From the perspective of air superiority, Naosaburo Okabe's statement is correct.
There are no obstacles in the plain area. Whether it is a train on the railway or a car on the road, pilots in the air can clearly see it from a long distance, and then they can easily swoop down to bomb it.
As for the cars and trains on the ground, because there are no obstacles to cover, they can only wait to die like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, even at night.
Once the Eighth Route Army's supply routes are controlled and blocked by the Imperial Army, the Eighth Route Army's troops stationed in Chifeng and Duolun County will have their combat effectiveness drastically reduced due to lack of fuel, ammunition, and food. It will then be time for the Imperial Army to encircle them.
Okabe Naosaburo estimated that the Eighth Route Army has at least ten regiments with more than 30,000 men in these two locations... In fact, the Eighth Route Army has successively added troops to Duolun County and Chifeng, and at this time has reached 20 regiments with more than 50,000 men.
, and it’s still increasing.
Previously, the Eighth Route Army did not dare to increase its troops because the Eighth Route Army's limited transportation capacity could not deploy such a large force on the front line... Duolun County and Chifeng are the farthest ends of the Eighth Route Army's transportation line. The more troops there are, the greater the pressure on transportation.
But now that Mao Xiong has promised to provide supplies to the Eighth Route Army and has begun to implement it, the Eighth Route Army can safely deploy more troops.
The only difficulty was that the Eighth Route Army used Eagle Sauce's Springfield rifles after changing their equipment, and the bullets were of course Springfield rifle bullets, which were different from Mao Xiong's ammunition and Mao Xiong could not provide them.
If the Eighth Route Army used road transportation from Zhangjiakou, it would be easily attacked by Japanese fighter planes.
Even if the Eighth Route Army sends fighter planes to protect this supply line, the fighter planes taking off for patrol will consume precious fuel and aircraft engine life.
So Wang Xuexin thought of a way:
Doesn’t Mao Xiong’s Far Eastern Front have no bullets for Springfield rifles?
It’s simple, the Eighth Route Army can sell it to you!
The sale is completed through the railway line at the border. After the bear is "bought", it is turned around and transported north via the railway line. Then it is transferred by car to Duolun County and Chifeng and delivered to the Eighth Route Army.
Although this supply line took a detour, it was outside the strike range of Japanese fighter planes.
And the purchase and sale of Mao Xiong did not violate the peace treaty signed with the Japanese, so all problems became non-issues.
To be honest, if this "deal" with Mao Xiong had not been reached, the supply alone would have killed the Eighth Route Army's plan to attack Fengtian.
The reason why the Eighth Route Army increased its troops in Duolun County was on the one hand to train troops and on the other hand to prepare for the attack on Fengtian.
The reason for the training is that although the Eighth Route Army has a large force at this time, there are not many who can actually fight the Japanese in the frontal plain area...three mechanized regiments plus ten main force regiments, plus a few more in the direction of Yuncheng and Taiyuan.
The number of regiments that the Japanese had fought head-on was at most seventeen or eight, with a total strength of less than fifty thousand.
Now that the equipment was available but the quality was not up to standard, the troops who had just been equipped with Springfield rifles were transferred one by one to Duolun County and Chifeng, so that they could face off against the Japanese on the front lines and train on real battlefields.
This is also preparation for the attack on Fengtian.
Attacking Fengtian is no joke. There are seven Japanese divisions there with more than 100,000 people. The average quality of the Eighth Route Army is not as good as the Japanese. If the troops are not as good as the Japanese, why fight?
Therefore, the Eighth Route Army initially estimated that it would secretly gather more than 100,000 troops in Chifeng before attacking Fengtian.
Of course, they may not all be in Chifeng. They may be stationed in the mountains on both sides for the sake of confidentiality.
The more the Eighth Route Army dispatched troops to Chifeng, the happier Naosaburo Okabe would be.
Because the more troops the Eighth Route Army has in this area, the more successful his encirclement plan is likely to be... When the Eighth Route Army has difficulty in supplying, the mechanized troops of the imperial army can just bypass Duolun County and insert themselves in the direction of Jiulian Town, and the Eighth Route Army can be defeated
All troops are surrounded to the north.
Those are the elite of the Eighth Route Army, and among them are three mechanized troops that have always given Naosaburo Okabe a headache!
When he thought of this, Naosaburo Okabe couldn't calm down.
Sanji Oshiro was relatively calm. He said with some worry: "General, even if we gain air superiority, how will we deal with the new tanks of the Eighth Route Army?"
Ojodo Sanji is a good question.
The Eighth Route Army's new tanks are always a problem. The imperial army can't hope that the Eighth Route Army doesn't even have diesel for the tanks, right?
You are deceiving yourself if you think so!
However, Naosaburo Okabe was not worried about this. He replied: "Ojoto-kun, do you think the only ones we introduced from Hans are BF109?"
"Then..." Ochito Sanji immediately heard the implication of Okabe Naosaburo: "Is there any anti-tank equipment?"
Naosaburo Okabe nodded and said: "There is also a BK-type 75MM cannon!"
Ojoto Sanji half-opened his mouth, then nodded to express his understanding.
This cannon Hans is used on the HS129 ground attack aircraft. It is specially used to carry out top attacks on Mao Xiong's tanks. Because it destroyed countless Mao Xiong tanks, it is also called the "chariot driver".
jar”.
I didn’t expect that this kind of machine gun would be used by the imperial army today, and even more unexpected that it would be used against the Eighth Route Army!
but……
Ochito Sanji secretly thought: Okabe Naosaburo's approach is still very wise, because the western region has flat terrain, and for the empire, any anti-tank equipment is far less efficient than fighter planes.
Therefore, the Eighth Route Army should be out of luck this time. They will suffer heavy blows whether in the air or on the ground.
Of course Oshiro Sanji and Okabe Naosaburo didn't know. They thought that this battle would undoubtedly gain air supremacy, but the fact was exactly the opposite... The Eighth Route Army had already been prepared for this.
So, this is a very strange battle:
Both the enemy and ourselves believed that they could seize air supremacy, and both formulated a combat plan to attack the enemy based on air supremacy.
At least who loses and who wins depends on who can really win the air supremacy in the end.
The research and development on Wang Xuexin's side is proceeding smoothly.
Wang Xuexin has always focused on air-to-air missiles, because he knows very well that the entire battle is based on air supremacy. Without air supremacy, it is impossible to fight Fengtian. The troops stationed in Chifeng and Duolun County will be in danger of being surrounded and suppressed by the Japanese.
.
Therefore, Wang Xuexin does not dare to be careless in this regard, and is following up on the development progress of air-to-air missiles every day.
As for anti-ship missiles, this is a kind of equipment that is fine if you don’t have it, but it’s better to have it... If you don’t have it, the attack on Fengtian will be postponed at worst!
What's more, the TV-guided anti-ship missile is very simple, but it only takes two weeks to take shape, and a considerable part of this time is spent on purchasing cameras and TVs.
This gave the Eighth Route Army the confidence to carry out anti-ship operations.