What's more, during the general battle, the Central Plains Border Region also sent ammunition and troops to support the Eighth Route Army, and also dispatched tens of thousands of vehicles and millions of migrant workers to support the front (according to the original Jihua, only a quarter of them transported supplies for the Eighth Route Army, but because the onslaught in the early stage of the Kaifeng Campaign consumed a lot of ammunition and the needs of the later battle, this proportion rose to two-thirds. All of this is gratuitous, and if you really have to worry about it, this favor is not so easy to pay off

The Eighth Route Army trapped more than 100,000 people in the main force of Okamura Ningji's 11th Army, and although the situation was worse than the situation envisaged in the original plan, the two leaders of the 15 th Group Army, Hu Su, were still confident that they could deal with the more than 500,000 devils in Xuzhou alone, and more than 100 of the tanks and armored vehicles captured before were lightly injured or stopped due to mechanical problems, and they were quickly repaired and put into battle, which undoubtedly made the two more confident. With these more than 100 combat vehicles, Hu Weidong temporarily stripped off the armored battalions equipped by the new 38th Division and several other units, and handed them over to Ma Zhongying, the division commander of the armored cavalry division, to command. The number of tank troops is also several times higher than the number required for the existing equipment (Note 1), and the training is rotated, and now the expansion of the unit is much more convenient.

As a result, the armored cavalry division, which was actually only equivalent to an armored brigade, has more than 300 tanks and armored vehicles, which is not inferior to the configuration of any armored division of any country at any time during World War II. Although according to Ma Zhongying's definition of "armored cavalry" tactics, the tanks and armored vehicles used by the armored cavalry division must have a very strong ability to pass through harsh terrain, and it stands to reason that only light armored vehicles can be used, but because the so-called "medium combat vehicles" of the devils are actually only the tonnage of light tanks, and the intended battlefield is in the plain area of the Huai River valley (Note 2), it is completely possible to temporarily concentrate and use them. In order to reduce the variables, Hu Weidong decided to start the situation from the west of Hongze Lake. Because the Huai River had not yet been controlled at this time, the middle and lower reaches of the river flowed into the two major lakes of Hongze Lake and Gaoyou Lake (because the Huayuankou embankment was avoided in this time and space, Hongze Lake was much smaller than in later generations). Gaoyou Lake, on the other hand, was much larger, with similar water areas to the two, but together they were the size of the current Hongze Lake. After that, there was no downstream, so the current Huai River is actually an inland river. In other words, at this time, there were no major rivers and lakes in the northeast of Jiangsu, that is, more than a dozen counties north of the Yangtze River and east of Gaoyou Lake, and the terrain was flat. It is very suitable for the mobility of armored vehicles, especially Japanese-style armored vehicles adapted to the terrain of paddy fields in southern China.

However, Hu Weidong has always regarded the armored forces as a decisive assault in the field, and will never let them attack the city, so the task of sweeping the counties in northeastern Jiangsu was handed over to the old army of the 15th Army, which he started from, to complete, because the Japanese army concentrated its forces in Xuzhou out of fear of the strong strength of the 15th Group Army, which led to a serious shortage of garrisons in the counties of northern Jiangsu, and often only one squadron or even a squad of devils was stationed in a county town. At most, there is no more than one brigade, which is a bit difficult for Liliang plus the puppet army, even to deal with the guerrillas in northern Jiangsu who have not been rising for a long time (their weapons and equipment are much stronger than the historical "Tubalu", the worst rifle is also made in Hanyang, and the twenty rounds, Type 24 submachine guns and crooked light machine guns are also common equipment. Not to mention the regular army of the 15th Army.

It's just a dozen days of work. The seven counties of Guanyang, Lianshui, Suqian, Huaiyin, Siyang, Huai'an, and Funing were all recovered, but considering the threat of Japanese naval artillery, Hu Weidong did not drive south to attack Yancheng and Nantong and other places, so as not to rush too far and lose the protection of the aircraft (once again feeling speechless about the painful range of the Soviet-style aircraft) and be attacked by the Japanese navy without scruples. He had enough field troops at hand very quickly.

If the commander of the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army, Shunroku Hatata, was a little more cautious, he should take advantage of the great reduction of the strength of the 15 th Group Army in Lunan to lead the army to retreat south and join the Japanese army in Nanjing, so that there will be a large number of planes in Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou, and the Japanese warships on the Yangtze River to help them fight, even if the strength of the 15 th Group Army is stronger, they will not be able to help them, at least the devils can keep the most prosperous Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou Yangtze River Delta in the occupied area for a long time. However, the greed in the bones of the Japanese made them unwilling to give up any of the territory they had occupied before, and Hata Shunroku did not want to and did not dare to give up the defeat of more than 100,000 remnants of the 11th Army that was besieged and Kaifeng, so this conservative line was naturally rejected by Hata Shunroku and his staff.

If Hata Shunroku is bold enough, he should take the opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack, take or destroy the canal defense line of the 15th Group Army, break free from the dog chains that bind the necks of hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops in Xuzhou, and at the same time take advantage of the opportunity of the division of troops of the 15th Group Army to inflict heavy losses on the current number one enemy of the Japanese army. However, the lesson of the previous attack on the canal defense line made Shunroku Hata lose the courage to storm this strong defense line, and the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army Command also chose a seemingly more secure route, that is, to send troops westward again, and attack Okamura Ningji inside and outside the besieged Kaifeng, so that the 700,000 Eighth Route Army could taste the power of "central flowering".

Note 1: In fact, the consumption of tank training is much smaller than that of aircraft, whether it is fuel or maintenance costs, in addition, the difficulty of training a qualified tank crew is much smaller than that of pilots, at this time China is not counted as overseas Chinese, I am afraid that there are less than 2,000 people with a flight base, and there must be tens of thousands of people who can drive cars.

Note 2: After the liberation, a large number of ponds, small rivers and reeds that hindered traffic were filled, at this time the middle and lower reaches of the Huai River water network was dense, and it was rare to see a large area of flat land, plus the fields were also dominated by paddy fields, if it was a genuine medium tank like T34, these terrains would be a big obstacle, but the devil's tank was originally specially designed for the conquest of China, so the terrain of paddy fields, mud and reeds is generally very strong, and most of the old bridges with wood and stone structures can be passed. Among them, the Type 95 light tank and its modifications are particularly outstanding in this regard. (To be continued.) )