Chapter 369 Xue Yue: Find a way to increase the number of fighter planes!

"There will be necessary losses. Continue the attack and make sure you capture Yiyang City as quickly as possible." After a moment's silence, Lieutenant General Kawabami Mitsuko, commander of the 14th Division, spoke again.

"Hi, then let the 2nd Regiment continue the attack?" suggested Chief of Staff Colonel Shuo Nakagawa.

"Yoshi, then let the 2nd Regiment launch the attack and withdraw the 15th Regiment to rest first." Lieutenant General Kawanami Mitsu nodded in agreement.

Colonel Hachiro Oigawa of the 2nd Regiment turned pale when he received the order.

He had just received news that the cunning Chinese army on the opposite side had laid mines in front of their position.

This is not good news.

In particular, two squadrons fell directly in front of the enemy's position, which made the commander of the 15th Regiment so angry that he cursed loudly.

Fortunately, the summarized experience was delivered quickly.

This is the advantage of Type A divisions, which can summarize the enemy's combat methods at any time and modify tactics accordingly.

During the attack just now, the combat staff of the division headquarters watched the performance of the Chinese from beginning to end. They had firepower but did not use it.

It is obvious that there are not many veterans in this unit, most of them are new recruits.

That's why this happens.

Normally, this shouldn't happen.

Especially at the beginning of the battle, there was a bit of chaos. The firepower was messy, there was no sense of rhythm at all, and the mortars were not accurate.

But they didn't expect that the Chinese army, which they looked down upon, would actually play dirty tricks.

They actually laid mines in front of the position, which resulted in two squadrons of the 15th Regiment being sent away.

Fortunately, he knew that the mines in front of the position had been used up, so there should be no problem next.

Colonel Hachiro Oigawa of the 2nd Regiment secretly made up his mind to wipe out this group of Chinese and show the power of the nd Regiment.

For common people like them without any title, if they want to climb up, they can only work hard and risk their lives.

Or maybe you can overcome your superiors and have a chance to change your destiny.

"Orders: The 1st Battalion should be ready and the 2nd Battalion should be ready to provide support at any time." Colonel Oigawa Hachiro said.

"Ha." The First Battalion received the order and immediately prepared to launch a new attack as soon as the smoke cleared.

"This group of new recruits are still not calm enough." Seeing the soldiers' excited expressions, Liu Zhengfu also laughed. As long as they can get through this difficult time, this unit will be able to grow quickly and eventually form its own unique military spirit.

There's nothing he can do about it, since most of his troops are new recruits.

As long as we survive this battle, everything will go much more smoothly afterwards.

"Report, the division's artillery company is ready." At this time, the communications staff stood up and reported.

"Fire support is available at any time."

"Okay, you've arrived just in time. This time we'll let the Japanese have a good taste of what it feels like to be bombarded by artillery shells." Looking at the Japanese who were slowly approaching, Liu Zhengfu showed a ferocious smile on his face.

This time, in order to make the 58th Army of the Yunnan Army come to support willingly, Xue Yue specially provided a batch of 81mm mortars and 120mm mortars.

If it were in the past, Xue Yue would definitely not have been so generous.

But this time, with the help of the Nanyang Task Force, Xue Yue became generous.

After receiving this batch of mortars, Army Commander Sun Du formed an army artillery battalion with 120mm heavy mortars.

The remaining 81mm mortars were distributed to each division to form division-level artillery companies.

In this way, the combat effectiveness of the 58th Army of the Yunnan Army was significantly enhanced.

It was these mortars that gave the 58th Army of the Yunnan Army the confidence to continue fighting.

Otherwise, it would be unrealistic to defend Yiyang with those scraps.

This time, the First Battalion of the Second Regiment still followed the previous tactical actions and pretended to repeat them. Mortars, grenade launchers, and heavy machine guns constantly changed positions and attacked at a very fast speed.

But unfortunately this time, when they advanced to about 300 meters, they were hit by mortar fire.

The 81mm mortar is still powerful, especially when it is fired without regard for consumption.

The Japanese army still suffered a lot.

For a moment, fierce artillery fire directly covered the entire front line of the position.

"Quick, order the First Battalion to retreat immediately, it will be too late." Colonel Oigawa Hachiro, who was keeping an eye on the situation on the front line, knew that something bad was going to happen when he heard the explosion that sounded like a landslide.

Unfortunately, his order was too late, and the position covered by artillery fire could not be retreated at all.

Ten minutes later, the artillery fire stopped, and the originally flat position became bumpy and full of bullet holes.

