novelraw #246 - Situation in Hedong
#246 - Situation in Hedong
In Hedong, the remnants of the Japanese 37th Division and the 41st Division, which had retreated from Pingyang, were now huddled together for warmth.
Lieutenant General Andachi Nijūzō, commander of the 37th Division, and Lieutenant General Mano Gorō, commander of the 41st Division, had established a temporary joint command under the direction of the North China Area Army.
With Andachi Nijūzō as the supreme commander, they were preparing to carry out self-rescue operations.
For the Japanese, Hedong was now facing enemies on all sides, and the situation was precarious.
"Mano-kun, there is almost no possibility of us advancing eastward along the north bank of the Yellow River. I propose that the 37th Division cover the retreat, while the 41st Division crosses south to Shanzhou, and then advances eastward to break through the encirclement! We have been discussing our plan for so long, and I think we have no better option. Since we have to leave, we should make a decision as soon as possible to avoid complications," Andachi Nijūzō said to Mano Gorō (previously written as Tanabe Moritake, but after checking the information, it is now Mano Gorō) with a somewhat forlorn expression.
When they first entered Jin, how imposing they were, advancing almost unhindered all the way. They encountered the Nationalist regular army, but there was hardly a single battle. Now, only a few years later, they had been reduced to stray dogs, forced to flee.
"It's truly unwilling, such fertile land, unable to be owned by our Imperial Army. Andachi-kun, let's do as you say. Now that the main force of the Eighth Route Army is reorganizing, we can still calmly cross the river and fight our way back. The Eighth Route Army's firepower is too strong now. The mobility and firepower of that 107 rocket launcher are truly despairing. Can't our similar artillery be brought out yet? If we had such weapons, we wouldn't be so passive today," Mano Gorō said with some reluctance.
"I heard that those guys are researching it, but we haven't obtained the real rockets from the enemy. Their rocket launcher is easy to copy, but the research on rocket propellant is said to be difficult. The rockets we've developed ourselves now have a range of less than 5 kilometers."
"Moreover, the military is still hesitant about this weapon, which consumes a lot of resources. For them, the power of the 107 rocket launcher is about the same as the 105 howitzer, but simply producing 105 howitzer shells consumes much fewer resources. Now that the empire is short of resources, the military's consideration is not very optimistic about the development of this weapon." Andachi Nijūzō seemed to have good connections with the military and military industry research, and he could still receive some news from thousands of miles away.
"But the mobility of the 105 howitzer cannot be compared with this rocket launcher. This is a heavy gun that can be dragged by a single mule," Mano Gorō said, somewhat puzzled.
The military was frugal to the extreme, and they were even unwilling to develop mortars with a fast rate of fire! The reason was that the Type 92 infantry gun could solve everything.
For the infantry company, a 50mm grenade launcher was enough.
For the previous Nationalist regular army, this statement was not wrong.
But now times have changed.
The Eighth Route Army's company was equipped with 82mm mortars and what they called RPG rocket launchers. The support for forward artillery fire had far exceeded the Imperial Army.
The grenade launcher was simply trash compared to the flexible direct-fire RPG rocket launcher.
For the 82mm mortar, the front-line infantry company could only be passively beaten!
This made the battle very passive.
A battalion only had 2 infantry guns, but the opponent now had more than a dozen mortars at the company level!
According to the latest intelligence, an enhanced battalion of the Eighth Route Army now possessed 1 107 rocket launcher, 2 heavy machine guns, 12 82mm mortars, 15 general-purpose machine guns, 15 RPG rocket launchers, and 9 grenade launchers.
This firepower was almost comparable to a regiment of the Japanese army.
How could an infantry battalion with only 2 infantry guns and 2-4 90mm mortars fight?
In terms of firepower, the Imperial Army had now begun to lag behind the opponent.
The formerly only able to fight with bayonets, the Eighth Route Army, had now transformed and was about to become a regular army of hooligan eagles with fire coverage!
Forcing the Imperial Army to learn from the previous Eighth Route Army to play close combat, to play hand-to-hand combat!
But close combat was also difficult to fight. The opponent's guns were semi-automatic new-style rifles, and the close-range firepower was far stronger than the Type 38 rifle!
For the grassroots Japanese soldiers, they probably didn't have too much feeling now.
But for old devils like Andachi and Mano, who had more information, they had already felt the deep chill of autumn!
If the empire couldn't even defeat the Eighth Route Army, then the time to continue staying on this land would be a countdown.
Therefore, now was not the time to haggle. In terms of weapons, whatever the opponent had, they must immediately make up for it. If they lacked heavy firepower to fight against, the empire's Imperial Army could only use flesh and blood to fight desperately.
Just like the opponent Guo Fu at the beginning.
But compared to the opponent's 400 million strong manpower, the empire simply couldn't afford this consumption.
As for resources, Nanyang had now become a new quagmire, unable to lose but also unable to win.
In addition, the situation of the European allies was not good now. Standing in the perspective of these two old devils, from a large pattern, the empire was really precarious.
"Mano-kun, let's do this. Three days later, we will start to retreat!" Andachi Nijūzō was silent for a while, and said somewhat bleakly.
