Shinozuka Yoshio slammed his fist on the table in front of him again, gritted his teeth and said firmly: "We must never let the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army regain its strength!"
"Although they suffered heavy casualties in the Ping'an battle, the total strength of the three regiments is still nearly 10,000."
"If they are allowed to regain their strength and continue to expand their troops, the total strength will definitely exceed 15,000, and the firepower level will be raised to a higher level. It will be difficult to eliminate them again."
After saying that, he stared at the chief of staff and asked: "How many troops have we exchanged back from southwestern Shanxi?"
"Seven infantry brigades, two more infantry brigades will arrive in Taiyuan three days later..." The chief of staff knew the troops in the city well and blurted out without thinking.
"How many artillery pieces have the Front Army Headquarters given us?" Yoshio Shinozuka continued to ask!
"12 105 mm caliber mountain guns, 12 120 mm caliber mortars, 12 field guns, 12 mountain guns, 20 infantry guns, and 60 small caliber mortars!"
"A thousand gunners of all kinds..."
"Bizhi plans to use them to form a large-caliber independent mountain artillery brigade, a heavy mortar squadron, a field artillery brigade, and a mountain artillery brigade!"
"Infantry artillery and small-caliber mortars directly supplement the troops!"
Yoshio Shinozuka nodded and continued to ask: "How many mobile units are left in northwest Shanxi..."
"There are three infantry brigades of the Imperial Army and eight regiments of the Imperial Army!" This time the chief of staff thought for a few seconds before answering.
A smile finally flashed across Shinozuka Yoshio's solemn face, and he said happily: "If we send troops to sweep northwestern Shanxi in three days, the Imperial Army will be able to mobilize twelve infantry brigades."
"Ha Yi..." the chief of staff nodded and replied.
"We can also dispatch a large-caliber mountain artillery brigade, a heavy mortar squadron, a mountain artillery brigade or a field artillery brigade... Taiyuan City only needs to leave one artillery brigade!"
"The Imperial Alliance Army can also dispatch ten regiments!"
Yoshio Shinozuka frowned and asked: "Isn't there only eight regiments of the Imperial Alliance Army in the Northwestern Shanxi Mobile Force? Where did the two extra regiments come from?"
"Taiyuan City can dispatch two regiments of the Imperial Army to attack northwest Shanxi!" the chief of staff explained.
"During this period, we not only replenished a large amount of equipment and new recruits, but also rebuilt the Taiyuan Security Brigade, Jinzhong Security Regiment, and Airport Security Regiment..."
"Under the condition of ensuring the safety of Taiyuan, the Taiyuan Security Brigade can deploy two security regiments to cooperate with the imperial army's operations."
The smile on Shinozuka Yoshio's face grew wider: "That's 12,000 Imperial Army and 10,000 Imperial Alliance Army... plus the artillery, baggage troops, cavalry, and aviation that cooperate with the operation, the total force exceeds 25,000
People... will definitely be able to wipe out the Eighth Route Army entrenched in northwest Shanxi!"
The chief of staff suddenly raised another question: "Your Excellency, Commander... The Ping'an Campaign has just ended, and we have launched a new round of offensive in northwestern Shanxi. Will the frequency of troops' operations be too fast... How about we stop waiting and let the troops
Rest for a few more days before launching an attack!"
"No need to rest!" Shinozuka Yoshio ordered without hesitation!
"In the Battle of Ping'an, our troops assembled in Taiyuan did not participate in the war... they have been recuperating their strength, and now there is no problem in launching an attack."
"As for the mobile troops operating in northwest Shanxi, by the time the troops killed in Taiyuan are in place, they have already rested for a long time and will definitely be able to continue to participate in the battle!"
"The combat mission I assigned them is mainly to fight against the enemy... As long as they arrive at the destination on time, build a blocking position under the cover of the aviation force, and wait for work, it will not affect our attack on northwest Shanxi!"
"Compared with our mobile troops operating in northwestern Shanxi, the Eighth Route Army operating there needs more rest and recuperation..."
"The longer the sweep lasts, the more their strength will recover, which will be detrimental to our subsequent sweep!"
"So if we don't advance in the attack time, we can't push it back, we have to advance it as much as possible!"
"Send a telegram to the two infantry brigades that are about to arrive in Taiyuan immediately!"
"There is no need to hide in the next march. We must reach Taiyuan within two days!"
"The troops who have arrived in Taiyuan immediately replenish their ammunition and food and are ready to attack at any time!"
"The railway department has prepared its military columns. When the time comes, it must send the troops to the front line in the shortest possible time and launch an attack immediately without giving the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army any time to prepare!"
"I'll give the staff one day to formulate a battle plan. I'll see it at this time tomorrow!"
"I can give you a general idea first."
"Every time the Eighth Route Army attacks, we have to gather superior troops and firepower, and we have to use blocking warfare and guerrilla warfare in advance to consume our strength, and finally gather together to annihilate it!"
"This time I decided to retaliate in kind and focus on an all-out attack!"
"First allocate part of the troops to penetrate directly into the junction of the three regiments, establish a defense line, and cut off the connection between them. Then gather heavy troops to besiege one regiment first. After the battle is over, attack the other regiment. In three steps, the troops entrenched in northwest Shanxi will be captured.
The entire Eighth Route Army has been wiped out!"
"Based on my understanding of the Eighth Route Army, if one regiment is attacked, the other two regiments will definitely try their best to rescue..."
