I am an industrial worker during the War of Resistance

Chapter 94 I'm Going to Play Big
"Reporting to the brigade commander, the reconnaissance planes have sent back a telegram stating that no suspicious targets have been found within 100 kilometers ahead and 50 kilometers to the sides of the Ping-Sui Railway line."

The reconnaissance aircraft will continue its reconnaissance mission, remaining in the reconnaissance area for another hour.

Kobori was very satisfied when he heard his brigade adjutant report on the situation upon his return.

He nodded and then asked, "Nishizawa-kun, how far have our ground sentries been deployed?"

"Reporting to the brigade commander, our sentry scouts have been deployed 20 kilometers ahead and 10 kilometers to each side," reported the brigade adjutant, Nishizawa Kogoro.

"Tell everyone that when we pass through the Yinshan Mountains along the Ping-Sui Railway, everyone needs to be on high alert."

This railway line is more than 110 kilometers long within the Yinshan Mountains.

The area is hilly with low mountains everywhere, making it a good place for an ambush.

I don't want to be ambushed here.

Also, tell the King's cavalry commanders to keep their troops in check; they are too slow and their discipline is too poor.

They only ran such a short distance, and the team behind them got so scattered. It's outrageous.

Tell them we're heading into the mountains, and get the group together.

They then split into three teams and entered the mountain in turn, maintaining a five-kilometer support distance from each other.

"For the low hills on our northern slope, the cavalry sentries must be deployed twenty kilometers out," Koju said solemnly to his brigade adjutant.

"Yes, Brigade Commander, if there are no other orders, I will go and relay them now."

"Go."

"Hi"

Two kilometers from where the Ping-Sui Railway enters the Yinshan Pass, Xiaojue Shifan looked at the undulating, endless Yinshan Mountains in the distance.

He couldn't help but feel a surge of heroic ambition.

He muttered to himself, "What a magnificent landscape this is."

Fortunately, it is now imperial territory.

How could those ignorant Chinese have occupied this beautiful land for so long?

This place should have long been under the rule of His Majesty the Heavenly Locust.

Kobori Shigeshi waited there for almost an hour before his brigade adjutant reported to him.

The Prince of De's cavalry has been assembled and is ready to depart.

"They're all a bunch of useless trash."

Nishizawa-kun, do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing that we're leading such a bunch of useless people on a mission?

I really don't know what kind of combat power a cavalry unit could have that would take so long just to assemble.

When the brigade's adjutant, Nishizawa Kogoro, heard his superior's complaint, he simply smiled and remained silent.

His superior, the brigade commander, could complain, but he, a mere major and brigade adjutant, only had the right to listen, not to complain.

Moreover, his superiors didn't want to hear him complaining along with them.

Just as Kobori was preparing to lead his troops into Yinshan.

Regiment Commander Chen and Political Commissar Liu were using binoculars to observe the Japanese reconnaissance planes flying back and forth high in the sky from their concealed positions.

"How long has this guy been flying?" Commander Chen asked.

Political Commissar Liu glanced at his watch and said, "It's been almost an hour."

Commander Chen chuckled and said, "Look at its flight altitude, it never changes, and the time it takes to pass by us is very regular."

It seems it hasn't noticed us.

"Old Liu, you said it flies so high and so fast, what else could it possibly find in the sky?" Commander Chen said with a smile.

Political Commissar Liu, holding binoculars, looked at the Japanese reconnaissance plane flying away in the sky and said, "We can see it with binoculars, and it can see us with binoculars too."

It didn't spot us simply because we were well disguised.

"Old Liu, what do you think? If we get into a fight with the Japanese, and their air force comes to their aid, shouldn't we dig a big pit for them?"

Political Commissar Liu looked at Regiment Commander Chen and said, "Old Chen, what are your thoughts?"

Commander Chen paused for a moment, as if he was thinking about something carefully. After a while, he slowly said, "Old Liu, I suddenly thought of something. Maybe we can go big this time?"

Before Political Commissar Liu could even ask how to play, the big guy...

