"Commander, the Japanese have returned for reinforcements. Two infantry brigades, a cavalry brigade, and a field artillery squadron, with a total strength of nearly 3,000 people, are all transferred from the Central Army!" Tang Guangxin, the commander of the reconnaissance company, rushed into the former enemy headquarters.
Reported with excitement on his face!
"The leader of the Japs Division is worthy of being a lieutenant general who has been fighting for more than ten years. He is cautious, decisive, and has an overall view of the situation..." Wang Ping couldn't help but sigh. Although this was to praise his opponent, he still did not hesitate to think of what he could think of.
words of praise.
"And he's very cunning!" the political commissar next to him added.
"At one time, he drew nearly 3,000 troops. He refused to draw people from the left and right sweeps. Instead, he drew all the men from the powerful center army. As a result, although the number of guard troops around him was much smaller, the number of troops encircling and suppressing us was still strong.
The Great Net is still indestructible and there are no loopholes for us to exploit!"
Chief of Staff Zhong Chenggong said: "With our actions tonight, the pressure from all aspects has not been relieved at all!"
"Not afraid!" Wang Ping replied confidently.
"Tonight's operation, I never thought that the Japanese would mobilize troops..."
After saying that, Wang Ping walked to the map and asked: "Chief of Staff, the Japanese will arrive outside Xiangfen City at noon today. Our troops are all deployed in place, right?"
Zhong Chenggong did not answer immediately, but confirmed again: "Captain, do you really intend to defend the city?"
"Originally I planned to engage in street fighting with the Japs, but we had already used it when we were guarding Linfen, and the Japs suffered a big loss. I am sure that if we use street fighting again this time, the Japs will definitely not be fooled. So I decided to go directly
Defend the city!" Wang Ping did not hide his thoughts.
"With so many Japanese soldiers entering our base area, they will have to be exhausted before they will take the initiative to end this encirclement and suppression operation!"
"Also, the Japs came all the way and caused too much damage to our base area. Many villages were burned to ashes by them. Therefore, this counter-encirclement and suppression campaign must end as soon as possible to force the Japs to withdraw from our base area. As expected,
Tonight's decisive battle and the afternoon's city defense battle are the turning points of this counter-encirclement and suppression campaign. Once the battle is completed, the little Japanese will retreat obediently at dawn tomorrow!"
Political Commissar Huang Yuanqiang was also worried when he thought of the regiment leader's decision to fight head-on with the Japanese in Xiangfen City, but he finally chose to support it.
The group leader repeatedly insisted on fighting the street fighting in Linfen, and finally won.
Now that Wang Ping was so insistent, Huang Yuanqiang, although hesitant and worried, finally chose to support the group leader.
Before, Wang Ping never revealed to everyone how to defend the city. Now that the Japanese are about to kill them, there is definitely no need to continue to hide it. And he needs Wang Ping to come up with more reasons and ideas to increase his confidence in fighting this battle.
, reminded after hesitating for a moment.
"But the Japanese have heavy artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, and aircraft support. If we go head-to-head with them in broad daylight, the tiger's teeth will not be pulled out, and we will be eaten by the tiger in one bite!"
"The Japanese have been fighting for so long without encountering our main force. They must hope that we can defend the city and fight them decisively!"
Wang Ping quickly explained: "Political Commissar, the threats you mentioned all exist, and they are all the devil's fatal advantages against us."
"But don't forget, whether we are fighting the Japanese during the day or at night, or in the night fighting or mobile warfare that we are good at, we have to face these advantages of theirs."
"In mobile warfare and night fighting, if we want to consume the Japs and make them feel pain, we must take the initiative to attack. Compared with taking the initiative to attack, defending the city may cause us fewer casualties, but the losses to the Japs will be greater.
!”
"Our casualties are small, while the Japanese's losses are large. This is a key reason why I decided to defend the city here!"
Huang Yuanqiang nodded in agreement, but after a few seconds he discovered another problem.
"Captain, under the same circumstances, I am definitely like you and prefer to defend the city! As long as there are strong enough fortifications and sufficient ammunition reserves, the city defense battle can definitely cause very heavy casualties to the opponent, and even directly
It’s possible to force your opponent to retreat!”
"However, our next battle to defend the city will be fought during the day, and the Japanese will definitely send out planes to attack us from the air!"
"If we were to defend the city at night, I would have the confidence to fight head-on with the Japanese!"
A smile suddenly flashed across Wang Ping's face, and then he replied: "I also want to fight at night, but the key to the problem is that the Japanese are frightened by our night fighting, and it is impossible for them to go out at night, let alone attack us actively!"
Then the conversation changed and he added: "As for the problem of the planes used to fight the Japs during the day... Don't worry, political commissar, I already have a solution!"
Seeing that the group leader spoke so confidently, Huang Yuanqiang could only put aside his inner worries and gritted his teeth to answer.
"In that case, leader, I will go crazy with you this afternoon~"
Zhong Chenggong watched the conversation between the two with a dumbfounded expression, and then exclaimed.
"Regiment leader, political commissar... you are all crazy..."
During the morning's march, the troops did not encounter any sneak attacks, and Lieutenant General Ito did not hear even a single gunshot.
Almost all the senior Japanese officers of the Central Route Army believed that the Imperial Army was approaching Xiangfen City with tanks and heavy artillery, and the Eighth Route Army guarding Xiangfen City must have fled and would not have time to sneak attack on them.
"Division Commander, although the Eighth Route Army has a strong fighting capacity, it never fights hard battles face to face with the Imperial Army, and in order to avoid our aircraft attacks, it basically does not fight with us during the day. In one hour we will arrive outside Xiangfen City.
The time is exactly one o'clock in the afternoon, and the Eighth Route Army will definitely not choose to fight us at this time."
"My humble opinion is that Xiangfen County must be an empty city now, just waiting for us to occupy it."
Lieutenant General Ito shook his head and replied: "That's not necessarily true!"
"Have you forgotten the experience of Linfen City? We also thought that Linfen City was an empty city. But as a result, the Eighth Route Army lurked a large number of elite troops in the city, and they killed an entire brigade of our troops in one battle. It was simply a bigger attack than if we launched a single attack on the frontal battlefield.
The losses from large-scale encirclement and suppression will be even greater!”
"Xianfen City is very small, and there is not a large enough area for street fighting. Therefore, the possibility of the Eighth Route Army using Xiangfen City to fight street fights with us is very small. However, I always feel that it is impossible for the New Regiment to hand over Xiangfen City so easily.
If it falls into our hands, we will definitely have a fierce battle in Xiangfen City!"
The troops walked forward for another half hour, and when they could already see the walls of Xiangfen City with their binoculars, a series of gunshots suddenly came from the forward troops.
"Sir, the forward troops reported that they encountered the Eighth Route Army blocking troops outside Xiangfen City..."
"They are organizing troops to attack to test the opponent's strength and equipment!"
"The New Regiment is crazy...are they really planning to fight us head-on in a city defense battle in broad daylight?" the chief of staff was stunned for a moment and exclaimed with a look of disbelief on his face.
Lieutenant General Ito was much calmer and directly ordered: "The troops speed up and rush to the battlefield as soon as possible... Regardless of whether the Eighth Route Army is holding on to Xiangfen, we must capture Xiangfen before dark and spend the night in the city!"
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