The commander was deep in thought again, considering the possibilities speculated by Zhou Wen.
In fact, Zhou Wen is not an alarmist. The historical Great Wall War of Resistance took place next year, in March 1933. After the Japanese army captured Shanhaiguan and Rehe, they further launched attacks on military key points along the Great Wall.
Once again, the Great Wall watched helplessly as the iron hooves of the invaders passed over its ancient body. The Chinese army put up tenacious resistance. The focus of the battle between the enemy and ourselves was the Great Wall passes in the Yanshan Mountains and nearby commanding heights. Therefore, this battle was called the "Great Wall Resistance War."
The Great Wall War of Resistance was the first joint anti-Japanese war between different factions and different armies of the Republic of China army. The Chinese army, totaling 250,000, includes four major factions: the Northeastern Army, the Northwest Army, the Central Army and the Jin Army. It can be said that it was a joint operation in which the Chinese army was united and shared the same hatred of the enemy, laying the foundation for the subsequent all-out war of resistance.
However, due to the principal's policy of "resisting the outside world before settling the internal affairs first" and implementing the policy of "resistance while negotiating", he lacked the determination and confidence to resist the war. During the entire Great Wall War of Resistance, only four or five divisions of the Central Army were sent northward. Participating in the war, coupled with the fact that the young marshal who was the commander-in-chief of the early battlefield was indeed of limited ability and lacked effective control over the joint forces that were not under their respective jurisdictions. He could neither enforce orders nor prohibitions, let alone decide rewards and punishments. As a result, the 250,000-strong army was still unable to Twist into a rope.
But despite this, Marshal Zhang's determination to resist Japan is still resolute. After all, after losing the Northeast, he has been at the forefront of public criticism across the country. If he fails to do anything, even his officers and soldiers will become disloyal, and no one will be willing to follow him.
At the beginning of the Great Wall Anti-Japanese War, before March 15, the defenders of the Great Wall fought several victorious battles: the offensive battle at Lengkou; the two bypass attacks at Xifengkou; the Qingshanliang blockade at Luanping; and the Gubeikou blockade, all of which suffered heavy losses. defeated the Japanese army and achieved varying degrees of victory.
Objectively speaking, this is still the result of Zhang Shaoshuai's deployment.
However, after the young marshal was forced to step down because of the guilt of losing the entire province of Rehe, General He, nicknamed Granny He, took charge of the northern military. The battlefield instantly turned passive. Every battlefield was beaten and retreated step by step, resulting in senior frontline officers The commanders' confidence in the war of resistance was shaken, and they changed from waiting and watching to conserving their strength and passively resisting the war, which in turn led to the fall of Lengkou and the defeat across the board.
In the history that Zhou Wen is familiar with, General He has no outstanding achievements in his military career. This shows that his military command ability is mediocre, and he is as fearful of the Japanese invaders as he is the main peace faction of the Nanjing Military Commission. representative figures.
Under the deployment of General He, they strategically defended passively, defended their positions, and passively suffered attacks. The Chinese army is fortified everywhere. They are often lined up in a line with no depth. They defend passively. The lines are long and the troops are thin. The fortifications are crude. If one point is broken through, the entire line will collapse.
In Zhou Wen's view, the Chinese army not only far exceeds the Japanese army in terms of numbers, but also has terrain advantages. If the Japanese army attacks, it is not about the gains and losses of one city or one place, but the purpose of killing a large number of the enemy's fresh troops, and adopts mobile warfare, Ambush warfare, night raids, or sending small teams to attack the rear can kill or contain the Japanese attack.
In fact, local attacks are effective. For example, the 29th Army's night attacks in Xifengkou and Luowenyu were one of the most classic surprise attacks in the history of China's Anti-Japanese War.
In this battle, in order to seize the initiative and weaken the Japanese offensive momentum, the commander of the 29th Army, Commander Song, decided to conduct a night attack. He selected and organized thousands of night attack teams equipped with broadswords and short guns from the entire army, and launched surprise attacks in two directions against the Japanese troops in Caijiayu, Xiaoxifengkou and other places. The night attack team, armed with machetes, charged bravely.
At this time, the Japanese soldiers were still dreaming, and many Japanese soldiers had their heads moved before they woke up. The night raid team took advantage of the panic of the Japanese army and charged deeply into the Japanese army. They captured more than ten Japanese strongholds one after another. They took advantage of the situation to destroy enemy armored vehicles, artillery, supply trucks, ammunition trucks, etc., and captured countless items.
The sword team not only destroyed the Japanese frontline command post and artillery positions, but also chopped off more than 600 Japanese heads with their swords alone. The arrogant Japanese army was killed overnight and was so frightened that they had to retreat the defense line for more than ten miles, which bought time for the 29th Army to hold on to its position in the later period.
It is a pity that this tactic, which has been proven to be effective, has not received the attention of high-level officials. It has neither been promoted nor sustained. This is caused by the guiding ideology of passive defense by the top commander.
In this Great Wall War of Resistance, Zhou Wen could not participate in all battles and had to make choices.
The failure of the entire Great Wall War of Resistance was caused from the strategic level by the various negative thoughts of Nanjing's senior officials and the lack of determination and confidence to fight to the death. From the tactical level, it was due to the fact that Lengkou was broken through by the Japanese army, which led to the collapse of the entire line.
The defensive battle at Lengkou of the Great Wall would determine the success or failure of the entire front, so Zhou Wen decided that Lengkou would be where the mercenary group would join the battle.
According to Zhou Wen's idea, he not only just wants to help the Chinese army defend Lengkou. Passive defense is not the style of the mercenary group. Instead, he uses Lengkou as a breakthrough. He not only wants to kill a large number of attacking Japanese troops, but also looks for fighter planes to annihilate them. One of them shook the Japanese army's confidence in combat, thus changing the passive situation of the entire Great Wall defense line.
This was Zhou Wen's first attempt to change the direction of history. Even if the Chinese army had to abandon the Great Wall in the end, it would be a step-by-step and planned retreat, rather than the historical situation where the entire army was defeated and pursued by the Japanese all the way to the Jidong Plain. , causing the entire Pingjin area to be opened wide, under the armed surveillance and control of the Japanese army, and the Japanese army could occupy Pingjin and Hebei at any time.
There are two most important links in this plan that need to be resolved.
One is that there must be a friendly force that can completely trust Zhou Wen and has a certain combat effectiveness to cooperate with the mercenary group.
Zhou Wen was not so arrogant that a mercenary group of more than a thousand people could defend Lengkou and at the same time deal a devastating blow to the Japanese army.
The Lengkou Defense Line is not just a pass on the Great Wall. Its terrain extends for tens of miles, and there are as many as a dozen commanding heights that need to be defended. There are more than a thousand mercenary groups scattered down, and the average defense line is only a few dozen people per kilometer. It must be defended. Not realistic.
What's more, the mercenary group's customary tactics are to find the weak links of the Japanese army on the move, or sneak attacks or ambushes, and then give the Japanese army a hard blow by surprise, then escape again and continue to look for new fighters, just like a fighter jet hidden in the grass. The wolf, waiting for its prey to fall within attack range again.
For the Japanese army, such a relatively small force poses a great threat to their supply lines and logistics forces. It is like a thorn in the back. They must either divide their forces to defend the long supply line, or take the initiative to search for mercenary groups in the vast mountains. Seeking annihilation.
