"Attack?" Okamura shook his head and said, "No, it's not time to attack in a big way. ”

In fact, Okamura Ninji already had a complete plan in his heart, but for the sake of secrecy, he only reported it to the General Staff Headquarters for the record, and even Lieutenant General Tanabe Moritake, chief of staff of the Front Army, did not know about it, and Okamura Ninji's plan had already been mentioned earlier, and its core was to take three steps.

The first step is to implement the "Huairou" policy, cultivate and win over pro-Japanese forces, and stabilize the public security area.

The second step is to implement the policy of "encroachment" and gradually encroach on the guerrilla areas of the Eighth Route Army.

The third step is to implement the "cage" policy, blockade [***], the base areas of the Eighth Route Army, and sweep them one by one.

So far, Okamura Ninji's first step plan has been completed, and the army has firmly controlled the major cities and almost all the transportation arteries in North China, and more than ninety percent of the county towns are also under the control of the army, and the counties have basically formed pro-Japanese maintenance committees, and the major and medium-sized cities have also elected pro-Japanese autonomous political axes.

Next, the focus of Okamura's work will begin to shift to the "encroachment" policy.

The so-called encroachment policy is to use the tactics of blockhouses to advance step by step into the hinterland of the guerrilla areas of the Eighth Route Army, gradually compress the living space of the Eighth Route Army, and strive to divide and encircle the armed forces of the Eighth Route Army in a completely closed and ineffective base area, and finally eliminate them.

However, Okamura Ninji also understands that North China is really too big, don't look at the North China Front Army under the jurisdiction of ten field divisions and regiments plus eight reading mixed brigades, with a total strength of more than 400,000 troops, but if you want to control the vast countryside, this amount of strength is still only a drop in the bucket, so before implementing the "encroachment" policy, it is necessary to disintegrate the Chinese's united front!

In fact, since the end of the offensive on the frontal battlefield, the North China Front has been operating in secret.

So far, there are high-ranking generals in the Sun Lianzhong group, Yu Xuezhong group, and Jin Sui army who are secretly in contact with the North China Front, and those anti-Japanese armed forces such as saving [***], protecting [***], loyally and righteously saving [***], and fighting brave troops have already hooked up with the puppet political axe supported by Yueben.

Previously, in order not to provoke the national political axe, it was said that the political axe did not openly accept these armed forces.

At the beginning of the war, however, the army was able to fight more than a dozen permanent divisions and regiments, but now, more than a dozen ad hoc divisions and regiments and 20 newly organized divisions and regiments have grown up in the flames of war.

Therefore, even if the national government axe organized troops to launch a large-scale counteroffensive, the army could be calmly defused.

At that moment, Okamura Ninji said to Tanabe Moritake: "Tanabe-kun, order the enemy's Ministry of Engineering to step up contact with the various branches, and give them the best conditions if necessary!" After saying this, Okamura Ningji said, "It is impossible for the imperial army alone to occupy the vast countryside of North China, and we still need to rely on the cooperation of these Chinese troops. ”

"Hello." Tanabe Moritake suddenly bowed his head, and then walked away with his saber on his shoulder.

………… In early March of the 28th year of the Republic of China (1939), a wave of "descending" suddenly blew in the occupied area!

In just a few days, millions of anti-Japanese armed forces behind enemy lines changed their ways, switching to Wang Puppet Political Axe in Nanjing or Wang Kemin's temporary political axe in North China, and Qi Xieyuan, a remnant of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, was secretly instigated by Okamura Ningji to formally form the North China Public Security Army in Beiping, with 12 group armies under its jurisdiction and a pre-formed strength of up to 500,000 troops!

All of a sudden, the anti-Japanese armed forces transformed from bandits and family armed forces all became Han annihilation forces!

In the middle of March of the 28th year of the Republic of China (1939), this sudden downward trend reached **!

On March 12, Cai Xiongfei, deputy commander of a division of the Jin Sui Army, broke away from the Jin Sui Army with two regiments, and defected!

On March 13, Gong Bingfan, commander of the 34th Division, led his troops to surrender at Zhongtiao Mountain, creating a precedent for the entire division of the Central Army to surrender to the enemy!

On 15 March, Li Changjiang, deputy commander-in-chief of the guerrilla corps in the Sulu Theater, led eight detachments (regiments) to defect in northern Jiangsu!

On 16 March, He Xingjian, deputy commander-in-chief of the Southern Jiangsu Theater of Loyalty, Righteousness and Salvation, announced that he would break away from the battle sequence of the National Revolutionary Army and lead 50,000 troops to join Wang's puppet political axe.

By the end of March of the 28th year of the Republic of China, Central China and North China were already full of thieves!

Speaking of which, this is also the inferior root of the Chinese nation, when the army is not stopping on the frontal battlefield, and the Chinese nation is in a precarious situation, and there is a danger of destroying the country and exterminating the species at any time, the entire nation is often able to fight against the aggressors with the same hatred of the enemy, but when the situation eases slightly, the whole nation immediately becomes a plate of scattered sand again.

Under this wave of descending, both [***] and the Eighth Route Army have suffered unprecedented heavy losses!

