Chapter 36: The Chief of Staff's Shock

  Seeing the surprised face of the Chief of Staff finally reacted, Liu Hua told the plan to annihilate two enemy regiments and then take down Taoyuan to General Guan Xiangying, who nodded repeatedly after hearing it.

  "Chief of Staff, do you know if there's a suitable place for an ambush from Taoyuan to Yujia Ping? I just sent out scouts and haven't received any feedback yet?" Thinking that the Chief of Staff has been here all along, he should be familiar with the terrain.

  "Commander, 20 li away from Taoyuan, there is a place called Taizi Creek. On one side of the highway, there is a small stream about 20 meters wide, and on the other side is a mountain slope. That section of road is at least 5 li long, which should be enough to accommodate two enemy regiments." The chief of staff said after some thought.

  "Alright, signalman, call over the three battalion commanders and several directly affiliated regimental commanders. Let's go take a look at the terrain together. The troops will continue to conceal themselves." Liu Hua gave his orders with certainty. After all, this time they were going to annihilate more than 10,000 enemies, so he had to be careful.

  After introducing the newly arrived Guan Xiangying to his three team leaders, everyone was very happy. After all, Guan Xiangying was still a well-known figure in the Red Army ranks. After some pleasantries, the group of dozens of people, under the escort of guards, rode fast horses and arrived at Taizi Creek in over half an hour.

  Seeing the terrain in front of him, several team leaders behind him shouted "Commander, such a good place, we can't not use it. With my one team, I will definitely annihilate one division of the 15th Division."

  "What makes you think it's your turn? Can't our second battalion annihilate an entire enemy brigade? Commander, give this task to us, the second battalion!" said Gao Yuan, the commander of the second battalion, discontentedly after hearing Sun Xingbang, the commander of the first battalion.

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  Several team leaders immediately started arguing, Liu Hua didn't bother with them and led the guards to continue walking forward along the mountain slope.

  But Guan Xiang, the chief of staff, no longer thought so after hearing their quarrel. A whole regiment was annihilated by a single brigade of the Central Army. In the past, he himself didn't dare to say such big words even with an army corps, now a regiment commander can say such words lightly, it seems that the strength of the Independent Division is not to be underestimated! After this battle, I must take a good look at it myself.

  Seeing that the superiors did not reprimand them, several regimental commanders stopped talking and could only follow Liu Hua silently. Liu Hua seriously observed the terrain, occasionally asking the guards on the side for a few hand grenades to throw down from the slope. Several regimental commanders saw the division commander being so serious and also became serious, immediately dispersing to check the terrain, while Chen Guangrong and Zhu Ping kept gesturing with their fingers. Seeing that the superiors could seriously inspect the terrain, Liu Hua smiled slightly.

  An hour had passed, and by the time everyone rode back to their units on horseback, it was already noon. Liu Hua immediately ordered his troops to have lunch and rest for two hours before rushing to the battlefield to construct fortifications. After giving the order, he took the chief of staff to his temporary command post to analyze the enemy situation. The two men divided tasks clearly: Liu Hua led three infantry regiments to build fortifications and was responsible for inspecting the troops' fortifications and camouflage. Chief of Staff Guan Xiangru led all heavy firepower to unify the construction of fortifications and positions. This arrangement was also intended to let the chief of staff more clearly understand the independent division's firepower configuration and combat methods.

  Two hours passed, and the troops began to set out towards Peach Creek. At this time, the heavy firepower of each regiment gathered at the artillery camp and the heavy machine gun camp. The chief of staff also arrived here, seeing the mortars and heavy machine guns in front of him, his eyes widened. As Liu Hua had informed Chen Guangrong in advance, he began to introduce the fire power configuration of his independent division to the chief of staff along the way.

  "Colonel Chen, the entire Independent Regiment has six artillery companies?" The chief of staff asked incredulously. To think that the entire 26th Army Corps only had one artillery company, and ammunition was also extremely scarce.

  "Heh heh, Chief of Staff, it's not six, there are eight in total. Two were transferred to the Political Commissar by the Division Commander."

  "My goodness, so many, will your ammunition be enough?" The Chief of Staff asked again.

  "Chief of Staff, the shells we brought with us average 20 rounds per gun, as for the logistics department's storage, I'm not sure, it should be around one or two hundred rounds per gun, these will have to wait until the leader returns to know."

  Shocking, absolutely shocking! When did our Red Army have so much ammunition?!

  "Commander Chen, where did you capture so many from?"

  "Heh heh, Chief of Staff, we have to thank the snipers for this. Every time we ambush them, they take out all the artillery first, so almost every time the enemy brings cannonballs, we capture them all. And at Anren, we even captured an entire division's worth of logistics and ammunition from the Central Army."

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  All the way, Guan Xiang was completely shocked by Chen Guangrong and Zhu Ping's words. It seems that he had come to the independent regiment at the right time. The chief of staff thought of this sentence for the second time.

  In this way, the situation of the independent division was understood all the way. Soon, the troops arrived at Peach Creek, rested for half an hour, and after dispatching all sentries and scouts, all troops began to construct fortifications in a hot and busy manner. The infantry was busy digging trenches, while the artillery and heavy machine gun battalion were busy selecting positions and measuring firing data. When I saw that the commander of the artillery battalion had turned all the positions into squares, and one artillery company was responsible for several squares, I immediately raised doubts.

