Chapter 38: Preparing for an Ambush
The pursuit, escape, and escape stopped, and the motor squadron kept leading the 64th Wing around, and the other Kwantung Army units that followed closely behind the 64th Wing could only follow, and after a few days of hard work, not to mention that the 64th Wing as the vanguard was not lightly tired, even the rear guard and baggage troops of the 23rd Division were about to be unable to hold on. "Captain, our brother has found the little devil's baggage troops, can you fight it?" The mercenaries in camouflage nets rushed down the hillside, and the motor that got the news rushed up the hillside with his mercenaries.
On the other side of the hill, the mercenary scouts found the 23rd Wing of the 23rd Division of the Kwantung Army. When the motor framed the young man in the binoculars, the 23rd Wing was preparing breakfast, and the two groups camped last night only separated from each other on a hill, if both the 23rd Wing and the motor had sent a search team, one of them might have already fallen into a bitter situation.
"Fight, why don't you fight." The motor put down the binoculars and ordered a few of his scouts to prepare for a retreat first, facing thousands of heavy Japanese troops, the motor and their more than 100 men and horses really did not dare to come hard. The motor squadron's attack tactics have matured, two-thirds of the motor squadron are snipers, and what the motor squadron is good at is long-range attacks, and the shortest range of the sniper rifle equipped with a silencer is more than 300 meters, so far that even the most elite veterans of the Japanese army cannot hit such a firing distance with a 38 rifle.
The Japanese officer was naturally the first target of the sniper, but the motor would be targeting the baggage troops of the Kwantung Army, so he ordered the Japanese mules, horses and vehicles to be the first target. Without mules, horses, and vehicles, the 23rd Division's baggage supplies would not be able to be transported smoothly, and if the materials could not be transported, the 23rd Baggage Wing would be left behind, and the Baggage Wing that had fallen behind would be used to train snipers.
"Captain, the order I just received, Mr. ordered us to move towards Saga and lead the 23rd Division to the east to fight their ambush." Before the battle began, Mada received a telegram from the temporary headquarters, and contacted his mercenary team with radio and walkie-talkie, and Mada began to gather troops and fight with the 23rd Baggage Wing. The number of troops determines the development of the war, the 23rd Wing, which was anxious by the snipers, bit the Motor Squadron to the death, and the 13th Field Artillery Wing, which rushed to hear the news, also came up, and after a good melee, the Motor Squadron finally jumped out of the encirclement of the two Wings and retreated to Saga.
After inflicting more than 4,000 casualties on the 23rd Division, the elusive Motor Squadron retreated to Saga, and if it weren't for Zhao Zhi's new order, I'm afraid the Motor would have been ready to continue to wander around the mountains with the 23rd Division for a few more days. The number of Japanese divisions entering Kyushu Island has reached 7, 3 Kwantung Army divisions, 2 Korean divisions, and 2 native divisions from Honshu Island, with a total strength of nearly 100,000 troops. With such a huge disparity in strength, Zhao Zhi had to temporarily revise the battle plan for dealing with the 23rd Division of the Kwantung Army, and only by putting the 23rd Division into a flat and open terrain like Saga could Zhao Zhi's battle plan have a chance to be successfully implemented.
Although the 23rd Division was the reconstructed division of the Kwantung Army, most of their troops came from Kyushu Island, and the task of returning to Kyushu Island was still guaranteed by the 23rd Division from the military headquarters. When landing in Karatsu Bay, it was quite smooth, but after leaving Karajin Bay, everything did not go well, and the elusive thunder mercenaries led the 23rd Division to keep circling around the Songpu River along the way, not only causing more than 4,000 casualties in the 23rd Division, but also destroying most of the baggage supplies of the 23rd Division in two consecutive night raids.
Since the first Kwantung Army troops landed on Kyushu Island, Zhao Zhi has been staying in the Kasatou Mountains, not far north of the east, with 500 well-equipped mercenaries serving as the escort of Zhao Zhi and the entire temporary combat headquarters. "Just how long did the east ambush the 23rd Division, and the 23rd Division suffered the greatest casualties among the 6 Japanese divisions, and they were defeated all the way first, and then slowly wandered around with the rest of the Japanese army." In the map on the table, Dong Yi has been drawn a red circle, which is the battlefield where Zhao Zhi chose to ambush the 23rd Division.
It was the 64th Wing that served as the forward of the 23rd Division, but their wing commander Mitsuo Hashimoto had been cut off by the motor, and now the commander of the 64th Wing was the former wing chief of staff Shakuihara. Shakuihara and Mitsuo Hashimoto have been friends for many years, and seeing their old friends die under the guns of the opposing snipers, the grief-stricken Shakuihara hated that he couldn't peel those damn enemy snipers alive, but this was just his wishful thinking, and the 64th Wing that went around didn't even bring back a single hair of the enemy snipers.
