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Chapter 436 Counter Tactics!

Taiyuan.

First Army Command.

The news that the 36th Division had suffered a dull loss reached the headquarters of the First Army.

As the saying goes, there are three fires when a new official takes office. Yoshio Iwamatsu just took office a few days ago. This fire did not burn on the enemy, but on himself.

Although it was nothing to lose a brigade of more than a thousand soldiers, it made his face dull and felt hot.

When he became the commander of the First Army, he wanted to achieve some achievements, instead of being hanged up and beaten by the Eighth Route Army like Yoshio Shinozuka was when he was in office.

As a result, Yoshio Iwamatsu held the first staff meeting at the Taiyuan Headquarters.

In addition to the staff officers of the First Army Staff Department, all the staff attended the meeting.

There are also No. 40 First Division Commander Shimizu Noriko, Secret Service Captain Yamamoto Kazuki, Cavalry 1st Brigade Commander Tadamichi Kuribayashi and others.

The 4th Cavalry Brigade that participated in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain has returned to Inner Mongolia, but the 1st Cavalry Brigade was detained by Yoshio Iwamatsu.

Yoshio Iwamatsu really wants the 1st Cavalry Brigade to belong to the First Army. After all, the Taiyuan Plain and the Xinzhou Basin are more suitable for the cavalry to play.

However, Amakasu Shigetaro of the Mongolian Army refused to let go. The 1st Cavalry Brigade has a strong combat effectiveness and is too important to the Mongolian Army.

Fu Zuoyi's troops stared at the Mongolian Army Corps in the Suiyuan area, like a hungry wolf, ready to pounce and bite at any time.

Therefore, the 1st Cavalry Brigade was only temporarily borrowed by Yoshio Iwamatsu to the First Army to strengthen the First Army's defense of Taiyuan.

In the conference room, Yoshio Iwamatsu ordered his trusted staff to prepare a sumptuous meal.

The worst participants in the meeting were at the lieutenant rank, and a group of senior devil officers discussed while eating and drinking.

First, Commander Yoshio Iwamatsu delivered a speech, talking about the current situation of the First Army, and then said:
"Right now, the Eighth Route Army seems to be a serious threat to the imperial army of the Imperial Japanese Army in North China, especially Li Yunlong's new regiment, which is very rampant."

"Yesterday afternoon, a battalion of Li Yunlong's new regiment fought against the 36th Division led by Lieutenant General Jingguan in Dagu Town, Northwest Shanxi."

"According to Lieutenant General Jingguan's report, the Xinyi Regiment used the same anti-slope and tunnel tactics as Baozishan in this battle."

"As a result, the 36th Division lost an imperial brigade."

With a wave of Yoshio Iwamatsu's hand, several guard soldiers brought in the sand table built by the staff.

The location of Dagu Town on the sand table, the mountain tunnels and positions of the Eighth Route Army, and the attack position of the 36th Division were all made on the sand table.

"Please take a look, gentlemen."

Yoshio Iwamatsu pointed at the map with a solemn hand and said:
"This is the forward slope and reverse slope positions of the Eighth Route Army. This is the headquarters of the 36th Division. This is the position of the 36th Regiment of the Mountain Artillery."

"The artillery position of the Eight Route Army is 5 kilometers away from their position. The exact location is unknown, but there are artillery firepower from two mountain artillery regiments, which can provide artillery support for the Eight Route Army at any time."

Hearing the artillery fire of the two mountain artillery regiments.

Several officers and staff officers present all gasped and uttered their voices at the same time, even their pupils couldn't help shrinking slightly.

Even a three-unit division of the Japanese army is equipped with only one mountain artillery regiment, and many of them are dissatisfied with the formation, missing a few 105mm howitzers.

Is there any reason for a regiment in the Eighth Route Military Region to be equipped with two mountain artillery regiments?

Kazuki Yamamoto and several devil officers above the rank of major general stared at the sand table with solemn eyes.

Yoshio Iwamatsu said again: "Among the gentlemen present, only Major General Miyazaki, the deputy chief of staff, has fought this kind of tactics of the Eighth Route Army. Next, I would like to ask Mr. Miyazaki to tell you about the tactics of the Eighth Route Army."

