Bright Sword's Bloody War of Resistance

Since the Eighth Route Army advanced towards Shimen in both directions of the Zhengtai Line and the Pinghan Line, and was at the angle between the two railway lines, the Japanese and puppet army strongholds in the east of Shimen=Southwest area were heavily attacked by the Eighth Route Army, and then the division headquartered in the assault Under the escort of the Second Battalion of the Regiment and another battalion-level security force, they moved forward to Xianweng Village, which is less than [-] miles away from the suburb of Shimen.

At two o'clock in the afternoon that day, Zhou Weihan had just received the news that the 22nd regiment and the supplementary regiment had successfully captured the Daguo Village Airport, and immediately received a telegram from the division headquarters, ordering Zhou Weihan to rush to Xianwengzhai to meet up immediately.

It was a clear and windy afternoon, Zhou Weihan only took Monk and Wan Jingang to Xianweng Village.

Everyone in the division was full of smiles. The initial victory in the battle around the periphery of Shimen seemed to have truly torn off the Japanese army's strong camouflage.

"Mr. Zhou, Mrs. Chen from the Taibei Military Region has arrived and is waiting for you!" The person who greeted Zhou Weihan was still the same staff officer from the division headquarters.

"Okay, I got it!" Zhou Weihan got off his horse and handed over the horse to the staff.

Following the direction pointed by the staff officer, Wan Jingang walked in the front. When he arrived at the so-called division meeting room, Wan Jingang picked up the straw curtain hanging on the door.

I saw the smog in the house, and those who didn’t know thought that some farmer blocked the stove when burning firewood for cooking. Surrounding a wooden table, the division commander, political commissar D, chief of staff Li, and Mrs. Chen were pinching each other in their hands. a cigarette.

"Here you come? Come in quickly!" Commissar D beckoned.

The teacher sat opposite to the door, and when he looked up, he saw Wan Jingang outside the door: "Isn't this the lunatic Wan from the Secret Service? Why are you following you?"

"Master, you also know Wan Jingang?" Zhou Weihan asked in surprise.

"Although the Secret Service Regiment has been stationed in the Huangyadong Arsenal for a long time, it is a unit directly under the division headquarters. Comrade Wan Jingang is also a famous combat hero of the Special Service Regiment. How could I not know him?"

"The secret service team won't release people easily, you wouldn't use some crooked methods to abduct Wan Jingang here?" A smile flashed in the teacher's eyes.

"How is that possible? Legitimate channels are definitely legitimate!" Zhou Weihan quickly explained.

At this time, Political Commissar D waved his hand and said: "The telegram originally sent to you at noon asked you to wait for the specific notice at night, but the division headquarters and the headquarters are also heartbroken, so I called you two commanders who understand the situation on the front line. , By the way, report some situations!"

Seeing this, Chief of Staff Li got up and handed a document to Zhou Weihan.

"Shimen divided our Eighth Route Army base into four parts, the Taihang base in the southwest, the Southern Hebei base in the southeast, the Central Hebei base in the northeast, and the Beiyue base in the northwest!"

"After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, these bases continued to investigate and understand the core city of the Japanese army. The Japanese army stationed many troops in Shimen, and now the 110th Division and its affiliated troops are stationed in Shimen!"

"In 1938, the Japanese base camp established the 110th Division based on the left-behind division of the 108th Division. This division has jurisdiction over the 133th Infantry Brigade and the 139rd Infantry Brigade. The 140th Wing, which governs the 110th Infantry Wing and the 163rd Infantry Wing, the division is directly under the 110th Cavalry Wing, the 110th Field Artillery Wing, the 110th Engineer Wing, and the 110th Wing of the Supplies, and The communication team, health team, No. 1 to No. 4 hospitals, etc., have a fixed staff of nearly [-]."

"Judging from the battle between the Southern Hebei Military Region and the 110th Division, most of its main forces have been dispatched. Both the cavalry wing and the artillery wing have appeared on the battlefield. Only the 139th regiment has not appeared on the battlefield. Therefore, it can be judged that the left behind Shimen is dominated by the 139th Regiment!"

"In addition to the regular military forces mentioned above, the Japanese army also had the Army Secret Service, the Gendarmerie, and the Xingya Yixin Association and the Police Support Association in Shimen, two spy organizations disguised as civilians. Although these organizations were small in number, they were The existing affiliated organizations should not be underestimated either!"

