An hour later, Yuen's adjutant came to the door again and sent a report on the situation of the battle for nearly ten days, which was much more detailed than what he had learned from the telegram before, and even detailed information on the British troops stationed in Burma and the Chinese expeditionary force that had just entered Burma, and there was also the most detailed military map of Burma at present, a map of the deployment of the 17th Division of the British and Indian Army in Degongne, and the location and strength of the current British army, the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and the Japanese army were marked on the map.

In this regard, Li Junhao felt very satisfied, and gave back a box of French champagne, and asked the adjutant to bring it to Youen, saying that it was to celebrate his success in hunting the Japanese 214th Wing in advance; Attached was a copy of the details of the Japanese 33rd Division's armament - which he had found in his own intelligence materials.

The 33rd Division of the Japanese Army is the second batch of divisions rebuilt in Japan on February 7, 1939.

After the Burma operation, the strengthened 33rd Division now has four infantry wings, the 151st, 213th, 214th, and 215th, and is also equipped with the 33rd Mountain Artillery Wing, the 33rd Heavy Infantry Wing, the 14th Combat Vehicle Wing, the 3rd Field Heavy Artillery Wing, and the 4th Independent Engineer Wing, with a total strength of about 17,000 troops.

Li Junhao has done everything he can do, just see if Youen, the British general, can fight for breath, lead the 17th Division of the LinkedIn Indian Army to fight a beautiful battle, and kill the 214th Wing of the Japanese Army that is lone and deep? Of course, success is good, but failure is just a repetition of history.

——

On the other hand, seeing the Japanese intelligence and champagne brought back by the adjutant, Major General Yuen was immediately full of confidence. Although the overall strength of the Japanese 33rd Division is stronger than that of the 17th Division, its forward force is only a wing of less than 4,000 people, and the heavy firepower is only a dozen infantry guns, and the 17th Division still has enough strength to eat it!

At this time, knowing that the division commander was going to fight the Japanese, they all became excited, took out their professional knowledge, and worked hard to refine the battle plan and make plans for various situations that might occur......

As time went on, the plan got better and better, and the number of pages grew! ——

On March 15, early in the morning, Major General Youen hurried to the Lihua Hotel with his adjutant and called Li Junhao, who was still asleep.

Seeing the thick stack of battle plans he handed over, Li Junhao was speechless, and patiently flipped through them. I have to say that the battle plan drawn up by the British staff officers is very detailed, and in his opinion, the exhaustive is too much, with dozens of pages of data and charts, and even the forward layout and travel route at the platoon level are stipulated, which is not like a battle plan, but like a year-end statement of a financial company!

Li Junhao threw the plan in his hand on the coffee table and sneered: "Your Excellency, General, I admire the staff officers of your army!" Looks like they weren't idle all night, right? ”

Major General Youen, who had only slept for three or four hours, was happy at this time, and he didn't hear the ridicule in Li Junhao's mouth at all, and immediately replied when he heard this: "Yes, the young men from the division staff department worked very hard this time, and more than a dozen people didn't sleep all night, and finally worked out this battle plan!" What do you think, Mr. Observer? ”

"Not good!" Li Junhao saw that he didn't understand what he meant, so he could only pick out his words clearly and say, "Major General Youen, the purpose of this operation is to encircle and annihilate the 214th Wing and eliminate the living forces of the Japanese army, not exercises and military parades, there is no need to maintain the strict and beautiful formation, what is needed is speed and firepower." In this respect, this battle plan is nothing short of a pile of waste paper! ”

"Huh?" Major General Yuen was stunned, he did not expect that what he thought was the perfect battle plan would be criticized as useless by this observer from the United States, and the incomprehension in his heart even exceeded his indignation.

Having reached this point, Li Junhao was unwilling to stiffen the relationship between the two sides, so he patiently explained: "Your Excellency, the 214th Wing of the Japanese Army is rushing to Degong on a rapid march, and it is expected to arrive in two days at the latest. If the 17th Division wants to achieve the best results, what is needed now is not this cumbersome plan and formation, but to immediately send enough reconnaissance troops to continuously monitor the Japanese army's marching position on the one hand, and on the other hand, to survey in detail the sector area 3 to 20 kilometers ahead of the 17th Division's position, calibrate the accurate firing coordinates, and divide the numbered areas in a square format to prepare for the subsequent shelling. ”

"Oh! Oh! Yes...... Well? What else? When you heard this, your long-dull mind finally opened up.

Seeing that the other party really listened, Li Junhao was interested in continuing: "The key to this battle is to give full play to the 17th Division's powerful artillery projection capability than the Japanese army, use the pre-detected firing coordinate area, and use the saturation fire of 150mm and 105mm heavy artillery to cripple and stun the 214th Wing at once, and then send armored troops to surprise and defeat the remnants of the Japanese army's heavy firepower, and finally send infantry to finish." In this way, we can not only ensure the effect of destroying the enemy, but also minimize the losses of our army. ”

"Snap", You En slapped his thigh, this is a boost to his heart, and then think about the plan he brought, he himself feels wrong, the military situation is like fire, how can he have time to engage in those vain things, or Mr. Observer is right! It is only right to give full play to the firepower superiority of the 17th Division, so why bother to fight positional warfare with small Japan and fight for attrition?

Thinking of this, he had the idea of tying this American observer to the 17th Division as the chief of staff.

A few minutes later, Yuen hurried back to the division headquarters with a few points written down on paper to make adjustments and arrangements, and he now remembered the observer's words in his mind: "A unit commander must have his own self-confidence and determination, and be able to bring his subordinates hope for victory, so that he can ask his subordinates to obey orders and fight to the death"! These words completely ignited the blood in his heart, and he made up his mind to do everything he could to win this battle!

At this time, Li Junhao didn't know that on a whim, he actually cultivated a meritorious marshal for the British army with outstanding military achievements in the future, and his status in history far exceeded that of Marshal Alexander, who had been killed by him, which can be regarded as "unintentionally inserting willows into the willows"!

After sending off Youen, Li Junhao continued to sleep back in the cage, and before falling asleep, he still imagined in his mind that after his own agitation and design, what would the 17th Division of the British and Indian Army do to fight this battle?

(End of chapter)