However, in the face of the current 37th Division, it exceeded the usual strength by nearly half of its strength, and the mountain artillery was complete with heavy artillery, which brought about an absolute superiority in firepower. The two armies in his hands were mainly Jin-made guns, and he only had a dozen Jin-made 13-type mountain guns in his hands, as well as six old-fashioned Shanghai-made 75-millimeter mountain guns, and he fought quite the battlefield.

Since the fall of Taiyuan, the department has been sticking to the Houtao area without any industry, although it has fought many times against the Suiyuan Japanese puppet army and won victories. However, it has been fighting on the front line for a long time, and its weapons and equipment have been seriously damaged. Although a lot of weapons and ammunition were also captured from the puppet army and the Japanese army, they were not enough to replenish the losses and expand from one army to three armies.

Although its main force, the 35th Army, was the main force of the Jin Sui Army for a long time, relying on the Taiyuan Arsenal to be fully equipped. However, no matter how complete the equipment is, it cannot withstand the consumption of years and the need to expand the structure. Even in order to win over this miscellaneous army general who has always been able to fight tough battles, coupled with some not-so-good intentions, Chongqing has also given certain supplements.

However, in the case of limited inventory and the direction of the rear sleeve is not a strategic priority, the amount of equipment that can be replenished is limited. Before this unit with quite strong combat effectiveness was transferred to the Henan battlefield from the rear set, the equipment of the two armies was not as good as that of the 90th Army.

The 35th Army of the two armies of this division was mainly made of Jin-made 65 rifles, and was equipped with some captured Japanese-made Type 38 rifles. The provisional Third Army was mainly based on the Liao 13 rifles that captured the puppet Mongolian army, supplemented by some Hanyang-made rifles issued by Chongqing. The two cavalry brigades are all Hanyang-made rifles, and there are even some old sleeve rifles.

Although there are a lot of light and heavy machine guns, most of them are Jin-made machine guns of poor quality and captured machine guns made in the Northeast. Together, the two armies had only 11 Japanese-made 13-mm anti-aircraft machine guns and five 20-mm anti-aircraft guns from Suluotong that had been allocated by Chongqing before the 77 Incident. Nine Mukden-style 37 flat-firing guns and five 94-type 37 rapid-fire guns were captured.

Although this time he went south to the war zone, on the way through Shaanxi, the king of Shanxi didn't know what kind of thoughts he had. From the arsenal set up in Gucheng, Shaanxi, this former subordinate was supplemented with 500 Jin-made 65 rifles, 30 Jin-made Czech-style light machine guns, and 200,000 rounds of 65 ammunition. However, the army's equipment level is still second-rate in Chongqing.

Although just behind him was in Luoyang City, there was an Italian-made 105-millimeter field artillery battalion. But the warzone commander who was frightened was held in his hands and was not handed over to him at all. Not only that, but the 15th Army, which once served as the defense of Luoyang City, was also detained by his side to escort himself.

The only support for the commander of the theater was to tell the theater station department to replenish him with 20 heavy machine guns and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. It's just that the 35th Army, the main force of his two armies, is still dominated by Jin-made 65 rifles and captured 38-type rifles. Among the many caliber bullets in the warehouses of the First War Zone, there is no such Jin-made rifle ammunition.

In the battle, this main force could only use the ammunition it carried when it was transferred from Suixi, as well as the 200,000 rounds of 65 bullets allocated by the king of Shanxi. But for an army, such a small number of bullets is far from satisfying high-intensity use.

In terms of firepower, the main thing is that the difference in artillery firepower is too great, and the ammunition is also slightly insufficient. The commander of the war zone who was wise enough to protect himself in the back could only barely cope with his own troops and lack firepower, but he was holding a fully equipped elite army and a field artillery battalion to escort himself in disguise. Even the fact that this old man was busy transferring his property, and the turmoil caused by the relocation of his commander's headquarters made the battle extremely difficult for this tiger general.

But the overall overall situation is still very strong, knowing that after he retreats back to Luoyang to make way for the passage, what the entire Henan battlefield will become has nothing to do with himself who has just arrived in the First War Zone, but he has a great impact on the entire battle situation. Relying on the trust of these old subordinates for many years, he calmed the morale of the army in the shortest possible time, and always insisted tenaciously.

Judging by his many years of experience in fighting the Japanese army in Houtao, he knew that if he blindly defended Luoyang according to the requirements of the commander of the theater, he could only be beaten passively. He insisted on fighting against the Japanese army in order to make use of the experience he had gained over many years in the Houtao area and with the Japanese army's Mongolian frontier army, and to take advantage of his unit's superiority in mobile warfare.

In the field battle, the 37th Division was able to hold on to the battle without backup, flank support, and supplies, and could only persist in the operation by capturing the materials stored in Xin'an and Shengchi in the First War Zone. forced them to retreat north across the Yellow River after the seized materials were consumed.

If the city is firmly defended, let the Japanese army attack around Luoyang. In the Yanshi and Yichuan areas around Luoyang City, more than 1 million bags of flour alone were hoarded, and a large number of war-ready warehouses with a large number of ordnance, ammunition and other materials were stored in the hands of the Japanese army, and this battle may be even more difficult to fight.

The most important thing is that judging from the entire battlefield situation, the target of the 37th Division may not necessarily be Luoyang City, which is fully fortified. With no flank support and a lone army breaking through, it is quite dangerous to rashly attack the fortified city. Although the Japanese are hot-headed at every turn, their high-ranking generals have always taken pride in capturing famous Chinese cities.

But this does not mean that the senior generals of the Japanese army are all a bunch of fools. At this time, the pros and cons of attacking Luoyang City are obviously there. Therefore, he concluded that the Japanese army's lone army went deep into the hinterland of the First War Zone this time, and it was definitely not to take Luoyang City. Its real goal should be the first line in Zhengzhou.

