"It is said that the Eighth Route Army received external assistance."
Ishida Kinzo sounded puzzled: "The intelligence department of the headquarters has been investigating this matter, but it has not yet been investigated clearly where the assistance from the Eighth Route came from."
Kenkichi Hirata couldn't help but cursed: "The intelligence personnel in the headquarters are all a bunch of trash."
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, Chief of Staff!"
The communications staff officer held two telegrams, walked in hurriedly, paused and said: "The 226th Wing and the 227th Wing sent telegrams requesting tactical guidance at the same time!"
Those participating in the sweep were mainly the two brigades of the Japanese Army, the 225th Regiment and the 226th Regiment, and the 227th Regiment and the 226th Regiment on the outside.
At present, the 225th Regiment has lost all its losses again, and only one regiment headquarters is left to follow the division headquarters to Changzhi. The captains of the 225th Regiment and the 226th Regiment each command more than 2,000 people to defend the county.
Hirata Kenkichi received the telegram, and after reading it, his face suddenly darkened: "Baga!"
Ishida Kinzo hurriedly asked: "Your Majesty, Division Commander, have the reinforcements been ambushed by the Eighth Route Army?"
When the Eighth Route Army was just shelling, Hirata Kenkichi issued an order to the two troops to rush for immediate reinforcements.
Ishida Kinzo was a little puzzled. Although encircling a point and calling for reinforcements was a common tactic of the Eighth Route Army, less than half an hour had passed. Logically speaking, they would not be ambushed by the Eighth Route Army so quickly.
"The Eighth Route Army attacked Xiangyuan and Licheng County at the same time. The 225th Regiment and the 226th Regiment were unable to rush to rescue." Hirata Kenkichi said with an ugly face: "The Eighth Route Army each used at least 40 cannons of 75 mm or above, and many 105 caliber howitzer."
Hearing this, Ishida Kinzo's face suddenly became extremely ugly.
The Eighth Route Army actually attacked Xiangyuan, Licheng and Changzhi County at the same time.
And it's not a feint attack, it's all a main attack, with the intention of not giving up until these three counties are taken.
As a result, the battle situation became extremely complicated.
Ishida Kinzo adjusted his glasses: "Division commander, it's all my fault. I misjudged the Eighth Route Army's tactics and believed that the Eighth Route Army would not attack three counties at the same time, causing the imperial army to disperse."
"Ishida-kun, I don't blame you." Kenkichi Hirata waved his hand and said, "Even if we gather the troops, we will still have to face an attack of more than 30,000 people from all directions, and the situation will not be much better."
At this moment, the communications staff officer ran in again and paused in a hurried tone: "Report to the division commander, commander, and captain of the mountain artillery regiment, Colonel Narita, to report that the Eighth Route Mountain Artillery and Howitzers are all 5 kilometers away from the city wall, and the mountain artillery regiment cannot attack the Eighth Route Artillery. The troops implemented countermeasures."
"Nani?" Kenkichi Hirata's face turned dark when he heard this.
"How accurate is the impact of the eight-way artillery shells?" Hirata Kenkichi asked.
"The landing point is accurate!" said the communications staff officer. "According to Narita Colonel's report, the Eighth Route Army did not test fire in advance. As soon as they came up, they carried out artillery fire coverage on the positions and walls outside the city."
The artillery fire was actually carried out 5 kilometers away without any pre-test firing, and the landing point was very accurate. Are the Eighth Route Artillery Soldiers so well-qualified?
Ishida Kinzo said: "Division commander, it is definitely impossible for the backed artillery wing to counterattack the Eighth Route Artillery position. Now we only have to see whether the aviation force can find the Eighth Route Artillery position to destroy it."
During World War II, there were three main methods of attacking enemy deep artillery positions: artillery countermeasures, air strikes, and infantry sneak attacks.
The most important thing in artillery countermeasures is to find out the accurate position and distance of the enemy's artillery positions.
After figuring out the location of the enemy's artillery position, guide your own artillery to cover it with artillery fire.
