Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Chapter 246: Hedong Situation

In Hedong, the Japanese 37th Division, which was trapped in a corner, and the 41st Division, which retreated from Pingyang to Hedong, are now huddling together for warmth.

Under the instructions of the North China Front Army, Lieutenant General Ando Jujuzo, commander of the 37th Division, and Lieutenant General Mano Goro, commander of the 41st Division, established a temporary joint command.

With Lieutenant General Ando Rujizo as the commander-in-chief, they prepared to carry out self-rescue work.

For the Japanese, Hedong is now surrounded by enemies and is in a precarious situation.

"Mr. Mano, there is almost no possibility for us to turn eastward along the north bank of the Yellow River. I intend to have the 37th Division cover the rear, and the 41st Division cross the south to Shanzhou, and then advance eastward to break out of the encirclement! We have discussed our plan for so long, and I think we have no better way. Since we have to leave, we might as well make up our minds early to avoid changes." Ando Nijisan discussed with Mano Goro (previously written as Tanabe Moritake, but after checking the information, it is now Mano Goro) with a somewhat lonely look.

Thinking back to when they first entered Jin, they were so powerful and unstoppable along the way. They could hardly even stand a single blow against the regular army of the preserved fruits. Now, after only a few years, they have become like lost dogs and are about to flee.

"I really feel unwilling that such fertile land cannot belong to my locust army. Mr. Ando, ​​let's do as you say. The main force of the Eighth Route Army is now being reorganized. Relatively speaking, we can still cross the river and fight back calmly. The firepower of the Eighth Route Army is too strong now. The mobility and firepower intensity of the 107 rocket launcher are really despairing. Can't we use similar artillery? If we had this kind of weapon, we would not be so passive today." Goro Mano said unwillingly.

"I heard that they are researching it, but we haven't got the enemy's real rockets. Their rocket launchers are easy to copy, but the research on rocket propellants is said to be difficult. The rockets we have developed have a range of less than 5 kilometers."

"Moreover, the military is still hesitant about this kind of weapon that consumes a lot of resources. To them, the power of the 107 rocket launcher is similar to that of the 105 howitzer, but the resources consumed by simply producing 105 howitzer shells are much smaller. Now that the empire is short of resources, the military is not very optimistic about the development of this weapon." Anda Twenty-three seems to have a lot of connections with the military and military research, and can still receive some news even though he is thousands of miles away.

"But how can the mobility of the 105mm howitzer be compared with this rocket launcher? This is a heavy artillery that can be towed by a mule." Goro Mano was a little confused.

The military is so frugal that they are not even willing to develop more mortars with fast firing speeds! The reason is that the 92 infantry gun can solve all problems.

For an infantry squadron, a 50mm grenade launcher is enough.

This statement is also true for the previous regular army of preserved fruits.

But times have changed now.

The companies of the Eighth Route Army were equipped with 82mm mortars and rocket launchers, which they called RPGs. Their support for frontline artillery fire far exceeded that of the Locust Army.

The grenade launcher is simply garbage compared to the flexible direct-aiming RPG rocket launcher.

When it comes to the 82mm mortar, the infantry squadron on the front line can only passively take the beating!
This battle was fought in a very passive manner.

A battalion has only two infantry guns, but the opponent now has more than ten mortars at the battalion and company level!
According to the latest intelligence collected, a reinforced battalion of the Eighth Route Army now has 1 107mm firearm, 2 heavy machine guns, 12 82mm mortars, 15 general-purpose machine guns, 15 RPG rocket launchers, and 9 grenade launchers.

The intensity of this firepower is almost as strong as that of a regiment of the Japanese devils.

How can an infantry battalion with only 2 infantry guns and 2-4 90mm mortars fight?
In terms of firepower, the Locust Army is now beginning to lag behind its opponents.

The Eighth Route Army, which was originally only able to fight with bayonets, has now transformed itself into a regular army of rogue eagles with firepower coverage!

The locust army was forced to learn from the Eighth Route Army and engage in close combat and hand-to-hand combat!
But close combat is not easy either, because the opponent's gun is a new semi-automatic rifle, and its close combat firepower is far stronger than the Type 38 rifle!

For the grassroots Japanese soldiers, they probably don’t feel much at the moment.

But for old Japanese soldiers like Andada and Mano who have more information, they have now felt the deep chill of autumn!
If the empire cannot even defeat the Eighth Route Army, then the time it can continue to stay on this land will be counted down.

Therefore, now is not the time to haggle over every detail. In terms of weapons, whatever the opponent has must be replenished immediately. If there is a lack of heavy firepower, the empire's locust army can only fight desperately with their flesh and blood.

Just like the opponent named Guo Zui in the beginning.

However, the empire simply could not afford the consumption of its opponent's 4 million strong manpower.

As for resources, Nanyang has now become a new quagmire that cannot be lost but cannot be consumed either.

In addition, the situation of the European allies is not good now. From the perspective of these two old devils, from a big picture perspective, the empire is still in a precarious situation.

"Mano-kun, that's it. We'll start the transfer in three days!" Anda Twenty-three was silent for a while, and said somewhat desolately.

"The Japanese in Hedong are going to escape?" Staff Officer Ye was somewhat surprised when he received the telegram from the telecommunications decryption team.

