It's just that although the Japanese garrison in Taiyuan still needs to defend surrounding key points, the city is already quite empty. Even the First Army Headquarters only has one squadron of guards. It can be said that the current situation in Taiyuan is...
Yang Jicai has a huge fighting opportunity.
But right now, Yang Jicai, who should be heading towards Taiyuan according to the planned plan, is still marching slowly in the Guansui Mountain. Although from Pianguan to the west of Lan County, they are all within the control area of the Shanxi-Sui Military Region. This interlude
Basically, it can be regarded as an internal detour, and he does not need to think too much about safety.
The ravine-ridden terrain and narrow roads along the way made it impossible for the circuitous troops commanded by Yang Jicai to increase their speed of action. Especially from Pianguan to Baode, the only route was along the Yellow River.
The conditions of the simple roads are particularly bad. In quite a few places, they cannot be called roads at all.
Although the Jinsui Military Region mobilized a large number of people to carry out some emergency repairs on the original roads before the war, the weather has gradually warmed up, the roads have been cultivated in large areas, and there is mud everywhere, making it even more difficult to repair the already dilapidated roads.
The prevailing conditions still made Yang Jicai's troops move extremely slowly.
Facing the hilly landform of the Loess Plateau, which is overlapping and full of ravines, the few bridges cannot withstand the passage of tanks and American ten-wheel trucks. The only road leading to Baode through the river meander is in tatters and has everywhere.
They were all big pits, giving Yang Jicai a headache.
In addition, during the anti-mopping up campaign last year, not a single road in the entire northwestern Shanxi Province was not damaged. It really fulfilled the saying of big pits within small pits, pits after pits. Although his troops are equipped with excellent performance
The American-made Dodge large truck can handle ordinary dilapidated roads. However, it is still difficult to show its performance when faced with roads that are too dilapidated.
After Yang Jicai entered the Great Wall from the Tiger's Mouth and faced the harsh traffic environment, he once wanted to choose the route with better road conditions via Wuzhai, Shenchi, Ningwu and Jingle. However, considering Shenchi and Ningwu, it was still difficult to get there.
The control is in the hands of the Japanese army. If you forcefully penetrate it, you will definitely alert the Japanese army in Taiyuan.
If he wanted to advance covertly, he could only patiently take the route of Pianguan, Baode, Xingxian, and then transfer to Daolan County. In other words, unless he wanted the Japanese army to be alert in advance, he could only
I can continue to endure this dilapidated road and the snail-like marching speed.
Facing the dilapidated road with potholes everywhere from Pianguan to Baode, he could only call it a fluke. The Crusader tank he originally chose was a highly maneuverable cross-country vehicle. Not only could it easily deal with harsh road conditions,
It can also tow cars through some difficult-to-pass areas.
If he replaced the T-26 tank with a power of only 91 horsepower, most of his cars would probably have to be lost in Pianguan County. It was just a fluke, but the inability to increase the marching speed really gave him a headache.
.The entire mechanized marching force only advanced less than 70 kilometers in one day. It was really difficult for Yang Jicai to accept.
It doesn't matter if it's a tracked vehicle. The Crusader tank has strong power and strong off-road capabilities. Even in mountainous areas, it can rush through places with gentler slopes. But trucks can't do that.
The road was constantly silted up by trucks, and troops had to go down many sections of the road and use tanks to pull them little by little.
However, although his marching speed along the way was quite slow due to the terrain and poor road conditions, it was very lively along the way. I heard that his own tanks were going to pass here, and a lot of large tonnage were added. The truck made the whole road crowded with people who came to watch the excitement.
Perhaps it was because of the inferior equipment that they suffered countless hardships in the battle with the Japanese army. After seeing these sharp weapons belonging to the Chinese, many people whose families had been destroyed in previous counter-mopping raids touched the thickness of the tanks. armor, looking at the red flag flying on the front of the tank, I even cried with joy.
After entering the hinterland of the Shanxi-Sui base area, Yang Jicai could not but admire the political work and mobilization work of the Guan Nei troops. Although there were many places along the way, the poverty in the northwest of Shanxi, which could only rely on the weather for food, made him very accustomed to the richness of the Northeast. It was shocking. But the enthusiasm of the local people to support the army shocked him.
Many ordinary people do not need to be mobilized. Although they are also eating black beans at home, they take out the last bits of millet, buckwheat noodles, and oatmeal noodles at home, and kill the last hen that lays eggs in the family, and maybe even the most valuable sheep in the family. , came to express condolences to this brotherly army who came from afar. Pieces of slaughtered sheep and a small amount of pork were thrown directly onto the truck.
Bundles of military shoes made the troops even a little overwhelmed. Some specialties such as jujube, a specialty of northern Shanxi, were piled up like mountains. In order to help the convoy pass the damaged kilometers, many people even dismantled the door panels of their homes and carried them. I came home and spread the last bit of firewood into the silt on the road.
Looking at the mountains of supplies that were forcibly thrown into the car by the masses, Yang Jicai, who had never dealt with such things before, could only shake his head and smile bitterly at the acting commander of the Jinsui Military Region and the leaders of the Northwestern Shanxi Administrative Office who greeted them. They discussed the disposal of these materials.
The local party, government and military leaders originally just wanted to encourage people. They had just experienced a decline in public sentiment and morale after the brutal Japanese army raids last winter, so they intended to organize local armed forces and people to visit. At the same time, they also prepared some to welcome the fraternal troops. Necessary supplies. However, they did not expect that the enthusiasm of the people was so high, and so many supplies were delivered without mobilization, which made them somewhat embarrassed.
