Lieutenant General Yoshida's commanding ability is not outstanding among all the senior officers of the Japanese army, but this person has an extremely good performance for surprise attacks and night raids, so General Binshan Mototo gave him the important task of this sneak attack on Chengde.

Yoshida Nao did not disappoint Binshan Yuan, along the way the cavalry group can be said to be invincible, although it has been blocked by the squadron many times, but the cavalry group will soon be able to break through the interception of the squadron, whether it is Qianxi County or other small towns, the cavalry group will not be able to do it all in more than two hours. Starting from the 28th, the cavalry group arrived at Kuancheng in less than two days, not to mention General Binshan Yuan, not to mention this speed, even Han Yunhua, who has always been honorable and humiliated, was shocked. Although Han Yunhua ordered that the local troops in eastern Hebei only need to symbolize the resistance of xìng, and they will not be able to fight to the death with the Japanese cavalry troops, he believes that with the deep hatred of the people of eastern Hebei, the troops under his command and the Japanese army, they will not show mercy to the Japanese army, although they will follow the order and will not fight the Japanese army to the death, but they will definitely not let the Japanese army have a good time. Naoyoshi Yoshida commanded the troops so quickly, and there was indeed something special about it.

Kuancheng belongs to Rehe Chengde, located in the central part of Rehe Province, southeast of Chengde City, and Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Liaoning Province, Chaoyang Jiāo boundary, the total area of the county is 1,952 square kilometers, there are 120,000 acres of cultivated land, 2.4 million acres of mountain farms, and a total population of 183,000, of which the Manchu population accounts for 71.

The geographical location of Kuancheng is still very important, although it is not a strategic place, but Kuancheng is located in the southeast of Chengde, located at the northern foot of the Great Wall, north of Chengde County, Pingquan County, east of Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province, south of the Great Wall and Qinhuangdao City, Qinglong County and Tangshan Qianxi County, west of the reservoir and Xinglong County, with its unique geographical location, it has become an important passage connecting North China to the northeast and the interior of Chengde to connect Qinhuangdao and Tangshan coastal areas. However, at this time, Kuancheng was still very backward, although it was located in the main road of Jiāo, but the Jiāo Pass of Kuancheng was not developed, only 121 kilometers of highways, and the asphalt road was only about one kilometer in the county. The highway below generally lacks bridges and culverts, the grade is low, the density is small, the accessibility is poor, the rain and snow are blocked, and more than 150 villages are still not connected.

Lieutenant General Yoshida looked at the sun in the west, it was already August 29th, and it would be the 30th in a few hours. The two days of running day and night made the Japanese general, who had not fought on horseback for a long time, feel a little overwhelmed. Although the cavalry group also had its own chariot unit and automobile unit, in order to coordinate the command and distrust of the Japanese-made bean chariot, Lieutenant General Yoshida Nao did not lead the chariot unit this time.

It's no wonder that Lieutenant General Yoshida Nao, the xìng of the Japanese chariots is really bad, and it is normal to have máo disease, so after Han Yunhua took over the batch of weapons and equipment of the Japanese army, he modified all the chariots under his command, although Huā spent a huge amount of manpower and material resources, but it was limited to the limitations of the bean chariot itself, and its modification effect was also lackluster, which made Han Yunhua very dissatisfied.

Lieutenant General Yoshida took a big sip of the kettle in the hands of the guards, unscrewed the lid, wiped the water stains from the corners of his mouth, and then asked, "Where are we now, and how far is it from Chengde?" ”

Staff officer Ichiro Shinozuka Shaozo took out the map and looked at it, then pointed to a small dot on the map and said: "Xiao Bao (General), we have arrived at the wide city of China, which is less than fifty kilometers away from Chengde, and it is expected that we will be able to reach Chengde tomorrow morning." ”

"Kuancheng? I know this place, a small place with an extremely important strategic position, tell me about the troops in Kuanchengchina? Yoshida continued to ask.

"Xiao Bao (general), the defenders of Kuancheng are an infantry battalion of the 77th Independent Division of the Méng Ancient Military Region in the Eighth Route Army of China, and we have not found out the specific number, but the number of the defenders of the Zhina army is only about 400 people, as long as the commander orders, it will take Kuancheng in half an hour at most." Ichiro Shinozuka replied.