"We can use this to force the Eighth Route Army to fight positional warfare with us, wait for work, and consume a lot of their troops and ammunition through blocking."
"Once the main force has wiped out one regiment, it will be much easier to attack the other two regiments!"
The chief of staff listened and took notes, and after writing the last word, he said with a full face of compliment: "The commander is wise..."
"In the past, every time we conducted a sweep, we divided our troops into separate groups and launched a full-scale attack..."
"The Eighth Route Army knows our fighting style too well and often assembles heavy troops to attack us, mopping up the troops along the way and breaking the blockade!"
"As the Chinese say: It is better to cut off one finger than to hurt ten of them!"
"This time we changed the all-out attack to a focused attack and gathered the troops together to launch the attack. This not only stopped the Eighth Route Army's idea of defeating us individually... but also made their previous tactics useless... killing two birds with one stone..."
"Based on this alone, we will be able to achieve a complete victory in this sweep of northwestern Shanxi!"
"I don't know which regiment of the Eighth Route Army the commander wants to attack first..."
"After clarifying the attack target, I am 100% sure to formulate a combat plan within one day!"
This time Yoshio Shinozuka hesitated for half a minute before making a decision: "Fight the independent group first!"
"In the battle of Ping'an, the Independent Regiment destroyed the most imperial troops and achieved the greatest results..."
"The original attack on Taiyuan was also led by the Independent Regiment!"
"I remember correctly, the Independent Regiment and Kong Jie were the first among the three regiments to come into the military's sight, and they were also the first to be listed as a serious concern for us!"
"I just heard your report: The Independent Regiment is the strongest and most promising of the three regiments in northwestern Shanxi!"
"Since we have chosen to defeat them individually, we should first take down the independent group with the strongest strength and the most development potential, and then attack the weak enemies."
"Killing the strongest independent regiment will also damage the morale of the other two regiments to a certain extent and destroy their determination to fight us to the end!"
The chief of staff once again complimented: "Commander is wise, I am humble enough to prepare now..."
From the moment he received the expansion order at the Independent Regiment Artillery Battalion, Chen Daliang's face lit up with joy.
But soon he stopped laughing and went straight to the regiment headquarters. When he found Kong Jie, he looked like an angry little daughter-in-law, complaining with aggrieved face: "Commander, I can't do my job as the artillery battalion commander.
Would you like to change someone else?"
"Who bullied our Battalion Commander Chen... He was promoted from company commander to battalion commander, and he laughed even in his dreams. Why did he feel like he had been wronged when he came to your place, and then he just gave up on me!" Kong Jie asked with a smile.
After the battle report was sent to the brigade headquarters, his heart kept hanging, fearing that the brigade headquarters would ask him for weapons and ammunition.
With Kong Jie's character, as long as the brigade headquarters opens its mouth, he will hand over four large-caliber mortars without hesitation!
The result made him very excited.
Not only did the brigade commander not be jealous of the equipment captured by the independent regiment, but he also told himself to quickly replenish the troops with those equipment, improve the combat effectiveness of the troops, and prepare for counter-mopping up.
The brigade commander also recognized Huang Yu's judgment and his own judgment that the Japanese army was about to launch a new round of sweeps, and asked the troops to complete training as soon as possible and restore their strength...
His worries were immediately relieved, and the discussed expansion orders were immediately issued to all units.
I thought that Chen Daliang, who had been promoted from company commander to battalion commander, would be the happiest company and platoon cadre in the whole regiment. However, within a day of the expansion order being issued, he came to me and complained with an aggrieved look on his face.
Chen Daliang is a cheerful person who doesn't talk nonsense. He bluntly said: "A few main battalion commanders are too much!"
"After the regiment headquarters decided to allocate all 81mm caliber mortars to them to form an artillery platoon, everyone went to the artillery company like crazy to rob people."
"They don't have gunners. If they want to form an artillery platoon, they have to recruit people from the artillery battalion. I am embarrassed to prevent my subordinates from going to the main battalion to serve as squad leaders and platoon leaders, delaying their future..."
"As a result, the artillery battalion was directly hollowed out by them!"
"There are only a few platoon commanders and deputy platoon commanders left!"
"After the artillery company expanded its artillery battalion, it has three artillery companies and one air defense company, with a total strength of at least 240 people... Now it's not even a fraction, how can we operate those artillery!"
"Are you a polished commander?" Kong Jie didn't expect this result, so he asked with a smile!
Chen Daliang answered with frustration: "Including me and the instructor, there are only 38 people left in the entire artillery battalion, 28 of whom are soldiers from the air defense company. Several main battalions cannot use them, so they were not poached!"
"He almost became a polished commander!"
Kong Jie continued to ask: "If you don't have a gunner, why don't you hire a gunner... What's the use of complaining to me!"
"The gunners are not ordinary soldiers. Where do you want me to recruit them?" Chen Daliang became more and more aggrieved as he spoke...
"Let me give you an idea!" Huang Yu said suddenly.
"Do you know that there are more than 2,000 puppet prisoners held at the regiment headquarters? They were trained by the Japanese and have very strong combat effectiveness!"
"Before we came to northwest Shanxi, the equipment of these puppet troops was not much worse than that of the Japanese: the battalion was equipped with mortars, the regiment was equipped with mountain cannon..."
"After suffering several losses at our hands, the Japanese took away all the heavy equipment from the puppet troops, but the gunners are still there!"
"There must be a large number of artillerymen hidden among the prisoners. As long as you are willing to look for them, there will be no problem in gathering together an artillery battalion!"
