By that time, the Chinese garrison in the west still had an entire division of troops waiting on guard, and behind him there was a powerful force of thousands of people staring at him like a vicious wolf, waiting to swarm him when he was weak.
When Colonel Keita Sakaguchi reported his guess to Yamada Guiura of the Brigade Headquarters over the radio, Yamada Guiura, who had been studying the map for a long time, shuddered. Now he finally understood how the 14th Brigade was formed.
Annihilated.
However, when I think about it, how to solve the current dilemma is the top priority.
If they retreat, it is possible that the Japanese army that has already established a position in the cherry orchard will fall into a situation of fighting alone.
If you continue to move forward, your 24th Regiment may suffer heavy losses. Even if you reach the Cherry Orchard, you will only have the power to protect yourself and lose the ability to attack.
"Baga! The Chinese army is so cunning!" Yamada Guiura, who was at the headquarters, was now a little anxious. He intuitively felt that his strategy of detouring westward was a bad move.
After losing the barrier and cover to the north, the main force of the Japanese 24th Regiment, which was marching along the mountain road, had to slow down for fear of being attacked from the north if not careful.
Just because the Chinese army has artillery.
Now they are only being attacked by a few artillery shells from the south, but there is no guarantee that there are hidden artillery in the north. Once those carriage teams and packhorse teams carrying a large amount of logistics ammunition are attacked by artillery fire, they will be in trouble.
target.
But Sakaguchi Keita is more alert now. He would rather advance slowly than be harassed by a detachment of constant cold-blooded attacks and suffer casualties, but he goes to clear it without dividing his troops.
He had already gained a lot of experience from the destruction of the 14th Huncheng Brigade. If he divided his troops and went deep into the mountains to wipe out this Chinese elite force with extremely strong combat effectiveness, how many people would be suitable?
In his opinion, even sending a brigade is not safe. The opponent has superior firepower, is familiar with the terrain, and is well prepared. If not, the brigade sent out may be like a bunch of meat buns beating a dog, and they will never come back.
And if more than two brigades of troops are sent to clean up, how many combatants do you have left to attack Cherry Orchard and Baili Mountain?
The result is still being led by the Chinese military.
Sakaguchi Keita endured the pain caused by the constant casualty figures reported every moment, but still ordered the main force of the regiment to continue to advance as a unit, blocking the repeated requests from his battalion captain to send troops for suppression.
However, this is not a solution! Sakaguchi Keita’s head hurts just thinking about it.
At this time, we can see the advantage of the defender deploying strong mobile forces on the outside in a defensive battle.
Just like making moves in a chess game, when Zhou Wen and his mercenary group were deployed on the outside, it was like creating an eye on the chessboard of the Lengkou Defense War.
The so-called live eye, in Go, is an eye that the opponent can never play, but you can always play. When placed on the battlefield, it is called a local strategic initiative. If the Japanese army wants to break the game, it will take a lot of effort.
Of course, the main reason for this is the lack of soldiers.
If the little devil is cold-talking not one division, but two divisions with more than 40,000 troops, the role of bringing down the mercenary groups on the outside will be greatly reduced.
why?
I can't afford it!
At that time, the little devil, not to mention mobilizing a division to deal with you, even a brigade or a mercenary group with thousands of people can't do it hard. Not to mention annihilating you, but to use superior force to keep you away.
If you drive away, you will be fighting alone. At most, you can do some sneak attacks and sniper kills, but their effect on the entire battle situation will be almost zero, and your live eyes will become dead eyes.
War since ancient times has shown that the attacking side must not only have several times the strength of the defending side, but at least it must have a superior strength in order to form an offensive advantage.
The little devils are good at bullying China because of its poor national strength, and the Republic of China army is full of factions, poorly equipped, and disorganized. The Japanese army has the advantage of having aircraft and artillery, but in terms of military strength, it looks down on the Chinese army's combat effectiveness.
Win more with less and get used to it.
The Chinese army's tactical response is even more lackluster. It can only fight with others, blindly defend passively, inflexibly and timidly.
For example, during the Great Wall War of Resistance, there were more than 200,000 Chinese defenders, many of whom were relatively powerful units such as the Central Army, 29th Army, and 32nd Army. However, they still followed the tactics of the cold weapon era, along the lines of hundreds of
Kilometers of the Great Wall were lined up for defense, lacking defense depth and maneuverable troops, and not daring to take the initiative to attack, resulting in a situation where the entire line collapsed once one area was breached.
Although the Japanese army was at a disadvantage in terms of military strength, it was able to give full play to its semi-mechanized and packhorse transportation advantages, calmly deploy troops along the Great Wall, and deploy troops to attack wherever it saw weaknesses. Instead, it formed a strength advantage in local battlefields.
But now, with Zhou Wen's powerful troops fighting on the outside, the disadvantage of the Japs' small number of troops has been highlighted.
Not to mention anything else, in the Lengkou Defense Line alone, the Chinese army has a total of more than 30,000 troops from the 32nd Army and the Model Brigade, and it also has certain advantages in artillery and automatic firepower in front-line positions. It also has solid fortifications and trenches.
, tunnels serve as support.
Unless General Shang Zheng and Zhao Changshu are both courageless mediocrities, how could your brigade and the Japanese army of more than 10,000 troops directly under the division headquarters be able to capture it? How could you capture it?
If you want to mobilize troops to attack my weak points, then the opportunity will come for my external mercenary group.
To be honest, the Japs wanted to stand still and just attack Lengkou's main position. Zhou Wen also had no choice but to take advantage of the Japanese troops who were hiding in the trenches and fortifications to defend the surrounding areas and did not dare to take the initiative. But you actually showed up with more than 2,000 people.
If we mobilize westward, then the role of our external troops will come into play, which is to attack your mobilized troops.
At this time, Yamada Guiura, who was at the headquarters, looked at Keita Sakaguchi sending a telegram requesting instructions every minute, and felt anxious in his heart!
"Baga, are you a stupid pig like Sakaguchi Keita? Why do you need me, the brigade leader, to give instructions on everything? Don't you think of your own solution?"
However, he cursed in his heart, but he knew that Colonel Kei Sakaguchi would not ask for instructions so anxiously if the situation was not critical. He still had to find a way to rescue the 24th Regiment from the predicament.
At this time, if part of the 23rd Regiment is sent to support the 24th Regiment, we are afraid that the Lenggou Pass Model Brigade will be dishonest.
If it were other Chinese troops, Yamada Guiura could guarantee that even if he mobilized most of his troops, they would not dare to take the initiative to attack. But the commander of the Model Brigade cannot rely on common sense. This is an adventurous spirit.
Such an ambitious veteran, how could he remain unmoved when he saw the empty troops at the foot of the mountain?