At the meeting, although Zhao Fei was summarizing the reasons for the failure of the attack, he still had some disdain in his heart. For a tough battle, the loss of an attack is nothing, and it seems that there is no need to hold a summary meeting because of the loss of an attack. In previous battles, it was not uncommon for other units to fail in their first attack, and it seemed that no one had immediately held a summary meeting.

Zhao Fei spent more than ten minutes talking about the problems in this attack, and the trace of unhappiness in his eyes was still caught by Zhang Lingfu. After Zhao Fei finished speaking, Zhang Lingfu motioned for Zhao Fei to sit down, and then said, "Head Zhao, I understand your thoughts. It is true that a defeat in an offensive is nothing, as long as the victory is achieved in the following attack and the Japanese position is occupied, there is no need to come to a special meeting to sum up the mistake. However, I held this meeting anyway. ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Fei lowered his head. At this time, Zhang Lingfu suddenly raised his voice and said: "I am holding this meeting not because of your defeat, but because you lost four tanks and two armored vehicles in the first attack! You should know very well that the reason why our 90 th Group Army is invincible in the face of the Japanese army, invincible in all its attacks, and whose combat effectiveness is unmatched in all the units of the national army, is because of these advanced heavy weapons and the excellent quality of the soldiers.

These advanced heavy weapons were obtained from abroad by commanders with great painstaking efforts and at great expense, in order to enhance our combat effectiveness as much as possible. You may think that in order to win the battle, losses are inevitable. But have you ever thought that we still have a long war to fight in the future, and there is no need to replenish these heavy weapons. As soon as our heavy weapons are lost, will our group army still have such a strong combat effectiveness?

I have heard that the 211th Division, which attacked the north gate, was willing to use men to fight the Japanese army, and was reluctant to use tanks to assist, although I do not approve of wasting food due to choking, but can we do a better job of infantry and tan coordination in the offensive and try our best to reduce some losses? I know that the 90th Division has always been the boss of the group army, and you think very highly of yourself because of this, but in terms of infantry and artillery coordination, we are not as good as the 210th Division, which was trained by German officers, so should we usually consult more people?"

Zhang Lingfu said so much in one breath, and several heads of regiments at the venue lowered their heads. After a while, Zhao Fei raised his head and said to Zhang Lingfu: "Luzao, I understand, I hope Luzao will give us the 545th Regiment another chance." Zhang Lingfu nodded and replied: "It's good to understand, but you still have to use it when you need to use the tank to assist, no matter how good the weapon is, you have to use it to exert its power, as long as you pay more attention and avoid unnecessary losses." ”

Zhao Fei saluted Zhang Lingfu and said, "Please rest assured, I understand what to do." After saying that, he turned around and left to go back to the group. After Zhao Fei returned to the regiment, how to study and arrange a new round of attack will not be talked about first, but here will first talk about the attack of the guard brigade on the Japanese army south of the city. After Tangshan Leopard arrived in the south of the city with the strength of two guard regiments, he immediately asked his subordinates to arrange offensive positions, and he himself climbed to a high place to observe the Japanese defense line opposite.

According to the information provided by the reconnaissance brigade, two infantry wings of the 39th Division of the Japanese Army were stationed outside the south gate, one of which was stationed on the main position of the railway station and the warehouse group, and the other infantry wing was guarding the market town between the railway station and the southern city wall. In order to attack the south gate, it is necessary to deal with the Japanese troops stationed in the railway station and warehouse complex first.

In Tangshan Leopard's telescope, there is a reinforced fence outside the railway station and a ring fortification about a kilometer long with sandbags under the wall. There used to be some houses opposite the train station, but now they have been completely demolished and removed, and only traces of the foundation can be seen. Looking at the traces of these foundations, Tangshan Leopard knew that the Japanese army had done a lot of evil to build this line of defense.

Tangshan Leopard is very clear about his own strength, his shortcoming is that he does not have strong artillery fire support, but Tangshan Leopard believes that even if there is no strong artillery support, these Japanese fortifications in front of him will not be able to stop his attack, after all, the guard brigade still has weapons to rely on. After seeing the situation on the Japanese defense line, Tangshan Leopard returned to the unit.

Since the Guard Brigade suffered a heavy loss at Zhennanguan and returned to Longzhou for retraining, it has expanded the strength of its three regiments, and now a regiment has three infantry battalions, one heavy firepower battalion, and one mixed battalion, of which the mixed battalion is composed of an armored truck company, a heavy mortar company, and an antiaircraft artillery company. In addition to the logistics baggage battalion, the strength of such a regiment has reached 4,000 people, which is equivalent to a regular brigade of other national army units, and its combat effectiveness is even stronger than that of a regular division.

The Guard Brigade is the escort force next to Wang Haitao, and Wang Haitao prefers some people who will not have ideas, so there is also a recoilless artillery battalion, an 85 mm caliber howitzer and artillery battalion, and a light armored battalion (including 30 armored personnel carriers) under the name of the Guard Brigade. This time, Tangshan Leopard also brought out the recoilless artillery battalion and the 85 howitzer and artillery battalion.

