Chapter 670: Big Gamble

Okamura Ninji walked out of the tent with the plan he got after thinking hard all night, the worried eyes of the subordinates outside made him feel a burst of emotion in his heart, not how moved, but deeply felt the heavy responsibility on his shoulders, the Japanese army has an unwritten rule, if the supreme commander of a unit is killed, the other senior generals are safe and sound, even if they go back alive, there is no good fruit to eat, and even the subordinates who can't protect the commander are not incompetent, but have committed a great sin.

After Okamura Ningji apologized slightly, just when the senior generals did not have to worry about their bad luck, His Excellency the commander had a stern face and said in a hoarse voice: "Order, the front-line troops of Pingjin Zhixian County and Suning should immediately leave the battlefield, regardless of the entanglement of the independent division troops, immediately retreat to the Cangzhou area, and join the Cangzhou defenders to use the favorable fortifications to hold on to and wait for reinforcements, and after the Kwantung Army troops move south, jointly recover Tianjin." ”

After Okamura Ningji finished speaking, the Japanese generals were surprised, but they also understood the approach of His Excellency the commander, the troops of Xianxian and Suning, if they did not get close to the Cangzhou troops, there was a danger of being eaten by the troops of China, the two troops were combined into one place, and the strength reached more than 360,000 people, even if Tang Qiuli had a great appetite, it was impossible to swallow so many imperial troops in one bite, this was the safest plan, but it was a little too late, whether the troops could get out of the battlefield smoothly, the result was unpredictable, if it was three days ago, The effect is much better, Tang Qiuli's main force is still preparing to attack Tianjin

Next, it was time to withdraw the order of Pingjin, the Japanese generals had a sense of relief from the sea of suffering, in this continuous mountain, wandering around for a month, every day in addition to marching, is to deal with the ubiquitous sneak attack of the small force of China, there are a large number of elite soldiers, but they can't find an opponent, there is nowhere to go, the opponent is around, enough to make these senior Japanese officers crazy.

Especially in the recent period, His Excellency the Commander does not know which tendon has taken the wrong way, more than 200,000 troops, competing with a broken cave, attacking every day, being repulsed, attacking again, being repulsed again, repeatedly boring the number of roads, except for the rising casualty figures, the ammunition consumed, nothing has been obtained, and several generals have proposed to evacuate the construction of Huangya Cave, but they have been severely reprimanded by His Excellency the Commander.

Now, His Excellency the Commander has finally woken up, except for rejoicing, probably at this time, these senior Japanese officers will not have other thoughts in their hearts, "Order, sweep the troops in the Taihang Mountains, immediately march in the direction of Wuxiang, attack Taiyuan, and the troops in the direction of Heshun, break away from the entanglement of the Hezhi army, immediately pass through Mafang to Jinzhong, attack Taiyuan, and all orders will be issued to all units immediately for implementation."

The senior generals of the Japanese army who were upright did not react for a while, His Excellency the Commander went crazy, did not fight the Yellow Cliff Cave, and instead attacked Taiyuan, the hundreds of thousands of troops in the mountain pass, under the city of Wuxiang, encountered the stubborn resistance of the Jin army of Yan Xishan, and could not advance, and stayed in the Taihang Mountains for more than 20 days, and finally ended up with a whole jade shatter, the shadow of defeat has not been completely eliminated in the heart, but His Excellency the Commander wants to repeat the mistakes of the past? also chose the direction of Wuxiang as the attack point, crazy

Okamura Ninji saw that the generals did not react, his face immediately turned ugly, and he asked in a cold voice: "Why, didn't you hear my orders clearly?" "Hear clearly, word for word, if you don't go back to Pingjin to fight Taiyuan, then you have to face the Jin army, which has more troops than the imperial army, and more than 80,000 independent division troops fighting with the imperial army in Heshun, what are the chances of victory? From Changzhi to Taiyuan, the logistics supply line has been extended several times more, has Your Excellency the Commander considered it?

Looking at Okamura Ningji's demeanor of cannibalism, there is a posture of pulling out a knife and slashing people when he hears the word "no", how dare the Japanese generals talk more, they all use enough strength to shout: "Hai" trotted to carry out the orders they couldn't figure out and were full of unwillingness, no wonder the Japanese generals were dumbfounded, Okamura Ningji's plan was only done by a madman, perhaps, in the Chinese battlefield of World War II, they were not as famous as Okamura Ningji, what was lacking was this ruthlessness and gambler character.

As for the Yellow Cliff Cave, he had to temporarily give up the key siege, this was not a matter of a few days, Okamura Ningji was full of regret in his heart, he could not completely destroy the logistics supply base of Tang Qiuli, he thought it was a big failure in his military career, however, he could not let it go like this, this hateful cave that devoured the lives of more than 20,000 imperial soldiers.

Okamura Ninji ordered all the artillery units to bomb indiscriminately, dumping shells on all the land around Huangyadong, leaving the strength of a division and regiment, and continuing to besiege Huangyadong, he believed that after more than ten days of uninterrupted artillery bombardment and attack, the price paid by the Chinese army guarding Huangyadong should exceed that of the imperial army, and the strength of one division and regiment is enough, slowly consume their strength and morale, and wait for themselves to take Taiyuan and occupy Shanxi, and then turn back to deal with this hateful place.