"The Japanese Consulate in Shimen and the Police Department of the Japanese Consulate are also the key points that need to be paid attention to. After the Japanese army occupied Shimen, Japanese expatriates continued to gather in Shimen. Today, the number is more than [-]. In order to strengthen unified management, the consulate established the so-called Shimen Residents Group!"

"These expatriates are invisible military forces. Once there is a change in Shimen, the Japanese army will open up the arsenal of combat readiness, and at least one regiment can be equipped in a short time!"

"There are also Shimen Xinmin Association, Shimen puppet city government, and puppet security forces"

"So, despite the smooth progress of our Eighth Route Army in the early stage, it is because the core of Shimen has not been touched. Just a rough calculation, there are at least nearly [-] people in Shimen's Japanese army, puppet security forces, and armed expatriates. We are in a meeting at this time. Maybe the Japanese army is also making intensive arrangements!" Chief of Staff Li said.

Zhou Weihan said: "I said we made such a big commotion around Shimen, why didn't the little devils withdraw the mopping up troops, it turns out that they have a bottom line in their hearts!"

"You are on the front line, have you ever sent someone to attack and investigate the fortifications in the suburbs of Shimen?" the division commander asked.

"Of course!" Zhou Weihan said.

"What's your comment?"

"Although Shimen has no city walls, it is like a powder keg. There are fortresses everywhere!"

After occupying Shimen, the Japanese army built this huge city with a radius of more than 30 kilometers into a fortified city with many fortresses, criss-cross ditches, and open and hidden trenches like spider webs.

Thousands of blockhouses are distributed on the main streets and intersections of Shimen, and the two lines of defense form two underground walls, turning Shimen into a powder keg.

The first road is Waishi Ditch, with a circumference of 30 kilometers, a depth of about 7 meters, and a width of about 6 meters. There are barbed wire fences and minefields along the outer edge of the ditch. There are more than 700 high castles and Fubaos in the ditch, as well as a power grid.

Some large villages and towns outside the ditch have established strongholds, and there is a circular railway in the outer city ditch, and armored patrol vehicles carrying infantry and cannons patrol around the clock.

The second line of defense is Neishi Ditch, which is 18 kilometers long, about 5 meters deep and 50 meters wide. For blockhouses, low forts, forts and field fortifications, a bunker is set up every [-] meters, and a large blockhouse is set up every [-] meters.

The villages between the inner and outer city ditches were all constructed with strong fortifications, and the two ditches were connected by traffic ditches or tunnels, and piles were widely set up in the ditches, which were the key defensive areas of the Japanese army in SJZ.

"Yes, it is indeed a tough bone, so now we are in a dilemma!" The teacher nodded and said.

"Currently, the situation in southern Hebei has improved. The three main regiments of the Luxi Military Region have arrived in southern Hebei. Together, there are nine regiments. They have the strength to compete with the 110th Division!"

"The Southern Hebei Military Region sent a telegram to the headquarters, asking if it is possible for the Central Jizhong Military Region to transfer two regiments to the south to cut off the back route of the 110th Division. The Japanese army of the 27th Division is fighting, and they can't get out!"

For a while, the atmosphere in the meeting room was a bit heavy. Now the Eighth Route Army has a large number of main troops. Each secondary military region has more than ten main regiments. However, most of these main regiments came from local troops when the army was reorganized. Those who were transferred up invisibly reduced the strength of the local troops, which led to the need for at least two main regiments to disperse to stay in various base areas for every battle.

After the battle in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan base area, the Tainan Flying Team did not need to hide in the snow, and often went back and forth between Beiyue and southern Hebei to carry out bombing missions. However, because the Japanese army had long been prepared, the flying team could not achieve the final result.

"The situation is not so bad. Our army has gathered ten main regiments around Shimen, and the headquarters is worried that the number of artillery in our combat troops is insufficient. The 52 mountain artillery pieces and [-] field artillery pieces seized by the Hebei-Shandongyu Military Region were carried out with the artillery regiment of the headquarters. Mixed, reorganized two artillery regiments and organized local armed forces to carry a large amount of supplies, the chief of staff has brought them, and now the artillery regiments are getting familiar with it, this is a good situation!" Political Commissar D said.

"Looking at Shimen's situation, our army's fundamental purpose is not to occupy Shimen. If we want to make the Japanese army retreat, our army does not need to launch a full-scale attack. We only need to choose two points from the east and south to make key breakthroughs. , Shimen’s defense system is so long, it will cause the Japanese troops to be too scattered!”

"In this way, the passive will become active, but the Japanese army on the defensive side will rush to deploy troops from other directions. The little devil's stall is too big, which is not a good thing!"

