Chapter 354: The Japanese Army's Dilemma
In these years, all infantry is not afraid of fighters.
The Japanese troops on the ground were not fools, and when they saw the Chinese planes flying, they immediately lay down on the ground, but the air defense units had to force their composure, and under the threat of pistols and leather whips, they had no choice but to set up anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, and blindly fired in all directions into the air.
Their purpose was not to shoot down enemy planes, but to prohibit fighters from arbitrarily lowering their altitudes, so that no matter whether the enemy planes dropped bombs or strafed, their accuracy would be greatly reduced, and in the end, except for a very small number of unlucky ones, the entire Japanese army should not suffer much loss.
However, the Flying Leopard fighter did not have this Yaxing at all, and dropped cluster bombs directly at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters.
The Japanese air defense unit breathed a sigh of relief, this time it was lucky, and met a rookie in the Huaxia Air Force, because if this height is thrown down, if it is blown by the wind again, it will deviate by hundreds of meters, and it is better to blow up stones and weeds at all.
"Yo Xi, these Chinese people are all cowards."
However, when the more than 20 bombs flew to an altitude of thirty or forty meters, a parachute was automatically ejected.
In the next few seconds, there were a few small explosions, and a huge bomb was suddenly broken down into more than 100 pieces, and for a while, the entire air was like a rain of steel, and of course, the more unlucky Japanese soldiers were directly killed by these steel fragments.
The steel rain finally stopped, and some brave Japanese soldiers gradually stood up, picked up steel fragments and looked carefully, the fragments of these bombs, about the size of two palms, were heavy in their hands, estimated to be four or five kilograms, no wonder they would stone people to death.
However, before they could react, these fragments exploded almost simultaneously, rolling the entire Japanese forward into the explosion, and immediately shrapnel and flesh flew sideways, and the blood mist and dust raised by the explosion rose to a height of several hundred meters, faintly even the wind revealed a fishy smell.
Not only were thousands of Japanese troops killed and wounded, but even dozens of tanks in the explosion zone were burned by dense shrapnel, and some of the more unlucky tanks were simply ignited with fuel tanks, which burned violently, and then caused the ammunition to detonate, and the entire tank became a pile of scrap metal.
Before Lieutenant General Kawagishi Bunzaburo could give a new battle order, hundreds of Huaxia tanks had already approached, crushing the surviving Japanese soldiers, and they were all very large, and the whole earth trembled when they moved, they were not at all able to resist by flesh and blood.
It is human nature to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.
Now the Japanese soldiers have reacted, and there is no need to trouble the commander to give orders, so everyone should run for their lives quickly.
With a coax, the remaining more than 1,000 Japanese troops rushed to the fields, hoping that these tanks would not trouble them, and if Amaterasu blessed the Chinese army to accept their surrender, it would be great, and once they returned to their homeland, they would definitely go to the shrine to repay their wishes.
The tanks and armored vehicles with amazing speed did not look for trouble with the routers, but went against their path, quickly advancing in depth, and as soon as they met the Japanese tanks, they directly exploded with one shot, so that the devils who peeked from afar peeed their pants and asked each other, is this battle still fought?
However, behind the tank group, there was a large number of infantry and cars, and these people pulled loudspeakers and ordered the scattered Japanese devils to surrender immediately, otherwise they would launch a final attack.
Most of the soldiers of these Yongsan Divisions were originally Koreans, Taiwanese, or Ryukyuans, and recently even their brigade commander, Major General Yoshito Takagi, had been secretly captured by the Japanese army, so their loyalty to the Great Japanese imperialism was limited.
Now that they have seen the strength of the Chinese fighters and tank troops, it is just in vain to resist again, so they raised their hands and surrendered.
The young master soldiers in western Sichuan, after all, have a better life, and they are guest soldiers, and they have no deep understanding of the ferocity of the Japanese devils, and even want these Japanese soldiers to mine and transform.
Therefore, they did not rebuke or abuse the hundreds of Japanese troops who surrendered, but ordered them to hand in their weapons, and then ordered an engineer combat company to escort them to Gaocheng to take care of them, and then the remaining troops would continue to advance with the tank troops.
The destruction of the forward troops did not frighten the follow-up Japanese troops, but aroused the ferocity in their bones.
