The news came from intelligence personnel. To be precise, intelligence personnel and Yuncheng verified each other: Yuncheng was bombarded, and the intelligence personnel only saw one artillery piece, then another one at another location, and then another...
Taken together and analyzed, we know what the hell Neji Okamura is doing.
This is an uncommon tactic.
Because artillery battles on the battlefield are all about speed, and the battle is often required to end within a few minutes and must be moved within ten minutes, otherwise it may be covered by enemy artillery fire.
But the Japanese did the opposite and spent dozens of hours guiding dozens of artillery pieces scattered in front of Yuncheng...
The reason why this tactic is useful is that it bullies the Eighth Route Army into not having artillery with the same range.
Otherwise, the Japanese heavy artillery scattered everywhere would have been blown up by the Eighth Route Army artillery.
But now, if the Eighth Route Army wants to blow up the Japanese heavy artillery, it must use "high fire".
To use "high fire", you have to set up a launcher and have a launch position, so the Japanese air force has room to play.
Wang Xuexin was very satisfied with this, because he understood that if the Japs made this plan, it would mean that the Japs knew nothing about the Eighth Route Army's new launch method, that is, the method of launching in the silo...otherwise he would not think that this was the case.
This method of combat is useful.
"How is the preparation status of the launch silo?" Wang Xuexin called and asked Professor Su who was in charge of this matter.
"Seven silos are already available for use." Professor Su replied: "But further testing is needed!"
The reason why it is so fast is because there are many copper and iron mines in the Yuncheng area, so there are many available abandoned mines.
These abandoned mines only need a little modification and the addition of launchers to become good launch shafts.
If there is only one more usable launch silo, it will not be easy to prepare seven in such a short time, because according to Wang Xuexin's plan, another independent tunnel is needed below the launch silo to accommodate the catapult.
Building a 48-meter-long tunnel is not an easy task in itself.
But this matter was solved by Professor Su.
Instead of building a tunnel below, he dug the mine directly downward, that is, raised it. When the size was suitable, he separated the middle with a steel frame, then laid a steel plate and then laid a thick layer of sand.
For heat insulation... In the process of completing this work, the problem of force transmission between the upper and lower layers was also completed.
This saves a lot of time, but only consumes a little steel.
But this actually has advantages, because the structure of the tunnel will be stronger and more resistant to explosions.
"Very good!" Wang Xuexin said: "Let these seven silos be ready for battle!"
Professor Su on the other end of the phone couldn't help being stunned when he heard this: "Combat preparations? But battalion commander, is this too hasty? And...most of these seven silos are in different locations!"
Wang Xuexin knew what Professor Su meant when he said "the silos are in different locations".
"High fire" actually has some similarities with artillery.
For example, if dozens of "high-fire" missiles are launched from the same launch site at a calculated target, the probability of hitting the target will be greater.
If these "high fires" are scattered in many places, with different parameters, different airflow conditions, etc., the hit probability will be much lower.
Wang Xuexin replied: "It doesn't matter, we don't need to use these seven silos to deal with one target, we need to use them to deal with seven targets respectively!"
"Seven goals?" Professor Su didn't understand it at first, but when he thought about it more deeply, he said "oh" and understood.
Seven silos are responsible for seven targets, that is, one silo is responsible for one target.
Although the probability of a "high-fire" hitting the target is low, what if multiple missiles are fired repeatedly at the same location?
You can even make adjustments based on the situation with the artillery observers on the front line. For example, if it hit far this time, the next one should hit closer, or how many kilometers to the right this time...
Therefore, there is no problem of firing parameters at multiple locations with different parameters at the same target.
The only flaw should be that the airflow conditions vary each time it is launched.
However, the self-correction of the gyroscope is based on airflow conditions, so the possibility of errors caused by this aspect is relatively small. Coupled with the cooperation of front-line artillery observers, the hit accuracy can be greatly improved.
So Professor Su didn't think much and immediately conveyed Wang Xuexin's order and battle plan to Zhou Yuankai.
The "high-fire" launch itself is not difficult. What is difficult is actually the preparation before the "high-fire" launch.
The "preparation work" here does not refer to the "high fire" launch itself, but the scout's observation of the coordinates of each Japanese heavy artillery and the coordination between the artillery observers and the "high fire".
The former is relatively good. As long as the Japanese heavy artillery fires, the scouts can determine its position based on the fire and smoke from a long distance, and then use trigonometric calculation methods to obtain its accurate position.
The communication problems involved can be solved by pulling the phone line, and there is enough time to repeatedly measure and verify.
But the coordination between artillery observers and "high fire" is difficult to solve using telephone lines.
This is because the artillery observers must know clearly the blast point and target location of the "high fire" when cooperating. This means that the artillery observers must be close enough to the target, but the Japanese Type 89 heavy artillery has a range of 18 kilometers.
The point is usually 15 kilometers away from Yuncheng.
In other words, it is possible for artillery observers to carry radios deep into enemy lines.
In actual combat, this is actually not done in most cases, because doing so means that artillery observers have to cross the enemy's defense line, which is very dangerous and difficult.
The Eighth Route Army's approach was to directly teach intelligence personnel who were already working behind enemy lines to become artillery observers.
Of course, there are many difficulties in this, but it is not as difficult as imagined.
It is said to be difficult because it requires at least learning trigonometric functions.
The reason why it is not as difficult as imagined is because the intelligence personnel who go deep behind enemy lines are often intellectuals... If you are illiterate, you may not be able to understand the notes or warnings being passed at the critical moment, and it will be difficult to become an intelligence officer.
A qualified intelligence officer.
On the other hand, it is because the correction of "high fire" is not as urgent as the correction of artillery trajectory.
Artillery must provide correction data within a few minutes, otherwise the enemy is likely to escape.
But in this case of "high fire"...the Japanese artillery usually cannot move after completing the test firing, so it is not a big problem for the intelligence personnel to calculate for more than ten minutes. If they make a mistake, they can start over.
If the Japanese artillerymen lost their composure and fled, they could be considered to have been forced back.