Sword: Heart of Iron

Chapter 185: Kenji Doihara's Escape

On the phone, Zheng Zhenzhong: "Sir!"

The battle situation was urgent, so Wang Feng didn't say any unnecessary nonsense: "How is the position construction going?"

Zheng Zhenzhong was a little embarrassed: "Sir, we need to wait a while."

The main force had just crossed the river and the various units had not yet reached their designated combat positions, so no effective attack could be launched at this time.

Wang Feng clenched the microphone tightly, switched his consciousness to looking down at time, and measured the distance.

Eight kilometers.
It should be enough!

"Leave an artillery battalion here. I'll give you fifteen minutes to quickly build a heavy artillery position and prepare for battle!"

"I'll be waiting for your news at the command post myself!"

Zheng Zhenzhong did not dare to neglect and quickly said, "Yes!"

--------

The Fourteenth Division.

Under the wall of Lanfeng city.

Kenji Doihara narrowed his eyes and looked inside through the huge gap in the city wall.

Sano Tadayoshi stood guard by the side, always alert to his surroundings.

"The Chinese reinforcements have crossed the river?" Doihara Kenji's face was grim. "Which troops?"

As a division commander, although he lacked front-line combat experience, he was also a top student who graduated from the Army Academy. Like Rensuke Isogai, Yasuji Okamura, and Seishirō Itagaki, he was a member of the "Glorious Sixteenth Class" of the Japanese Army Academy.

He is extremely sensitive to changes in the battlefield situation.

Sano Tadayoshi: "The 71st Chinese Army only has the strength of one division."

Kenji Doihara breathed a sigh of relief: "Yoshi!"

"Where is the garrison?"

Sano Tadayoshi thought for a moment and said, "I haven't received any news in the past five hours. I don't know yet, General. I suspect that the scouts we sent out are..."

Kenji Doihara closed his eyes.

A deep feeling of powerlessness came over me again.

That's it again!

Since taking over the 14th Division, he has recruited intelligence talents in the army and established a special temporary spy organization.

When fighting with the Henan East Corps, his spies were everywhere in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng.

At the same time, radio waves are monitored 24 hours a day and many confidential enemy messages have been deciphered.

But once they encounter the garrison, their most proud intelligence methods will be completely ineffective.

The reason remains a mystery
"Where's the reconnaissance aircraft formation?"

"Didn't you find any trace?"

Sano Tadayoshi smiled bitterly: "Sir, Commander Terauchi may have abandoned us."

Kenji Doihara widened his eyes: "What?"

Sano Tadayoshi: "Last night, the North China Headquarters sent us an encrypted message, ordering us to be prepared for a "fight to the death"."

"All bomber formations were sent to Dangshan today."

"General, we have no air support!"

Kenji Doihara couldn't believe it. He could accept being defeated by the Chinese, but he could not believe that one day he would be abandoned by his own people.

"idiot!"

"Don't disturb the morale of the army!"

Sano Tadayoshi put his hand in his pocket, took out a telegram with trembling hands, and handed it over.

Kenji Doihara opened it hurriedly, and after just a glance, he felt dizzy.

"Why are you reporting it now?"

"Why!"

Kenji Doihara held the telegram in his palm and crumpled it into a ball.

Sano Tadayoshi: "Sir, when I received the telegram last night, I immediately called the North China Command to reconfirm the contents of the message."

"No response until two minutes ago."

Kenji Doihara frowned.

There are indeed serious procedural problems with what Sano Tadayoshi did.

But at the moment, there is nothing wrong with it.

Even the headquarters suspected that there were Chinese spies hidden deep within the North China Front Army.

It is very likely that he would take the opportunity to send a false telegram to disrupt the morale of the army.

Sano Tadayoshi: "Sir, what should we do now?"

"Continue fighting, or break out immediately?"

Doihara Kenji calmed down and asked, "Does Lord Katsuki know about this?"

Sano Tadayoshi shook his head.

"After receiving the secret message for the first time, I also sent an inquiry message to the Taiyuan Command, but have not received any reply so far."

Kenji Doihara closed his eyes, feeling unwilling.

After so long, there has been no response.

This shows that there is only one reason - Kozuki Seiji acquiesced to Terauchi Hisaichi's order!
Doihara Kenji turned around and said, "Gentlemen, now that things have come to this, we can only rely on ourselves." "Order all regiments to gather towards Lanfeng City immediately!"

"We still have heavy artillery and tanks. As long as we can occupy Lanfeng in a short period of time, we will have a chance to turn the tables!"

Sano Tadayoshi: “But.”

