[Anti-Japanese Iron Blood King] Chapter 461: Withdrawal of troops (ask for subscriptions, ask for monthly passes, ask for everything!) ）

The 20th Division was defeated, and the defeat was very miserable, the battle on the north bank of the Hunhe River, although the main force of the 40th Brigade withdrew to the south bank through the pontoon bridge, but there were still more than 2,000 people intercepted by Ma Zheng's troops on the north bank of the Hunhe River, and then annihilated.

The battle lasted until about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when the 39th Brigade of the 20th Division was completely annihilated, in addition to the 40th Brigade losing more than 2,500 men, and the artillery wing directly under the division and regiment also suffered heavy losses, with less than 300 men fleeing the battlefield. What's more, the chariot troops, which were pinned on by Lieutenant General Umezu Yoshijiro, were also lost, and it can be said that they were crippled in the first battle.

After crossing the Hunhe River, the remnants of the 20th Division did not dare to stay on the south bank of the Hunhe River, and after collecting their troops, the remnants withdrew directly to the county seat of Daixian, and then stood firm and waited for reinforcements, waiting for the arrival of the 109th Division.

Speaking of Ma Zheng's division, after beating the 20th Division, the armored troops continued to retreat to the mountains and forests to hide, and the infantry began to clean up the battlefield. After all, the results of this battle were not small, and there were a lot of materials captured, especially the wreckage of more than 200 combat vehicles, although most of the combat vehicles were completely destroyed by bazookas, but the wreckage was not useless at all.

First of all, there were a lot of unexploded ordnance in the wreckage, which was a precious treasure for the armored regiment that was urgently needed but needed to be replenished. Secondly, most of the parts of these destroyed Japanese tanks could be used, such as tracks, side armor, etc., so Ma Zheng ordered the infantry to immediately bring tools to disassemble all the wreckage of these unrepairable tanks, and the parts that could be used were returned to the Zhuozishan Arsenal for smelting and casting new weapons and equipment.

Of course, after all, the Japanese army used more than 270 tanks this time, and there were always some fish that slipped through the net that were not completely destroyed. For those combat vehicles that were not completely destroyed, Ma Zheng asked the Huyan military headquarters to repair them as quickly as possible, and after repairing them, they were incorporated into the armored regiment.

However, Ma Zheng's headquarters was busy cleaning up the battlefield on the north bank of the Hunhe River, and the news of the 20th Division's defeat on the north bank of the Hunhe River soon spread to Taiyuan and Beiping, mainly thanks to the desperate telegram of the sixth major general Guan Yuan.

Peiping. Iron Lion Alley. Command of the North China Front.

After listening to the report of the chief of staff Yamashita Fumi, General Sugiyama immediately ordered a telegram to be sent to Lieutenant General Umezu Mijiro to discuss the aftermath. More than half of the casualties of the 20th Division and more than 270 stations and cars were annihilated in the first battle, and such a big responsibility cannot be borne by Sugiyama Yuan alone.

Moreover, the previous consecutive defeats against Ma Zheng's department had already made the base camp complain about Sugiyama Yuan, if it weren't for Sugiyama Yuan's own hard relationship, otherwise he would have been transferred to the reserve long ago. Even so, there are already people in Japan who have proposed that Tada Jun take over as the commander of the North China Front.

What worries Sugiyama even more is that now that more than half of the casualties of the 20th Division have lost its combat capability, its combat effectiveness will inevitably be greatly reduced. At this time, Ma Zheng's department was in full swing, and if he crossed the river to the south to attack Dai County, Niudao's department might not be able to resist.

And if you go south along the Dai County, you can go directly to Xinkou through Yuanping, and Taiyuan will be directly exposed to the guns of the Zhina people. Once that situation arises, other units in the Second Theater of Operations will definitely not miss this good opportunity and will inevitably attack the First Army stationed in Shanxi.

The problem is that after several major battles, the front army is now overstretched, and except for the two divisions and regiments that were transferred to southern Anhui to cooperate with the Central China Dispatch Army, the garrison in the entire North China region has only nine divisions and regiments plus six mixed brigades. This time, the 27th Division of the Northern Jin Operation was almost completely wiped out, and more than half of the casualties of the Second Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade were combined, plus today's losses, not to mention that the First Army was insufficient, even the entire Front Army did not have much troops available.

Before, Sugiyama Yuan was still thinking about destroying Ma Zheng's troops at all costs, even if the people of China took the opportunity to capture some towns, but now it seems that his ideas are too taken for granted. In the case that the two fronts of Xinghe and Zhangjiakou could not make a breakthrough quickly, the main force of Ma Zheng's department was about to reach Taiyuan, and this battle could not continue like this.

