The opponent you met this time actually dared to fight? This is completely different from the previous British and Indian troops!

Several corporals and sergeants opened heavy fire with submachine guns and automatic guns, while the rest of the soldiers bravely advanced with rifles with bayonets on them.

The enemy also returned fire with Thomson submachine guns, and some even mounted Lewis light machine guns on their waists to shoot at the rushing Ming troops.

"Click-click-"

"Dada-da-"

The two sides opened fire at extremely close range, and then the two waves collided, and these Commonwealth soldiers fought tenaciously with bayonets, daggers, and sapper shovels.

The soldiers shouted loudly, their eyes were awe-inspiring, their weapons held aloft and tangled together, blood splattered, and in the blink of an eye, someone fell to the ground with serious injuries in their hands.

The commander of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Mobile Brigade was extremely surprised by the firmness of the enemy's resistance, and he could see from the telescope that the other side was still maintaining organized resistance, and was even preparing for a counterattack.

Belch... It's just a sentinel battle and an encounter, why is it so abnormal?

Later, three Type 32 armored vehicles directly under the armored car battalion arrived to support. They were already leading units, but they followed them farther away, in order to avoid being ambushed by the anti-tank guns arranged by the British and Indian troops.

This is a universal armored vehicle based on a truck chassis with two axles and six wheels, a small square turret, armed with two heavy machine guns, and a rifted firing hole on the sides of the hull.

For foot infantry without anti-tank weapons, even this light vehicle with armor 8mm thick is a tricky thing to shake.

"Enemy armored vehicles! Sir! ”

"Retreat."

Under heavy machine-gun fire, this force of more than 100 people finally retreated. A few smoke grenades were randomly thrown to the front, and they quickly retreated under the cover of smoke.

"Wow, blah, bh-"

After bursting through the smoke, three armored vehicles opened fire in quick succession, flashing flames bursting into the muzzle of the guns.

Countless bullets were poured down on the enemy soldiers who were moving away, knocking down several people.

It was the first time that such a high-intensity battle broke out since the start of the war, and the soldiers of the Ming army, who had been smooth along the way, realized that it was impossible to fight smoothly forever, so they must not underestimate the enemy.

After capturing several wounded soldiers, after some interrogation, the officers and men of the 2nd Mobile Infantry Brigade, who were puzzled, learned that this all-white Commonwealth army was actually the 7th Division of the Australian Army.

Or rather, the 20th Infantry Brigade under its command.

[Image of the Australian Army at the beginning of the war]

"No wonder, then everything is reasonable, I wondered why I didn't meet the Australian army until now, and I really bumped into it."

As he spoke, Zhou Changfeng took over a stack of captured documents, including documents, maps, war briefings, and so on.

The credentials of a slain Australian lieutenant, a small-scale map of the Malayan Peninsula, a couple of briefings on the troops, and a pamphlet?

“〈How to against with ICA〉？” He flipped through the booklet, which consisted of only a few pages, and found that there was no practical guidance, and it was mostly vague rhetoric full of subjective assumptions.

「…… Under no circumstances can we afford to let up, the Chinese army is highly trained, well-armed, endurance is stronger than ours, infantry and light artillery work closely together, they move faster than us in difficult terrain, and may use all kinds of tricks......

「…… The Chinese have a long-standing spy network in Malaya and Borneo, so they have a clear understanding of our movements, and the local diaspora will certainly help them in various ways. The Chinese army can easily crush the field defense line, and it is unreasonable to have a passive defense against them, and it should be actively attacked......

Looks apt? But in reality it can only be described as specious.

"If the name is not true, it is better to change the name to "Don't be careless"." Zhao Hanfeng commented disdainfully.

Zhou Changfeng handed the stack of documents back to the staff officer next to him, "But at least they won't take it lightly." ”

Historically, the British Commonwealth army had such a mentality at the beginning of the war that the Japanese could not even defeat China, a backward agricultural country, which showed that they were very bad, and how could we be backward than the Chinese army?

This simple and crude reasoning filled the Commonwealth army with unrealistic contempt, and it was not surprising that they were beaten.

Today, they are still more important and wary of the Ming army, which makes the intensity of the battle of Malaya much higher than in history.

In the original history, the Japanese army on the Western Front advanced recklessly all the way, and even risked letting some troops disperse and take a detour to the rear of the battle line in small boats, but the British and Indian troops were beaten to the north, which can be described as a miracle.

However, now the Ming army is moving steadily and steadily, but it is making slow progress.

