Chapter 1463: East Does Not Move, West Moves (Part 2)

Even the former 683rd Brigade has grown into the top force of the 80th Army during this period of time, and has enough strength to compete with a Japanese infantry brigade, let alone this time and space.

After leaving the Four-line Regiment, the Taihang Arsenal has been working at full capacity to manufacture various types of ammunition. Only various caliber bullets have been produced in this year, and more than 100,000 caliber artillery shells required by the Guard Brigade and the 80th Army have been produced.

It can be said that the real strength of the 80th Army at this time is enough to fight a battle with the entire North China Front Army.

Facing such a strong enemy, the Japanese relied on a thousand-man infantry battalion and the city wall to hold on until the reinforcements arrived, which was simply a foolish dream.

Because of the lack of manpower, the Japanese army took the initiative to abandon the positions and fortifications outside the city when they found that a large number of Chinese troops were moving towards Linfen City, and all retreated into the city wall.

Wang Xiaoqiang was not polite. He immediately used his precious artillery battalion and the heavy mortar company supported by the brigade. More than 26 artillery pieces fired at the city wall, firing nearly 500 shells, and blasted a gap of more than 20 meters in the nearly 3-meter-thick city wall.

The Japanese soldiers defending the city were desperate at that moment!

But Wang Xiaoqiang did not immediately order the troops to rush into the gap in the city wall under the Japanese army's gunfire, but used small-caliber mortar groups to cover the gap behind and on both sides.

Yes, the squad-level support firepower of 60 mortars was greatly welcomed by the 80th Army after battlefield practice. The Taihang Arsenal specially arranged a workshop to produce this small-caliber mortar. The 683 Brigade, which was the first to be equipped with 60 mortars half a year ago, was equipped with 460 small guns.

Wang Xiaoqiang, the head of the 772nd Regiment, once had a sudden idea to concentrate 46 60mm mortars equipped by an infantry battalion to launch a small artillery fire on the distant Japanese positions.

As a result, the effect was very ideal.

As the saying goes: Too many ants can kill an elephant! Although the damage of a single shot of this small artillery shell, which weighs only one or two kilograms, is limited, more than 40 rounds can be thrown in a wave, and more than 600 rounds can be thrown to the target area in one minute of rapid firing, and the bombing effect is also extremely amazing.

I haven't done this before, because the shells are limited, and I can only use good steel on the blade. Now that I have this condition, I can naturally play this way.

Without the protection of trenches and fortresses with a depth of more than 1.5 meters, any human body exposed on the battlefield cannot escape this continuous artillery fire.

In order to prevent the Japanese army from redeploying temporary positions on both sides and the front of the gap to cause a large number of casualties to the charging officers and soldiers, the 80 60mm mortars that had been prepared long ago completed an unprecedented small artillery fire on the anti-Japanese battlefield.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The explosion of a single 60-meter mortar shell is commonplace for veterans.

But what does it feel like when this small shell that can blow away several people explodes continuously like firecrackers?

I'm afraid only the Japanese soldiers deep in the center of the artillery fire area can experience it!

But no one can tell this feeling!

Because no one can survive after being washed by artillery fire for more than 2 minutes.

Wang Xiaoqiang's prediction came true. Colonel Asao Heishiro, the highest commander of Linfen City at the time, was keenly aware that the Chinese would use that place as the main breakthrough point after the Chinese began to use various artillery to concentrate fire on the city wall.

Colonel Asao Heishiro quickly transferred 6 heavy machine guns and 3 infantry squads to establish three temporary positions around the city wall. There were 4 heavy machine guns and 3 light machine guns and 3 grenade launchers on the front of the infantry squad. There were 1 heavy machine gun and 1 infantry squad on the two flanks, forming three crossfires on the left, middle and right.

If a soldier rashly broke into the gap in the city wall, under such a crossfire, not to mention a company, hundreds of people in a battalion would probably be shot to death.

But the Japanese army did not have much time to dig trenches in a hurry, and could only use houses and piled sandbags as temporary fortifications.

These fortifications can block bullets, but if they want to block the air waves of artillery shells, it would be a bit of a strong man locking a man.

As a result, the Japanese who were ready for battle did not wait for the Chinese charge, but waited for small artillery shells as dense as raindrops.

The more than 200 Japanese soldiers deployed by Asao Heishiro were like an innocent little girl who met a group of strong men who had just been released from prison. They lay down before they had time to resist.

