Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 238 Li Yunlong Returns to His Mother's Home
Of course, the 104th Army was originally a tough nut to crack, but this time they encountered real trouble on their way to rescue the 35th Army. Seeing the situation was dire, they attempted to retreat, but couldn't even manage that. They were fiercely attacked by the Fourth Field Army column, decimating them. The problem wasn't just combat effectiveness, but more importantly, morale. With the army's morale collapsed, the soldiers holding guns were nothing more than walking corpses.

Fu Zuoyi's beloved 35th Army was besieged and annihilated by the People's Liberation Army in Xinbao'an, which utterly disheartened him. He thought of Zhang Jiakou's 50,000-strong garrison—a magnificent force—yet during their breakout attempt, they suffered a casualty ratio of 60 to 1. The difference in combat effectiveness was too great. It was questionable whether such an army could even be considered a regular army.

Upon returning to Beiping, Fu Zuoyi hastily expanded his troops, recruiting many new regiments. However, the effectiveness of these new regiments in battle remained uncertain. He had originally hoped to rely on the defense of fortified cities, but even Tianjin fell in a short period of time, severely damaging Fu Zuoyi's confidence. This naturally laid the groundwork for the forced surrender and the peaceful dismantling of Beiping.

Although Beiping still had 250,000 troops, which sounded quite frightening, Fu Zuoyi knew in his heart that these troops were actually dead in name only.

Those were all old, incompetent troops; they wouldn't dare to step forward in front of the People's Liberation Army. All the truly capable fighters were gone; what were the rest worth?
There were over a million People's Liberation Army troops from the Fourth Field Army alone outside. How could one not feel chilled by such a sight!
Therefore, although Fu Zuoyi's pieces were still on the board, they were essentially powerless to reverse the situation. In this predicament, whether to fight or not was no longer a tactical question, but required a complete strategic reconsideration.

It's important to understand that in historically crucial battles, once the toughest challenges are overcome, the remaining questions are usually easy points.

For example, in the three major campaigns, at the very beginning of the war, the People's Liberation Army targeted the enemy's elite troops first. Once these elite troops collapsed, the other troops fell one after another like dominoes.

Although Fu Zuoyi's army numbered 600,000, which sounded intimidating, the truly reliable forces were only a few Suiyuan troops, especially the elite units led by the 35th Army. While the 35th Army was small in number, its combat effectiveness and strategic importance far surpassed other branches of the armed forces. The defeat of this force would be a devastating blow to Fu Zuoyi.

It's like playing chess. Once your key pieces are captured by the opponent, even though there are still many pieces on the board, they are basically doomed to be captured. For the People's Liberation Army, this tactic of directly attacking the vital points proved very effective; they aimed directly at the enemy's Achilles' heel and struck with deadly precision.

Therefore, the outcome of a war largely depends on how you use your resources and how you disrupt the enemy's power structure. Fu Zuoyi's case is a typical example. Once his main force was damaged, his seemingly massive army became a paper tiger, utterly unable to retaliate against the People's Liberation Army's relentless attacks. This was not only a military victory but also a psychological one.

Of course, that's why the General Headquarters was so angry about not taking the secret transport according to the requirements. After all, if the Second Column hadn't rushed to Xinbao'an overnight, the 35th Army might have really gotten away.

Of course, among the three major battles, the Pingjin Campaign was actually the least difficult. With over a million troops against 600,000, it wasn't difficult at all, and it was not even close to the intensity of the Huaihai Campaign.

Even the Liaoshen Campaign was not as difficult as the Huaihai Campaign. After all, most of the main force of the old army was actually in Huaihai, and during the Huaihai Campaign, the old army did not have the advantage in troop strength!

Of course, that's not all. If the 35th Army was Fu Zuoyi's trump card and backbone, then Huang Wei's 12th Army Corps was Lao Jing's trump card and backbone.

This time, facing the support of the entire Second Field Army and part of the Third Field Army, yes, in order to ensure an absolute advantage and annihilate Huang Wei's army, the Third Field Army also dispatched the Third Column and the Eleventh Column to provide support.

This time, Li Yunlong's Second Lion was also transferred to provide support.

After all, Huang Wei's army was relatively difficult to conquer, so naturally, people who were good at fighting tough battles were needed to take over Dawangzhuang, the gateway to Huang Wei's army.

The reason why Dawangzhuang is considered the gateway to Shuangduiji is that as long as Dawangzhuang is captured, the artillery will be able to reach Shuangduiji.

Li Yunlong was undoubtedly a tough and resourceful fighter, so it was normal for him to be transferred here. "I'd say you've essentially returned to your hometown!"

Wang Gensheng, who had come with Li Yunlong, smiled and beckoned to him. Li Yunlong, upon hearing Wang Gensheng's words, chuckled and replied:

"That's right, this Second Field Army is my hometown, it's only natural for me to go back and visit often."

Besides, I'm here to help my family, so I have to be even more diligent. Otherwise, wouldn't I, a married woman, become an ungrateful wretch?

Wang Gensheng responded with a smile:
"So you'll have to put in a lot of effort this time! Otherwise, you won't be able to explain yourself to the old lion chief and the chief."

In response, Li Yunlong looked at Dawangzhuang through his binoculars and said:

“Dawangzhuang is not easy to take! Look at Huang Wei, that bookworm, he directly set up artillery positions in Shuangduiji. If we rush up and take Dawangzhuang, we will immediately be bombarded by artillery from Shuangduiji! After the bombardment is almost over, Huang Wei will immediately send people to take Dawangzhuang back!”
Moreover, Huang Wei's army also has quite a few tanks. With the infantry coordinating with the tanks' charge, taking the position would be a piece of cake!

Wang Gensheng responded to this by saying:
"Actually, this tank isn't untouchable. I still have quite a few anti-tank grenades, which should be enough to deal with Old Man Jaffe's Chaffee tank."

That's right, the anti-tank grenade that Wang Gensheng mentioned was the one he modified from the Japanese Type 97 grenade when he was still working under Kong Jie, in order to deal with the Japanese attack on Wangjia Village.

There weren't many changes; the only difference was the addition of a shaped charge shield inside the grenade, transforming its scattered fragmentation attack into a targeted, armor-piercing attack. Its armor-piercing effect was only five centimeters, not even enough to penetrate a Tiger tank.

Of course, the US Pershing tank was also ineffective, except for the Tiger tank, since the Pershing tank's frontal armor was also more than ten centimeters thick.

However, it has no problem dealing with light tanks like the M24 Chaffee.

Although the Chaffee tank weighed eighteen tons and had a gun caliber of seventy-five millimeters.

However, the Chaffee tank was relatively large, unlike the Japanese miniature tanks, which were designed to be so small mainly because the Japanese tanks themselves were not very large.

Therefore, with a weight of eighteen tons, a length of more than five meters, and a width of nearly three meters, the armor became extremely thin.

(End of this chapter)