People are shining their swords, secretly helping the Iron Triangle in Northwest Shanxi

Chapter 167

The Japanese army was not harmonious, and they also had great disputes with each other.

For example, the navy called the army a jerk, and the army called the navy a jerk, and the two sides would fight each other when they met.

Even in the imperial meeting, there were cases where the generals of both sides fought violently.

Even within the Japanese army, there are different forces.

The Mongolian Army and the First Army were originally on good terms, but after the last battle, the Mongolian Army was very dissatisfied.

The more than 5000 troops of the Harada Detachment finally withdrew to only more than 2000 people, and paid a lot of casualties.

This means that the garrison in Mongolia had to deploy troops to supplement them, and they originally had not many troops.

Paying such a loss has a great impact on their defense.

The most important thing is that the Mongolian army needs to stick to the Yuncheng area in northern Shanxi, and there are successive battles in the original Pingcheng area to the south of their defense line.

As a result, the Mongolian Army had to assemble the 26th Division in the northern Shanxi area to prevent the defense area it was responsible for from being hit.

The 26th division was assembled, and the defensive strength of the Mongolian Army in the Suicha area was weakened.

The First Army of Jin Province was hit one after another and suffered heavy casualties.

Fu Yisheng, who broke away from the Jinsui army system and led his troops to Sui Province for development, seized the opportunity and continued to attack.

Fu Yisheng's army is still very capable of fighting. They won the victory of Wuyuan City before.

This caused a headache for the Mongolian Army, and they sent a telegram to the First Army.

The meaning of the garrison in Mongolia is obvious. It is hoped that the First Army can maintain the law and order in the occupied area and ensure that the occupied area will not be threatened.

And in their telegram, they also accused the First Army of being incompetent and implicating the Mongolian Army.

Yoshio Shinozuka was very annoyed when he found out about this. He looked at the map with indifferent eyes and a gloomy face.

After the report was finished, the two chief officers obediently stood aside, not daring to say anything more.

"Your Excellency, Commander, looking at it now, our first task is to quickly repair the Tongpu Railway and ensure the smooth flow of the railway."

"The Eighth Route in the northern Shanxi area obviously wants to seize the opportunity to expand the threat to us and break our blockade against them."

"Our cage policy has just taken effect, and now we must not allow them the opportunity to break through the blockade and reconnect."

"Otherwise, with the capabilities of the Eighth Route, they will take advantage of this and completely break our blockade against them in Jin Province."

"Now we need to invest enough troops to attack the Eighth Route Army in North Shanxi, quickly repair the railway, and rebuild the blockhouses."

At this moment, Kusuyama Hideyoshi hesitated, looked at Yoshio Shinozuka, and immediately made a suggestion.

The battle in the northern Shanxi area naturally does not belong to the large-scale sabotage operation that the Eighth Route General Headquarters is about to launch.

This is when the relevant troops of the Eighth Route in North Shanxi saw the opportunity, seized the opportunity decisively, and launched combat operations immediately.

They wanted to take advantage of the paralysis of the Tongpu Railway and the destruction of a large number of blockhouses in Xinxian County and Yuanping City, and immediately open up connections with each other's ministries to expand the threat to the Japanese army.

For the Japanese army, if they cannot act quickly, it will spread like a spark here, which will bring them a fatal blow.

Maybe other troops don't have this ability, but for the Eighth Route Army, they can easily do it.

"Chu Yunfei, Chen Ziyun, and Li Yunlong are very lucky. This time they are lucky."

"The Yamamoto Special Forces, the independent mixed fourth brigade quickly put into combat in the area too far north."

"We will do our best to fight against the attacking Eighth Route Army to ensure absolute law and order in the occupied areas of Xin County and Yuanping City."

"At the same time, contact the independent and mixed third brigade and the independent and mixed eighth brigade, and ask them to send personnel immediately to quickly repair the railway."

"Contact the Royal Association Army, let them take care of the migrant workers, and speed up the construction of the blockhouse."

Shinozuka Yoshio showed a serious expression on his face, and he directly issued the combat order and said.

Because of the emergency in Xin County and Yuanping City, Yoshio Shinozuka was forced to abandon the original plan.

Originally planning to go into combat to attack Chu Yunfei's troops, Li Yunlong's Yamamoto Special Forces, an independent and mixed fourth brigade, began to fight northward.

After Kazuki Yamamoto and Mitake Tsuda received the combat order, they immediately got up and saluted and agreed.

The Japanese army began to focus on combat operations in Xinxian County and Yuanpingcheng area.

The Yamamoto special team directly launched a surprise attack, while the independent and mixed fourth brigade directly launched a sweep attack.

The overall strength of these two troops is not weak. After they came to the battlefield, the situation here changed instantly.

