At that time, Wang Xuexin was drinking coffee sent by Sun Erwei in the office.
In this era and as an Eighth Route Army soldier, being able to drink a cup of fragrant and steamy coffee is simply considered a luxury.
But what made Wang Xuexin a little bit dumbfounded was that while he was sighing while drinking, Xie Baoqing, who was delivering the documents, asked with concern: "Batalion Commander, are you feeling uncomfortable?"
Wang Xuexin was confused by the question and didn't understand what Xie Baoqing meant.
Xie Baoqing looked at the dark coffee in his tooth cup and said, "Why else would I take medicine? But this medicine tastes a bit weird..."
Wang Xuexin almost burst out laughing, but in the end he endured it and said as if nothing had happened: "Well, it's just a cold. Just drink some medicine and you'll be fine!"
What Xie Baoqing sent over was a plan for the transformation of the defense line, which is what Wang Xuexin said before, building the defense line into a dual-purpose fortification that can be used in both front and back sides.
Wang Xuexin opened it and looked at it. Firepower points, trenches, traffic trenches, tunnels, etc., all of them looked alike.
However, this does not seem to be difficult. After all, the Eighth Route Army has built anti-slope fortifications before, and now it is just combining them with the bunkers and fortifications built before by the stubborn army.
"Battal Commander!" Xie Baoqing interrupted: "There seems to be some movement on the Japanese side!"
Wang Xuexin asked without raising his head: "Are they planning to attack Yuncheng?"
"No, it's not the Japs from here!" Xie Baoqing replied, "It's the Japs from the other side of the Yellow River!"
Wang Xuexin said "Oh" and frowned.
This was somewhat unexpected by Wang Xuexin, but it seemed normal.
Because as Wang Xuexin estimated, if the Japs allowed the war situation to develop like this, they would eventually be able to withdraw their troops from the Yellow River area.
The Japanese are unwilling to admit defeat, so they are bound to take some action.
It is definitely not feasible to attack Yuncheng north of Zhongtiao Mountain. Yuncheng is under the attack of the Eighth Route Army's Luliang Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain defense lines. The Japanese are almost taking the initiative to jump into the encirclement of the Eighth Route Army.
Since the north cannot be attacked, the Japanese will naturally consider attacking Zhongtiao Mountain from the south.
There are at least several advantages for the Japanese to attack Zhongtiao Mountain from the south:
First, the fortifications on Zhongtiao Mountain are all facing north, and there are almost no fortifications facing south, which makes it convenient for the Japanese to attack.
Secondly, the Japanese had their backs to the Yellow River, and on the other side of the Yellow River was the stubborn army. It was almost impossible for the stubborn army to cross the Yellow River to attack the Japanese at this time, so the Japanese would not be attacked from both sides, and they could deal with the Eighth Route Army with all their strength.
In fact, this is exactly what the stubborn army wants to see. The Eighth Route Army and the stubborn army are fighting together on the other side of the river. They are watching the excitement on the other side of the river. This is what watching the fire from the other side means, so of course the stubborn army will not send troops at this time.
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Third, and most importantly, the Japanese attack forces from the south can be deployed quickly, and it is possible to capture Zhongtiao Mountain in a short time.
This is determined by the fact that Zhongtiao Mountain does not have much strategic depth, its width is only fifteen kilometers.
However, although it is fifteen kilometers, these fifteen kilometers are in mountainous areas with an altitude of more than one thousand or two thousand meters. If it is fifteen kilometers on the plains, it will be a half-day march.
But the mountainous areas are good for the Eighth Route Army and equally good for the Japanese.
Because there are some places with dangerous terrain, if the Japanese send elite troops to capture them, they can cut the Eighth Route Army into several unconnected parts and then encircle and annihilate them.
Wang Xuexin touched his chin. He roughly guessed how the Japanese planned to attack.
This should be a battle between special forces and ordinary troops, or it can be said to be a battle between mountain troops.
The Eighth Route Army may be good at climbing mountains and fighting guerrillas cross-country, but serious mountain warfare... this requires preparation in advance. The Japanese are never easy to deal with, otherwise they will suffer big losses if they are not careful.
Just when Wang Xuexin was deep in thought, Sun Erwei rushed into the office excitedly and said: "Wang, he replied, he should agree with our statement!"
"Who?" Wang Xuexin almost forgot about this, and then he realized: "You mean Stilwell?"
"Yes!" Sun Erwei handed over the telegram that he had translated into Chinese, but the Chinese was... difficult to describe, and there were several typos in it.
This should be a characteristic of Chinese.
Foreigners learning Chinese generally believe that it is not difficult to learn to "speak", but it is too difficult to learn to "write". Every word is different, and there is no even any pattern. The same word may not have the same meaning...
Even so, Wang Xuexin still understood the meaning of the telegram, and Stilwell was so proud that he admitted in another way that Wang Xuexin's statement was correct.
"How should we respond?" Sun Erwei said: "But I think it is necessary to remind you that although Stilwell is the commander, his power is very limited. He can only participate but cannot formulate combat plans, so..."
Wang Xuexin nodded to express his understanding.
As a modern man, Wang Xuexin certainly knew this. Stilwell, the nominal commander, was just a middleman, and the man who actually commanded the battle was Alexander, who never sets on the sun.
In fact, you only need to appoint Alexander as the commander from The Sun Never Sets to see what they have in mind.
Alexander was the commander who commanded the evacuation of Dunkirk, so he was also nicknamed the "Escape General".
The purpose of sending him here is to let him bring Sun Buluo's army safely back to Asan territory instead of fighting.
Alexander's method was to let the Chinese army fight the Japanese in the rear, while he fled with his troops without saying a word... Even so, he almost couldn't escape several times, and this shameless guy actually ordered the Chinese army to rush to the rescue.
"That's enough, Sun Erwei!" Wang Xuexin said: "I mean, at least the supplies and materials are in the hands of General Stilwell, right?"
"Yes, of course!" Sun Erwei replied: "This is one of the reasons why we can become the middleman!"
What this means is that the war on the Burma Highway actually had nothing to do with Yingjiang. If Yingjiang hadn't provided supplies to the two armies, how could Yingjiang He De have sent someone to be the commander, even though it was in name only.
"As I said before!" Wang Xuexin said: "Put enough supplies and transportation capacity into the Chinese army. In addition, if it can be accurately controlled... you know, if the sun never sets, if you want to lose the battle, so they
I will try my best to leave the materials as intact as possible to the Japanese..."
Sun Erwei said "Oh" and nodded slightly to express his understanding.
Turning around, Sun Erwei forwarded Wang Xuexin's words to Stilwell.
Stilwell looked at the contents of the telegram and was stunned for a moment, then pushed up his glasses and said: "Interesting! With the help of the sun, I left things to the Japanese..."