Obviously, the Japanese observation soldiers on the city wall were unable to conduct ranging and positioning.
"Ask quickly." Hirata Kenkichi said with a hint of anxiety, "How long until the aviation force arrives!"
"In addition, immediately report to Commander Shinozuka that the Eighth Route Army will concentrate its forces to attack the three counties of Xiangyuan, Licheng and Changzhi at the same time, and request reinforcements to rush to the rescue as soon as possible!"
"Hi!" Ishida Kinzo paused.
…
Taiyuan, headquarters of the Japanese First Army.
After listening to the communications staff read the telegram sent by Lieutenant General Hirata Kenyoshi, the expressions of Yoshio Shinozuka and Hideyoshi Kusuyama changed at the same time.
The Eighth Route Army actually attacked three heavily defended and fortified county towns at the same time, which really surprised them both.
Kusuyama Hideyoshi sighed with emotion: "Li Yunlong fights without any rules, just like a madman. We only guessed that his target was the 37th Division, but we didn't expect that he would have the courage to attack three counties at the same time."
"Such an opponent is very difficult to deal with." Yoshio Shinozuka felt the same way. "It's hard for you to guess what he is thinking and what he will do next."
Kusuyama Hideyoshi's tone was gloomy: "Commander, Li Yunlong's move is just playing with fire. If the war reaches a stalemate, Li Yunlong's regiment will only end up with the entire army destroyed when the imperial army's reinforcements arrive. I suggest that the 2nd Guards Division be ordered immediately. The regiment stopped mopping up and rushed to support the 37th Division with all its strength."
Yoshio Shinozuka frowned and stared at the map in silence.
Let the 2nd Guards Division stop its raids and rescue the 37th Division, then the openings to the north, east and west will be freed up for the Eighth Route Army.
Then the Eighth Route Army and the people in its base areas can jump to the outside line from these directions.
Because once reinforcements are rushed, the troops will be concentrated, and there is no way to divide them into multiple routes to sweep.
Shinozuka Yoshio suddenly asked: "Kusuyama-kun, have you ever thought that this might be the Eighth Route Army's plan to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao?"
"A plan to besiege Wei and rescue Zhao? Commander, you mean that the Eighth Route Army may not want to destroy the 37th Division, but to besiege the 37th Division to rescue the troops and people in the Eighth Route Bandit Area?" Kusuyama Hideyoshi was stunned. He really never thought about this problem. He always felt that the Eighth Route Army was going to eat the 37th Division.
Shinozuka Yoshio said: "Regardless of whether the plan of besieging Wei and rescuing Zhao was part of the Eighth Route Army's plan from the beginning, the current situation is that the Eighth Route Army has achieved its strategic goal of besieging Wei."
Kusuyama Hideyoshi pondered, and after thinking about it carefully, it seems that this is really the case.
If the 37th Division is not rushed to the rescue, the 37th Division will be eaten by the Eighth Route Army led by Li Yunlong.
If the other three troops all rush to rescue the 37th Division, then the entire mopping up plan will go bankrupt.
After rescuing the 37th Division and returning to raid the Eighth Route Base Area, the Eighth Route Army and the people would have long since disappeared.
"Commander, what should we do now?" Kusuyama Hideyoshi asked.
To save or not to save?
The 14th Brigade and the 18th Brigade are advancing very slowly, and it is not known how long the 27th Division can hold on.
Shinozuka Yoshio stared at the map closely, and suddenly thought of Yamamoto Kazuki. If Yamamoto Kazuki was by his side, what suggestions would he make?
Suddenly, Yoshio Shinozuka saw a line of sky on the map, which was the location of the Eighth Route Army's Huangyadong Arsenal.
"Order the 2nd Guards Division to speed up the sweep in the direction of the sky!" Shinozuka Yoshio said.
Kusuyama Hideyoshi's eyes flashed sharply: "Your Excellency, Commander, are you going to use the strategy of encircling Wei and saving Zhao to force Li Yunlong's regiment to go back to rescue the Huangyadong Arsenal?"
