The other side.
Wang Huaibao, the commander of the left-behind troops in the Iron Triangle Experimental Zone, after obtaining Kong Jie's consent, successfully persuaded Chief of Staff Li, who was assisted by the division headquarters, to convert the 95 light tanks, M8-converted armored vehicles, and Stuart-converted tanks of the left-behind troops into 75 mm Light howitzer vehicles, 120 light mortar vehicles, and some engineering vehicles gathered together.
Passing through Wutai County, Lingqiu County, Liugou, and miraculously appeared in Laiyuan County, and with a devastating offensive, they cut off the supply line and retreat of Niu Daoman's troops besieging Yu County in one fell swoop.
And the Laiyuan County military depot, logistics base, and field field hospital were removed.
This is equivalent to destroying all the Japanese offensive troops.
Ushijima Mitsuru was not expecting this. He clearly got the news that the Iron Triangle Group of the Eighth Route Army was besieging the 14th Division in the Yangyuan area.
But who would have thought that these Eighth Route Army troops staying in the Iron Triangle base areas would also have such strong combat effectiveness.
At this point, Ushijima Mitsuru could only look at the city and sigh, but he had no choice but to withdraw from the siege, change direction, and move closer to the 13th Division in the direction of Huashaoying.
The southern intersecting force, which was originally planned to cooperate with the Niu Dao Manchu Division to attack the north gate of Zhangjiakou, failed to attack the city and was attacked by the Yanbei Detachment of the Eighth Route Army acting as a reserve force. It also retreated in embarrassment.
Harada played a clever trick and pretended to send reinforcements in the direction of Yangyuan, and then came to recruit carbines. After successfully occupying Yanggao, he and the 101st Division tried to indirectly help the 14th Division of the Kwantung Army from the north and west to relieve the siege.
But none of them attacked with full force.
As old Japanese Harada said before the war, just listen to Mr. Inoue, fire more cannons, and shoot more guns.
As the battle continues to evolve.
After the Japanese 27th Division besieging Shuozhou County was counterattacked by the armored and heavy artillery units of Brigadier Zhang of the 120th Division, they retreated hastily towards Yanmen Pass.
When Harada looked over, he saw that all the cooperating troops had withdrawn. If he ran away too late, he might be betrayed.
Is that okay?
Anyway, by sneaking in and capturing Yang Gao along the way, Harada was able to make a lot of money. He understood the principle of giving up when something is good.
As for the 14th Division?
Save anyone who wants to, but I, Harada, don’t have this ability anymore.
Soon after, an order was issued to evacuate quickly, in the name of avoiding unnecessary casualties of the troops, so as to hold on to the main defense area and guard against the Eighth Route Army taking advantage of the situation.
This time it was hard for the old Japanese Inoue who was still struggling.
In the Yangyuan area, the 14th Division of the Kwantung Army fought for several days. When the battle situation took a turn for the worse, the 14th Division was defeated steadily. The vanguard, middle army, rear army, and reserve units all fell into hard fighting and were almost defeated.
Coupled with the complete cutoff of logistical supplies, continuous fierce fighting for many days, and under the ice and snow, heavy snowfall continued, and the Japanese soldiers were cold, hungry and thirsty.
Many of them were not killed in battle, but fell down in pain.
At this time, the little devils of the 14th Division have long lost the arrogance they had when they came south from outside the pass. They are all sluggish and shaky. Even if they are very powerful, they may not be able to use 30% of their strength at this time.
They even began to miss the white mountains and black soil. At least they had been stable there for many years and would never be reduced to the situation in front of them, where they were simply being massacred by these Eighth Route Army troops.
Inoue has been waiting for reinforcements. This is his last hope in despair.
But after all, they could not wait for reinforcements.
On the contrary, reinforcements and reserves from the Eighth Route Army appeared one after another, and the intensity of firepower was even several times stronger.
From beginning to end, in this battle surrounding Datong and Zhangjiakou, the Eighth Route Army generals, led by commanders of the Iron Triangle Group Kong Jie, Li Yunlong and Ding Wei, etc., made up their minds:
"It is better to cut off one of his fingers than to injure ten of them."
"There is only one goal in this battle, and there will only be one, and that is to completely kill this son of a bitch, the 14th Division!"
When all the main forces are mobilized, the final encirclement and annihilation battle begins.
Kong Jie made a special statement when issuing the order: "All troops should not be reluctant to part with ammunition. We made these ammunition just to kill the little devils. Why don't we keep the young at this time?"
This time we have a great advantage. We use more to defeat fewer, we use strength to defeat weak, and we use initiative to defeat passive.
There are five of us fighting one, or even ten of us fighting one.
This is a rich battle that has never been fought before. Let alone the 14th Division of the Kwantung Army, even if the Imperial Guards of the Japanese Emperor are here, we will completely chew them up and swallow them into our stomachs.
Fight to death! No matter day or night, attack with all your strength.
