Sword: Heart of Iron

Chapter 179 Something is wrong

The Fourteenth Division.

Kenji Doihara looked at the strategic map and said confidently, "Sano-kun, has the 15th Regiment captured Lanfeng City?"

Chief of Staff Tadayoshi Sano shook his head and said, "General, after the 27th Chinese Army withdrew, the Federal Provincial Garrison Army came to defend the city, with a strength of about one reinforced division."

"The resistance is very strong!"

Doihara Kenji frowned and said, "Urge the 15th Regiment to speed up the attack and seize Lanfeng within two days and open the Yellow River crossing!"

Sano Tadayoshi: “Hai!”

"The Chinese Eastern Henan Corps is attacking our rear from the outside. General, do you want to increase the defensive forces?"

Kenji Doihara lowered his head: "What do you think?"

Seeing that the question was thrown back, Sano Tadayoshi thought for a moment: "In my opinion, the current battle situation cannot be delayed for long. The division should open a ferry to the north bank of the Yellow River as soon as possible to ensure smooth supply of materials!"

Kenji Doihara nodded.

After thinking about it secretly, I agreed with this point of view.

What Sano Tadayoshi said makes sense!
Seemingly having seized the initiative, the armies from the east and west attacked Lanfeng from both sides. However, the fatal thing was that due to the rapid attack, the troops were on the south bank of the Yellow River, while a large amount of supplies were on the north bank.

The 14th Division is highly mechanized. If it is separated from stable logistical supplies for too long, its combat effectiveness will plummet.

Kenji Doihara: "I underestimated the Chinese commander before the war!"

In his opinion, there was nothing unacceptable about this.

When problems arise, they must be corrected in a timely manner, just like the Empire of Japan, which grew through continuous learning.

Sano Tadayoshi hurriedly said, "General, there is no need to be so self-deprecating!"

Like Kenji Doihara, he is also an expert on China, and when the two of them have normal conversations, they use all kinds of idioms at will.

Kenji Doihara took out a stack of documents from the drawer under the desk.

It is detailed information about Xue Yue.

Before the outbreak of full-scale war, he had been engaged in espionage work in North China and Northeast China.

I don't know much about the situation south of the Yangtze River.

But Xue Yue was a southern general.

This was all the information he could collect, just over a thousand words, which he read dozens of times over the past few days.

"report!"

"Urgent message from the Eastern Front!"

A staff officer came running over, bowed slightly, and handed over a telegram with both hands.

Sano Tadayoshi quickly took it and took a look.

Then his face changed suddenly.

"General! The federal garrison troops set out from Dangshan and have now arrived in the Shan County area, ahead of the time estimated by the intelligence!"

Kenji Doihara's heart skipped a beat and he turned his head sharply to look at the map.

"Earlier?"

"How many troops are there?"

Sano Tadayoshi said quickly: "It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 people, which is equivalent to the Lanfeng garrison!"

Kenji Doihara frowned.

The thing I was most worried about happened!
Although the Henan East Corps was difficult to deal with, it was not without flaws and invincible.

If there is no external interference, he is 80% sure that he can turn the tide of the battle and win.

But once the federal garrison gets involved, the development of the war will be unknown.

Doihara Kenji: "As for Xuzhou, the Second Army is so complacent after occupying only an empty city?"

"Why not continue to attack westwards and tie down the Chinese garrison!"

Sano Tadayoshi: "According to the news from the front, after General Terauchi Juichi left Xuzhou, three divisions have been moving westward one after another."

"But due to insufficient material preparation, the marching speed is currently slow!"

Kenji Doihara was furious. According to his strategic plan, the garrison would be busy resisting friendly forces in Xuzhou and would not be able to support Lanfeng.

In this way, he would have relatively ample time to deal with the Henan East Corps.

But judging from the current situation, this plan has completely failed.

"Where is Wang Feng? Dangshan or Shan County?"

Sano Tadayoshi glanced at the telegram and shook his head: "We don't know yet."

A feeling of powerlessness surged in Kenji Doihara's heart.

He was best at espionage warfare. When commanding operations, he was always able to anticipate the enemy's moves and respond one step ahead by relying on his developed intelligence network.

In this regard, Xue Yue suffered a lot.

However, the tactics used in the past were not very effective when used against the federal garrison.

In the first confrontation just over half a month ago, our side lost a considerable number of agency agents.

However, the information obtained is very little and the expected effect is not achieved at all.

Sano Tadayoshi: "General, the Chinese garrison is coming fiercely, we should prepare early!"

Kenji Doihara nodded repeatedly: "Yes!"

