The Japanese bombers were having a blast when a fleet of Chinese Air Force aircraft arrived in the distance, and more than 100 fighter jets on escort missions greeted them.
The Japanese bombers took the opportunity to evacuate. They destroyed most of the hundreds of trucks of the Eighth Route Army and left with satisfaction.
They were freed, but the escorting fighter jets ran into big trouble. More than 50 of them were lost in battles with the Chinese Air Force. Others were so frightened that they fled in panic, unable to steal the planes and losing a lot of money.
After this loss, the Japanese flying team no longer dared to come out to fight, and air supremacy completely fell into the hands of the Eighth Route Army.
Seeing that the gains of sending the flying team to fight outweighed the losses, Xiangyue Qingji completely gave up the loss-making operation of killing 800 enemies and losing 3,000, and put all his hopes of annihilating the Central Corps of the Eighth Route Army on the army.
In order to avoid attacks by the Chinese Air Force, they set the time for artillery preparations around dawn, which greatly reduced the Eighth Route Army's air superiority.
After the encirclement was in place, the Japanese launched an encirclement and annihilation campaign against the Central Corps. Hundreds of artillery pieces bombarded the Eighth Route Army's positions indiscriminately;
The power of the heavy artillery of the heavy artillery brigade was astonishing, and its lethality was terrifying. The Eighth Route Army suffered heavy casualties.
Fortunately, the Eighth Route Army also had heavy artillery. When the Japanese heavy artillery positions were exposed, Li Qing ordered the 107 self-propelled artillery vehicles that had been hidden to fire on the Japanese artillery positions;
The 120mm cannon shells are also incredibly lethal. The Japanese heavy artillery will be scrapped if it hits just one shell.
After suffering two rounds of bombings, the Japanese had no energy to deal with the infantry anymore. Instead, they turned their guns around and started an artillery battle with the self-propelled artillery brigade.
At this time, the advantages of self-propelled artillery are reflected. They often change artillery positions after three rounds and leave as soon as the accelerator is stepped on;
Unlike traditional heavy artillery positions, if you want to change the artillery positions, you can't even think about it for half an hour.
The rate of fire of self-propelled artillery is generally about 6 rounds per minute, and it takes less than a minute to fire three rounds. In such a short time, the Japanese heavy artillery cluster has no time to react.
It was said that it was an artillery battle between the two sides, but it eventually turned into a unilateral massacre of the Japanese artillery group by the self-propelled artillery brigade.
The Japanese still haven't adapted to fighting under the superior firepower of the Eighth Route Army. They thought it was before and they could bomb whatever they wanted. Before the infantry came on stage, the Chinese lost most of them.
Things are different now. The Eighth Route Army has control of the air and has a more flexible self-propelled artillery group. The Japanese's air strikes and ground artillery strikes have been severely restricted, making the fight very frustrating.
The artillery battle between the two sides continued intermittently for more than two hours. Not only did the Japanese fail to complete the expected target of artillery preparations, they also lost a lot of heavy artillery.
After the artillery preparations were completed, the Japanese began to launch a ground attack, with the main attack direction being the northern front and feint attacks on the east and west fronts. There was no movement in the south, and they did not play the trick of surrounding three buildings;
But this is an illusion. They also have heavy troops in the south, just to induce the Eighth Route Army to abandon their positions. They pursue them on three sides and pierce their pockets on the other. They have a good abacus.
The Japs had gathered nearly 300,000 men, so their troops were very sufficient. The ratio of 3 to 1 allowed the Japs to be very generous;
As the main offensive direction on the northern front, the Japanese committed one division at a time, one regiment in the east and west directions, and it was a desperate attack from the beginning.
The defense line of the Eighth Route Army's Middle Corps is very wide, 10 kilometers from east to west, and more than 15 kilometers in depth. It also adopts an encircling defense line, with three lines inside and three outside, like a hedgehog covered with thorns;
The Japanese's desperate fighting style did not frighten the Eighth Route Army. Commanders at all levels responded calmly and their formations remained motionless.
When the Japanese attack group entered a few hundred meters in front of the Eighth Route Army's outer positions, the Wei Shenpao deployed in the Eighth Route Army's deep positions began to fire at the Japanese;
The 101st Column's Weishen Cannon was equipped to the regiments. Each regiment had 6 8-barreled rocket launchers, which were used as the regiment's support firepower. A single salvo could launch 48 rockets, which could completely cover the offensive front of a Japanese regiment.
On the northern front, the Japs launched a mass charge. Everywhere you looked, they were full of shit-yellow Japs.
Although their formation is dense, it is very structured. There is a tacit understanding between the teams. The distance between individual soldiers is about 2 to 3 meters. There are three rows and one echelon, exactly three echelons, and the distance between each echelon is about 200 meters. , with a depth of more than 2 kilometers, giving people a great sense of oppression.
Liang Hongjun, commander of the 3rd regiment of the 2nd brigade of the 101st column, saw that the Japanese had entered the strike range of the Wei Shenpao, and immediately ordered:
"Notify the artillery battalion, fire three salvos, open fire!"
The signal corps immediately used a flag to notify the artillery camp. In less than a minute, "fireworks" began to be set off in the direction of the artillery camp, and dozens of rockets roared into the Japanese attack queue;
As a series of explosions went off, groups of Japanese soldiers were swallowed up by artillery fire, and the wasteland was covered with yellow Japanese shit.
The other Japanese soldiers immediately fell to the ground to avoid the Eighth Route Army's artillery fire.
Attacking the 3rd Regiment's position was the 69th Infantry Regiment of the 109th Division. It was organized in Toyama and its commander was Isamu Sasaki;
The 109th Division is a 4-unit ad hoc division composed of reservists from the 9th Division. It is very powerful and is the main division of the 38th Army on the Northern Front.
The 69th Regiment was a unit that had never been severely beaten by Chu Xiong's troops, so it was very arrogant and dared to launch a regiment-level group charge in an attempt to defeat the Eighth Route Army's position in one battle.
Naturally, Colonel Isamu Sasaki did not need to charge. He was staying at the wing headquarters to observe the battle situation with a telescope, and said to senior staff officer Matasaburo Kono with great satisfaction:
"Kono-kun, our 69th Regiment is at the forefront of the division without any doubt. This time we are proud of ourselves in front of the division commander;
There will be no more than one regiment of the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side, so defeating them is a piece of cake. "
Although Kono was only a senior staff officer, he still had good eyesight. He felt that the commander of the company was underestimating the enemy, so he kindly reminded:
"Your Excellency, Captain, the Eighth Route Army Chu Xiong's unit can fight from Hedong to the Far East, which shows how powerful it is. It's better to be cautious."
Osaki Sasaki shook his hand and said:
"I have studied the operations of Chu Xiong's troops in Manchuria. There are no tactics at all. They just rely on the aircraft and artillery provided by Yingjiang to push forward. They are now defending-"
Sasaki suddenly stopped talking. He seemed to hear the sound of shells breaking through the air, coming from the front of the 59th Regiment. He said coldly with a gloomy face:
"Bagaya Road, artillery group!"
"Boom, boom, boom, boom..."
Sitting on the front, he happened to see a shocking scene that he would never forget in his life. Dozens of "fireworks" covered his connections, and a series of explosions swallowed up groups of "warriors" that he was proud of...
