Chapter 249: Gao Cheng Goes Berserk!!
Steel Seventh Company itself was a reconnaissance company, expanded into a combined arms battalion and became a special reconnaissance company, with its core attribute still focused on reconnaissance.
During the third stage of combined arms tactical training, Chen Jun also conducted intensified training for the special reconnaissance company.
As for the current Steel Seventh Company, while other aspects may not be remarkable, and they might not possess outstanding absolute strength, they are definitely masters of reconnaissance.
Even when looking at reconnaissance companies across the entire army, none are more excellent than them.
Now, in this acceptance confrontation exercise, the entire Steel Seventh Company has been transformed into squad-level reconnaissance units, which provides absolute assurance in reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance.
The command post of the Seven Hundred and Second Regiment only used two companies to defend, stemming from their absolute trust in Steel Seventh Company.
In addition to reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance work, Steel Seventh Company also has a relatively independent special operations platoon, where each member is a Soldier King level master from other companies.
Chen Jun gave them a secret mission, to be carried out secretly under the leadership of Platoon Leader Tuo Yonggang.
How secret was it?
It was so secret that Chen Jun played a trick, shook off the broadcast team from the directing staff that was tracking them, and completely disappeared from the battlefield’s field of vision.
Apart from Chen Jun, Regiment Commander Wang, and Gao Cheng, no one knew where the special operations platoon went.
Because Chen Jun’s methods were so brilliant, even the observation groups from two divisions watching the exercise at the directing staff, as well as the leaders of the group army and the Capital Military Region, did not notice that a platoon had disappeared at this time.
Everyone’s attention was following the broadcast team, focusing on the streams of steel that were moving out, rushing towards the engagement centerline to seize key passes and high grounds.
The scene of the initial deployment was very shocking, with hundreds of armored tanks forming a steel flood, kicking up dust that filled the sky.
This was accompanied by the roar of engines and the creaking of tracks.
The view from the cameras was very visually impactful.
It made people exclaim with satisfaction!
Everyone eagerly anticipated how both sides would attack or defend after completing their deployments, to showcase the “prestige” of a heavy infantry regiment.
Time arrived at past nine o’clock.
The exercise had already begun for over an hour, with the main forces of both sides having reached the combat zone and begun to seize their desired positions.
As both sides leaned towards a steady opening, their selection of positions was relatively conservative.
An area of nearly five kilometers in the middle was designated as a buffer zone; no one dared to enter it, and they chose their respective positions outside the buffer zone first.
Both the Red and Blue Armies had about ten companies each, deployed in this positional struggle.
In less than an hour, both sides had seized all the key passes and high grounds on both sides of the buffer zone.
Important core points were defended by a company, and various essential routes were defended by a platoon.
The two regiments did not overlook the remaining secondary high grounds and routes either, dispatching one to two squads to defend these locations.
The objective was not to hold these places, but merely to place informants there.
By maximizing control over the battlefield’s field of vision and reducing blind spots in enemy surveillance, greater autonomy could be achieved during engagement with the enemy.
“I know where you are, and how your troops are deployed.”
“When we fight, we can be at ease!”
Both sides were mechanized armored forces, and their positions did not require extensive fortification work; simple camouflage combined with the terrain was sufficient to form defenses.
Mechanized forces with high mobility were also not suited for holding a single position rigidly.
Both sides had completed their troop deployments; next, they would certainly try to win this confrontation and not just stand by.
However, even if the Blue Army just watched and let time pass, nothing would happen.
At most, they would miss an opportunity to gain fame.
But the Red Army couldn’t afford that.
The combined arms battalion was waiting for this exercise to “clear the level”; the Red Army had to perform brilliantly in this exercise and gain approval from their superiors.
Therefore, when time reached past ten o’clock, the Red Army launched the first wave of attack.
And it was the attack by the main force, the combined arms battalion.
Precise intelligence collected by the special reconnaissance company from nine points was all transmitted to the intelligence platoon of the electronic warfare company, and after collation and organization, it was sent to the battalion’s intelligence section.
The intelligence staff officer transformed the digitized intelligence into a series of commands.
Under the command of Battalion Commander Gao Cheng, the other combat units of the combined arms battalion were all deployed, silently arriving at the side of Highland 513.
Following the combat plan executed by Chen Jun, Gao Cheng decisively issued a series of combat commands.
The first to attack was the electronic warfare company, which dispatched a jamming vehicle from its electronic warfare platoon to conduct communication jamming within a radius of several kilometers around Highland 513.
All external communications of the Blue Army on Highland 513 were cut off, turning them into isolated combat units.
