What? Today is the 17th, and we won’t arrive in Chengdu until the 18th tomorrow. If we ask for the 26th, that means we only have about eight and a half days of marching time?
"Playing the piano randomly! Isn't this nonsense? There is such a rush suddenly... There are new changes on the front line? Is there any other news?"
"No, just this order."
Zhou Changfeng was speechless. What layman who didn't know anything about military affairs gave this order?
From Chengdu to Lingzhi, we take the Southern Sichuan-Tibet Line, which is the G318 line of the original world line. It is famous for its beautiful scenery and steep and complex scenery. It has a high altitude and is full of steep slopes along the way. It has many sharp turns and is slightly uncomfortable. If you are careful, you may fall into the abyss.
The whole journey is about 3,100 miles. Although the maximum marching speed of the motorized troops under ideal conditions is 500 miles per day and it can be reached in six days, the marching speed in such a place will definitely be greatly reduced.
Can we force the road at the theoretical maximum speed?
Yes, but you must be mentally prepared to lose one-third of your vehicles and one-tenth of your personnel in non-combat situations.
"I'm afraid I didn't mean to make things difficult." Xie Wancheng also complained: "The people in the border army have always been jealous of us, and now some of us have suffered."
But if you are not convinced, you will not be convinced. Military orders are like mountains, and you must carry them out no matter what.
"Xiao Li! Bring me the map."
"yes."
"Battal Commander, when we get to Chengdu Mansion, why don't we talk to the brothers? If we explain it in advance, everyone will have a good idea." Xie Wancheng made a suggestion.
Zhou Changfeng carefully looked at the map of Uszang spread out on the table, drawing a few circles with a pencil from time to time.
After a while, he slowly said: "The most effective way to reduce altitude sickness is to give the human body time to adapt. It is best to rest one day every three days on the way to Tibet. If we follow the original order, it will be fine until the end of the month. That way we can continue That's fine, but now..."
He looked up at Xie Wancheng and said seriously: "With a rapid increase in altitude in a short period of time, half of the people will have obvious symptoms, but they can recover on their own; at the same time, about five to ten percent of the people will have severe symptoms and develop pulmonary edema or pulmonary edema. Brain edema."
"Understood." Xie Wancheng nodded solemnly.
But he was a little confused, how did the commander know these specific data? The Uzang combat guide issued by the Ministry of War only gave a general description of about a few percent.
Zhou Changfeng was not the only one who expressed dissatisfaction with the order sent by Lingzhi. The officers in the military column that had just set off were also talking about it.
In the officer's compartment carrying brigade personnel, brigade commander Huang Taize even cursed on the spot, calling Wei Gaoming a head-chopping guy.
"What a bastard! You didn't even explain the changes on the front line clearly, so you told us to rush on as fast as we can? That old boy wants to start the war early, I'm sure it's up to no good!"
Tracing back to the origins, Huang Taize's ancestor was Huang Degong, Jingnan Bo, one of the four towns in Jiangbei of the Nanming Dynasty. Although Huang Degong died, his descendants escaped. Huang Taize's lineage separated and moved to Chongqing a hundred years ago.
He comes from a good background, has remarkable personal abilities, and is very measured in his conduct, which gives him a very high prestige in the Forbidden Army system.
"Jun Zuo, how about..."
Before the chief of staff next to him could finish his words, Huang Taize, with a straight face, waved his hand and said: "I'm very expensive in military affairs. Please call me back immediately. The command of our unit will still belong to the Governor's Palace before arriving at Lingzhi. His surname is Wei." No authority to give orders!”
He paused, turned to look out the window, and added reluctantly: "Unless it's an emergency."
At the same time, after receiving the report from Lingzhi and the request to start the war in advance, the governor's office immediately responded. The staff of the staff office did not even have lunch, so they rushed to update the sand table and map. .
Cheng Han, a colleague in the staff office, took a magnifying glass and carefully looked at a hanging large-scale map, and then turned his gaze to examine the exquisite sand table.
According to the intelligence gathered so far, it is known that the direct enemies in Assam include four Assam regiments, Gurkha regiments, Sikh regiments, the 3rd Infantry Division, as well as the newly arrived 6th Infantry Division and 14th Infantry Division. The Royal Artillery has a total strength of approximately 35,000 men.
The "regiments" of the Commonwealth Army are administrative units that are actually equivalent to battalion-level units in other countries on the front line, while their "brigades" are equivalent to regiment-level units, which is unique.
Since the total length of the front in the eastern region exceeds 900 miles, the enemy's front is exposed from all directions. Even though they have secured key highlands in several mountains, Cheng Han believes that this is just a road to death.
Once the Ming army penetrates deep into it, the strongholds in those mountains will become isolated and helpless places of death.
Cheng Han naturally also knew the purpose of the enemy's arrangement - to guard key nodes with solid strongholds, forcing the Ming army to be unable to deploy, and blocking subsequent large forces in the mountains. Even if a small group of Ming troops penetrated to the rear and deployed in depth Mobile troops in the area can also quickly annihilate them.
"He's really good at calculating..." Cheng Han adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, put down the magnifying glass, turned around and walked out, and ordered by the way: "You guys do the deduction again after dinner to increase the enemy's combat power coefficient. 10%, the results will be sent to you in time."
"yes."
From a military point of view, launching an attack as early as possible is undoubtedly the best choice. Every hour of delay will give the newly arrived British-Indian Sixth Division more time to deploy defense areas.
Cheng Han arrived at the conference hall and waited for a short while. Within half a cup of tea, the chief officers of the Army Department, Navy Department, Air Force Department, Logistics Department and other departments were all present, and the highest officer of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion Also arrived slowly.
More than a dozen people discussed Lingzhi's request today, and time passed slowly with each other's words.
The bright sunshine slanting in made the well-lit lobby a little hot, but the attendants did not turn on the air conditioner because most of the big bosses were elderly and did not like the cold.
"Except for transporting some supplies to Lhasa, the Air Force has no use. I think the more important thing is the logistics issue." said the Air Force officer calmly.
"The ammunition supplies accumulated so far have exceeded 40,000 and 9,000 tons. Without the assistance of the air force, the land transportation capacity can only be maintained at about 240 tons per day." A colleague from the Logistics Department replied.
It is extremely inefficient to transport supplies to the top of the world without railways. Through the two major routes of Qinghai-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet, the Ming Dynasty can only transport about 80,000 tons of supplies to the Uzbek-Tibet region every year.
However, the local garrison consumes more than 70,000 tons of food, clothing and training exercises throughout the year, and can only accumulate a small amount of supplies throughout the year. The 49,000 tons of ammunition supplies have been saved for six or seven years.
But how useful can the air force be? Flying to such high altitude areas, the transport aircraft can only carry one-third of the payload, which is shockingly inefficient.
For the two infantry divisions and three border defense battalions that have been deployed, as well as a mixed brigade that is about to arrive, these 49,000 tons of supplies can only support their needs for the next month and a half of moderate-intensity fighting.
Sometimes, making up your mind is really hard.
"You can have a smaller appetite. Beating hard... doesn't mean beating more, right?" A relaxed but calm voice came from the upper table.
