From the 7th Steel Company to the Synthetic Division

Chapter 424 The battle begins!!
As the intelligence officer in charge of the intelligence center, Qiu Ming's words carried considerable weight among the other officers, and the three officers were all curious about his tactics.

"Then what do you think is the best way to fight?" Ge Yun asked curiously.

Staff Officer Liu and Staff Officer Zhou were also very curious and both focused their attention on Qiu Ming.

"Attack from all three sides."

Qiu Ming only said four words, but they left the three of them stunned.

"Staff Officer Qiu, you know our situation very well. We need to station troops to defend the front lines. If we launch attacks on three fronts at the same time, isn't that a bit too ambitious?" Staff Officer Zhou said worriedly.

"If we really fight, we certainly don't have the strength, but if we don't fight, we will definitely lose."

Qiu Ming smiled and continued, "My idea is to strike at the snake's vital spot, using my strengths to attack its weaknesses. The tactics will focus on harassment and disrupting its composure."

They are now advancing from three directions simultaneously, like three long snakes rushing in, and there must be a weak point among them.

Therefore, our main task next is to gather intelligence in this area. As long as we can find a weak point, we will have a way to take action.

We don't need to wipe out any one of their groups. As long as we keep them moving at varying paces, preventing them from completing their mission within ten days, then our tactical objective will be achieved.

The fact that Qiu Ming was able to be transferred from the war zone to serve as the intelligence staff officer of the 7th Steel Brigade shows that he has a lot of knowledge.

His summary of the overall situation, as well as his proposed combat methods and strategies, basically took all possibilities into account.

If we follow his plan, there is still a certain probability of success.

of course.

This is merely meeting the standard, far from being amazing.

If Qiu Ming could come up with an even more ingenious plan to completely crush the 909th Brigade, then his proposal would be worthy of being adopted by Chen Jun.

After all, Chen Jun was the one who called the shots in the 7th Steel Brigade, and the final decision on which tactics to use rested with him.

The staff at the intelligence center only had the right to make suggestions.

Liu and his team were obviously aware of this as well, so they picked up where Qiu Ming left off and said, "Then let's take this as our guide, organize the relevant intelligence and data, and come up with a detailed plan to report to the Chief of Staff."

“Okay, let’s start preparing now. I’ll go see Chief of Staff Chen once the plan is ready,” Qiu Ming nodded in agreement.

……

Lijiang International Airport.

More than a hundred people from the First Company of the 909th Brigade's Reconnaissance Battalion, all dressed in civilian clothes and wearing construction site safety helmets, lined up to board the plane with large suitcases.

Hong Yi really has some skills; he managed to get the private jet sorted out in less than half a day.

Squad leader Hong Yi, also dressed in civilian clothes, organized people to board the plane right next to the boarding stairs, while political commissar Xu Xiaocun, also dressed in civilian clothes, accompanied them to see them off.

“Hong Yi, to be honest, I really want to go with you to take a look,” Xu Xiaocun said with his hands behind his back.

"What? The political commissar still doesn't trust me?" Hong Yi said with a smile.

"It's not that I'm worried, but rather that I find it exciting."

Xu Xiaocun said with great emotion, "This is the first time I've ever fought against such a professional combined arms force. I've never had any contact with them before."

The fact that we're facing off against the 7th Steel Brigade right from the start might be a good thing for us. If it's a fully-fledged 7th Steel Brigade, its strength is no less than that of the Zhurihe Blue Army, and it's not a bone we can crack.

During this first phase summary meeting, I finally got to meet the two commanding officers and chief of staff of the 7th Steel Brigade.

It was a pity that there was no direct communication, and their brigade commander and chief of staff seemed unremarkable, but the chief of staff was young and looked shrewd.

It is said that their methods were extremely cunning and treacherous, their reconnaissance capabilities were second to none, and their technical equipment was also very advanced. The 708th Brigade suffered a great loss in this regard.

You will lead the team to scout ahead. You must be extremely careful and not let your guard down.

Xu Xiaocun placed great importance on the Seventh Steel Brigade and gave it sufficient attention. Hong Yi listened carefully to Xu Xiaocun's words of advice.

With a serious expression, he replied, "Please rest assured, Political Commissar, I will act cautiously and guarantee the completion of the mission."

"Yes, I have great faith in your abilities."

Xu Xiaocun patted Hong Yi on the shoulder, his tone suddenly changing to a serious tone as he said, "We all know the brigade commander's temper. He's quite easy to talk to in private, but he doesn't like his subordinates contradicting him in public."

But it wasn't right for you to overturn all his decisions in front of so many officers of battalion level and above. I think you set a bad example, and I don't want it to happen again.

As the political commissar, Xu Xiaocun had to stabilize the internal atmosphere and do a good job in the ideological work and emotional management of cadres at all levels.