The straight-line distance between Licheng County and Huangyadong Arsenal is only 30 kilometers, and even the mountain road is only about 40 kilometers.
It only takes half a day for the troops to march quickly.
However, with the Eighth Route Army blocking this 40-kilometer mountain road, the Japanese troops said it would take at least two or three days to walk.
"That's right!" Shinozuka Yoshio said, "Since the Eighth Route Army can encircle Wei and rescue Zhao, then the Imperial Army will treat them in their own way."
Kusuyama Hideyoshi: "Hi!"
Shinozuka Yoshio suddenly thought of something, and quickly stopped Kusuyama Hideyoshi and said: "Kusuyama-kun, please wait a moment, and send a message to Lieutenant General Hirata to remind him that Li Yunlong's artillery is very good at decapitation tactics, and please leave the command immediately. Fight.”
Yoshio Shinozuka remembers very clearly that when Li Yunlong attacked Yangquan City and Shouyang County, he used this artillery decapitation tactic to make the Japanese army lose their command system, so that they could easily capture the county town and seize so much equipment.
Kusuyama Hideyoshi: "Hi!"
…
Changzhi.
The Eighth Route Army's mountain artillery and howitzers continued to pour shells at the city wall.
The sound of an explosion that sounded like a landslide and earth shattering came rumblingly.
In particular, the explosion of the 105 howitzer shells was like a thunderous explosion in the vast sky, and the sound was as loud as shaking mountains and shaking the sky and the earth.
Kong Jie answered a high-power phone call, and then said: "The commander-in-chief, political commissar Zhao, and the commander of the 1st Battalion of the Independent Regiment just reported that the west city gate has been destroyed by artillery shells."
"Oh?" Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang raised their binoculars to look, but they couldn't see the specific situation in the direction of the west city wall.
But the northern city wall in front has been bombed to pieces, and it looks like it won't be able to hold up for much longer.
More than ten minutes ago, a wave of Japanese planes had arrived.
The main target of the Japanese aircraft was the Eighth Route Army artillery positions located on the outside.
However, the Eighth Route Army's artillery positions were either set up in cave dwellings or were well camouflaged and widely separated from each other. They even had a lot of camouflage nets set up. Because firing the artillery would produce smoke, there were specialized personnel who set off smoke under the camouflage nets to confuse the Japanese. Pilots, there were hundreds of smoke spots within a few kilometers around the county, so the Japanese pilots couldn't figure out where the real Eighth Route Army artillery positions were. The Japanese planes fired randomly and dropped aerial bombs before flying away in a hurry.
Less than three minutes later, the North City Wall of Changzhi, two kilometers away in front of the headquarters, collapsed with a loud bang. When the smoke and dust dispersed slightly, a gap of more than ten meters appeared in the North City Wall.
Li Yunlong immediately said: "Lao Kong, order the rear artillery to stop shelling, let the mortars attack, and the infantry press up."
"Yes!" Kong Jie straightened up, immediately turned around and picked up the high-power walkie-talkie to deliver the order.
At present, there are still east and south city walls that have not been destroyed, but as long as they follow the tactics laid out by Li Yunlong, the soldiers rush into the north and west cities, circle along the city walls, take down each city wall first, and then the soldiers attack in depth from all four directions. That's not a big problem.
As soon as the mountain artillery and howitzers stopped, the mortars began to operate again. With a muffled thud from the mortar position, 60mm mortar shells fell on the position outside Guizi City.
This is the advantage of having a walkie-talkie, which allows the mortar to be seamlessly connected with the mountain cannon and howitzer, giving the Japanese and puppet troops no chance to breathe.
"Charge! Kill!" When the mortar shells landed on the Japanese position, the Eighth Route Army soldiers who had originally entered the attack position rushed towards the city wall carrying the siege ladder.
The shouts of killing suddenly rang out like warriors from hell.
…
(End of chapter)
