Quancheng, 12th Army Headquarters
Commander Lieutenant General Dohashi Ichih is holding a deployment meeting for the Izumi Battle. Participants include Lieutenant General Tanaka Kuichi, commander of the 21st Division, Lieutenant General Yoshie Ishii, commander of the 32nd Division, and others.
The Eighth Route Army's 100,000 troops surrounded the city on three sides, and the political offensive had already been launched. The loudspeakers outside the city kept broadcasting the Eighth Route Army's policies;
At the same time, the Eighth Route Army's siege policy was also to encircle three buildings and one, leaving them with an escape route to Jiao'ao. Lieutenant General Tuqiao had some thoughts, but he alone had no say, so he had to unify his thinking.
The military situation was urgent, Lieutenant General Dohashi said straight to the point:
"Gentlemen, the Eighth Route Army has been besieging Quancheng for more than a month, and has been mobilizing combat supplies and making preparations to attack Quancheng;
There are various indications that the Eighth Route Army will launch its attack within these few days.
According to intelligence, the Eighth Route Army has approximately 100,000 troops participating in the battle, half of which are Column 107, which they call the main force. There are also tens of thousands of Tubal troops to cooperate in the battle;
The combat method they adopted was to surround three buildings and leave only the southeast direction. Their intention was very clear. They hoped that we could abandon Quancheng and retreat to Jiaoao——"
In another time and space, Lieutenant General Dohashi Ichi was a fanatical believer in the three-guang policy of the old Japanese Okamura. He often carried out the three-guang policy in the land of Qilu and the North China Plain. He was a real devil and owed a lot of blood debt to the Chinese people;
But as a senior military officer, he cherishes his life. He has robbed many good things in China over the years, but he has managed to transport them back to China before he could enjoy them, so he does not want to die.
His words were quickly interrupted by Lieutenant General Yoshie Ishii. Ishii is a fanatical militarist. Not only does he not take other people's lives seriously, he is also mentally prepared to sacrifice his life for the so-called jihad at any time. I saw him stand up with a whoosh and said:
"Your Excellency, Commander, this is a Chinese psychological tactic, encircling three buildings and one. This is to disintegrate the determination of individual people who are not determined to fight;
As a warrior of the Empire, you should be ready to serve the Empire at any time. Anyone who dares to retreat is a coward and disloyal to His Majesty and should die.
Our 32nd Division vows to fight the Chinese to the last man! "
Other senior Japanese officers also came forward to express their support for Ishii Yoshie's decision. Lieutenant General Dohashi could only temporarily give up the idea of retreating. Anyway, the retreat to the northeast gate was still there, so let's check it out.
Next, Major General Etsujiro Kono, Chief of Staff of the Twelfth Army, conveyed the battle deployment of the Twelfth Army. Instead of street fighting, traditional city defense warfare was adopted.
The intersection of the Quancheng-Jinpu Railway and the Jiaoji Railway is a strategic location connecting East China and North China. Due to the previous Battle of Ande, the Eighth Route Army had cut off the Jinpu Road;
The Japanese were left with a way out on Jiaoji Road and were allowed to evacuate to Jiao'ao, but the Japanese did not appreciate it.
Quancheng is adjacent to the Mother River to the north and Mount Tai to the south. The terrain is difficult, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack;
The urban area includes the inner city, the outer city and the commercial port. In line with the principle of defending the city, you must defend the field. Since the 32nd Division was going to fight the Eighth Route Army to the last man, Tuqiao unceremoniously placed them in the outer city and the commercial port. .
Since the outer city has no city walls, the people around the outer city have been evacuated under the propaganda of the Eighth Route Army, leaving only a few hundred thousand people in the inner city.
Tuqiao did not plan to engage in street fighting in the inner city because he was afraid that if he angered the Eighth Route Army and cut off the Jiaoji Railway, he would have to die in Quancheng, which he did not want to do.
