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Text Chapter 947 The First Battle on the Subcontinent (1)

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    The temporary headquarters is located in the small red brick bungalow of Digboy Oil Refinery.  *Literature Hall* The refinery is not big. Its crude oil processing capacity of 800 tons per day is far behind that of large refineries in other countries. Moreover, the machinery and equipment are very old and can only produce low-grade oil products.  Even supplying trucks and tanks requires refiltration, not to mention delicate aircraft engines.

    The staff room is at the outside, and the lounge is upstairs.  A huge map of the situation in India and Myanmar hangs on the side wall. The conference table is made up of several desks and is in very poor conditions.

    Fei Wenhua is the commander of the Northeast Independent Division of India, but in fact the Bangladesh guerrillas are also under his supervision and command, and he also coordinates the actions of the Burmese guerrillas.  In addition, many people from Chandra also came, so after the car arrived at the headquarters, you could see many local officers and guerrilla leaders.  The various accents and dialects made the headquarters look like a vegetable market. If it weren't for several translators and political officers sent by the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Political Department, the coordination alone would have taken weeks.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s a good thing or a bad thing.¡± This scene made Li Zongren secretly mutter, wondering whether it was right or wrong to come to India this time.  After patiently shaking hands with each officer, he sat in the middle.  "Let me tell you." When he sat down, Fei Wenhua took the initiative to take the pointer from the staff, pointed at the map and began to introduce the war situation.

    "The British have begun to counterattack. The news the day before yesterday said that Lieutenant General Quinan's two divisions temporarily stabilized the situation in Delhi after defeating Nehru's three leading divisions on the Narmada River in the west. But the latest intelligence  , a total of four Indian divisions are heading there, apparently to join Nehru's main force and capture Mumbai in one fell swoop. There are basically no major battles in the central plains, and the main forces of Nehru and the Communist Party of India have entered Chhattisgarh.  , encountered no resistance all the way. Since last month, the Congress Party and the Communist Party of India have been fully launched. Therefore, there have been large numbers of rallies and armed riots in Hyderabad and other places. According to our insiders, during this period, gc international has also  Several large cargo ships were organized to purchase arms from Mexico and Brazil and transport them to Calcutta. Therefore, the total strength of Nehru and the Communist Party of India increased significantly, and a large number of guerrillas were also organized. Looking at the current progress, if there is no  By containing and resisting, they could capture Hyderabad in ten days at most and then launch a pincer attack on Bombay.

    The situation on our side is the most complicated. Pokaro Steel City has been occupied by the Communist Party of India.  After expelling all foreign workers in the area, the GC International technicians of the Communist Party of India have taken up their posts. The steel plants and machinery plants have all been replaced by their people. A considerable number of anti-aircraft artillery and aircraft have also been deployed nearby. I heard that they can already produce rifles and  Mortars and other small arms.  correct.  Japan has helped Nehru build a small arsenal in Aligarh, east of New Delhi, and most of the tanks and weapons exported are also in the hands of Nehru.  Intelligence said that a thousand rifles, ten mortars and other weapons and ammunition can be produced here every month.  Now they have control of Orissa, Jharkhand.  West Bengal was controlled by the Japanese army, and the three parties had been able to support each other through railways.

    The three British-Indian divisions originally in Orissa suffered heavy losses and had retreated to Eluru and Vijayawada. However, they were bombarded by Japanese ships yesterday. It is said that they have less than 150,000 troops.  After the British troops retreated.  It put a lot of pressure on us, so Chairman Bose's three divisions could only rely on the Ganges to garrison Bihar, and although we controlled Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya  , but the Japanese offensive from Bengal has never been interrupted.  Analysis from recent signs.  Shojiro Iida has been encouraging Nehru and the Communist Party of India to attack us from both sides, preparing to attack Rangpur and Darjeeling along the river, cut off our connection with Chairman Bose and defeat them one by one.

    It should be noted that the total mileage of Indian railways is close to 50,000 kilometers.  If the three parties are sincerely cooperating, they will mobilize their troops and coordinate very quickly.  Just because of this.  Therefore, after Nehru and the Communist Party of India launched a sudden attack, the British army had no time to prepare. By the time reinforcements began, the enemy had already sent more than a dozen divisions to the front by train.  "

    "There are 50,000 kilometers of Indian railways?!" An officer who came with Li Zongren and didn't understand India gasped.  You must know that the president has continuously increased railway construction in the past thirty years, building a developed four-horizontal and four-vertical railway network across the country, and also snatched the Siberian Railway east of Krasnoyarsk and the Turkestan Railway in East Kazakhstan and other places in the Soviet Union  Finally, with the addition of Mr. Zhan Tianyou's proposal and the joint completion of the China Railway two years ago, the total mileage of the China-Rim Railway, which is known as a unique project, is only a little over 90,000.  As a colony, India, which has little achievements in the industrial field, actually has 50,000 kilometers.

