After the Battle of Western Hubei, the Japanese army completed its set combat objectives. In order to avoid greater losses, it retreated to its original defense line under the defensive posture of the Chinese army and confronted the Chinese army.
The second phase of the Okamura side went smoothly. After the Jihadi Army and the Armored Army cooperated with the Sixth Front Army to capture Hengyang, they continued to advance to the Guiliu area in multiple ways, preparing to join forces after the third phase of the battle was completed with the cooperation of the Southern Army to support Beijing.
Fighting in the Han region.
Direction to central Henan.
The Japanese army also launched an offensive against Tang Keqin's group, supported by partial divisions of the Japanese Jihad Army and the Armored Corps. The plan was to attack Tang Keqin's group from the south first, and then cooperate with the Kwantung Army troops attacking from the south of Hebei and north of Henan.
Not long after, Tang Keqin received a letter from the Chairman, the original words of the credit:
"As a brother of Zhongzheng, I hope that my brother will work diligently to defend the defense line in central Henan, dispatch supplies to our rear area, send additional personnel to buy time, carry forward the spirit of Huangpu, and hold on until the reinforcements arrive. I will definitely be able to turn the crisis into safety and make an unparalleled contribution!"
Putting down the letter, Tang Keqin gritted his teeth, although he also knew that the chairman of the committee who always likes to talk about my advantage may not be an expert in command.
However, as a direct descendant of the chairman of the committee and a soldier at heart, Tang Keqin was able to impose orders and prohibitions.
Even though he knew he couldn't win, he could only bite the bullet and fight.
Fortunately, as the Japanese offensive pressed closer.
The anti-Japanese national united front between the Eighth Route Army and the Chiang Kai-shek Army was relatively solid.
The Chairman also realized that at this moment, the enemy was facing the enemy, and the Central Army on the frontal battlefield had to rely on the Eighth Route Army behind the enemy to contain the Japanese army!
...The Summer Harvest on the Eighth Route Army's side has ended. It can be said that the Japanese army did not take any advantage in the operations against the Eighth Route Army's outer base areas and to seize and retake it. Instead, they were blocked by the Eighth Route Army along the way, causing quite heavy casualties.
In accordance with the deployment of the Eighth Route Army's former enemy headquarters.
After the summer harvest is over, we can further provide hard food to the Japanese.
The 385th Brigade in the Licheng area took the lead in launching a counterattack, which was like firing the starting gun!
Immediately after the Eighth Route Army, Commander Han, who was studying in Yan'an, graduated early and led an eastward advance detachment, crossing the sieve-like defense line of the First Army, and successfully advanced to the south of Hebei to join the original Commander Chen's troops.
At this time, Commander Chen's main force in southern Hebei was joined by Lao Pi's mobile detachment, Lao Xu's detachment, Lao Cheng's detachment, and Commander Yang's main force in northern Henan. In addition, Yang's detachment returned from the Longhai line north to join the main force of the Eighth Route Army in the western Shandong area.
The main forces from southern Hebei, northern Henan, and western Shandong have successively assembled in the Puyang area.
The three forces jointly set up a headquarters to prepare for a feint attack on the Fourth Armored Mixed Brigade in Puyang, attracting the main Japanese troops from central Henan, and then encircle the point for reinforcements.
Cooperate with the operations in central Henan.
Lao Cheng was the first to say it at the command meeting: "In the early stage of the battle, the Kwantung Army was so disoriented that we retreated to rest and recuperate.
This time it's our turn to be the protagonist, and we have to eat up the Henan detachment composed of the Japanese bullshit jihadi army and the armored army.
I, Lao Cheng, will definitely eat these more than 10,000 Japanese pigs!"
After thinking about it, he probably felt that it was too high-profile, so Lao Cheng changed his mind and said: "Lao Xu and I have decided. Besides, we are fighting on behalf of the Iron Triangle Group Army. This time, Lao Xu and my main force will all be dispatched to fight.
The elite devils.
If we can't achieve any results, why don't we let that guy Li Yunlong laugh at us?"
At this time, Commander Han, who came from Yan'an, was the first to disrupt the situation: "I'm telling you, Lao Cheng, after all, this Xibei product is Xibei product and cannot be taken seriously.
You can eat more than 10,000 elite Japanese soldiers as long as you want, and you are not afraid of bragging and breaking your belly?
Don't break your teeth anymore. Remember that your 771st and 772nd Regiments were the only two major teams in the entire 386th Brigade, and they were both elite.
But the situation is different now. In the entire Taihang region, the Iron Triangle Army does not call itself an elite army, so who among us has the nerve to call ourselves an elite Eighth Route Army?
Moreover, you are only leading a part of the troops to fight in southern Hebei, and quite a few of the elite old troops are still in the 386th base area.
I'm afraid your fighting ability is not that good, right?
Maybe we’ll have to rely on our Yan’an troops to deal with these little devils in the end!”