However, their deaths were not in vain. More than 200 lives were exchanged for more than 2,000 artillery shells from the Chinese side. The war loss ratio of nearly 1 to 10 was enough to be proud of.

But the problem was that the 772nd Regiment entered the city.

At that time, only 30 minutes had passed since Asao Heishiro sent the telegram.

The two Japanese infantry battalions that were still participating in the attack did not have time to report to Major General Honmado Tsai, and they took the initiative to withdraw from their positions, sent a signalman to report the current situation of Linfen City to the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, and hurried back to Linfen.

After all, their infantry regiment commander and regiment headquarters were there. Honmado Tsai was indeed a major general, but the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade could not control them.

Until this time, the Japanese army had not overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Chinese side, and believed that the more than a thousand imperial colleagues in the city could use the buildings in the city to resist for at least one day, at least until their arrival.

"Stupid!" Honmado Tsai cursed with a livid face.

He had made a mistake in estimating the opponent's strength once, so the most important thing to do now was to annihilate the Chinese in front of him with all his strength, and then join forces to return to Linfen.

And if the two infantry battalions immediately abandoned the battlefield and ran back after receiving the telegram for help, it would be a mistake on top of a mistake, just like being led by the nose when walking a dog.

The final result can only be that neither side of the battlefield will be happy.

If the Chinese besiege the city and attack the reinforcements, the whole army will be destroyed if they are not careful.

The talented major general finally showed his extraordinary mind that could make him a general officer, but he lacked the command power over friendly forces, and could only watch the two infantry battalions go away and get farther and farther away from the battlefield.

Then, the talented major general's "crow brain" came into play.

The 772nd Regiment came, and how could the 771st Regiment, another main force of the 683rd Brigade, not come?

The 771st Regiment led by Brigadier General Chen, who had been promoted to the commander of the Taiyue Military Region, actually entered the battlefield earlier than the 772nd Regiment lurking in the Taiyue Mountain area.

As early as when Lei Xiong led the security brigade from southern Hebei into Taihang and headed towards Wangwu Mountain, the 771st Regiment broke up into small pieces, abandoned all large equipment, and set out from the Taiyue Military Region with light equipment to sneak into the mountains and forests only 40 miles away from Linfen to wait for orders.

For this day, they had been eating cold steamed buns and drinking cold water in the mountains and forests for 7 days.

Finally, they waited for two Japanese infantry battalions who hurried back to support.

It was a deliberate plan, and the main force of the 771st Regiment had 4,500 people. Although they did not carry any heavy mortars, mountain guns and infantry guns in terms of firepower, they carried 60 mortars weighing only 20 kilograms.

In terms of heavy machine guns, they also abandoned Maxim or Min 24, and replaced them with heavy machine guns MG42. Whether it was light or heavy firepower or manpower, the 771st Regiment was also fully superior.

Wang Xiaoqiang, who received the news that the ambush battle had officially started from the brigade commander, officially issued a military order to fully recover Linfen.

The 772nd Regiment that entered the city did not actually use its full strength. The purpose was to let the Japanese troops trapped in the city ask for help and completely eat up the Japanese troops that could still move around Linfen. At least within two days, the Japanese troops around Linfen will only have the thousands of people of the Independent 2nd Mixed Brigade.

Although street fighting is very difficult, for the 772nd Regiment with infantry artillery, these unsolid residential houses in Linfen City will not cause too much difficulty. There are Japanese soldiers hiding in them. If they can be solved with grenades and explosive packs, they will be solved with those. If they can't be solved, they will be transferred to the Japanese 70mm infantry artillery. If one shot can't destroy them, then two or three shots will be used.

It took 4 hours to clear all the Japanese troops in the city.

The supplies and equipment that the Japanese troops in the city did not have time to burn were either distributed to the people or blown up. The 772nd Regiment, which had no attachment to the city, set out to the battlefield of the Guard Brigade at night.

At that time, the 771st Regiment had also completely solved the enemies in front of them and arrived at the battlefield at 11 o'clock at night.

If Major General Motomasa had received the news that his friendly forces had been ambushed, he would have run away long ago, and would not have gotten entangled with the security brigade.

But the terrible thing was that as soon as the battle started, the Chinese side launched an artillery attack on the middle section of the Japanese army that was marching. Several shells landed in the queue of the Japanese communication unit with great accuracy, directly destroying all two radio stations owned by the Japanese army.

This also caused the Japanese army to completely lose contact with the outside world.

If the weather was fine, the Japanese reconnaissance plane would also fly over this sky, at least it would be able to see this battlefield that was already in full swing.

