The reason why Wang Xuexin did not take action against the Japanese warships in advance was because he believed that the time was not yet ripe.
At this time, the Eighth Route Army was still about 80 kilometers away from the Japanese defense line and about a day away. If the Japanese warships were blown up at this time, the Japanese would be shocked and immediately change their troop deployment or even bring in new reinforcements.
Will the Eighth Route Army have to pay a higher price if it wants to capture HLD?
Therefore, Wang Xuexin planned to take action at the last moment, so as to give the Japanese the greatest threat and at the same time, the Japanese would not have enough time to respond.
Therefore, Wang Xuexin even asked the Eighth Route Army to slow down the advance... The Japanese troops were very empty, especially in the HLD direction, and there was almost no obstruction along the way.
It’s not that the Japs don’t want to intercept, but the terrain in the Northeast is flat. The troops attacking HLD are led by the mechanized force of the New Regiment, which is a “Sherman” tank and a half-track vehicle. Another meaning of the Japs intercepting on the road is
were "defeated one by one".
Therefore, the Japanese have been shrinking the defense line and concentrating their forces on HLD to build a defense line.
Obviously, the Japanese hoped to use warships' guns to deal with the tanks and half-tracks of the Eighth Route Army, and then the infantry would defend the organization under the cover of the guns... In this way, the strength of the Eighth Route Army would be more than twice that of the imperial army.
It is also difficult to win HLD.
The consequence of the Japanese's shrinking of the defense line was that the Eighth Route Army advanced at such a rapid pace that if it were not for the purpose of clearing mines, building roads, and building bridges to prepare for subsequent supply transportation, advancing eighty kilometers in one day would be trivial.
Wang Xuexin ordered the troops to deliberately stop for a night and set up camp thirty kilometers away from HLD to rest before launching the attack the next day.
At this time, Chen Songyong couldn't understand it even more.
He asked Wang Xuexin: "Commander, I understand that we didn't attack the Japanese warships before, but now that we have launched an attack on the Japanese warships and we still don't attack them, do we have to wait until the Japanese warships explode?"
Wang Xuexin pointed to the map and said: "Consultant Chen, look at the Japanese defense line. It is loose on the outside and tight on the inside. Do you understand what this means?"
Chen Songyong stared at the map for a while. The Japanese defense line was indeed as Wang Xuexin said. The outer layer was loose, with a few trenches here and a few bunkers there, but the inner trenches were connected together.
After a moment's thought, Chen Songyong understood: "What the Japanese mean is that they want us to have more troops?"
Wang Xuexin nodded and said: "I think this may be related to the lack of ammunition for the Japanese warships. After all, they are here for maintenance. At the same time, there are no military factories in the Northeast that produce naval gun shells. They only supply a small amount of ammunition shipped from the island.
Came here in a hurry. Because they didn't have enough artillery shells, they could only use this method, which was to use the outer line of defense to attract our troops to attack. When our army hit the inner layer of troops and unconsciously gathered them together, then the warships would
Fire..."
Chen Songyong nodded and said: "So, we can use this to prepare for the attack while attacking the outer layer, and then suddenly use missiles when we are ready!"
Wang Xuexin said "hmm".
As the saying goes, good steel should be used on the blade, and anti-ship missiles are such a piece of "good steel".
On the other side, Naosaburo Okabe was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. He kept sending telegrams to Toshio Naoi:
"The Eighth Route Army has arrived outside the city, please be prepared for air defense!"
"The Eighth Route Army is likely to send fighter planes to bomb the warships!"
"Discovered the Eighth Route Army's fighter plane used for reconnaissance!"
…
In fact, Naosaburo Okabe guessed wrong. It was not a fighter plane used by the Eighth Route Army for reconnaissance, but a fighter plane used by the Eighth Route Army to operate television guidance to destroy warships.
Naoi Toshio did not take Okabe Naosaburo's warning seriously. He thought it was just Okabe Naosaburo's overreaction.
Naoi Toshio said to the staff: "I heard that the Eighth Route Army's fighter planes are Mao Xiong's 'La 5'? Are those wooden fighter planes also capable of bombing our warships? I would like to give it a try!"
At exactly this moment, the Eighth Route Army was ready.
Following Wang Xuexin's order, the first batch of twenty anti-ship missiles flew into the sky with a roar and headed straight for the Japanese warship.
At the same time, the Eighth Route Army aviation and artillery launched bombings on HLD.
The air force in the air consisted of twenty "La-5" fighters equipped with rockets and ten "Mosquito" fighters. The artillery was aimed at the Japanese defenses.
On the surface, this bombing was a prelude to launching a general offensive, but in fact it was to interfere with the enemy's sight and distract the enemy's warships.
The reason for interfering with the enemy's line of sight is that anti-ship missiles need to cross the enemy's infantry defense line. At the same time, the enemy may also use anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns to shoot down the missiles.
In order to prevent this from happening, the smoke from rockets and artillery shells is used to make the enemy unable to pay attention to the missiles flying through the air.
Distracting the attention of the Japanese warships is to prepare the Japanese to provide firepower for the infantry instead of all-out air defense... Wang Xuexin knows that the anti-aircraft firepower on the Japanese warships is very important. It is an anti-aircraft gun and an anti-aircraft machine gun. It is like a
Like a hedgehog.
If it's something ordinary, just use missiles to blow it up. I'm afraid at least half of the ten missiles will be intercepted. If you deduct the ones that didn't hit, maybe only two or three can hit the enemy warship. The damage caused by this may not be enough.
To fatally.
Therefore, Wang Xuexin believed that at least the Japanese warships should be allowed to misjudge.
Sure enough, Naoi Toshio immediately became excited when he saw the loud sound of cannons on the shore. He picked up his telescope and looked at the smoke on the shore, and then ordered: "Order all naval guns to prepare for firing!"
"Yes, ready for launch!"
"Prepare for launch!"
…
At this time, Naoi Toshio felt a little strange: The Eighth Route Army should not be so stupid. They knew that there were two warships parked at sea with their guns pointed at them, but they actually dared to attack with all their strength?
Is it really like what Naosaburo Okabe said, do they have any way to deal with warships?
But this idea was quickly overturned by Naoi Toshio: It's impossible. They are the Eighth Route Army. Even Takajiang doesn't have such equipment that can destroy warships quietly. How could the Eighth Route Army have it?
At this moment, Toshio Naoi noticed a few small black dots emerging from the black smoke on the shore.
At first Naoi Toshio thought they were Eighth Route Army fighter planes bombing HLD, but as those little black dots flew to the sea without slowing down at all, he felt something was wrong.
Toshio Naoi raised his telescope and saw that there were more than a dozen things he had never seen before appearing in the aperture. They looked like torpedoes, but they were flying in the air and at a very fast speed!
Naoi Toshio couldn't help but turned pale with fright, and hurriedly shouted: "Prepare for air defense, enemy fighter plane has been discovered!"
Naoi Toshio didn't know how to describe the coming crisis. He could only say it was a "fighter plane"!