mtlumby2d Chapter 356: Tiger State Dilemma Tiger Ridge Natural Danger
Chapter 356: Tiger State Dilemma Tiger Ridge Natural Danger
As time went by, five days passed and the war in Xiazhou became more and more intense. Xiazhou's First Army, the Sixth Army headed by Ma Jingze, the Provincial Capital Guard Division, as well as the Second Army and the Border Garrison Army, fought back and forth.
But overall, Ma Jingze's side was still at a disadvantage. Suiye City was nearly lost several times. Although he reached an offensive and defensive alliance with the Second Army, the Second Army still did not put all its strength into the battlefield and always held back. Lu Yongan and Lu Yongtai's party became more and more arrogant and pressed forward step by step. As a last resort, Ma Jingze temporarily captured able-bodied men from Suiye City, which had a population of 900,000, to form a reserve force.
On the other hand, in Huzhou, after experiencing a series of large-scale battles in Huju City on the southern border of Huzhou, Qu Chen has deeply understood a truth: in open areas and plains, the heavy firepower of the Northwest Revolutionary Army is so fierce that it is like thunder rolling in the sky, destroying the world, and he has no chance of winning at all.
With more than half of the Tiger Army almost wiped out and the remaining two army-level units almost completely destroyed, the morale of the entire Tiger State Army was extremely low, with an atmosphere of despair and depression spreading from top to bottom.
The most crucial thing is that after the Northern Xinjiang government disclosed that Ma Changfang and Qu Guowei were colluding with Fuso, even the local people in Huzhou were full of resistance to the Huzhou Army. Wherever the Huzhou Army went, the people would not give them a good look at all.
How can the war be fought when most of the Huzhou Army is composed of local soldiers, even their own relatives are against the war and poke at the Huzhou Army's spine and curse them?
In desperation, Qu Chen ordered the Huzhou troops on the southern and northern lines to begin to shrink to the central area of Huzhou.
The central part of Huzhou has been known as a place with dangerous mountains and rivers since ancient times. At that time, Qu Guowei would rather the economic development of half of Huzhou stagnate than open up mountains and build roads, just so that one day, he could rely on the natural dangers to form the last barrier of Jingyang City.
After the Fourth Army's troops arrived at Huxiao Town in the south-central part of Huzhou, there was no decent official road from here to the north. It was all winding mountain roads, only wide enough for two horse-drawn carriages. On one side was the Huxiao Cliff abyss, which was hundreds of feet deep, and on the other side were extremely steep mountains. Except for military jeeps that could barely pass, large military trucks, including Katyusha self-propelled rocket launchers, heavy artillery of various calibers, etc., could no longer follow the large troops deep into the hinterland of Huzhou.
Moreover, the road was damaged by Huzhou military explosives. The entire winding mountain road was full of large potholes. If the driver was not careful, he might fall off the cliff with his car.
Especially after a heavy rain in Huzhou, the roads here became muddy and difficult to travel. The Huzhou army built two defensive fortresses on the mountain north of Huxiao Cliff, overlooking the area. The Fourth Army faced great difficulties if it wanted to attack them in a short time. The Viking Division and the Storm Division on the north side also faced the same dilemma. For a while, the situation on the battlefield seemed to be in a tense and stalemate.
The commander of the Fourth Army, Cheng Zhou, faced with all kinds of sudden difficulties. He was so anxious that a series of white bubbles appeared on his lips. Su Zhengyang had given them a death order to take over the entire Huzhou within half a month. If they were dragged to death here again, wouldn't it mean that their Fourth Army would be severely slapped in the face?
For Cheng Zhou, who wanted to prove the strength of the Fourth Army, this was an absolutely unacceptable result.
In the Fourth Army Headquarters, Cheng Zhou looked at the officers above the regimental level and said gloomily, "Is there a way to bypass the Tiger Roar Cliff to the west?"
"Commander, according to the reconnaissance team, Tiger Roaring Cliff is part of Tiger Ridge in Tiger Prefecture. The entire Tiger Ridge is full of mountains and forests, and the peaks are extremely steep. There are cliffs everywhere. Except for Tiger Roaring Cliff, there is an official road that can accommodate a large army. Other places are just some wild grass-covered, dangerous paths that cannot accommodate a large number of people to pass through."
"If we go east to the border of Linzhou, we can march straight into the heart of Huzhou from Huiyang City, but our people have sent news that the heavy rain in the past two days has caused large-scale landslides and mudslides. The official road there has been completely blocked. It will take at least ten days to clear it."
"Damn it! This bastard Qu Chen is quite lucky, even God is helping him!"
Wang Yumo, deputy commander of the Fourth Army, slammed the table anxiously. In this situation, the Fourth Army had only one way to go, and that was to storm Tiger Roar Cliff and seize control of this official road. But the disgusting thing was that more than 40,000 troops of the Huzhou Army occupied the top of the cliff and established defensive positions. If you want to storm up, you will be completely exposed to the enemy's guns, and you don't know how many casualties you will have to pay.
Moreover, the Huzhou Army tried every possible means to stop the Fourth Army of the Northwest Revolutionary Army, even resorting to such ancient methods as rolling stones and logs. As soon as the large forces of the Fourth Army made any moves, the Huzhou Army would continuously push down logs, boulders, etc. from the top of the cliff. It's true that this extremely primitive method brought great trouble to the Fourth Army.
Yesterday alone, dozens of soldiers were killed or injured by rolling stones and logs, and seven or eight military jeeps were smashed to pieces, blocking the winding mountain road.
Zhou Weiguo, who always had many ingenious ideas, was at a loss as well. Judging from the current situation, he might be able to organize a small-scale assault force to try to cross the Huling Mountains and get behind the enemy. But the key was that even the most experienced old hunters in the area did not dare to go deep into the mountains. The cliffs, river beaches, complex terrain, and ubiquitous large beasts were all unpredictable dangers.
"No matter what! We can't be dragged to death here! In less than six days, the Governor will officially take office as the new president of Northern Xinjiang. We must take Qu Chen's head to establish the Governor's authority! Let those warlords in various provinces see what happens when they go against our Governor."
"Notify the 111th and 112th divisions to continue organizing a continuous assault tomorrow! Even if it means sacrificing your life, you must take down the enemy position at Tiger Roar Cliff!"
Not only the Fourth Army of the Northwest Revolutionary Army, which had just been formed not long ago, but even the Viking Division, one of Su Zhengyang's ace troops, and the Storm Assault Division were in trouble when faced with such a situation. The main peak on the north side of the Huling Mountains, Hutou Mountain, stood in front of the two troops. The terrain here was more rugged and complicated than the south.
At this point, the Viking Division's armored units had almost no room to break through, and the usually invincible steel torrent also suffered a setback in Huzhou.
However, as an infantry division that excels at fighting in all kinds of complex terrains, the Storm Assault Division performed extremely well here.
Under the decision of the division commander Brand, the 1st Infantry Assault Regiment of the Storm Assault Division, with their flesh and blood, carved out a path through the Tiger Ridge Mountains in two days. However, they did not carry enough supplies and heavy firepower, and could not easily expose their position. They had to wait until the critical moment of the battle before they could jump out and make the final decision.