The Japanese army attacked the position one kilometer away. Lieutenant General Sakuragi looked very ugly.
In order to allow the middle route mopping up troops to capture Chenjiazhuang as soon as possible and block the Eighth Route Army's access to the mountains, Okamura Neiji specially arranged for him an extra heavy artillery brigade and a baggage replenishment regiment.
As a result, not only did it fail to meet the expectations of the attack, but it became the slowest progress among the road sweeping forces.
Of course, this is not because he does not work hard enough and his subordinates are too weak in combat effectiveness.
But the opponent is too cunning, and there are tunnel fortifications everywhere along the way.
Although he asked Neji Okamura very early for air support and combined with heavy artillery to attack the tunnel, the Eighth Route Army that blocked him was like a dog-skin plaster.
As long as there is a tunnel entrance and exit on the battlefield, they will not give up easily, causing the attacking troops to build artillery positions every time they encounter tunnel fortifications, which delays them for an hour or two.
"The division commander... has been taken down. The offensive troops successfully occupied the blocking position in front..." A cry of surprise suddenly came from the mouth of the chief of staff.
"Great..." Lieutenant General Sakuragi smiled on the spot and immediately ordered.
"The troops set out immediately and marched forward in a hurry. We must regain the time we just wasted."
…………
Just after walking five kilometers, the mighty mopping up troops stopped again.
The messenger of the forward troops ran to Lieutenant General Sakuragi at the same time: "Report to the division commander, there is an Eighth Route Army blocking position ahead."
"The scale is similar to the blocking position we encountered before."
"Our captain requests artillery support to destroy the surface fortifications and all tunnel entrances and exits before launching an attack."
Lieutenant General Sakuragi was used to this kind of surprise. Without thinking, he directly ordered: "Let the artillery move faster."
"Our offensive speed has lagged behind. This time we will try to capture the Eighth Route Army's blocking position in two rounds of attacks."
The explosion soon sounded in the blocking position, and Lieutenant General Sakuragi did not keep staring at the battlefield as before.
The troops have fought the same offensive battle three times today and are very experienced. Even if they do not supervise the battle themselves, the soldiers below can still fight very well.
Ten minutes after the bombardment the infantry assault began, but was unsuccessful.
The chief of staff ran over in time and explained: "Division commander, the artillery unit has locked the remaining tunnel entrances and exits on the battlefield. The subsequent artillery fire coverage will definitely destroy them completely and cover the attacking troops to seize the blocking position."
Lieutenant General Sakuragi has heard this sentence no less than five times.
Except for the actual attack on the last blocking position, the other two attacks required joint artillery aircraft to bomb the Eighth Route Army's blocking position for three consecutive rounds.
Faced with another assurance from the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Sakuragi's reaction was very dull, his expression remained calm and unchanged.
Fifteen minutes later, an observation post suddenly shouted: "Division commander, the offensive force has captured the Eighth Route Army's blocking position."
Sakuragi quickly looked up at the battlefield: the attacking troops had rushed to the blocking position, but there was no sound of gunfire.
The chief of staff was running towards him with a happy face.
From afar, he began to report: "Division commander, we have taken it down."
"We only used two attacks to capture the Eighth Route Army's blocking position."
"The troops have found a way to destroy the tunnel entrance and exit."
"First use heavy artillery and aircraft to blow it up, then let the infantry attack to force out the remaining tunnel entrances and exits, and finally let artillery and aircraft bomb it in a targeted manner. The tunnels that the Eighth Route Army relies on will lose their effectiveness."
"Without tunnel cover, they didn't dare to confront us head-on, so they had no choice but to abandon their positions and retreat without a fight."
Lieutenant General Sakuragi felt a faint sense of uneasiness.
The soldier's sixth sense told him there was something wrong.
Even if artillery and aviation have more experience in bombing tunnel entrances than before, it is absolutely impossible to destroy all tunnel entrances and exits in the position through two rounds of bombing.
This is the experience and lesson learned by the troops with blood in previous battles.
Tunnel entrances and exits are everywhere on the battlefield.
There are also many tunnel entrances and exits located in bunkers. If you want to destroy them, you must first destroy the bunkers.
No matter how dense the artillery shells are, there will always be a few entrances and exits that survive.
In the previous battle with the Eighth Route Army, as long as there was a tunnel entrance and exit, they would kill and wound one or two of their subordinates with cold guns before giving up.
Unlike now, no matter how many tunnel entrances and exits are left in the position, they will give up immediately after two rounds of artillery fire, without using any of them.
Worrying aside, Lieutenant General Sakuragi did not object to the Chief of Staff's analysis.
All the thoughts just now were his own inferences without any real evidence.
What the troops need most now is time. The sooner they reach Chenjiazhuang, the better.
As long as we can successfully capture the Eighth Route Army's blocking position, that's a good thing.
As for whether the Eighth Route Army blocking him had a conspiracy, Lieutenant General Sakuragi decided to take advantage of it.
To put it bluntly, Lieutenant General Sakuragi would not be afraid even if the troops in the middle sweep were really fooled.
There are more than 13,000 soldiers under his command. They are well-equipped with cannons and tanks, and they can call for air support at any time.
Even if all the Eighth Route Army in the wing come to deal with him, the mopping up troops in the middle can retreat unscathed.
Maybe we can wipe out all the Eighth Route Army in one battle and end the battle completely.
Then he ordered: "Regardless of whether we have really blown up all the tunnel entrances and exits on the position, as long as the offensive force successfully captures the Eighth Route Army's blocking position, opens up the attack channel for the main force, reaches Chenjiazhuang early, and blocks the Eighth Route Army's retreat, we will win." "
"Inform the troops to move forward."
"If you encounter the Eighth Route Army's blocking position again, you don't need to ask me for instructions. Just launch an attack according to the tactics summarized by the chief of staff."
…………
At the headquarters of the only regiment, Li Yunlong traveled for more than an hour to get here. Before he could take a breath, the radio operator ran towards him: "Regiment commander, Deputy Chief of Staff Huang of the former enemy headquarters has an urgent call."
"Let us take our time and slow down the attack pace. We cannot let the Kwantung Army attack too fast."
"We must hold our ground today and cannot push back any further."
"Oops..." Li Yunlong suddenly slapped his head and said with a look of realization.
"I almost forgot about it."
"In this counter-mopping operation, our real goal is to mop up the troops in the middle, deal with them first, and then attack the other Kwantung Army."
"The little devil in front of us runs too fast, which may affect the decisive battle in Chenjiazhuang. As a result, the main force will not have enough time to eliminate the middle mopping up troops, which will cause big trouble."
"Hurry up and contact Deng Jingye and Zhou Wei. We need to change our style of play and waste time with the little devil."
"We can no longer work as hard as before."
"Reply another telegram to Xiao Huang: I have received the order. I will definitely take my time to fight against the Japanese. Please rest assured that we will not affect the entire anti-mopping up plan."
The second update is delivered today, please order it all!
(End of chapter)