    Chandra and other Indian officers covered their mouths and rolled their eyes at the officer, wanting to laugh but not daring to.  Fei Wenhua was very patient and said with a smile: "Major, India does not have everything. In terms of railway scale alone, it is longer than France and Germany. But it is relatively unscientific in terms of infrastructure construction. The railway bridges and docks are relatively developed, and the road network is very poor.  Emerging facilities such as expressways, subways, airports, communications and broadcasting are still small or non-existent, and the gap between them and our country is?Very big.  However, we cannot underestimate this place just because it is partial to science. Take Pokaro Steel City, where the Tata Steel Plant is located, for example. If it were not for some reasons, this base, which is larger than the Mushan Iron Mine, could easily be built with an annual output of tens of millions of tons.  steel plant.  "

    "Now do you know that you can sit in a well and look at the sky?" Li Zongren laughed after hearing this, stood up and patted the officer on the shoulder, walked to the map and looked at it carefully.  The place names Fei Wenhua just mentioned were all unfamiliar to him and he needed to get familiar with them as soon as possible. After a while, he pointed at Dhaka and asked: "How many Japanese troops are there here? How many troops are there in the south of the Ganges River?"

    "The Japanese army has two divisions in Burma, one division in Bengal, and five naval garrison groups in West Bengal and Calcutta, which are almost the same size as one division. The Communist Party of India has recently strengthened the production recovery work in Bokaro Steel City, and there are only two  Division Baharanpur, Nehru had four divisions at Patna, facing Chairman Bose¡¯s three divisions across the Ganges.¡±

    "What about you?" Li Zongren asked again.

    "I have one division, less than 20,000. Chairman Bose has three divisions, totaling more than 55,000. The biggest difficulty now is the lack of well-trained soldiers and a serious shortage of equipment! Our country's railway has extended from Dali to Jiangxinpo  Myitkyina (Jiangxinpo was lost after 1914. In the book, the Shanghai Communiqu¨¦ recognized Jiangxinpo as Chinese territory, so draw a straight line from Nankan to Homalin on the Myanmar-India border, and everything to the north belongs to China. Therefore, the Republic of China in the book is actually the same as  bordering India), Yunnan Province recruited 10,000 workers at the beginning of the year. It hoped to build a narrow-gauge railway from Myitkyina to here. However, the construction was not smooth. When crossing Yeren Mountain, it encountered more than a dozen landslides and hundreds of people died.  At present, the railway is still in Mengguan (today's Maikun, Kachin State), which seems to be only more than 100 kilometers away from here. However, the mountains and dense forests along the way, plus the actual mileage of the detour will be doubled, and it is expected that it will not be until Thursday of next year at the earliest.  It won¡¯t be opened until May.¡±

    Fei Wenhua looked embarrassed and continued: "This generation is full of virgin forests. Even caravans dare not leave, and there are small groups of Japanese troops harassing them. So cars are not accessible. Some time ago, we could only rely on field airports to maintain logistics.  Good thing Britain gave up Digboy Airport, otherwise you would have had to go through a lot of trouble to get here.¡±

    As a Guangxi native, Li Zongren knew that the southwest railway network was very developed and had been built in Dali, Lijiang, Xishuangbanna and other places in 1933.  But he didn't expect that.  The environment in Jiangxinpo would be so bad.  You know, military narrow gauge can build dozens of kilometers in one day and one night in the northwest.  What about here?  The straight-line distance is only more than 200 kilometers, and it took five months to get through half of it.  Without railways and roads, heavy equipment cannot be transported. No wonder Fei Wenhua and others can only fight guerrillas.

    "Commander, lunch is ready." He was saying.  The orderly ran in.  But this situation was a bit difficult for Li Zongren to swallow, and he decided to go and see the troops first.  When going out, Fei Wenhua specially brought a few sets of raincoats to the officers who had just arrived. Several officers who had been in the north all year round laughed when they saw this.  Pointing to the big sun above his head: "Mr. Fei, isn't the sun shining here?"

    "It's better to be prepared." Fei Wenhua smiled and said nothing more.

