Okamura's words made Yamamoto finally face up to the beggar-like team he thought was surviving in the cracks in the occupied areas of China - the Eighth Route Army.
After all, the General Okamura in front of him was a brilliant commander who could defeat the American landing army on Guadalcanal. However, such a brilliant commander was still defeated by the Eighth Route Army, which had backward equipment and scarce ammunition.
Yamamoto became more and more curious about how the Eighth Route Army did all this.
When discussing this topic.
The face of the old Japanese soldier Okamura was full of bitterness, and his expression also fell into memories, and he slowly spoke: "At the beginning, our ordinary imperial field squadron could easily deal with one of their organized battalions.
Even if we encounter regiment-level combat units of the Eighth Route Army, unless they are the main combat units of the Eighth Route Army, they are no match for our Imperial Japanese Squadron.
Even if it is the main combat group of the Eighth Route Army, our Imperial Squadron may not be unable to defeat it if it launches a sneak attack.
Even if it cannot be eliminated, it can be evacuated calmly.
The equipment of the Eighth Route Army at that time was really poor. In our opinion, it was not much different from a group of primitive aborigines.
It is no exaggeration to say that at that time, any of our casual regiments, or even the more elite infantry brigade, needed their entire base area to deal with them with all their strength, and they were even chased all over the mountains by us.
Especially after the expansion of the Eighth Route Army, due to its poor military quality, we often had to deal with one of their regiments, and we only needed one reinforced squadron.
At that time, we won more than we lost, and the casualty ratio of both sides was often above 1:3. To exaggerate, we could even have a casualty ratio of 1:10.
At that time, one of our squadrons could control a county. Under the deterrence of the imperial army, Chinese armed forces were everywhere who came to seek refuge.
Although we failed to completely destroy China in three months, we succeeded in occupying half of China's mountains and rivers in a short period of time."
Yamamoto said thoughtfully: "No one can defeat the Japanese Empire. This is what victory should look like... But how could the situation reverse to such a bad situation later?"
Hearing this, Okamura sighed.
"We have spent decades preparing to occupy China, and it seems we are invincible and invincible.
However, as the war progressed and we occupied more and more territory, China's land was really too big, even though we used a large number of troops to enter the Chinese battlefield.
Even if a very small number of troops are used to cooperate with the local Imperial Army and the surrendered Chinese armed forces to control the occupied areas, there are still fewer troops and more land.
This has led to our military forces becoming more and more dispersed and becoming increasingly insufficient.
Coupled with the tenacious resistance of the Chinese regular troops, although they were defeated one after another in battles, they were never completely defeated. This resulted in our front being gradually stretched and the war being continuously consumed.
Among them, our army's logistics has become increasingly unsustainable.
Later, we developed in the long term and used war to support war to create some economic zones in the Chinese occupied areas to provide the army's logistical needs.
But no one could have imagined that at the moment when our imperial troops were engaging in a head-on battle with the Chinese regular army, these beggar-like Tubal troops in the cracks of the occupied areas would actually grow in size silently. We are still who we were, but the Eighth Route Army continued to develop in secret and continued to learn from us. Finally, after absorbing the experience and lessons of fighting with us, they grew rapidly.
From the beginning, they fought flexibly and were familiar with our combat mode. Later, they developed many tactics in a targeted manner. The advantage gradually shifted to them, especially in the so-called Taihang Military District of the Eighth Route Army. After they completed their preparations, they could not defeat the first squadron of our empire from one battalion.
Now a reinforced company can completely defeat one of our squadrons.
Even their so-called steel helmet soldiers, with the support of technical arms, can defeat even our most elite field divisions in one-on-one combat.
To what extent did it become exaggerated?
There was even a shameful incident in which a brigade of the domestic security division was attacked by an armored unit and an infantry company of the Eighth Route Army and surrendered!"
"Bagaya, have they forgotten the spirit of Bushido?" Yamamoto was so angry that he couldn't even stand.
Okamura smiled bitterly: "Don't blame them. These new recruits from China are not even accustomed to the battlefield. The elite field divisions in front were defeated and collapsed. They were scattered and disorganized. It is not surprising that such a situation exists.
It is true that the so-called steel helmet soldiers of the Eighth Route Army have grown too fast. They fight in a systematic manner, and ordinary troops are no match for them.
I'm just copying their tactics here. I'm ashamed, they already have a different fighting method from us, and we're still standing still!"
Yamamoto asked: "Can't the imperial army fully learn their tactics?"
Okamura said: "You can't learn it. This is the tactic created by the Eighth Route Army that is most suitable for them. I'm afraid no one else can learn it.
In order to win the war.