At the forefront of the offensive position was the Second Guard Regiment preparing for the attack, and after the death of Li Li, the former commander of the Second Guard Regiment, Wei Song, the commander of the First Battalion, was promoted to regiment commander. After the first battle of Zhennanguan, the surviving veterans were all promoted to officers, and with these experienced veterans as the foundation, the combat effectiveness of the second regiment is now better than before. When Tangshan Leopard came to the position of the Second Regiment, he saw that all the officers and soldiers were busy.

Wang Haitao also sent a mixed armored battalion to the guard brigade, but before understanding the situation of the Japanese artillery arrangement, Tangshan Leopard was not ready to use the armored battalion to participate in the attack. On the position of the 2nd Regiment, Tangshan Leopard saw five Gaoping dual-purpose twin heavy machine guns as the main force of fire cover. There are now only ten of these heavy machine guns left in the entire army, and all of them have been handed over to the guard brigade for use.

Because this heavy machine gun is heavy, difficult to move, and will become the first target of the enemy's attack, so in order to avoid their losses, Wang Haitao installed these ten heavy machine guns on ten armored trucks, and on each truck there is a soldier of the machine gun squad responsible for operating this machine gun and another Type 67 heavy machine gun.

In addition to the five Gaoping dual-purpose twin heavy machine guns, the 20 Type 67 heavy machine guns of the 2nd Regiment Heavy Firepower Battalion also selected machine gun positions, and the 24 heavy assault guns of the mixed battalion were also arranged on the position, and the observers in the artillery were observing the azimuth coordinates of the attack targets and adjusting the muzzles. When Wei Song saw Tangshan's coming to inspect, he hurriedly ran over and shouted in a low voice: "Report to the brigade, our regiment is preparing for attack, please instruct." ”

The rule of not saluting the commander at the front of the position has become a habit in Wang Haitao's army, and Tangshan Leopard also asked: "Commander Wei, how are the preparations? Is there anything else needed?" Wei Song thought for a while and said: "Brigade seat, there are a lot of fortifications on the small Japanese position, and there are several bunkers, our regiment's bazooka group is a little insufficient, can you transfer a few from the third regiment to support?"

Tangshan Leopard nodded and said, "This is no problem." After speaking, he turned his head and said to the signal soldier behind him: "You go and send a message to Commander Sun of the Third Regiment, and say that I will let the Third Regiment send five bazooka groups to support the attack of the Second Regiment." The signal soldier replied: "Yes, brigade seat!" and then turned to run, Wei Song smiled: "With their support, I promise to take the Japanese position!"

Tang Xiaoshan nodded, looked down at his watch and said, "I'll give you another twenty minutes to prepare, and launch an attack on time at nine o'clock." Wei Song replied, "Yes, Brigade Seat! Attack in twenty minutes." "Twenty minutes passed quickly, and at nine o'clock the howitzer and artillery battalions directly under the Guards Brigade opened fire on time, and at the same time the heavy mortar company of the 2nd Regiment also began shelling.

None of these guns are as powerful as heavy artillery, and they are not good against Japanese sandbag fortifications, but not against those bunker fortifications. The artillery fire stopped after only twenty minutes, and then the attack of the infantry of the 2nd Regiment followed. The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment rushed out of the offensive position as the first attacking force. The Guard Brigade places more emphasis on individual combat ability and group coordination than other units, so the offensive style is also different from that of other units.

As soon as the 1st battalion left its position, it dispersed into attack groups of six to seven men and made a covert assault forward. Other units will also use the combat group as an offensive method in the attack, but it is basically a squad unit, and it is mostly used in street battles in the city, and it is rarely used in the field to attack.

When the guard brigade was training, Wang Haitao consciously trained them in the way of special forces, and this training method was maintained in the guard brigade in the future. The officers and men of the Guards Brigade are the most intense and difficult in training, and it is more than enough for an ordinary soldier of the Guards Brigade to become a squad leader in other units. Although there were only six or seven people in an attack group of the Guard Brigade, there were many such roles as spearheads, assaulters, snipers, and heavy firefighters.

The long-term training makes them quite familiar with each other, and they cooperate with each other very tacitly. A battalion of 650 officers and men, dressed in camouflage, scattered in the field in front of the position, and without careful search, they could hardly find a human figure. The ten bazooka teams that participated in the attack, each of which had an attack group of five people under cover, sneaked past the Japanese bunker fortifications.

In order to attract the attention of the Japanese troops on the position, the second battalion and the heavy fire battalion on the offensive position opened full firepower, and the second battalion also made the illusion of an entire attack, and the firepower on the Japanese position was attracted by the second battalion. At this distance, only machine guns can play a role, and other small arms basically do not have the accuracy, and firing is a waste of bullets.

With the 2nd Battalion attracting the attention and firepower of the Japanese troops, the officers and men of the 1st Battalion and 10 bazooka teams successfully sneaked to a distance of 300 meters from the Japanese position. At this distance, rockets and projectiles can already hit the target, and the team stops. Soon the bazooka team completed its preparations, and ten piercing and armor shells screamed and pounced on the Japanese bunker fortifications.