As for the attack, all the offensive tactics learned in training were forgotten. Because of the swarm of charge tactics, the attacking troops suffered heavy casualties under machine gun fire from the Japanese and puppet troops. Although the flanking puppet troops were defeated, The stubborn resistance of a regiment of the Manchu Army forced the Japanese and puppet troops in the front to retreat because their flanks were threatened.
However, a regiment that launched a counterattack suffered nearly one-third of its casualties, and the result was only the defeat of a regiment of the puppet Manchukuo army. It can be said that although the troops defeated the counterattack of the Japanese and puppet troops in this battle, it was more It relies more on the bravery of the troops themselves rather than on the use of tactics and equipment.
This is a problem that manifests itself in battles. There are more problems outside the battlefield. Troops who are used to fighting in old base areas. Wherever they go, there are fellow soldiers to support the battle. The wounded are carried, and the common people take the initiative to resettle them. The troops do not have to worry about food supplies. , showing extreme discomfort with fighting in new areas.
When mobilizing fellow villagers to help lift the wounded, they ignored the tightness of the Japanese and puppet rule over Rehe and the common people's worries about the Japanese and puppet revenge. They only made simple mobilizations and forcibly moved the soldiers. It was not so much mobilization as force. The people came to form a stretcher team, but no capable political workers were sent to lead the team. As a result, when the gunshots were fired, these hastily formed stretcher teams were the first to fall into chaos.
Not only were the wounded scattered everywhere, and the ammunition that should be sent forward could not be delivered, but there were even serious incidents in which the wounded were beaten to death by civilians carrying stretchers, and their heads were chopped off to claim credit from the Japanese and puppets. After the war, the troops collected It took a long time with wounded soldiers and ammunition being thrown everywhere.
What is more serious, this battle also exposed that some cadres were arbitrary and did not understand themselves, but they did not listen to the reasonable suggestions put forward by their subordinates and cadres sent by the Anti-Resistance Joint Deployment. In this battle, the commander of the mountain artillery company of the brigade proposed that the use of artillery should be concentrated and Rather than being dispersed, the artillery advance should not be so close to the enemy positions. The rational suggestion that the artillery positions should be moved frequently was denounced by the brigade commander as not brave and fearful of death.
The anti-alliance cadres proposed that machine gun fire strikes and suppression should be focused and arranged in a trapezoidal configuration, but no one listened. What is even more serious is that the brigade commander, after learning that the troops below were acting without authorization, did not immediately transfer the troops back, nor did they There was no adjustment in deployment and troops were sent to replace those troops that were scattered.
At the same time, the brigade did not pay attention to the use of modern communication methods and paid more attention to the old contact methods of human communication. During the short-term renovation period, the brigade did not even set up field telephone lines between the brigade headquarters and the regiments and battalions. The brigade headquarters still didn't know what had happened. After receiving a report from the correspondent sent by the troops in front, they found that the troops there had basically been lost.
Although the current army has sufficient ammunition, it cannot be used rationally at the same time. The light and heavy machine gun fires are all continuous fire. However, in infantry combat, they still adopt the old method of the past, launching an attack after three shots. If they want to fight with The enemy is engaged in close combat, and relies more on grenades during the battle instead of rationally deploying the accompanying firepower.
These situations made this veteran commander very worried. This is why he did not hesitate to temporarily suspend military operations after the Japanese counterattack was repulsed, and immediately held a summary meeting with the participation of all cadres from the regiment and above. Congress, because if the problems existing in the minds of these regiment-level cadres are not corrected, similar situations can only continue to occur. Don’t be afraid of problems, but you must correct them in a timely manner, and you cannot be tripped up twice in one place.
Looking at the commander's livid face, the brigade commander, who also knew that he had made a serious mistake in his command, lowered his head and dared not speak. The battle turned out like this, and his own brigade was disabled, and even Having lost his combat effectiveness, he, as the brigade commander, has an unshirkable responsibility.
There was no other way to send troops out to raise food. His leading brigade itself did not carry much food. After leaving the customs, in order to hide its whereabouts as much as possible, the route it took was basically a deserted mountainous area, and only one grain was collected. Just a little bit cannot meet the needs of the entire brigade.
It only took three days for the troops to leave the customs. After all the food they originally carried was eaten up and they could not replenish enough food, by the time the battle started, the troops had very little food left. Except for the sick and wounded, they could still eat a small amount of food. In addition, the rest of the people could only eat a small amount of black beans mixed with wild vegetables or even elm leaves to satisfy their hunger. In this way, the troops could only have one meal a day.
There is no food in the belly, and the troops have to march in the mountains all day long. The soldiers' already undernourished bodies cannot bear it. Before this battle, more and more soldiers in the army fell starved and fell behind due to hunger. The more he eats, the weaker his already malnourished body becomes. The original marching speed of dozens of kilometers per day has now dropped to less than five kilometers per day.
