Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 433 How come there are so many number one in the world?
Just as the Second Detachment, B Column, and J Column were marching rapidly, the 74th Reorganized Division had already launched a fierce attack.

Zhang Zhonglin, commander of the 74th Reorganized Division, focused his main attack on the central route.

The 51st Reorganized Brigade, located due south, deployed dozens of artillery pieces and launched a continuous bombardment of the line from Andong South Gate to Wuzhuang.

At the same time, more than a dozen rubber boats began to forcibly cross the abandoned Yellow River.

The abandoned Yellow River embankment became the focus of repeated disputes between the two sides.

As time went by, the river water gradually began to turn red.

At the G Army's position where Kan Ze was holding out, Li Yunliang, deputy chief of staff of the 74th Division, spoke:

"Commander, the G Army is simply courting death. Faced with our powerful artillery fire, they still don't know to retreat back into the city."

"I think it's best not to underestimate them," said Chief of Staff Wei Zhenwen, his expression somewhat serious.

The G army on the opposite position fought very tenaciously.

He witnessed firsthand how a platoon of the G army was reduced to just a few men.

Moreover, some wounded soldiers of the G army did not retreat after being wounded, but simply grabbed a handful of dirt and pressed it on their wounds, and then rushed back with shovels and pickaxes.

"Chief of Staff, we can't boost the morale of others while diminishing our own," Li Yunliang said sarcastically.

Wei Zhenwen had only recently been transferred to the position of Chief of Staff of the 74th Division, and everyone in the 74th Division headquarters regarded him as an outsider, including the division commander Zhang Zhonglin.

Despite being the chief of staff, Wei Zhenwen was only an advisor, not a strategist, in the 74th Division.

"Hmph! No matter how tough the G Army is, they can't outrun the artillery shells of my 74th Division!" Zhang Zhonglin said confidently.
"Yunliang, call the artillery positions and give fire support to the G Army positions at the crossing! Cover the vanguard's beach landing!"

By this time, rubber boats had already reached the shore, and as long as the artillery provided sufficient support, the vanguard could capture the crossing.

"yes!".
Taking advantage of their artillery, the vanguard of the 74th Division successfully seized a crossing point, and subsequently, the troops of the reorganized 51st Brigade continued to pour onto the north bank of the abandoned Yellow River.

On the same day, the 74th Division also launched a powerful offensive from both the left and right flanks.

With the help of artillery and armored vehicles, the 57th and 58th Reorganized Brigades continued to push their lines forward.

The 192nd Brigade of the 28th Division also dispatched a battalion to conduct a surprise attack on the north side of the L column, thus planting a thorn in the back of the L column.

Because of this nail, the L column's position became less stable, and casualties increased.

After a difficult struggle until nightfall, L Zong finally reorganized his forces and removed the nails.

However, although the crisis was averted, it still caused L some serious damage.

The next day, the 74th Reorganized Division continued to increase its firepower and pushed the front line all the way to the Daguan and Xiaotang area.

This means that the 74th Reorganized Division is already at the city gates.

"Commander, we have received a telegram from Pengcheng. The number of G troops in the Jiangtouzhuang area has decreased significantly. Xue Siling believes that the main force of the G troops may have already moved south to Andong. We are to prepare."

"I understand." Zhang Zhonglin didn't take Xue Xiaosong's reminder to heart.

Who is the 74th Reorganized Division? It is the top of the five elite units of the Kuomintang army and the strongest fighting force in all of China.

Even if tens of thousands of exhausted troops came, or even if the entire Jiangsu army came, he would not be afraid.

Zhang Zhonglin is now focusing all his attention on Andong City.

"The heavy machine guns on Miaotong Tower, taking advantage of their height, can completely block the attack route of my second echelon," Zhang Zhonglin said, looking at the map of Andong City.
"We need to find a way to break this tactic of the G army."

In the afternoon, the 51st Brigade's offensive went smoothly, and the first echelon had already reached the outskirts of Andong.

However, the heavy machine guns mounted on the Miaotong Tower in the southwest corner by the G army exerted great suppression on the second echelon.

This caused the second tier to be unable to catch up with the first tier in time, ultimately leading to failure.

"Commander, if you ask me, we should just send over a few mountain guns. I don't believe a broken tower can stop the 74th Division," Li Yunliang suggested.

"It's not that simple." Wei Zhenwen shook his head.

"The main body of the Miaotong Pagoda is protected by the city wall, and the top is relatively narrow, making it difficult for cannonballs to hit the top of the pagoda directly."

Because of the protection of the city wall, if the cannonball does not hit the top of the tower directly, it will stay away from Miaotong Tower, and the shock wave of the explosion will not affect the tower body.

The Kuomintang army could not produce its own artillery shells, so even the 74th Division did not have an unlimited supply of shells.

Similarly, the G army mounted heavy machine guns on the city walls, creating multiple layers of crossfire with the Miaotong Tower, making it difficult for aircraft to easily lower their altitude for dive bombing.

After all, the value of an airplane far exceeds that of hundreds or even thousands of soldiers.

"Damn it, if only I had been assigned the rapid response corps," Zhang Zhonglin said regretfully, looking at the map.

The 74th Reorganized Division also had an armored battalion, but its equipment consisted of armored vehicles, not tanks.

Both the M8 and M3a1 armored vehicles are open-top.

There was absolutely no cover from the bullets coming from above.

Moreover, these two armored vehicles are Zhang Zhonglin's prized possessions, and he is unwilling to use them to fight against the G army.

Seeing that the artillery was ineffective, Li Yunliang turned his head and thought for a moment, then laughed and said, "Commander, have you forgotten how you cleverly captured Huaiyin City back then?"

Upon hearing the mention of the clever capture of Huaiyin City, Zhang Zhonglin immediately smiled.