After receiving the order to retreat, they began to retreat. After counting, there were less than 400 people left in the First Battalion. Colonel Oigawa Hachiro's eyes went dark and he almost fainted on the ground.

"Damn it, why do these Chinese troops have so many mortars? Aren't they a ragtag army?" Colonel Oigawa Hachiro roared angrily.

Before this, they learned that the troops defending the city were the 58th Army of the Yunnan Army, which had originally had good combat effectiveness.

But after years of consumption, its combat effectiveness is no longer as strong as before.

I thought it would be an easy task, but it turned out to be so difficult.

"These should be American-made mortars."

"Bakayaro." This time, Colonel Oigawa Hachiro was so angry that he grabbed a retreating second lieutenant and yelled at him.

"Where is your captain? Where is he?"

The second lieutenant looked at him with a blank look, not knowing what the officer in front of him was saying, and at the same time gestured at his ears with his hands.

When Colonel Hachiro Oigawa saw the second lieutenant's dazed look and bleeding ears, his heart sank.

He knew that the other person had become deaf.

This is not good news.

Thinking of this, Colonel Oigawa Hachiro's face became extremely gloomy.

I was just laughing at others, but who knew it would be my turn now.

"Your Excellency the Captain, our captain has died. He was just killed by the first round of artillery fire..." The only remaining lieutenant came running over to report, but he couldn't say any more at the end and cried with his head down.

"Baga Yalu!" Colonel Oigawa Hachiro roared angrily.

One of our captains is gone.

More importantly, they didn’t even touch the enemy’s position.

This is really hard to believe.

Is this still the same Chinese ragtag army?

How come the Chinese army has become so powerful in just over a year?
It's totally different from what I remember.

More importantly, most of the officers of the First Battalion died.

In other words, the First Battalion was now in a paralyzed state. Colonel Oigawa Hachiro, who was furious, drew out his command knife and waved it in the air a few times, as if to vent his anger, and then reported to his subordinates behind him.

"Report to the division commander and request artillery support. I must chop off the head of the Chinese commander on the opposite side to commemorate my fallen warriors. Only their blood can wash away the shame of the 2nd Regiment."

"Hay."

While the battle here was in full swing, on the other side the newly formed 11th Division's defense line was also facing the test of artillery fire.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the 59th Regiment launched an attack on the newly formed 11th Division from the side.

This time they learned their lesson, changed their tactics, and attacked from different directions.

Fortunately, the commander of the newly formed 11th Division, Lu Daoyuan, knew that the Japanese were difficult to deal with and also knew his own situation.

So he dug the defense line particularly tightly.

Therefore, when the Japanese army came, they were completely dumbfounded when faced with the defense line he had dug, which was tighter than a turtle shell, as well as foxholes and communication trenches.

The surrounding area was densely packed with mines, leaving the Japanese 59th Regiment with no way out.

You know, the 59th Regiment had never fought such a frustrating battle before, and this time they suffered a lot.

So he immediately ordered the artillery to fire at the opposite position.

As the sound of artillery fire rang out, there was a hint of panic in the positions of the newly formed 11th Division. The new recruits were afraid of artillery fire, and when the artillery fire sounded, the defense line suddenly showed a hint of loosening.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Lu Daoyuan immediately went to the front line to boost morale. It took him some effort to suppress the panic.

With the help of veteran soldiers, the new recruits quickly got through the initial tense stage.

"If we continue fighting like this, the veterans will be completely exhausted and only the new recruits will be left. It will be difficult to fight then." Lu Daoyuan said with emotion as he looked at the new recruits.

"Damn it, you old soldiers, what are you doing? Don't you know that new soldiers are afraid of artillery? Cheer up."

"If you see new recruits running around, hold them down and don't let them run around."

"Boom!" A shell landed not far from Lu Daoyuan, and the dust that was splashed choked Lu Daoyuan so much that he was speechless.

"Bah! The damn artillery fire is quite accurate." Lu Daoyuan spat out the gravel in his mouth and said loudly to the communicator beside him: "Hurry up and contact the air support and ask when it will arrive."

"Division Commander, I just contacted the Army Commander. He said that we have made contact. But it may take a while because the Japanese are attacking on a large scale and they need air support everywhere. It will probably take a long time for them to get to us," the communicator reported quickly.

"Damn, these are a bunch of damn Japanese devils. Forget it. Let the division's artillery company provide artillery support immediately." Seeing that the air force was hopeless, Lu Daoyuan could only let the artillery company provide fire cover.

