Chapter 690: Casting the bait again

Wubao ferry port of the Yellow River, in a cave behind the hillside, the snow bright gas lamp, illuminating the spacious cave is bright, the first day of the Yellow River defense of the post-war summary meeting, is being held, Tang Qiuli, who presided over the meeting, did not know that Okamura Ningji had been so angry that he vomited blood twice, looking at the commanders at all levels whose faces were full of the joy of victory, there was a lot of emotion in his heart.

The troops participating in the war this time, Sun Zhenbang's regular troops, are only a small part of them, most of them are temporarily formed armed in Dingbian, but these people who picked up guns and went to the battlefield for the first time, in the face of the fierce artillery fire of the Japanese army, can fully follow the requirements of the order, stick to their respective posts, and do not panic, the table on the battlefield is very surprising to him, especially after the Japanese army of more than 5,000 people landed on the West Bank, it is a great challenge for those who have experienced the war for the first time.

Tang Qiuli's series of tactics were formulated in response to Okamura Ningji's cunning and suspicious character, he knew that this old devil was a China expert, and he boasted that he was familiar with Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Then, let the first wave of Japanese troops develop in depth, so that Okamura Ninji thought that the crossing of the river had been successful, planted an ambush behind the hillside far from the shore, and took advantage of Okamura Ninji's eagerness to expand the results of the battle, concentrated the artillery fire of five regiments, and shelled the second wave of Japanese troops crossing the river, this is the art of war "half-crossing and attacking", this is his final work, and it really achieved miraculous results, killing more than 10,000 Japanese troops, and achieving a great victory on the first day of the war.

In the end, there were no follow-up reinforcements, and the more than 5,000 Japanese troops who were alone in the depths, the Dingbian people's armed forces, in the annihilation of this Japanese army, made Tang Qiuli look at them with admiration, and the artillery who made miraculous contributions in the battle, except for one regiment is Sun Zhenbang's troops, the other four regiments are all composed of Dingbian reservists, and in the artillery battle with the Japanese artillery, the table xiàn showed an extremely skillful combat element, in his opinion, it has been almost the same as the artillery of the field corps, That's what he's most satisfied with.

Okamura Ningji was hit hard, he no longer dared to carry out a large-scale river-crossing attack operation, because of the situation, he had to give a heavy blow to Okamura Ningci's first attack, with the character of an old devil, after being beaten once, there would never be a second such a good opportunity for himself to take advantage of, Okamura Ningji would find another way to achieve his goal, Tang Qiuli could breathe a sigh of relief.

He asked the cooking squad to prepare some good meals, and the commanders who stayed at the meeting to eat, that is, to treat everyone, but also to boost morale, the dinner was really good, there was even fresh Yellow River carp, it is said that several soldiers of the cooking class, salvaged in the downstream stable water, the various commanders who talked very happily, applauded, and claimed to give the artillery a great credit, without their overwhelming shells, how can we eat the Yellow River carp.

Tang Qiuli smiled and nodded, he liked this atmosphere very much, maybe it was his self-respecting identity, General Jiang Baili did not talk and laugh like those young officers, but his eyes never left Tang Qiuli, this young general, let him feel more than once what a miracle is, today's battle plan, from the perspective of General Jiang Baili's veteran, there are more elements of adventure, if you are commanding regular troops, this is completely in line with reality.

He reminded Tang Qiuli that once the Japanese army landed on the shore, the Dingbian armed forces lacking actual combat experience could easily be broken through the defensive line, after all, fighting the Japanese army face-to-face was not the same thing as being separated by a Yellow River, and the psychological reaction was not the same, and armed civilians who had not been on the battlefield should not panic, and there was a possibility of abandoning their positions and fleeing.

For this reason, Jiang Baili also transferred two regiments of his cadet brigade to the vicinity of the ferry, ready to remedy the situation at any time when there is an accident, Tang Qiuli did not accept his opinion, still according to the established style of play, Jiang Baili admired it very much, it was him, he would never take the risk of fighting like this, even if it was successful, but he was still impressed by Tang Qiuli's boldness.

Okamura Ningji was ill for two days, and in these two days, he lay on the marching bed, thinking about one thing over and over again, has Tang Qiuli's main force been deployed on the west bank of the Yellow River? If not, then how to explain the losses suffered by the Imperial Army, and if so, so much intelligence brought back by agents is all fake? Okamura Ninji didn't understand, but he understood one thing, judging from the tactics adopted by the opponent, the ferocious attack should be Tang Qiuli personally commanding, at least it should be a senior officer at the level of corps commander commanding the battle.

Okamura Ningji was embarrassed, he did not dare to adopt the method of large-scale river crossing operations, the first lesson was too profound, small-scale river crossing operations, and did not play much role, the artillery that served as fire cover could not take advantage, several artillery battles across the river, his artillery wing, was beaten and forced to change positions several times, he also tried to smuggle at night, in addition to suffering countless bullets and mortar shells, more than 2,000 corpses in the Yellow River, Mao did not catch a single hair.