The four regiments have been fighting for such a long time, but Lanfeng City has not been captured for a long time. Now without air support, how can they achieve results in a short time?

Kenji Doihara: "Sano-kun, I understand your thoughts."

"The 2nd and 50th Regiments are blocking the Chinese army from the outside. Tell them to abandon their original positions immediately and take advantage of their mobility. As long as we can arrive two hours before the Chinese army arrives, we still have hope of victory!"

Sano Tadayoshi understood.

It's a big gamble.

As long as the two outer regiments can arrive at Lanfeng before the Chinese army and leave a certain amount of buffer time.

The division can then gather superior forces and launch an attack on Lanfeng City.

This buffer time is at most two hours.

As we all know, the Chinese army has poor mechanization capabilities and can only march on foot.

With such a low speed, it can't outrun wheels and tracks.

"Hai!"

"boom--!"

A loud explosion was heard and Kenji Doihara bent down subconsciously.

After the smoke and dust cleared, Sano Tadayoshi looked panicked: "Your Excellency!"

"It's heavy artillery!"

"Cough cough cough!" Kenji Doihara cleared his throat and looked at the ruins in front of him.

"idiot!"

"The Chinese garrison has crossed the river with heavy artillery of this caliber!" Kenji Doihara's brain buzzed and he immediately realized that something was wrong.

In an instant, the hairs all over my body stood up.

"Come on!"

After saying that, without waiting for everyone to react, he immediately turned around and ran hurriedly towards the jeep.

Tadayoshi Sano followed behind him, and the car soldier turned the key and stepped on the accelerator.

--------

Inside the command post.

Wang Feng did not focus solely on the bird's-eye view.

Song Xilian smiled and said, "Commander Wang, thanks to your troops for coming to Lanfeng's aid. Otherwise, the battle situation would be in danger!"

The heavy artillery position was less than one kilometer west of the command post. The rumbling sound of the artillery, like muffled thunder, made people's hearts tremble.

"Senior, you are wrong!" Wang Feng laughed. "Since the outbreak of the all-out war, every victory has been achieved through the desperate efforts of our soldiers and the support of the people in the rear. How could it be the work of one person?"

Song Xilian smiled apologetically: "Commander Wang is too modest!"

Although Wang Feng always called him "senior", he did not dare to regard himself as a senior and could only address him as "superior".

Wang Feng: "When do you expect to be able to enter the city?"

"The most urgent task is to eliminate the enemies in the city as soon as possible and then annihilate the Doihara Division!"

Song Xilian patted his chest and guaranteed: "Half an hour!"

"In half an hour at most, our 36th Division will be able to enter Lanfeng City!"

Wang Feng: "36th Division?"

"Is it a German-equipped adjustment division adapted from a guard division?"

Song Xilian hurriedly said, "That's right!"

"I didn't expect Commander Wang to know so much about my small army!"

Wang Feng: "It's hard not to have heard of the famous German-equipped division!"

Song Xilian sighed: "The German-equipped divisions are just a thing of the past."

"After the Battle of Songhu and Nanjing, our army suffered heavy losses. Not only did we lose artillery and machine guns, but the casualty rate was as high as 80%. We were beaten beyond recognition."

"Don't be afraid of being laughed at by the superiors. These soldiers are all recruited temporarily. Many of them have only been in the army for less than half a year."

He was the first commander of the 36th Division.

He knew very well what the German-equipped adjusters looked like back then.

Officers and soldiers are strictly trained, with a high proportion of Whampoa officers, and all officers above the company level are from professional schools.

The firepower configuration is even better than that of friendly forces of the same period.

Wang Feng: "No problem!"

"War is the best training ground for new soldiers. Only by going through the trials of war can one become a qualified soldier."

"Is not it?"

Song Xilian: "What the commander said makes sense!"

Wang Feng stood up, walked to the large wall chart, and picked up the baton: "Senior, please ask your troops to enter Lanfeng as soon as possible and stabilize the front line."

Song Xilian nodded: "No problem!"

Wang Feng continued, "Please rest assured, senior, our army will send two infantry battalions to support you."

Song Xilian frowned.

Two battalions?
As soon as the words came to his lips, he shuddered.

The two battalions of the garrison army are not two battalions of ordinary troops.

Although the 36th Division was still relatively intact, casualties were inevitable after so many days of fighting.

In reality, the strength of this division is no more than 8,000 to 9,000 people.

The two camps that Wang Feng allocated had a total of two thousand people.

They are well-equipped, well-trained, and proficient in street fighting.

The real combat effectiveness is probably more than two regiments.

