The boss knows very well that what Chen Hanzhang said is the truth, not an exaggeration. It is also the truth in front of the entire northern Shanxi battlefield. The boss insisted on transferring Mu Changqiu's troops to seize Guoxian County in order to concentrate as much force as possible and solve the problem as soon as possible. The 21st Division can use its hands to deal with new enemy situations that may arise. You must know that it is quite risky for the boss to do this.
With Mu Changqiu on the front line of Ninghua Fort, the main force of the Shanxi-Sui Military Region could confidently and boldly besiege the Zuojian detachment without worrying about the safety of their backs. However, with the transfer of Mu Changqiu's troops, the main force of the entire Jinsui Military Region would have no worries about the safety of their backs. , are all exposed, and the straight-line distance from Taiyuan to the battlefield in northwest Shanxi is not very far.
Once the 15th Division really appears on the battlefield as Yang Zhen judged, then their target may not necessarily be northern Shanxi, but maybe it will be northwestern Shanxi, where they will encircle and annihilate the Zuojian detachment. With thousands of Japanese troops, the Jinsui Military Region mobilized almost all the forces that could be mobilized. The entire hinterland of the Jinsui Military Region started the empty city strategy.
Once the goal of the 15th Division is northwest Shanxi, the Shanxi-Sui Military Region will be very dangerous. This is why Chen Hanzhang finally agreed to the boss to mobilize Mu Changqiu's troops to participate in the war, but in the end he only let Mu Changqiu's troops be stationed in Guo County. The main reason why Heping Diquan was waiting on the front line instead of letting him go north to join the war.
Mu Changqiu was there. To the north, he could curb the retreat of the 21st Division and cut off its supply line. To the south, he could prevent Japanese reinforcements on the Taiyuan front line. The most important thing was that Guoxian County was relatively close to the battlefield in northwest Shanxi. Once If the 15th Division is transferred north and its target is the battlefield in northwestern Shanxi, then Mu Changqiu's troops can also immediately provide reinforcements.
Chen Hanzhang firmly disagreed with the idea of sending Mu Changqiu's troops north to join the war. The boss still knew it very well, and the boss also knew that under the situation that Mu Changqiu's troops would not go north for the time being, the two Japanese armies would advance almost in parallel and break through at the same time. Under the situation of being on the front line of the Great Wall, Chen Hanzhang relied on limited power. The only solution was to concentrate firepower and troops to defeat all the troops in the shortest possible time.
As a military master, the boss is no stranger to logistics. He also knows the tremendous pressure caused by transporting these artillery shells and aerial bombs all the way from the Northeast to the Northwest. Chen Hanzhang's decision to replace troops with firepower may not be so Easy to get down.
The boss has just made a rough calculation. Not counting the ammunition consumed on the New Guangwu battlefield, at least more than 5,000 artillery shells were fired in the direction of Old Guangwu City within half an hour. This does not include aerial bombs and That kind of specially-made incendiary bomb, under such great pressure and such heavy logistical burden, Chen Hanzhang invested so much money just to achieve the results he wanted in the shortest time.
As long as the 21st Division is defeated first, the whole chess game in the northern Shanxi battlefield will be completely viable. But now Chen Hanzhang lacks a sufficient number of infantry and has a lot of time. Not to mention the three troops in the direction of Ruyuekou. The Twelfth Division may march westward for reinforcements at any time, and even the Fifteenth Division may appear on the battlefield at any time.
The boss understood why Chen Hanzhang decided to attack the 21st Division. His true intention was to attract the attention of the 15th Division from northwest Shanxi to himself, so as to reduce the pressure that the Jinsui Military Region might bear. As long as the 10th Division The fifth division's goal was the battlefield in northern Shanxi, so he could mobilize Mu Changqiu's two regiments.
