despite the fierce air raids from the air and the encirclement of tanks on all sides. Not only did they retreat back into Xinmengzhuang in an orderly manner, but they also pushed about 20 light artillery pieces and machine guns into it. There is a lot of strength to stick to it again and resist the Blue First Division to the end.

When cleaning up the battlefield, most of the other senior officers in the division headquarters were not bad, except for the division commander Huang Shuliang. It seems that the one who organized more than 1,000 people to enter the village was Huang Shuliang.

Although Rommel asked Xu Xiangde to tell the commander of the 1st Red Division that they must arrive within two hours, he knew that for a hoplite division, two hours would not be able to cover 25 kilometers in any case. Although they were semi-motorized, they were only transported by heavy artillery and car, and they were only guaranteed to be able to keep up with the infantry, and the speed at which the entire unit moved was the speed at which the infantry walked.

People can walk up to five or six kilometers in one hour, and more than ten kilometers in two hours. If you have to finish 25 kilometers, you have to run. Even if the infantrymen could concentrate the extra equipment on the trucks, the guns and ammunition would definitely be carried with them. Together, it's about twenty pounds. A person carrying a load of about 20 pounds for two hours is a soldier, and that is the level of the Marine Corps and special forces. And after the run, let alone the war.

Therefore, the head of the division of the 1st Blue Division believed that it would take at least three to four hours for the main force of the 1st Red Division to arrive here.

But although they are infantry divisions, the reconnaissance units are all motorized. The 1st Blue Division had already sent a blocking force to the west half an hour earlier, with the aim of blocking the Red Army's reconnaissance outposts and making it impossible for them to figure out what was going on here.

Now that the two sides have begun to make contact, part of the reconnaissance battalion of the 1st Red Division has exchanged fire with the blocking position of the 1st Blue Division.

The 1st Blue Division set up improvised trenches, barbed wire, machine guns, and self-propelled guns, and did not let the tanks show up. Coupled with the continuous sound of artillery in the distance to the east, this gave the Red Army the impression that the 1st Blue Division was fighting on two fronts. The Red Sixth Division was being attacked in the east, and the defensive was in the west, but a temporary line of defense was established.

The 1st Red Division did not have aerial reconnaissance, and its judgment of the battlefield depended entirely on ground reconnaissance troops. But now that the reconnaissance troops of the 1st Red Division are blocked here, they have come to the judgment that the 6th Red Division is still fighting, and the 1st Blue Division is now going to use the main force of the whole division to concentrate on attacking the 6th Red Division in the east, and the 1st Red Division in the west cannot hold its strength and can only defend passively. This is equivalent to giving the main force of the Red First Division a shot in the arm, so that their already exhausted troops continue to step up, trying not to miss the fighter plane, and want to attack and destroy the Blue First Division with the Red Sixth Division.

Now the soldiers of the 1st Red Division are out of breath. Overhead, the Blues planes came once a while, but not much, four or six at a time, swooping down to strafe and drop bombs, and then fly away. I'll do it again in a while.

This kept the Red Army in a state of stop-and-run. Most people will think that this is very energy-saving, because running for a while is just coming to the air raid, and you can lie down and rest for a while. But anyone with sports training knows that this is precisely the most tiring. Run for a while, take a short break, run for a while, take a short break...... It would take you ten minutes to get tired, but three minutes will be tiring.

Sure enough, according to aerial reconnaissance, the 1st Red Division was already running lifelessly.

The formation on the road began to disperse, and many soldiers had already run away. There were many more soldiers standing there, holding each other in their arms, panting and pale. But the commander in the car kept urging them. Although the soldiers of the 1st Red Division were so tired that they could no longer hold on, the officers and men understood in their hearts that the 1st Blue Division had already broken two divisions of the Red Army on the first day, and was now breaking the third division. Such a strong enemy, now has a chance to let him be eliminated in his own hands. It's up to you to see how fast you can run now.

……

At about 3:40 p.m., the remnants of the Blue 1st Division and the Red 6th Division were basically over, except for Huang Shuliang and the more than 1,000 people who had re-taken refuge in Xinmengzhuang, the rest had been basically wiped out.

It could have been announced that the Red Sixth Division had been officially wiped out, but because the division commander Huang Shuliang and the remaining more than 1,000 people were still holding on, the "Red Sixth Division" was still there, so that although the Blue Army wanted to, it could not be announced like this. Otherwise, it would have been a great win for the Blues. On the first day of the exercise, half of the Red Army units were wiped out one after another, while its own losses were less than a quarter.

But then again, Rommel is now in a dilemma. Should he immediately move westward and attack the Red First Division, or should he take advantage of this effort to attack Xinmengzhuang and officially eliminate the Red Sixth Division?

Rommel very much hoped that the third division of the Red Army, the Red Sixth Division, would be officially eliminated today. If Xiang Xiaoqiang is the commander of the Red Army, he must think more about it at this moment. In addition to the victory or defeat of the exercise, he must also consider the face of Tang Yunsheng, the commander of the Red Army, and the relationship between the Ming Army and the People's Guard. He will try to win, but he will also find ways to make the Red Army lose less badly, so ugly, so exaggerated.

But Rommel was a man with a strong sense of honor. If it had been possible, he would have hoped to wipe out all six divisions of the Red Army on the first day of the exercise. He once was so angry with his superiors that he quarreled with his superiors because of the fact that on the battlefield of World War I, when the German army calculated the credit and put the credit that he thought should be his own, so that he later became a field marshal, and he was still angry about this incident. Xiang Xiaoqiang also knows this about him, so he doesn't have much hope that he can "take it easy".

However, Rommel also knew that it would not be so easy to win Xinmengzhuang. It's not even easier than before.

Because Zhuangzi is so big, there is really not much difference between a 1,000-man defense and a 10,000-person defense. And 10,000 people would be too crowded. To defend such a residential area of a few square meters, about 1,000 people is the most suitable. Moreover, as with the truth of people, there is not much difference in the defensive effect of such a large Zhuangzi, 200 artillery pieces and 20 artillery pieces. There are only a dozen places where artillery and ambush artillery can be allowed.

But if you ignore the enemy in Zhuangzi and attack directly to the west, with more than 1,000 people and more than 20 artillery pieces here, the back of the 1st Blue Division will not be stable. This is the equivalent of a small fortress, where enemy troops can come out at any time and attack their flanks or backs.

Rommel thought about it, and finally decided to be practical and attack the 1st Red Division first. Rush to beat the Red Division before dark, although it can't be destroyed, but at least it can be inflicted.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the main force of the 1st Blue Division turned westward, preparing to launch a fierce attack on the 1st Red Division.