On the same day, after half a month of all-out rush transportation, the various divisions and regiments newly reinforced by the Japanese army, braving the air raids of the Anti-Japanese Federation, have arrived at the front line in Shandong and northern Henan one after another after paying a considerable price. Except for the 117th Division, together with the two and a half divisions that were originally in the eastern Henan battlefield, they were left in eastern Henan to monitor the First Theater of Operations and stabilize the rear of eastern Henan. And two divisions were assigned to the First Army for use outside the battlefield in northern Henan.

Seven of the 14 divisions and regiments drawn from the Japanese army and supplemented by the Chinese army were all assigned to the border area between Shandong and Hebei, Shandong, and Henan. After withdrawing from the Shanxi battlefield, the First Army, which had already lost 60 percent of its strength, had also regained its structure and vitality under the almost frantic all-out reorganization of the Japanese army. It was deployed on the spot on the front line in northern Henan and Handan, and after the arrival of the 100th Division.

During the period when the Japanese army concentrated all the transport fleets of the army and nearly one-third of the transport fleets of the navy, they increased their troops on the Chinese battlefield in a big way. The U.S. Navy's submarines have not launched any attacks on these huge fleets.

During the entire transportation of the Japanese troops, only one transport ship and one escort old destroyer were sunk. In other words, among the hundreds of thousands of troops mobilized by the Japanese army this time, only less than 5,000 people were lost. Almost all of the reinforcements transferred to the Chinese battlefield arrived in China without any problems.

On 11 March, the Japanese Navy dispatched the battleship Yamato, which had just completed renovation on the mainland, and the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro, which had become training ships of the Naval Military Academy, to carry out a large-scale artillery bombardment of the Qikou line under the cover of a heavy cruiser, three light cruisers, and six destroyers.

During the whole morning of shelling, thousands of shells fell on the Qikou line, including more than 200 460-millimeter shells. The huge craters that were blown up along the entire Qikou line, one after the other, were neatly arranged like fish scales, starting from three kilometers from the sea and reaching the maximum firing limit of the 460-millimeter naval guns of the He.

At present, they have actually been transferred to the reserve, and the battleships Fusang and Shancheng, which were pulled out at this time, also fired thousands of 356-millimeter shells in the north and south directions of Qikou. The entire town of Qikou was completely razed to the ground in the shelling, and after the shelling, there was not a single small tree left here except for a huge crater.

While the Japanese warship formation was firing at the Qikou line, two Japanese aircraft carriers were stationed behind the fleet and dispatched a large number of Zero fighters to escort the Japanese naval fleet. They are not worried about the anti-coalition coastal defense artillery, but they are worried that the anti-coalition aviation will pose a threat to the fleet.

The two old ships of Fuso and Yamashiro are just that, but the Yamato ship is the treasure of the Japanese Navy, and it was built with the strength of almost all of Japan. If a hair was wiped off during this battle, the Japanese Navy would be distressed to death. This time, under the pressure of the army, the navy changed its original plan to transfer the renovated Yamato to Truk Island, which has made the navy very reluctant.

It was just contrary to the Japanese Navy's expectation that when the entire fleet was fiercely shelling towards the Qikou line, not only did the coastal defense artillery that might exist in the Anti-Union not have any return fire. Even the most threatening anti-coalition air force did not dispatch a single aircraft to carry out a single interfering attack, allowing the navy to complete the artillery bombardment smoothly.

The only loss of such a large fleet was the destroyer Wakatake, because the channel was not too wide, and the main channel had to be made for the battleships behind it, and when it turned after completing the fire, one accidentally crashed into the light cruiser Oyodo that was escorting.

Completed in two or three years, the destroyer Wakatake, with a full load displacement of only 1,000 tons, was a rival to the Oyodo light cruiser with a displacement of nearly 10,000 tons. The bow of the ship was crashed on the spot, and it could only be towed by the Oyodo to Port Arthur for maintenance. Due to the shortage of materials during the war, the destroyer was not finally renovated until Lushun was recovered by the Anti-Japanese Union.

Although the shelling was basically no loss for the Japanese Navy. However, Admiral Harem Jun, who was personally observing the battle situation on the naval fleet, was very disappointed with the shelling. In the midst of the naval fleet shelling, the entire Qikou line was as silent as death.

In order to find out the enemy's situation around Qikou, he even took a naval carrier-based reconnaissance plane and personally went to the Qikou line to observe. But nothing was found beneath the plane, except for the endless plains and craters created by the naval fleet. Not to mention the traces of the enemy's movements, even the coastal defense positions of the Anti-Japanese Union have not been found.

The plan to startle the snake failed, and he was complained by the admiral. Naval large-caliber shells for naval guns, as well as battleship barrels, which were extremely expensive to manufacture, and even more precious fuel for the moment. It was used for a duel with the battleships of the US Navy, not wasted on the wasteland like this.

But despite his own tactics of scaring the snake, he did not achieve the desired results. But General Harem Chun insisted that he was in the depth of the Qikou line, and it was definitely not as calm as it was now. With such an important target as Qikou, the enemy will definitely not go undefended. The enemy is deliberately hiding itself, waiting to deliver the most fatal blow to the landing force.

In fact, when the Japanese Navy was unscrupulously shelling the Qikou line, the heavy artillery units deployed by the Anti-Japanese Union on the front line of Bohai Bay asked for battle one after another, wanting to compete with the Japanese fleet. However, Du Kaishan, who was sitting in Li Village, east of Qingxian County, held back his restless mood and never ordered to fight back.

It's not that he doesn't want to fire back, it's that all the artillery under his command, even the German-made cannons with the longest range, can't reach the range of large Japanese ships with a range of tens of kilometers. Rushing back could only knock out some light ships that were firing close to the coast, and they could not touch the skin of the main Japanese ships at all.

