Taiyuan.

The headquarters of the First Army.

The news that the 36th Division had suffered a loss reached the headquarters of the First Army.

As the saying goes, there are three fires when a new official takes office, and just a few days after Yoshio Iwamatsu took office, this fire did not burn on the enemy's body, but burned on his own body.

Although, the loss of more than a thousand soldiers in a brigade is nothing, but it makes his face dull and he feels hot.

He went to the First Army to become a commander to make some achievements, not to be hung up and beaten by the Eighth Route Army like Yoshio Shinozuka when he was in office.

As a result, Iwamatsu Yoshio held the first staff meeting at the Taiyuan Headquarters.

The meeting was attended by in addition to a number of staff officers from the First Army General Staff.

There are also the commander of the 41st Division, Shimizu Nori, the special agent captain Kazuki Yamamoto, the commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, Tadamichi Kuribayashi, and others.

The 4th Cavalry Brigade that participated in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain had returned to Inner Mongolia, but the 1st Cavalry Brigade was detained by Iwamatsu Yoshio.

Iwamatsu Yoshio really wanted the 1st Cavalry Brigade to belong to the command of the First Army, after all, the Taiyuan Plain and the Xinzhou Basin were more suitable for cavalry.

However, the Mongolian army Gansu Shigetaro did not let it, and the combat effectiveness of the 1st Cavalry Brigade was very strong, which was too important for the Mongolian army.

Fu Zuoyi's troops were eyeing the Mongolian legions in the Suiyuan area, like a hungry wolf, ready to pounce and bite at any time.

Therefore, the 1st Cavalry Brigade was only temporarily loaned to the First Army by Iwamatsu Yoshio to strengthen the First Army's defense of Taiyuan.

In the conference room, Iwamatsu Yoshio ordered his cronies and staff officers to prepare sumptuous food.

The worst of the participants in the meeting were all at the Zhongzuo level, and a group of high-ranking officers of the devils were eating and drinking while discussing.

First, Commander Yoshio Iwamatsu delivered a speech, talking about the current situation of the First Army, and then said:

"At present, the Eighth Route Army has become a major problem for the Imperial Japanese Army in North China, especially Li Yunlong's new regimental headquarters, which is very rampant."

"Yesterday afternoon, a battalion of Li Yunlong's new regiment fought with the 36th Division led by Lieutenant General Jingguan in Dagu Town, northwest of Shanxi Province."

"According to Lieutenant General Jingguan's report, the new regiment used the same anti-slope and tunnel tactics as Baozi Mountain in this battle."

"Resulted in the loss of an Imperial Brigade of the 36th Division."

With a wave of his hand, several guards carried in the sand table set up by the General Staff.

The location of Dagu Town on the sand table, the position of the mountain tunnels and positions of the Eighth Route Army, and the position of the 36th Division's attack were all made on the sand table.

"Gentlemen, please see."

Yoshio Iwamatsu shook his hand, pointed to the map, and said:

"Here is the forward and anti-inclined positions of the Eighth Route Army, here is the headquarters of the 36th Division, and here is the location of the 36th Wing of the Mountain Artillery."

"The artillery position of the Eighth Route is 5 kilometers away from their position, and the specific location is unknown, but the artillery fire of the two mountain artillery wings can provide artillery support for the Eighth Route at any time."

Heard artillery fire from two mountain artillery wings.

Several adjutant staff officers present invariably gasped in unison, and even their pupils couldn't help but shrink slightly.

Even a three-unit division of the Japanese army was equipped with a mountain artillery wing, and many of them were not in the same number, with a few 105-mm howitzers.

A regiment in the Eighth Route Military Region is actually equipped with two mountain artillery wings, is there any reason for it?

And Yamamoto Kazuki and several devil officers above the rank of major general stared at the sand table with solemn eyes.

Iwamatsu Yoshio said again: "Among the gentlemen present, only Major General Miyazaki, the deputy chief of staff, has fought against this tactic of the Eighth Road. ”

Everyone instantly turned their attention to Masao Miyazaki.

