Chapter 159: Combat Method: Abandon Vehicle And Engage On Foot
Gao Cheng arranged for the warriors of Steel Seventh Company to board the train, instructing the three platoon leaders to maintain order while leading the team. One company filled one carriage perfectly.
He then called Chen Jun to go with him to the station entrance to greet the regiment commander and chief of staff.
The chief officers of each company, along with the battalion commanders of the three battalions, were all riding in one carriage with the regiment headquarters. They were now assembling at the entrance, waiting for the regiment headquarters personnel to arrive.
When Gao Cheng and Chen Jun arrived at the entrance, more than twenty officers had already gathered there.
They were all chief officers of companies and battalions at one mao three or above.
The deputy company commanders of other companies were not qualified to ride with the regiment commander and were in the carriages responsible for leading and managing the team.
Chen Jun, this one mao two deputy company commander, was a special case. It was a special case personally named by Regiment Commander Wang to ride with the regiment. The deputy company commanders of other companies could only envy.
8:
The regiment headquarters convoy stopped at the entrance. Regiment Commander Wang and the chief of staff, leading the regiment combat command center, about ten people, all got off the vehicle in a rush.
“Talk while walking.”
Time was tight with no time to stop and chat casually. Regiment Commander Wang shouted as soon as he got off and walked straight into the station.
The group of officers waiting at the entrance followed closely behind.
“Heavy armored units conducting a mountain exercise—a bunch of tanks and armored vehicles drilling into the mountains. If it weren’t for the group army’s order, I would have thought it was a joke, haha.” Regiment Commander Wang joked while walking.
“Yeah.”
The accompanying chief of staff agreed: “Temperate forest, mountain jungle, altitude exceeding two thousand one hundred meters, average temperature 5 degrees.
Every one of these is a challenge. For our heavy armored troops, it’s indeed quite difficult.
It seems the military really values us, adding difficulty to test us, so they picked such a place.”
“This Army Day, I’m afraid it won’t be easy.” First Battalion Commander said with a smile.
“No complaining allowed.”
Regiment Commander Wang had started the complaining himself, but he stopped and sternly scolded First Battalion Commander with a straight face, leaving Chen Jun and the other officers stunned.
Only officials are allowed to set fires; common people are not allowed to light lamps.
It was a perfect illustration!
But everyone was familiar with Regiment Commander Wang’s temper, so they smiled and didn’t take it to heart. Then, at the regiment commander’s signal, they began boarding the train.
Ordinary soldiers could only sit in the iron can carriages, using quilts padded under their buttocks as stools.
The cadres didn’t have it much better either, just ordinary hard-seat carriages.
Fortunately, enduring hardship is the basic quality of soldiers. After being used to canvas trucks that could shake their buttocks swollen, the iron trains were actually much more comfortable.
At least they weren’t so bumpy when moving!
The layout of the hard-seat carriage hadn’t changed. After sitting down, Regiment Commander Wang specifically named Chen Jun and Gao Cheng to sit with him in the six-person seat.
The political commissar and regiment commander sat in one three-person seat, while the chief of staff sat opposite with Chen Jun and Gao Cheng.
“Old Xu, for this mountain exercise, we don’t know who the opponent is yet, or what their playing style is. So let’s stick to the old rules for now: I’ll lead the charge, and you’ll cover the rear…”
Regiment Commander Wang had a bit of a hasty personality. He started discussing the exercise as soon as he sat down.
When Chen Jun heard the regiment commander mention the old rules right away, he felt a headache coming on. Facing the informatization reform Blue Army, old rules were equivalent to rigid rules.
Without changes at the regiment tactical level, relying solely on Steel Seventh Company would be hopeless.
But now the regiment commander wasn’t consulting everyone on how to fight the next battle. From his words, it was clear he had decided to fight according to his own thinking.
This was tricky!
“It seems I need to find a suitable opportunity to correct the regiment commander’s outdated thoughts and deliver the most appropriate tactics into his head.”
Chen Jun thought to himself.
As a traverser, he knew a lot of advantageous information. If he could fully utilize it, laying out in advance could catch the Blue Army off guard.
For example:
The Blue Army command post was not on the ground but set up on a helicopter flying in the sky;
The Blue Army, relying on Old A’s powerful reconnaissance capabilities, precisely locked onto the Red Army’s regiment command center and used a helicopter formation to execute a decapitation operation.
