The countdown to the Inner Mongolia Military Region's attack on Xilin Gol has begun, but Wan Guoquan, the commander at the forefront of this battle, is not worried about the outcome of this battle at all. Of course, Han Yunhua has nothing to worry about, this time the troops led by Wan Guoquan are all rapid reaction forces with a very high level of mechanization, although the equipment under the command of King De is not bad, but the cavalry with backward tactics and weak will to fight is really a knife to kill chickens, and it is overkill.

As a sign of the end of the cavalry era, the tragedy of the Polish cavalry during World War II told Han Yunhua and every military commander that the cavalry, which is no longer suitable for the era of hot weapons, is time to throw it into the garbage heap of history.

Poland is strategically important because it is located in the eastern part of Europe, bordered by the Soviet Union to the east, Germany to the west, Czechoslovakia to the south, and the Baltic Sea to the north. As a result, Poland became the "fatty" coveted by Hitler, and he wanted to occupy it as soon as possible. At dawn on September 1, 1939, the German army concentrated superior forces to encircle Poland from the west, south, and north, and for the first time used the powerful "blitzkrieg" combat concept, and at the beginning of the war, the Polish army was dizzy with absolutely superior forces.

Poland, located in the eastern part of Europe, borders the Soviet Union to the east, Germany to the west, Czechoslovakia to the south, and the Baltic Sea to the north, and is of great strategic significance. As a result, Poland became the "fatty" coveted by Hitler, and he wanted to occupy it as soon as possible. Although Poland was not a military power at that time, it was not comparable to the small countries of Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Ludenburg. However, Poland was still very weak compared to the powerful Germany. Of course, this only refers to the years when World War II was about to break out, and as for why Hitler didn't clean up other countries, he had to look at Poland, and finally built so many concentration camps in Poland and slaughtered so many Polish Jews. In addition to the factors of Poland's geographical location, there is also a point that after Germany's defeat in World War I, Poland hoped that Germany would be slumped from now on, so it tried every means to weaken Germany, and in Germany's unbearable period of more than ten years, Poland did not "take care" of Germany, so there was a bane planted before, at dawn on September 1, 1939, the German army concentrated superior forces to encircle Poland from the west, south and north, and for the first time used the powerful "blitzkrieg" combat idea, At the beginning of the war, the Polish army was dizzy with absolute superiority.

At that time, the backward and conservative Polish army was almost unaware of the great changes in the outside military, let alone the great power of the tanks used by the German army, but remained in the era of cavalry omnipotence. The Polish cavalry had to be said to be brave, in September 1939 they used spears and sabers to face German tanks and armored vehicles, and they defended their dignity as a soldier with their lives (this was deliberately exaggerated by German war correspondents, and "universal cavalry fighting tanks" was a lie that both Poland and Germany were willing to accept). At that time, it was the Polish cavalry that saw the German infantry on the flank, and then organized a charge, but then the German armored units appeared, and there was a scuffle, and the Polish cavalry retreated and opened fire, and then it slowly evolved into the myth of the Polish cavalry cutting tanks. At that time, the Polish cavalry was equipped with more advanced weapons, not weaker than the cavalry of the German and Soviet armies) but still did not return the security and freedom of the country. On the battlefield, Poland thought that the armor of German tanks was nothing more than camouflage made of tinplates. So the Polish cavalry swarmed up and launched a fierce attack on the German tanks with their sabers and spears. The Polish cavalry was very brave, and they swept in like a storm, and the sound of horses' hooves and shouts of killing was resounded. However, the guns of the German tank units were much more powerful than the cavalry. The cavalrymen fell in rows and columns, barely able to get close to the tanks. The Poles were indeed heroic, the front fell, the back made up, and the Germans in the tank felt that this was no longer a battlefield, but a shooting range or even a slaughterhouse. Seeing that the Poles had no intention of surrendering, or even retreating, the Germans happily went to kill one by one, row after row.

Under a powerful German attack, the Polish army was quickly routed. On September 28, 120,000 defenders of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, surrendered. On October 6, the Polish army was completely annihilated, and the German-Polish war ended. A country with a population of 34 million and an army of more than 1 million has been shattered in just over a month. Subsequently, Britain, France and other countries declared war on Germany, officially opening the curtain of World War II.

