When Chu Tian heard Liao Zhenbang's words, he was a little strange, the area where the Second Brigade was ambushed was the only way from Sajfpur to Imphal, and the British and Indian troops would inevitably take this road when they assembled in Imphal, it was just a matter of time, in Brigade Commander Liao's tone, was it necessary to be excited and surprised?

Chu Tian didn't care much, Liao Zhenbang stabbed him a few more times, and said: "Captain Chu, look, my old Liao has also fought in the New Year's War, and I have never seen such a march, this time it is an eye-opener!" ”

Chu Tian raised the telescope curiously and looked at it, "fluttering" happy, this is probably the first time he led the detachment to go deep into the Indian continent, the first time he was sincerely happy, according to the intelligence he detected, the British and Indian troops assembled by Sajfpur are numbered as the Fourth Division of the Indian Army, with a full strength of more than 13,000 people, and now they are driving over, but more than 9,000 people, which is normal, and the rest are still continuing to assemble, the key is the composition of the British and Indian army's marching troops, which makes him laugh.

It's not bad, the soldiers of the British and Indian armies have all got a means of transportation, and there is no walking, but this means of transportation is varied, some of the trucks, the cars are crowded, and some are riding bicycles, what is surprising is that the soldiers of the British and Indian armies actually used ox carts and donkey carts as means of transportation, and even more, they actually rode donkeys and swayed in the marching army.

Cars, trucks towing artillery, bicycles, ox carts and donkey carts, soldiers riding donkeys, the whistle of trucks, and the shouts of soldiers driving cattle and donkeys are mixed together, forming a strange landscape in the early dawn, and Chu Tian can't help but shake his head.

And the Anglo-Indian troops that came out of Sajfpur did not even send top soldiers, more than 9,000 people, and they dragged more than ten kilometers on the highway like this, and they were marching and fighting. It was more relaxed and pleasant than an outing, with ox carts blocking the way of the trucks, and the shrill sound of horns causing soldiers on both sides to curse each other. Noisy.

Chu Tian put down the binoculars, looked at Liao Zhenbang, who was laughing loudly, and asked, "Brigade Commander Liao, the target has appeared, are you going to fight like this?" ”

Liao Zhenbang suppressed his smile and replied, "Captain Chu, just these bastards with foreign appearances. You see, is it a posture of preparing for war? Ambush warfare, the old routine, pinch the head and tail, block the waist and stab, it turns out that I am still a little worried, it is not easy to fight without heavy weapons, and now I don't need it, light and heavy machine guns, mortars. can kill more than half of the Anglo-Indian army, and the rest, the last assault. Eat it in one bite! ”

Chu Tian reminded: "Brigade Commander Liao, do you call for air fire support?" It's safer to fight, our special operations detachment has asked to participate in the battle, and it's idle anyway, so you can assign the task! ”

Liao Zhenbang grinned and said: "Just these things, it's not worth a bomb money, you don't need to work to drive the air force, you can save it!" Our strength exceeds that of the British and Indian armies by more than 7,000 people. It's an ambush again, wrapping their dumplings, and I'm 100% sure, I said Captain Chu, just spare me, your soldiers. In the eyes of the division commander, all of them are baby bumps, if there are casualties, the division commander will not eat me? This is the work of pure infantry, and it is overkill to let your special operations detachment go up! ”

Seeing that Chutian didn't insist anymore, Liao Zhenbang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then said to the operational staff officer: "Order, the first regiment will pinch the head, the second regiment will cut off the tail, the third regiment and the brigade directly under the team will assault in the middle, block the waist with a knife, and end the battle within two hours, and the fourth regiment will immediately leave the battlefield and occupy Sajfpur after the battle starts, Lao Tzu will spend the night in the city today!" ”

The British and Indian soldiers who walked in the front were swaying on all kinds of vehicles, and in the sky, there was a sudden strange howl, if it was a veteran with rich combat experience, he would definitely be able to hear it, it was the sound of countless mortar shells falling head-on, but these rookies of the Fourth Division of the Indian Army probably hadn't even seen mortars a few times. …,

All of them stared at each other, and they were all looking around for movement, "Boom, boom, boom!" A series of loud noises exploded in the marching columns of the British and Indian troops, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, shrapnel flew horizontally, and in the columns of smoke that were stirred, the bodies of the British and Indian soldiers flew into the air, and the heavy artillery regiment of Liao Zhenbang's brigade, although it stayed in Magao, was stunned to shoot a salvo of heavy artillery regiments with hundreds of mortars.

The Anglo-Indian soldiers in front of them, ghosts crying wolves, making a mess, the entire Anglo-Indian army marching column, has not yet reacted, and then, behind, there is an earth-shattering loud noise, a dozen before and after, panicked British and Indian soldiers, panicked to the middle, huddled together, some headless and brainless running around, trying to find a hidden place.