The Blue Army would also pretend to be defeated to lure the enemy deep, weakening 702 Regiment’s strength through ambush battles.
And so on—various tactics and playing styles that Chen Jun could see clearly in the TV drama plot, while the Blue Army didn’t know Chen Jun had the eye of God.
As long as he made good use of this information asymmetry between the two sides, he could make the Blue Army suffer a crushing defeat.
Even inflict heavy losses on the Blue Army!
However, although Chen Jun knew this information, turning it into intelligence that the regiment commander and others would believe was a very troublesome matter.
Saying it out of thin air with no basis would make it seem extremely strange.
He couldn’t say it was because he watched a TV series and knew how the Blue Army would fight this acting exercise.
That would be utterly stupid!
Chen Jun couldn’t think of a good way for the moment and could only temporarily keep these thoughts in his heart, waiting for a good opportunity later.
Regiment Commander Wang was still very confident in Steel Seventh Company and regarded it as the ace of this exercise.
He specifically instructed Gao Cheng and Chen Jun to attach great importance to this mountain exercise, bring out their highest combat effectiveness, and hand in a perfect answer sheet to the group army.
…
“Hoo—”
A long whistle sounded.
The military train, loaded with over a thousand warriors and more than a hundred vehicles across dozens of carriages, slowly started and headed northeast.
The soldiers on the train felt excited and apprehensive, anticipating this regiment-level large-scale exercise.
Even sitting in the can carriages, they chatted enthusiastically.
The military train departed on time at nine o’clock in the morning and stopped at a temporarily sealed train station at noon for a twenty-minute rest.
The logistics troops were already in position on the platform, distributing prepared lunch.
The 702 Regiment warriors had to quickly finish their lunch in these twenty minutes and handle all physiological needs at the train station.
The iron can train carriages had no toilets, so they could only use the station facilities.
At 8 p.m., the special train stopped again.
The noon procedure repeated, which was also the last hot meal the warriors could eat before arriving at the exercise area.
Twenty minutes later.
The military train started again.
It had run all day without stopping and continued through the night into LN Province, finally stopping at a blockaded station.
All armored vehicles, trucks, tanks, and warriors disembarked from the train.
Taking advantage of the dim, grayish dawn light, they transferred from train to cars, from railway to road, heading into the deep mountains and old forests.
They ran on the road for several more hours, arriving at the designated exercise area at noon.
The warriors had nothing to do on the train except sleep, so after sleeping a full day, they had sufficient rest, but the long journey left them mentally fatigued.
However, upon arriving at the exercise area, there was no time to idle; a pile of tasks awaited them.
Within the Red Army position area assigned by the directing staff, each company had to find positions that were both concealed and advantageous, clear training grounds in weed-infested areas, set up tents, and build their respective company headquarters camps.
The signal company was a regiment direct unit and the only one in the regiment equipped with a radar vehicle.
They not only needed to set up the regiment command post, that is, the Red Army’s command center, but also quickly debug and install various electronic equipment.
They also had to send out a large number of survey personnel to conduct overall measurements of the exercise area.
Tomorrow was the start of the exercise.
702 Regiment arrived at the exercise area around noon, leaving only half a day at most.
The logistics support platoons brought by each battalion had to get moving without delay, completing related logistics food support work in the shortest time.
Lunch had to be made do with rations; dinner definitely needed hot meals.
To ensure the warriors ate and drank their fill, then slept soundly that night, facing tomorrow’s confrontation exercise in the best mental and physical state.
The warriors below were busy in full swing, and the regiment leaders couldn’t idle either.
They not only needed to connect with the directing staff to obtain relevant information on this confrontation exercise, knowing what it was comparing, what rules and restrictions there were.
They also had to gather as much information as possible on the Blue Army through various channels.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
Understanding what kind of existence the Blue Army was, what they were best at, what kind of troops they were, to formulate more precise combat plans.
More than an hour passed.
Time reached 1 p.m. on July
Under the high-efficiency work of the signal company warriors, the large tent for the regiment combat command center was erected, and related supporting facilities were successively in place.
Regiment Commander Wang, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately summoned the battalion commanders to a meeting at the command post.
Because Steel Seventh Company was too special in the regiment, Chen Jun and Gao Cheng also received a command post notification and became the only two junior officers in the entire meeting.
All personnel were in position at the combat center, crowding around the newly made sand table.
Regiment Commander Wang took the lead in starting the combat discussion.
