Chapter 337 Flamethrower? Braised Devils?
Facing the teasing eyes of his colleagues, Iinuma Mamoru's brain began to work at high speed.
The old devil first eliminated several impossible options in his mind, and finally came up with an answer that he himself did not quite believe.
"It's manpower!"
"Could it be that the Eighth Route Army's manpower has been exhausted by us! They will soon have no soldiers to use!"
"Besides this, I really can't think of any other reason that can prompt the enemy to voluntarily abandon the carefully prepared positions."
In Iinuma Mamoru's impression, the Eighth Route Army is best at flexibly using tactical insertions and tactical detours.
Even in a positional battle against hard power, they can use the terrain advantage to accurately attack the gaps in their own deployment.
Take the current Datong Battle as an example. Once the so-called Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region finds the opportunity, the opponent can even cut in from the weakest position of their own defense and completely split the three divisions to encircle and annihilate them.
Combined with the advantage of artillery fire, they are fully capable of fighting outside the city of Datong, and there is no need to fight street battles at their own expense.
Unless there is a problem with the Eighth Route Army's manpower.
As if he had seen through Iinuma Mamoru's thoughts, Nishihara Issaku took the initiative to explain:
"After years of fighting, you and I both know the difference between the Eighth Route Army and those inefficient officers of Guosu."
"Almost every one of their senior officers can be called a child of destiny. Coupled with acquired learning and a lot of actual combat, commanders above the brigade level are by no means ordinary people."
"But now, the defenders of Datong have made a problem that even novices can avoid. It must be because the opponent's reserve force is insufficient!"
Hearing this, the Japanese lieutenant general nodded in agreement.
Excluding all impossibilities, the remaining options must be facts no matter how outrageous they are.
The Eighth Route Army's war potential is indeed terrifying. If it is allowed to develop, something will happen sooner or later. But potential does not mean combat effectiveness. Even the most advanced weapons need people to control them.
From 1940 to the present, the opponent has been launching large and small battles.
Although they once took over the entire Shanxi Province, they have hardly rested for more than a year.
War will kill people.
The senior officer surnamed Nie was indeed very good at building a base, but he couldn't just turn beans into soldiers out of thin air. It takes a long time to train a farmer into a qualified soldier.
"I thought about it carefully, and your conclusion is very reasonable."
"In the Tianzhen and Yanggao areas, the Eighth Route Army has assembled tens of thousands of troops. Add the tens of thousands of people outside Datong City, this should be the enemy's limit in northern Shanxi."
"The enemy is afraid! Everything they do is bluffing!"
As soon as these words came out, Nishihara Isaku immediately clapped his hands excitedly. His eyes were full of praise, as if he was happy for his colleague's epiphany.
Of course, as a lieutenant general who came from the grassroots and had rich combat experience, the old devil did not consider the possibility that the Eighth Route Army would steal Xue Boling's lessons.
However, after receiving the information from Okamura Ningji, all concerns disappeared.
Even if it was to lure the enemy deep into the retreat for a decisive battle, who would use the highest-level commander as bait? Unless the other party has the strength to crush him, there will be no such crazy behavior.
But if he can crush him, why would he go around in circles? It can't be to save those worthless soldiers.
The population of the Republic of China is more than 400 million, and the last thing it lacks is people.
It's a pity that, given the old devil's growth experience and experience, he will never understand the inner meaning of a comrade in his life.
After thinking about it again, Nishihara Yice patted his colleague's shoulder, and then said boldly: "We have to attack as soon as possible, time waits for no one."
"Although the direct troops of the North China Front Army have entangled the 129th Division, and the Army Aviation has also distracted the attention of the Eighth Route Army Air Force, the 120th Division in Northwest Shanxi may come to support at any time."
"One military region plus one division is not an opponent that our three divisions and two independent mixed brigades can deal with."
"Okay! Then we will act now!"
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November 23, 1941, eleven o'clock in the morning.
Although the battle outside the city is coming to an end, there are still three difficult mountains in front of the devils.
The first one is naturally the moat that is ten meters wide and five meters deep.
Compared with some big cities, Datong's moat is not wide. But it is connected with the spring water of Leigong Mountain and the water of Shili River, and it is living water, not dead water.
Living water is fluid and not easy to freeze.
This leads to the fact that even at the end of the cold November, the water flow in Datong's moat is still relatively turbulent. If the devils want to break through the moat, they can only use boats or floating objects.
As for the original bridge? It was blown up by comrades from the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region late last night.
The second mountain is the 40-meter open space between the Datong city wall and the moat.
In order to receive the devils who are about to attack the city, the soldiers buried countless mines in the open space, and also placed a large number of barbed wire, stakes, felled trees and other obstacles.
Perhaps only one out of ten of these defensive tools will survive under the artillery fire, but who can guarantee that something that costs almost nothing will not bring unexpected gains? It would be a waste if you don't do it.
This 40-meter-long open space will inevitably become a graveyard for the devils.
The third mountain is the city wall of Datong.
In terms of the defensive power of the masonry wall, the barreled guns equipped by the three divisions of the North China Front Army have no effect on it, and high explosive packs must be used to blow up the wall.
High explosive packs need to be delivered to the city wall.
And one or two are not enough, several must be detonated at the same time to blow a large enough gap.
If the devils can successfully cross the moat, what awaits them will be the guards on the city wall sharpening their knives.
On the city wall with a circumference of 7,240 meters, the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region built many bunkers and simple civil engineering fortifications, some of which are semi-permanent fortifications made of reinforced concrete.
For fear of insufficient firepower, the soldiers would place a machine gun every fifty meters, mixed with a large number of small-caliber mortars.
If it were not for ensuring that each gun/gun had a good firing range, this number could be doubled.
Considering that the devils might use armored forces during the siege, the army reorganization experts also asked the soldiers of the anti-aircraft artillery regiment to prepare more than a dozen Hotchkiss 25mm anti-aircraft guns.
Adding the above three mountains together, the North China Front Army would not be able to enter the city without leaving one and a half regiments.
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Wudingmen City Wall, 33rd Regiment of the Shanxi-Hebei Column.
After observing the movements of the devils through the periscope, a regiment commander with a wound on his shoulder put down the bottle in his hand in dissatisfaction.
"Hey, I don't know when Director Huang can get some individual flamethrowers. Our current method of roasting devils is still too backward compared to the old Russians!"
Sleep, sleep