Chapter 819: Seeking Survival with a Broken Tail

  Chapter 802 – Breaking the Tail to Survive

Ughsur, the 8th division of the insurgent army had already constructed improvised fortifications on the spot, waiting for the French to arrive.

Inside the command headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Hutil held his baton and said to the sand table, “According to the intelligence reported by the scouts, the enemy stopped advancing thirty miles away.

Obviously, it has already discovered us. The enemy’s vigilance is high, and the previously prepared ambush plan is immediately canceled.”

The French had been operating in Egypt for a long time, and had naturally cultivated a number of close friends, and the news of the Eighth Division’s appearance in Ughsul could not be kept secret at all.

Having experienced a great defeat, the French army had now become frightened chickens. Any movement of the wind will cause them to be alert, and it is impossible to ambush them.

Faginhan complained, “Who knows what those idiots at the rear are doing, actually missing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for nothing.”

The ambush plan, itself, was based on the premise that there were pursuers in the rear. Only in the case of being chased by the enemy would the French not have time to think and would rush into the ambush area in a panic.

Unfortunately the insurgents were slow to act, and by the time they reacted, the French had already run tens of kilometers away.

One slow step, one slow step. The insurgent army, which was marching at a garbage speed, naturally couldn’t catch up with the French who were eager to escape after being pulled away.

After the French realized that something was wrong, they could still set up camp, which was enough to show that the pressure from the rear pursuers was not too great for them.

Potiorek said a fair word: “This is normal. Blowing up the Aswan Dam did not only hit the French army hard, the insurgents also suffered heavy losses.

After this kind of incident, the insurgents will be in a state of panic, and the conflicts between the top brass will be intensified.

To be able to gather troops in such a short time and catch up, I guess Lieutenant General Jarrett didn’t waste much effort.”

Hutil nodded and directly introduced the topic to combat: “From the current situation, the situation is still in our favor.

No matter how slow they move, the presence of pursuers will put pressure on the French.

In a sense, not having a direct fight with the French is also a good thing.

If they had really fought and exposed the weak nature of the insurgents, there was no chance that the French would have bucked the trend.

If the enemy doesn’t come, we’ll wait here. Time is on our side.

If Adolf doesn’t want to be caught in a back-and-forth attack by us, he’ll have to charge through here within five days.

Now we’ve seized all the major transportation routes and set up improvised defenses, but that’s still not enough.

In terms of combat power, the Eighth Division is at most equivalent to a second-line French infantry regiment. Even with all our advantages, it’s still difficult to defeat the enemy on a frontal battlefield.

The next step is the time to test what you have learned, you must be flexible according to the situation on the battlefield in order to leave the enemy behind.”

Obviously, the first time he fought the French head-on, Huttil did not have it easy.

Optimist Major Potiorek laughed, “Don’t worry, Lieutenant Colonel. We can’t afford to mess with the main force of the French army, but we can’t deal with a bunch of remnants?

If the scouts are not wrong, more than half of this group of French troops are unarmed, they can’t fight us with burning sticks!

If we can’t, we can still destroy the roads and bridges, delaying their march and buying time for the main force of the insurgent army.”

Lieutenant Colonel Hutil rolled his eyes, “Major Potiorek, wish you were as optimistic as you are on the battlefield.

As for destroying the roads and bridges, don’t even think about it. If you really destroy them, the French will have to go around.

Crossing the Sahara Desert from Isna into the River Valley Province is only a hundred kilometers or so at its narrowest point, and it’s not impossible to do so if you’re willing to pay a certain price.”

At this point, Hutil reacted instantly, finally realizing what he had overlooked.

Then there was no more then, splitting up the troops to intercept was impossible. With the 8th Division’s pathetic combat power, splitting up the troops would be giving them away.

Fort Streithausen: “This is the last option, the French army is not prepared for the desert march, blindly crossing the Sahara Desert will have to pay the loss is certainly not less.

Only after determining that it is impossible to open a gap from us, the French will risk marching in the desert.”

After hesitating for a few moments of effort, Hutil made a decision, “First, we will carry out an interception, and once we find that the French have entered the desert, we will immediately carry out the straggler plan.

I don’t care about the cities, the young men and women in the neighboring towns and tribes should be integrated into the army, and then seize the time to advance along the Nile.

Strive to enter the delta region before the French return. Leave the French in ruins and let them ……”

……

The crackle of gunfire kicked off the battle. Against the backdrop of the artillery’s absence, it was as if firecrackers were being set off.

Compared to the spiritedness of the arrival, Governor Adolphus, who was holding a telescope at the moment, looked particularly haggard, as if he had aged twenty years.

“Governor, this place is too dangerous, or ……”

Without waiting for the guard to finish, Adolf interrupted, “It doesn’t matter, if God is going to summon me in advance, it’s a good thing.”

Although not in the country, Adolf also knows that there are many people who hate to frustrate him now.

It was conceivable that it would not end well for him when he returned home. As a soldier, it would really be better to die in battle rather than be tried in a military court.

