Rise From Eight Hundred

 Chapter 1479 Failure!

When the Miluo River Defense Battle began, General Xue was surprised to find that the amount of troops invested by the Japanese army this time was really very different from before.

There were as many as 9 divisions of Japanese troops discovered on the front line.

Except for the Japanese army, the Chinese did not know that the Japanese base camp had invested 150 infantry brigades for this Hunan-Guangxi battle, which was even 10 more than the 140 infantry brigades during the Jiangxia Battle in 1938.

In order to ensure the success of the Battle of Hunan and Guangxi, the Japanese base camp specially sent Colonel Shimanuki Takeshi to take over as the deputy chief of staff of the 11th Army.

This is because the Japanese army rarely engages in large-scale battles like those on the European battlefield, where both warring parties frequently invest millions of troops. There are very few officers who understand the combat tactics of large corps, and the 11th Airborne Army has Colonel Takeshi Shimanuki as the second-in-command of the staff. But he is one of the few commanders in the Japanese army who understands such tactics.

If you think that just a colonel can show how the Japanese base camp attaches great importance to this battle, then you really underestimate Shimanuki Takeshi too much.

First of all, the Japanese army does not have five levels of general rank like China. From special general, first-level general to second-level general to lieutenant general and major general, there are only three levels: general, lieutenant general and major general. The rank of colonel in the Japanese army is In fact, Zhong has already half-stepped into the general class. In the Western military rank system, he is a standard brigadier general and is already a senior officer.

Secondly, this "Operation No. 1" plan was actually hatched by Colonel Hattori Takushiro, then chief of the Operations Department of the Japanese Army General Staff Headquarters, and Takeshi Shimanuki, the senior staff officer of the base camp, together with a group of lieutenants and majors. They The tactics formulated, regardless of the fact that Tian Junliu, the general commander of the dispatched army, was just a figure in China, as long as the base camp signed and agreed, he could only follow the tactics formulated by the subordinate officers obediently according to the plan.

In 1942, Shimanuki Takeshi was sent by the Japanese base camp to the European battlefield to study and inspect the combat experience of the Germanic Empire and the Mao Bear and the Sun Never Sets Empire. He also served as a senior staff officer for the Germanic army in the Eastern European battlefield. He was very good at large-scale operations. Theoretical research and chart work on encirclement warfare and mass annihilation warfare.

In short, the Japanese base camp sent a very reliable think tank to Yokoyama Isamu this time.

And this person just arrived in early April and has shown his extremely impressive abilities and strong personality.

The original principle of the Hunan-Guangxi operation formulated by the Japanese base camp was "quick battle and quick decision". The first step was to quickly capture Tanzhou and Hengyang; the second step was to conquer Guilin and Liuzhou, destroying important Chinese and American airports along the way, and then arrive with The main force of the Chinese side engaged in a decisive battle.

The Japanese army, with a total strength of 250,000, has the opportunity to compete with the main Chinese force of more than 500,000. If it wins, it can use this victory to give the entire island's soldiers and civilians a shot of chicken blood, so as to facilitate the fight with the Allied forces. Fierce battles continued in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Yes, for the "Operation No. 1" plan, opening up the mainland communication line is only one of the strategic goals, and it is only a military strategic purpose.

The most important thing is that under the continuous defeat, both the emperor and the Japanese base camp are in urgent need of a victory to prove to all the people that the Japanese Empire is not Germanic and has the ability to fight independently and win in the Far East.

Yes, for the declining Japanese Empire, victory in a battle is already extremely precious. Only in this way can more young people from the country be recruited to join the army, and then be thrown into the flames of war, becoming a continuation of the war. of nourishment.

The extremely conceited General Xue only saw "the sun is declining", but he never thought that rabbits would bite people when they are anxious, let alone a red-eyed gambler who has put all his hard work accumulated over a hundred years on the gambling table!

