Macho Wars

In addition to the bad weather, another disturbing news came from the north.Just last night, Dragon suddenly received a confidential telegram sent by the First Army Group, which contained only a few short sentences, but it made Dragoon's heart tensed after reading it.

Just three hours before the telegram arrived in his hands, Howard, the commander of the First Army Group, suddenly fell into a faint in the command post because of his worsening condition.Although the emergency was temporarily turned into peace under the intensive rescue of the accompanying medical team, the situation is still not optimistic. In order to stabilize Howard's condition, the doctor injected him with a stabilizer, but this also made Howard's consciousness fall into a coma and unable to continue to command the army. .

Howard’s health has been poor since his legs were disabled. The doctor said that he still had three to five years to live. In fact, it was based on the premise that he could retreat to the second line and recover from illness with peace of mind. However, the severe situation of the civil war has He is not allowed to stay out of the matter at all.

Poor health itself is also old, coupled with the dual pressure of heavy military affairs on the body and spirit, the old man can survive until now, all depends on perseverance.

However, no matter how strong the will is, it is ultimately difficult to fight against birth, old age, sickness and death.

The news that Howard fell ill has not yet been made public. The Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Kane Mountbatten, temporarily replaced him, and asked everyone present at the time to keep it secret, so as not to affect the morale of the First Army.

For the officers and soldiers of the Eastern Empire, Howard’s existence is not only an excellent commander, but also a spiritual pillar that supports their confidence and courage. This unparalleled personal prestige, even the current Dragoon It's on par.

And this is the main reason why Kane notified Dragoon the first time after he took over the command.He kept the news of Howard from him for a while but couldn't keep it from the rest of his life. Dragon had to get the imperial capital before he could no longer hold it, or the consequences would be disastrous.

In desperation, Dragun had to adjust his tactical deployment, stepping up the offensive, trying to divide the defending line.But his actions on this side were quickly noticed by the opposite Firavi, and he began to guess Dragoon's intentions.

"Why has his style of play suddenly changed?"

"Probably because their logistics began to feel pressured? Several units of the southeast front army that was defeated before have been reorganized and will soon be able to rejoin the battle. We only need to hold on for a few more days, and he Dragon I'm going to suffer the enemy."

Several American male staff members analyzed according to conventional thinking. They all felt that the reason for Dragoon's adjustment of tactics was logistics. After all, the consumption of a hundred thousand army is not a small amount. The daily shelling alone will consume thousands of tons of ammunition. And Dragon’s Second Military District came ashore from the southeast coast, and the landing site was thousands of kilometers away from the Emperor.

The long supply line not only constrained the strength of at least three Dragon Divisions, but it was still very fragile.Both roads and railways are quite vulnerable to attack.

But Filavi felt that the problem should not lie in this.

The Eastern Empire has been preparing for this massive counterattack for more than half a year, and there will be no shortage of ammunition.

In addition, Dragon has a large-scale transport aircraft wing. From the information they currently obtain, it can be known that about eighty transport aircrafts are transporting supplies to the front line day and night and transporting the wounded.These medium-sized pelican transport aircraft can transport four tons of materials at a time, and it only takes six to seven hours to travel from the front to the rear.

Even if it rains in the past two days, it will affect the takeoff and landing of the aircraft to a certain extent, but in the previous few days, their transport aircraft fleet has been in three shifts.At the enemy's airport, only 70 kilometers away from the imperial capital, there were almost non-stop planes taking off and landing.

Coupled with the logistics convoy on the ground and the supplies looted from arsenals all over the country, Dragon doesn't have to worry about his logistics at all.This is also an advantage of fighting a civil war. Everyone’s equipment is the same, and your logistics can become my logistics at any time.

Filavi was trying to figure out Dragon's thoughts, when a communications officer suddenly rushed in and arrived in front of Filavi.

Firavi glanced at the telegram and suddenly let out a noncommittal sigh.

"My teacher! Why are you doing this?"

Chapter 567

Although Kane Mountbatten, who took over the command of the First Army Group, tried his best to conceal the news of Howard’s illness, after all, there is no impermeable wall in this world. In addition, there are hidden inner ghosts that are making waves in the dark. Some disturbing rumors began to appear, which made the military's mind restless.

This is what Kane and other high-level military officials do not want to see, because now is the critical moment of this war. What is needed is that they will fight to the end with one heart and one heart. They must not be at this time because of any Distracted by things.

After all, on the battlefield, hesitate to lose!

But what makes Kane feel helpless is that things seem to be moving towards a situation they don't want to see.As the backbone of this army, Howard is in two states with and without him.

Faced with this rapidly out of control situation, Kane couldn’t help but miss when he was still in the First Marine Division. The new non-commissioned officer system promoted by Dragon not only helped improve the morale and training of the grassroots troops, but also properly maintained it. The soldiers' thoughts are stable, so that they don't want to think randomly.

It is a pity that this very easy-to-use system was not promoted in the whole army due to the obstruction of the Central Cabinet. This has led to their current passive situation.

Seeing that the situation is getting worse and worse, all kinds of rumors at the grassroots level have intensified. There have been rumors that Howard died of illness. Kane knew that he could not continue to hide things like this. He must clarify as soon as possible so that the rumors will be self-defeating. .

But the problem now is that after Howard fell ill due to fatigue, his consciousness fell into a coma due to a high fever. The doctor said that his lungs had a serious infection. To make him wake up at this time, the only method is to inject a cardiotonic. But this is very likely to kill him directly.

