Chapter 370: Retreat

Tamura Yoshitomi looked coldly at Major General Maruyama Jun and the staff officers in the division and regimental headquarters, and sighed secretly in his heart, this Maruyama Jun is cautious and a good material to be the chief of staff, but he lacks the experience of being the military commander of a unit, and now as soon as the battle situation shows a decadent trend, he immediately rushes to get up.

'Forget it, let me help him one last time before I go back home!' Tamura Yoshitomi thought for a moment and said to the two gendarmes beside him, "Can I say a few words to Maruyama?" ”

The two gendarmes looked at each other and nodded, "Thank you!" Tamura Yoshitomi stood up and walked to Maruyama's side, and said slowly, "Maruyama-kun, I have something I want to say to you, are you willing to listen?" ”

Maruyama Jun was stunned for a moment, turned around and said solemnly: "Of course, Your Excellency the division commander, please speak." ”

Tamura Yoshitomi smiled bitterly and said, "I am no longer your division commander, you still call me Tamura!" ”

"Don't dare, before the order from Tokyo arrived, Your Excellency was still the commander of our division, and now you are only temporarily relieved of your duties." Maruyama said.

Although Tamura Yoshitomi was a little moved in his heart after hearing this, he still said silently on the surface, "Okay, I'll just talk about it, and you can listen to it, if you think it doesn't make sense, you can completely ignore me." Now that the Chinese have captured most of the positions of our division, and trying to stop the charge of the armored group in China on this flat and open terrain is just an act of seeking death, which will only lead our division further into the abyss of death, so it is pointless to hold on now, and the only thing we can do now is to retreat. ”

"Retreat?" Maruyama exclaimed, "Don't you know that Your Excellency Tojo has given a death order?" If we retreat, we'll all be court-martialed!" ”

"That's better than letting the number of the entire 149th Division disappear!" Tamura Yoshitomi sneered: "To be honest, what else will that 'superior soldier' do besides brute force, and now do you really believe his stupid words like 'making the impossible possible'?" Those words are just to say to the soldiers below, but as high-ranking generals of the Empire, can't we still tell which words can be believed, and those words are just slogans? ”

"And where are we going to retreat?" Maruyama asked with a wry smile.

"Wherever there are no of our troops, we will retreat." Tamura Yoshitomi's eyes were shining brightly at this time, "It can be seen that the armored forces of the Shina people are not very large, otherwise our division would have collapsed a long time ago." Therefore, their task is not to annihilate us, but to stir up the front of our army. So now we have a chance to retreat, and if we wait until their infantry catches up, we won't be able to go even if we want to. ”

"Then why don't we join up with the other troops and go together? That way, we'll be much stronger! Maruyama asked, puzzled.

"But that will also be the target of the attention of the people of China!" Tamura Yoshitomi waved his hand and said loudly, as if he had become the division commander of the 149th Division at this time: "I can be sure that if we join up with other troops and then go together, it won't be long before the plane of the people of China will appear above our heads." Therefore, we can only leave now, and quickly withdraw to Liaoyuan to rely on the strong fortifications there to have the capital to resist, otherwise it will be too late! ”

Maruyama Jun was silent after hearing this, staring at Tamura Yoshitomi for a while before hesitating and said, "Tamura-kun, the stakes are very high, you let me think about it again!" ”

"Alas" Tamura Yoshitomi let out a long sigh, silently returned to the corner and sat down, shaking his head secretly in his heart, this Maruyama-kun, when you are constantly interrupted, it is your biggest shortcoming

At this time, on the other side of the position, Yu Chengwan was commanding the 102nd Division with the armored regiment as the lead, and then the 5th and 6th Mechanical Infantry Regiments as the left and right flanks, and the 7th Mechanical Regiment formed a triangular offensive in the middle, impacting the defense line of the 136th Division on the left flank of the 149th Division of the Japanese Army.

The 102nd Division is the first and only division-level unit in Chahar that has completed mechanized rearmament, and the division has a total of 122 'Northwest Tiger' tanks and more than 200 'Grasshopper' infantry fighting vehicles, and the 25-millimeter high-speed guns they are equipped with are powerful support weapons for the infantry, plus more than 600 armored personnel carriers and an artillery regiment, which form their powerful assault force.

The 102nd Division, which had just completed its rearmament, was launching a fierce charge towards the Japanese position under the command of their newly appointed division commander Yu Chengwan.

In the armored group, Zhou Zhen, the commander of the armored regiment, was talking to Yu Chengwan, "Commander Zhou, now the task of your regiment is to break through the first line of defense of the Japanese army as quickly as possible, I don't care what method you use, I want to see our battle flag flying there within half an hour, can you do it?" Yu Chengwan's strong voice came from the headset.

