Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 226 Three Retreat Routes

With the machine gun positions built with M2 heavy machine guns, if Wang Gensheng still led the Marines in a charge, it would be tantamount to sending the Marines to their deaths.

At that time, apart from Wang Gensheng himself, the other soldiers will basically be in trouble, since Wang Gensheng himself is wearing two layers of bulletproof plates that can block it.

The remaining soldiers, protected only by a single layer of bulletproof plates, were utterly unable to withstand the onslaught of the M2 heavy machine gun.

However, with Huang Wei's army group surrounded in Shuangduiji, although it has not yet been captured, the amount of food dropped by air is not enough, and its annihilation is only a matter of time.

Although Huang Wei's army had not yet been destroyed, Huang Baitao's army had been destroyed, and Su County had also been captured. At this time, Xuzhou had become an isolated city like Shengyang.

Therefore, seeing that the outcome of the Huaihai Campaign was already clear, Lao Zi naturally could not be as foolish as Dong Bei before and continue to hold out.

Therefore, preserving strength and withdrawing troops completely from Xuzhou is of utmost importance.

It should be noted that at this time, Xu Zhou still had two major army groups, Qiu Qingquan's army group and Li Mi's army group, which had not suffered major damage. In addition to Xu Zhou's original troops, Xu Zhou still had 300,000 troops!
Therefore, this means that as long as he can safely withdraw these 300,000 troops, Lao Zi still has the confidence to turn the tide.

Of course, the Third Field Army Command also held another meeting regarding Lao Jing's idea of ​​withdrawing troops, because the Third Field Army Command had also considered that Lao Jing would withdraw his troops from Xuzhou.

At this moment, the deputy commander of the Third Field Army pointed to the map and said:
"Li Yannian's army was blocked in Beishang, and Huang Wei's army was stuck in Shuangduiji and could not move. Lao Jing has run out of cards to play. He can no longer send any more troops to fill Xuzhou. So I estimate that Du Yuming will give up Xuzhou in the next few days!"

Upon hearing this, the chief of staff of the Third Field Army also laughed:
"That would be exactly what we wanted! If he were to hide his head in his tortoise shell and hold out to the death in Xuzhou, then this battle would be really difficult!"

The deputy commander of the Third Field Army laughed and said:
"Du Yuming is not only an expert in fighting, but also a master at escaping. Back when we were fighting the Japanese, he commanded the Great Retreat from the Savage Mountain, bringing the heavily damaged troops out of a desperate situation. Moreover, he also commanded the retreat from Huludao in Dongbei, and several corps escaped!"

The Third Field Army Chief of Staff, standing to the side, nodded in agreement.

"Therefore, we must learn from this lesson and never let him escape with his troops!"

The deputy commander of the Third Field Army nodded and pointed to the map on the wall, saying:

“Look, there are three possible directions for Du Yuming to retreat! The first possibility is to go through the Huai River region, escape south along central Jiangsu, and then head south through central Jiangsu. However, there are many rivers here, which is not conducive to the movement of large troops. If Du Yuming were to take this route, it would be like sending him into a swamp. Therefore, I am certain that Du Yuming will not take this route.”

After saying that, the deputy commander of the Third Field Army pointed to the map again and said:
"Where would he go next? By sea, from Xuzhou along the Longhai Railway eastward to Lianyun Port, to retreat by sea. But sea transport is extremely risky. If they don't escape fast enough, we will catch up with them, and they will be forced to fight with their backs to the sea, and we will drive them all into the sea! So Du Yuming can't be that stupid!"

Wang Gensheng then smiled and said:
"If that old fox really dares to tell them to take the sea route, that would be great. Then our navy can take care of all these troops! We'll make sure those troop transport ships never come back and are all sunk in the port."

Indeed, Wang Gensheng was also summoned to the Third Field Army's operations room for an operational meeting by the deputy commander of the Third Field Army. However, as soon as Wang Gensheng said this, the deputy commander of the Third Field Army smiled and said:
“Although I’m pretty sure Du Yuming won’t take this sea route, I can’t be sure! So just in case…” Wang Gensheng now understood what the deputy commander of the Third Field Army meant by calling him to the Third Field Army for a combat meeting.

However, Wang Gensheng was not offended, since the navy had a responsibility to cooperate in combat, so he immediately said:
"Don't worry, I'll send a telegram right away to have the frogman special forces go to Lianyun Port and stand by, ready to sink Lao Ji's troop transport ship at any time."

The reason why the deputy commander of the Third Field Army had this idea was mainly because during the Liaoshen Campaign, Wang Gensheng had taken down five of Lao Ji’s warships in succession at the Tashan coast. This made the deputy commander of the Third Field Army realize that the navy established by Zongbu was not just for show, but also had real strength.

After hearing Wang Gensheng's assurance, the deputy commander of the Third Field Army continued pointing to the battle map:
"For this third route, Du Yuming can only choose the southwest, leaving Xuzhou, passing the west side of the Jinpu Railway, bypassing the mountains and heading south. The terrain here is open and the roads are flat, which is conducive to the movement of large troop groups and heavy equipment. At the same time, this place is very close to Huang Wei's army group, and can also support the two major army groups of Li Yannian and Liu Ruming to achieve a north-south advance. Therefore, retreating in the southwest direction is the idea that Huangpu's top students should have."

After speaking, the deputy commander of the third field army addressed the crowd:

"Comrades, let's make up our minds! I suggest that the seven columns of the Beiping line be deployed on both sides of the Jinpu Railway, south of Xuzhou. As soon as Du Yuming retreats, we will sharpen our weapons and wait for him to come to us!"

Wang Gensheng then spoke to the deputy commander of the Third Field Army:
"Deputy Commander, I previously launched a surprise attack and bombed the oil depot at Xuzhou Airport. There are still a large number of fighter jets and bombers at Xuzhou Airport. So, in order to prevent Lao Jing from destroying Xuzhou Airport during his retreat, should we take Xuzhou Airport first?"

However, right after Wang Gensheng finished speaking, the chief of staff said:

"Even if we take over Xuzhou Airport and get the planes, it won't be of any use. Lao Zi won't let us get the planes so easily. He will definitely send bombers to destroy the planes on the airport."

Wang Gensheng had already anticipated the chief of staff's words and replied:

"We can hide the planes around the airport and cover them with tarpaulins or similar materials. We can also place fake planes on the airport for cover! We can also set up multiple M2 heavy machine guns around the airport for anti-aircraft cover! This will prevent the old quail bombers from bombing at low altitude."

Indeed, Wang Gensheng had been thinking about this method of protecting the fighter jets at Xuzhou Airport for a long time, and it was only after much deliberation that he came up with these methods.

However, to implement this plan, the more than 900 marines under Wang Gensheng were not enough.

After all, let's not even talk about the B-24 bomber's empty weight of over ten tons.

Even the Mustang fighter jet has an empty weight of three and a half tons!
Therefore, with so few people, it was impossible to move all the fighter jets out of the airport and into the vicinity to cover them up in one night.

There was no other way. If we didn't finish it in one night, the old fox would definitely send bombers to bomb the planes parked at the airport during the day. In that case, attacking the airport would be a pointless attack.

However, these are not the most crucial factors. The most crucial factor is creating false targets, since there are still five B-24 bombers and more than fifty fighter jets at Xuzhou Airport at this time!

(End of this chapter)