Alien Arms Empire

Chapter 534 534 The loss has reached one-third

In a small village full of prisoners, next to the No. 4 tank full of bullet marks, Liu Guozhu received his third-class Hussars Medal of the Tang Dynasty.

This thing is an exclusive medal for tank soldiers. It was designed and established by His Majesty Tang Mo, the King of the Tang Dynasty.

 Being able to receive such a medal on the first day of the war, Liu Guozhu can be said to stand out among many armored commanders.

He stood at attention and saluted, and then gave a warm hug to the infantry platoon leader who also received the Third Class White Blade Medal. Their hard battle in the afternoon was not in vain. After the regiment headquarters arrived here and handed over the prisoners, they immediately received it. Medal awarded by the division headquarters.

 In order to commend these frontline soldiers who fought bravely, the division headquarters deliberately sent a car to take the division chief of staff here and personally awarded medals to the two men.

 For higher-level medals, such as second-level medals, they must be reported to higher-level military headquarters or frontline headquarters for approval, and the process is much slower.

"Thank you for your heroic fight for the Tang Dynasty! His Majesty will never forget your achievements!" The equally young chief of staff stood at attention and saluted, smiling and saying to the two heroes who had received the medals.

 "Long live the Tang Dynasty! Long live His Majesty the King!" Liu Guozhu sang loudly, feeling that the previous hard battle was all worth it.

 After this small investiture ceremony, Liu Guozhu could finally take a rest. It was getting late, and they had to wait for the supply of oil trucks, the subsequent arrival of ammunition trucks, and rest and food, so there was basically no need to continue the attack.

The reconnaissance troops have dispersed to investigate the nearby enemy situation. In addition to the regiment headquarters that arrived, there are also the headquarters of an infantry battalion and some engineers who are preparing to build a supply depot here.

 Everyone had a good meal, because the Qi State Military Department had indeed accumulated a lot of good things. There are military cans produced by Qi State, fresh vegetables, and even trophies such as beef and wine.

　　Everyone should take the time to rest, because fighting for a day is indeed very tiring. The snoring of soldiers could be heard in some corners, and soldiers sleeping crowded together could be seen inside and outside the collapsed houses.

Liu Guozhu walked to the corner of the village and saw the enemy artillery that he had killed that threatened the safety of his crew.

 This is a pirated 76mm caliber anti-aircraft gun, originally used to defend against airships. Its threat to aircraft is almost zero, but it is obviously useful for hitting tanks with level fire.

 The good news is that this thing does not have matching armor-piercing ammunition at all, so you can only make do with grenades. The bad news is that even with just grenades, this guy can threaten the Panzer 4.

Because Liu Guozhu had a practical experience in dealing with an "anti-tank gun", the staff of the regiment hoped that he would seize the time to write some experience summaries, and then pass on his experience to other crew members in the regiment as much as possible.

 So Liu Guozhu can stay at the regiment headquarters tonight, enjoy a separate room with lights, and can also ask the civilian non-commissioned officers of the regiment headquarters to help polish the manuscript.

I heard from others that all the civilian non-commissioned officers in the regiment are as beautiful as flowers, with **** and pert buttocks, but Liu Guozhu didn't think much of it - after all, he was still a young man, and he was still at an ignorant age.

Walking slowly on the village road where mortar craters can still be distinguished, Liu Guozhu even found the low wall that his tank had smashed into.

The blood stains on some bricks and tiles have not had time to be cleaned, and cars arrive from time to time, slowly driving into the village carrying gasoline or ammunition.

 The signal soldiers are erecting a long antenna. With this equipment, the regiment headquarters can convey orders to each battalion headquarters in a timely manner.

 The thin recruits carried heavy cables to connect the generator cars and equipment together, and there were also telephone lines extending into some intact buildings.

The lights are brightly lit there, and there is no so-called light control at all - there is no way. Although there are express provisions to control the lights, in practice, no one cares about these details.

Especially when the enemy has no time to counterattack, or does not have the strength to counterattack, violating battlefield safety regulations has become a natural bad habit.

The staff of the regiment headquarters and some civilian personnel have to summarize and analyze the Qi Army's documents overnight. Useful and very important documents must be sent to the division headquarters in time. The rest can also be sorted out a little to understand the deployment of the Qi Army. .

This used to be the military headquarters of the Qi Army, so there were naturally a lot of documents and information. The Tang army even seized more than 20 radio stations here, as well as a large amount of gasoline and generator sets.

The captured Qi officers also handed over a lot of valuable information, such as where there are field hospitals nearby, where there are ammunition depots and arsenals, where there are barracks and where there are checkpoints.

 Through the night of interrogation and data analysis, the attacking Tang army finally got a rough idea of ​​the situation in the hinterland of Qi.