"The Japanese in Hedong are going to run away?" Staff Officer Ye was a little surprised when he received the telegram from the telecommunications decryption team.
According to Ren Zhong's One Operation deduction, the Japanese should be advancing westward to attack Chang'an.
Now that he had intervened and taken Jin, the plan to attack Chang'an from both the north and south banks of the Yellow River was basically bankrupt. They couldn't even break through Luoyi now.
Hedong can be regarded as an extremely important strategic location. Hedong, Hexi and Henei have been a must-contend place for military strategists in history. Owning Hedong can peep into Chang'an, and then look forward to the 800-mile Qinchuan to become the foundation of the emperor.
Crossing the river from Hedong to the west is a flat river. The Japanese No. 1 Operation was also designed in this way. If there is spare capacity, the Japanese in Jin Province will advance westward and advance side by side with the Japanese advancing westward on the south bank of the Yellow River.
Now the Japanese are actually going to give up such an important strategic point?
Although Staff Officer Ye didn't understand the Japanese's thinking, standing in his perspective, once Pingyang was lost, Luoyi could not be taken down, and the Japanese in Hedong, Jin Province, became isolated and surrounded by enemies.
In the plan of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, it was also to take down this piece of fat after Li Yunlong, Ding Wei and their three mechanized infantry brigades were integrated, and connect Hedong and Henei into one.
"Take Hedong?" Brigade Commander received the joint operation order from the Staff Department and the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, and fell into deep thought for a while after reading the telegram.
The Japanese are going to run away, and it is not a problem to take Hedong.
But the problem is that Hedong is now in the gap between the Eighth War Zone of Guo Fu and the Second War Zone of Yan Laoxi.
How to defend it is really a problem.
Now the Taiyue Military Region has a large stall. There are 100,000 Jin troops of Yan Laoxi in the north of Hedong, and 300,000 troops of Hu in the Eighth War Zone in the west. The brigade commander is really under a lot of pressure!
If the talk breaks down, then it will be surrounded by enemies on three sides, and the brigade commander can't bear it either.
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After a long silence, the brigade commander could only sigh.
Start arranging troops.
Now we have to grab speed.
They have telecommunications decryption, and the news is definitely one step faster than Yan Laoxi, but it is not sure how much time it will be faster. After all, Yan Laoxi has not had less transactions with the Japanese, and has been flirting with each other. For the Japanese, if they want to choose a successor, they would rather choose Yan Laoxi, a fence-sitter.
So the speed must be fast.
A day later, the 25th Regiment, the 38th Regiment, and the 59th Regiment, three main regiments of the Eighth Route Army, were ordered to advance westward, taking Yicheng and Quwo directly.
The main force of the New First Regiment in Jiang County began to advance northward to capture Houma and Xinjiang Jishan, and the 16th Regiment and the 20th Regiment secretly moved to Jiang County to assist in the defense, of which the 16th Regiment's partial division went south to capture Wenxi.
Li Yunlong's mechanized infantry independent brigade, as the highlight, will run long distances to seize Hejin. His task is to seize Hejin and hand it over to the New First Regiment, and then quickly go south to Yongji!
The three main forces need to control the key areas in the north and west of Hedong in one fell swoop within three days, and then cooperate with the main force of Chen Brigade to take Hedong City!
The plan is to launch a blitzkrieg and take Hedong into its pocket when all parties have not reacted!
The plan is perfect, but there are many accidents in the battle.
When the battles of Yicheng and Houma took the lead, the Japanese joint command smelled an ominous omen. When they heard that the main force of the Eighth Route Army also appeared in Hejin, Andachi Nijūzō finally made up his mind and ordered the Japanese on the northern front to retreat south across the board!
At the same time, the 41st Division launched the Shanzhou river crossing battle in advance, and the 37th Division will be behind in Hedong City, striving for time for the 41st Division to cross the river.
In the eyes of Andachi Nijūzō and Mano Gorō, they still have enough to capture the ferry and bring the more than 30,000 Japanese troops in Hedong home!
Chen Brigade Command.
"Old Chen, the Japanese northern line has collapsed, and they are now fleeing south. How should our army respond now?" The chief of staff handed the intelligence in his hand to the brigade commander.
"Once Quwo and Houma are attacked, the Japanese will have no intention of fighting this time, and they will abandon the city and leave immediately. I estimate that the Japanese are determined to leave this time."
The brigade commander nodded.
After deciphering the early telegram of the Japanese, he was not surprised by the current operation of the Japanese.
It's just that, these are two divisions of the Japanese army. If they are released from Hedong, it will cause a lot of evil for the Chinese people. For the brigade commander, these Japanese are not worthy of leaving standing.
"Where is Li Yunlong?" The brigade commander asked.
"Just took Hejin now." The chief of staff said. "Li Yunlong is very fast. He rushed to fight a battle with the Japanese in Hejin, but due to the limited troops, he couldn't block the escape route of the Japanese. Now waiting for Ding Wei's troops to take over and go south again."
"Order Ding Wei's troops to march urgently at all costs to replace Li Yunlong's troops, and then the independent brigade will immediately go south to block the route of the Japanese from Hedong to escape south." The brigade commander changed the original strategic plan.
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