Just to ensure that the Western Manchuria battlefield can smoothly achieve his strategic goals, Yang Zhen now needs the direction of Xinjing to disperse the new troops that may be reinforced by the Kwantung Army. If he does not choose an important strategic point to start, the Japanese army will not The troops deployed in the direction of Western Manchuria were dispersed.
If Xinjing does not do enough to attract some of the Kwantung Army's reserves, it will not be a good thing for the entire Western Manchuria battlefield. The Kwantung Army still has a large number of reserves south of Xinjing, but at present Most of the effective forces of the Anti-Japanese Alliance have been deployed on the front-line battlefield.
Now Yang Zhen has almost no reserves except for some unmobilized guard troops and local troops. If the Japanese army continues to invest troops in Western Manchuria regardless of casualties, it will first be unable to withstand the situation where its troops have been used to the extreme. It is the Resistance Alliance, not the Kwantung Army, which currently has sufficient reserves.
Indeed, on the battlefield of Western Manchuria, which accounts for 70% of the current armored forces of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, 60% of the ground support capabilities of the aviation force, and 60% of the large-caliber artillery and rocket launchers, the Anti-Japanese Alliance has an absolute share of equipment. The advantages, especially the number of tanks and cavalry, far surpassed that of the Kwantung Army. The number of trucks deployed in Western Manchuria alone almost exceeded the number of all trucks of the Kwantung Army.
However, when dealing with an army like the Japanese army, which is mostly formed by desperadoes who have been influenced by the spirit of strict bushido and have received strict professional training, the advantage in equipment can only be relative. In other words, at least in terms of the quantity of the current equipment, I am afraid that It has not yet played a decisive role. The Anti-Japanese Alliance is not as wealthy as the Soviet Army, so it can ignore the loss of nearly a thousand tanks.
At present, if the Soviet Union continues to delay opening the transit channel, the aviation fuel, vehicle diesel, and gasoline reserves reserved by the Anti-Japanese Alliance will have bottomed out, and the consumption of aerial bombs and rockets will also be close to bottoming out. Without gasoline and weapons, Aircraft and tanks are actually just a pile of scrap metal, and the advantages in equipment can turn into disadvantages at any time.
In terms of military strength, they must be at least relatively equal. Even if they are slightly at a disadvantage, the disadvantage must not be too much. Otherwise, once the Japanese army has an absolute advantage in military strength, it will be difficult to defeat the opponent just by relying on equipment advantages. Yang Jicai's That battle example was just a special accident, and definitely not a true comparison of the levels of the enemy and our armies.
In fact, in combat, Yang Zhen always deployed two main divisions with a large number of combined troops to deal with the strength of a Japanese three-regiment division. Of course, there were a few battles in which one division was used to deal with one Japanese division. group, but those were mostly diversionary actions.
It is true that the main regiment of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, except that its number is slightly smaller than that of a regiment of the Japanese army, is not inferior to a regular field infantry regiment of the Japanese army in terms of combat effectiveness and equipment. As for the division, Yang Zhen is not that arrogant yet. Defeat battles are not unheard of, but annihilation battles are almost impossible.
Therefore, after Yang Zhen received Wang Guangyu's report, he believed that Yang Jicai's today's battle example could only be a special result under special circumstances. With a reinforced regiment, he defeated two Japanese field regiments, even if there were It is coordinated by a large number of heavy artillery, but it is undoubtedly a special case.
In fact, when receiving the report from Wang Guangyu, Yang Zhen believed that although Yang Jicai seemed to have a meticulous mind, strong battlefield adaptability, and considerable tactical vision, there was no doubt that Qiu Jintang played an important role in this battle. role, but it is the foundation of success.
Without Qiu Jintang's acquiescence and even secret support for his adventure, how could he, the chief of staff of a small first-level unit of a simplified division, mobilize all the heavy artillery units in the Aru Horqin Banner to participate in the war? Without Qiu Jintang sending himself With the cooperation of the most capable combat staff around him, he was able to straighten out the command relationship in such a short period of time.
If Qiu Jintang had not acquiesced to his plan after discovering that he had sidelined him, then even with the help of his fellow countryman and classmate, he would not have been able to command all the artillery units. In fact, Qiu Jintang wanted to take the Returning command is a matter of just one sentence.
Most of the heavy artillery units transferred to the battlefield of Aruhorqin Banner were directly under the headquarters artillery. Qiu Jintang, the deputy chief of staff of the artillery, wanted to get back his power. It was just a phone call away. It was Qiu Jintang who acquiesced to his move. As well as the strong secret support, this miracle was created.
But it absolutely cannot be said that one regiment of the Anti-Japanese Alliance has the strength to compete with the two regiments of the Japanese army. The Japanese army's infantry tactics and the combat quality of the infantry are first-rate even in the world. You can underestimate the Japanese army's artillery. , underestimate the Japanese armored troops, but you must not underestimate the Japanese infantry.
Therefore, under the current situation where the Kwantung Army reserves are still relatively sufficient and can again invest a large number of troops into Western Manchuria at any time, Yang Zhen must find a way to distract his attention from Western Manchuria, and for this point, no one is better than Xinjing. The symbol of the Kwantung Army's rule in the Northeast is a more appropriate place.
After adjusting the deployment in the Xinjing direction, the pincer offensive of Ma Chunsheng in the Xinjing direction and Wang Xiaoming in the Jilin direction did not attract the Kwantung Army to invest too much force in the Xinjing battlefield. It can even be said that not even a division was attracted. None of the troops were attracted.
At present, in the entire Xinjing defense circle, except for the previous Ninth Division, the Kwantung Army reinforcements that have entered Xinjing one after another have a total strength of less than an independent mixed brigade. The Japanese army has not only given up on the periphery of Xinjing, but even The Jilin direction also gave up and withdrew almost all its peripheral troops. Such a result undoubtedly made Yang Zhen very worried.