The Japanese army's large-scale raids on northwestern Shanxi in 2001 were not as intense as those against Taihang, Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei, and Taiyue, despite the scale and the number of troops deployed. Moreover, as the Japanese 26th Division stationed in Datong was After being transferred, northwest Shanxi was the first base area behind enemy lines where the Japanese army ended its raids.
However, the area in northwest Shanxi is barren and the people are poor. Almost all of them depend on the weather for food. The food output of most of the land is extremely low. The unprecedented scale of the Japanese army's sweep has made things worse. In addition, the people who retreated here to rest and recuperate. Some troops from the Central Hebei Military Region and some troops from the Taihang Military Region have put the burden on the entire northwest Shanxi base area to an unsustainable level.
Until the start of this battle, some troops from the Taihang Military Region and central Hebei returned to the Taihang area. After the main force of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Region left the Great Wall to fight, the burden became slightly easier. However, the grain output in the northwestern Shanxi region is very low and the products are not rich. The situation is still very serious. Taking out so many things at once will have a great impact on people's livelihood.
Finally, Yang Jicai discussed repeatedly with the acting commander of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Region and several leaders of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Border Region Administrative Office. He left some millet as a supplement for hot food when necessary, as well as the pancakes and cooked food. After all, during the battle,
You cannot always eat compressed dry food and canned food.
As for the mutton and pork, which cannot be carried because the weather has gradually warmed up, they will all be returned. At the same time, Kanglian left some compressed dry food and canned food to the local government as compensation. At the same time, given that the weather has warmed significantly, the sheepskins on Kanglian's body were
I can no longer wear the short coat.
In order to support the northwest Shanxi region and reduce the burden on the troops, Yang Jicai left all the cadres and soldiers of the detour troops and gave them to the local government as a kind of compensation. Although the number was only more than 3,000 pieces,
At least it can help some extremely poor people not have to worry about spending the winter next year.
After leaving this short sheepskin coat, the troops relied on the so-called second cotton coat, which was enough to cope with the slightly cold weather in the early spring in northwest Shanxi. At the same time, Yang Jicai ordered the entire army, including himself, to carry spare
For military uniforms, take off collar badges, cap badges, and breast patches and leave them all behind. Northwest Shanxi is so poor that many people’s clothes are covered with patches.
Even in the cold weather of early spring, many people only had one single piece of clothing. Many children only wore a pair of rag shoes, and their feet were covered in large and small holes from the cold. Although they carried a small number of spare military uniforms, the entire army was
I only managed to collect more than a thousand pieces, but it finally made Yang Jicai feel a little better.
Although his convoy also contained a large amount of weapons and ammunition seized by the Anti-Japanese Alliance in the Chaxi and Suinan battlefields to be transported to the local armed forces of the Shanxi-Sui Military Region. However, although these weapons and ammunition were not available to the Shanxi-Sui area who responded to them,
Armed with plenty of shriveled ammunition belts.
The various home-made firearms in hand, including the better Jin-made rifles, have also been replaced by 38 rifles. Each county brigade can also be assigned a few machine guns with crooked handles. After all, for ordinary people, nothing is too big.
Although Yang Jicai did not carry much supplies, he still tried his best to leave behind some useful things for the local people.
Especially after learning that after many brutal raids by the Japanese and puppet troops last year, the entire Jinsui District had left a large number of orphans because their parents had been killed or taken away, and the local government could not afford them all. Yang Jicai also
He personally drafted a telegram of several thousand words to his eldest brother, the No. 1 military commander of the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
He suggested that the Anti-Japanese Alliance could rely on the stable and relatively rich base areas behind them to take in all the orphans who lost their parents during last year's brutal sweeps in various base areas in North China and bring them to the Northeast. The younger ones would be arranged to go to school, and the older ones might be sent to
Go to military and political schools to be trained into military and political backbones, or sent to various technical schools to be trained into skilled workers.
On the one hand, it is to solve the problems of life and schooling for these orphans. On the other hand, it is also to solve the current difficulties in various places. The most fundamental thing is to train a group of professional talents for the Anti-Japanese Alliance from the basics, especially some professional military personnel that require a long time of study to master.
technology.
In order to send this telegram, Yang Jicai even stopped the march for nearly an hour when the terrain interfered a lot with radio signals, and asked the confidential departments to find suitable terrain to move the radio up the mountain, and set up an Anti-Japanese Alliance only
The heightening antenna is only installed when carrying out ultra-long-distance radio contact.
In order to prevent the enemy's radio monitoring from detecting the rescue operation around Taiyuan, before leaving, Du Kaishan repeatedly warned that the long-distance radio stations they carried would only receive and not transmit unless it was absolutely necessary. Unless it was critical, his three
No high-power radio stations are allowed to be used.
Even if there is an urgent situation that needs to be reported, it should be as short and quick as possible. The message should be as short as possible and not too protracted. But despite Du Kaishan's repeated warnings before leaving, Chen Hanzhang sent a telegram urging him to speed up his actions.
Then there was another one. Yang Jicai still violated the order. Not only did he interrupt the march, he also violated the regulations and sent this telegram of several thousand words.
No matter how much the combat staff urged, Chen Hanzhang sent one telegram after another. But it was not until the telegram was sent that Yang Jicai ordered the troops to speed up and continue marching. Fortunately, after passing Baode, the road conditions were much better. Originally, the road conditions were much better.
The slow marching speed has finally been partially improved. The mobility of the mechanized troops has also been partially truly reflected.