With Major General Sakamoto, the Commander-in-Chief of North China, Okabe, parachuted in, both as commander and supervisor, although Commander Nanada and others were reluctant, they could only cooperate and deploy a large number of materials and soldiers to form this team.
Troops heading south.
Before leaving, Nanada repeatedly warned Sakamoto: "Follow the orders of my headquarters and be sure to always pay attention to the movements of the Eighth Route Army. When the army advances along the way, all troops will be sent out in all directions to guard the area. The guard range must be at least ten kilometers."
Above.
To avoid being ambushed by the Eighth Route Army!
Once you encounter an ambush by the Eighth Route Army, you must quickly determine which army the enemy is. Pay special attention to whether there are any teams wearing helmets and combat boots.
If there is such a team, do not hesitate to retreat immediately, keep this in mind!"
But it is said that Major General Sakamoto did make great military achievements on the frontline battlefield when the Sino-Japanese War just broke out.
However, he has been mainly responsible for the battles between the frontline and the Central Army, as well as the Shanxi-Sui Army. There were not many confrontations with the Eighth Route Army in the occupied areas.
Therefore, I was not deeply impressed by the powerful Major General Sakamoto of the Eighth Route Army.
Regarding Commander Nanada's instructions, he felt more that the Commander was a bit alarmist and just a bunch of bad guys!
I don’t know why, whether it was because there were no more capable people available under his command, Okamoto actually sent him out this time, a general who still had contempt for the Eighth Route Army.
Perhaps the reason is also very simple.
What Okamoto values most is Major General Sakamoto’s absolute loyalty to him.
In contrast, those Japanese generals who had extensive combat experience with the Eighth Route Army in the occupied areas often had more thoughts and could easily overwhelm the superior and obey Okabe's orders.
Sure enough...
Because Okabe has high hopes for this unit, he even regards this team as an important bargaining chip for his comeback. As long as the crisis in Baoding can be solved in one fell swoop, he will definitely be free to reinforce the Shandong battlefield, and maybe the whole game will be revived.<
/p>
So he personally took command and even sent an urgent telegram through the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Forces, Junroku Hata, to urge the troops to move south quickly.
The loyal Sakamoto naturally didn't hesitate and led the troops to advance quickly according to Okabe's command.
On the other side, Commander Nanada originally maintained command of the troops led by Sakamoto at all times, until he got the news through his confidants that Major General Sakamoto had led the troops to advance rapidly under the orders of Commander-in-Chief Okabe, directly abandoning the original plan.
Plan a plan to advance carefully.
Commander Nanada, who was worried that the rapid advance would easily fall into the trap of the Eighth Route Army, immediately contacted the Iinuma garrison and found that the Baoding Eighth Route Army's offensive had weakened.
He immediately realized there was a fraud.
The offensive of the Eighth Route Army troops attacking Baoding has weakened. What does this mean?
This shows that the Eighth Route Army must have secretly mobilized its main force. This main force is most likely to be mobilized for Sakamoto and his reinforcements.
Commander Nanada made a decisive decision and immediately ordered Sakamoto to retreat and investigate the situation.
Now it’s okay, the orders from the commanders on both sides are completely different.
One allows him to advance quickly, and the other allows himself to retreat immediately and stand still.
Sakamoto was numb from all this going back and forth.
At this time, we have to talk about the issue of loyalty. As a direct descendant of Okabe, Sakamoto naturally chose to obey Okabe's command.
But at this time, how could the old Japanese Okabe, who was far away in Peiping, know the situation Sakamoto was facing? He was still thinking that the rapid reinforcements from the southward detachment could end the crisis in Baoding in one fell swoop!
In this way, Sakamoto led the troops and fell step by step into the large encirclement of the main Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei remaining troops and the Yanbei detachment.
After the battle fully began, Sakamoto's team was beaten to pieces and suffered heavy casualties. In the end, they fled in embarrassment, and then partially withdrew.
It wasn't until this moment that Sakamoto suddenly realized why Commander Shichita had repeatedly asked him.
Unfortunately it's too late.
In this way, Sakamoto failed to send reinforcements to Baoding as planned. On the contrary, he had a bad start and lost troops and generals.
Even Major General Sakamoto was killed in the cannon fire.
For a moment, Nanada and others were so angry that they cursed Okabe as a pig-headed commander.
After the battle of the south-going detachment, almost the entire army was wiped out, and only part of the team escaped.
The steel fortress of Zhangjiakou, which was originally heavily guarded by the Japanese army, was now extremely empty due to the deployment of a large number of troops.
