Chapter 1144 The plan cannot keep up with the changes
The Japanese considered the problem very comprehensively. The Yizhong Eighth Route Army did not have the ability to independently produce ammunition. All the artillery shells in their hands were captured, and every time they fired, they lost one.
They must have used a lot of artillery shells in the battle to attack Shijiazhuang, otherwise they would not have been able to break through the Shijiazhuang city defenses in just one day, and there would not be many artillery shells left by the independent brigade in the wing.
Given the solidity of Baoding's fortifications, it would certainly be no problem to withstand the artillery attack of the Independent Brigade.
But the Japanese chief of staff ignored two issues.
In order to capture Hexiong County in Baoding and completely remove the nail that Okamura Neji had planted in the Yi Zhong base, the Yi Zhong Sixth Army Division has made up its mind to do whatever it takes.
To this end, almost all the heavy artillery shells captured before the division were taken out.
Another issue that was ignored was the attack and defense of Shijiazhuang.
The Eighth Route Army's battle to break through the Shijiazhuang city defenses was far less intense than the Japanese chief of staff and division commander thought.
The fortifications in Shijiazhuang are far less strong than those in Baoding. Facing heavy artillery, those fortifications are like paper toys that can be blown up accurately.
No matter how many people the Shijiazhuang garrison sends to defend the city fortifications, they will die in the face of heavy artillery.
What's more important is that this kind of casualties are meaningless, and they can't even support anyone.
Rather than guarding the city head and being blown up to death by the Eighth Route Army's heavy artillery from a distance without even leaving a complete body intact, it would be better to retreat to the city and engage in street fighting with the Eighth Route Army.
In this way, at least he can fight the Eighth Route Army face to face. Even if he still cannot escape death in the end, he can still kill two Eighth Route Army soldiers to give him support.
Therefore, the Shijiazhuang City Defense Department basically did not defend the city walls and retreated into the city to engage in street fighting with the Eighth Route Army's attacking troops.
Li Yunlong was ready to use heavy artillery to blast a gap in the city of Shijiazhuang, but he punched the cotton.
The heavy artillery unit had just taken action to defend the city, and the battle was over.
In the end, less than one-fifth of the more than 10,000 rounds of various artillery shells Li Yunlong prepared for Shijiazhuang were used.
Although the Shijiazhuang city defenses are not as strong as Baoding, they are much longer than the Baoding city defenses.
More than 10,000 shells that originally needed to be dispersed were suddenly concentrated on the half-short city of Baoding. Even if Baoding's city defenses were very strong, they might not be able to withstand it.
The Japanese's negligence doomed them to suffer heavy losses in the battle against Baoding.
The brigade commander was not aware of these problems. Instead, he very much recognized the analysis of the chief of staff and immediately ordered: "Inform all the city defense troops to enter the position and rely on the solid city defense fortifications to defend the city. The Eighth Route Army must not be allowed to get close to the city wall. I will move the independent brigade in the wing
Destroyed outside Baoding City."
"The reserve team immediately opened the arsenal, sent all the light and heavy machine guns and mortars we had in stock to the top of the city, and replenished the city defense troops with unlimited ammunition."
"I want to build Baoding City into a fire hedgehog full of machine gun fire points. No matter which direction the independent brigade attacks from, their attacking troops will be sieved by the rain of bullets we fire during the battle."
…………
Japanese Army Xiong County Garrison Headquarters.
Major General Yokota, the brigade leader, is also considering how to defend Xiong County.
Everyone knows that the purpose of the Yizhong Eighth Route Army's attack on Shijiazhuang is to consume the Xiongxian and Baoding garrisons, thereby weakening the strength of the city defense forces in the two places, and preparing for the attack on Baoding and Xiongxian.
Now that Shijiazhuang is lost, the reinforcements sent by Xiong County and Baoding have also fallen into the Eighth Route Army base area, and it will be a matter of time before they are wiped out.
Although those attacking troops are weakening the strength of the Eighth Route Army base area in Yizhong through causing sabotage and shaking the people's morale and military morale of the Eighth Route Army.
But after all, the troops are limited.
Even if the entire army is destroyed, not many of the Yi Zhong Eighth Route Army can be killed.
As long as their troops do not suffer huge losses in the battle, Baoding Hexiong County may be attacked at any time.
Today, the garrison in Xiong County has dropped sharply to more than 6,000 people.
In addition, Xiongxian County is not very big and the city defenses are not particularly strong. Major General Yokota's defensive pressure is very heavy.
Although they were ordered to reinforce Xiongxian's city defenses six months ago, no matter how solid Xiongxian's foundation is, it cannot compare to Baoding, which is an important military town.
"Your Excellency, General... I believe that once the Eighth Route Army deploys heavy troops to besiege Xiong County, we can only rely on city defenses to fight them."
"The county town is too small, and it can't be used at all in street fighting."
"After entering the city, the Eighth Route Army only needs to keep intersecting, and it will soon be able to divide and surround our street fighting troops, and then reunite to annihilate them."
Major General Yokota wanted to consider more solutions for the Xiongxian garrison, but the conditions were limited and no matter how many tactics and tactics he had in his mind, he could not use them. He could only nod his head and agreed: "Then we will fight to the death along the city wall with the Eighth Route Army's besieging troops."
"The Yizhong Eighth Route Army's attention is still on our attacking troops. Until we destroy our attacking troops, they will never be able to allocate troops to besiege Xiong County."
"So we still have a lot of time to strengthen the defenses of Xiong County."
"Inform the troops to continue repairing the fortifications."
"In addition to the reinforced city defenses, they can also hollow out the city walls and repair some hidden firepower points."
"It doesn't need to be too strong, it just needs to be concealed enough."
"One secret firepower point can kill ten Eighth Route Army troops in battle and retreat after the battle. One hundred secret firepower points can kill a thousand Eighth Route Army troops."
"Xiong County has rushed to repair a hundred secret firepower points in each direction. They alone can kill 3,000 to 4,000 Eighth Route Army troops."
"Together with other city defenses, we will try to surround the city wall and kill seven to eight thousand and eighty-eighth Route Army troops."
"Although the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong is very strong, it only has so many main troops."
"If they lose seven or eight thousand people while attacking the city, they will definitely not have the strength to continue fighting with us in the city."
"Although Xiong County is not suitable for large-scale street fighting, if there are not many Eighth Route Army troops entering the city, it will definitely be fine for some small-scale street fighting."
"Let's kill another 2,000 Eighth Route Army troops in the city, and then we'll be done with the Eighth Route Army troops attacking our Xiong County."
As Major General Yokota talked more and more excitedly, a rapid ringing of the phone suddenly rang in the war room.
“Boom, boom, boom… da da da…”
As soon as the telephone soldier picked up the phone, the dull sound of shell explosions and violent machine gun fire were heard from the direction of the city wall to the headquarters.
Major General Fujita's expression suddenly changed, and he quickly turned his attention to the phone soldiers, wanting to know what was going on with the sudden sound of firefights at the top of the city.
The telephone soldier responded very quickly. He grabbed the phone and listened for a few seconds before covering the phone and reporting to Major General Fujita: "General..."
"There is an urgent call from the city defense troops in the east of the city. There are main forces of the Eighth Route Army moving outside the city."
"They used machine guns to fight back as ordered to prevent them from sneaking into the city under cover of night..."
"As a result, as soon as the light and heavy machine guns fired, they were counterattacked by the opponent's mortars and heavy machine guns, resulting in heavy losses..."
"The city defense troops have entered the position as ordered, please give instructions..."