In desperation, Kane, for the sake of Howard's life, could only use the plane to transfer him to the rear with better medical conditions, and then all the division-level officers except the front-line troops were urgently called for a meeting.

When the situation has developed to this point, continuing to conceal it will only have counterproductive effects. It is better to communicate the actual situation layer by layer, so that the officers and soldiers have psychological preparation.

"Sure enough! War has never been smooth sailing."

After the news was announced, the whole army was shaken up and down, but fortunately, the middle and lower-level officers were notified in advance, and the propaganda slogan was unified. It only said that Howard's condition was getting worse. Although his old man was rushed to the rear for recuperation, he would continue to pay attention to the front line and fight at the same time. The plan has long been completed, and officers and soldiers at all levels only need to follow the instructions and fight bravely.

Although this move did not completely eliminate the uneasiness of the grassroots officers and soldiers, it still played a positive role to some extent and successfully stabilized the situation temporarily.

At the same time, on the other side, Dragon, who was attacking the imperial capital, also accelerated his attacking pace because of the changes in the situation.The defenders of the imperial capital, while resisting stubbornly, also used psychological warfare routines. They used high-power loudspeakers to constantly shout to the Second Army Group, saying that your Commander-in-Chief Howard had died violently, and the First Army Group was on its way. Retreat, surrender as soon as possible in exchange for a glimmer of life.

When Dragoon heard it, he also set up a big horn on his side, and cursed back without compromising. He grabbed the biggest black spot of Firavi’s kiss for crazy output, and the announcer’s little mouth was wiped. Mouth fragrance like honey!

"Compared with Lao Tzu, he is a younger brother!"

However, the quickness of speech cannot completely replace guns after all. Although the front-line troops are always advancing, their speed is getting slower and slower, completely unable to meet expectations.Firavi is not a mediocre after all. In the process of fighting Dragoon, he is constantly learning and improving his tactics, and doing his best to resist.

Fortunately, on the ninth day of the imperial capital's offensive and defensive battle, after a day and a half of heavy rain, the sky was finally clear and clear again.Dragoon immediately ordered the air force to lift off and re-enter the frontline support battle. Four "air gunboats" transformed from transport aircraft appeared together on the front line.

In previous battles, Dragon had also invested in two other aerial gunboats, but these medium-sized aircraft needed to reduce their flight altitude and speed in a very dangerous situation in the state of ground support, and the imperial capital was equipped with With a large number of anti-aircraft guns of various calibers, it is enough to form a considerable air defense net.

Therefore, the two aerial gunboats that were first put into the battle were quickly destroyed and one injured, and Dragon could only remove these big guys who were easily beaten.

The re-launch of the Air Force also boosted the morale of the ground troops. The Marine Corps, which was the first to enjoy air support, has completely fallen in love with these winged darlings and gave the attack aircraft a nickname called "Guardian Angel". Some impure guys were thinking about the miko pilots.

And with the beautiful name, learn like their beloved General Li!

With the full support of the air force, the defenders' positions south of the palace were broken down one after another, and the remaining remnants withdrew into the palace and bombed all the bridges.

Dragoon learned from the reconnaissance plane that only about one division of the defending army had withdrawn into the palace and held firm, while the rest of the troops had contracted their defense lines to the north.Only the 7th Armored Division of Firavi’s direct line chose to break out of the city, but it was impossible to confirm whether Firavi himself was among them.

The actions of the defenders seemed to be suspicious, but no matter what, even if the palace was completely surrounded by them, it was still controlled by them.

Knowing that the remnant enemies on the periphery have been almost eliminated, Dragon left the command post with a kind of cronies and personally came to the front line to inspect.

He found a building close to the moat, and took a close look at the imperial palace a few hundred meters away. The tall city wall, which was originally white and white, was now a bit dirty and hurtful under the ravages of artillery and bombing. It seems that he stayed during the last attack and defense of the imperial capital.

Regardless of its magnificent appearance, the imperial palace itself is the largest fortress in the world, protected by two layers of moats inside and outside.In the last offensive and defensive battle of the imperial capital, if the cabinet government had not encouraged the Queen Mother to run away and the Central Army had no intention of fighting again, it could actually rely on this easy-to-defend fortress to defend to the end, and the local situation would not have fallen to this.

Therefore, many people who were still on the sidelines chose to stand on the side of Firavi just because they saw the royal family and the central government abandon the imperial capital so easily.

Seeing this magnificent castle with the reputation of "the world's first palace" again, Dragon couldn't help feeling.

They really seem to be only one step away from victory!

Chapter 568

The Royal Naval General Hospital in Redstone Harbor, Howard was rushed to the rear by a military plane, finally regained consciousness after being in a coma for a day and a half.His extremely weak body made him feel very difficult just to open his eyelids, but when he found that he was in the ward instead of the command post, he immediately struggled to get up, and was killed by the two nurses who had been waiting at the bedside. Maybe he pressed it back gently.

"Where is this? The front line... where is the front line?"

"General, please calm down. This is the hospital. Your body is still very weak, and the doctor wants you to rest as quietly as possible."

"Call... call my adjutant, right now!"

The two nurses really couldn't help Howard, so they had to go to the door and call in the officers who had been guarding the outside.When everyone saw that the Commander-in-Chief was awake, they were all overjoyed. They had followed Howard for many years, and they were all students he had taught and promoted. Therefore, they were very emotionally deep and regarded each other as their own father.

Several people wanted to persuade Howard to rest at ease, and Mountbatten’s Chief of Staff and many veteran generals were staring at the front line, and they would definitely be sure of everything.