What political commissar D said made Zhou Weihan's eyes bright. The Southwest Military Division of Shandong had set up a long snake array on the old course of the Yellow River. Right now, Shimen's defense system is in the form of a ring. In comparison, the speed of support may not be so fast. Especially the Japanese army in the outer trench.

"If you say that, the location of the two breakthroughs should not be too close. Once we successfully break through, we can deploy some blocking troops based on the existing fortifications of the Japanese army to buy time for the assault troops!"

"I reckon that if you really break through the outer defense line, the little devil should be in a hurry. If you can, make a time difference. The troops will retreat eastward along the Shide Line and surround the 110th Division to death. Shimen can't take it down and eat up the 110th Division The division is also good!" Zhou Weihan suggested.

"Well, this is in line with your usual combat philosophy!" The division commander nodded after hearing the words: "It seems that it is really right to let you come here, but there is still one thing that needs to be paid attention to, and that is the specific tactical issue!"

"After all, the Battle of Shimen is different from the previous battles. In the past, when we fought guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare, we fought the enemy bravely and ran away after we fought. Now we are fighting a tough battle. We can't do it by rushing and fighting alone. Today, we I will give you a slogan of bravery and technology."

"Some comrades below don't believe in tactics, especially some regiment-level cadres. What they say, I have never learned any tactics, and I still win battles. If this view is not broken, sooner or later I will suffer!"

"Tactics is a tonic for us. It is extremely important and cannot be ignored. They have rich combat experience, of course it is also very important, but it is like a big basket of copper coins, which are scattered. Tactics are money. All the money is worn, and when you use it, you can take whatever you want. Don’t carry the experience in a basket all the time, it becomes a burden and is useless.”

"Some experience has been around for thousands of years, and it has become tactics and theory. Some comrades don't know it yet, but they proudly say that tactics are dogma. In this Shimen battle, we must rely on tactics to solve this problem."

Having said that, the teacher took a sip of water from his cup.His gaze swept across the crowd slowly: "These words, you two must pass them on after you go back!"

"Fortunately, the troops of the Tainan Military Region have taken two steps ahead in terms of regularization, and there are also troops from the Tainan Military Region in both attack directions. After returning, let the comrades below have a good communication!"

"There are a lot of tactics. I also went to the Tainan Cadre School to listen to the lectures. I summarized three points: one is the soil work. When fighting in plain areas, large forces attack and wipe out. How can we get close to the enemy? There must be hidden points, Otherwise, we are waiting to be beaten. Don’t the enemy have trenches?” Well, we also dig trenches, until they are under their noses, so as to shorten the attack distance as much as possible. "

"The second is the blasting operation. There are countless large and small bunkers in Shimen. It is impossible to destroy them all by artillery. The hidden bunkers between the trenches mainly rely on explosives. There are a batch of supplies deployed by the headquarters this time." Explosive kits, let the soldiers learn how to use them and improve their blasting skills.”

"The third is infantry coordination. In the past we did not have artillery, and millet added rifles. Now, in addition to the two artillery regiments sent by the headquarters, the total number of artillery of the frontline troops can add up to two artillery regiments. With artillery, it is necessary to Give full play to the role of cannons, especially rifles and cannons must coordinate well!"

"Generally speaking, it is to approach the enemy's bunker with tunnel combat, and after blasting with explosives and bombardment with artillery, quickly seize the enemy's position with infantry."

The teacher paused after finishing speaking, then looked at Zhou Weihan, and said with a smile: "How is it, Zhou Weihan, is my summary correct?"

"Teacher, you are a graduate of the Frunze Military Academy. In terms of tactical literacy and strategic vision, how dare I compare with you!" Zhou Weihan joked.

Zhou Weihan's words came from the bottom of his heart. No wonder the commander finally went to the military academy to become the dean. When it comes to military literacy, there are few people in the entire Eighth Route Army who can match him.

"Hmph, I haven't seen you for such a long time, but my flattering skills have improved!"

"Let me tell you that time is precious, but I would rather let the soldiers learn more before the battle. It is still the same sentence. There are troops from the Tainan Military Region in both attack directions. Brother troops should be open-minded." Study, sharpen your knife before the war, and you will be happy if you are not happy!" The teacher emphasized again.

"Yes, it must be implemented as soon as we go back!" Zhou Weihan and Mrs. Chen stood up and replied.

"Time is urgent, and the front line cannot do without you. The chief of staff will take you to the artillery regiment of the division and the local troops that assist in the operation. The division headquarters is waiting for your good news!" the division commander finally said.