Chapter 665: North China Melee

Baoding was taken, the two major strategic points in Hebei fell into the hands of the independent division, plus several other troops swept through northern Hebei, Pingbei, Rehe, and eastern Hebei, Beiping and Tianjin were already two isolated cities, Tang Qiuli could choose a point at will to attack, the strange thing is that the news of the loss of Baoding, Okamura Ningci could not have known, he did not return to Pingjin at all, the intention of keeping his strategic rear, and he was still storming the Huangyadong base at any cost.

On this point, after the end of the battle, the Japanese military top brass and the commanders of the independent divisions had different opinions, and they were generally inclined to Okamura Ningji's gains outweighed the losses, and he used the barren Taihang Mountains for the Pingjin area of Japan's strategic rear, and the target he had always wanted to destroy, the Huangyadong base, had not yet succeeded, so that Tang Qiuli's troops had smashed the Pingjin area into a thousand holes, almost plundered all the resources, and destroyed everything that could not be taken away.

Since the "Tanggu Agreement," the administrative management system that the Japanese have painstakingly built up has been completely destroyed, and Pingjin, and even North China, as the strategic rear function of the Japanese army's southward advance plan, have been completely lost, and this cannot but affect the overall strategy of the Japanese.

Since Okamura Ningji was holding on to Huangyadong and it was imperative to attack Tianjin, on 3 May, Tang Qiuli issued an order to the attacking corps to attack Tianjin, inserting the Beijing-Tianjin corridor with the strength of one infantry brigade and one cavalry brigade to monitor and block the Japanese troops that might come to reinforce from the direction of Beiping.

The three infantry brigades led by Yu Guanghan, chief of staff of the Sulu Mobile Corps, and the troops of the three artillery brigades, formed the Eastern Attack Group, with Tangshan as the starting point for the attack, and the Northwest Attack Group with Baoding as the starting point for the attack.

At this time, the strength of the Japanese defenders in Tianjin was a full division plus a brigade, less than 50,000 troops, and if we count the Japanese puppet police, the constitution, the special forces, and the Japanese expatriates in Tianjin, the number of troops available to the Japanese army should be about 110,000, which is roughly the same as the strength of the troops attacking Tianjin by the independent division, but the combat effectiveness is not the same, and the gap in firepower is even greater.

However, Tang Qiuli did not want to fight a conventional battle, he gave each attack group a deadline of 72 hours to take Tianjin, according to the speed of the Japanese army, Okamura Ningji from the Taihang Mountains to return to Pingjin, it will take at least five days, his vanguard troops, will appear on the periphery of Tianjin, the extra two days, is reserved for Zhou Yushan to transport troops, you have to let this iron broom clean Tianjin Wei well, promised Zhang Quan's promise, it should also be fulfilled.

It was still the troops of the three brigades of the Niangziguan garrison corps, and when he stormed Baoding, he transferred five detachments of the special operations detachment from the Taihang Mountains, the strength of the two regiments of Liu Feng's rapid reaction brigade, and the channel of Chen Manjiang, the leader of the Guò Canal Gang, secretly infiltrated Tianjin, and when the Japanese garrison commander in Tianjin got the news that the soldiers of the independent division were pressing the border, there were already more than 7,000 independent division troops, infiltrated into the city, and the soldiers of the two regiments of the rapid reaction brigade that infiltrated Tianjin, formerly known as the urban combat team of the independent division, were all born and raised in Tianjin. With your eyes closed, you can tell how many houses there are on that street, and the door of that house is open to that.

Tang Qiuli's task for them was to infiltrate all the important targets of the Japanese army in Tianjin, wait for the general offensive to begin, cause the greatest chaos to the Japanese army in Tianjin, and seize the entire city of Tianjin in one fell swoop.

Tang Qiuli smiled half-truths and half-truths, the five special operations squad leaders and the two regiment commanders of the fast anti-brigade were slightly red, secretly scolding themselves for being stupid, they couldn't think of such a simple thing, but they had to be reminded by the division commander, it was a shame, looking at a few commanders who led the team, and said goodbye in a cramped and uneasy manner, Tang Qiuli smiled even more at the corner of his mouth, these guys didn't think of this because they didn't look down on the weapons of the Japanese, too, all the troops of the independent division, Suomi submachine guns are already standard equipment, and there are several 38 guns in a squad, It was also used as an improved sniper rifle.

After completing the siege of Tianjin, Tang Qiuli did not immediately launch an attack, this is not hesitation, he wants to finalize Okamura Ningci's actions, if the more than 300,000 Japanese troops in the Taihang Mountains retreat to Pingjin, he only has the share of retreating, if Okamura Ningci is still indifferent to the loss of Tianjin, after the capture of Tianjin, the hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops in Xianxian and Suning are his next targets, so Tianjin is the last touchstone.

The troops encircling Tianjin, the Northwest Attack Group, is to covertly complete the encirclement of the periphery of Tianjin, the Eastern Attack Group, is approaching the periphery of Tianjin from the Tangshan line with great fanfare, Ninghe, is the salient part of the outer defense line of the Japanese army in Tianjin, after Yu Guanghan's troops approached the Ninghe, encountered the stubborn resistance of the Japanese army, the two sides fought fiercely for a day, and most of the Ninghe fell into the hands of the Sulu Mobile Corps.

