At the same time, Li Yunlong's troops on the southern front also launched an attack under the leadership of Zhang Dabiao. Since it was a roundabout attack, Li Yunlong's troops only had one supporting artillery battalion to coordinate with them, and the progress was completely different from that of Gao Jianwu's side.
But compared with the past, it was a completely different scene to blow up a bunker with explosives and human lives.
Li Yunlong and Zhang Dabiao also set up a command post about 2 kilometers from the front. They stared at the Jaap's position and watched the mountain artillery battalion, under the guidance of the artillery observation post, cover the Jaap's position with artillery fire. Although the accuracy was higher than that commanded by Gao Jianwu, Quite a bit different.
But for a covering strike, Li Yunlong was quite satisfied with being able to land next to a trench or bunker, and occasionally stir up a bunch of little devils to get up and fly in a plane!
"We have these mountain artillery to cover our opponents and fight a prosperous battle. Dabiao, do you see any difference from before?" Li Yunlong said to Zhang Dabiao beside him while observing the results of the bombardment in front.
"Captain, that's a big difference." Zhang Dabiao was also observing with a telescope and said without thinking, "Look, the shot just landed next to the heavy machine gun, and it directly scrapped the little devil's heavy machine gun group and replaced it with In the past, if we wanted to destroy this heavy machine gun group, we would have to have two squads detour for a long time, and if it didn't work, we would have to sacrifice half of our men to destroy it!"
"Now we haven't even launched an infantry charge, but we've been completely destroyed. The casualties and time saved make a huge difference."
"What Gao Jianwu said about infantry and artillery coordination, I finally figured it out a little bit today. We are not in a hurry today. I ordered the 1st Infantry Battalion, which is the main attacking force, to take it easy. Don't you know how to fight hard? In this battle today, we Not only must we win, but we must also have fewer casualties." After fighting many battles with Gao Jianwu, Lao Li's thinking has changed a lot now.
"Captain, if you do this, that boy Cai Feng may not even be able to fight in a battle. No way." Zhang Dabiao became a little anxious when he heard this. How could he not know what the purpose of his troops was?
There is only one word for war, Meng. Of course, it can be replaced by another word, which is reckless!
Not to mention the warrior, Zhang Dabiao is also the master of wielding the sword as soon as he throws away his hat.
They were all led by the regiment leader Li Yunlong. The regiment commander who used to draw his sword without saying a word has suddenly changed his temper. Even he, Zhang Dabiao, can't adapt, let alone the battalion and company commanders below.
"Get out! Isn't it stupid to rush in even though you have such good conditions? If Cai Feng can't do it, why don't he just occupy the latrine and not shit!" Li Yunlong was angry. Now that he is rich, he can use his cannons. Boom, the battalion and company also have a lot of mortar firepower to use directly. If the war mentality still stays in the same old way, isn't it nonsense?
"Give him dozens of mortars and nearly a thousand artillery shells. If he doesn't know how to fight, what else can Cai Feng do?"
"Yes, commander, resolutely execute the order!" Zhang Dabiao, known as the pioneer of hat-throwing, felt Li Yunlong's changed determination and began to turn around to deploy.
Although Li Yunlong is still following his first attack group, in fact, Lao Li has not directly commanded the troops for a long time.
After fighting for thousands of miles, Lao Li found that the current mode of fighting was completely different to him. In the hands of Gao Jianwu, artillery was the protagonist of the battlefield!
He was poor in the past. For a while, each regiment only had one mortar, and there were very few artillery shells. Although Li Yunlong regarded mortars as valuable, he did not sincerely believe that artillery could change the battlefield.
Now he discovered that it was just poverty that limited his imagination!
When the number of artillery reaches a certain level, such as in Wucheng, Yanmen, or Jinyang, which time does artillery not play the leading role?
Although Lao Li didn't read much, he was very perceptive and had a good brain. After looking at so many battle cases, how could he not understand that Gao Jianwu's thinking was the direction of the future.
He was also learning and experimenting with infantry and artillery coordination. Today was his first independent attempt.
However, he did not have Gao Jianwu's ability. He could directly command the artillery on how to attack. He could only order the artillery to maintain suppression of the battlefield. The distance to the front for infantry artillery suppression and the front distance for mountain artillery suppression were what Gao Jianwu told their commanders above the battalion level. Passed the class.
Therefore, although the artillery on the southern front was smaller than that on the western front, it was still very disciplined in fighting. One of the two mountain artillery batteries was still holding back, waiting to see the little Japanese artillery move, and then took a chance to kill them.
...
On the eastern front, Xing Zhiguo's side is a bit idle.
Hearing from the walkie-talkie that the Western and Southern Fronts were launching attacks, he on the Eastern Front could only watch.
He had no choice but to cross a long distance, and he had to go around a mountain road, so the mules and horses came over with two 92nd Infantry Artillery Batteries.
For defense, this artillery force is barely enough. But attacking the little devils who have preset positions is too reluctant.
It's not that it's not possible, but fighting the troops in this way will cause relatively large casualties. Many of the little Japs can be eliminated with artillery shells, but it is not cost-effective to use soldiers to fill them now.
Now that Gao Jianwu has the conditions to use artillery to crush the Japs, it is of course more cost-effective to use artillery shells to deal with them.
Therefore, Xing Zhiguo's second attack group, which had weak artillery on the eastern front, opened a distance to the east and blocked the Japs' retreat. Relying on the simple fortifications and the powerful mortar firepower and machine gun firepower of the infantry battalion, the Japs would have to pay a lot of effort if they wanted to use the pig breakthrough tactic. A heavy price to pay.
