By that time, the Chinese garrison in the west still had an entire division of troops waiting on guard, and behind him there was a powerful force of thousands of people staring at him like a wolf, waiting to swarm him when he was weak.
When Colonel Keita Sakaguchi reported his guess to Yamada Guiura of the brigade headquarters over the radio, Yamada Guiura, who had been studying the map for a long time, shuddered. Now he finally understood how the 14th brigade was formed. Annihilated.
However, when I think about it, how to solve the current dilemma is the top priority.
If they retreat, it is possible that the Japanese troops of the brigade that have already established a position in the cherry orchard will fall into a situation of fighting alone.
If you continue to move forward, you may cause heavy losses to your 24th Regiment. Even if you reach the Cherry Orchard, you will only have the power to protect yourself and lose the ability to attack.
"Baga! The Chinese army is so cunning!" Yamada Guiura, who was at the headquarters, was now a little anxious. He intuitively felt that his strategy of detouring westward was a bad move.
After losing the barrier and cover to the north, the main force of the Japanese 24th Regiment, which was marching along the mountain road, had to slow down for fear of being attacked from the north if not careful.
Just because the Chinese army has artillery.
Now they are only being attacked by a few artillery shells from the south, but there is no guarantee that there are hidden artillery in the north. Once those carriage teams and packhorse teams carrying a large amount of logistics ammunition are attacked by artillery fire, they will be in trouble. target.
But Keita Sakaguchi is more alert now. He would rather advance slowly than be harassed by a detachment of constant cold-blooded attacks and suffer casualties, but he just goes to clear it up without dividing his troops.
He had already gained a lot of experience from the destruction of the 14th Huncheng Brigade. If he divided his troops and went deep into the mountains to wipe out this Chinese elite force with extremely strong combat power, how many people would be suitable?
In his opinion, even sending a brigade is not safe. The opponent has superior firepower, is familiar with the terrain, and is well prepared. If not, the brigade sent out will be like meat buns beating dogs, and they will never come back.
And if more than two brigades of troops are sent to clean up, how many combatants will be left to attack Cherry Orchard and Baili Mountain?
The result is still being led by the Chinese military.
Sakaguchi Keita endured the pain caused by the constant casualty figures reported every moment, but still ordered the main force of the regiment to continue to advance as a unit, blocking the repeated requests from his battalion captain to send troops for suppression.
However, this is not a solution! Sakaguchi Keita's head hurt just thinking about it.
At this time, we can see the advantage of the defender deploying strong mobile forces on the outside in a defensive battle.
Just like making moves in a chess game, Zhou Wen and his mercenary group were placed on the outside, which was equivalent to making an eye on the chessboard of the cold defense battle.
The so-called living eye, in Go, is the eye that the opponent can never play but you can always play. Putting it on the battlefield is called a local strategic initiative. If the Japanese army wants to break the situation, it will take a lot of effort.
Of course, the main reason for this is the insufficient strength of the little devils.
If the little devil came to criticize not one division, but two divisions with more than 40,000 troops, the role of bringing down the mercenary groups on the outside would be greatly reduced.
why?
I can't afford it!
At that time, the kid, not to mention mobilizing a division to deal with you, not even a brigade nor a mercenary group with thousands of people can do it hard. Not to mention annihilating you, but to use superior force to keep you away. If you drive away, you will be fighting alone. At most, you can do some sneak attacks and sniper kills, but the effect on the entire battle situation will be almost zero, and your living eyes will become dead eyes.
War since ancient times has shown that the attacking side must not only have several times the strength of the defending side, but at least it must have a superior strength in order to form an offensive advantage.
The little devils were good at bullying China because of its poor national strength, and the Republic of China's army was full of factions, poorly equipped, and disorganized. The Japanese army has the advantage of having aircraft and artillery, but it looks down upon the Chinese army's combat effectiveness in terms of military strength. It always wins with less and takes it for granted.
The Chinese army's tactical response is even more lackluster. It can only fight with others, blindly defend passively, inflexibly and timidly.
For example, during the Great Wall War of Resistance, there were more than 200,000 Chinese defenders, many of whom were relatively powerful units such as the Central Army, 29th Army, and 32nd Army. However, they still followed the tactics of the cold weapon era, along the lines of hundreds of The kilometer-long Great Wall was lined up for defense. It lacked defense depth and maneuverable troops, and did not dare to take the initiative to attack, resulting in a situation where the entire line collapsed once one area was breached.
Although the Japanese army was at a disadvantage in terms of strength, it was able to give full play to its semi-mechanized and packhorse transportation advantages, calmly deploy troops along the Great Wall, and deploy troops to attack wherever it saw weaknesses. Instead, it formed a strength advantage in local battlefields.
But now, with Zhou Wen's powerful force fighting on the outside, the disadvantage of the Japs' small number of troops has been highlighted.
Not to mention anything else, in the Lengkou Defense Line alone, the Chinese army has a total of more than 30,000 troops from the 32nd Army and the Model Brigade, and it also has certain advantages in artillery and automatic firepower in front-line positions. It is also supported by solid fortifications, trenches, and tunnels.
Unless General Shang Zheng and Zhao Changshu are courageous mediocre people, how can your brigade and the Japanese army of more than 10,000 troops directly under the division headquarters be able to capture it? Why can it be captured?
If you want to mobilize troops to attack my weak points, then the opportunity for my outside mercenary group will come.
To be honest, the Japs wanted to stand still and just attack Lengkou's main position. Zhou Wen also had no choice but to take advantage of the Japanese troops who were hiding in trenches and fortifications to defend the surrounding areas. He didn't dare to attack them forcefully. But you actually mobilized westward in a grand manner with just over 2,000 people. Then the role of our external troops comes into play, which is to attack your mobilized troops.
At this time, Yamada Guiura, who was at the headquarters, looked at Keita Sakaguchi sending a telegram asking for instructions every minute, and he was so anxious in his heart!
"Baga, is Sakaguchi Keita a stupid pig? Why do you need me, the brigade leader, to give instructions on everything? Don't you think of your own solution?"
However, he was scolding in his heart, but he knew that Colonel Kei Sakaguchi would not ask for instructions so anxiously if the situation was not critical. He still had to find a way to rescue the 24th Wing from the predicament.
At this time, if part of the 23rd Regiment is sent to support the 24th Regiment, there is a fear that the Lenggouguan Model Brigade will be dishonest.
If it were other Chinese troops, Yamada Guiura could guarantee that even if he mobilized most of his troops, they would not dare to take the initiative to attack. But the commander of the Model Brigade cannot be judged by common sense. He is an adventurous and ambitious veteran. How could he be unmoved when he sees the empty troops at the foot of the mountain.
