On April 29, 2033, all the officers and soldiers of the 8th Regiment of the East Asian Alliance Army, together with more than 1,900 logistics and transportation personnel, set off from Minggang Airport at 13 o'clock at noon on the same day, crossed the river simultaneously from the Huaihe Bridge on Gan'an and the Huaihe Bridge of the Shanghai-Shaanxi Expressway, and passed safely at 18 o'clock in the afternoon!

This was the first telegram sent by the 8th Regiment to the General Staff after crossing the Huai River, and there was no problem between the lines, but in fact the process of crossing the river could almost be called a disaster.

Less than 2,000 people, it took 7 hours to cross the Huai River, which is not too wide, or two bridges walking together, isn't it a bit slow? It's not just slow, it's climbing!

That is, there is no enemy on the other side, otherwise as long as the north side of the bridge is blocked with two mortars, it is not too fast, four or five shells a minute, and then machine gun fire on the bridge deck, it is estimated that no more than one-fifth of them will return alive.

The reason is the sappers, who believe that the quality of the bridge is quite sufficient for the passage of armored vehicles. It is not clear what kind of data is based on Hong Tao, but what he can clearly understand is that the six infantry chariots were divided into two teams and drove majestically onto the bridge surrounded by the pioneer battalion.

But as soon as they went hand in hand to the center of the bridge, there was a problem, and the bridge deck repaired by the I-beam steel did not move at all, and it was as stable as Mount Tai, but there were n places along the way where the bridge deck was fractured or even fell off.

According to the meaning of the pioneer battalion, regardless of the three, seven, twenty-one, let the armored vehicles pull away and accelerate through, and then check the bridge deck to see if it needs to be repaired. But the Engineer Corps suddenly changed from extreme optimism to extreme conservatism, not to say that safety could not be guaranteed, and two of the three armored vehicles had to be returned first, and only one at a time.

This alone took nearly an hour to wrestle, and Hong Tao, who was a kilometer away, scratched his toes straight into his shoes. He was in a hurry, for the soldiers in the six armored vehicles on the bridge.

If it snapped or collapsed, the soldiers would hardly be able to eat dinner. It's not a loss to be a soldier, it's a job, but it's not worth it to fall and drown under a bridge while sitting in an armored car.

That is, the military discipline of the alliance is not bad, and not a single soldier with such a fucking order throws down the armored car and runs on his own initiative. If Hong Tao is in the armored car, he must take out the gun and put it at the driver's head: You step on the accelerator for me!

Of course, he can't be a soldier like this, or he has to be court-martialed if he can't pass recruit training. However, discipline is for the sake of ensuring combat efficiency, not for officers to make mistakes. When you are fighting each other, can't you think about the soldiers in the armored car!

After tossing for a long time, it turned out that it was decided to listen to the sappers, first withdraw the armored vehicles, and temporarily reinforce the collapsed bridge deck before continuing to pass. The delay was just over 4 p.m., and the actual crossing time was less than 2 hours.

When Hong Tao drove the carriage past the bridge deck, he also saw that there were indeed cracks and collapses, but there was no problem with the main structure, and one by one was not in the way at all.

The bridge has been abandoned for ten years, it has never been maintained, the weeds have grown into the cracks of the concrete, and you have to keep it intact, it seems to be a little too stable, too inflexible. It is not known who gave this order, and according to what standards the sappers carried it out.

Of course, he guessed that this vignette would definitely not be truthfully sent to the General Staff, and nine times out of ten it was a hasty Spring and Autumn penmanship, and the content had to reflect that everything went smoothly in the process of going south, and now this is the main theme, and whoever puts forward an opinion is going against it!

Hong Tao didn't know if he thought so above, but he could see some clues if he did it below. But there is one thing that Hong Tao must be clear, that is, this trip is definitely not as smooth as Zhang Ke said with a loudspeaker before loading in the morning, and he must take precautions.

"Gangzi, no matter how the soldiers with the team urge, you must also suppress the speed of the convoy, and resolutely do not allow you to get close to the army within 2 miles. If the soldiers are not happy, let them go to Deputy Chief of Staff Zhang for orders. The deputy chief of staff clearly said in the morning that the safe distance of the transport convoy is 500 meters to 1,000 meters! ”

First of all, Hong Tao first called Wang Gang to the end of the team and issued an order to him. Try to leave as much space as possible so that if something goes wrong in the front, there's still time to get ready to escape.

