Having said this, Ma Chunsheng looked at the watch on his wrist and said: "It is now four o'clock in the morning. According to the distance calculation, I think Commander Du should have arrived at the Qiqihar line by now. If there are no accidents on the road, it should be at midnight today at the latest. I can get to the front line of Aershan."
"Since Commander Du will be able to arrive at the Aershan line at midnight today, I think this period of time will allow Commander Wang to make sufficient preparations, especially to adjust the quantity and structure of equipment according to the combat plan issued by the headquarters. The more prepared they are now, the faster they can advance."
"No. 1, since Commander Wang is conducting a large-scale roundabout operation, the requirements for mobility will be very high. No. 1, according to the establishment of the roundabout troops assigned by the headquarters, not counting nearly a thousand trucks, tanks and armored vehicles alone There are nearly 200 vehicles, and these equipments are all oil-hungry. Long-distance roundabout operations cannot be carried out without sufficient fuel replenishment."
"Relying on air-dropped supplies alone puts a lot of pressure on our aviation force and is somewhat unrealistic. The air-dropped fuel equipment we have on hand simply cannot meet the needs of an armored brigade and thousands of trucks. We also made temporary changes to the plan. The number of fuel trucks originally assigned to them was simply not enough to maintain fuel supplies for the outflanking troops."
"The fuel trucks newly mobilized by the military region to replenish them are still on the way. It will take time to reach the Nanxing'an and Aershan lines. Commander Du is still on the way and will have to wait until midnight today to arrive. I think we should not miss this. One day is better, isn’t there a saying that you can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry?”
In response to Ma Chunsheng's persuasion, Yang Zhen hesitated and finally nodded. In fact, Yang Zhen urged Wang Guangyu to speed up the action because he was worried about any accidents in Outer Mongolia. The entire operation of the roundabout troops would be delayed. After all, they took advantage of Outer Mongolia. , there are many uncertain factors.
If the Outer Mongolian Army really launches an attack on the outflanking troops, although the Outer Mongolian Army's real combat effectiveness is not afraid, the marching speed of the outflanking troops will definitely be delayed. Once the troops inside the pass start taking action, Wang Guangyu's outflanking troops will If they are not in place, the troops within the Guanzhong area concentrated in Rehe alone may not be able to compete with one division of the 23rd Division.
Every minute the operation is advanced can buy one minute for the detour troops to deal with unexpected incidents that may be encountered on the way, and try to cooperate with the attack time of the Guan Nei troops to avoid the Guan Nei troops facing a complete Japanese division alone. The situation of the group.
As the saying goes, caring leads to chaos. Seeing that the time for the Guan Nei troops to launch an attack is getting closer and closer, Yang Zhen's heart is getting higher and higher. He is very worried about whether the Guan Nei troops can meet his expectations and whether they can during the battle. Can it contain the Japanese garrison in Rehe, the puppet Manchukuo army, and even part of the 23rd Division, and even be able to encircle and annihilate some of the Japanese and puppet troops in Rehe?
For Yang Zhen, once he has reached Rehe, the new Hebei-Relia advance army at the junction of Hebei includes almost the entire Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei military region of the Guan Nei army, as well as the essence of his old army's 129th Division. After the battle for Rehe, The losses were too great and I really couldn't explain it to the central government.
I was too worried about whether the internal troops would suffer serious losses during the battle, but I neglected what the detour troops, especially a group equipped with a large number of armored troops and motor vehicles, needed to do before a long-distance attack. There is a lot of preparation work, which is difficult to complete quickly in a short period of time. At this point, I am indeed a little impatient.
Thinking of this, Yang Zhen shook his head and turned his attention back to Fuyu, the battle in the direction of Yushu. Yang Zhen pointed at the map and said: "I am a little impatient about this matter. You are right. I can't eat hot tofu in a hurry. , only the more fully prepared they are, the faster they will act."
"In this matter, listening to your advice, we will still focus our main attention on you at the moment, Lao Ma. It is the headquarters' careful consideration to transfer you from Mudanjiang to take over Du Kaishan's command of the centerline breakthrough campaign. Yes, now you should have an understanding of the situation. I would like to ask you if you have thought about how to play this game."
"This direction is the main defensive area of the Japanese army, and it is also its main troop gathering place. It is also the direction where the largest number of Japanese troops are concentrated in the entire front. If it is well laid, it can effectively contain the Japanese troops on the central line and cannot move westward. It is a problem for the war situation on the western front. Strong response.”
"I know that you are very brave. You are no less courageous than Du Kaishan, and to a certain extent, you are even much more courageous than him. So, let me tell you the basics first. The purpose of launching this campaign is to open up the relationship with Du Kaishan. As for the straight-line communication within the pass, the goal of annihilating the enemy is placed second.”
"As for Xinjing, if you have the opportunity, take it. If you can't capture it, don't force it. Let us pay hundreds of thousands of casualties to capture a big city whose symbolic and political significance is greater than its military significance. At least we haven't yet. That capital, and occupying Xinjing, is more of a burden for us."