On the [***] side, millions of armed forces took off their [***] military uniforms overnight, put on dog skins and turned into pseudo-armed forces that aided and abetted the abuse, and the guerrilla theaters behind enemy lines, such as Zhongtiao Mountain, southern Jiangsu, Sulu border, and Luliang Mountain, were all severely damaged, and only Sun Lianzhong's group army in Luzhong and Yue Weihan's group army in Taihang Mountain survived!

On the side of the Eighth Route Army, the "[***]" that was originally fighting side by side with them became an enemy overnight, and when the Eighth Route Army was defenseless, it launched an attack on them from behind, and throughout mid to early March, the telegrams of the attacks on the base areas in North China flew like snowflakes to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in the depths of the Taihang Mountains!

Relatively speaking, the situation in Lunan and southern Hebei is the best.

Because only the guerrillas of the 39th Group Army and the guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army were active in Lunan and southern Hebei, the bandits, family armed forces, and Huidaomen armed forces that were originally wreaking havoc in the area had already been completely absorbed by the 39th Group Army and the Eighth Route Army, and it was absolutely impossible for the 39th Group Army and the Eighth Route Army to defect.

………… Cangyan Mountain, Taihang Arsenal live-fire test site.

After several improvements, the "conscienceless cannon" was finally pushed to the testing ground again.

The first unconscionable cannon was made as early as three months ago, but the test firing effect was not ideal, mainly because the barrel was not long enough, resulting in too close a range, and the thrown ammunition flew less than 100 meters before falling, and the range was slightly farther than that of an infantry grenade, which was far from enough as an infantry support firepower.

After the first improvement, the firing range of the conscienceless cannon reached 500 meters, but Yue Weihan was still not satisfied.

After being improved again, the firing range of the unconscionable cannon reached 800 meters, and this range was Yue Weihan's psychological range, but a new problem appeared, that is, the "shrapnel" thrown was not stable enough, and it was mainly a problem with the timing fuse, which either exploded during the flight or did not explode for a long time after landing.

In the end, Chief Engineer Pi came up with a trick and installed a double fuse on the "shrapnel".

The so-called double fuse, one is the timing fuse, which is actually the fuse, and the other is the impact fuse, which is actually a modified primer, so as to ensure that after the "shrapnel bomb" lands, even if the timing fuse is not burned out, it can explode instantly, without leaving enough time for the enemy to throw the bomb into the anti-gun hole dug in advance.

Now, after several improvements, the unconscionable cannon is finally about to be tested again.

As soon as the leather worker gave the order, the two test shooters quickly set up the unconscionable cannon.

After several improvements, the bracket of the unconscionable cannon has become lighter, only less than 40 kilograms, and the barrel body is less than 100 kilograms, which is much lighter than the "Type 92 Infantry Cannon", which is known as the best mountain artillery in the army.

Of course, the lethality spoken of here is directed at the infantry.

If it is to attack solid targets such as pillboxes, turrets, and armored vehicles, then the unconscionable cannon that cannot fire armor-piercing explosive shells is absolutely inferior to the Type 92 infantry gun, but then again, when dealing with solid targets, the 39th Group Army has individual portable rocket launchers, and there is no need for unconscionable guns at all.

In a moment, the tanner's order was given, and the tester pulled down the fuse.

With a tom, a "shrapnel" with a diameter of 200 mm and a length of more than 300 mm flew out of the barrel with a piercing scream, and in less than ten seconds, the "shrapnel" flew over a distance of seven or eight hundred meters, and then exploded with a bang when it was still about 20 meters above the ground...... When Yue Weihan and the others came to the scene of the explosion, they were deeply shocked by the tragic scene in front of them!

In order to simulate the actual killing effect, the leather workers deliberately made people prick more than 100 scarecrows, all wearing military uniforms.

Some of these scarecrows were lying on their stomachs, some were standing, and some were half-squatting, but this time, all of the 100-odd "Yue Army" were "heroic", and the dozens of Yue soldiers at the center of the explosion were the worst, with at least 100 small steel arrows pierced on their bodies, and their bodies were full of "bullet wounds", and most of the Yue soldiers who were 50 meters away from the center of the explosion also left more than a dozen "bullet wounds."

If this is a real battlefield, then a squadron of devil soldiers will be reimbursed in one shot!

Of course, this is only an ideal effect, first of all, the army will not be so dense, and secondly, there are many unexpected factors on the battlefield, and the shooting accuracy of the artillery cannot be so high, but even if you hit two folds on this basis, one cannon can almost kill a squad of devil soldiers, such lethality is already amazing!

It is no wonder that many countries banned shrapnel for actual combat use in later generations.

It must be admitted that this shrapnel is really a natural enemy of the infantry.

Before Yue Weihan's excitement had passed, Colonel Liu Xin, the chief of the communications department, arrived pantingly: "General, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army has sent an urgent telegram, in order to deal with the arrogant provocation of the Han annihilation forces in North China, the Eighth Route Army will organize the main forces of various military regions to launch a large-scale counterattack, hoping that our 39th Group Army can cooperate." ”

(To be continued)