Since the brigade commander couldn't be easily controlled, the only option was to persuade Hong Yi.

"This is a very important matter. If I don't tell you, I'm afraid..."

“We can discuss this after the meeting. It’s not like we’re leaving immediately after the meeting,” Xu Xiaocun interrupted Hong Yi, suggesting a more reasonable solution.

"I know you're right, but I can't help it. That's just my bad temper," Hong Yi said helplessly.

"Actually, the suggestion to come and be the deputy chief of staff was made by the brigade commander. He hopes that you can take over the chief of staff's position well. He values ​​you a lot. You have to change your temper. You can't be like this when you are the deputy chief of staff."

Xu Xiaocun cleverly offered a sweet treat while also helping Chu Zhangang gain favor. He truly deserves to be the brigade political commissar; his skills are exceptionally high.

Hong Yi, who had initially shown some resistance, underwent a significant change in expression.

The allure of the deputy chief of staff and the favor of Chu Zhangang's promotion.

This forced Hong Yi to reconsider.

Xu Xiaocun took in Hong Yi's changing expression and felt he had said enough. He glanced at his watch and said, "It's almost time. I need to catch up with the main force. The brigade commander and the others have already set off."

In conclusion, as I said before, in crucial moments, we still need your reconnaissance team. We look forward to your results.

"Thank you for your concern, Political Commissar."

After Hong Yi finished speaking, he took the initiative to shake hands, but did not salute in order to avoid revealing his identity.

"be careful!"

Xu Xiaocun offered his final words of concern, and the two parted ways.

……

The command post of the 7th Steel Brigade.

Commander Wang, Chen Jun, Gao Cheng, and other high-ranking officers of the brigade received a notification from the operations command center that the 909th Brigade had begun its journey and was arriving at the command post one after another.

"How is the situation now?"

Chen Jun was the last to arrive because he had to take care of some other things. He went straight to the sand table after entering the command post and started asking questions before he even got there.

"The 1st Motorized Infantry Battalion of the 909th Brigade is the main force in mountain warfare, but now it's staying at home. It's strange," Political Commissar Tian Baoguo said, puzzled.

Everyone arrived gradually, and discussions haven't started yet, so opinions are still divided. "Leaving the main force at home is obviously a lesson learned from Wang Kezheng. They were scared by us and are afraid we'll launch a surprise attack on their rear, so they're keeping them here to guard their home, haha," Gao Cheng said smugly.

Being able to instill psychological trauma in your opponent is indeed something to be proud of.

"Judging from the current situation of the 909th Brigade, Chu Zhangang's intentions are clearly not good. He has obviously put a lot of effort into this troop deployment," Wang Qingrui said thoughtfully.

"They're advancing in three directions, cutting straight ahead. If we try to stop them by force, we probably won't be able to, at least not all three."

Chen Jun looked thoughtfully at Qiu Ming and said, "The intelligence center should have a lot of information by now. Why don't you tell us the situation first?"

"Ok."

Qiu Ming did indeed possess a wealth of intelligence, and had already organized several staff officers to discuss it early in the morning, demonstrating that he had made thorough preparations.

Upon receiving the order, he stepped forward and addressed the group in front of the sand table: "Last night, the Intelligence Fusion Center used technical means to infiltrate the 909th Brigade's internal network and intercepted intelligence about their marching plan."

Based on the marching intelligence received after the holiday, a detailed interception plan was formulated.

The Blue Army's right flank consisted of an artillery regiment, equipped with a rocket artillery battalion, a reinforced artillery battalion, and a reconnaissance battalion, advancing along the national highway.

After discussing with several staff officers from the intelligence center, we decided to set up two blocking positions in the Tongling Mountain and Xiaomao Mountain area, which should be able to intercept them for about two days.

The central route is a highway, and the Blue Army's 2nd and 3rd motorized infantry battalions, directly subordinate air defense battalions, communications battalions, electronic warfare battalions, and brigade command post are all on this route.

The enemy forces along this route are very well-equipped and extremely powerful, making it very difficult for them to forcefully intercept us.

Therefore, we felt that the only option was to harass them along the way, using harassment tactics to limit their mobility and delay them for as long as possible.

The remaining Blue Army armored battalion, engineer battalion, logistics department, and field hospital all traveled north by train from the left flank.

Our strategy is the same as the middle laner's: to harass them and stop their advance; just holding them back is enough.

From the information Qiu Ming provided, it is clear that the information they intercepted was not real-time.

It was the original plan that was formulated at the beginning, not the plan that was revised after Hong Yi came out to oppose Chu Zhangang and under Hong Yi's repeated insistence.

It's equivalent to saying.

