017 Blitzkrieg and Scythe Mech Armor

  Sitting in the conference room, a staff officer briefed the situation: "The 313th Division of the Vietnamese army is roughly equivalent to one battalion on our attack target. One company is stationed on the 167 high ground, and one company is stationed on the east side of the 166 and 168 positions. There is also one company on the 156 and 167 positions, and the regimental command post should be located on the 164 position. This area is not easy to attack, with many stone caves, tunnels, and trenches. The Vietnamese army's firepower points are also well set up, and once we charge over, we will face multiple layers of intersecting firepower. There are also infantry mines laid out near the positions, making it even more difficult to charge over."

  Another staff officer took over the conversation and continued: "We plan to adopt a night raid approach, quietly infiltrating the Vietnamese army's position, dividing and surrounding them, blocking the Vietnamese in the cave and pulling them out one by one. Therefore, we have already carried out a large amount of work in the early stage, setting up observation posts at several advantageous locations, artillery repeatedly observing, and our engineers have also cleared more than 1,000 anti-personnel landmines in this area. To ensure concealment, we inquired with the meteorological department and chose to launch the attack on the morning of March 8."

  Actually, such meticulous arrangements, even the preliminary work has been basically done, it means that this combat operation is about to start, and here to tell Qi Yiming later, also counts as a show of respect for him.

  This battle plan was quite satisfactory to Zhuo Fengyou, who thought there were no problems. He asked Qi Yiming: "Comrade Qi, what do you think of this arrangement?"

  "This question is actually a courtesy, but Qi Yi Ming has other thoughts in mind, so he said: "Oh, I think it's okay, just that I have some immature opinions, everyone can refer to them."

  As soon as he spoke, the faces of the people in the conference room turned ugly. You were actually called here to observe, how could you really have a say? However, Qi Yiming seemed oblivious and said directly: "The situation in the Narada area is very complicated, using infantry to attack may be more laborious, and some unnecessary sacrifices will be made. Using artillery fire to cover or suppress the enemy's position won't be effective either. In that case, it's better to launch an air raid directly."

  Chief of Staff Wu Quanxu's face turned black and he said, "Air raid? But our instructions are that if the enemy doesn't move, we won't move. This will escalate the intensity and scale of the war. Moreover, where can we find strong attack aircraft that can attack on the ground? Do you plan to let those few helicopters carry out air raids?"

  Fuquan's friend coughed slightly and said, "Comrade Qi this time brought an air force unit over as well, stationed at Luliang Airport. They're equipped with our latest generation of fighter-bombers, which are two generations ahead of the Vietnamese fighters. It's said they can carry more bombs than our regular bombers."

  With a smile, he said: "The most important thing is that these fighter jets are all equipped with precise strike capabilities. I have stockpiled over 200 tons of precision-guided aerial bombs in Luliang, mainly laser-guided ones. The accuracy of these guided bombs is extremely high. Those annoying caves and firepower points can be completely eliminated without worrying about our soldiers' casualties."

  Political Commissar Shi Yuxiao, after all, was engaged in political and ideological work, and wasn't too familiar with weapons. He hesitated for a moment: "Can it be dropped from the sky and directly hit the Vietnamese people's caves? This is too absurd, if we had this skill, we wouldn't have been able to hold up on the Ganling Mountains back then."

  "So, as I said, the combat model of thirty years ago is no longer applicable today. Whether it's our army or navy and air force, we all face the problem of transforming into high-tech warfare. We need to start embracing new thinking and new tactics in order to better defend our country."

  If someone else had said this, perhaps everyone would have humbly accepted it. But since it was Qi Yimeng, a young whippersnapper, who said it, no one took him seriously. Shi Yuxiao's face turned stern as he said, "No matter how advanced things become, wars are still fought by people. We may not be very capable, but after shouldering guns for decades, we still have the right to speak."

  Several advisors and officers also disagreed with Qi Yimeng's idea, whispering to each other in discussion, and even ridiculing Qi Yimeng's fanciful thinking.

  "Throwing bombs into people's caves, thinking all planes are basketball stars? How ridiculous!"

  "This viewpoint of relying solely on weapons is a huge betrayal of our revolutionary spirit, it's being afraid to die and lacking courage. In land warfare, what can the air force do? In these vast mountains, there are dense forests everywhere, if the enemy hides well, pilots won't even be able to see them, saying that they'll drop bombs on their heads is just a bluff."

  "The US military is not the same, claiming to be the most advanced in the world, but was still defeated by the Vietnamese people, with tens of thousands of deaths, and ultimately withdrew and let North Vietnam destroy South Vietnam. In my opinion, when fighting against the Vietnamese people, it's a matter of who is more fearless and has a stronger spirit of sacrifice!"

  ……

  Listening to the buzzing sound of self-attack in the conference room, Qi Yi also got a bit angry and his face turned red for a moment, but he still didn't get angry, just sitting there, staring at the military chief Fu Quanyou who made the decision with a pair of eyes.

