Episode 73 Stubborn Resistance

The Red Fourth Division, with the cooperation of the intensive bombing of the Blue Army Air Force, was cut directly from the front by Hou Hekun's Blue Second Division with half a division of tanks, armored vehicles, assault guns, and a whole division of motorized infantry.

Immediately afterwards, the Blue Second Division bypassed Taihu Lake from the east and went south to attack the back of the Red Fifth Division. The Blue 1st Division followed behind to clean up the mess of the Red 4th Division.

On June 2, at 2:10 p.m. on the second day of the fortified exercise, the Blue Army Command officially announced the annihilation of the Red Fourth Division.

At half past six in the evening, the Blue Army Command announced that the Red Fifth Division had been annihilated.

But in these two battles, the other side has already built a defensive line, although it is very simple, but it also has a lot of hard-hitting flavor. In addition, the number of tanks and armored divisions of the 2nd Blue Division was much less than that of the 1st Blue Division, so the losses were larger, reaching more than 10 percent.

By this time, the only remaining troops of the Red Army were the empty shell of the Red Sixth Division, which was more than 1,000 people cowering in Xinmengzhuang.

In order to completely annihilate the last remaining number of the Red Army, Rommel ordered two divisions of the Blue Army to surround Zhuangzi and began a fierce attack with absolute superiority.

……

In the headquarters of the Red Army in the Purple Mountain Fortress in Nanjing, it is much deserted now. There was no more of the hustle and bustle of the previous day, with the phone ringing and people running around.

Everyone sat there, staring at the telephone in front of them, or looking through the papers. Occasionally, a telephone rang, and an officer picked it up, and then simply asked a few questions, and then put it down, what to do, and then what to do.

On the huge map, there are almost no red villains, only large blue villains and small tanks remain. Only in the place of Xinmengzhuang, there is a red villain alone, marked with the number next to it: Red Sixth Division.

The two little female officers on the map are just sitting there, holding a long indicator pole, waiting for a certain commander to receive a phone call, and then according to the order, take the last red villain out as well.

Everyone knows that the Red Army lost completely this time. Moreover, the defeat was so fast that the victory and defeat were overwhelmingly divided in only two days after the large-scale exercise of eight divisions and more than 100,000 people.

……

"What do you all want to say?" Tang Yunsheng sat in the small conference room, sipping tea lightly, "What do you think?" ”

"My lord, the Blues are scoundrels," said one of the colonels, "and it was clearly said that the exercise would start at eight o'clock, and they would fight in the middle of the night." There is no such thing as an exercise. ”

After he finished speaking, several officers immediately nodded their heads and whispered in agreement. However, most of the officers present remained silent. The room was still dead.

Tang Yunsheng didn't speak, just continued to drink tea, and at the same time glanced around the crowd with his eyes, signaling them to continue to express their opinions.

Another colonel, who was short in stature, glanced at Tang Yunsheng and then at everyone, feeling that it was time for him to speak:

If it is simply explained in this way, it seems far-fetched. The subordinates believe that the Blues won this time, but it was still a relatively hard victory. They should win in new equipment and new tactics. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone at the conference table turned their heads to look at him. Although this colonel was something that no one had ever seen, most of them nodded in agreement.

The colonel went on to say:

"If the battle between the Blue Army and the Red Second Division and the Red Third Division was a 'rogue', then the next battles with the Red Sixth Division, the Red First Division, the Red Fourth Division, and the Red Fifth Division were all won by playing scoundrels? Or, if the Blues hadn't been 'rogues', but had attacked at eight o'clock, would the Red 2nd and 3rd Red Divisions be able to stop them? Will the next four divisions be able to escape annihilation?

"As everyone knows, this exercise is not for training, but for testing new tactics. Since it is an experiment, in order to make the test results accurate, it is necessary to do everything possible to simulate the most realistic conditions. It is true that there are very few exercises like this, but this is what real wars are. ”

The colonel just now couldn't hold back a little, and said coldly:

"Then according to what you mean, our six divisions were wiped out in two days by two divisions, it's not that people are scoundrels, but we are too incompetent?"

"Of course not!" The second colonel said, "There were no major mistakes in our command, and our officers and men fought very hard. However, the Blues attacked in a way we had never seen before. The sky is in their hands, and they will bomb us as much as they want, and those few anti-aircraft guns will not be used at all. Before we could see the enemy, our troops lost most of their heavy weapons, vehicles, ammunition supplies, and a large number of soldiers.

"We are all semi-motorized infantry divisions, and it is not a problem to march 30 kilometers in a day and night, but under their bombs and strafing, it is good to be able to travel 6 or 7 kilometers a day. And combat effectiveness and morale are at a minimum. -- This is because they have transferred most of their planes to other places to cooperate with their ground forces in annihilating other divisions. If they had turned all the planes over our heads, we wouldn't just have a problem of not being able to walk. ”

There was something strange about his tone, as if he was from the front. A major general asked:

"You ......"

"General," said the colonel, "I am Huang Shuliang, the commander of the Red Sixth Division. ”

As soon as he heard the name, the entire conference table looked at him, all looking at him.

In the past two days, the name Huang Shuliang has appeared more and more frequently in the command of the Red Army. With several other divisions annihilated one after another, his Red Sixth Division became the only bit of red that stood on the huge map.

"As you know, I advocate ending the exercise," Tang Yunsheng said slowly, "because it is clear that there is no need for us to fight anymore now." Now we have a nominal division left. If an hour or two is over, when we don't even have a nominal division, that's a real fiasco. It can be said that none of the many exercises in the history of our army have reached such an extent. ”

He looked at Huang Shuliang and said:

But Division Commander Huang was adamantly opposed to ending the exercise early. He had a completely different opinion. So I sent a car to pick him up and give him a word. ”

Huang Shuliang looked left and right, and said with a smile:

"It's not easy to get out. At that time, they had not yet fenced the village. I'm afraid it will take a little more effort to run back now. …… Ladies and gentlemen, although we are now down to the last thousand, we occupy the most advantageous terrain - the settlements. Six of our divisions were annihilated by the Blues, and one of the biggest problems was that we didn't have a single defensive position when we encountered them. If we had had had had taken the initiative to stop and build a simple defensive line, it would have been defeated, but not so badly, and the Blues would have suffered great losses. Just like the Red Fourth Division and the Red Fifth Division.

"But the defensive positions they hastily built can do a little bit. In one night, no qualified trench could be dug, neither wide nor deep, it could not protect people well, nor could it block tanks, and there was only one. Most of the soldiers can only say that there is a foxhole. But my lords, look at the place occupied by my Red Sixth Division, the houses, the buildings, the stables, the granaries...... Is there a more ideal defensive position than this? In addition, it is a residential area, and the Blues cannot use aerial bombs and heavy artillery, so they can only fight us with human lives and light weapons......

"Hehe, my lords, don't underestimate our more than 1,000 people, some of our more than 1,000 people have machine guns, artillery, ammunition, and excellent terrain, and it is not impossible to consume their 35,000 men and half a division by relying on this. Yes, we lost this exercise, but if I was to resist at the end, we could at least lose less ugly. ”