In the desk drawer of Lieutenant General Chelsea, commander of the British Army's Eastward Advance Corps in India, lies a jet-black and shiny Colt Type 3, with a small body and a compact structure, but it contains deadly danger and embodies a violent beauty.

Chelsea pulled the bolt of the gun, a yellow-orange-orange bullet, jumped on the table, he reloaded the bullet into the chamber, at this moment, the "bang" office door, was gently knocked, Chelsea will put it back in the drawer, calmly shouted: "Come in!" ”

A young operational staff officer walked in, saluted, looked at the dim light, His Excellency's indistinct face, and said: "Report to Your Excellency Commander, the reconnaissance plane flying from New Delhi has brought a personal letter from Your Excellency the Governor!" ”

Chelsea opened the letter, and it turned out that he was the Governor General in India, who had been commissioned by Admiral Brandtes, Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, to send a two-seat light reconnaissance plane to Imphal to pick him up.

"General Chelsea, the situation in the East Indies, developed to this day, is by no means the fault of the generals, not the crime of war, but our ability, unable to reverse the defeat, the British Empire's military strength in the East Indies has been exhausted, the Chinese army, has advanced to the line of Central India, this is an unstoppable momentum, I was entrusted by the Chief of the General Staff, General Brandes, to send a plane to pick you up to New Delhi."

"There was General Alexander before, life and death are unknown, I don't want to see such a tragedy, it happens to you, the Chinese have a saying that says well, stay in the green mountains without worrying about firewood." The general can accumulate strength in New Delhi in order to make a comeback, and the situation in the country improves. It will inevitably increase the investment in the South Asian sub-continental army, this is an opportunity, and I have every reason to believe that the South Asian subcontinent in the future will still be the general's world! ”

Chelsea smiled bitterly, he understood the kindness of His Excellency the Governor, and he was even more grateful to the Chief of the General Staff, General Brandes, for thinking so much about himself. In terms of the personal relationship between the two, this is an exceptional move, and his popularity in the General Staff is not very good.

But. This means that more than 50,000 soldiers will be left behind, and they will be ordered to evacuate as soon as they are left, to put it mildly. To put it mildly, it is to flee from the battle, taking care of their own lives, and more than 50,000 soldiers. Lost on the front line, the soldier naturally has the pride of the soldier. Chelsea can't do that anyway, even if they have the chance to return to New Delhi. His days in the British Imperial Team are over.

The headquarters and superiors will not dispose of themselves because of this, but the honor and dignity of the soldiers will be lost in Imphal, and they will become the laughing stock of the British Empire, and will they still have a face mixed in the army?

Chelsea put down the Governor's letter, thought for a moment, and added a sentence to the end of his own letter, "I will defend the dignity of the British Empire in my own way, and Chelsea will not write it in Imphal!" Then he said to the staff officer: "Hurry to the airport at once, give this letter to the pilot, and ask His Excellency the Governor to forward it to Prime Minister Churchill and the Chief of the General Staff, General Brandt, and let him fly back to New Delhi, Imphal is no longer safe!" ”

The staff officer opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by Chelsea, and then, motioning for him to leave, the office door opened, and the light in the corridor suddenly poured in, and there was a harsh feeling, and then, the light was shut out again.

Chelsea, of course, knew how difficult it was to send a plane when Imphal was surrounded by divisional troops, but fortunately in Imphal, there was a simple runway that could take off and land light planes, and the sky of the East Indies, which belonged to Chinese planes, light reconnaissance planes, could only take advantage of the night to fly secretly.

Only God knows when the next time he will come, and Chelsea understands that he has given up one last chance to escape, and he sits back in his chair and writes the last order of his life. …,

"Chief of Staff of the Corps, after I am martyred, the command of the troops will be completely handed over to you, if there is no mortal determination to live and die with Imphal, the troops will no longer have the strength to fight, you can order the troops to surrender to the Chinese, but never try to break through, that will only bury the lives of the soldiers, may God Almighty, bless the soldiers of the British Empire, can return home safely!"

A dull gunshot, in the corridor of the corps headquarters, was particularly harsh, and the two guards rushed into Chelsea's office quickly, and they were stunned by the scene they saw.

Your Excellency, Commander, shot yourself! This bad news quickly spread throughout the compound of the legion headquarters, and the other senior officers of the eastward marching corps who rushed to hear the news looked at Chelsea's corpse with blank expressions and complicated feelings, and their eyes were filled with the fear of the rabbit dying and the fox.