"Mobilize the 59th Regiment to block the attack! Make sure you hold your position for three days!"

Sano Tadayoshi: “Hai!”

------

5 month 18 day.

10:23 am.

In the front-line command post, Wang Feng picked up the telescope and observed the battlefield situation in a serious manner.

Zhao Fangyuan stood beside him and said, "Sir, these little devils are really good at fighting. We just came out of Dangshan, and in less than a day, this blocking line has been established."

"Could it be that someone leaked the news?"

He was speculating secretly in his mind, and suddenly realized a problem.

Wang Feng put down the telescope and walked down from the observation hole.

"I don't think so. Kenji Doihara is a very cunning old devil. He is probably always on guard against us."

Zhao Fangyuan: “This”

"On the western battlefield, our troops have gained a foothold in Lanfeng. Although Gui Yongqing's troops withdrew without authorization, the encirclement of the Henan East Corps has not been broken. At this critical juncture, are they still willing to guard against us?"

Wang Feng smiled and said, "Why not?"

"You have to believe in our brothers. There is no way there will be a traitor."

Of course it can't be because of this. I wish I could live in the bird's-eye view 24 hours a day.

If there really is a traitor, it will be noticed at the first moment - a red dot appears among a bunch of green dots, so eye-catching that it is impossible not to see it.

Zhao Fangyuan responded: "That's right!"

"If there really was a problem, the Ministry of Internal Affairs should have reacted long ago."

Wang Feng sat down and took a sip of hot tea: "How about how to solve the current battle situation? Do you have any ideas?"

After hearing the question, Zhao Fangyuan stood beside Wang Feng respectfully like a student: "Sir, there is only one Japanese army regiment in front of us."

"We have found out the specific number. It is the 59th Regiment. The overall combat capability is not strong. We have just come into contact with the enemy. Even if the Japanese army is well prepared, it will not have enough time to build a complete defense system."

"We can take advantage of this opportunity to strike first."

"Use three battalions to launch a feint attack from the front, and deploy the rest of the troops on the left and right sides. With the help of artillery cover, launch a fierce attack on the Japanese army!"

Wang Feng nodded: "It's roughly feasible."

"But we should be careful. It is still daytime and Japanese fighter planes may appear overhead at any time. We should not use too much heavy artillery."

"Mobilize at most one battalion!"

Zhao Fangyuan murmured: "One battalion"

"Sir, let's use that 122mm heavy artillery as well!"

Wang Feng thought about it and said, "Well, let's do it this way!"

A heavy artillery battalion has a full strength of 105 people. The main force is two artillery companies equipped with four mm howitzers. In addition, there are auxiliary forces such as motor vehicle company, logistics company, and infantry company.

The scale was not small. Because the calibers of the Jin-made 122mm howitzers and the Type howitzers were different, in order to avoid confusion, they were not grouped together and a separate battalion was established.

Therefore, it seems that two heavy artillery battalions were called up.

There were actually only five guns.

Zhao Fangyuan saluted: "Yes!"

He then picked up the telephone receiver beside him and quickly conveyed the combat orders.

After hanging up the phone, Wang Feng thought of another thing: "How is the ideological work going on for the three pilots who parachuted down during the air battle half a month ago?"

Zhao Fangyuan: "They all agreed to join our army. They are currently staying in Dangshan. After the battle is over, they will be escorted back to Changzhi to teach at the Aviation School."

Wang Feng nodded: "This is a good job!"

"Who did it?"

Zhao Fangyuan: "It's Sergei."

Wang Feng raised his eyebrows and asked with interest, "Is it him?"

"How did a foreigner persuade the Chinese pilots?"

When this matter was mentioned, Zhao Fangyuan couldn't help but raise his lips: "It is because of that foreigner, Old Xie, that we now have a close relationship with the Soviet Union, and those pilots are flying Soviet fighter planes."

"When Sergey entered the room, the "flying generals" became interested when they saw that he was a foreigner. I don't know what they talked about, but after he came out, everything was done smoothly."

The more Wang Feng listened, the more confused he became.

what's the situation?
Isn't Sergei an infantryman?

"Forget it. No matter what method he used, it's a good thing to persuade the pilot to come over."

Unlike other branches of the military, pilots have a very high status in the country. Most of these people have received secondary and higher education, come from wealthy families, and have extremely open minds.

Half of them have studied abroad.

He was nicknamed "Flying General".

They are not as easy to fool as the infantry.

The phone rings.

Zhao Fangyuan stepped forward and picked up the receiver.

"Hey! This is the main command post!"

On the phone: "Lao Zhao! This is Zhang Hu!"