What worries Yang Zhen the most is the performance of the Kwantung Army when it retreated from Jilin. When the Kwantung Army retreated, it almost completely abandoned Jilin. Even the 60% completed dam of the Manman Reservoir was not completed. It was blown up, only the spillway dam was blown up, and even the eight large hydroelectric generating units that had been transported to Jilin Station were completely abandoned.
They used the time they bought by releasing water from the Fengman Reservoir and creating an artificial flood zone to use the tens of thousands of young and middle-aged workers who had been replenished after Yang Zhen occupied the Fengman Hydropower Station site and took away most of the workers to evacuate. The Fenghai Railway and Jihai Railway are all loaded and shipped to southern Manchuria.
And when time was running out and it was too late to transfer all the workers, the remaining tens of thousands of workers who could not be evacuated in a hurry, or who were old and weak and had no use value, were all shot to death beside the Fengman Hydropower Station. In the two ravines, among the tens of thousands of workers, all were massacred by the Japanese army, except for a few dozen who escaped by pretending to be dead and hiding under others.
In order to prevent the Anti-Japanese Alliance from relying on labor to supplement its troops, the Kwantung Army massacred all the tens of thousands of workers who could not be taken away before retreating, which indeed made Yang Zhen grit his teeth in hatred, but the performance of the Kwantung Army when it retreated from Jilin undoubtedly made Yang Zhen was very worried.
Jilin is an important hub station of Xintu Railway. It connects Hailong and Fengtian to the south, Tumen to the west, and Xinjing to the east. Such an important hub was abandoned so easily, and even the main part has been completed. The Fengman Reservoir and the transportation of eight of the world's most advanced generating units were abandoned. This is definitely not an accident.
Judging from the strength of the Japanese army in Jilin before the retreat, with the help of the artificially created flood area, even if Jilin cannot be defended, it is still possible to hold on for a week or even longer. Judging from the situation reported by Wang Xiaoming's headquarters , its retreat was quite orderly.
As for the generator sets that were not taken away, it was because the Japanese army had to concentrate on trucks to transport equipment, personnel, and materials during the anti-Allied air raids. As for the hydroelectric generator sets that weighed several tons each, it was because they were too heavy. Heavy and giving up.
The transfer of these generating units to the Japanese army was troublesome, and the transfer of the Anti-Japanese Alliance was not easy. With all means of transportation on both sides trying their best to ensure the combat needs, even if these hydroelectric generating units were temporarily abandoned, as long as the situation was reversed, they would still be of the Kwantung Army.
Wang Xiaoming's headquarters was detouring from the man-made flood area caused by the Japanese army, and an encirclement had not yet been formed. Although Jiutai had fallen into the hands of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, Shuangyang in southwest Jilin was still firmly in the hands of the Kwantung Army. Then, Jilin, a major military town, was suddenly abandoned.
Yang Zhen recognized that the Kwantung Army abandoned such an important strategic location and continued to shrink its troops. It can only be said that their purpose was not simple. It was a planned and well-thought-out reduction of their troops, but it was definitely not for the purpose of building a stronghold in Shuangyang, southeast of Xinjing. , Yitong builds a new line of defense.
Because the Japanese troops who retreated from Jilin all withdrew directly into Xinjing City, instead of withdrawing to Shuangyang in order to reach a new line of defense, Yang Zhen could not judge what the Kwantung Army's next strategic intention was in a short period of time, so , he needs to increase pressure on Xinjing to find out the true intentions of the Kwantung Army.
If the offensive in the direction of Xinjing is not strengthened and the current semi-high-pressure situation is maintained, not only will it be impossible to attract the Kwantung Army reserves, but it will even make the Kwantung Army defenders in Xinjing able to continuously cooperate with the counterattacking Japanese army. Conduct harassment in the direction of Changling.
The only way to change the current situation in the direction of Xinjing is to intensify the attack on Xinjing, so that the Japanese army in Xinjing can only really shrink all its forces into Xinjing city, and cannot deploy troops to cooperate with operations in other directions. At least ensure the safety of Ma Chunsheng's troops' roundabout and interspersed flanks.
And only by beating the Kwantung Army in the direction of Xinjing until it hurts can we better understand the true intention behind the Kwantung Army's abandonment of Jilin, because if the Kwantung Army abandoned Jilin, it was to concentrate its forces to strengthen the defense of Xinjing. Yang Zhen didn't believe it at all.
Not only is its strategic location important, but it is also only more than 120 kilometers away from Xinjing. Jilin, which was previously connected by railway, and Xinjing were at odds with each other in the defensive battle against the north. Giving up Jilin would be equivalent to giving up. It forms a strategic barrier to the east of Xinjing.
The staff of the Kwantung Army would not be so stupid as to leave a few divisions south of Xinjing unused, and instead abandon a strategic location and deploy the defenders there to reinforce them. For the defense of a city, the number of troops is not small. The Xinjing garrison, the Kwantung Army abandoning Jilin at this time definitely had other plans.
Only by inflicting pain on the Japanese army in Xinjing, a direction where the Kwantung Army will not give up easily, can the Kwantung Army take the initiative to expose their intentions. Therefore, strengthening the offensive against Xinjing, for Yang Zhen, both tactical and strategic intentions are important. Extremely important.
However, for this kind of battle, the ability of frontline commanders to understand how to fight is also very important. The pressure is not enough to attract more Japanese reinforcements. If it goes too deep, it will easily be destroyed in the next battle. I was put in a passive situation, and if I didn't do well, I might even get dumped by the Japanese army.