"In addition, turn both horses into single horses, and leave one horse free to follow. If the soldier asks, you can find a way to fool the past yourself. Listen to my siren at any time, as long as it goes off, don't worry about anything, unload the horse first, ride it and run back. If a soldier dares to stop and shoot to death! I'll move to the middle of the line and let the lazy dog go to the back of the line. ”

It's not enough to just get a distance, two legs are certainly not as fast as four legs when escaping, so the horses must be ready. In addition, the soldiers of that squad will definitely not allow the coachman to run first, and when the time comes, don't talk nonsense, whoever stops is the enemy. There is still a chance that you will survive and leave 100% dead.

However, these tricks will not be used for the time being. By the time the large army had all crossed the Huai River, it was already dark, and it was definitely not possible to approach the Xinyang city today, so it was necessary to find a place to camp first.

At this time, the convoy had to move closer to the army camp, and most of the provisions, ammunition, and supplies needed for the camp were loaded on the wagons.

"There must have been a fight ahead, right?" Just as the tent was being set up, there was a burst of gunfire from the south, which was not too dense at first, but soon became a bit of a patch.

At this time, Wang Gang came over again, since he gave a lecture last night and mentioned the experience of being a gold digger, this usually arrogant man, who is not afraid of anyone except the security team and the army, seems to be a little weak-hearted, and he has to come over to report on everything first.

"There should be a village ahead, either wild dogs or zombies. In the past, we didn't have so much ammunition, so we had to endure it, and the army wouldn't get used to it. You are so tired that you have to talk to your brothers one by one and let them all put their hearts in their stomachs. The Blue Devil is not a wild dog, so it is not so easy to encounter. ”

Supposedly, this change should be a good thing, but it can't be done with too many things. Now not only Wang Gang is scared in his heart, but the coachmen are even more like soldiers, and they must also reduce their pressure. Living like this all day is going to drive people crazy.

It's a pity that no matter how Wang Gang does the thought company, there will be many coachmen who can't sleep this night. On weekdays, the drivers are used to sleeping in the open and the danger of being attacked by wild dogs. But the first time I went to battle behind the troops, whether I was nervous or excited, my mental state was different from usual.

After dinner, the soldiers came to call Wang Gang to go to the regiment headquarters for a meeting, and Hong Tao asked the stupid pig to go with him. He had been a referee, and although he was a little second-class, he was also a military trained by professional officers, and it was certainly easier to deal with soldiers than ordinary people.

"This is tomorrow's camp, Captain Yang, they are here...... Chief of Staff Zhang and we are here...... It is about 7 kilometers away. "The meeting was not long, or there was not much content to be understood by Wang Gang and Benzhu, and the two of them came back in about an hour.

Fortunately, he sent a stupid pig, otherwise Wang Gang wouldn't even be able to read the military map, let alone understand what the marks on it represented, and when he came back, he would still take the map and his notebook to look at it.

“…… They didn't say anything about the reservoir? Hong Tao probably looked at the distribution of troops, and then looked at the nearby terrain according to the atlas, and immediately had a problem. After crossing the river, the 8th Regiment was divided into two large parts, with two battalions of troops and 50 carriages from Changfeng and Zhongyi as the main force, and advanced along the road to the south, intending to take Xinyang North Station first, and at the same time establish a camp on the west side of the Gugang Reservoir.

The second part was to take a battalion of troops and 30 wagons of the Ping An Transport Company to the east side of the Gugang Reservoir, first taking the industrial zone 2 kilometers away, and then going south to join the main force in the area of the North Ring Road.

It is enough to spread the strength of three battalions on an offensive line totaling less than 5 kilometers, but it is a bit troublesome to replenish the transport convoy. The drivers had to identify on the map the approximate location of the companies that needed to be resupplied and keep abreast of the movements of their troops according to the situation of the battle.

But it is impossible for the drivers to have a hand platform for every car, and they can't communicate with the army at any time, and the slightest negligence or accident is likely to cause the troops to intervene, and the drivers don't know it, so they stupidly go where they are, and they can't find anyone.

What's even more troublesome is that once a platoon encounters a large number of zombie attacks, it has to retreat first and wait for heavy fire support, but the drivers don't get the report in time, so wouldn't it be sent to the zombies for nothing!