  Fu Quanyou fell silent for a moment, pressed his hand to stop the discussion, and asked Qi Yiming: "Comrade Qi, does your Air Force's 51st Division have the capability of nighttime combat? Can you achieve precise strikes even in nighttime aerial battles?"

  "Absolutely no problem," said Qi Yirong, patting his chest. "For my air force troops, it makes no difference whether we fight at night or in the daytime."

  Fuquan's friend asked again: "Can your air force troops absolutely suppress the enemy in the Nala area with firepower, and is it more effective than artillery fire?"

  "It's much better than artillery shelling, let alone precise strikes."

  Fuquan's friend nodded and said, "Since you have confidence, we can also give it a try. Comrades, since Qi is so willing to let us experience the new war mode, we'll give him this opportunity, haha, you're all wearing the new military uniforms sent by others, our infantry will follow behind, and act according to the situation. If the bombing effect is good, we'll go up, if not, we can choose another opportunity."

  "But there's a moon in the first half of the night and no moon in the second half only on March 8th."

  "Then I'll lead the seventh unit to attack during the day, stir up the Viet Minh and make them anxious and exhausted. Even if we don't succeed, you can take advantage of their exhaustion to launch a surprise attack at night."

  Fu Quan's friend patted his hand and said: "It's settled then. Comrade Qi, do you have any other requests?"

  "Uh, for the air force's precision strike capability, I need to dispatch some special forces into that area. If necessary, manual guidance will be performed. Our reconnaissance battalion is also familiar with the surrounding areas. If possible, bring our commandos along. In addition, this afternoon, we will send ten mountainous jungle armored infantry fighting vehicles to the front line, which can serve as a firepower output point in mountain warfare and cover our soldiers during combat."

  Chief of Staff Wu Quanxu shook his head and said, "It's not going to work. The vehicle can't make it up here. Our old mountain is quite steep, one misstep and you'll fall off, let alone an armored vehicle like that, just climbing the slope is exhausting."

  Qī Yī Míng suddenly revealed a strange smile and said, "I said this is the carrier of armored troops, but I didn't say that this thing is an armored car."

  Fuquan's friend came with great enthusiasm, and these days Qi Yiming always shocked everyone's nerves with new things one by one. He couldn't help but ask: "Is it something that can climb slopes or is it used by armored soldiers? What exactly is it, Comrade Qi, don't be mysterious."

  "Alright, I'll let you in on a secret. This afternoon, you'll see that due to our limited air transport capacity, I've only managed to bring over ten units. However, in battles at the company or battalion level, these ten units are enough to turn the tide. Heh heh, this thing really can only be used in mountainous terrain. On flat plains, it's no match for tanks or even 25mm armored vehicles. But in the mountains, there aren't any armored vehicles, and there are fewer rocket launchers and direct-fire artillery pieces, so this thing becomes quite useful!"

  A group of people were all confused and didn't know what Qiyin said was, until that afternoon, when several large flatbed trucks arrived from Luliang, revealing the answer.

  "My goodness gracious, what are these things?!" The arrival of the new equipment caused a crowd of soldiers to gather around, and even the officers looked on with incredulous eyes at the steel monsters being unloaded from the large flatbed trucks.

  These iron monsters were painted with a light black and blue digital camouflage, the upper half of which resembled a rounded turret of a Type 59 tank, but smaller. There was no cannon barrel in front, but a 12.7mm heavy machine gun. On either side of this "turret" there was also a heavy machine gun, for a total of three heavy machine guns. In addition, on the top left and right sides of the turret were mounted two 57mm rocket pods with seven tubes each. What's more surprising is that this thing doesn't move on tracks or wheels, but instead has four hydraulic articulated legs installed.

  Fuquan's friend was shocked and pulled Qi Yiming, asking: "Comrade Qi, quickly tell me what this thing is!"

  "ZBZ-85 type leg-style armored infantry carrier, nicknamed sickle machine armor. This is a new weapon we've developed specifically for anti-infantry use in complex terrain. The main armament consists of three 12.7mm heavy machine guns and two sets of 14 simple guided rockets. The turret uses the same inertial add-on armor as our main battle tanks, which can withstand at least 40mm caliber fire. Its biggest feature is its high agility, able to traverse multiple types of terrain with ease, including hills and water, making it especially suitable for jungle mountain warfare."

  Fuquan's eyes lit up, he understood that in mountain warfare, infantry had such a terrible thing to cover up, and how much impact it could have. The enemy couldn't find any way to face this killing machine for a while, and its three machine guns would sweep away the enemy with one burst of fire, equivalent to a mobile firepower stronghold.

  Watching several drivers get into this four-legged spider-like thing and perform various actions with great agility, Fu Quanyou's confidence increased greatly, saying: "Haha, even if we didn't have your air raid at this time, I think relying on this thing, we can drive the Vietnamese out of their caves."