Chapter five hundred and thirty seventh hard east line
In order to develop and open up the Binsui Railway, the main artery for east-west transportation in the future, it is necessary to capture Ning'an, Mudanjiang, and Muling. Otherwise, the transportation of raw materials and products will only use roads or Songhua River water transportation. In wartime, The supply of gasoline is definitely tight, so Yang Zhen is willing to do it if there is no need for trains with large transportation capacity that can fully satisfy the power raw materials themselves.
This is why Yang Zhen first decided to terminate the operation on the western front first, while the two columns of Du Kaishan and Wang Xiaoming on the eastern front still needed to continue fighting for a while. Therefore, Yang Zhen decided that in the final stage, the east and west fronts would adopt the eastern front. The battle plan is to defend the west and steadily expand in the middle. Place the focus of the next battle plan and the main effective forces in the middle and east.
Fortunately, the Japanese army really gave them face. Whether it was a bluff or a desperate struggle, they launched another day of attacks during the day. When it got dark and the planes hovering above them withdrew, they abandoned everything as quickly as possible. The baggage that could not be carried was withdrawn across the board.
Although Yang Zhen had decided to stop there, in order to prevent the Japanese army from seeing his true purpose, he still had to do what he had to do. According to the original plan, the first brigade and the third independent brigade were to concentrate the armored brigades and cavalry from the east and west respectively. The brigades, each assigned an infantry regiment, went south to pursue the Japanese troops who had broken off the rear. The scene had to be done, so some things had to be done.
What Yang Zhen didn't expect was that the Japanese army, which was focused on retreating, had no intention of fighting at all. Except for leaving a small group of troops to block the attack, the rest of the troops had no idea about the pursuit of Yang Zhen's troops and just focused on retreating. Before dawn, they evacuated to the south bank of the Lalin River, then stopped to blow up the Lalin River Bridge and built fortifications on the spot to prepare for resistance.
The Japanese army retreated across the Lalin River regardless of the situation. Naturally, Yang Zhen would not continue the pursuit without a wink. After the pursuit troops arrived at the north bank of the Lalin River, Yang Zhen issued an order to stop the pursuit and garrison on the spot. After receiving Yang Zhen's order, Following Zhen Zhen's order, Wang Guangyu stopped on the north bank of the Lalin River and confronted the Japanese army across the river.
At this point, Yang Zhen commanded two columns with a total of eight brigades plus an armored brigade, a cavalry brigade and a reconnaissance brigade directly under the military region. They fought fiercely with three Japanese divisions for half a month and completely annihilated the Japanese 51st Division. Independence The 4th garrison severely damaged the Japanese 1st and 9th divisions.
Although most of the first and third regiments of the 1st Division escaped, the division headquarters led by Kanichiro Ueno, commander of the 51st Division, also escaped. But this battle liberated the West to Greater Khingan Range, the east bank of the Nenjiang River, south to the former Golluoshou Banner, the entire Puppet Manchukuo Binjiang Province and Longjiang Province including Shuangcheng, and Heihe Province except Mohe and Oupu. This has laid a good strategy for the future. Raw material supply base.
Of course, the entire war did not end just because the battle on the Western Front ended. Three days after the end of the entire Western Front campaign, Wang Xiaoming defeated the resistance of a regiment of the 29th Division of the Japanese Army in fierce fighting, and captured the Japanese Army's positions in Manchuria in the Northeast after the loss of Jiamusi. The important town was Mudanjiang. And a force was inserted directly into Suiyang, flanking the Japanese 12th Division of Muling.
After Wang Xiaoming captured Mudanjiang, in order to support the Eastern Front's Dukaishan Operation, which was successively attacking several large fortress groups built by the Japanese army in the northeastern Manchuria area, Ma Qichang immediately organized the railway workers in the Harbin area and stored the Japanese troops in the Binsui Railway for rush repairs. Materials from Harbin will be shipped eastward as soon as possible.
After five days of hard work, the Binsui Railway, which had been unable to be repaired due to the harassment of the First Army, was barely completed. The captured train artillery was driven to the Muling line, and under the guidance of the reconnaissance brigade directly under the military region in coordinated operations , using the vehicle-mounted 240mm cannon with a range of up to 50 kilometers, in conjunction with the third column that has scooped up the viewing platform, the Suifenhe fortress group, and is attacking the Japanese Lumingtai fortress group, to attack the Japanese Dongning fortress group, and the Luming fortress group. The Taiwan fortress group conducts long-range fire strikes.
In the Suifenhe area, the Japanese army built several major fortress groups and so-called border positions such as Luming Platform, Suifenhe and Guanyue Platform, which are indeed extremely strong, but they cannot resist the direct attack of 240mm artillery shells. One shot is within 30 kilometers. The 240mm cannon shells fired can directly penetrate the fortifications built by the Japanese army with the best protective performance.
While using the 240mm train gun, Ma Qichang also managed to transport four 240mm heavy cannons and one 240mm heavy howitzer captured in Harbin to the Muling front line. Ma Qichang transported these The heavy artillery was organized into a group of heavy artillery from far and near.
Under the bombardment of these heavy artillery groups, the Japanese 12th Division guarding the Dongning Fortress Group, Suifenhe Fortress Group, and Lumingtai Fortress Group suffered heavy losses. The firepower points they built only faced forward, and the protection behind them was far away. It was not as good as the permanent fortification group on the front, which was blown up one by one by their own heavy artillery groups.