Each brigade of the Independent Mixed Fourth Brigade is a field brigade, and because it serves as the mobile combat unit of the First Army Command.

These field brigades have been additionally strengthened, and their artillery squadrons have been directly expanded into artillery squadrons.

In addition to the original two infantry guns, each brigade was reinforced with two rapid-fire guns.

This means that each of their brigades has four artillery pieces, fully capable of fighting alone.

For a while, there were successive battles in Xinxian and other areas. When the battle lasted until the beginning of July, the Eighth Route Army stopped moving and dispersed to hide.

The Japanese and puppet troops took the opportunity to quickly build blockhouses and gun towers, and relevant personnel also accelerated the repair of the persecuted Tongpu Railway.

There is an independent mixed fourth brigade, and Yamamoto's secret service team is assisting, and there is almost no attack here.

By mid-July, a large number of artillery towers and bunkers had been built.

And they built a large number of blockade ditches to ensure the safety of these blockhouses.

At the same time, the turrets and bunkers they built before were brick-concrete structures, and such turrets and bunkers naturally could not withstand artillery strikes.

Now, most of the blockhouses and bunkers they built are steel-concrete structures, which are very strong and can directly withstand the direct-pointing shelling of some mountain artillery and field artillery.

On July [-], the First Army Command directly issued relevant orders.

A large number of imperial association troops stationed in the blockhouses and bunkers began to be strengthened with heavy weapons.

A large number of light and heavy machine guns and mortars of different calibers captured by the Japanese army began to be distributed to the Royal Association Army.

It is now July 40, and the little devil has already supported a large number of puppet troops.

These puppet troops have different designations, such as appeasement army, security army, imperial association army, security team and so on.

But because of distrust of these puppet troops, the little devils only equipped them with rifles and a small number of light machine guns.

Only some special puppet troops will be strengthened with heavy weapons.

Even if a large number of puppet troops stationed in blockhouses and bunkers to assist the Japanese army in combat, they only had rifles and light machine guns as weapons.

However, after the order of the First Army was issued, all the puppet troops who entered the gun towers and bunkers to assist the Japanese army in fighting began to obtain heavy weapons.

Light and heavy machine guns, 60MM mortars, 82MM mortars and other weapons began to be distributed.

The little devil intends to enhance the combat effectiveness of the puppet army, so as to assist the Japanese army in better operations.

Of course, even though the puppet army has been strengthened with weapons, they are still under the jurisdiction of the Japanese army.

The little devil troops are strictly guarding the puppet troops to prevent them from using these heavy weapons to rebel.

After a large number of puppet troops obtained heavy weapons, the overall combat effectiveness of these bunker towers built by the Japanese army was naturally improved again.

Time is passing, and on July 33, with the 34rd Army and [-]th Army under the Seventh Army, the formation was completely adjusted.

The independent 48th brigade naturally does not have to undertake related defense tasks.

As for where to deploy this force, it has become a difficult problem for Zhao Yinfu, commander-in-chief of the Seventh Army.

For this reason, Zhao Yinfu had to contact Yan Laoxi for instructions on how to arrange the independent 48th Brigade.

Previously, the independent 48th brigade was arranged near the Yangcun area, completely to clear the relationship.

But now that Yan Laoxi is actively wooing Chu Yunfei and Chen Ziyun, and sending them here again, it is obviously unreasonable.

At eight o'clock in the evening on the 48th, Zhao Yinfu came to the Independent [-]th Brigade in person and read out the order of the Second Theater Commander's Department in public.

Chu Yunfei's independent 48th brigade continued to deploy in the Yangcun area for defense.

However, unlike before, this time the 33st Division under the 71rd Army will also go forward for deployment.

The 71st Division is a unit formed by Yan Laoxi very early on, and the combat effectiveness of this unit is not too bad.

They go out to deploy positions and can undertake the connection between the independent 48th brigade and the main force of the group army.

Moreover, during combat, the 71st Division was not only able to quickly assist the Independent 48th Brigade in combat, but it was also able to assist the Independent 48th Brigade to withdraw to the main position.

Although Chu Yunfei's troops were still deployed near Yang Village, the treatment was completely different.

They didn't have any support before, and they were completely thrown out alone.

But now there are powerful friendly forces behind them, who can carry out support operations at any time.

"Brigade Commander Chu, this deployment was decided through personal communication between Chief Yan and I."

"You also know that the tentacles of the little devil have already reached us."

"They wantonly established strongholds along the main towns. They are dividing and blocking the Eighth Route Army, and at the same time they are also establishing forward bases to attack us."

"The main reason for deploying you near the Yangcun area is that you can contain the advance of the Japanese army."

"If they want to build a stronghold here, you must attack decisively."

"There is another thing, that is, this Jin Province, no matter what, it is better for us Jin Province people to manage it."

