Chapter 72: Forcing the Army (Part 1)

  The front line of the family river, Huang Dafu's first line of defense, the smoke has not yet dispersed, and the 18 medical soldiers are already busy in the trenches.

  They were not rushing to bandage the wounded soldiers, but to check if there were any seriously injured who needed to be sent to the camp's medical unit for treatment. Now every soldier in the security forces has a first-aid kit, which can be used to stop bleeding immediately after injury. This first-aid kit was only issued before this expedition, and each package contains only some special hemostatic bands of the security forces, which are said to have a magical effect. This is the first time they were applied in actual combat, and two medical soldiers also need to check their effectiveness. If the effect is not good, they will need to be treated. After one round, 5 seriously injured were sent directly to the back, and the rest of the lightly wounded had stopped bleeding after being bandaged with hemostatic bands, which made the two medical soldiers feel a bit frustrated, because they had almost nothing to do. It's just unknown whether the other anti-inflammatory function of this hemostatic band is as good as its hemostatic effect.

  Company Commander Huang Dafu, who had just reported the casualties to the Regimental Commander over the phone, was inspecting the trenches. He wanted to see the morale and combat readiness of his soldiers. They had just repelled the third attack by the Guangxi Army, with 5 killed, 8 seriously injured, and 16 lightly injured, losing half a platoon.

  The last time in Zengjiashan fighting the bandits, compared to this time with the Gui army, can be said that the last one was not a fight at all. When fighting the bandits, the bandits were passive defense, and the security forces were active offense; Moreover, the bandits' organization was very chaotic, almost no heavy weapons, the battle was almost one-sided.

  This time was different, the opponent was indeed the main force of the Guangxi clique. When charging, not only were they extremely fierce, but the soldiers' combat skills were also very skilled, and their shooting was accurate. Except for the first exploratory attack, the latter two charged to about 50 meters in front of the position. If it weren't for the intense artillery fire from the security troops successfully intercepting the follow-up charge of the Guangxi army, they might have rushed onto the position with one charge.

  After repelling the three charges of the Guangxi army, the soldiers were no longer as tense as they were at the beginning. The tense atmosphere before the battle was swept away, and they began to chat and laugh again. Platoon leader Yu Kefu said loudly, "Brothers, do you know who our enemy is in front of us?" Second squad leader smiled and said, "Platoon leader, who doesn't know? It's the 19th army of the Guangxi clique!" "Right, it's the 19th army of the Guangxi clique. But do you know that this 19th army is the main force of the Guangxi clique?" Platoon leader Yu Kefu continued to say with a smile. A soldier from the first squad shouted from afar, "What main force? They were beaten by us and ran back with their tails between their legs!" The soldier's words caused a burst of laughter in the trenches. Seeing that he had achieved his goal, Yu Kefu revealed a hint of a pleased smile.

  Huang Da Fu thought to himself: "This Yu Ke Wei is a good seedling, very skilled at stirring up the emotions of the soldiers. No wonder he's a student who has read books. I'll have to recommend him to the battalion commander when I get the chance."

  Huang Daifu took this opportunity to say loudly: "Well said! The 19th Army is not only the main force of the Guangxi clique, but also an absolute main force like the 7th Army. In Xiaogan, the 2nd Division used just over an hour to defeat Yang Tenghui's division of the 7th Army; our 1st Division defeated the 19th Army at Zhujihe River with minimal cost, what does this show?" Huang Daifu deliberately stopped here.

  The soldiers in the trenches shouted loudly, some saying: "The guns of the Guangxi clique are not as many as ours." Others said: "This 19th Army is not a main force at all, it's just the Guangxi clique bragging blindly."

  Huang Da Fu and the other warriors had almost finished speaking, when he suddenly said loudly: "What you all said is both right and wrong. Our artillery in a unit of the same establishment, domestically there isn't another unit that has more than us. Our regiment commander said, previously Sun Chuan Fang's unit didn't even have one mortar below the battalion level, we also saw the equipment of the Northwest Army at Wushengguan, not even the battalions and companies had mortars, and our single company's 20 60mm mortars are more than what a whole Northwest Army regiment has. The firepower of our Security Forces is something that neither the Central Army nor the Guangxi Clique's main forces can match."

  Taking a deep breath, Huang Da Fu said loudly: "This 19th Army is indeed the main force of the Guangxi Army. Everyone saw the battle just now, and its combat effectiveness is still very strong. However, when I was studying in the instructional team, our commander Song said that we must attach great importance to any opponent in tactics. Only by attaching great importance to our opponents can we ensure victory over them. The firepower of our security army is the strongest in the country, and our training is also the best. Any main force will not be our opponent in front of us." After finishing speaking, he pointed to the 200 corpses of the Guangxi Army lying on the ground: "You see, no matter what kind of strong army, they will all be defeated in front of us. Do you agree?" "Yes!" A loud shout erupted from the soldiers on the ground.

  Standing in the second trench in front of Zhujiariver Village, Sun Li listened to the confident shouts of the soldiers on the front line. He nodded his head in satisfaction and turned back to the village's headquarters. He was worried about his troops. These soldiers were absolutely top-notch, even among the best in the country. He had this feeling from the very first day he joined the Security Forces. However, they lacked actual combat experience; they hadn't been through a big war.

