Lieutenant General Chelsea, commander of the British Army's Eastward Advance Corps in India, has been in a noticeably good mood these days, and his attitude towards his subordinates has been very kind, restoring the polite temperament of a British gentleman.

Adams's telegram, not at all did not play a role, at the very least, aroused the alarm of Lieutenant General Chelsea, for him, whether to go east to Sido in the Hukang River Valley, rescue the besieged Alexander Division, no longer important, whether it is a trap or not, remind himself that the war situation in the East Indies has changed, the Chinese are really as Alexander said, are moving west, the future battlefield is obviously not in Sido, but on the Imphal front.

The speed of the troop build-up was obviously satisfactory to His Excellency the Commander, and the troops in southern India were assembled in Pokaro, Saif Pur, and Chenhati, and the troops in western India were assembled in Dhaka and Kulna, which saved a lot of time than directly assembling in Imphal, and correspondingly reduced the logistical pressure on Imphal, and the food, drink, and camping of 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers was not a small number.

Because Impal is the headquarters of the Eastward Advance Army, there are more troops assembled, so far, there have been two number of troops, most of them rushed here, Imphal's strength has reached more than 28,000 people, but this is obviously not enough, to block the Chinese attempt to invade the East Indies, this little force, even a decent line of defense can not be formed.

Compared with the hundreds of kilometers of border line facing the Indo-Burmese border in Imphal, two divisions that are not in line with the formation are far from enough, so Lieutenant General Chelsea issued an order that the troops assembled in Simpson, Shardia, Dinsugia, Ramgar and other places should immediately drive to Imphal as soon as they reach more than two-thirds of the establishment.

According to Lieutenant General Chelsea's assumption, before the independent division troops ate Alexander's headquarters, at least five divisions of more than 60,000 troops must be assembled on the Imphal front before he can form the first line of defense. The troops that arrived afterwards formed a second line of defense, and thus became the strategic direction of Chelsea. It had been completely transferred from rescuing Alexander's troops to defending against the troops of the Separate Division in the East Indies.

But this is not enough, even if the existing troops of the army stationed in India are collected, it is only about 100,000 people, which is not a bad soldier, if it is converted. At best, it was about 60,000 or 70,000 available troops, and Chelsea looked at the troop allocation table, and his heart was weak, he could not be sure whether the Chinese had the ambition to dare to invade the East Indies.

But his overall strategic deployment must focus on this possibility becoming a reality, and the Imphal defense line will require a large number of troops to fill the gap. But the number of troops on hand is so much.

After weighing the pros and cons, Chelsea lieutenant general. In the name of the commander of the eastward march of the Indian army, a letter was issued to the Indian Governor's Office, calling up all Indian reserve soldiers, including the semi-militarized National Guard, to be incorporated into the field force sequence, and by the end of May, it was necessary to form a second-line army of about 250,000 men and go to the Imphal defense line.

As for where so many soldiers came from, it was not a matter for Lieutenant General Chelsea to consider, but for the Viceroy of the British Empire in India. Chelsea is now in a dual capacity, on the one hand, a minister with a constitutional mandate, and on the other hand, a powerful general with military power, and even the Viceroy of India has to look at his face if His Excellency the Governor does not cooperate. Chelsea's lieutenant general, doesn't mind switching partners.

By 19 May, the strength of the British and Indian troops assembled in Imphal had reached more than 39,000 men, and on the same day, Tang Qiuli, who was in the small town of Luharding, received information from Chutian: "The division commander, our special operations detachment has detected that the British and Indian troops assembled in Simpson, Shadia, Dinsugia, and Ramga will leave for Imphal before all the assembly is completed, and the specific reasons are still being investigated." ”…,

Chief of Staff Zhao Yuhe had his own judgment on this information, and he said to Tang Qiuli: "Division commander, according to the intelligence of the commander of the Chu detachment, can we make the following judgments, the British and Indian Army's eastward advance corps, feeling the crisis of Alexander's department, only gathered nearly half of the troops, and before all the troops were assembled, there was an attempt to go to the battlefield of Xiduo to rescue Alexander?" ”

Tang Qiuli shook his head and said: "This is not the case, the troops of the eight brigades directly under the corps, along the left bank of the Hukang River Valley, drove into a day and night with great fanfare, no matter how depressed Alexander is, he will also judge the direction of our actions, he will not send a warning to Chelsea, whether Chelsea believes Alexander's warning or not, at least he understands that Sido is no longer important." ”

"Moreover, Chelsea should be able to perceive it, Sido is probably a trap, his troops rushed over, there may not be any good results, this is a new change, look at Chelsea's deployment, he wants to build a defensive line to block us on the Imphal line, Yuhe, the only place where we have an advantage is the seven brigades that entered the East Indies in advance, so far, there has been no target exposed."

