afterglow

Chapter 22 Race with the enemy

The brutal battle continued until the sun set that day. Due to the wave after wave of attacks by the British and Indian troops, the third battalion of the 38th regiment was unable to organize a retreat at all.

Unless the strong men broke their wrists and left a platoon to cover the main force to evacuate, but Guo Anbang did not agree, he was determined to hold on until night and then retreat in the dark.

"Report, the radio station has been repaired, but...the transmitter seems to be abnormal, and now it can only receive but not send."

"Where are the friendly troops who came to help? Where are they left?"

The radio station of the third battalion was damaged due to air strikes, and the spare radio station was also out of order due to shelling. After it was repaired, everyone learned that the reinforcements were on the way, but...

This support soldier seems unreliable?

There are two routes from Lingzhi to here. The safest one is to detour to the east, which is impossible to get there in four or five days; the other is to go south and directly climb over the rolling hills.

Looking at the gradually sinking sunset, Guo Anbang, whose face was full of fireworks, complained: "A battalion of the third brigade of the imperial army? How do they want to come? Just go over the mountains? Grandma, those uncles can walk if they get out of the car. It’s over, still going on the mountain road? Don’t count on them.”

after an hour.

Now, the "Wilson" task force is 11㎞ east of Gohpur and 106㎞ from Demaji, in a bivouac state.

After arriving in Funan County, the first battalion did not stop at all. Various types of vehicles were left in place and handed over to the local defenders for safekeeping, and then immediately switched to marching on foot.

The soldiers of the frontier defense unit watched in dumbfoundedness as the team of nearly a thousand people plunged into the hills and then disappeared into the vast night.

Zhou Changfeng was sure that no one would have expected them to dare to march in the mountains at night. In order to speed up the march, he even ignored the two wings, and only sent a platoon one mile forward as the lead.

In the hazy moonlight, the whole team galloped on the rugged mountain road in a running state, and some people kept falling down, and then staggered up.

Every once in a while, a few flares will be launched into the air. This is because the troops are identifying the marching route, and by the way, it is convenient for everyone to see their feet clearly.

Compared with ordinary infantry, the heavy machine gun team and the mortar team are more difficult. The tripod and the gun body weigh 80 kilograms, while the [-]mm mortar gun body, base plate, and gun mount each have four weights. Ten catties, carrying all kinds of parts and ammunition, they took heavy steps, panting like cows.

Except for a half-hour break at midnight and ugly hour, this rush continued until dawn of the next day, and everyone was exhausted.

"Three hours of rest!" Zhou Changfeng looked back and said with a tired face, "No guard post!"

After the order was issued, there was a series of clattering sounds, and the soldiers didn't even bother to get the blankets, and fell asleep directly.

"Call to wake up! Eat and drink before going to sleep! You must cover yourself with a blanket!"

The soldiers who woke up after being kicked and shouted wolfed down a few biscuits and chocolates, gulped down a couple of sips of water, then took out blankets to wrap themselves, and fell asleep again.

The soldiers can rest now, but the officers can't. Zhou Changfeng looked at the map carefully and began to determine the future march plan, that is, the rest time, rest place, etc.

In the past, I thought that three hours was not a short time, but when they were woken up later, everyone felt as if they had just closed their eyes and slept for a quarter of an hour.

Nearly a thousand soldiers continued to march in the beautiful Himalayas, with mountains and peaks, but no one had time to appreciate the scenery. Only a second lieutenant of the military doctor took out a camera and took a few photos hastily.

At this time, the "Wilson" task force was 25㎞ east of Gokhpur, 91㎞ from Demaji, and was in a marching state.

A lieutenant walked up to Wilson and saluted: "Your Excellency, aerial reconnaissance shows that the Chinese are building fortifications on a hill about five miles away, and they want to delay our actions."

The latter nodded and said: "The sixth division in the south reported that two divisions of the Chinese army are trying to retreat northward, and we must get ahead of them. So, tell Lieutenant Colonel Sanderson to launch an attack immediately."

In order to delay the actions of the British and Indian troops, the 38rd Battalion of the [-]th Regiment did everything they could, laying mines, arranging booby traps, digging roads and other tricks.

Now that they have lost more than half of their losses and are running out of ammunition, they dare not block them head-on. They can only try to harass them and move immediately.

After repeating this several times, the British and Indian troops realized that these surviving Ming troops were not to be feared, so they ignored their harassment and continued to move forward swaggeringly.

At dusk, Battalion Commander Guo Anbang saw that the situation was not good, so he had to organize another blocking attack. The British and Indian troops immediately launched an attack led by tanks and supported by artillery fire and air strikes.

After this battle, the third battalion exhausted all the ammunition for its shells and supporting weapons, so it had to leave quickly and retreat eastward under the setting sun.

By noon the next day, this British-Indian army had arrived in a small town called Rakimpur.

The "Wilson" task force is in Lakhimpur, 49㎞ from Demaji, and is in a bivouac state.

Due to the exhaustion of heavy weapons and ammunition, another blockade tomorrow would be tantamount to death, but the military order was like a mountain, so Guo Anbang led the remaining 300 people to dig the soil all night long, digging up more than [-] sections of a two-mile-long road, and at the same time arranged the few remaining landmines.

After doing all this, the third battalion withdrew directly to Demagi regardless.

Guo Anbang thought he had done everything he could, if the reinforcements still couldn't arrive, then...

But now the first battalion is still desperately continuing to march, and the long team travels between the mountains and hills, crossing forests and streams.

The extremely sleepy soldiers staggered even when they walked, and some of them dozed off while walking, and then fell to the ground to wake up.

Zhou Changfeng no longer dared to let the soldiers eat during the break, and could only eat while walking, because as soon as they stopped, everyone would fall asleep within ten seconds.

Some people kept falling behind, and the two-day and two-night forced march made the entire unit's organizational structure no longer exist, and some platoons had only a dozen people left.Zhou Changfeng left behind two squads and several gendarmes, and arranged two shelters along the way to organize the soldiers who fell behind.

In fact, the conditions of the Ming army were quite good in Zhou Changfeng's opinion-the soldiers wore suede boots instead of simple cloth shoes, and they could eat chocolate to quickly replenish their strength.

Only by stopping the enemy army advancing eastward can the friendly army retreat safely!Otherwise, the teacher will be lost and the country will be humiliated.

To prove to others that the Imperial Army is not the watchdog of the capital!It's definitely not a show.

This is the only obsession of the officers and soldiers now.

After each break, some people remained motionless on the ground, only to find out that they were not breathing after checking their noses.

At eight o'clock in the evening on the 28th, the faint moonlight cast by the waning moon made the visibility extremely low, but now the whole team was very close to the target location, so the flares could not be fired.

The soldiers advancing in the dark didn't even turn on their flashlights. As they walked, two soldiers in the leading row suddenly stepped on the ground and rolled down the hillside.

Everyone took a closer look, only to find that the front suddenly opened up.

"Report! We're out of the mountains! There's a plain ahead!"

(End of this chapter)