Canteen System Assistance Notes

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"Boys! Stand at attention!"

In the west of the Shandong battlefield, outside the city of Luoyi, which was liberated during the Eighth Route Army's "armed relief", a group of pilots quickly stood at attention and formed a horizontal line after receiving the command.

They were full of energy, their expressions eager to try. However, some of the pilots wore simple Chinese-style constant-pressure anti-G trousers and huge black goggles, standing at attention with their legs together and their heads held high; others wore American-style flight leather jackets, goggles, and leather hats, their hands crossed behind their backs, and their legs apart.

Behind them, fighter planes painted with red stars and Chinese characters and huge bombers painted with the US Army's "white stripes and white stars" emblem were lined up in rows, all fully loaded with fuel and ammunition.

Under the flickering spotlight, the Army Commander of the North Pacific Theater, Lieutenant General and General Zhu of the Republic of China, nodded. He looked at the two teams of Chinese and American pilots in front of him and simply cheered them on.

"...I won't say much else. Finding a fighter plane like this isn't easy! Comrades, and friends from the United States, I wish you a smooth journey and a successful start!"

After that, he gave up his seat facing the reporters to the North Pacific Theater's naval commander, the "Supreme Commander of the U.S. Army," the "Unlucky Man" Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. The latter, not shy about the stage, stepped forward and said loudly:

"It wasn't easy for us to get this bombing opportunity. You've already seen the details of the mission in the briefing!

"...The Chinese boys will escort you and guide you to your target, which is the marching column of the Japanese Army's 12th Army, especially their truck units!

"Let's just work together and kill the Japs, kill the Japs, kill more Japs!"

"Yes!" "Yes, sir!"

Chapter 814: Kita Seiichi-kun, please make the decision

The powerful imperial roots and Showa willpower are unlimited. They can break through anything and overcome anything.

Except for the high-explosive bombs dropped from the sky.

Because, the nearly 50% charge ratio and the large and sufficient throwing tonnage can send all Showa roots and Showa men to hell.

But someone will ask, Showa Superman is difficult to guess with common sense, what if something unexpected happens and high-explosive bombs can't do these things?

It must be that the quantity is not enough, just throw some more.

On the land of Shandong Province, on the plains and hills of southern Shandong, the 12th Army, which had just crossed the Dawen River, was bathing in a rare "thunderstorm" - dazzling explosions and hot shrapnel were blooming all over the plains of southern Shandong, emitting a deafening and breathtaking power in the physical sense.

The Eighth Route Army, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Navy Air Force in the "Sino-American Joint Air Force" in Shandong Province are wreaking havoc on the battlefield.

Needless to say, the Eighth Route Army's aviation force. After seizing operational-level air superiority, various tactical aircraft, taking off from Luoyi, Zhengxian, and Jiaodong frontier airfields, began utilizing advanced communications and command systems to respond to calls from ground forces, dropping aerial bombs on Japanese units on the ground, destroying numerous fortified enemy targets and opening avenues for the ground forces to advance.

The more elite "hunting teams" hunted down high-value targets such as logistics trains, baggage trains and heavy artillery units behind the front lines based on Japanese military information provided by the base guerrillas, railway workers' organizations and intelligence systems. Such attacks would not destroy a Japanese unit as quickly and systematically as an encirclement and annihilation battle, but would in fact seriously weaken the Japanese army's combat capability, making it easier for them to be surrounded and eaten by their army comrades.

Because the Eighth Route Army lacked the pre-battle firepower preparations of tactical aircraft like the US and Soviet Union, and operated only with intelligence support, its small air force, capable of sustaining a force of 200 fighters, remained relatively stable. After the encirclement and annihilation campaign against the 12th Army in southern Shandong began, the Eighth Route Army, having fought continuously for over 20 days, was still able to maintain a high efficiency in its sorties, launching attacks on various Japanese targets.

All of a sudden, various types of fighter planes of the Eighth Route Army were dispatched to launch fierce attacks on the Japanese troops in a width of nearly 70 kilometers south of the Dawen River and north of Taiping Town in the form of guided support and hunting attacks.

The Corsairs, armed with aerial bombs and 82mm four-rocket pods, and their SBDs (A-24s) capable of dive-bombing, launched a heavy attack on the Japanese supply trains, pouring fire on the horse-drawn carts and motor vehicles that dared to march on the road during the day; the Lockheed L-18/C-56 electronic reconnaissance aircraft, equipped with radio positioning devices, used triangulation to search the plains for communication "hotspots" that continuously emitted shortwave communication signals, and then guided the B25/PBJ attack aircraft with sufficient range to bomb them. After several rounds, they reaped rich rewards and even found the headquarters of the 59th Division (formerly the 10th Independent Mixed Division) in the rear of the Japanese army, killing its communications staff officer and chief of staff.

