Just when the 1st mixed brigade was preparing to escort Tanabe Moritake to the front line of Niangziguan.
Cai Dongcun.
New Regiment, the Eighth Route Army's frontline headquarters.
"Lao Li, this battle has been going on for five or six days. It's time for you to tell us how to crack the tunnel and anti-slope tactics, right?"
Inside the headquarters, Zhao Gang looked at Li Yunlong and asked with expectant tone.
Wang Dehou and several staff officers on the side also looked at Li Yunlong.
If the tactics of tunnels and reverse slopes cannot be cracked, the Eighth Route Army will pay huge casualties in capturing Taiyuan according to the current style of play.
The tactics of tunnels and reverse slopes are not invincible, nor does it mean that you will be invincible if you use these tactics.
But after the Japanese used this tactic, the Eighth Route Army's heavy artillery, aerial bombs, napalm bombs and other heavy firepower could not be used.
Even though the Eighth Route Army had the advantage of tanks and infantry firepower, the casualty ratio with the Japanese remained at 1:1.
According to this strategy, if the Eighth Route Army wanted to capture Taiyuan, it would have to pay a price of 65,000 casualties.
Coupled with the battles at Niangziguan, Yangquan and Shouyang, the Eighth Route Army had to pay a price of 80,000 to 90,000 casualties.
Even if we can win this battle, it will be a miserable victory.
In that case, after this battle, the Eighth Route Army will have to rest and replenish for at least half a year before it can continue to attack the Japanese in North China.
And the new regiment is bound to suffer greater casualties.
Just to kill the fifth division, the new regiment would have to suffer at least 20,000 casualties.
This is not in line with Li Yunlong's expectations.
If the equipment of the Eighth Route Army remains the same as before and is far inferior to the equipment of the Japanese, then forget it.
But now the equipment of the new regiment far exceeds that of the Japs, and its firepower exceeds that of the Japs by 15 times. Under such circumstances, if the Eighth Route Army and the Japs had a casualty ratio of 1 to 1, Li Yunlong would not be able to accept this result no matter what.
Then wouldn’t the business and efforts of the past two years have been in vain?
“Break tunnel and backslope tactics?”
Li Yunlong shook his head and said with certainty:
"This tactic is not that easy to crack. If this tactic could be cracked, the Japanese would have cracked it long ago."
At the beginning, the Japanese 10th Division also followed the example of the New Regiment, using tunnels and reverse slope tactics to resist the New Regiment's attack.
However, the Japanese engineers at that time had not yet mastered the essence of this tactic.
They just dug a shallow hole and used it as a tunnel tactic, and the new regiment launched a counterattack in time, using fire-breathing tanks and flamethrowers to burn the Japs hiding in the tunnel alive.
But are fire tanks and flamethrowers useful now?
It's definitely useful, but it's not that useful. It's not big enough to break tunnels and reverse slope tactics.
certainly.
There is another way, which is to order the engineers to use the soil work method in the original drama to dig the trench 30 meters away from the Japanese position.
However, the Japanese artillery positions on the reverse slope will definitely use mortars and mountain artillery to bombard the Eighth Route Army engineers in the trenches.
And the results are slower.
The biggest problem now is not letting the infantry charge into the Japanese position.
Because the Eighth Route Army has tanks and powerful mortar firepower, these Eighth Route Army infantry can also attack the Japanese positions.
Moreover, the Japanese deliberately put the Eighth Route Army into position, and both sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat.
This will narrow the firepower gap between the two sides.
Now what Li Yunlong was thinking about was how to capture the Japanese positions during the attack while greatly reducing the casualties of the troops, and reach the gates of Taiyuan City.
"If it can't be cracked, what should I do?"
Zhao Gang frowned slightly, what should I do?
Zhao Gang was also thinking hard about how to crack it, but he had no clue. Tactics were not Zhao Gang's specialty.
In the past few days, front-line troops have launched attacks on the Japanese positions every day, but mainly artillery attacks, supplemented by tank troops and infantry attacks.
Therefore, although the Japanese positions could not be captured, the casualties of the troops were very small.
