It's just that the cake drawn by the Japanese base camp for the Kwantung Army is very large and round, but the underlying issue is that the base camp cannot provide you with any supplies now. If you are able to resume production, the remaining supplies will be available in 2042. Within a short period of time, the base camp will not want a single bullet produced by this arsenal.
Of course, this premise is that if the Kwantung Army can resume production at the Fengtian Arsenal, it means that the ideal is very fulfilling, but the reality is very cruel. One-third of the equipment in the entire Fengtian Arsenal has been dismantled, and there is no equipment that has been dismantled. The key All removable parts have been removed.
The several hundred-ton hydraulic presses at Fengtian Arsenal were too heavy to be dismantled for a while, but all the motors and parts on them had been removed. Unless the accessories and motors were found within a short time, the entire hydraulic press had become A pile of scrap metal.
The most critical ones are these hydraulic presses imported from Europe and the United States. With the current situation, it is almost impossible to replenish spare parts. Not only are the equipment not taken away, but key parts have been dismantled. Almost all the boilers in the factory have been removed. All ancillary facilities such as houses and water towers were blown up, and the power transmission and transformation equipment was completely dismantled.
Grenades were thrown into the furnace of the boiler. Although the major parts were not blown up, it was quite troublesome to repair. All the heating pipes and ancillary facilities were either removed or blown up. All the office building's The stairs were all demolished. As for the smokeless gunpowder and special steel smelting branches, not only were all the equipment not even spared, even the factories and office buildings were blown up.
The equipment was dismantled to a certain extent, but the most critical thing was that more than 3,000 technicians were arrested, and all the weapons and equipment blueprints were burned cleanly. All factories involved in the military industry, from factories to workshops, were burned. , from the surviving buildings to the remaining equipment, even the heating pipes are full of mines.
These mines not only include ordinary anti-infantry mines, the enemy also set up a large number of booby traps. The enemy took great pains to arrange these mines. Although the Kwantung Army quickly mobilized a large number of engineers from the front line, the layout of these minefields It's really weird. The speed of clearing minefields in various factories is extremely slow.
After retaking the factory, a large number of Japanese officers and soldiers were killed and injured by landmines. Not only the officers and soldiers on guard were killed and injured, but also the number of casualties for the engineers was an average of one team per day. Even the mines that had been cleared on the roads in the factory area were area, but there are still landmines.
A guard went to the corner of the wall that had been cleaned at night to urinate. When he peed, he set off a booby trap inside the wall. Since the location of the explosion was right at the most critical part, the guard was immediately blown up. Became Japan's newest eunuch.
Later, the engineers discovered more than 200 extremely cleverly disguised and deployed wooden booby traps in the walls surrounding the foundry workshop of the Fengtian Arsenal. While investigating and clearing these booby traps, a full half of the booby traps were The engineering squadron was either dead or crippled. This was just the wall of a branch factory. I am afraid no one would know how many mines there were in various arsenals in the entire Fengtian City except those who planted them.
After the Anti-Japanese Alliance withdrew, Umezu Yoshijiro, who rushed back as soon as possible, inspected the factory. The ashes of burned drawings were still there, and the commander of the Kwantung Army, who was eager to come back to inspect the arsenal, almost stepped on a landmine. , the main road in the factory area had been cleared three times to prepare for his inspection, but there were still fish that slipped through.
When his convoy entered the factory, a Type 94 truck serving as the lead vehicle was directly overturned by a wooden-cased anti-tank mine. The guards and staff inside were seriously injured by the explosion. During the rescue, More than a dozen guards stepped on landmines and became disabled.
In the end, the troops responsible for demining had to mobilize two bulldozers to directly push up the main road in the factory together with the masonry on it. The result was like this. People continued to step on landmines, and guards were killed all over the ground. , Umezu Yoshijiro, who was blocked at the gate of the arsenal, was speechless for a long time.
For Umezu Yoshijiro, the quantity of these mines deployed does not matter, but the cleverness of the layout makes all the deminers marvel and give them an unusual headache. If even the engineers demining the mines are frightened by the explosion, they must rely on the officers' It is another thing to be coerced with sabers and pistols before entering the minefield. This scene is simply a great shame for the Imperial Army, which has always been known for its fearlessness of death.
The arsenal's recovery, even if a large amount of equipment is replenished, will not be restored within a year or two. According to Umezu Yoshijiro's judgment, it will take at least two months just to clear the mines. This is only possible at the cost of casualties of engineers and soldiers. The results obtained do not take into account the maintenance of equipment and the recruitment of workers.
In other words, the picture painted by the base camp actually means nothing to the Kwantung Army and Umezu Yoshijiro. Except for the 10,000 soldiers in the countryside, the Kwantung Army got nothing, and even some of Fengtian's small arms reserves , after being looted or blown up, the Kwantung Army now does not even have enough equipment to arm these 10,000 soldiers in the countryside.
As for the 50,000 North Korean recruits, even if they can be used on the battlefield, the prerequisite is that the training can be completed before the end of this battle. Otherwise, these North Korean soldiers will not only be unable to solve the problem, but will also delay important events, and will not only affect Umezu Yoshiharu As a general, he has great distrust in the reliability of the North Koreans.
This result made General Umezu Yoshijiro and the newly appointed Kwantung Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Kasahara Yukio depressed. In their hearts, they were already dissatisfied with Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Sadichi, who was called the best chief of staff in the history of the Kwantung Army. General Umezu Yoshijiro was very dissatisfied when he was transferred from the Kwantung Army and served as commander of the First Army Headquarters.
