Bright Sword Military System

Chapter 1875 United Front
Ozawa Jisaburo took the initiative to seek cooperation with the Japanese Army.

The conflict between the Japanese Navy and the Army is ultimately a quarrel between internal forces. The reason why it existed for a long time before was because the Japanese had been fighting against the wind.

During the Tailwind War, everyone, including Tokyo, would think: Just make noises, as long as you can win the war. Maybe the navy and army will quarrel like this and form a competitive relationship to jointly promote progress together!

But if it is a headwind battle, especially at a life-and-death moment, the situation will be different. At this time, the objective environment requires that the Japanese navy and army must cooperate, otherwise they will be eliminated.

This kind of thing has happened from time to time in the Pacific battlefield, such as the joint fleet providing supplies to the army trapped on the island, and such as the Marine Corps and the army cooperating in operations.

It's just that sometimes the Marine Corps disobeys the command and the Army fights independently.

But as the situation of the Japs gets worse and worse, even to the point where only gaining control of "Manchukuo" is the only hope... the coordination and cooperation of the Japs' navy and army will be further strengthened.

As soon as Ozawa Jisaburo's combat plan was reported to Tokyo, Tokyo was overjoyed.

Because the empire was actually in a dilemma at this time, the situation of the Kwantung Army made the empire uncomfortable.

The Kwantung Army was in a state of semi-encirclement in the northwest of "Manchukuo", and the supply line could only be transported from Mudanjiang because of the obstruction of Changbai Mountain. The supply line in Mudanjiang was constantly bombarded by the Eighth Route Army.

So a very embarrassing situation arises:
Should the empire send reinforcements or not?

Don't send reinforcements. If the Kwantung Army fights like this, it will basically not turn around except that its troops will be exhausted and eventually surrounded.

Send reinforcements...

The Kwantung Army is short of supplies, especially fuel, not men. Will sending more reinforcements use up more supplies?
Besides, will the result of sending reinforcements be that more troops will eventually be surrounded?

This is the real reason why the Imperial Army has never sent reinforcements to the Kwantung Army. The lack of logistics in the direction of the stick that Umezu Meijiro thought was actually just Tokyo's excuse.

In fact, the Japanese have already carried out comprehensive mobilization in the direction of Bangzi:

The Japanese moved the island's troops and industry to Bangzi, and at the same time, the troops and materials originally located in Bangzi were constantly transferred northward.

On the other hand, a large number of stick people were mobilized to use manpower to transport supplies, even the elderly and underage children... The devil's idea is: if their own island is in danger and their own survival is in question, who cares about these colonial people Life or death?

As a result, a large amount of supplies and key points were already backlogged on the Yalu River at this time. It was initially estimated that there were about ten divisions with about 15 people, of which about [-] were Bangzi Divisions.

However, these troops were unable to cross the river without air control.

The Eighth Route Army took the lead to seize the favorable terrain along the river and set up defenses on the other side, forming a defense line along the river more than 200 kilometers long.

The main force defending this line of defense is Li Changfu's mechanized brigade.

Needless to say, the defense method is of course using the mobility of the mechanized brigade for mobile defense.

Otherwise, for a defense line that is more than 200 kilometers long, even if there are 1000 people per kilometer, there will be more than 10,000 people. The Eighth Route Army simply does not have that many troops.With the mechanized brigade, it is much easier to handle. The river bank only needs to deploy a small number of troops at the commanding heights. Their task is to observe whether the enemy on the other side has any signs of crossing the river, and to hold their own high ground before the mechanized troop reinforcements arrive.

Once the Japs crossed the river, the mechanized brigade at the rear immediately mobilized forces to counterattack. Within a few hours, half-tracks and tanks pushed over and drove groups of Japs down the river who had not yet gained a foothold.

The Japanese Army tried this several times, but the situation was always the same. Not only did they fail to cross the river, but they also killed and injured more than [-] people.

This was not because the Japs were incompetent. The Japs stationed at Bangzi were fairly well-trained at this time, and they fought vigorously under the command of Sakagaki Seishiro.

However, landing operations during this period were very difficult. Unless someone like Yingjiang had an absolute advantage in firepower and bombarded the shore for days and nights to level all the shore defense firepower, fortifications, obstacles and even garrison troops, otherwise the landing operations would expose oneself to no danger. Any protected river surface will be used as a target by the enemy.

In particular, the Eighth Route Army and its artillery detection radar had an advantage in artillery fire. The pontoon bridge was blown up before half of it was repaired, and it could not be repaired no matter how hard it was. The Japanese on the other side of the river can simply be described as "desperate".

However, something went wrong with the Eighth Route Army... Because the defense was too easy, a battalion commander of the 291st New Regiment relaxed his vigilance. The Japanese carried out an armed swim at night to capture his position and quickly broke through and took out an artillery battalion in the rear.

Fortunately, the mechanized brigade arrived in time to fill the gap, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous.

Just when Tokyo and Seishiro Sakagaki were worried about the stalemate, Ozawa Jisaburo proposed a combat plan for the navy and army to coordinate with Donggang as the breakthrough point.

This was a life-saving straw for Tokyo, so he agreed without thinking and expressed his full support.

Jisaburo Ozawa had only one request: "After the army captures Donggang, no matter what plan it has, it must first expand the control area to about a hundred kilometers and build an airport in Donggang to send more fighter planes!"

Tokyo was originally in a dilemma because expanding to a radius of [-] kilometers meant that the army had to move forward simultaneously, which was a taboo in army operations.

However, Ozawa Jisaburo soon gave an explanation: "If the Army does not do this, the Eighth Route Army may build an airport near Donggang and deploy 'La 5'. By then, our army will collapse again because of the loss of air superiority! This is Our army takes the first step to gain a firm foothold!"

When Tokyo thought about it, it felt that it was right. Now is the time to act steadily.

If the [-]-kilometer line cannot be guaranteed, the safety of Ozawa's fleet will be threatened. If Ozawa's fleet is beaten away or has to retreat due to air superiority issues, then the army will not be able to defend Donggang. They might be surrounded and become another lone army in need of rescue.

Therefore, this is not only for the safety of Ozawa's fleet, but also for the safety of the army.

So Tokyo immediately agreed and got in touch with Seishiro Sakagaki.

After careful consideration, Seishiro Sakagaki felt that there was no problem with this combat plan. After all, it was a symbiotic relationship at this time and no one could do without the other. The goals must be consistent, otherwise the whole line would collapse.

As a result, an unprecedented and largest united front between the Japanese navy and army was formed.

And all this, as the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, Deputy Takeshi Toyoda did not know at all... Tokyo was worried that Deputy Takeshi Toyoda would become an uncertain factor when he found out, so he simply did not say anything and let him concentrate on dealing with the battle of the Philippine Navy.

(End of this chapter)