At the top of the North Gate of Baoding, looking at the Kwantung Army, baggage convoys, and artillery that kept appearing at the end of the road... Okamura Neji finally showed a long-lost smile on his face.
The bad mood caused by the bombing of the station was wiped away at the same time, and all he could see was the victory scene of the Kwantung Army annihilating the Eighth Route Army in the wing and avenging its previous humiliation.
"Your Excellency, Commander, the 26th Division of the Kwantung Army has been ordered to report. Ichiro Sakai, a humble officer, please give me your advice..." A lieutenant general division commander hurriedly walked to Okamura Neiji and reported.
Compared with the rebellious commander of the 25th Division, Ichiro Sakai had a much better attitude towards him. Neji Okamura immediately showed a welcoming expression and said happily.
"The North China Front welcomes everyone."
"Sakai-kun, when I discussed dispatching troops with your commander, your commander specifically told me that you are young and promising, and you are an excellent senior commander of the Kwantung Army."
"Because the war is urgent, Baoding City has just been recovered, and conditions are limited, so I won't prepare a welcome banquet for you."
"When we successfully capture the Yizhong base and eliminate the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong, this commander will prepare an unprecedented celebration banquet for you."
"First introduce to me the specific situation of the 26th Division, its troops, equipment, and firepower. Try to be as detailed as possible."
"I will assign combat tasks based on your introduction."
"Hai..." Ichiro Sakai said respectfully. Although he is the commander of the Lieutenant General Division, he is very young and has very little qualifications. He does not dare to make any big show in front of veterans like Okamura Neji.
He took out the list he had prepared on the train and handed it to Okamura Neiji while introducing: "The 26th Division of the Kwantung Army has two main brigades, one artillery regiment, one independent heavy artillery brigade, and one A cavalry regiment, a baggage infantry regiment, a direct guard brigade, and an engineering brigade, a total of 25,000 people."
"Equip a large number of 12 150mm caliber howitzers, 12 105mm caliber heavy mountain guns, 36 field guns, 16 mountain guns, 16 rapid-fire guns, 24 infantry guns, 144 mortars..."
"Yo Xi..." The smile on Neji Okamura's face grew wider. With so many weapons and the Kwantung Army joining the sweep, the Eighth Route Army in the Wings would definitely be defeated, so he immediately ordered...
"Let your troops seize the time to repair and replenish their strength. At seven o'clock tonight, all full-time officers of the regiment and above will rush to the city headquarters on time for a meeting. I will personally assign combat tasks to everyone and determine the time of attack."... As soon as Huang Yu arrived at the enemy headquarters of the Second Regiment, news came back that the third wave of Japanese reinforcements had entered Baoding.
"Xiao Huang... come here quickly..." Li Yunlong said with a face full of surprise when he saw Huang Yu.
"Hurry up and tell us how you allowed Neji Okamura to lose another three thousand people in Baoding City."
"The battle report only mentioned the result, not the process. I have been guessing for a long time and haven't figured it out yet."
"Use explosives..." Huang Yu replied with a smile. Li Yunlong immediately frowned, shook his head, and asked with a puzzled look on his face: "It shouldn't be..."
"The Japanese have suffered the consequences of planting explosives at the station before."
"How could Okamura Neiji, a very cautious person, make mistakes twice on the same issue?"
"No, there are many ways to use this. There must be something we don't know. Please explain it clearly." Huang Yu could only tell him about using landmines to cover up explosives. Li Yunlong patted him after hearing this. His shoulders sighed: "I'm just going to tell you that you're a bastard."
"As expected, this old devil Okamura Neji has been tricked by you."
"I just received news that the third wave of Japanese troops heading south to the Kwantung Army has arrived in Baoding, with exactly 25,000 troops."
"Including the second wave of reinforcements with more than 19,000 troops left, the more than 50,000 Kwantung Army soldiers who marched south have been sharply reduced to less than 45,000."
"Okamura Neiji still needs to leave a few thousand people to defend Baoding and protect his own safety. At most, he will mobilize 37,000 people to sweep the Yizhong base area."
"You are worthy of being a great contributor to our base."
"We have lost more than 10,000 opponents in just a few days." Kong Jie nodded and continued: "Although there are more enemies to sweep us away this time than last time, they are all Kwantung Army, well-equipped and powerful in combat."
"But we also have five more regiments of reinforcements."
"The disparity in strength between the two sides is not as big as the last counter-mopping up."
"In addition, the Kwantung Army has never fought tunnel warfare, does not understand us, and does not understand the terrain in the wing."
"Although the two sides haven't started fighting yet, my chances of winning are already over 60%."
"Now we are waiting for Okamura Neji to take action, so that we can retaliate in kind and formulate a targeted counter-mopping plan." Huang Yu then expressed his thoughts: "Captain..."
"Our base area is so large. Okamura Neji wants to annihilate us all at the minimum cost. The most direct way is to send troops to attack Chenjiazhuang..."
"Same as the last major sweep, first cut off our army's access to the mountain, block us outside the mountain, and then gather together to annihilate them."
"I think Okamura Neji's new raid on us is just like that, and it will never change." Kong Jie agreed and asked directly: "Tell me more details." Huang Yu immediately found Chenjiazhuang on the map and pointed to the introduction : "If Okamura Neji divides his troops into three groups to attack us like last time, one group will definitely be the main force, pierce directly into our heart, and occupy Chenjiazhuang as quickly as possible."
