Anti-Japanese War: Li Yunlong dared to attack Taiyuan

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I'm taking a day off today. I estimate that if I can push for more than 3,000 chapters today, I'll just update one chapter. Please give me some free gifts and push for more chapters. Thank you! ~

Chapter 545: The Devil's Pre-War Mobilization

The weather in East Siberia gradually began to warm up, but the dark clouds of war hanging in the sky grew thicker.

Starting from May, the Russians took the lead in launching air strikes on various Japanese airports.

The effect was not obvious. The air battle between the two sides lasted for about half a month, and each side lost about 400 aircraft of various models. The Soviets destroyed six Japanese airports, and the Japanese destroyed four Soviet airports.

Just as both sides were preparing to continue bombing the airport, Li Yunlong, who had been watching the battle for half a month, could no longer bear it and sent a telegram to Gachi, asking him not to just focus on bombing the Japanese airport, but also to send troops to bomb some of the Japanese logistics troops and destroy the Siberian Railway to prevent the Japanese from transporting supplies.

After receiving Li Yunlong's instructions, the Russian Air Force reacted and began to bomb the Japanese logistics forces. The Japanese suffered some losses and had several logistics warehouses bombed. At the same time, the Japanese also began to bomb the Russian logistics warehouses.

The air battle between the two sides lasted for about a month. By June, the land in Siberia was gradually passable, and tanks and cars could move freely.

"Gentlemen, since we went to war with the Russians last year, the Empire has annihilated millions of Russian troops!"

"The troops in Siberia are in dire straits. They have no reinforcements in the rear, and only the 400,000 troops in front of them are left. We just need to take down these 400,000 troops."

"The entire 5 million square kilometers of land in East Siberia will become the Empire's territory. The Empire will gain countless oil fields, gold mines, iron mines, copper mines, and untold wealth!"

"You too will become heroes of the empire!"

"The rise and fall of the empire depends on this battle!"

"In this battle, no matter what, we must drive the Russian bear out of the Eastern Sayan Mountains and the Western Sayan Mountains!"

"Now I'll assign combat missions!"

At this time, Mei Jing Meijiro had already arrived in Chita and began to carry out the final mobilization work for the Japanese troops.

"Siberian Front, attack Ulan-Ude. After taking Ulan-Ude, quickly advance south along Lake Baikal. The Outer Mongolian Corps will cooperate with you. Your target is the Western Sayan Mountains!"

"Hayi!"

The newly appointed Siberian Front Commander Seishirō Itazono quickly stood up and responded.

"The First and Second Armies of the Kwantung Army will advance north quickly. The First Army will capture Severobaikalsk and then advance on Kurkusk. The Second Army will capture the area east of Lake Baikal and then advance south to join the Siberian Front!"

"Hayi!"

The commander of the First Army is still Kitano Kenzo. Kitano Kenzo narrowly escaped the last disastrous defeat at Baikalsk.

The commander of the Second Army was Wu Tengzhang, one of the main culprits of the Nanjing Incident. He served as deputy chief of staff of the Central China Expeditionary Army and assisted Matsui Ishigen in capturing Nanjing. He was also responsible for the Manila Massacre. He was an unforgivable murderer.

The Japanese Siberian Front was reorganized. After the previous elite Kwantung Army was exhausted, four divisions of troops were added from other battlefields, and some Type B divisions were drawn out. Together with a part of the more than 60,000 remaining Japanese troops, there are currently 400,000 troops.

The First Army was composed of some surviving divisions from the Siberian Front and was reorganized into the First Army, with the 171th Division, the th Division and the st Division as its main force.

The commander of the 4th Division was still Zhong Ming Daxiang. This old Japanese soldier was lucky enough not to die in Baikalsk.

The commander of the 1938th Division was Shizuo Yokoyama, an executioner who served as the commander of the 27nd Infantry Regiment of the 2th Brigade of the th Division of the Japanese in .

During his tenure as the regiment commander, he led his troops to sweep Ji County near Xinxiang, committing many bloody massacres of villagers in Yangjing Village, Dagutuo Village, Baihe Village and other places. He brutally killed villagers and raped and killed female villagers with extremely cruel methods.

The commander of the 171st Division is still Kota Kotera, but he has been promoted from colonel to major general. At the same time, the 171st Division has been strengthened. It was originally a Type C division, but now it has been strengthened to a Type B division.

The personnel have been supplemented. Now the 171st Division has 171 people, all of whom are from Osaka. In addition, a tank regiment, a field artillery regiment and a cavalry regiment have been added, plus three infantry regiments. On paper, the strength of the st Division is no less than that of the original Type A division.

The main difference lies in the combat quality of the soldiers. Type A divisions are generally composed of veterans, while Type B divisions are mostly composed of new recruits.

In Baikalsk, the Japanese suffered heavy losses. Eight of the ten Type A divisions suffered devastating blows. Only a few thousand people escaped from each division. Only the 4th and 8th Divisions were still intact.

Now, there are only four Type A divisions of the Japanese that are still fully organized. Among them, the 1st Division and the 6th Division were wiped out by Li Yunlong, and the 14th Division was crippled by Shen Quan in Datong and other places.