Commander Chen, while drawing a diagram on the ground with a wooden stick, continued, "Old Liu, this is what I'm thinking."

Look, we still don't know the size or type of the Japanese troops coming from the front.

However, based on what we know about the current battle situation...

The Japanese troops to the east, their main force should still be fighting around the perimeter of the Xinding Basin.

From Yanmen Pass in the north to Pingxing Pass in the east, and Niangzi Pass in the southeast, these were all their main attack directions.

Since that is their main target area now, and we haven't received any news of the fall of Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass yet.

That means the fighting over there is still ongoing.

As long as the fighting over there continues, those Japanese devils won't be able to spare too many troops to advance westward, right, Lao Liu?"

After listening, Political Commissar Liu nodded and said, "Old Chen, what you said makes sense. Please continue."

Commander Chen continued, "Since they can't spare too many troops to advance westward, they can only send out fast-moving units to the west."

To test the defensive capabilities of Guihua in the west.

Which unit type is the fastest?

Political Commissar Liu glanced at Regiment Commander Chen and said, "Cavalry."

Commander Chen continued, "Yes, cavalry, only cavalry can move the fastest."

Only cavalry could move as swiftly as the wind and control the situation with such ease.

But how many cavalrymen does that kid have?
According to the information we have received.

It seems that the Japanese cavalry headquarters only had a little over a thousand men, less than two thousand.

If they were to send out their cavalry, they could only send out a maximum of one thousand men.

But if they think they can penetrate deep into our territory with just a thousand cavalrymen...

I think those people are not much different from courting death.

Even if the Jin-Sui Army is incompetent, as long as their thousand cavalrymen are trapped, they will be nothing more than easy prey.

So I was thinking, if the Japanese had sent cavalry this time, they would definitely have brought Prince De's cavalry with them.

Although the King of De's rabble was not very strong in combat, it was still good to make a show of force and bolster his courage.

Although we do not have specific intelligence on the German cavalry.

But I estimate that their numbers should be between three and five thousand.

We've calculated it to be five thousand men, plus one thousand Japanese soldiers.

So they were a cavalry force of six thousand men.

"Is that right, Lao Liu?"

Political Commissar Liu lowered his head and thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "There's basically nothing wrong with it; it should be about the same."

Commander Chen then added, "Let's look at the flight range of that Japanese reconnaissance plane today."

Their route should have followed the Ping-Sui Railway line to our north.

The terrain along this railway line is such that the southern slopes are relatively steep and difficult to traverse, while the northern slopes are gentle hills.

Although the Japanese devils are nothing special, we still need to take their combat capabilities seriously.

If they extend their reconnaissance range to the north, it will be very difficult for us to ambush them.

More than 6,000 men, plus supply trains, plus the inevitable gaps between them as they marched.

Along the narrow mountain road of the Ping-Sui Railway, the distance between the two sides is at least fifteen to twenty kilometers. It would be virtually impossible for us to ambush this cavalry force within such terrain and area.

But Lao Liu, tell me, under what circumstances would a unit like this let its guard down?

After pondering for a while, Political Commissar Liu said, "So many cavalrymen are marching through the long, winding mountain roads."

What I fear most is being cut in half at the waist.

Therefore, their vigilance is at its highest at this time.

When they leave this environment, they will inevitably let their guard down.

In other words, their vigilance is at its lowest when they leave the mountainous area and enter the plains.

"Old Chen, are you planning to ambush them in the plains after they come down from the mountains?"

Political Commissar Liu then looked at Regiment Commander Chen with bright eyes.

"Old Liu, you really know me."

One problem is that our ambush in this valley won't be very effective.

We are currently in the southern position, where the terrain is complex, making it very difficult to approach them.

Even if we manage to evade their scouts on both sides, we can only ambush them in the south.

The possibility of setting up an ambush in the north is virtually zero.

Even if we successfully ambush them in the south and fire a few shots, they can only run north and we can only watch helplessly.

Therefore, it's not very valuable.

However, once they leave the mountains and enter the plains, they can no longer maintain this long, serpentine formation.

They had to stop and regroup their troops.