Liao Zhenbang laughed and ordered: "The third regiment and the brigade directly under the team, stop the waist with a knife, and be clean and neat!" ”

After the mortar fire stopped, it was the roar of light and heavy machine guns, and at about 5:30 a.m., the ambush battle southeast of Sajfpur ended in Shunlì, and the Second Brigade completely annihilated more than 9,000 people of the Fourth Division of the Indian Army with slight casualties, of which more than 5,000 were killed and more than 3,000 were captured, and the whole battle process, which lasted an hour and a half, ended.

The battle was launched so suddenly that the 4th Division of the Anglo-Indian Army did not even have time to warn and report to the commander of the eastward marching corps, Lieutenant General Chelsea.

After receiving Liao Zhenbang's telegram, Tang Qiuli, who was at the headquarters of Lu Ha Ding, was happy and said to Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe: "Okay, Liao Zhenbang won the first battle, made a good start, and gave an order to commend him, and at the same time, ordered Liao Zhenbang's brigade to deploy along the western part of Sajfpur to guard against the enemy troops from the interior of India. ”

With Liao Zhenbang's 2nd Brigade firing the first shot of the East Indies Campaign, troops from other directions launched a rapid attack on the British and Indian troops who left the assembly area and assembled in the direction of Imphal.

The 3rd Brigade, after annihilating most of the Anglo-Indian divisions in the field, entered and occupied Kulna, and the 4th and 5th Brigades, with superior forces, launched a surprise attack on Pokaro when the British and Indian troops had not yet left the assembly area, and after four hours of fighting, completely annihilated more than 10,000 British and Indian troops in the area and occupied Pokaro.

The 6th Brigade and the 7th Brigade fought against the Anglo-Indian troops of Zhenhati, and after annihilating one of them in the field, they immediately surrounded Zhenhati, who was the most defensible town among the five attack targets, about 4,000 British and Indian troops, desperately resisted, and the troops attacked for two hours without success, and finally, called Le Yiqin's aviation to give air fire support.

After five hours of fierce fighting, the 6th and 7th Brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps completely annihilated the defenders of the British and Indian troops in Zhenhati and occupied Zhenhati, and by about 11 o'clock at noon on 21 May, the troops of the seven brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps had all completed their campaign objectives, and the five important towns of Dhaka, Kulna, Pokaro, Saifpur, and Zhenhati near the interior of the Indian continent fell into the hands of the troops of the independent division.

Immediately, division commander Tang Qiuli ordered all units to build a front of about 300 kilometers long from Dhaka at the southern foot of the Himalayas in the north to Zhenhati at the mouth of the Ganges River in the south, centering on the existing occupied areas, so as to cut off the East Indies from the Indian continent and block all the passages for the eastward advance army to retreat to the interior of the Indian continent.

The alarm was frequent, and after receiving urgent telegrams from various places, Lieutenant General Chelsea, commander of the Eastward Advance Corps of the Indian Army in Imphal, could not believe that this was true, and the information he had was that Tang Qiuli had only eight brigades of troops from entering the East Indies, and was still on the front line of the Naga hills, confronting his own troops, and the independent divisions that attacked Dhaka, Kulna, Pokaro, Saifpur, and Zhenhati fell from the sky? …,

What's more, the five assembly areas of the appeal are two or three hundred kilometers away from Imphal, and Tang Qiuli actually gave up the target near Imphal and sought the near and far to attack the appeal area first, what does that mean, his troops have already entered the East Indies in advance, but it is his own intelligence and reconnaissance department, and they have not discovered it.

The strength of the five assembly points, Chelsea has a rough idea, if not 10,000, but also seven or eight thousand, can be wiped out within a few hours, then the troops used by Tang Qiuli must have at least one division in each place, so that the independent division troops that entered the East Indies have more than 200,000 people in fifteen divisions, and the sweat on Chelsea's face came down.

Chelsea realized the severity of the problem, Dhaka, Kulna, Pokaro, Seif Pur, and Zhenhati were lost, and his eastward marching army and the passage to the interior of the Indian continent were all blocked, that is, the entire East Indies region was cut off from the Indian continent by Tang Qiuli with a knife, and Imphal had become a dead place.

Chelsea, frightened, repeatedly implored Prime Minister Churchill to mobilize American planes to join the war, and ordered the troops of the Second Line Army that were being assembled to immediately launch a counteroffensive against Dhaka, Kulna, Pokaro, Saif Purpur, and Jinhati with the forces they had gathered, so as to recapture the above areas and ensure the smooth flow of the eastward army and the interior of the Indian continent.

Chelsea was a little anxious, he had already realized that Tang Qiuli had designed one trap and trap after another in the whole process of fighting against the Indian army, first Alexander's troops were shot, and the whole army was annihilated in Sido in the Hukang River Valley, and then, it was his turn to be unlucky, the back road was cut off, and any commander would understand the severity of the problem.

On the morning of 21 May, in this unusual half-day, the entire East Indies was filled with the rumbling of guns and cannons, and almost half of the British and Indian army assembly areas were attacked by the troops of the Independent Division, and they were lost one after another.

Lieutenant General Chelsea, commander of the eastward advance of the British and Indian Army, looked at this chaos, his eyes were straight, and he didn't know where to start.

(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. )