After pausing for a while, Adolf opened his mouth and asked, “Where have Colonel Markelow and the others arrived?”

“Extrapolating from the time, it’s almost through the Sahara Desert.” The guard replied.

Marching in the desert, there are too many supplies that need to be prepared, without enough preparation it’s a death sentence, for a moment Adolf naturally couldn’t get it together.

The supplies for the whole army to leave together were not enough, but it was still possible to get the French soldiers to leave first. As for the Egyptian soldiers were worthless, the loss of more does not matter.

In its heyday, the counterinsurgency army can naturally easily tear through the blockade of the 8th Division, but not now.

After the flooding, the French army that escaped lost all of their heavy weapons, more than two-thirds of the soldiers even lost the rifles they were carrying.

This can’t be blamed on them, falling into the water is difficult to protect themselves, weapons have become a burden to escape, naturally, they have to throw away.

The soldiers who kept their weapons also had very few bullets in their hands. Although a portion of the weapons and ammunition had been requisitioned in the cities along the way, it was still a drop in the bucket.

There were less than ten rounds of bullets per capita, and one less for each shot.

Taking a bunch of remnants of soldiers and tearing through the enemy’s defenses head on with a lack of guns and medicine, Governor Adolfo was not yet mad.

War always requires sacrifice, and at such a critical moment, Adolf showed a decisive side. He himself stayed behind with the Egyptian soldiers to attract the enemy’s attention and cover the evacuation of the French soldiers.

Of course, the battle still needs to be fought. How can you fool the enemy without making an effort?

In case the insurgent army on the other side realizes that the main force of the French army has run away and heads straight for Cairo regardless, Cairo, which is empty of troops, may not be able to hold on.

Cairo fell, the situation of France in Egypt is completely rotten. As the governor of Egypt, Adolf still has a sense of responsibility.

Stay here, is to stall the insurgents, to the detour back to Cairo of the French army to fight for valuable time.

Hearing this news, Adolf breathed a sigh of relief. Make a show of feinting, that also needs to consume ammunition, the battle has been carried out until now, the rifles in the hands of many soldiers are just a bayonet more than a burning stick.

Once the weapons and ammunition were depleted, the show would be over. At that time, they want to fight for their lives are not able to, only left to run and become prisoners two options.

Camels, water bottles, these desert marching essential tools, has been left in front of the French army took away, they stayed behind to run are difficult.

Just ready to put down the binoculars, Adolf’s most feared scene appeared, the enemy launched a counterattack.

“Oh no, the enemy has discovered our falsehood. Pass the word down, order the troops to immediately move to the east and head to Guessel to rendezvous!”

It was a bad road, not only crossing the desert, it was better than not preparing anything and running to the desert to die.

……

A rabble is a rabble, and after launching a counterattack, the 8th Division was soon in disarray.

Seeing the enemy fleeing, the insurgent soldiers scattered and chased after them, not caring about the orders given by the commanders at the rear, acting exactly as they wished.

Angry Hutil stomped his feet, from beginning to end he did not order to attack, as a result, his men killed out.

The major of Streithausenburg, who was the first to launch a counterattack, was now also in a daze, clearly he had only ordered a tentative counterattack, and all of a sudden it had turned into a full-frontal counterattack.

Fortunately, the enemy was also in disarray, or else the enemy had seized the opportunity and pushed back, he would have become the laughing stock of the Austrian army.

Not only them, the Austrian officers who commanded the battle, at this moment all fell into self-doubt.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What’s next?

……

The shock of the comedic victory for Huttil and others was huge.

Many of them were deeply skeptical of their own military command abilities, and no longer had the arrogance of just coming out with their eyes wide open.

In the evening, the insurgent soldiers who chased out returned to the camp one after another.

The best of them, with a few heads hanging from their waists, were proudly traveling through the camp, as if showing off their bravery.

The soldiers who had nothing to show for their efforts chose to keep their heads down and avoid the camp, as if they had no face to see others.

Seeing a barbaric scene, the faces of the people inside the command headquarters were not very good.

The older Hutil, who was still a bit more knowledgeable in the end, calmly said, ”No need to be angry, these people with heads hanging from their waists should all be of tribal origin.

It’s their tradition to hang the enemy’s head on their body to prove their bravery.

After spending a lot of time in Africa, you will get used to this. The most barbaric are the cannibal tribes, and if you’re lucky enough to see that scene, you’ll think this is nothing today.

But that was all in the early days, and there are no longer any of these dangerous elements in Austrian Africa. Perhaps they may still exist in the British, French and Portuguese colonies.”

Huttil, who seemed calm, had actually heard about it from hearsay. Even if he had come a few years earlier than these men, he had not caught up with the colonial movement.

The first one to slow down was Faginhan, only to see him sigh and slowly say, “What a barbaric world, but this might also be a good thing for our next mission.

It’s just a pity that we let the main French army slip away, if we had known that they were so badly short of ammunition, we would have launched our attack earlier.”

……

(End of chapter)