As the Eighth Route Army advanced towards Shimen in both directions of the Zhengtai Line and the Pinghan Line at the same time, and was located at the angle between the two railway lines, the Japanese and puppet army strongholds in the east/southwest area of Shimen were hit hard by the Eighth Route Army, and then the division headquarters was in the assault
Under the escort of the second battalion of the regiment and another battalion-level security force, they moved forward to Xianweng Village, less than thirty miles away from the outskirts of Shimen.
At around two o'clock in the afternoon that day, Zhou Weihan had just received the news that the 22nd Regiment and the supplementary regiment had successfully captured the Daguocun Airport. He immediately received a telegram from the division headquarters, ordering Zhou Weihan to rush to Xianweng Village to rendezvous.
It was a sunny afternoon with a gentle breeze. Zhou Weihan took only the monk and Wan Jingang to Xianweng Village.
Everyone in the entire division had smiles on their faces. The initial victory in the battle around Shimen seemed to have truly torn off the Japanese army's always strong disguise. It not only doubled the morale of the frontline commanders and soldiers, but also made the personnel in the rear headquarters feel proud and proud.
"Zhou **, Chen ** from the Taibei Military Region has arrived and is waiting for you!" The person who greeted Zhou Weihan was still the same staff officer from the division headquarters.
"Okay, I understand!" Zhou Weihan dismounted and handed the horse over to the staff.
Following the direction pointed by the staff officer, Wan Jingang walked at the front. When he arrived at the so-called conference room of the division headquarters, Wan Jingang lifted the straw curtain hanging on the door.
The room was filled with smoke, and those who didn't know thought it was some farmer who had blocked the stove while burning firewood for cooking. Around a wooden table, the division commander, Political Commissar D, Chief of Staff Li, and Chen ** held a bottle in their hands.
A cigarette.
"Here? Come in quickly!" Political Commissar D waved his hand.
The teacher sat opposite the door. When he raised his eyes, he saw Wan Jingang outside the door: "Isn't this Wan Jingang from the secret service group? Why are they following you?"
"Sir, do you also know Wan Jingang?" Zhou Weihan said in surprise.
"Although the Secret Service Corps has been stationed at the Huangyadong Arsenal for a long time, it is a force directly under the division headquarters. Comrade Wan Jingang is also a famous fighting hero of the Secret Service Corps. How could I not recognize him?"
"The secret service team will not let people go easily. You didn't use any evil tricks to abduct Wan Jingang here, right?" A smile flashed in the division commander's eyes.
"How is that possible? Legitimate channels are definitely formal!" Zhou Weihan quickly explained.
At this time, political commissar D waved his hand and said: "I originally sent you a telegram at noon to ask you to wait for the specific notice at night, but the division and headquarters were also worried, so they called you two commanders who know the situation on the front line back.
, I’d like to report some information by the way!”
Upon seeing this, Chief of Staff Li stood up and handed a document to Zhou Weihan.
"Shimen divided our Eighth Route Army base area into four parts, the Taihang base area in the southwest, the Jinan base area in the southeast, the Jizhong base area in the northeast, and the Beiyue base area in the northwest!"
"After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, these base areas continued to conduct reconnaissance and understanding of this core town of the Japanese army. The Japanese army once stationed many troops in Shimen. Now the 110th Division and its affiliated troops are stationed in Shimen!"
"In 1938, the Japanese base camp established the 110th Division based on the left-behind division of the 10th Division. This division administered the 108th Infantry Brigade and the 133rd Infantry Brigade. The former administered the 139th Infantry Regiment and the Infantry Regiment.
The 140th Regiment, which consists of the 110th Infantry Regiment and the 163rd Infantry Regiment, the 110th Cavalry Regiment directly under the division, the 110th Field Artillery Regiment, the 110th Engineer Regiment, the 110th Transport Regiment, and
The communications team, health team, No. 1 to No. 4 hospitals, etc., have a staff strength of nearly 19,000."
"Judging from the situation of the battle between the Jinan Military Region and the 110th Division, most of its main forces were dispatched. The cavalry regiment and artillery regiment all appeared on the battlefield. Only the 139th Division did not appear on the battlefield. Therefore, it can be judged that the left behind
The ones in Shimen are mainly composed of the 139th Regiment!"
"In addition to the above-mentioned regular military forces, the Japanese army also has an army secret service agency, a military police unit, and two secret service organizations disguised as civilians, the Xingya Yishin Association and the Police Regiment Support Association in Shimen. Although these organizations are not large in number, they are based on their
The existing affiliated organizations should not be underestimated either!”
"The Japanese Consulate in Shimen and the Japanese Consulate Police Station are also important points to pay attention to. After the Japanese army occupied Shimen, Japanese expatriates continued to gather in Shimen. The number now exceeds 10,000. In order to strengthen unified management, the consulate established the so-called Shimen Resident Group!"