The chief of staff picked up the blood-stained order, was silent for a long time, glanced at the former boss and the current corpse with complicated eyes, and said to the staff officer beside him: "Immediately report the bad news of Lieutenant General Chelsea's suicide to the cabinet and the general staff!" ”

After reading the order, the chief of staff burst into tears, and said in a sad tone: "Generals, the commander left an order, and the troops are under my command, and everyone is here, go to the conference room, we should also make a choice for the fate of ourselves and tens of thousands of soldiers!" ”

On the same night, on the outskirts of Imphal, Tang Qiusheng, deputy division commander who commanded nearly 90,000 troops of four brigades of the Corps directly under him, one brigade of his own corps, one artillery brigade, and one tank brigade, was holding a military meeting to deploy division commander Tang Qiuli for an order to immediately capture Imphal.

If it weren't for the division commander to try his best to knock it down, it would have been encircled for a month or two, and the British and Indian troops would have collapsed without a fight, and all the deployments were in place.

In particular, Liu Hongzhang, commander of the First Brigade of the Corps directly under the Corps, and Chu Ziye, commander of the Fourth Brigade, had tense necks, and Tang Qiusheng had heard for a long time that in the Corps directly under them, Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye grabbed the main attack task, which was famous.

But there is only one direction to take the initiative, and there are Ouyang Yishan, the commander of the second brigade of the directly subordinate corps, and Xiao Jian, the commander of the third brigade, who are also eager to try, but they don't have the thick skin and loud voice of Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye.

Zhao Shoushan, the commander of the 11th Brigade of the Sulu Mobile Corps, felt that he was lonely, and there were four people directly under the corps, and he was only one, and he couldn't fight, so he could only pin his hopes on his commander, and looked at Tang Qiusheng pitifully, the commander of the artillery brigade and the tank brigade, but they were very stable, the key is that when the assault is made, it is the task of the infantry, otherwise, the two will never mind fighting.

Tang Qiusheng was not in a hurry, he looked at Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye, who let go of their voices and put on their own brigade advantages, the two argued for a long time, turned their heads and saw the deputy division commander, looking at them with a smile, Liu Hongzhang said embarrassedly: "Deputy division commander, I'm not presumptuous, I'm used to it, in front of the division commander, it's the same, don't mind!" ”

Tang Qiusheng spoke, "I want to fight the main attack, but there is only one direction of the main attack, which makes it difficult for me to do it, I thought about it, the intention of the division commander is to try to compress the strategic maneuver space of the British and Indian troops in Imphal, and it is best to force it to surrender, so my plan is that the four directions are the main attack, but there must be a brigade as a reserve." ”…,

"The artillery brigade and the tank brigade are regimental units, and they are evenly assigned to each main attack brigade. Do you want to take the initiative?"

Tang Qiusheng asked, Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye, who shouted the most, shrank their necks, and there was no movement at that time, Tang Qiusheng smiled, and then said: "Since you didn't take the initiative to ask to serve as a reserve, then I will directly name them!" ”

Liu Hongzhang and Chu Ziye looked at Tang Qiusheng nervously, they all knew that the cousin of the division commander, the third boss of the division, usually looked amiable and soft-spoken, but once the fire started, even the division commander did not dare to look at his face, if Deputy Division Commander Tang pointed to him, then he could only consider himself unlucky.

Tang Qiusheng turned his gaze to Zhao Shoushan, the commander of the 11th Brigade, and said: "Shoushan, your 11th Brigade will serve as the general reserve of the campaign!" ”

Zhao Shoushan's face was depressed, Tang Qiusheng also considered many aspects, and would rather his subordinates suffer a little loss, rather than let the brigade commanders of the directly subordinate corps feel unhappy.

He continued: "The specific tactics of the offensive are as follows: destroy the outlying positions of the British and Indian troops with heavy artillery fire, and then, with tanks as the lead, assault the urban area, I want to emphasize one point in particular, this is not a fierce battle, a fierce charge, you must control the proportions, if the person among you does not take the lives of the soldiers seriously, blindly acts with personal heroism, and causes heavy casualties among the troops, I will not spare it!" ”

As he spoke, the cold light in Tang Qiusheng's eyes flashed, and when he saw the four brigade commanders directly under the corps, his heart tightened, and he secretly thought to himself: "I have seen this good-tempered deputy division commander, and I am ruthless in my heart!" ”

Finally, Tang Qiusheng said: "The time for the general offensive is set at 530 o'clock in the morning tomorrow, and after the meeting is adjourned, the chief of staff will issue the specific campaign arrangements to each of you. ”

At 5 o'clock in the morning on 24 May, the rear of the positions of the divisions surrounding Imphal, the artillery units attached to it, and the positions of the artillery regiments of the brigades, were busy.

The tanks were also disguished, the engines roared, and bursts of blue smoke came out, mixed with the light fog of the early morning in the East Indies, and the positions of the divisional troops were full of a busy scene before the battle.

At 5:23 p.m., the closed east gate of Imphal City slowly opened.

(To be continued......)

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