"Baga, how come Yo Xi, an excellent staff officer of your staff headquarters, don't even know the most basic situation of the enemy, at least I want to know the establishment of the enemy defending the city, the number of troops, the number of troops, the name and hobbies of the commander, the weapons and equipment of the troops, whether there is artillery, etc.?" Lieutenant General Yoshida shouted angrily with dissatisfaction.

Ichiro Shinozuka hurriedly said: "Xiao Bao (General), our intelligence sources are all in the hands of the special high-tech, so all our information comes from the special high-tech, and these materials are no exception. Some time ago, I heard from a fellow villager of the special high-tech department that General Yamaguchi, the person in charge of the special high-tech department, was also reprimanded by His Excellency Commander Binshanyuan because of the affairs of Han Yunhua's department, so we now know very little about Han Yunhua's department. ”,

Unlike Ichiro Shinozuka, Naokada Yoshida is well aware of the procedures and standards for collecting information. Before the war, Tegaoke began to investigate and collect the top officials and famous gentlemen. However, because China and Japan did not go to war at that time, the collection of information could only be collected secretly, so the Japanese army was very targeted when collecting relevant information about China, for example, when collecting information on the first officer, the standard of the Japanese army was that the military rank of major general or above or officer above the rank of officer was above, on the other hand, only cadres above the rank of major general or at the level of the main division were eligible to be valued by the Japanese army. As far as the ** Eighth Route Army is concerned, only a limited number of people such as Zhu Máo can attract the attention of the Japanese army, like Han Yunhua, who was only a small infantry company commander at the time, could not arouse the slightest interest of the Japanese army.

After that, Han Yunhua himself strengthened the secrecy work for himself and his officers at all levels, so it was already very difficult for the Japanese army to collect it, so it also led to the fact that the Japanese army could not know itself and the enemy when dealing with Han Yunhua's department, and the backwardness of intelligence also made the special high-tech department in North China generally questioned by the Japanese officers at all levels.

Lieutenant General Yoshida thought for a moment and said: "Order the troops to eat immediately, rest for an hour, and then take Kuancheng in one fell swoop, and then rush to Chengde overnight." ”

"Hail"

Immediately after the order was delivered, the Japanese cavalry dismounted to rest and eat, and each soldier took out the strategic food that had been prepared long ago and carried with him - rice balls. Just cold water and eating rice balls, this is the food of the Japanese army.

The food of the Japanese army is relatively very good, but it is not good when marching and fighting, due to the national strength, the food standards and styles prepared by the soldiers in various countries during the war are also different, take the Japanese army as an example, the Japanese army eats prepared rice balls when they march, what is this rice ball, the rice ball is the rice ball, the simplest rice ball is to add their own taste of seasoning to the hot rice, and then knead it into a ball, the shape is kneaded according to their liking, but you can add your favorite filling to it, You can do anything, but it can't be juicy, or you can mix the filling with rice and then knead it into a ball, and you can just wrap it on the patch of seaweed, which is actually Japanese fast food, similar to Chinese rice balls.

However, this is just a delicacy in our imagination, in fact, the rice balls that Japanese soldiers ate at that time and the rice balls we buy now are simply two kinds of things. During the war, soldiers of the Japanese army and navy usually ate cold rice with pickles and a cup of cold tea, and they had to eat it very quickly so that they could rush back to continue their military training. Lunch might be rice with a little ròu or fish, and dinner would be nothing more than a bowl of soup with a little rice and vegetables.

Taking the Army's Showa 6-year food standard as an example, each soldier in the Japanese army did not exceed 640 grams of rice, 200 grams of wheat, 150 grams of canned food, 110 grams of dried vegetables, 40 grams of kimchi, 20 grams of soy sauce, 12 grams of salt, 15 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of tea. However, after the war of aggression against China began, the food ration of the troops was given one order: self-sufficiency on the spot.

In contrast, the food of the squadron is much worse, take the 1945 food standard of the Kuomintang Army, the daily food ration of each soldier is 27 taels of medium-cooked rice, 1 jin of vegetables, 1 tael of ròu 1 tael, 1 tael of beans, 6 coin of oil, 1 jin of salt = 600 grams, 1 jin = 16 taels of 1.1 tael = 37.5 grams, 1 qian = 3.73 grams.

