Chapter 660: Sacrifice (I)

In the distance, artillery roared. A battle is in full swing.

Here, the army headquarters was extremely quiet, and Zhou Daogang, commander of the East Road Column and commander of the First Army, was pursing the corners of his mouth, standing in front of the map, surrounded by his staff officers.

Just this morning, Zhou Daogang officially issued an order for a general attack on Xiuyan, and almost all the tens of thousands of troops under the jurisdiction of the East Road Column were engaged in today's battle.

Originally, according to the strategic plan originally formulated, the Xiuyan direction was only to 'lure' the enemy's direction, and the army staff and the general staff did not care very much about whether Xiuyan could be taken, and Zhou Daogang did not know about this arrangement of his superiors until after the Xiuyan Battle began, and he was a little dissatisfied with this, because this strategic arrangement was tantamount to treating his eastern route column as a feint force.

Although he also knew that the strength of his troops was far inferior to the Western Route Column that launched an attack on Gaiping, Zhou Daogang had always wanted to prove his ability with practical actions, which was also to repay the president's promotion grace.

Therefore, after finally weighing the balance of forces between the enemy and us, Zhou Daogang decisively issued the order for a general attack on Xiuyan, hoping to take this strategic stronghold that supports the northeast direction of the entire Liaodong battlefield.

For today's general offensive. Zhou Daogang was full of confidence, not only because he believed that his strength was enough to occupy Xiuyan City, but also because of his accurate grasp of enemy intelligence.

According to the report of the air force's reconnaissance and the military intelligence system that infiltrated the Liaodong Peninsula very early, the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed on the Liaodong Peninsula now has only two divisions and regiments, each with more than 20,000 men, and even with other units, the total strength of the Japanese army on the Liaodong Peninsula is only more than 50,000, and more than half of these troops are placed in the direction of Gaiping, and the Japanese troops stationed in Xiuyan are estimated to be no more than 15,000 at most.

In the previous two days of fighting, the East Route Column had already inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese troops in Xiuyan, and in the bombing of the air force, several ammunition and ammunition depots of the Japanese troops in Xiuyan were also destroyed.

The weakening of the Japanese army gave Zhou Daogang the confidence of victory, although he also knew that it was indeed early to launch a general offensive now, but after carefully analyzing the situation of the enemy and us on the battlefield, Zhou Daogang decided to launch a general offensive immediately, and at the same time sent a telegram to the army staff and the general staff, informing his superiors of his decision.

Regarding Zhou Daogang's decision, the attitude of the army staff and the general staff was somewhat subtle, and the army chief of staff Lan Tianwei suggested that Zhou Daogang "proceed with caution," but he did not resolutely oppose launching a general offensive now, and the reply from the general staff was even more intriguing, and the telegram was written with two words: "agree," which was a telegram from the president himself. The content of the telegram was concise and to the point, and it can also be seen from this reply that the president was a little impatient with the current stalemate on the battlefield, and since he could not mobilize the Japanese troops in the direction of Gaiping to aid Xiuyan, he simply ate Xiuyan decisively, further damaging the morale of the Japanese army, and at the same time giving the Japanese government huge domestic political pressure, and 'forced' the Japanese government to transfer its main army force from the sea to the battlefield on the Liaodong Peninsula as soon as possible, so as to create conditions for a strategic decisive battle that could change the balance of power in the Far East.

Confident and resolute, this is what Zhou Daogang admires the president the most, and it is precisely because of this that he finally made up his mind to eat Xiuyan in one bite and pull out this strategic stronghold of the Japanese army; once Xiuyan is taken, the entire northern front of the Liaodong Peninsula will be in a state of 'door' and 'hole' open, even if the commander of the Japanese Kwantung Army is not in a hurry, the politicians in Japan will jump three feet high, and the influence on international public opinion will also play a certain role.

At 7 o'clock this morning, Zhou Daogang formally issued an order for a general attack to the troops, and the troops participating in the attack on Xiuyan were not only units directly under the jurisdiction of the First Army. And the ** guards who accompanied the battle also participated in the frontal attack, the battle started at dawn, the ground troops were divided into east and west wings, and launched a pincer offensive against Xiuyan, and the roundabout column that originally held Jiulizhuang also launched an attack on Xiuyan from the flank and rear.

At the same time, the air force units originally stationed in Phoenix City also set up a field airfield less than 20 kilometers from the rear of the Xiuyan battlefield, from which bombers and fighters took off to provide powerful air cover for the ground offensive forces, and the aerial bombs of the air force and the artillery shells of the army turned Xiuyan into a world of fire and steel fragments, for the Japanese army on the defending side, this is the real Shura hell, and the Japanese soldiers can only curl up in the smoke of artillery fire, waiting for the last moment to come.

The shelling and bombardment lasted for almost two hours, until the artillery shells were urgent, and Zhou Dao had just given the order to charge the infantry, and in order to ensure the advance of the armored vehicles accompanying the infantry charge, the engineering units erected two pontoon bridges over the Dayang River, one east and one west, and it was through these two pontoon bridges that the infantry and armored units were able to quickly cross the Dayang River.