In fact, this war was also a rehearsal for Han Yunhua's German blitzkrieg in China, although Han Yunhua did not have a huge armor cluster like Germany in his hands, but he was dealing with the enemy who did not have many armored troops. Besides, his own forces in the Suiyuan region are not too strong, and he does not think that Han Yunhua's troops have the strength to enter the northeast, so the forces stationed in the northeast, especially in the Suiyuan region, are not too strong. It happens to be a whetstone for Han Yunhua to test the power of the blitzkrieg, and it will not attract the attention of many parties.

Maybe it's God's test of the tank troops, when De Gurion used the blitzkrieg to clean up France, he had to go through the test of the Ardennes Mountains, and Han Yunhua's tank troops had to undergo the tempering of the Hunshandak sands, after more than three days of rapid marching, after paying for thirteen tanks to break down and forty-nine light tanks to suffer varying degrees of attrition, Wan Guoquan led the mechanized brigade to finally arrive at Sangendalai, which is more than 150 kilometers away from Xilinhot.

At this time, Wan Guoquan found that the number of Mongolian herdsmen began to increase, and it was impossible to keep it secret, so Wan Guoquan had to order the cavalry troops to expand the scope of reconnaissance as much as possible and avoid those large and small tribes of the Mongolian tribes, after all, they were going to attack people's nests this time, and they couldn't be sloppy easily.

At the same time, the integrated 300th Division, which was fighting on the southern front, also launched an offensive against the puppet army in Weixian, Zhangjiakou, Wanquan, Huai'an, and other counties and cities under the leadership of Political Commissar Yang Chengwu. As the main force of Han Yunhua's major war, the burden of Yang Chengwu's troops was really not light, first of all, they had to face the vast majority of the main force of the North China Front Army, which numbered more than 100,000. At the same time, as the party that took the initiative to attack, the casualties of the reorganized 300th Division were certainly not small.

In fact, this is exactly the case, on the first day of the war, less than an hour after the start of the war, the reorganized 300th Division began to use weapons of mass destruction, even the Japanese army began to use 75mm mountain artillery and field artillery to carry out non-stop artillery bombardment, and even the air force, which had always been expensive, was dispatched.

In less than an hour of fighting, there were heavy casualties between the two sides, which was not something that Han Yunhua and General Binshan Yuan could have predicted. In Han Yunhua's thoughts, the battle of the destruction of the entire company would definitely occur, but it would definitely not appear on the first day.

As the highest military commander of the Chinese army in North China, General Binshan Yuan's strategic level is still very superb, and from the very beginning he did not take the central [***] team in southern Hebei in his eyes, and more than 100,000 elite troops of the Chinese army have placed the direction of attack in northern China, especially in the face of the Inner Mongolia Military Region, which is not far away.

This time, Han Yunhua's subordinate was still aware of the abnormal movement of Bin Shanyuan, but because the Inner Mongolia Military Region's anti-reconnaissance and counter-espionage work was extremely strict, the special high-tech section of the said army only detected the movement of some units of the reorganized 300th Division and the 77th Reading Division. In addition, there is some other information, but the value is much lower.

After a morning of discussion, all the senior officers of the North China Front Army agreed that the possibility of the Chinese [***] team making a big move was not high, and the frequent movement of Han Yunhua's troops was probably to build momentum for the Eighth Route Army in southern Hebei, and wanted to contain the main forces of the empire in northern China, so as to reduce some pressure on the Eighth Route Army in southern Hebei. However, if the empire launched a sweep of the Eighth Route Army in southern Hebei, there was no guarantee that the army would not go south directly, according to the consistent practice of killing gods, there seemed to be nothing he did not dare to do or could not do.

Han Yunhua was successful, because he did not follow common sense, so although the army made a certain analysis of him, he still couldn't figure out his way to fight. The Eighth Route Army, which attacked Wei County, proceeded very smoothly, and it took only two short days to break through the first line of defense of the Yue Army, and after paying the casualties of an infantry battalion, it finally approached the second line of defense in Wei County.