With these two regiments participating in the battle, Chen Hanzhang was not worried about how much impact the 15th Division would have on the battlefield in northern Shanxi. In this regard, the boss saw considerable confidence in Chen Hanzhang's face, but this had a prerequisite. Before the arrival of the 15th Division, one of the two divisions on the northern Shanxi battlefield must be eliminated.
Otherwise, once the 15th Division pounces before the 21st Division is defeated, Chen Hanzhang may not be able to be solved by pressure alone, because even if Mu Changqiu's two regiments go north to join the battle, they can only entangle him. The 15th Division, on the battlefield in northern Shanxi, is still in a situation of insufficient mobile troops,
Although the boss does not believe that at this juncture, Okamura Neiji will dispatch the 15th Division, which has already carried out a sweep of the Taihang District, to go north, the boss knows very well that any accident can happen on the battlefield. In the current situation Under this circumstance, it is not necessarily true that the 15th Division will never be transferred north. Even if there is only one in 10,000 chance that the 15th Division will be transferred north, all units participating in the war in northern Shanxi must be prepared.
Time is now the most precious thing for Chen Hanzhang. How can he solve this most troublesome matter in the shortest time? For Chen Hanzhang, it can be said to be the key factor in deciding this battle, but the boss hopes that the young Chen Hanzhang The general must be able to keep his composure at this time.
Although the current progress is setback and the tactical deployment cannot be implemented, as long as you think carefully, there will always be a way. When the actual strength of the troops is roughly equal, the mountain defeat battle itself is a difficult problem, especially in the face of the Japanese army's unwillingness to fight to the death. The retreat of the army is an even more difficult problem to solve. This kind of thing cannot be solved in a hurry.
After hesitating for a moment, the boss clicked on the map and said: "Comrade Chen Hanzhang, I see that most of the anti-tank firepower points deployed by the Japanese army around Xinguangwu have been destroyed by our army. Do you think it is better to concentrate some of the tanks from the old ones?" The Guangwu front line will make an assault in the direction of Yanmenguan."
"We don't necessarily need to recapture Yanmen Pass at this time, because even if we capture it now, it will basically be difficult to hold it. My idea is to use tanks to penetrate into the heart of the Japanese army and pretend that we will directly bypass the Xinguangwu front line. The situation of seizing Yanmen Pass made it impossible for the Japanese army to continue to fully reinforce Xinguangwu."
"At the same time, concentrate the existing cavalry and some armor forces to besiege the 62nd Infantry Regiment in the Zhangzhuang and Mayi areas to the north. The 83rd Regiment launched an attack, and I saw that we were in the old Guangwu area before. The artillery can also be completely mobilized."
"Especially that kind of rocket launcher, which can cover a large area at a time. I think this kind of weapon is not very suitable for fighting in mountainous areas. On the contrary, it is very suitable for the terrain of Zhangzhuang and Mayi areas. Transfer these rocket launchers to increase the firepower of the northern line. As for the war here, I think the current artillery barrels are fully sufficient for use."
"I also know that the war is urgent right now. How to defeat the 21st Division in a short time is the key factor to reverse our current passive situation. But we cannot ignore tactics just because of urgency, since we can't eat a fat man in one breath. , then use two-sided pressure and concentrate firepower to knock him out one brigade at a time."
"It's not necessary to kill them all at once. As long as they are crippled so that they can no longer cause any trouble in the next battle, I think it is completely fine. Two infantry regiments can knock out one-third of them. I think the strength of two troops is completely adequate. Although the Japanese army's style is fierce and tenacious, it is not made of iron. It is also unable to resist in the face of artillery shells."
Speaking of this, the boss smiled and said: "In my early years, in order to seek and save the truth, I went to the West to study. I remember that the first stop I came to was Germany. Although I didn't stay in Germany for long because I was engaged in revolutionary work, I moved from Germany to the Soviet Union, but I still remember some German."
"These new anti-tank guns of the Japanese army. I can see from the inscriptions on the trophies you captured that these artillery pieces are German goods. They should be the new anti-tank artillery guns imported by the Japanese army from Germany before this war. They are all genuine. German weapons, and there are absolutely no imitations among them."
