After receiving Hou Guozhong's report on the battle situation, Chen Hanzhang ordered Hou Guozhong to speed up the battle process. In particular, the troops interspersed with the two flanks must complete the encirclement of the 72nd Division before the arrival of Japanese reinforcements. In the case of a frontal offensive, we must pay attention to absolutely not to push in a straight line, and we must not allow the remnants of the Japanese army to concentrate and move closer.

But now that the sky is getting dark, we must beware of the Japanese army breaking through at night. The Japanese army's ability to fight at night is very strong, and its ability to assault at night is quite not low, so don't be bitten by the Japanese army in the night battle. But prudence does not mean standing still, how to fight or how to fight.

When encircling and annihilating the 134th and 155th Wings of the Japanese army, it is necessary to make use of the favorable situation of the entire battlefield as much as possible and attack from multiple sources to achieve a quick victory. For the firing points of the Japanese army, it is necessary to dare to put the cannons on bayonets. While the siege and annihilation battle on the Zaonan battlefield was going on, we must pay close attention to the movements of the 118th Division on his left flank.

The position of the reserve should be moved to the left flank as much as possible. But don't put reserves on the battlefield, and when to put reserves into the reserves, you must grasp the fighters. Either it is not lightly invested, but as long as it is invested in the reserves, it must be killed with one blow, and it must not be dragged into the mud and water.

Chen Hanzhang, who has always been quite wary of the Japanese army's ability to fight at night, repeatedly reminded Hou Guozhong that he must pay attention to the actions of the Japanese army at night. In particular, it is necessary to prevent the Japanese army, which has now been divided, from getting back together by using the night counter-charge. As long as the Japanese army is not allowed to get back in touch and thus delay the time of the battle, there will not be much change in this battle.

Although tens of thousands of artillery shells of various calibers were consumed on the battlefield of Zaonan in one day, nearly one-fifth of the reserves of rocket shells were sold out at once. In high-intensity support operations, the 14-mm machine gun used for flat-firing ground support had dozens of spare barrels, and such a large consumption made Chen Hanzhang feel a little distressed.

But for the current progress of the battle, Chen Hanzhang, who knows that he doesn't have much time left, can still accept this price. Equivalent to the consumption of ammunition, the fighter is more important than anything else. Moreover, it is quite cost-effective to reduce casualties as much as possible and ensure the troops' sustained combat capability as much as possible.

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Hanzhang sued Hou Guozhong in a telegram. In the following night attacks, the troops should not be afraid of fatigue and casualties, and give full play to the fine tradition of continuous combat of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, as well as the night combat capability accumulated in the course of training on weekdays. We must dare to fight close combat and completely annihilate the Japanese army that has been encircled. However, in the night battle, we must grasp the direction and focus of the attack, and we must not mess ourselves up.

After giving the latest orders, and some chattering explanations, we must pay special attention to the aspects. Chen Hanzhang reported the battle situation on the first day to the headquarters, and also reported his thoughts on the follow-up operations to Yang Zhen. As for the battlefield in Zaonan, Chen Hanzhang handed it over to Hou Guozhong is still more assured.

Hou Guozhong was Chen Hanzhang's old subordinate as early as the Fifth Division of the Second Army, and served as his deputy for a long time. After the reorganization of the Anti-Japanese Union, he has been commanding operations on the front line. From the regiment commander, division commander, deputy commander of artillery, and commander of the column, it can be said that one step at a time, and the walk is quite solid and steady.

Since the reorganization of the Anti-Japanese Federation, in addition to serving as deputy commander of the artillery for eight months, Hou Guozhong has basically led the troops on the front line. Coupled with the long-term side-by-side battle, they have developed an extremely familiar and tacit understanding between the two. Hou Guozhong also knows and masters Chen Hanzhang's characteristics and habits in tactical use. The cooperation between the two has even reached the point of heart-to-heart.

