Episode 64 Plume of Smoke on the Ocean

The Empress armoured convoy traveled east along the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway, where the convoy paused for lunch. All the instructors and students of the sniper school were flattered and panicked and drove a few kilometers out of the school gate. Although it is so close to Nanjing, Her Majesty the Empress has never been there.

The principal arranged a feast at noon to wash the dust for His Majesty. During the banquet, the principal and several ace instructors introduced Zhu Yourong to the story of the sniper industry, as well as the story of the defense of Nanjing and the sniper battle in the zoo not long ago. The principal also invited Nan Xiaoya, the sniper hero at the time and the new instructor who stayed at the school to teach, to meet the driver.

Zhu Yourong was also said to be very interested, and poured Nan Xiaoya a glass of wine with his own hands. Nan Xiaoya had already eaten early and was taking a nap, and she suddenly was dragged here and didn't know what was going on. She took the wine glass and went to Zhu Yourong in a daze for a long time, only to find out who this was, so bluffed that she almost didn't drink the wine into her nostrils.

Then Zhu Yourong took advantage of the opportunity to briefly inspect the Tangshan Sniper School, and the convoy was back on the road at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

……

As soon as Zhu Yourong's convoy left the People's Guard camp in the morning, Li Gensheng called Xiang Xiaoqiang from the headquarters of the Wuxi Blue Army and told him that His Majesty would come to the battlefield today to observe in person. Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately decided to seize the opportunity, and also set up a convoy to go to the battlefield for "observation".

Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't bring many troops, only Guderian, Hu Jiong, Xiuxiu, his own squad of guards, an engineer platoon, and three truckloads of sandbags. This convoy is not as flashy as Zhu Yourong's, there are no armored vehicles, all trucks, and two chief cars. This is much faster than Zhu Yourong's convoy. Nine cars went west along the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway to arrive at the battlefield before Zhu Yourong and choose a good place for her to observe.

Now the place where the 1st Blue Division and the 1st Red Division are about to clash is in the middle of Changzhou and Nanjing. Although Xiang Xiaoqiang set out from Wuxi and arrived at the battlefield farther than from Nanjing, because Zhu Yourong's convoy was delayed for two hours at the Tangshan Sniper School at noon, Xiang Xiaoqiang's convoy arrived at the station of the 1st Blue Division at almost 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

As soon as the officers and men of the 1st Blue Division, that is, the 2nd Division of the People's Guard, saw that their commander was coming, their morale was immediately high, and a large number of people were thunderous with joy. The herald rode two sidecar motorcycles to open the way, followed Xiaoqiang's convoy, and continued westward to the headquarters of the 1st Blue Division.

A few kilometers along the way, Xiang Xiaoqiang stood up from the open-top officer car and greeted the officers and soldiers on both sides loudly. Wherever Xiang Xiaoqiang's convoy went, there was cheering.

The convoy arrived at the division headquarters. It is only three kilometers from Xinmengzhuang, and several armored command vehicles are parked in a small forest on the south side of the road, where the temporary division headquarters is located. There was a folding table outside the car, and Rommel was studying the map, preparing to leave a small part of his forces to watch the remnants of the Red Sixth Division in Xinmengzhuang, and then the large army would move west to attack the Red First Division.

At this time, he suddenly saw Xiang Xiaoqiang and Guderian standing in front of him, and he was stunned, only to know that Her Majesty the Empress was going to come to the battlefield this afternoon to observe.

"Oh," Rommel said, his face flushed, "oh, oh......"

Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that Rommel heard that the empress would come to observe in person, and immediately found inspiration.

Xiang Xiaoqiang originally wanted to try to discuss with Rommel to see if he could attack more leisurely and save some face for the old man Tang Yunsheng. Winning is winning, that is, winning a little process, don't win like an eagle catching a chicken. But now, when I saw him gearing up, I knew that it was useless for me to say it. If you put pressure on him, you can't resign according to his temperament.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang's convoy passed through the camp of the 1st Blue Division, and drove about 15 kilometers to the west, about the middle of the two armies, and the convoy stopped. A team of exercise referees also came with the team from the Blues, ready to set up a referee point with them at the same time as setting up an observation point.

A platoon of sappers began to look for a suitable place. There is a high ground just to the north, which should be considered a small gentle plateau. It looks like it's a few hundred meters away from the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway. Xiang Xiaoqiang drove over with someone and climbed the hill to check it.