After arriving in China, Takeshi Shimanuki and Isamu Yokoyama met. After on-the-spot inspections and the intelligence analysis provided by Isamu Yokoyama on the personality and combat characteristics of the Chinese generals in the 9th theater, they and Isamu Yokoyama repeatedly deduced the original plan for the base camp and concluded that:

This time the empire has an absolute advantage in military strength. Although Tanzhou is strong, it is not a concern. On the contrary, the Chinese army on both sides of the main line of attack along the Guangdong-Han Railway and Hunan-Guangxi Railway should pay more attention. The Sixth Theater in the west was attacked last year. There was no need to worry about the heavy losses in the Battle of Changde; the flanks, ambushes, and tail attacks of the 9th Theater in the east on both sides of the Xiangjiang River were the key to determining the victory of this battle.

The two jointly judged that due to lack of preparation, China would be difficult to launch a flank attack on the imperial army in the fourth Tanzhou offensive and defensive battle, and would most likely wait until the imperial army attacked Hengyang in southern Hunan.

Therefore, the two decided not to follow the strategy and tactics formulated by the base camp of 'quick victory, attack Liu Gui first, and then engage in a decisive battle'. Instead, they would use heavy troops to besiege Hengyang, and then use this, China's largest rear industrial and commercial base, as bait to attract Other troops from the Chinese 9th Theater came here for a decisive battle, trying to annihilate as many of the Chinese main forces as possible in this stage of mobile warfare.

When the 11th Army reported this decision to the Expeditionary Forces Headquarters, the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Forces Tian Junliu, who had already moved all his frontline headquarters to Jiangxia, did not dare to make the decision. Instead, he reported it to the base camp. As a result, the Japanese base camp actually approved it. .

Before the war came, the Chinese and Japanese generals made completely opposite choices. One completely dismissed his most reliable think tank and replaced it, while the other was extremely trusting, even under the background of almost "criminal meritorious service". Proposing opinions on modifying established strategies and tactics to your immediate boss's immediate boss is an extremely rare wisdom and courage in itself.

Different choices have already determined the outcome of the fourth Tanzhou Battle!

However, things in the world are so clever. China and Japan's best senior staff officers and most powerful generals in Hunan Province did not meet in Tanzhou, but they will meet in Hengyang.

It is actually destined that corpses will pile up like mountains inside and outside Hengyang City!

It's just that the generals, officers and soldiers of both China and Japan are now focusing on Tanzhou, the capital of Hunan Province, an ancient city with 3,000 years of history and culture and 2,400 years of city building history.

Under the command of Isamu Yokoyama and Takeshi Shimanuki, the 11th Army was fully prepared for this battle between Hunan and Guangxi.

Although some of the participating troops were security divisions replaced by independent infantry brigades formed by domestic recruits and lacked sufficient actual combat experience, the Japanese army spent two or three months training and formulated an extremely detailed combat plan.

The plan is even specific to the details of each battle, including troop allocation, combat progress, rear depots, security, climate, geographical environment, etc. It perfectly fits the old Chinese saying: "Success is reserved for those who are prepared!"

For example, the tactic of "turning roads into fields" used by General Xue in the previous Tanzhou battles. This simple and crude tactic caused hardship to the 11th Army.

This tactic originated from the first Battle of Tanzhou in 1939. The 9th Theater learned the lessons from the Battle of Nanchang and destroyed all available roads, including railways, highways and even country roads. More than 2,000 miles of roads were destroyed, transforming the entire northern Hunan. It became a quagmire, making it difficult for the Japanese mechanized troops and heavy artillery to move forward. As a result, the Japanese army divisions preferred to use mountain artillery, infantry artillery and mortars that were less lethal but easier to dismantle and transport. This also led to a plummeting decline in the Japanese army's artillery strike capabilities and urban attack capabilities. .

By the time of the Third Battle of Tanzhou, the 9th War Zone was even more proficient in the use of this "turning roads into fields" tactic. The hundreds of miles of road from Yueyang to Tanzhou were basically dug into field ridges that could only be walked by one person. All the roadbed outside the field ridges was dug up and water was released to turn into paddy fields.

