"Attack?" Okamura Neiji shook his head and said, "No, now is not the time to launch a large-scale attack."
In fact, Okamura Neiji already had a complete plan in his mind. For the sake of confidentiality, he only reported it to the General Staff Headquarters for filing. Even the Chief of Staff of the Front Army, Lieutenant General Tanabe Moritake, had no idea about Okamura Neiji's plan.
As mentioned before, the core of the plan is to take it in three steps.
The first step is to implement a "tolerant" policy, cultivate and win over pro-Japanese forces, and stabilize the public security area.
The second step is to implement the "cannibalization" policy and gradually encroach on ***, the Eighth Route Army's guerrilla zone.
The third step is to implement the "cage" policy and raid the Eighth Route Army base areas one by one.
So far, Okamura Neiji's first step plan has been successfully completed. The Japanese army has firmly controlled major cities and almost all transportation arteries in North China. More than 90% of the county towns are also in the hands of the Japanese army.
Basically, all counties have formed pro-Japanese maintenance committees, and all large and medium-sized cities have elected pro-Japanese autonomous governments.
Next, the focus of Neji Okamura's work will begin to shift to the "cannibalization" policy.
The so-called cannibalization policy is to use bunker tactics to attack the hinterland of *** and the Eighth Route Army's guerrilla zones step by step, gradually compressing the living space of *** and the Eighth Route Army, and striving to divide and surround *** and the Eighth Route Army's armed forces.
A small base area that is completely enclosed and cannot be moved effectively, and will eventually be eliminated.
However, Okamura Neiji also understood that North China was really too big. Not to mention that the North China Front had ten field divisions plus eight Japanese mixed brigades, with a total strength of more than 400,000. However, if he wanted to control the vast countryside,
, this small amount of troops is still only a drop in the bucket, so before implementing the "cannibalization" policy, the Chinese united front must be disintegrated!
In fact, since the end of the offensive on the frontal battlefield, the North China Front has been carrying out activities in secret.
So far, senior generals from the Sun Lianzhong Group, Yu Xuezhong Group, and the Shanxi-Sui Army have been secretly in contact with the North China Front Army. Those rescuers, protectors, and loyal rescuers have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.
The anti-Japanese armed forces such as the Kuomintang and the Fenyong Army had already flirted with the Japanese and puppet government supported by the Communist Party.
Previously, the Communist government did not openly accept these armed forces in order not to provoke the National Government.
But now, the Japanese army has completed its rest and replenishment. Compared with the beginning of the war, the overall combat effectiveness of the Japanese army has not declined but has even increased. At the beginning of the war, the Japanese army only had a dozen permanent divisions capable of fighting, but now, more than a dozen
Three ad hoc divisions and twenty new divisions have grown up in the flames of war.
Therefore, even if the Nationalist Government organized troops to launch a large-scale counterattack, the Japanese army could calmly resolve it.
At that moment, Okamura Neiji said to Tanabe Moritake: "Tanabe-kun, order the enemy's Ministry of Industry to step up contact with the various Chinese troops. If necessary, we can provide them with the most favorable conditions!" After saying this, Okamura Neiji again
He said, "It is impossible for the imperial army alone to occupy the vast countryside of North China. We also need to rely on the cooperation of these Chinese troops."
"Hai." Tanabe Shengwu suddenly lowered his head, then walked away with a saber in his arm.
In early March of the twenty-eighth year of the Republic of China (1939), a wave of "sunfall" suddenly occurred in the occupied areas!
Within just a few days, millions of anti-Japanese armed forces behind enemy lines changed their tune and defected to the Wang Puppet Government in Nanjing or the Wang Kemin Provisional Government in North China. Qi Xieyuan, a remnant of the Qing Dynasty, was secretly instigated by Okamura Neiji.
The North China Security Army was formally established in Peiping, with twelve group armies under its jurisdiction, and a pre-set strength of up to 500,000 troops!
Suddenly, the anti-Japanese armed forces transformed from bandits and family armed forces all became traitor armed forces!
In mid-March of the twenty-eighth year of the Republic of China (1939), this sudden sunrise countercurrent reached its climax!
On March 12, Cai Xiongfei, deputy commander of a certain division of the Jinsui Army, led two regiments to break away from the Jinsui Army and rebelled against Japan!
On March 13, Gong Bingfan, commander of the 34th Division, led his troops to surrender in Zhongtiao Mountain, setting a precedent for the Central Army's entire division to surrender to the enemy!
On March 15, Li Changjiang, deputy commander-in-chief of the Sulu Theater Guerrilla Corps, led eight detachments (regiments) to rebel and surrender in northern Jiangsu!
On March 16, He Xingjian, deputy commander-in-chief of the Zhongyi Rescue Army in the Southern Jiangsu War Zone, announced that he would break away from the order of battle of the National Revolutionary Army and lead 50,000 troops to join the Wang Puppet Government.
By late March of the 28th year of the Republic of China, thieves were already in full force in Central and North China!
Speaking of which, this is also the bad nature of the Chinese nation. When the Japanese army continued to attack fiercely on the frontal battlefield, and the Chinese nation was in a precarious situation, and was in danger of national subjugation and annihilation at any time, the entire nation was often able to share the same hatred and jointly fight against the invaders. However, when the situation eased slightly,
, the entire nation immediately became a piece of scattered sand again.