    Soon, Li Zongren and his party arrived at the military camp outside the oil refinery.  Said it was a military camp.  In fact, there are dozens of conjoined wooden houses that can only provide protection from wind and rain.  Wait until all the soldiers have gathered.  He praised it secretly in his heart.  Because he could see that Fei Wenhua put a lot of thought into recruiting soldiers.  In addition to the directly affiliated guard battalions composed entirely of domestic soldiers, the first and second regiments are Shan ethnic groups with close ties to the country, as well as local Chinese immigrants, Gorkhas and a few Tibetan compatriots. The largest three regiments, most of them  All were Bengali soldiers.  Although there is only one regiment of Bangladeshi soldiers, the number is equivalent to the first and second regiments.  This is also a small trick. Firstly, it appeases the Bengali soldiers and gives the illusion that the numbers are equally impartial. Secondly, because even though the three regiments have more troops, there is only one regiment and the number of officers is actually not as good as the former.  In case of trouble, the first and second regiments can be expanded quickly, but the third regiment is extremely difficult to expand due to its over-staffing. Even if it is split, the number of officers will be small.

    From the soldiers¡¯ clothing, they are all the National Defense Forces¡¯ standard tropical rainforest combat uniforms.  The light weapons are okay, most of them are Minyuan-style rifles, Han II and Han III light and heavy machine guns (ZB26 and self-produced version of Maxim equipped by the National Defense Forces during the European War) and grenade launchers, as well as many SC34 submachine guns.  (Chinese-made mp40).  There are also a lot of mortars, and you can also see the 160mm long-range mortar that has been eliminated in China.  The artillery regiment has three 85mm howitzer battalions and two 105mm artillery battalions. There are fewer trucks and jeeps, but there are many light large-wheel tractors suitable for muddy ground, and the armor strength is still blank.  As for the 155 and 210 mm heavy artillery commonly used in the northwest, they are not equipped here at all.  This cannot be blamed on China for not paying attention to Fei Wenhua, but because the road is blocked and the field airport has limited throughput, even if heavy equipment is transported, follow-up ammunition cannot be guaranteed.

    "Chandra's troops are not here, but Fei Wenhua said that most of the equipment is similar to his, and there are twenty more Snake fighter jets.  Before the war with Japan, the country also deliveredGive him a battalion of Type 25 tanks and a thousand military vehicles.

    After knowing what the army he had in hand looked like, Li Zongren began to reorganize on the spot.  All Chinese and Chandra troops in India will be integrated into the Indian Army for unified command.  After obtaining Chandra's consent, his three divisions were changed into the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions of the First Indian Army, and the two armored battalions were separated and changed into the 4th Armored Brigade, with Chandra continuing to serve as the commander.  And asked him to serve as the chief of staff of the group army.  Fei Wenhua's Independence Army was changed to the Fifth Infantry Division, and he served as deputy chief of staff.  Finally, we will also tell you about the imminent arrival of reinforcements such as the 153rd and 154th Infantry Divisions of the 32nd Army of the Army in Afghanistan, the 109th Division of the 25th Army in the Persian Gulf, the 183rd Division of the 38th Army, the 16th Plateau Mountain Brigade, and a mixed group of the Air Force.  Boost morale.

    While they were talking, the sky suddenly changed color, and within a few minutes it started to rain heavily. Only then did the officers who had ridiculed Fei Wenhua understand why the soldiers here were carrying raincoats with them.

    After completing the reorganization.  Li Zongren sent the situation here to the General Staff Headquarters.  In the next two days, the 16th Plateau Mountain Brigade arrived one after another from Peshawar to Kashgar and then flew over the Himalayas.  However, this route was too difficult, and it took half a month to transport more than 7,000 plateau mountain soldiers to Digboy.  After the General Staff agreed to the adaptation plan, considering the slow pace of mountain troop reinforcements and the Southwestern Group Army stationed in Kunming to deter Myanmar, the 166th Division of the 35th Army immediately airlifted to strengthen the Indian Army Group.  The plan was also adjusted so that the 153rd and 154th Infantry Divisions stationed on the border of Afghanistan and India would gradually come to Digboy by plane. As for the 109th Division and 183rd Division supported by Bai Chongxi, they would go directly to Mumbai to support the British army later.  The air force also quickly took over the airport.  Transport planes were used to deliver a large amount of building materials, aviation gasoline and ammunition, and a new navigation tower was built. Finally, 24 Thunder fighters, 48 ??Snake B fighter attack aircraft, 16 H-10 bomb trucks and 12 H-5 were sent.  fleet.  Finally, at the suggestion of a responsible technical sergeant, 46 Type 25C tanks specially improved for the tropical rainforest were dismantled into parts and transported to the destination by plane before being assembled again.  The first directly affiliated armored battalion was sent to Li Zongren.