Although Zhou Daogang sent the Independent Armored Brigade to the Yellow Flag Fort in the lower reaches of the Dayang River for a far-reaching flank detour, his main force still retained a small amount of armored forces, mainly wheeled armored vehicles, in addition to a small number of modified armored vehicles nicknamed "Yellow Dogs" by the soldiers.

The "Yellow Dog" gets its name from the kind of yellowish "colored" paint painted on armored vehicles, which is widely used in agricultural machinery, such as agricultural heavy tractors, and in fact, the "Yellow Dog" modified armored vehicles are modified from that kind of agricultural heavy tractors.

At the very beginning of the design, the heavy agricultural tractor was designed taking into account the needs of wartime modifications, therefore. Both structurally and in the arrangement of the location of the engine and cockpit, this heavy tracked tractor is very suitable for rapid retrofitting for military use, in fact, it is only necessary to weld a few pieces of armor steel plates on the front and rear of the tractor, on the left and right, as well as on the top and reinforce them with several steel columns, on which the armor plates are opened' Shoot 'punch holes, set up machine guns here, this is a very good armored car, although it is far inferior to those armored cars equipped with short-barreled guns in terms of firepower, but considering that the Japanese army currently does not have suitable anti-armor weapons, then, this kind of firepower is not very powerful modified armored vehicles are still a very terrible weapon, and with this armored car, the Pyro can approach the strongholds and fortifications of the Japanese army, and use the hot flames to clear the obstacles in the way of the infantry.

In this regard, the Chinese army units are doing the same as the air force units, and all of this is from the president's planning, for the president, Zhou Daogang is very admired, and also very respectful, if it was not for the president to promote him from the military academy to his current position, then. Today, it will not be him Zhou who gave the general attack order in Xiuyan.

The ground offensive of the infantry was launched at half past nine in the morning, and now it is twelve o'clock at noon, after two and a half hours of fighting, the gunfire and artillery sound in the direction of Xiuyan have become sparse, coupled with those telegrams and telephone calls that are constantly being gathered, Zhou Daogang can breathe a sigh of relief, the attack of the troops is very smooth, and the northeast and northwest corners of Xiuyan have been taken, as long as they work harder, they can drive the Japanese army out of the city, but Zhou Daogang's purpose is not only to drive the Japanese army out of Xiuyan City. He planned to eat the more than 10,000 Japanese troops in Xiuyan in one bite, which was inseparable from the armored troops that detoured from the flanks.

"Report! They have just received a telegram from the Independent Armoured Brigade that they have now arrived at the Yellow Flag Fort and occupied it, and it is expected that they will be able to flank and attack the direction of Xiuyan in the afternoon. ”

A staff officer walked into the military headquarters, reported to Zhou Daogang, who was looking at the map in distraction, and 'handed over' a copy of a telegram, then stood up and saluted, turned and retreated.

Zhou Daogang took the telegram copy, glanced at it, and wrinkled his brows, the advance speed of the independent armored brigade is behind the scheduled plan, and now the time is pressing, if the independent armored brigade cannot launch an offensive as soon as possible, then, perhaps, the offensive on Xiuyan's side will have to be relaxed for a while.

"Order all units to suspend their attacks, to reinforce the positions they have occupied, and not to attack without orders."

Zhou Daogang immediately issued a verbal order to an adjutant, at this time, the Japanese commander must not be 'forced' too quickly, must first stabilize the other side, only when the armored troops have finished recuperating and launching an attack, is the best time to encircle the Japanese army, this degree must be grasped well, and this is also the main role of Zhou Daogang, the commander-in-chief of the East Road Column.

……

Zhou Daogang's order to suspend the offensive soon reached the majority of the grassroots troops through field telephone and wireless telegraphs, and the commanders of these units immediately gathered their offensive forces and began to hold on to the positions they had occupied, but on the other side, a small number of troops did not receive this order, and they were still engaged in 'fierce' street fighting with the Japanese army in Xiuyan City.

Zhang Guodong's troops were one of the few units that were still engaged in 'fierce' street fighting with the Japanese army, and the main reason why his troops did not receive the order to suspend the offensive was that his troops were attacking too fast, and the main forces behind did not keep up. Contact with the rear was interrupted, and even if they wanted to, they could not retreat.

Before Zhou Daogang's order to suspend the offensive was issued, on the other defensive lines, the Chinese army was basically in an offensive state, only Zhang Guodong's troops were in a defensive state, and this defensive state had lasted for almost half an hour, more and more Japanese troops besieging them, and the fierceness of the street fighting had intensified a lot. Although the 105th Division is equipped with Japanese-style rifles and can directly replenish bullets from the battlefield, it is impossible to rush out of the barricades to collect rifle bullets from the corpses of Japanese soldiers in this kind of "fierce" battle, and as for the grenades, there are only a few left.

Before the offensive was launched, Zhang Guodong knew that the troops would suffer heavy sacrifices, but he really did not expect that the sacrifices would be so great, and the officers and soldiers fell one after another in front of him, and many of these people were his fellow villagers in Anhui.