After Yu Guanghan's troops launched an attack on Tianjin, Tang Qiuli ordered Liu Tiehan in Cangzhou to immediately respond to the Tianjin combat operation and take an offensive against the Japanese army on the front line of Cangzhou, pressing them to be unable to divide troops to reinforce Tianjin.

Huangya Cave in the hinterland of the Taihang Mountains, attracting more than 200,000 troops of Okamura Ningci's heavy army group, and the periphery is the troops of Sun Zhenbang's corps and the three divisions of the Eighth Route Army.

Heshun City between Yangquan and Licheng, Feng Jiwu's Niangziguan garrison corps of more than 80,000 people, surrounded by more than 60,000 Japanese troops who have been out of food for many days, it is estimated that there will be another five or six days, Feng Jiwu's troops, entering Heshun is a job to clean up the battlefield, and on the road from Licheng to Heshun, the Japanese reinforcements a division plus a brigade totaling more than 35,000 troops, are galloping in the direction of Heshun in the starry night, Feng Jiwu has launched two brigades of troops, blocking along the way.

In the direction of Zhangjiakou, the troops of two infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade of the Independent Division monitored more than 60,000 Japanese troops and held the main passage to the south, so that they did not dare to move.

In the direction of Cangzhou, Liu Tiehan's eastward troops, after the troops transferred by Li Honggang and Han Tie arrived, with a force of more than 230,000 troops, with the cooperation of the first part of the independent division air force, launched a fierce attack on the Japanese army on the front line of Cangzhou, the Japanese army in Cangzhou was about 250,000, they did not expect that the slightly weaker Chinese army would take the initiative to attack the situation, and hastily responded to the battle, and at the beginning of the battle, it fell into a fierce stalemate, and neither side could withdraw from the battlefield, and Liu Tiehan's troops, which were slightly weaker, With the cooperation of the aircraft, there is a slight upper hand.

The whole of North China is full of gunsmoke, beaten into a pot of porridge, Yan Xishan, who is sitting in Taiyuan, began to use his brain to calculate again, Okamura Ningci gathered more than 300,000 troops, and sent troops to the Taihang Mountains, which can scare Chief Yan out of a cold sweat, this time the Japanese are not good, Tang Qiuli does not have many troops in the Taihang Mountains, and there is no one to find a top cylinder, the Japanese swept the Taihang Mountains, and marched northward, more than 300,000 Japanese who were like wolves and tigers, it was too easy to take Taiyuan.

He hurriedly mobilized all the troops that could be mobilized to the line from Wuxiang to Yushe, forming a defense line more than ten kilometers deep, although there were more than 200,000 troops, guarding the south gate of Taiyuan for him, blocking the exit of the Taihang Mountains into the Jinzhong Plain, Yan Xishan's heart still did not support the bottom, what his own soldiers were like, he knew in his heart.

Okamura Ningci's army, after entering the Taihang Mountains, has been slowly advancing in the direction of Taiyuan, Yan Xishan's heart, day by day to mention the throat, the Japanese in the Zuohui area, suddenly did not go, all the troops are concentrated in that direction, even the troops that entered Qin County, also turned around and returned, Yan Xishan did not understand what was going on, sent a large number of spies to find out the situation, and learned that the Japanese were concentrating their forces to besiege a place called Huangya Cave, it is said that it was Tang Qiuli's logistics supply base, and the Japanese moved giant artillery, Be sure to destroy the Yellow Cliff Cave.

Although Yan Xishan didn't understand what the Japanese were fighting with a broken cave, he came to a judgment that there must be something more fascinating to the Japanese than Taiyuan in Huangya Cave, and after fighting in Huangya Cave for many days, Yan Xishan's heart gradually fell into his stomach, and it was best for the Japanese to fight in Huangya Cave for a few years, and he would be relieved.

There are battles everywhere in North China, the Japanese are exhausted to deal with it, Yan Xishan's mind is alive again, he wants to take advantage of the opportunity to get a handful, in this situation, the Jin army's attack direction can choose two, one is the Japanese army in Zhangjiakou, the other is the Japanese army surrounded by Feng Jiwu in Heshun, with the current strength gathered by Yan Xishan, put it in that direction, will play a decisive role.

If Yan Xishan really sent troops to attack any point, it would have a greater impact on the entire battle situation, and in the future northern pattern, Tang Qiuli, who reciprocated the favor, would give him his due position, and when Okamura Ningci attacked Shanxi, he would spare no effort to help him, and would never let the dignified Chief Yan flee in the wilderness.

It's a pity that Yan Xishan's true character as a businessman has the upper hand again, and his strategy is to wait, wait for Tang Qiuli's troops and the Japanese to lose both sides and be exhausted, and then attack, at the lowest cost, to reap the greatest benefits, this kind of waiting, let Yan Xishan lose the whole of Shanxi.

(To be continued)