Another factor that influenced the development of tanks by the Japanese was that his combat opponents were too weak. Although the Japanese Army was hesitating in the debate between advancing north and south, their goal of invading China was set. And China's economic strength is not good, and the equipment of the army is even worse. In the eyes of the decision-makers of small Japan, the existing strength of the Japanese army can destroy China within three months, and there is no need to waste precious steel and gasoline to develop a large number of advanced tanks.

Therefore, Japan did not begin to build its own tanks until 1926 at the latest, and before that, it mainly purchased "MK-IV" and "MK-A" tanks from Britain and "Renault-F17" light tanks from France. In February 1927, the No. 1 combat vehicle, which was designed by the vehicle squad of the Army Technical Headquarters in imitation of the Renault tank, was finally developed with the cooperation of the Osaka Arsenal and some private associations, which weighed 12 tons and had a speed of 25 kilometers per hour. The No. 1 vehicle was tested for speed shifting, climbing, trench crossing, and fire at the foot of Mt. Fuji, and basically met the design requirements. In April 1929, the Osaka Arsenal developed the second combat vehicle, weighing 9.8 tons, a 57 mm gun, a 6.5 mm machine gun, armor 5 to 17 mm, a maximum speed of 26 kilometers per hour, and a maximum range of 120 kilometers. The car performed well in a long-distance trial from Tokyo to Aomori. When it was put into production, it was increased to 11.5 tons at the request of the military and was named the Type 89 medium combat vehicle. The other two main battle tanks, the Type 95 light tank and the Type 97 medium tank, were built in 1935 and 1937 respectively. During this period, Japan also developed a number of other auxiliary combat vehicles and armored vehicles. 95% of tank manufacturing enterprises are privately owned, and the remaining 5% are military camps, and their production capacity is generally low.

The Japanese army's usual scale for classifying tanks is light under 10 tons, medium to 20 tons, and heavy at more than 20 tons. However, by European and American standards, less than 20 tons are light tanks. As a result, the main battle tanks of the Japanese army were practically light. The main technical weaknesses in its comprehensive comparison with European and American tanks are: small caliber of artillery, weak armor, low tonnage, slow speed, short stroke, etc. This directly leads to low firepower, protection and sustainability in actual combat. In addition, there are significant gaps in suspensions, power generation and transmissions, hydropneumatics, fastness, radio communications, optical equipment, etc.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese army's tank production increased significantly, reaching the level of 700 vehicles per year. This production is far from sufficient to meet the needs of the war. In fact, in the mid-30s, some people had already predicted the dilemma of Japan's wartime tank production: Japan's "tank production could not exceed 500 in the first six months of the war, and no more than 1,300 in the next year, and the army's existing and stored tanks also reached 1,200." However, the number of tanks needed in the first half of the war was 3,300, so Japan had to import 1,600 tanks from abroad during this period. In the second half of the year, the number of tanks required was 2700 units. Therefore, Japan needs to import 1,400 vehicles. ”

Due to these reasons, the Japanese tanks were not only small in quantity and poor in quality, but also backward in tactical thinking, and remained at the level of scattered use and covering infantry operations. This is a far cry from the level of armored tactics taught by Jiang Qiang at the Military Academy.

Up to now, the Japanese army does not even have a tank division, and there are only three mechanized divisions, and the number and performance of tanks are also very different from the mechanized units of the German, American, British, and Soviet armies.

At this time, the Battle of Nomenkan had not yet taken place. Due to the limited scale of the battle at Zhang Gufeng and the limitations of the terrain, apart from teaching the Soviet planes how powerful they were, the Japanese devils had not yet seen the real armored strength of the Soviet army, nor did they understand what an armored group assault was. The Japanese army, from officers to soldiers, was still arrogant, and always thought that the Japanese Army was unparalleled in the world.

All this led to the fact that the commander of the 213th Wing of the Japanese Army was terrified when he saw that the Eighth Route Army had launched a pursuit with tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles.

This guy is not stupid, he knows that his more than 1,000 remnants of the defeated army will not be able to outrun these steel monsters no matter what, and if he runs, he will die, and if he doesn't run, he will die, so he simply ordered the troops to stop retreating and block them on the spot.

