Chapter 1499 Destroying the car and entering the mountains
Author: Expeditionary Soldier
Chapter 1499 Destroying the car and entering the mountains
The Yamada Division was actually tricked to death by Yamada Oji himself.
After receiving the order from Naosaburo Okabe, Yamada Oji was unwilling to give up tanks, artillery, cars and other equipment to enter the mountainous area. After all, these were hundreds of tanks and more than 500 cars.
There were not many artillery pieces left. Most of them were blown to pieces in Taiyuan. Only a few infantry guns and about twenty small-caliber anti-aircraft guns survived.
There are also heavy machine guns, tricycles, and a large amount of ammunition, etc. If you want to go into the mountains, you have to give them up.
In fact, Yamada Oji couldn't let go of this face. He believed that if he got to this point, he would completely admit defeat, so he still hoped to take back Niangzi Pass by force with the advantage of tanks.
This is what he reported to Naosaburo Okabe: "Your Excellency, General, even if we want to go into the mountains, we still have to go in the direction of Niangziguan, why don't you give it a try?"
Naosaburo Okabe looked at the map and felt that what Oji Yamada said was right. The width of Taihang Mountain in the direction of Niangzi Pass was narrower. Entering the mountain from Niangzi Pass could break out of the encirclement faster, even though the Eighth Route Army was likely to be stationed in that section.
Thinking of this, Naosaburo Okabe agreed to Yamada Oji's plan.
However, both Naosaburo Okabe and Oji Yamada ignored one point...At this time, the offensive and defensive posture of the air combat situation had changed.
When the Japanese bombed the Eighth Route Army's communication lines before to prevent the Eighth Route Army's reinforcements, the Eighth Route Army defended the enemy and attacked.
Now, the Yamada Division's retreat has turned into the Eighth Route Army attacking the Japanese defenders.
Due to the principle of "offense is greater than defense", it can be seen that being able to maintain an advantage when attacking does not mean that it can also maintain an advantage when defending. What's more, the defeated army of the Yamada Division was only a few dozen kilometers away from Taiyuan Airport...
Then it got light, or to be precise, it was still dark.
The Eighth Route Army's first batch of thirty "La-5" fighter jets took off at the right time in the early morning. They flew at a speed of 600 kilometers per hour in a few minutes before catching up with the Yamada Division, which had fled more than fifty kilometers away.
At this time, the "La 5" has been fully equipped with a new rocket nest. The new rocket nest can carry 20 rockets. Each "La 5" can carry two rocket nests, which is 40 rockets. Thirty fighters are
1,200 pieces…
It was like a ribbon of fire floating on the road, blowing up the entire road where the Japanese were marching red.
Among them, especially cars, only a few were bombed after only one round of bombing... The Eighth Route Army Air Force gave priority to bombing the Japanese cars according to Wang Xuexin's order.
Obviously, only the materials transported on the cars were important at this time. As for the tanks, there was no need for the Eighth Route Army to blow them up. The Japanese would also blow them up when they entered the mountains. It would also be a waste of ammunition for the Eighth Route Army to blow them up.
Therefore, the "La 5" fighter jets will fire rockets wherever they see cars. After firing the rockets, they will swoop down and shoot with machine guns.
And this was only the first batch. Soon another batch of "La 5" with temporary rocket nests arrived and bombed the Japanese indiscriminately again.
Only then did Oji Yamada realize how naive he was...
At such a speed, the Eighth Route Army bombed them and the entire army was wiped out before they even reached Niangzi Pass. Why do you still want to save your equipment and fight through?
Therefore, Yamada Oji should have chosen to hide in the mountains from the beginning... When he knew that Niangzi Pass had been lost, if he changed direction and walked north, he would reach the edge of the Taihang Mountains dozens of kilometers away. When the Eighth Route Army fighter planes came, they would only need to go to the jungle.
The loss will be much smaller than now.
However, Yamada Oji has always regarded himself as the "imperial army" and looked down upon the Eighth Route Army. No one, including Naosaburo Okabe, paid attention to the power of the Eighth Route Army's aviation force. Moreover, the Eighth Route Army's "La 5" was mainly for air control. As a result, Yamada
The situation of the division worsened further.
The Japanese fighter planes had just arrived after two rounds of bombings by the Eighth Route Army, but even if they arrived, they did not dare to stay long.
Because this is the force of the Eighth Route Army's "Pull 5" within a 100-kilometer range. They are only giving a little "support" to the Japanese infantry. If they don't leave in time, it won't take long for the Eighth Route Army's "Pull 5" to surround them.
But objectively speaking, this cannot be blamed on Yamada Oji and Okabe Naosaburo. How could they have thought that the Eighth Route Army's rocket fighter could have such ground attack capabilities!
It was only then that Yamada Oji realized: now is not the time to save face, nor is it the time to think about equipment and fight against women, but the time to save one's life.
So he gritted his teeth and gave the order, and the Japanese blew up their heavy equipment and headed north into the mountains.
Later, they discovered that entering the mountain was not that easy. The Eighth Route Army was already waiting for them at the point where they entered the mountain... It was actually Monk's reconnaissance brigade. With helicopter maneuvers, they could reach any point in time and occupy a favorable position on the high ground.
How can the Japanese without heavy equipment fight the reconnaissance brigade?
Even though the monk's troops only numbered more than two hundred people, it was still difficult to defeat them, not to mention whether there were other troops ambushing them in the mountains.
Yamada Oji could only order the troops to disperse and march... This meant that his subordinates were left to seek their own blessings.
Yamada Oji himself dressed up as a soldier and led a company of guards into the mountain. Before leaving, he ordered his subordinates to "hand over" some supplies.
In the end, only more than 2,000 people from the Yamada Division were able to leave the Taihang Mountains, and many of them were so hungry that they were no longer human.
If they were just crossing the Taihang Mountains, the losses might not be so great. The problem is that the Japanese would have to face the Eighth Route Army's pursuit and interception in the Taihang Mountains.
So they didn't dare to use guns while hunting, for fear that the sound of gunfire would attract the Eighth Route Army.
This directly led to a serious shortage of rations for the Japanese, and countless people died of starvation and disease.
Wang Xuexin was not dissatisfied with this battle. Although he could not annihilate them all, he forced them into the mountains and let the environment take care of them. The Eighth Route Army also saved ammunition and reduced casualties.
Before the battle was over, Wang Xuexin set his sights on Duolun County on the map.
Duolun County is a strategic location, and only by capturing it can we prepare for the attack on Chifeng. Capturing Chifeng will block the main force of the Japs to the east of the Daxingan Mountains, which will give the Eighth Route Army enough time to deploy in the west.
However, precisely because of this, the Japanese will also pay attention to the defense of Duolun County.
At this time, more than 100 kilometers from Jiulian Town to Duolun County, the Japanese had already added more than 20,000 troops to build five lines of defense in this area.
To be precise, it was not a line of defense, but more like a cordon.
Because it is almost impossible to build a defense line in the open grassland area. It would require investing a considerable amount of troops and it would still be impossible to defend.
The Japanese built these cordons because they did not want the mechanized troops of the Eighth Route Army to march straight into the plains, so they used barbed wire, trenches, mines, etc. to artificially construct roadblocks based on the terrain.
As time goes by... there will be more and more roadblocks, and it will become more and more difficult to attack Duolun County!