At nightfall, the Yingkou United Front War Command received a message from Gaizhou, informing them that the southwest position had been lost. The 1st Brigade and the 2nd Division were currently engaged in fierce street fighting with the Japanese army in the southern suburbs of Gaizhou City. This news
It did not surprise Yuan Su. After all, according to the battle situation on the front line, it seemed that the flank positions would be lost sooner or later. For him, he was more disappointed now.
He didn't know what the effect of organizing street fighting in Gaizhou would be. According to common sense, street fighting was indeed a good way to delay the enemy's advance, but the important aspect was that the soldiers under his command did not have much practical experience. Street fighting required a high degree of
With flexible and adaptable tactics, I don’t know how many grassroots non-commissioned officers the 1st Brigade can have to lead an effective organization under its command to fight against the enemy.
"Send an order to the Second Brigade and the Security Regiment to inform them of the current situation in Gaizhou and ask them to change their previous reinforcement plan and get in touch with the Second Division or the First Brigade as soon as possible to determine a more appropriate reinforcement plan."
After putting down the message, Yuan Su didn't think so much for the time being, but only considered more practical issues.
After an attendant took note of Yuan Su's order, he immediately ran to the communications room to arrange the delivery work.
Several staff officers were gathered around the map table, marking the map according to the latest news that had just been sent, but now everyone's face looked heavier than before.
"Commander, the southwest position of Gaizhou has been lost. If the 1st Brigade and the 2nd Division can hold off the Japanese Army in the city, there may be room for maneuver. I am afraid that losing one position will affect the entire Gaizhou defense line. With the Japanese Army like this
Judging from the speed of the attack, it is difficult to guarantee how long the Gaizhou defense line can last." A staff officer couldn't help but say after seeing the latest situation marked on the map.
"It's too fast. In just two days, the Gaizhou defense line has been hit to such an extent. If it was hit like this from the beginning, what else can we explain to the outside world?" Another staff officer added.
I have to say that it is very important that this war went so poorly at the beginning and that we were unable to give an explanation to the outside world.
Even if Yuan Su did not place his hopes on the British and French powers to put pressure on Japan, it is obvious that the top-down bureaucrats in the Beiyang government more or less hope that the Central Army will show some appearance in Liaodong, at the very least.
Don't make the fight too ugly, and only then will you have the confidence to make some diplomatic moves.
In fact, even if the entire Gaizhou defense line is lost, Yuan Su will not completely lose hope. Without Gaizhou, there is still Yingkou. When the Japanese army reaches Yingkou, the troops on the Liangjiatun and Hadabei defense lines can take the opportunity to take the initiative and attack deeply.
Killing a carbine in the hinterland of Liaodong. No one can say how the war situation will change by then.
The key is that losing too quickly in the early stage will put great pressure on the entire Beiyang government.
The reason why the Japanese army does not dare to easily expand the scale of the war now is that it is worried about the interference of the British and French powers. If the Liaodong war progresses smoothly enough, it may get the acquiescence of the British and French powers, and simply let the Japanese army end this war as soon as possible. This
This is the point that troubles Yuan Su even more.
In the message Zhao Shanhe sent back to Yingkou, he briefly explained the operational ideas for street fighting. Yuan Su did not have high hopes for this, but considering the current situation, he also hoped that the main position of the Gaizhou defense line could be held on.
, after the reinforcements from Yingkou arrive, there is naturally hope of holding on for a few more days or longer.
After thinking for a while, he immediately arranged a phone call to Gaizhou and personally told Zhao Shanhe and Tian Wenlie to hold on to the Gaizhou defense line no matter what, especially the defense of the main position, and to stop the Japanese army even if people were exchanged for land.
Take half a step forward.
This seems to be an impulsive order without tactics, but in fact the tactics before us are to hold on to the main position of the Gaizhou defense line, and then attract the Japanese army to detour into Gaizhou City, so that they can implement the street fighting plan and utilize
A two-sided front to create more pressure on the Japanese attack.
Therefore, the Yingkou General Headquarters can only continue to put pressure on Zhao Shanhe and the various units of the Second Division!
The fighting in Gaizhou did not gradually subside until one o'clock in the night. After the Japanese troops attacking the southwest position took the position, they did not continue the attack. Instead, they quickly cleared up the position and avoided the scattered artillery fire suppression of the Chinese artillery. Then they attacked.
The other Japanese army in the main position due south launched several final attacks intermittently. In the end, they were suppressed by the powerful heavy machine gun firepower of the main position and had no choice but to retreat.
When the telegram was sent to Yingkou, Yuan Su finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the Japanese army's strong attack on this day also consumed a lot of energy. Moreover, the charging battle in the middle of the night was very unfavorable, so he simply gave up.
Not only the Yingkou General Headquarters breathed a sigh of relief, but the entire Gaizhou defense line also breathed a sigh of relief.
For a whole day, they were faced with high-casualty battles all the time. Every soldier who was transferred to the front line for support must muster up 200% of their courage to stand on the line of fire. Of course, there were also many soldiers among them.
The cowardly people either want to escape or cry for their parents. Zhao Shanhe ordered the execution of three people with serious crimes, which stabilized the morale of the army a little. On the other hand, there are mostly veterans in the Second Division, so this kind of situation is not too serious.
.
Yuan Su was busy until three o'clock in the morning before he managed to lie down and rest for a while. However, there was no time for rest in Gaizhou. The hard and fierce battle of the day left a lot of mess to clean up. Not only did he have to seize the time to arrange the defense line for street fighting,
At the same time, it is necessary to reorganize the defense of the entire forward position to ensure that the main position can be preserved, and the Japanese troops in the southwest flank position must not be allowed to cut off the transportation connection between Gaizhou City and the main position.
In addition, what troubled the Gaizhou defense line the most was logistical factors. The number of casualties after a day's battle soared. Not to mention that many wounded were not able to be transferred back in time. They were either captured by the Japanese army or were fired by their own people.
Manslaughter. Just talking about the number of wounded who have retreated is already a huge burden.
The First Corps of Zhong Yang is already considered the most complete unit in the Beiyang Army in terms of field medical system. Yuan Su spent a lot of money and manpower to build a field medical system, although it was originally planned that each battalion-level unit should be equipped with one
Field rescue stations and regiment-level units must be equipped with a field hospital. This indicator has not yet been fully achieved so far. However, certain results have been achieved in the training of military doctors and the construction of regiment-level and brigade-level field hospitals.
Even so, compared with the battlefield rescue systems in Western developed countries, Yuan Su's troops are still far apart.
The large number of wounded gathered behind Gaizhou City suddenly saturated the battlefield rescue resources of the First Brigade and its regiments. What is even more helpless is that although Tian Wenlie's Second Division is a time-honored Beiyang Army, it does not have a complete battlefield
Due to the hospital system, many wounded soldiers of the Second Division also had to be transferred to the First Brigade for resettlement.
Therefore, due to the lack of medical resources, many large-scale rescue operations can only be replaced by quick and simple treatments, so that injuries that could have been cured will leave sequelae, and limb injuries that could have been saved have to be directly amputated.
Zhao Shanhe really could not spare any extra manpower to transport the wounded to Yingkou, so he could only wait until the reinforcements dispatched from Yingkou arrived, and the reinforcements would allocate part of the logistics manpower to assist the First Brigade in transferring the wounded to the rear.