The smooth landing of the airborne troops in Mandalay temporarily made Zhao Zhi's heart fall to the ground, and sending the 1st Airborne Division to parachute to Mandalay was not a plan that Zhao Zhi had made early on. The 150,000 Japanese troops drawn from the Philippine battlefield did not arrive in Burma at one time, and the Sixth Division came out on top, so it was almost a week's trip faster than the follow-up troops.

There were too many Japanese troops advancing into Burma, and Zhao Zhi was not sure that he would take advantage of the war in Burma, but this reckless Sixth Division could not let them go back under any circumstances. Knowing that the follow-up troops of the Japanese army would not be able to break through the Tonggu defense line in the near future, Zhao Zhi started the idea of the Sixth Division, and sending airborne troops to take Mandalay was only the first step, and then Zhao Zhi would meet the Sixth Division in a short battle and have a real duel with them.

"Sir, there is news from the scouts we dispersed, about 1,000 Japanese troops are rushing towards Lashio, and the scouts have not yet noticed the appearance of a large army of Japanese troops" Luo Ying, who was back in charge of the orderly, got into Zhao Zhi's headquarters, holding the intelligence message he had just received. Zhao Zhi not only changed their weapons and equipment, but also equipped the scouts with a new type of walkie-talkie and a small radio station with a communication distance of more than 30 kilometers.

"This is the Japanese are doing a test, informing the battalion commander of the 1st Infantry Division, Bob, telling him to take his battalion up to fight the Japanese army, and then transfer the heavy machine gun company to him" A battalion in the Jewish infantry division is 1,000 people, plus a machine gun company equipped with 15 Browning heavy machine guns, Bob's actual command has reached 1,300 people, which is about the same as the number of Japanese troops who came to attack.

In Zhao Zhi's dictionary, there has never been a one-on-one hard fight, from the beginning of Shanxi, Thunder has always been based on sports warfare, ambush warfare and assault warfare, only when the conditions are not allowed, there will be a battle like the Taiyuan offensive and defensive battle. Thunder has less than 120,000 troops, and Zhao Zhi wants to use them on the edge of the early sword, instead of fighting a war of attrition with the Japanese army. Coincidentally, when Zhao Zhi dispatched troops and equipment to meet the 13th Wing, the commander of the Sixth Division, Kanda Masashi, was also deploying troops, but he did not want to attack the Thunder, but thought about how to introduce the Thunder into the trap formulated by the base camp.

"Division commander, we have just received information that Thunder's airborne troops have raided Mandalay, the imperial troops stationed in Mandalay have been driven out of the city, and Thunder's troops are uniting with the Burmese guerrillas to encircle and suppress them." The position of the Sixth Division is now between Mandalay and Lashio, and the Thunder taking Mandalay is equivalent to cutting off the retreat of the Sixth Division, and if the 50,000 troops gathered by the Thunder in Lashio are forcibly crushed, their 25,000 men will not be able to withstand it.

"Where are the subsequent imperial troops landing in Rangoon?" Kanda Masasang, who knew that this matter was important, did not say anything, but called the adjutant aside and asked in a whisper. The 13th Infantry Wing, which was at the vanguard of the 6th Division, suffered more than half of the casualties, and it was already a blow to the 6th Division, and if Kanda Masashi now told the news that Mandalay had been lost, he couldn't imagine how his officers would react.

"I heard that they were also hit by the same bomb attack in Yangon Harbor, and the troop carriers were blown up and sunk a lot, and now only the 112 Ohara Wing of the 22nd Division, the 56th Division, and the 55th Division have landed in Burma, but they are all blocked by the Tonggu line, and I heard that there are a large number of armed Burmese guerrillas there to intercept them." Kanda Masazen's personal adjutant used two pieces of information in a row to report on the situation of the follow-up Japanese troops, which was actually dissatisfied with the 22nd and 56th divisions. The combined number of those two divisions has already exceeded 30,000, and it is possible that the Burmese guerrillas on the front line will surpass them.

"Baga, these bastards just want to see the jokes of our Sixth Division" After listening to the adjutant's report, Kanda Masang also looked angry, didn't he just make them lose some face on the battlefield in the Philippines, as for joking about the war, could it be that they were really grinding foreign workers on the same ancient front line, watching the Sixth Division being defeated by thunder? "Immediately send a report to the headquarters of the Burmese Front, report back the news of the loss of Mandalay, and at the same time contact the 56th Division and the 22nd Division, and ask them to march towards Mandalay, and be sure to recapture Mandalay and protect our rear road"

The flustered Kanda did not know that he had made a mistake, he should not have assigned the 22nd Division and the 56th Division to attack Mandalay in an ordered tone before the Burmese Front issued an order, although the combat strength and size of the 22nd and 56th Divisions could not be compared with his Sixth Division, but in the sequence of the Burmese Front, they belonged to the same rank. Moreover, Kanda did not know the situation on the Tonggu side, and the actual situation faced by the 22nd and 56th Divisions was far worse than imagined.

