In addition, there are engineering and military machinery. Shinta Kono thinks there should be at least a few bulldozers, right? Armored bulldozers are not required, and a few ordinary bulldozers are not excessive, right?
In fact, armored bulldozers should be required, because in a "blitzkrieg", bulldozers often have to go to the front line to clear the way. In doing so, they are easily ambushed by the enemy, especially enemy snipers.
Armored bulldozers can solve this problem very well, at least the driver will not lose more and more.
However, the reality is that the imperial army cannot even find a few ordinary bulldozers.
Okamura Neiji's answer was: "Kono-kun, we actually have no need for bulldozers, because we can leave any work similar to road construction to the Chinese people!"
It's not that the empire doesn't have bulldozers, they just don't use them in China due to cost considerations.
Because to them, the Chinese people...or I can't say people, are free labor in their eyes.
Bulldozers also require repairs and maintenance, and consume precious fuel when working.
Chinese laborers don’t need anything. If they starve to death or are exhausted, they can have one less mouth to eat, so why use bulldozers?
Shinta Kono was a little speechless about this, and he replied helplessly: "Your Excellency, General, our troops are transported by sidecar motorcycles. Although we can use Chinese people, can we take them forward with us? In addition, we need
How many people do it take to achieve the efficiency of a bulldozer?”
Okamura Neji instantly understood what Kono Shinta meant.
"This is not difficult!" Okamura Neiji said: "We can use armored vehicles to convert them into several bulldozers!"
"No, General!" Shinta Kono said: "We can't use armored vehicles to convert bulldozers, because they are all wheeled armored vehicles!"
Kono Shinta knew the equipment of the Empire, and he knew that the two main armored vehicles used by the Empire at this time were wheeled.
Although wheeled armored vehicles have the advantage of being fast, their shortcomings are equally obvious: poor off-road performance, poor road grip, and especially a serious lack of thrust...
Although Shinta Kono did not know the thrust of the wheeled armored vehicle engine in detail, he knew this without looking up.
Because wheeled armored vehicles usually do not need a large thrust engine, in principle it is enough as long as it can push its own weight to run on the road.
In this case, if you install a dozer blade on a wheeled armored vehicle and let it bulldoze earth... I'm afraid the wheels will spin behind and push nothing.
"What we need is a tractor!" Kono Shinta said: "A large-thrust, crawler-type tractor can be effective only by converting it into a bulldozer. But of course, we also have requirements for its speed. It must not be slower than the 95 Qingzhan at least!"
Then Kono Shinta turned his attention to Okamura Neji.
Okamura Neiji thought for a moment, then nodded and said: "We have such tractors, but in Manchuria, I will transfer a few over right away!"
Shinta Kono added: "There are also drivers. We need to bring in more drivers, at least three times the number of tractors!"
Okamura Neiji was stunned for a moment, and then he immediately understood that this kind of bulldozer had no armor protection and could only be piled up at the cost of the life of the tractor driver.
There is also a pontoon bridge for crossing the river, which is too heavy to move forward with the troops... The Imperial Army does not have this kind of transportation capability.
So Kono Shinta could only consider airdrop.
However, the empire's airdrop capability did not meet the requirements, so it could only use multiple airdrops in batches. The pontoon bridges were collected and protected by the mainland advance team that sneaked into the hinterland of the Eighth Route Army.
These are still small things, because we can always find some alternative solutions, although the solutions are not so perfect.
Kono Shinta believes that the most serious issue is actually the dullness of the imperial commanders...or it can be said to be the difference in combat styles.
Hans's commanders, even the middle and lower-level commanders, all have a certain level of education and fairly good commanding abilities. In other words, they can stand alone and command independently.
Imperial officers can also stand alone and command independently, but they have two different concepts from Commander Hans' "stand alone".
Hans' "stand alone" refers to being able to adapt to changes in battlefield conditions. They know what choices to make at critical moments that are beneficial to the overall strategy, and have considerable initiative, enthusiasm and autonomy.
The imperial officers "stand alone" and act completely according to the orders of their superiors. Even if the battlefield situation changes, they will unswervingly carry out the orders. The concept they pursue is the principle that "soldiers must obey orders as their bounden duty".
Although there is nothing wrong with this. Soldiers should originally obey orders, but this way of rigidly obeying orders can be described as "rigid". It is completely incompatible with the flexibility of "blitzkrieg", and it can even be said that
It's the opposite.
For example, during the exercise, Shinta Kono ordered: "There is no battle plan for this battle. Our goal is to get to point A as quickly as possible. Some emergencies will occur during the exercise. You can act according to the situation!"
Shinta Kono's original intention was to artificially create some "emergency situations" to cultivate the resilience of these officers.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he turned around, these officers gathered together to formulate a march plan. This march plan even detailed which team was responsible for grabbing food and replenishing the troops along the way...
Shinta Kono knew that this was fatal.
Because the more detailed a battle plan is, the easier it is to be disrupted. Once it is disrupted, it is equivalent to having no plan, or even worse than no plan.
Sure enough, subsequent exercises also verified this.
In the face of "emergency situations" artificially set up by Kono Shinta, the imperial army had no idea how to respond, but blindly chose to "attack", "fight", and "annihilate" when encountering the enemy...
When Kono Shinta reprimanded them for ordering the troops to bypass them, these commanders responded swornly: "Please give me one hour, and I promise to eliminate the target! We Imperial soldiers will never retreat in front of the enemy!"
"
Kono Shinta was speechless, but there was nothing she could do.
Because he knew that this was a long-term educational problem for military officers.
As the saying goes, "Three feet of ice cannot be frozen in a day." These are things that go deep into the bones of the imperial army. They call them "bushido spirit", "military soul" and "honor".
Therefore, this cannot be changed in a day or two. Even if one or two troops are forced to change with orders, a considerable part of them will be uncontrollable after the march is dispersed.
Kono Shinta could only hope that his drills during this period could make these officers more flexible.
At least don't waste your time fighting the intercepting troops and trying to eliminate them when you go deep into the heart of the Eighth Route Army!