"These overseas Chinese are invisible military forces. Once there is a change in Shimen, the Japanese army will open its combat readiness arsenal and be able to equip at least a regiment of troops in a short time!"
"There is also the Shimen New People's Association, the Shimen Puppet City Government, the Puppet Security Army..."
"So, even if our Eighth Route Army is making smooth progress in the early stages, it is because it has not yet reached the core of Shimen. Just a rough calculation, there are at least nearly ten thousand Japanese troops, pseudo-security forces, and armed foreigners in Shimen. We are having a meeting right now.
Maybe the Japanese army is also making arrangements in full swing!" Chief of Staff Li said.
Zhou Weihan said: "I said that we made such a big noise around Shimen. Why didn't the little devils withdraw the mopping up troops? It turns out that they were well aware of it!"
"You are on the front line, have you ever sent people to attack and investigate the fortifications near Shimen?" the division commander asked.
"Of course!" Zhou Weihan said.
"What's your assessment?"
"Although Shimen has no city walls, it is like a powder keg. There are fortresses everywhere you look!"
After the Japanese army occupied Shimen, they built this huge city with a radius of more than 30 kilometers into a strong city with numerous bunkers, crisscrossing ditches, and open trenches and hidden trenches like spider webs.
Thousands of bunkers are distributed on the main streets and intersections of Shimen. Two lines of defense form two underground walls, turning Shimen into a powder keg.
The first channel is the outer city ditch, with a circumference of 30 kilometers, a depth of about 7 meters, and a width of about 6 meters. There are barbed wire fences and minefields along the outer edge of the ditch. There are high forts in the ditch, more than 700 forts, and a power grid.
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Strongholds have been built in some large villages and towns outside the ditch. A circular railway is laid in the ditch outside the city. Armored patrol vehicles carrying infantry and artillery patrol day and night.
The second line of defense is the inner city ditch. The ditch is 18 kilometers long, about 5 meters deep and 5 meters wide. There are sharp wooden stakes in the ditch, and there are barbed wire fences and mines outside the ditch. There are denser and stronger high-rise buildings along the ditch than the outer city ditch.
For blockhouses, low bunkers, fortresses and field fortifications, a bunker should be set up every fifty meters, and one bunker should be set up every one hundred meters.
Each village between the inner and outer city ditches has strong fortifications. The two city ditches are connected by traffic ditches or tunnels. Cutting piles are widely installed in the ditches. It is a key defensive area for the Japanese army in SJZ.
"Yes, it is indeed a tough guy, so now we are in a dilemma!" The teacher nodded after hearing this.
"At present, the situation in southern Hebei has improved. The three main regiments of the Luxi Military Region have arrived in southern Hebei. Together, there are nine regiments. They have the strength to compete with the 110th Division!"
"The Southern Hebei Military Region sent a telegram to the headquarters and asked if the Central Hebei Military Region could dispatch two regiments to go south to cut off the retreat of the 110th Division. However, the main force of the Central Hebei Military Region was concentrated on the Beining Line and was fighting with the Independent Ninth Brigade.
The Japanese troops of the 27th Division are fighting and cannot escape!"
For a while, the atmosphere in the conference room was a little heavy. Now the Eighth Route Army has a lot of main troops. There are more than ten main regiments in each secondary military region. However, most of these main regiments were recruited from local troops during the army reorganization.
The transfers invisibly reduced the strength of the local troops, which resulted in the need for at least two main regiments to be dispersed to various parts of the base area to stay in each battle.
After the fighting in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan base area ended, there was no need for the Tainan Flying Team to hide in hiding. They often flew between Beiyue and southern Hebei to carry out bombing missions. However, because the Japanese army had already been prepared, the flying team was unable to have the final say.
"The situation is not that bad. Our army has gathered ten main regiments around Shimen, and the headquarters is worried that the number of artillery pieces in our combat troops is insufficient. The Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region captured fifty-two mountain guns, twelve field guns and the headquarters artillery.
The regiments have been mixed, two artillery regiments have been reorganized, and local armed forces have been organized to carry a large amount of supplies. The chief of staff has brought them, and now the artillery regiments are getting familiar with them. This is a good situation!" Political Commissar D said.
"Judging from the situation in Shimen, our army does not have the fundamental purpose of occupying Shimen. If we want to make the Japanese troops withdraw, our army does not need to launch a full-scale attack. We only need to select two points from the east and south to make key breakthroughs.
, the Shimen defense system is so long, it will cause the Japanese troops to be too dispersed!"