"Commander, half of our artillery was knocked out by the Japanese just now, and the rest is still being moved." The combat staff reminded carefully.

"Forget it, let's contact the commander." Lu Daoyuan waved his hands. He must have been numb. He could only ask the communications staff to contact Sun Du.

"Hello, Commander, I'm Lu Daoyuan. I'm in some trouble and would like to request fire support from the artillery." Lu Daoyuan said simply and clearly.

"What's going on? Where's your artillery company?" Sun Du asked with a frown after receiving the call and hearing the purpose of the call.

"We have lost more than half of our artillery, and only a few artillery pieces are left. The Japanese's artillery fire is too accurate. I would like to ask the commander to order the artillery battalion to cover the 500 meters in front of our position with artillery fire." Lu Daoyuan said.

"I understand. We only have five minutes of artillery coverage." Sun Du thought about it and decided to use the 120mm mortar.

Fortunately, this distance is enough.

Soon the 120mm mortar shells exploded on the Japanese positions.

"Damn it, those damn Chinese actually have large-caliber heavy artillery." Colonel Kazuyoshi Sakanishi, commander of the 59th Regiment, cursed.

With the fire support of heavy artillery, the recruits' nervousness disappeared a lot.

"Damn it, blow these damn Japanese to death, blow them up hard." Lu Daoyuan couldn't help but get excited when he saw the Japanese being blown to pieces by the 120mm mortar.

"Hit those damned Japanese devils hard!"

Suddenly, countless tongues of fire fired towards the route the Japanese were advancing.

For a moment, many Japanese soldiers who were unable to dodge were shot and fell to the ground.

Scenes like this played out in several areas.

The five divisions of the Kwantung Army were indeed very powerful.

Cooperating with the attack of fighter planes, the offensive efficiency was very slow, and several positions were occupied in succession.

"It's not good. The Japanese's attack is very fierce." Wu Yizi, the chief of staff, frowned slightly after summarizing all the telegrams.

Although the Tianlu tactics were already very proficient, it was still a bit difficult to face the attack of five Japanese divisions and more than 100,000 people this time.

He always felt that he had been too arrogant this time and there was no need to fight a bloody battle with the Japanese army to the end.

Even if we now have several divisions equipped with American weapons, we can completely avoid war.

"It's okay. It's within my expectations." Xue Yue said calmly.

For him, it's OK so far.

"Although we suffered heavy casualties, the Japanese army also suffered heavy casualties. As long as we can hold on, it is the Japanese army that cannot." After reading the telegram, Xue Yue continued.

"If there were no American weapons and equipment from these divisions, would there be such heavy casualties? In just a few days, at least 5,000 Japanese soldiers were killed, which is a considerable number."

"These are all elite Japanese troops, all veterans. If we consume them a few more times, the Japanese army will not be able to hold on, and then we can launch a counterattack."

"And don't forget, the Fifth War Zone is still watching closely."

"Once they have the chance, they will definitely try to retake Jiangcheng."

"So, now we just have to keep hanging on."

Hearing this, Wu Yizi nodded but did not refute.

"But now the veterans of the front-line troops are being consumed too quickly, and they are all new recruits, so problems are likely to arise."

This is what he is more worried about. In the past, the rate of new recruits was at most 20 to 30 percent, but now it is almost 50 percent, and some troops have even reached 70 percent.

This is already a scary ratio, with one veteran leading several new recruits.

It would be easy to get into trouble if we encountered Japanese artillery fire.

"There is no other way. Several consecutive wars have exhausted our veterans. If we had these American equipment earlier, we wouldn't be in such a miserable situation." Xue Yue stretched out his hands, looking helpless.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this right now. Fortunately, we have the support of fighter planes, otherwise, this battle would be even more difficult to fight."

"We can find a way to get them to send more fighter jets. We can provide airports so that they don't have to transfer."

There are only dozens of fighter jets providing support every day, although it is much better than before.

But compared with the fierce fighting on the front lines, it is still far from enough.

It would be best to increase the number of fighter jets to hundreds.

"I'm afraid there's not much hope. They've also been fighting a fierce battle with the Japanese army recently, and their consumption is no less than ours." Wu Yizi hesitated for a moment and told everyone the news he had heard.

"Let's give it a try. They are preparing for the exam with the Americans. They are rich and powerful, so they should have a way to solve it." Xue Yue thought about it and decided to throw the problem to the other party.

"Yes."

(End of this chapter)