Chapter 184 Look at the problem from another angle
After receiving a battle report from Hou Guozhong, Chen Hanzhang ordered Hou Guozhong to speed up the battle process. Especially the roundabout troops on both wings must complete the encirclement of the 72nd Division before the arrival of Japanese reinforcements. During the frontal offensive,
We must be careful not to push forward in a straight line, and we must not allow the remaining Japanese troops to concentrate and get closer.
But now that the sky is getting dark, we must be careful of the Japanese army breaking out at night. The Japanese army has a very strong night fighting ability, and its night assault ability is quite high. Don't be bitten by the Japanese army during the night battle. But being cautious does not mean standing still. You should
How to fight or how to fight.
When encircling and annihilating the 134th and 155th regiments of the Japanese army, we must make full use of the favorable situation of the entire battlefield at present and attack quickly from multiple directions. We must dare to mount bayonets on the cannons against the Japanese army's firepower points. Encircle and annihilate them on the Zaonan battlefield
While the battle is ongoing, we must pay close attention to the movements of the 118th Division on his left.
The position of the reserve team should be moved to the left as much as possible. But do not put the reserve team into the battlefield easily. When to put in the reserve team, you must grasp the opportunity. Either do not put it in easily, but as long as you put in the reserve team, you must
Achieve a one-hit kill and never be sloppy.
Chen Hanzhang, who had always been very wary of the Japanese army's ability to fight at night, repeatedly reminded Hou Guozhong to pay attention to the Japanese army's actions at night. In particular, to prevent the Japanese army, which had been separated at the moment, from using night counterattacks to get closer together. As long as this was not allowed
The Japanese army moved closer again, thereby delaying the battle, and there would be no major changes in this battle.
Although tens of thousands of artillery shells of various calibers were consumed on the Zaonan battlefield in one day, nearly one-fifth of the reserve of rocket shells was fired out at once. In high-intensity support operations, they were used for level shooting.
The 14mm machine guns supported by the ground had lost dozens of spare barrels. Such a huge consumption made Chen Hanzhang feel somewhat distressed.
But for the current progress of the war situation, Chen Hanzhang, who knows that he does not have much time left for himself, can still accept this price. In terms of ammunition consumption, fighter planes are more important than anything else. And to reduce casualties as much as possible, from as much as possible
It is quite cost-effective in terms of ensuring the continuous combat capability of the troops.
After hesitating for a while, Chen Hanzhang told Hou Guozhong in the telegram. He told the troops not to be afraid of fatigue and casualties in the subsequent night attack, and to give full play to the fine tradition of continuous combat by the Anti-Japanese Alliance and the night fighting capabilities accumulated in daily training. They should dare to
Fight close combat and completely annihilate the Japanese troops that have been surrounded. But in night battles, you must grasp the direction and focus of the attack, and you must not mess yourself up.
After issuing the latest orders and clarifying the aspects that must be paid special attention to, Chen Hanzhang reported the first day's battle situation to the headquarters, and also reported his thoughts on the follow-up operations to Yang Zhen
.As for the battlefield in Zaonan, Chen Hanzhang felt more at ease leaving it to Hou Guozhong.
Hou Guozhong was Chen Hanzhang's old subordinate when he was in the Fifth Division of the Second Army, and he served as his deputy for a long time. After the reorganization of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, he has been commanding operations on the front line. From the regiment commander, division commander, deputy artillery commander, and column commander, it can be said that it is one step at a time.
The footprints are quite solid and steady.
Since the reorganization of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, in addition to serving as the deputy commander of the artillery for eight months, Hou Guozhong has basically led troops on the front line. Coupled with the long-term fighting side by side, the two have developed an unusual familiarity and tacit understanding. Hou Guozhong has a deep understanding of Chen Hanzhang.
The characteristics and habits in the use of tactics are also quite well understood and mastered. The cooperation between the two has even reached the point of being connected.
More importantly, Hou Guozhong, who had worked hard to study artillery tactics when he served as deputy commander of artillery, was extremely good at using artillery. It was precisely for these two reasons that when Chen Hanzhang was planning the Zaonan operation, the forward commander
His first choice was Hou Guozhong, then deputy commander of the Eastern Front Cluster.
Judging from the current battle situation, Hou Guozhong is fighting well. However, the current battle has only begun, and the real war has just begun. How will the battle develop next? Can the intersecting troops on both wings arrive on time?
The designated position is still a test for Chen Hanzhang and especially Hou Guozhong.
Compared with Chen Hanzhang, who is very prudent in considering issues and thinks more about the issue of interpenetrating two wings, Yang Zhen, who needs to consider the chain reaction of the entire battle caused by the Zaonan counterattack, has much more to consider, but his vision cannot be limited to one.
On the Eastern Front, if the Japanese army takes the lead, it will inevitably trigger a chain reaction on the entire front.
Which step the Japanese army will mobilize on the entire front is what Yang Zhen considers more. Although the direction of the 72nd Division is only a point for the entire battle situation, can this point become a lever?
The entire battle situation requires further observation.
There is no doubt that the 118th Division will turn around and attack the Zaonan battlefield with all its strength. But will the Japanese 50th Division attacking east of Pinghan Road also invest in this direction? This 50th Division
After the regiment moves east, which division will fill the vacancy left by Pinghan Road East?
But after several analyses, Yang Zhen concluded that unless the Japanese troops quickly withdraw from the battlefield in southeastern Shanxi, the 50th Division and the 117th Division on both sides of Pinghan Road will never be transferred eastward to northwest Shandong. Once these two
If the division is transferred eastward, the entire flank of the battlefield in southeastern Shanxi will be exposed.
