Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Changjin Lake, a Hundred Battles, a Hundred Victories

Chapter 241 Big Dumplings!
Hearing the report from the Japanese spy dispelled Okamura's last doubts.

Gangcun was very clear about the captain's methods. He had achieved the current unified situation by using tactics of winning over and dividing people.

Although the details of the secret talks in Shuoxian are unclear, it is certain that with Chen Ming preoccupied with both the wedding and the secret talks, he has absolutely no energy to mobilize his main forces to launch simultaneous attacks on Guihua and Jining.

Little did he know that Chen Ming was not in Shuoxian at all, and the secret talks in Shuoxian were fake.

It was merely a smokescreen put out by Chen Ming and Zhang Zhengze, using Japanese spies to transmit intelligence.

Meanwhile, Gangcun had already filled in the gaps in his own mind regarding the battle situation reported back from Jining and Guihua.

"The troops stationed in Mongolia are truly useless; they managed to fight this badly against the local Chinese armed forces!"

In Gangcun's mind, the credibility of the troops stationed in Mongolia had turned negative, and their combat effectiveness had lost trust.

Therefore, the current unfavorable situation in Jining and Guihua is attributed by Gangcun to the incompetence of the garrison troops stationed in Mongolia.

It's no wonder he thought that way. In order to cope with the pressure from the Independent Detachment, the main elite troops stationed in Mongolia were concentrated in Datong and Wucheng.

These two cities are far more important than others, and Datong is also in direct confrontation with the Independent Detachment. How can we not station a large number of troops there?

As for the three cities north of Datong—Baotou, Guihua, and Jining—only Baotou was garrisoned by the 3rd Tank Division to hold the forward offensive support city and deal with the Northern Route Army.

The fighting strength of the garrison troops in Jining and Guihua was only rifles, with only one battalion in each, plus some puppet Mongolian troops.

In this situation, facing a "local armed force" equipped with a large number of flying thunder cannons, it was normal for Gangcun to suffer some setbacks.

Actually, dealing with the Flying Thunder Cannon is not difficult. Okamura had also obtained Flying Thunder Cannons used by the Eighth Route Army from the battlefield and studied them.

Okamura looked down on this weapon; it was too rudimentary.

The Flying Thunder Cannon was, after all, a weapon born out of extreme scarcity of resources and industry, and it was certainly no match for the Japanese industrial capacity.

In the face of this weapon, defenses can include digging reverse slope fortifications to avoid direct blast impact and deploying multiple buffer fortifications.

In terms of counterattacks, the range of grenade launchers or mortars can be used to suppress the firing positions of flying mine guns.

Setting up a flying thunder cannon requires one to two hours of digging a pit and burying the barrel, and the location is fixed. For the elite Japanese grenade launcher soldiers, that means they are sitting ducks.

It can be said that the elite Japanese troops were not afraid of weapons like the Flying Thunder Cannon, but the Japanese troops in Jining and Guihua were no longer elite.

Even though he thought the troops stationed in Mongolia were useless, Okamura still had to send reinforcements.

Otherwise, if a misstep were to allow these "local armed forces" to capture either Jining or Guihua, the entire North China Expeditionary Army would become a laughing stock.

If the Chinese militia were to capture the city, not only would the naval idiots laugh at us, but other units in the army would also laugh.

Okamura can't afford to lose face like that.

Twenty miles outside Guihua City, Chen Ming's forward command post.

The radio in the command center was running continuously, and the staff inside were busy performing their respective duties.

"Report: From the direction of Baotou, the Japanese have dispatched a regiment. According to reports from the forward reconnaissance units, the Japanese have deployed 65 tanks, 11 self-propelled artillery vehicles, and approximately 600 infantrymen."

"The regiment is currently providing support to Guihua and is expected to arrive in Guihua at 6 p.m. tonight."

"Report: The Japanese have dispatched an infantry battalion, about 900 men, from the Datong direction. They are expected to arrive in Jining by noon tomorrow."

"Report: A Japanese infantry battalion of about a thousand men has been dispatched from the direction of Wucheng. They are expected to arrive in Jining the day after tomorrow morning."

Inside the command post, messages were collected by the staff and sent to Chief of Staff Wang Dafei, who then organized and reported them to Chen Ming.

Chen Ming's group now has a large force and needs a formalized staff system to handle the massive amount of information processing.

It's no longer possible to handle these tasks with just a few people like before.

The command of dozens of battalions generates a large amount of information every moment, involving the war in several provinces.

If only a few people are tasked with processing this information, they could work themselves to death and still not finish.

As Chen Ming listened to Chief of Staff Wang Dafei's report, he looked at the map in front of him and combined it with the secondary maps of several units in his mind, quickly analyzing and planning.

A few minutes later, Chen Ming made a decision.

"Great! One armored regiment and two infantry battalions. This time, the meat in our pot is getting fatter and fatter."

Chen Ming said with a smile.