  Although some old soldiers from the northwest army who were captured in southern Hebei were added, they were divided into various troops. Still less than a tenth of the original number of these warriors. But now he was at ease. He believed that his warriors would not take any opponent seriously after this great war.

  The 19th Army launched a charge on the entire front line this time, unlike the previous two times when they only attacked Zhujiariver and Xiaoshan. The previous attacks were also discovered by the 19th Army that Zhujiariver and the small mountain in the north of the village were the supporting points of the entire front line. As long as these two positions were taken down, the entire position would be shaken. Therefore, they launched a fierce attack on these two positions continuously. However, these two positions were also the most powerful firepower and terrain positions. The 1st Battalion's machine gun company was located on the small mountain, and the 12 Madsen guns were not vegetarian. Although half of its firepower had to suppress the attacking Guilin army's machine gun fire and support the lower position, the remaining six heavy machine guns concentrated sweeping fire was not something that hundreds of people in the assault team could withstand. Therefore, although the two positions were heavily guarded by the Guilin army, they were only shocked but not dangerous.

  According to the latest casualty data, on Xiaoshan Mountain, a company of machine guns and an assisting company of machine guns defending the position of the 1st Battalion's 2nd Company's two platoons suffered more than 40 casualties. A heavy machine gun was damaged by a shell from the 19th Army.

  The first company of the defensive line in front of Zhujiawan Village only lost about 30 people. However, the second battalion's position was vulnerable and was once breached by the enemy, leading to intense hand-to-hand combat and heavy casualties. The five companies of the second battalion had nearly 400 casualties. Fortunately, the regimental artillery battalion provided supporting fire from two mountain gun companies, otherwise they might have been overrun.

  Sun Li turned around and ordered the chief of staff: "Order the second battalion. Send all the reserve troops up. The two mountain artillery battalions will mainly support the second battalion's position." The chief of staff hesitated for a moment, then said: "Battalion commander... These reserve troops..."

  Sun Li understood the chief of staff's meaning and waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, leaving a reserve team is common sense in war, but special situations require special treatment. The second battalion suffered heavy casualties, and our soldiers have little combat experience. Once the position is breached, it may cause chaos throughout the line, or even lead to a collapse of the position. Therefore, we need to bring up the reserve team of the second battalion to reinforce the front line. Moreover, our regiment's reserve team is still here. The troops led by Commander Gao of the Second Division will arrive within an hour at the latest, so it's no longer necessary to leave a reserve team." The chief of staff nodded and went to make a phone call to issue the order.

  At this time, a staff officer from the division led a lieutenant general wearing a yellowish-brown uniform of the Guangxi clique to the command center. Not only did Staff Officer Sun Li recognize him, but so did the Guangxi officer, who was the head of the guide team sent by Yang Tenghui, Yang's chief of staff Wang Zhi. Since they were now friendly forces, Sun Li first saluted Wang Zhi, and after exchanging a few pleasantries, he turned to the division's staff officer.

  Chief of Staff Xiao's report: "Chief of Staff Xiao and General Zhang instructed me to inform Commander Sun that the 19th Army opposite us is in a desperate situation, not only must we use military force to block them, but also divide and disintegrate them. Therefore, let Chief of Staff Wang come over to persuade them to surrender. As for how to handle it, Chief of Staff Xiao specifically instructed that everything will be decided by Commander Sun." He said this as he handed over an order.

  The order was jointly signed by Xiao Guodong and Zhang Yafei. After reading it, Sun Li looked at Wang Zhi, who had a pale face, and said with a smile: "Director Wang, this is a lot of trouble for you." Wang Zhi smiled bitterly and said: "Where, where. Brother, I'm just doing my best, and I hope Commander Sun will give me more support." In fact, Wang Zhi was absolutely unwilling to go and persuade them to surrender. Originally, the people from Guangxi were not on good terms with the Hubei people in Hu Zongnan's 19th Army. This time, Yang Tenghui first sent a telegram to surrender to Chiang Kai-shek, followed by Li Mingrui sending another telegram to betray Guangxi. The Hubei people from the 19th Army would not be able to swallow this!

  Sun Lien understood Wang Zhi's mood, thought for a moment and said: "Alright, I'll write a letter to Hu Zongnan right away." After finishing writing the letter, he handed it over to Wang Zhi and said sternly: "Wang Chief of Staff, you give this letter to Hu Zongnan. If anything happens to you, I will kill all the officers above your rank in the 19th Army, and absolutely not accept their surrender or retirement." Wang Zhi took the letter with gratitude and was about to say something when the division chief of staff who came with him said somewhat nervously: "Sun Commander, these were not included in the orders I transmitted."

  Sun Li glared: "Your task is complete, you can go back." The staff officer avoided Sun Li's gaze and replied in a low voice: "Yes." He turned around and left.

  King said somewhat discontentedly: "Director Sun, you can't do this, it's not good!" Sun Li looked at King and said: "General King, do you think I'm just talking? Like this, I'll have my chief of staff accompany you, but the request has changed. If they move a single hair on your body, I won't leave a single battalion commander." Sun Li's chief of staff understood what he meant - to try and stall for some time, as Gao Zongbao's troops would arrive soon. He patted King's shoulder and said: "General King, let's go meet with Hu Zongduo."

  Monthly pass!