Except for the core fortifications of Tianchang Mountain in the Suifenhe Fortress Group, which were destroyed using the Miaoling Fortress method, air-fuel bombs and ton-level aerial bombs were used. The remaining Dongwangshan, Longtoushan positions in the Lumingtai Fortress Group, and the Suifenhe Fortress Group The positions of Dijiu Mountain, Dairi Mountain, and Jingguo Mountain were successively destroyed by these heavy artillery on their sides and rear.
If we say that in Suifenhe, Guanyuetai, and Lumingtai fortresses, the Japanese border guards, the so-called border military police, were mainly fighting against Du Kaishan. When the three columns reached Dongning and Suiyang, they fought with them. The main force of the battle was the Japanese 12th Division.
In the battle with the main force of the 12th Division, despite the cover of the heavy artillery group, the battle in Dukaishan was still extremely difficult. And as the most important part of the Japanese attack on the Soviet Union, the entire eastern part of Muling, Suiyang, Dong There are secret fortification groups built by the Japanese army almost everywhere in the Ning area. The three major fortification groups are just the three largest ones.
With Japanese fortifications everywhere, it would be strange if Du Kaishan could fight easily against the old Japanese 12th Division. Especially in the battles in Suiyang and Dongning, facing The battle was even more difficult against the almost countless large and small fortifications built by the Japanese army.
Sanchakou, Daduchuan, Miaogoukou, Foyegou, Baidaozi Mountain, Oak Terrace, these transportation thoroughfares and strategic strongholds where the Japanese army stocked up heavily, were almost all taken down by Du Kaishan one by one. Although A large number of workers were rescued, but the casualties of the three verticals themselves were not light.
Although after the war on the Western Front, all aviation forces transferred to the repaired Muling Bamiantong Airport to provide nearby air support to Dukaishan and have fire cover with super heavy artillery for the Anti-Japanese Alliance. But in Dongning, The battle in Suiyang still caused the three verticals to suffer a lot.
Fortunately, it took a lot of hardships, but under the guidance of former Second Route Army veterans who had fought guerrillas in Dongning recruited by Yang Zhen, and with the cooperation of the First Army, the outer strongholds were eventually destroyed one by one. On September 11th, the main force of the third column led by Du Kaishan, with the cooperation of the second column led by Wang Xiaoming, finally reached the main position of the Dongning Fortress, the largest Japanese fortress group in the entire East Manchuria.
Looking at this large-scale fortress group in the telescope, which has a depth of fifty kilometers and a width of 110 kilometers from north to south. The main fortifications occupy a full eleven hills. Du Kaishan, Huang Yuqing beside him, and Wang Xiaoming who arrived specially , Ma Qichang, Li Mingrui, Xia Boxun and others couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.
Compared with this large-scale Dongning fortress group, the Miaoling fortress group, Guanyuetai fortress group, Lumingtai fortress group and Suifenhe fortress group that were successively captured before are simply insignificant. Before, just clearing out their periphery was enough. The Third Column suffered a lot. Now that the Japanese 12th Division has all retreated into the Dongning Fortress Group, plus the originally assigned border garrison, how should we fight this battle?
Turning his head, Du Kaishan said to the people around him: "Let me tell you, old guys, how should we fight this battle? Just from the Japanese fortifications exposed on the surface, it means that this will probably be our last battle. It’s a tough nut to crack. It’s definitely not possible to fight head on, at least our three verticals don’t have the confidence now.”
"Although I had the cooperation of Lao Ma's long-range heavy artillery and Lao Xia's aviation before, my three vertical columns also lost half of their teeth after chewing them all the way. Now the regiments under my command have suffered one-third casualties. Again, No matter how hard you try, my three-column army has been completely wiped out before it even takes shape."
"If this Dongning Fortress is similar to the Miaoling Fortress or the Guanyuetai Fortress Group, or even if it is like the Suifenhe or Lumingtai Fortress Group with the main defenses concentrated on the front, I would have an easier time handling it. But this Dongning The scale of the fortress group is too large. If we attack according to the method of attacking the Miaoling fortress, the attacking troops may be wiped out without even touching the edge of the core position under the enemy's cross fire."
Speaking of this, Du Kaishan looked at the Japanese fortresses not far away with some irritation, and couldn't help but cursed: "These little devils are all fucking tortoises, they know how to build fortifications. They have built the entire Suiyang and Dongning Caught up in the spider web. Then, like a bastard, he hid in it and couldn't come out. Damn, they are a bunch of eggless things."
Looking at Du Kaishan who was a little impatient, Huang Yuqing, the political commissar of the third column, frowned and said: "Lao Du, don't worry. Now while Lao Wang and the others are here, let's take a look. Now the Dongning Fortress Group not only has The strength of the two Japanese regiments, and from interrogating Japanese prisoners, we also learned that there are many laborers trapped inside. Judging from the current situation, fighting hard will definitely not work."
After Huang Yuqing finished speaking, Wang Xiaoming beside him also shook his head and said: "The key problem now is that we have never been able to effectively grasp the structure of the Dongning Fortress. Whether it is the interrogation of Japanese prisoners of war or the rescued part of the labor force, It’s all said to be shrouded in mist, and there’s no useful news at all.”
"The only thing I know now is that Lao Ma used the train gun that played a decisive role in the battles of Lumingtai and Suifenhe to test-fire two shells at Xunshan Fortress. Now it seems that it can't penetrate its main firepower point. Grandma The 240mm heavy artillery has no effect. I really don’t know how to destroy these fortification groups.”
At this point, Wang Xiaoming turned to Xia Boxun and Li Mingrui, the aviation chiefs of staff who came specifically to direct the ground attack, and said: "Is Lao Xia considering using aviation as the main force this time? Or adopt Lao Li's tactics at Tiger Head and Hormojin. , use nighttime to infiltrate and fight from the inside out?"