It is not wrong to say that the order given by the commander of this wing is not wrong, and the Japanese soldiers are brave enough, and after receiving the order, they immediately began to spread out and lie down, preparing to form a skirmish line, set up machine guns, grenadiers, and infantry guns. It's a pity that all this is useless, they are pursued by the Eighth Route Army and even the most elite Jiaoyi Brigade and the first regiment in China, and they are chasing them in tanks, armored vehicles and cars, and the machine guns, 95 assault rifles, and assault rifles on the cars are constantly hitting like spring water, as if they want to completely wash away their group of insects that pollute the earth, and do not give them any chance to resist at all.

The motors are roaring, the machine guns are shouting. At this moment, the life of the little devil does not seem to be fate, but the dead leaves in the cold wind of late autumn and early winter, floating and fluttering in the wind, all the way to the East.

Hu Dawei doesn't care whether the ghost of the little devil can float back to the East, there are only two words in his mind at the moment, that is, "assault". Break through the enemy's resistance, cut the enemy, crush the enemy, and continue to pursue in depth until the tank crushes the body of the commander of the 33rd Division, Shigetaro Katsuta. Therefore, he completely ignored the appearance of the little devil being beaten into a sieve by a machine gun, and even more ignored the ugly state of the little devil crawling on the ground to avoid bullets, and just used the car radio to order the troops to advance over and over again.

After a mess, the little devil was already full of corpses.

When the second regiment came up, the remaining little devils had gone completely crazy. They didn't have time to set up heavy machine guns, infantry guns, and grenadiers, and these heavy weapons were almost lost when they were bombed and strafed by the fighters of the Jiaodong Group Army when they retreated from Kaiyuan to Qingchi, and now they encountered the armored group of the Jiaodong Group Army, and the soldiers who wanted to set up heavy weapons fell under the vehicle-mounted machine guns.

The crazy little devil no longer crawled on the ground to avoid the firepower of the Jiaodong Group Army, and began to attack with meat bullets. Some brave little devils made tactical moves, tossing and turning, trying to throw grenades on tanks, armored vehicles, cars. There were also more than a dozen little devils holding explosives bags, screaming in their mouths, ignoring the rain of bullets of the Jiaodong Group Army, and wanting to die with the chariot. Of course, this is just their wishful thinking. This is the plain, the most suitable for the mobility of armored troops, after the second regiment is equipped with tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles, since the annihilation of the 107th Division, it has always been the main assault force of the Jiaodong Group Army.

A group of little devils may feel that they can't go to heaven and can't enter the ground, so they simply picked up their bright bayonets and launched an attack on the armored formation of the second regiment.

In the end, the little devil's will to resist was completely destroyed. The remnants of the dozens of little devils simply knelt on their legs and raised their hands in surrender.

This can't be blamed on these little devils for not planting, it is the battle that has developed to this form, and the meaning of resistance has been completely lost. The 213th Wing of the little devil was originally a long-distance march to Xintai City to receive a visit, and when the shadow saw the Xintai city wall, there was an earth-shattering cannon sound, which was frightened and surprised. Then he received an order that Xintai might fall into the hands of the Jiaodong Army and quickly retreat to Qingchi to join the 214th Wing. As soon as he pulled out his legs and opened the way, he was bombed indiscriminately by fighters of the Jiaodong Group Army. Fortunately, there were many villages along the road, and only 1,500 or 600 people survived. Finally rushed to Qingchi with a rolling belt, and joined up with the Akita Brigade left by the 214th Wing to respond, and began to retreat quickly, and was caught up by the armored forces of the Jiaodong Group Army. This is a great plain, and the little devils were caught up on the highway, although they scattered in formation at the first time, but there was not even a foxhole, there was no way to hide, there was no way to hide, under the fire of the powerful armored troops of the first and second regiments, how could they stand firm and stabilize the formation! Don't say that it was the armored troops that caught up, that is, the cavalry caught up, and what was waiting for them was one word: "death"! Two words: "quick death"! Isn't there a reason for the little devil not to surrender!

Li Yannian and Shunzi, who were traveling with the Second Regiment in a car, saw that the little devil had not completed the assembly of troops and was in a state of scattered retreat, so they knew that the little devil had indeed been blown up by Li Jinglin and them, and there was no need for more troops to participate in the pursuit, and a first regiment, a second regiment plus a brigade cavalry battalion were enough. Thinking that the little devil's plane might arrive at the battlefield in a short time, Li Yannian decisively ordered the Third Regiment, the New First Regiment, and the troops directly under the division to stop the pursuit, turn to concealment and rest on the spot, and organize the villagers to make smoke to prevent the devil's air attack.

