Compared with Yang Zhen's calmness, Umezu Yoshijiro was much more upset after receiving the telegram from the base camp. After half a year of preparations, the Kwantung Army finally waited until the 5th, 6th and 10th divisions were organized. , the newly formed 28th, 29th, and 57th divisions arrived, as well as a large number of tanks, heavy artillery and other newly organized troops.
When the troops were ready to march north with all their strength, the result of the base camp was good. At the most critical moment, an entire division was transferred at once. It would have been fine if you had transferred other divisions, but it didn't happen The fifth division that was stationed at the forefront and was responsible for the main offensive task on the Eastern Front in the planned plan was transferred. This almost made Umezu Yoshijiro angry.
It doesn't matter that the Ninth Division that was originally promised has not been seen yet. After all, the Sixth Division that has made up for the leak is a bit inferior in terms of heavy firepower equipment, but its combat effectiveness is still higher than that of the Ninth Division. With this The 6th Division is known as the most powerful in the Japanese army in terms of combat effectiveness, and Umezu Yoshijiro is quite satisfied.
Thanks to the high-ranking figures in the domestic military who hate the poor and love the rich, although the combat effectiveness is one of the best in the entire army, on par with the Second Division, the Sixth Division was born in relatively poor places such as Kumamoto and Kagoshima. It does not attract favors from those high-ranking officials and dignitaries, but the distribution of heavy equipment has never been comparable to the second and fifth divisions. Every time it goes into battle, the vanguard is always the first.
However, its heavy equipment configuration is far inferior to that of the Fourth Division. The cavalry wing of the Fourth Division has been changed to a search wing, and the cavalry has begun to use tanks to replace it, while the Sixth Division The regiment is still composed of a cavalry regiment, and there is still no combat vehicle. Although there are some differences in heavy equipment, the combat effectiveness of the Sixth Division is definitely first-rate.
Compared with the delay in incorporating the Ninth Division into the establishment, Umezu Yoshijiro was quite satisfied with the allocation of the Sixth Division to the Kwantung Army. In addition, the Tenth Division and the Fifth Division, whose base camp was to be on standby in Manchuria, were also temporarily deployed. It was allocated to the Kwantung Army, which made Umezu Yoshijiro very hesitant and satisfied, and prepared to wipe out the bandits that brought trouble to Manchuria in one fell swoop.
Although the Fifth Division was semi-disabled by the Chinese government forces last year and came to Manchuria to recuperate, it is, after all, the first mixed infantry, artillery and chariot division of the Japanese army, and its combat effectiveness is definitely the best among the best. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to use a brigade to cripple the Chinese government's ace Fifth Army.
In order to restore the combat effectiveness of the Fifth Division as soon as possible, Umezu Yoshijiro took great pains. After asking for instructions from the base camp, he integrated an entire independent garrison into the Fifth Division as a supplementary force. He thought that when he was making final preparations, the third The Fifth Division was transferred away.
You have worked so hard, but in the end it was all in vain. Not to mention the joy, during the final preparations, a main division was transferred away. This is like you are having fun with a beautiful woman, but at the most critical moment, this beautiful woman is taken away. Others have snatched it away, leaving you alone.
This result made the performance of Umezu Yoshijiro, who always regarded himself as calm, even more hysterical than last autumn after the rare defeat since the formation of the Japanese army. The unwilling Umezu Yoshijiro sent several telegrams to the base camp, repeatedly requesting that either the Fifth Division be moved The regiment should be left behind, or the Kwantung Army would be replenished with a division within a month.
Fortunately, the base camp did not do everything right, and promised him that within a month, the Ninth Division, which was originally transferred to the Kwantung Army as planned, but was transferred back to the country, would be reintegrated into the Kwantung Army's establishment, and it was originally only on standby in Manchuria. In name, the 14th Division, which was not officially assigned to the Kwantung Army, was also officially assigned to the Kwantung Army.
The compromise at the base camp made Umezu Yoshijiro feel a little better, but the feeling is better. The Ninth Division can still have a holiday in Japan. When it is gathered together, it will arrive in Dalian by boat, and then reach the war zone via the Zhongchang Railway and Binsui Railway. It will take at least a month. This is still fast. If it is slower, you may not know when you will arrive at the war zone.
In desperation, Umezu Yoshijiro had to push up the Eighth Division, which was originally stationed in the Muleng area and was responsible for the frontline support of Baoqing and the second-line support of the Manchu-Soviet border in Dongning, to replace the Fifth Division, which had begun to concentrate and surrender its positions. Regiment, as for the Muling area, the 38th Regiment of the 29th Division was transferred, and the 1st Regiment of the 50th Regiment took over.
Due to the temporary transfer of the Fifth Division, the entire deployment was disrupted. In desperation, Umezu Yoshijiro could only postpone the original plan to launch the attack in late May after all the required ammunition was delivered to June 2. , a single move affects the whole body, the Fifth Division was transferred away, it takes time to adjust the deployment, and it also takes time to assemble and mobilize the Eighth Division.
Umezu Yoshijiro was indeed quite unhappy about the fifth division being transferred away before the war started, but as Yang Zhen guessed, he never thought that Yang Zhen would dare to attack him first, because the information reported from the intelligence department According to the intelligence, although Yang Zhen's bandits are rampant, their military strength is limited.
There are only six field brigades, plus its messy so-called military division cadre regiments, independent county brigades and other local miscellaneous armed forces, and a production and construction corps that is armed with a group of farmers. In the eyes of the Kwantung Army, in addition to that Except for the six field brigades and a few basic regiments, the rest of Yang Zhen's troops were purely a ragtag group.
