Zhou Wen and the Marshal agreed that this time the mercenary group would not participate in the war under the name of the Central Party Headquarters Teaching Corps, but under the banner of the advance detachment of the Jin Army Model Brigade. All combat achievements obtained would also belong to the Model Brigade. Only in this way can they be obtained. The commander’s unreserved support.
Although it looks like a deal, everyone gets what they need. Zhou Wen has the support of the commander and a strong friendly army, and can concentrate on fighting without being distracted by other things.
The commander-in-chief relied on Zhou Wen's battlefield victory to gain fame for the Jin army and gain a higher reputation for himself. Although the commander's purpose was impure, Zhou Wen could no longer ask for too much. As long as it was conducive to the war of resistance, Zhou Wen could accept anything.
After the commander's lecture, the new former enemy commander-in-chief Zhou Wen deployed the tasks of each unit of the model brigade.
Zhou Wen didn't say any more words of mobilization or encouragement, and directly began to lay out the plan he had prepared long ago.
The model brigade's former enemy headquarters has a commander-in-chief and a deputy commander-in-chief, respectively headed by Zhou Wen and Zhao Changshu. The chief of staff is Meng Yuting, and the logistics director is held by the model brigade chief of staff Zhu Jiang.
The general headquarters also established a telecommunications department, which was composed of dozens of telecommunications experts trained in recent years under the leadership of Zhou Yongbin, with Zhou Yongbin serving as the director.
A field hospital was established, composed of more than a dozen Chinese and foreign doctors and more than thirty male and female nurses from the beautiful hospital led by Feng Tianpei. The doctor team was strong and the medicines were sufficient.
When the officers heard this, they were all in high spirits.
Who doesn’t know the reputation of Beautiful Hospital? The Chinese and American doctors there are all highly skilled, so now they are guaranteed.
What are you most afraid of on the battlefield? If you don't die in battle on the spot, you'll be done with it. The most fearful thing is that you won't get medical treatment after being injured, and you will have to suffer in pain for countless days before dying.
When did these officers who participated in many civil wars enjoy this kind of treatment? Although there were medical personnel in previous wars, the number was very small, and their medical skills were not flattering, let alone any field hospitals.
Zhou Wen then announced the departure and march order of the various units of the model brigade, according to the advance detachment, Xu Zhiqin's first regiment, the general headquarters and directly affiliated units and troops, and finally Zhang Huzi's second regiment.
However, Zhou Wen only asked the officers to make all preparations before the war, but the departure time was not announced yet.
In fact, Zhou Wen did not agree with going to Shijiazhuang to join the 32nd Army before heading to the front line of the Great Wall. The reason was that the whole country had too high hopes for the upcoming Battle of Jehol and did not expect that the battle would end like a child's play.
The highest commander in command of the Rehe Defense War was Marshal Zhang. Although he was determined to resist the war at this time and had made some arrangements for the direction of the Japanese attack before the war, unfortunately, none of his officers and soldiers had the will to fight. They were more thinking about How to preserve strength is even more obstructed by new warlords like Tang Yulin who are actually independent from the Northeast Army system.
For the Northeastern Army, which was once famous in China, the September 18th Incident was the starting point of dominoes. The Northeastern Army was very dissatisfied with Marshal Zhang for abandoning his hometown in Fengtian, and no longer listened to the Marshal's greetings.
Therefore, the battle in Jehol was actually a free-for-all with no unified command and everyone fighting independently.
At that time, military commentators once pointed out: "After the Battle of Jehol broke out, the scale of both sides was really similar to that of a large corps. However, our side did not have a unified battle plan, and it soon collapsed, making this extremely possible. Asia’s largest mountain battle turned into nothing more than a marching exercise for the Japanese army.”
In other words, what could have turned into the largest mountain offensive and defensive battle in Asia, with hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides, turned into a marching show by the Japanese army, which was invincible due to its military front. The Chinese army collapsed at the first touch, and some troops ran away before they even came into contact with the Japanese army.
In terms of combat policy, Marshal Zhang's military quality is even more unflattering. He is still using the old tactics from the First World War, adopting a passive defense of dividing his troops at key points, holding on to strongholds, and only defending but not attacking.
Even our enemy, the Japanese military later pointed out the wrong tactics of the Chinese army: "Spreading troops over a vast area has weaknesses everywhere, and even using 8,000 people to defend a front that stretches for hundreds of miles." On the front, it is really a strange thing in military terms."
This method of dispersing troops in crude trenches or even in the desert with simple weapons scattered like sand was simply unable to withstand the offensive of the Japanese army, which had superior firepower and high mobility.
Therefore, the 200,000-strong army prepared for the Jehol Defense War, which the government and people of the Republic of China had high hopes for, took three months to prepare. However, only 12 days after the start of the war, they were defeated by two Japanese divisions and two mixed brigades. The regiment plus tens of thousands of puppet troops occupying the entire territory is completely equivalent to the marching speed of the Japanese army.
Rehe fell so quickly that it exceeded the imagination of anyone at home or abroad. The result was that the Japanese army had already reached the foot of the Great Wall before the Peiping Branch of the Military Commission had time to make defensive arrangements for the Great Wall and quickly occupied part of it. pass.
The Peiping branch was so anxious that it had no choice but to mobilize troops nearby. General Shang Zheng's 32nd Army captured Lengkou Pass, General Song Zheyuan's 29th Route Army regained Xifengkou, and the 25th Division of the 17th Army of the Central Army fought all night to fight for Gubeikou. heroic deeds.
Zhou Wen's original intention was not to let the Japanese army occupy Lengkou Pass first. He knew that if he followed the large force of the 32nd Army, the marching speed would be too slow. Although historically, the 32nd Army took advantage of the Japanese army's unpreparedness and insufficient troops to recapture the pass overnight. , but the attack on the Japanese army was only a defeat, and the Japanese advance team, which was alone in the depths, lost a hundred and ten people.
But even so, the battle to regain Lengkou Pass was evaluated by later generations as the only offensive battle of the Chinese army since the September 18th Incident.
Zhou Wen, who already knew the history, didn't want to let go of this arrogant Japanese army, which was stimulated by the devastating victory of the Rehe War and regarded the Chinese army as nothing.
In his estimation, this Japanese advance team was at most a Japanese brigade reinforced with a few infantry cannons. It was impossible for a force that wanted to march at the fastest speed to bring any heavy artillery. There are only about a thousand troops, and most importantly, the nearest Japanese reinforcements are hundreds of kilometers away.
If our advance detachment can find favorable terrain to set up an ambush outside the pass before the Japanese army captures Lengkou Pass, and use our advance detachment to ambush the enemy's advance, hehe! Under the powerful firepower of the mercenary group, none of the thousands of Japanese troops could even think of going back.
Zhou Wen wanted to use a great victory to boost the morale of the Chinese army first and buy enough time for the construction of the defense of the Lenggou Pass tunnel.
