Within three days, the Japanese troops besieging the Dagon area had assembled and entered the designated position. Commander Liao Yaoxiang personally went to the Dagong front, and he wanted to be on the front line to direct this vicious battle.

If you fight a bad war, you will be famous for the ages, and if you don't fight well, you will be infamous for the ages.

Liao Yaoxiang met with officers at and above the regimental level in the command headquarters. It was said that it was a meeting, but in fact it was also a meeting ceremony for the first time, after all, everyone belonged to different units, and many people did not know each other, and even if they did, most of them were not very familiar with each other. At this time, holding a meeting and bringing everyone together can be regarded as familiarity.

The officers sat down, and many of them naturally knew each other, especially the colonels and lieutenant colonels of the old units of the Third Division, so everyone gathered together to discuss the military situation, or to gossip, so it was not lively.

However, there was a middle-aged man in an American military uniform sitting around the corner, who looked a little different, he first took a few sips of tea, and then walked to the map, carefully looking at the situation of friend and foe on it.

"Commander Liao has arrived!" As the guards shouted, everyone hurriedly put on their military hats and stood up.

Liao Yaoxiang walked in, handed the military hat to the orderly next to him, took the wet towel handed by the orderly soldier, waved his hand again and again, and said, "Sit down." ”

He wore a khaki lapel training uniform, a pair of high-top leather shoes on his feet, a cowhide armed belt around his waist was very tight, and a calfskin holster with Browning hanging on it, and with the pair of glasses on his face, it had a bit of a Confucian taste.

The orderly brought tea, and the officers sat down in turn. The officers and soldiers of the expeditionary force were all neatly groomed, and these senior officers were seated with their waists straight, and the armed belts around their waists were very tight.

"Everyone knows the purpose of this summons, so I won't say much here. Within two days, the objectives of the first phase were implemented, and the troops of the 18th Division were driven to Dagonghou Mountain; The next stage is to eat them. Come with me. As he spoke, Liao Yaoxiang waved his hand and led the officers to the large-scale map of the Dagong area.

"The 1st Regiment, the 2nd Regiment and the 5th Regiment ......" Liao Yaoxiang did not drag his words and pointed to the map and directly deployed the task.

Since all the troops had already entered the predetermined positions, this deployment would not take long to clarify the direction of the attack and the capture of the target. In less than five minutes, Liao Yaoxiang had already been deployed.

After speaking, Liao Yaoxiang raised his hand and looked at his watch: "In five hours, the air force will launch an attack on the Japanese army; After the air force, artillery and rocket artillery units will form a covering strike against the Japanese army. Although our strength in this battle is comparable to that of the Japanese army, it is superior to them in terms of firepower, especially the air power is completely suppressed for the first time, which is also one of the few battles between the Chinese and Japanese armies, so we must eat them in one go. ”

Liao Yaoxiang waved his hand and said: "Okay, I won't leave you behind, let's go back and arrange it separately, remember, after the artillery, wait for the order of the headquarters, ready to attack at any time." ”

"Yes!" The officers leaned on their heels and replied.

After the deployment, the officers did not stay too long and dispersed one after another. Unexpectedly, at this time, an officer stood up and said, "Commander-in-chief, dare to ask us how to arrange the brigade reform?" ”

Everyone followed the prestige and saw a middle-aged man wearing a khaki American-style training uniform and a jungle hat.

Liao Yaoxiang glanced at this person up and down, and asked casually, "Are you teaching the brigade?" ”

The man leaned on his heels and said, "Zhang Lin, the commander of the Teaching Brigade of the 1st Expeditionary Army, has come to report." ”

"yes, okay." Liao Yaoxiang said casually: "The teaching brigade is staying as a reserve force this time, and you are responsible for logistics and ensuring that the logistics material support is sufficient." ”

"This ......" Zhang Lin was obviously a little dissatisfied with this arrangement, he leaned on his heels and asked: "Report to the commander-in-chief......" When it came to his mouth, he wanted to say but it was difficult to say, after all, it was the duty of a soldier to obey orders, and it was definitely inappropriate for him to ask like this.

"What? Got an idea? Liao Yaoxiang put his hat on his head, carried a horsewhip and said, "If you have ideas, swallow them in your stomach." ”

As he spoke, Liao Yaoxiang walked towards the front with big strides, leaving Zhang Lin alone standing there stunned.

After the people were almost gone, Zhang Lin walked out of the empty command post quite lonely, and when he walked to the door, two guards gave him a gun salute, and he forgot to return the salute when he had always paid attention to military etiquette.

"Brigadier Zhang, Brigadier Zhang." As soon as he walked to the door, when he was about to return to his unit, Zhang Lin heard someone shouting behind him, and he looked back and saw that it was Liu Fangwu, the commander of the 3rd regiment.

"Let my brother go." Zhang Lin stopped and shook hands with Liu Fangwu. He and Liu Fangwu are old acquaintances, when Zhang Lin gave up school from Yenching University to join the army and applied for the Central Military Academy, Liu Fangwu happened to graduate from the Central Military Academy that year, and the two were considered to be the relationship between seniors and juniors.