In the late stage of World War II, some Chinese soldiers moved to Burma and became the famous Chinese Expeditionary Force, and when this unit later arrived at the British ** base in India, in the eyes of the British and American troops, the Chinese Kuomintang army was an out-and-out "beggar army".

The shortage of materials has brought difficulties to the supply of goods, which not only affects the combat effectiveness of the squadron, but also affects the image of some Chinese troops in the eyes of the people, and further deteriorates the living environment of the soldiers. Even in Chiang Kai-shek's descendants, the soldiers were always underfed, not only food, but also almost all military supplies.

At that time, each Kuomintang unit had a formal rifle and a set of military uniforms, but they did not change their new uniforms for a long time, so after some troops marched for a few months, their military uniforms were tattered and tattered, and they were called "beggar troops". After the war, there are many old photos that seem to us to be in tears until now, which truly reflect the real life of the Chinese soldiers at that time. Just like the little baby of the Sichuan army wearing single clothes and straw shoes in winter, and the photos of the signal corps of the Chinese Expeditionary Force taken by a photographer are even more worrying. In that old photo, the signal soldier of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was standing on the side of the road and shaking the phone, his military uniform was sewn with two large patches on the shoulders and waist, and the thin clothes were covered with blood, even so, there was a long tear in the back, the kùzi was féi and short, the laces of the straw sandals were strangled with the feet of the bruised tendons, only the steel helmet on his head and the green backpack with the letters "us" printed on the crossbody, showing that this was a soldier, and the steel helmet and backpack were undoubtedly the equipment rationed by the Americans. It's heart-wrenching to watch. This is the Chinese soldiers, this is the Chinese soldiers. ,

Of course, there may not be any other reasons for this except the weakness of the national strength, such as the troops stationed in Baoshan in 1943 and preparing to cross the river. Before the war, supplies were distributed, and the best khaki uniforms imported from the United States, as well as leather shoes, × socks, and all kinds of canned food. As a result, the quartermaster only gave each person only six feet of yellow cloth, and I heard that the quartermaster colluded with some commanders to resell the army's materials to the interior, and all kinds of military materials were often seen for sale in the market in Dali. The distribution of materials for the entire army was never made public, and it was completely secretive, and if you wanted to get good equipment, you had to pay bribes to your commanders.

The Americans studied the squadron's food distribution system and concluded: according to the rules of the unit, each soldier was given 24 ounces of rice and a serving of salt per day; A full salary per month, if the whole huā is on food, you can buy a pound of pig ròu a month. A Chinese soldier can make a living well on these quotas. However, in reality they really received only a portion of the food and money allocated to them, because the commanders were accustomed to "withholding" a large part of it for themselves. The result was that most Kuomintang soldiers were undernourished.

However, even so, the rationing of the Japanese army and the Kuomintang troops was far better than the food ration of the Eighth Route Army. It should be admitted that the army of the Eighth Route Army was generally able to share weal and woe from the commander to the soldiers at that time.

During the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang engaged in a blockade, and after 40 years, the salary of the Eighth Route Army was suspended, and the Eighth Route Army took advantage of the magic weapon of the ancient sages' army Tuntian, Chairman Máo and put forward the slogan of "do it yourself, have enough food and clothing", and set off a large-scale production movement in Yan'an. The people of Shandong also use pancakes and green onions to support their team, and the Shandong "Tuba Road" with a few green onions tied to the backpack, millet and rifles" can not be more concise to describe the image of the ** army

**In the first few years of arriving in Yan'an, a period of "golden years" was ushered in. Without the encirclement and interception of the Kuomintang army, he was far away from the Japanese invaders, and his life was stable, and his food and clothing were guaranteed. However, this situation lasted for only three or four years, and after the Southern Anhui Incident, the Nationalist Government stopped supplying military funds to Yan'an and imposed a material blockade. The border district government fǔ requisitioned troops and horses to prepare for war,

However, natural disasters have caused food shortages. The food of ordinary staff in Yan'an is small rice with potatoes and cabbage soup

Only old comrades of the rank will be rationed some rice. The commander of the 115th Division invited war correspondent Ke Hua to dinner several times, but each time he was just stewing an old mother jī.

