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Text Chapter 951 The First Battle on the Subcontinent (4)

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    "Use Rangpur and Sirjar to hold back the Soviet, Indian and Japanese troops and head south to Steel City via the Jodanagpur Plateau?" Fei Wenhua was not an outstanding officer like Zhuo Fan who had an innate intuition about the battlefield. He looked at the drawing  It took a long time to realize the straight line, but at the same time, I was shocked by Li Zongren's idea.  It¡¯s not far in terms of distance, it¡¯s only two hundred kilometers from Begusarai east of Patna down south to Steel City.  But it is not easy to walk more than two hundred kilometers. First of all, it is difficult to cross the Ganges River!  The water here is thousands of meters wide, and there are no bridges within more than 100 kilometers nearby. Only ferries can cross it.  Even after crossing the Ganges River, the Jodha Nagpur Plateau, which is the only way to pass, is densely covered with vegetation and has only narrow cattle and horse trails.  Moreover, there is a serious lack of transportation capacity on our side. If we are delayed by four Soviet military divisions due to delays on the road, it may be difficult to even retreat.

    The last difficulty is troop strength. Since we are crossing the plateau, the 16th Mountain Brigade must go.  The 166th Division can be separated. Currently, only one regiment of the 153rd and 154th Divisions has arrived, and the main force will take at least ten days.  As for the fifth division, he didn't even think about it. A bunch of ragtag troops couldn't help.  On the other hand, in Steel City, there was one division of the Soviet-Indian Army and two divisions of the Indian Communist and Puppet Army, as well as two or three international columns, with a total strength of more than 50,000!  Once the attack begins, if the follow-up troops cannot keep up, they will definitely be in a hard fight.

    While he was worried, he also felt that this was the best way to break the encirclement and suppression.  Everyone knows that the biggest obstacle limiting the Indian Army is logistics.  Although Assam has an airport and railways, compared with the whole of India, it is still an extremely poor area and cannot support large-scale operations.  Bokaro Steel City is different. It is located in the center of Jharkhand State, with complete steelmaking, copper smelting and small machinery plants, with West Bengal to the east and Chhattisgarh to the south.  They are all food-producing areas in India.  If we can seize this place, coupled with Digboy's oil, we can completely maintain the self-sufficiency of several army groups.  Moreover, being stuck here would be equivalent to cutting off the connection between the Japanese army and Nehru, and connecting Northeast India with the Bihar state of Chandra.

    more importantly!  There is more than just steel in Bokaro. Dhanbad, 30 kilometers to the northeast, has the largest Anglo-Indian copper smelting plant in India.  One hundred thousand tons of raw copper can be produced every year!  It is the second largest copper mine in the UK after South Africa, and it is also the most important raw material currently supporting the arms production of Nehru and the Communist Party of India!  If we win, it will be equivalent to controlling 70% of India's military materials!  And Jamshedpur to the south is the headquarters of Tata Steel.  It can also produce 500,000 tons of crude steel annually.  And that's not all!  The entire Jharkhand state where the three cities are located is the only coking coal, apatite, and kyanite producing area in India. Mica, bauxite, china clay, limestone, and iron ore account for half of India!  There are also important resources such as soldering irons and diamonds.  If it can be captured, when the railway from Jiangxinpo to Digboy is opened to traffic, it will be equivalent to transporting 3 million tons of crude steel, 100,000 tons of raw copper and hundreds of thousands of other resources to the country every year.  The entire cost of this troop dispatch can be recovered in less than a year!  And there was no point in British protest, unless they could fight all the way from Bombay.

    Li Zongren looked at him and smiled and said nothing. In fact, he wanted to capture Pokaro and the entire Jharkhand state from the first day he heard about the war situation.  Because only in this way can we reduce logistical pressure, reduce dependence on the country, and cooperate with the Third Fleet as quickly as possible.  Preparations for the Attack on Burma and the Andaman.

    At this time, Wu Huanxian, commander of the 16th Plateau Mountain Brigade, and Lin Diannan, commander of the 166th Division, walked in hand in hand.  After understanding the situation, they put forward their opinions.  "The Jodanagpur Plateau is up to 1,000 meters high, and most of it is under 600 meters. Two hundred kilometers. Give me three days to ensure that we can pass. The difficulty is how to cross the Ganges! And we are lightly armed mountain soldiers, and we must have it to attack the city.  Heavy fire support. But the railways here are all occupied by the Communist Party of India, and there are not enough mules, horses and cars." As the only two special mountain brigades in the country, the pre-war 16th Brigade was stationed in Sichuan and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.  Therefore, Wu Huanxian is confident in quickly passing through the "Indian Plateau" which is only 600 meters on average and is extremely flat.  River crossings, supplies, and Japanese troops worried him.  Said: "There are also Japanese troops. If I were Shojiro Iida, I would definitely not fight to the death in Rangpur. Instead, I would let the Communist Party of India and the Soviet Army contain Rangpur and use the right wing to attack Sirjar and Imphal along the railway line, directly threatening us.  Digboy Supply Center."