Coupled with the disastrous defeat of the southward detachment, which dealt a huge blow to the morale of the Japanese army, the remaining troops stationed in Zhangjiakou were all in panic and were always worried about a surprise attack by the Eighth Route Army.
Commander Nanada had no choice but to scold Okabe for being a pig as usual, while ordering Zhangjiakou garrison commander Kameda to assemble the last mobile troops and all stick to the core fortification group.
Due to the lack of troops, there were no extra troops to defend the outer defense line, so Nanada had no choice but to give up.
In this way, the Japanese watched helplessly as they were surrounded by the Eighth Route Army's Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei troops and the 35th Army Corps, as anxious as ants on a hot pot.
……
Inside the Eighth Route Army Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region Headquarters.
A group of generals discussed the next step in the battle plan for capturing Zhangjiakou.
If we follow the traditional fighting method and combine it with the current situation, due to the destruction of the southbound detachment from Zhangjiakou heading towards Baoding, the defensive strength of the Japanese troops stationed in Zhangjiakou is already extremely empty at this moment.
With absolute military superiority, even if Zhangjiakou is a steel fortress, it may not be impossible to break through.
But the Eighth Route Army generals obviously have a higher level of wisdom.
Captain Song said: "Tough battles are not easy to fight, especially in steel fortresses like Zhangjiakou. Even if our troops' equipment levels have improved a lot over the years, it will still be difficult to forcefully break through the Japanese defenses.
I suggest that we should follow the wisdom of our ancestors and surround three but one is missing, so as to give the Japanese the hope of escaping and not push them to a dead end, and at the same time avoid the sacrifice of our troops."
This suggestion immediately won the support of Mr. Nie and Commander Yang and his party.
So according to the plan, troops were dispatched one after another to form an encirclement of Zhangjiakou in three directions.
It only left an escape route for the Japanese defenders to evacuate toward Miyun.
"Can an old devil like Qita be willing to abandon Zhangjiakou like this?"
"You must know that the little devils have put a lot of effort into operating in Zhangjiakou over the years. Once a large number of enterprises and military industrial bases are evacuated, all their efforts will be in vain."
In response, Commander Yang smiled and said: "These are not worth mentioning in the face of saving lives.
I think we should also further increase our deterrence and put all our heavy artillery units on display, real ones, and some fake ones.
That was the advice Kong Jie left for us. I heard that there was a genius named Shi Dahu in his team, who had set up some kind of strategic camouflage bureau, ranging from camouflage of guns and cannons to large aircraft and tanks. p>
I even heard that this guy even proposed a shocking plan to create a fake Yan'an to confuse the Japanese air force into attacking.
We have to learn this trick well. Among the ten real cannons are three or five fake cannons, so even the little devil can’t tell.
It just so happens that Lao Kong and the others have not yet taken away the Type 96 heavy cannon that they captured from the Japanese. Pulling it out and showing it off will also give us a lot of prestige and scare the Japanese."
Everyone expressed their agreement.
After the order was issued, the soldiers took action quickly.
The news was quickly passed to the Japanese army's Zhangjiakou headquarters.
I learned that the Eighth Route Army troops attacking the city had a large number of heavy artillery.
Japanese commander Kameda was also completely panicked and quickly reported the enemy's situation to Commander Shichita who was stationed in the rear area.
The Japanese reconnaissance force has also found out that the Eighth Route Army surrounded Zhangjiakou in three directions, but left an escape route to Miyun.
Knowing that there was still a way out, the Japanese troops stationed in the city, including the Imperial Army troops, basically had no intention of fighting to the death.
Who is willing to die if he can live?
In fact, it’s not just these grassroots officers.
Even old Japanese like Shichita and Kameda had the idea of evacuating after learning that there was an escape route deliberately left by the Eighth Route Army.
Commander Nanada is not stupid. He is surrounded by the Eighth Route Army with no troops. Fighting to the death will only lead to disaster.
At present, there are no extra troops to reinforce Zhangjiakou. Even if Zhangjiakou is a fortress, it will be difficult to defend it when the Eighth Route Army has a large number of heavy artillery.
If we don't evacuate, we might really anger the Eighth Route Army, and then the Steel Fortress will become a graveyard that is hard to escape from.
The Eighth Route Army deliberately missed one out of three. This was a conspiracy. It was to provide a way out for the little Japs to see whether you Japs would die or live. This obviously moved Commander Qita's heart.
He wants to live!
The worst he can do is to resist symbolically for a few days and then run away. As long as the troops are still there, he will still be the commander when he comes back. If the troops are gone, even if he is fine, he will probably be punished and sent to the reserve force.
