Fang Ligong was suddenly startled: "Commander, we have one regiment to deal with the Japanese, one regiment and one brigade. This is no joke. The ratio of troops is 1 to 1. We cannot do this at a loss. Please think twice."
Chu Yunfei said: "Of course, I don't intend to lose money. Let's make a step-by-step arrangement and block the attack in stages to buy Li Yunlong some time."
Fang Ligong adjusted his glasses and said: "Commander, we are not in conflict with the Eighth Route Army, so why are we helping him?"
Chu Yunfei made up his mind and said: "You don't have to help others, but you still have to help Li Yunlong. This person has something. If the Chinese army can have more officers like Li Yunlong, this war will be better."
It’s much easier to fight, get ready to fight.”
"yes!"
Fang Ligong straightened up and turned around to leave.
He knew Chu Yunfei's character very well. Once the decision was made, it would not be made unless Principal Chang or Chief Yan personally ordered it.
Otherwise, Chu Yunfei would never change his mind.
…
Taiyuan.
First Army Headquarters.
Yoshio Shinozuka received a call back from Li Yunlong.
He responded with the clear coded telegram that Yoshio Shinozuka had sent to Li Yunlong before: wash his neck and wait for Li Yunlong to chop off his head.
Yoshio Shinozuka did not call Li Yunlong back, but was personally formulating and deploying city defense tasks.
These tasks should have been done by the chief of staff, but now the First Army does not have a chief of staff, so Yoshio Shinozuka can only do it by himself.
Yoshio Shinozuka knew that with the small amount of troops he had, he would never be a match for the Eighth Route Army.
In his opinion, the focus of defense should be to delay as much time as possible, and only need to wait for the arrival of reinforcements to relieve the crisis in Taiyuan.
Yoshio Shinozuka deployed four lines of defense.
The first line of defense is the fortifications outside Taiyuan City, and the defensive forces are mainly the Imperial Army.
This fortification will definitely be bombarded by the Eighth Route Army, which will serve as cannon fodder for the Imperial Army.
The second line of defense is the city wall of Taiyuan. The city wall of Taiyuan is 11 meters high, 13 meters wide at the bottom, and about 8 meters wide at the top. The city wall is high and thick, and it is not comparable to the city walls in the county.
However, according to intelligence, the Eighth Route Army is equipped with a large number of 105 howitzers, which can barely be regarded as heavy artillery.
The Taiyuan city wall cannot be defended. It is only a matter of time before the city wall is destroyed.
If the Eighth Route Army did not have large-caliber artillery, then Yoshio Shinozuka could order the Japanese artillery to move the mountain field artillery and infantry artillery onto the city wall and aim at the infantry attacking from the Eighth Route Army.
However, the Eighth Route Army not only has large-caliber artillery, but the artillerymen of the Eighth Route Army are of extremely high quality.
It's very difficult to do.
The second line of defense was mainly composed of the Japanese army and the Imperial Army, and their numbers were 1:1.
Next is the third line of defense, which is also the line of defense that Yoshio Shinozuka expects the most.
street fighting.
The main force was the elite Yoshino Regiment directly under the First Army. More than 3,000 Japanese soldiers of the Yoshino Regiment were fighting the Eighth Route Army street by street and house by house in the outer city of Taiyuan.
The fourth line of defense is the city wall of the inner city of Taiyuan, which is also the last line of defense. It is defended by the military police and Shinozuka Yoshio's personal guard squadron.
At this time, Yoshio Shinozuka regretted sending his troops to guard Xiaodian Town, which resulted in insufficient troops.
However, the old devil is a person who has experienced strong winds and waves, and he quickly puts other emotions behind him.
"Reporting to the general, Commander Tada of the North China Front called back. The 1st Cavalry Brigade of the Mongolian Army and the 108th Division of the Second Army have received the order and are gathering to prepare to rush to Taiyuan!"
Communications Staff Officer Toshimatsu Kasai hurriedly walked in with the telegram in hand and bowed to Yoshio Shinozuka.
"Yoshi!"
Yoshio Shinozuka was shocked when he heard this.
The 4th Cavalry Brigade that attacked Zhongtiao Mountain and the 1st Cavalry Brigade that was preparing to rush for reinforcements were both adapted into automobiles.
The reorganized cavalry brigade has a strength of 5,600, equipped with 5,668 horses, 3,705 rifles, 12 heavy machine guns, 36 field guns, 4 rapid-fire guns, 7 tanks and other weapons and equipment.
The 1st Cavalry Brigade has jurisdiction over the 13th Cavalry Regiment, the 14th Cavalry Regiment, and the 71st Cavalry Regiment. Each cavalry regiment has 4 squadrons, a machine gun squadron (8 heavy machine guns), and an artillery squadron (3 mountain guns, rapid-fire guns
4 doors), a car squadron (more than 70 cars), and a combat convoy directly under the brigade, the 1st Cavalry Artillery Regiment, an engineering team, a baggage team, etc. The army has realized all vehicles.
The 108th Division is also a three-unit division, and its combat effectiveness is not weak.
Three days, as long as we can hold on for three days, the reinforcements will definitely arrive.
At that time, the Eighth Route Army around Taiyuan can be driven back to southeastern Shanxi.
Moreover, more than 40 kilometers south of Taiyuan are vast plains.
It is very suitable for the maneuverability of the cavalry. At that time, the 1st Cavalry Brigade may be able to severely damage or even kill the Eighth Route Army attacking Taiyuan.
The more Yoshio Shinozuka thought about it, the more feasible it became.
So, the old Japanese decided to play a big game of chess, and he wanted to capture the Eighth Route Army attacking Taiyuan.
…
Li Yunlong also knows the importance of time.
The sooner we capture Taiyuan, the sooner we can make a fortune.