    Fei Wenhua also agreed: "Even if the naval garrison in West Bengal does not move, the Japanese 31st Division in Bangladesh still has more than 20,000 people. My Fifth Division has less than 20,000 people. Commander Lin's 166th Division will definitely have to spare half of it.  Steel City, with a maximum of 30,000 left, and having to defend the east and west lines of defense, is very difficult"

    After listening to his words, Lin Diannan thought that they had underestimated the combat effectiveness of their troops.  Although the 166th Division is a new division formed after the war, it has been training hard over the past year and has recently recruited hundreds of officers who have fought in the northwest, so its desire to fight is very high.  Said: "The logistics are simple, just ask Chandra to send a division to follow Brigadier Wu. They can't fight, so they can carry food and ammunition, right? As for the Japanese army, I am not sure of a frontal defeat, but if I want to hold back the 31st Division,  As long as you give me four regiments, I dare to issue a military order!"

      Li Zongren narrowed his eyes, this was the sentence he was waiting for.  He smiled and said: "The military order is waived. Two regiments will be taken from your 166th Division, and the Bengal Regiment of the Fifth Division will be left to you. The Chindi Brigade of Wingate just now will also be under your command. He  Don't you want to fight the Japanese? Just let him do the hard work. The Air Force can send one regiment every day now. It will take about three or four days for Huan to go around to Chandra first, which is enough for us to raise four more regiments.  "

    "What about crossing the river? From Patna to Begusarai, Nehru has four divisions." Fei Wenhua asked the question that everyone wanted to know.

    Li Zongren has long been confident: "In ancient times, Marquis Zhuge Wu borrowed arrows from a straw boat, can't we borrow a pontoon bridge?"

    "Borrowing the pontoon?" Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what Li Zongren meant.  Only Wu Huan looked at Patna first, and an idea flashed in his mind: "Commander, do you want Chandra to build a bridge from Begusarai to attack Berea on the other side? We will follow behind and use him as a cover to cross the river quietly.  ?¡±

    "Well, Wu Huanxian!" Li Zongren laughed and immediately looked at Fei Wenhua: "Wenhua, immediately send a telegram to the Air Force and ask them to divide the remaining troops into three waves, one wave to be sent here and the other to Chandra.  Bian Guihuan took command first. The last wave was sent to the oil refinery and the reserve team in Dangdian South. Then he told them that the airport at the oil refinery could already take off and land large transport planes, and asked them to send as many motorcycles and 12 airplanes as possible within three days.  Type (T2 during the European War) troop carriers are here. These two vehicles are small and do not need to be dismantled. They can be loaded on transport planes. Then prepare the train and send the equipment to Begusray as soon as it arrives. Huanxian, you can lead the troops now  Cooperate with Chandra and ask him to prepare more supplies and mules and horses. Also urge him to attack Nehru on the spot. Don't let him be lazy, fight harder so that Nehru can't distinguish between true and false! But you  Remember, don¡¯t be too harsh. If Nehru scares away the open channel, the Soviets will retreat first.¡±

    After everything was said, Li Zongren glanced at the crowd and said with a smile: "Let's take a look first. If it's not against the law, we might as well step back. What do you think?" After hearing what he said in such detail, Fei Wenhua was surprised.  I know he has probably been thinking about it for many days.  The last sentence of "fight and see" actually made everyone feel at ease, so they gritted their teeth and said: "I will guard Rangpur. Let's see how much better the Soviet Indian divisions of the Communist Party of India are than the British Indian divisions."

    Fei Wenhua has never fought in the northwest, nor has he experienced a bad battle. This time he dared to grit his teeth and lead three regiments to block four Indian Communist and Soviet divisions. It can be said that he is really risking his life.  I saw him gritting his teeth and looking tragic.  Wu Huanxian and others laughed, and Li Zongren couldn't help laughing.  First asked: "Where are the leading troops of the Communist Party of India and the Soviet Army?"

    "It's already at the Gorodoya River forty kilometers away. The air force is about to set off." Wu Huan pointed out the location of the Soviet army with a stroke of his hand.