"The Japanese planes are coming, there are so many of them!"

Zhao Fangyuan was stunned, turned his head and looked at Wang Feng: "Sir, this..."

"Hello! Hello! Hello!" Zhang Hu's roaring voice came from the phone, "Fuck! Go and see if the phone line has been blown off!"

Hearing this, Zhao Fangyuan hurriedly asked: "What's the situation at the front? How many planes are there?"

"boom!"

An explosion sounded from the microphone, accompanied by Zhang Hu's shout: "I don't know!"

"I'm almost buried in the command post and can't see what's going on outside!"

"fast"

He had just finished speaking when the microphone went silent.

Realizing that something was wrong, Zhao Fangyuan threw the microphone on the table without even putting it away, and quickly ran to Wang Feng's side: "Commander! Something terrible has happened!"

"Report from the front line, the Japanese army has dispatched a large number of bombers!"

Wang Feng came to his senses and stood up quickly.

It does!

From a bird's-eye view, there were at least three bomber squadrons hovering over the front-line positions.

The red dots were so dense that Wang Feng mistakenly believed that all the Japanese Army Aviation bomber formations in North China had gathered here.

Why did the Japanese army react so quickly?
In just one day, three bomber formations were assembled.
wrong!

It’s four!
While Wang Feng was stunned, a group of small red dots appeared at the edge of the bird's-eye view.

Zooming in, we see a new formation of Japanese bombers.

It is flying towards the left wing at a very fast speed.

We will arrive at the battlefield in about ten minutes.

It would be fine if they were still on the march, but now the soldiers are stuck in their positions, and there is no time to react in such a short period of time.

Zhao Fangyuan was a little anxious: "Sir, what should we do?"

Wang Feng stood up: "Order all troops to move immediately!"

"I was just saying, how dare a mere infantry regiment come to stop us with such fanfare!"

Zhao Fangyuan nodded and quickly left the command post.

Wang Feng paced back and forth in the room. He seemed to be thinking about strategy, but in fact he had immersed his consciousness in the three-dimensional map.

Pull the view up.

He could clearly see the Japanese bombers dropping bombs.

The specific models should be the Type 97 heavy bombers, as well as some smaller light bombers that I have never seen before. They should be the latest ones deployed on the battlefield.

“So many planes?”

Wang Feng thought secretly in his heart.

Judging from past battles, even when the 13th and 18th Divisions were surrounded in the Huaibei Campaign, the situation was much more urgent than it is now, but the Central China side did not send a large number of aircraft to rescue.

Each time they would send out one or two groups, and then retreat after dropping their bombs.

The current situation has definitely never occurred.

After dropping the bomb, the heavy bomber lowered its altitude despite the fire from anti-aircraft machine guns and strafed the soldiers below with its machine guns.

It's so abnormal!

"Fuck those Japs!" An anti-aircraft machine gun was spraying flames, and the machine gunner kept cursing and pressed the firing pedal to the bottom.

"boom--!"

An escort fighter was swooping down when it suddenly exploded in mid-air, breaking into countless pieces that fell to the ground.

Most likely the engine was hit.

Before the machine gunner could cheer, a heavy aerial bomb fell beside him. The flames from the explosion engulfed him. The loader also had no time to react and fell to the ground immediately.

The 1st Column was the column equipped with the most anti-aircraft machine guns.

But even so, it is limited by the industrial output in the rear.

To date, only twelve are equipped.

Such a small number certainly cannot be evenly deployed on a battle line more than ten kilometers wide.

Therefore, except for some key strongholds, such as logistics supply stations and column command posts, which could organize sporadic counterattacks, the rest of the positions were in a passive situation of being bombed.

on the ground.

The 59th Regiment seized the opportunity, and the commander personally walked into the trench and drew the command knife from his waist.

Under the scorching sun, the blade reflected light, making it difficult for people to open their eyes.

"Kill him!"

"boom--!"

As the Japanese infantry charged, the artillery behind them opened fire at full power, and 75mm grenades fell on their own positions one after another.

"Damn it, Kazuki Seiji, he's really willing to give up!"

Wang Feng was immediately furious.

Looking at the density of firepower, it is definitely not something a conventional artillery battalion can possess.

Maybe it has been strengthened.

The Japs have learned their lesson now. With the lessons learned from the previous divisions, starting from the Battle of Linyi, the Second Division, whenever they fought with the garrison, their artillery would be dispersed on the front line.

There is a gate every one or two kilometers.

It only provides support to the front-line infantry and completely abandons the strategic suppression capability.

(End of this chapter)