Li Yannian even wanted to inform Shunzi to ask his cavalry brigade to stop the pursuit and move to concealment to rest, but when he raised his binoculars, he saw that his left and right flanks were far away from the sky. Just looking at the majesty of the dust, I knew that the cavalry soldiers were galloping on their horses, and the speed was extremely fast, so I was embarrassed not to let Hu Laohu and them participate in the battle.

After Lieutenant General Shigetaro Gan, commander of the 33rd Division, ordered the 213th Wing and the 214th Wing to completely lightly equip and retreat to Hancun, he hurriedly urged the soldiers to build fortifications and prepare to hold on.

Gansu Shigetaro now has a certain understanding of the strength of Jiang Qiang's Jiaodong Group Army, and knows that General Terauchi Shouichi is right, the Jiaodong Group Army is actually very large. Otherwise, they would not have taken the two divisions of the Imperial Army as soon as they made a move. In particular, this unit is well-equipped and has novel tactics. Not to mention anything else, just the tactics of their capture of Commander Otaka Kamezo, they themselves have neither listened to the teacher nor taught the students. Is this simply a display of the old saying "the head of the general in a million army"! That's not all, they actually have such a powerful aviation force, and they disabled their 33rd Division with a concentrated bombing. Now, their tanks, armored vehicles, cars, and cavalry have caught up with the dilapidated 213th Wing and 214th Wing, and I don't know if these two wings will be able to get rid of them!

Although he knew that the 213th Wing and the 214th Wing were being caught up by the tanks, armored vehicles, automobiles and cavalry of the Jiaodong Group Army, he was not sure whether they could get rid of the pursuit of the Jiaodong Group Army, and he was worried, but Gansu Jutaro was old and his thinking was also aging, and at this time, there was no armored blitzkrieg of the German army, and Gansu Shigetaro did not have the concept of armored assault in his thoughts. In his mind, as long as the fighters of the Jiaodong Group Army did not come to bomb, the 213th Wing and the 214th Wing left some troops to block the attack and entangle the pursuing troops of the Eighth Route Army, and the main force could still be withdrawn. As long as they withdraw, as soon as the fighters of the Imperial Army Air Force arrive, they can bomb the pursuing troops of the Jiaodong Group Army, and it is still possible for them to organize a retreat to the north.

Ganji Shigetaro did not have the extra troops to reinforce the 213th and 214th Wings, so he could only send a telegram to Kobayashi Asaburo over and over again, urging His Excellency the Chief of Staff to order the air force to take off quickly, and it would be too late to do so.

The imperial fighters had not yet arrived, but the pursuing Jiaodong Army had arrived.

After receiving the report that the Jiaodong Army had caught up, Ganji Jutaro hurriedly went to the roof of a house and raised his binoculars to observe. The sight almost scared him off the roof. I saw that on the highways of Xintai City and Steel City, dust was flying and thick smoke was billowing out. Beneath the smoke, a stream of monsters covered in sorghum straw and dead leaves are pouring towards Hancun. Needless to say, the 213th and 214th Wings have been devoured by this monster-like convoy!

Looking around, Amaterasu Okami saw two fast-moving pillars of smoke on both the north and south sides. Underneath the pillar of smoke was the fast-running cavalry of the Jiaodong Army. The strange thing is that those cavalrymen all held torches in their hands in broad daylight, and they did not see the flames on the torches, but only saw the wisps of smoke from the torches drifting into the air, gathering and drifting in the air, forming one after another, one after another, in a round and continuous circle of smoke.

Gansu Jutaro was not stupid, he immediately thought that this was the Jiaodong Army deliberately creating smoke to hide his body and interfere with the sight of the Imperial Army Air Force.

With a "clang", Tataro Kansu's telescope fell from his hand and fell to the ground in the yard!

The sound of the telescope hitting the ground woke up the dignified Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant General Jutaro Kazuta.

After coming down from the roof, Ganji Shigetaro already understood that this small village called Hancun was the burial place of the 33rd Division, and it was also his own burial place.