After all the troops were ready, he was ready to give the order to attack the city without hesitation.
There was no passion or anger in Li Yunlong's eyes, only water-like calm. He grabbed the high-power walkie-talkie and shouted loudly: "Give me the order to fire!"
Less than ten seconds after the words fell, a sharp sound suddenly sounded in the sky.
Both Li Yunlong and the soldiers preparing to attack were very familiar with this beautiful sound.
This is exactly the screeching sound caused by cannonballs flying through the air.
However, this scream was not so wonderful to the Japanese and puppet soldiers.
A moment later, the artillery shells landed on the Japanese and puppet army positions outside Taiyuan City.
All the artillery groups were not tested in advance. They were covered by artillery fire and fired rapidly. Explosive fireballs and gunpowder smoke suddenly rose on the Japanese and puppet army positions.
A turret built by the Japanese outside the city was hit by a 105mm howitzer. Amidst the explosion of artillery fire, the Japanese turret suddenly exploded like a goddess scattering flowers.
The Japanese and puppet soldiers inside were killed instantly.
Under rounds of artillery bombardment, the positions of the Japanese and puppet troops seemed to be flattened and submerged in fierce fire.
After shelling the Japanese and puppet army positions for five rounds, the barrage of artillery shells extended and began to bombard the city walls of Taiyuan.
Taiyuan's city walls are equipped with artillery forts, shelter holes and ammunition holes.
The Japanese artillery on the city wall was also firing outwards to counterattack, but the Japanese artillerymen and observers could not see the location of the Eighth Route Army's artillery positions.
They can only shell the visible Eighth Route Army infantry, but the Eighth Route Army infantry are relatively scattered and have little effect.
When the Japs in the fort on the city wall fired their cannons, the special forces of the Sharp Sword Squadron had already quietly calculated their shots.
As Xu Jin's barrage extended, the special forces of the Sharp Sword Squadron fired at the Japanese artillery positions and passed them to the rear artillery group.
The enemy's forts on the city wall were knocked down one by one.
…
Taiyuan inner city.
Japanese First Army Headquarters.
Landslides and ground cracked, mountains were shaken, and the thunderous sound of artillery shell explosions was heard.
Although Yoshio Shinozuka had long known that the Eighth Route Army was equipped with a large number of large-caliber cannons.
But when I actually heard the roar of these large-caliber cannons, I still found it unbelievable.
Judging from the continuous sound of artillery, there were probably no less than a hundred large-caliber guns on Route 8.
Where did the Eighth Route Army get so many cannons?
Could it be that the mysterious man named Chen Feng provided it?
Could the Eighth Route Army's air support have something to do with Chen Feng? Will the Eighth Route Army use air support this time to attack Taiyuan?
Yoshio Shinozuka was also afraid that if Li Yunlong was unable to capture Taiyuan for a while and sent out bombers to level the inner city of Taiyuan, then things would be very bad.
"Report to the general!"
Communications Staff Officer Toshimatsu Kasai, with a tense expression, hurriedly walked into the combat hall: "Each city wall defender reported that the artillery forts on the city wall were destroyed and suppressed by eight-way artillery fire. Many shelters and ammunition holes in the city wall were destroyed. The eight-way artillery fire was too real.
It’s so fierce.”
Yoshio Shinozuka's face gradually turned dark, he still underestimated the artillery troops of the Eighth Route Army.
If the Eighth Route Army's artillery is not dealt with, the city wall will not last long. Maybe the Eighth Route Infantry will be able to enter the city today.
Yoshio Shinozuka said: "Order the observation balloon team to raise the balloon, find the location of the Eighth Route Artillery position, and help the artillery observe the impact point of the artillery shells."
"In addition, the 3rd Flying Brigade has dispatched two Type III command and liaison aircraft to accompany the 32nd Flying Team to provide air reinforcements to Taiyuan."
"Your communications room will immediately send 4 radio communication machines to the artillery."
The First Army has a balloon observation team of more than 50 people to help the artillery observe the impact of artillery shells.
During World War I, observation balloons were a powerful tool used by artillery forces from various countries to observe the effects of shelling. However, they were actually somewhat outdated during World War II. After all, aircraft technology at this time was very mature, and fighter jets posed a great threat to observation balloons.
However, because China's air power was weak and the Japanese had air superiority, they did not encounter any challenges when using observation balloons, so they did not pay much attention to this issue.
However, because Yoshio Shinozuka was afraid of the Eighth Route Army's anti-aircraft cannons, he did not initially order the observation balloon to take off.
The Type III command and liaison aircraft, numbered ki-76, is a command and liaison aircraft newly equipped by the Japanese Army.
Designed and manufactured by Japan International Aviation Industries, this aircraft has multiple functions such as air command, reconnaissance, liaison, and impact point observation, and can perform short-field takeoffs and landings on ordinary surfaces without built runways.
However, Yoshio Shinozuka knew very well that the Eighth Route Army was cunning and would definitely set up a large number of false positions to confuse the Imperial Army as before.
It’s hard to say whether it will be effective, but doing nothing is just waiting for death, and now we can only treat a dead horse as a living horse.
"Hi!" Toshimatsu Kasai suddenly lowered his head and turned to leave.
Listening to the continuous explosion of artillery shells at the city wall, Yoshio Shinozuka became increasingly irritable.
Judging from the Eighth Route Artillery's generous use of shells, it seems that the Eighth Route Army did not run out of ammunition during the last mopping up operation.
On the contrary, there is plenty of ammunition.
Yoshio Shinozuka thought to himself that the Eighth Route Army was really cunning and cunning. They even lied to their commanders, saying that two-thirds of the troops suffered casualties during the battle and the ammunition was almost exhausted.