"Yes, the Japanese only deployed one armored regiment, with more than sixty tanks. Our special forces have been training for so long, and we can finally test their results."

Chief of Staff Wang Dafei said with a smile, also not taking the Japanese tank regiment seriously.

Putting aside the equipment and manpower advantages of the Japanese tank regiments, the quality of their soldiers alone was inferior.

The Japanese tank regiment was originally a cavalry group that was reorganized.

In just a few months, a group of mounted cavalrymen have become proficient in armored warfare?
Of course, the reorganization of the special forces of the independent detachment took about the same time as that of the Japanese.

But don't forget that before the special forces were reorganized, the independent detachment already had an armored company and had trained a group of armored soldiers.

With this foundation of armored troops, armored battalions have an advantage in armored warfare.

In the past few months, the main focus of the special forces training has been on the coordination between different branches of the armed forces, in order to increase the level of cooperation during combat.

It's impossible for the Japanese armored forces to have transformed from cavalry to armored forces in just a few months, and with such good coordination.

Moreover, Chen Ming's ability to lead and train troops is well-known.

The soldiers he trained had a much higher success rate and faster training speed than other units.

This phenomenon remains a mystery to this day, and commanders from other units are envious, sending representatives to learn from their experience on numerous occasions.

However, it didn't have much effect. Ultimately, it could only be attributed to Chen Ming's willingness to invest resources in training troops, coupled with the strong teaching staff of the independent detachment, which enabled such a strong effect.

After all, the speed of education and training is an abstract concept that cannot be directly quantified and is difficult to explain.

Thanks to the special forces' superior coordination and training, coupled with Kong Jie's deployment in the Tuozuoqi area.

A mere armored regiment is nothing but easy prey if it comes.

If the special forces detachment plus all of Kong Jie's main force can't defeat a single Japanese armored regiment, then Kong Jie and Zhou Weiguo should just quit leading troops and go home to take care of their children.

After understanding the battlefield situation, Chen Ming issued the battle plan:

"Chief of Staff Wang, please take note of the following adjustments I've made to the deployment."

Wang Dafei immediately picked up his notebook and began taking notes.

"Use the 4th and 5th Independent Battalions, plus two independent guerrilla battalions, to strengthen the Fengzhen defense line and block the two infantry battalions that the Japanese are reinforcing."

"The First Battalion of the Independent Column, plus the Independent Column Howitzer Company and Rocket Artillery Battalion, will be responsible for the attack on Guihua."

"The First Independent Brigade, along with the Independent Mountain Artillery Battalion and two artillery battalions, besieged Jining."

"The Second Battalion of the Independent Column and a special detachment, along with a company of rocket artillery battalion, were deployed to block the Japanese armored regiment in Baotou along the Dahei line in Tuzuoqi."

"The four cavalry battalions of the cavalry detachment are blocking the Japanese troops' escape route to the north in the Shangdu and Wuchuan areas, and monitoring the Japanese troops in the direction of Rehe."

"The Third Battalion will remain in reserve."

Chen Ming calmly and methodically issued the adjusted battle plan.

This time, he wants to eat a big dumpling.

The more than 4,000 Japanese troops stationed in Jining and Guihua, along with a Japanese armored regiment and two infantry battalions in Baotou, were encircled and annihilated between the provinces of Suiyuan and Chahar. At the same time, the escape route of the Japanese tank division was completely cut off, trapping the Japanese 3rd Tank Division in Baotou.

In this way, we can sweep across the north, eliminate the formidable enemy, the Japanese 3rd Tank Division, and further crush the half-buried body of the troops stationed in Mongolia.

At that time, Suiyuan, Chahar, Outer Mongolia, and northern Shanxi will become the backyard of the Independent Detachment.

At the same time, they made contact with the Soviet army to the north and received aid to further strengthen their capabilities.

Chen Ming could then shift his attention to Xing'an and Rehe regions to plan for the Northeast.

Everyone says the Japanese Kwantung Army is very strong, but Chen Ming doesn't believe it!

He's targeting the elite!

Wang Dafei repeated Chen Ming's orders, confirmed that there were no problems, and began to issue the orders to the various units.

Inside the command post, Chen Ming drew an X on the map for the two cities of Guihua and Jining, as well as the Dahei River line.

He also drew a huge circle in northern Shanxi, Chahar, Suiyuan, and parts of Outer Mongolia.

"Let's take the lives of the Japanese devils and this territory as our wedding gift."

Chen Ming thought to himself.

On the day of his wedding, he secretly went to the front lines to launch an autumn offensive.

For both Chen Ming and Cheng Qingrong, it was a huge sacrifice.

How many truly joyous events are there in life?
This is not the future; a marriage is very likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Personally, Chen Ming has let down his wife, Cheng Qingrong.

But for the nation and the country, this is a necessary sacrifice!

Without a country, where is a home?

Gui Sui.

Upon receiving the order, He Jianxin immediately adjusted the deployment and issued further instructions.