Under this wave of falling sun, both the Communist Party of China and the Eighth Route Army suffered unprecedented heavy losses!
On the anti-Japanese side, millions of armed forces took off their anti-Japanese uniforms overnight, put on dog skins and became Japanese and puppet armed forces who aided the tyranny. Zhongtiao Mountain, southern Jiangsu, the Sulu border, and Luliang Mountain
All the guerrilla theaters behind enemy lines were severely damaged, with only Sun Lianzhong's Group in Central Shandong and Yue Weihan's Group in Taihang Mountains surviving!
As for the Eighth Route Army, the "Japanese" who originally fought side by side with them turned into enemies overnight, and when the Eighth Route Army was unprepared, they launched an attack on them from behind. Throughout mid-to-early March, all areas of North China
The telegram that the base area was attacked flew like snowflakes to the Eighth Route Army headquarters deep in the Taihang Mountains!
Relatively speaking, the situation in Lunan and Jinan is the best.
Because only the guerrillas of the 39th Group Army and the guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army are active in southern Lunan and Hebei, the bandits, family armed forces and Huidaomen armed forces that originally ravaged the local areas have already been completely absorbed by the 39th Group Army and the Eighth Route Army.
It is absolutely impossible for the Ninth Army and the Eighth Route Army to rebel and surrender.
Cangyan Mountain, Taihang Arsenal live ammunition testing site.
After several improvements, the "heartless gun" was finally put on the testing ground again.
The first heartless cannon was manufactured three months ago, but the results of the test firing were not ideal. The main reason was that the barrel was not long enough, resulting in a range that was too short, and the thrown ammunition fell after flying less than 100 meters.
, this kind of range is only slightly farther than the infantry hand grenade. As an infantry support firepower, it is far from enough.
After the first improvement, the range of the Heartless Cannon reached 500 meters, but Yue Weihan was still not satisfied.
After further improvements, the range of the Heartless Cannon reached 800 meters. This range was Yue Weihan's psychological range. However, a new problem arose, that is, the "shrapnel" thrown was not stable enough, mainly due to the problem of the timing fuze.
Either it exploded during the flight, or it didn't explode for a long time after landing.
Finally, Chief Engineer Pi came up with a trick and installed double fuzes on the "shrapnel".
The so-called double fuzes, one is a timing fuze, which is actually the fuse, and the other is an impact fuze, which is actually a modified primer. This ensures that after the "shrapnel" lands, even if the timing fuze has not burned out, it can be fired instantly.
Explodes without leaving enough time for the enemy to throw the bomb into the pre-dug hole.
Now, after several improvements, the heartless cannon is finally about to be tested again.
The leather worker gave the order, and the two test shooters quickly set up the heartless cannon.
After several improvements, the bracket of the Heartless Cannon has become lighter, weighing less than 40 kilograms, and the main body of the gun barrel is less than 100 kilograms. This weight is compared to the "Type 92" of the Japanese army, which is known as the best mountain gun.
"Infantry artillery" is much lighter. As for the lethality, these two artillery are not on the same level at all.
Of course, the lethality mentioned here is for infantry.
If it is to attack solid targets such as bunkers, turrets and armored vehicles, then the heartless cannon that cannot fire armor-piercing explosive shells is absolutely no match for the Type 92 infantry cannon. But then again, when dealing with solid targets, the Thirty-ninth Group Army has
There is no need for a heartless gun for a man-portable rocket launcher.
After a while, the leather worker gave an order, and the test shooter pulled the fuse.
With just a bang, the "shrapnel" with a diameter of 200mm and a length of more than 300mm flew out of the barrel with a piercing scream. In less than ten seconds, the "shrapnel" flew over a distance of 700 to 800 meters.
distance, and then when it was still about twenty meters above the ground, it exploded with a bang...
When Yue Weihan and others arrived at the explosion site, they were deeply shocked by the tragic scene in front of them!
In order to simulate the actual killing effect, the leather workers specially had hundreds of scarecrows erected, all wearing Japanese military uniforms.
Some of these scarecrows were lying on their stomachs, some were standing, and some were half-crouching. However, at this moment, the hundreds of "Japanese soldiers" were all "heroic". The dozens of Japanese soldiers at the center of the explosion were the worst, with at least one stabbing wound on their body.
More than a hundred small steel arrows were fired all over the body, and most of the Japanese soldiers who were fifty meters away from the center of the explosion were left with more than a dozen "bomb wounds".
If this was a real battlefield, then a squadron of Japanese soldiers would have been wiped out in one shot!
Of course, this is just an ideal effect. First of all, the Japanese army will not be so dense. Secondly, there are many unexpected factors on the battlefield, and the shooting accuracy of artillery cannot be so high. But even if you fire two halves on this basis, one shot will be almost the same.
Being able to kill a small group of Japanese soldiers is already astonishingly lethal!
No wonder many countries in later generations will ban shrapnel from being used in actual combat.
It must be admitted that this shrapnel is really the natural enemy of infantry.
Before Yue Weihan's excitement had passed, Colonel Liu Xin, the director of the communications department, arrived panting: "General office, the Eighth Route Army headquarters sent an urgent message. In order to deal with the increasingly aggressive provocations of traitorous armed forces in North China, the Eighth Route Army will soon organize various military regions
The main force has launched a large-scale counterattack, and we hope that our Thirty-ninth Group Army can cooperate."