Whoever shouted the loudest, he would place them in the outer city and let them fight to the death with the Eighth Route Army. If they wanted to retreat to the inner city, there was no door;
The same goes for the inner city. They shouted joyfully and asked them to support the outer city. After killing them all, he, the army commander, kept his word.
Lieutenant General Ishii Yoshie had no reason to object this time. This was a military deployment. The mission given by the commander to their division was to defend the outer city at all costs. The last soldier to be killed in the battle was tantamount to ruling out their life. .
Fortunately, Ishii Kae doesn't care, he is not afraid of death at all, and benevolence will be rewarded.
The 32nd Division is a three-regiment division. It is organized in Kyoto. It has jurisdiction over the 210, 211, and 212 regiments, as well as one regiment each of engineering, carriage, and cavalry, and a field artillery brigade. The total strength is only 15,500, of which the 211 regiment The team had been annihilated at Ender;
In other words, the 32nd Division has only two infantry regiments with about 12,000 people. They are mainly responsible for the defense of the West City. The South City is guarded by a regiment of the 21st Division, and the North City is the defense area of the 27th Independent Brigade.
Xicheng District has the most open terrain, which is convenient for large troops to deploy. It is the focus of the Japanese defense. The Japanese have built more than 2,000 bunkers of various sizes in this direction alone, some of which are permanent fortifications built with reinforced concrete. No wonder Lieutenant General Ishii dared to Challenge the Eighth Route Army.
The terrain of Quancheng is the most dangerous in the southeast. The southeast is mountainous, and there are two mountains in the suburbs, Maoling and Yanchi, as barriers. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack. However, the Eighth Route Army directly released the southeast side, allowing the Japanese to leave whenever they wanted. This made the Japanese at a loss what to do;
Now the entire Qilu Province is the territory of the Eighth Route Army. If the Japanese abandon Jiancheng, they can only go to Jiaoao along the Jiaoji Railway, and then withdraw to the country or other places with the help of the navy.
Without the railway and the fortified city, they would be swallowed up by the Eighth Route Army.
Quancheng is now an isolated city. After the Japanese advance into the position, they can only passively wait for the Eighth Route Army to attack;
After a long night, a red sun rose again, and Sergeant Oshima Yoshiki was thankful to have survived another day.
His unit is responsible for guarding a strong bunker built of concrete and stone. Their unit's weapons have been strengthened and are equipped with a total of one 92 heavy machine gun and one Taisho 11-type light machine gun;
A full 20 people were crowded into the bunker. The heavy machine guns were responsible for blocking the front, and the light machine guns were responsible for controlling the flanks. The surrounding shooting areas had been cleared.
There is an anti-infantry trench 30 meters in front of the bunker. Several mines are buried in it. It is more than 2 meters wide. Even tanks cannot rush through it. Oshima Yoshiki believes that the Eighth Route Army will have to fight this anti-infantry trench alone. Filled with corpses.
There were similar bunkers defended by Oshima Moriyi every 100 meters or so, connected by communication trenches filled with mines and traps. There was crossfire between bunkers. He really couldn't figure out how the Eighth Route Army could crack them.
At 8:30 in the morning, the Japanese began to have breakfast, and Oshima Morihi held a rice ball and wolfed it down;
Quancheng was besieged by the Eighth Route Army for more than a month, and the Japanese supplies began to become tight. If it were not for the war, they would only be given two rice balls as big as a child's fist every day, one at noon and one in the evening, and basically none in the morning.
The Japs in Quancheng had already implemented a rationing system when they were surrounded. They concentrated the food in the city, and the common people were only given one grain wotou a day that was so hard that it could kill someone.
Oshima Morihi had just swallowed the rice ball when the air raid siren sounded. He was so frightened that he crouched down and leaned against the inner wall of the bunker. It was said that this could protect him to the maximum extent from the shock wave.
A few minutes later, the fleet arrived at Xicheng District, and the nightmare of Oshima Moriyi and others began...