The howitzer company removed its camouflage, moved into position, adjusted, and prepared.

Shells were carried up one by one, ready to be fired at any time, so that these four 150mm battlefield weapons could be used to bombard the Japanese troops in Guihua.

The rocket artillery battalion did the same, beginning to assemble the scattered rocket launchers into a twelve-tube salvo firing pattern.

The rocket artillery battalion has three companies, two of which are equipped with 107mm rocket launchers and one company is equipped with 88mm rocket launchers.

The rocket artillery battalion in Guihua consisted of these two 107mm rocket launchers, which used their kill zones to eliminate the Japanese and puppet troops in Guihua.

The rocket artillery batteries assigned to the Second Battalion and Special Operations Units, with their 88mm caliber, were better suited for anti-armor warfare.

He Jianxin's infantry were also ready at any moment, waiting for the command to give the order to launch a general offensive.

In order to conceal their strength, Chen Ming ordered a slowdown in the offensive after capturing the outer positions of Guihua.

As a result, outside Guihua City, He Jianxin's troops, who were responsible for the feigned attack, began to engage in a tug-of-war with the Guihua garrison.

The two sides were like playing a game of "Push-Push," with the battle lines changing hands multiple times.

In order to mislead the Japanese, He Jianxin even organized the attacking troops to put on a show.

Some soldiers were running when they were suddenly "shot" and fell to the ground, and were then "driven back" by the Japanese.

Then other soldiers carried away the soldiers who had been "sacrificed, wounded, or fallen to the ground".

This was repeated to give the Japanese the false impression that the attacking force had suffered heavy casualties.

Therefore, in the eyes of the defenders of Guihua, although they were initially in a losing position and their outer defense chain had been largely broken by these "local armed forces".

However, after realizing what was happening, they successfully withstood the attack of the Chinese troops and inflicted heavy casualties on them.

In Guihua alone, the number of enemy troops killed reported to the Japanese army headquarters in Mongolia exceeded two thousand.

But there were just too many enemies, like ants. If the fighting continued, the Chinese troops might actually drive the enemy into the city.

This would give the Japanese the illusion that the attacking force initially caught them off guard with its flying thunder cannons and surprise attacks, but that the attacking force was not very strong.

The Japanese perceived the need to further strengthen the offensive forces.

This would put pressure on the Japanese defenses without scaring them into sending out more troops to support them.

Ding Wei's troops, who were responsible for taking over Jining, also began preparations.

Although the heavy artillery company and rocket artillery battalion of the independent detachment had been transferred to other places, Ding Wei basically had no large-caliber weapons at his disposal.

But it's enough to just attack Jining.

After Jining was attacked by the Independent Detachment, a large number of its fortifications were destroyed. Even after reconstruction, its defenses were not as strong as before.

One mountain artillery battalion, plus two artillery battalions directly under the Independent Detachment, and Ding Wei's own artillery battalion.

With the firepower of four artillery battalions, plus a troop ratio of over five to one, taking Jining would be no problem; the only difference would be the time it would take.

Ding Wei and He Jianxin are now waiting for Chen Ming to give the order for a general offensive.

Once the order is given, they are confident that they can take down the mission objective within a few hours.

Inside the frontline command post, Chen Ming was also waiting.

He was waiting for news from Kong Jie.

Kong Jie's unit was responsible for blocking and eliminating the Japanese armored regiment that was providing support from the direction of Baotou.

To eliminate this regiment, we must wait until they cross the Black River.

If we just blow up the bridge, the Japanese tanks won't be able to cross the river, right?

It's not an amphibious tank; it would break down immediately if it entered the water.

Once the Japanese soldiers cross the river, this armored regiment will be trapped.

With the retreat route cut off, heading east meant crashing headlong into Kong Jie's pocket.

Even if they break through the pocket formation, they will enter another large pocket and be surrounded and annihilated by the three forces of Kong Jie, Xu Desheng, and He Jianxin, who have captured Guihua.

To go north, they would have to cross a mountainous area. The fact that the Japanese armored regiment dared to go north was a testament to the fact that the cavalry detachment blocking the north was also a concern.

The complex terrain of the mountainous area alone could wear down the Japanese armored regiment that had lost its logistics.

Unlike cavalry regiments, armored units cannot run continuously on just a few meals and fodder, which can cover 100 kilometers with only a few steamed buns and fodder.

Once armored units run out of fuel, even the thickest armor and the strongest firepower will become useless.

If they went south, they would have entered the Jin-Sui base area, where the pursuing special forces and Kong Jie would have been annihilated on the north bank of the Yellow River.

It can be said that once the Japanese armored regiment crossed the Dahei River, they would have no chance of escaping.

The key now is to prevent the Japanese armored regiment from discovering Chen Ming's deception before they cross the Dahei River.

However, at least for now, it seems the Japanese haven't discovered it yet.

(End of this chapter)