The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

As the commander of the front-line troops, Major Jiang Yuan keenly sensed through his "intuition" that the situation seemed to be bad.

Unlike his fellow officers who only knew how to rush forward, he was more familiar with the subtle changes in war and could always catch the traps that the enemy might set.

This time, facing sporadic harassment from small enemy forces nearby, he still chose to act cautiously.

Instead of continuing to advance blindly, he decisively occupied an unnamed small hill beside the road and waited for the main force of the regiment in the rear.

This unnamed small hill is only marked with its height on the map - 33 meters, so it is also called Sansan Hill.

Without the reconnaissance of the Type 98 helicopter in the air, the Jiangyuan Brigade returned to relying on visual reconnaissance, and the troops' situational awareness range was greatly reduced.

这导致齐泉派出的 2 团一个连的尖兵部队和一个排4辆M4A3（105）中型坦克能够神不知鬼不觉地逼近了鬼子的阵地2km的范围。

"The Japs have occupied the hill ahead of time. Damn, these Japs are so cunning."

When Huang Yongsheng, the company commander of the 1st Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment, saw the Japanese troops on the high ground through the telescope, he couldn't help but curse.

He discovered that in addition to deploying hundreds of troops on the highway, the Japanese had also occupied Hill 33, a commanding height near the highway, in advance. He did not choose to attack directly, but instead reported the situation to his superiors by radio.

Qi Quan was mentally prepared for the possibility that the Japanese might occupy the nearby commanding heights in advance.

After all, the lessons of history are always remembered.

After the lesson of the capture of Laoye Temple Heights in the Pingxingguan Battle and the trapping of more than a thousand Japanese soldiers in a ditch, the Japanese would certainly never forget the importance of commanding heights.

Moreover, in the selected combat area, there are many commanding heights similar to Hill 33, so Qi Quan directly ordered:

"Let's try it out first. We have tanks and artillery now, and there are no Japanese planes in the sky. We shouldn't be afraid to attack the heights."

-----

In the rear, at the Xinwangping Village base command center, Allied special envoy James, who had just been promoted to lieutenant colonel, stared at the map with a serious expression.

He had just received a war situation telegram from Zhang Chi, and his mind was filled with doubts and anxieties.

As a special commissioner with no command power but only the right to make suggestions and the right to know, James could only stay behind and worry alone.

"Encircling and annihilating a Japanese infantry regiment reinforced with mountain artillery, engineers, and tanks with a 1.2 to 1 force ratio?"

"Can I really do it?" James muttered to himself, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead unconsciously.

As a traditional White Eagle soldier who graduated from the West Point Military Academy, James had not yet learned the classic military philosophy of "The way to use troops is to surround them when your force is ten times yours, attack them when your force is five times yours, and divide them when your force is twice yours" through "The Art of War".

But he still felt that Zhang Chi's move of sending an infantry regiment and an armored battalion to besiege an entire Japanese regiment was too bold and radical.

Look at how the national army performed in large-scale battles on the front lines in the past few years.

The National Army, which had a 3 to 1 or even 5 to 1 military advantage, suffered defeat most of the time except for a few tragic victories!

Although James himself had witnessed Zhang Chi leading the independent regiment to launch multiple raids and wipe out the Japanese battalion in an organized manner, this time it was a large-scale operation at the regiment or even division level.

Can Zhang Chi still achieve victory as usual?

James always had a heavy stone hanging in his heart.

As the commander of the newly formed 212th Division, which was established only three months ago, he did not choose to resist step by step with the help of positions, but instead chose to take the initiative to attack. Wasn't this too risky?

James, who could only get a glimpse of the situation, was completely unable to understand the tactical considerations behind this.

At this moment, not only is James' own future tied to the 212th Division behind enemy lines, but even his superior, General Stevenson's current huge reputation in the country is largely due to Zhang Chi.

What if there is a slight mistake and Zhang Chi's troops suffer an inexplicable defeat like the previous Kuomintang troops?

James became more and more anxious as he thought about it. He stood up and rushed directly to the telegraph room.

He wanted to send a telegram to his old superior, asking him to dispatch the Tenth Air Force to provide air cover for Zhang Chi.

-----

Looking at the Jiangyuan Battalion that had built simple fortifications on the high ground through the telescope, Company Commander Huang Yongsheng quickly formulated an attack plan.

他很清楚虽然自己一个连只有200多人的兵力，但是在有4辆在东南亚算得上重型坦克的M4A3（105）伴随的情况下，还是有概率直接击穿鬼子一个大队800多人的防线的。

However, the goal of this operation was not only to defeat the battalion in front of us, but also to lure the main force of the Japanese into a trap.

At this time, the friendly 2nd and 3rd Battalions were detouring in the rainforest on both sides of the road, preparing to make a big dumpling and swallow up the leading Jiangyuan Battalion and the main force of the regiment led by Sato Mikichiro in the back.

Therefore, Huang Yongsheng knew what he should do.

He needed to inflict pain on the Jiangyuan Battalion but not directly defeat them, so as to attract the main force of Sato Mikichiro's regiment to gather over, buying time for the flanking troops to complete the encirclement and the waterway troops to eat up Sato's logistics units.

Thinking of this, Huang Yongsheng climbed directly onto the rear of an M4A3 (105) tank and removed the telephone microphone hanging on the rear of the tank turret.

That’s right, as a modified Sherman tank that was put into service in the late stages of World War II, this M4A3 (105) was also equipped with a communication telephone to facilitate infantry outside the vehicle to communicate with the crew inside at any time.

Although the White Eagle tanks were average in terms of armor-piercing and shell confrontation in World War II, their information construction has always been excellent.

Huang Yongsheng's big mouth was almost touching the microphone, and he spoke loudly to the commander in the turret:

"Platoon Leader Fan, when we charge later, take it easy. Don't really crush the Japanese. If I let them go, and more than 800 of them run away, it will be difficult for me to catch them, hahahaha."

Inside the turret, Platoon Leader Fan, wearing a headset with a microphone, responded with a relaxed mood:

"I know, but I don't know if the Japanese can withstand the fire from this 105mm barrel."

After ending the call, Platoon Leader Fan briefly recalled his military career.

He was once the commander of a T-26 light tank in the 200th Division. Later, due to fuel shortage, he was forced to abandon his beloved tank and was trapped in the rain forest of Bago.

After joining Zhang Chi's team, Platoon Leader Fan thought that he could only be an ordinary soldier with a rifle on his back. Unexpectedly, fate took a turn and he was able to command the LVT-A1 amphibious tank step by step. A few months ago, he was equipped with this mighty Sherman medium tank as the most senior crew member.

He had actually been coveting his superior Zhang Chi's tall and mighty Sherman Organ Tank for a long time, but he didn't expect that this time he would be able to command a platoon of four Sherman tanks.

要知道这4辆M4A3（105）中型坦克可就是4门拥有重型装甲、又会移动的105mm榴弹炮啊。

"This is a 105mm cannon!"

With one shot, the killing range is as large as a 40M X 20M rectangular area of ​​800 square meters.

Just imagining the deafening sound of artillery and the subsequent explosions, Platoon Leader Fan felt his blood boiling.

Wouldn’t this blow all the Japanese to pieces?