    "Let's all get ready." Li Zongren waited for Wu Huan and others to leave.  Then he patted Fei Wenhua on the shoulder and gave him the opportunity: "Don't be nervous. The Soviet army of the Communist Party of India lacks heavy equipment just like us, and they can't be much stronger with infantry. I will leave some people for you, and they will follow me in the northwest.  After fighting for a year, I am a good hand at dealing with the Soviet army. You might as well listen to their opinions. In addition, I also transferred a regiment from the Seventh Army with a total of 48 107 rocket launchers. The time should be coming soon. With them here,  Coupled with the artillery and air force, as long as the air force's reinforcements continue, four infantry divisions can kill Rangpur Huh! Yabyshev is not afraid of breaking his teeth." At the end of the sentence, he snorted coldly.  , the self-confidence after experiencing a series of battles in the northwest is undoubtedly evident.

    The Seventh Army is Li Zongren¡¯s old unit. It¡¯s really not a big deal to transfer a 107 Rocket Artillery Regiment.  But it is too important for Fei Wenhua.  In the past, because of difficulties in providing assistance, not to mention rocket launchers, even mortar shells had to be used sparingly.  Now there are 48 107mm rocket launchers, which is definitely a big deal in India.  When I thought of the scene of the Soviet army being smashed by the "steel rain" and crying, all the worries in my heart disappeared.

    After the two of them finished speaking, the engine sound of the attack plane came from outside the window.

    "Swishboom."

    Forty kilometers southwest of Langbul, over the Gorodoya River, the wings and aircraft of the four attack aircraft, the 90mm empty rockets were constantly sprayed.  The unique double pylon can ensure that the H-10 can carry 24 such anti-personnel rockets at a time.  Each one contained hundreds of steel balls and fragments, causing a shower of blood among the Soviet engineers who were setting up the pontoon bridge.  Before the rockets were fired, the nose of the plane sprayed out another ball of fireballs. The 40mm rapid-fire cannon under the nose of the plane kept hitting the pontoon bridge. In a few blows, all three wooden pontoon bridges were blown up.

    If the H-10 that attacks the pontoon bridge and engineers is a truck filled with bombs, then the two gunships that follow up the large force with strafing fire are called "heavy rain".  This JU52-like gunship has been improved again after many uses. Each one is equipped with four 12.7mm heavy machine guns, two 25mm chain cannons, and thick protection is welded on key locations such as the belly.  Armor.  Four machine guns and two cannons poked out from the design windows at the front and rear of the wing, scanning continuously.Shoot the ground.

    Gunships are not very useful in the northwest and North Korea, because both sides still have air counterattack capabilities, but in India the several I-16s that caught fire on the ground are clear evidence of who has air supremacy.  With absolute air supremacy and the lack of anti-aircraft artillery by the Soviet troops entering India, a mere two Y-3 gunships caused horrific casualties. Every second, soldiers were hit by bullets from high altitudes and below zero, and blood and corpses covered the roads.  .

    Major General Dedayev, who was hiding in the woods, gritted his teeth. No one knew these two "air devils" better.

    During the Kurgason tank battle, the H-10, which made its debut, used rockets to blow up the pontoon bridge, causing his friend Baranov and the Fifth Tank Army to be unable to cross the river and the entire army was annihilated.  He personally participated in the Battle of Kyzylorda. It was precisely because an entire aviation group was destroyed by gunships that the airport was lost and used by the enemy to transport a large number of troops. In the end, he became famous as the "gasoline butcher".  As a result, Moscow was unable to effectively support Tashkent.  In the end, the whole of Central Asia was lost!

    Now they are here again.

    Dedayev became furious just thinking about it!  After successfully breaking through and arriving in India, he and the officers were quite comfortable.  Not to mention the delicious food and drinks served by the Communist Party of India, even the British-Indian division with low combat effectiveness failed to succeed in many encirclement and suppression campaigns. If it were not for the loss of heavy equipment during the breakout, the support from Moscow and gc international was intermittent. With hundreds of thousands of soldiers,  A veteran who has fought in Afghanistan for three years, it is not difficult to sweep half of India.

    Unexpectedly, we finally managed to stock up on some supplies, just when we were about to completely expel the British army and liberate all of India.  China actually comes to interfere again!  He just couldn't understand. China is also following the path of national socialism. Although it is different from Berlin, they are both socialist and focus on narrowing the gap between rich and poor.  Promote national democracy and modernization.  Since German socialism can come together with the Soviet Union, why can Chinese socialism have trouble getting along with itself?