"The key to the East Indies Campaign is not to break up the Anglo-Indian army, gather and annihilate it, the most ideal effect, deep into the central region of the Indian continent, the troops of the seven brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps, whether they can surround Dhaka, Kulna and other places before being detected by Chelsea, is the key to the East Indies Campaign, this step is good, it is equivalent to closing the door of the East Indies to the interior of India, and Chelsea has no chance to run."

Zhao Yuhe said: "Commander, I still don't understand, are the British just sitting back and watching Alexander be wiped out by us?" The purpose of forming the Eastward Advance Army was originally to rescue Alexander, but it was abandoned like this, how could the British be willing? ”

Tang Qiuli smiled mockingly and said, "What if you are unwilling? Alexander was besieged in Xido, it has become a dead end, there is no way to save it, Chelsea is still very smart, worried about repeating Alexander's mistakes, so he changed the deployment of the campaign, from the east to the rescue, to block our west into the East Indies, this is more safe, don't you see him desperately to gather troops to Imphal? It is to build a blocking line on the front line of Imphal. ”

At this point, Zhao Yuhe had thoroughly understood that the division commander had adjusted the deployment of the campaign in time and ordered the troops to separate and surround the five Anglo-Indian army assembly areas near the interior of India, which had already anticipated this.

Tang Qiuli continued: "I am only worried about one point, the seven brigades that go deep into the interior of India, from the direction of Ledo, Sugia, Gamai, and New Taiji, are interspersed with long distances, and the troops do not carry heavy equipment, and when they fight a tough battle, I am afraid that they will suffer losses, and only let Le Yiqin's aviation provide air fire support, fortunately, the British and Indian troops are some second-rate troops, not a bone that is difficult to gnaw, if I fight with the Japanese army, I will never take this risky move!" ”

Zhao Yuhe said with a smile: "Division commander, you don't have to worry about this, Commander Le has already sent a telegram, his bomber and fighter units are ready, just wait for the division commander to give an order, bomb several targets into ruins, and open the way for the ground troops!" ”

Tang Qiuli also smiled and said: "This Le Yiqin, as soon as he heard about the battle, his eyes lit up, but in the previous air battle in northern Burma, he killed the air power of the British and Indian armies in advance, but for the ground troops, he solved a major threat, by the way, Yuhe, when will the troops of the three brigades of the Sulu Mobile Corps transferred from Xiduo reach Luhadin?" ”

Zhao Yuhe replied succinctly: "According to their current speed, they will arrive here by six o'clock tomorrow evening at the latest." ”

Tang Qiuli suddenly smiled and said: "Yuhe, order the troops directly under the Corps to enter the East Indies in the west and march forward with great fanfare, but not too fast, in order to attract Chelsea's attention and cover the troops of the Sulu Mobile Corps." ”…,

"Also, the deputy division commander of the order, Alexander's department, has lost the role of a decoy, and the troops in Sido will be eliminated on the spot, as for such a fight, the Cido campaign command will decide for itself, and after the battle is over, the troops will immediately move west!"

Up to now, whether it is Tang Qiuli or Chelsea, they have a general understanding of the deployment of the other party, Chelsea turned from attack to defense, built a defensive line in Imphal, and relied on the deep heritage of the British in mainland India to keep the independent division troops out of the East Indies, which is a smart move, but Tang Qiuli's layout in the early stage will become a fatal move.

At noon on 19 May, Lieutenant General Tang Qiusheng, deputy commander of the Independent Division and commander-in-chief of the Xiduo Campaign, and Chief of Staff Yu Guanghan, hurriedly walked in, "Deputy Division Commander, I received an urgent telegram from the division commander, Alexander's headquarters has lost the role of the bait, and ordered us to annihilate on the spot, and then, the troops will immediately move west!" Operational deployment is up to you! ”

Tang Qiusheng was not surprised, from the time Tang Qiuli ordered the eight brigades of the Corps directly under him to blatantly advance westward along the left bank of the Hukang River Valley, not afraid of revealing his intentions, he had already realized that there was no point in delaying any longer on the Xiduo battlefield.

Alexander and tens of thousands of British and Indian remnants have completed their mission, and from the bottom of their hearts, with the strength of more than 100,000 troops of six well-equipped field brigades, they attacked the tens of thousands of British and Indian troops who had been surrounded for three days, lost all their heavy equipment and tanks, and their morale dropped to the lowest point.

According to Tang Qiusheng's thinking, in this battle, Fan didn't have to make a big move, Alexander was already a ripe melon, and he would drop it when he touched it, and it might be better to solve it in another way, his way was to persuade him to surrender.

Of course, if you want Alexander and tens of thousands of British and Indian soldiers to surrender willingly without the slightest sense of resistance, they must show their due strength and deter them.

What Tang Qiusheng had to do was to put on a big scene that made Alexander and his officers and soldiers tremble and feel incontinent when they saw it.

(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. )