Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

Not to mention now, even in the ten years or so after the founding of New China, the relationship between the two sides will still be very special.

In terms of industrial construction, the Soviet Union will definitely be a model for New China to learn from.

So we must pay attention to this aspect.

Sui Shier is a professor who studied in the United States. If he continues to praise the industrialization of Europe and the United States, this is likely a political mistake. Wei Hongjun must be on guard.

"I see."

Chapter 468: Battle of Jining

While Wei Hongjun was busy in Zhangjiakou, the situation in Jining was already shrouded in war clouds.

Both the Eighth Column outside Jining City and the Japanese puppet troops inside Jining City were currently making final preparations. The Eighth Column was trying to remove Jining, the thorn that stood between the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Base Area and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Base Area.

Of course, the Japanese and puppet troops could not accept Jining being controlled by the Eighth Route Army.

After all, the North China Front Army was preparing to rebuild the army stationed in Mongolia and needed to connect Datong and Suiyuan. However, if the Eighth Route Army controlled Jining, then the Eighth Route Army would cut off the connection between the Japanese army in Datong and the Japanese and puppet troops in Suiyuan.

If this road was cut off, the Japanese and puppet troops in Suiyuan would be isolated.

Therefore, the Japanese and puppet troops attached great importance to the safety of Jining.

The Japanese puppet army dispatched the puppet Pacification Guard from Baotou to Jining to assist the 13th Regiment in defending Jining. The commander of the puppet Pacification Guard, Ding Qichang, was a former officer of the 17th Cavalry Brigade of the Northeastern Army. The Northeastern Army's 17th Brigade's designation was a combination of the 17th Infantry Brigade and the 17th Cavalry Brigade.

The 17th Infantry Brigade was an elite unit in the Northeast Army, even a heroic unit. Although it was called a brigade, it actually had six or seven thousand people, no different from a division. The officers of the unit were basically graduates of the Northeast Military Academy. It was an elite unit created by Zhang Xueliang. In the Battle of the Chinese Eastern Railway, it stubbornly withstood the Soviet offensive, preventing the Soviet army from defeating the 17th Brigade for two months. Later, the Mongolian cavalry raided the rear of the Northeast Army and destroyed the logistics base of the 17th Brigade. That's why the 17th Brigade was defeated and the 17th Brigade was completely annihilated.

During the Battle of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the officers and soldiers of the 17th Brigade fought heroically.

The performance is very good.

The 17th Cavalry Brigade, a unit under Tang Yulin's command, was originally a bandit unit in the Rehe area, recruited by Zhang Zuolin and Tang Yulin. How could a bandit unit have any patriotic feelings? During the Rehe War, Tang Yulin abandoned the city and fled, and a large number of his troops defected to the Japanese army and became puppet troops.

It was at that time that Ding Qichang defected to the Japanese and became a traitor.

After the establishment of the Mengjiang United Autonomous Government, Ding Qichang was transferred from the military to serve as Minister of Public Security. He controlled the Pacification Guard, essentially the Mengjiang United Autonomous Government's police force. This force comprised three corps armies. While the name might sound impressive, the three corps armies actually comprised only about 3,000 troops.

He had been active in the Guisui area before.

Later, as Fu Zuoyi's troops grew stronger, his pacification guards were sent to Baotou and Guyang to assist the 13th Independent Mixed Brigade in defending Baotou. This time, the th Column was going to attack Jining, so the Japanese army asked him to come and assist the th Regiment.

"Commander, the tunnel is almost finished."

In fact, the Eighth Column had already made preparations for the attack on Jining.

After returning from the Yi County meeting, the 8th Column began to mobilize troops and had been preparing for more than a month.

Wang Qiuyun looked at Jining through a telescope and said, "The tunnels are just a precaution. If our attack doesn't go well, we can use the tunnels to blow up the city walls. But I hope we don't need to do that this time. This time we want to test the power of our heavy artillery. We have four howitzers, and it would be a shame if we didn't use them. Let us country bumpkins open our eyes and see how powerful the howitzers are."

This time, Wang Qiuyun planned to pull out all the howitzers, field guns and mountain guns seized by the troops in Zhangjiakou.

