Five two-man reconnaissance planes with blue-gray paint on their bellies flew over St. Paul. The five planes had the same appearance, single wing, twin propellers, and metal skin. This design did not pursue high speed, nor did it require air combat on the planes.
Li Shaokang, the captain of the Air Force Flying Group, personally led the team. The entire flying group had a total of four squadrons, and each squadron had four squads. Each squad had four reconnaissance planes. This time, he brought a squad with him. Before the group flew over St. Paul City, they had contacted the local area by radio. Following the guidance of the reflectors on the ground, Li Shaokang found a runway on a flat ground.
The runway was very narrow, only about 200 meters wide. Compared to the hundreds of meters wide and nearly 1,000 meters long runways in the Great Lakes area, it was very shabby. However, Li Shaokang did not underestimate it at all. For a runway that could be completed in six or seven hours, this speed was fast enough.
The trucks carried steel plates on their backs. They found a flat ground and used the trucks to press down on it. The engineers quickly filled in the potholes on the runway. Then they laid down the steel plates and fixed the landing and landing runway made of teak on the steel plates. Fortunately, this was a motorized infantry division. There was no way a motorized infantry division could transport such a thing with such a large load.
"God bless me, I hope those boys can protect the car plates," Li Shaokang muttered in his heart, then ordered the pilot to land. In order to make full use of the transportation capacity, all the trucks' car plates were made of teak for the runway. After arriving at the battlefield, the first thing to do was to disassemble these things and reassemble them. Tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of products had the same material, length, width, and thickness. More importantly, these products had to be drilled in the same position so that they could be used normally hundreds of kilometers away. If the soldiers didn't cause any damage to these things along the way, Li Shaokang would be able to land safely with the plane, and then take to the skies in the midst of the intensive reconnaissance. Since it was a matter of life and death, Li Shaokang had to pray to the non-existent God for blessings.
The plane finally landed. The impact of the landing made Li Shaokang feel relieved. The runway was flat enough, so the impact naturally could not be eliminated. However, the impact was very stable. The flying group had problems before. They tried to land on the seemingly flat muddy ground, but because it was too bumpy, some of the plane's load-bearing supports broke. The plane was destroyed, and the pilot was seriously injured.
The five planes landed one by one, and someone immediately ran over to take the aerial film. When Li Shaokang and the others were looking for an airport, they naturally had to fly over St. Paul and Minneapolis a few times. They had to make good use of the time they had. More than ten aerial cameras equipped with automatic stabilization devices shot dozens of rolls of film with crackling sounds.
Li Shaokang took the tricycle to the headquarters and did not say much after they met. Li Shaokang went straight to the front of the map, pointed to a few places and said, "The Americans built fortifications here. It seems that they intend to resist here. "
Those places were all major traffic arteries. From the plane, they could see that the Liberation Army's attack troops had actually reached the Americans' line of defense. Qi Rui stared at the map with a pencil in his hand. Li Shaokang quickly suggested, "We can let the commander sit on the plane and fly along the attack route twice. They should have a better idea after seeing the terrain. "
It would take an hour or two for the commander to leave the front line and go back. Qi Rui felt that it was a waste of time. However, Li Shaokang's next words immediately dispelled Qi Rui's idea of wasting time. "There aren't many places on fire yet, but there are already thick smoke billowing in some places. If we fight for a few more hours, I'm afraid the entire wooden city of the Americans will burn down. We won't be able to see it clearly even if we want to. "
"Okay, I agree." Qi Rui immediately agreed to Li Shaokang's suggestion. The smoky West Coast city of the United States left a deep impression on Qi Rui. The loss of the Americans' property was naturally not something that Qi Rui cared about. However, once St. Paul was on fire, it would not be unusual for the fire to burn for two days. The entire battle plan was three days, and they had been fighting for almost a day now. If they burned for another two days, then three days would have passed. The purpose of the battle plan was to occupy St. Paul, not St. Paul, which had been burned to the ground.
On the first day, the plan was to occupy the train station as much as possible. After occupying the city center, they could divide and suppress the enemy. Each unit sent commanders who were familiar with the map to look at the terrain in the sky. Without exception, the military commanders of the troops chose to stay on the ground to command the battle.
The front of the First Division was a fortification that the Americans had stuck on the railway. The Americans used a few small rail vehicles to transport some wood and cut down the trees next to the railway. They piled up earth and stones on these foundations to build a main defensive position. Enemies also appeared in the favorable terrain and woods on both sides of the railway. The Liberation Army did not want to penetrate deep alone, so they initially confronted them.
At around one o 'clock in the afternoon, the messenger rode a tricycle and delivered a new map. The map was very rough, and it only marked the positions of the troops that had advanced. Looking at the circle with a red cross in the center surrounding St. Paul, Ma Xiaoming discussed with the division chief of staff and immediately asked the messenger to inform the group that was confronting the Americans on the railway to begin the attack.
