The Sword of Swords is a Guard for Kong Jie

Chapter 1143: The plan can’t keep up with the changes (first update)

The Japanese considered the problem very comprehensively. The Eighth Route Army in Yizhong did not have the ability to independently produce ammunition. All the artillery shells in their hands were captured, and every time they fired, they lost one.

They must have used a lot of artillery shells in the battle to attack Shijiazhuang, otherwise they would not have been able to break through the Shijiazhuang city defenses in just one day, and there would not be many artillery shells left by the independent brigade in the wing.

Given the solidity of Baoding's city defenses, it would certainly be no problem to withstand the independent brigade's artillery attack.

But the Japanese chief of staff ignored two issues.

In order to capture Hexiong County in Baoding and completely remove the nail that Okamura Neji planted in the Yi Zhong base, the Yi Zhong Sixth Army Division has made up its mind to do whatever it takes.

For this reason, almost all the heavy artillery shells captured before the division were taken out.

Another issue that was ignored was the offensive and defensive battle in Shijiazhuang.

The Eighth Route Army's battle to break through the Shijiazhuang city defenses was far less intense than the Japanese chief of staff and division commander thought.

The fortifications in Shijiazhuang were far less solid than those in Baoding. Faced with heavy artillery, those fortifications were like paper toys that could be blown up accurately.

No matter how many people the Shijiazhuang garrison sends to defend the city fortifications, they will die in the face of heavy artillery.

What's more important is that this kind of casualties is meaningless, and it can't even support anyone.

Instead of guarding the city head and being blown up by the Eighth Route Army's heavy artillery from a distance without even leaving a complete body, it would be better to retreat to the city and fight in the streets with the Eighth Route Army.

In this way, he could at least have a face-to-face fight with the Eighth Route Army. Even if he still couldn't escape death in the end, he could still kill two Eighth Route Army soldiers to back him up.

Therefore, the Shijiazhuang City Defense Department basically did not defend the city head and retreated into the city to engage in street fighting with the Eighth Route Army's attacking troops.

Li Yunlong was ready to use heavy artillery to blast a gap in the city of Shijiazhuang, but he punched the cotton.

The heavy artillery unit had just taken action and the city defense battle was over.

In the end, less than one-fifth of the more than 10,000 rounds of various artillery shells Li Yunlong prepared for Shijiazhuang were used.

Although the Shijiazhuang city defense fortifications are not as strong as Baoding, they are much longer than the Baoding city defense fortifications.

More than 10,000 shells that originally needed to be dispersed were suddenly concentrated on the half-short city of Baoding. Even if Baoding's city defenses were very strong, they might not be able to hold it.

The Japanese's negligence doomed them to suffer heavy losses in the battle of Baoding.

The brigade commander did not know these problems. Instead, he very much agreed with the chief of staff's analysis and immediately ordered: "Inform all the city defense troops to enter the position and rely on the solid city defense fortifications to defend the city. The Eighth Route Army must not be allowed to get close to the city wall. I will move the independent brigade in the wing Destroyed outside Baoding City."

"The reserve team immediately opened the arsenal, sent all the light and heavy machine guns and mortars we had in stock to the top of the city, and replenished the city defense forces with unlimited ammunition."

"I want to build Baoding City into a fire hedgehog full of machine gun fire points. No matter which direction the independent brigade in the wing attacks from, their attacking troops will be sieved by the rain of bullets we fire during the battle."

…………

Japanese Army Xiongxian Garrison Headquarters.

Major General Yokota, the brigade leader, is also considering how to defend Xiong County.

Everyone knows that the purpose of the Yizhong Eighth Route Army's attack on Shijiazhuang is to consume the Xiongxian and Baoding garrisons, thereby weakening the strength of the city defense forces in the two places and preparing for the attack on Baoding and Xiongxian.

Now that Shijiazhuang is lost, the reinforcements sent by Xiong County and Baoding have also fallen into the Eighth Route Army base area, and it will be a matter of time before they are wiped out.

Although those attacking troops are weakening the strength of the Eighth Route Army base in Yizhong through causing sabotage and shaking the people's morale and military morale of the Eighth Route Army.

But after all, the troops are limited.

Even if the entire army is destroyed, not many of the Eighth Route Army in the Wings can be killed.

As long as their troops do not suffer huge losses in the battle, Baoding Hexiong County may be attacked at any time. Today's Xiongxian garrison has dropped sharply to more than 6,000 people.

In addition, Xiong County is not very big and the city defenses are not particularly strong. Major General Yokota's defensive pressure is very high.

Although they were ordered to strengthen the fortifications of Xiong County half a year ago, no matter how strong the foundation of Xiong County is, it cannot be compared to Baoding, which is an important military town.

"Your Excellency, General... I believe that once the Eighth Route Army deploys heavy troops to besiege Xiong County, we can only rely on city defenses to fight them."

"The county town is too small, so we can't use it in street fighting."

"After entering the city, the Eighth Route Army only needs to keep intersecting, and it will soon be able to separate and surround our street fighting troops, and then reunite to annihilate them."

Major General Yokota wanted to consider more solutions for the Xiongxian garrison, but the conditions were limited and no matter how many tactics and tactics he had in his mind, he could not use them. He could only nod his head and agreed: "Then we will fight to the death along the city wall with the Eighth Route Army siege troops."

"The Yizhong Eighth Route Army's attention is still on our attacking troops. Before we eliminate our attacking troops, they will never be able to allocate troops to besiege Xiong County."

"So we still have a lot of time to strengthen Xiong County's defenses."

"Inform the troops to continue repairing the fortifications."

"In addition to the reinforced city defenses, they can also hollow out the city walls and repair some hidden firepower points."

"It doesn't need to be too strong, it just needs to be concealed enough."

"One secret firepower point can kill ten Eighth Route Army troops in battle and retreat after the fight. One hundred secret firepower points can kill a thousand Eighth Route Army troops."

"Xiong County is rushing to repair a hundred secret fire points in each direction. They alone can kill three to four thousand Eighth Route Army troops."

"Together with other city fortifications, we will try to surround the city wall and kill seven to eight thousand and eighty-eighth Route Army troops."

"Although the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong is very strong, there are only so many main troops."

"If they lose seven or eight thousand people while attacking the city, they will definitely not have the strength to continue fighting with us in the city."

"Although Xiong County is not suitable for large-scale street fighting, if there are not many Eighth Route Army troops entering the city, it will definitely be fine for some small-scale street fighting."

"Let's kill another 2,000 Eighth Route Army troops in the city. The Eighth Route Army attacking our Xiong County will be finished."

As Major General Yokota talked more and more excitedly, a rapid ringing of the phone suddenly rang in the war room.

“Boom, boom, boom… da da da…”

As soon as the telephone soldier grabbed the phone, the dull sound of artillery shell explosions and violent machine gun fire came to the headquarters from the direction of the city wall.

Major General Fujita's expression changed suddenly, and he quickly turned his attention to the phone soldiers, wanting to know what was going on with the sudden sound of firefights at the top of the city.

The telephone soldier responded very quickly. He grabbed the phone and listened for a few seconds before covering the phone and reporting to Major General Fujita: "General..."

"There is an urgent call from the city defense troops in the east of the city. There are main forces of the Eighth Route Army moving outside the city."

"They used machine guns to fight back as ordered to prevent them from sneaking into the city under cover of night..."

"As a result, as soon as the light and heavy machine guns fired, they were counterattacked by the opponent's mortars and heavy machine guns, causing heavy losses..."

"The city defense troops have entered the position as ordered, please give instructions..."

(End of this chapter)