Forget it, Fang Xian, who participated in the Third Tanzhou War as the commander of the 10th Division, not only blocked the road into the field ridge, but also constantly changed the direction of the field ridge, from left to right, so that the Japanese army had to march in a snake-like pattern, and was eventually killed. The Chinese soldiers who were lying in ambush in the paddy fields on both sides ambushed him, leaving him in a desperate state.

The Chinese soldiers wearing straw sandals or even no shoes were able to maneuver in the paddy fields better than the Japanese infantry wearing cowhide boots.

When talking about this, I saw with my own eyes that many veterans of the Japanese 11th Army who were reluctant to take off their cowhide boots until their death burst into tears.

The way the poor bully the rich is so unreasonable. But this time, Yokoyama Isamu put aside his dignity as a lieutenant general and went down to the grassroots level to listen to the suggestions of those grassroots veterans and lieutenants. The three cobblers even supported Zhuge Liang, let alone so many little short-legged people who were thinking hard together. , they finally figured out a way to deal with it.

The hills of northern Hunan are covered with pine trees. People in Hunan Province usually rely on these pine branches and pine needles for burning fires and heating, so they are reluctant to cut down these pine trees when breaking roads. This provides the possibility for the Japanese army to open roads. .

When the Japanese army repaired the road this time, they changed their past practice of mainly repairing damaged roads. Instead, they cut down pine trees to lay out the roadbed and opened up emergency roads. On the plains without pine forests, they did not hesitate to use oxen, horses and human towage. , dragging heavy artillery pieces weighing thousands of kilograms into the battlefield in northern Hunan.

In addition, the Japanese army also made full use of Dongting Lake and Xiangjiang River water transportation to maintain logistics, and captured more than 2,500 civilian ships to transport field heavy artillery and artillery shells.

This time, under the command and deployment of Shimanuki Takeshi, who is good at large-scale combat, the five front-line divisions of the Japanese army advanced hand in hand on a wide front ranging from 140 kilometers to 200 kilometers. The two outermost field divisions were like an eagle. Two strong and powerful wings blocked the flank attacks of the Chinese troops on both sides. The remaining second-line divisions were more than 100 kilometers away from the first-line divisions. Once the first-line divisions stuck to their opponents, they would immediately follow up to form an echelon attack.

The Japanese army used the "wide front, wave" tactical strategy to always form a local strength advantage and maintain the depth of the battlefield.

At the same time, the battle in the sky was also in full swing.

The U.S. Air Force and the Chinese Air Force located at airports in Guangxi and Liuzhou are equipped with Wildcats, Hellcats, and even 'Havoc' attack bombers widely used on the European battlefield. In terms of aircraft quality, they have completely surpassed the Japanese Zero fighters and the 1997 Explosives. machine.

Since the Battle of Changde at the end of last year, the Japanese army has been repeatedly defeated in air battles, and the protagonists of strikes from the air to the ground have long been Chinese and American fighter planes.

This is also an important basis for General Xue and even Fang Xianjue to confirm that they have obtained air supremacy.

Only this time, the Japanese army obviously did not want to give up air supremacy. With the strong support of the base camp and the dispatched army headquarters, the Fifth Aviation Corps invested more than 260 fighter jets and 110 bombers on the battlefield, which had never happened since 1943. Large-scale fleets have appeared.

This obviously far exceeded the expectations of the Chinese and American sides. In the first stage of the war in Tanzhou, the Chinese and American sides failed to control the air. Instead, they suffered huge losses. On the first day of the war alone, they lost more than 28 fighter jets. .

Although Japan also lost no less than 30 fighter jets, it did not lose air superiority. The 28 Havoc attack bombers that were preparing to launch at Liuzhou Airport had to stop taking off to avoid greater losses.

In the next few days, the Japanese Army Aviation continued to invest a large number of fighter planes on the battlefield. The infantry on the ground were pouring out firepower desperately, and the sky was also strangulating desperately. Fighters continued to fall with thick smoke.

In the end, the "Havoc" attack bombers dispatched due to the emergency of the war also successfully bombed the Japanese infantry on the ground, but 4 "Havoc" and 9 American pilots remained on the position forever.

