UGB #163 - Intelligence support
#163 - Intelligence support
The frontline war situation was changing rapidly. Ren Zhong received the news a bit late, basically hearing a portion of it from the commander of the 8th Garrison Regiment on the third day.
This made Ren Zhong a bit confused.
According to the current situation, the Eighth Route Army had repeatedly dealt heavy blows to the Japanese, and logically speaking, they should have drawn the hatred of the Japanese, making them focus on the Eighth Route Army and not think of causing trouble for the GMD (Kuomintang).
The GMD in the Zhongtiao Mountains hadn't actually done anything provocative to enrage the Japanese, had they?
Ren Zhong couldn't understand the thought process of the Japanese. Why had things suddenly turned out like this?
However, Ren Zhong was very clear about the consequences of this battle.
The GMD forces trapped in the Zhongtiao Mountains originally had Commander Wei present, mutually supporting each other with the Eighth Route Army, and Commander Wei was skilled enough to command even a group of sheep to bite people, making every Japanese sweep unsuccessful.
But someone had a crazy idea and insisted on cutting off the operational coordination between the two armies, transferring away the capable people and leaving behind a group of stragglers. In addition, the Japanese also went crazy and gathered far more troops than in previous offensives, launching a fierce attack.
Now it was all over. The GMD's army of over 200,000 was utterly defeated, almost completely annihilated!
From a strategic perspective, with the Zhongtiao Mountain area falling into enemy hands, the main GMD forces on the northern bank of the Yellow River lost their last foothold in North China. This allowed the Japanese to directly threaten areas like Luoyang and Xi'an, fueling the arrogance of the Japanese and making it impossible for the main GMD forces to threaten the Japanese North China battlefield from then on.
After the main GMD forces withdrew from the North China battlefield in such a disgraceful manner, the Eighth Route Army, which was fighting the Japanese behind enemy lines, faced an extremely difficult situation due to the lack of restraint. The Japanese, without any pressure, could unscrupulously transfer main divisions to join the "encirclement and suppression" of the base areas, making the sweeps larger and more frequent, causing huge losses to the base areas.
This was the most difficult and dangerous time in the history of the Eighth Route Army base areas!
Unexpectedly, it still happened as scheduled.
According to the information Ren Zhong had received, the situation was almost exactly the same as in the historical timeline, so it seemed that the outcome wouldn't change much either.
From the perspective of the attacking and defending sides, the GMD's Zhongtiao Mountain garrison was quite large, belonging to the First and Second War Zones respectively, with a force of 7 main armies stationed in the Zhongtiao Mountains; the 9th Army under Pei Changhui was stationed in Jiyuan, northern Henan; the 43rd Army under Zhao Shiling was stationed in Quwo, Shanxi; the 17th Army under Gao Guizi was stationed in the Jiang County area; the 3rd Army under Tang Huaiyuan and the 80th Army under Kong Lingxun were stationed in the Wenxi and Xia County areas; the 15th Army under Wu Tinglin was stationed in the Gaoping area. In addition, there were 4 armies in the Taihang and Taiyue areas, supporting the operations, with a total force of about 200,000 men in the area.
On the Japanese side, the First Army in Shanxi Province was the main force. A total of 7 divisions participated in this campaign, along with the air force. The commander-in-chief was Tada Hayao, commander of the North China Area Army, with a total force of about 100,000 men.
Although the number of Japanese troops was small, they were well-equipped. After reorganization, the Japanese 1st Army was strengthened to the 33rd, 36th, 37th, and 41st Divisions, the 4th and 9th Independent Mixed Brigades, the 16th Independent Mixed Brigade, and the army reserve as the main force; two divisions were assigned to the Area Army: the 21st and 35th Divisions, plus a part of the 4th Cavalry Brigade and the 3rd Air Group originally assigned to the 35th Division.
Nearly 400 fighters and bombers were concentrated to participate in the battle.
The Japanese played their usual game of betting the fate of the nation, investing everything in the Zhongtiao Mountains, and launching a frantic attack with 100,000 troops pieced together from the Kwantung Army, the North China Area Army, and the Central China Area Army.
In this battle, the Japanese forces were unprecedentedly strong and concentrated, so they adopted a four-sided encirclement strategy from the beginning, leaving the GMD no way out.
On the eastern front, the main force of the 35th Division led by Japanese Lieutenant General Harada Kumayoshi, a part of the 21st Division led by Japanese Lieutenant General Tanaka Hisaichi, and a part of the 4th Independent Cavalry Brigade, about 25,000 men, under the coordination of the puppet troops Zhang Lanfeng and Liu Yanfeng, invaded Jiyuan and Meng County in three routes along the western section of the Daoqing Road.
On the western front, the main force of the 37th Division led by Japanese Lieutenant General Adachi Hatazo, a part of the 36th Division led by Japanese Lieutenant General Iseki Hitoshi, and the 16th Independent Mixed Brigade led by Japanese Major General Wakamatsu Heiji, about 25,000 men, invaded Zhangdian Town from the southeast of Wenxi and Xia County.
On the northern front, the 41st Division led by Japanese Lieutenant General Shimizu Noriyoshi and the 9th Independent Mixed Brigade led by Japanese Major General Ikezoe Kenkichi, totaling about 30,000 men, launched a fierce attack on the west side of the Hengyuan Avenue from the direction of Hengling Pass, using the blitzkrieg tactic of central breakthrough.
On the northeastern front, a part of the 33rd Division led by Japanese Lieutenant General Sakurai Shozo and a part of the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade, about 10,000 men, attacked the Dongfeng Town line from the Yangcheng area.
Opening up and looking at the historical strategy of the Japanese, Ren Zhong looked confused. He could understand the words, but when these things were concentrated together, they looked a little confusing.
Fortunately, someone in modern times had drawn a battle map, which allowed him to have a more intuitive understanding of the battle situation.
After painstakingly coming up with an upper, middle, and lower strategy and slightly spoiling the Zhongtiao Mountain Campaign, Ren Zhong returned to the Dawn Research Institute to work hard on new things.
Ren Zhong had learned about the virtue of the GMD.
The newest and most complete novels are first published on 69shuba.!
So Ren Zhong didn't have much hope for the role of this information.
The only benefit was that the Eighth Route Army could make some preparations a little earlier.
According to the outcome of this campaign, the impact on the Eighth Route Army was really too great.
A full 4 divisions originally confronted the GMD in the Zhongtiao Mountains. After solving the Zhongtiao Mountain problem in one fell swoop, this part of the Japanese force was released.
In North China, if the Japanese suddenly had so many more troops, the pressure on the Eighth Route Army would not only double, but would be like Mount Tai pressing down on them.
Ren Zhong needed to remind Li Yunlong that they would be facing a storm from the Japanese next, and they had to make some preparations in advance, especially the new factories that were being developed more and more unscrupulously, which had already begun to set up camps in the villages. There was no way to hide these things when the Japanese came.
He needed to shrink them as soon as possible.
Third update, new month, asking for guaranteed monthly tickets!