Therefore, the "support" from Mao Xiong played a considerable role in the Eighth Route Army's battle.
Otherwise, the total strength of the Japanese Kwantung Army is more than 700,000, and there is also the North China Front Army that can go north for reinforcements. At this time, the strength of the Eighth Route Army is simply incapable of attacking Fengtian. The Japanese can kill the Eighth Route Army's attacking troops even if they use more troops.
Now Naosaburo Okabe is a little impatient when fighting this battle. He must consider wiping out the main offensive force of the Eighth Route Army in a short time, because the longer this matter drags on, the more detrimental it will be to the empire.
Okabe Naosaburo didn't know that the longer this matter was delayed, the better it would be for him.
The reason is that Mao Xiongna did not intend to fight, they were just doing some performances at the border at Wang Xuexin's "invitation".
They will stop this "performance" when they think that the Moon Bear has done its best to be benevolent, or they are worried about completely angering the Japanese.
The point is that the Japanese don't know this. What Naosaburo Okabe wants in his mind is to defeat the Eighth Route Army as soon as possible so that he can fully deal with the bears on the border.
Therefore, Naosaburo Okabe ordered: "Order all ministries in Fengtian to immediately form mechanized troops and the 23rd Division to withdraw to Fengtian!"
Sanji Ojoto asked doubtfully: "Your Excellency, General, the 23rd Division has withdrawn to Fengtian? Then the 39th Division will have to face the main force of the Eighth Route Army alone..."
At this time, it was still the Japanese 39th Division that was confronting the Eighth Route Army.
Although the 39th Division was defeated in the last battle, it was not injured. In addition, they are a unit with 97 anti-tank gun training, which is very suitable for resisting the Eighth Route Army's half-track vehicles, so the front line is still dominated by its
garrison, but Naosaburo Okabe sent the 23rd Division to coordinate with him and brought the defeated Iron and Stone troops back to rest.
The 39th Division and the 23rd Division, with the strength of two divisions, faced off against nearly 100,000 troops of the Eighth Route Army, which was already full of crises.
Oshiro Sanji was still considering whether to continue sending reinforcements to the front line just now, but he didn't expect Okabe Naosaburo to withdraw the 23rd Division from the front line!
Naosaburo Okabe just said "hmm" and repeated: "Withdraw the 23rd Division and order the 39th Division to be ready to retreat!"
"Yes!" Ojodo Sanji, although he had doubts about Okabe Naosaburo's order, he did not dare to say anything.
Okabe Naosaburo's idea is very simple, that is, to lure the enemy deeper.
Didn't the Eighth Route Army want to attack Fengtian?
Then let you fight!
When your tanks and half-tracks drive to Fengtian, which is hundreds of kilometers away, we will see how you escape back!
This is also the purpose of Naosaburo Okabe's order to organize mechanized troops in Fengtian.
He had already thought about it. When the time comes, the BF109 will destroy the enemy's tanks, and the Imperial tanks, especially the "Tiger", can lead the infantry to attack the Eighth Route Army ground troops.
The Eighth Route Army didn't have any fighter planes that could destroy the "Tiger", and its rocket launchers couldn't penetrate the "Tiger", so what else could stop the imperial army from penetrating?
As long as the imperial army can seal the Chifeng pass again, the Eighth Route Army deep in the hinterland will have only two options: surrender or flee into the mountains and become savages.
Naosaburo Okabe couldn't help but think of the tragic situation when he was surrounded by the Eighth Route Army.
Now, it should be the imperial army's turn to surround the Eighth Route Army!
News of the retreat of the Japanese 23rd Division immediately reached the Eighth Route Army. The chief of staff frowned and said, "Even if it runs fast, we still want to surround these two divisions first and eliminate more of the Japanese's effective forces! I didn't expect it to happen again."
It ran away without hitting it!”
The commander did not want too many Japanese troops to escape back to Fengtian. After all, Fengtian city was easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the further east the Eighth Route Army went, the more difficult it became to supply.
Therefore, the leader's original plan was to first surround the two Japanese divisions facing them with an absolutely superior force. It would be better if the Japanese would come for reinforcements, and they could further evacuate the Japanese in Fengtian City, which would be crucial to the future attack on Fengtian.
is beneficial.
Who would have thought that the 23rd Division would retreat before the plan even started!
The chief laughed and said: "Chief of Staff, have you ever thought that this is just as Wang Xuexin expected!"
The chief of staff was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized: "Are the Japanese planning to lure the enemy deeper?"
The leader nodded and said with a confident smile: "I want to make dumplings for us, but I just don't know who will make who!"
After looking at the map and thinking for a while, the leader said: "I think we should attack in advance! Since the Japanese have opened the door for us to enter, what are we waiting for?"
"It makes sense!" The chief of staff immediately nodded in agreement: "If we wait any longer, I'm afraid the 39th Division will not be able to fight even if it wants to fight!"
As a result, the general attack time was moved a day and a half ahead of schedule.
Unusually for this attack, the Eighth Route Army did not invest in mechanized troops. Instead, it used infantry with the cooperation of artillery to launch a normal attack on the Japanese defense line.
This is mainly because the headquarters knows that the Japanese 39th Division is equipped with Type 97 anti-tank rifles... Although a batch of these were destroyed by the Eighth Route Army in the last battle, a batch was soon transferred from the Fengtian Arsenal to replenish them.
Moreover, the amount of equipment has doubled, which is obviously used to deal with the Eighth Route Army's half-track vehicles.
Since the Japanese are already prepared to deal with half-track vehicles, our army will certainly not send half-track vehicles up to make them work as the Japanese want.
So this time it was completely a hard fight by artillery and infantry.
As a result, the Japanese anti-tank rifles were completely unable to function. They were blown up immediately and even a batch of them were captured by the Eighth Route Army... The Japanese deployed these rifles at the forefront, and the Eighth Route Army captured several of them as soon as they rushed into the Japanese trenches.
return.
Another more important thing is that the combat effectiveness of the main force of the Eighth Route Army at this time was no less than that of the Japanese Kwantung Army.
In the past, the firepower of Xiaomi's rifles was much inferior to that of the Japanese. Now everyone is carrying a Springfield rifle. The squad platoon leader is also equipped with a repeating rifle. The 50 small artillery or mortars are equipped to the company level. The artillery also has M30 and artillery reconnaissance.
Radar...coupled with the cover of tanks, the combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of the Japanese, even if the opponent is a regular division of the Japanese Kwantung Army.
The commander also said: "We have to let the main force fight tough battles. Let mechanized troops fight everything. Do we have no other troops except Li Yunlong? I have objections to other regiment commanders who keep fighting like this!"
The leader did not make it clear in his words. His real intention was to let other troops practice their skills so that they would not be unprepared mentally or lack training and combat effectiveness to keep up when fighting Fengtian in the future.
Although the 100,000 troops gathered by the Eighth Route Army in the Chifeng area have been carefully selected by the entire army, the Eighth Route Army has not had many opportunities to fight the Japanese directly, and most of them are mechanized troops and main forces. Therefore, among them
There are still many new recruits.
The Japanese 39th Division in front of us is a perfect opportunity for these troops to take turns to practice!