In other words, its real target was behind the various group armies in the First Theater of Operations, which were fiercely fought in eastern Henan. Once the division is allowed to cross the Songshan line and advance to the Zhengzhou and Xinxiang lines, it will be really dangerous for the troops participating in the First War Zone to the east of the New Yellow River, which are about to be encircled on three sides.

So he insisted that at this time, he must not passively defend Luoyang. That would be tantamount to handing over the initiative to the Japanese army in front of them, allowing them to fight wherever they want in the entire hinterland of the First War Zone. Regardless of whether the commander of the theater is willing or not, the best way at the moment is to replace defense with offense and stubbornly entangle this Japanese army under Luoyang City.

Even if he can't eat this 37th Division, he will consume his supplies and force him to retreat north by himself. In order to ensure the flank of the combat troops in eastern Henan, as well as the security behind them. If you stick to Luoyang, that's what the real middle is in the arms of Yuichiro Nagano, as he wants.

What's more, he knew very well in his heart that he was the person of the commander of the war zone. As long as he withdraws to Luoyang City, he will have his newly appointed deputy governor of the theater to carry the black pot for him. He, the commander of the war zone, will definitely smear oil under his feet. At the moment, he was just busy transferring his property, which had already caused panic in Luoyang City and caused the morale of the army to fluctuate.

Once this guy really slips away, then the entire battlefield military spirit will definitely fall into a complete collapse. No matter how strong his control over these two armies is, I am afraid that he will repeat the mistake of sticking to Taiyuan back then. Once the whole army is separated from Germany, there will be no way to fight this battle. It's not a pity that this guy died, but the outcome of the entire battlefield is unpredictable.

The judgment of this newly transferred deputy commander to the First Theater of Operations is quite accurate. He gave up holding on to Luoyang, but took advantage of the terrain west of Luoyang to adopt the tactics of fighting against the 37th Division, and entangled the troops of the 37th Division to the death. So that it has no time to attack a large number of war-ready warehouses around Luoyang City, and it cannot cross the line of Luoyang.

The combat effectiveness of his descendants is indeed strong, with the strength and rudimentary weapons of the two armies. The 37th Division was entangled from both flanks of Longhai Road, so that Yuichiro Nagano wanted to get rid of it many times, but he was helpless. The two cavalry brigades under his command also circled behind the Japanese army many times and raided their artillery positions and supply points.

As he expected, after several days of fierce fighting, the casualties of his troops were indeed not light. However, after a few days of fierce fighting, the materials captured from Xin'an and Shenchi were basically exhausted, especially the 37th Division, which had difficulty replenishing shells, could not hold on.

At the same time, this old man's offensive tactics bought the commander of the theater and even Chongqing a lot of time to mobilize reinforcements. On the seventh day of his offensive instead of defending, he was repeatedly urged by the commander of the war zone. The 36th Group Army, which was sent to the southwest of Shanxi Province in the First War Zone, finally crossed the Yellow River west of Hengqu to return for reinforcements. Despite the drag, it finally came partially.

There is a reason why the group army is slow. There were only two armies in the group army, but after the fighting on the Yuncheng battlefield subsided, the 14th Army to which it belonged was stripped of the group army on the spot, and was left to defend Yuncheng by Chongqing. At present, there is only one 47th Army under the jurisdiction of two divisions left in the whole group army.

This 47th Army originally belonged to a small system within the Sichuan Army and belonged to the miscellaneous units in the Sichuan Army. Although it is better than the 20th Army being driven out of Sichuan, even the system without territory. However, compared with the 21st, 23rd, and 44th armies of the Sichuan king's lineage, the difference is still too great.

When the whole army went out of Sichuan to fight, there was not a single artillery, only a few mortars. Combined, light and heavy machine guns were less than the number of a regiment of the Central Army. It has been several years since I was out of the river, and the weapons that were already inferior after years of bloody battles have become even worse after years of attrition under the condition of insufficient replenishment.

As a ragtag army that is not too tough backstage, that is to say, no one speaks to above, it has always been low and high in terms of supplementation. If you can't give it, you will resolutely not give it, and if you can give less, you will definitely not give one more bullet. Among the armies under the jurisdiction of the First Theater, the equipment of this army is only better than that of the New Eighth Army and the Provisional 15th Army.

At present, although there are more than 20,000 people in the whole army, it seems that there are quite a few people. However, there were only about 3,000 rifles, more than 200 light machine guns, and only 60 heavy machine guns. Although the number of mortars is a little higher, there are only more than 40 60 guns and 13 82 mortars, and there is still not a single mountain artillery.

Before this battle, the First War Zone replenished this army with 500 Italian-made rifles, 60 Czech-made light machine guns reequipped by the Central Army, 14 heavy machine guns, two 82 mortars, 10 60 guns, plus a batch of grenadiers and more than 100 submachine guns that had been eliminated by the Central Army.

Although before departure, it was replenished with the largest batch of weapons since the Izukawa Anti-Japanese War. But in the previous Yuncheng operation, even if it was the entire Yuncheng operation, the poorly equipped army. However, the army, which has always been used as the main force, suffered one-third casualties in the battle. After the transfer of the 14th Army, an army of the Central Army system, this group army was left with a poorly equipped 47th Army with considerable losses.

This situation undoubtedly made the commander-in-chief of the group army very worried about immediately returning to the First Theater of Operations to fight. Isn't that forcing people to jump into a well? At this juncture, the 14th Army, which was much better equipped than itself, was transferred. Leaving himself an incomplete army that has not yet been reorganized, and fighting in the south alone is almost equivalent to a sheep in the mouth of a tiger. is the only one left in his own descendant army.