Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 177

177. Chapter 177, Making Dumplings

“I plan to gather the tank companies of all the combat battalions in the brigade. More than 50 tanks will form an armored fist, and under the cover of artillery, they will smash hard into the center of the enemy’s defense line.”

“After the breakthrough, our mechanized and motorized troops will quickly follow up. We must open a 30-kilometer-deep wound in the enemy’s position in at least one day, so as to create conditions for breakthroughs and encirclement for the friendly troops that follow up.”

Perbov told his old partner about his plan.

After listening, Leroy thought about it and had no objection.

This is really Perbov’s style: rush up and cut through the enemy.

“If you have no objection, then do it. We will set off tomorrow morning. The troops have rested for two days, which is enough. I hope that the new recruits who have just been added can be useful and nothing will go wrong.”

…

As it turned out, the new recruits did not disappoint Perbov. Compared with the veterans who had participated in many brutal battles, these newly recruited soldiers were a little immature, but their military skills were absolutely sufficient.

The first brigade set out at dawn the next morning.

The deafening artillery fire covered the enemy’s position.

The soldiers and leaders of the anti-Governor Alliance were all stunned by the fierce artillery fire.

Before that, they had experienced the power of the Alliance artillery when fighting against the 7th and 8th Divisions. But at that time, the two divisions combined had only about 50 guns. But

it was precisely because of the existence of these 50 heavy artillery that the 70,000 to 80,000 anti-Governor Alliance troops could not advance an inch.

It was okay to defend, relying on fortifications and anti-gun holes, they could barely resist; if they took the initiative to attack, lacking artillery countermeasures and armored cover, the 50 heavy artillery would be enough for their offensive forces to send as many as they wanted.

After sending some heads, they knew they couldn’t fight like this.

But before they could come up with some new ideas, the iron fist of the alliance arrived first.

At this moment, the rebel troops were squatting in anti-artillery caves and various fortifications as usual, and then the artillery came.

They thought that this was just like the artillery bombardment they had suffered every day for more than half a month. Although it was uncomfortable and people would die, it would pass after a while.

But in fact, it was not the case at all.

This time the bombardment was much more intensive and lasted much longer than before.

This is definitely not the effect that fifty artillery can produce!

This is exactly the case.

At this moment, a total of ten artillery battalions can be pulled out from the five divisions, and more than three hundred artillery cannons are firing at the same time!

Almost all the artillery units of the five divisional brigade-level units were concentrated and used. The joint artillery positions concentrated on the direction where the Xifeng Brigade was about to launch an assault and bombarded it indiscriminately.

In an hour, one hundred rounds were fired, and thirty thousand 155 howitzers hit the enemy’s position about eight kilometers wide in the center. On average, a 155mm howitzer would hit the enemy within 30 centimeters – there would be no room for shells!

What happened to the anti-gun holes? If

they were hit directly, even if the dug anti-gun holes were a little shallow, they would collapse; if they were lucky and not hit directly, the shaking ground would also cause the soil to fall down; if they were shaken countless times, the anti-gun holes would collapse.

Not to mention, it was impossible for all soldiers to stay in anti-gun holes. Some could only stay in trenches or even foxholes.

If a shell hit the enemy, a large number of people would lose their lives.

And these 30,000 shells were just the prelude to the attack.

When the artillery fire stopped, an officer of the anti-Governor Allied Forces walked out of a cement bunker built and half-buried in the ground in the trench.

He was confused, deaf, and even had dried blood hanging by his ears.

Just now, at least ten heavy artillery shells fell near the bunker.

Fortunately, no shells hit the bunker directly, or he would have died; unfortunately, the trenches leading to the two exits of the bunker were hit by artillery fire, which deafened his ears. The flying artillery shrapnel killed several staff officers around him and cut off one of his arms.

He covered his bleeding arm and walked out of the bunker. What caught his eyes were corpses scattered all over the trenches. Some people were wailing, but there were also many people who couldn’t even wail. There were even some people whose bodies could not be found.

He staggered and stepped on the firing pedal like rolling and crawling, looking in the direction of the Alliance army.

He saw fifty steel monsters, with a distance of about 20 to 30 meters, and they were marching towards the trenches in a mighty manner.

And following these steel monsters with gun barrels, there were also infantry fighting vehicles that he couldn’t count exactly.

