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

Chapter 244 Victory on Multiple Fronts: The Firepower of the Heavy Artillery Division!
After destroying the last forty-odd Japanese tanks, Zhou Weiguo stood on the final battlefield, looking at the burning Japanese tanks.

On the battlefield, there were no Japanese soldiers left alive; all the Japanese soldiers and their armored weapons had been destroyed.

The special forces unit also paid the price of losing eight tanks.

The kill ratio reached five to one, a kill ratio achieved in the clash between armored forces, a crushing victory on a global scale.

Both sides had the same tanks, yet they managed to achieve such a high kill ratio.

Ultimately, the reason was that the ambush artillery fire destroyed the infantry under the cover of the Japanese tank regiment.

Then the armored battalion launched a surprise attack from the flank on the Japanese tank formation, forcing them to flee before pursuing them.

"Report the situation to headquarters immediately and clean up the battlefield right away."

"Check the tanks on the battlefield to see if any can be repaired. If they can, repair them as soon as possible and try to scrape together the parts from a few tanks."

"If there aren't any, just disassemble the parts, pack them up, and take them back for future tank repairs."

Zhou Weiguo immediately gave the order, his voice filled with excitement.

In this battle, he successfully proved himself and showed that he had not let Chen Ming down.

Although he is only the chief of staff of the special forces, he is the one who directly commands the troops once a battle begins.

It's just that because of his background, he couldn't rightfully become a military commander.

Chen Ming valued him so much, and today he annihilated a Japanese tank regiment, finally delivering a satisfactory result.

"Yes."

Ding Weibu.

After Chen Ming issued the order for the general offensive, he and Kong Jie's troops launched their attack at almost the same time.

"Pass on my order: East and West artillery groups, open fire! Bombard the Japanese positions! Take down their artillery positions first!"

"After fifteen minutes of shelling, the main attacking force must take the city wall within one hour!"

Ding Wei issued the order.

Ding Wei has become quite wealthy now, backed by the production capacity of the Fourth Military Sub-district's arsenal, with ample artillery shells.

The shelling is no longer calculated by the number of shells fired, but directly by the time spent firing.

Fifteen minutes of shelling—that was a luxury during the War of Resistance against Japan.

They were attacking a city that had already been conquered, and Ding Wei was determined to take Jining.

Once Jining is captured, continuing northward will allow access to Outer Mongolia and re-establish contact with the Far Eastern Army.

Then we can bring back the artillery and weapons we won, greatly enhancing the firepower and strength of the independent detachment.

When we get our hands on 48 cannons, we can launch a second attack on Datong, threaten Wucheng, and have a showdown with the Japanese Kwantung Army.

After Ding Wei gave the order, the artillery units immediately followed the command, loaded shells, and fired them toward Jining.

Chen Ming assigned Ding Wei a mountain artillery battalion, two artillery battalions, plus Ding Wei's own artillery battalion for the attack on Jining.

The total firepower of four artillery battalions.

What would it be like if four artillery battalions opened fire simultaneously?
The Japanese soldiers in Jining know this best now.

The Japanese soldiers in Jining were just celebrating their victory over the Eighth Route Army's attack outside the city.

Then they witnessed a scene that made their eyes widen in horror.

The sky was filled with a dense barrage of shells, accompanied by the whistling sound of them cutting through the air.

Some of the newly recruited Japanese soldiers were unaware of what was going on, but the experienced veterans knew all too well what it was.

"Baka! It's artillery fire! Take cover!"

The Japanese veteran shouted in despair, ignoring the other soldiers, and could only haphazardly find the nearest cover to hide in.

Some of the new Japanese recruits were initially taken aback when they heard the veterans' shouts.

The Eighth Route Army's heartless cannons could only fire two or three hundred meters, right?

They have no sign of the Eighth Route Army's unscrupulous artillery within hundreds of meters of their line of sight, so why should they hide?
"Bang bang bang!"

"Ahhh!"

"."

Intense artillery fire unleashed a series of explosions on the Japanese positions, interspersed with the screams of the Japanese soldiers.

The sounds of exploding shells, the whistling of shells cutting through the air, and the screams of the Japanese soldiers combined to create a beautiful symphony.

Caught off guard, the Japanese suffered heavy casualties in the initial barrage of artillery fire.

The Japanese soldiers who survived the first round of shelling were grateful that they had reacted quickly and had not died from the shelling.

They will be safe once the Eighth Route Army's shelling ends.

One minute!

three minutes!
five minutes!
ten minutes!
Ten minutes of shelling passed, and the surviving Japanese soldiers discovered in despair that a full ten minutes had gone by, and the Eighth Route Army's shelling showed no sign of stopping.

"what"

"Madam, I want to go home."

"Help me, I don't want to die."

The Japanese soldiers were in despair; the enemy had so many shells, and the shelling seemed endless.

