"Captain, the casualties of the 2nd and 8th Battalions have been reported!" the combat staff officer put down the phone and reported happily.
"It's exactly as you expected... After the Guizishan field artillery brigade and the infantry artillery squad were severely damaged, their losses in the little Guizishan artillery raid plummeted!"
"Before the heavy artillery battalion takes action, we have to lose one or two hundred people to repel an attack by Sato's division. The losses in the previous battle have been reduced to more than one hundred and twenty people..."
"The Sato division lost more than 400 people, and the casualty ratio was far more than three to one, almost four to one!"
Kong Jie's face immediately lit up with joy: "This is just the beginning!"
"When the troops become more and more familiar with the enemy's attack methods, more ventilation holes will be dug in the anti-gun holes at the back to withstand incendiary bomb attacks, and our casualties will be further reduced!"
"After the Guizishan field artillery brigade and infantry artillery are severely damaged, the threat they pose to us will become smaller and smaller. The mortars and thunder cannons equipped by each battalion will have the opportunity to participate in the battle..."
"Just like the blocking battle just now, six flying thunder cannons joined the battle together, and just one salvo caused nearly a hundred casualties to the attacking troops..."
"Coupled with the results achieved by the mortar companies of each battalion, the losses of Sato's division during the offensive will definitely become greater and greater."
"One is ebbing and the other is ebbing. The casualty ratio between us and the Japanese can definitely exceed one to three... or even one to four..."
As soon as Kong Jie said these words, the oppressive atmosphere in the command center suddenly became relaxed.
Although he had analyzed it with everyone before, saying that the heavy artillery battalion would turn the tide of the battle as soon as it took action, there was no fact to prove his statement.
Now that the evidence has appeared, everyone has begun to believe Kong Jie's analysis, believing that the heavy artillery battalion has turned the tide of the war, and the balance of victory on the battlefield is tilting towards the independent regiment bit by bit...
"Weng buzzing... booming..."
Just when everyone was dreaming of victory with joyful faces, the roar of a dive plane suddenly reached everyone's ears. Before they could react, two dull explosions sounded behind the headquarters.
Kong Jie rushed out of the command post and looked up to see two plumes of thick smoke rising more than a thousand meters behind him...
"The artillery position is there!"
A combat staff officer cried out, with panic in his eyes, very afraid that what he was worried about would become a reality.
Kong Jieshu's brows furrowed at the same time, but before he could speak, another plane began to dive towards the ground...
Another thick column of smoke rose more than three hundred meters away from the black smoke.
The terrain there is relatively high, and Kong Jie's position is higher. He can clearly see the raging fire burning in the artillery position.
Kong Jie frowned even deeper, especially when he heard an explosion in the fire.
It is taken for granted that the Japanese plane found the heavy artillery battalion position, and the explosion just now was caused by the detonation of the artillery shell.
While walking back, he ordered: "Contact Chen Daliang immediately..."
"How did he do it? The regiment headquarters trusted him so they handed over the heavy artillery battalion to him and let him decide the time to join the war. The regiment headquarters would never interfere!"
"As a result, as soon as the heavy artillery battalion entered the war, three artillery batteries were destroyed by the Japanese heavy artillery brigade, and now two artillery batteries were destroyed by planes... I am so disappointed..."
"Rumble..."
Two more explosions came here, interrupting Kong Jie's unfinished words.
He looked back at the location where the explosion came from, his frown was two points deeper than before, and he continued to order: "No, three artillery batteries were blown up by Japanese planes!"
"Ask Chen Daliang, do you want to be satisfied if all the artillery foundation I have managed to save is completely destroyed?"
"If he feels that he is not capable of being the commander of the heavy artillery battalion, just bring it up. There are plenty of people in the Independent Regiment who can take his place..."
After finishing the series of orders, Kong Jie felt much better.
Li Wensheng went straight to the phone, and just as he was about to pick up the receiver, the phone rang...
Two minutes later, he put down the phone and the solemn expression on his face disappeared at the same time. He ran to Kong Jie and reported excitedly: "Captain, we made a mistake. We misunderstood Battalion Commander Chen Daliang!"
"In the air strike just now, the heavy artillery battalion did not suffer any losses..."
"The explosion was not caused by the explosion of a shell!"
"Battle Commander Chen was led by Deputy Chief of Staff Huang as a ghost!"
"We actually built several fake artillery positions before the war started, and built more than 20 fake cannons out of wood..."
"In order to make the Japanese pilots mistakenly think that they were blowing up real artillery positions, explosive packets were also placed in the fake artillery positions!"
"The explosion just now was all caused by the detonation of the explosive package!"
"In this way, Sato will mistakenly believe that the heavy artillery battalion was severely damaged in the air strike and lost its combat effectiveness, thus underestimating the enemy!"
"When we encounter fighter planes in the next battle and the heavy artillery battalion joins the battle again, we will definitely be able to catch Sato's division by surprise..."
"During the previous artillery battle, a field artillery company and two mountain artillery companies of the heavy artillery battalion were attacked!"
"But because the range is too long, the hit rate of the Japanese heavy artillery is not high. Although the three companies suffered heavy losses, they still withdrew four artillery pieces and nearly 40% of the gunners!"
"Battle Commander Chen reduced them into a company and continued to participate in the battle!"
