Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

Chapter 279 Shocked Officers! Shanxi First Army's Strategy Adjusted (Subscription Request)

"Please follow me, sirs."

Li Jingzhong came to the front of the officers and invited them, "Commander Chu, please go to another place to continue observing the subsequent operations."

"Was it a field battle with the Japanese reinforcements?"

Li Jingzhong nodded: "The one in charge of commanding this operation is Bian Fucheng, Brigade Commander."

"In the Battle of Yuanping, he led the commando team to kill hundreds of Japanese soldiers. In the Battle of Jingxing Station, he blew up the enemy's ammunition depot. He was promoted to regiment commander and awarded the Blue and White Medal for his meritorious service.

Even the elite assault troops under Commander Chu were previously led by him, who was good at managing the troops and fought bravely. "

"It is said that this person is from the Northeast Army, which shows that Commander Ming Chu has done one thing, knowing how to use people well."

Hu Lian said seriously: "Everyone, let's speed up a bit, otherwise we won't be able to see the most exciting part!"

"Let's go."

On the battlefield.

The Japanese soldiers in Hirata Battalion were already in a state of panic at this time.

Before they had completed the transition to attack formation, they came under artillery fire.

Except for the vanguard, the rest of the troops were surrounded by the enemy almost in an instant.

The soldiers of the 1st Infantry Regiment quickly gathered together and spread out to both wings, surrounding the large group.

As the commander, Jiro Hirata immediately chose to order the troops to retreat quickly and evacuate towards the county town.

Just from the continuous bombardment, Jiro Hirata could guess that this was an elite force equipped with a large number of artillery.

The Eighth Route Army active in the current area and the 35th Corps of the National Army under Zeng Wanzhong.

After being promoted to the 35th Corps, the combat sequence was adjusted.

The 35th Corps no longer belongs to the Eastern Army.

Instead, it was transferred to the Southern Army.

This is also the reason why Chu Yunfei was able to assign combat missions to him as the legion commander.

This order was actually equivalent to that issued by the commander-in-chief of the Southern Route Army under Wei Lihuang.

When the members of the observation group just arrived at the forward command post, the battle was basically over.

The Japanese army retreated quickly, but still killed hundreds of devils.

Chu Yunfei's troops had neither the plan nor the preparation to attack the enemy.

After chasing for several kilometers, they quickly retreated as it was getting dark.

In this battle, including the ambush of the Japanese baggage train and the Hirata Battalion, a total of more than 800 enemies were killed and more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded.

For everyone, this was already a rare achievement.

If they were in command, they would also move their positions based on this battle.

The Nationalist Army rarely won field battles with the Japanese Army and often did not have the ability to launch an offensive initiative.

Because of this.

The relevant deployment and attack batches of this operation gave these generals a lot of insights.

In their view.

The key to the 1st Infantry Regiment's victory in this operation lies in the excellent artillery quality and absolutely qualified command ability.

The first move was to encircle and annihilate the Japanese army from two directions, which made these Japanese soldiers give up the idea of ​​resistance.

"A battle that should have been 'equally matched' in a short period of time turned into a defeat in an instant because of the lack of will to resist. In terms of morale and military spirit, these Japanese devils are not very good either." Shi Jue didn't understand why the Japanese devils, who were always so arrogant, chose to retreat quickly instead of fighting.

"It is probably related to the shelling." Liao Yaoxiang pushed his glasses and seeing everyone's eyes on him, he simply stated his judgment.

"From the Japanese perspective, among the combat units deployed near the combat zone, there is only one unit equipped with a large number of artillery pieces. Given that their combat strength is insufficient, it is normal for them to choose to retreat."

Hu Lian nodded: "That's right. We don't know the size of this Japanese army at the moment. I think they are not equipped with heavy weapons. Otherwise, according to the nature of the Japanese army, they will definitely fight hard. The plain terrain is very suitable for them to exert their firepower advantage."

At this point, Hu Lian sighed again: "But then again, if we really talk about the firepower of heavy weapons, the firepower of the Japanese combat units of the same size is definitely not as good as that of the Flying Tigers."

Xu Bao also nodded: "Yes, the basis for the victory of this battle is essentially because of momentum."

"This is the general trend. Under the circumstances where the situation has become inevitable, the Japanese army knows they cannot win and will naturally choose to retreat."

Everyone nodded in agreement when they heard this.

It is precisely because this unit belongs to Chu Yunfei.

That's why the Japanese army chose to retreat.

If it were other National Army troops, the Japanese army would most likely choose to find favorable terrain and hold on until help.

