After basically judging the Japanese army's tactical intentions, Zhou Wen still had many questions before him. The first one was where was the reinforced detachment that the Japanese army infiltrated was hiding?
You must know that the suburbs of Shanghai in this era were basically rural villages and towns. They were not densely populated. The terrain was crisscrossed by rivers, and there were algae swamps and reed swamps. It was very easy for dozens or even hundreds of people to deliberately evade search, especially now.
The battle situation on the front line is tight, and it is impossible to mobilize large forces to conduct a search like a dragnet. With more than a thousand troops in the mercenary group alone, it will be difficult to find the enemy in a short period of time.
Judging from the current situation, the Japanese attack will be launched within a day or two. At that time, there will be an elite enemy force behind our army that will launch a sneak attack from an unexpected direction at any time. It will be like a thorn in the back. The situation will be unpredictable and time will not pass.
Wait for someone!
At this time, some people also proposed to strengthen the defense force of the 156th Brigade Headquarters, strictly guard against death, and do a good job of guarding the enemy against sneak attacks.
However, both Zhou Wen and Meng Yuting felt that this move was too passive and would involve too much troops and energy, so it was a no-brainer.
As the old saying goes: It takes a thousand days to be a thief, but there is no way to prevent a thief in a thousand days.
For this reason, Zhou Wen currently has only two methods at his disposal. One is to notify the 156th Brigade, inform them of the situation, and have them send out reconnaissance troops to search around the headquarters. According to the enemy's deployment, this Japanese reinforcement team
The hiding place should not be too far from the headquarters of the 156th Brigade.
Because the distance is too far, it is difficult to achieve suddenness and concealment of the attack. Moreover, Zhou Wen also judged that it was impossible for the Japanese army to send only two investigators, Murata Ichiro and Chiba Yutaro, to sneak into the rear of our army. So the address of the 156th Brigade Headquarters
It is very likely that the Japanese army has learned about it.
The second is to use the radio monitoring equipment brought to detect surrounding radio wave signals and find the approximate location of the enemy.
Zhou Wen judged that the Japanese latent troops would definitely carry radios. If they wanted to cooperate with the attacking troops to launch a sneak attack, they would have to be consistent in time with the actions of the Japanese army to achieve tactical results. Therefore, this Japanese squad must have radios to coordinate with the Japanese command.
Keep in touch with the department.
You must know that in China in this era, electronic equipment such as radio stations are high-precision and rare equipment. In the 19th Route Army, they were only equipped to brigade-level units. Private radio and electronic equipment was only available in the urban area of Shanghai. After all,
Shanghai is an international metropolis, and some large international companies and consulates of various countries have their own radio stations.
However, in the suburbs of Shanghai, it can be said to be a vacuum zone for radio waves. Zhou Wen judged that within the area of more than ten kilometers around the temple, at most, only one radio station of the 156th Brigade headquarters was working. If other radio stations were monitored,
The signal can basically be determined to be a Japanese military radio station.
Moreover, the benefit brought by the scarcity of radio waves is that there is basically no electromagnetic interference in the sky, and the positioning of radio monitoring equipment will be more accurate.
The second problem Zhou Wen faced was to find out which section of Yunzaobang the enemy would implement a landing detour.
The first thing to exclude is the section with relatively high river embankments. High river embankments are not conducive to quick landing and rapid gathering of troops. The best landing place is the section with river beach, and the river beach should be relatively spacious to facilitate the rapid deployment of troops.
There is also a section of the river relatively close to the headquarters of the 156th Brigade.
To this end, Chen Wanli, together with Xu Dacheng and other artillery officers, went to survey the terrain along Yunzaobang. Based on the above two restrictions, they found and marked suitable locations from the temple line to the frontline positions.
Come up with the best defense plan for each location, especially the deployment plan of artillery positions.
The third question is how to report to the general headquarters.
All current speculations are based on the confessions of two Japanese spies, and there is still a lack of particularly convincing evidence. But by the time the evidence is conclusive, Zhou Wen is afraid that it will be too late.
Zhou Wen didn’t know if there was such an attack by the Japanese army in history, nor how the Nineteenth Route Army responded at that time, but his intuition told him that the Japanese army’s offensive operation would definitely be launched this time, and judging from the Japanese army’s tactics
From a deployment point of view, if our military responds improperly, it will suffer heavy losses and even affect the direction of the war.
Therefore, he decided to report the situation truthfully, and he personally escorted the two Japanese spies to the 19th Route Army headquarters in Zhenru to report.
Fortunately, Uncle Wan left a truck at the temple to transport Jiang Han to the urban hospital.
When Zhou Wen arrived at the headquarters of the 19th Route Army, he learned that Commander-in-Chief Chiang and Commander Cai had gone to the Zhabei front line to inspect. At the headquarters was Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Huang. This was the first time Zhou Wen met Staff Officer Huang.
long.
After listening to Zhou Wen's report, Chief of Staff Huang looked at the map carefully for a long time before saying: "Our army has a brigade of more than 4,000 troops on the Yunzaobang front line, and there is another brigade on the Zhanghuabang side.
In response, if the Japanese army wants to launch a large-scale attack, it must have at least one brigade of troops to contain our troops in the direction of Zhanghuabang. If the Japanese army wants to conduct a frontal attack on the Yunzaobang front line and make a roundabout landing, it must have at least three brigade troops.
Only then can you achieve miraculous results.
In other words, if your judgment is accurate, the four brigades of the Japanese 24th Brigade will be adjusted and deployed to the north of the front. However, judging from the situation we have now, the Japanese troops in Zhabei and Jiangwan still remain
With the vigorous offensive, there is no weakening of the troops, and it is impossible for the Japanese reinforcements to arrive in Shanghai so quickly, so where do the Japanese troops come from?"
Chief of Staff Huang's doubts are well-founded. The current total strength of the Japanese army in Shanghai is only more than 5,000 Marines plus some police units and four brigades that form the 24th Brigade. The total number does not exceed 12,000.
The Zhabei and Jiangwan front lines have been the main battlefields since the war began. The Japanese Marine Corps and the two brigades of the Mixed 24th Brigade have been the main force of the offensive on this front line. Now there are no signs of Japanese troop mobilization on the main battlefields of Zhabei and Jiangwan.
, the offensive continued unabated with the support of Japanese aircraft and naval guns. It was because of the tense situation on the front line today that Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek and Commander Cai rushed to the forward positions in Zhabei and Jiangwan respectively to take command personally.
Therefore, judging from the strength of the Japanese army, it is impossible to assemble four brigades in the direction of Yunzaobang to attack in the short term.
Chief of Staff Huang patted Zhou Wen on the shoulder with appreciation and said: "Thank you also for coming to report. I will notify the 156th Brigade in time about the infiltration of small Japanese troops. Don't worry, the guard battalion of the 156th Brigade has the combat effectiveness of the entire brigade.
The strongest troops, with them guarding the brigade headquarters, dozens of small Japan cannot make a big splash."
Chief of Staff Huang smiled and then said to Zhou Wen: "Well, Commander Zhou, please go back first. I will report the situation you mentioned to Commander-in-Chief Jiang. At the same time, I will also order the 156th Brigade to be more vigilant and pay close attention to the movements of the enemy in front of me.
, if there is any abnormality, we will notify you via telegram."
