Kono Shinta still didn't understand. He lowered his head slightly towards Okamura Neji and asked in a asking manner: "Your Excellency, General, what can the repeating rifle... mean?"
Okamura Neji stared at the map intently and said slowly: "Kono-kun, the repeating rifle is also a new type of equipment for the Eighth Route Army, right?"
"certainly!"
"The Eighth Route Army will not equip guerrillas with this kind of equipment, right?"
"certainly!"
"Not only can't they equip guerrillas, but they can't even equip ordinary troops, right?"
"certainly!"
Okamura Neji stopped talking when he said this.
Kono Shinta thought for a while and then understood. He came to the map and looked at it. He was shocked and said: "What the general means is that the Eighth Route Army that attacked Longxi Airport is the same Eighth Route Army that attacked Ningbei Railway Station.
A troop?"
Okamura Neiji nodded, pointed at the steel plant, then slid down the road and railway, and said: "If they are the same force, look at their attack route, what can you think of?"
When Kono Shinta saw this, he immediately broke into a cold sweat: "Flash... blitzkrieg! So it's... like this! Is this the Eighth Route Army's... real intention?"
Okamura Neiji sighed and said: "We have all been deceived by the Eighth Route Army. Our attention has been attracted to the surrounded 59th Division. In order to rescue it, we have been competing with the Eighth Route Army for air supremacy. However,
Who would have thought that the mechanized troops of the Eighth Route Army have
Without our noticing at all, we have already penetrated more than a hundred miles into the hinterland of our army! But we always thought that the Eighth Route Army was just destroying our army's railway lines to relieve the pressure on the front line. I even thought that the Eighth Route Army would retreat and return to the mainland.
Green mountains surrounded the 59th Division..."
Having said this, Okamura Neiji raised his head and looked into the distance outside the window and said: "Kono-kun, our vision is too short-sighted. At this time, the Eighth Route Army is no longer satisfied with surrounding a division of our army! Their
The target is probably Datong!"
"Datong?" Kono Shinta couldn't believe what she heard.
This is not to say that the geographical location of Datong is very important... In fact, the geographical location of Datong is indeed important, but what surprised Kono Shinta even more is that the Eighth Route Army actually planned a city controlled by the empire, and it was a city more than 400 kilometers deep into the hinterland.
Important city!
Okamura Neiji seemed to see what he meant from Kono Shinta's expression. He pointed at the map and replied: "With the current strength of the Eighth Route Army, it is indeed surprising to make such a move. But... the main force of our army has already
Transferred to the south to fight the stubborn army, our army's internal
The troops are empty. On the other hand, to the east of Datong is the Taihang Mountains, which is another extremely important and stubborn base area of the Eighth Route Army. The Eighth Route Army can get enough support in Datong, and it is indeed a clever move for their mechanized troops to penetrate here.
!”
Because Kono Shinta was a consultant sent by Hansna, he didn't know much about the Chinese battlefield. After getting to know it, he learned that there were also many Eighth Route Army and guerrillas in the Taihang Mountains who used the complex terrain to deal with the imperial army. The imperial army fought against them several times.
Encirclement and suppression campaigns were carried out in the Taihang Mountain base area but all failed. In one case, 30,000 troops were mobilized to attack the Taihang Mountains in nine directions...
This is not to say that the Japs are not strong enough, but that the terrain of the Taihang Mountains is too complex. When the Japs enter the mountains for encirclement and suppression, the Eighth Route Army breaks into pieces and disperses to various mountainous areas to deal with the Japs. The Japs attack with great force, but they can never find the main force of the Eighth Route Army and cannot fight.
, after walking around in the mountainous area for a few times and having no choice, we had no choice but to retreat.
As soon as the Japanese retreated, the Eighth Route Army broke into pieces and went out of the mountainous areas in an organized and planned manner to launch harassment operations against the Japanese.
Taihang Mountain and Luliang Mountain were originally two important guerrilla base areas of the Eighth Route Army, and their military strength should be said to be evenly divided.
However, when Wang Xuexin fought in the Luliang Mountains and vigorously developed military industry, the Taihang Mountains were immediately outcompeted.
Now, Wang Xuexin's mechanized troops are fighting all the way from Daqing Mountain, Luliang Mountain to Taihang Mountain. If this road is opened and can be defended, the Japanese will be uncomfortable... The Japanese are to the west of Luliang Mountain, which is 400 kilometers long from north to south, and to the east is Northeast China.
To the southwest is the Taihang Mountains, which are also 400 kilometers long. The important city of Datong in the north is held by the Eighth Route Army, and only the south is connected to other places.
As a result, the Japanese were almost surrounded on three sides by the Eighth Route Army.
However, the state of siege on three sides is not tight, because the Eighth Route Army in the Taihang Mountains is still "piercing the base area with one shot"... The Eighth Route Army in the Taihang Mountains has not been equipped with new equipment.
Even so, the Japs were miserable enough in this situation.
Shinta Kono looked at the map for a while and then said anxiously: "Your Excellency, General, Datong must not be missed. It is... the starting point of the Tongpu Railway!"
The "Tong" of Tongpu Railway refers to Datong. Many of the military supplies of the Japanese and the coal, food, cotton clothes, etc. needed by the south came from the troops who gathered here and then sent them to the front line.
From these words, we know that Kono Shinta actually doesn’t know much about the terrain of China and doesn’t have much idea. Otherwise, he would not only be concerned about the transportation problem but also consider whether the imperial army would be semi-surrounded in Shanxi!
Okamura Neiji didn't explain much. He just said slowly: "Our army only has one military police brigade in Datong, and there is also a regiment of the North China Security Army!"
The so-called North China Security Army is the army commonly known as the "Imperial Association Army".
There are three main puppet armies of the Japanese in China: one is the Puppet Manchukuo National Army established by the Puppet Manchukuo State, one is the Peaceful National Founding Army established by the Wang Puppet Government, and the other is the Puppet North China Security Army.
The Puppet North China Security Army is different from the other two armies. With the careful operation of the traitors and the financial support of the Japanese, most of the people it recruits are officers with education and even combat experience. After years of development, the total army now reaches 90,000.
The rest of them have a certain fighting capacity.
However, Shinta Kono obviously did not believe that this army had the ability to resist the mechanized troops of the Eighth Route Army. He said: "Your Excellency, General, these troops are only afraid of..."
Okamura Neiji nodded and said: "However, there are basically no redundant troops in other directions, and Mr. Kono also knows very well that the most taboo thing in dealing with the enemy's 'blitzkrieg' is excessive deployment of troops!"
Kono Shinta expressed his understanding.
For example, the Eighth Route Army at this time looks like it is going to attack Datong. If the Empire concentrates its forces in Datong, and the Eighth Route Army uses the speed of mechanized troops to detour and attack Hunyuan, which is not far away, then the Imperial Army will have loopholes everywhere.
All must be defended.
This is also the power of "blitzkrieg". You know exactly where the enemy's target is, but you just don't dare to draw it or you have to be cautious in deploying reinforcements.