Captain Yang on the side was worried that the world would not be in chaos, so he echoed: "That's right, that's right, everyone has seen the Iron Triangle Group Army. Look, isn't it still on TV? This air force that covers the sky and the sun is overwhelming.
The artillery fire, the armored troops rolling forward, and the soldiers chasing away wolves and devouring tigers.
You, Lao Cheng, and Lao Cheng, do you think you are related to this or that party?
We haven't even spoken yet. You, Old Cheng, just want to eat the elite Japanese troops yourself. Old Kong attacked the 14th Division, and almost the entire 120th and 129th Divisions were dispatched. Can you tell us how capable you are?
You can't just flap your wings like a chicken and think of yourself as a Kunpeng, right? Hahahaha——"
Although this old comrade-in-arms is considerate and never loses control on the battlefield, and can even help you block bullets, he is also merciless when it comes to fighting each other.
After these few words, Lao Cheng's nose almost became angry.
"Kong Jie is the co-author, Li Yunlong and their troops are elite, but our Lao Cheng's troops are just doing nothing?" He glared and cursed.
Lao Xu on the side was a down-to-earth person. He shrank his neck and didn't participate in it.
The old comrades laughed even more happily.
At this time, Li Yunlong's loud voice came from outside the headquarters: "Old comrades, I, Li Yunlong, are here. How are you doing lately? Have you missed my big cannonballs?"
He quickly walked into the house and took a look, "Yeah, blind man Cheng, you're a sick cat who climbed up a tree, why are you pretending to be such a big tiger?"
Lao Cheng scolded: "Gungun, where are I discussing the battle plan? If you don't drink secretly in your base headquarters, why are you here with us?"
What we are holding here is a combat meeting, not a teahouse for idlers to brag! Do you think so?"
However, Commander Han and his entourage did not say anything, and instead said: "Old Li, come on, sit down and ignore this King Cheng Monkey, Lao Kong, have you arrived? With the support of the Iron Triangle Group Army, this battle will be more certain."
!”
Lao Cheng: "..."
Soon, Kong Jie and Ding Wei arrived.
When a group of old comrades later discussed the battle plan, Kong Jie said:
"During this period, I have been observing the battlefield conditions in various battlefields in the Military Intelligence Department of Huangyadong Headquarters and mastering first-hand information on the deployment of each base area.
So far, we have played the first trump card of information warfare.
The next step is to see where to play the second trump card, Li Daitaojiang!
Although during this period, Lao Wang, Lao Xu, and Lao Cheng, your team has been fighting under the name of the Iron Triangle Army, but this is not enough. It is estimated that the next time you will have to make a breakthrough and fight a tough battle.
It is not easy to hide such a large and elite combat force as the Iron Triangle Group Army during the battle between the two armies and under the intelligence penetration and reconnaissance of the enemy and ourselves without completely making a big noise.
We have to make the little devil completely believe that all the Iron Triangle Army has really participated in the war.
This time, with the live television broadcast, we have to use the three m1 155mm cannon regiments and five m1 155mm howitzer regiments assisted by the US military; there are also four Soviet-made A19 type 122 cannon regiments and six m20 type 152 howitzers.
Group, pull them all out and show them off.
With these batches of equipment on display, even if we were to watch the battle in person, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to tell which one is the Iron Triangle Army and which one is the disguised force of Old Cheng and Lao Xu.
Not to mention a little devil.
After all, if you want to fight against a large group of Japanese soldiers, you must prepare long-range suppression artillery.
In this war, the Allied forces paid a large sum of money and provided a lot of arms. We must use practical actions to show that we are different from Chiang Kai-shek's army. We have really done something after taking the money!
This promotional video also had to be filmed and distributed to others. After all, the subsequent purchases of 105-caliber artillery, related processing equipment, spare heavy artillery barrels, a large number of tractors, equipment, and even artillery shells all had to rely on the cooperation of the Allies.
This is currently the shortest way for our Eighth Route Army to develop rapidly.
From this perspective, the increasingly rampant little devils have actually further promoted our cooperation with the Allies in all aspects.
As the ancients said, it’s a blessing in disguise!”
When the old comrades-in-arms thought about it, they couldn't help but sigh.
Then let’s talk about the battle in central Henan.
Ding Wei worriedly said: "If before the Fourth Battle of Changsha, we still had certain expectations for Tang Keqin's troops in central Henan, after the fall of Changsha, we must finally realize that if we want to completely defeat the Japanese army, we must
It is probably unrealistic to place hope on Chiang Kai-shek's troops.
Tang Keqin's army seems quite intimidating at first glance. It seems to have many soldiers and generals, but what is the actual situation? There are many factions inside, and it is rotten. Needless to say, its reputation has long been ruined.
I personally don’t have much hope that the first theater of operations can block the Japanese offensive!”
