Bright Sword Military System

Chapter 1802 The Role of the Navy

In fact, it was not just Chen Songyong and Zhang Zongping who forgot that the Eighth Route Army had a navy, the Japanese also forgot.

Or maybe the Japanese didn't forget it, but they were used to their opponents not having a navy, or maybe they thought the imperial fleet still had the upper hand, so there was no defense against the navy on the line of defense.

For example, if the Japs confront the Eighth Route Army in HLD, they should deploy shore defense artillery if they are prepared... Coast defense artillery can push enemy warships back out of range so that they cannot bomb the army defense lines in the hinterland.

However, coastal defense artillery is actually useless because the Eighth Route Army has anti-ship missiles.

Laser-guided anti-ship missiles are not only effective against warships, but are also effective against bunker shore artillery positions.

In addition, the Japanese can also lay obstacles along the beach, such as laying wooden piles and tying iron chains on them, setting up defense lines along the coast behind them, laying mines in the distant sea, etc.

Among them, mines will make it difficult for the Eighth Route Army Coastal Defense Regiment, because the Eighth Route Army Coastal Defense Regiment has just been established and does not have minesweepers.

Fortunately, the Japanese did nothing. The seaside flanks of their defense line were empty without any defensive facilities.

If you don't fight at this time, when will you wait?

Are you still waiting for the Japanese to react and fill this gap?

So Wang Xuexin made a prompt decision and issued the combat order. The warships of the Coastal Defense Regiment rushed to HLD early the next morning.

It is said that when the warships of the Coastal Defense Regiment appeared on the flank of the Japanese defense line, the Japanese cheered with their hands raised, and some even raised plaster flags and waved them, as if they were afraid that the Coastal Defense Regiment would not see them.

This confused Xu Huandong.

It took him a long time to react before he smiled and said: "The devils think of us as their combined fleet!"

Xu Huandong's guess was correct. The Japanese did regard the Eighth Route Army's Coastal Defense Regiment as a joint fleet.

The reason is that the Coastal Defense Regiment has been fighting in the north since its establishment, either in the port or in the shipyard, and has never appeared on the HLD defense line.

However, the Japanese's combined fleet sent a fleet to coordinate with the army.

Habits have become natural, and now whenever a warship appears, the Japanese take it for granted that it is the combined fleet.

Xu Huandong was not polite to the Japs either. Since the Japs were so enthusiastic, of course he would add fuel to their fire.

Following his order, the five destroyers roared and fired rows of shells at the cheering Japanese. At the same time, several "Wildcat" fighter jets taking off from the aircraft carrier also swooped down and fired at the trenches with machine guns.

The Japanese were beaten and confused, and because they had no concealment, they suffered heavy casualties in one round of bombing.

It wasn't until they saw that the fighter plane flying overhead was not a "Zero Fighter" that they realized that it might be the Eighth Route Army's fleet.

Then their idea was quickly verified, because the Eighth Route Army in front of the defense line launched an attack on them at the same time...

Even though the Eighth Route Army militiamen were poorly trained, they completely suppressed the enemy's firepower and were attacked from two sides. The enemy was still beaten and fled in embarrassment.

Even because the Japanese were completely unprepared, the militiamen took away one of the Japanese headquarters and captured a colonel and three lieutenants in the first battle.

After that, the Eighth Route Army did not stop and kept chasing behind the Japanese.

As a result, the Japanese were defeated again and again, falling back like dominoes. In one day, the Eighth Route Army pushed forward twenty kilometers. At night, the fighting did not stop, and they pushed forward another seven kilometers.Originally the battle would not have ended like this.

The Japanese were not just a mob. They knew how to retreat. Even before that, they had built three lines of defense against the Eighth Route Army. Each line of defense had several trenches divided into several levels.

The purpose of this is to prevent the enemy from chasing down ducks once the defense line is breached:

This situation is likely to occur if there is only one line of defense. The terrain near the coast is low and flat and cannot be defended. Without the cover of trenches, it is difficult to block the Eighth Route Army's attack.

It's different if there are several lines of defense.

When the front line of defense collapses, the next line of defense will be ready for battle. After letting your own people pass, they will immediately implement fire suppression on the Eighth Route Army pursuers.

However, this approach did not work in front of the Eighth Route Army Coastal Defense Regiment.

After the Eighth Route Army successfully broke through the first line of defense, the coastal defense regiment immediately relied on the speed and maneuverability of the warships to go straight to the Japanese second line of defense and was bombarded.

By the time the Japanese troops broke out and fled to the second line of defense, it had been blown to pieces, and the defenders were dead and wounded. It was impossible to defend it, so they could only continue to escape to the third line of defense.

But the same thing happened to the third line of defense soon...

In the end, the Japanese could only go all the way south, and were chased back by the Eighth Route Army like a tide.

The Japanese still had some cars and tanks in their hands, but they were discarded along the way.

The reason is that the sky is full of Eighth Route Army "Wildcat" fighters and "La-5" fighters, and occasionally "Mosquito" bombers can be seen. They specialize in picking out Japanese cars and tanks. Once the Japanese take these things, they will immediately will become a target of attack.

The militiamen following them were picking up equipment along the way, including cars, tricycles, tanks, and pieces of artillery that had no time to blow up.

The militiamen had never seen such a battle before. They were picking up equipment at the back and almost forgot to chase the Japanese.

This situation did not stop until noon the next day. The reason was that the coastal defense regiment had run out of artillery shells and needed to rush to the port to resupply... This was also the fault of the newly formed coastal defense regiment. Otherwise, a supply ship would be able to ensure firepower during the break. of continuity.

Wang Xuexin considered converting a cargo ship into a supply ship, but he finally gave up considering that this approach was too dangerous: with the defensive capabilities of the cargo ship, if it was loaded with artillery shells, it would probably be easily taken away by a Japanese bomb.

However, by this time the Eighth Route Army's eastern coastal defense line had advanced 37 kilometers, which exceeded Wang Xuexin's expectations.

Wang Xuexin originally thought that it would be good if the battle could advance [-] kilometers. After all, the Eighth Route Army militia had no experience. Who would have thought that the result would be nearly twice the estimate.

As the eastern defense line advances, the flanks of other sections of the Japanese defense line are exposed to the front of the Eighth Route Army and are in danger of being surrounded.

So the Japanese had only two choices: either launch a counterattack to level the defense line again, or retreat.

When Naosaburo Okabe heard this, he yelled angrily: "This guy Koike was defeated so easily by the Eighth Route Army! Those were the militiamen of the Eighth Route Army. They had not even joined the Eighth Route Army for three months, and they had just learned how to shoot. Right!"

The staff officer stood aside and did not dare to speak, but he was thinking in his heart: This is not the problem of the Eighth Route Army militia, but the failure to consider that the Eighth Route Army Coastal Defense Regiment exposed its flanks to its artillery fire!
But this can be said to be Okabe Naosaburo's lack of careful consideration, and the staff dare not say anything.

After a long silence, Okabe Naosaburo gritted his teeth and ordered: "Order the frontline troops to retreat thirty kilometers!"

(End of this chapter)