Commander Shichita can still figure it out clearly.
Moreover, the loss of Zhangjiakou this time resulted in a lack of troops, which was entirely due to the destruction of the southbound detachment and entirely due to the foolish command of Commander-in-Chief Okabe.
Even if he takes the blame, he can't bear it on his head.
Besides, you, Okabe, are only a commander with a staff promotion, and you don’t even have a direct line of troops. If it weren’t for the face of Hata Shunroku, the commander-in-chief of the dispatched army, everyone would have disobeyed you long ago.
So...
The Eighth Route Army troops, led by the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, launched a three-sided siege on the Datong Fortress. After the fighting broke out, the fighting between the two sides "intensified."
The Eighth Route Army bombarded the Japanese with heavy artillery outside the city and also fired back with artillery.
The noise was loud.
However, there were basically no close encounters between troops, and the Eighth Route Army did not organize a charge that would inevitably cause casualties.
Any Japanese officer with a clear eye could see that the Eighth Route Army under the city had no intention of attacking the city at all costs. In the past few days, their artillery counterattacks had not had many targets at all, and they probably did not kill a few Eighth Route Army soldiers. p>
But none of them dared to bet. The command secretly given by the headquarters had already been issued, and they only needed to hold on for three days before they immediately chose to make a strategic move.
They are not stupid, they all have relatives in their hometown, and no one is willing to fight to the death.
The two sides just made a lot of noise and a small amount of rain, which seemed to be a tacit understanding of acting.
One day, two days...to the third day!
The Communications Department stationed in Zhangjiakou has already called for reinforcements countless times, but to no avail.
So at about five o'clock in the afternoon that day, the remaining Japanese troops stationed in Zhangjiakou quickly blew up some military buildings in the city and destroyed some weapons and supplies, and then quickly evacuated from the only escape route left for them by the Eighth Route Army.
In this way, with almost no effort, the soldiers of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region successfully captured Zhangjiakou.
After the news came out, there was an uproar, and the whole of North China was shaken. The Japanese commander Okabe who was in charge of Peiping fell down on his armchair with a choke, and his face turned ashen for a moment.
Collapse!
He was totally blown away!
Baoding was not rescued, but Zhangjiakou was also involved.
At this time, how much the old devil Okabe misses his senior Okamura Neji!
He suddenly realized how powerful his senior was. Not long after he came to power, the whole of North China was about to collapse under his influence.
These eight forces are really cunning. When he first came to power, they first threw some sweet dates at him to let him taste the sweetness. They started by taking Xiangyuan and the five cities of Licheng, and then deliberately abandoned some transportation lines and county towns to give him a taste of the sweetness.
He created the illusion that the Eighth Route Army was nothing more than this.
Who knew that such a large-scale autumn offensive would be launched in a blink of an eye, and Okabe was caught off guard.
But his senior Okamura was able to persevere for so many years and even made the security in the rear area of North China very orderly.
So is this the gap?
At this point, the battle in the direction of Zhangjiakou has settled. Although the Japanese army destroyed a lot of enterprises and military industrial bases in Zhangjiakou before withdrawing, many of them still remained.
These were quickly taken over by the Eighth Route Army.
More importantly, the loss of Zhangjiakou was like a thorn in the throat for the Japanese army, which dealt a huge blow to the Japanese army's overall strategic layout in North China.
In addition, for the Eighth Route Army, perhaps the biggest gain from this trip was the steel fortress-like Zhangjiakou.
This time they captured Zhangjiakou, there was basically no real offensive battle. The Japanese spent a lot of manpower and material resources in Zhangjiakou to build steel-like defenses, which now gave the Eighth Route Army an advantage.
Just as Commander Yang said when he climbed to the top of Zhangjiakou City Gate:
"The little devils boasted that they built Zhangjiakou into a steel fortress, and even claimed that it was their Japanese version of the Huangyadong fortification complex.
But let me tell you, the little devil is still far behind!
In fact, the fortifications built by the Japs are indeed good, with exquisite ideas and abundant materials. However, the little Japs who defended them were so bad that the entire steel fortress collapsed.
So, comrades, everyone has seen that this little devil is getting more and more out of place! Hahahaha——"
Then, in accordance with the deployment of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region Headquarters, after Zhangjiakou was captured, the enemy built an absolute steel fortress-like defense that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and operated in Zhangjiakou.
With the help of this steel fortress, the largest number of Japanese troops can be contained with the smallest number of troops.