"Marines?" Tada Jun looked at Okamura Ninji inexplicably, waiting for his next step.

Okamura Ninji nodded and said: "That's right, it's the Marine Corps, don't you two forget, the 1st and 3rd fleets of the Imperial Navy anchored in Tianjin Port, in addition to more than 200 carrier-based aircraft and hundreds of large and small warships, also have more than 10,000 elite marines?" ”

Iizawa Mamoru suddenly realized, and suddenly said: "I understand, Okamura-kun, do you mean to send more than 10,000 marines to join this battle?" ”

"It was to ask them to join this campaign, but instead of directly participating in the Battle of Pingjin, they gave full play to the mobile advantages of the naval fleet, and ordered the 1st and 3rd naval fleets to send enough landing ships and cover carrier-based aircraft and warships to secretly carry more than 10,000 elite marines.

After landing, under the cover of carrier-based aircraft, they could go straight to Dezhou, and after breaking through Dezhou, they would continue to go deep and guide the enemy's base camp in the Pingshan area.

In addition, it can also go north a little to attack Cangzhou, and the Northern Expedition of the Chinese Army will definitely come out of the nest, and the elite of this Marine Corps will be like a sharp knife to give the enemy a fatal blow.

Whether it is to attack Dezhou, or to flank Cangzhou, we need the cooperation of our other imperial troops, so that it can not take into account the beginning and the end, I build yì, this grand strategic roundabout assault plan, it is best to wait for our local reinforcements to arrive, and then unite with the imperial army south of the Yellow River, Shandong to cooperate with the operation, implementation, and strive to complete the battle, completely defeat the dragon's tooth column, wipe it out, and relieve this great trouble for the empire. "Okamura Ninji is high-spirited and confident.

Tada Jun nodded again and again when he heard this, but Iizawa Mamoru said: "General, please forgive me for being blunt, our newly formed 150,000 troops in our homeland will not be able to rush to the North China battlefield for support in at least twenty days or even a month, and our defense line in Bazhou and Zhuozhou may not be able to support them until they arrive." ”

Okamura Ninji smiled confidently, turned around and walked to the combat map hanging on the wall, picked up a wooden command pole, pointed to the area of Zhuozhou and Bazhou on the map, and turned his head to Tada Jun and Iizawa who followed him: "Chief of Staff, Your Excellency Commander, you see, it is precisely because of the urgency of the front line, so from now on, in addition to sending out the 20,000 cavalry of the Kwantung Army, we also need to transfer all the garrisons in Pingjin and Tianjin, as well as north of Beiping and even in Shanhaiguan, to the south as much as possible.

Transferring them to the front line of Bazhou and Zhuozhou to enrich the garrison of the front line, as long as we deploy them properly and no longer adopt simple passive defensive tactics, I believe that we should be able to support the arrival of reinforcements on the mainland.

And we don't have to wait for all the 150,000 troops to arrive, as long as the reinforcements that come can make up for the losses we have lost on the front line during this time.

As for the 10th Division and other units in Shandong south of the Yellow River, it was mainly to contain the troops of the Longya Column on the south bank of the Yellow River. ”

After listening to this, Tada Jun fell into deep thought, and Mamoru Iizawa also nodded, making a contemplative statement, in fact, he had already agreed with Okamura Ninji's plan from the bottom of his heart, but as the commander, Tada Jun had not yet expressed his position, so he naturally couldn't rush to express his position.

After a while, Tada Jun raised his head and said solemnly to Okamura Ninji: "Okamura-kun, I think your plan is very feasible, so I have decided that from now on, you will officially be fully responsible for the operational deployment and command of the various departments of our North China Front Army, and I hope you can go all out to fight this battle well, and win it for the empire and for His Majesty the Emperor, because in North China, we really can't lose anymore." ”

Okamura Ninji was a little surprised, Tada Jun would hand over the command to him so easily, and after a moment of surprise, he also saluted Tada Jun with a solemn expression: "Please rest assured, Your Excellency Commander, I will do my best to be loyal to the empire and His Majesty the Emperor, and I will definitely win this battle!" ”

"Well, Okamura-kun, if you have this strategy, I believe you will be able to defeat our biggest and most cunning opponent, Qiao Youhua!" Tada Jun nodded.

…………

On the same day, Okamura Ninji instructed General Iizawa to directly communicate the telephone numbers of the front-line command posts in Bazhou and Zhuozhou with the confidential room of the Beiping Headquarters, and then formally and directly took over the command and ordered the front-line commanders to report the movements of the enemy and us in a timely manner so that he could make a response.

In the direction of Zhuozhou, Liu Yidao has been ordered by Jiang Haidong to personally lead the first step corps, four regiments of tank regiments, artillery regiments, and air defense regiments directly under the division headquarters, and nearly 20,000 troops have arrived in the suburbs of Zhuozhou.

was launching an attack on the Japanese army's field defensive positions, and the devils were simply passive at first, and under the double blow of tanks and artillery of the 1st Division of Longya, the losses were very heavy.

However, when Okamura Ninji officially took over the command and learned of this situation, he immediately instructed the defenders of Zhuozhou to quickly dig anti-tank trenches in the second line of defense outside the city, and to dig various anti-artillery bunkers in the trenches of the defensive line.

Organize elite daredevils, enter the front-line trenches, carry explosive bags, and wait for the opportunity to launch a sudden counteroffensive counterattack against the attacking troops of the Dragon's Tooth Column, delaying the offensive of the Dragon's Tooth Column.

When the first line of defense of the Japanese army in the field was lost, the Japanese army and the puppet army quickly retreated into the second line of defense along the communication trench prepared in advance, and at this time, the Japanese army and the puppet army behind had dug an anti-tank trench in front of the trench according to the instructions of Okamura Ninji.

When the 1st Division's infantry and troops took advantage of the situation to capture the first line of defense of the devils and advanced over, the tank trench immediately became an insurmountable obstacle for the 1st Division's tank regiment.

The tanks couldn't get through, and the infantry couldn't jump over, so they could only rely on the blocked tanks and the devils to fire across the anti-tank trenches.

However, after all, the devil soldiers had fortifications to rely on, and it was impossible for the infantry of the 1st Division of Longya to hide behind the tanks, so after a fierce confrontation, the casualties of the troops increased sharply.

Although the firepower of the devils is not as good as that of the Dragon's Tooth Column, its shooting accuracy is very high, but fortunately, it is covered by the powerful and dense fire of the tank regiment's vehicle-mounted machine guns to avoid further expansion of the casualties of the Dragon's Tooth Infantry.

In a hurry, the 1st Division could not find enough planks and other materials, and crossed the anti-tank trench dug by the devils, so it could only stop the attack, and use the artillery regiment to fire shells at the Japanese positions and carry out covering bombardment.

However, most of the devils and puppet soldiers hid in the fortifications such as anti-artillery holes they had temporarily dug in time, and the casualties were not large, and for a while, the war in Zhuozhou entered a stalemate stage.