In a mountain depression three kilometers away from the Japanese outer positions, there is a cave covering an area of several hundred square meters. The outside of the cave has been surrounded by camouflage nets. If you don't look closely, you won't be able to tell that there is a cave here.
This cave is the headquarters of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army. In the cave, five or six radio stations are flashing red and green lights, and there is an operator in front of each radio station who is busy non-stop.
In a spacious space more than ten meters away from the radio station, more than a dozen staff officers were discussing something around a huge map, and small quarrels broke out from time to time.
In the innermost corner of the cave, the commander of the 115th Division, Lin*, was sitting on a shell box. In front of him were seven or eight officers of all levels from the 115th Division.
I saw Commander Lin saying slowly: "This is not very far from the east gate. You also heard the sound of artillery outside. That is our artillery group using heavy artillery to bombard the Japanese outer bunkers.
According to the intelligence sent by the Joint Command ten minutes ago, the Japanese bunker outside the east gate has been almost completely bombed, and only a few bunkers are still surviving. Commander Liu of the Joint Command just called me to ask if we are sure.
Take the east gate.
Now I ask you the same question, are you sure you can win the East Gate?"
Unlike other unit commanders, almost everyone in the 115th Division knew that Commander Lin could not smoke because of his lung injury in his early years.
He also doesn't like others smoking in front of him. Anyone who wants to smoke can only go elsewhere to smoke before coming back in. Therefore, the headquarters of the 115th Division is also jokingly called the cleanest headquarters.
Everyone was silent in the face of Commander Lin's question. From the intelligence, it was learned that the 79th Infantry Regiment under the Japanese 110th Division currently stationed at the East Gate was equipped with an artillery squadron and a puppet army regiment, with a strength of more than 7,000.
people.
Everyone knows that even if the Japanese bunker group is knocked down, it is not easy to capture the East Gate.
Seeing that everyone was silent, Teacher Lin began to frown. Political Commissar Luo smiled slightly after seeing this and said kindly to everyone: "Why, are you all following Xu Shu's example and entering Cao's camp without saying a word? Our teacher is not Cao Cao.
ah."
Seeing what Political Commissar Luo said was interesting, everyone laughed.
After laughing, Brigadier Chen of the 343rd Brigade stood up: "Division commander, political commissar, the Japanese troops stationed at the east gate are the 79th Infantry Regiment of the 110th Division and a puppet regiment.
Moreover, Okamura Neiji also equipped them with an artillery brigade. If we want to launch a strong attack on the east gate, the Japanese army will definitely resist desperately. In addition, we lack the weapons to attack the enemy.
If we want to capture the East Gate, we will definitely suffer a lot of casualties, so I think if we want to capture the East Gate, we must send more reinforcements."
"Reinforcements?" Commander Lin looked at Brigadier Chen with a faint smile: "Tell me, how many reinforcements do you want? A regiment or a brigade?"
Brigadier Chen hesitated for a moment, then said: "I don't want a regiment or a brigade, I want the command of the front-line artillery group!"
"What, you want to take over the command of the artillery group?"
Everyone present was shocked by Brigadier Chen's words.
Brigadier Xu of the 344th Brigade laughed and scolded: "Old Chen, you can't be too greedy. You are talking like a lion. Do you know how many artillery pieces there are in the entire artillery group?
In our army of more than 100,000 people, how many troops are requesting artillery support at any moment? My dear, you want to take all the artillery with just one mouthful, and you are not afraid of being choked to death."
"that is!"
Chief of Staff Chen of the 344th Brigade also objected: "If all our artillery groups were given to you, wouldn't all the other brother armies be drinking from the northwest wind?"
Old Chen, if the 343rd Brigade doesn’t dare to fight, just say so. Our 344th Brigade will fight for you. Don’t block other people’s mouths with such unreasonable demands. What will others think of our 115th Division if word gets out?”
Everyone on the side also started talking.
"That's right, Brigadier Chen's request is too outrageous. We have more than 100,000 troops outside Taiyuan City now. If the Allied Forces give us all the artillery groups, other troops will not be able to explode."
"I think Brigadier Chen just made an excuse because he didn't want to attack the east gate."
"I think so."
"fart!"
Brigadier Chen was angry, "Are I afraid of death? You have also seen that in addition to dozens of bunkers built by the Japanese army at the east gate, they also built criss-crossing communication trenches and trenches, and dozens or hundreds of light and heavy machine guns.
If there is no strong artillery support for the bunker and our infantry alone attacks it, have you ever thought about how many casualties we will suffer?
I calculated that our brigade now has a total of four regiments with more than 12,000 people. Even if we all go into battle, we will have to pay at least 4,000 or even half of the casualties if we want to capture the East Gate.
This is just the east gate. If we have to break into Taiyuan City and fight with the Japanese army in the streets, have you ever thought about how many sacrifices we will have to make?"
Everyone was silent. Everyone was leading troops. No one felt sorry for their own troops. If they had to sacrifice thousands or even half of their troops just to capture the east gate, no one would be able to bear it.
Everyone fell silent and turned their attention to Mr. Lin who was sitting in front.
Mr. Lin took out a small cloth bag from his pocket, grabbed a handful of soybeans, threw one in his mouth and chewed it slowly, making a crunching sound.
The brigade commanders and regimental commanders below were all silent. As Mr. Lin's old subordinates, they all knew that their commander liked to chew fried soybeans when he was thinking about problems. What he hated most at this time was for others to interrupt his thoughts.
.
After a while, Commander Lin suddenly said: "Communications staff officer, give me the link. I want to speak to Commander Gao Hongming."
"yes!"
Soon, the communications staff officer moved the telephone to Commander Lin and whispered: "Chief, the call is connected."
Mr. Lin picked up the phone and said, "Hello, Sir Gao, this is Lin*. I have something to report to you now."
"Mr. Lin, please speak!" Gao Hongming's loud voice on the phone reached everyone's ears.
"It's like this. After our research, we found that although most of the Japanese bunker group at the east gate has been destroyed by heavy artillery, the remaining firepower points and fortifications are still there.
In order to reduce casualties, we hope that the Joint Command can temporarily hand over the command of the artillery group to our 115th Division, and then return it to the Joint Command after the East Gate is captured. Please and the Joint Command can carefully consider our request."
Gao Hongming on the other end of the phone was silent. He didn't expect that the first time Commander Lin took the initiative to call him was to ask for command of the entire artillery group. You must know that this artillery group included six artillery battalions of the Liantai Militia and five of the Shanxi-Sui Army.
The artillery camp has a total of more than 400 artillery pieces.
If all were given to the 115th Division, what would happen to the other units? He could really say that.