Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 207 Reunion with Li Yunlong

As for why Huang Baitao called Liu Zhi a pig's head, it was mainly because the reason why Huang Baitao's army was surrounded was due to Liu Zhi's poor command.

It should be noted that before the Huaihai Campaign began, the Jiefang Army had been creating the illusion that it was going to attack Xuzhou. In fact, the Jiefang Army's real target was Huang Baitao's army group stationed in the Xin'an Town area.

It should be noted that Huang Baitao's army had nearly 100,000 men, stationed in Xin'an Town, Ahu, Wayao, and Gaoliu, distributed around Xuzhou. Once the Jiefang Army launched a full-scale attack on Xuzhou, these troops could quickly return to reinforce it. Therefore, if one wanted to contend for the Central Plains, the first step was to eliminate the external threats to Xuzhou.

Encirclement and annihilation of reinforcements has always been a specialty of the Liberation Army, and this time was no exception. The Liberation Army made it appear as if it was going to attack Xuzhou, and Huang Baitao's army would inevitably retreat to Xuzhou. At this time, the Liberation Army, which had originally pretended to attack Xuzhou, turned around and surrounded Huang Baitao's army, thus eliminating a major threat in one fell swoop.

As expected, Liu Zhi fell for the trap. Under pressure from the relief army, he decided to shorten the battle line, abandon secondary cities, and concentrate his forces on both sides of the Jinpu Railway between Xuzhou and Bengbu, adopting an offensive defense strategy in preparation for a decisive battle. Therefore, they ordered Huang Baitao's 7th Army Corps to withdraw from Xin'an Town to the area west of the Grand Canal to secure the west bank.

Upon receiving orders, Huang Baitao's army group, numbering approximately 100,000 men, began its westward retreat. Because a pontoon bridge had not been built across the canal in time, the entire army group had to rely on a single iron bridge to cross. The personnel, vehicles, and horses stretched for over a hundred miles, creating considerable chaos. The relief forces seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack, causing a frantic rush to cross the bridge, with each soldier refusing to yield, resulting in utter disorder. Some units even opened fire to seize the opportunity, leading to countless deaths from gunfire, trampling, and drowning in the canal.

However, that was not the most crucial point. The Li Mi army, which was originally stationed in Cao Baji, was only about 20 miles away from Nianzhuang. If he had sent troops to support Huang Baitao, the Jiefang Army would not have been able to trap Huang Baitao in Nianzhuang. As a result, Li Mi, following Liu Zhi's orders, hastily withdrew to Xuzhou before Huang Baitao's army arrived, causing Huang Baitao to lose the cover of his flank and rear.

Li Mi's army retreated towards Xuzhou, which was tantamount to leaving the eastern gate of Xuzhou wide open, allowing the Jiefang Army to swagger south and cut off the Longhai Railway.

This also completely severed the connection between Huang Baitao's army and Xu Zhou, leaving Huang Baitao completely trapped, and eliminating him was only a matter of time.

After Huang Baitao's army was surrounded, Lao Zi panicked. You have to know that although Huang Baitao's army was a mixed force, it still had 100,000 troops!

If Huang Baitao's army is wiped out, it will be like losing a finger.

So Lao Zi ordered Qiu Qingquan and Li Mi's army to turn around and rescue the people. He also sent Du Yuming over, not trusting them. There was no other way, since Huang Baitao's army was surrounded because of Liu Zhi's wrong command!
If Liu Zhi hadn't been so hasty in recalling Li Mi's army, Huang Baitao's army wouldn't have been surrounded.

The rescue naturally required the most elite troops in the army, so Qiu Qingquan's army sent out the Eighty-Nine Lions to lead the charge and clear the way for Huang Baitao's army.