The living conditions in the troops of the Eighth Route Army are even worse, the recruits of the better troops still have a set of military uniforms when they report for duty, and the troops with bad conditions can't even solve the minimum clothing of the troops, we often see that the troops of the Eighth Route Army are wearing peasant civilian clothes, which is not that they don't want to wear military uniforms, but they really don't have it. Even if there were, only one set of clothes was issued, and there was no change of washing, so I had to go to the river on Sunday to strip naked, while bathing in the river, eating mostly small rice and mountain yào eggs.

The gap in food standards reflects the rise and fall of the national strength of China and Japan, and at the same time, it also widens the gap between the combat effectiveness of the two teams. Therefore, while the Japanese cavalry troops were eating at the outskirts of Kuancheng, the Chinese cavalry troops were starving in a ravine thirty miles away from the Japanese cavalry units and waiting for orders from their superiors. Even the chariot troops, which Han Yunhua attaches great importance to, only have a ration of less than one pound of food per day, and after breakfast and lunch, there is no dinner, so the vast majority of soldiers are willing to ask the cooks to eat at five o'clock in the afternoon, otherwise they will be hungry and unable to sleep at night.

At five o'clock in the afternoon of August 29, 1939, the Japanese cavalry group, which had rested for an hour, launched a surprise attack on the castle of Tokuan in the east of Chengdeok under the orders of Lieutenant General Nao Yoshida, the commander of the group. This opened the curtain on the destruction of the cavalry group, and also marked the tragic end of the last cavalry division of the Japanese army.

Although Kuancheng is called a city, but in fact it is not a city, not even the minimum city wall, after the Eighth Route Army took over the city defense of Kuancheng, it built a lot of city fortifications, but there are also some simple pillboxes and road card trenches. And the Japanese cavalry group did not hide their whereabouts along the way, anyway, even if Yoshida wanted to hide it, he couldn't hide it, more than 15,000 cavalry was not fifteen cavalry, and even such a large number of men and horses could not be concealed. Therefore, Yoshida Nao simply quickly stabbed Luàn numb, and ordered the troops to kill people when they saw the city directly, and quickly approached Chengde, without giving the squadron any time to react. ,

Han Yunhua was very "cooperative" with the actions of the Japanese army, every Chinese infantry regiment guarded a roadside high ground for a while, and retreated after fighting for half an hour, anyway, the cavalry was just an ornament in the mountains, could he still charge on the mountain beams. So it also gave the Japanese army a false impression that the ** squadron was so vulnerable, including Han Yunhua's department. At the same time, it also verified the news that the Chinese Jīng Rui troops in eastern Hebei had been surrounded by the local divisions of the Great Japanese Empire in Qian'an.

Kuancheng is the first official pass set by Han Yunhua for the Japanese cavalry, because the victory in front has made the Japanese cavalry blindly confident, although this is good, but it also objectively improves the momentum of the Japanese army, which is not conducive to the next annihilation battle, so Han Yunhua wants to kill the morale of the Japanese army in Kuancheng.

The number of the squadron in Kuancheng was not large, as the previous Japanese intelligence showed, it was an infantry battalion. However, the number of this infantry battalion was not three hundred, nor four hundred, but a full seven. Although Kuancheng is important, the place in Kuancheng is really not big, the whole Kuancheng is just one street, and the rest are all small alleys, and it is already the limit to station a reinforced battalion, and it is not good to have more.

At the same time as the Japanese cavalry troops charged over, the defenders of Kuancheng were already in a tight position, although there was no mén in the east of the city, but there was a small hill that was not high, and the only road was at the foot of the hill, so the blocking position of the Eighth Route Army was set up in this hill.

Garrisoned in Kuancheng was the Sharp Knife Battalion of the 3rd Brigade of the Independent 77th Division, with a total number of 729 people, which was also one of the largest infantry battalions in the regular troops of the Inner Méng Ancient Military Region, and the most sharp infantry battalion of the 3rd Brigade. In order to accomplish the task given by the leader of the military region, the Third Brigade was regarded as having made a bloody investment, and the commander of the Third Brigade, Tie Hu, transferred the only high-level machine gun company in the only fire support regiment in his hand to the commander of the Sharp Knife Battalion. And in terms of intelligence, it also fully cooperated with the Sharp Knife Battalion, and as soon as the Japanese army stepped into the boundary of Kuancheng, the Japanese army was targeted by the intelligence officers of the Third Brigade, so every time the Japanese army occupied a place, the Sharp Knife Battalion knew it clearly.