There are many rivers in the Malayan Peninsula, and there are more than 200 large and small rivers on the western route from north to south.

The British and Indian troops blasted bridges and planted mines before retreating, but the pursuing Ming troops had to erect pontoon bridges and clear mines, and from time to time they would be bombarded by the British and Indian troops for several rounds.

The Ming army on the eastern front had already approached Mersing in the southern part of the peninsula, but the Ming army on the western front had only recently forced the Perak River.

After the indiscriminate bombardment of the air force, the Ming army on the Western Front concentrated artillery and armored units, and cooperated with infantry units to tear apart the tight defense line established by the British and Indian troops on the Perak River from the front, and captured Anshun.

But this is only in the middle of the peninsula, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Malacca.

This style of play was evaluated by Zhou Changfeng as "ruthless but not clever enough", but at least it shows that the Ming Army's ability to attack fortifications is still quite good.

"On the Western Front, it is now known that there are enemy Anglo-Indian 8th and 11th Divisions, as well as some local servant armies, and it is not clear whether the Australian troops have been sent there. If all 40,000 people fled to Singapore, it didn't seem easy to solve, so I was thinking about whether to make dumplings and eat them. ”

However, Zhou's idea is not very feasible in Zhao Hanfeng's view.

The latter pointed to the map and said: "But this is already the south of the island, air supremacy has not yet been seized, the enemy air force can still operate, and the Australian army in front of us seems to be more active, if they actively contain it, it is likely to be difficult to take care of it at that time." ”

The Far East Air Force has been suppressed by the Ming Air Force to a very small place, and they only dare to meet the Ming army aircraft group that is going to bomb the Singapore Fortress, and at most go to the south of the peninsula to hang around a few times.

However, Zhou Changfeng still sent a telegram to the General Army of the Third Army, asking Qiu Peisheng whether he was considering this idea.

However, in the evening of the same day, a quiet moderate rain directly crossed his idea.

Dense raindrops fell to the ground, turning the southern part of the peninsula into muddy rot in just half an hour.

"Since you are constantly retreating to make dumplings, let's take our time, rest for a day tomorrow, improve the reconnaissance of the enemy in front of you, and launch an offensive the day after tomorrow."

"Order."

The Ming soldiers were tired from the march for days, and although they were exempted from the fatigue of their feet by means of transportation, it was impossible to get a good night's sleep on the rickety truck.

The sleepless soldiers hurried to sleep after dinner, got into small tents, wrapped themselves in blankets and fell asleep.

As for the new opponent we met today, to be honest, most people feel that it is nothing more than that, and it is not a great enemy at all.

Ordinary people knew very little about this distant country, and it was basically limited to a few words in textbooks, and many soldiers did not learn about it until they were in the army.

Ten years ago, Australia's Department of Defence ordered the military to hunt down the rampant ér miáo, a large, friendly-looking bird that has wreaked havoc on crops.

A team of confident Australian soldiers carried two Lewis light machine guns to the hunt, and also prepared cameras to record the image of the army to eliminate harm for the people.

In a matter of days, they fired thousands of bullets and killed just over a hundred emus, and that was only a drop in the bucket, during which time they nearly perished when the truck rolled over, so the operation failed.

As a result, the Australian army became the laughing stock of the world under the news media report - the first human army to be defeated by birds.

Today's encounter quickly spread among the Ming officers and soldiers of the assault cluster, and everyone generally felt that the army of the descendants of these criminals and prisoners had nothing to fear except for their bravery, so they slept peacefully.

Next.

Before it was dark, the cooks opened in the dark.

There are many kinds of stove trucks in the Ming Army, the most common of which is a trailer with wooden wheels, which is towed by a horse, which can provide food for an average of fifty people, and each team has three field cooking squads.

The motorized unit was slightly different, and the wooden wheels were not suitable for being towed by trucks, so they were replaced with rubber tires, and the 2nd Mobile Brigade was equipped with such rubber-tyred stove trucks.

Fragrant pancakes and warm fish soup, many people are very hungry when they wake up with the smell of nothing. Two people from each squad would be assigned to the cooking squad to receive food, while the others remained on guard in the position.

Later, just as the Ming soldiers were comfortably leaning on the wet foxhole to enjoy breakfast, the dull sound of artillery came leisurely from afar.

"There's a cannon coming! Take cover!!! Immediately, an officer yelled.

But before his words fell, many of the reflexes had already bowed down and hugged their heads to hide.