More importantly, Hou Guozhong, who had studied artillery tactics during his tenure as deputy commander of artillery, was extremely good at using artillery. It is precisely because of these two reasons that when Chen Hanzhang was planning the Zaonan operation, the first choice of the front commander was Hou Guozhong, who was the deputy commander of the Eastern Front Cluster at the time.

Judging from the current battle situation, Hou Guozhong fought well. However, the current battle has only begun, and the real war has just begun. What will the next battle situation look like, and whether the interspersed troops on both flanks can arrive at the designated position on time is still a test for Chen Hanzhang, especially Hou Guozhong.

Compared with Chen Hanzhang, who is very steady in considering the issue and thinks more about the problem of interspersing the two wings, Yang Zhen, who needs to consider the chain reaction of the entire battle situation caused by the counterattack operation in Zaonan, needs to consider a lot more, but his vision cannot be limited to one eastern front. Playing the first bird, the Japanese army is bound to trigger a chain reaction on the entire front.

The movement of troops on the entire front of the Japanese army, which step will go, is the question that Yang Zhen considers more. The direction of the 72nd Division is only a point for the entire battle situation. However, whether this point can become the point that leverages the entire battle situation needs further observation.

There is no doubt that the 118th Division will definitely turn around and attack the Zaonan battlefield with all its might. But will the 50th Division of the Japanese Army, which is attacking east of Pinghan Road, also be committed to this direction? After this 50th division goes east, will the vacancy left by the east of Pinghan Road be filled by that division?

However, after several analyses, Yang Zhen and the Japanese army quickly withdrew from the battlefield in the southeast of Shanxi. Otherwise, the 50th Division and the 117th Division on both sides of the Pinghan Road would definitely not have been transferred eastward to the northwest of Shandong. Once these two divisions are transferred eastward, then the entire flank of the battlefield in the southeast of Shanxi will be completely exposed.

Unless the Japanese army did not want the 62nd and 69th on the battlefield in the southeast of Jin, when they withdrew to Handan, there was only one shelf left, and they took great pains to replenish the completed division in the shortest possible time, and at the same time to get out of the way of the entire northern Henan. Otherwise, the Japanese army would definitely not use these two divisions on both sides of the Pinghan Road lightly.

At present, the 35th and 37th divisions that are stationed in eastern Henan and are still being replenished will not be lightly transferred to the Jilu border battlefield. If he had not made a mistake in his judgment, the Japanese army would have invested in the second-line corps deployed on the line from Dezhou to Jinan, especially the 100th Division in Jinan. It will also be put into the battlefield, and perhaps part of the 22nd Division of the Japanese Army on the Texas battlefield.

As for the 52nd Division, the 115th Division, and the 120th Division on the battlefield in northern Lu, they are currently in the Hebei-Shandong border battlefield north of the Yellow River, and they are entangled with several divisions of Chen Hanzhang, and they cannot be transferred west to participate in the war at all. Moreover, their location is too far away from the battlefield in the northwest of Lu. By the time the troops drawn from these divisions arrived, I am afraid that the daylily would have already cooled.

However, since the Japanese army has done such a game, they know very well that it is difficult to change the situation of the war in a short period of time with only one 118th Division. Even with the addition of the 100 divisions stationed in Jinan, it is quite difficult to contain this kind of large-scale intersperse. If they are now in the Jilu border battlefield in northwest Shandong, changing the situation of the battle will require at least one additional division and regiment of troops.

But where will this division be mobilized from? Is it the 114th Division stationed on the line from Linyi to Changyi? Or the 48th Division stationed on the line from Yantai to Shouguang? Or the 65th Division of the garrison in Xuzhou was transferred to the north? Judging from the current battle situation, these three are almost unlikely. Unless they don't want the Longhai line, the possibility of the 65th Division going north at this time is very small.