"Sir! The Japanese army has made unusual movements!" Zhao Fangyuan approached in a hurry, holding a telegram in his hand, "It's from the Henan East Corps. The 2nd and 50th Infantry Regiments located on the east and west sides of Lanfeng City suddenly abandoned their original positions and are rushing towards Lanfeng at a very fast speed!"

Song Xilian took the telegram and glanced it up and down.

Wang Feng immediately switched his consciousness to the bird's-eye view.

"Sir, what do the Japanese mean by this?" Song Xilian asked doubtfully, "Abandoning the large villages and towns that they have occupied for several days and heading all the way to Lanfeng, isn't this putting the cart before the horse?"

Wang Feng thought about it and said, "Doihara is going to risk everything!"

From a bird's-eye view, on the east and west sides of Lanfeng City, the Japanese army used tanks to clear the way, and trucks were filled with devil soldiers.

Further back.

The Japanese soldiers who were lightly or seriously injured and had no time to evacuate were responsible for covering their retreat and blocking the pursuing Kuomintang soldiers from the rear.

"What a brave man who cuts off his own arm!" Wang Feng snorted coldly, "The situation is already very clear. I don't know what has provoked Kenji Doihara to overturn all previous deployments. He wants to muddy the battlefield and seize Lanfeng!"

The more Song Xilian listened, the more confused he became, and he read the telegram over and over again.

How can the situation be clear with just this little information above?

what happened?
Wang Feng had no time to explain, and looked at Zhao Fangyuan: "Order the first column to immediately split into two groups to block the invading Japanese troops from the east and west!"

Zhao Fangyuan saluted: "Yes!"

After giving the order, Wang Feng walked up to Song Xilian again and said, "I will have to trouble you, the 36th Division, to guard Lanfeng."

Song Xilian was confused. Less than three minutes after receiving the intelligence, the targeted strategy had already been decided. This was too fast.

Although he was confused, he understood one thing.

That is to defend Lanfeng to the death.

"Don't worry, Commander Wang!"

"Leave Lanfeng to our 36th Division. The Japanese will never be able to get in!"

Wang Feng corrected: "We will deal with the Japanese troops outside, and what you need to do is to clear out the Japanese brigade inside the city."

Song Xilian reacted: "Oh, right!"

Wang Feng: "The battle situation is urgent, there is no time to talk more. The nearest Japanese army is only five kilometers away from Lanfeng. If you take a car, you can arrive in less than half an hour."

"Mobilize the troops quickly!"

Song Xilian saluted: "Yes!"

After giving all the instructions, Wang Feng walked out of the command post quickly.

Song Xilian stood there, looking a little stunned.

its not right!
The reason why he came to the garrison command post was to coordinate the battle between the two troops.

How come I end up being the one being bossed around when we're chatting?
Song Xilian was in mixed mood.

He had never seen such a strong style in the chairman.

--------

Frontline battlefield.

Kenji Doihara paced back and forth in the command post, asking about the progress of each regiment every five minutes.

"What's the situation with the 2nd Squadron?"

Tadayoshi Sano said bitterly: "The truck has run out of fuel."

After days of continuous fighting and with the continuous consumption of supplies, the side effects of blocked supply lines have become apparent.

Kenji Doihara asked anxiously, "How far is it?"

Sano Tadayoshi: “Two kilometers!”

Kenji Doihara: "Order the 2nd Regiment to run forward!"

Sano Tadayoshi nodded: "The order has been issued in advance. The Chinese pursuers have been blocked by the rearguard troops and are still far away."

"Besides, they are running low on ammunition!"

Kenji Doihara: "Where is the garrison?"

This is what he is most worried about.

He didn't care about the sporadic pursuers at all, as they couldn't cause any trouble.

Only Wang Feng is his biggest concern.

Sano Tadayoshi: “There is no news yet.”

"But our actions were so swift that the Chinese would not have been able to react in time. By the time they realized the battlefield had changed, our large forces had already entered Lanfeng City."

Kenji Doihara kept comforting himself: "I hope so!"

"I hope so!"

"Report!" A staff officer came running over, "General, the airdropped supplies we received were destroyed by enemy artillery fire!"

Kenji Doihara's heart, which had finally calmed down, was once again raised:

"Destroyed?"

"Are you sure?"

The staff officer was frightened by the roar and spoke hesitantly: "It's the news reported by the front-line troops."

Kenji Doihara's mood fell to the bottom.

According to the original plan, this batch of airdropped supplies will be the last batch today.

It was originally intended to be provided to the two infantry regiments that arrived.

Now that it's been bombed, I'm afraid the soldiers will have to go to war empty-handed.
(End of this chapter)