    With this method in place, the Army simply built a vehicle maintenance base in Digboy and prepared to deliver more tanks and heavy equipment.

    The British Commander-in-Chief Orin Lake and Lieutenant General Quinan, who was unable to leave because Wavell was dragged in the Middle East, were very happy to learn about Li Zongren's arrival and immediately sent several liaison officers.  -Colonel Wingate and his Chindi Brigade were placed under the unified command of the Chinese and Indian Army Group.  What made Li Zongren dumbfounded was when Wingate came.  They actually brought 3,000 British, Burmese, Indians and Gurkhas who were operating behind enemy lines. Moreover, they had not been able to obtain any supplies for a whole month. Many of them even lost their guns. In the end, within three days  .  Just ate the food of one of his organizers

    ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Hundreds of transport planes flew back and forth between Digboy and Kunming, this made Shojiro Iida realize that China was using its huge fleet of transport planes to quickly build up its forces to northeast India.  Word got out.  It shocked the Congress Party, the Communist Party of India and Japan, because none of them expected it.  Under attack from Japan and the Soviet Union, Yang Qiu actually dared to interfere in India's affairs.  The most anxious ones are definitely the Japanese army, because their territory is right under China's nose.  Therefore, after realizing the danger, Shojiro Iida, commander of the Japanese Southern Army and the 15th Burmese Army, immediately contacted Nehru and General Secretary of the Communist Party of India Rana Devi.

    Speaking of Rana Devi, we have to mention his status as a Vaishya (meaning layman, farmer, merchant).  As we all know, India has a strict caste system. Although Vaishyas are classified as the third class, to put it bluntly, they are Brahmins and Kshatriya long-term workers who do not produce and have no political rights.  Therefore, Ranadivi first joined the Congress Party in the hope of breaking tradition and joining the powerful class.  However, the conservative forces within the National Congress Party were huge, and in the end they had no choice but to withdraw angrily.  At this time, he met Roy Yi, the Indian representative of GC International, and joined the Communist Party of India.  After more than ten years of struggle, he finally became a powerful figure.  Originally, he had many competitors, but for the purpose of defeating China and making India GC, Moscow finally selected him as the general secretary.  Because of his radical thinking, he had always advocated a greater India, and had proposed the idea of ??completely abolishing the caste system by force and allowing the Soviet army to directly enter India.

    After Yabyshev led 150,000 remnant troops to defect to the Communist Party of India, Stalin tried every means to bring reinforcements from all over the world.  Using the power in his hands, Yabyshev helped Ranadivi secure his position in one fell swoop and purged all moderate rightists.  Ranadivi also fulfilled his promise and reused members of the left-wing party who desperately wanted to gain power. He called on party members across India to launch a revolution and quickly built the Communist Party of India into a party with 20 regular army divisions, dozens of guerrillas, and a total strength of more than three  One hundred thousand, a behemoth with more than five million party members.  Because 180,000 of them are retired Soviet veterans and international fighters from all over the world, and there is even a tank division.  So in terms of military strength, it was stronger than Nehru, who claimed to have millions, but actually only had more than 20 divisions and insufficient equipment.

      Shojiro Iida's three divisions and naval garrison combined totaled less than 100,000. They also had to take care of the defense of Burma. In addition, there were fewer and fewer ships coming from the country recently, so they became the weakest party.  Of course, this weakness refers to the military strength on paper. In terms of combat capabilities and excellent soldiers, he believes that his troops are higher than those of the other two factions.  But he is not a fool, and of course he is not willing to take on the task of attacking alone. You must know that his supplies and reserves are far inferior to those of the other two factions.

    Nehru actually didn¡¯t really want to go to war with China in his heart. He always wanted to focus on expelling the British forces first, completing true independence and negotiating with China to resolve conflicts, so he was hesitant about sending troops.  However, Ranadivi was eager to give it a try, and the Central Committee of the Soviet Union also sent a telegram, requesting the Indian Communist Party to break off its claws deep into northeastern India as soon as possible while China was still gathering troops, and then cooperate with Nehru to attack the British army, and finally turn around and attack Iran to reopen Persia.  aisle.  In the face of a common enemy, the three parties finally negotiated and decided that Nehru would send five divisions to hold back the main force of Chandra in Bihar and deny the opportunity to support the Northeast.  At the same time, the Communist Party of India sent out four divisions and the Japanese army sent out one division to attack Rangpur from the southwest. After taking it, they quickly cut off Darjeeling and blocked the land passage between the northeast and Chandra.

    Facing the encirclement and suppression by ten Indian divisions from three parties, Li Zongren and China officially set foot on the Indian subcontinent for the first time This is how it started
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