Four o'clock in the afternoon, Jinzhou, Kwantung Army frontline headquarters.
After the Japanese army made significant progress in the attack on the South Road, their advance slowed down. Following Muto Nobuyoshi's instructions, the three Japanese divisions on the North Road suddenly launched a fierce attack on the Chifeng front line in the morning. Sun Dianying's regiment was defeated after a hard battle and withdrew at noon.
Arriving at the foot of Chifeng City, they resisted tenaciously.
The Japanese troops who occupied the line from Marin Town to Yuanbaoshan a few kilometers east of the city, under the orders of commander Sato Konosuke, left behind a brigade, puppet infantry brigade, and Harada cavalry brigade to continue to maintain strong pressure on the Chifeng defenders.
The other two brigades and the cavalry regiment quietly withdrew from the battlefield, and the troops were divided into three groups and suddenly turned southward to encircle and pursue Gu Changfeng's division, which was hidden at the junction of the northern and southern armies.
Muto Nobuyoshi was relatively satisfied with the progress of the current offensive. All units of the Sixth Division on the southern front arrived at the designated locations and assembled separately. They soon launched attacks on the Chinese troops at strategic locations outside the Great Wall. The Chinese defenders in the Chengde area on the western front would be affected by this.
The foolish defeat resulted in the loss of support from the east, and the pressure increased greatly.
After reading the various strategic points marked on the map, Muto Nobuyoshi nodded slightly, turned his head and looked at the busy staff officers around him, gently rubbed his sore eyes, returned to his seat and closed his eyes to rest for a while. After opening his eyes, he felt refreshed again.
A hundred times, just as I picked up the tea cup and took a sip, the head of the intelligence section, Seishiro Itagaki, came in to report urgently:
The Independent Division of the Central Army has left the Great Wall and headed north. The division is equipped with about 36 artillery pieces, all of which are towed by trucks. There is also about an anti-aircraft tank battalion following. It is initially judged that its destination is the Kuancheng line. Because
The incident happened suddenly, and the hidden intelligence personnel of the headquarters were unable to find out more information, so they kindly requested the headquarters to send aviation troops to assist in the investigation.
Kwantung Army Commander-in-Chief Muto Nobuyoshi, Chief of Staff Kuniaki Oiso, and Deputy Chief of Staff Okamura Neji all became nervous. The ace division, which was subordinate to the Central Army and had almost as many people as a Japanese division, was finally dispatched and equipped with even the Kwantung Army.
An unequipped air defense tank battalion, with such a murderous momentum and excellent equipment, is likely to have a serious impact on the battle situation of the Sixth and Eighth Divisions on the southern front. If it can be determined that the destination of the independent division is Kuan
City, it means that the flanks of the Eighth Division occupying Hiraizumi are seriously threatened. When the enemy's situation is unknown, the three southbound brigades and a cavalry regiment commanded by Nishi Yiichi will definitely attack this Anjia army, which is the most powerful
, the elite troops were wary and did not dare to rush straight in to attack the defenders outside Chengde. Even the 26th Cavalry Regiment, which was heading south to attack Kuancheng with part of the Sixth Division, might be traveling too fast.
Forming a lone force that went deep, it was attacked head-on by an independent division with powerful firepower.
Muto Nobuyoshi looked at the map again and again, and briefly discussed it with Oiso Kuniaki and Okamura Neiji, and then ordered to report this information to the 6th and 8th Divisions, and ordered the 26th Cavalry Regiment
Stop advancing, stay on alert, and then summon all the generals from the headquarters for urgent discussion.
Before the generals could reach a consensus, an urgent report from the front came again.
Saito Osaka, Acting Chief of Staff of the Sixth Division, reported urgently: The cavalry reconnaissance team of the forward troops of the headquarters encountered the enemy's cavalry reconnaissance team of the Third Army in the Qingsongling area, 21 kilometers northeast of Tiemenguan Pass on the Great Wall. The two sides exchanged fire.
Everyone suffered casualties and retreated from the place one after another. Since the traces have been exposed, the Ministry of Service Brigade has lost the fighter planes that quickly went south to attack the enemy's flank in Kuancheng. At present, the Ministry of Service Brigade has stopped advancing and is waiting for the next order from the headquarters.
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Muto Nobuyoshi crossed his arms across his chest, frowning and thinking. Before he could figure it out, Itagaki Seishiro came again to report: the 17th Division of Lu Yixuan, affiliated to the Central Army, suddenly went north, along the route of the Hu Jialin Independent Division, and the independent troops heading north on the highway.
The division always maintained a distance of about twenty kilometers.