Several soldiers who were trotting on the position to give orders and fetch things also hurriedly turned over and threw themselves into the nearest foxhole.

At this time, the dense cannonballs also crackled and fell.

"Boom, boom, boom—"

High-explosive shells fired from QF 4.5-inch howitzers smashed into the Ming army's positions one after another, and the flames and gunpowder smoke immediately engulfed the place.

About a quarter of an hour later, a red and then a yellow flare were launched into the air – warnings from forward alert positions indicating that enemy forces were on the offensive.

A few minutes later, a field call from the 2nd Mobile Brigade reached the temporary command of the assault cluster.

Saying that it is a command center, it is actually an armored command vehicle that stops in a low-lying area, and then piles up bags of sand and dirt around it, and then covers it with some leafy branches.

"Report! It is determined that the enemy soldiers are taking the initiative to attack, and it can be seen that the strength is about 300 people, divided into two echelons in the front and rear, and a small number of armored vehicles are accompanied! ”

"I really gave them face, and I took the initiative to call the door." Zhou Changfeng leaned over the folding table, carefully studying the surrounding topographical map hand-drawn by the staff officers last night.

Zhao Hanfeng, who looked thoughtful, pointed to the distance and said: "Look, blocking artillery fire, the frequency of falling bombs is quite high, this is not like a feint, it should be a formal counterattack." ”

The 20th Brigade (Regiment) of the Australian Army launched an attack on the position of the 2nd Battalion and 1st Brigade of the 2nd Mobile Brigade of the Ming Army with the cooperation of five armored vehicles.

It was a salient with a small village behind it, in which the brigade-based heavy mortar team of the 2nd Mobile Brigade was deployed.

Clearly, Australians desperately want to smooth it out.

Now that the positions of the first group had calmed down, the artillery fire extended to the rear, and the continuous bombardment of the passage began to block the reinforcements.

"What do you think about it? Artillery fire away? ”

"What do I think? I see, we have to teach them a lesson. Fighting a war is not just about bravery, war... It's an art. ”

Because the Ming army was on the offensive, the soldiers did not spend much effort to build complete and tight field fortifications, but only dug foxholes.

In this case, it was a bit of a loss to stick to the battle, so Zhou Changfeng ordered his own field artillery group to carry out counter-battery tasks and try to suppress the opponent's artillery positions.

In fact, the easiest response is to cover the attacking enemy army with a few rounds of artillery fire, which should be able to disintegrate.

But Zhao Hanfeng knew that this guy who had "tricked" himself into his command back then wanted to do some hard work again.

A quarter of an hour later.

After the sparse gunfire and sporadic grenade explosions, the Australian soldiers who participated in the attack were surprised to find that the Ming army had retreated?

The position was littered with foxholes and bomb craters, with no shelters or communication trenches, and was apparently temporary.

A sergeant bent down to pick up a half-eaten pancake, "They walked in a hurry, Captain, you see this is the food they haven't finished, it's still hot." ”

Angus of C Company and Kleist, the commander of A Company, who followed later, argued, and Angus planned to attack the small village a kilometer away directly to deal with the threat of large-caliber mortars.

"Those five-inch mortars are so hateful, we have to finish them out as soon as possible, or they will escape once the artillery blockade is broken."

Kleist objected, "No, I don't agree, the Chinese are very cunning and good at using trickery, do you know what 'soldiers don't get tired of cheating'? ”

"I only know that it is impossible for a normal commander to abandon the defense in front of the artillery position, they must have retreated because there were no anti-armor weapons." Captain Angus pulled out his Webley revolver.

"We are soldiers, not linguists, and I just know that we should carry out orders and complete tasks," he said disdainfully. ”

Moments later, more than 100 Australian troops from Company C deployed in a textbook-standard offensive formation, advancing rapidly towards the small village ahead.

Several Vickers heavy machine guns were arranged 600 meters to the left and 500 meters to the right, and the rows were arranged in a zigzag pattern, with a distance of 300 meters.

It wasn't long before the Australian soldiers, who had not met any resistance, began to enter the village one after another, and they heard the sound of those mortars getting closer and closer.

Six old Vickers armored vehicles staggered in, followed by soldiers with rifles and in two columns.

But what they didn't realize was that several Type 37 A rocket launchers had been aimed at those armored vehicles; Two 12.8mm anti-aircraft machine guns were behind the doors of the two adjacent rows of houses, with their muzzles facing the street.

"Disperse the search, Sergeant Darren, take the building."

"Yes."

"Captain, what about the Chinese?"

(End of chapter)