Further back, in the distance, there were many trucks full of infantry, which were even more difficult to see.

He shouted to the soldiers to come out and fight to stop the enemy’s attack, but he couldn’t even hear his voice – he was deaf.

No one responded to his call.

At least in the small area where he was, there were no survivors.

What should he do next?

His head was trembling, and before he could figure out what was going on, he saw a tank with its gun barrel turned and pointed at him.

He stared blankly at the dark muzzle, which emitted a burst of orange-yellow flames, and then his eyes went black and he knew nothing.

…

Following the charge of the troops, Lieutenant Colonel Perbov, who was about several hundred meters away from the tanks that were in contact with the enemy, ventured out and looked at the battlefield with a telescope.

He happened to see the scene just now.

He cursed: “Damn it, you have to shoot at a mosquito when you see it, right? Cannonballs are free, right?”

He seemed a little depressed.

It was not because the tank soldiers were wasting shells, but…

“Damn it, the artillery did all my work! What should I do?”

He sat back in the car, not very happy.

Leroy, who was standing next to him, certainly understood what kind of person his old partner was. He smiled and patted Perbov on the shoulder, comforting him: “If a problem can be solved with artillery shells, don’t use human lives to solve it. I think this is a good idea. What’s more, if you want to fight a war, it’s not like there is really no war to fight. Although the artillery brothers are capable, can they really finish all the work?”

What Leroy said certainly made sense.

Less than 30 centimeters per shell, that’s an exaggeration. The enemy’s position is not just one line, no matter how amateur or stupid the commander on the opposite side is, he knows to build a deep defense line.

It was indeed badly bombed, but it’s not true that there are only a few soldiers on the line that is eight kilometers wide and at least three kilometers thick.

In fact, the Xifeng Brigade still encountered resistance.

The enemy began to emerge, and some lucky people who survived the bombardment had already emerged from bunkers, fortifications, and anti-artillery holes under the strong orders of officers to launch a counterattack against the attacking enemy.

However…

the strength of this counterattack was like tickling.

I don’t know if the artillery positions of the Anti-Governor Alliance were blown up by the previous 30,000 heavy artillery. Anyway, there was no trace of them at this time;

the soldiers did have some weapons that could barely be considered anti-armor, such as rocket launchers, explosive packs, etc., but the number was not enough and the power was not enough. That rocket launcher, whether it is used to attack a Rambler or a Challenger tank, is just a tickle, unless it is really close range and can very accurately hit the tracks, wheels, and buttocks of tanks and armored vehicles where the armor is thinnest.

Explosive packs require people to get close to them.

But that is difficult. In order to ensure accuracy and power, they must be very close to armored units. However, their tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are not turtles. They run faster than people and have more powerful firepower. Not to mention the cannon barrels, the machine guns on the tanks, the machine guns on the infantry fighting vehicles, and the explosive machine guns are all explosive damage to light infantry. Without fire cover, relying solely on light infantry, they will be destroyed before they get close.

If there are really lucky guys, or tenacious ones who can wait until the tank passes and suddenly rush out, then it is basically impossible to succeed.

The tactics of infantry-tank coordination and armored charge of the Extinguished Wind Brigade are their forte.

The infantry of the Allied Forces are not vegetarians.

This time, the infantry-tank coordination tactics adopted by the Extinguished Wind Brigade are armor-guided impacts, with tanks in the front, mechanized infantry fighting on the ground in the middle, and infantry fighting vehicles in the back. On both sides and rear of each tank, there are usually one or two infantry squads. The guns in their hands will educate those enemies who think that the tank barrels are not rotating fast enough and want to attack from the side. At the same time, the infantry fighting vehicles further behind will serve as the key fire support for the infantry.

At the same time, the tank troops will not make the mistake of being out of touch, and often keep a distance of 20-100 meters from the infantry. After occupying a position, the tanks will stop for a while and wait for

the infantry to come up. After the infantry comes up, they will complete the occupation and clearing of the surrounding areas. The tanks will set off again at this moment, break through another position, and the infantry will follow.

So on and so forth.

After the motorized troops behind catch up, they will carry out the final cleaning work on the enemy troops that have been rushed to pieces.

This set of tactics is not easy to defend even an enemy position with a tight defense line, let alone the current group of anti-Governor Allied Forces.

