It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 42｜Autonomous Counterattack

The battle situation shown on the map made Shang Ke look solemn, and the officers present couldn't help but gasp.

The cold wind chills the bones, chilling both the body and the mind.

At least three hours ago, the front-line troops had been retreating hastily one after another.

As the battle reserve, the Training Tank Brigade naturally launched a counterattack and attacked the blue forces that were five times larger than its own. From the fierce fighting in the evening to now, intermittent signals could be received from time to time on the radio channel.

The rest of the divisions and brigades were in retreat, and most of them had lost contact, so their situation was unknown. Only the situation of one division was relatively clear.

In short, the situation is very serious!

Shang Ke stood there without saying a word, thinking carefully.

The engineer lieutenant colonel couldn't wait any longer and urged, "My troops are going to continue retreating. You guys should hurry up and move as well."

Shang Ke took a deep breath and said decisively, "If this continues, we will definitely not be able to hold on. It will be difficult to defend. We must counterattack and disrupt the enemy's position."

It delayed the Blue side for five days, and now only three days and two nights have passed.

Given the Blue team's overwhelming momentum, Shang Ke was very skeptical whether the Red team could hold the last line of defense for two days.

"Fight back? How can we fight back? This is ridiculous." The lieutenant colonel thought he was crazy.

"The more absurd, the more unexpected it will be. Commander, please give me some soldiers and leave some more cars." Shang Ke made the request calmly.

After a moment's hesitation, the lieutenant colonel agreed.

He left behind half of the engineering company and a platoon from the chemical defense battalion—a platoon equipped with flamethrowers.

In addition, he also allocated several tanker trucks and more than ten off-road vehicles.

The lieutenant colonel got on the off-road vehicle and wished Shang a happy victory.

The latter stood at attention and returned the salute, saying excitedly, "Do your best to complete the mission!"

The friendly force continued to retreat to the southwest, and soon only the faint taillights of trucks could be seen.

The tankers began to refuel the cavalry vehicles one by one, and the engineers who were assigned to the cavalry also lined up.

The deputy engineer came over and asked, "Sir, what are you going to do?"

Shang Ke pointed at the map, put his hands on his hips and said, "Look at this large military station. It's a very important logistics node. It's about 140 kilometers away from us."

Li Qingsheng took a flashlight to help with lighting.

"So... we're going to fight this?" The deputy engineer's words were filled with surprise.

"It's still early before dawn. Theoretically, one night is enough." Shang Ke smiled slightly.

"But the ten or so off-road vehicles we have here can't carry everyone."

"It's okay, a chariot is also a car."

"understood."

Shang Ke climbed up the turret, turned around and asked, "By the way, what's your name?"

The deputy engineer saluted and said, "Report to Commander Shang! Liang Xianzhou."

"Hmm? From Jiangxi?"

"Yes!"

Oh huh? !
Isn't this a coincidence?
Shang Ke got back into the car with great interest, and Li Qingsheng followed him in.

She looked doubtful and asked quietly, "Will it be useful for us to advance alone?"

Shang Ke smiled at her and said lightly, "It's better to win from a defeat than to be beaten like a coward."

Half an hour later, the refueling was complete, and the engineers were assigned to their respective positions: those with off-road vehicles took them, and those without would ride on tanks, tying themselves up with ropes to prevent falling.

The target is code-named Military Station Zero, which is one of the two major logistics nodes of the Blue Force.

In the exercise script, this military depot is also a virtual railway unloading point, but of course there is no railway there in reality.

Under the brilliant winter starry sky, such an armored unit was moving in the opposite direction of the main force in the dark.

It is now 22:38 p.m. Shang Ke looked at his watch and then looked into the distance. The terrain correction coefficient is 1.1 and the straight-line distance is 142 kilometers.

Move towards your goal!
The cold moonlight illuminates the desperate journey back home.

If there is a path, take it; if there is no path, walk in the wilderness.

In order to avoid a head-on collision with the blue army, Shang Ke led his troops to take a remote path.

Therefore, the distance on paper is more than 140 kilometers, but the actual distance is much more than that.

Mechanized troops are both strong and fragile. The strong part is the armor, and the fragile part is the power and walking mechanism.

Continuous forced marches cause great damage to armored vehicles. Generally speaking, mechanized troops have to stop and rest for 4 to 6 hours every 8 hours of marching, otherwise they will have to pay the price of a large number of vehicles breaking down.

Vehicles kept breaking down and falling behind along the way. Shangke's principle was that everyone would only be allowed to stop and wait if the problem could be solved within a quarter of an hour, otherwise they would leave the team and repair it on the spot.

In order to conceal his true identity, Shang called this armored unit consisting of only 15 tanks and 137 engineers the 6th Independent Cavalry Battalion, which is a real misnomer.

It is very similar to the more than 10,000 defeated soldiers outside Berlin who were called an army group and became the last hope of the shampoo master.

The next day.

At 3:15 in the middle of the night, despite trying their best to avoid a skirmish, the armored unit encountered an unavoidable enemy - a logistics convoy of the Blue Army's 30th Infantry Division.

"Kill them while they are confused!" Shang Ke shouted to the communicator with his head down.

"Understood!" The signalman immediately notified the platoons via radio. After a moment, he turned around and reported, "The third platoon leader said the formation hasn't been deployed yet!"

"There's no time to waste, charge head-on!"

"Yes!"

The armored unit didn't even change from marching formation to attack formation, but just rushed straight forward in a long snake formation, like a hungry wolf meeting a lone lamb.

From beginning to end, the blue team officers and soldiers on the opposite side did not organize any resistance.

In fact, they never expected that a red armored unit would suddenly appear here.

Several people from the directorate had followed along very diligently and responsibly. They were now extremely tired. After a brief assessment, they announced that the team had been completely wiped out.

Shang Ke waved his hand and ordered: "Interrogate the prisoners. Send Xiao Su over and ask about the location of the nearby blue troops."

Xiao Su is a member of the company headquarters and serves as a communicator on another tank. She has the ability of telepathy, and therefore has the additional ability to detect lies.

According to the prisoners, because it was far away from the front line, the blue team defending the No. 0 military station only had an anti-aircraft artillery battalion and a motorized infantry battalion, and the other service troops could be ignored.

With an expressionless face, Shang Ke took the kettle and took a big gulp, then picked up a pencil and marked the map according to the confession.

"Commander, it's totally unsportsmanlike of you to launch a surprise attack like this!" The lieutenant of the convoy was a little unhappy about being captured in such a confused way.

"If a war really breaks out, will you still care about martial ethics? Do you understand the principle of winning by surprise?" Shang Ke smiled.

"But if we gave the alarm when we were attacked, sir, you would have been surrounded and annihilated in no time." The lieutenant said harshly.

"Really? Let's wait and see." Shang Ke turned around and waved.

Liang Xianzhou asked with some concern: "If the other side has built fortifications, a strong attack might not work."

"How can we tell the outcome before the final moment?" Shang Ke breathed a sigh of relief, climbed onto the tank with some difficulty, and shouted back, "We are only about 20 kilometers away from the military station. Speed ​​is of the essence, let's move quickly."

(End of this chapter)