Okamura Ningji had another sharp weapon in his hands, more than 300 tanks of the two tank wings, but if they did not cross the Yellow River, they were a pile of scrap iron, and the artillery could not count on them, Okamura Ningji ordered the tank wing to arrive close to the shore and work with the artillery to provide fire support for the troops crossing the river.

A wing of Japanese troops, once again tried to cross the river on a large scale, but even the iron turtle could not withstand the swarms of shells on the opposite bank, after a battle, the tank wing lost more than 80 tanks, the infantry crossing the river, was still hit by the fierce artillery fire of the independent division to the surface of the river, luckily rushed to the soldiers on the opposite bank, and ate a meal of light and heavy machine guns and mortars, Okamura Ningji saw, only the tired corpses of the soldiers of the Great Japanese Empire on the shore, the soldiers of a wing, just like this.

He stopped in shock, the tank burning with black smoke on the shore seemed to explain a result for him, Wubao Ferry, unable to break through, the battlefield was stalemate here, the troops who had arrived at Fenglingdu were strictly ordered by Okamura Ningji not to cross the river rashly, he was at a loss, extremely distressed, he failed to cross the river, gave up the goal and returned to Taiyuan, and was unwilling, the 100,000 army suffered heavy losses and returned in vain, so how could the extremely conceited Okamura Ningci accept it.

Extremely irritable and anxious, his temper also became bigger, like a mad dog, except for the chief of staff of Nishio, the staff officers and staff around him were almost all scolded by him, unlucky, and slapped several times, his body became thinner and thinner, his face was haggard, his eyes were sunken in his sockets, and his eyes flashed with cold light, becoming more and more fierce, and in just a few days, a lot of gray hair was added to his head, and his Excellency Okamura Ninji, the supreme commander of the North China Dispatch Army of the Japanese Empire, was about to be confessed on the bank of the Yellow River.

The battlefield stalemate, but in line with Tang Qiuli's intentions, he arranged to copy the troops of the back road of Ningci in Gangcun, and it was still in motion, Tang Qiusheng's Sulu mobile corps had already let the southward troops of the Kwantung Army enter Tianjin, and was returning to the Taihang Mountains quickly according to the plan.

Only the four brigades rushed to the Luliang Mountains, because the road was far away, and they were still on the march, as long as there were five more days, Tang Qiusheng and Changfeng's troops would be able to surround Okamura Ningci's Japanese army of less than 100,000 people on the bank of the Yellow River, and return to Taiyuan is an independent division unit, and westward advance is an insurmountable surging Yellow River, Okamura Ningji is already facing a desperate situation, Tang Qiuli is very worried, once Okamura Ningji discovers his strategic intentions, he will abandon the current plan and retract to Taiyuan, when the time comes, the Japanese army will be concentrated together, and it will be difficult to fight. He repeatedly sent telegrams, urging the troops who cut off the retreat of the Japanese army in Liulin back to Taiyuan and speed up the march.

The Japanese troops scattered in the occupied areas of Shanxi Province, the special operations detachment that was drilled into their stomachs, made a lot of trouble, and they were too busy to take care of themselves, unable to quickly assemble troops, and give Okamura Ningji strong support, all the conditions for gathering and annihilating the Japanese troops on the banks of the Yellow River were already in place, and what Tang Qiuli needed was time, and what he needed was to give Okamura Ningji a little hope, so that he could see the dawn of success and not shrink back to Taiyuan.

Yongheguan fell into Tang Qiuli's eyes, compared to several other major ferries, Yongheguan is very inconspicuous, and it is not suitable for large troops to cross the river, the ferry is narrow, there are relatively steep river banks on both sides, and there is only a small road that winds to the mainland, but Tang Qiuli chose this place as a place for Okamura Ningji to sweeten.

Yongheguan Ferry, for the Eighth Route Army's rear garrison troops, there is a battalion of troops stationed, Tang Qiuli put the director of the garrison General Xiao Jinguang, invited to Wubao, to jointly negotiate the plan to stabilize Okamura Ningci, the interests of the two sides are the same, dealing with a common enemy, and Tang Qiuli has an excellent impression in the minds of all the senior generals of the Eighth Route Army, the talks are very pleasant, the general framework is determined, when discussing the details, Chen Feng, the director of the communications department, came in a hurry, looking at his look, Tang Qiuli has a very bad premonition.

After receiving the telegram in his hand, Tang Qiuli's face changed, and then he returned to normal, and said apologetically to the representative of the Eighth Route Army: "I'm sorry, generals, there is an urgent document to deal with for a while" Let Yang Ketian, chief of staff of the independent division, continue to discuss the details with General Xiao Jinguang, and hurriedly follow Chen Feng out.

Looking at Tang Qiuli's back, General Xiao Jinguang was thoughtful, he noticed that Tang Qiuli's pace had lost his usual calmness, with his preliminary understanding of this Vice Chairman Tang, it was not a particularly strict matter, and it would not make the general who Zhizhu was in his hands so out of shape, Xiao Jinguang guessed correctly, something really happened, Meiling's platoon had lost contact with the company headquarters and Tang Qiuli Wubao Command, and so far, there has been no news for more than four days.

(To be continued)