Unfortunately, it happened to drizzle that afternoon, and the Japanese reconnaissance plane in Yuncheng failed to take off in time.

Excellent tactics and good luck also allowed the 683rd Brigade and the Security Brigade to fight an extremely amazing battle when the Zhongtiaoshan Campaign was already in danger.

The key to this battle was not in Linfen, nor in the Independent Mixed 2nd Brigade that had been attacked from both inside and outside.

For such a large-scale battlefield at the level of a battle, the casualties of 10,000 soldiers would make the commander heartbroken, but it would not cause serious damage.

Even Okamura Koji, who was far away in Pingbei City, had already prepared for the casualties of 30,000 imperial officers and soldiers when formulating the tactical plan for the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain.

Compared with the huge casualties, the Zhongtiao Mountain, a mountain range that stretches north of the Yellow River, was a thorn in the eyes of the Japanese North China Front Army. If it was not removed, the Japanese North China Front Army would not be able to advance to Shaanxi Province, let alone the strategy of attacking northern Sichuan from the west and forcing the Yamashiro government to surrender.

The two Chinese armies that suddenly appeared at the gate of Linfen and successfully defeated Linfen posed the greatest threat to the Japanese frontline troops in Yuncheng.

Yuncheng is only 150 kilometers away from Linfen. If an army can march quickly, it only takes one day and one night to reach it.

In normal times, Ando Nijuzo, the commander of the Japanese frontline at the time, had enough troops to return to Yuncheng, which was only 60 kilometers away from the front line.

However, the fall of Linfen City and the encirclement of the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade happened almost overnight, leaving Lieutenant General Ando Nijuzo only one night, and the Chinese army, whose defense line was about to collapse, seemed to have also learned the news. The two retreating armies began to hold on to their positions, and the divided and surrounded 4th and 5th armies also began to attack the defense line that the Japanese army had just established with infantry divisions, at all costs.

In particular, the 17th Division of the 38th Army even counterattacked in the mountains of 12 kilometers at the regiment level, and broke through the two defense lines hastily built by the Japanese army at the cost of sacrificing nearly 3,000 people.

Although such an attack caused a surge in casualties among the Chinese troops on the front line, it forced Ando 23 to send two divisions of reserve troops in advance, leaving them with no extra troops to rescue Yuncheng in a short period of time.

It took a week and nearly 10,000 casualties to finally achieve the strategic goal. No one would give up easily, not even Lieutenant General Ando 23, nor Okamura Koji who was far away in Pingbei City.

Both Japanese army generals knew that the strategic focus of the empire had shifted to Southeast Asia. The North China Front Army had received orders to transfer two elite divisions to the Southeast Asian battlefield in September. This might be the only chance to break through the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line. If this rare opportunity was missed, the Japanese North China Front Army might stay north of the Yellow River forever.

Therefore, the two Japanese generals who stared at the map of southeastern Shanxi and couldn't sleep all night put their hopes on the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade.

That was an infantry brigade with independent combat capabilities. In addition to two fully staffed infantry regiments of 7,000 people, the rest of the cavalry, artillery, engineering, and logistics were all available. Perhaps it could not defeat the more than 10,000 Chinese troops that had already appeared. Relying on the mountain defense battle alone for two days, waiting for the Chinese army that was frantically counterattacking to suffer too many casualties, and the front-line army to recover and then send troops back to support, it was enough to ensure that the previous results were not lost, and there was still an 80% chance of breaking through the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line.

Perhaps, the only thing that was abandoned in the entire tactical design was the Independent Mixed Brigade No. 2.

But, without sacrifice, how can there be victory?

Okamura Koji was also a very decisive general. In the choice between breaking through the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line and the life and death of an independent mixed brigade, he chose the former without hesitation.

The number of the Independent Mixed Brigade No. 2 had been crossed out in Okamura Koji's heart.

He knew very well that the speed at which the enemy broke through Linfen City meant that it was the main force of the 80th Army, most likely a part of the 921st Division that became famous in the Battle of Zishan.

The 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade was very likely to suffer heavy losses in the face of their attack.

But that was not important, they only needed to exchange their lives for 2 days and nights.

As the commander of the front army, the divisions were just chess pieces on the chessboard, let alone a small mixed brigade? As long as this chess piece can play its due role when it is used, its final fate is not important.

There is actually no problem with such tactical deployment. According to statistics after the war, in order to delay the main force of the Japanese army that night alone, the Chinese side suffered more than 14,000 casualties, which was even close to the total losses of the entire Zhongtiaoshan Campaign in the first three days.