See how it works.

When conquering Xuanhua, the Eighth Column adopted the strategy of "bayonet on cannon"

When capturing Zhangjiakou, the Eighth Column used the method of digging tunnels and placing large-scale explosives. Now, when capturing Jining, Wang Qiuyun would see the power of these heavy artillery.

The troops began to make preparations in an orderly manner.

The participating units were the 80st and 79nd Independent Regiments of the Chaxi Detachment, and the th and th Independent Regiments of the Chabei Detachment. The st Independent Regiment of the Chaxi Detachment was designated the th Regiment, while the th Independent Regiment of the Chabei Detachment was designated the th Regiment.

The reserve forces were those assigned new designations by the Eighth Column to Xinghe and Shangyi counties. Shangyi County's two self-defense regiments were renamed the First and Second Self-Defense Regiments, while Xinghe County's two regiments were named the Third and Fourth Self-Defense Regiments.

Although these self-defense groups were given numbers, their combat effectiveness was limited.

There are not enough cadres, not enough veterans, and the weapons and equipment are average.

However, their only advantage was that they truly hated the Japanese army and were very active in fighting them. Over the past year, the main task of these self-defense groups has been to attack and defeat puppet troops everywhere.

The Japanese army controlled Mongolia, Chahar, Suiyuan and Rehe for a relatively long time.

So there are many traitors here.

There were many traitors, and many armed traitors. The Self-Defense Corps relied on attacking these traitors and training their fighting capacity.

This time, the Eighth Column concentrated eight infantry regiments alone. Adding other artillery units and logistics units, the total force exceeded 8. Wang Qiuyun personally served as the commander-in-chief of the front line.

"All troops are in position."

Wang Qiuyun prepared to attack the city.

This time, Wang Qiuyun was preparing for a frontal assault. Of course, even with a frontal assault, it wouldn't mean all troops would be put aside. Any siege would necessarily have a primary attack and a secondary attack.

The only regiment of the Chaxi Detachment, the 80th Regiment, was the main force in the frontal siege.

In addition, the 79nd Independent Regiment of the Chaxi Detachment and the th Independent Regiment of the Chabei Detachment attacked from the north and south respectively. The th Independent Regiment of the Chabei Detachment, also known as the th Regiment, served as the general reserve. The Japanese and puppet troops in Jining City also observed the th Column's movements.

Understand that the Eighth Column is going to attack.

So they quickly went up to the city wall and made preparations.

"Li Yong."

"Commander."

"You've been handling artillery in our Eighth Column for so many years. Now it's time to test your abilities. You've been an artilleryman for so many years. This time it's your turn to show your prowess."

"Commander, don't worry. This time I will let the Japanese and puppet troops see the power of our artillery.

Li Yong is truly an artillery general who fought his way up on the battlefield.

During the Red Army period, he was mainly responsible for heavy machine guns and firepower. Later, he followed Zhang Dahu to learn the use of mortars and grenade launchers. After Song Zhiyuan became the artillery battalion commander, he followed him to learn the operation of infantry artillery.

This is how he learned artillery tactics step by step.

And now he is very confident.

In addition to infantry guns, flat-fire guns, rapid-fire guns, and a large number of mortars, there are also four Type 4 howitzers, eight Type 8 field guns, and six Type 6 mountain guns.

The power of a single round of artillery is even stronger than that of a Japanese guard division.

With so many good things in hand, Li Yong was certainly confident. In the past, the Eighth Column had used artillery with caution because of its limited supply of ammunition. However, after capturing Xuanhua and Wanquan, they had already captured a large number of ammunition.

As for the later capture of Zhangjiakou, there were so many artillery shells that they could not be counted.

With enough ammunition, Li Yong had been training his artillery troops. He used live ammunition to improve their professional skills. Now that these artillery pieces had been deployed to the front lines, Li Yong was confident he could destroy the walls of Jining.

"Colonel, will there be reinforcements coming from Datong?"

Ding Qichang watched the troops of the Eighth Column outside enter the position and understood that the Eighth Column was about to start attacking the city.

I was very worried.