The Eighth Route Army, which attacked Wanquan, Huai'an and other counties, also made smooth progress, and formed a joint encirclement of Zhangjiakou, an important town in northern Saibei, with the 1st Assault Brigade attacking Zhangjiakou. However, the Eighth Route Army, which attacked Zhangjiakou, encountered difficulties. The army stationed in Zhangjiakou was none other than Yang Chengwu's old opponent Yamashita Fengwen, and at this time Yamashita Fengwen was not the commander of the major general's brigade, and that old devil was the best officer in the confrontation with the Inner Mongolia Military Region in the past two years because of his outstanding combat achievements. That's why he was exceptionally promoted to division commander by the base camp two months ago, and his rank was also promoted from major general to lieutenant general.

Why is it called an exceptional promotion, this has to be said by the origin of Yamashita Fengwen. Yamashita Fengwen is from the Imperial Road faction, and he is said to be the right-hand man of the Imperial Road faction in this army. On August 1, 1934, Yamashita was promoted to major general. On March 15, 1935, Yamashita was transferred back to the Ministry of War and appointed as the head of the Military Investigation Department.

However, in 1936, there was a major event that shocked the whole Yueben, and on February 26, the young officers of the Imperial Daoist faction were dissatisfied with the long-term suppression of the ruling faction, and planned to launch the "Two? 26 Incident". In the handling of the incident, the head of the imperial sect naturally had a sympathetic and supportive attitude. However, the next day, Emperor Showa issued an order to suppress the rebellion, saying, "If the Minister of War is unable to do anything, I will personally lead the army to quell the rebellion." "The situation has taken a turn for the worse for the Imperial Sect. On the 29th, the rebel lineup collapsed, and the "226" ended in failure.

Immediately after the incident subsided, the army began to enforce a large-scale "purge of the army", and the imperial faction was purged like never before. Senior officers of the Imperial Sect, such as Sadao Araki and Shizaburo Mazasaki, were dismissed from their military staff posts. The commander of the Kwantung Army, Minamijiro, and the chief military attache, Shigeru Honjo, were transferred to the reserve. By 1 August, the Army had issued an order to make an unprecedented redeployment of nearly 3,000 officers.

Yamashita was a loyal follower of Sadao Araki, Shinzaburo Masaki and others in this incident, and the troops in this incident came partly from the 3rd Wing of the old department. After the incident was cleaned up, Yamashita was determined to retire from the army, but was retained by the Minister of War Yoshiyuki Kawashima and transferred to the commander of the 40th Brigade of the Soldiers in Yongsan, North Korea, and left the Ministry of the Army.

In that period in Korea, it can be said that Yamashita Fengfumi has been the most idle since he joined the army, and the commander of the 14th Brigade does not have many affairs in the management of the army in peacetime. The division commander is in charge of major matters, and the wing commander below is responsible for small matters. Therefore, for Yamashita Bongbun, life in North Korea can be said to be as calm as water.

However, his colleagues around him all knew that he was once a figure in the center of power, and only because 226 was "demoted" to this point, they were somewhat in awe of him. Even the governor of the DPRK went beyond the army commander and the division commander to discuss the issue directly. Yamashita Fumi, on the other hand, unabashedly raised his objections during the discussions.

Yamashita was often angry with the emperor because of the 226 incident, and he felt sorry. Every time he talked about it, he said, "I have done something sorry for Your Majesty, and it is not okay not to work hard to atone for my sins." As a sign of piety, he always paid his respects by turning his desk in the direction of Tokyo, regardless of the reality of his office. About a year after Yamashita Fengfumi went to Korea to take up his post, his army provoked the July 7 Incident in China. This gave Yamashita Fengwen in the "Fallen" a new chance.