As long as they are wearing Showa military uniforms, unless the little Japs voluntarily surrender, throw away their weapons, and walk out with their heads in their hands, no one will be left alive! "
After the order was issued, the morale of the three armies was high.
Since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, everyone has witnessed the destruction of mountains and rivers under the iron cavalry of the Japanese. The anger that has been held in for so many years can finally be completely vented.
The commanders from all walks of life even agreed with each other at the pre-war meeting to have a killing competition.
"This time we can be said to be ambushing on all sides, encircling on eight sides, and strangulating on three levels inside and three outside. This little devil can't even think of flying out of our encirclement even if he has wings!"
"Let's see which of our troops kills the most Japs and seizes the most. Let's see who can take off the head of that old Japs Inoue first!"
Kong Jie also gave a special order: "After the siege is officially launched, the Allied observation group and the Chiang Army observation group are allowed to go to the front line to observe the last troops besieging Inoue.
Our Eighth Route Army has built such a big stage this time and performed such a wonderful play. Wouldn't it be a pity if there was no audience? "
After the rapid and violent attack from all parties was officially launched, the little devils of the entire 14th Division complained and struggled.
Old Japanese Inoue struggled for another three days. At this point in the battle, even limited air support was no longer available.
Junroku Hata, an old Japanese soldier who was stationed at the Peking General Headquarters, discovered the clues very quickly.
Judging from the gradual evolution of the battle situation between the two sides, something was wrong, very wrong. At first glance, the Eighth Route Army seemed to revolve around the defense of the two important cities of Datong and Zhangjiakou.
But as the battle situation evolved, it became clear that this was not the case.
Especially the 14th Division, which had just entered Yangyuan by surprise and was completely trapped.
I thought it was a blooming tactic in the middle.
But the situation became more and more critical as the war situation became anxious.
Until the communication news that the old Japanese soldier Buntaiichiro speculated that "the Eighth Route Army was rushing to destroy the 14th Division" after conducting front-line reconnaissance came.
This quickly confirmed the clues and something wrong discovered by Junroku Hata.
At this point, Hata Junroku finally realized something was wrong.
be cheated!
Damn these Eighth Route Army are so crazy, they dare to take advantage of the Fourteenth Division!
This is a fully established Kwantung Army field division!
And it was still under the support of the main forces of the empire on both wings.
It was not until this step that Tian Junliu realized what a stupid mistake he had made. He originally thought it was a battle centered around Datong and Zhangjiakou. After the battle between Datong and Zhangjiakou began, it attracted most of the Japanese army's attention. .
The main force of the cluster on both wings of the Japanese army also basically advanced towards Datong and Zhangjiakou.
However, the Eighth Route Army was planning from beginning to end how to eat the 14th Division in front of the two main forces of the Japs.
It was also the fault of Inoue, an old devil, for his carelessness. The forward troops were attacked by artillery and suffered such heavy losses. He still insisted that he was accidentally ambushed by the enemy.
He also insisted that he could use the tactics of blooming in the middle to cooperate with the reinforcements and defeat the Eighth Route Army troops besieging his 14th Division in one fell swoop.
Until the Eighth Route Army's killing move gradually unfolded.
Inoue was completely panicked.
But it was too late. The main force of the Japanese ground combat troops were basically near Datong and Zhangjiakou, or were completely blocked by the defense lines set up by the Eighth Route Army along the way.
It was possible that reinforcements from the 35th Division, like Harada's, had come, but something went wrong inexplicably.
The only thing used was air reinforcements.
After Junroku Hata discovered that the Eighth Route Army was really going to attack the Fourteenth Division, and that the Fourteenth Division had already suffered heavy casualties under the siege of the Eighth Route Army, and was indeed in danger of being destroyed, he did not dare to delay any longer.
Twenty fighter squadrons and 10 bomber squadrons of various types were dispatched in one go to compete for air supremacy.
As for the Eighth Route Army Aviation Command, Kong Jie also made up his mind that it would be too late. All the aviation forces in the six major aviation bases were mobilized, including some of the fighter planes parked at Huangyadong Air Transport Airport that could go to the battlefield and were all pulled out.
After winning this battle and stabilizing the general situation, won't our Eighth Route Army be able to build as many aircraft as it wants in the future?
If we gather all the aviation power of the army to compete with the Japanese, we can always see the difference, right?
Although the Japanese flying force is powerful, it is still relative. They do have advanced fighters, but they are not many in number.
The Eighth Route Army also has more advanced Japanese fighter jets captured from the Japanese army, plus equally advanced fighter jets reinforced by allied countries.
The combat performance is not much worse than that of the Little Japanese fighter plane.
In this way, according to the scheduled combat plan, the Eighth Route Army dispatched 45 fighter squadrons in one go, as well as 10 squadrons in reserve.
A head-on battle for air supremacy began with the little devil.
The two sides fought for a whole day. This was almost the largest air battle between the two sides in the history of the Sino-Japanese war.
The sky was full of planes, and fighter planes from both sides were shot down from time to time.
