Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

Because it's such a waste of bullets.

Only industrialized countries like the United States, the Soviet Union, and Germany, which don't care about bullets, use submachine guns in large numbers in their troops because they don't need to save bullets.

The same is true of the Japanese artillery design.

Some industrial powers in Europe and America design their weapons with the goal of suppressing their opponents, not caring about bullets. The same goes for artillery: they use it to suppress the enemy's firepower. They can fire at will.

But for an army like the Japanese, which even has to save on bullets, the first thing they consider when designing cannons is the hit rate.

Because the hit rate is higher, fewer bullets and shells are fired.

The Japanese artillery pieces captured by the Eighth Column in Zhangjiakou all had this characteristic. Although the Eighth Column's artillery regiment was not as powerful as the Japanese artillerymen, after a period of training, their hit rate was greatly improved. This was because the Japanese artillery itself had this characteristic.

Howitzers, mountain cannons, and field guns are all very powerful.

The city wall of Jining is completely incomparable to that of Zhangjiakou, because Jining has experienced too many wars and its walls have been breached too many times.

Moreover, the Jining city wall had been breached by artillery in the early years, so it was no longer intact. After the Japanese 13th Regiment arrived in Jining, they rebuilt the incomplete city wall. Although the broken city wall of Jining was of little use to the Japanese army, it was still very useful for stopping the Eighth Route Army, which lacked heavy firepower.

When the 13th Regiment was building the city wall, they never imagined that the Eighth Route Army would one day have such powerful firepower.

In the face of such powerful vitality, the simple city walls built by the Japanese army were useless.

The Jining city walls had been bombarded with artillery fire throughout the city. Some areas appeared intact, but the interior was already in ruins. Now, under the intense bombardment of the Eighth Column's artillery regiment, holes were quickly blown out in many places.

These broken city walls could not even withstand mortars, let alone howitzers, mountain cannons and field artillery.

Like a howitzer, one shot can tear a hole in the wall.

In just a few short hits, a hole of nearly 30 meters was blown open in the east city wall.

"Commander, the Japanese have built a lot of fortifications behind the city wall."

After the artillery regiment blew a hole in the front city wall, the troops could observe the situation behind the wall.

Saito Jiro deployed troops to deploy a defensive line on the city walls, and also built defensive positions behind them. This was because he was worried that the Eighth Route Army would collapse the walls and enter the city. Of course, Saito Jiro did not believe that the Eighth Route Army could easily collapse the city walls, so the defensive positions behind them were just a precaution.

But they didn't expect that the Eighth Route Army had just begun its attack when it had already torn a 30-meter hole in the city wall. The Japanese and puppet troops deployed on it suffered heavy casualties as the city wall collapsed.

Xu Jiafu, the commander of the 80th Regiment in charge of the attack, reported to Gao Wei.

As the commander of the Chaxi Detachment, Gao Wei was on the side of the main attacking force, the 80th Regiment. He also saw the fortifications built by the Japanese army in the city through the telescope.

"I saw."

Gao Wei put down the telescope in his hand.

Then he said, "Take out the mortars assigned to you by the column.

Use mortars to bombard the fortifications they have built behind the city walls."

"Yes."

After taking Zhangjiakou, nearly 200 mortars were seized from military warehouses alone. Together with those captured during the battle, the th Column currently has a considerable number of mortars.

Mortar shells are measured in tens of thousands.

Of course, so many mortars had to be used. In this Jining Campaign, Wang Qiuyun planned to completely suppress the Japanese with firepower and destroy their fortifications. This wasn't just to capture Jining, but also to reduce casualties. Of course, Wang Qiuyun wanted to test it out and verify his combat mode under such heavy firepower.

After all, the Red Army and the Eighth Route Army were both very poor and had never fought such a heavy firepower battle. Wang Qiuyun himself had no combat experience in this area. This time, with sufficient capital, Wang Qiuyun prepared to change his tactics and accumulate some modern military combat experience.

The Japanese mortars were very powerful.

When the troops entered the trenches earlier, they had already brought a large number of mortars with them. After receiving Gao Wei's order, they immediately began to take out the mortars from the trenches. The mortars hidden in the positions began to emerge.