Most of the time, he could only rest because he was too hungry to walk. Even he, who was a brigade commander, had the same meal of black beans mixed with wild vegetables every day, or even a bowl of wild vegetable soup that was thin enough to make a human figure shine through. The brigade headquarters is like this, and it can be imagined that the troops below will starve to death if they don't find a way to raise some food.
But even so, the troops did not kill a single animal used to transport weapons. In order to ensure the physical strength of these animals, the cadres and soldiers even fed some black beans from the already scanty food in their mouths to these animals, because It turned out that during the battle, the soldiers who had few rounds of ammunition were too eager for these artillery pieces.
In order to ensure that these heavy weapons could keep up with the marching troops and be used in battles, even though many people were so hungry that they could not even walk, no one proposed to kill the animals transporting the weapons. Everyone replenished their physical fitness, and even the superiors suggested killing a few animals, but the troops below rejected them.
It's not that I didn't think about asking for help from the headquarters or the follow-up troops, but considering that my troops are the vanguard, when setting off, the Jidong Army Division, which is the main supply area, still tries its best to meet the needs of its own troops and the troops that will set out later. , because of the local food production in eastern Hebei and the blockade of the Japanese and puppet troops, I am afraid that the food they carry is not as much as their own.
Originally, according to the plan formulated by superiors, after the troops deployed across the entire territory of Rehe, in addition to the ammunition replenishment that required anti-Japanese airdrops, other supplies, especially food, were originally planned to be raised on the spot in Rehe. For this reason, when the vanguard brigade set off, Because in addition to opening roads, they also had the task of establishing military depots for the follow-up troops. The superiors also tried every means to obtain a batch of counterfeit Manchu coins and gold, which were allocated to the troops by Dayang in an attempt to use them to purchase food specifically in Rehe.
But who would have thought that in Rehe, especially in mountainous areas, even if you occasionally get some food in most areas, there is almost nothing except potatoes. Many places, hundreds of miles away, are either because of some group organized by the Japanese puppets. The tribes have left the land uninhabited, or they have grown nothing but smoke.
Without attacking the tribes and material reserves of the Japanese and puppet army groups, it is basically impossible to obtain food. Even if a small amount of food is obtained, it is not enough to feed the troops. On average, a soldier must ensure at least two kilograms of food every day. There are four to five thousand people in a brigade, three regiments, and artillery and other directly-affiliated units. It is impossible for people to eat and horses to eat without 12,300 kilograms of food every day.
This is still part of the non-staple food guarantee and the required food under normal training conditions at the station. Without non-staple food, especially without any oil and water, two kilograms of food can barely sustain the needs, and the soldiers below , most of them are young and middle-aged people who can eat and drink at the right time. In addition, when marching and fighting in the mountains, they also need to ensure that they replenish their physical strength, so the amount of food required is even greater.
Although the troops suffered heavy losses this time, Haolai also obtained tens of thousands of kilograms of grain and hundreds of kilograms of salt, which could not only solve the immediate needs of his troops, but also provide some grain to other troops, although most of them were produced in the Northeast. There was no sorghum rice, corn sticks, or even millet, but Haolai also solved the urgent needs of the troops, especially some of the soybeans, which could supplement some nutrition for the troops.
It is an indisputable fact that the army's food supplies are in dire straits. It is also an indisputable fact that I was a little careless after winning the first battle. However, all the blows cannot hit me. I do not adjust the deployment because the physical strength of the army has been exhausted. The consumption is too high, and it cannot afford the cost of adjusting the deployment of even a regiment-level unit.
Because a considerable number of soldiers have no physical strength to march because they have not had enough food or even food for several days. In order to ensure that the soldiers can still march several kilometers every day, when they are not fighting or marching, Next, all officers and soldiers, except those who serve as guards, can only try to stay still to maintain their physical strength as much as possible.
In some troops, there are even cases where sentries fainted from hunger because they stood guard for too long. Without enough physical strength, it would be impossible for any army in the world to be able to do so quickly under such circumstances. If we can't get additional food, the troops will really starve.
It is said that the Long March was difficult, but at that time it was not as difficult as it is now to raise food. Although the number of troops is different, and the current strength of the entire army is much greater than that then, the route of the Long March passed through places rich in food. Not a lot.
A considerable part of the march route is also in uninhabited areas, but like entering Rehe, this is the first time that it is so difficult to raise food. Now the army's food shortage can be compared except when crossing the grass. , this kind of situation has never been encountered even in other most difficult times.
And even when crossing the grassland, you can still collect some food before entering the grassland. Although it is not much, it is not that difficult. A person can barely stand up without eating for three days, but if you ask him to not only carry With weapons and equipment weighing dozens of kilograms, and having to march, fight, and stand guard, I'm afraid not many people can do it.
In this battle, the troops suffered such heavy losses, which had a lot to do with the fact that the soldiers were extremely weak because they had not had enough to eat for a long time. If the troops' physical fitness could keep up, even if they could eat for a whole day, With a full meal, the camp would not collapse so quickly, let alone suffer such heavy losses.