After suffering yesterday's losses, the Anglo-Indian army's offensive today is more calm - the offensive formation is more sparse, the infantry group leap forward is more flexible, and there is no longer yesterday's brutal and hard charge.

Whenever the Ming army's firepower point was exposed, it would immediately attract the accompanying cruiser tanks to fire directly; Several QF 3.7-inch mountain guns were also deployed in the front of the offensive starting position, accurately bombarding any Ming machine gun positions that opened fire.

After the more than 180 officers and men of the second team took over the first team with more than 40 percent casualties, they did not expect to lose nearly 50 people in just one morning, and the captain Sun Cheng's glasses were all broken.

In the face of the three-pronged attack of aircraft, artillery and tanks, it was still too difficult for infantry to deal with alone, and the soldiers of the Ming army, who had been in a suppressed state almost all the time, could only use field fortifications to stubbornly defend, and the price was extremely fast casualties.

The enemy's learning speed, or the ability to adapt to changes, is expected by Zhou Changfeng, and the key to determining whether an army is strong or not is their ability to learn, and how quickly they can adapt to new opponents and new environments.

For example, in the Pacific Theater, after the lessons of several island battles, the Japanese army realized that it was not appropriate to recklessly counterattack when holding isolated islands, and immediately resolutely changed its tactical thinking, and gradually consumed the US troops with strong fortifications and a defense-in-depth system, which caused the US troops to suffer a lot on Iwo Jima.

For example, in a certain peninsula war, the US army was beaten and embarrassed by a certain army in the initial battles, but it quickly sensed the weakness of the opponent in terms of logistics support, and then turned to "magnetic tactics" to deal with the "worship offensive", which once turned the tide of the war.

If we do not take into account industrial and other factors, it can be said that war is a process of continuous learning between the armies of the two sides, at the cost of the lives and achievements of the soldiers.

For the current battle situation, Zhou Changfeng has a very clear understanding - the British and Indian troops are trying to continuously consume their own living forces through the superiority in firepower, prepare for the subsequent attack on the city, and then break through the Ming defense line with heavy losses in one go!

It was now the thirtieth day, and he was confident in the order to hold out until the evening of tomorrow, and was determined to teach these arrogant British and Indian troops a good lesson with as few casualties as possible.

Obviously, Zhou Changfeng didn't have a good impression of either of these two words, and when they were put together, it was even more annoying to him.

While besieging Heights Zero, the British and Indian troops also sent about a company to the northwest of the city with the support of seven tanks, set up bunkers on the spot, and fired at the Ming troops in the city with guns and artillery in order to contain them.

In fact, they sent a team to the woods to the north, but the team quickly retreated—without it, the situation was horrifying.

The woods, which had burned for a day and a night, were largely extinguished, but there were scattered embers everywhere, and the corpses of the British and Indian soldiers were scattered all over the place, most of them charred to the shape of charcoal, and it was estimated that at least more than 150 people died here.

At noon, the Anglo-Indian troops suspended the attack, but did not stop the shelling, and the soldiers of the 4th Artillery Battalion divided into two groups, one to eat and the other to fire.

Throughout the afternoon, the British and Indian forces launched four attacks on Heights Zero, and both large-scale assaults rushed to the position, but both were driven out by the Ming army with bayonets and grenades.

Mortar support from the city also played a crucial role during this period, and half of the base ammunition was consumed in one afternoon.

Zhou Changfeng, who frowned, looked in that direction with a telescope, and the continuous shelling had not stopped since this morning.

Heights Zero, which was attacked on three sides, was in danger, and Sun Cheng was hit when he personally led the reserves to launch a counter-charge. After holding the position, several soldiers took the risk of taking the seriously wounded man down on a stretcher and took him back to the city in a long circle.

"Come on!!"

"Save our captain!"

There was an operating room on the first floor of the hospital building, which was convenient for the Ming army to perform simple operations.

Looking at Sun Cheng, whose clothes were almost soaked in blood, Zhou Changfeng didn't know what to say, he turned his head to the side, and it happened that at this time, the wounded man had finished his operation and the door opened.

The second lieutenant of the military doctor who was in charge of the knife walked out and briefly checked Sun Cheng on the stretcher. His eyes were awe-inspiring, and he said calmly: "This injury is not saved, unless it is immediately transferred to the rear hospital." ”

A .303Mk.VII rifle bullet hit him in the abdomen, causing internal organs to break and cause massive blood loss, and a fragment of a Mills grenade hit his left lung, causing an open pneumothorax, an injury that would not have been saved even at the Yingtian Army General Hospital.

The 7.7×56mm Mk.VII rifle cartridge equipped by the British Commonwealth army can be called violent, and its internal structure of the warhead is unique, using a bullet core of half aluminum in the front and half lead in the back.

While announcing the elimination of the dummy bullet because of its cruelty, and developing an all-metal armor bullet that can achieve the same lethal effect, it is correct to describe the sanctimonious British with the word "hypocrite".

After listening to the cruel sentence of the military doctor, several people present were silent.

Sun Cheng, whose face was covered in blood and dust, laughed miserably, and then coughed repeatedly, and more dark red blood overflowed from the corners of his mouth.

"You... What else would you like to explain? Zhou Changfeng looked at him.

"First... Previously... The battle situation is critical, and I... Organized a death squad, please... The battalion commander remembered ...... "Sun Cheng reported six numbers, which were the soldier's numbers, and at the same time laboriously took out a small cloth bag and handed it over.

The death squad members of the improvised organization have special treatment - double pensions, and whether the body is found or not cannot be counted as missing.

Generally speaking, what soldiers fear and hate the most is to be counted as missing after death, because only half of the pension will be paid for missing people; However, in the heat of battle, it is not uncommon for corpses to be blown up and mutilated and unrecognizable, and sometimes even identification tags are missing.

The blood soaked through the thick bandage, slowly pooled on the stretcher, and then spread out all around, and soon a pool of blood formed under him.

"Madame doesn't know if she is pregnant, if... If she is pregnant, let her be aborted...... My family Ding is prosperous, not bad incense. She is still young, so she must choose someone to remarry... She is very stubborn, battalion commander, must persuade her...... The pension is all for her, and my family is not short of money......"

Sun Cheng has a good background, a scholarly family and an official family, but he is the only junior who chose to join the army. Although his father was extremely dissatisfied, he still asked him to come to the forbidden army, thinking that this would not only fulfill his youngest son's wishes, but also be stable until he retired, but unfortunately it backfired.

Zhou Changfeng nodded without hesitation and said solemnly: "I promise." ”

"My dad... I always felt that joining the army was a defeat of the family style...... Hum! In the dim light, Sun Cheng, who was short of breath and pale in complexion, muttered a few words, and finally said, "Give me another injection." ”

The medical soldier next to him immediately took out another dose of painkiller, leaned over and pricked him, Sun Cheng's face soothed a little, and waved his hand to let Zhou Changfeng hurry back to command.

The latter took a deep breath, solemnly crossed his hands and saluted, and then walked away quickly.

——-——-——-——

[Some people mentioned that the 2-pounder gun did not have a high-explosive shell, which is a joke that everyone likes to hear, but in fact, the 2-pounder gun has a high-explosive shell, but because of the reliability problem of the charge, the production is very small; It was not until the end of the war that the British mass-produced improved 2-pounder high-explosive shells. 】