Correspondingly, the Japanese casualties were not large.
The battalions and company commanders of the front-line troops also tried to decipher the Japanese tunnels and anti-slope tactics, and even used war games to deduce them.
But the results were unsatisfactory. If we wanted to capture the tunnels and reverse slopes created by the Japanese, we could only rely on human lives to fill them.
Fortunately, the enemy's equipment was relatively poor and they still used weapons such as 38-type heavy machine guns, Type 92 heavy machine guns, crooked handles, and Type 96 light machine guns. The casualties of the attacking troops were not large.
If the Japanese used the same weapons as the New First Regiment and the New Second Regiment, the casualties of the Eighth Route Army would increase exponentially.
"hey-hey…"
Li Yunlong raised the corner of his mouth and smiled in his unique voice: "Although we can't break this tunnel and reverse slope tactics, we, Old Li, have other ways."
"any solution?"
Zhao Gang asked hurriedly.
Wang Dehou and several combat staff members on the side also pricked up their ears.
Li Yunlong did not answer immediately, but looked at Wang Dehou and said: "Chief of Staff, please send a telegram to ask Deputy Commander Xing, how are the pilots' training on medium bombers and goblet aerial bombs? How many goblets do we have in total?
A bomb?"
At this time, the fighting situation in northwest Shanxi was also very fierce.
The remnants of the Japanese 1st Division and the 26th Division, led by Mitsuo Nakazawa and Shigetori Kuroda, bypassed Datong and headed for strongholds such as Dagu Town and Lijia Town in northwest Shanxi.
However, the defenses of Dagu Town and Lijia Town are very abnormal. They not only have complete tunnels and reverse slope fortifications, but also many reinforced concrete permanent fortifications. The defense strength is like a fortress.
Even if the Japanese draw the 7th Heavy Artillery Regiment of the 1st Division, it will be difficult to invade the Eighth Route Army base area in northwest Shanxi.
What's more, Datong was still in the hands of the Eighth Route Army at this time, and the Japanese heavy artillery regiment simply couldn't get through.
The 1st Division and the 26th Division not only failed to attack the base of the new regiment, but suffered heavy casualties.
Okamura Neiji wanted to use the tactic of surrounding Wei and rescuing Zhao, but it was simply not feasible in northwestern Shanxi.
At the same time, some Japanese and puppet troops in Henan Province also took the opportunity to cross the Taihang Mountains and attack the Eighth Route Army base in southeastern Shanxi. The Eighth Route Army in southeastern Shanxi was no longer what it used to be.
In addition, there were not many Japs attacking southeastern Shanxi, so under the command of the head of the headquarters, they directly confronted the Japs and puppet troops head-on.
"Yes, leader!"
Wang Dehou responded, and then quickly drafted a telegram. Li Yunlong signed it and asked the telegraph soldier to send it out.
These days, the pilots in northwestern Shanxi are not idle either, forming eight bomber crews.
The system-improved B25 bomber has better performance than the US-made bomber, is larger, has a longer range, carries more bombs, has a lower failure rate, and is thicker and thicker.
The B25 medium bomber in another time and space cannot carry Goblet bombs because its belly is not big enough.
The improved medium bomber is comparable to the B29 long-range strategic large bomber in all aspects.
Each B25 medium bomber requires a captain and a co-pilot, a bombardier and navigator, a communications officer and machine gunner, and a machine gunner.
All eight bombers are crewed.
Then, Li Yunlong ordered these bomber crews to test the power of the Goblet aerial bomb in the base area and train the accuracy of bomb delivery.
"You haven't said it yet?"
Zhao Gang raised his eyebrows.
This bitch can really keep his composure.
"Actually, my tactics are very simple."
With a smile, Li Yunlong took out a map he drew from the inner pocket of his military uniform.
Place the map on the table and slowly spread it out.
Zhao Gang and Wang Dehou looked at the map on the table and couldn't help but narrow their eyes slightly.
I saw on the map that Li Yunlong had already made a map of the defensive and offensive situation of both the enemy and ourselves around Taiyuan.
To be continued...