Another: Peking Intelligence Station urgently reported that the battle meeting of the Peking Military Branch ended this morning. The generals of the Central Army rushed to the Tangshan headquarters and initially judged that the Central Army would have important military operations; at two o'clock in the afternoon, the 11th Central Army at Nanyuan Airport
The aviation fleet began to evacuate in batches, and all flew south an hour ago. The destination is still unclear. There are only four aircraft left at Nanyuan Airport, all of which are small fighters that are being repaired and cannot take off.
Faced with the sudden large-scale mobilization of the Chinese army, the generals in the Kwantung Army headquarters looked at each other in disbelief. They all felt that these actions of the Chinese army were full of conspiracy, and the war situation became complicated and full of variables.
Seeing the quarrel among the generals, Muto Nobuyoshi frowned, raised his hand to signal everyone to quiet down, lowered his head and thought calmly for a moment, and quickly grasped the key:
"Gentlemen, I would like to make two points for your analysis: First, the two main divisions of the China Central Army unexpectedly came out to fight, which caused the huge loophole between the enemy's fourth and fifth armies to disappear immediately. The original Eastern Company
Qinglong, the front line of Kuancheng that borders Chengde to the west is weak and full of defensive holes. Now not only are the defenses strong, but the two main divisions have extraordinary combat capabilities. They are the only front-line enemy forces in North China that are fighting against us.
The elite troops that had fought against each other and remained undefeated suddenly moved north and penetrated into the connection point between our two main forces, directly threatening the 8th Division attacking Chengde from the west and the 6th Division from the east, disrupting the
The layout and offensive rhythm of the troops on the southern route of our army forced our army to respond. This is a good move! It can be said that before, we still underestimated the determination of the Chinese army to resist and ignored their active defense capabilities. In this regard, we
Everyone is responsible, and the intelligence department should seriously review it."
Everyone was uneasy, and Seishiro Itagaki stood in awe with his head bowed, with a look of shame on his face.
Muto Nobuyoshi continued: "Second, since the war started in the direction of Shanhaiguan, the aviation force of the Central China Army has caused us a lot of trouble. What deserves your attention in particular is the new air defense brigade under the famous Chinese general An Yi! Three days ago,
It was these two battalions of the air defense force, hidden in an area about fifteen kilometers west of Qinhuangdao. When a mixed formation of bombers from our aviation brigade attacked the ground target, they suddenly launched a fierce attack. Within minutes, intensive firepower from German anti-aircraft guns was launched.
Within a short period of time, three of our bombers and one escorting destroyer were shot down. One of the bombers was injured and exploded violently while escaping. The bombs and debris fell on our own positions, and the ground troops lost a squad. Immediately after the enemy
The sudden appearance of eight new fighter jets of the Army forced our mixed fighter formation to quickly withdraw from the battle. If the second group of fighter jets had not taken off quickly to fight, the enemy aircraft would have calmly launched strikes deep into our eastern front. What is helpless is: Wait
When more than 40 fighter planes of our army arrived in the combat airspace, the enemy planes had already fled, and the anti-aircraft tank unit on the ground also disappeared without a trace. Post-war inspection revealed that there were still two of the six planes withdrawn from Jinzhou Airport.
The aircraft was damaged. It can be seen from this that although the enemy's aviation force is not large in number, its equipment is better than ours, and its tactics are superior to ours. There must be military advisers from Europe and the United States behind them commanding it, which has formed a strong deterrent to our Japanese aviation force.
, which greatly affected the morale of our army."
The generals nodded in agreement, and Muto Nobuyoshi stopped, glanced across every cautious face, smiled lightly, and raised the question solemnly:
"Today, how to deal with the enemy's air defense forces, aviation fleet and other issues have not yet been resolved. An enemy aviation group suddenly retreated south. There is definitely a major conspiracy! So, what is this conspiracy? What exactly does the enemy want to do?
What? Contact the two main divisions of the Central Army that suddenly left the border at high speed, and maybe contact the nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers of the Anjia Army hiding in the mountains to the west of Chaoyang, struggling to escape from my heavy encirclement. All of this
, please consider it all: Do you feel that the enemy's large-scale mobilization in a hurry is too sudden? Are they passively responding or taking the initiative? What is the purpose they want to achieve? A series of frequent mobilizations and sudden complexities
What are the key points in the battle situation? As long as we think clearly about these issues, everything can be easily solved, and we can regain the initiative."
The eyes of the generals lit up, their thoughts suddenly became clear, and they all cast admiring glances at Nobuyoshi Muto.
An hour later, Kwantung Army Chief of Staff Kuniaki Oiso came up with a relatively complete set of plans. After reviewing it, Muto Nobuyoshi nodded with satisfaction, put on his military cap, calmly tidied up his conduct, and strode away with his head held high and his chest high. Headquarters
Deputy Chief of Staff Okamura Neiji personally walked to the large map, took the marker from the staff member's hand, and worked quickly. In a blink of an eye, the two red arrows were like two leaping red snakes, both aligned and marked with
The big black circle with the word "Chengde" flew away.