After severing the Blue Army’s ability to call for reinforcements from Highland 513, the combined arms battalion’s artillery was all deployed, and they unleashed a barrage of artillery fire upon the Blue Army on the highland.
As the Red Army’s heavy artillery roared, the referee team began to conduct real-time calculations.
The judgment results were transmitted in real-time to the Blue Army positions.
The Blue Army platoon defending the highland received notification from the referee that they had been attacked by Blue Army artillery fire, and their damage rate had exceeded thirty percent.
The Blue Army platoon leader reacted quickly and immediately used the radio to call for reinforcements.
However, he found that he couldn’t connect.
“What’s going on? Why is the communication interrupted? Did the radio break? Signalman, Signalman~”
Before the Blue Army platoon leader could understand the situation, assuming the radio was broken, he shouted loudly, trying to call the signalman to quickly check the cause.
Simultaneously, he immediately ordered the soldiers below to find cover and take shelter on the spot.
However, before the communication issues were even sorted out, the soldiers of the Blue Army platoon were forced to take cover in shelters, and six Red Army tanks appeared in a row in front of their position.
Even though the Blue Army discovered the tank attack, they were unable to offer any resistance.
Because under the precise and continuous artillery strikes, if they dared to run out of their shelters to defend themselves, they would be declared killed by the referee.
They simply couldn’t get out!
Furthermore, with their communications completely cut off, they couldn’t call for Blue Army artillery or troop support, becoming isolated and completely losing the initiative.
They could only watch helplessly as the Red Army tank group, under the cover of artillery, rapidly approached the highland.
When the Red Army’s artillery fire stopped, the Red Army tanks had already entered charging distance, with the distance between them less than two hundred meters.
At this distance.
Tanks could arrive in an instant.
The remaining Blue Army soldiers who still wanted to come out to resist, making a final desperate struggle, discovered something even more terrifying, which completely destroyed their fighting spirit.
The moving shooting of the Red Army tanks was too formidable, their accuracy was too high.
They hit every shot, and the referee couldn’t even keep up with the count.
The Blue Army soldiers had never heard of such a thing!
Every shell seemed to have eyes; as soon as they fired, there would inevitably be casualties on their side, giving them no time to counterattack.
Anti-tank weapons had barely been brought out before the referee declared them eliminated.
The casualty rate on the Blue Army positions was too fast; one referee guarding this area was almost unable to keep up with the reporting, sweating profusely for the first time in his life.
After the Red Army tank group stormed the highland and eliminated the remaining Blue Army.
The tank group did not linger on the highland but quickly descended, returned at extreme speed, and disappeared behind the distant hills.
The two remaining Blue Army soldiers on the position did not understand the Red Army’s actions.
They thought the Red Army had already left, and they still harbored a sliver of hope, feeling like a pie had fallen from the sky and they could still hold the position.
However, in the next second, they saw more Red Army troops approaching rapidly from a distance.
This time, three armored personnel carriers arrived, speeding at over forty kilometers per hour, rushing onto the highland and beginning to clean up the battlefield.
At this point, the two Blue Army soldiers who had become prisoners, along with the more than twenty fallen Blue Army soldiers.
Finally understood!
It turned out that the troops who launched the attack earlier were only responsible for attacking and killing the enemy; as soon as the position was taken, they would swiftly withdraw.
The rest was left to the Red Army troops in front of them to collect spoils of war and control the territory.
Such decisive and clearly divided tactics, with such close and tacit cooperation, truly opened the eyes of these soldiers of the 384th Regiment.
Even the leaders watching from the directing staff marveled at this first battle of the confrontation.
Although the first attack launched by the combined arms battalion involved the entire strength of a battalion and attacked the position of only a platoon of enemies.
The speed displayed in this attack was enough to make the leaders “turn pale with shock.”
And as long as this rhythm was maintained, slowly consuming the Blue Army at the cost of zero casualties each time, accumulating small advantages would ultimately determine the overall outcome.
Without the urgency of time constraints, this fighting style is the optimal solution.
The advantage of combined arms units over traditional units is their ability to use multiple branches for rapid strikes, eliminating the enemy before they can react.
Take this small attack as an example.
To capture this small highland, a traditional unit would need to mobilize communication companies, artillery companies, tank companies, reconnaissance companies, and various other units.
Battalion-level units have no authority to command or dispatch them; orders must be issued through the regiment’s command post.
Various orders would travel from platoon, company, battalion, to regiment, and then from the regiment, pass back down layer by layer to the squads and platoons; no matter how fast, it would take at least half an hour.
However, the combined arms battalion finished this assault operation in less than five minutes.