More importantly, when the Ventura patrol aircraft (modified L-18) departing from Jiaodong attacked the Japanese troops near the Wen River, the deceleration bombs they dropped luckily hit the pontoon bridge used by the Japanese to cross the river, cutting off the 12th Army's way to the north and making it impossible for them to turn around and "regret" easily.

The U.S. Army and Navy Air Forces, which came to help, or to "create news", also worked very hard.

Because the opportunity obtained through negotiations was not easy, the US military in China could be said to have "all its elite troops" this time. The US Navy, which participated in the establishment of the "Sino-US Joint Air Force", transferred the PBJ bombers that it had exchanged from the Army with great difficulty to join the Eighth Route Army's ground attack formation; and the US Army dispatched the 308th and 77th Bombing Groups stationed in China, using B26 bombers and B24 bombers. Relying on the Eighth Route Army's acquisition of air superiority, they boldly carried out "flat-masted bombing" on the Japanese army, dropping a series of ammunition into the Japanese army's marching columns.

This kind of bombing would have probably turned the Germans in Europe into turkeys by machine guns, but in the Chinese battlefield, where the Japanese anti-aircraft firepower was as weak as a chicken and some troops even had to use mountain artillery to defend themselves, this powerful "remove" was simply the Japanese army's deepest nightmare!

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Now we are in trouble. We will be bombed while marching during the day, eating, transporting things, and even sending telegrams at night.

From the moment the troops entered the area south of the Dawen River, the bombing, which was "not fatal but happened every day", plagued the 12th Army like a leech. In the continuous bombing, regardless of the rising casualties, the 12th Army's logistics and motor vehicle units, which were given special attention, were the first to be paralyzed. A large amount of supplies were blown away, burned, and even some had to be secretly moved away by the surrounding guerrillas. The 14-day supply of supplies originally carried began to be consumed at a rate far exceeding expectations.

You know, even the skilled and strong-willed volunteer army of another time and space could not withstand this kind of physical blow to logistics, let alone the already panic-stricken Japanese Army's 12th Army!

However, they didn't even have a chance to escape - because they were already "turning in"!

"Don't panic. Don't let this little loss throw you off balance!"

On March 25, the 12th Army, which had suffered huge losses and continued to lose troops, was struggling to advance. The reports of attacks that came like snowflakes every day had overloaded the command capabilities of the army commander Seiichi Kita, and he fell into chaos.

He could only shout like this in an attempt to give his subordinates confidence.

Not long ago, the 55th Division (formerly the 6th Independent Mixed Division) and the 22nd Division, located in the vanguard, had been continuously attacking the area surrounding Yanzhou. Their artillery units were bombarded repeatedly, and Commander Saburo Tanda of the 22nd Division, who was directing their artillery, was struck by shrapnel from the explosion and fell into a coma. The unit was then unable to continue its offensive. To ensure the continued retreat, the entire army had to leave a small number of troops to monitor the Communist troops within the Yanzhou defensive fortress and advance around Yanzhou under the heavy fire.

Later, the 12th Army, attempting to build a bridge across the Si River, was subjected to repeated aerial bombardments. After several rounds of bombing and artillery fire, the engineers working on the bridges suffered heavy casualties, nearly drenching the Si River in blood. Driven by the will to survive, the Japanese engineers mobilized every available machine gun and launched a frenzied fire, nearly draining the enemy's blood. They finally managed to drive away the enemy aircraft and build three pontoon bridges.

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The Japanese army advanced tremblingly, with losses and casualties at every step.

However, as if this Shura scene of paving the way with blood was not hellish enough, General Kita Makoto's temporary command center received another urgent notice.

"Reporting from the Feng Corps (66th Division)! The Communist defenses around Jining are strong. Our army has been unable to advance even a single inch despite repeated attacks. Our soldiers have advanced bravely, not stopping even as their comrades have fallen beside them, but we have still not been able to break through their defenses!"

"Yi Bing Tuan (59th Division) reports: A Communist Cavalry Regiment has been spotted north of Yanzhou. A large force is moving in the rear, coming from Wenshang and Dongping. Radio monitoring has detected a large number of transmissions from the north! At least one division or more is advancing towards us!"

The flanks are uneasy, and there are pursuers behind!

Before Xi Duocheng, who had just arrived in the Huangtun area, could spit out a mouthful of blood, a more urgent report came out of the signalman's mouth.

"Sir! The Autumn Regiment (55th Division) reports! They say... say... they..."

