Chapter Twenty-Two

  The commander of the 7th Infantry Brigade, Davir, returned to his office and flew into a rage, slamming everything on his desk to the floor. After he finished, he sat in his chair, cursing loudly: "Shameless! Loser! You're a loser in the army! Caul, you son of a bitch!" After ranting for a while, Davir leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes to rest. His deputy heard that the shouting had stopped in the office and carefully pushed open the door to come in, saying: "Sir, are we going to deploy according to the new troop deployment plan?"

  Davril listened with a bad temper and said, "What do you think? Can't execute it? Do you want me to be punished again? Such a simple question still comes to ask me?" The deputy officer listened and said with grievance: "Commander, I didn't dare to give orders without your command. Your subordinates, the battalion commanders, wouldn't listen to me either!" Davril immediately shouted angrily: "Shut up! You idiot! Go and issue the order now, get out!" The deputy officer was frightened and quickly escaped. After seeing the deputy officer leave, it took a long time for Davril's anger to subside, and he said in his mouth: "After this battle is over, I will request to be transferred away from here. If not, I'll retire ahead of schedule. I'm fed up with this!"

  Two days later, on October 13th, I received a telegram from the Eastern Command, ordering me to seize the opportunity to actively seek out and annihilate the enemy's Seventh Brigade in the Kechenglang area. At the same time, it reminded me that the enemy's Thirty-Third Brigade was also stationed nearby, and to pay attention to its military movements to prevent it from suddenly joining the battle and creating an unfavorable situation. Finally, after finishing the battle in Kechenglang, I was ordered to independently seek out the next military target and continue to expand our victory.

  I found this last order strange because the wording was very vague. "Seek out the next military target, continue to expand our victory." I muttered to myself as I walked back and forth with my hands behind my back. Is it asking me to eliminate the Thirty-Third Brigade? The Fourth Division? Or the Fourth Army? I thought about this and couldn't help but smile wryly. According to my Winter Thunder plan, the ultimate goal was to sweep across eastern Xizang, making it completely devoid of any political or military power. But with just five regiments and 12,000 men under my command, eliminating even the Fourth Division would be a bit difficult, let alone the Fourth Army! The higher-ups wouldn't really expect me to do that with just these five regiments, would they? Never mind, I'll just focus on annihilating the enemy's Seventh Brigade for now.

  I sighed and ordered the convening of a military conference at the front line, commanding the regimental commanders and chief of staffs to attend and discuss our military plans.

  At 6 o'clock in the evening, the military meeting was held smoothly. At the meeting, I told everyone about the order given by Dong and asked for their opinions. Deputy Commander Cheng lowered his head to think, and Staff Officer Lan did the same. After a moment of silence, only the commander of the 515th Regiment, Zhou Daming, spoke loudly: "My idea is to fight, first defeat the enemy's 7th Brigade and then talk."

  The commander of the 516 Regiment, Hao Peng, who was beside him, asked: "What if the enemy's 33rd Brigade comes to reinforce when we attack the 7th Brigade?"

  Zhou Daming, the team leader, said nonchalantly: "What can we do? One comes and one eats."

  Hao Peng said: "Isn't that enough to choke you to death?!"

  At this time, the deputy commander of the 53rd Regiment, Pan, said: "I think our 53rd Regiment and the 518th and 519th Regiments should first annihilate the three main battalions of the enemy's 7th Brigade in front of us. Let the 515th and 516th Regiments follow up as mobile forces. If the enemy's 33rd Brigade comes to reinforce, let the 515th and 516th Regiments go out to meet them and fight. The strength of both sides is about the same, but the enemy's military training and equipment are far inferior to ours. It's no problem to block and defeat the enemy."

  Director Zhou Daming listened and said loudly beside him: "Our 515th, 516th regiments haven't even started yet, the soldiers are all itching to fight, nothing to say, if the enemy's 33rd brigade dares to come, then it won't be leaving, just in time for us to have a good fight!" Everyone heard and burst out laughing.

  After laughing for a while, General Lan spoke up: "If the enemy's 7th Brigade remains in the Kejie Lang area with its current troop deployment and does not move, we have the complete ability to eliminate them. However, if the enemy's 33rd Brigade comes to reinforce, it is possible for the 515th and 516th Regiments to defeat it, but merely defeating it will not be enough; we must completely annihilate it. But annihilating it with just the 515th and 516th Regiments seems a bit difficult to me. This requires the 518th, 519th, and 53rd Regiments to quickly eliminate the enemy's 33rd Brigade after joining the battle to eliminate the enemy's 7th Brigade, so that we can confidently annihilate it."

  The deputy commander-in-chief listened and said: "Deputy Chief of Staff Lan is absolutely right! I completely agree. In that case, the 518th, 519th, and 53rd regiments will have to work harder!"

  At this time, Sun Hao stood up and said: "I want to say that if we only eliminate the enemy's 7th and 33rd brigades, our current ammunition reserves are sufficient. However, if we need to continue fighting in a short period of time, it will be very tight. This does not include the daily rations for our soldiers. Currently, our logistics can still supply us here, but if we go to the other side of the mountain, the situation will be completely different. Our logistics supply line will be extended, and we will have to rely on human power to transport supplies down the mountain and then to the participating troops. This is a huge challenge in terms of time and quantity. I just calculated that if our army successfully captures the enemy's 7th and 33rd brigades, my participating troops will need to rest and wait for replenishment at their current location. The time required is 10 days, which is the shortest time we can achieve under our current conditions."

  Everyone was silent for a moment after hearing this, and I saw a faint smile. "Don't think too much, everyone," I said. "If we eliminate the enemy's 7th Brigade while also eliminating their 33rd Brigade if it comes to reinforce, then we will have cleared out a large area behind the enemy lines. Our army can then launch an attack on the remaining forces of the enemy's 4th Division. At that time, we can safely sweep the battlefield and wait for reinforcements. The enemy won't dare come looking for trouble; they'll concentrate their forces to strengthen their defenses and prevent our army from pursuing a victory, preventing a situation where they collapse in disarray."

  Everyone listened and whispered to each other, nodding their heads. I saw this and continued: "I think our most important task at present is to take down the enemy's 7th Brigade, regardless of whether the 33rd Brigade comes to reinforce or not, we must quickly eliminate this 7th Brigade. To achieve this goal, I propose that the 518, 519, and 53 regiments expand their reconnaissance scope, clarify the latest deployment of enemy forces, personnel situation, and firepower configuration in each position. What do you think?"

  Everyone nodded in agreement, and I immediately ordered: "I order the 518th, 519th, and 53rd regiments to immediately strengthen their reconnaissance units. You have a deadline of three days, that is, by 8 pm on the 17th. Does everyone understand?"

  "I understand."

  "Disperse the meeting"

  After the meeting, I specifically talked to Sun Hao again and asked him about the logistics situation of the troops in detail. I listened with a frown, thinking: even if we occupy the eastern part of Xizang, logistics will still be a big problem. If logistics are not solved, the occupied areas will also be lost, and the battle will be lost. I didn't realize that my concept had changed, it was no longer just self-defense and counterattack, but full of naked aggressive desires. Of course, I didn't think about whether the central government would agree if I really went to occupy the eastern part of Xizang, because this nature is no longer self-defense, but aggression.