Not only did they conduct a series of tactics such as guerrilla warfare, mobile warfare, ambush warfare, and annihilation warfare.
We have also improved a lot of equipment that can cause us trouble, such as adding wheels to heavy machine guns, changing grenades into mortars, and for example, I learned how to eject these depth bombs from the Eighth Route Army. They can change the equipment according to battlefield conditions. We now have
Under the weapon system, it is impossible to replace it in a short time.
For example, they don't have many anti-aircraft weapons, but their 12.7 heavy machine guns, 20mm anti-aircraft guns, 37mm anti-aircraft guns, and 76mm anti-aircraft guns all operate in a system, which is very efficient.
According to my observation, among the three 25mm anti-aircraft guns on the general's warship, the middle one cannot be used normally during wartime, right?
Moreover, the general was too sincere in his operations. Every battle plan was sent in detail through the radio. If my guess is correct, the loss of Midway was related to the leak of communications."
Yamamoto said: "How do you say this?"
Okamura talked about how in North China, the Eighth Route Army used the only radio stations at hand to deceive the imperial troops.
Finally, after gritting his teeth with hatred, he suggested: "The general might as well give it a try, make more fake communications, reorganize a set of special communication codes, and hide a true message with a lot of false information.
The general can even send out false news now, saying that our troops in Gangcun, Guadalcanal, have run out of food and ammunition and need to replenish them quickly. Then the general is ready to send troops to a certain location in the waters of Guadalcanal in order to maintain supplies.
I believe that the Americans will definitely send an aircraft carrier fleet to intercept.
This is just the lowest level of deception. The Eighth Route Army has used all kinds of methods to deceive me over the years. All the intelligence seemed to be true, but turned out to be false. Their senior officials even cooperated with the frontline troops to deceive me." As he spoke, Okamura's words were probably choked up because he touched a sad point.
There have been too many scammers on the Eighth Route Army in recent years!
Yamamoto was also stunned when he heard this, marveling at the strong survivability and cunning combat thinking of this Chinese armed force known as the Eighth Route Army.
Think about it again, if he is sent to the North China Front Army as the commander-in-chief, what can he do to deal with such an extremely cunning opponent?
Perhaps thinking of the place of trance, Yamamoto couldn't help but shudder, and then came back to his senses.
Fortunately... fortunately he is not the commander-in-chief of the North China Front!
Then I felt emotional, I couldn't help but get a headache just thinking about it, it was really hard for Okamura.
The Battle of Guadalcanal continues.
The old man Okamura secretly learned the tactics of the Eighth Route Army. He set up an ambush circle on Guadalcanal. After the ambush, he lured the enemy deep into the airport. He also left a secret passage at the airport. After the US military penetrated deeply, he attacked the airport again and cut off the Americans' retreat.
From now on, let’s fight another battle of annihilation!
After the war.
When talking about this ambush battle, Yamamoto felt incredible.
"Can two ambush battles be fought in one place?"
He had never heard of such tactics. Even after looking at what he had learned at the military academy, he had never heard of such a battle.
Okamura's mouth was full of bitterness. Naturally, there would be no such battle. This was a style of play pioneered by the Eighth Route Army generals. For this reason, the Japanese army in North China suffered a lot of losses.
Not only that, this also caused panic among the Japanese army in the future. Even on some roads that had been ambushed in the past, transport teams often did not dare to pass through them at will. They had to investigate clearly and make sure there were no ambushes along the way before they dared to go on the road. It was really a shame.
The wind is roaring!
Okamura said: "More than just a second ambush, the Eighth Route Army even dared to conduct three, four, or even multiple ambushes in the same way. The most exaggerated thing is that there was once a transportation channel in North China that was destroyed in one year.
The Eighth Route Army ambushed us more than eight times!"
"This..."
Yamamoto's eyes widened with a look of disbelief.
Okamura said: "So this is just the beginning. I even buried bombs around the airport, buried relatively deep, for the third time.
These are all followers of the Eighth Route Army, and various methods are emerging one after another. You may think that he is attacking in the east, but in fact he is leaping forward thousands of miles, and it is impossible to prevent him!"
At this point, Yamamoto finally understood why Okamura, an army commander who was constantly frustrated and defeated by the so-called Eighth Route Army in North China and was transferred to Guadalcanal, was able to defeat the US military in a land battle on Guadalcanal.
.
As he said, it was all thanks to the cunning and powerful opponent, the Eighth Route Army!
……
The Eighth Route Army.
Kong Jie and other generals did not know yet that it was because of their troubles behind enemy lines in North China that Okamura stepped down and was transferred to Guadalcanal.