At the same time, Chief of Staff Kuniaki Oiso issued an order to the Aviation Command via phone: Stop all combat operations on the Eastern Front and retain only necessary aerial reconnaissance capabilities. The First and Second Aviation Groups should immediately make all combat preparations and obey the commander at any time.
The Ministry of Defense ordered the launch of combat operations; the Fifth Aviation Group stationed in Tongliao suspended all military operations and obeyed the unified command of Lieutenant General Sato Konosuke, commander of the Northern Route Army.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, in the afterglow of the setting sun, three silver-white fighter planes with blue sky and white sun emblems and flying fox logos flew into the Bangzhong Mountain airspace to the west of Chaoyang. Two of them continued to move eastward, and the remaining one began to slowly lower its altitude.
, slowing down and circling in the air, flying around and around the snow-capped mountains and forests, and finally saw the contact sign paved with battle flags in the open area of the valley.
Like a human being, the plane raised its head and flew high happily, drawing a beautiful arc in the north direction, then turned south again and slowly lowered its altitude. At this time, the square plexiglass window in the back seat of the cabin had been opened.
An orange-red object flew out of the window, rapidly flipping and falling in the air. It quickly opened its small white umbrella and swayed toward the area covered with red flags in the valley.
Under the big snow-covered trees on the edge of the valley, hundreds of fully armed soldiers looked up excitedly at their fighter planes and the slowly falling communication capsule. After finishing his cigarette, Gu Changfeng, who could only roll his cigarette into a horn, expressed his appreciation for the skills and skills of his own pilots.
He was full of praise for the placement of the communication bag. Just as he was about to shout loudly to his subordinates who had obtained the communication bag a hundred meters away, to hurry up and deliver it, he was startled by the sudden burst of gunfire in the sky.
Liang Zhenyu rushed out of the woods, climbed onto the snow-covered stone hillock and shouted, "Put down the flag, everyone is in hiding and no movement is allowed." Seeing thousands of brothers returning to the woods one after another after a short period of confusion, Liang Zhenyu let out a sigh of relief.
Look up at the sky.
Gu Changfeng and Yang Jiuxiao threw away their cigarette butts and climbed up the stone hillock quickly. They stood next to Liang Zhenyu, who was staring at the sky like a fool. They raised their heads and looked for a moment. The same stupid expression appeared on their faces as Liang Zhenyu.
At this moment, in the sky in the northeast, clouds of gunpowder smoke generated by planes firing machine guns surged in the wind, and the sound of shooting and piercing screams from aircraft machine guns kept coming. Six green Japanese fighter planes and two silver-white fighter planes were entangled in the sky.
Together, fire at each other.
After the two met, the two warring parties narrowly passed each other. A green plane that had been shot shook and roared down. Soon it was emitting thick smoke and making a sharp noise. It hit the ground and passed by.
More than 200 meters above where the large army was invisible, they rushed towards the low mountain to the south. They hit the mountain with a "boom", causing huge flames and smoke to rise into the sky. The remaining snow and broken trees rose into the sky, and the sound of explosion shook the dense forest far and near.
The snow fell like rain, causing nearly ten thousand people hiding nearby to turn pale and feel dizzy and tinnitus.
The messenger plane turned around in the southern airspace and rushed towards the battlefield when it saw two enemy planes roaring towards them. It had no time to change its course to avoid them, so it could only quickly gain ground, bravely meet the enemy planes, and fire fiercely. The Japanese planes also
At the same time, they fired at the silver plane. The three planes with red flames spitting out their noses were attacking each other almost straight away. Just when they were about to collide, the Japanese plane on the west side suddenly turned over and changed direction rapidly. The remaining planes
The cockpit of the Japanese plane had been beaten to pieces, the wings were flying, the nose of the plane suddenly dropped, flames and smoke erupted, and then an explosion occurred in the air. With a "bang" sound, brilliant flames burst out, and the huge explosive force would leap
The silver fighter plane above it was shaking and rolling continuously, like a leaf in a strong wind, which frightened Gu Changfeng and the other three people on the stone hillock and thousands of soldiers watching at the edge of the forest to scream in surprise.
The silver plane rolled and fell rapidly under the gaze of countless pairs of worried eyes. It continued to fall for hundreds of meters before it could control its posture, but it still could not stop the momentum of its violent fall.
Just when the soldiers on the ground were watching in despair, two large black dots flew out of the rapidly falling aircraft. After falling for a few seconds, they finally successfully opened two white parachutes. Under the blow from the north, they slowly floated towards Gu Changfeng and others.
above.
The out-of-control fighter plane fell into a deep ravine hundreds of meters to the northeast, emitting a huge explosion and sending up a cloud of smoke and flames into the sky...