Such lightning speed…
Only combined arms units can achieve this!
Leveraging the advantage of rapid coordination among multiple branches, they quickly launch and conclude battles, which is the biggest reason for the rise of combined arms units.
Compared to the shortcomings of traditional warfare, the gap between the two sides is already very evident.
The division and army-level leaders watching the exercise, having preliminarily experienced the prowess of the combined arms unit, increasingly anticipated the subsequent battles of the combined arms battalion.
And the combined arms battalion did not keep the leaders waiting long; less than half an hour later, they launched another attack on a different Blue Army position five kilometers away.
The style was the same.
The taste was the same.
The special reconnaissance company still led the way, gathering all the enemy’s positional intelligence, followed by the electronic warfare company commencing communication suppression.
Then, the artillery units conducted long-range bombardment, forcing the Blue Army to be unable to counterattack.
Finally, under the cover of artillery, the tank units entered the field to strike the Blue Army positions, completely destroying the Blue Army’s resistance capability.
The combined arms battalion, having finished the battle at lightning speed, immediately withdrew from the battlefield and disappeared from the enemy’s sight.
Planning the next new assault!
The entire process was clean and efficient, flowing like water, truly a pleasure to behold.
From the moment the first shell fell from the sky until the tanks completed their assault and departed, the entire process did not exceed ten minutes.
The speed of the battle was too fast and too short; the Blue Army forces had no time to reinforce.
When nearby Blue Army units, unable to make radio contact, anxiously rushed to provide support, the positions were already firmly controlled by the Red Army.
They were met by the Red Army on the positions, launching fierce attacks upon them.
The leaders watching from the directing staff once again felt the complete assault operation of the combined arms battalion and were astonished by the exaggerated speed.
This completely overturned their understanding and conflicted with their traditional combat philosophy.
The strong impact it had on their minds was no less than the shock that the US caused to the world in the Gulf War, when they defeated the strongest nation in the Middle East in a very short period with overwhelming might.
At the same time.
The fast-paced combat displayed by the combined arms battalion, despite not using any sophisticated tactics, was able to end the battle in a very short time.
This made all the leaders present understand more profoundly the urgency and importance of informatization reform.
If simple tactics are so powerful.
What if advanced tactics were used?
Suppose the pilot combined arms battalion were foreign troops, and not just one battalion, but dozens, or even hundreds of such units.
And the opposing Blue Army 384th Regiment was a standard domestic traditional unit.
If our country does not complete informatization reform as soon as possible, then in the event of a real war, our army will inevitably fall into an extremely passive situation.
Our army’s high command was awakened by this point, which is why they are pushing for informatization reform at any cost.
“This pilot combined arms battalion of the Red Army is no ordinary unit.”
A leader from the Capital Military Region, who had seen much of the world, couldn’t help but nod in praise upon seeing the performance of the combined arms battalion.
Moreover, the “no ordinary” he mentioned was not the common understanding of “extraordinary.”
It represented a return to simplicity!
Because only he saw Chen Jun’s true intention, which was for the combined arms battalion to use the most ordinary combined arms tactics to achieve the most efficient and shocking combat.
This would highlight the advantages of the combined arms battalion, this new establishment.
However, other leaders present did not understand this and thought that the leader from the General Military Region was simply praising them, and they all chimed in with their own accolades.
The leaders watching were all amazed and gave the pilot combined arms battalion very high praise.
On the other hand, in the command post of the opposing Blue Army 384th Regiment, a dark cloud loomed; from the regimental commander down to the staff officers, their expressions were grim.
Although they had only lost the strength of two platoons so far, which was negligible for a regiment.
But losing two platoons in one hour meant losing twenty platoons in ten hours; no matter how many men a regiment had, it couldn’t withstand such attrition.
If no solution was found to deal with this, they would be depleted by the Red Army in less than two days.
Furthermore, the two platoons were lost without anyone knowing why; no news of an attack could be transmitted, and they inflicted zero casualties on the enemy.
This combat loss ratio of 0 to 62 was unprecedented.
In the words of the commander of the 384th Regiment: “Since the founding of the 384th Regiment, we have never achieved such a combat loss ratio; we have never been so disgracefully defeated. It’s utterly shameful, utterly shameful.”
Back then, even when facing the strongest enemy, the Blue Army led by Old A, they were not beaten so badly.
Furious, smoke rising from his head, the Blue Army regimental commander did not want to remain passive any longer. He slammed the table and shouted, “The Red Army just has an electronic warfare company, and you can’t handle it?
Aren’t you all quite capable normally? Why have you all become mute? Figure out a solution for me quickly.”