If the Little Devils really want to choose his side to break through, Xing Zhiguo is confident of giving them a "surprise". It is difficult to defeat the little Japanese with a turtle shell, but now Xing Zhiguo also knows very well what kind of character they are without a turtle shell.
He has 6 main infantry battalions and hundreds of mortars. The little devils abandon their positions and rush out. If they charge in a dense formation, the mortars will teach them how to behave in a minute. If it is not a dense formation, that is better. What the main infantry battalion does not lack is the firepower of heavy machine guns and light machine guns to deal with infantry!
Therefore, Xing Zhiguo had no intention of attacking at all two kilometers away from the Japs' eastern front position.
Apart from keeping an eye on the little Jaap's movements, the rest was to change the channel and listen to the attack of Gao Jianwu and Li Yunlong on the walkie-talkie, humming a tune happily in my heart.
He is not Zhang Dabiao's kind of person, who would feel uncomfortable if he doesn't fight.
Now that the level has increased, Xing Zhiguo has begun to consider more overall issues. Winning the battle in Yangcheng is inevitable, but to fight well, winning in the shortest time and with the fewest casualties is the most important.
The headquarters is keeping a close eye on the situation in the Ping An cluster and has given Gao Jianwu so many preferential conditions. It can be said that he has given everything he can. If four attack groups are reluctant to attack Yangcheng, this will inevitably disappoint the superiors. .
Although Xing Zhiguo is a veteran, who doesn't want his troops to be unique in the military?
You must know that now he, Xing Zhiguo, is also listed behind the Brigade Commander, Li Yunlong and Gao Jianwu, and among the famous generals alongside Zhang Dabiao and Shen Quan!
The record of his men under Xing Zhiguo was to annihilate several small Jaap regiments. With such a record in the country, not even the commanders of group armies could catch up.
The mission given to him by Gao Jianwu was to prevent the little Japanese from escaping eastward, so Xing Zhiguo had to seal the hole tightly to prevent any little Japanese from escaping.
...
"Baga, how can the Eighth Route Army have such strong firepower?" Nishio Shoucheng's face turned ugly when he heard the continuous sound of artillery in the western suburbs.
No one told him these things before coming to Yangcheng.
Commanding three brigade-level troops, Lieutenant General Nishio Hisari, a senior officer from the base camp staff headquarters, thought he had finally caught up with the good times when he was taking off in the military world.
Unexpectedly, I didn’t realize until I arrived in Yangcheng that it was a big mud pit!
After understanding the specific local conditions, he actually privately suggested to the little devils in Gangcun that they should turn east or south immediately!
If we advance eastward, we will break through the obstacles that prevent us from converging with the 101st Division and the Tank Division to form a truly heavily-armed group. We will be proactive whether we want to leave or stay.
If we go south, we can sweep away the empty Eighth Route Base Areas along the way, and then join up with the two southern brigades coming from Hancheng. They are also strong and can form another heavy troop group in southeastern Shanxi.
Yangcheng stood out under the front of the main force of the Eighth Route Army. With the opponent's strength of eating up two divisions and two brigades, now with the city defense far inferior to Jinyang, it could not stop the siege of the main force of the Eighth Route Army.
Even though the reinforcements were more than a hundred miles away, the 101st Division and the Chariot Division had traveled for a week in just these ten kilometers!
For such a long time, the Eighth Route Army really attacked Yangquan, and grass grew in front of Shoucheng's grave at the west end!
However, the gangcun kid, who was already worried about the loss of Jinyang and vowed to take it back, flatly rejected Nishio Shoucheng's proposal.
From his point of view, northern Shanxi has been lost. If Yangcheng takes the initiative to lose it again, the area from Jinyang to Pingcheng will be given away. He doesn't know how much effort it will take to get it back. This is a dangerous area with high mountains and roads. , the battle for every hilltop may be protracted, let alone a big city like Yangquan!
Gangcun kid told Nishio Shoucheng that the 101st Division and the Chariot Division will never give up and are continuing to launch a fierce attack on the Eighth Route. The Eighth Route blocking team has suffered heavy casualties and is about to break through. The attack will come in a week at most!
】
Although Nishio Shoucheng was dubious about the words of the gangcun kid, it was only when he came to Jin from the base camp that he truly began to understand his opponent.
By now, Nishio Shoucheng has basically understood that although the destruction of the 26th Division and the 41st Division, and even the fall of Jinyang, were to some extent accidental, the growth in strength of the Eighth Route Army has long exceeded the ten reported by the North China Expeditionary Army to the base camp. More than times!
From being able to only attack at the squadron level, to now being able to directly encircle and annihilate a division! Who would believe that such an appalling change happened in less than a year?
Needless to say, the battle report reported by the North China dispatched troops to the base camp had already been mixed with too much water.
Commander Gangcun must have concealed a lot of things for his own selfish purposes.
However, Nishio Shosei seems to be one step behind in rank compared to Gangcun, but his actual status in the military is very different. He cannot reverse this situation in a short time. If Okacun says to defend, Nishio Shosei must hold on.
So he arrived in Yangcheng and expanded the city defense to build three major defensive positions outside the city. However, he did not expect that the field fortifications he personally designed faced the fierce artillery fire of Gao Jianwu and were broken through one by one with little effect!
The current situation is obvious, Yangcheng cannot be defended!
Where will Nishio Shoucheng go?