The artillery bombarded the Jining city wall and the positions built by the Japanese army behind the wall.

"boom"

"boom-

"Ya Ya Ding Qichang's face was gloomy.

His expression was one of shock. His troops began to fight against Fu Zuoyi's troops, but were severely punished by Fu Zuoyi several times. After that, he never dared to fight against Fu Zuoyi's troops again. Later, when the 120th Division established a base in Suiyuan, his troops began to fight against the 120th Division's troops.

The Eighth Route Army's tactics were flexible, and Ding Qichang's troops were in a very bad state. On one occasion, Ding Qichang was almost captured by the Eighth Route Army. After that, Ding Qichang did not dare to fight the Eighth Route Army alone.

But this was mainly because the Eighth Route Army troops were elusive and fought guerrilla warfare with great skill. As for weapons and equipment, the Eighth Route Army troops were very poor.

Ding Qichang had fought many times with the 120th Division's troops, and their weapons and equipment were far inferior to his own troops.

But what do I see now?

Are you sure this is the Eighth Route Army?

Before Ding Qichang's 17th Cavalry Brigade defected to the Japanese, it was considered one of Tang Yulin's main forces. The Northeast Army's weapons and equipment were said to be the best among the warlords' troops, but with the exception of Zhang Xueliang's direct troops in the Northeast Army, their weapons and equipment were only slightly better than those of other warlords.

He had seen the equipment of the elite troops of the Northeast Army.

But none were as formidable as the Eighth Route Army. After the Eighth Column's artillery regiment blasted through the Jining city walls, it extended its fire to target the Japanese fortifications within the city. Shells from howitzers, mountain guns, and field artillery rained down, devastating a vast area. These makeshift Japanese fortifications were no match for the Eighth Column's artillery barrage.

Ding Qichang truly regretted coming to Jining. With the Eighth Column's offensive momentum, it was only a matter of time before Jining fell to the Eighth Route Army. What was he and his pacification garrison to do?

"Colonel, the Fujii Squadron has escaped."

"idiot."

Jiro Saito was also stunned by the artillery fire of the 8th Column.

However, he was experienced in combat, so he was able to hold his ground. He didn't believe the Eighth Route Army's artillery could hold out for long, and that the infantry would eventually have to charge in. As long as the infantry charged in, even though the Japanese and puppet troops suffered heavy casualties in this round of artillery fire, he was still confident that he could hold off the Eighth Route Army's infantry.

But the captain of the Sano Battalion under his command, Sano Hiroshi, came running over and gave him very bad news.

"Send people to chase them back and shoot them all."

Saito Jiro couldn't believe that there were deserters in his own unit. And an entire squadron of them, at that. This was unforgivable. "Colonel, we don't have anyone to send. And the other squadrons aren't doing well either. They seem to be deserting as well."

"idiot."

Saito Jiro was very dissatisfied.

He even felt a little regretful. In order to guard against the 26th Column's attack on the city, Saito Jiro, who could not wait for new recruits, recruited young and strong Japanese expatriates from nearby areas into the army after obtaining the consent of the th Division.

The 13th Regiment had been ambushed by the Chaxi and Chabei detachments before, with more than half of its troops killed or wounded.

As a result, more than 1000 people were added.

I had originally thought that these Japanese expatriates would fight to the death with the army. Unexpectedly, these bastards deserted right after the battle began. This immediately shook the morale of the entire army.

Because the artillery regiment's fire extended, the 80th Regiment began to move forward slowly.

As the 80th Regiment moved, the distance between them and the Japanese positions grew closer. As they advanced, they began deploying mortar and mortar positions, as well as heavy machine gun positions.

After fighting the Japanese army for so many years, the Eighth Route Army also began to learn the Japanese army's infantry tactics.

As the 80th Regiment slowly approached, a major incident occurred on the Japanese side. Ding Qichang had disappeared, and Saito Jiro searched for him but could not find him. Ding Qichang was even more desperate than expected. Seeing the "able-bodied men" captured by the 13th Regiment flee, he knew Jining could not be defended.

So he quietly retreated with his troops.

Saito Jiro's face looked very ugly.

But he wasn't the type of officer to complain. Although the situation was dire, with some Japanese soldiers and puppet troops fleeing, he still refused to admit defeat and deployed his troops to fight back.