Everyone knows that Masao Miyazaki was originally the commander of the 3rd Brigade as a major general, but because he was defeated by the Eighth Route Army at Baozi Mountain, he was transferred to the First Army as a deputy chief of staff with little right to speak.

In fact, with his qualifications, it is more than enough to be the chief of staff of the First Army.

Masao Miyazaki's cheeks twitched slightly when he heard this, and the battle of Baozishan was a painful memory he would never want to mention.

In order to open the passage to Taiyuan as soon as possible, Masao Miyazaki sent the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade to the slaughterhouse-like battlefield.

It was a massacre, in the frontal battle, the Japanese army actually played an eight-to-one battle loss ratio with the Eighth Road, which was simply a shame, and it was his luck that the base camp did not let him apologize.

However, Masao Miyazaki had no choice but to bite the bullet, stood up, picked up a slender wooden pole and said:

"The so-called tunnel tactics of the Eighth Road are to build artillery positions on the anti-slope of the mountain and infantry positions on the positive slope."

"Then dig a tunnel in the mountain, connect the positive slope and the anti-slope plane, and when the artillery of the imperial army opens fire on the front slope position of the Eighth Road, all the infantry of the Eighth Road will hide in the tunnel."

"When the infantry of the Imperial Army began to attack, the infantry of the Eighth Route came out of the mountain tunnel and opened fire on the Imperial Army."

"The artillery positions of the Eighth Route are set up on the anti-slope, mark the distance and shoot Zhu Yuan in advance, and when the infantry of the Imperial Army attacks, the artillery of the Eighth Route will open fire together and launch artillery bombardment for the attacking Imperial Infantry."

At that time, when attacking Baozi Mountain, Masao Miyazaki had not yet recovered.

After the battle, the Eighth Route Army withdrew, and Miyazaki Masao personally set foot on Baozi Mountain to reconnoiter repeatedly, even though the Eighth Route Army filled in the tunnel, but he still saw a little way.

Also seeing the way out of the door is Major General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who is also very interested in this kind of tunnel tactics.

However, because the headquarters of the First Army was wiped out by the Eighth Route Army, and even the commander of the North China Front Army stepped down, the various departments of the First Army were far apart, and there was no contact in peacetime, and there was no intelligence sharing.

The 36th Division only knew that the 3rd Brigade had been defeated, but it did not know the specific situation, and it did not conduct specific tactical research on the tactics of the Eighth Route Army, so it suffered a loss in Dagu Town.

As soon as he finished speaking, Chief of Staff Hanaya began to sneer:

"It's okay to attack once or twice, Miyazaki-kun actually ordered the soldiers to attack five or six times, and sent the soldiers of the 3rd Brigade to die, what a talent."

This is as if to say, you Miyazaki Masao is really a fucking talent.

Glancing at Hanaya Masa, Masao Miyazaki's cheeks twitched twice suddenly, and he said coldly: "Your Excellency the Chief of Staff said it lightly, at that time, Taiyuan was in danger, General Shinozuka sent three telegrams in 15 minutes, ordering the 3rd Brigade to reinforce Taiyuan at full speed, in that case, I am afraid that His Excellency the Chief of Staff can only make the same choice as me." ”

Although the situation at that time, even if the 3rd Brigade arrived in Taiyuan, it would most likely be completely annihilated by the Eighth Route Army.

Yoshio Shinozuka's order was clearly to make the 3rd Brigade a substitute for the dead.

However, if the destruction of the 3rd Brigade can save Taiyuan and the headquarters of the First Army, Miyazaki Masao will still carry out the order without hesitation.

However, the reality was cruel, not only was the 3rd Brigade scrapped, but Taiyuan and the headquarters of the First Army were not saved.

It can be said that he lost his wife and lost his soldiers.

