Taiyuan, the headquarters of the 20th Division of the Army.

Senior General Shanshan Yuan strode into the conference room with his head held high, and the officers sitting on both sides of the room immediately stood up in unison.

This was a belated military review meeting, and the content of the review was the lesson of the destruction of the 20th Division; according to the usual practice of the Chinese army, this review meeting should have been held as early as 10 days ago when the 20th Division had just suffered heavy losses, but because the military side had never figured out how the 20th Division had suffered heavy losses, the meeting was postponed.

It was not until yesterday that the 20th Division finally fled back to Taiyuan, including soldiers of the 39th Infantry Brigade, and the special service organs of the army stationed in Shanxi finally figured out the truth about the destruction of the 20th Division after many spying efforts.

Shanshanyuan waved his hand and motioned for all the officers present to take their seats.

The officers attending the meeting included Lieutenant General Keitake Yamashita, the new commander of the 20th Division of the Chinese Army, Lieutenant General Koshii Toranosuke, the new chief of staff, Major General Shunzaburo Maikura, commander of the 9th Brigade and Regiment stationed in Taiyuan, Major General Shigeharu Yanagishita, commander of the 3rd Brigade and Regiment stationed in Laoxian County (present-day Harahei), and Yasushi Inoue, chief of the special service agency stationed in Shanxi.

"Your Excellency General, after more than ten days of careful investigation by the secret services, combined with the reports of hundreds of defeated troops, we can now basically restore the details of the heavy losses suffered by the 20th Division!" The head of the army's special service in Shanxi, Inoue Yasudazuo, suddenly got up and said loudly, "What the Chinese army has adopted is the tactic of cutting off the head and cutting off the tail and attacking the central part!" ”

"Chopping the head and tail, attacking the middle?" Shanshan Yuan said awe-inspiringly, "Inoue-kun, go on." ”

"Hello." Inoue Yasushi bowed his head suddenly, and explained how the Baoshan Division used mines to severely damage the advance of the 20th Division, the 39th Infantry Brigade, and how it used ambushes to attack Niangzi Pass, blocking the 40th Infantry Brigade to the death, making it impossible to join the 20th Division Headquarters, and finally launched a strong attack at night and completely annihilated the 20th Division Headquarters in one fell swoop.

It must be admitted that the information grasped by the special services of the PLA stationed in Shanxi is basically consistent with the facts.

Shanshan Yuan nodded expressionlessly, the core combat strength of the 20th Division is two infantry brigades.

But the battle has just begun, the 39th Brigade of the Forward Infantry has been hit hard, and the 40th Brigade of the Rear Infantry has also been blocked by the [***] team relying on the favorable terrain to the west of Niangzi Pass, although the headquarters of the 20th Division has nearly 20,000 people, but half of them are non-combatants, and the remaining half are long-retired soldiers in the countryside, and the combat effectiveness in close combat is extremely poor.

Also, the terrain of the Jingcheng Grand Canyon is steep, which is not conducive to the play of the field artillery group of the army, with the help of complex and changeable terrain, the middle [***] team is easy to attack, plus it is a night battle, and it is reasonable that the headquarters of the 20th Division was completely annihilated, after all, the Baoshan Division on the opposite side is a famous ace army, and the ability to fight in close combat and night combat is extremely strong!

"Ladies and ......gentlemen," Shanshan Moto asked, looking around at the crowd, "Is there a lesson worth learning here?" ”

Yamashita Jingwu said: "Your Excellency General, the lesson of the Battle of Niangzi Pass is that Yue Weihan is very good at using the terrain, and is even better at using unconventional tactics such as 'mine warfare', and the Baoshan Division is also very good at night combat, close combat and mountain combat. ”

Yue Shenghu Zhisuke said: "Your Excellency, at present, the focus of the battle of this imperial army is the frontal battlefield in Central China, so I think that the Baoshan Division should still take a defensive position as the best policy, and the Baoshan Division retreated to the Jingcheng Grand Canyon and occupied a favorable terrain, but if you think about it the other way around, why don't they imprison themselves in the mountains?" ”

"You mean......" Shanshan Yuan said happily, "trapping the Baoshan Division in the Jingcheng Grand Canyon?" ”

"Hello." Yue Sheng Hunosuke bowed his head suddenly, then got up and strode to the map hanging on the wall, picked up the command pole and explained to the map, "Your Excellency General, please see, this is the Jingcheng Grand Canyon, from Pingding County in the west to Houlu County in the east, all of which have been controlled by the Baoshan Division, and the 20th Division can seize Pingding County, and then use the 6th Division to capture Houlu County, you can block the exits at the east and west ends of the Jingcheng Grand Canyon." ”

Saying this, Yue Shenghu Zhisuke said: "In this way, the imperial army will be in an absolutely advantageous situation, if the Baoshan Division does not want to sit still, then it can only give up the terrain and take the initiative to attack; If the Baoshan Division is trapped and cannot be defended, when the fighting in the Central China battlefield is temporarily over, the imperial army can gather more than ten divisions and regiments and attack with heavy troops! ”

"Yo Xi!" Shanshan Yuan nodded happily and said, "Yue Shengjun, your suggestion is very valuable!" ”