　　I don’t know, I don’t know. With this understanding, the commanders of the Tang Army discovered that they seemed to have already won!

 That's right, the hinterland of Qi State is almost undefended. They have deployed nearly 500,000 troops on the border. How can there be any extra troops guarding the rear?

In terms of previous war design, the Qi army was not prepared to fight such a breakthrough battle with the Tang army, but was prepared to consume each other with the Tang army on the border. Since there is no preparation for the current situation, it is impossible for Qi to make corresponding adjustments according to changes in the battlefield in a short period of time.

 This is doomed. How could the Qi army, which lacked automobiles and armored units, fight mobilely with the Tang army in the wilderness?

"Almost all nearby villages are undefended." Looking at the map and marking some locations, the commander of the 1st Armored Regiment said: "As long as a tank is separated and dozens of people are brought along, the flanks can be controlled. village, at least we don’t have to worry about the safety of our flanks.”

"What if the Qi army counterattacks?" the regimental staff officer pointed at the border defense line where the third prince was still entrenched on the map, and asked.

“Just wait for the follow-up infantry to reinforce these defense lines.” The 1st regiment commander was still confident and felt that he could continue to advance towards the goal: “Tomorrow morning! We will get as close to Nanye as possible!”

"Capture Nanye tomorrow?" The staff officer was a little confused. He did not think that the Qi army would deploy a large number of troops in Nanye. If they fought through it like this, they might experience a fierce battle.

These tanks in their hands are all treasures. They are the guarantee for the Tang Army to be invincible, and they are also the basis for the Tang Army to defeat more with less.

  If they suffer unnecessary losses, it will definitely affect the subsequent combat plan. This is obviously an issue that must be considered.

In fact, the Tang Army has paid a lot of price for running wildly: along the way, almost one-third of their entire tank regiment's tanks were lost on the road.

The 1st Battalion was supposed to have 47 No. 4 tanks. When the battle started in the morning, two tanks had mechanical problems and did not participate in the battle. In the ensuing battle to break through the position, three more vehicles were damaged and unable to move forward.

 What followed was a breakthrough all the way forward. In the process, 7 more tanks broke down or had their tracks broken and were paralyzed halfway.

Yes, you are not mistaken! There were more tanks that had to stop halfway to wait for the logistics and maintenance troops due to malfunctions than were destroyed by the Qi army.

 So far, of the 47 tanks of the 1st Battalion, there are only about 30 tanks left that can move forward normally tomorrow.

 In fact, this is already a very good maintenance rate—at the beginning of World War II, the German army did not necessarily have such a high maintenance attendance rate.

 Similarly, the situation of the 2nd Battalion was not much better. They also only had about 30 tanks left, and the two battalion command tanks were even broken.

The situation of the 3rd Battalion is even worse. They were originally equipped with more than 30 tanks and were not fully equipped at all. Now, they only have 15 tanks left to fight.

 A regiment should have had about 150 tanks, but now only about half of the tanks are left for combat.

Even including the tanks that will be repaired and return to the army tomorrow, the best case scenario is to recover about two-thirds of their combat strength.

 Similarly, about one-third of the trucks at the regiment and division headquarters were destroyed, broke down, or were stuck on the road... and they were of no use.

This is also a problem that will inevitably arise in mechanized force operations. No matter how reliable the machinery is, when it accumulates to a certain number, the failure rate will still be so high that it will cause people to feel numb.

Not to mention cars, the carriages of the Tang Army's transport troops all suffered from broken axles and other malfunctions, because overloading was very common, and some troops even carried twice the amount of ammunition in order to continue fighting.

What is gratifying is that so many losses were rewarded. The Tang army broke through the defense line after the battle broke out and ran a hundred kilometers in depth towards the Qi army.

 This has put aside all the remedies and adjustments that Qi Jun tried to make. Likewise, this speed of advancement completely disrupted the Dahua Empire's border defense forces, who were preparing to take action.

Their original plan was to march into Qi State to help, but before they could take action, the Tang army stood in front of them.

This is completely different from the plan: safely entering Qi State is completely different from the preparation required to break through the Tang Army's defense line. The commanders of the Dahua Empire did not dare to fight a positional war easily. His tens of thousands of people could not withstand the attrition.

The Tang army, which encountered almost no decent resistance, stopped that night. The Qi army, which basically found itself at a disadvantage and had no other choice, took advantage of this precious night and began to organize a counterattack.

From the perspective of the commanders of Qi State, only by making good use of this precious night and reversing the unfavorable situation can they stabilize their position and regain the initiative before dawn!

—

 There are no make-up updates today, everyone should go to bed early.

 (End of this chapter)