The signalman's face, originally flushed red, froze. His hands began to tremble, and more cold sweat began to form on his already sweaty face. His face turned from red to white, and finally, it showed a dark despair.

"What did you say? Baka! Say it!"

The staff officer at the side raised his fist and slapped the signalman with a "big slap". The signalman immediately fell to the ground with blood oozing from his face, but he was still unable to move and could not answer.

"Idiot! Bring it to me!"

The battle situation was already tense, and the staff officer was extremely anxious and angry. Seeing that the signalman did not react like a fool, he snatched the telegram paper away.

"Baga! How can you be a good Imperial Army soldier if you're so cowardly..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the furious staff officer plopped down on the ground and began to shake violently. His face turned from yellow to white, then from white to red. Finally, he was furious. He kicked his legs on the ground, pounded his hands, and shouted, "Nonsense! Nonsense! This is impossible! This is impossible! Aa ...

He actually started crying.

This bizarre scene finally brought a moment of silence to the noisy makeshift headquarters. Everyone's eyes turned to the weeping staff officer lying on the ground and the signalman, who had almost lost his mind. That was until Major General Tadao Teragaki, the army's chief of staff, rushed over, grabbed the man by the collar, and slapped him repeatedly.

"With such a formidable enemy at our doorstep, how can you lose your composure? You are unfit to be soldiers of the Empire!"

Tadao Teragaki snatched the telegram from the staff officer's hand, glanced at it briefly, and then turned to Lieutenant General Kita Seiichi and reported: "Sir, it's just that the Aki and Hara Corps discovered the enemy..."

call!

Facing the stunned Kita Seiichi, he stumbled and nearly fell to the ground like the two men before him. Fortunately, as a general, Teragaki Tadao's mental fortitude was better. He braced himself against the wooden table, pressing down on his uncontrollably trembling legs, and reported through gritted teeth:

"The Autumn Corps and the original corps discovered a large number of Communist fortifications along the Taiping Town and Baima River lines! They said...

"The Communist fortifications are very strong, with trenches crisscrossing the land, many of which are filled with cement bunkers. They are so strong that even a direct hit from a Type 90 field gun is indestructible..." Teragaki Tadao's teeth were chattering unconsciously. "As for the scale, the Aki Corps says they've advanced 30 miles from west to east without seeing the edge. It's as if they're going from infinity to infinity. They're now attempting to flank the enemy, seeking a breakthrough opportunity through a circuitous route..."

"Sir! The situation has reached an extremely critical moment! Please make a decision immediately!"

Chapter 815: Kita Seiichi-kun, please go climbing

Outside Taiping Town, north of the Baima River, and at the foot of Xiajiu Mountain, the waves are surging.

In this narrow area east of Weishan Lake, the bloodiest, or most desperate, battle in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression so far is breaking out.

Over the course of eight days, supported by tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, as well as vast quantities of building materials and supplies from both alien and local time and space, the Eighth Route Army was able to establish three overlapping lines of defense along Taiping Town, the White Horse River, and the Lower Nine Mountains. Within this triple terrain of villages, rivers, and hills, numerous reinforced concrete core forts lay half-buried in the earth, crisscrossed by simple angle steel chevaux de frise and concertina wire. Galvanized structural steel firing points, covered in earth, were scattered throughout the area, filling it with a vast array of light and heavy firepower, drawing coordinated and intersecting firefields.

At the same time, trenches and deep trenches dug by manpower and wire excavators were arranged along the villages, rivers and hills, connecting the front and rear defense lines and various firepower points; in all positions that might directly contact the enemy, there were flip-up steel tile roofs on the top of the trenches to prevent falling shrapnel; even in areas near rivers where it was inconvenient to dig trenches, there were densely arranged "Esco-style" prefabricated explosion-proof walls filled with iron mesh fabric to form Vauban-style zigzag trenches to cover the movement of infantry.

It can be said that although the Eighth Route Army's defense network here did not have the abundant large-caliber fortress artillery regiments of the European defense line, nor did it have sufficient underground ammunition depots, personnel stations and transportation routes, its "fortress level" was not an exaggeration. However, it was still a fortress defense line formed by relying on mountains, rivers and villages, a "fortress terrain" that was enough to "reduce the attacking side's attack power by 75%"!

However, even after their logistics were weakened by continuous bombing for several days and their food and ammunition were consumed by more than half in about a week of marching and fighting, the Japanese army on the front line was still the Japanese army in 1943!