Unless the Japanese army did not want the 62nd and 69th on the battlefield in southeastern Shanxi, they had only a skeleton when they withdrew to Handan. They tried their best to replenish the completed division in the shortest time and at the same time get out of the way the entire division.
Northern Henan. Otherwise, the Japanese army would never easily use these two divisions on both sides of Pinghan Road.
The 35th and 37th Divisions currently stationed in eastern Henan and still being replenished will not be easily transferred to the battlefield on the Hebei-Shandong border. If I had not made a mistake in my judgment, the Japanese army would be deployed from Dezhou to Jinan.
The first-line and second-line corps, especially the 100th Division in Jinan, will also be put into the battlefield, and may also include part of the Japanese 22nd Division in the Texas battlefield.
As for the 52nd Division, the 115th Division, and the 120th Division on the Lubei battlefield, they are currently on the Hebei-Shandong border battlefield north of the Yellow River, entangled with several divisions of Chen Hanzhang.
It is simply impossible to transfer them from the west to participate in the war. Moreover, their location is too far away from the battlefield in northwest Shandong. By the time the troops transferred from these divisions arrive, I am afraid that the day lily will be cold long ago.
But now that the Japanese army has made such a move, they know very well that it is difficult for the 118th Division alone to change the situation in a short time. Even if the 100th Division stationed in Jinan is added, they want to contain this huge force.
It is also quite difficult to cross the range. If they were on the battlefield on the Hebei-Shandong border in northwest Shandong, they would need to add at least one division to change the situation.
But where will they mobilize this division from? Is it the 114th Division stationed on the line from Linyi to Changyi? Or the 48th Division stationed on the line from Yantai to Shouguang? Or the 65th Division stationed in Xuzhou to go north
?Judging from the current battle situation, it is almost impossible for these three divisions. Unless they no longer want the Longhai Line, the possibility of the Sixty-fifth Division going north at this time is very slim.
As for the Japanese army's planned landing operation on the Bohai Bay, no matter how many troops the Japanese army brings, as long as the landing operation is not realized, it is just an empty talk. But where will the Japanese army deploy another division in the shortest possible time?
?This is not just a question of drawing troops, but also a question of whether time can allow it.
Looking at the battlefield situation on the map, Yang Zhen vaguely felt that he had overlooked something. It was just that the problem he had ignored was here, but Yang Zhen was puzzled. He turned around and picked up Chen Hanzhang to report the battle situation and Jilu
Yang Zhen carefully read the telegrams from the Henan Military Region troops in the past two days.
Yang Zhen repeatedly read Chen Hanzhang's telegram carefully, which puzzled Chai Shirong in front of him. After hesitating for a moment, Chai Shirong, who knew what No. 1 was hesitating about, said: "No. 1, look at the Japanese army on the Zaonan battlefield. Is it possible to use mobilization?"
The independent 2nd and 4th independent tank brigades that have arrived in Shandong but have not been dispatched yet?"
"No. 1, I also think that our target cannot just focus on the Japanese field divisions. When the Japanese army was replenishing the North China Front, Neji Okamura detained a fully organized field replenishment team. According to the Japanese army's usual practice
According to customs, this field supplementary team is almost equivalent to the strength of a brigade."
"Although there is not much artillery, it can be used as a field brigade when necessary. We have encountered similar things on the battlefield before. When necessary, the Japanese army will use its so-called field supplementary team
, used directly as a field force."
"Even if the Japanese army does not put this field supplementary team directly into front-line operations, it is still possible to turn it into a second-line garrison force and replace other field divisions. Moreover, the Japanese army's field supplementary team is currently on the front line in Yantai.
If Eitaro Uchiyama uses it to replace the 48th Division, they can add another division to the battlefield in northwest Shandong."
"According to the current intelligence, the number of vehicles invested by the Japanese army in the entire Shandong battlefield is nearly 3,000. Even under our army's large-scale air strikes, there are only 1,000 vehicles left. But it is enough to defeat a division.
The regiments and organized ones will be transferred to the Zaonan front in the shortest possible time."
"No. 1, even if the Japanese army uses the 72nd Division as bait in the current war situation and uses the Zaonan battlefield as a lure to mobilize our second-line troops to attack. But this does not mean that the Japanese army's tactical intention is to go all out.
, completely eliminate Hou Guozhong’s troops who surrounded and annihilated the 72nd Division.”
"If they use the 118th Division to hold back my troops besieging the 72nd Division and reduce the speed of our army's insertion of troops, they can wait until the two divisions deployed on the second line arrive. One 118th Division
regiment, coupled with the troops in the rear of the Dezhou battlefield, even if the 72nd Division cannot be rescued, it can delay and disperse the troops of our army to encircle and annihilate the 72nd Division. It is not a very easy task to buy time for the Japanese army to mobilize follow-up troops.
Difficult things.”
"The most important thing is that the Japanese army is on the battlefield in northwest Shandong. Why do they have to kill Hou Guozhong's troops? If they use the actions of the Zaonan battlefield to attract our army's follow-up troops to fight south, they will attack the line from Zaonan to Pinghan Road.
Wouldn't it be more beneficial to their possible landing operations to create a stalemate?"
Chai Shirong's analysis of the battle situation suddenly reminded Yang Zhen from another angle. He was not Neji Okamura, nor was he the chief of staff of the North China Front Army. Why should the subsequent development of the battle situation be stubbornly focused on the Japanese army?
Want to hit the ground running and solve the problem quickly? If you look at the problem from another angle, it may become much clearer.
Is the Japanese army making such a big move from Lubei and Zaonan to the Pinghan-Han line simply to mobilize its troop deployment on a large scale? Judging from the interlocking strategies that the Japanese army has now exposed
, the Japanese army can completely use this 72nd Division as a magnet to attract the surrounding anti-alliance troops to the direction of Zaonan little by little.