The view here is very good, and you can see several kilometers around it. Cars can also be driven.

Overhead, the Blue Army planes roared in the east and west directions, which were planes that had gone to reconnoiter and harass the 1st Red Division, as well as planes returning home.

When several planes flew by, they had to rush down and circle twice curiously to see what they were doing. They haven't been notified yet, they don't know where the small convoy is and what they want to do.

Xiang Xiaoqiang ordered the guards to discharge the ground-to-air identification board and send a signal into the air to indicate the inspection identity of the commander of his People's Guard. Suddenly, the planes in the sky all shook their wings in salute, and some fighters even made a victorious tumbling to show off their outstanding achievements.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at his watch, it's not early. If you hurry up now, you can still let Zhu Yourong see a battle before it gets dark. As soon as he gave the order, a platoon of sappers began to carry out earthwork on the top of the hill at a rapid pace, and soon a flat ground of more than ten square meters was formed. Then the trucks carrying sandbags drove up, and the sappers unloaded the sandbags and planks from the trucks and quickly set up temporary fortifications.

Although it is not a live-fire exercise, there is still a lot of danger on the battlefield. "Small bombs" falling from the sky, smoke bombs, etc., can cause casualties. As soldiers, officers and men have their duty, not to mention exercises, but to fight with real guns and ammunition. But as the king of a country, it is not sloppy at all.

This is a "safe hut" for Zhu Yourong. She can be comfortable and safe in it, watching the battlefield in full swing on all sides with her binoculars. It is wide and open, and there is a sofa and a small coffee table. Zhu Yourong is tired, so he can lie on the sofa and rest. If you are thirsty, you can also ask people to make a cup of tea. Take a nap and get up again......

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at the sandbag walls around him rising meter by meter, and thought to himself, this is a man building a hut for his beloved woman......

He looked out over the vast field that stretched to the sky...... I can't help but imagine:

This highland is a small isolated island, and he and Zhu Yourong are stuck on it. In the future, everything will depend on hunting, fishing, and building a house...... Zhu Yourong also has to sew and mend for himself, cook food, and make clothes from animal skins...... Although the little couple is hard, they are also happy......

Most importantly, give birth to a whole bunch of ......

"My lord? My lord? ”

Hu Jiong was shocked when he found that Xiang Xiaoqiang had his mouth half-open, staring at a bag of sandbags very infatuatedly. He waved his hand in front of Xiao Qiang's eyes and gently nudged him twice, calling him back to the real world.

……

Makeshift fortifications on the high ground were erected. The floor inside was pressed as flat as possible, and then a mat was laid out. The single sofa was also removed from the truck and put in. The sappers pulled another wire, installed electric lights in the fortifications, and connected the power to the truck's battery......

In short, Xiang Xiaoqiang has made this "box" as comfortable as possible.

He looked at the bright, comfortable space in the sandbag fortifications with almost infatuation, how he looked, how he felt that something was missing. The guards next to him were already sweating, how could there be such an elaborate temporary fortification! But looking at the kind of eyes of the adults, no one dared to say more.

Xiang Xiaoqiang suddenly patted his head:

"Oops, yes, forgot forgot ......"

Then he ran out quickly, took a vase and a bouquet of flowers from the truck, got into the fortifications, placed the vase on the small coffee table, and carefully inserted the flowers inside.

Xiang Xiaoqiang took a few steps back, admired it repeatedly for a while, and changed the angle of the flowers several times. Only then did he clap his hands contentedly.

The attachés next to him all looked at him with strange expressions.

Outside the empress observation fortifications, four simple observation points were piled up with sandbags, and four directions were observed. This is for drill judges.

……

After arranging everything, Xiang Xiaoqiang asked people to contact the empress's convoy, and learned that Zhu Yourong was now in the column of the Red First Division, and he could arrive in about half an hour.

Xiang Xiaoqiang lay on the observation window of the fortification and looked around with a telescope. He looked at his watch again, and it was already a quarter past four, and Rommel should attack. But within a few kilometers to the east, only sporadic reconnaissance vehicles were visible, as well as a couple of light Lightning 2 tanks.

The spectacular sight of the torrent of steel rushing in unison has not appeared for a long time.

He looked to the west again. In the west, only a few motorized scouts could be seen, riding sidecar motorcycles and driving reconnaissance vehicles, and they were moving forward in groups of three or five.