Everyone turned their eyes to Miyazaki Masao instantly.

Everyone knows that Masao Miyazaki was originally the commander of the Major General of the 3rd Brigade, but because he was defeated by the Eighth Route Army at Mount Baozi, he was transferred to the First Army as the deputy chief of staff with little right to speak.

In fact, with his qualifications, he was more than enough to be the Chief of Staff of the First Army.

Masao Miyazaki's cheeks twitched slightly when he heard the words. The Battle of Baozi Mountain was a painful memory that he never wanted to mention.

In order to open up the passage to Taiyuan as soon as possible, Masao Miyazaki sent the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade to the slaughterhouse-like battlefield.

That was a massacre. In the frontal battle, the Japanese army actually had an eight-to-one loss ratio with the Eighth Route Army.

However, Masao Miyazaki had no choice but to bite the bullet, stood up, picked up a slender wooden pole and said:
"Balu's so-called tunnel tactics are to build artillery positions on the reverse slope of the mountain and infantry positions on the front slope."

"Then dig tunnels in the mountain and connect the front and back slopes. When the imperial army's artillery fires at the front slope of the Eighth Route, all the infantry of the Eighth Route will hide in the tunnel."

"When the infantry of the imperial army started to attack, the infantry of the Eighth Route came out of the tunnel in the mountain and shot at the imperial army."

"The artillery positions of the Eight Routes are set up on the reverse slope, and the distances and shootings are marked in advance. When the infantry of the Imperial Army attacks, the artillery of the Eight Routes will fire at the same time, and start shelling the attacking infantry of the Imperial Army."

At that time, when he attacked Baozi Mountain, Masao Miyazaki hadn't recalled it yet.

After the battle ended, the Eighth Route Army withdrew, and Masao Miyazaki set foot on Baozi Mountain to reconnaissance repeatedly. Even though the Eighth Route Army filled the tunnels, he still saw some tricks.

Major General Kuribayashi Chumichi also saw the way, and he was also very interested in this kind of tunnel tactics.

However, since the headquarters of the First Army was taken away by the Eighth Route Army, even the commander of the North China Front Army also stepped down. The divisions of the First Army were far apart, and there was no communication at ordinary times, and there was no information sharing.

The 36th Division only knew that the 3rd Brigade was defeated, but did not know the specific situation, and did not conduct specific tactical research on this tactic of the Eighth Route Army, so it suffered a dull loss in Dagu Town.

As soon as he finished speaking, Chief of Staff Hua Guzheng began to sneer:
"It's fine to attack once or twice, but Miyazaki-kun actually ordered the soldiers to attack five or six times, and sent the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade to die. What a genius."

These words seem to say that you, Masao Miyazaki, are truly a fucking talent.

Glancing at Masa Hanagu, Masao Miyazaki's cheeks twitched twice again, and said coldly: "Your Excellency the Chief of Staff said lightly, Taiyuan was at stake at that time, General Shinozuka sent three telegrams within 15 minutes, ordering the 3rd Brigade Reinforce Taiyuan at full speed, under such circumstances, I am afraid that His Excellency the Chief of Staff can only make the same choice as me."

Despite the circumstances at the time, even if the 3rd Brigade arrived in Taiyuan, there was a high probability that it would be wiped out by the Eighth Route Army.

Yoshio Shinozuka's order was clearly intended to make the 3rd Brigade a scapegoat.

However, if the destruction of the 3rd Brigade can keep Taiyuan and the First Army Command, Masao Miyazaki will still execute the order without hesitation.

However, the reality is cruel. Not only was the 3rd Brigade destroyed, but Taiyuan and the First Army Command were also unable to keep it.

It can be said that he lost his wife and lost his army.

Huaguzheng asked: "Don't you know that Miyazaki-kun wants to countermeasures? In an offensive battle, with the mountain artillery brigade and air support, more than 3200 imperial soldiers were killed or injured. This is almost a third-line regiment. of troops."