About 10,000 Japanese troops, under the command of division commander Kawagishi Bunzaburo, retreated a kilometer or two slightly, and in a relatively open area, the fortress supported by tanks or automobiles made the artillery units ready for battle, while the infantry dug bunkers and fortifications on the spot, preparing for a decisive battle with the Chinese army.
When the countries of the Far East are at war, they do not speak of gentlemanly manners.
Before the Japanese army could dig the fortifications, more than 20 fighters flew towards them, and immediately dropped cluster bombs, so that the entire temporary battlefield of the Japanese army was instantly wiped out, and hundreds of Chinese tanks, leading thousands of infantry teams, chiseled through the entire defense line of the Japanese army.
Thousands of surviving Japanese troops fled for their lives, and no longer able to organize any effective defensive line.
Brigadier Guo Qixun and his mechanized troops, like an outing, drove straight in.
At four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the vanguard of the tank unit even chased to the vicinity of Dezhou, and when faced with a solid Japanese defense system, it was only after the retreat that the team returned to Shijiazhuang.
Since the war of aggression against China, it is the first time that the Japanese army has been beaten into dogs, so how can Brigade Commander Guo easily "slip away".
Unexpectedly, when the Japanese army in Texas tried to pursue in vain, it was bombed by the Flying Leopard fighter again, which happened to be the last batch of cluster bombs, and it was really lucky to get home, so that the Japanese 10th Division suffered heavy losses, so that the division commander, Lieutenant General Isoya Ryosuke, was so remorseful that he almost committed suicide by hitting the wall.
When General Guo Qixun returned to Gaocheng, the first stage of the Chinese army's Shijiazhuang counterattack was also temporarily over, and the 14th Division of the Japanese Army, as well as a part of the 6th Division, were besieged in Zhengding and Xinlecheng, and they built fortifications on the spot, hoping to have friendly troops to help.
Deng Xihou led the 45th Army to formally cut off the connection between Xinle and Dingxian, and confronted the Niudao Manchu Brigade across the river on the bank of the Dasha River.
There are good teachers like devils, and the Chinese army has also learned to be well-behaved.
The Chinese army also built a large circle of trenches outside the city of Xinle and Zhengding, surrounded the two county towns, and immediately launched the final general attack as soon as the sky dawned the next day, striving to annihilate the remnants of the enemy in one go, so that the entire Shijiazhuang battle ended perfectly.
However, Li Jiayu and Deng Xihou and others, but literate people, launched countless leaflets to persuade surrender during the day, in short, "the Chinese army treats prisoners preferentially".
Kenji Dohihara woke up early, and he was helpless in the face of such a predicament.
He only regrets one thing now, that is, he should not have sent a super special combat team to blow up the enemy's heavy artillery positions, and now that the special combat team has long been lost, even if he wants to lead the "civilian personnel" of the command headquarters to break out of the encirclement, there is no possibility of half a point, and it is the life of a prisoner who dies.
As for the destruction of the 20th Division, he was even more haunted.
He really couldn't figure out how a permanent division with five armored brigades could be almost wiped out by the enemy?
"Breaking through by night" - is the only option for the trapped Japanese army.
According to the international practice of World War I, when the casualties of an army exceed 30 percent, it will seriously affect its combat effectiveness, so it is counted as the category of heavy losses, and once it exceeds 50 percent, it will completely lose its combat effectiveness, which can be regarded as the category of annihilation or annihilation, and even allow the commander to lead his troops to surrender.
As for the Japanese army in World War II, they had the spirit of bushido, and they were more tenacious in terms of wounds, and even if more than half of the casualties were taken, they were only counted as heavy losses.
It will not be until it reaches more than 70 percent before the Japanese army loses its combat effectiveness, and as for the phenomenon of collapse, its losses need to reach more than 90 percent, and even if the entire army is occasionally wiped out, they will insist on fighting to the last man, which is simply unimaginable in the eyes of European and American countries.
For example, Second Lieutenant Onoda Kanro, who was ordered to stay on Lubang Island in the Philippines in December 1944, was able to lead his troops to fight until 1974 because he did not receive the order to retreat in time.
Therefore, the fact that the Japanese army invading China was able to win victories one after another was indeed not only a matter of advanced weapons and well-trained, but also their will to fight was also an important factor.
However, the growth of the Chinese army is also very fast, especially in the absence of weapons and training, the only thing that can quickly get close to the Japanese army is the fighting willpower of the soldiers.
