activa-t Chapter 180 Military Operations
Chapter 180 Military Operations
"We have to fight! The style of our 88th Army has always been to fight whenever we want. We have been holding back for half a year. Now that the young marshal is here, can we still hold back?"
"You only know how to fight? Let me ask you, where should we fight? How should we fight? There must be a plan!"
"Zhongyang, let's attack Zhongyang! Last time the Japanese attacked us, we lost hundreds of people. We must avenge them, otherwise we will be sorry for the thousands of Zhongyang people who died!"
"I think we should be more conservative and advance step by step from south to north! We should attack Linfen first. The Japanese will be unable to withstand the pressure and will definitely retreat to the north. Then our main force will advance step by step!"
"What's the point of fighting in Linfen? Besides, that's the Second War Zone's territory. It's fine if Commander Yan is there to contain us. But if we go over there, what if we trigger a full-scale battle in Shanxi Province? What if we cause heavy losses to our friendly forces?"
.......
Since Xu Le decided to fight a good battle in this special period, he convened a meeting of senior officers of the 88th Army to discuss how to deploy the combat plan.
Among them were the commanders and chiefs of staff of three divisions, the commander and chief of staff of the artillery brigade, and military staff, totaling more than 10 people.
The lowest-ranking officer here is the Chief of Staff of the 8th Artillery Brigade, with the rank of colonel.
The organization of the artillery brigade was specially approved by the Military Commission. Previously, the National Guard had seven artillery brigades, but they were almost completely disbanded after many battles.
The rest were all lieutenant general division commanders, major general division chiefs of staff and major general brigade commanders.
The Battle of Zhongyang was fought by the 176th Division. After Dai Ming and Lu Biao's two divisions arrived at the 88th Army, they were basically in training, so they were not familiar with the 88th Army's style of fighting. Therefore, their suggestion was to proceed step by step and fight in a layer-by-layer manner. After all, the terrain of Shanxi Province is complex, and they are not guerrillas and are not good at mountain guerrilla warfare.
But now Liu Quanhua, the commander of the 176th Armored Division, refused to accept it. Fighting in an orderly manner was not his style. He liked to have exciting games and give the Japanese unexpected surprises.
In this way, the two parties headed by Liu Quanhua and Dai Ming had a fierce argument, and they could not make up their minds for most of the day.
"Deputy Commander Wang, please say something!"
Finally, Dai Ming turned his attention to Wang Dafu. He understood that Liu Quanhua was a tough guy who would not listen to anything. If he continued to argue with him, he would probably never be able to tell who was the better person even until the end of time!
Wang Dafu, who was sitting in the first position at the bottom, stood up and walked to the military map, pointing to a location and said: "Jiexiu, Lingshi, and Huoxian are located in the canyon where the Taiyue Mountains and the Luliang Mountains meet. The canyon is called Queshu Valley, which is a passage connecting the Taiyuan Basin and the Linfen Basin. The widest open area of the canyon is less than 10 kilometers, and the terrain on both sides rises steadily. It is a major transportation route and strategic barrier between Jinzhong and Jinnan, and has been the focus of many battles since ancient times.
There are currently more than 20 Japanese troops heading south from Jiexiu. All of their supplies are transported by the Tongpu Railway in Queshu Valley. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the throat of the Japanese troops! "
In terms of combat experience, except for Xu Le, the rest of them had served as soldiers for at least ten years. Dai Ming was immediately shocked: "You mean to attack these three places?"
"That's right, get spirit stones!" Wang Dafu responded meaningfully.
Xu Le, who had been silent for most of the day, finally spoke up. "Attacking Lingshi is a risky move. Don't forget that Huo County is 30 kilometers to the south. The Japanese had already thought of this, so they deployed three divisions around Huo County. Occupying Lingshi can certainly split the Japanese into two sections, making it impossible for the head and tail to respond.
However, if we fail to take it down within two hours, the Japanese reinforcements from Huo County will arrive, and our troops will be caught in a pincer attack.
If we fail to capture the city any longer, and the enemy troops from Linfen come to reinforce us, we will be in even greater trouble!"