Due to the suddenness of the shelling, a considerable number of Japanese soldiers did not have enough time to take shelter in specialized anti-artillery fortifications and could only find the nearest fortification to hide in.

However, how could fortifications designed to defend against stray bullets possibly withstand artillery fire for long?

As their shelters were gradually destroyed by artillery fire, it wouldn't take more than a few shells for them to be completely exposed to the artillery fire.

Death is not terrible, what is terrible is the process of waiting for death.

Many people are not afraid of being shot, but if you cut their blood vessels and make them watch their blood slowly drain away, their life slowly slipping away, most people cannot bear it.

If you blindfolded someone, cut open a blood vessel, and then use water to simulate blood flow, they might even be scared to death.

Several Japanese soldiers, who were hiding in the dilapidated fortifications and waiting for their deaths, could not bear the psychological torment. After curling up together, they detonated their grenades and went out of control.

Several others were driven mad and ran out of their shelter, only to be killed by artillery fire.

Looking through his binoculars at the Japanese positions under the shelling, Ding Wei couldn't help but sigh:
"This is how the war must be fought!"

If you can eliminate the enemy with artillery shells, don't sacrifice your soldiers' lives.

Shells are a renewable resource, but once the soldiers' lives are gone, they are gone forever.

Life is priceless. If we were to truly assign value to it, a well-trained soldier, once the unit grows and expands, would become an outstanding grassroots cadre.

A single soldier might not be of much value, but what about a platoon leader, a company commander, or even a battalion commander?

Therefore, Ding Wei preferred to sacrifice casualties with artillery shells rather than send his soldiers into battle to save ammunition.

This aligns with Chen Ming's philosophy: weapons and ammunition are scarce and expensive, but the lives of soldiers are the most precious.

In the past, when ammunition was scarce, we had no choice but to risk our lives.

Now that we've developed and the output of the arsenals has increased, wouldn't it be a waste of development to still risk our lives to fight?
Anyway, once we capture Jining and open up a channel to the Far East Army, the artillery and shells will be resupplied.

The independent detachment will not suffer a decline in combat effectiveness due to the current consumption of too much ammunition.

Fifteen minutes later.

After the shelling ended, Ding Wei put away his binoculars and gave the order to attack.

"Order the troops to advance and liberate Jining!"

"Yes." Under the cover of artillery fire, Ding Wei's two battalions advanced towards Jining City.

The Japanese suffered heavy losses under the artillery fire; of the original 1,500 Japanese soldiers, only a little over 800 remained to defend Jining.

Many of them were wounded, greatly reducing their combat effectiveness.

Ding Wei's two battalions together numbered nearly two thousand men.

Because Chen Ming restricted the size of the troops, Ding Wei's unit did not have enough unit designations, so they had to continue expanding their size within the existing designations.

Just like after our army won the War of Resistance against Japan, there were 1.2 million troops under the three divisions.

It quickly grew to a scale of 48 divisions (during negotiations after the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, our Party proposed reorganizing 48 divisions).
Ding Wei's battalion was a force of nearly a thousand men, roughly equivalent to a small regiment.

With such an overwhelming numerical advantage, coupled with the seamless coordination of infantry and artillery tactics, the Japanese counterattack was like a floating duckweed in the wind, teetering on the brink of collapse.

In just half an hour, Ding Wei's two battalions broke through the outer defenses of Jining from multiple lines and successfully entered the city.

A street battle has begun!
Ding Wei dispatched a commando company as the vanguard, who were the first to rush into the city streets.

This assault company was carrying samples previously produced by the arsenal. After Chen Ming's inspection, it was decided to temporarily seal off this version and not use it.

However, the guns produced could not be left unused, so Chen Ming distributed more than a hundred of them to Ding Wei and more than a hundred to He Jianxin as weapons for the assault team.

Although this replica gun is relatively unreliable and complicated to maintain, it is just as good when it is fired.

In urban warfare, the firepower of semi-automatic rifles is far superior to that of traditional bolt-action rifles.

In the chaos of battle, a large number of Japanese soldiers died from the muzzle of this unnamed replica gun.

The Japanese troops in Jining were quickly defeated and killed, and a large number of their puppet troops were also wiped out. Under the barrage of artillery fire, the shells did not distinguish whether you wanted to surrender or not.

The surviving puppet troops were terrified and quickly chose to surrender.

Thus, the shelling lasted a total of five hours, just like the Independent Detachment's combat style, where attacks on cities were measured in hours.

He Jianxin's troops also made a successful attack.

As the strongest and most heavily armed reinforced battalion in the independent detachment.

This time, he has two 107mm rocket artillery companies, one 150mm heavy artillery company, and two artillery battalions from headquarters.

With such abundant firepower, Kong Jie is far superior to Ding Wei.

What's the point of talking about attacking Guihua under these circumstances?

All that's needed is artillery fire.

When we were poor, we had to calculate our tactical maneuvers precisely. Now that we're rich, we don't care about the details; we just want to cover the ground with firepower first.