They were originally a mob pulled up from various settlements, and there were visible gaps in equipment, morale, training, experience… After being plowed by 30,000 artillery shells, there were not many people who could survive. Moreover, even if they were alive, their morale had already reached the brink of collapse.

To be honest, if they were not forced by the officers to resist, they would have run away or hid and waited for surrender.

But…are these officers of the anti-Governor Alliance not afraid of death?

Obviously they are afraid.

In some places, the soldiers fled, and the officers tried to call them back, but it was useless. They just ran away with them;

some officers, after calling the soldiers to go out to resist, they slipped away first;

some officers simply ran away with their soldiers.

In general, these anti-Governor Alliances, after suffering terrible artillery bombardment, were able to organize the remaining people and launch a certain degree of counterattack, which was considered very good for their mob status.

But under the impact of the armored forces, this resistance was quickly crushed.

If the fleeing soldiers ran to the sides, Perbov’s soldiers would not pay much attention to them and had no time to take care of things on both sides of the front line; and if they panicked and ran backwards, they would be chased by the armored troops all the way, which was obviously very bad. Two legs can’t outrun wheels.

Especially after the enemy’s resistance became less and less powerful, Perbov adopted bold and radical tactics, no longer allowing the infantry and armored forces to maintain close cooperation, tactical discipline was put down, and more emphasis was placed on the speed of impact. Infantry

fighting vehicles began to surpass the slow-running Challenger tanks and came to the front; the engineering battalion rode on armed trucks and quickly caught up. When they encountered places that could not be rolled over, the engineers got off the vehicles to fill the trenches and build temporary roads.

This was actually very dangerous, but there was no danger.

Just two hours after the Xifeng Brigade officially entered the battle, the entire unit broke through the middle area of the enemy’s defense line.

It was eight kilometers wide and four kilometers deep, and was completely washed away.

At this point, Commander Yan’s “center blossom” tactics were considered to be a preliminary success.

The enemy’s line, which was about 50 kilometers wide, had now been “bloomed” from the middle section, with an 8-kilometer wide salient being created from the middle section.

All of this, including the artillery bombardment and the completion of the assault by the armored forces, all happened within three hours.

Next, it was time for the next stage of the central blooming tactic: making dumplings.

The salient was, of course, a preparation for the complete annihilation of the enemy.

After breaking through the defense line, the Xifeng Brigade did not stop. After crossing the difficult trench area where the enemy was resisting, the road behind was even smoother. The mechanized troops of the Xifeng Brigade ran very fast on this smooth road.

Five hours later, the vanguard of the Xifeng Brigade had already killed 50 kilometers away.

At this time, only eight hours had passed since the artillery bombardment began.

Eight hours was not enough for the anti-Governor Alliance, which was divided into two parts, to have any effective response.

But Yan Fangxu’s follow-up strike plan had already followed.

The 2nd Motorized Infantry Division quickly followed from the salient created by the Xifeng Brigade. Leaving part of the troops to hold the central salient, the other troops, together with the Xifeng Brigade, encircled to the north and west respectively.

This was the rear route of the two separated enemy troops.

At the same time, the 3rd Tushou Independent Regiment, the 7th and 8th Garrison Divisions, with the support of artillery, began to launch a full-scale offensive.

The enemy’s troops began to waver comprehensively.

The center was broken through, the two sides lost contact, the rear was encircled, and the front was drowned by fierce artillery fire…

Under multi-faceted attacks, they became dumpling fillings.

Yan Fangxu spent half a day to make the center bloom, and another day to make a solid dumpling.

The skin is thin and the filling is large, but the meat filling inside is not able to break through the dumpling skin that seems to have few troops.

They held on for three days under siege.

There is no supply, no ammunition, no reinforcement…

A group of rabble, expecting them to fight until they run out of ammunition and food and die?

Unrealistic.

On the fourth day, the enemy began to surrender on a large scale.

At this point, this dumpling with thin skin and big filling is considered cooked.

————

Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

Yesterday, a part of the content was missing, about Lacroxia’s promotion to military rank, just two sentences, I don’t understand where I crossed the line, the review deleted it…

This is the second time that the content was deleted without my knowledge, it’s very annoying.

I have added it again.

(End of this chapter)