Even though they deployed sentry cavalry, once they entered the plains, in this vast, seemingly endless expanse, they were no match for them.

Their scouts can only travel a maximum of about five kilometers, and considering the distance their main force assembles, I think ten kilometers is enough.

What if, at this moment, we deployed a large shield around them, with each platoon as its firing base, completely enveloping them within a 15-kilometer radius?

Our regiment now has over one hundred, nearly two hundred, general-purpose machine guns.

We also have various mortars, infantry guns, and mountain guns.

There was also a 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

Let's not count the 12.7mm heavy machine gun for now.

This only considers the configuration of general-purpose machine guns and various artillery pieces.

If two machine guns are positioned 1,000 meters apart, and three adjacent positions can support each other.

Then we can set up a huge, solid barrier with a radius of more than 15 kilometers to trap all these Japanese devils at the exit of the mountain pass.

We still have enough machine guns to spare.

Political Commissar Liu nodded repeatedly after listening to Regiment Commander Chen's tactical plan.

Then he said, "Old Chen, since you've blocked the breach, you certainly didn't think about leaving these little devils any way out."

Let me think. You want to send another force to lay mines along their rear after they pass through the mountains.

Then occupy the various high grounds and deploy one or two machine guns on them to control their retreat routes.

Commander Chen then laughed heartily and said, "Old Liu, that's why we two brothers are such good partners."

You've hit the nail on the head.

We just need to use landmines to block their retreat routes and the valleys in the hills on both sides.

Then, place one or two machine guns on each high ground.

In addition, there are grenades from our grenade launchers.

They basically can't escape our encirclement.

After we trapped them.

We put all the armor plates on our three-wheeled motorcycles.

Use the armored protection of the three-wheeled motorcycle to charge into the Japanese cavalry.

Our infantry also began to advance, pressing them inward as hard as they could.

"Once their density is high enough, then it'll be time for our artillery to finally get their fill."

"Old Chen, what are your plans to deal with the air support those little devils might receive?"

"Old Liu, think about it, what if those little devils call in their air force support?"

So, where will the air force primarily bomb?

Political Commissar Liu thought for a moment and said, "One is the breakthrough point behind the encirclement."

However, behind them lies an extremely narrow mountain pass, which would be dangerous if they retreated.

That would basically squeeze them to death.

The second is our weak points in firepower, or areas where firepower is extremely concentrated.

But our firepower is based on platoon-level units.

Within such a large area, our population density is extremely dispersed.

Even if they were to bomb us, the effect wouldn't be very good.

The third is our logistics and supplies.

If they can destroy our logistical support points, then we will lose our firepower sustainability.

Old Chen, you're quite the schemer; you're trying to set up a fake supply depot.

Then we'll gather our anti-aircraft machine guns and cannons and put them in the pockets of those Japanese planes that come to our aid.
You're trying to attack air support from a point on the ground!

"Old Liu is really something. I hadn't even finished speaking when you revealed all my thoughts."

Impressive! I'm truly impressed.

"Come on, we've been partners for so many years. I can tell what kind of bad idea you're up to the moment you roll your eyes."

However, I think your judgment and deployment are correct.

Even if your judgment is wrong.

The Japanese devils didn't come on cavalry, and their numbers were greater than we expected.

So, if we can fight, we will; if we can't, we can always leave. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

With your fighting style, no matter how many Japanese soldiers come, we can tear a piece of flesh from them.

If they're cured, then we'll eat them all.

Even if that doesn't work, they'll at least be crippled.

"Old Liu, you're right. Even if it doesn't work, we can still make them half-crippled."

"Then we can retreat calmly, and they can only watch helplessly."

Political Commissar Liu said, "Okay, let's do it that way. We've only gone about 20 kilometers into the mountains. We have plenty of time to retreat and make preparations."

If we can't make preparations during the day because of the Japanese reconnaissance planes, then we'll make them at night.

This railway line in the mountains is over a hundred kilometers long, enough for those little devils to walk for two days.

Let's retreat now.

After the scouts returned...

That way we can roughly tell what kind of guests will be attending our feast.

(End of this chapter)