According to Ren Zhong's deduction of Operation No. 1, the Japanese should move westward to attack Chang'an.

Now that they have managed to take over Jin, their plan to attack Chang'an from both sides of the Yellow River has basically failed, and they can't even capture Luoyi.

Hedong can be regarded as an extremely important strategic location. Hedong, Hexi and Henei have always been places of contention for military strategists in history. Owning Hedong can allow one to spy on Chang'an, and then hope that the 800-li Qinchuan will become the foundation of the emperor.

Crossing the river from the east to the west, it is a smooth journey. The Japanese's Operation No. 1 was also designed in this way. If there is spare strength, the Japanese in Shanxi Province will move westward and keep pace with the Japanese moving 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 did not understand the Japanese's thinking, from his perspective, if Pingyang was lost and Luoyi could not be taken, the Japanese in Hedong, Jin, would be isolated and surrounded by enemies. In the plan of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, they would wait for Li Yunlong, Ding Wei and their three mechanized infantry brigades to integrate and then take this piece of fat meat and connect Hedong and Hanoi.

Yan Laoxi was firmly controlled in Pingyang and no longer given any chance.

The fat meat chopped off from the Japanese devils will never be given to these old military leaders.

In this regard, the border region and the Eighth Route Army Headquarters have made up their minds.

"Take Hedong?" The brigade commander received a joint combat order from the General Staff and the Eighth Route Army Headquarters. After reading the telegram, he fell into deep thought for a moment.

If the Japanese want to escape, it will be no problem to take Hedong.

But the problem is that Hedong is now sandwiched between two major forces: Guosu's Eighth War Zone and Yan Laoxi's Second War Zone.

How to defend this is indeed a problem.

The Taiyue Military Region is now very large. There are 100,000 Jin troops under Yan Laoxi in the northeast of the Yellow River, and 300,000 troops under Hu of the Eighth War Zone in the west. The brigade commander is really in a bit of a dilemma!

If the talks really fail, we will be surrounded by enemies on three sides, and the brigade commander will find it difficult to cope.

After a long silence, the brigade commander could only sigh.

Start deploying your troops.

Now we have to speed up.

They have the ability to decipher telegrams, so they are definitely one step ahead of Yan Laoxi in getting the news, but it is hard to say how much faster. After all, Yan Laoxi has had many dealings with the Japanese, and they have been flirting with each other all the time. For the Japanese, if they have to choose someone to take over, they would rather choose a fence-sitter like Yan Laoxi.

So be fast.

A day later, the three main regiments of the Eighth Route Army, the 25th, 38th and 59th Regiments, were ordered to advance westward and directly capture Yicheng and Quwo.

As for the New 16st Regiment in Jiangxian, the main force began to attack northward to capture Houma and Xinjiang Jishan. The 20th and 16th Regiments secretly moved to Jiangxian to assist in the defense. The th Regiment went south to capture Wenxi.

Li Yunlong's Mechanized Infantry Independent Brigade, as the highlight, will have to make a long-distance attack to seize Hejin. His mission is to capture Hejin and hand it over to the New 1st Regiment, and then quickly head south to Yongji!
The three main forces need to control the important areas to the northeast and west of the river within three days, and then cooperate with the main force of Chen Brigade to capture Hedong City!

The plan is to launch a blitzkrieg and take Hedong into your possession before anyone can react!
The plan was perfect, but there were many unexpected events in the battle.

When the battles of Yicheng and Houma started first.

The Japanese joint command smelled a bad omen, and when they heard that the main force of the Eighth Route Army had also appeared in Hejin, Ando Twenty-three finally made up his mind and ordered the Japanese on the northern front to begin a full retreat to the south!

At the same time, the 41st Division launched the Shanzhou river crossing battle in advance, and the 37th Division would cover the rear in Hedong City to buy time for the 41st Division to cross the river.

In the view of Ando Rikusanshi and Mano Goro, they still have enough troops to capture the ferry and bring the more than 3 Japanese soldiers from Hedong back home!

Chen Brigade Command.

"Old Chen, the Japanese' northern front has collapsed and they are now fleeing south. How should our army respond?" The chief of staff handed the intelligence at hand to the brigade commander.

"When the battle of Quwo and Houma began, the Japanese had no will to fight and immediately abandoned the city and left. I guess they were determined to leave this time."

The brigade commander nodded.

After cracking the Japanese's previous telegrams, their current actions are not surprising.

However, these were two divisions of the Japanese devils. If they were released from Hedong, it would cause a lot of trouble for the Chinese people. To the brigade commander, these Japanese devils were not worthy of leaving on their feet.

"Where is Li Yunlong?" asked the brigade commander.

"We have just taken Hejin." said the chief of staff. "Li Yunlong was very quick and fought a fierce battle with the Japanese in Hejin, but due to limited manpower, he was unable to block the Japanese's escape route. Now we are waiting for Ding Wei's troops to take over before heading south."

"Order Ding Wei's troops to march quickly at all costs to take over the work of Li Yunlong's troops, and then the independent brigade will immediately move south to block the escape route of the Japanese in Hedong." The brigade commander changed the original strategic plan.

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(End of this chapter)