On the contrary, it became a nightmare for the US military and other allied forces in the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Later, in the Battle of Guadalcanal, although the allies, led by the US military, had the last laugh, Okamura's strong command resulted in heavy casualties, and it even became a nightmare for the United States.
Although the air force and navy commanded by Yamamoto Isoroku were continuously defeated.
However, in the jungles and mountainous areas of Guadalcanal, Yamamoto relied on various excellent guerrilla warfare, mobile warfare, mountain warfare, and tunnel warfare dug everywhere to conduct tunnel warfare. He was able to defeat the US landing force, as well as the Japanese navy and air force.
Even though we have been completely defeated on all fronts, we are still suffering defeat.
Speaking of which, Okamura has been losing battles in North China and originally lost his capital in the military.
——No one would hire a commander who always loses battles to lead his troops.
Until he reached the highlight moment of his life in the Battle of Guadalcanal and shined brightly.
This once again accumulated a lot of military exploits for Okamura, an old devil.
This later became one of the capitals that enabled Okamura to serve as the last commander-in-chief of the Japanese dispatched troops to China and take over the position of Junroku Hata.
Old rival Okamura is back online again, and as a higher-level commander like the commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Forces, he will face off against the Eighth Route Army again.
Speaking of which, things are really unpredictable.
Of course, this is all for later.
……
At this time, the Eighth Route Army was actively preparing to attack Taiyuan City and assist the Jiaodong base area.
Because the attack on Taiyuan City this time was not like the last time, it was just a siege without attacking. In order to attract the attention of the Japanese army, it was thunder but no rain.
This time, we must work together to completely eliminate this lair of the Japanese.
Therefore, the preparation work is extremely huge.
The main enemies to deal with:
The main garrison troops in Shandong are the Twelfth Army Headquarters stationed in Jinan, the 59th Division Headquarters is responsible for the defense area around Jinan; the Tanaka Mixed Brigade stationed in Dezhou is responsible for guarding the Shide Line; the Fifth Independent Mixed Brigade stationed in Qingdao guards Qingdao and Jiaodong areas
, as well as the Jiaoji Line; the independent Sixth Mixed Brigade stationed in Zhangdian, responsible for the defense of Wei County; the 32nd Division stationed in the Yanzhou area; and the 35th Division stationed in the Kaifeng area.
There is also the 7th independent mixed brigade of Lin Fangtaro stationed in Liaocheng, western Shandong...
In response to the distribution of various Japanese field troops, the Eighth Route Army base areas conducted joint operations, sent troops separately, and coordinated preparations.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
At the meeting, Commander Chen of Southern Hebei Province stated that the main force of their Southern Hebei Military Region would be fully assembled, and when the campaign to attack Taiyuan begins, they would immediately besiege Liaocheng and Dezhou to attract the Japanese Tanaka Brigade and Lin Fangtaro's mixed brigade.
Commander Lu of Jizhong also expressed his full support for the troops to attack Baoding, Jidong, and Xingtai, and move all the new factories built by the Japanese. We also want to engage in large-scale industry.
Lao Yang from Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei also spoke on behalf of the army, saying that he would attack Baoding with all his strength, try to attract all the troops from Peking, Tianjin, and Zhangjiakou to create an opportunity to attack Zhangjiakou and evacuate them all.
Lao Yang from northern Henan said that they would make full preparations to attack the 4th Brigade of PY Cavalry and first disrupt the Japanese deployment to mobilize the Japanese.
Ding Wei secretly whispered to Li Yunlong: "Old Li, Brigadier Zhang said that 75mm artillery is not considered artillery. This is the second person in our Eighth Route Army to say so. What do you think?"
Li Yunlong whispered: "Look at Lao Zhang and Lao Song singing together like opera singers. It's so interesting. Let's not expose him.
People have saved their fortune and have the capital to do big business. This Taiyuan City is a hot potato. Either way, or not, I won't go through this muddy water. The little devils in Jiaodong area are still waiting for us, Lao Li.
Going to salvation!
These Shanxi Japs have basically been replaced by new recruits, so what’s the point of beating them?"
Having said this, Li Yunlong poked Kong Jie who was sitting next to him again: "Hey, hey, hey, Lao Kong, are you closing your eyes to rest or thinking about a problem, why are you silent?"
Before Kong Jie could say anything, Commander Qin of the next division approached Li Yunlong and asked: "Old Li, don't you always have some clever ideas? Why don't you express your opinion? I heard that you are going to fight the old brigade commander in a duel.
Wrestling, is there such a thing?"
Li Yunlong quickly said: "Old Qin, Brother Qin, my big brother, stop joking, how can I be the opponent of the old brigade commander?
You must never tell the old brigade commander! How about I give you a batch of anti-tank mines?"