Everyone nodded in response. It was not that they had not thought of these two points, but Lingshi and Huo County and other places were heavily guarded, with support from both ends, so if a war broke out in one place, they could provide quick support!
So it seems that the Japs' deployment is scattered, but they were able to gather all the troops together within one day.
Wang Dafu shook his head and explained, "If it were any other army from the Tang Dynasty, it would be a suicide mission, because no one can capture a county town heavily guarded by the Japanese within two hours, let alone a city in a canyon. Once they fail, it will be difficult to retreat even if they want to.
But don't forget who we are, we are the 88th Army! The hundreds of tanks and artillery pieces in our hands are not to be trifled with!
Looking at the entire Tang Dynasty, including the National Guard and the Japanese, which army with 4 troops could have nearly 500 cannons and 300 tanks?
Moreover, half of our artillery pieces are 152mm heavy artillery pieces, with an average range of over 20 kilometers!"
At this time, Lu Biao also slammed the table and shouted, "Yes, how could I have overlooked this! We thought about it before, but we didn't seriously consider our own heavy firepower. It's all my fault. I've been living a poor life and never thought that I could rely on heavy firepower to attack the Japanese county town!"
Dai Ming had just thought of this. He made the same mistake as Lu Biao and ignored the weapons and equipment of the 88th Army!
If it was the size of his troops before, with the current deployment of the Japanese, they would not be able to defeat even 10 army groups, let alone one army.
Xu Le raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet and said, "Actually, what you said before makes sense. Although our troops have strong firepower, we cannot fight an unprepared battle. We still have to consider what we should consider! I think since Deputy Commander Wang proposed the idea of cutting off the enemy's central route, he must have made preliminary arrangements for the entire battle. Then please tell me your specific ideas first!"
Wang Dafu was also quite calm. He pointed at Staff Officer Fang Yue and said, "I just proposed this idea. Staff Officer Fang is making the specific arrangements. Let him make the decision!"
So everyone turned their attention to Fang Yue. Fang Yue was also a special case in the army. He was a military staff officer. Theoretically, his rank should be colonel, but he was promoted to major general by the Appointment Office a year ago because of his military exploits.
However, he was actually doing the work of chief of staff, which was the job of a lieutenant general.
Fang Yue took over Wang Dafu's position and pointed at the map and began to explain: "My initial plan is this. Our combat mission is to occupy Lingshi County, so as to cut off the Japanese south of the Jinzhong Plain, but our main attack is not in Lingshi!"
As he spoke, he pointed to the location of Huo County and continued; "The spirit stone is just an obstacle we set up to block the enemy. As I said just now, our goal is to cut off the devils, so what should we do after the devils are cut off? Of course we have to destroy them!
Therefore, our heavy firepower should be placed in Huo County. As long as the battle in Lingshi becomes tense, the Japanese will definitely provide full support. By then, a large number of Japanese will gather around Huo County to reinforce Lingshi. Due to the geographical location, the Japanese can only huddle in a canyon several kilometers wide, and our army's artillery can fire without restraint!
The Japs will certainly repeat their past tricks and feint an attack on Pu County to put pressure on our front-line troops and force our main force to retreat!
But no matter what the Japs did, they had already made a mistake when they deployed hundreds of thousands of troops to Shanxi Province. The terrain here is too unsuitable for large-scale army operations!
Fortunately, our army has tanks and armored vehicles with strong passability, which can fully exert their power in such terrain, and our artillery is always ready. As long as the Japanese invaders gather in groups, we will fire at them!
Under such an attack, the Japanese will certainly realize their own disadvantages. The best way to reduce casualties is to break up into small units and disperse the troops to reduce the impact points of our artillery fire.
This is the time for the motorized infantry division to play a role. The three regiments of the motorized infantry division are all from the field. Although you are organized as a motorized infantry regiment, you are actually equipped with a mechanized infantry regiment. Each squad is equipped with machine guns and mortars. If you cannot encircle and wipe out the small group of Japanese who have abandoned their heavy equipment, then you, as the division commander, should reflect on yourself!"