Knowing this, Jutaro Kan didn't panic anymore. After all, he was a general who had both military theory and actual combat experience, and he immediately understood that with only these stragglers that he had temporarily gathered, holding the position at the entrance of the village and repelling the attack of the Eighth Route Army could only be an unattainable dream. The only thing that can be done is to use the courtyard in the village to fight with the Eighth Route Army, so that they can hold out for a longer time, inflict casualties on the attacking Eighth Route Army, and let them see what the bravery of the soldiers of the Great Japanese Empire is.

Thinking of the bravery of the soldiers of the Great Japanese Empire, Ganji Shigetaro couldn't help but have a wry smile on his face, distorting his originally hideous face into a bit like a clown in a burlesque, indescribably awkward and ugly.

The 1,000 little devils who retreated to Hancun with Gansu Jutaro were basically the remnants of the 33rd Division's baggage wing, engineer wing, field artillery wing, health team, communications team, field hospital, and sick horse factory. The infantry brigade of the 215th Wing, which had strong combat effectiveness and operated with the division headquarters, was basically dead on the banks of the Xinlai River. This is not to blame for the cruelty of the Jiaodong Group Army Aviation Brigade, the battlefield is originally life and death, who told the little devils of this infantry brigade to organize anti-air shooting when they are bombed?

Although Ganji Shigetaro now has a thousand remnants of the army, and it has also been organized into four squadrons, they are basically soldiers of the technical arms that play a role in support in peacetime, and only these soldiers of the technical arms whose will to resist is not so tenacious can resolutely lie down and dodge under the repeated ravages of the two fighter formations of the Jiaodong Group Army, and fortunately survive. If they were like the infantry brigade, thinking that they could cover their bodies by digging a simple foxhole, and then organize anti-air shooting, under the repeated blows of the Jiaodong Army's fighter machine guns and bombs, they would have to lose an arm or leg if they didn't die, and they would have to kill him just by bleeding, where could they escape to Hancun with His Excellency the division commander!

Some of them picked up a rifle, some carried a grenade, and some didn't take anything, just walked on short and thick legs, swung their arms, and followed His Excellency the division commander into Hancun.

Fortunately, Kanji Jutaro made a timely decision and immediately ordered the three squadrons to return to the Jiaolai River to deal with the seriously wounded, treat the lightly wounded, and bring back the discarded machine guns and artillery. The cannon was not pulled back, because there were no pack horses, and it was a burden to pull back, and it had to be discarded when retreating. Light and heavy machine guns, rifles, and ammunition were brought back, and they were finally fully armed.

He knew in his heart that his own family was fine, and he had no choice but to hope that his hastily organized stragglers would have a heart of loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor, fight to the death, and die a dignified death.

Considering that these stragglers had low combat effectiveness and had to be put to death and survived, Ganji Shigetaro immediately ordered the squadron that held the position at the entrance of the village to resolutely block the attack, concentrate all the heavy machine guns on the position at the entrance of the village, and strafe the infantry of the Eighth Route Army behind the tanks and armored vehicles. The other three squadrons all withdrew into the village, hid in the courtyard, and fought with the Eighth Route Army for the courtyard. At the same time, a squad was dispatched to form a team of supervisors, and all soldiers who dared to escape were killed!

After giving the order, Gansu Shigetaro sat down and drafted a telegram to General Terauchi Shouichi, commander of the North China Front, General Sugimoto of the Land Minister, and Prince Zaihito Miyajihito, chief of the General Staff, briefly reporting that the 33rd Division had entered North China since its formation and had been ordered to reinforce the battle of Xintaicheng, and then reported the information that the Jiaodong Group Army had strong aviation and armored forces, and finally said that he could no longer wait for aviation reinforcements, that the Jiaodong Army had surrounded the village, and that the last moment of allegiance to His Majesty the Emperor was approaching. As a lieutenant general of the Japanese Army, he could not fall into the hands of the Jiaodong Army, so he disgraced His Majesty the Emperor, and decided to burn the military flag, blow up the radio station, and apologize!

Then he sent his wife a farewell message. Considering the living conditions of his family, in the farewell message, Shigetaro Kanji used a righteous and awe-inspiring appearance to encourage his children to serve His Majesty the Emperor.

After sending the telegram, Kanji Shigetaro ordered the guards to start burning military flags and documents, ordered the code book to be burned, and the radio station to be blown up.