"This involves not only military issues, but also economic issues. As for political issues, I won't think too much about them. I am a military commander. Although I can't say that everything is based on military issues, I won't. To influence the military struggle too much for certain political reasons."
"Although the military is meant to serve politics, at the moment we have to consider the long-term interests more. We cannot drain our blood all at once. You are already a senior commander, so you need to take a longer-term view. , although we are developing very rapidly now, our real strength is still far from being able to compete with the entire national power of Japan."
"This time you are sitting on the central line as the acting commander. You must grasp this scale well. You must not only attract the heavy Japanese troop clusters around Xinjing but not transfer westward to reinforce the 23rd Division, and ensure that all our troops on the western front fight against the Japanese Second Army. The encirclement and annihilation of the 13th Division and the 51st Division accomplished the main goal of our army's operation without causing serious casualties to the troops.
"You can't just be impulsive and ignore the situation when you see it is beneficial to you. Of course, it doesn't mean that just to preserve your strength, you will give up when you see a favorable opportunity and ignore it. There is a question of scale in this. You need to master it yourself based on the actual situation.”
"It is precisely because this direction has the greatest pressure and faces the largest number of Japanese troops, requiring commanders to have a high degree of flexibility. Therefore, when the headquarters chose the candidate to succeed Du Kaishan, it put a lot of thought into it. After several considerations, it was You have been chosen as the commander of the center line troops."
"So you must remember this for me. If you cripple the troops, I will not spare you. In order to launch this campaign, the potential of the soldiers in the base has basically been excavated. All the manpower that can be mobilized, We have already mobilized all our forces. If the casualties are too high and the ultimate goal of this battle is not achieved, it will be extremely detrimental to our future development."
"And judging from the current economic basis of the base area, the number of troops that can support us now has reached the extreme. If we expand the troops more, the economy of the base area simply cannot afford it. Whether it is the supply of ammunition or food, at least for now, it is no longer possible. To support the expansion of our troops, so except for the western front, the main goal of the rest of the directions is not to capture cities and territories."
"I still say the same thing. The main goal of this battle is to seize the front line of Jehol and open up the connection with the pass. Secondly, if conditions permit, appropriately annihilate some of the heavy Japanese army groups and completely defeat the Japanese army's northward advance. capabilities, and win at least one year of stable development time for the base area. All our deployments are centered on these two goals."
Yang Zhen explained the real goal of the campaign to Ma Chunsheng, which made Ma Chunsheng slightly stunned. He did not expect that the launch of this campaign almost mobilized the entire army, and all the weapons owned by the Anti-Japanese Alliance were unveiled, and the target was actually It just opens up the land connection with the customs.
It turned out that he had always thought that the goal of this campaign was to capture Xinjing, the hub of the Kwantung Army in the Northeast and the symbol of its rule over the Northeast, and to encircle and annihilate the heavy Japanese army cluster north of Xinjing. However, he did not expect that the momentum would increase. With such a big goal, the ultimate goal is just to open up the connection with the troops inside the pass. In other words, whether it is the operation on the central line against the 28th Division, the 7th Division, or the operation on the eastern front, it is only to cooperate with the western front. of combat.
Only then did Ma Chunsheng understand why the headquarters changed the pattern of last year's battle in this battle deployment. It did not violate military common sense. When the troops were not enough to support an attack on all sides, the headquarters made changes in the deployment of the entire battle. A combat mode with flowers everywhere and multiple attacks emerges.
Only then did he know why, after breaking through the Japanese defenses in Fuyu, Chen Hanzhang's main force suddenly turned around and turned to the west, in addition to leaving one division to cooperate with the two armies in the middle, to outflank the five Japanese troops deployed in Nanxing'an. The 11th Division's rear route focused its attack on a direction that would not affect the overall situation.
Instead of taking advantage of their own armor advantage and the undefeable terrain from Fuyu to Xinjing, they forcibly penetrated to the southeast of Xinjing, cutting off the entire retreat of the heavy Japanese army group north of Xinjing in one fell swoop. Du Kaishan and Tao Jingfei in the east attacked from three sides and completed the encirclement of the Japanese 7th and 28th divisions.
It turns out that the entire deployment of the headquarters is focused on the western front, which I have ignored the most before, instead of the middle line, which I have always thought. These two Japanese divisions and those behind them can be said to be at the forefront of the Anti-Alliance Forces. Xinjing, the headquarters of the Kwantung Army and the capital of the so-called Puppet Manchukuo.
Now, almost all offensives by various troops in other directions are to cover up the true combat intentions and cover the operations of various troops on the western front, especially the offensive in the center, which is to cut off the two Japanese divisions in front of them that can advance westward at any time. The possibility of marching westward to reinforce the 51st Division.
Chen Hanzhang's unit turned around precisely to cooperate with Wang Guangyu's unit, which launched a frontal attack from Aershan and Nanxing'an, to complete the encirclement of the 51st Division and cut off the connection between the 51st Division and the 23rd Division. Preparations were made to capture South Hinggan Province, West Hinggan Province and Rehe, and finally open up land connections with the pass.