That's right, the elite Eighty-Nine Lions is the same Eighty-Nine Lions commanded by Chu Yunfei during the defense war in the TV series "Bright Sword". The Zhao Zhuang battlefield, where Chu Yunfei and Li Yunlong first clashed, was actually a small battle with a scale of no more than 10,000 people in the Huaihai Campaign, but it was also a crucial battle.

In order to rescue Huang Baitao's army group, which was surrounded by the Third Field Army, Chu Yunfei, following the instructions of his superior Qiu Qingquan, led the Eighty-Nine Lions to the area to provide support. Zhao Village happened to be a transportation hub.

If the Eighty-Nine Lions decide to participate in this battle and open up the passage, then Huang Baitao's army might have a chance to catch its breath and escape through this passage. Therefore, in order to avoid a reversal of the battle situation, the Third Field Army immediately dispatched the Second Lions under the command of Li Yunlong to confront them, block Chu Yunfei's advance, and keep Chu Yunfei outside the encirclement.

Moreover, in the original storyline of "Bright Sword", when both sides were ready with their battle strategies, Chu Yunfei knew that the Jiefang Army was lacking in weaponry, so he chose firepower control and used howitzers, tanks and aircraft to fight alternately.

Seeing this, Li Yunlong, while trying his best to defend, also felt envious of Chu Yunfei's equipment.

He said to his chief of staff, Zhang Dabiao, "The howitzers are getting bigger and bigger. With just a little movement, they get tank and plane cover. It's really impressive; it makes my mouth water." From Li Yunlong's words, it was clear that Chu Yunfei's equipment was top-notch. And indeed, the Eighty-Nine Lions were a key member of the old guard, so all their weapons and equipment were of the American style.

Therefore, although Li Yunlong and his two lions were veterans who fought side by side during the eight-year War of Resistance against Japan, they did not have any advantage in combat against powerful firepower.

Faced with continuous artillery bombardment, Li Yunlong's troops not only did not show any fear, but instead displayed even more courage, creating a stalemate with the enemy. Chu Yunfei's troops were unable to make any progress.

However, this battle, which was of unequal firepower, also dealt a huge blow to Li Yunlong, causing his troops to lose more than half of their strength, and almost all of the resources accumulated during the War of Resistance Against Japan were wiped out.

It should be noted that Li Yunlong already had a force of about one lion when he attacked Ping'an County.

During the first few years of the war of relief, the country was basically on the defensive, so Li Yunlong's Second Lion Army did not expand much, and its heavy firepower was practically nonexistent.

Therefore, it would be a huge disadvantage to fight Chu Yunfei in a firepower contest.

Therefore, it would be extremely unwise to simply hold the position and wait for Chu Yunfei to bombard it.

Therefore, Wang Gensheng decided to make changes to prevent Chu Yunfei from being so arrogant.

Given the disparity in firepower, the best approach would undoubtedly be a sneak attack, taking advantage of the darkness to ambush Chu Yunfei. After all, in the original story, Duan Peng led a commando team to destroy Chu Yunfei's artillery position.

Given this, Wang Gensheng felt that with his involvement, it wouldn't be impossible to directly destroy Chu Yunfei's command post.

After all, Chu Yunfei was on the offensive, so naturally he wouldn't build any solid or comprehensive defensive fortifications.

Therefore, under the cover of night, it would not be difficult to launch a surprise attack on Chu Yunfei's command post. Furthermore, if Li Yunlong could coordinate with Wang Gensheng, they could launch a full-scale counterattack under the cover of night.

In that case, not only could Chu Yunfei's command post be wiped out, but the entire Eighty-Nine Lions might also be wiped out in one fell swoop.

So, just as Li Yunlong was ordered to Zhao Village to carry out an ambush, Wang Gensheng also found Li Yunlong. Li Yunlong was quite surprised to see Wang Gensheng and asked:

"Why aren't you training your navy by the sea? What are you doing here? There's no ocean here for your warships to navigate!"

That's right, Li Yunlong also knew about Wang Gensheng becoming a naval officer.

(End of this chapter)