  "Chief of Staff, this is the method taught by our division commander. This way, we can avoid leaving blind spots in our firepower, and during battle, we can quickly make firing decisions based on data from each grid, giving the enemy no time to react." Seeing the Chief of Staff's puzzled expression, Chen Guangrong smiled and provided an explanation.

  Having heard this, Guan Xiang responded with even more admiration for his superior, truly worthy of being a Red Army hero.

  After several hours of hard work, all the positions were fully constructed, and after posting sentries, they finished dinner, and all the soldiers lay down in the trenches to rest, preparing to replenish their strength for tomorrow's battle. Meanwhile, the regimental commanders sat in the temporarily set up command post to hold the last meeting before the war.

  "Now distribute combat missions, and the order of ambush is clear to everyone. However, based on tomorrow's enemy situation, there will be an orderly opening fire. If the enemy vanguard has only one division, then only one regiment, the guard battalion, and two battalions of the third regiment can open fire. All heavy firepower can open fire, and it must be ensured that the vanguard division is annihilated in the shortest time possible.

  After annihilation, regardless of whether the second regiment engages with the second enemy division or not, the first regiment must immediately rush to the pre-constructed fortifications and join forces with the second regiment to participate in the battle to annihilate the enemy's second division. The two battalions of the third regiment will rush to a location five miles from Peach Creek at the fastest speed to block the possible follow-up troops of the enemy.

  The guard battalion will stay behind to sweep the battlefield, guard prisoners, and participate in both battles with the sniper company. It is imperative that the enemy is not allowed to set up artillery and heavy machine guns."

  "Chief of Staff, you command the ambush of the enemy's vanguard brigade. After the ambush is completed, bring the guard battalion to sweep the battlefield. I will command the ambush of the enemy's second brigade. Also, send a message to the political commissar now and have them quietly surround Taoyuan tonight. When the three brigades of the enemy army all leave the county town, listen for my order to launch an artillery attack and make a feint at the county town. If the enemy's rear guard brigade retreats, resolutely block it."

  "Yes, sir." Watching all the cadres walk out, Liu Hu felt a sense of relief and finally could rest for a while, closing his eyes and entering dreamland.

  Liu Hua quietly lay on the ground, now almost ten o'clock. The reconnaissance battalion reported that the enemy army was indeed the same old routine, with each brigade spaced 10 miles apart. Soon, they saw the enemy vanguard brigade walking into their own ambush circle. Although the enemy had conducted reconnaissance, those scouts were unknowingly replaced by comrades from the independent division's reconnaissance battalion as they approached the ambush circle, continuously reporting everything to be safe to "their own brigade commander". Just as the enemy vanguard brigade passed through the 2nd battalion's position in less than 15 minutes, a fierce burst of gunfire and artillery sounded.

  The chief of staff of the vanguard brigade saw the enemy army swaggering into the ambush circle set up by the division commander and couldn't help but shake his head, wondering why even reconnaissance troops hadn't been sent out. However, this was a misunderstanding on the part of the chief of staff - it wasn't that the enemy brigade commander was foolish, but rather that the independent regiment's reconnaissance battalion was too formidable, silently taking care of the two reconnaissance companies of the enemy army. By this time, the vanguard brigade had already entered the ambush circle.

  As the sniper team's nearly hundred rifles fired simultaneously, almost all the battalion-level and above commanders of the vanguard brigade fell to the ground. Before the enemy could react, heavy machine guns and mortars opened fire recklessly. After firing a round of bullets, the riflemen threw out a grenade, and the enemy soldiers who had just dodged the first round of shooting by lying on the ground jumped up in groups, trying to dodge the explosion of the grenades. However, as they stood up for an instant, bullets had already entered their bodies, falling into the pool of blood with a hint of unwillingness.

  Looking at the dense firepower in front of him, looking at the enemy army falling down one after another, and then looking at his own soldiers, the chief of staff was stunned. No wonder the independent division could win so many victories, especially when the first round of gunfire rang out, seeing almost all the officers of the vanguard brigade fall down, Guan Xiang couldn't help but break a cold sweat. He knew that an unorganized army was just a flock of sheep waiting to be slaughtered. Just as the chief of staff continued to indulge in his fantasy, Sun Xingbang, the regimental commander next to him, pulled him over.

  "Chief of Staff, we can charge now."

  The chief of staff quickly reacted, ordering the charge to sound, looking at the soldiers rushing down, the prisoners kneeling on the ground with their hands up in surrender, and the corpses all over the ground. The chief of staff looked at his watch, it had been less than 15 minutes, more than 5,000 enemy troops from a division of three regiments were gone just like that, he felt as if he was dreaming.

  The warriors of the first and third troops looked at the weapons and ammunition on the ground, but didn't take a second glance. Instead, under the leadership of their commanders, they quickly reorganized their formation and rushed to their next ambush site, leaving behind the guard battalion to round up prisoners and tally the spoils of war. Soon, Li Xiaolong handed over the tallied results to the chief of staff.

  Looking at the numbers above, the Chief of Staff's hands began to tremble with shock.

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