“The situation is far from ideal, worse than we initially thought. The hillside heights here already exceed the maximum elevation angle of tanks and armored vehicles.
Heavy armored troops’ tanks and armored vehicles are an advantage, but if they can’t go up the slopes, it’s no fun.
Plus the forest coverage here is too high, which will also form major obstacles to the firing arcs of our tanks’ guns and heavy artillery.”
Regiment Commander Wang spoke expressionlessly, evidently in a bad mood.
It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say he was deeply worried.
Hearing the situation was so unfavorable for their side, the three battalion commanders’ expressions also turned grave.
Whether it was First Battalion mainly with tank company, Third Battalion mainly with various artillery, or Second Battalion focusing on armored infantry assault, they all had one thing in common.
That was high mechanization across the battalion, making them extremely dependent on terrain.
Once the vehicles couldn’t go up, combat effectiveness would be cut in half at least.
“No impact on us. We’re the reconnaissance company. If vehicles can’t go, we’ll run on two legs. People have no maximum elevation angle.”
In this very serious atmosphere, Gao Cheng proudly jumped out.
Although Steel Seventh Company had greatly enhanced its firepower after transforming into a combined arms company, the upgraded equipment could all be carried by individual soldiers.
Even without vehicles, they could maintain combat effectiveness, just with slightly reduced endurance and burst capability.
After all, without vehicles as carriers for ammunition, they couldn’t carry as much ammunition, and firepower sustainability would inevitably decrease greatly.
“You’re right.”
Regiment Commander Wang’s expression softened slightly, then continued: “Your reconnaissance company can still maintain combat effectiveness, which is our last trump card.
Therefore, in the upcoming exercise, whether Steel Seventh Company performs well or not will determine victory or defeat. No mishaps allowed.”
“Don’t worry, our Seventh Company is rock solid and won’t have issues.” Gao Cheng said confidently.
“Good.”
Regiment Commander Wang nodded and began deploying: “We don’t know the Blue Army’s situation yet, so our tactical playing style can’t stop here.
We can only make assumptions for now and prepare solid preliminary plans and backups in advance.
I think we should rely on the reconnaissance company and the signal company’s electronic reconnaissance to conduct all-round reconnaissance on the Blue Army position.
At the same time, the tank unit takes the lead in charging, providing firepower cover to attract the enemy’s attention.
First Battalion and Second Battalion as vanguard troops, under the tank unit’s firepower cover, abandon vehicles to engage and charge the mountains, first seizing frontline strategic points.
Seventh Company also abandons vehicles for route reconnaissance, to find the command post mainly, and other strategic points secondarily…”
The directing staff had already provided relevant exercise information. The Red and Blue sides each had a position area and respective strategic points to defend.
702 Regiment was the Red Army, the opponent the Blue Army.
The rules for winning this confrontation were 1+2 pick 1: decapitating the opponent’s command post was mandatory, and from the remaining two, pick one: number of strategic points or casualty rate.
Achieve one of: seize half of the opponent’s position strategic points, or make the opponent’s casualty rate exceed half.
Because the Blue Army was the “examiner” existence, while the Red Army was the “examinee.”
Thus, the Blue Army knew almost all Red Army information, except where the Red Army command post would be set up—that one piece was unknown.
While Regiment Commander Wang didn’t know the Blue Army unit’s troop strength, configuration, or branches of service deployed.
He could only see the clearly marked Blue Army position on the confrontation military map.
And only the frontline few positions.
That was the only information.
Under this huge enemy-self information gap, Regiment Commander Wang’s tactical thinking was fine; they could only probe the enemy with active offense.
If forced to point out the problem with the whole set of playing style, it was probably too traditional, too honest and straightforward.
No tricks at all.
Just follow rules strictly, steady and firm.
In traditional combat, this playing style was fine.
But facing the Old A team-led, combined arms tactics thinking, more advanced equipment, and far superior combat effectiveness Blue Army unit.
Using traditional tactics to confront would expose too many loopholes.
Chen Jun knew he must remind the regiment commander as soon as possible, or it would be too late if caught by Old A.
Unfortunately, no suitable opportunity yet. Forcibly interrupting to question the regiment commander’s playing style would be slapping his face, not smart.
It might even backfire!
So Chen Jun could only choose temporary silence, while thinking up counterattack tactical strategies in his mind, ready to implement immediately when the opportunity arose.