The remaining four divisions are distributed in Jinling, Shanghai, Wuhan and Sijiucheng.

Although the Kwantung Army still has thirteen Type A divisions in name, in reality they have all been replaced. Even the 4th Division has only about 15,000 veterans, and the rest are new recruits.

"The 16th Army is responsible for ensuring the security of logistics. Li Yunlong's troops will definitely take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on our logistics. I have only one request for you, and that is to defend the security of the Trans-Siberian Railway. I don't need you to initiate an attack. As long as you can defend the railway and ensure the smooth flow of transportation, you will win!"

Mei Jing Meijiro turned his gaze to the commander of the 16th Army, Imamura Jun.

Imamura Jun is the Japanese general who was later called the Tuntian Immortal. However, because Southeast Asia is relatively stable now, this Tuntian Immortal was not sent to Southeast Asia, so he would not be deliberately thrown into the range of the American fleet by the Japanese navy.

Therefore, he has not yet bathed or swam in the sea, and then suddenly he had an epiphany in the Dragon Field, and felt that the Sky Locust and the Empire were not worth it, so he led his soldiers to farm.

"Please rest assured, Commander. The 16th Army will complete its mission and ensure logistical safety!"

"very good!"

"The general attack is scheduled for the night of three days from now. The First Tank Division and the Second Tank Division..."

The Japanese tank divisions were all destroyed in the Soviet counterattack, but the Japanese took several months to rebuild the tank divisions again, this time with two more than before.

There are a total of five tank divisions, each with 260 tanks, of which the main tank is the Japanese Type 97 modified tank. In addition, each division is equipped with 32 Type 4 tanks.

It is the German Panzer IV F2.

After the Japanese launched a full-scale attack on the Siberian region, Germany began to provide some military assistance to the Japanese, especially after learning that the Japanese tanks suffered losses in Siberia against the Soviet T34 tanks.

The design drawings of the Panzer IV F2 model were immediately delivered, and more than 2 tank experts were secretly dispatched to teach the Japanese how to manufacture the Panzer IV F model.

One of the production lines added by the Japanese in the Dongsi Province was the production line for the F2 type of Panzer IV tank. In addition, the Japanese also asked De San for the design drawings of the Tiger tank. De San had also sent the drawings to the Dongsi Province and started to build a production line.

The Japanese expect that the first Japanese-made Tiger tank will roll off the production line in August.

Chapter 546 Pre-Battle Deployment

"The devils are about to take action!"

Less than an hour after Mei Jing Meijiro deployed the combat mission and adjourned the meeting, Li Yunlong learned of the Japanese combat deployment.

Kotaro Kotera immediately sent the complete Japanese battle plan to Li Yunlong.

When Mei Jing Meijiro was speaking, Kota Kotera was the one who took notes most carefully. He wrote down every word he said and then sent all of it to Li Yunlong.

Because the Japanese were preparing to launch an attack, the various troops were in contact with each other and telegrams were sent very frequently. No one thought that there was anything unusual about Kota Kotera's 171st Division.

"It's the same offensive method as the Russian pincer attack last year. If I were the Russians, I would abandon Chita and Ulan-Ude, push the front back, lure the enemy deep into our territory, and then harass the Japanese troops in the rear."

"If the Japanese attack too quickly, we will find their salient point and eliminate that part of the troops." After reading the Japanese battle plan, Chief Jiang directly stated his own battle ideas.

"This time we are not trying to help the Russians win, but to defeat them. However, we cannot defeat them too quickly, and we must defeat them with dignity. It would be best if we could destroy some of the Japanese main forces. It would be even better if we could both sides suffer losses, and it would be best if the 171st Division could continue to gain military merit."

As soon as Li Yunlong said this, the division commander, brigade commander and others all looked at him. This was a war, not a joke, and there was actually such a request.

The Japanese have to win but the Russians cannot lose too badly, and in the end, specific people have to make contributions. It feels like playing house.

After hearing this, they all fell silent. This request was not easy to meet. The Japanese had 800,000 troops, while the Russians only had 400,000. Moreover, the Russians had no advantage in armor or air force.

Since fighting the Japanese several times in the Far East and Siberia last year, the quality of the Russian troops in Siberia has plummeted.

Most of the soldiers are new recruits, and the remaining equipment is some obsolete items. If Li Yunlong had not acted quickly, he would probably only be able to get antiques from more than ten years ago if he had asked the Russians for equipment this year.

"Then let the Russian bear attack!" After thinking for a moment, Jiang Shou slowly said.

"According to the Japanese battle plan, after the attack, the Japanese army will be divided into two forces, the southern front and the northern front. The target of the Siberian Front on the southern front is Kurkusk. It has 400,000 troops and a large number of armored units. It is the strongest force of the Japanese army."

"This unit is the main force of the Japanese army and has the strongest combat effectiveness. If we confront them head-on, we will definitely suffer losses, so we cannot fight this unit. We must avoid them."

