At the Baoding Garrison Headquarters, Okamura Neiji was enjoying the scene of the mopping up troops gathering to annihilate the Eighth Route Army in the wing next to the sand table.
Thinking of the joy, the corners of his mouth turned up unconsciously.
"Your Excellency, Commander..." The deputy chief of staff suddenly ran over and brought him back to reality.
With a happy face, you knew without guessing that he had brought good news.
"Good news...the middle sweep force commanded by Lieutenant General Sakuragi successfully reached Chenjiazhuang."
"There are still more than 10,000 troops in the entire army, and the Eighth Route Army stationed in Chenjiazhuang still only has two reinforced battalions."
"He plans to assemble three infantry brigades to launch a strong attack, strive to capture the entire Eighth Route Army in one assault, occupy Chenjiazhuang, build a defense line on the spot, and cut off the Eighth Route Army's retreat in the center."
"That's great..." Okamura Neji couldn't help but laugh, his face full of excitement.
"This battle is the key to whether we can completely annihilate the Eighth Route Army in Yinzhong. Sakuragi-kun must fight well and completely annihilate the defenders without leaving any hidden dangers in the subsequent defensive battle."
"As for the tunnel fortifications built by the Eighth Route Army in Chenjiazhuang, use them if they can be used. If they cannot be used, destroy them directly. Do not give the Eighth Route Army any chance to retake Chenjiazhuang through the tunnels."
The deputy chief of staff was convinced and immediately took the order: "I am going to send a telegram now."
The combat staff on the side also marked the latest situations of the enemy and ourselves on the sand table.
Okamura Neji knew at a glance that the two sides were going to start a large-scale battle in Chenjiazhuang.
Two hours passed in a flash.
Neji Okamura always stayed in the war room waiting for news.
On the sand table, Chenjiazhuang still has a green flag representing the Eighth Route Army.
Red flags representing the Kwantung Army are scattered around Chenjiazhuang.
The number of flags on both sides represents the strength of their respective troops. The mopping up troops have nearly ten times the strength advantage, as well as absolute firepower and air support.
No matter how you analyze it, the mopping up troops can end the battle within two hours and wipe out all the Eighth Route Army stationed in Chenjiazhuang.
As a result, two hours had passed, and the headquarters had not received any good news from Lieutenant General Sakuragi.
It shows that the situation on the front line is not as smooth as imagined.
As he thought about it, Okamura Neji's relaxed brows wrinkled again.
Several times I wanted to send someone a telegram to ask about the latest battle situation at the front.
When the words reached his lips, he swallowed them back.
Maybe the frontline battle is about to end. If the headquarters sends a telegram to ask about the battle situation, it may make the frontline commanders feel that they do not trust them, which is not conducive to unity and the next battle.
This wait lasted another half hour.
When Okamura Neiji couldn't bear it anymore, the figure of the deputy chief of staff finally appeared at the door of the war room.
Holding a telegram in his hand, he hurried towards him with a very solemn expression.
Okamura Neji's heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition flashed through his mind.
Just as he was about to speak, the deputy chief of staff had already reported: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"There are changes in Chenjiazhuang's offensive and defensive battle."
"The Eighth Route Army's fighting will is stronger than imagined."
"Rely on the tunnel fortifications and fight to the death without retreating."
"Lieutenant General Sakuragi assembled three infantry brigades and launched a forceful attack, but they failed to capture them, and more than 2,000 people were lost."
"But the telegram also said: The two reinforced battalions of the Eighth Route Army also suffered heavy losses, with less than two hundred people left to continue fighting."
"They plan to completely eliminate their opponents in the next storm and occupy Chenjiazhuang..."
Okamura Neji seemed to smell a hint of conspiracy.
During the last major sweep, the Yi Zhong Eighth Route Army also defended a certain place first and used offensive and defensive battles to consume a large amount of the troops to be swept away.
After the two sides were equal in strength, the Eighth Route Army's latent troops immediately emerged to kill the mopping up troops, catching them off guard, and then surrounded and annihilated the mopping up troops.
He had a vague feeling that the Eighth Route Army's defense of Chenjiazhuang was not as simple as it seemed.
But these ideas are just my own inferences without any real evidence.
Immediately asked: "Minus the losses, how many people are left in the middle sweep force..."
"After deducting the artillery and non-combat soldiers in the team, how many infantry are left that can directly go to the battlefield? Let's make statistics immediately. The more detailed the relevant data, the better."
Although the deputy chief of staff was not sure why Okamura Neiji suddenly asked this question, as a subordinate, he readily accepted the order.
Several combat staff members calculated together. Some counted the battle losses of the troops swept up in the middle, while others counted the proportion of infantry casualties, the number of weapons and ammunition consumed...
In just five minutes, the deputy chief of staff walked up to Okamura Neji with a serious look on his face.
"Your Excellency, Commander, the central mopping up force has a total of two main regiments, one guard regiment, one supplementary regiment, and a total of ten infantry regiments."
"Before reaching Chenjiazhuang, the ten infantry brigades lost a total of three brigades. We just attacked Chenjiazhuang and lost more than 2,000 people. Now there are less than five brigades left."
"After deducting the cavalry that has been wiped out and the heavily damaged tank regiment, there are still about 3,000 people left, more than 2,500 of whom are artillerymen, and more than 500 of whom are engineers."
Okamura Neji's face was obviously heavier than before, and he stared at the sand table and analyzed: "The middle route mopping up troops have lost so many troops, and they haven't captured Chenjiazhuang yet."
"In the battle just now, the Eighth Route Army only relied on the outer defense line to fight an offensive and defensive battle with us, and they had not yet fought the street fighting that they are best at."
"My prediction is good: they will probably retreat to Chenjiazhuang to fight a street fight with us."
"At that time, the artillery and air force advantages of the mopping up troops could not be used."
"The enemy is in the dark and we are in the light. The casualties of the troops will definitely be very heavy."
"If they lose another brigade, the total strength will be reduced sharply to less than four brigade."
"Chenjiazhuang is the hinterland of the Yizhong base. If an accident occurs to the middle mopping up troops, and the left and right mopping up troops fail to reinforce in time, it would be too dangerous..."
The deputy chief of staff immediately raised objections: "There is no way that the central mopping up troops will be in danger."
"Your Excellency, Commander, we have calculated before that the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong has no troops to threaten the security of the mopping up troops in the middle. Otherwise, they would not only arrange two reinforced battalions to defend Chenjiazhuang."
Okamura Neiji stared at the sand table for a while before speaking: "No... they still have troops..."
"In our previous calculations, the Yizhong Eighth Route Army arranged at least one main regiment to block the middle road and mop up the troops along the way, consuming their strength."
"Now that the mopping up troops have successfully reached Chenjiazhuang, this main group should also be active around Chenjiazhuang."
"Aviation reconnaissance revealed that there have been two regiments of the Eighth Route Army near Chenjiazhuang transporting weapons, ammunition and supplies into the mountains."
"If they are also lurking near Chenjiazhuang, the opponent facing the Sakuragi Division will not be the two battalions of the Eighth Route Army, but the three regiments of the Eighth Route Army."
"Since the beginning of the counter-mopping up, our troops have only encountered the Eighth Route Army's flying thunder artillery units, mortar units, and even the mountain artillery units rarely."
"Intelligence shows that the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong is equipped with at least thirty field and mountain artillery pieces of various types."
"If all these artillery pieces are hidden in Chenjiazhuang, they will definitely pose a huge threat to the Sakuragi Division."