They would even dare to launch an offensive on the same scale, and would never be like they are now, only thinking about escaping.

Chu Yunfei quickly returned to the command center from the forward command post.

He explained in a clear voice: "My fellow soldiers, the battle of Ping'an Town is over. Tomorrow morning our army will launch an assault on the Taiping Town stronghold. The conditions will be poor during the battle, so you can only sleep on camp beds tonight."

Liao Yaoxiang asked, "Commander Chu, I would like to ask, did your army know about the existence of this Japanese unit before this battle?"

Chu Yunfei shook his head and said truthfully: "I don't know. The 1st Infantry Regiment and the artillery unit were originally used as backup for the attack on the Taiping Town stronghold. The battle with this Japanese brigade was actually an encounter battle."

Encounter!
If they had been prepared, they would at most have been impressed by their lack of quality after being beaten like this.

I believe that Chu Yunfei's troops are indeed worthy of the name.

But this was an encounter battle and the generals were inevitably horrified.

It not only tests the commander's reaction, communication, coordination of various attacking forces, and the attack sequence and direction between battalion and company levels, etc.

There is less than twenty minutes in total.

This means that every company-level officer and even platoon-level officer below has the ability to independently judge the battle situation.

The battalion commander has the ability to command operations independently.

As the supreme commander, Bian Fucheng seems to only need to coordinate the overall situation.

Just make corresponding strategic plans.

I know, but I can’t learn it.

Whose team has so many elite officers?
But they couldn't figure it out either.

There are only so many ways and methods to train grassroots officers.

Although Chu Yunfei's troops have mostly been in a state of rest and recuperation in the past six months.

But this battle has been fought many times.

Why has the structure of grassroots officers been preserved so intact?
Judging from the previous observation and learning situation.

All the troops also shared some experiences and insights with them.

They understand a lot of things, even some very simple actions and principles.

But in practice, it is much worse in practice.

That night, a group of officers who came to observe and learn stayed up all night. They discussed the situation of the troops and also found Bian Fucheng who had returned from the frontier command post.

All the division commanders and deputy division commanders were very humble and humbly sought advice from Bian Fucheng, a commander who had never even attended an officer school and came from a non-military background.

Although Bian Fucheng is much worse in theory and even has almost no strategic command ability, he is good at tactics, how to cultivate feelings with soldiers and officers, and how to let the commanders below play their own fighting styles.

Bian Fucheng is quite knowledgeable.

Taiyuan.

First Army Headquarters.

After receiving the relevant battle report, Meizu Mijiro was also shocked for a while.

The war that had been dormant for a month was reignited.

It’s Chu Yunfei’s troops again!
The First Army no longer had plans to continue attacking southeastern Shanxi.

But they could not resist Chu Yunfei's troops who took the initiative to attack Hebei directly.

Damn!

Isn’t this pure bullying?
Not only did they kill off their supply transport team, but they also crippled the Hirata Battalion that was preparing to ambush the Eighth Route Army guerrillas.

The battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Jiro Hirata, was also seriously injured and looked like he would not survive.

When he thought of this, the veins on Umezu Mijiro's brow began to twitch.

I was just angry.

Because of the previous battle in Shanxi, the entire First Army has not yet recovered.

Chu Yunfei's troops actually have strong offensive capabilities.

This was unacceptable to Meizu Mijiro. He suppressed his anger and ordered: "Order the garrison at Taiping Town to hold on. Also, send a telegram to Lieutenant General Taniguchi Motojiro, the commander of the 108th Division, and order him to gather troops to reinforce Taiping Town."

"Hay."

Shojiro Iida on the side walked away quickly.

Meijin Mijiro then turned around and instructed the operations staff beside him: "Ask Lieutenant Colonel Lin Canghui to come see me."

"Hay."

A moment later, Lin Canghui walked and stood outside Umezu Mijiro's office.

Thanks to Chu Yunfei.

The First Army Headquarters was once again brightly lit.

"report!"

"Come in." Umezu Mijiro waved his hand.

Lieutenant Colonel Lin Canghui walked into the office with firm steps.

In the battle of Shanxi, there was no problem at all with the intelligence provided by their intelligence department.

If we don't win, the responsibility does not lie with them and it cannot be pinned on them.

If you calculate it all, it can only be attributed to Chu Yunfei's troops.

In other words, the problem is not that our army is too stupid, but that the Kuomintang army is too cunning.

This common blame-shifting logic is called external attribution and everyone likes to use it this way.