"In this way, passiveness will be turned into activeness. However, the Japanese army on the defensive side will be eager to mobilize troops from other directions. The little devil's stall will be too big, which is not a good thing!"
Political Commissar d's statement made Zhou Weihan's eyes light up. The Southwestern Shandong Military Division has deployed a long snake formation on the old path of the Yellow River. The current defense system of Shimen is in a ring shape. In comparison, the support speed is not necessarily that fast.
Especially the Japanese troops in the outer trenches.
"If that's the case, the location of the two breakthrough points should not be too close. Once we successfully break through, we can completely deploy some blocking troops based on the existing fortifications of the Japanese army to buy time for the assault troops!"
"I estimate that if they really break through the outer defense line, the little Japanese will be anxious. If possible, we can make a time difference and the troops will retreat eastward along the Shide Line and surround the 110th Division. Shimen cannot take it and eat 110
The division is also good!" Zhou Weihan suggested.
"Well, this is in line with your consistent combat philosophy!" The division commander nodded after hearing this: "It seems that I have come to the right place for you to come, but there is one thing that still needs to be paid attention to, and that is the specific tactical issues!"
"After all, this Shimen battle is different from previous battles. In the past, when we fought guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare, we fought the enemy with bravery and ran away. Now we are fighting a tough battle. Just relying on fierce attacks and fierce attacks will not work. Today, I
I’ll give you a slogan: be brave and be skillful.”
"Some comrades below do not believe in tactics, especially some regiment-level cadres. They say, I have never learned any tactics, and I can still win the battle. If this view is not broken, sooner or later, I will suffer losses!"
"Tactics are a tonic for us. They are extremely important and cannot be ignored. We have rich combat experience, which is of course also important, but it is like a large basket of copper coins, which are loose. Tactics are just coins on a string.
Wear all the money, and when you use it, use whatever you want. Don't keep putting your experience loose in a basket and carrying it around, turning it into a baggage that cannot be used."
"Some experiences have been available for thousands of years and have become tactics and theories. Some comrades still don't know it. Instead, they proudly say that tactics are dogma. In this Shimen battle, we must rely on tactics to solve this problem."
Having said this, the teacher picked up the cup and took a sip of water. His eyes slowly swept across the crowd: "You two must convey these words after you return!"
"Fortunately, the troops of the Tainan Military Region have taken two steps ahead of schedule in terms of regularization. There are also troops from the Tainan Military Region in both directions of attack. After we return, we must have a good exchange with the comrades below!"
"There are many things about tactics. I also went to Tainan Cadre School to attend a class, and I summarized three points in total: First, soil work. When fighting in plain areas, large forces attack and annihilate, how can we get close to the enemy? There must be hiding spots.
Otherwise, we are just waiting to be beaten. Doesn't the enemy have trenches? "Well, let's dig trenches too, right under their noses, and shorten the attack distance as much as possible."
"The second is the blasting operation. There are countless large and small bunkers in Shimen. It is impossible to destroy them all by artillery. The hidden bunkers between the trenches mainly rely on explosives. One of the supplies allocated by the headquarters this time
Explosive packs must be learned by soldiers to use and improve their blasting skills.”
"The third is infantry and artillery coordination. In the past, we didn't have cannons, so we added rifles. Now, in addition to the two artillery regiments sent by the headquarters, the total number of artillery in the frontline troops can also be two artillery regiments. With cannons, we need
Give full play to the role of artillery, especially infantry, and artillery must be coordinated well!"
"In general, we use tunnel combat to approach the enemy bunker, use explosives to blast it, and after artillery bombardment, we quickly use infantry to seize the enemy position."
After the teacher finished speaking, he paused for a moment, then looked at Zhou Weihan and said with a smile: "How about it, Zhou Weihan, did I sum it up correctly?"
"Commander, you graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. In terms of tactical literacy and strategic vision, you are two miles ahead of me. How can I dare to compete with you?" Zhou Weihan joked.
Zhou Weihan's words came from the heart. No wonder the division commander eventually went to the Military Academy and became the dean. When it comes to military literacy, looking at the entire Eighth Route Army, there are probably few people who can match him.
"Humph, I haven't seen you for such a long time, and my ability to flatter you has improved!"
"I tell you, it is true that time is valuable, but I would rather let the soldiers study more before the war. Again, there are troops from the Tainan Military Region in both directions of attack. Brotherly troops must be modest among themselves.
Study and sharpen your sword before fighting, if you are not happy it will be a waste!" the teacher emphasized again.
"Yes, we must implement it immediately after we return!" Zhou Weihan and Chen ** stood up and replied.
"Time is urgent and we cannot do without you on the front line. I will ask the chief of staff to take you to the divisional artillery regiments and local troops assisting in operations. The division headquarters is waiting for your good news!" the division commander finally said.