"The Japanese have two armies on the northern front. One is heading north to bypass Lake Baikal and attack Kurkutsk, and the other is controlling a large area east of Lake Baikal."

"Let the Russians put up a symbolic resistance in Chita, then immediately withdraw and concentrate their forces in Ulan-Ude, making the Japanese think they intend to focus on defending Ulan-Ude."

"When the Japanese Siberian Front rushed over, the Mao army immediately turned its guns and headed north to attack the Japanese Second Army, which was the weakest of the three Japanese combat units."

"300,000 against 200,000. Even if we can't completely annihilate them, we can at least cripple them. The Japanese will then face two choices: one is to ignore the main force of the Russian bear and continue to advance westward; the other is to find an opportunity to engage in a decisive battle with the main force of the Russian bear."

"The First Army only has 200,000 troops. A decisive battle with the main force of the Soviet Union is not realistic. The best way is to detach some of the troops to delay the Soviet Union and let the Siberian Front come to fight the main force of the Soviet Union. Then the First Army will detach some of its troops to continue the attack as planned."

"As long as the 171st Division can take on this mission, we can storm Kurkutsk like we did in the winter, and even directly capture all the cities around the Eastern Sayan Mountains and the Western Sayan Mountains."

"The decisive battle between the main forces of the Russians and the Japanese east of Lake Baikal would have resulted in a casualty ratio of about 1 to 1, based on the actual casualties on both sides."

Including the Second Army they had previously destroyed, the Japanese had lost at least 400,000 troops. Of those 400,000, only a handful of the Mao Zedong troops might have survived." Chief Jiang presented the battle plan expressionlessly.

After hearing this, Li Yunlong couldn't help but be stunned. This tactic didn't sound complicated, but it perfectly met Li Yunlong's requirements. The most important thing was that he came up with such a tactic within just a few minutes.

"What if the Japanese Siberian Front doesn't care about this main force of the Soviet Union?" The chief of staff thought for a moment and expressed his doubts.

"No, the Japanese have a clear goal: to destroy the main force of the Russian army between the Eastern Sayan Mountains, the Western Sayan Mountains, and the Siberian Plateau. They will not ignore such a main force wreaking havoc in the rear."

"And if the Japanese don't care, this main force can cut off their logistical supply lines and continue their offensive towards the Far East. The Japanese can't just ignore it. However, the specific battle plan still needs to be refined. There are too many uncontrollable factors on the battlefield."

After hearing this, Li Yunlong immediately smiled and said, "No, just this battle plan will do. Our plan is to make both the Mao Bear and the Japs lose. As long as the Mao Bear knows how to fight, it will be fine. As for the detailed battle plan, let the Mao Bear perfect it himself."

At this point, Li Yunlong explained, "I'm afraid that after you perfect the battle plan, the Russians will use your tactics to defeat the Japanese. The Japanese can't stand it anymore. If their main force suffers a heavy loss, I'm afraid they won't dare to continue the attack."

Li Yunlong was very clear about the Japanese's character. They had suffered a loss in the Battle of Nomonhan and were cowardly. In fact, if they had continued fighting, it would have been hard to say who would have won or lost.

Li Yunlong was well aware of Jiang Shou's capabilities. With 400,000 men against 800,000, it would be difficult for others to win, but he could handle it.

After listening to this, Jiang Shou still felt a little unsatisfied. Li Yunlong could see that Jiang Shou was itching to command the battle.

"When the Japs and the Russians start fighting, that's when we'll take action. Although we don't have 400,000 troops for you to command, we still have 300,000. Add in the troops outside the Great Wall, and there will be 500,000 to 600,000."

After hearing this, Jiang Shou immediately laughed: "You kid, you are putting pressure on me."

Everyone laughed immediately after hearing this.

"Although we are well-equipped now, we cannot let our guard down. The Japanese are also growing stronger."

"Well, we must despise the enemy strategically, but take it seriously tactically. We can't take it lightly."

"Send the Japanese battle deployment and our battle plan to Gastilovich. Let him complete the follow-up battle plan himself. We can't escort him throughout the whole process!"

After confirming that the Japanese were going to attack the Russians, Li Yunlong's troops began to get busy.

"If we want to make the fight between the Japanese and the Russians more intense, we have to destroy the Japanese logistics line. However, the Japanese have left behind an army of nearly 100,000 people, which is obviously targeting us. Let Ding Wei harass their logistics. As for Kong Jie..."

Li Yunlong looked at the position of Kong Jie's troops and said, "The position of his troops is very critical. Let's not expose them for the time being and let them lie in wait. When we attack the four eastern provinces, the Japanese will definitely mobilize troops from the Far East to support the four eastern provinces. This is when Kong Jie's troops will play a role."

Li Yunlong is very familiar with the characteristics of his two old comrades.

Ding Wei was agile in combat and was very suitable for carrying out tasks that required high mobility. He was particularly talented in blowing up bridges and roads, and the Japanese called him the "bridge destroyer."

Kong Jie was very principled in fighting. He would obey orders and would not act recklessly. He could complete the tasks assigned to him by any means, so he was very suitable for defense and blocking battles.