From time to time, a handful of planes overhead swooped down and strafed in a circle. Those reconnaissance vehicles didn't care much, probably because there were no drill referees on them, so they simply didn't even hide.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at the watch a few more times, and more than ten minutes passed. There was still no movement on the side of the Blue First Division. On this small plateau, the main force of the 1st Blue Division could not be seen to the east, and the main force of the 1st Red Division could not be seen to the west. The two sides are at least ** kilometers apart.

A few drill referees knew that after a while, they would have the privilege of enforcing the law under the nose of Her Majesty. They all cheered up.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang was condescending and could see the reconnaissance troops of the red and blue armies at the same time. But neither of them has seen the other yet.

But the reconnaissance units of the Blue Army knew for sure that the reconnaissance units of the Red Army were in front. Because the planes in the sky constantly informed the Blue Army about the situation of the Red Army. But that's just an approximate number. The precise location of the Red Army's reconnaissance units had to be found by the Blues themselves.

Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that the four Lightning 2 tanks of the Blue Army began to increase their horsepower, moving in two directions with two armored personnel carriers respectively. This is clearly an attempt to outflank. The Red Army reconnaissance unit on the other side of the master was still moving forward in a daze.

The referees of the exercise on the high ground had already connected the radios of both sides, brought headsets and binoculars, and were ready to start "sentencing the death sentence" at any time.

Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart at this moment also raised his throat. He took the telescope and ran to the east observation window, and then to the west observation window. Soon he was too tired to do so, so he simply ran outside and climbed up with sandbags.

Now he stood directly on the top of the fortifications, on the highest point of this high ground, and could look down on all sides as long as he turned his head.

The reconnaissance forces of both sides are constantly approaching. Xiang Xiaoqiang stood in the middle, and he could see both of them at the same time, but they couldn't see each other now. Xiang Xiaoqiang suddenly had a feeling.

It was as if it were the Battle of Jutland, with the German High Seas Fleet on one side and the British Main Fleet on the other. The outpost fleets on both sides are getting closer, but they don't know each other. Just as they were about to miss each other, they saw a puff of black smoke between them at the same time. In order to find out what that smoke was all about, they both sent reconnaissance units to each other.

It was a civilian ship, in the wrong place at the wrong time, attracting the reconnaissance forces of both sides at the same time, triggering one of the largest battleship battles in human history.

Xiang Xiaoqiang felt that at this moment, he was like the civilian boat that appeared between the two sides. However, he did not enter the battlefield by mistake, but the master of this battlefield and the master of the entire battlefield.

……

The four tanks of the Blue Army formed four ambush points, each aimed at the four scouts of the Red Army Four. The four tanks took advantage of the slightly undulating terrain to hide their hulls, revealing only the turret and barrel. They are covered with leaves and crop leaves, and they lurk low in the crop fields, like lions lurking and hunting in the grasslands, which is difficult to detect.

Eight armored personnel carriers, also tied to the foliage, lay in ambush further back, with eight woodpecker machine guns aimed ahead. The soldier in the car held the submachine gun and pressed his head low.

After the tank and armored car entered the ambush position, both turned off, the engine stopped turning and went into absolute silence.

This is also the advantage of tanks and armored vehicles with gasoline engines. The gasoline engine starts quickly, almost all at once, unlike the diesel engine, which has to be "boomed" for half a day.

When the gasoline engine tank is ambushed, the fire can be extinguished, and after the first shot, it can be activated immediately and quickly change positions. Later in World War II, German heavy tanks ambushed the Allies, often doing so.

Several soldiers who had jumped out of the car cautiously crawled forward, with crops tied to their branches and leaves. Lying on a dirt slope, they showed their heads and used binoculars to observe the Red Army reconnaissance unit that was gradually advancing more than 100 meters ahead.

The four scouts of the Red Army did not walk on the roads, but were widely scattered in the fields. This will not only expand the reconnaissance area, but also facilitate concealment. Each unit of scouts is two sidecar motorcycles and one officer car. There are a total of 12 vehicles in the four strands.

Each sidecar has two soldiers on board and a light machine gun. Each commander had four soldiers on board, a heavy machine gun, a 60-millimeter mortar on it, and a 37-mm anti-tank gun in tow.

Although there are not many troops, the firepower is still quite strong.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang was holding his breath with a telescope, when suddenly a person shouted at his feet:

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty's convoy!"