    "Comrade General, the enemy plane has left." After the guard reminded the attack plane to leave, Dedayev immediately walked out of the bunker. Seeing that the pontoon bridge was broken and the engineers suffered heavy casualties, he simply let the Sikh soldiers recruited by the Communist Party of India fight  bridge.  "Let those Indians repair the pontoon bridge. Move quickly! Ask Major Kraft to personally lead the supervising team and help them rear." Like the British, Commander-in-Chief Yabyshev of the Communist Party of India also knew that it was impossible to rely only on hundreds of thousands of Soviet veterans.  Just liberate India, so except for retaining a few elite all-veteran divisions.  Break up the remaining Soviet and PKI soldiers to maximize the size of your force.  But even though all the poor northern Sikhs who had a martial tradition and were brave in combat were recruited, the combat effectiveness of the troops was severely reduced.  In order to allow Indian soldiers to demonstrate their combat effectiveness.  He had no choice but to raise the banner of war supervising team again and reserve a war supervising team in each Suyin division.

    A third of Dedayev's two divisions were Sikh soldiers.  After receiving the order, more than a thousand turbaned, burly, and bearded Sikh soldiers rushed out of hiding. Under the shouts of Soviet officers, they carried Mosin Nagant or Lee Enfield on their backs.  Planks of wood rushed towards the pontoon bridge that had been blown apart.

    The Gorodoya River was originally a great river. This great river was described in detail in the introduction to the country of Ponnavardana in "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty".  However, after thousands of years of diversion and flood erosion, the river is now less than fifty meters wide and less than two meters deep.  So as soon as the Sikh soldiers appeared, they were seen by Chinese soldiers who had just arrived from Afghanistan in the woods on the east coast.  "Squad leader, who are those people? Why don't they wear helmets?" The private from Guizhou had never seen a Sikh soldier before, and he aimed his sights at the turban.

    "It's Indian Asan. There used to be people from our concession in Shanghai who seemed to be called Xi or something. Mabid! I can't remember clearly. They were not good people anyway. With the support of foreigners, they beat and scolded us all day long." From  After the squad leader in Shanghai recognized these Sikh soldiers who had helped the colonists in the early years, he remembered the scene when he went to the concession when he was a child and was chased through the streets by them with the support of their masters and armed with batons. He became very angry and fierce.  He spat and shouted: "Don't aim at the head, their hair is still loosely tied in their buns. Aim at the chest and hit them hard!"

    "Squad leader, is this not a public revenge?"

    "Ha ha"

    "Little bastard, what nonsense are you talking about to save you? Machine gun, machine gun? Mader, why are you still standing there? Get ready!" The squad leader's shout was like an alarm clock, waking up the entire position, and the black muzzles of the guns came out of the pit.  Shot out.

    The muzzle of a gun suddenly protruded from the woods on the other side. Holding a telescope and supervising the Sikh soldiers repairing the bridge, Major Kraft's heart skipped a beat and he immediately shouted: "Come back! Come back quickly, there is an ambush!" But all he could shout was  Half effective because he was speaking in Russian.  Except for half of the Soviet soldiers, the Sikh soldiers who were busy repairing the bridge couldn't understand it at all.

    "Fire!"

    ¡°Boom boom boom¡­.¡±

     With a loud shout, six 80mm mortars opened fire first, and the shells hit the river, stirring up jets of water.  Dozens of hj32 general-purpose machine guns also sprayed out dense rain of bullets at the same time, with a speed of 900 rounds per minute, linking five one-shot tracer bullets into a line of fire.  With just a few pulls of the trigger, bullets can cause a hail of blood among unsuspecting Sikh soldiers.  The general-purpose machine gun based on the mg3 fired so fast that every fallen Sikh soldier could have several bullet holes in his body.

    Thousands of Sikh soldiers were beaten to death, the river water was dyed red, a layer of corpses quickly floated on the river surface, and the pontoon bridge that had not yet been repaired was damaged again.  "Damn yellow-skinned bastard!" Dedayev's face was gloomy and he clenched his hands tightly.  But he will not be frightened. Compared with Northwest, this kind of casualties is not worth mentioning.  What he hated was the sound like tearing oilcloth!  A voice that makes all Soviet veterans hate it!  "About two battalions, Comrade General." The commander of the battle-hardened reconnaissance team quickly analyzed the number of blocking troops by comparing the number of machine guns.

    "The artillery fires, organizes the commando team to swim across the river, and establishes a position on the east bank. Get the Indians ready to continue building the bridge! The tank company is ready. Comrades, Comrade Lieutenant General Kozlov is coming soon, we can't  Stop here!" Major General Dedayev looked at his watch and gave the order with a dark face.

    (To be continued)
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