This is one of his masterpieces.

"Yunliang, your reminder is excellent! We can completely replicate our previous method!"

"Call the 58th Brigade and have Lu Xing send a company of soldiers to sneak into Andong City under cover of darkness, coordinate an attack from the inside, and take Andong!"

"yes!".
"What did you say? Enemy troops have entered the city? What's wrong with the city wall guards?!"

Upon receiving the call from the city defense forces, Xie Siling, commander of the K column responsible for the defense of the Andong front, was furious. "Siling, the 74th Division launched a strong attack on the southwest corner, and then about a hundred men sneaked up the city wall from the northwest corner in the dark."

"The enemy is fully equipped with automatic weapons; the 4th Company is no match for them."

"Don't tell me that. Tell me now, what's going on? Where are the enemy troops?"

"The enemy troops went into hiding after entering the city, but I estimate they are in the area around the West Gate."

The enemy troops did not enter the city to celebrate a birthday; they were definitely there to seize the city gates and allow the main force to enter.

"Your team must immediately conduct a comprehensive search, checking every house and household!"

"Yes!"

After hanging up the phone, Xie Siling thought for a moment and then ordered, "Call the L Column and have the 14th Regiment transferred back into the city to prepare for street fighting!"

The main force of the K column was divided into two parts. In addition to two regiments inside Andong City, the other four regiments were deployed along the line from Xiaotang to Zaxingzhuang outside the city.

The L column was tasked with defending against the attacks of the 57th and 192nd Reorganized Brigades in the Jiaoling area, while also covering the flanks of the K column.

Although the L Column was also short of manpower at this time, the move made by the 74th Division reminded him of Huaiyin.

He must prevent this from happening again.
Just as the battle was about to take a sharp turn for the worse, Chen Chengxing led two teams to the north bank of the Yangshui River.

As soon as the car stopped, Chen Chengxing immediately had Xu Wu send a telegram.

"Contact the Antong command center and ask what the current situation is."

"yes!".
A few minutes later, Xu Wu came over with the telegram.

"The reorganized 74th Division has advanced to the east and south of Andong, while the L-Column in the east is still defending the Jiaoling area."

There was no main force of the 74th Division on the south bank of the Yangshui River; only small reconnaissance units were operating in the area.

"Have Wei Dayong lead the reconnaissance company to swim across the Yangshui River and clear out the Guo army reconnaissance soldiers. Then, the engineering battalion will repair the pontoon bridge so that the troops can cross the river!" Chen Chengxing ordered.

The arrival of the second force presented a golden opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the 74th Division, and this opportunity would only come once.

By daybreak, such a large force will be impossible to hide, and both sides will be in the open.

"yes!".
Just as the two advance teams began to cross the river, the system, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly started beeping.

[Side Quest Released: Now I should finally be the best in the world, right?]

Mission Objective: Achieve a major victory in the battle against the 74th Reorganized Division.

[Task Reward: 3 Skill Points]

Chen Chengxing was somewhat surprised when he saw the task pop up by the system.

Since the main quest was updated, there haven't been any side quests for a long time.

Chen Chengxing thought the system wouldn't react again until a corps-level operation was launched.

Unexpectedly, a single reorganized 74th Division triggered the side quest.

However, after thinking about it, Chen Chengxing felt it was normal. As the ace of the Kuomintang army, the 74th Reorganized Division's combat power was not to be underestimated.

The 74th Division had an extremely strong fighting spirit and always considered itself the best in the world.

Since everyone claims to be number one, we definitely need to determine who is better.

After the second detachment quietly crossed the Yangshui River, they communicated with the command post and then launched a counterattack in coordination with the K column.

Two forces swept southwestward from the northwest of Andong along Daguan, while the main force attacked the 58th Brigade on the left flank of the 74th Division.

The K column launched separate attacks from the west and south, joining forces with the second detachment to encircle the reorganized 51st Brigade in the south of the city.

The 14th Regiment was responsible for searching for enemy troops who had sneaked into Andong City.

Looking at the reports from the 58th and 51st brigades, Zhang Zhonglin immediately noticed something was amiss.

"Something's wrong! Where does the G army get the strength to counterattack?"

According to the battle reports from the previous two days, there were only more than 30,000 G Army troops in the Andong area.

Even if all the G troops in Andong were to be mobilized, they would not be able to shake the defensive lines of the 58th and 51st Brigades.

"Commander, do you think it's possible that reinforcements from the G Army in the north have arrived?" Wei Zhenwen suggested.

"Reinforcements, reinforcements must have arrived, but the G army is moving too fast!" Zhang Zhonglin affirmed.

However, Zhang Zhonglin was somewhat surprised that G Army reinforcements arrived so quickly.

The distance from the battlefield where the 69th Division was annihilated to Andong is a full eighty kilometers.

As a motorized unit, the 74th Division could travel 100 kilometers a day, but the G Army was an infantry unit.

Even though the battle with the 69th Division had just ended, the G Army reinforcements were rushing to this side in just a day and a half.

Zhang Zhonglin hadn't expected that the G Army could maintain its combat effectiveness while also moving so fast.

Realizing what was happening, Zhang Zhonglin immediately gave the order:
"Send orders to the 58th and 51st Brigades to gradually withdraw to the second-line positions. Artillery should provide fire support to the first-line positions to disrupt the G Army's offensive rhythm!"

"Order the 192nd Brigade to take over the 57th Brigade's position, and the 57th Brigade to move to the main attack direction."

"I'd like to see how the G Army can stop my 74th Division!"

Although Zhang Zhonglin judged from the report that the G army in the Andong area had reached more than 50,000 men, he was not worried at all.

With the 74th Reorganized Division and the 192nd Reorganized Brigade under his command, the total strength was 37,000 men.

(End of this chapter)