He Jianxin's offensive was even more successful than Ding Wei's.

The combined power of a 150mm howitzer and a 107mm rocket launcher is far superior to that of the four artillery battalions under Ding Wei's command.

Ding Wei's most formidable force was a mountain artillery battalion, with a caliber of only 75 mm.

Compared to a 150mm howitzer, the caliber is twice as big!
If the caliber differs by a factor of two, according to the principles of geometry, the mass of the shell will increase eightfold.

The quality of the shell directly affects the amount of propellant and the explosive power. For example, the power of a 152mm howitzer is more than five times that of a 76mm howitzer!
The instantaneous firepower coverage of the 107mm rocket launcher is even more astonishing!

Although its power is not as great as that of a 150mm howitzer, rocket artillery has a particularly prominent kill radius.

The intensity of a 12-tube salvo from a 107mm rocket launcher is equivalent to the salvo intensity of two 150mm howitzer battalions.

And this 12-tube 107mm rocket artillery salvo was fired by more than one independent detachment.

When placed on the battlefield, it had the effect of an instantaneous barrage of heavy artillery fire.

The Japanese troops in Guihua were facing a barrage of rocket and howitzer artillery from He Jianxin's unit; it was as if they had met their doom.

In an instant, the battlefield was covered in flames from the explosion, turning it into a pot of steel porridge.

The Japanese troops in Guihua suffered heavy losses in the first wave of artillery fire.

The walls of Guihua were also blown down by the immense power of 150mm howitzers.

He Jianxin's troops triumphantly stormed into the city and launched a street battle to eliminate the Japanese soldiers involved.

It can be said that Kong Jie's victory was achieved by luring the enemy deep into his territory, catching them off guard, and winning through tactics.

Ding Wei's victory was achieved by taking advantage of the fact that Jining had been captured before and that its defenses were inadequate; it can also be considered a tactical victory.

The victory achieved by He Jianxin's troops was a completely asymmetric warfare tactic.

With overwhelming firepower, they blasted open Guihua, striking the Japanese army's fatal weakness with minimal cost.

Alternatively, the Battle of Guihua can be viewed as a massive brick-flying attack!

The independent detachment achieved victory on all three main battlefields. Chen Ming, in the command post, received reports from various units and made continuous adjustments.

The battle turning out this way was within Chen Ming's expectations.

With reinforcements from Guihua, Jining, and Baotou, the total strength of the Japanese and puppet troops exceeded 25,000.

The independent detachment deployed all its main forces, along with a small number of local armed forces, resulting in a force disparity of two times.

They have a clear advantage in firepower, and also in tactics.

With overwhelming advantages in tactics, manpower, and firepower, unless the Japanese were superhuman, they could not possibly lose this battle.

After briefly summarizing the results of each unit's battles, Chen Ming reported the situation to headquarters.

North China Expeditionary Army Headquarters.

Gangcun flew into a rage inside the command post, his face ashen and veins bulging.

None of the Japanese officers in the command post dared to meet his gaze, nor did they even have the courage to look at his face.

Judging from the situation on the battlefield, the main force of the Independent Detachment had secretly moved to Chahar and Suiyuan to fight, without anyone noticing.

Throughout this process, the entire Japanese intelligence system remained completely unaware, and even made things worse.

If it weren't for the false information sent back by the Japanese spies, he wouldn't have failed to anticipate the possibility of an attack when the Independent Detachment underwent a large-scale troop rotation.

As a result, a tank regiment that was supporting Guihua from Baotou lost contact and its situation became unknown.

The cities of Guihua and Jining lost contact one after another, and the situation remains unclear.

Okamura has already sent out reconnaissance planes, but they haven't returned yet.

However, based on Gangcun's understanding of the Independent Detachment's strength, it would be difficult for the unprepared Guihua and Jining garrison to withstand the full force of the Independent Detachment.

The key point is that Okamura did not mobilize enough reinforcements to support the smokescreen that Chen Ming had previously deployed.

The battle has been going on for several hours now, and it's getting dark. There's no way to provide support.

With several hours, plus the night and the time it takes for support troops to travel, the independent detachment has at least 36 hours to launch an attack.

After being suddenly attacked, could the garrison in Jining and Guihua hold out for 36 hours?
Okamura already knew the answer in his heart.

"If Guihua and Jining are lost, the 3rd Tank Division in Baotou will be in danger."

"We must find a way to save the 3rd Tank Division, otherwise our newly formed tank division will be wiped out."

"What would happen if we were wiped out?"

At this point, Okamura stopped talking.

If the 3rd Tank Division were destroyed, many people present would commit seppuku.

The 3rd Tank Division was the only tank division of the Japanese army in China, and it was formed only a few months ago.

If they are wiped out, they will be unable to form new tank divisions, and they will become a complete joke.

(End of this chapter)