The envisaged Japanese army carrying out a landing operation on the front line of the Bohai Bay, no matter how many troops the Japanese army comes, as long as the landing operation is not realized, it is just empty talk. But where will the Japanese army increase one more division in the shortest possible time? This is not only a question of drawing troops, but also a question of whether the time will allow it.

Looking at the battlefield situation on the map, Yang Zhen faintly felt that he had overlooked something. It's just that this problem that he ignored is here, but Yang Zhen is puzzled. Turning his head and picking up Chen Hanzhang's report on the battle situation, as well as the telegrams of the troops of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region in the past two days, Yang Zhen carefully read it again.

Yang Zhen repeatedly looked at Chen Hanzhang's telegram, which made Chai Shirong in front of him a little puzzled. After hesitating for a moment, Chai Shirong, who knew what No. 1 was hesitating, said: "No. 1, do you see that the Japanese army is in the Zaonan battlefield, is it possible to use the independent second and fourth tank brigades that have been transferred to Shandong, but have not been dispatched at the moment?" ”

"No. 1, I also think that our goal cannot only be to focus on the field divisions of the Japanese army. When the Japanese army was reorganizing the North China Front, Okamura Ningji withheld a fully formed field replenishment team. According to the usual habits of the Japanese army, this field replenishment team is almost equivalent to the strength of a brigade. ”

"Although there is not much artillery, it can be used as a field brigade when necessary. We've been on the battlefield before, and we've had similar things happen to them. When needed, the Japanese army directly used its so-called field supplementary team as a field unit. ”

"Even if the Japanese army does not put this field supplementary team directly on the front line. However, there is still a great possibility of turning into a second-line garrison force and replacing other field divisions. Moreover, at present, the field replenishment team of the Japanese army is on the front line of Yantai, if Uchiyama Eitaro replaces the 48th Division with it, then they can add a division in the northwestern battlefield of Shandong. ”

"According to the current intelligence, the number of vehicles invested by the Japanese army in the entire Shandong battlefield is nearly 3,000. Even under the large-scale air raids of our army, there are now only a thousand vehicles left. But it is also enough to transfer a division and regiment to the Zaonan Front in the shortest possible time. ”

"No. 1, even if the Japanese army is in the current war situation, it is using the 72nd Division as bait and using the Zaonan battlefield as a lure to mobilize our second-line troops to attack. However, this does not mean that the Japanese army's tactical attempt is to completely solve the problem of Hou Guozhong's headquarters encircling and annihilating the 72nd Division in one go. ”

"If they use the 118th Division, they will hold back the troops besieging my 72nd Division. To reduce the speed at which our troops are interspersed, it is entirely possible to wait for the arrival of the two divisions deployed in the second line. One 118th Division, plus the troops in the rear of the Dezhou battlefield, even if the 72nd Division could not be rescued, it could drag and disperse the forces of our army to encircle and annihilate the 72nd Division. It was not a difficult task to mobilize follow-up forces for the Japanese army and buy time. ”

"The most important thing is that the Japanese army is now on the battlefield in the northwest of Shandong, why does it have to eat Hou Guozhong's department? If they take advantage of the actions of the Zaonan battlefield to attract our army's follow-up troops to fight southward, and turn the line from Zaonan to Pinghan Road into a stalemate, wouldn't it be more beneficial for them to have a landing operation that may be saved? ”

Chai Shirong's analysis of the battle situation suddenly reminded Yang Zhen from another angle. He is not Okamura Ninji, nor is he the chief of staff of the North China Front. Why should the idea of the follow-up development of the war situation be stubbornly placed on the Japanese army's desire to fight a quick battle in one go? If you look at the problem from a different angle, it may be much clearer.

The Japanese army made such a big move on the line from Lubei and Zaonan to Pinghan, was it simply to pull its own troops on a large scale? Judging from the interlocking strategies that have been exposed by the Japanese army at present, the Japanese army can completely use this 72nd Division as a magnet. Little by little, the surrounding anti-coalition forces were attracted to the direction of Zaonan.