Not to mention that it could not solve the big problems, on the contrary, it exposed its own position. Let the Japanese army, which has always been extremely stingy, waste so many large-caliber naval shells and shell so frantically at the depth of Qikou, which looks empty on the surface, I am afraid that they are just trying to find out their own defense around Qikou......

Therefore, in the shelling of Qikou by Japanese naval ships this time, Du Kaishan, who has always advocated that attack is the best defense, showed that he should be calm. Resolutely suppressed the Qikou front-line artillery and demanded a return fire. The difference in firepower is too great, and there is no cheap to take advantage of at this time to return fire.

In Du Kaishan's view, the Japanese are not bluffing in Qikou. Their actions today are to test the reality of their defense in Qikou. Since they have begun to test today, the landing operation of the Japanese army may not be too far away. Therefore, after waiting for the Japanese to come ashore, he had a good fight with the Japanese army.

However, after the Japanese ships finished dumping the shells, Du Kaishan and his artillery staff immediately rushed to the Qikou beach to measure the range of the guns of various Japanese ships. According to the deployment order of various ships during the shelling of Japanese ships, evaluate the ability of their own artillery to return fire.

To tell the truth, the Japanese naval fleet's two artillery sorties along the Bohai Bay made Du Kaishan also surprised. According to his judgment, the current situation in the Pacific is already quite unfavorable. In order to cover the landing of Japanese troops, the Japanese Navy may dispatch several cruisers and destroyers.

Therefore, when he set up artillery positions, they were set up in accordance with the confrontation with the heavy cruisers of the Japanese Navy. If it had not been for the fact that the Japanese Navy first dispatched two battleships to shell the coast of Tianjin, it aroused his alarm. All artillery deployed in the first line was transferred to the second, and even third-line positions in the shortest possible time.

I am afraid that this unprecedented shelling of the Japanese fleet will cause considerable losses in his artillery positions. Because in the face of 460 mm naval guns and 356 mm naval guns, huge power. The solidity of his artillery positions simply could not withstand the attack of a single shell of these two calibers.

As soon as the Yamato ship fired a 460-millimeter high-explosive grenade, the entire town of Qikou was razed to the ground. If it falls on his artillery position, I am afraid that there will be no other result than the destruction of the artillery and the death of people. Although the German-made K-18 170-millimeter cannon with the longest firing range was nearly 30 kilometers, it could not be the opponent of the Japanese battleships in the artillery battle.

And his cannons, although facing one direction of Qikou, the total number is not small. But there is a serious problem, and that is the lack of armor-piercing shells to combat ships. Ordinary high-explosive grenades, for the power of these battleships with thick skin and flesh, Du Kaishan still knows in his heart.

These high-explosive grenades may have been barely enough against Japanese light cruisers or destroyers. Faced with the situation that the Japanese army came up with several battleships, a limited number of high-explosive grenades, and in the case of a range that could not be reached, I am afraid that they would not even be able to hurt their fur. Faced with a situation that exceeded his original expectations, Du Kaishan could only adjust his operational deployment.

At the same time when the Japanese ship formation carried out a large-scale artillery bombardment on the Qikou line. On the Dezhou battlefield in northern Lubei, the Japanese army was led by three tank wings, with the cooperation of more than 300 artillery pieces of 75 mm caliber or more, and more than 30 planes of the naval air force.

Five divisions were deployed in front of Texas, and the tactics of advancing in three directions were adopted with Texas as the center. Along the two flanks of the Jinpu Road in the front of Dezhou, from Leling in the east to Zhengjiakou in the west, the whole line was launched to the north of Dezhou. On the battlefield in northern Luzhou, the Japanese army's attack focused on Ningjin and Leling, east of Dezhou, and its strategic goal was directly aimed at Nanpi, a key point in the depth of the first-line anti-Japanese alliance in Dezhou.

On the battlefield of the ancient city west of Texas, a division was put into use the ancient city as a base to launch a continuous attack in the direction of Fucheng. The 22nd Division, which had completed its reorganization on the front of Dezhou, launched an attack on the anti-union positions in Sangyuan and Jingxian on the east bank of the South Canal along the front of Dezhou in coordination with the division.

At the same time as the northern Lubei battlefield began, the First Army, which had been restored in northern Henan, with the strength of two divisions and regiments, spread out along the two lines of the Pinghan Road and launched an attack on the front line of Xingtai and Renxian. At the same time, the two divisions stationed on the front line of Xinxiang and Qixian launched a full-line counterattack against Shunping and Lingchuan in the southeast of Shanxi.

The Japanese First Army's attack from northern Henan to southeastern Shanxi was aimed at the Changzhi area, the only fierce battle in the entire Shanxi battlefield. Its strategic goal can be said to be quite clear, that is, to rescue the remnants of the 36th Division, which is now only one Changzhi City.

At the same time as the start of the battle in the northern Lu region, the Japanese army in the northwest of Shandong was just as Chen Hanzhang expected, and concentrated two divisions and regiments when they came up, and the first wave of the offensive used the strength of two divisions to kill the northwest Lu region, which is the junction between him and the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, in an attempt to forcibly cross the South Canal and seize Ji County and Nangong.

The goal of the Japanese offensive in the northwestern region of Shandong was very clear, and it threw two divisions into one fell swoop and adopted the tactic of advancing on two fronts at the same time, in order to cut off the connection between the anti-Japanese alliance in Dezhou and the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region. And cooperated with the Japanese army that launched the attack on Dezhou to complete the outflanking of the Dezhou battlefield, and at the same time cooperated with the two divisions of the Japanese army that launched an offensive in northern Henan to break the resistance of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region. Cooperate with the Jinpu Road operation to contain the anti-union west cluster and unable to move eastward.