The 17th Division even paid a 30% loss rate for this!

This was also hailed as the most outstanding night for the Chinese units in the Second Zhongtiaoshan Campaign, which had originally performed poorly.

Without this extremely bloody night, Anda 23 would most likely have transferred a reserve division back to Yuncheng for defense. The main force and the security brigade of the 80th Army, regardless of past grudges, would at most have achieved the results of breaking through Linfen City and annihilating an independent mixed brigade.

Although that was also a good result, compared with the loss of the Zhongtiao Mountain defense line, the result of annihilating 10,000 enemies would be meaningless.

The 10th War Zone in Shaanxi Province would lose the most important defense line on the Yellow River, and the Japanese North China Front Army would be able to march eastward at any time.

As for the national strategy, the Chinese Military and Political Department had to withdraw the elite infantry army in Central and South China to Shaanxi Province to prevent the loss of the Yellow River defense line.

Originally in the south, China could only barely block the Japanese offensive. If it were to withdraw more troops, it would undoubtedly be more difficult.

The Japanese North China Front Army lost the bet.

After receiving the military order, Major General Motomasa did not evacuate in time and could only deploy defenses on the spot. It was not until the next morning when the sky was full of artillery fire that he knew what kind of Chinese troops he had encountered.

Those were the two most elite infantry brigades of China in North China. They completely defeated the Japanese army in terms of personnel quality, equipment and manpower.

It was not important that there were 70 infantry companies available for attack. What was important was that there were 300 artillery pieces of various types that participated in the shelling of the Japanese positions that day, including 36 mountain artillery pieces, 24 150 heavy mortars, 22 70mm infantry artillery pieces, 42 82-caliber mortars, and 200 60mm mortars.

That was fine. Both mountain artillery and mortars were mainly used to kill infantry, and they had little destructive power against solid bunkers.

The Japanese army's civil engineering work was not covered. They dug trenches of 12,000 meters overnight and dug more than 400 anti-artillery holes of various types. No matter how fierce the Chinese artillery fire was, they could not destroy the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade by artillery fire alone. In the end, they had to charge infantry.

As a result, when the Japanese army hid in the trenches to avoid the rain of shells, the Chinese engineers approached 200 meters away from the front line, dug out temporary individual bunkers and temporary trenches, and deployed a kind of "thick-barreled artillery" that could not be more rustic!

In the dawn, as the little red flag was waved again and again, the earthen cannon with gasoline barrels as the barrel threw explosive packs as big as bamboo hats to the Japanese positions.

That was the disaster for the Japanese army on the position.

The five-kilogram explosive packs used terrifying shock waves to kill countless Japanese soldiers in trenches and anti-artillery holes. Many Japanese soldiers had no scars on the surface, but blood spurted out of their mouths and noses because their internal organs were shattered.

The defense line that was carefully built overnight was blown up by the Chinese with crazy shells and explosives in less than an hour.

When the Japanese bombers that took off from Yuncheng flew over the battlefield at 8 o'clock, they were fully loaded with bombs and could not drop a single bomb. The Chinese and the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade were completely entangled. On the battlefield, you are in me and I am in you. Any bomb dropped at random may blow the Chinese and the Japanese into slag.

After circling for a few rounds, the Japanese aircraft group had no choice but to return.

The 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, which was divided and surrounded by the Chinese, did not hold out for too long. The fierce battle lasted until the afternoon, and there were only sporadic gunshots on the battlefield.

After winning the victory, the two elite infantry brigades of the Chinese side did not clean up the battlefield at all. They immediately divided into four groups and marched to Yuncheng.

And at noon on the second day, they crossed a full 100 kilometers and landed on the outskirts of Yuncheng!

An infantry battalion of the Ji'nan Security Brigade, with the help of 20 jeeps loaded with heavy machine guns, raided the most important military airport in Yuncheng.

Caught off guard, the outer defense line was breached, and the 40 fighter planes parked on the apron were blown up by the Chinese side with mortars and grenades before they could even take off.

Air support was completely cut off, and the logistics base for the supply of hundreds of thousands of troops was surrounded.

Lieutenant General Ando 23, who was still commanding the battle on the front line, felt dizzy and almost fell down!

This is the rhythm of the highland tower in the back losing all its crystals and about to be stolen before the group battle in the front has been decided.

Ps: The chapter updated yesterday wrote the security brigade as the security regiment, and it will be changed in the next two days.