"Although we are retreating to the west of Shanxi, we can regain more lost ground, which is what Chief Yan would like to see."

Zhao Yinfu explained in detail, and he personally approved a batch of combat supplies to the Independent 48th Brigade.

Chu Yunfei didn't say much about it. At ten o'clock in the evening, he began to bring the troops back to the previous station.

Up to now, the Japanese First Army has been continuously strengthened, and the North China Front Army is unwilling to see problems in Jin Province.

For the North China Front Army, within their current jurisdiction, the biggest threat is here in Jin Province.

There are not only Wei Junru's 10,000+ troops stationed in Zhongtiao Mountain in southern Shanxi, but also a large number of Eighth Route troops active in the occupied areas behind the enemy.

At the same time, the Jinsui Army in the western Shanxi region is also constantly expanding its strength through health and rest. Up to now, under the Jinsui Army's establishment, there are four group armies.

This is not counting the artillery unit, guard unit, engineering unit and large-scale guerrilla column established directly under Yan Laoxi!
Jin Province poses a great threat to the North China Front Army. Once the battle situation here changes, the consequences will be disastrous.

Therefore, as of mid-July, the North China Front Army tried to strengthen the strength of the First Army.

They are very supportive of the First Army's plan to annihilate Chu Yunfei's troops and Li Yunlong's troops.

At this time, not to mention the troops directly under the First Army, they are already very powerful.

They have mountain artillery, field artillery, and mortar units directly under them, as well as engineering units, armored units, and heavy machine gun units.

In addition, they also got an independent heavy artillery brigade, which is equipped with twelve 150MM howitzers.

Not to mention the battlefield in Jin Province, it is placed in various theaters. The Japanese 150MM howitzer is definitely a big killer.

Of course, the Liao-made artillery for the First Army was specially strengthened before, and it has not been withdrawn yet.

And through contact with the front army, the Kwantung Army once again transported a batch of ammunition to replenish.

Umezu Yoshijiro, who is currently the commander of the Kwantung Army, is the second commander of the First Army.

Yoshio Shinozuka succeeded him as the third commander of the First Army.

Therefore, Umezu Yoshijiro has some feelings for the First Army, and is willing to give some support.

During this period of time, the first army of little devils has been continuously strengthened and supplemented.

With enough strength, the little devil naturally wants to take action.

Some of their strongholds were almost pushed forward and built under the noses of the Jinsui army. This was also a warning from the Japanese army to Yan Laoxi.

Here in the Yangcun area, the little devil also dispatched troops to investigate one after another.

Some favorable terrains were also sent by the little devils to station small groups of troops, and they continued to build positions and fortifications.

Under such circumstances, the Seventh Army dispatched the Independent 48th Brigade to advance to the original station, obviously to allow them to undertake combat tasks.

Chu Yunfei didn't care about this. Now the Independent 48th Brigade can be said to have a strong army, and fighting against the little devils is also what he looks forward to.

At two o'clock in the morning on July 21, Chen Ziyun commanded the 11th Preparatory Regiment to enter the station first.

Zhang Wu, the commander of the cavalry company staying here, reported the situation to Chen Ziyun immediately.

After Chen Ziyun listened to the report, he looked towards the Yangcun area, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

He knew that the famous large-scale sabotage battle was about to start, and he was looking forward to what kind of combat mission Li Yunlong's troops would have.

When the large-scale sabotage battle was carried out in the original drama, Li Yunlong had just taken over the heavily damaged independent regiment.

So he did not participate in the initial battle, but only participated in the combat mission to encircle and wipe out the Yamazaki Brigade in the later period.

But the situation is different now. Li Yunlong's new regiment is the main field regiment, with more than 2000 troops.

Even the second regiment of Ding Weixin and the independent regiment of Kong Jie have more than 1000 troops, and the overall weapons and equipment are very sophisticated.

"No matter what, in this battle, we must persuade Chu Yunfei to help out." Chen Ziyun murmured to himself.

Until July 22, Chu Yunfei's Independent 48th Brigade returned to its station near Yangcun again.

It was also on this day that the Eighth Route General Headquarters began to issue the "Battle Preparation Order".

In this order, the general headquarters requested that no less than 22 regiments be dispatched to prepare for a large-scale sabotage operation against the Zhengtai Railway.

At the same time, the General Command requested other ministries to deploy troops to fight against Tongpu Railway, Pinghan Railway, Jinpu Railway and other railways as well as major highways.

For a while, the various ministries that received the order began to carry out secret transfers.

Not long after, Ding Weixin's regiment began to leave the station and secretly went to the eastern Shanxi area.

And Li Yunlong, who got the news, exploded in an instant. He started cursing his mother in the regiment headquarters.

(End of this chapter)