It was the night of flesh and blood, and the tragedy was worse than that of the day.
The bloody battle lasted until midnight, and the besieged Japanese army suffered heavy losses, but they did not open any gaps, as long as they were not fools, they knew that they could not break out with their own strength.
Most of the remaining Japanese troops had no choice but to retreat into two county towns, hoping to escape with the help of external forces, and the headquarters of the 14th Division, in the name of Tufeiyuan, had already sent more than a dozen letters of help to the headquarters of the North China Dispatch Army and the base camp of the Japanese army.
The problem was that the Japanese army in North China had no troops at all.
There were only two armies in the North China Dispatch Army, and the main force of the Second Army was still far away in Tianjin, and the only force that could reach it at present was the 10th Division of Ryosuke Isoya, but when it pursued the tank units during the day, it was "warmly welcomed" by cluster bombs, and more than 2,000 people were killed and wounded.
Therefore, even if you want to send troops from Texas and Cangzhou to rescue, you have to look at the faces of Huaxia tanks and planes, and Ryosuke Isoya will never dare to "take orders".
As for the Itagaki Division, which is known as the "Winning Division", it is fighting fiercely in the Xinkou area, even with the assistance of the 109th Division and the Kwantung Army, in the face of hundreds of thousands of Chinese elites, it has long been stretched thin and exhausted, and it is not bad if it does not take the initiative to send troops to North China to cry poverty.
Well, Terauchi Shouichi's North China Dispatch Army is indeed not yet exhausted, and there are still 15 divisions and 108 divisions available.
But these two divisions are far away in Tianjin, not to mention, they are still troops with heavy responsibilities, one is about to be incorporated into the 10th Army, and it is already ready to land in Hangzhou Bay, Shanghai, to support the 200,000 Japanese troops trapped in Wusongkou, even if they want to put into the Shijiazhuang battlefield, it will take time.
The other has secretly assembled near Shandong, and as soon as the war between Cangzhou and Dezhou is over, he will immediately join forces with the Isogu Division to attack Jinan, with the aim of encroaching on the entire land of Shandong.
Of course, there is also the Kwantung Army stationed in Shanhaiguan, and the Chinese Garrison Mixed Brigade stationed near Beiping, which can also be considered.
However, these troops were either too far away, such as the Eighth and Twelfth Divisions, and they were not ready to enter the customs to participate in the war at all, and all the weapons and equipment they needed were still left in the northeast and northeast.
As for the Chinese garrison brigade, not to mention, even the permanent division and regiment were beaten to the ground, and the mixed brigade of a few thousand people was just sent to death.
What's more, the Japanese troops fighting in Shijiazhuang also discovered a secret, the Huaxia army seems to have a "super bomb" that will kill thousands of people as soon as it is thrown down.
Originally, Tokugawa Haomin's aviation regiment could still do something, but it is a pity that the entire land of North China is fighting everywhere, and all fronts need the support of fighters, and what is even more annoying is that due to the fact that some time ago, when fighting in the skies over Shijiazhuang, more than 100 fighters were lost for no reason.
It seems that he has not recovered yet, and Tokugawa Yoshitoshi is a little weak when he mentions Shijiazhuang.
On the contrary, Shijiazhuang's Huaxia Air Force is said to have not only recovered, but also seems to be a lot stronger, and the large-scale formation bombing during the day is the first time in North China, and even the Japanese army itself has not done so, so the Japanese army is also a little confused, and I don't know how many hole cards Huaxia still has.
It was indeed difficult for some strongmen to rely on the Air Force to rescue the besieged Tufei Yuanbu, and for a while, all the Japanese troops were dumbfounded.
Could it be that the Imperial Japanese Army is going to refresh the record again -- "a permanent division and regiment was completely annihilated by the Chinese army", and even Tsuchihara and other generals have not escaped the net, and now the Japanese military headquarters is really in a hurry, and once the "dream comes true", it will not be a problem of the 14th Division.
It was a question of the total annihilation of the First Army of the Japanese Army.
Because in Xinle and Zhengding, among the besieged Japanese troops, there were the 14th Division of Tufeiyuan, the 11th Brigade of the 6th Division, and the 1st and 2nd Brigades of heavy artillery, plus the 20th Division that was wiped out by the Chinese tank troops, and the First Army was indeed facing the situation of total annihilation.