Working as a police officer in Mexico-Chapter 1696 - 766: Codename: "Cunning Wizard"!_2

One and a half hours late, company-sized armed reconnaissance.

This means the French Army will not launch a main attack strong enough to genuinely attract a large number of enemy troops, but will indeed create a commotion, forming a certain sense of echo. If the Italians fight smoothly, the French Army can "expand on the results"; if the Italians hit a brick wall, the French Army also has ample reason to "not engage with the enemy main force and retreat according to plan".

Advance and retreat at will.

To put it nicely, it's like that, but to be direct, if you can't beat it, I'm going to retreat, don't say I'm running away.

Durand added, "Remind our artillery and aerial liaison officers to pay attention to the Italians' movements tomorrow morning. If they really run into tough resistance, call for support as appropriate. After all, we can laugh at our allies, but we can't let them lose too badly; that would make our entire coalition look incompetent."

May 8th, 6:45 AM, the Italian forces launched their offensive from the starting positions.

Thin fog drifted through the forest.

The soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the Italian Army had already taken up attack positions.

After a night of urgent preparation and anxiety, there was instead a kind of numb calmness at this moment.

Bertolini was not at the front lines but was stationed at the brigade command to grasp the situation.

At exactly 7:00, the remnants of the Italian division's artillery regiment's FH-70 155mm howitzers and some mortars began a fifteen-minute artillery preparation on "Alpha Point" and its surrounding suspicious areas.

The screeching of shells tearing through the morning sky and the distant rumble of explosions marked the start of the offensive.

This point is very close to the current temporary frontline capital of Indiana, Gree City! After capturing it, you can even stand here and see inside the city!

So, there must be Mexican Army troops here.

After the shelling stopped, the 3rd Battalion's VCC-80 infantry fighting vehicles and "Centaur" tank destroyers, covering the infantry, began to slowly advance along Highway 73.

The initial advance was unusually smooth.

The woodland on both sides of the highway was silent, with only the roar of our vehicles' engines. There were no sniper shots, no landmines, no contrails of anti-tank missiles. This silence instead made the frontline commanders uneasy.

"Forward units report, reached coordinate point X-RAY-7, no resistance encountered. Road ahead clear, continuing to advance to Alpha Point," the battalion commander's voice came over the radio.

Inside the brigade command.

Bertolini held the walkie-talkie.

"Order the forward units to slow down further, dispatch dismounted reconnaissance teams to explore the depths of the woodland on both sides of the highway, at least five hundred meters. Armored vehicles provide covering fire, but don't stray too far from the roadbed."

He suspected the Mexicans were deliberately letting them in. The hilly terrain at Alpha Point is easy to defend and hard to attack; if the enemy had no decent defenses there, that would be the strange thing.

Around 8:20 AM, the forward units reached the southwestern slope of the Alpha Point hill, less than eight hundred meters in a straight line from the top. The highway had a turn here, with a gentle slope on one side and denser woods on the other.

The dismounted reconnaissance team had just spread out into the woodland.

An unexpected change suddenly occurred.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Several gunshots that weren't very dense rang out from the forest, followed by a brief explosion.

The radio immediately echoed with the reconnaissance team's exclamations and sounds of engagement: "Encountered enemy light infantry! Number unknown! In the woods! Requesting support!"

Almost simultaneously with the gunshots, multiple smoke trails rose from the reverse slope of Alpha Point hill and further flanks!

"Anti-tank missiles! At least three! Direction northeast, elevation 25!" a "Centaur" vehicle commander shouted in the channel.

The Italian armored vehicles, which had long been on alert, immediately released smoke grenades and made emergency maneuvers to evade.

The "Centaur"'s 105mm turret swiftly rotated, firing a high-explosive bomb blindly toward the general direction of the missile. The machine gun on the VCC vehicle also sprayed the forest wildly.

A "Milan" anti-tank missile grazed over the roof of a VCC, hitting a large tree behind, sending splinters flying.

The other two seemed to have missed.

"Artillery! Requesting artillery cover on the reverse slope of Alpha Point, coordinates uploaded! Enemy anti-tank team!" the forward battalion commander urgently called.

The rear Italian artillery responded quickly, and within two minutes, the first wave of corrected shells fell on the designated area, kicking up dirt and gunpowder smoke.

However, Mexican snipers and machine gunners began firing from more concealed positions. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Bullets "whizzed" against the armor or drilled near the soldiers' cover. An Italian officer attempting to observe with binoculars was hit in the shoulder by a sniper's bullet, screaming as he fell.

The battle broke out in an instant, but the intensity was kept at a "stalemate" level.

The Mexican troops didn't seem eager to consume this Italian forward, just used precise fire and small harassment units to firmly pin them down at the foot of the hill, continually wearing down their forces and morale.

8:30 AM, in the French Army's "Beta" area.

Almost simultaneously with the Italians' engagement, a reinforced company of the French Foreign Legion, supported by four AMX-10RC tank destroyers and mortars, launched an attack on a small village that served as the Mexican Army's forward outpost.

Unlike the "sticky" resistance the Italians encountered, the resistance on the French side... was strangely weak.

There were only sporadic rifle shots, which quickly fell silent under the French's intense machine gun and cannon suppression. The French stormed into the village almost effortlessly, finding it empty except for hastily abandoned fortifications and few traces of habitation.

"Colonel, the Beta area target has been occupied, resistance was weak, suspected enemy forces retreated in advance," reported the frontline commander.