Initially, Ridgway did not believe Derek's words, but after Derek sent him the training process of the Eighth Route Army's airborne troops, Ridgway had no choice but to believe it.
Li Qiwei held the information in his hand and said to himself: "The commander's quality has been comprehensively improved, equipment has been comprehensively optimized, soldiers have been trained in a targeted manner, and air-ground coordination has been strengthened... It's unbelievable that this is actually an army."
The Chinese Eighth Route Army formed airborne troops that didn’t even have transport planes! How do they know this?”
No wonder Li Qiwei was surprised by this. The Eighth Route Army airborne troops also started from scratch. It should be said that they were far behind Yingjiang, because before that Yingjiang at least had transport planes and parachutes, as well as a lot of parachuting experience accumulated by civilians.
.
But the Eighth Route Army had nothing. They didn't even know what a transport aircraft was before Yingjiang gave them 50 C47s.
However, now the Eighth Route Army has surpassed it in one fell swoop, and the surpassing is not even a little bit... Li Qiwei believes that compared with the Eighth Route Army's airborne regiment, the 82nd Airborne Division of Yingjiang is just a ragtag group, a force that is not suitable for entering the battlefield at all.
Going into battle is, as Captain Derek said, almost going to death.
Li Qiwei's expression was gloomy, then he handed the information to the staff officer and coldly ordered: "According to the content of the information, immediately formulate a training plan!"
"But general!" said the staff officer: "We only have one month left before the battle!"
The chief of staff is worried that hasty changes to the training plan in one month will make it difficult for soldiers to adapt.
"Yes!" Li Qiwei replied: "It is precisely because there is only one month before the battle that we have to change!"
Li Qiwei's view was different from that of his staff.
Ridgway knew that the Eighth Route Army's training plan was formulated for actual combat, while his previous training plan was based on imagination and compromise with all the officers and soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division.
This is a bit hard to understand, but it is true.
For example, the incident of General Patton slapping a soldier was not a big deal at first. After all, the soldier Patton slapped was lying in the hospital with no injuries. As a general, Patton ordered the soldier to return to the front line... Later, it was said that the soldier was suffering from...
There is "battle fatigue" syndrome.
If this were applied to the Chinese army, I'm afraid they would never have heard of "combat fatigue syndrome".
But this incident could directly affect General Patton's career.
This is mainly because at this time, Yingjiang has not realized how cruel the war is from top to bottom. Even though Yingjiang has already fought fiercely with the Japanese on the Pacific battlefield... Yingjiang has suffered more casualties on the Pacific battlefield.
There were not many casualties among the pilots and the army during the landing operations on the island.
Because they did not realize the cruel reality of war, the whole army was still in a relatively relaxed atmosphere in terms of training, thinking that it was almost enough, and at worst, they would use artillery shells and bombs to pile them up.
In this atmosphere, Li Qiwei certainly cannot and cannot set the training intensity too high, otherwise it will be considered a kind of "abuse" and "oppression."
Even Ridgway himself thinks so:
By then there will be a large number of warships, fighter jets, bombers, and land troops. They will be the decisive force on the battlefield.
As for the airborne troops, they are just parachuted to the enemy's rear to harass them.
Until then, when he saw the training process of the Eighth Route Army, Li Qiwei suddenly understood something: the training method of the Eighth Route Army was used for actual combat, or that is what war should be like.
"So..." Ridgway said: "It is reasonable to increase the intensity of training, because it is precisely a manifestation of responsibility for the soldiers. If anyone objects, he can withdraw from the 82nd Airborne Division immediately!"
Li Qiwei did exactly that after that and withstood pressure from all sides.
The difficulties involved are difficult for outsiders to understand. At this time, the 82nd Airborne Division was even arguing internally. The focus was whether parachute or airborne landing was more dangerous. Therefore, it should be two parachute regiments and one airborne landing.
The regiments are still two airborne regiments and one parachute regiment.
Li Qiwei had been considering this issue before, but now he firmly chose two parachute regiments... because the actual conditions on the battlefield are that there will not be so much space for airborne landings. If too many airborne regiments are set up, it will be very difficult.
Probably nothing can be done.
After making a series of reforms in training, Li Qiwei was still worried. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to send his worries to China.
The question was raised by Captain Derek to Wang Xuexin.
Today Wang Xuexin is reading the intelligence on the battle on the same front in Datong.
The battle in Datong went more smoothly than expected. During this period, the Eighth Route Army had advanced 70 kilometers south.
Don’t underestimate these 70 kilometers. It is only 120 kilometers from Datong as the starting point to Yanmen Pass, known as the “First Pass in China”.
In other words, the Eighth Route Army only needs to continue moving about fifty kilometers south to seize Yanmen Pass. If the Eighth Route Army takes this dangerous position, it can compress most of the Japanese forces south of Yanmen Pass and cannot move.
This gave Wang Xuexin a great temptation.
Because capturing Yanmen Pass will save the Eighth Route Army from most of the pressure from the south, and then capture Zhangjiakou and Dajingmen, one of the "Four Great Passes"...
The Eighth Route Army was "working" in the Datong area, which created a situation in which it could advance, attack, retreat and defend.
But Wang Xuexin finally forced himself to suppress this temptation.
Because the Japanese's fighting style at this time was more like "lubing the enemy deeper"... Wang Xuexin originally planned to hit three or forty kilometers south to open a buffer zone for the railway line. Unexpectedly, he hit seventy kilometers in one blow.
The results exceeded expectations by more than double.
What Wang Xuexin learned from the front line was:
"During this period, I feel that the Japanese are much easier to fight. Maybe they are afraid of being beaten by our army!"
"A large number of puppet troops have surrendered, and our army is invincible!"
"The Japanese abandoned their defensive lines and our army won with minimal casualties!"
…
Most people believed that the Eighth Route Army should take advantage of the victory and pursue it at this time, including Ding Wei and Kong Jie.
Ding Wei believed that this was because the Japanese forces were empty in the rear, and he did not expect that the Eighth Route Army had mechanized troops, so it could not withstand our army's tactics of combining frontal combat with flanking and rear penetrations.
Kong Jie believed that this was due to the power of the repeating rifle, coupled with the fact that the victory of the Eighth Route Army shook the foundation of the Japanese, causing the puppet army to collapse towards the Eighth Route Army, thus causing the collapse of the Japanese defense line.
The analysis of these two group leaders is reasonable.
However, Wang Xuexin believed that the Japanese had not yet completely collapsed. This should be a trap set by the Japanese, and the bait was Yanmen Pass not far ahead.
Just when Wang Xuexin was thinking about this problem, Derek came.
"Comrade Commander!" Captain Derek said, "I have a difficult problem. I wonder if you can give me some advice?"