(Thanks to book friend st201122 and Tiancangye for the tip ^_^)

At first glance, Hu Weidong was very risky in doing this, although the tanks and heavy artillery were powerful, but without the protection of the infantry, people could not always be completely reassured, in case the 29th Army, which was difficult to distinguish between friend and foe, suddenly attacked, the consequences would be unimaginable. But how can Hu Weidong be completely unguarded against this? He asked Su Yu to send out all the idle cars, which carried the strength of the two main infantry regiments, and then sent a brigade to follow behind, plus Hu Lian's armored brigade, the total strength exceeded 15,000 people, and the firepower was extremely powerful, even if the 29th Army came with the whole division, it would not be easy to eat them, not to mention that as long as it lasted for a day or two, the large troops of the Red Eighth Army Corps would arrive, and when the time came, even if the 29th Army really had 100,000 people, it was powerless to resist.

In fact, the current Song Zheyuan has long lost the sharpness of the past, and he only thinks about preserving his strength, how dare he take the initiative to make trouble? However, Zhang Zizhong, who didn't want to fight with the Red 15th Army, was very supportive of this, and he also took advantage of the opportunity of Hu Weidong's troops to Rehe to wipe out all the Japanese puppets in Chahar Province, without the support of the Japanese army in Rehe, with 38 divisions and 30,000 elites, it was too easy to eliminate such a few people. However, to Zhang Zizhong's regret, Song Zheyuan, who did not want to anger the Japanese army too much, refused his request to take advantage of the victory to send troops to Rehe to regain the lost territory, and Zhang Zizhong couldn't help but feel a little depressed.

In Suiyuan in the west, Fu Zuoyi started earlier than Zhang Zizhong, with his outstanding talent and the strong strength of the 35th Army, Fu Zuoyi did not spend much effort to eliminate or force the landing of 4 brigades of the puppet army. By collecting prisoners of war and surrendering troops, Fu Zuoyi not only made up for the losses suffered in the previous battles with the Red Army, but also had better troops than before, and the entire territory of Suiyuan fell into the hands of Fu Zuoyi, and the 35th Army became more and more powerful

Since the occupation of Fengtai, the attrition of the Red Eighth Army Corps (including non-combat attrition such as sickness) has exceeded the 30,000 mark, although only 5,000 or 6,000 of them have been permanently attrition such as those killed in battle, and most of the more than 20,000 wounded and sick can be restored and returned to the team as long as they can return to the base area for a few months at most. As a result, the mobile strength of the Red 15th Army gradually became strained. Therefore, although he has won successive battles since entering North China, Hu Weidong's heart has been tense, and it was not until the whole division withdrew from the air raid range of the devil plane that he finally put his mind at ease, but Hu Weidong did not realize that the real test was coming

However, after the Red 15 th Army once again launched an active offensive against the Japanese-occupied areas, captured Chengde, the capital of Rehe Province, and destroyed the Haode airfield, the high-ranking officials of the Japanese military headquarters quickly unified their opinions, and whether to "swallow" China or "encroach" on China can be discussed later, but this damned Red Army unit must be wiped out as quickly as possible, otherwise not only Japan will become a laughing stock in the world. It is also very likely that the major shili who have a stake in Japan will have other ideas, and the consequences will be far more serious than the loss of tens of thousands of people

In order to ensure the complete annihilation of the 15 th Red Army, they actually decided to dispatch two permanent divisions and regiments with full strength (Note 1) and one independent mixed brigade to fight, and at the same time urgently recruited 100,000 reservists into active duty in the country, so as to replenish the standing divisions and independent mixed brigades that are not yet yet under formation, and also accelerated the research and development of various new weapons and equipment, so as to prepare for launching a full-scale war of aggression against China in advance in case the scale of the war could not be controlled.

Among them, the 1st Brigade of Independent Mixed Brigade is the only fully mechanized unit in the Japanese army at present, and its strength is obvious. And although the 4th Division has not participated in actual combat for a long time, it is after all one of the oldest veteran divisions in the Japanese army, with excellent weapons and equipment, excellent training results, and its combat effectiveness should be trustworthy, uh, at least now everyone thinks so...,

The 12th Division is even more remarkable, it is directly assigned to a field heavy artillery brigade without additional troops, and there are only 5 field heavy artillery brigades in Japan, in addition to the Shimonoseki Heavy Artillery Wing, a special artillery wing with a place name, is also subordinate to the establishment of the 12th Division, and it is even higher than the field heavy artillery brigade in terms of firepower. It is worth mentioning that the Xiaguan Heavy Artillery Wing is actually a fortress artillery unit, which was originally only subordinate to the 12th Division in terms of organization, and generally will not fight together with the field troops of the 12th Division, but the Red 15th Army was too impressed by the Japanese high-level personnel, and they also knew how much heavy artillery was placed in the Fengtai warehouse. They were also given the latest batch of heavy artillery and the necessary tractors to accompany the field troops of the 12th Division. As a result, the 12th Division was equipped with a total of 24 150mm heavy cannons, 48 120mm heavy cannons, 24 150mm field cannons, 48 105mm field cannons, 12 150mm howitzers, 36 105mm field guns, 12 75mm field guns, 52 75mm mountain guns, 24 Type 92 infantry guns, and 16 37mm battle defense guns. If compared with the poorly equipped 6th Division, it is at least 10 times exceeded

In addition, the three units also strengthened special arms such as combat vehicles and anti-aircraft guns before the war in accordance with the practice of the Japanese army, with a total strength of more than 60,000 people, and a total of various artillery pieces (not counting grenadiers and mortars, but including anti-aircraft guns). With more than 600 guns, more than 200 tanks and armored vehicles, and air support from 2 flying wings, no matter how strong the Red 15th Army is, it is definitely not an opponent, at least the Japanese army thinks so

Note 1: Before the outbreak of the "77 Incident", the various divisions and independent mixed brigades of the Japanese Kwantung Army were in a state of dissatisfaction, for example, a fully established permanent division generally had at least more than 20,000 people, but at that time, several divisions and regiments of the Kwantung Army only had an establishment of 15,000 people because some soldiers were left on the mainland, and the actual strength was only more than 10,000 people. However, during this period of time, the high-level quarrels of the Japanese army did not let time be wasted, and in just over a month, tens of thousands of soldiers, a large number of heavy equipment and a fully equipped 4th Division were transported to the northeast, making the Kwantung Army a huge armed Liliang with 4 fully established divisions and a total strength of more than 150,000 (including non-combatants).