Glorious Mission 1937

The horn of the decisive battle has already sounded, and both China and Japan have been loaded with bayonets as chest bullets, and there is no way out. The only thing to do is to fight and fight and fight again.

For this decisive battle, the Chinese and Japanese governments have carried out the most extensive mobilization, concentrating almost all or more than half of the war resources in the hands of the two countries. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a decisive battle.

According to Chen Feng's order, the Central China Theater is the main force of this battle, and the Southwest Theater and the Chongqing Special Theater are the auxiliary forces. The invading Japanese and puppet troops must be defeated or wiped out cleanly. One city and one place is nothing. , don't care about those rules and regulations, everything has defeated the Japanese army as the ultimate goal, and the frontline commanders have been given great autonomy.

Xue Yue, as the old man's confidant, since the old man was assassinated, Xue Yue's life has been like riding a roller coaster.When he heard that the old man appointed Chen Feng as his successor, Xue Yue was very worried about whether that young man would be able to carry the banner of China's war of resistance, and at the same time worried whether that young man would eliminate dissidents and consolidate the regime as soon as he came up. Sir, will the senior military officers in charge of the party-state's most elite armed forces be the first to be purged?

However, these worries disappeared with Chen Feng's series of major actions. Whether it was buying the military power of the Guangxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan warlords with his own money, or accepting the Communist Party in Yan'an, and then the separation of the military and the government, Chen Feng took every step. It was very stable, and they all went ahead of everyone.

And Chen Feng's reorganization and reorganization of the army not only agreed to the military order, but also ended the disunity of weapons and equipment and military uniforms in China for nearly a hundred years.The training method is not uniform and many other inconsistencies.Not only has the combat effectiveness of the army been greatly improved, but it has also greatly reduced the pressure on the logistics department, making China's national defense force at least superficially look like a regular army of the country.

Operation Shocking Thunder was Chen Feng's first major military operation after he entered Chongqing. So far, this operation has been very successful. If nothing else happens, the Japanese and puppet troops in northern China can be driven out within three to six months. To the Korean peninsula, to end the war in the North.

And the navy, which has always been the weak point of China's defense force, has also improved a lot now. The navy that Chen Feng himself tossed is very brilliant.Successively inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese navy in naval battles.Since the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese navy has finally entered the eyes of all countries in the world.

This series of actions allowed Xue Yue and others to see Chen Feng's superb commanding skills. In the eyes of many senior military officers who had fought for a lifetime, Chen Feng's commanding operations seemed like a joke.It looks completely disorganized.But the effect is surprisingly good.Every time it can create a miracle in military history.

This time the Japanese army was attacking with all their strength, Xue Yue must have been a little worried if it had been before.After all, the No. 11 Army had less than 30 people and the fifth, sixth, and ninth theaters were battered. Now that the Japanese have concentrated 6 to 70 troops to attack, it will inevitably cause a burst of panic.

But now Xue Yue is not worried at all. Although the Japanese army has hundreds of thousands of troops and a large number of heavy equipment to cooperate, but now he, Xue Yue, is also changing the shotgun, which is terrible.His more than 80 troops are not only the elites who have undergone rigorous training, but also the guys in the hands of each soldier have also been changed. In the past, a [-] big cover could make them happy for a long time, but now it is an original version. The formal Mauser rifle may not arouse the interest of those guys, because what they hold in their hands is the most advanced individual equipment in the world today.

As one of the most advanced theaters, the 24 reorganized divisions under the Central China Theater are all equipped with ak assault rifles + m1911 pistols. In addition, there are 3 armored divisions in the Central China Theater, equipped with 34 T770 main battle tanks, light There are 980 tanks, and there are also a large number of armored vehicles.

In addition, there are a large number of artillery units in the Central China theater, a total of 9 brigades. In addition to the 3 mountain artillery brigades formed in the original ninth theater, Chen Feng added 3 artillery divisions, all of which are heavy howitzers with a caliber of 105mm. .

With these guys, Xue Yue is very confident in this battle. The only thing he worries about is the Japanese warships in the Yangtze River. No matter how capable the army is, it is impossible to extend its tentacles into the water. Vegetarians, if we are far away, we can't hit them, but if we are close, we will be bombarded.Unlike the army artillery, the naval guns only have a caliber of tens of millimeters, but they move hundreds of millimeters. When the gun goes down, it will be an absolute death zone within a radius of tens of meters.

However, Chen Feng did not hand over the task of dealing with the Japanese naval fleet to Xue Yue, but to the air force. Chen Feng asked the air force to kill the Japanese naval fleet cruising in the Yangtze River at all costs, and at the same time let Zhou Tiedan's special agent The team cooperates with the Air Force to operate.

On August 8, the defense of Yichang started, and Zhang Zizhong, the deputy commander of the Central China Theater Command, personally went to the front line of Yichang to command the battle.

The Japanese army invested a total of 4 divisions of infantry and more than 50 large and small warships in Yichang, with a total force of more than [-] people, commanded by Lieutenant General Tsukada Gong, chief of staff of the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army.

