I have something going on at home recently, so I have to stay up all night, so the updates are not many and unstable. Sorry! I will speed up the updates when the things are done!
——————————
"Regiment 172?" Wang Xuexin frowned as he looked at the location of the 172nd Regiment on the map.
It should be said that it is nothing if a regiment is bombarded by the enemy in battle.
But the 172nd Regiment is special. It attacks the Guizi Coal Mine.
The Japanese coal mine is heavily guarded by infantry, and there will be no heavy artillery nearby... This is one of the characteristics of the Japanese firepower deployment. The Japanese usually deploy limited heavy artillery on the front line or in vulnerable cities for defense, such as the previous Yuncheng.
For quasi-security areas, especially areas heavily guarded by infantry, there are almost none.
The reason is that most of the combat missions in these areas are aimed at sneak attacks by guerrillas, labor uprisings, escapes, etc. Heavy artillery deployed here is completely useless, and the Japanese will not do such stupid things.
So, how could the 172nd Regiment be bombarded by Japanese heavy artillery? So much so that they suffered heavy casualties because they were completely unprepared!
The Japanese heavy artillery troops passed by?
It’s unlikely that the heavy artillery units in Northeast China have been almost exhausted due to foreign operations during this period. Even the artillery units to deal with Yuncheng have to be transferred from Nanjing. How can there be heavy artillery units passing by here!
Heavy artillery units have been added to the Japanese Dynamic Defense?
It is also unlikely. The Japanese have been implementing dynamic defense for some time and have even conducted several drills. If heavy artillery had been added, the intelligence personnel of the Eighth Route Army should have gotten the news long ago.
Just when Wang Xuexin was puzzled, the correspondent reported again: "Battalion Commander, the 237th Regiment was bombarded, also by heavy artillery!"
Wang Xuexin was shocked, how fast? It was more than 20 kilometers away, and the other position was bombarded in less than half an hour?
Then when he looked at the railway lines on the map, Wang Xuexin secretly thought it was going to be bad.
"Immediately send personnel to conduct reconnaissance on the railway line!" Wang Xuexin said: "The Japanese may have sent out armored trains!"
The entire command headquarters instantly became quiet, and everyone looked at Wang Xuexin in surprise. The next second, they immediately got busy and conveyed Wang Xuexin's orders as quickly as possible, as if the power had been turned on again.
Chen Songyong walked quickly to Wang Xuexin and said: "Battal Commander, armored train? Iron hedgehog? Isn't this thing active in the Northeast? If it appears here, our intelligence personnel will not have any news at all!"
What Chen Songyong means is that the armored train is a thing of the boss, and it runs on the rails. The sound is not quiet. How can it not be discovered when it comes all the way from the northeast!
Wang Xuexin pointed to the railway line on the map and said: "Look at these two shelled units, the 172nd Regiment and the 237th Regiment. They are deep in the hinterland of the Japanese quasi-security area and close to the Japanese security area. There should not be heavy artillery here. But they do.
, and one thing they have in common is that they are close to the railway line!”
Chen Songyong looked at the map and pondered for a while, then nodded: "What the battalion commander means is that the heavy artillery shelling in these two places came from the same unit, the Japanese armored train!"
Wang Xuexin nodded. Only this is reasonable. Otherwise, how can we explain the heavy artillery deployed by the Japanese so quickly?
Chen Songyong thought deeply and said in surprise: "Batalion Commander, if there is an armored train, then our train..."
Wang Xuexin nodded solemnly, and Chen Songyong finally thought of the key point.
If the Japanese have an armored train and it is still between Jiangyangfu and Yuncheng, how can a train full of machines cross the armored train and reach Yuncheng?
Gu Jian
The railway lines of this era were not as luxurious as modern times. In modern times, two railway lines could be built that went back and forth, so that two moving trains could intersect on the road.
Most of the railway lines in this era had only one line, that is, they shared the same line for both coming and going.
If there is an interchange train in the middle, you have to arrange the time node in advance and wait at a transfer station to let another train pass first.
The schedule of this train is very tight. Once a certain train is delayed, it will cause all subsequent trains to be delayed... because the time points must be moved back.
If this is the case, that is, they share a railway line going back and forth but there is an armored train stuck in the middle... How can the train pass?
Fly over?
Or should the Japanese armored train go to the transfer station to make way for the train?
This almost means that the plan failed and all the efforts were wasted.
Wang Xuexin was silent for a while and then said: "Don't panic, wait for the news!"
"Yes!" Chen Songyong responded.
Wang Xuexin's hope was wrong, that is, the Japanese train was not an armored train, but his hope was soon dashed.
The intelligence was not detected by the front line, but came from the headquarters.
Zhang Zongping, who was responsible for contacting the headquarters, walked up to Wang Xuexin with a telegram and reported: "Battal Commander, news came from the headquarters confirming that there are Japanese armored train activities in the direction of Lantau Village!"
Wang Xuexin found the location of Lantau Village on the map, which is a small village fifty kilometers north of Jiangyangfu. Although this armored train will not affect Wang Xuexin's plan, it can almost confirm Wang Xuexin's guess.
Sure enough, half an hour later Chen Songyong reported with a telegram with a pale face: "Confirmed, it is a Japanese armored train, and its current location is Zhongyuzhuang."
As he said that, he found the location on the map and marked it. It was right in the middle of Jiangyangfu and Yuncheng, more than fifty kilometers away from both ends.
Then Chen Songyong became nervous: "Battalion Commander, the Japanese armored train is moving north. Do you think... is it going to reinforce Jiangyang Fu?"
If they were to reinforce Jiangyangfu and then find that the Eighth Route Army was dismantling machines for shipment, everything would be over. It would only take a few shots to blow the train up into the sky... The train would be as fragile as a toy in front of the armored train.
But Wang Xuexin shook his head and said: "It's unlikely, Jiangyang Fu doesn't have much reinforcement value!"
Chen Songyong was stunned for a moment, and then he understood what Wang Xuexin meant.
Although the armored train is very powerful in combat, it has one weakness, and that is its extreme reliance on railways.
Because of this weakness, the area where the armored train needs to be reinforced should be an area under full control of the Japanese, especially the railway, otherwise it would be meaningless... The Eighth Route Army only needs to blow up the rails, and the armored train will not be able to pass, or the front foot will just pass the rear foot track. Even being blown apart would be extremely dangerous for an armored train.
Therefore, a place like Jiangyangfu, which is fully controlled by the Eighth Route Army, including the railway, is a dead end for armored trains, unless a large number of infantry are assembled to completely recapture Jiangyangfu.
Chen Songyong was confused because he was concerned, because he always thought about the train stopping in Jiangyangfu, so he didn't think about this.