"Do you want to notify the deputy commander and deputy chief of staff to return to the headquarters?" Liu Sen suddenly asked.
Kong Jie shook his head: "No need for the time being..."
"The Independent Brigade is at a critical moment of expansion and cannot live without people..."
"Xiao Huang's special forces team is also checking and filling in the gaps based on the problems that emerged during the Taiyuan raid. They are also inseparable from people."
"It won't be too late to call them back after we find out the true purpose of Neji Okamura..."
…………
At the Japanese garrison headquarters in Baoding, everyone was surprised by the arrival of Okamura Neiji.
Although the iron wall encirclement plan has been distributed to all officers above the regiment.
But in the eyes of these little devils, although the plan is good, it is only on paper and has not yet been implemented.
According to the battle plan: there is no need to go deep into the Eighth Route Army base area alone in the iron wall encirclement, and there is no need to fight the Eighth Route Army in a decisive battle.
Even if the Eighth Route Army in Yinzhong launches a counterattack, he is still on the defensive side, taking advantage of the terrain and firepower. He can completely consume a large number of Eighth Route Army troops through defensive battles, and finally launch a counterattack to defeat them.
But the previous results achieved by the Yizhong Eighth Route Army were too scary.
The iron wall siege is still on paper and has not been implemented in detail. No one knows whether there will be any accidents after the operation begins.
The actual combat effectiveness of the Yizhong Eighth Route Army is indeed real.
Without enough troops, no matter how perfect the raid plan formulated by Okamura Neji was, they would not have the confidence to carry it out.
based on their internal discussions.
The imperial army assembled here must exceed 50,000 people before they can begin the iron wall encirclement.
As a result, they did not wait for reinforcements, but Neji Okamura did.
Facing Neji Okamura who was sitting in the main seat in the conference room, everyone was talking a lot.
Some people think that Okamura Neji is too impulsive. He even ignored the imperial army's inferior strength in order to take revenge and took the risk to start an iron wall siege...
Some people feel that Okamura Neji came too timely...
Although the Yizhong Eighth Route Army repeatedly defeated the Imperial Army, they themselves suffered heavy losses...
Now is the time to carry out the iron wall siege...
"Your Excellency Commander..."
The deputy chief of staff who stayed in Baoding first stood up to introduce the situation to Gangcun Ningci.
"All the troops participating in the Iron Wall Encirclement Operation are already in place."
"A total of nine reinforced wings..."
"Each reinforced wing has a tank squadron, a mountain artillery brigade, and a cavalry brigade..."
"It can advance, attack, retreat or defend, and its combat effectiveness is very strong."
"The humble post also assigned two regiments of the Imperial Alliance Army to each reinforced regiment..."
"A regiment of the Imperial Alliance Army assisted the Imperial Army in attacking the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong..."
"A group of Imperial Alliance troops are guarding the young men we recruited in the occupied areas."
"Each attacking force can be divided into 12,000 young men."
"After the imperial army secured the attack target, they began to dig trenches and lay out barbed wire fences to completely cut off all contact between the Yizhong Eighth Route Army and the outside world..."
"At the same time, people were sent to gather the people in the occupied areas to live together, destroying all the original houses and villages, and cutting off all contact between them and the Eighth Route Army."
Okamura Neji asked directly: "When can they launch an attack?"
"Anytime!" the deputy chief of staff replied.
The brigade commander on the side suddenly stood up and reminded: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"You don't want to surround the newly established Sixth Army Division of the Eighth Route Army with iron walls right now, do you?"
"No?" Okamura Neji asked with a frown!
No matter how bold the brigade leader was, he did not dare to directly refute Okamura Neji's order and quickly shook his head: "Of course..."
"I just feel that the risk of attacking now is too high!"
"The Eighth Route Army in Yizhong even defeated the 50,000 Kwantung Army. We only have over 30,000 people, and the Imperial Alliance Army also has less than 50,000 people..."
"In case we encounter an accident during the iron wall encirclement, we may lose my wife and lose our troops. Commander, please think twice..."
"I think it would be best to have 15,000 more imperial troops participating in the operation..."
"Gather together 50,000 imperial troops and 20,000 imperial auxiliary troops to encircle the Sixth Army Division in the Wing with an iron wall."
Okamura Neji was not angry. He looked at his subordinates with worried eyes and said confidently: "Don't worry..."
"It was because of the strong combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army in Yinzhong and the lack of our troops that the headquarters decided to use an iron wall to encircle them."
"I will not launch an attack rashly..."
After saying that, he turned his attention back to the deputy chief of staff: "How is the expansion of the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong going?"
"We are recruiting a large number of new soldiers in the base area..." the deputy chief of staff replied immediately.
"According to statistics: they have recruited more than 6,000 new soldiers..."
"In ten days we will be able to recruit 15,000 people."
"When these new recruits replenish the troops, the two main brigades of the Sixth Army Division will be fully staffed soon..."
"The three garrison regiments can also be rebuilt."
Okamura Neji immediately interrupted: "We will start taking action in half a month!"
"Nakata-kun just said that fifteen thousand imperial troops are too many."
"Today's North China Front Army is short of troops everywhere... Even if I were the commander of the North China Front Army, I would not be able to mobilize 15,000 people to reinforce Baoding within half a month..."
"At most, I can gather five hundred people for you..."
"The next half month..."
"Each participating unit is training while formulating an action plan to ensure that the combat unit occupies a place, and the hundreds of thousands of young men managed by the Imperial Alliance Army dig a place, leaving no opportunity for the Eighth Route Army in the wing."
The newly appointed commander of the Baoding garrison was very smart. He was the first to understand Gangcun's purpose of setting the attack time in half a month. He immediately flattered him and said, "Your Excellency, Commander, is wise."
"The Eighth Route Army in Yizhong has just completed its reorganization half a month later, and veterans are mixed with new recruits..."
"Although the total strength of the army has doubled."
"But their overall combat effectiveness has not increased..."
"On the contrary, it got a lot worse because of the new recruits."
"At that time, we started to surround ourselves with iron walls..."
"The Eighth Route Army in the Wing has no troops available to counterattack..."
"By the time they pulled out the old troops again, we had already advanced ten or twenty kilometers to their base and were ready for defense."
"At that time, the counterattack troops of the Eighth Route Army will be forced to smash their heads and bleed in the encirclement formed by the iron wall."
The people sitting here are all veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time.
No one knows better than them the disastrous consequences that too many recruits can have on an army.
At that time, the Yizhong Eighth Route Army had just completed its reorganization, and the proportion of new recruits reached 50%. It was definitely the time when its combat effectiveness was at its weakest.
Okamura Neji chose that time to launch the attack, which would definitely catch the Eighth Route Army by surprise.
This also coincides with the old saying: take advantage of your illness to kill you.
Okamura Neiji did not hide his thoughts and nodded with a smile to the commander of the Baoding garrison: "Seize the opportunity to attack well, and the combat pressure on the participating troops will definitely be much less."
"By the time the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong reacts, we will have established a foothold in their base area."
"If we slowly consume their combat potential through defensive warfare, the final victory will definitely belong to us!"