At around two o 'clock in the afternoon, Engineer Mendez, who was responsible for strengthening the railway defense position, heard the sound of artillery coming from the opposite side. Engineer Mendez shouted, "Get down!" while he took the lead to hide behind the fortification that he had worked hard to build for the past few hours. Some of the smarter guys obeyed the order, and some guys who had no concept of the battlefield still looked at the people around them in a daze as they ran or lay down.
With a few booms, the shells landed on the open space of the fortification. Surprisingly, the guys who stood there stupidly were not injured. A few guys who were bending over and trying to escape behind cover were blown up by the shells. In the midst of the screams, the Americans who had not yet hidden in the fortification all sped up. In less than ten seconds, they each found a place to hide.
Engineer Mendez sighed. He also knew that he could not control too many things. Carrying a rifle, Mendez rushed to the frontline along the gap in the fortification that was used as a communication line. As soon as he arrived at the frontline, the major in charge of the fortification anxiously grabbed Mendez's arm. "Lieutenant, how should we defend?"
Although he was now an engineer, Mendez graduated from the military academy with the rank of first lieutenant. Twenty years ago, after he graduated from the military academy, the war ended within three months of going to the frontline. The UA federal government had limited financial resources and would reduce their forces after the war. Mendez, a small officer with no background, was naturally among the ranks of the reduced forces. However, reducing the forces was one thing, but the military academy's engineering education was also recognized. Mendez relied on his school education and his military experience to participate in many large railway construction projects and became a recognized engineer.
The major sent to defend was in his early thirties and had never participated in a war. When he learned that Engineer Mendez, who volunteered to participate in the war, was actually a senior in the military, he naturally relied on him.
"Block the offensive route of the Chinese army and force them to the flat ground." Engineer Mendez naturally had his own ideas about the battle. As soon as he said this, the major also agreed. He immediately ordered the machine gunners to return to the machine gun position after the Chinese artillery attack ended. "If you see the Chinese, use the machine gun and fire fiercely. If you can kill the Chinese, then do it. If you can't, then drive them to the flat ground in the middle."
The bombardment ended very quickly. To the surprise of the Americans, the Chinese attacking forces did not appear. There was silence in front of the position, but the gunfire in the distant flank suddenly became intense. The major and engineer Mendez didn't care at first, but after waiting for more than twenty minutes, when the Chinese still didn't attack, the two of them felt that something was wrong.
"Send someone over there to take a look." Engineer Mendez suggested.
The major's face showed a troubled expression. The location where the gunfire came from was not close to the defensive position. If they walked, it would take more than half to twenty minutes. So what if they sent someone over to take a look? A round trip would take 40 minutes, and it would take at least an hour to figure out the situation. Moreover, they didn't need to send someone over to know that there was a battle over there. There was only one choice left: whether to help or not. These thoughts were quickly sorted out in the major's mind. He said helplessly, "We don't have enough troops here."
"The Chinese might attack from there!" Engineer Mendez was very uneasy about the area where the battle was taking place. As a railway engineer in the St. Paul area, he knew very well that the position was diagonally behind the railway fortifications. This kind of temporary position was mainly used to defend the front. If the Chinese were to outflank them from the back, the defensive position would fall into a very disadvantageous situation.
"Lieutenant, the mission I received is to defend this place. The number of troops is limited." The major replied with a bitter face.
Mendez could understand this. Of course, this kind of understanding was not accumulated in the short three months of battle experience. As an engineer, the labor force on the construction site was always in a state of shortage. Some more thorough considerations could avoid this kind of embarrassing problem from happening. Engineer Mendez suggested, "At least send guards and prepare for defense."
A few scouts were not enough to shake the defensive line, so the major immediately made arrangements. Engineer Mendez also let his youngest son Barnil go with those people. Barnil was not a regular soldier, so if he saw the situation was not right, he could immediately return to report.
The scouts immediately set off. After walking for more than ten minutes, they saw the Chinese army standing on high ground as sentries. These people did not dare to continue to approach, so they had to take a detour. But the Chinese occupied the high ground and cleverly blocked the route of these scouts near the battlefield.
The Americans who came out felt that they had done their duty. They ran in fear for a while and confirmed a few sentries in China. After everyone discussed, the leader said, "Yankee brothers, let's just wait here. If the Chinese want to attack, we will immediately go back and report."
Just when the Yankee brothers felt that this suggestion was good, they heard the young Yankee who came with them raise an objection. "Why did the Chinese send sentries here? I think they just don't want us to see what they are doing! I think we should continue to observe. "
This group of Yankee men were all wearing dirty worker uniforms and dirty military uniforms. After all, they were the joint forces of the Federal Army and the National Guard. This Yankee man's clothes were not very clean, but the mud and dust were freshly stuck on, so it was quite different from the old dust. Seeing that this young man, who was obviously of a higher status, was not willing to let him go, the leader of the National Guard said unhappily, "If you want to go, go by yourself. We have to guard here. "
Seeing that this group of adults was actually so lazy, Barnil also felt quite uneasy. But a pretty figure flashed in his mind, which was full of fear, and immediately overwhelmed the feeling of fear. Barnil straightened his chest in front of the adults. "I know a path to go around."
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