"The current heavy artillery battalion still has one heavy artillery company, two heavy mortar companies, one field artillery company, two mountain artillery companies...a total of six companies!"
Kong Jie's face immediately lit up with joy, and he couldn't help laughing and scolding: "What a good boy... Even I was deceived by him, causing us to worry here in vain!"
"Call back to Chen Daliang immediately: He will continue to command the heavy artillery battalion and strive to make new achievements..."
Lieutenant General Sato was very happy when the Japanese army attacked the position.
Seeing the three planes swooping, dropping bombs, and circling behind the Independence Regiment... my first subconscious reaction was that they had found the heavy artillery position of the Independence Regiment.
The bad mood caused by the heavy damage to the mountain artillery brigade was instantly wiped away, and a long-lost smile appeared on his heavy face.
When the second batch of three planes arrived on the battlefield, the chief of staff trotted towards him with a happy face: "Division commander...the pilot in the sky reported..."
"They found three artillery positions where independent regiments were moving!"
"After continuous attacks, all three artillery positions were crossed over the sea. The artillery shells on the positions exploded, and all the gunners were lost..."
"In addition to the three artillery batteries killed by the heavy artillery brigade... we have killed six artillery batteries of the independent regiment..."
"They have at most two artillery batteries left, and their impact on future battles should be very low!"
Lieutenant General Sato didn't believe his ears and thought he heard wrongly.
All I heard before here was bad news.
When Leng Buding heard such great news, his first reaction was disbelief.
The chief of staff replied firmly: "The second batch of three aircraft conducted a round of low-altitude reconnaissance of the attack targets to confirm the results..."
"The three artillery positions destroyed a total of twelve artillery pieces, and none of them were missed!"
"Yoshi..."
Lieutenant General Sato's serious face flashed a long-lost smile, and he said happily.
"After fighting for so long, I finally heard some good news..."
"The aviation force and the heavy artillery brigade did a good job... When the counter-mopping victory is over, I will personally ask the military headquarters for credit!"
The chief of staff interrupted again: "Division commander, this should be the second good news..."
"I just received news that when the attacking troops captured Duanjiabao, they also discovered nearly a thousand corpses of independent regiment soldiers in the Duanjiabao position... In addition to the lightly and seriously wounded they took away, the independent regiment was on the Duanjiabao defense line. At least 1,500 people were lost, and the casualties were no less than ours!"
"Many soldiers suffocated and died hiding in the shell-proof holes, which shows that the effect of incendiary bombs on the gun-proof holes is very good!"
"If we continue to use incendiary bombs on a large scale and maintain this casualty ratio, we only need to pay the loss of multiple regiments to severely damage the independent regiment and make them lose their combat effectiveness!"
The smile on Lieutenant General Sato's face grew stronger, and he answered with satisfaction: "This is indeed good news."
After saying that, he raised his binoculars and looked at the battlefield. While looking at it, he ordered: "All subsequent aircraft arriving on the battlefield will use incendiary bombs to attack the second line of defense of the Independent Regiment... I will burn all the troops of the Independent Regiment hiding in the artillery holes." die!"
"Send a telegram to the Aviation Command and ask them to prepare more incendiary bombs!"
"All aircraft that will reinforce us in the future will be equipped with incendiary bombs!"
"Then we will inform the other two divisions of our combat experience... and try to capture the northwest of Shanxi at the minimum cost!"
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese successfully captured the third line of defense of the Independent Regiment with the help of incendiary bombs.
But Lieutenant General Sato was not as happy as he imagined. Instead, he was in a particularly complicated mood, with both excitement and worry in his heart...
The troops were overwhelming and captured two lines of defense of the Independent Regiment in succession, and nearly a thousand corpses of soldiers were found on both lines of defense... This shows that incendiary bombs can indeed destroy the bunkers and anti-gun holes carefully built by the Independent Regiment.
But the casualties of the attacking troops were a bit beyond his expectation!
In the previous continuous battles, the attacking troops had killed more than 2,900 people, seriously injured more than 600 people, and directly lost more than an infantry regiment!
This does not include the seven or eight hundred people lost by the artillery unit...
Although the independent regiment is estimated to have suffered more than 4,000 casualties, not much less than the Sato division, the independent regiment still has no intention of retreating on the battlefield.
It shows that these losses are not enough to cause a fatal blow to the independent regiment.
According to previous estimates, Sato's division could severely damage the independent regiment by losing more than one regiment.
Judging from the current battle situation, it seems that this goal has not been achieved.
Could it be that my estimate was wrong? The independent regiment's combat zone did not have more than 4,000 people!
After all, the attacking troops only found nearly 2,000 corpses of independent regiment soldiers in three blocking positions.
Just when Lieutenant General Sato was hesitating whether to continue the fight, the chief of staff suddenly ran towards him with a smile on his face, obviously something good had happened.
"Division commander...the aviation force just detected a situation!"
"A large number of independent regiment troops were found three kilometers northwest of us... They used stretchers and carts to transport the wounded to the rear... The team was at least three thousand meters long..."
"Visually estimated that this batch of seriously injured people is no less than 2,000..."
"It shows that our judgment on the casualties of the independent regiment is completely correct... The reason why the troops on the defense line did not retreat is probably to buy time for the troops to transfer the wounded!"