They still retained the most basic tactical qualities and possessed the destructive power that an industrial country's army should have. They were far more difficult to deal with than the 32nd Division that was annihilated by the Shandong Field Army before it. The 32nd Division itself had been severely damaged in the later period of the anti-encirclement and suppression campaign in central Hebei, and the corps rebuilt with the help of the rear guard was ultimately inferior. What was more crucial was that in this desperate situation with a defense line in front and pursuers behind, and friendly forces still far away, from the Japanese generals to the most basic soldiers, they all understood that unless they could completely penetrate and defeat the Communist army in front of them, they would never be able to escape.

Even trapped beasts will fight back. In this desperate situation, the Japanese army's fighting spirit was terrifying!

"Enemy exposed infantry group, airburst grenade, time fuse, timer 17.6, No. 2 charge!

"Take the firing parameters for No. 012, subtract 3 from the scale, right 0-05, six-round rapid fire from the entire battalion, fire!"

On March 29, 1943, a rare drizzle fell from the sky.

Raindrops fell on the continuously firing 25-pounder cannons, creating a mist that obscured vision and felt like a tangible, murderous atmosphere. As the command reached the gun positions, the cannons' massive muzzle brakes unleashed a grayish-white blast wave, instantly dispersing the mist and propelling the standard 87.63mm round out of the barrels.

The precise British mechanical time fuse on the warhead operates on time along the trajectory of the bullet that takes into account the elevation difference, and detonates the shell faithfully at a height of about 10 meters above the impact point.

Instantly, the warheads of the indigenously produced Jianxia missiles from the Shandong base area rained down like a torrential downpour, emitting a buzzing sound like wild bees. The next second, the scorched earth erupted like a torrential downpour on a calm lake, exploding into a blood-red, spiky spray. Before the smoke could clear and the dust clouds dispersed, another wave of steel hail arrived, like a fine-meshed sieve, sweeping away yet another round of lives from the pool of life.

But the Japanese army's charge did not stop. Inspired by the will to survive, or perhaps swept away by fanaticism, they shouted "Tu Qing" and "Tian Nao Hei Ka boarding" and launched a continuous attack.

The two vanguard divisions, regardless of combat status, had thrown their entire force of nearly 5 men into the front line like a gamble. The Japanese army's basic tactical skills allowed them to maintain a skirmish charge formation, pressing down on this iron line of defense like a landslide or tsunami.

The Shandong Province Field Army stationed on the defensive line responded with dense and accurate fire. The reinforced concrete main fort endured repeated rounds of direct fire from the Japanese mountain and field artillery, unremittingly spewing flames in all directions, boiling the cooling water jackets of the Maxim and 30-section tanks. Mortars of various calibers were fired at the azimuth markings around the firing pits, covering the Japanese advance path. The frontline soldiers unleashed their weapons at a rate of fire that threatened to render their weapons useless.

Round after round, time and time again, the Japanese charge gradually changed from regular skirmisher formations and coordination between infantry and artillery, to pure skirmisher assaults, and then to a concentrated "Banzai charge". Finally, the Japanese troops in front would rotate once, and the whole cycle would start again.

At the same time, the Eighth Route Army soldiers also had to be rotated. Except for those who were unfortunately injured, almost everyone was sweating profusely and their hands and feet were shaking when they came down from the front of the position. Even the veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles found it difficult to calm down when facing the hellish scene in front of the position. In this battlefield alone, in less than a day, at least two entire Japanese battalions fell in front of the position. The ground was covered with corpses!

But even so, the war is still progressing materialistically.

On several main attack routes, the Japanese army was able to deploy an entire battalion on a front of about 1.5 kilometers, repeatedly attacking with squadron-level forces supported by direct-fire artillery.

After being repelled in several attacks, and being beaten back by the armored close-combat commandos after their first attempt to break into the trench, the Japanese army began to use artillery fire coverage tactics that disregarded the casualties of friendly forces, and carried out secondary fire coverage of the positions when the two sides were in close combat. They even used the "taking drugs and self-destructing" tactics many times: the Japanese army mixed a large number of instantaneous explosive tube soldiers into the attacking team, destroying many of our army's fortifications.

At the same time, although the logistics of the troops were temporarily safe thanks to the water transportation in the Linyi Liberated Area and Weishan Lake area, as well as the support of the "material center", there was always a limit to the manpower transportation of ammunition from the rear assembly point through the trenches. The Eighth Route Army's front line finally began to run out of ammunition.

Considering that the Japanese army was already blood-thirsty at this time and would do anything to escape, Peng Mingzhi, the commander of the Shandong Province Field Army who was in charge of direct defense, ordered the troops to retreat from the first Taiping Town defense line and retreat along the explosion-proof wall and trench wall to the second Baimahe defense line - there were reserved blocking minefields, natural river terrain, and support from the third hilly defense line in the rear, which was quite stable.