The headquarters originally wanted to replace Umezu Mijiro.

But after much thought, I couldn't find a qualified successor.

另外
Is there any famous general who has not suffered at the hands of Chu Yunfei?
So what if Terauchi Juichi is in charge himself?

Didn’t the Battle of East Henan allow the main force of the National Army to successfully pull the teeth out of the tiger’s mouth?
It was not a crime of war, it was just that Chu Yunfei's troops were too powerful.

After realizing this.

Tokyo is determined to increase its spending on intelligence.

Make sure that when fighting against Chu Yunfei's troops, even if we cannot gain an advantage in firepower, we must at least gain an advantage in intelligence.

Michijiro Umezu continued to serve as commander of the First Army.

The positions of the other division commanders were not reassigned, and basically there were no major changes from before.

This is actually not a good thing for the national army troops in the Second War Zone.

If there are frequent changes of commanders, the generals' understanding of Chu Yunfei's troops will be based on intelligence rather than direct experience.

Now, after the fight, Suematsu Shigeharu's troops have basically figured out the fighting style and ideas of Chu Yunfei's troops.

The subsequent battles will inevitably be targeted accordingly.

For this purpose, Michijiro Umezu held several combat meetings and summarized relevant experience.

From the Japanese perspective.

This was a small victory with the exchange ratio between the two sides reaching 1:3.

But the number of Kuomintang troops was too large. Although the quality of their reserve troops was insufficient, they could not kill all of them.

Everyone realized that the Japanese army was now stuck in the quagmire of war and was not optimistic about the prospects of the war.

They urgently need to solve this problem at the political level rather than the military level.

Because their domestic economy is on the verge of collapse.

They have even adopted the same economic means as the Nationalist government, issuing a large amount of domestic debt and shifting these economic pressures to the people at the bottom.

The senior officers of the Japanese army were almost unaffected and were still able to maintain a decent and comfortable life.

As for the middle and lower-level officers of the Japanese army, they were still in the same state. A few months' salary was not even enough to buy a decent military uniform or a qualified self-defense pistol.

The Nationalist government had many problems, and Japan during this period was unable to continue its offensive due to the huge expenditure of continuous all-out offensives.

Lin Canghui stood in front of Umezu Mijiro like a wooden stick.

But Umezu Mijiro knew.

Lieutenant Colonel Lin Canghui is not a stick, but a sharp blade.

It was only because of the problems handled by the previous intelligence chief that he became restrained and did not dare to do anything freely.

Thinking of this, Meijin Mijiro said, "Lieutenant Colonel Lin Canghui, the North China Front Command is very satisfied with your performance some time ago, so they decided to promote you to colonel and be responsible for intelligence collection and compilation in the entire Shanxi, Hebei, and Suiyuan areas."

"Hai." Colonel Lin Canghui looked solemn and bowed slightly: "Please rest assured, Commander, I will definitely be able to do this job well."

"Yoshi, take a look at this battle report"

Mijiro Umezu patted him on the shoulder in encouragement and handed him the telegram that was on his desk.

Lin Canghui glanced at it and his face changed: "Commander, we recently intercepted a piece of relevant intelligence. It was a dispute between the Eighth War Zone and the Second War Zone over the cost of suppressing bandits. It may be related to this situation."

"The cost of suppressing bandits?"

Lin Canghui nodded and explained, "Yes, it is speculated that the most likely possibility is that the Soviet Union provided a batch of military equipment that needed to be transported by land to the Second War Zone."

Meijin Mijiro nodded slowly: "The Soviet Union did provide two batches of military aid before, but the previous transportation was by sea. This is probably the first time that intelligence about land transportation has been received."

Lin Canghui went on to analyze, "The cavalry mobile forces of the Eighth War Zone are from the Northwest warlords, and almost all of them are horse bandits, so it is not surprising that these things happened. Because of the base camp strategy, our intelligence department's reach into the Eighth War Zone is limited to Guisui and Lanzhou, and we do not have sufficient verification capabilities for the corresponding intelligence."

"I will report this matter to the headquarters. I will also arrange for the aviation force to go to the northwest region to verify the intelligence. Do you have any ideas about collecting intelligence on southeastern Shanxi and other places?"

Lin Canghui was silent for a moment, then continued: "Infiltration work in the southeastern part of Shanxi has been ongoing. Intelligence personnel who have infiltrated as refugees are often placed in a centralized location, using a joint guarantee system to limit their scope of activities. Currently, they are unable to provide relevant intelligence in the short term."

(End of this chapter)