After the July 7 Incident, on July 11, the Shocho decided to further expand the plan for the war of aggression. At that time, the 20th Division received an order to leave for China. On the 16th, the 20th Division set out from Korea. A few days later, Yamashita led his troops to the Pingjin area. On the morning of the 28th, the army launched a full-front attack on Beiping according to the predetermined plan. Yamashita Fengfumi led his troops to immediately enter the battle to capture Nanyuan. Subsequently, he led his troops to Changxindian and Langfang. For Yamashita Fengfumi, this was the first time in his life that he participated in the war. All the officers and men of the 40th Brigade Regiment under his command also participated in the battle for the first time. On the first day of the battle, Yamashita Fumi, as usual in the exercises, personally supervised the battle at the front line, standing behind the soldiers who were crawling on the ground and shooting without any protection, and calibrating them with leather whips. Soon, this incident spread throughout the battlefield and became a symbol of his "bravery". In a recent battle, Yamashita Fumi, at a critical moment in the battle, withdrew his troops from the front line, which was in a state of stalemate, without many people understanding. Afterwards, Yamashita Bongfumi left a reputation of "loving the people". From the end of July to mid-to-late August, the Central Command successively transferred the 5th, 6th, 10th, and 16th Divisions and the newly organized 108th and 109th Divisions to North China. With the increasing number of troops in North China, the General Staff Headquarters of the Chinese Army decided on 24 August to establish the North China Front Command. On August 31, he was appointed commander by Terauchi Hoichi. So far, the North China Front Army has been organized, with 8 divisions and mixed brigades under the jurisdiction of the Chinese garrison, a total of 8 and a half divisions and regiments, and more than 170,000 people.

In the process of the formation of the North China Front, Yamashita Fengwen was transferred to the commander of the Chinese Tun Mixed Brigade, which directly governed the headquarters of the North China Front, that is, the Yamashita Brigade that later fought with Han Yunhua's headquarters for more than two years. The Yamashita Brigade was responsible for garrisoning the Pingjin area, and Yamashita was named Pingtuo for promotion. Since August 1937, when he became the commander of the mixed brigade of the Chinese garrison in Tun, Yamashita spent most of his time in North China, which undoubtedly provided great convenience for him to approach the commander of the North China Front, Terauchi Shouichi, who was also stationed in Beiping. In addition, Terauchi Shouichi was originally a friend of his old father-in-law, and he also took care of Yamashita Fumi on the 226 incident, which made Yamashita Fumi more dedicated to showing his standard professional soldier's talent while being grateful and intimate. During the period when Terauchi Shouichi was in charge of North China, Yamashita Fengwen was well taken care of, and the Yamashita Brigade under his command was the best in the entire North China Front Army in terms of soldier quality and weaponry, and even the rare combat vehicles in the army were given priority equipment to the Yamashita Brigade, which also gave Yamashita Fengwen and Han Yunhua's command the strength to call the board.

In 38 years, General Binshan Yuan took over as Terauchi Shouichi and became the commander of the North China Front, and Binshan Yuan was originally one of the leaders of the "226" incident and one of the leaders of the imperial faction, so he was even more optimistic about Yamashita Fengwen, the right-hand man of the imperial faction. This can be seen from the huge establishment of 12,300 people in an ordinary infantry brigade under Yamashita Fengwen, and ordinary people do not have this treatment anyway.

It is precisely because of this reason that although Yamashita Fengwen did not take much advantage in the confrontation with Han Yunhua's troops in the past two years, the North China Front Army was the best one in the situation. Therefore, for a time, the daimyo of Yamashita Fengwen once again set off a lot of waves in the army, and at the same time he also had a lot of fame in China. Especially in Yan'an and other places, the [***] senior leaders all know that there is such a strong general as Yamashita Fengwen in this army, and he can compete with Han Yunhua, a lucky general.

Not long ago, the 1st Brigade of the Chinese Garrison Army, to which Yamashita Fengwen belonged, was expanded into the 1st Division of the Chinese Garrison Army, and Yamashita Fengwen naturally assumed the post of division commander. The 1st Division of the Chinese Garrison Army was still stationed in Zhangjiakou, and it became the closest field division to Han Yunhua's headquarters in northern China.

The combat effectiveness of the Yamashita Division is obvious to all, and because of the frequent battles with Han Yunhua's subordinates, Yamashita Fengwen himself is extremely sensitive to Han Yunhua and the troops of the entire Inner Mongolia Military Region.

As soon as he took office, Yamashita Fengwen strengthened the defense level of Zhangjiakou and the surrounding counties and cities of Zhangjiakou, and built a large number of fortifications, which was extremely rare since the invasion of China.

In addition to attacking or attacking, the commanders of the field division would build fortifications at this time, because they thought that it was unnecessary, and they saw the strength of the [***] team, and building so many fortifications would only be in vain, but would delay the time for the attack.

(To be continued)