"The remaining two mopping up troops formed a semi-encirclement and drove the Yizhong Eighth Route Army to Chenjiazhuang like a duck."
"A pincer attack from inside and outside, the main force of the Eighth Route Army in the wing was gathered and annihilated in Chenjiazhuang."
"We can definitely take advantage of it."
"Don't Okamura Neji want Chenjiazhuang?"
"We will give Chenjiazhuang to him."
"Compared with the tunnel fortifications in other places, Chenjiazhuang is several times larger in size. It can be attacked when advancing and defended when retreating."
"Even if the Japanese army captures all the ground positions in Chenjiazhuang, we can still hide in the tunnels to launch a counterattack and wait for an opportunity to recapture Chenjiazhuang." Li Yunlong seemed to have heard some clues and immediately asked: "You want to use Chenjiazhuang as bait to attract the little Japs there? Gather together and annihilate them?" Huang Yu nodded: "Okamura Neji suffered several defeats at our hands, so we must be very cautious in the next big sweep."
"If the bait we put out isn't attractive."
"The enemy's mopping up troops will definitely advance in unison and sweep across our base areas without giving us any chance to defeat them individually."
"Only Chenjiazhuang can make Neji Okamura give up his principles and take the risk of letting a sweep force go deep into the hinterland of the Yi Zhong base. Kong Jie did not directly oppose this proposal, but frowned and raised his concerns.
"This idea is fine, but I don't know if you have ever considered whether our army has the strength to kill the Japanese and sweep away the troops in a short period of time, and at the same time deploy heavy troops to block the other two sweeps of troops."
"Ningji Okamura can dispatch more than 37,000 people to sweep us away."
"These forces should not be evenly distributed."
"The expectation is good: one of the troops will have stronger strength and firepower, with almost 15,000 people."
"80% of the troops who raided Chenjiazhuang were this unit. Do you think we have the strength to eat so many little Japs in one go?" Huang Yu shook his head and answered matter-of-factly: "It's difficult..."
"But it's not impossible..."
"There are 15,000 Kwantung Army troops. After deducting the artillery and heavy equipment that cooperate with the operation, there are at most 11,000 infantry and cavalry left that can actually fight."
"They raided Chenjiazhuang and there were five tunnel fortifications along the way." Huang Yu said as he marked the five tunnels on the map and pointed at them to continue his analysis: "The Japanese lost a thousand people after conquering each tunnel fortification and killed them in Chenjiazhuang. No matter what, we will lose four to five thousand people."
"It would be good if there are only six or seven thousand people left from the eleven thousand cavalry."
"The Kwantung Army's combat effectiveness is indeed very strong, but no matter how powerful the soldiers are, they are still made of flesh and blood, and a bullet can still take their lives."
"As long as they reach Chenjiazhuang and dare to launch an attack on Chenjiazhuang, we can use Chenjiazhuang to improve the tunnel fortifications, wipe out a large number of enemies, and wipe out all the troops along the way."
"Injuring ten of his fingers is worse than cutting off one of them. The other two mopping up troops saw that the situation was not good and had no other option but to retreat."
"The counter-mopping operation in Yi Zhong has been won." Kong Jie and Li Yunlong raised their heads at the same time, glanced at each other, then nodded, and as if they were discussing, they asked each other: "Old Kong...Old Li... "
"What do you think?"
"Let me say it first..." Kong Jie spoke first.
"I personally led the troops to build the Chenjiazhuang Tunnel. It is intricate and very strong. Even if the little devils call in planes and heavy artillery, they can't get any advantage."
"Head-on confrontation... one regiment can rely on tunnels to block a Japanese brigade."
"If you really plan to fight the Japanese here for a decisive battle, I will take command... At most four regiments can annihilate more than 7,000 elite Kwantung Army troops." Kong Jie snatched the decisive battle task, and Li Yunlong did not want to attack Kong Jie, so he could only retreat. The next best thing is to accept the reinforcement mission and analyze it by pointing to a few points on the map.
"Although the tunnel fortifications built in the direction of Wangdu and Mancheng are not as complicated as Chenjiazhuang, they are more numerous than before."
"All villages, towns and important checkpoints along the highway have built tunnels."
"Let me go to call for reinforcements. If we delay a village for two hours, it will be no problem to block them for three or four days." Kong Jie suddenly interrupted: "It won't take that long."
"As long as the Japs reach Chenjiazhuang and launch a fierce attack on Chenjiazhuang, I am confident that we can end the fighting within two days and wipe out the Japs all the way." Li Yunlong said not to be outdone: "That will be easier."
"Maybe I can pull out my teeth during the sniper battle and tear off two pieces of fat from the mopping up troops." Seeing that the two people had almost divided the tasks, Huang Yu could only smile bitterly and reminded with an embarrassed look on his face: "Regiment Commander, Commander Li..."
"Neji Okamura hasn't taken action yet?"
"What if I just judged that something went wrong?" Li Yunlong shook his head and answered firmly: "It's almost the same."
"I'm not a rookie on the battlefield either."
"Okamura Neiji wants to dismantle the Wing Center base in one fell swoop and annihilate us all. There is no other way but to divide our troops into three groups and seize Chenjiazhuang."
"I think this is how the reinforcement and decisive battle tasks are divided. If there are any problems, we will make adjustments at that time."