Sometimes several Eighth Route Army fighter jets surrounded the Japanese fighter jets and opened fire wildly, and sometimes the Japanese fighter jets surrounded and destroyed the Eighth Route Army fighter jets.
A thick screen of smoke seemed to cover the sky.
The sound of gunfire, artillery, and the roar of aircraft engines were completely intertwined.
From time to time, there were some pockmarks landing in mid-air, which were pilots from both sides who were forced to parachute.
Fortunately, most of the Eighth Route Army pilots were rescued after parachuting before the plane crashed completely.
After the Japanese pilots parachuted out, most of them were captured.
This is exactly what Kong Jie, Ding Wei, and Li Yunlong speculated at the pre-war military meeting on anti-air warfare.
"The so-called victory over the pilot! With the help of the dragnet we have built inside and outside the base area, as long as the devil's pilot dares to land, he will not be able to escape."
"Although war machines are terrifying, they are ultimately inseparable from human operation. I want to see how much strength his little devil's aviation force can still have after losing a large number of pilots!"
The air battle between the two sides continued until the evening of the same day. Under the all-out attack by the Eighth Route Army's aviation force, which had an overwhelming numerical advantage, the Japanese flying force suffered heavy losses and the remaining fighter planes were forced to withdraw to their base.
When we returned to the base, we saw that not only were the fighter planes heavily damaged, but also that few of the parachuting pilots had successfully escaped.
The aviation power used by the Eighth Route Army this time was so powerful that it was like a thunderbolt in the clear sky for the Japanese army, which was completely caught off guard.
Just like that, in the sky above Yangyuan, the Japanese completely lost even their last air supremacy.
After Inoue learned the news, he was completely stunned.
Now there is no last straw.
The matter has come to this, and Inoue, in despair, has even made arrangements for his funeral.
He made up his mind and prepared to fight to the death.
Then he directly sent a farewell message in clear code, scolding the friendly forces for not rescuing them and dilly-dallying.
After the telegram was sent out, it was received by many parties, causing an uproar from all parties.
When the Japs launched the campaign to occupy Datong and Zhangjiakou, those reconnaissance planes dropped leaflets everywhere to publicize the results of the war. The Voice of East Asia radio station continuously broadcast frontline battle reports. The newspapers published by various media outlets were all about the imperial army's victory over the Eighth Route Army.
As a result, suddenly the entire Inoue division was wiped out, and even the farewell telegram was sent out!
Isn't this a slap in the face of the Japanese army?
For a while, it was so noisy that all parties didn't know how to evaluate it.
On the Eighth Route Army's side, the field forces headed by the Iron Triangle Army launched a final encirclement and annihilation campaign against the remaining Japs of the 14th Division.
According to Kong Jie's explanation, observation groups from all parties were allowed to watch the battle at the forward observation post and witness this scene.
Inside the Frontier Observatory.
On the side of the Chiang Kai-shek observation group, the visiting officers could see everything.
One after another, the Eighth Route Army marching troops marched towards the front line of the 14th Division. Some of them wore helmets, rode in cars, and some in ordinary military uniforms, rode in carts or motorcycles, but they were in good spirits and well-equipped.
There are also armored units and mechanized units that are constantly mobilized from the front line to advance to the Huashaoying front line.
Looking at these regular Eighth Route Army troops, some senior officers who came from the Chiang Kai-shek Army this time, their faces were expressionless at first glance, but in fact they were already in a state of turmoil.
They know the goods, looking at these heavily equipped Type 42 tanks, heavy anti-tank vehicles equipped with 90mm anti-tank guns, and four-year-old 150 howitzer heavy self-propelled howitzer trucks, as well as many towed Type 96 howitzers, 96 When passing by heavy cannons and even American-made 206 howitzers, I couldn't help but step forward, wanting to stop these teams and take a closer look at the equipment.
However, they were stopped by the Eighth Route Army soldiers who were responsible for protecting the two wings along the way.
There were also some who said the grapes were sour and muttered secretly: "The Eighth Route Army is now so powerful that it has indeed become a serious problem... If we can have such good equipment, we can also defeat the Japanese elite troops!"
Then a reporter who came to observe from abroad asked doubtfully: "I heard that when the Eighth Route Army first resisted Japan, its equipment was very backward and ammunition was scarce. At that time, the equipment of you regular troops was quite good.
Even the Eighth Route Army can grow step by step from the weakest situation.
Shouldn't you regular troops do better? "
"..."
The few muttering officers were speechless for a moment and had no choice but to close their mouths.
Looking at the growth of the troops of these compatriots, it was obvious that they were killing the Japanese invaders, but they felt a little uncomfortable in their hearts.
On the contrary, on the side of the Allied Observation Group, the memory officers of military officers from various countries were all amazed when they saw the power of the Eighth Route Army troops.
Some took pictures, and some praised them, saying that they had found the right person to support the Eighth Route Army in the war against Japan, and that the money and supplies were well spent.
(End of chapter)
