In Nirvana, the 35th Japanese Division has arrived, and the battle is about to begin.
The 35th Division was organized in Kyoto, codenamed "East". It was established in February 1939. It was originally going to be stationed in Makino, Central Plains Province. Due to the butterfly effect of Chuxiong, it was directly sent to the Taiyuan area, and was organized at the same time. Together with the 36th Division, they became the new force for Xiao Zhuoyinan to launch the "Bear Hunting Plan".
In the temporary headquarters of the 35th Division, the division commander Lieutenant General Maeda, the chief of staff Colonel Yoshioka, the 219th Infantry Regiment Colonel Oigawa, the 220th Infantry Regiment Mijogogo, the 221st Regiment Mineki Colonel, and the search 35th Regiment Colonel Miyao Gui, Colonel Hoshino of the 35th Field Artillery Regiment, Colonel Tian Xiu of the 35th Engineer Regiment and others are holding a battle deployment meeting.
First, Chief of Staff Colonel Yoshioka introduced the enemy situation:
"Gentlemen, according to the enemy situation reported by the headquarters, there are two main regiments of the Chuxiong Division of the Eighth Route Army Independent Brigade in Nie City, namely the 881st Regiment and the 882nd Regiment, with a total strength of about 3,000 people;
Nirvana had just experienced a great war, and the eastern city wall had been blown down by the Eighth Route Army in many places and was almost in ruins.
The road to the East City Gate has been completely destroyed by the Eighth Route Army, and the heavy artillery of the Field Artillery Regiment cannot maneuver past!
Just yesterday, the Eighth Route Army in the city had evacuated the people in the city from the east city gate. Now only the Eighth Route Army is left in the city. It seems that they are determined to fight with the imperial army in Nirvana. "
Colonel Oigawa of the 219th Wing jumped out first and said contemptuously:
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, with only more than 3,000 troops, our 35th Division has nearly 20,000 troops. It is simply killing a chicken with a sledgehammer!
There is no need to go to the east gate. The division's field artillery unit will directly blow down the west wall. Our 219th unit is willing to be the pioneer and we will definitely capture Nirvana within one day. "
The fifth commander of the 220th Alliance said, not to be outdone:
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, if we only attack the west gate, the Eighth Route Army may break out from the east gate. The Battle of Nirvana is the first battle of our 35th Division after going abroad. We should take full credit immediately!
There is a saying in the Chinese art of war: surround an enemy ten times and attack it five times. The strength of our 35th Division is more than five times that of the Eighth Route Army, and its combat power is more than ten times that of the Eighth Route Army!
At this time, we should adopt the method of encircling three gates, mainly attacking the west gate, pretending to attack the south gate, and the north gate, and sending a force to ambush in the direction of the east gate. After the Eighth Route Army breaks through from the east gate, the ambush will suddenly come out and catch them all. "
Lieutenant General Maeda's eyes lit up after hearing this. This is indeed a good tactic, more practical than Yoshioka-kun's plan. He is worthy of being a wise general of the 35th Division.
Maeda decided to adopt this plan, stood up and said:
"Yo Xi, Jian Chengwujun is indeed a top student who graduated from mainland China. The strategy of surrounding three and one is very good, so I will use this method. This is the first battle of our 35th Division, and the opponent has the enemy of the imperial army. There are two active main regiments of the so-called independent brigade;
If these two regiments can be wiped out in one fell swoop, the main force of the independent brigade will be crippled, and our 35th Division will make an immortal contribution to the empire!
I command! "
The captains of each company stood up in unison, with their chests puffed out and their butts sticking out, like proud roosters.
Maeda looked around with great satisfaction, then nodded loudly:
"The 221st Infantry Regiment is responsible for feigning attacks on the South Gate and North Gate to contain a certain amount of Eighth Route Army troops;
The 220th Infantry Regiment maneuvered to the east gate with only a few infantry artillery pieces, and chose favorable terrain to ambush. Once the Eighth Route Army broke through, they would tighten their pockets and wipe out all the enemies who broke through;
The 219th Infantry Regiment and the Field Artillery Regiment mainly attack the west gate, while the Search Regiment and the Engineer Regiment guard the periphery of the division headquarters. As a battle reserve, the baggage regiment is deployed next to the division headquarters..."