"Hello!" Yue Sheng Hu Zhisuke suddenly bowed his head and said, "Your Excellency, after seizing Pingding and obtaining Lu County, although the heavy equipment of the Baoshan Division can be blocked from leaving the valley from the main road, it cannot prevent their infantry from leaving the valley from the small road, the imperial army must be vigilant, beware of the Baoshan Division starting with battalions and companies as units, and then suddenly assembling in a certain area and launching a surprise attack. ”

Shanshanyuan nodded, and saluted to the mountain again: "Yamashita Jun, you must recapture Pingding County within two days!" After saying this, Shanshan Yuan said to Inoue Jing again: "Inoue-kun, the secret service agencies should also step up the recruitment of people, build more artillery towers and strongholds in Pingding County, and carry out the most strict monitoring of the Baoshan Division in the Jingcheng Grand Canyon!" ”

"Hello!" Yamashita Keitake and Inoue Yasushi got up at the same time and bowed their heads suddenly.

…………

Jingcheng County, Headquarters of the 39th Group Army.

Yue Weihan was sketching on the paper, calculating something.

Yue Weihan has already chosen the location for building the fortress, but the specific design and construction plan have not yet been seen.

Yue Weihan wants to build a large fortress, not just build a few pillboxes, not to dig a few air-raid shelters or tunnels at will, such a large project, must have a special engineering and technical personnel to be responsible, first of all, according to the mountain terrain to make a set of suitable design schemes, but then according to the scheme strict construction!

The supervision of the project must also have special engineering and technical personnel to be responsible, and others do not know the structural strength, right?

If a layman is allowed to supervise it, and as a result, the fortress built with great difficulty and a lot of manpower and material resources cannot withstand the shelling of a small-caliber howitzer by the army, then it will be a lot of fun.

Thankfully, the first batch of experts and skilled workers who had been asked for by Chairman Chiang had already arrived in Jingcheng County.

It is obviously no coincidence that there are no experts in the arsenal who are professors of major universities or engineers from all walks of life, but there is not a single expert and skilled worker in the arsenal.

Not long after Yue Weihan drawn, he tore the paper off his notebook, crumpled it up and threw it in the trash.

In the trash can, there are no less than a dozen waste paper balls, all of which are Yue Weihan's "design plan", but this so-called fortress "design plan" even Yue Weihan himself feels blush, although he is a good hand at leading troops to fight, but he is really a layman in civil engineering, and he can't cross over.

"Headquarters!" Chu Zhongtian suddenly strode in and stood upright, "The experts are here." ”

Yue Weihan hurriedly put down the pencil, closed the notebook again, and then personally greeted him outside the gate of the headquarters.

Outside the gate of the headquarters, Yue Weihan finally met the two dozen experts, some of these people were wearing suits, some were wearing tunics, and some were wearing homespun robes, most of them were wearing thick short-sighted eyes, Si Swenwen's appearance, when Yue Weihan was looking at them, the experts were also looking at Yue Weihan.

Seeing that these experts were full of simplicity, wisdom, and progress, Yue Weihan couldn't help but feel a slight excitement in his heart, not only because the Taihang base urgently needed these experts, but also because the experts of this era are experts who are truly academic, truly morally noble, and truly academic.

At that moment, Yue Weihan shook hands with the experts one by one, and invited them into the headquarters.

When it was the turn of a middle-aged man in his early forties, he got up and introduced himself: "Commander-in-Chief Yue, the contemptible Mao Yisheng, studied civil engineering at Cornell University in the United States, and then studied at Carnegie in the United States. Studied bridge studies at the Polytechnic Institute of Mellon University. ”

Yue Weihan suddenly shuddered when he heard this, and the bottle in his hand almost fell to the ground by mistake!

Mao Yisheng!? This is a true expert in civil engineering, and an absolute expert in bridges! The first steel structure railway and highway dual-purpose bridge in Chinese history, the Qiantangjiang Bridge, was designed by Mao Yisheng in the 22nd year of the Republic of China (1933), and it should have been less than five years since it was opened to traffic, right?

Seeing Yue Weihan's hurried appearance, Mao Yisheng wondered, "Commander-in-Chief Yue, what's wrong with you?" ”

Yue Weihan put down the bottle and said excitedly: "Mr. Mao, you are really timely, we are planning to modify the two large fortresses in Taihang Base, building materials and labor are not a problem, the key is that we can't find qualified designers, now it's okay, with you, a civil engineering expert, the design problem will be solved!" ”

Mao Yisheng nodded and said: "Commander-in-Chief Yue, the design plan is not a problem, but you have to clarify the specific requirements, that is, the design indicators of the fortress, in addition, I also have to go to the fortress site to investigate on the spot, and then I recommend two colleagues to you, they are also civil engineering experts." ”

"Oh?" Yue Weihan couldn't help but say, "These two experts are also present?" ”

Mao Yisheng nodded, and pointed to the two experts behind him and introduced: "This Mei Xiaochun graduated from Purdue University with a master's degree in civil engineering, and this Qin Qiuyang graduated from Cornell University with a master's degree in civil engineering. ”

The two experts also got up one after another, Yue Weihan hurriedly stepped forward to shake hands with them separately, and after shaking hands with the remaining experts one by one, Yue Weihan turned around and instructed the attendant adjutant Chu Zhongtian to say: "Zhongtian, let the cooking team prepare the banquet immediately, tonight, I will pick up the wind and wash the dust for the experts!" ”

(To be continued)