The complete air control envisioned by China did not appear in the early stages of the battle.

On the ground, in the face of the crazy offensive of the Japanese army, the troops of the 9th Theater were simply unable to carry out encirclement and flanking attacks as in the past, and were even untenable. Instead, they were stuck, divided and surrounded by the Japanese army, which had absolute advantages in mobility and artillery fire. They were severely injured respectively.

On May 10, the Japanese troops on the East Route broke through Tongcheng in Enan;

On May 11, Pingjiang was captured and continued southward. The 3rd Division attacked the northwest, and the 13th Division attacked the southeast. The two divisions attacked the important town of Liuyang near Tanzhou.

On May 13, the Japanese troops on the West Route captured Yuanjiang and attacked Ningxiang.

On May 14, the Japanese troops on the middle route crossed the Xinqiang River, Laodao River, and Liuyang River.

On May 15, in order to severely weaken the morale of the Tanzhou defenders, the Japanese army began to bombard Tanzhou City with planes at night.

Although the city of Tanzhou had already implemented a light control, as the number of refugees increased, many traitors and spies sneaked into the city and took advantage of the darkness to light lanterns or send out flares to guide Japanese aircraft in the sky.

There is panic in Tanzhou City!

On May 17, the Japanese army captured Liuyang and occupied Zhuzhou, completing the complete encirclement of Tanzhou.

The battle in Tanzhou is inevitable.

General Xue was clumsy, but he still couldn't stabilize the troops on the front line. Finally, in the face of the rapidly deteriorating situation, he no longer had the arrogance of the past, so he could only withdraw the theater headquarters to Leiyang and send his troops to Leiyang. The direct 4th Army stayed in Tanzhou to face the enemy.

The 4th Army was once the ace unit of the Cantonese Army. It was known as the "Iron Army" during the Northern Expedition. Almost all the famous generals of the Cantonese Army came from this army.

At this time, the 4th Army had actually separated from the Cantonese Clan and belonged to the Central Army. The entire army had 3 infantry divisions with a total strength of 25,000. Because it was the direct army of General Xue, it was equipped with German weapons and rice. Mainly machinery.

The 4th Army's mountain artillery battalion alone has more than 50 artillery pieces of various types, not counting submachine guns and semi-automatic rifles. With its heavy artillery firepower, they are not a main force division of the Japanese army.

In this battle, the 4th Army also had the 3rd Artillery Brigade directly under the theater to help. The most powerful artillery of the brigade was not the 12 brand-new metric 75mm mountain guns, nor the 6 105-meter 105 grenades. China originally spent a lot of money to order 4 of the 24 150mm howitzers from the German Empire's Rheinmetall Company.

When the Third Battle of Tanzhou was at its most dangerous, it was the four heavy artillery pieces placed on Yuelu Mountain that continuously bombarded the Japanese infantry attacking the city.

Logically speaking, even if only the 25,000 elite Chinese troops defended the city, the Japanese army, which invested more than 100,000 troops, would have to pay a terrible price if they wanted to capture Tanzhou.

The Chinese Ministry of Military Affairs estimates that it will be able to defend for at least 10 days. Other troops in the 9th Theater can also arrive at corresponding positions to flank the Japanese army. As long as reinforcements from Jiangnan arrive, the number of troops in Hunan Province will reach more than 400,000. With the final gain of air supremacy, the 4th Battle of Tanzhou, which has been somewhat corrupted, is not without the possibility of regaining victory.

In order to quickly capture this ancient city with a splendid civilization and long history, Yokoyama Isamu and Shimanuki Takeshi were also prepared to inflict more than 10,000 casualties or even more.

But at this time, the Chinese command system produced an extremely stupid scene that shocked the Japanese side!

Yokoyama Isamu couldn't even believe that it was done by the Chinese side, which had won three consecutive Tanzhou battles. If that was the case, then who were Anan Weiji and him, the two famous imperial army generals, who had commanded the previous three battles?

Those who are compared to stupidity can only be idiots!