Hanaya asked: "Don't Miyazaki-kun know that he wants to take countermeasures, in an offensive battle, with the mountain artillery brigade and air support, he actually suffered more than 3,200 imperial soldiers, which is almost the strength of a third-line wing." ”

Miyazaki Masao retorted: "Of course, I thought of countermeasures, the imperial army used chemical bombs, everyone on the Eighth Route wore gas masks, it had no effect at all, and finally the tactics of infantry and artillery attacking together, but the firepower of the Eighth Route was too strong, the troops in my hands were limited, and the artillery shells had been exhausted and there was no logistical supply, so it was difficult to capture the position of the Eighth Route Army." ”

Hanaya said in a weird way: "It's still Miyazaki-kun who is so powerful that he even blows up his own soldiers." ”

Masao Miyazaki could not refute this, because some of the more than 3,000 soldiers killed and wounded were indeed killed by his own shells.

Masao Miyazaki sat back in his seat with an ugly face, and the atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became a little solemn, and no one dared to speak for a while.

Iwamatsu Yoshio said with a smile: "The purpose of gathering everyone today is to argue, as long as we argue about the countermeasures against the tunnel tactics of the Eighth Route Army, even if the goal is achieved, everyone can speak freely." ”

Then, Yoshio Iwamatsu looked at Kazuki Yamamoto and said, "What does Yamamoto-kun think about this tactic?" ”

Kazuki Yamamoto was heavily used by Yoshio Shinozuka.

As the saying goes, once a son of heaven is a courtier, Iwamatsu Yoshio did not alienate Yamamoto Kazuo because of this.

And Yamamoto Kazuki led the special forces to make a lot of contributions in the Battle of Nakajo Mountain, which also attracted some attention from the commander of the front army, Okamura Ninji.

Yoshio Iwamatsu naturally also values Yamamoto's opinion.

Yamamoto Kazuki still had a paralyzed face, and said in a deep voice: "This tunnel tactic is indeed novel, it can play to its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, avoid the soldiers in the position from being hit by the imperial army's artillery fire, and give full play to the strengths of the eight roads." ”

Since the outbreak of the war, the Japanese army has been able to occupy half of China in a short period of time, largely because of the superiority in artillery fire.

In the Shanghai battlefield, a naval gun of more than 200 mm can take out a battalion of the Chinese army with one shot.

Even if the Japanese artillery attacked from the coast to the inland, the Japanese artillery bombarded the infantry and the infantry rushed after the artillery bombardment, and the tactics of the infantry were more victorious than defeated.

However, this kind of tunnel tactics has turned the tactic of artillery bombardment after infantry rush and infantry charge after artillery bombardment, and infantry after artillery bombardment and artillery bombardment.

This is evidenced by the heavy losses of the 3rd Brigade and the losses of the 36th Division.

If countertactics cannot be found, the Japanese army will suffer even greater losses in future battles.

"But."

Yamamoto Kazuki changed his words: "The tunnel tactics are not without a solution. ”

As soon as the words fell, Iwamatsu Yoshio and a group of devil officers suddenly became interested, and they all turned their eyes to Yamamoto Kazuki.

"Yamamoto-kun, please speak freely, we will listen to you." Yoshio Iwamatsu shook his hand and said.

Yamamoto Kazuki pointed to the position of the Eighth Route Army on the sand table and said: "Gentlemen, please see, because the tunnel tactics rely on geographical advantages, as long as we set the battlefield to the plain terrain, the Eighth Route naturally cannot use the tunnel tactics. ”

When the devil officers heard this, they were immediately a little disappointed, and put on an expression of just that.

If the Japanese army could choose the battlefield, it would not suffer in tunnel tactics.

Iwamatsu Yoshio was also a little incredulous, but he didn't expect Yamamoto Kazuki to hold this back, and immediately said: "Yamamoto-kun, many times it is not the imperial army that can decide where the battlefield is, the imperial army is the attacker, and most of Shanxi is mountainous, which is very suitable for this kind of tunnel tactics." ”

The guerrilla tactics of the Eighth Route Army have not yet been cracked, and after the guerrilla tactics, another tunnel tactic has emerged, and Iwamatsu Yoshio is also quite a headache.

Yamamoto Kazuki's eyes flashed: "If you can't choose the battlefield, there is still a way to crack it in the face of the tunnel tactics of the Eighth Route Army." ”

(End of chapter)