However, Zhang Lin was appreciated by Cui Wu, the commander of the Northwest Theater, because of his outstanding performance in the battle at the Northwest Airport, that is, he rose up on a rocket. When he arrived at the Burma front, he Liu Fangwu was the colonel regiment commander, while Zhang Lin, who was a few years later than him, was already a colonel brigade commander.

Although it is a little higher than Liu Fangwu's military rank, the troops under Zhang Lin do not allow Liu Fangwu to come.

Liu Fangwu's fully formed mechanized infantry regiment has a full strength of nearly 5,000 people, and the soldiers are all at or above the junior primary school education level, and the weapons and equipment are also countable, one portable machine gun per squad, and one heavy machine gun per platoon.

In the Battle of Ren'anqiang, Liu Fangwu commanded his troops to fight against the Japanese Araki Army, which had more than a wing of troops, and the Araki troops who fought were fighting and rescued more than 7,000 British troops.

Subsequently, the unit was equipped with a number of British armored vehicles and tanks, and its firepower and mobility were once again enhanced, and it was also a strong force in the expeditionary force.

In comparison, the teaching brigade under Zhang Lin is much shabby.

Because Stilwell asked for this brigade to be used as a training sample, when the more than 7,000 people of his brigade set out from Kunming, they did not bring any weapons and equipment except for the clothes on their bodies and some dozens of guns of the guard troops. Anyway, the Americans are shooting with guns, and it is a waste to bring more.

In terms of soldiers, although the overall cultural level of the teaching brigade is higher than that of other troops, it is a group of dolls who have never fought a war. Even the platoon-level officers are all students who have just graduated from military academies, and they have not fought in actual combat, and their true combat effectiveness naturally cannot be compared with other units that have been on the battlefield for a long time.

However, Stilwell did not think so, and after he proposed to Huang Ke to form a demonstration unit with American-style equipment, Huang Ke handed over the teaching brigade to him.

I thought he would be dissatisfied with so many recruits, but what people didn't expect was that Stilwell was very satisfied with it. In this regard, he also made a special call to Nanjing to express his gratitude to Huang Ke and others.

The training brigade, which is made up almost entirely of recruits, is now on the battlefield after two months of training in northern Burma with U.S. equipment. To be honest, even the brigade commander Zhang Lin was not sure.

"What? Arranged for you to be a reserve this time? Liu Fangwu naturally heard the arrangement just now, which did not mention the teaching brigade, presumably as a reserve.

Zhang Lin took off the military hat on his head and scratched his head, "Yes, assign us to be a reserve." I thought that this battle would test the brothers' proficiency in American equipment, but I never thought ......"

"Don't worry, the commander-in-chief wants to use good steel on the blade, your brigade is an all-American weapon, and it is full of strength. This time, our strength with the 18th Division was not superior, so keeping you is naturally for the sake of planning later. Liu Fangwu said with relief.

Zhang Lin smiled reluctantly, "I hope, I still have to go back and arrange logistics with the brothers." After speaking, he complained again: "It's really embarrassing to be like this!" ”

After the two did not say hello, they said goodbye to each other.

After Liu Fangwu returned to the regiment headquarters, he began to arrange the tasks he had received. This time, the 3rd Regiment was responsible for the attack on a cross-section of more than ten miles west of Dagon, and the defending enemy was said to be a wing of the 18th Division of the Japanese Army. Earlier, the vanguard had already exchanged fire with them, and this group of devils was a powerful fighting machine, and both sides suffered casualties.

This battle is not a small pressure. Liu Fangwu decided to attack after the artillery and air force had bombarded the enemy's fire points in turn to avoid unnecessary casualties.

When he returned, he prepared to preside over a military conference.

About ten minutes later, all the regimental and battalion-level officers had arrived, but the deputy regiment commander Lin Zhangyan still hadn't arrived.

Since the last commendation, Lin Zhangyan has been busy with the matter of being repatriated to China. Liu Fangwu felt that it was better for this plague god to leave early, so he simply did not block the way of people and money, and turned a blind eye.

However, before he could get the order, the 18th Division mixed in again, so the officers and soldiers of the 3rd Regiment gave another order to Dagon. Lin Zhangyan naturally had nothing to refuse, so he had to follow the troops here.

However, he has always been passive and slacking off, refusing to participate in military meetings under the pretext of illness, and prevaricating specific combat operations for various reasons, which naturally made the other brothers complain.

Liu Fangwu raised his hand to look at his watch, the time was not early, and he couldn't break a big deal because of a Lin Zhangyan.

"Don't wait for him, let's have a meeting." After Liu Fangwu finished speaking, he conveyed the orders of his superiors to his subordinates, as well as the deployment of various troops.

The commanders of the various units wrote these down, and the meeting would soon be over, when they would have to go back early to make some preparations. But just when everyone was about to disperse, Lin Zhangyan appeared.