After getting such a result, General Umezu Yoshijiro was extremely dissatisfied with the first active-duty military prime minister in the base camp who combined all the real power positions during the war. In private, he called the prime minister more than once a stupid pig, an idiot, and several others. Therefore, he rarely has a good look towards the new Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, Lieutenant General Yukio Kasahara.
It's just that General Umezu Yoshijiro is well-educated and will not expose his inner emotions easily. His immediate response to dissatisfaction was to order the Kwantung Army's Supply Supervision Department. In the future, all ammunition reserves in Manchuria will not be transported outside without his approval. .
Including Kanto Prefecture, if all reserve ammunition is transported out of Manchuria, even a pistol bullet, his consent is required. Umezu Yoshijiro, who was extremely angry, clearly told the supply supervisor in front of Lieutenant General Yukio Kasahara, Not even if the Kwantung Army Chief of Staff agrees.
On the battlefield, General Umezu Yoshijiro demanded that all divisions on the front line from Chaoyang to Siping should conduct all-out defensive operations and not abandon any positions without authorization. All counterattacks above the brigade level must be approved by the corps headquarters. Counterattack operations of the above scale cannot be carried out without the approval of the Kwantung Army Headquarters.
Umezu Yoshijiro changed the Japanese army's previous style of advocating offense and not forgetting to counterattack even if the situation was unfavorable. He relied on a large number of various fortifications built before the war to defend the entire front. Such a show of weakness was also a no-brainer for him. In accordance with the If the Japanese army uses its usual tactics to fight, his Kwantung Army's blood will really be exhausted.
While adjusting tactics, in view of the new tanks invested by the Anti-Japanese Alliance and the fact that the Japanese anti-tank weapons were weak and unable to destroy enemy tanks, Umezu Yoshijiro organized all areas in the Eastern Manchuria, including Kanto Prefecture, into an organizational system of 70 The five-millimeter anti-aircraft artillery units were all deployed to the Siping and Fengtian front lines as anti-tank artillery.
Anyway, after the factories in Fushun and Anshan were destroyed, there was nothing left to defend in this area. As the main strategic industrial locations of the entire Japanese empire, Anshan and Fushun were already in a mess. Even if the Chinese did not feel sorry for the bombs, they continued to Bomb the factory area.
But for these anti-aircraft artillery troops, except for Guandong Prefecture, there are no valuable targets in the entire Liaodong region that are worth wasting their troops. Rather than wasting these troops in vain and letting them idle all day with nothing to do, it is better to take advantage of the base camp. Before these anti-aircraft artillery troops are mobilized, their maximum utilization value should be fully contributed.
These Type 88, Taisho 14th-year-old anti-aircraft guns are lagging behind for fighting aircraft, but they are still powerful and capable enough for fighting tanks. Some time ago, the excellent performance of these anti-tank guns in anti-tank proved that these Old weapons still have a certain value.
In order to ensure that as many front-line combat troops as possible can use anti-tank artillery with sufficient power, Umezu Yoshijiro strictly ordered the technical department to place the weapon depots around Fengtian after the Anti-Japanese Alliance looting, as well as Fushun and Anshan air defense positions, because others could not see Collect all the anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of 75 mm or above that were blown up without being taken away.
Use the wreckage of those anti-aircraft guns to piece together as much as possible. The more than thirty 88-type and Taisho 14-year-old anti-aircraft guns that were blown into parts, even if they are pieced together into five pieces, facing the Anti-Japanese Alliance Umezu Yoshijiro, who was tired of dealing with the tank offensive, believed that even one more tank would provide more guarantees for holding the position.
Fortunately, in order to cope with the battle in the Siping direction, the Kwantung Army transferred a considerable part of the inventory of weapons originally stored in the Fengtian Arsenal to the cave in the Tieling Rock Mountain. There are also fifteen or six 88-type anti-aircraft guns and five The Taisho 14th-year-old Type 105 anti-aircraft gun also included a batch of armor-piercing and armor-piercing projectiles reserved for front-line operations. Although the quantity was not large, it was enough to support the front line for a while.
In order to collect enough anti-aircraft guns for the anti-tank mission in order to effectively deal with the Anti-Alliance armored clusters due to the lack of competitive armor and the poor performance of the Japanese standard anti-tank guns, which could not effectively withstand the Anti-Alliance armor cluster offensive. In terms of offensive, Umezu Yoshijiro could be said to have reached the point of resorting to any means.
Because he knew that if the tank offensive of the Anti-Japanese Alliance could not be contained, it would be difficult for the frontline divisions to hold their defensive positions. The most critical thing was that both the Siping and Juliuhe front lines were quite close to Fengtian. If the Siping front line was surrounded or even Throw it away, and what will be thrown away will not only be the most elite part of the entire imperial army, but the entire southern Manchuria will also be completely opened.
And if Siping is lost, even if it can hold the front line of Juliu River, then after losing the nearly 100,000 most elite troops of the Kwantung Army in the direction of Siping, Siping and Fengtian will be in a position where there is no one to defend, and Xinjing is already If it is lost, if Fengtian is lost, then the entire Kwantung Army will be completely discredited, and General Yoshijiro Umezu's career in the army will also come to an end.
The current war situation has made General Umezu Yoshijiro full of a strong sense of crisis. In General Umezu Yoshijiro's view, whether it is for this war or for himself personally, Fengtian must not be in any danger, and South Manchuria must not be in any danger. There must be no accidents.