For the time being, the focus shifts from the European battlefield to the Asian battlefield, which has been neglected by this book for various reasons.

In February 1944, the unit formed by the Ming branch on the basis of its own underground cadre network was officially renamed the Northern Army Group of the New Ming Republic after receiving the equipment left by the Russian army -- the name of this army group was naturally learned from Lin Youde, and the New Ming Army was basically named after Lin's German army in terms of structure, and this northern army was naturally not exempt from vulgarity.

The U.S. Army and the Ming Imperial Army (that is, the puppet army of this time and space) drove into the former Russian-occupied area on the day when the Russian army began to retreat at the end of January 44, and exchanged fire with the newly formed Northern Army.

Army Group North formulated the operational policy of "mobile warfare to lure the enemy deep into the camera and annihilate the enemy."

At the beginning of March, the army group suddenly concentrated its main forces west of Siping, surrounded the advancing Ninth Infantry Division of the US Army, and carried out a battle of annihilation.

The battle lasted three days, and most of the American troops were annihilated, but the remaining troops completed the breakthrough.

On the morning of the day of the end of the battle, the commander of Army Group North arrived at the front.

**

After the jeep stopped, the general, wearing big sunglasses and a Russian-style military overcoat, jumped out of the car without waiting for the car to stop completely, and shouted as soon as he got out of the car: "Which is the commander of the 57th battalion of the 2nd regiment?" ”

After the words fell, the officers and soldiers, who were still standing in a state of salute, were stunned for a moment, and then everyone's eyes turned to an officer on crutches.

"Turtle son, Lao Tzu told you to guard the highway for at least four hours, what are you going to do? The follow-up troops told me that the Americans were all out when they arrived! ”

The officer on crutches had just opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, tears fell first.

"What are you crying about? You speak! ”

At this time, the commander of the 57th Regiment came over, saluted General Sunglasses, and then said: "Commander-in-Chief, please follow me to the position to have a look, you will understand after reading it." ”

The general's face turned to the regiment commander, and although he was wearing sunglasses, the regiment commander still had the real feeling that he was being stared at with a fierce gaze, so the muscles of his whole body tensed.

Finally, the general waved his hand: "Lead the way." ”

Soon, under the leadership of the regiment commander, the group came to the small high ground that was supposed to be held by the 2 battalion.

The general stared at the scene on the battlefield and slowly took off his sunglasses.

He was silent for a long, long time before he asked in a deep voice, "Didn't you replenish the overcoats for the troops before the cold snap hit?" ”

"The planes of the Americans blew up the clothing warehouse before we received the coats, and our regiment received only half of the coats."

The general was silent, slowly raised his right hand, and took off his military cap.

In front of him, almost the entire battalion of Chinese soldiers, still spread out in battle formation on the position, maintained a posture of guarding the road with weapons in hand.

At this time, the commander of the second battalion who followed said: "Commander-in-chief, we have the determination, courage, and are ready to fight to the last man, but we ...... I really can't fight anymore...... Almost all the people who are alive are frostbitten, and there is no one who can pull the trigger! ”

The cold wind was still howling, and the commander-in-chief of Army Group North and his staff officers stood in the wind, bidding farewell to the heroes on the battlefield with their eyes.

**

Almost at the same moment, fifty kilometers away.

Walton? Walker was inspecting his troops, looking for reasons why they had failed to break through the New Ming Army's defenses in time to reinforce the Ninth Infantry Division.

He arrived at the station of the unit that had been resting in place after taking the lead attack yesterday.

A young major greeted the general, who had studied under Patton.

Under the leadership of this major, Walker boarded the position where the New Ming Army blocked the American troops yesterday.

Because the U.S. troops who captured the position also paid huge casualties, the cleaning of the battlefield is still going on until now. The major who led the way pointed to the corpses on the position and said: "General, the Wen Jiàn we captured shows that the people guarding here are two companies of the Xinming Army, with a total of 327 people. We found 301 bodies on the positions. And the other 26 bodies, we found there. ”

The Major raised his hand and pointed in the direction Walker had come from.

"General, what I learned at West Point is that when a unit loses more than 30 percent, it loses its offensive capability, when a unit loses more than 50 percent, it can no longer carry out combat missions, and when a unit loses more than 70 percent, the unit can be considered annihilated. I've been in the war until now, and I feel that this theory taught me at West Point is correct for our troops. But this theory, apparently, does not apply to our enemies. ”

Walker looked back at the hill they had just climbed, and the corpses of the American soldiers on the slope had been almost cleaned up, so the few corpses left on the white snow were particularly conspicuous.

"You're saying they launched a counter-attack when they got to the last twenty or so left?"

"Yes."

"It's just a mad impulse after witnessing the massive sacrifice of his comrades," said the staff officer behind Walker in a disdainful tone, "and such examples are not uncommon, and they don't tell the whole story." If your comrades had died in the morning, you would have done the same. There are many examples of this from the last war, and it is mentioned in the textbooks of West Point......"

"That's enough." Walker interrupted the staff officer.

And the major kept looking at the staff officer coldly.

Then he said, "I don't think it's something that can be explained by a simple crazy impulse. Our enemies showed an unusual fighting spirit, and even if all the officers of their troops were killed, the remaining soldiers would continue to carry out their original tasks, and even if the troops were scattered, they would gather in small groups of three or five to continue the battle. Cutting encirclement doesn't mean anything to them. General, IMHO, I don't think we can defeat such an enemy. ”

Walker was silent for a long time before he sighed and said, "I also know that an army has the same will to fight. You should know that, too. In the war with Mexico, the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment charged the overwhelming enemy forces and repelled the Mexican army with all its ammunition and heavy casualties, a story that every American soldier knows. ”

The staff officers behind Walker looked at each other.

No one spoke.

Finally, Walker let out a long sigh, waved his hand, and said, "Bury these Ming soldiers on the battlefield well, their courage should be respected accordingly." ”

With that, Walker turned around and strode down the hill.

That evening, he wrote in a telegram to MacArthur: "The reason why we have not been able to break through the defenses of the new Ming army is probably because we have chosen the wrong opponent and launched the wrong war." ”

Two days later, Walker was dismissed by MacArthur for "disturbing the morale of the military."