Okamura Ningji made a fatal mistake, he only noticed the strength of the guards inside the Yellow Cliff Cave, but ignored the more than 50,000 troops of Sun Zhenbang's corps that attacked the Japanese army in the periphery of the Yellow Cliff Cave and in all corners of the Taihang Mountains in the way of small troop attacks, as well as more than 30,000 horses and horses in the three divisions of the Eighth Route Army.

Tang Qiuli was busy eating fat meat in Pingjin, Okamura Ningji was planning a big gamble in the Taihang Mountains, and the commanders of both China and Japan in North China were dispatching troops according to their own ideas and playing styles, and they were very busy.

Tang Qiuli's series of victories around Pingjin dazzled and coveted Chief Yan, but he didn't expect that this posterity would make such a smooth move, and take Shijiazhuang, Baoding, and Tianjin one after another.

I didn't expect the Japanese to fight like this, Okamura Ningci's hundreds of thousands of troops, and wandering around in the Taihang Mountains, for a while and a half, he couldn't take care of going north, that Huangya Cave, it was enough for him to gnaw for half a year, and the cheapness couldn't all fall into the hands of the descendant surnamed Tang, Chief Yan paced the square steps, while weighing carefully, his eyes were fixed on Zhangjiakou, it was time to make a profit, there were only about 60,000 Japanese in Zhangjiakou, where are there Tang Qiuli's two infantry brigades, a cavalry brigade troops.

The Japanese in Zhangjiakou had already frightened Tang Qiuli's troops, and 60,000 people did not dare to go out to take a step, and sent troops to seize Zhangjiakou, and the entire northwest Hebei region was all returned to their own sphere of influence, and the northeast of Jin Province was connected to a piece.

Chief Yan began to mobilize people in full swing, the troops that were originally on the front line of Datong were transferred to most of Wuxiang by him, and immediately returned to the original place, this is not counting, he for the sake of safety, the force of the attack on Zhangjiakou was increased to 280,000 people, he did not have the courage of Tang Qiuli, he dared to fight with the Japanese alone, four to one, the chance of winning was maximized, and the old man did not do things that he was not sure of.

In this way, the Jin army of the Wuxiang defense line did not have a surplus of about 80,000 people, and when the army was raised, it was not reported to Tang Qiuli to know, the old man thought cunningly, Tang Qiuli would definitely stop it, Zhangjiakou was his next target, raw rice was cooked and cooked, and when the time came, the descendants surnamed Tang would not snatch it from their own hands, right?

All the military operations of Yan Xishan, Tang Qiuli was kept in the dark, he commanded the troops to encircle more than 100,000 Japanese troops soon, it seemed that he had smelled the smell of meat, but he got a report that the Japanese troops on the front line of Xianxian and Suning suddenly took the initiative to withdraw from the battlefield and retreated in the direction of Cangzhou.

Our front-line troops are closely catching up, because the strength is limited, can not completely delay the Japanese army's retreat to Cangzhou, the division commander please instruct the specific combat policy, after Tang Qiuli received the telegram, he regretted so much that he slapped his head, it was half a day, less than six hours away, the pocket mouth was tightened, 180,000 troops surrounded the 120,000 Japanese army, even if they couldn't swallow it, they could tear off a lot of flesh and bones, what is called a failure, this is.

There was no other way, Tang Qiuli immediately issued an order, from Tianjin to the south, the vanguard troops that had already approached Xianxian and Suning, immediately took Botou as the target of attack, and tried to intercept the Japanese troops retreating to Cangzhou in the Botou area, and the rest of the troops immediately launched a parallel pursuit, retreating to the second, and eating as much as they could.

For the loss of this most favorable opportunity to annihilate the enemy, Tang Qiuli was very sorry in his heart, this was a complete and perfect plan, these hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers were already meat in the pot, how could he think, the cooked duck flew, what was the problem? Was it the troops that went south in Tianjin that exposed their intentions prematurely, and the Japanese army was afraid of being encircled, so they took countermeasures?

He immediately overturned his own inference, the southbound troops moved quickly, and they acted on the day of the occupation of Tianjin, and it was impossible for the Japanese army to detect it so early, and besides, it was much more convenient and easier to fight Beiping than to go south, and to seek the near and far was to use troops in unexpected places for the Japanese army, Tang Qiuli vaguely felt that the situation was a little complicated, and as for the complicated place, he had not yet figured out the clue.

Just after dealing with the matter of withdrawing the Japanese army in Cangzhou after the pursuit, Feng Jiwu of the Heshun front sent an urgent telegram, today, the Japanese reinforcements on the Heshun front line have arrived at the periphery of Heshun, according to the deployment of the division headquarters, our department did not carry out an all-out interception, its vanguard force, Shun lì into the city of Heshun, after the Japanese army converged, the strength of more than 80,000 people, equal to the strength of our army.

According to my preliminary judgment, this Japanese army has the intention of attacking Taiyuan, and our division is fighting with the Japanese army along the line from Mafang to Jinzhong, so please clarify the direction of our next move.

(To be continued)