Tsukada Gong admired the German army and was famous for studying the history of the German side of the First World War.Regarding the German counteroffensive on the Semme in [-], that is, what historians call the last attack of the German army, Tsukada collected all the materials and compiled them into a special book. Only the activities of the Spade army base camp have been collected into a thick volume.After the First World War, Tsukada went to Germany to learn from Erich von Ludendorff, and treated his disciples very respectfully.

As for the Yichang Tsukada attack, it is determined to win. According to the information sent back by the intelligence department, firstly, Yichang only has the strength of two infantry divisions in China's newly established Central China theater, and these two divisions are based on the previously defeated Chinese troops and The newly recruited recruits have very limited combat effectiveness. Even without the support of the navy, Yichang can be easily defeated by the army alone.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Tsukada Gong put on a posture of a strong attack. Without communicating with the navy, Tsukada Gong ordered the four divisions under his command to go forward to Yichang and launch a strong attack.

Tsukada took it for granted that with the combat effectiveness of the Chinese garrison, two divisions were equivalent to one division of the Imperial Japanese Army, or even far inferior. The army should take the initiative to withdraw from Yichang!Even resistance is just a show.

But in fact, on the first day of attacking Yichang, the Japanese army was severely blocked by Zhang Zizhong's troops.Since Chen Feng made it clear that he didn't care about the gains and losses of a city or a place, Zhang Zizhong directly ordered the troops to deploy defenses along the favorable terrain around Yichang, and even transformed the entire city gate area into fortifications, and more than half of the people in the city were urgently transferred away. , The rest all hid in the air-raid shelter.

Zhang Zizhong's headquarters established a total of 4 lines of defense outside Yichang City, and more than 2 defenders from 2 divisions and 6 regiments entered the positions in batches to block the Japanese army.In addition, 300 kilometers west of the battlefield, three reorganized divisions are rushing to the front line of Yichang.

On the first day, Tsukada's offensive unit launched 23 charges, but they were all beaten down by Zhang Zizhong's unit, which suffered heavy losses.As a last resort, Tsukada Gong had no choice but to contact the navy and ask them to cooperate with the army immediately.

However, just after the navy left the port of Wuhan, it was blocked by the Chinese Air Force on the way to Yichang. More than 80 Chinese bombers suddenly appeared on the Yangtze River waterway under the cover of more than 30 fighter jets, chasing the Japanese naval fleet. bombing.

The Japanese naval fleet was not to be outdone. On the one hand, it used the anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns on the warship to fight back, and at the same time, it sent a report to the headquarters of the Central China Expeditionary Army, requesting air support.

Soon the Japanese fighter planes that took off from Wuhan Airport arrived on the battlefield, and the air forces of both sides engaged in an extremely tragic air battle over the Yangtze River.After two hours of fighting, the two sides ended the air battle. In this battle, each side reinforced twice, and invested a total of more than 2 fighters.In the end, 620 Japanese aircraft were shot down, 183 ships were sunk, and 16 fighter planes were shot down by the Chinese Air Force.

At the same time as the defense of Yichang began, the No. 11 Japanese army’s main force, 12 divisions, plus 9 puppet divisions, totaling 48 people, were advancing along Changde under the command of the commander Ananwei, and their forward troops had already arrived. Dayong (Zhangjiajie).

In the Central China theater, 15 reorganized infantry divisions, 3 armored divisions, and 7 artillery brigades faced the battle. The commander was Xue Yue. In addition, behind the army, Chen Yi led 6 reorganized divisions as a reserve team.

Dayong is still just an inspectorate area at this time, which is equivalent to a county, and it is not Zhangjiajie, a famous tourist city in later generations.But this is the only way to enter Chongqing from Xiangxi, so it has become the focus of competition between China and Japan.

However, compared with Yichang, it is more beneficial to the defenders here.Dayong has many mountains, many mountains, and the land is sparsely populated. The defenders deployed defenses along the mountains, and the Japanese army attacked from the mountains, which was at a disadvantage.

Coupled with the constraints of the terrain, the Japanese army could not invest too many troops at once, and could only use refueling tactics.As a result, Japanese casualties were heavy from the beginning of the battle, and little progress was made.

Ananweiji has attached great importance to this Chinese general since he suffered from Xue Yue's losses twice. After inspecting the front line, Ananweiji thinks that it is meaningless to fight like this. It is impossible to defeat Dayong even if it lasts for a year or two, it will only increase casualties.

In view of the fact that there are more than 40 troops under his command, Anan Weiji continued to attack Dayong on the one hand, and sent two divisions south to Guzhang on the other hand, preparing to copy the back route of hundreds of thousands of Chinese defenders on the front line of Dayong.

But how could Xue Yue give the Japanese this chance? When the two master regiments of the Japanese army arrived at Luoxi Town, Guzhang County, they suddenly found that there had been Chinese defenders stationed here, and there were also complete fortifications.

Angry, Ananwei ignored the dissuasion of the chief of staff and ordered the troops to attack Luoxi Town immediately. Unfortunately, the Japanese army attacked Luoxi Town for a day, except for causing some casualties to himself, the position of Luoxi Town remained unchanged. (To be continued..)