So I asked Saito Jiro carefully.

"Ding Sang, with our imperial army here, you don't have to worry about Jining's safety."

Saito Jiro was very rude.

Jining is so important, but look at who has been sent here.

Baotou had other troops, so why did they send the Pacification Guard? The Pacification Guard was called an army, but in reality it was just a bunch of puppet police. Among the Japanese and puppet troops in Suiyuan, their combat effectiveness was the lowest.

Even if there are no main Japanese troops, some puppet troops can be sent over.

There were more than one or two Shanxi-Suiyuan Army troops that surrendered in the Suiyuan area.

When Fu Zuoyi led his troops to Suiyuan, many of his troops defected to the Japanese and were eventually reorganized into puppet troops.

Together with the puppet Mongolian army, they cooperated with the troops stationed in Mongolia to stabilize the situation in Suiyuan.

Fu Zuoyi's troops primarily attacked the Japanese and the troops stationed in Mongolia, while the Daqingshan detachment primarily fought against these puppet troops, who were originally from Fu Zuoyi's army, and the troops stationed in Mongolia. These puppet troops, while also having poor combat effectiveness, were at least troops. But what was the Pacification Guard?

Seeing Saito Jiro being so rude, Ding Qichang was very angry.

Ding Qichang had never imagined that the Japanese army, which had previously seemed so powerful and even invincible, would suffer repeated defeats in Chahar. Even Zhangjiakou was captured by the Eighth Route Army.

Now the Eighth Route Army is making further advances and wants to capture Jining and advance into Suiyuan.

Ding Qichang suddenly felt a little regretful at this moment.

Why had he believed the Japanese were invincible? Why had he chosen to be a Han Chinese? But now he couldn't turn back; he could only follow the Japanese army to the bitter end. After all, after becoming Minister of Public Security, he had severely suppressed anti-Japanese forces in Chahar, Suiyuan, and other places. If we were to count the blood debts on his hands, he far exceeded that of other puppet army officers.

"Ding Sang, let your troops do their best.

"boom"

"Boom boom—"

Before he could finish his words, the artillery unit of the 8th Column outside the city began firing.

Chapter 469 Collapse of the City Wall

On July 1942, 7, the Jining Campaign officially broke out.

This was the 32th Column's first time fighting such a lucrative war. After capturing Zhangjiakou and capturing numerous artillery pieces, the th Column formed a column artillery regiment, deploying howitzers, mountain guns, field guns, and infantry guns.

Who can be so rich?

At present, no unit of the Eighth Route Army has such luxury. This is completely the equipment of the National Army Central Army and can be compared with an entire army of the Central Army.

After Wang Qiuyun gave the order to attack, the artillery continued to bombard.

With enough artillery shells, the artillery regiment of the Eighth Column directly trained its troops in actual combat. In addition to the many artillery pieces on the main attacking force, the assisting forces on both sides were also equipped with a number of artillery pieces.

It’s just that they don’t have such powerful firepower as the main attack force.

The artillery supporting the assisting troops mainly consisted of flat-fire guns, rapid-fire guns, and mortars. However, even so, facing a Japanese regiment, they still had an overwhelming advantage.

"boom"

"boom"

The weapons and equipment of each country are related to their own characteristics.

While Japan is also an industrial nation and one of the world's great powers, its industrial strength is clearly inferior to that of the established industrial powers of Europe and the United States. Japan itself lacks resources, and its industrial strength is also limited.

Just look at steel production.

Among the old imperialist countries, Japan's steel production is relatively poor.

In addition, Japan's military resources are tilted towards the navy, and the navy takes most of Japan's annual military expenditure. Therefore, the army receives very little military funds. In order to adapt to this situation, the weapons and equipment of the Japanese army are also very unique.

Look at the Japanese army’s Type 38 rifle.

The Type 38 rifle used by the Japanese army was all about accuracy. Japan placed great importance on accuracy, and veterans were trained in this way. To put it bluntly, it was all about conserving ammunition. Whether the Japanese army had the capability to develop automatic rifles or submachine guns, they certainly did. These weren't insurmountable technical challenges.

But the Japanese army would not use this weapon.