The Sulu Theater Command, hidden in the mountains of southern Shandong, is heavily guarded. The sound of the radio transmitting and receiving and the staff officers rushing in and out make the war room extremely busy.
The Sulu War Zone is located in an occupied area, and the enemy situation is even more complicated. There are not only occupation forces dominated by Japanese and puppet troops, but also thousands of small units of self-organized anti-war teams.
These small units ranged from thousands to three to five people. Not only were they difficult to manage, but their relationships with each other were also very complicated. Some were fighting Japanese invaders, while others were taking advantage of the opportunity to make money under the banner of the Anti-Japanese War. There were countless of them.
Moreover, in addition to these anti-Japanese armed forces, various Taoist forces and local gang forces have also grown in strength, fighting for territory, and internal strife and firefights occur every day.
Although the Sulu Theater Command nominally leads all armed resistance in this area, it actually controls not many troops.
The only regular troops that Commander Yu Xuezhong can really manage are the 51st Army and the 57th Army, and both of them have been transferred north to fight in Shandong.
The largest troops stranded in Jiangsu are the 89th Army of Provincial Chairman Han Deqin and the Sulu Guerrilla Corps of Li Mingyang. There are also the Marine Police Force, the Independent Sixth Brigade, etc. Although they seem to have many soldiers and generals, they are not monolithic.
, they just guard their own one-third of an acre of land, which is a passive defense state.
Although the Chongqing Military Commission formulated a winter offensive operation plan this time, when it came to local implementation, the implementation of the plan by various theater units was both positive and negative.
With so many troops fighting in the Sulu Theater for so long, the combat troops in Shandong only regained some remote towns, and many of them were even given up voluntarily by the Japanese who shrank their defenses.
As for Jiangsu, only Huaiyin was liberated, while some larger cities such as Yancheng and Dongtai were still firmly in the hands of the Japanese and puppet troops.
Fighting in the twelfth lunar month of winter, the cold and fatigue eroded the combat effectiveness of the troops. The troops, which were already short of supplies, were severely attrited due to typhoid fever. In addition, due to battle losses, the troops attacking Yancheng, Baoying and other places have stopped attacking and are preparing to evacuate.
After all, if this battle continues like this, the army may collapse before the Japanese are wiped out.
Many of the troops now are not the elites who have been trained for a period of time at the beginning of the war. Especially the guerrilla troops in occupied areas, many of them are new recruits.
These new recruits were obtained through coaxing and tricking from various armies, and many of them were even captured.
To be a soldier in peacetime is to eat royal food, but to be a soldier in wartime is to be cannon fodder. With weak propaganda, many people are unwilling to send their family members to serve as soldiers.
Even if there are those refugees who cannot survive and voluntarily join the army to serve their country, their purpose is to get military pay and support their families.
Many troops now owe military pay, and even if they have military pay, they dare not pay it, because once the military pay is paid, most of the troops will definitely become deserters with the military pay, just like many people who change jobs after being paid year-end bonuses, officers and soldiers
They don't have much sense of belonging to the army. Many people join the army just to eat food and get military pay.
"The troops in Yancheng have retreated. They are no longer able to launch a new round of attack unless they receive a large amount of supplies..."
"Baoying's troops were attacked by the Japanese at night and suffered heavy losses. They are now in disarray. The news came from the hidden agents of the military command."
"Nantong and Dongtai are still fighting, but the situation is not optimistic. Typhoid fever has seriously reduced the number of people..."
The war room of the Sulu Theater Command no longer had the joyful atmosphere at the beginning of the war, but instead became lifeless.
There are many influencing factors, and the offensives in all battlefields across the country are not optimistic. Except for the victories in some areas that are still being fought, most attacks have failed due to various reasons, and the troops are retreating or being pursued by the Japanese.
The winter offensive on battlefields across the country has begun to go downhill. In addition to the tenacity of the Japanese, the intrigues between the various units are also an important factor. They all want to preserve their strength and do not want to fight the Japanese to the death.
The Sulu war zone is similar. Fighting is still going on in many places, but anyone with a discerning eye can see at a glance that the failure of the attack is just a matter of time. If we are still persisting now, it is because the Japanese reinforcements have not arrived yet. With a lucky mentality, we think
The Japanese who were surrounded could no longer hold on.
Can the Japanese really not hold on? The answer is of course no. The Japanese soldiers are well-prepared and have puppet troops in profile. Although they were caught off guard at first, they have now stabilized their position and have even begun to counterattack in local battlefields.
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In the face of a sluggish war, although the Chinese *** team is still holding on, once the Japanese come to their senses and deploy elite troops into the Sulu theater, all offensive efforts will melt away.
At that time, the problem of each army will no longer be to besiege the Japanese, but to deal with the heavy enemy siege and how to survive.
This is also the reason why although the troops are not fighting ideally now, the theater headquarters does not force them to fight to the death.
They want to persist in the war of resistance behind enemy lines for a long time. If they fight to the death and wipe out all their troops now, how will they face the Japanese's heavy encirclement and suppression next?
"Now that all the troops have run out of ammunition, they no longer have the ability to continue fighting. Sir, what do you think?"
After hearing the report from his staff, Commander Yu Xuezhong, who looked haggard, felt a deep sense of powerlessness: "Let the troops without ammunition leave the battlefield in an orderly manner...but it must be kept secret and cannot affect the operations of the troops who still have ammunition.
"
Ammunition has always been an important constraint that plagues the Chinese army. When a heavy group of troops confronts the Japanese on a frontal battlefield, the ammunition collected is often only enough to last about a month of fighting.
If the battle cannot be ended within a month, regardless of victory or defeat, then the Chinese team will have to take the initiative to leave the battlefield, because if the fight continues, they will have to fight the Japanese with flesh and blood.
Many times, even if we win the battle in the early stage, we suffer a disastrous defeat in the later stage because we have run out of ammunition and are no longer able to fight the enemy, so that we collapse thousands of miles away.
But these Chinese people who fought bloody battles had a hard time. After every defeat, they would suffer unreasonable accusations and abuses, saying that they were incompetent, but they were indeed defeated, and even their explanations were so feeble.
Facing the severe situation on various battlefields in the Sulu War Zone, instead of continuing to fight the Japanese, it is better to withdraw as soon as possible while there is still strength.
Otherwise, once the Japanese recover, the troops who have fought hard for so long and have no ammunition will face another massacre. Now they can only save the troops. As for the battle plan given to them by the Military Commission, they will have no choice but to end without any problem.
"What a great victory! What a great victory!"
Just as the staff officers in the war room were preparing to formulate an evacuation plan in anguish, cheers came from outside.
A communications staff officer burst into the war room like a storm, holding up a newly transcribed message in his hand and shouting: "Great victory! Great victory! Gaoyou is restored!"
Just like a stone thrown into a calm lake, it stirred up thousands of waves. After the entire lifeless war room was stunned for a moment, these senior staff officers and staff gathered around, no longer caring about the majestic image.
At such a moment, winning such a great victory was undoubtedly a shot of stimulant for the theater headquarters that had lost confidence.
"Great victory, Nantong is restored!"
Before everyone could recover from the shock of Gaoyou's recovery, another staff officer rushed over.