Just like when a new piece of equipment is produced, there will always be some deficiencies that need to be discovered after being put into use on the battlefield. The same goes for tactics. A new tactic should go through a process of growth, improvement and continuous improvement.
For example, tunnel warfare and anti-slope tactics should first be an extremely simple "cat's ear hole" to prevent artillery and bombing. Then these "cat's ear holes" will develop into primitive tunnels, and then develop into
The tunnels, both offensive and defensive, were combined with surface fortifications and gradually improved into a complete defense system.
This process sounds simple, but in practice it takes several years and countless efforts and lives to finally take shape through repeated attempts, failures and conclusions.
However, at this time, this defense system seemed to pop out of a stone and appeared in front of Okamura Neji. It became mature and perfect as soon as it appeared.
This surprised and delighted Okamura Neji.
What is surprising is that there is probably an excellent tactician in the Eighth Route Army. He must have rich combat experience and tactical knowledge, and may also have a strong imagination, otherwise he would not be able to come up with such a brilliant tactic.
It is conceivable that the emergence of this tactic will definitely bring great difficulties to him and even the entire war against China.
Fortunately, the Japanese army can also learn and use this tactic.
But after thinking about it, Okamura Neji frowned again. He found that this tactic might not be of much help to the Japanese army.
The reason is that the core of this tactic is to sacrifice part of the geographical advantage to weaken the enemy's equipment advantage.
The Japanese army has the equipment advantage, so using this tactic is to add insult to injury. It not only loses its geographical advantage but also weakens its own equipment advantage.
So... this is a relationship of "offense" and "defense".
The Eighth Route Army had found a "defensive" tactic, and Okamura Neiji had to find a "offensive" method.
After thinking about the map for a while, Okamura Neiji ordered: "Continue to implement the 'fatigue tactics', we should choose to attack at dawn!"
Anda Twenty-Three thinks it makes sense.
Because attacking at night not only has the problem of equipment not being able to function, but also the problem of unfamiliar terrain and enemies in the tunnels infiltrating the defense line and causing chaos.
No army can sustain an attack and win under such circumstances.
Therefore, the Japanese army never tried to enter the anti-slope position to occupy it that night. The anti-slope position in the dark seemed to have become a restricted area for the Japanese army.
Early the next morning, it was just dawn.
The battle that had been going on all night finally calmed down at this moment.
The rain also stopped, and the sun slowly rose from the east. The sunlight shone on the yellow earth full of corpses, making the bloodstains even brighter and more dazzling.
The third battalion successfully completed the defense change with the second battalion last night. Perhaps because he felt safe, or perhaps because he was too tired, Wang Xuexin rarely slept for a while before dawn.
Because he was used to the sound of gunfire on the battlefield, the sudden silence made Wang Xuexin wake up from his sleep.
"What's going on?" Wang Xuexin opened his raw eyes and asked, "Why didn't the Japanese fight?"
Zhang Qingcai yawned and replied: "I don't know, maybe the Japanese are also tired from beating him!"
"Let me tell you, the Japanese have learned how powerful they are!" Huzi said proudly: "We fought for a whole day and a whole night. Not only did we fail to advance half a step, but we suffered heavy casualties. If we continue to fight, aren't we asking for trouble?"
The soldiers also agreed unanimously:
"You're right, the Japs are nothing more than regular troops, that's all!"
"I heard that they have twice as many troops as ours, including planes and cannons. Why don't they be defeated by us?"
…
But Wang Xuexin doesn’t think so.
Although the Japanese have not stopped attacking the Independent Regiment since yesterday, most of them are small-scale exploratory and harassing attacks, and their purpose is more to tire the Eighth Route Army.
It is most taboo to stop in the middle of a fatigue battle.
Because this means giving the enemy time to rest.
From this perspective...
The Japanese stopped attacking probably because they were preparing for a more violent attack.
Thinking of this, Wang Xuexin ordered: "Get ready for battle, the Japanese are about to launch a general attack!"
The soldiers immediately became nervous when they heard this. Until now, they all know that Wang Xuexin's words are accurate, and this time will certainly be no exception.
So they agreed and each checked their equipment and prepared for battle.
Wang Xuexin reached out and opened the back box and took out a pack of bullets.
The bullets in the rear box are sealed with waterproof oil paper and come in packages of fifteen rounds, totaling four packages.
Wang Xuexin tore open the package, skillfully loaded a group of five bullets into the magazine, added it to the front box, and then checked the rifle before finishing it.
I stuck my head out and looked forward, and found that the soldiers of the Second Battalion on Highland 1 in front also felt that the atmosphere was not right and were ready for battle.
Suddenly, without warning, several Japanese aircraft swooped down from the clouds. They fired at the No. 2 Battalion's anti-slope position amidst a roaring sound. The soil kicked up by the machine gun bullets was like a spray of water.
It stretched along the trenches of the soldiers, and when it met the trenches, it brought up a spray of blood and knocked down the soldiers in a pool of blood.
This time it was actually a ground attack aircraft!
Wang Xuexin was a little surprised. At the same time, he realized that the Japanese were dealing with the anti-slope fortifications in a targeted manner, that is, they were thinking with their heads instead of acting recklessly.
This is indeed the case.
These ground attack aircraft were urgently transferred from Nanjing last night by Okamura Neiji.
The North China Front originally had a 3rd Flying Division.
However, this flying division had recently been transferred to the front line to carry out the mission of bombing Chongqing. There were only two squadrons of Type 97 light bombers left in the North China Front, with a total of eighteen aircraft.
Okamura Neiji originally thought that these bombers were enough to cope with this battle. After all, the opponent was the Eighth Route Army, which did not have heavy equipment and was only good at guerrilla warfare.
But he soon discovered that these eighteen bombers were far from enough. At the same time, what the Japanese army seemed to need more was ground attack aircraft.
"We need more accurate and direct aircraft to suppress enemy firepower!" Okamura Neiji said to Adachi 23: "Bombers obviously cannot meet the demand in this regard. Because the enemy can hide in tunnels when our army bombs,
At this time, our troops cannot get close, which results in low bomber efficiency."
Anda Twenty-three agreed with this, because the previous bombing of enemy positions fell into this situation.
Okamura Neiji continued: "So we need ground attack aircraft. The Type 98 light explosive aircraft may be more suitable for attacking such positions. It is slow and has stable performance. It can use machine guns to straf the enemy and use small bombs to bomb accurately.
, our ground troops launch an attack at the same time, and the enemy will not be able to hide in the tunnel!"
"Yes!" Anda Twenty-Three responded.
He completely agrees with Okamura Neji's point of view.
If the Eighth Route Army hides in tunnels to avoid the strafing and bombing of Type 98 light explosives, it means that its anti-sloping surface position will be quickly occupied by the Japanese army.
Otherwise, the Eighth Route Army would face a double attack from the Japanese army from the air and on the ground.