The chief of staff replied solemnly: "Less than two hundred corpses were found in the gap in the city wall...the remains of four chariots..."
"The wounded were all taken away by the retreating troops of the Eighth Route Army. The total of all battle losses should exceed 350 people."
"Nani?" Major General Yoshio Iwamatsu was confused.
Even if the Eighth Route Army's offensive troops really suffered more than 350 casualties, that would only be one-third of the Taiyuan garrison.
This is an offensive and defensive battle.
Under normal circumstances: if the defensive force loses one person, it can kill and wound two or three people from the attacking force.
Today's ending is exactly the opposite.
The defensive force suffered two or three casualties before one person from the attacking force was killed or wounded.
Iwamatsu Yoshio has been fighting for so many years, but he has never experienced a battle with such a huge disparity in casualties.
"idiot……"
He was so angry that blood almost spurted out of his mouth.
In order to save the commander's face, he swallowed it at the last moment.
Staring at the chief of staff, he asked loudly: "How did the city defense troops in the east of the city fight?"
"The casualties of the defensive forces were actually greater than those of the offensive forces, and they were several times more."
"The Eighth Route Army's siege artillery fire was too fierce..." This was the only explanation that the chief of staff and the east city defense troops came up with. They saw Yoshio Iwamatsu explaining seriously.
"Although the Taiyuan garrison has six to seven thousand people, the artillery equipment is mainly ordinary mortars. The mountain artillery and infantry artillery combined are less than one brigade."
"The Eighth Route Army not only has a reinforced battalion of mountain field artillery, but also has two large-caliber mortar companies."
"Our artillery was suppressed and beaten by them as soon as they took action. We suffered heavy losses and had to temporarily withdraw from the battle."
"Without the artillery cover, the city defense troops in the east part of the city had to face the Eighth Route Army's artillery attack."
"The humble job allowed me to do some statistics."
"More than 80% of the casualties tonight were caused by artillery fire."
"A bunch of stupid pigs..." Yoshio Iwamatsu became even more angry after hearing this and cursed unceremoniously.
"Won't they hide when the Eighth Route Army shells the city?"
"How could there be such a stupid commander standing guard on the city wall waiting for the Eighth Route Army to blow it up with artillery shells?"
Hearing this, the chief of staff had to stand up and explain again: "Commander, please calm down."
"The city defense troops also wanted to take advantage of the Eighth Route Army's shelling to evacuate the city and move behind the city wall to avoid the shelling, but the Eighth Route Army did not give them this opportunity at all."
"During the bombardment, their infantry has been assaulting the city head under the cover of chariots."
"They took the opportunity to blow up the gap in the city wall."
"Using the armored vehicle's rough skin and thick flesh, as long as the shells don't hit the vehicle body, they won't be able to hit the soldiers inside."
"Lead the infantry all the way to the foot of the city wall, place explosives, and blow open the wall."
"They also sent the thunder cannon infantry to the foot of the city wall under the cover of chariots, built temporary artillery positions, and launched the thunder cannons at the top of the city at close range, increasing the casualties of the city defense troops, destroying the city defense fortifications, and expanding the breach."
"In order to prevent the Eighth Route Army from taking the opportunity to attack the city, the city defense troops had to defend the city under artillery fire."
"The biggest casualty was when we assembled a squadron to counterattack the Eighth Route Army's siege troops."
"The counterattack force was hit by at least 40 mortars. The city top was bare and there was not even a hiding place."
"In the face of sudden artillery fire, we can only be passively bombed."
"We lost more than 200 imperial troops just because of the artillery fire."
"Including the lightly and seriously wounded, the direct battle losses exceeded 300 people."
Faced with this explanation, Yoshio Iwamatsu couldn't curse even if he wanted to. He could only swallow his breath and continued to ask with a straight face: "Does the Eighth Route Army outside the city still have the strength to continue to attack Taiyuan?"
"In this siege and another siege last night, we lost more than 1,500 people."
"Without the necessary city defense troops, even if we send all the temporary immigrants to the city wall, the headquarters will not have many reserves."
"If they continue to attack Taiyuan with the same tactics, it will take one night at most."
"The mobile forces in our hands will be exhausted."
"If another accident occurs to any of the city defense troops next, we will be in a dangerous situation with no troops to send, and Taiyuan City may be broken through by the Eighth Route Army at any time."
The chief of staff shook his head.
To be honest, he is also confused now.
Facing the Eighth Route Army outside the city, my mind became more and more confused.
In the last battle, the Eighth Route Army outside the city also lost hundreds of people.
It stands to reason that their limited infantry lost at least 30% of their strength. Although they did not completely lose their combat effectiveness, it still had a lot of impact on the overall combat effectiveness. They should no longer have the strength to attack Taiyuan again.
But last night, not only did they attack Taiyuan for the second time, their attack was even more fierce than that night, and more infantry was dispatched.
This was completely different from his previous judgment of the Eighth Route Army outside the city.
Faced with these surprises, he didn't know how many Eighth Route Army soldiers there were outside the city.
I'm worried that after I tell a number, the Eighth Route Army will lead more troops to attack Taiyuan tonight, just like last night, I slapped myself hard.
If Iwamatsu Yoshio intends to pursue the responsibility, he will be labeled as someone who misjudged the enemy's situation.
But as the chief of staff, he had to answer the commander's questions, so he could only bite the bullet and say more: "I believe that the Eighth Route Army outside the city still has the strength to storm Baoding."
"Their infantry should be more numerous than we previously judged."
"Otherwise, we would never have been able to unleash such a powerful assault capability last night."
"If we want to defend Baoding, we must plan for the worst in advance..."
"most……"
Yoshio Iwamatsu also feels this way.
After the Eighth Route Army attacked Taiyuan last time, he also felt that the Eighth Route Army no longer had the strength to attack Taiyuan again.
As a result, the Eighth Route Army slapped them hard with facts.
It was probably because they once again underestimated the strength of the Eighth Route Army outside the city and made the mistake of underestimating the enemy.
Seeing that the chief of staff was hesitant to speak, he asked directly: "What is the best?"
"As long as Taiyuan can be defended, I will accept any method."
"If you have something to say, just say it. If you have something to say, let it go. Don't hesitate with me here."
"Ha Yi..." the chief of staff plucked up the courage and said, "How about we send troops back from the northwest for reinforcements and temporarily end the sweep of northwest Shanxi."
"If Taiyuan City is really in danger, it will definitely be too late to mobilize troops from northwestern Shanxi. Please consider it carefully, Commander."
Hearing this imaginary answer, Iwamatsu Yoshio was not angry, but looked confused: "To be honest, I also want to mobilize troops from northwestern Shanxi."
"But the sweeping campaign in northwestern Shanxi is no longer something we can just end if we want to."
"Commander Okamura wants to win this sweep more than we do."
"Without his nod, we wouldn't be able to mobilize troops to return reinforcements."
"In this case, you can immediately summarize the analysis we just made and form it into a telegram. I will personally send a telegram to Commander Gangcun, requesting an end to the sweep of northwestern Shanxi and the deployment of troops to return reinforcements."
"Taiyuan is too important to us and we must not make any mistakes."
"Even if I were the commander of the Shanxi garrison, I would not dare to gamble with the safety of Taiyuan on the success or failure of the sweep of northwest Shanxi."
"We have already lost the outer city once. This time there can be no accidents in the outer city or the inner city."
The second update is delivered today, please order it all!