The motor squadron chose to retreat, and the angry 64th Wing chased after it like a wild boar in a hurry, and the motor squadron acting as a decoy stopped and stopped to seduce the 64th Wing, who was willing to be deceived, to the east. The Thor revolver, which Zhao Zhi had high hopes for, has not been able to play its due role in the landing battle, and those US military officers under the banner of coordination will also observe this ambush battle on the spot, so Zhao Zhi plans to use the Thor revolver gun as the main firepower for this ambush, so as to take the opportunity to fool the US military into increasing some Thor purchase orders.
At first, when Zhao Zhi was preparing 7,000 to 60,000, the American officers who came from the airborne were not very optimistic about this war, but fortunately, Zhao Zhi turned his mercenaries into zero and played the tactics of morning glory and Ling Chi with the Kwantung Army, and they were not defeated for a while. It's good now, how long is Zhao Zhi going to have an ambush battle with the 23rd Division in the east with 500 to 10,000, such a disparity in strength is something these American officers have never seen, if it weren't for the Japanese soldiers everywhere on Kyushu Island, these big noses would have been swimming to escape Kyushu Island a long time ago.
"Zhao, I admit that you are a very good commander and the most capable officer I have ever met, but how long are you going to ambush the 23rd Division in the east is stupid, very stupid." James, who was elected by a group of big noses, confronted Zhao Zhi directly, and talked to Zhao Zhi about the ambush operation in the east. "Let's not talk about the disparity between the enemy and our forces, let's just say that the terrain in the east is also not suitable for ambushes, without the cover of high mountains and dense forests, your mercenaries will not be useful, can we consider moving the ambush point back to the mountainous terrain?"
James's words made the big noses present nod frequently, Zhao Zhi smiled and looked around, it seems that these big noses are not very optimistic about this ambush battle. Zhao Zhi didn't bother to explain that he would use the Thor machine gun, just said a few perfunctory words, and found an excuse to get James and his gang out of the headquarters. "These big-nosed and vain-headed people are not serious, not to mention helping us plan the details of the plan, but they are good at pouring cold water." Looking at James's back, Zhang Jinquan's eyes were full of contempt.
"Sir, forget these big noses, and watch them dangling under your nose day by day, and feel uncomfortable." Zhang Jinquan had been guiding recruits in the training camp for a long time, and his knowledge was different from what he had in the past, and when he talked to Zhao Zhi, he no longer had the bearing of a commanding officer. Like most Chinese, Zhang Jinquan has always been at odds with big-nosed foreigners, that is, those big-nosed mercenaries in the mercenary army, Zhang Jinquan also rarely interacted, and Zhao Zhi said that the person who was most dissatisfied with James was none other than Zhang Jinquan.
Zhao Zhi did not answer Zhang Jinquan, but took the telegram he handed over and opened it to read it carefully, the telegram was sent by the Chongqing Military and Political Department under the pretense of Chiang Kai-shek's name, and after reading the telegram halfway, Zhao Zhi burst out laughing. "These people are really idle, we are fighting on Kyushu Island, what does it have to do with them, they actually sent a telegram to persuade us not to kill innocents indiscriminately, saying that the Japanese government has protested against the national government."
When the staff officers who were idle in the headquarters heard about this, they gathered around one after another, and after everyone read the telegram, they scolded them as the lightest reaction, and even worse, they were already drafting a telegram to send a telegram to scold those guys from the Chongqing Military and Political Department. "The chairman of the committee doesn't care about these guys in charge of the Ministry of Military Affairs, I think that the guy who sent the telegram is either a guy with a sick brain, or a traitor like Wang Jingwei, and the Japanese don't kill our ordinary people, why don't you see them protest with Japan."
"Forget it, let them say, we don't need a piece of meat, the materials and military salaries are all self-sufficient, and it has nothing to do with the national government, they can't take it if they want to." Zhao Zhi could see it, and casually rolled the telegram on the table into a paper ball and threw it away. Wang Jingwei's theory of saving the country has a big market in China, and there are many traitors who are willing to help the Japanese do things, and there are even more people who have colluded with Japan for the sake of interests.
There were also many people with good vision and thoughtfulness among the staff officers under Zhao Zhi, and after a little pondering, they came to the same conclusion as Zhao Zhi thought, that it was precisely because of the thunder's overturning of the river and the sea on Kyushu Island that the Japanese government was currently under tremendous pressure, so they were anxious. The Ministry of Military Affairs is in Chongqing, and Zhao Zhi on Kyushu Island is beyond his reach, and as Zhao Zhi said, there is no need to deal with the Ministry of Military Affairs at all, anyway, they don't dare to come to Kyushu Island to reason with Zhao Zhi in person.
"Don't pay attention to those irrelevant people and things, I need you to focus all your energy on the ambush operation that is about to begin, only by defeating the 23rd Division, we will have a chance to lure the next Kwantung Army Division into the urn." Seeing that the combat staff officers under his command were a little absent-minded, Zhao Zhi had no choice but to glare, after Luo Ying's concealed glances, the staff officers who reacted all went to the map, and Zhao Zhi, who was angry, scolded him, and didn't look at the edge of such a small map Can he surround so many heads?