"Shizuo, don't worry, I guarantee that the battle flag you want to see will definitely fly there!" Zhou Zhen patted his chest and reassured.

Putting down the microphone with a snap, Zhou Zhen immediately connected to the public frequency of the armored regiment, "Attention of all units, concentrate firepower to impact the Japanese defense line, remember, we are the 'Tiger Division'!" Attacking is our mission! ”

"Yes, forward!"

"Forward!"

There was just an impassioned voice on the battlefield, "Forward!" ”

More than 100 'Northwest Tigers' rushed towards the Japanese positions at extremely high speeds, and the guns of the tanks in the front row continued to burst into flames, and the explosions of 100-millimeter high-explosive shells continued to sound on the Japanese positions.

Under the blow of a modern group armed with steel, the first line of defense of the Japanese 136th Division was like a young NV stripped of its skirt, and it was quickly lost.

Zhou Zhen and his armored regiment did not stop after breaking through the first line of defense of the Japanese army, and immediately rushed towards the second line of defense of the 136th Division, where the 136th Division of the Japanese Army was located

Charge, charge, charge, and charge, there was only one thought in everyone's hearts, that is, Dòng penetrated the defense line of the 136th Division until there was no trace of the Japanese army in front.

"Buzz"

Just when the armies of the two sides on the ground were breaking out into an unprecedentedly fierce battle, there was a strong roar from the sky. It was a group of more than 120 B17 bombers specially transferred by Su Tong to ensure the smooth progress of the attack.

Du Ming sat in the cab and calmly looked at the soldiers on both sides who were fighting below, "Attention units, reduce the altitude by eight hundred meters, open the magazine, and prepare to drop bombs!" ”

"Understood, open the magazine!"

"Prepare to drop the bomb!"

The target gradually came into Du Ming's eyes, "Units, start dropping bombs!" ”

"Understood, bomb dropping begins!"

"Woohoo"

One after another, high-explosive bombs fell to the ground with a whistling sound, "boom", and violent explosions sounded everywhere on the Japanese army's more than 40-kilometer-long front, and countless cantonment points, ammunition depots, oil depots, baggage and other materials were all wiped out in the explosion.

After the thousands of tons of bombs were dropped, a grim smile appeared at the corner of Du Ming's mouth, "Attention units, return to ship immediately after the bomb is dropped, and hurry up the time to load." ”

The huge large bomber group had just returned home, and another group of tactical bombers rushed to the battlefield under the escort of a large number of fighters, and their task was very simple, that is, to cooperate with the ground forces to open a hole in the Japanese defense line as quickly as possible, and then rely on the mobile superiority of the armored forces to penetrate and turn the Japanese army's 500,000 troops upside down.

Four hours after the attack was launched, the Kwantung Army headquarters was like a vegetable market, and countless staff officers and staff members were scurrying like headless flies.

Hideki Tojo was in a mood at this time as if he had knocked over a five-flavor bottle, and in just a few hours, the situation of the war had changed dramatically, and the counteroffensive launched by the Seventh War Zone caught them off guard.

The Seventh Theater of Operations, with seven infantry divisions led by one armored division and one infantry division equipped with a large number of armored vehicles, turned into two sharp arrows, one on the left and one on the right, and began to carry out a counter-assault on the Japanese army. The various divisions of the Japanese army, which were caught off guard, were already in a group at this time, and they were completely unable to organize effective resistance, and the telegrams requesting tactical guidance flew like snowflakes, making Hideki Tojo and the staff officers in the headquarters all scramble.

Hideki Tojo looked at the busy crowd in the war room and Umezu Mijiro and Ishihara Wan'er, who were sitting in the corner and playing Go leisurely, gritted his teeth and said to the communications staff officer who was standing beside Masahou: "Order the Second Flying Division to immediately dispatch to support the Tongliao front, and be sure to stabilize the battle line." Then give orders to all the troops on the front line, all of them are to defend on the spot, and they are not allowed to give up a position! ”

"Hey!" The communications staff officer bowed and was about to leave.

"Wait!"

At this time, Ishihara Waner, who had never commented on the battle situation in the past few days, stood up, and he came to Tojo Hideki's side and sighed: "Tojo-kun, give up, don't do useless struggles anymore." We lost this game, you better hurry up and order the various troops to withdraw quickly, it's too late to retreat now. ”

"Nani? Retreat, are you kidding? Hideki Tojo jumped up like a cat that had been stepped on its tail, "Do you know what it means to give this order?" That means that the efforts of hundreds of thousands of imperial warriors in the past two months have all been in vain, and the blood of tens of thousands of soldiers has also been shed in vain! ”

Ishihara grabbed Hideki Tojo's collar and shouted with red eyes: "But if you don't order a retreat, then the bleeding soldiers will not be just tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even all!" ”