Like the 13th Infantry Wing of the 6th Division, the 86th Infantry Wing, which served as the leading task of the 22nd Division, was besieged in Tonggu, and the commander of the 86th Wing was Sasaki, the commander of the Osa rank, who led the 86th Wing to slaughter the so-called anti-Japanese forces when the 22nd Division was transferred to Zhejiang, and was a belligerent guy in the 22nd Division. This time, as the leading wing of the 22nd Division, Sasaki came with the same purpose as Okamoto Baoyuki, and the smooth operation in Zhejiang and the results of the Philippine battlefield made Sasaki a little fluttering, thinking that the so-called thunder was as vulnerable as those American troops.

Although the 22nd Division is only a C division, although it has three infantry combat wings, the 84th, 85th, and 86th, and the infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering, and baggage are complete, the personnel establishment is only 12,000 people, which is less than half of the Sixth Division. The 86th Wing commanded by Sasaki is a strange figure in the 22nd Division, and its number is close to the 2,900-man wing of the temporary three-unit Bangma Division, which is why the 22nd Division will let the 86th Wing serve as the lead.

As with the 6th Division, the 22nd Division, which had landed as soon as it came ashore, was bombed by the Burmese guerrillas, and with the experience of attacking the 6th Division, the 22nd Division had already encountered more than one level of bomb attack this time. Except for the 86th Wing, which was the first to leave the ship, almost all the wings of the 22nd Division suffered casualties, the most serious was the 52nd Mountain Artillery Wing of the 22nd Division, and only three of the 24 75 Mountain Guns of the 52nd Mountain Artillery Wing finally landed in good condition, and the other 75 Mountain Guns sank into the port with the troop carriers.

The Burmese guerrillas dispatched dozens of clippers to ram the Japanese troop carriers this time, forcing the troop carriers carrying the 18 th Division to be diverted to Vietnam to anchor, and at present the Japanese troops in Burma have only two temporary divisions and the 112 Ohara Wing of the 6th, 22nd, 56th, and 55th Divisions, totaling more than 70,000 people. Based on this situation, the Sasaki Wing of the 22nd Division, which suffered the smallest casualties, naturally became the leading force of the follow-up Japanese army, but unfortunately the 86th Wing commanded by Sasaki was not very lucky, and not long after leaving Yangon, it was attacked and surrounded by Burmese guerrillas in Taungoo.

The 86th Wing, which has nearly 3,000 soldiers, is almost unable to move an inch, bullets or grenades fired by the attackers will immediately appear in the places that the top soldiers have just searched, the roads have also been dug into paddy fields by the Burmese guerrillas, and the trucks and baggage teams of the 86th Wing cannot keep up with the speed of the combat troops.

Sasaki thought about taking Moltke to Taunggyi by the detour, but unfortunately the Burmese guerrillas had already prepared, and Moltke had already set up a heavy defensive line, and the 86th Wing commanded by Sasaki wanted to break through these lines, at least half of their ammunition had to be consumed. The Burmese guerrillas, who knew that they were not opponents of the Japanese army, dared to deal with the 86th Wing so boldly, because they saw the logistical supply difficulties of the Japanese troops who landed on the Japanese army, and the dead soldiers who attacked the Japanese troop carriers in Yangon Port were all targeting the hull of the ship transporting artillery and ammunition for the Japanese army, and the current ammunition reserves of the 22nd and 56th divisions could not support them to recapture Mandalay, so Kanda Masashi's plan was doomed to fail.

"Well done, inform our people in Rangoon that when the time is right, we can open the weapons depot and send our stored explosives to the Burmese guerrillas, as long as they dare to exchange fire with the Japanese army, mortars can also be given to them" Zhao Zhi, who was actively preparing for war in Lashio, was overjoyed to learn that there had been another attack on the Japanese landing force in Rangoon. When I left Burma, I left behind those shadows just as intelligence officers, but I didn't expect the shadows to contact the so-called Burmese *** to succeed, Thunder Aid to form the Burmese guerrilla army, originally just to harass the Japanese army to divert the attention of the Japanese army, now it seems that the Burmese guerrilla army is really a bit interesting.

Supporting the Burmese guerrillas to fight against the Japanese army was the wisest decision Zhao Zhi made, just giving up more than 10,000 guns and some food, the Burmese guerrillas dragged the strength of the two divisions alive, and such a good thing was found there. If the Burmese guerrillas can expand their numbers on the front line of Taungoo to 50,000, perhaps Zhao Zhi will be able to close the door and slowly pack up the Sixth Division. Zhao Zhi planned to sit back on the fisherman to increase aid to the Burmese guerrillas, and asked the Burmese to have a good fight with the Japanese army in Dongoo.