Quartermasters can also fight the devils

After calculations, General Sun, acting commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government, and Chief of Staff Guo of the War Zone estimated that it would take at least seven days for the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army to attack Changde City before Li Yutang's Corps, which was rushing to reinforce from the south, could arrive at the Changde battlefield and launch an attack on the south of Changde.

As for the west of Changde, although the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government currently has two divisions of the 100th Army and the 74th Army, as well as the remnants of the 44th Army and the 73rd Army, the total strength is about 40,000.

However, the Japanese 11th Army's troops in the west include the complete Japanese 13th Division and most of the Japanese 3rd Division, with a total strength close to two divisions of more than 30,000 troops, which is almost the same as the number of troops of the Chinese army. I am afraid that the Chinese army in the west will find it difficult to make a decisive breakthrough within a week.

In short, after repeated calculations and deductions, Commander Sun, Acting Commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese Government, and Chief of Staff Guo of the War Zone concluded that for at least one week to ten days, the troops of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese Government would be completely unable to break the encirclement of Changde City by the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army. The safety of Changde City could only be supported by the troops of the 57th Division of the 74th Army.

Commander Sun, acting commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government, and Chief of Staff Guo of the War Zone both knew that it was basically impossible to rely on the 57th Division of the 74th Army to hold Changde for a week to ten days.

Because, according to the calculations of General Sun, the acting commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government, and Chief of Staff Guo of the War Zone, the Japanese 11th Army responsible for directly attacking Changde City has a force of at least 20,000, and it is very likely to reach a scale of 30,000 or even 40,000.

The 57th Division of the 74th Army had only 8,500 officers and soldiers, and its total strength was less than half or even a quarter of the Japanese 11th Army.

Moreover, in terms of heavy weapons, the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army that surrounded Changde City could use at least more than 200 artillery pieces of various calibers, while the entire 57th Division of the 74th Army had only eight field guns, less than one-tenth of the number of artillery pieces of the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army.

According to general conventional military knowledge, it was already a miracle that the 57th Division of the 74th Army was able to defend Changde City for about four to five days. It was simply impossible for the 57th Division to defend Changde City for more than ten days with that amount of troops.

However, this is the situation facing Commander Sun, Acting Commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese Government, and Chief of Staff Guo of the War Zone. The reality is already like this, and Changde City must hold on. The reason for holding on is very simple. If the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese Government abandons Changde, the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army will easily occupy Changde, and then they can continue to move south to attack Yiyang, and even outflank Changsha and Hengyang, the hinterland of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government, and may even lead to the complete collapse of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government. If that time really comes, the Chinese Government will be in trouble.

Moreover, if the purpose of the Japanese 11th Army's attack this time was to occupy Changde and it had no intention of retreating afterwards, then if it did not inflict a heavy blow to the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, and especially if it did not create a strategic encirclement of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, it would be even less likely for the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army to abandon Changde.

If Changde was lost, not only would the Dongting Lake water transportation of the Chinese government's Sixth War Zone and the Chinese government's Ninth War Zone be completely cut off by the Japanese Eleventh Army, causing the Chinese army to be absolutely passive strategically, but Changsha in the Ninth War Zone and Enshi in the Sixth War Zone were not far from Changde and would also be under great threat from the offensive forces of the Japanese Eleventh Army.

Therefore, for Commander Sun, acting commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government, and Chief of Staff Guo of the War Zone, Changde City must be defended.

Only by using Changde City to delay the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army as much as possible could we buy precious time for the Changde War, allowing the large Chinese army on the periphery to rush to Changde to form an encirclement of the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army, and continue to attack the various forces of the Japanese 11th Army, and even cut off the retreat and supply lines of the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army, causing the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army to run out of ammunition and reinforcements, and their strength was severely damaged. Finally, they were forced to give up attacking Changde and retreated to the original defense zone of the Japanese 11th Army.

Therefore, the most difficult task facing Commander Sun, acting commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government, and Chief of Staff Guo of the War Zone was the 57th Division of the 74th Army. They had to face at least three to four times the number of Japanese troops and a firepower gap of almost ten times.

However, the 57th Division still had to try its best to hold on to Changde City for at least a week despite these obvious gaps, and also had to kill as many of the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army as possible and deplete the strength of the Japanese attacking forces. It can be said that the combat mission was very difficult.

However, Commander Sun, Acting Commander of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese Government, and Chief of Staff Guo of the War Zone also knew that other Chinese troops outside Changde City also had very heavy responsibilities. It was not to say that the 57th Division alone could ultimately defeat the Japanese 11th Army's attack by defending Changde.

Because everyone understands that the small city of Changde and the mere 8,500 officers and soldiers of the 57th Army will inevitably be wiped out under the continuous attack of tens of thousands of Japanese 11th Army's offensive forces. Therefore, the key to this battle lies not only in the defense of Changde, but also in the concentration of the Chinese army's forces on the outside to attack the Japanese 11th Army's offensive forces near Changde City.

The Chinese army on the periphery must continue to launch attacks on the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, inflict heavy damage to the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, and form an encirclement of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army. It is especially necessary to cut off the supply lines and even the retreat routes of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, so that the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, which are gradually becoming a spent force, can be forced to withdraw.

So, the current situation is that the combat tasks of various Chinese troops inside and outside Changde City are very heavy. What is even more troublesome for the Chinese government's Sixth War Zone Acting Commander Sun and the War Zone Chief of Staff Guo is that the extremely unfavorable aspect of this Changde operation for the Chinese army is also very obvious.

That is, the pattern of the previous three battles of Changsha, the Battle of Western Hubei, the Battle of Zaoyi and the Battle of Zhejiang-Jiangxi was basically the same. Basically, the Chinese army first resisted layer by layer, while the Japanese offensive forces advanced layer by layer.