No one in the Red Army's 7th Steel Brigade knew that the Blue Army's reconnaissance battalion had pulled off a surprise attack, and that the Blue Army's marching order had changed.

Accompanying the artillery regiment was not a reconnaissance battalion, but only a motorized infantry battalion.

The real reconnaissance team had broken up into smaller units, disguised themselves as local civilians, and arrived at the front line by civilian aircraft to assemble.

If they actually execute the tactics, it will be a very heavy blow to the 7th Steel Brigade.

It could even become a hidden danger leading to defeat in the war!
of course.

What results the reconnaissance battalion will achieve, how capable Hong Yi, this stubborn and single-minded man, really is, and whether he can lead his reconnaissance battalion to deliver a heavy blow to the Seventh Steel Brigade—it's impossible to draw any conclusions at this point.

The high-ranking officers of the 7th Steel Brigade, who are currently gathered at the command post, have absolutely no idea about this.

After Qiu Ming finished explaining the interception intelligence and the interception plan prepared by the intelligence center, they began to discuss the known information.

"Chief of Staff Qiu, your plan is generally sound. Given our current situation, we can only concentrate our forces on one route while harassing the other two. We can't intercept them simultaneously, however..."

Wang Qingrui paused mid-sentence, pointing to the sand table, and said, "The terrain of the national highway is quite complex and rugged. Setting up ambushes at these two points along the national highway would be very disadvantageous for tank assault operations."

In other words, the only way to set up ambushes at these two locations along the national highway is to send mechanized infantry battalions.

Two companies of the mechanized infantry battalion have already been deployed to the 535 defense line, leaving only one company available for deployment. And for that one company to intercept an artillery regiment and a reconnaissance battalion…

Wang Qingrui didn't say anything more, because everyone already knew even if he didn't say it.

A company was sent to intercept and block two enemy regiments, even though both regiments had been downsized and were actually less than half full strength.

No matter what you say.

Even if the artillery regiment couldn't fight during the blocking operation because there was nowhere for them to set up artillery positions, the reconnaissance battalion still had three real companies.

After the demobilization, each company had more than 100 men, and the three companies together had more than 400 men.

A mechanized infantry company of only a little over a hundred men is going to fight against a force of over four hundred men head-on, and expecting to hold them off for two days is simply impossible.

Even at the cost of total annihilation, they could probably only hold them off for half a day at most.

"I think the special operations company can go together; we can use them to deal with the reconnaissance battalion," Gao Cheng suggested after a moment's thought.

Back then, the Steel Seventh Company had wiped out the division's direct reconnaissance battalion, and Gao Cheng still vividly remembered this glorious achievement.

In Gao Cheng's view...

The special operations company of the 7th Steel Brigade is equivalent to a battalion in combat capability.

A special operations company with the combat capability of a battalion, coupled with a mechanized infantry company, could easily intercept the Blue Army's artillery regiment and reconnaissance battalion, if not wipe them out.

"Two companies to intercept them? Is that really enough? Should we send another tank company?" Qiu Ming asked worriedly.

"Staff Officer Qiu, you may not know this since you're new here, but our special operations company is no ordinary company. Its predecessor was the only all-officer special operations platoon at the grassroots level in the entire army, and it has shown formidable performance in various exercises."

As the deputy political commissar, Ma Tianxiang rarely spoke, but since some people looked down on the special operations company, which was the unit he had led back then, he had to say a few words.

Ma Tianxiang was the political instructor of the Seventh Steel Battalion at the time, and as one of the commanding officers, he said that his leadership was flawless.

Qiu Ming was indeed a newly transferred staff officer and was not clear about the combat capabilities of the various units of the Seventh Steel Brigade. Seeing Ma Tianxiang's high regard for him, he didn't say anything more.

"Chief of Staff, what do you think?"

Wang Qingrui, as the brigade commander, did not make the decision directly, but instead delegated the decision-making power to Chen Jun.

Only Chen Jun's decision counts.

"The special operations company doesn't have any missions for the time being. Let them be responsible for interception and blocking on the right flank. With their capabilities, there shouldn't be any problems. Even if they fail to intercept, nothing bad will happen. Let's arrange it like this for now."

Chen Jun had great confidence in the special operations company. He believed that even if the reconnaissance battalion, which had been reduced in size, couldn't stop them, it could still escape. Therefore, he agreed to the interception plan on the right flank.

I don't know.

This arrangement, by sheer chance, turned out to be a perfect outcome.

The unit following the artillery regiment was not a reconnaissance battalion, but the 3rd Motorized Infantry Battalion, whose combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of the former, less than half.

With the addition of a fully mechanized infantry company, the special operations company's combat effectiveness has surpassed that of the Blue Army's 3rd Motorized Infantry Battalion.

This interception and blockade...

This is probably going to get interesting!

(End of this chapter)