Of course, there are more important considerations here.

After the Japanese army broke through the first line of defense at a huge cost, what greeted them was not a temporary victory in sight, nor a respite to build fortifications and villages, nor even a steel defense line that they did not know they would have to bring more troops to break through. Instead, it was another meaning of the full pressure of the Japanese army - as the rear troops of the 12th Army were forced to move south by the Eighth Route Army in the direction of Yanzhou, the remaining Japanese army of about 7 troops had been compressed into a narrow area of ​​no more than 16 kilometers from north to south and no more than 18 kilometers from east to west.

This place is surrounded by enemies to the north and south, with Weishan Lake to the west and hills and our army base to the east: this is exactly the pocket that 101 prepared for Kita Seiichi!

Your Excellency! Your Excellency! Commander!

Amid the rumbling of artillery fire, Kita Makoto could feel the vibrations reaching his feet through the earth. He was in a trance and could hardly hear even the howling of the staff officer in his ears - he just felt that those sounds were coming from a very far distance, making him irritated.

"...Communist troops under Zhang Guangzhong and Sun Jixian have crossed the Zhangfu River and are advancing towards our army from the direction of Jining! Our Feng Corps (66th Division, former 17th Independent Mixed Division) has been defeated by the Communists and is now retreating!

"The Autumn Corps (55th Division, formerly the 6th Independent Mixed Division) and the Original Corps (22nd Division) are struggling to advance. Combined casualties for the two corps have exceeded 18,000! Ammunition consumption has exceeded expectations, with some units left with only a third of their campaign rations!"

The dusty staff officer shouted, finally letting Kita regain some consciousness, "Sir, what should we do? What should we do?"

After he finished speaking, everyone in the temporary command post looked at the lieutenant general eagerly, even the commander of the 66th Division of the Guard Command, Gao Pinbiao. This major general, who had risen from fortress commander to regiment commander to division commander, had lost his fighting spirit and had no idea how to deal with the battle situation.

What to do? What to do!

How would I know what to do!

Kita Seiichi shouted in his heart, how could he, alone, be able to resolve the current situation? His gaze wandered, his hands trembled, and his eyes kept scanning the map, trying to find some possible hope.

"Oh, east, east! Are there communist troops in the east?" he asked.

"There are no reports of communist troops in the east yet, but that's where the communists were previously entrenched..."

"Never mind! It's fine as long as there's nothing! Order the rear guard and the rest of the main force to cross the Si River as quickly as possible, complete assembly, and strengthen the defenses!"

"Then……"

Xi Duocheng waved his hand and ordered decisively, "Go up the mountain, the entire army will head east, and attack Jiehe Town from around the corner!"

"Each unit must occupy the commanding heights of the mountains and resist the communist army one step at a time! We must tell everyone that dying for the Empire will make you a military god. We must fight to the last man!"

Chapter 816 The Long Night (Part 1)

Fast forward a few days, to the early morning of March 22, a train was running through the dark night of North China. A bright full moon was hanging high in the night sky, and the vast North China Plain was like a sparkling lake, emitting a silver glow.

Iimura Joi sat quietly in his first-class carriage, the moonlight stretching his dim shadow from the floor to the wall.

He wasn't thinking, he was just daydreaming.

Coming out of the North China Army's headquarters in Sanhe, from getting on the train to the train station and heading back to Qingyuan, this man who is good at calculation and planning

The Japanese lieutenant general's mind was mostly in a trance state, and he was unable to think rationally as usual.

The 12th Army's solo move was an accident, but not completely unexpected.

The last-minute replacement of the commander of the Renbing Regiment (12th Army) was itself a matter of political nepotism. The new commander had been in office for less than a month when he encountered a major war, which inevitably led to problems of communication between the upper and lower levels and slow command and coordination in the army. What's more, the new commander, Kita Makoto, was difficult to convince the troops because of his experience as a spy. When the original plan could not be carried out and the new order was not clearly issued and emphasized, it was foreseeable that they would choose a plan that seemed to have more hope of survival.

However, in Iimura Mamoru's view, at this point, the decision regarding the 12th Army should not follow the principle of "pursuing a higher success rate of transition", but should follow the iron rule of "achievement of greater value (before death)" - although doing so would seriously undermine the morale of the remaining troops - after a brief thought, he quickly organized his words and decided to tell Commander Okamura the next options, his recommendations and the reasons behind them, and asked him to make the final decision.

However, this commander who was once calm, wise and good at calculating the enemy did something that shocked Iimura Jo.

Iimura Joi covered his forehead, but his brain couldn't help but replay the scene quickly.