Chapter 3090: Rapid Advancement
On the vast plains as far as the eye can see, the vanguard of the leader's army stopped running forward on their tracks and waited for the comprehensive logistics support force to deliver the fuel before continuing.
Lavrinenko, who came together to inspect the vanguard, was staying with Malashenko.
What the chief and deputy commanders gathered together to discuss was naturally the next action plan and analysis of the current situation.
After understanding the situation of the vanguard and conducting on-site inspections, Lavrinenko, who was standing next to an IS7 parked for maintenance, spoke first.
"We have advanced more than 300 kilometers in two days, and we still haven't encountered a large-scale enemy force that came to stop us. If we keep going like this, we will soon reach Harbin. Will these Japanese devils even attack such an important place? Abandon the city and run away?”
For the sake of safety, Malashenko actually ordered to slow down the marching speed. He did not just pursue speed and ignore everything else.
The reason is quite simple.
For mechanized cross-country running that only pursues speed, not only is the loss of mechanical equipment under high-power, full-load continuous operation a problem.
If the marching team is too long and too scattered, it will be directly stretched into a long snake formation on the great plains. Once an enemy is encountered, it will be difficult to assemble the troops immediately. It will also be troublesome. If the troops are not kept together, they will suffer unnecessary losses and even capsize in the ditch.
No matter how strong the leader's army is, it is never so strong that the long snake formation in the marching state can defeat everything. Malashenko is always Malashenko and not Kaishen.
As a result of appropriately slowing down the marching speed, the leader's army had already traveled more than 300 kilometers in a straight line on the map in just two days.
If we switch to actual cross-country travel, this mileage will only be much higher, much higher than the straight-line distance in the picture.
Except for occasionally passing by rural areas to inquire about the situation and inquire about the Japanese army, the leader's army did not visit a county or stop in any urban area along the way for two days. They even spent their nights resting and making rice in the outdoors. Pass.
There is only one purpose, to give full play to the advantages of combat maneuverability and conduct large-scale and deep penetrations to cut off the Japanese army's retreat route.
The remaining Japanese troops, who had lost their large-scale field regiments, were put into encirclements and waited to be defeated one by one.
Just these small fish and shrimps, the miscellaneous Japanese troops in one regiment in the east and one brigade in the west are not worthy of stopping the leader's rapid advance.
It also poses no threat to the leading army. If you block the road, you will die, and if you rush up, you will get into trouble. This is the most realistic portrayal of the current situation of the Japanese army at this level.
The only thing that can stop the leader's rapid advance and pose an actual threat is the large-scale Kwantung Army field corps. Don't embarrass yourself before starting at the division level.
But now we have been racing for two days, and all we encountered along the way were small groups of Japanese troops retreating, and we were easily defeated.
Or they were seizing the time to clean up the countryside, hoping to quickly cut up a final wave of land and collect grain to prepare for the war before the Russians came over.
Not a single main field force of the Kwantung Army was seen, which inevitably made Lavrinenko wonder about what kind of medicine the enemy was selling in his gourd, and wondered whether there was any fraud involved.
"The Front Army Headquarters has continued to strengthen aerial reconnaissance on our flanks and expanded the search range. If the Kwantung Army mobilizes a main field force that can fight the leader's army, at least in terms of quantity and scale, it will be absolutely impossible to escape. Aerial reconnaissance."
"So the answer is still to keep moving forward, maintain the current speed of advancement, and continue to make steady progress. If the enemy dares to block the front, then attack them. If they attempt to sneak attack from the flank, we can also receive early warning and have sufficient reaction time. ”
The advantage of aerial reconnaissance solves the leader's worries about the absence of friendly forces on both wings during the stage of deep penetration and high-speed penetration.
With the fully mechanized advantage of the leader's army, which has extremely strong rapid response capabilities, as long as aerial reconnaissance can be ensured, there is no fear of the main Japanese army attacking from the flanks.
Looking at the open map and listening to Malashenko's words, Lavrinenko also knew that there was no other way at the moment.
The Japanese army can retreat, but the leading army cannot look forward and backward and sleep in the countryside halfway.
We cannot be timid just because the enemy is silent. We must move forward when we should. Being able to calmly analyze the situation between the enemy and ourselves and steadily advance can ensure that risks are controllable.
"Okay, then let's continue the off-road racing competition, but we want to see how these Japanese devils plan to shrink down to—huh? What is this noise?"
Before he finished speaking, Lavrinenko thought he heard something. The next second he looked up in the direction of the sound, his face was stunned.
"Damn it, Sokka, can it be?"
"Japanese air raids, I was wondering when we would encounter them, but it happened to be a coincidence. The number was a little less, 9 in total."
Malashenko, who was holding a telescope and saw a small black dot on the horizon in the distance, was not panicked. He was not careless and underestimated the enemy, but was well prepared. The mere 9 Japanese air strikes were not enough to cause a big wave.
"It just so happens that I'm going to use these Japanese flies to test the anti-aircraft expertise of my new equipment."
At the same time as Malashenko put down his telescope and suddenly spoke.
There was no need for Comrade Commander of the Army to come to inspect the situation and personally ordered that the leading troops of the Leading Army had already begun to deploy on the spot according to the field air defense plan.
The ZSU-37-2 anti-aircraft vehicles assigned to the vanguard for field-combat air defense operations immediately dispersed. They quickly maneuvered into their respective firing positions in accordance with the standard anti-aircraft formation, preparing to organize an anti-aircraft firepower network and block possible attack routes according to the direction of the enemy aircraft's attack.
But it was not known whether there was a problem with the equipment itself or for some other reason, the nine incoming Japanese planes in the sky flew very slowly.
So slow that the field anti-aircraft formation of the vanguard of the leader's army was ready, and the high-altitude and flat-altitude dual-purpose heavy machine guns on the tanks and the double-barreled 37mm anti-aircraft guns of the anti-aircraft vehicles were all pointed obliquely at the sky, ready to go.
Those Japanese planes that were late because of their slow speed barely flew into the range of the anti-aircraft firepower and began to descend in altitude to prepare for a dive.
It was not until then, at the last moment before the ground anti-aircraft fire was about to open fire, that Malashenko, who was holding a telescope in the back position, finally saw clearly what kind of shabby old plane the Japanese devils were driving.
"It turned out to be a Type 97. How sick are these Japanese devils' brains to use such a shabby fighter to carry out an air strike. Are all the Type 1 Hayabusa dead?"
It would be fine if you didn't use a bomber but a fighter to carry out an air strike, but you actually used such an old and shabby one.
Malashenko, who was speechless about the Japanese devils' "aerial art performance", had just put down the telescope, and an idea that was not very likely but not completely impossible, and happened to explain this weird performance art, immediately emerged in his mind.
"Wait, is it a kamikaze!?"
The update was a little late, and someone called me out for a midnight snack. Sorry brothers. In addition, I will update more tomorrow, and I will try to code more.