If Taiyuan is lost, then the commander of this front army will be the end, and the ending will not be much better than his predecessor, General Terauchi Shouichi.

The atmosphere in the conference room was extremely solemn, His Excellency the Commander did not say a word, and the others did not dare to come out of the air, so as not to enter the sight of His Excellency the Commander.

In normal times, everyone would like to make a deep impression in the eyes of His Excellency the Commander, but in this case, forget it. Everyone is very familiar with the temper of His Excellency the Commander, and the more this is the case, the more it shows that His Excellency the Commander is very angry in his heart, and if anyone provokes Your Excellency, it will be light to be reprimanded.

After a long time, Sugiyama Motocai sighed and said: "Gentlemen, the 20th Division suffered more than half of the casualties in today's battle, the 39th Brigade and the First Army Tank Unit were all wiped out, and General Sekigahara was martyred. ”

With a "bang", all the officers in the conference room stood up instantly, and then bowed their heads and bent down to mourn in silence for Sekihara Roku, who died in battle.

After everyone sat back in their seats, Sugiyama Gendai continued: "The current situation must be clear to all the monarchs, the main force of the Zhi Na Ma Zheng Department has attacked Shuo County, and the next target will be Dai County. At the same time, the 7th Army and the 14th Army of the Second Theater of China were assembled on the front line of Linfen and Luliang, and it seemed that there was some movement. The Fourth Army of Zhongtiao Mountain was also assembling and preparing for battle, and its troops were directed at Yuncheng. ”

Sugiyama Gen then continued: "And the Eighth Road of China is constantly harassing the occupied areas of the imperial army in the southeast of Jin, central Hebei, southern Hebei and Shandong, threatening the transportation, communications and the safety of the towns in the rear of the imperial army. ”

Lieutenant General Yamashita Fubun was the first to speak, saying: "Your Excellency, the matter has come to this point, and it is impossible to achieve the strategic goal of destroying the Suicha Military Region of China, so it is recommended to immediately withdraw troops from the front line of Zhangjiakou and Xinghe, on the one hand, to hold on to the Pingjin area, and at the same time to transfer troops to strengthen the defense of the front line of Xinkou in Shanxi, and strictly prevent Ma Zheng's headquarters from continuing to move south, and then make plans when the army sent by Central China to take Wuhan is our front army." ”

"Yamashita-kun is reasonable, since the strategic goal cannot be achieved, any further delay will only increase casualties, and it is possible that the people in the occupied area will take advantage of the loophole, so let's withdraw!" General Sugiyama said with some decadence.

After a few minutes, Sugiyama Gen said again: "Before his death, General Sekigahara sent a desperate letter to the front army headquarters, which mentioned two things, the first is that the people of China used to deal with the imperial army chariots before was not a new weapon, but a new use of the Imperial Type 33 special heavy machine gun, that is, anti-aircraft machine gun flat fire. ”

"The second thing is that the people of China have indeed developed new weapons, and they are two kinds of weapons, one is a gun with extremely fierce firepower, which can fire continuously, just like a light machine gun, but it is lighter and more ferocious than a light machine gun. The second weapon is a kind of artillery, which is like an iron pipe, with a caliber of forty or fifty millimeters, and only needs to be carried on the shoulder when fired, which is not only simple to operate, but also extremely powerful, and is extremely effective against combat vehicles, its shells can easily tear the armor of the combat vehicle, and a single shell can destroy a combat vehicle. ”

"More importantly, the Chinese have been equipped with these two weapons on a large scale, and the 39th Brigade was defeated by this weapon this time, when the Chinese dispatched at least 300-400 such guns, and at least 3,000 infantry equipped with new weapons participated in the battle, and Sekihara-kun hoped that the front army would pay more attention to it."

As soon as Sugiyama Moto's words fell, Aiko Sato got up and said: "Your Excellency, the intelligence officers of our special high division launched an investigation into this matter three months ago, although they have not yet figured out what kind of new weapon the people of China have developed, but they have already figured out the location and scale of their arsenal, and the specific matters will be reported to you privately!" ”

"Yo Xi, then so be it, order the 10th Division to immediately withdraw its troops from Zhangjiakou, the main force to withdraw to Xuanhua, the 110th Division to withdraw troops from the Xinghe front line at the same time, abandon Yanggao and Tianzhen counties, and change the 110th Division's garrison to Yangyuan and Weixian. The 20th Division and the 109th Division were ordered to build a defensive line on the line of Daixian and Yuanping to strictly prevent the headquarters of Ma Zheng from moving south. General Sugiyama said loudly.

"Hay!"

(To be continued.) )