The six field brigades, even if each brigade has 10,000 people, add up to only 60,000 troops. According to the strength of the five divisions of the imperial army on the front line at this time, the total number of troops greatly exceeds them. Although The 11th Division is only used as a reserve force, and the 5th Division is defending the border with the 8th Division and will be transferred out, but this time the Imperial Army still has the advantage in strength.
For this campaign, not counting the 11th, 12th and 29th divisions behind him, he had four divisions with more than 80,000 troops concentrated on the front line alone. This total number of troops was not enough to deal with equipment far away. It is not as good as our own 60,000 bandit army. With the support of aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery, as long as we strictly implement our front-line push and the tactics of each division to support each other, we should be able to turn this bandit into a shameful bandit. Annihilate it with one sentence.
Due to the strict confidentiality of both parties during the delivery process, and the fact that no troops were allocated after receiving them, all the troops were stored in several secret warehouses, and all artillery units still used the captured Japanese equipment for training, making the equipment of the artillery units directly under each field brigade unclear. It seems that due to the massive expansion, it appears that there are only four mountain guns.
As for the heavy artillery brigade that was upgraded from the original heavy artillery battalion, its equipment is still the twelve Taisho 4th-type 150 howitzers. More people have completed the training and become unarmed artillerymen without equipment. Each one is only equipped with A brigade armed with twelve cannons is a frightening farce in the eyes of any country.
These illusions deliberately created by Yang Zhen not only confused his subordinates, but also successfully concealed the information from the Kwantung Army's intelligence department, which was known to be all-pervasive, causing Yang Zhen to be exposed from the Kwantung Army headquarters down to the participating divisions. A large number of Polish-made weapons and equipment were obtained from Jiangbei, especially the huge number of artillery, which is still unknown.
The Kwantung Army's impression of the heavy firepower of Yang Zhen's unit was still at the end of last autumn's campaign. Although they all admitted that in the battle with the Imperial Army, these ruthless bandits should have captured a lot of the Imperial Army's standard weapons and equipment, especially artillery. , but due to its own lack of production capacity and relying solely on seizures, its quantity of heavy equipment is definitely limited.
Because the Imperial Army is not a Chinese army that can throw away everything in order to escape. Brand-new German mountain cannons can be thrown on the roadside without doing any damage. The Imperial Army has always been in the habit of destroying its own weapons and equipment when it is defeated. Although it was defeated last year Although the battle was defeated, they would never be allowed to capture many weapons, especially heavy equipment.
The artillery with only four mountain field guns can also be called a battalion. This organization of Yang Zhen's army made the Japanese army laugh. Although they already knew that Yang Zhen's army had an arsenal, the Japanese army leaders still believed that this arsenal could only produce some at most. Don't even think about light weapons or heavy weapons. Making a cannon can't be done with just a steel pipe.
Although I tried my best, I have never figured out what the opponent's strange artillery is. However, previous battles have shown that the opponent's power is so powerful. It is likely that the number of new artillery provided by Jiangbei is not large, and the imperial army has Aircraft can effectively suppress this artillery.
There is a huge gap in equipment. The front-line troops now have four heavy artillery regiments and two independent field heavy artillery brigades. In addition to the number of large-caliber field howitzers and cannons reaching more than 200, there are also four tanks. wing, and a large number of aviation units.
With such powerful weapons and equipment, coupled with the concentrated strength of the imperial army and the excellent military quality of the imperial army itself, it is impossible for the opponent to launch an attack on his own initiative unless he is dizzy and seeking death. This attack is still in the final preparation stage. The Japanese army was filled with blind optimism.
With this idea in mind almost from top to bottom, and in order to switch to the offensive as soon as possible, almost all the Japanese front-line troops were deployed in an offensive posture, including all artillery positions, tank assembly areas, and large tanks. Some troops almost did not build strong fire shelters, and were all exposed to simple field fortifications.
A large amount of ammunition, food, gasoline and other materials were not built in any hidden warehouses. They were piled carelessly on the spot in a relatively hidden and open place. They were just covered with tarpaulins. The large number of cars transporting materials back and forth were These so-called hiding places have already been completely exposed.
Although the security can be said to be strict, it is only used to prevent man-made sabotage. Its main defense is just a few barbed wire fences plus some security troops and wolf dogs. The Japanese army did not do anything to deal with possible fire attacks from the opponent. Prepare.
Because in the view of the commanders of the Japanese divisions at the front, the opponent's firepower, let alone heavy firepower, was scarce. Even if it had, with its aviation force bombing the opponent's forward positions several times every day, the opponent's limited artillery would not be able to target them. They pose a threat to themselves, not to mention that the locations of these ammunition storage points are basically outside the range of the opponent's hill cannons.
They do not have long-range large-caliber artillery or aviation. Even if they know their ammunition and material storage points, they are helpless. They have no means to threaten these materials, because their Qiwu Mountain field artillery with a maximum range of only a few thousand meters is a shooting weapon. Those who cannot reach these ammunition and material storage points.
If we talk about attaching great importance to Yang Zhen's troops, the Kwantung Army focused more on tactics, but still underestimated the enemy ideologically, especially when its own firepower had an absolute advantage. The campaign was full of optimism.
I believe that this time there will be a large number of heavy artillery and tanks to assist, and the strength of four divisions will once again be concentrated. Wulu, who has the advantage in both strength and firepower, will definitely be as good as in the pass when facing opponents trapped in a small area. Just like on the battlefield, everything is destroyed.