Masao Miyazaki retorted: "Of course I thought of countermeasures. The imperial army used chemical bombs. Everyone in the Eighth Route Army wore gas masks. It didn't work at all. In the end, the tactics of infantry and artillery attacking together were adopted, but the firepower of the Eighth Route Army was too strong. The troops in my hands are limited, and the artillery shells have been exhausted, and there is no logistical supply, so it is difficult to capture the Eighth Route Army positions."

Hua Guzheng said in a strange way: "It's Miyazaki-kun who is so fierce that he even blows up his own soldiers."

Masao Miyazaki could not refute this, because some of the more than 3000 soldiers who were killed or injured were indeed killed by their own shells.

Masao Miyazaki sat back to his seat with an ugly face, the atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became a little dignified, and no one dared to speak for a while.

Yoshio Yanmatsu smoothed things over and said with a smile: "The purpose of gathering everyone today is to argue. As long as the countermeasures against the Eighth Route Army's tunnel tactics are discussed, the goal will be achieved, and everyone can speak freely."

Then, Yoshio Iwamatsu looked at Kazuki Yamamoto and said, "What does Yamamoto-kun think about this tactic?"

Kazuki Yamamoto was reused by Yoshio Shinozuka.

As the saying goes, once the emperor and the courtier, Yoshio Iwamatsu did not alienate Kazuki Yamamoto because of this.

And Kazuki Yamamoto led the special agent team to make great contributions in the Battle of Zhongtiaoshan, which also attracted some attention from the commander of the Front Army, Okamura Ningji.

Yoshio Iwamatsu naturally valued Kazuki Yamamoto's opinion.

Kazuki Yamamoto still had a paralyzed face, and said in a deep voice: "This tunnel tactic is indeed novel. It can make use of its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, preventing soldiers in the position from being hit by the imperial army's artillery fire, and making full use of the strengths of the Eight Routes."

Since the outbreak of the war, the Japanese army was able to occupy half of China in a short period of time, largely because of the superiority of artillery fire.

On the Shanghai battlefield, naval guns of more than 200 mm can kill a battalion of the Chinese army with one shot.

Even if they fought from the coast to the inland, the tactics of the Japanese artillery bombarding the infantry and the infantry rushing after the artillery bombardment were more victorious than defeat.

However, this kind of tunnel tactic made the infantry rush after the artillery, and the infantry rushed after the artillery, and the infantry rushed after the artillery, and the infantry rushed after the artillery, and the infantry died after the artillery.

The heavy losses of the 3rd Brigade and the losses of the 36th Division are proof.

If countermeasures cannot be found, the Japanese army will suffer even greater losses in future battles.

"but."

Kazuki Yamamoto changed the subject: "Tunnel tactics are not without solutions."

As soon as the words fell, Yoshio Iwamatsu and a group of devil officers suddenly became interested and turned their attention to Kazuki Yamamoto.

"Yamamoto-kun, please speak freely, we are all ears." Yoshio Iwamatsu said with a solemn hand.

Kazuki Yamamoto pointed to the position of the Eighth Route Army on the sand table and said: "Please see, gentlemen, because tunnel tactics rely on geographical advantages, as long as we set the battlefield on plain terrain, the Eighth Route Army will naturally not be able to use tunnel tactics."

A group of devil officers were a little disappointed when they heard the words, and put on an expression that was just like this.

If the Japanese army could choose the battlefield, they would not have to suffer from tunnel tactics.

Yoshio Iwamatsu was also a little unbelievable. I didn't expect Kazuki Yamamoto to hold back this, and said immediately: "Mr. Yamamoto, in many cases, it is not the imperial army that can decide where the battlefield is. The imperial army is the attacker, and most of Shanxi is mountainous. , very suitable for this kind of tunnel tactics.”

The guerrilla tactics of the Eighth Route Army have not yet been cracked. After the guerrilla tactics, there is another tunnel tactic, and Yoshio Iwamatsu is also quite a headache.

Kazuki Yamamoto's eyes flashed sharply: "If you can't choose the battlefield, there is another way to solve the tunnel tactics of the Eighth Route Army."

(End of this chapter)