After doing this, Shigetaro asked the guards to fetch a machine gun, moved a square table in the upper room to the door of the house, and set up the machine gun. He took out his pistol, opened the safe, put it on the table, moved a chair, sat down at the square table, tried the machine gun shooting posture, and then sat on the chair with the command knife and the big knife and golden horse, staring at the gate of the courtyard like a hungry wolf, waiting for the Eighth Route Army to hit his gun.

Gansu Jutaro is ready for the last dying struggle, can the Jiaodong Group Army let him get his wish?

After eliminating the remnants of the 213th Wing of the Japanese Army, the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the 1st Division continued to pursue westward, catching up with the remnants of the 214th Wing of the Japanese Army at the Xinhe Bridgehead.

Li Jinglin led the 1st Air Brigade of the Jiaodong Group Army to attack the 33rd Division, which dealt a fatal blow to the Japanese army. The greatest losses were suffered by the troops directly under the command of the 33rd Division and the 215th Wing, because the brigade led by the commander of the 215th Wing to occupy Xintai County ahead of schedule and the brigade that went out of the Weihe Bridge to meet the 213th and 214th Wings were all exposed on the road and almost completely wiped out. In addition to the Akita Brigade that remained in Qingchi, the 214th Wing of the Japanese Army was not bombed by fighters, and the remaining two brigades and the wing headquarters were also bombed by fighters of the Jiaodong Group Army during the retreat from Qingchi to Xinhe Bridge. However, like the 213th Wing, since this area is the most densely populated place of villages on the Xintai Plain, the little devils were able to find a place of invisibility and the losses were relatively small. The devils of the two brigades were lucky enough to survive a thousand people. As soon as the fighters of the Jiaodong Group Army left, the frightened little devils did not dare to stay any longer, threw down the corpses and excess weapons and ammunition, disposed of all the seriously wounded, and then ran towards the direction of Xinhe Bridge like a lost dog.

After crossing the Xinhe Bridge, the tragic situation of the 215th Wing rushed to the Xinhe Bridge to meet the retreating brigade: the wreckage of cars and armored vehicles was still circling, the pungent smell of burning tires made people unable to open their eyes, the wreckage of the car was the corpse of a Japanese soldier who had been burned into black sticks, and the car was surrounded by broken limbs, weapons and ammunition were scattered all over the ground. Depending on the situation, this brigade had just arrived at the Xinhe bridgehead, and before it had time to get out of the car, it encountered the fighters of the Jiaodong Group Army and became a target.

The commander of the 214th Wing just read it hastily, and his heart was already miserable, when did the Great Japanese Army fall into such a situation, and was bombed by Chinese fighters without the power to fight back, is this Jiaodong Group Army still the army that is difficult to return to the sick man of East Asia mentioned in the elementary school textbooks of the Great Japanese Empire? If we continue to fight like we are now, how many divisions and regiments will the Great Japanese Empire have to be able to fill the black hole of the North China Battlefield, which is impossible to see!

The leader of the 214th Wing, who was in a gloomy mood, was no longer in the mood to look at it, but only ordered the soldiers to deal with the wounded who were no longer able to march with the troops.

The Japanese army was born the most brutal unit in the world, not only to the people they invaded, but also to their own wounded. If the battle is won, it is good to say that the wounded can be treated in time. When the escape is defeated, the wounded are often given a grenade, allowing them to kill themselves or die with the enemy. For those seriously wounded who have lost the ability to kill themselves and die with the enemy, they are directly helped to break with rifles. Anyway, at this time, the right to life is not even as good as a butt wiping paper, and no one is pursuing their human rights violations.

The Japanese soldiers acted quickly to deal with the wounded, because there were no minor wounded, and if there were any, they would have run away. Occasionally, there was a seriously wounded person, it was also a blood gourd, and there was no need to treat it at all, and the Japanese soldiers just shot directly.

It was only a few scattered shots that ended the operation to treat the wounded.

The captain of the 214th Wing led the soldiers to take off their military hats, bowed to the corpses of the Japanese soldiers who died in battle, and silently recited the blessing of Amaterasu several times in his heart, and then ordered the troops to run towards Hancun.

Originally, at this time, if the commander of the 214th Wing ordered to blow up the Xinhe Bridge, it might delay the pursuit of the Jiaodong Group Army, and let the remnants of the 214th Wing retreat safely to Hancun and join the remnants of the Gansu Shigetaro. However, the commander of the 214th Wing did not receive the order to blow up the Shinhe Bridge, although he heard fierce gunfire coming from the direction of Kiyoike.