Kong Jie said with a smile: "So we here must fight this battle well, and at least show Commander Tang our Eighth Route Army's determination to resist the war.
Regardless of whether Fang Keqin's troops were at least regular troops, even if they were all pigs in such a large number of troops, it would still take a lot of manpower and material resources for the little devil to capture them all.
If the first theater is really defeated, what we have to do is to expose the flaws when the Japanese army launches an offensive in the first theater and take the opportunity to launch a counterattack."
Can Tang Keqin's troops stop the Japanese attack?
The answer is of course no.
At least that's how history has played out.
After the Battle of Central Henan broke out, Tang Keqin dispatched more than 300,000 troops to fight against about 150,000 Japanese troops. In the end, they were defeated miserably, and even staged a humiliating rout of the three armies.
In fact, there are too many reasons for the tragic failure of Tang Keqin Group.
It is an indisputable fact that Tang Keqin failed to manage the troops well and did not run the troops strictly. As a result, the quality of the troops was uneven, and various situations of wastage were common. The overall combat effectiveness of the troops was very poor. This is of course an indisputable fact.
But what is even more helpless is the huge gap between the equipment levels and firepower configuration of the Chinese and Japanese armies.
When the battle broke out, the Japanese army invested an exaggerated number of mechanized combat vehicles in central Henan, including more than 700 armored vehicles, more than 200 more advanced new tanks, nearly 300 large-caliber artillery pieces, and abundant artillery shells of all kinds.
supply.
It can be called the largest blitzkrieg of tank groups since the Japanese invasion of China.
At that time, the elite combat force led by the Tang Keqin Group, which resisted the Japanese advance in central Henan, had been fighting against the Japanese on the frontal battlefield for years, coupled with the shortage of supplies and resources in the rear, the actual equipment was extremely poor and the ammunition was even worse.
It is pitifully scarce.
There are almost no tanks.
There are only a few dozen artillery pieces of all kinds put together.
The number of barreled artillery issued is even more shockingly small.
As a result, after the confrontation between the two sides began, the Chiang Kai-shek army once again experienced confusion in its command. At the same time, due to insufficient intelligence collection, it made misjudgments in combat deployment and fell into the trap of the Japanese army.
So it was a complete failure.
…
And what is the situation now?
First, the Battle of Western Hubei broke out, then the Battle of Changsha, and the Battle of Hengyang broke out one after another.
Then the Battle of Central Henan begins.
Although the Chiang Kai-shek troops fighting on the frontal battlefield are better because they consume less military resources.
But it's very limited.
In order to free up their hands to fight a few victorious battles on the frontal battlefield, the Japanese army tried to support the war with war, then turned away from the front and concentrated on dealing with the Eighth Route Army.
The offensives launched successively in Changsha, Hengyang and central Henan always had the intention of a quick victory.
In order to completely penetrate central Henan and open up the mainland communication line, the Japanese army planned to mobilize five divisions and five brigades from all aspects of North and Central China, and nearly 150,000 troops were used to deal with the troops in central Henan.
This time, there was even a so-called jihadi army led by Yamashita Fengfumi who went south for reinforcements.
And the armored force led by Yoshisa Inoue is claimed to be an armored division, but its actual establishment is much larger than the armored division.
Fight together.
In other words, once again standing at this critical historical node, facing the choice between life and death, the Japanese invaders placed before Tang Keqin, deputy commander-in-chief of the First War Zone in central Henan, became more and more powerful.
In this regard, Kong Jie didn't know what to say.
Everyone in the world scolded Tang Keqin, and even called him flood, drought and locust soup. People in the Central Plains region hated Tang Keqin even more.
But in fact, from Kong Jie's personal opinion, Tang Keqin was indeed greedy for money and profit-seeking, and the military discipline of the troops was indeed broken. The entire first theater was riddled with holes infiltrated by the Japanese army.
However, we still cannot deny his demeanor as a famous anti-Japanese general who led his troops to kill the enemy on the frontal battlefield and severely defeated the Japanese aggressors.
From the Battle of Nankou to the Battle of Zhanghe, and then to the Battle of Taierzhuang.
Tang Keqin performed well and is known as a fire-fighting general.
Later, the Battle of Central Henan broke out. Even though he knew he was losing, Tang Keqin still followed the orders and prohibited them. He would fight wherever the Chairman ordered, and he would fight wherever the Chairman ordered, and he fought bloody battles with the Japanese invaders in Central Henan.
As for the infamy caused by the disaster in the Central Plains, Kong Jie felt somewhat sympathetic to Tang Keqin. This guy might have taken the blame for a certain Zhongzheng.
This is one of the reasons why Kong Jie advocated assisting the First Theater in the Battle of Central Henan.
After all, we can't let the little devil's plan to open up the transportation lines in mainland China go too smoothly. If Tang Keqin fails, he will still be a huge anti-Japanese armed force!