Following Lieutenant General Maeda's order, an offensive and defensive battle surrounding Nirvana was about to begin.
At the same time, the 881st Regiment in the city was also making final battle arrangements.
It is said to be the 881st Regiment, but in fact there is only one battalion and one regiment of captured puppet troops. They also recruited hundreds of ordinary people in the city who were willing to fight the Japanese. The artillery battery of the 1st Battalion of the 882nd Regiment was also strengthened for them, with a total strength of 3,000 people. ;
The 881st Regiment was a unit that was intensively trained by Chu Xiong in the old camp. Every soldier was trained according to the standards of the backbone. The few months of intensive training in the old camp made the 881st Regiment almost completely transformed. After that, he trained for several months on his own. It is no exaggeration. To put it bluntly, they are all iron-blooded veterans!
After taking Nirvana, the first thing Chen Hao did was to reform the prisoners and puppet troops anyway. After removing some crooked melons and cracked dates, he started a complaint campaign among the puppet troops and released a big killer weapon. As expected, the effect was very good. The good thing made him fully understand the cruelty of the Japanese;
Then the political work caught up, and in just two days most of the puppet soldiers changed their minds.
Then there is the reorganization, with the three infantry companies of the first battalion as the backbone, the companies are directly promoted to the battalion, the platoon is promoted to the company, and the class is promoted to the platoon, in order to distinguish it from the second and third battalions;
The three newly formed battalions were named the First Battalion, the Fourth Battalion, and the Fifth Battalion respectively. The artillery company was upgraded to an artillery battalion, equipped with 16 Wei Yixiao cannons and 2 infantry cannons;
The 12 captured 90mm mortars were evenly distributed to each battalion as support firepower, with 4 per battalion;
In this way, each battalion has a firepower company, equipped with 4 90mm mortars and 6 Mulan guns (the original company firepower platoon supports the firepower)
The company's support firepower can only be changed to 6 grenade launchers and 2 92 heavy machine guns, forming a simplified version of the machine gun platoon.
It turns out that all the veterans of the first battalion were promoted to one level and took on positions above team leaders. It took half a day for the two recruits in the team to familiarize themselves with the tactical characteristics of the three-by-three system;
A veteran leads a puppet soldier and a recruit. In fact, most of the puppet soldiers are also veterans of the former Kuomintang Army. After the grievance movement and ideological transformation, the puppet soldier has undergone great changes and gradually transformed into a qualified Eighth Route Army soldier.
Some people may find it incredible, but in Huaihai in another dimension, Huaye captured and replaced soldiers of the Nationalist Army. After only carrying out a campaign of grievances and political education for one or two days, he went directly to the battlefield;
These liberation fighters are even more heroic than the original soldiers. This is the magic of the grievance movement and our military's political education, not to mention that this time they are fighting foreign enemies and Japanese.
Qin Feng, chief of staff and commander of the first battalion, first made battle arrangements:
"Comrades, the Japanese have already arrived at the city, a whole division, and our army only has 3,000 people. The city wall will definitely not be able to be defended. We must let the Japanese in and fight, fight with the Japanese in street battles, and wear down the Japanese spirit in the street fighting.
When we were in the old camp, we received training in street fighting. Brigadier Chu personally guided us. I won’t go into details on how to fight;
All the fellow villagers in Nirvana have evacuated the city, so we can fight freely. The first battalion is responsible for the west gate, the second battalion is responsible for the east gate, the artillery battalion provides fire support at any time, and the third battalion is the reserve team;
Looking at the enemy's troop deployment, their main attack direction should be the west gate. We will gather the bitter bombs of the entire regiment and bury them at preset locations. One battalion and one company will be responsible for luring the enemy, and give the Japanese a big surprise first..."