Seeing the Japanese army fighting back, the troops stopped the attack.

Gao Weida shouted: "Mortars, grenade launchers, cover, cover. Suppress the Japanese firepower."

Chapter 470: Conquering Jining

Why the Eighth Route Army was unwilling to fight positional warfare.

This is because the Japanese army is equipped with too many grenade launchers. Some Japanese units even have more grenade launchers than light machine guns. If you encounter a Japanese unit head-on, the Japanese grenade launchers will hit you hard and it will be difficult to raise your head.

The National Army has the most say in the power of the Japanese army's grenade launchers.

Because when the Nationalist Army and the Japanese Army fought, the Japanese grenade launchers destroyed the most light and heavy machine gun positions. Some Japanese squadrons equipped with more grenade launchers were even equipped with 12 grenade launchers. Even squadrons with fewer grenade launchers had 4 to 6 grenade launchers as standard.

But now the situation is completely reversed.

The 80th Column employed numerous mortars and grenade launchers to suppress the firepower of the Japanese positions. Any light and heavy machine gun positions on the Japanese side were met with mortars and grenade launchers whenever they emerged. The attacking force of the 80th Regiment also attacked with remarkable speed. The th Regiment was the predecessor of the First Regiment, which was itself the predecessor of the Xining Advance Battalion.

This is a force created by Gao Wei, commander of the Chaxi Detachment.

His fighting style also followed Gao Wei's.

Fighting extremely bravely.

Although the Japanese army was unstable because some of its troops had fled, and they were suppressed by the 8th Column's mortars, grenade launchers, and heavy machine guns, they were still regular troops after all, and the remaining troops were able to take advantage of the gaps to open fire.

The current Japanese army is certainly not as powerful as those in the early days of the war.

But it is still not too pretty.

The 80th Regiment's attacking force charged forward, braving a hail of Japanese fire. Though men fell along the way, the 80th Regiment's attack continued unabated. Each infantry advance was followed by the mortars, grenade launchers, and light and heavy machine gun positions.

Then help the infantry units attacking in front suppress the firepower on the Japanese positions.

The 80th Regiment approached the Japanese positions step by step.

"Your Excellency, I can't hold on any longer."

The escape of some people had a huge impact on the morale of the army.

After all, if one person escaped, others would want to flee as well. Of course, the most important thing was that Saito Jiro forcibly inducted those Japanese expatriates into the army. It seemed that the 13th Regiment was fully staffed again, but in fact, these people did not want to fight at all.

When nothing is wrong, they are able to follow orders.

But when it came time to risk their lives, they were unwilling to do so. Not only were these expatriates, but even many of the Japanese veterans who were re-enlisted were primarily concerned with saving their own lives on the battlefield. Why was the large-scale special corps formed at the beginning of the war ultimately disbanded? It was because the veterans' special corps performed worse than the divisions composed of fresh recruits.

This was especially true for the overseas Chinese who had been "conscripted" into the army. After the fighting broke out in Jining, some of these people began to desert. This set off a chain reaction that directly affected the morale of the troops. Some had not originally considered escaping, but upon seeing others flee, they followed suit. From the moment the 8th Column launched its offensive, over 700 people had deserted in less than half a day.

As for the pacification guards, they fled without a trace.

The Japanese army was defending on three sides, and their manpower was not large to begin with. Now that so many deserters had appeared, the Japanese defense had holes everywhere.

The frontal situation is the most dangerous.

Because the east was the main attack direction of the 8th Column, the Japanese suffered heavy casualties from the bombardment of the Column's artillery regiment's howitzers, mountain guns, and field artillery. Moreover, many of the defensive positions were shattered by these heavy artillery shells.

There are holes everywhere.

The 80th Regiment attacked fiercely, and many places were blocked. The deputy commander of the 13th Regiment, Sanguo, spoke anxiously to Saito Jiro.

"How about the north and south?"

"The situation isn't good either. There are quite a few deserters over there, but it's much better than here. The Eighth Route Army troops to the north and south don't have as many artillery pieces, so the situation isn't as dire as it is here."

Saito Jiro looked at the situation in front of him with a very grim expression.