After hearing the boss's suggestions and judgment, Chen Hanzhang glanced at the situation map of the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield, thought about it for a moment, picked up the phone to call Xiong Botao, who was in command at the front line, and began to adjust the deployment according to the boss's ideas, but Chen Hanzhang was not completely Follow the boss's ideas and make some adjustments to the boss's plan.
He did not deploy troops to detour between Xinguangwu and Yanmenguan. First, he had already used his troops to the extreme. Now he could not mobilize many infantrymen to implement this detour plan. If there were too many, he would not be able to mobilize, and if there were too few, not only would he not be able to mobilize As a threat, it only dispersed its own few troops.
Without infantry cover, such roundabout operations in mountainous areas, even those that have been controlled, are not a wise choice for armored troops. Even without anti-tank guns, with the crazy level of the Japanese army, meat bomb attacks In many cases, it poses a greater threat than anti-tank guns.
At the same time, the straight-line distance from Xinguangwu to Yanmen Pass is only three kilometers. Even if the roundabout troops penetrate to Yanmen Pass, they will be attacked by firepower from two sides. Rather than deploying troops to directly go back to Yanmen Pass to establish an artillery blockade, use firepower to cut off the Japanese reinforcement routes, and Not a very cost-effective decision.
Moreover, it is not that necessary or necessary to seize Yanmen Pass now. Old Guangwu has now been captured. The Japanese army in Yanmen Pass has not sent a large number of troops to compete for this western barrier. This shows that their military strength on the front line of Yanmen Pass has been reduced after this period. The consumption in Xinguangwu is probably very low, and the strength is also rapidly weakening.
This 21st Division is not the Kwantung Army that has been dealing with itself for many years and has become a veteran in the Northeast battlefield. Instead, it is adhering to the winning streak in Southeast Asia and coming to the battlefield in northern Shanxi full of pride. As soon as they fought, Chen Hanzhang felt that although the 21st Division was very cautious in its actions, there was a general sense of arrogance in the entire division.
If the battlefield in the Northeast ends like this, the Kwantung Army, which has fought against the Anti-Japanese Alliance for many years, will immediately shrink its forces and focus its defense on depth. It may even withdraw directly to Yanmen Pass. At the same time, Zhangzhuang and Ma Taking advantage of the fact that the Anti-Japanese Alliance had not yet had time to encircle the troops, the troops in Yi retreated to the front line of Yanmenguan, and the entire division shifted to defensive operations.
They would never put so much effort into the battle for Xinguangwu and invest so many troops at once. After careful analysis, Chen Hanzhang believed that since the 21st Division was full of arrogance, then with the consistent tactics of the Japanese army Due to their habits, they would never let Jiu Guangwu fall into the hands of the Anti-Japanese Alliance at this time.
Even though Old Guangwu has been turned into ruins, as long as their military strength allows, they will never give up the barrier of New Guangwu. However, after the war in Old Guangwu ended, the Japanese army has not sent troops to counterattack, except for New Guangwu's The strategic position is more important. In addition to the need for constant reinforcements, I am afraid that the strength is almost exhausted and it is no longer able to mobilize troops to regain the old Guangwu.
Chen Hanzhang did not believe that with the fierceness of his firepower and the intensity of his attack, the troops of his 21st Division at Yanmen Pass would not suffer much loss. He had an absolute firepower advantage and blocked Xinguang with both ground and air firepower. The highway between Wuhan and Yanmenguan.
Not counting the casualties in the battle for Xinguangwu, every time the Japanese army reinforced Xinguangwu from Yanmen Pass, they would leave a large number of corpses. With this number of casualties, both group firepower and individual firepower had the upper hand. Their own blood is almost exhausted. They can't hold on to a regiment at Yanmen Pass. With the addition of some engineers and heavy troops, how long can they hold on with their remaining strength?