But Yang Zhen hesitated, and finally did not interfere with the content of Guo Bingxun's telegram to Chen Hanzhang. In any case, Chen Hanzhang's progress this time is indeed a little too slow, and it is necessary to urge it appropriately. If the real intention of the Kwantung Army in the next step is really in the direction of Tongliao.

Then the war there is dragging on, and he is likely to be in danger of being caught between two sides. Once Chen Hanzhang's troops are defeated, then the entire Western Manchurian war situation will fall into passivity on all fronts. Especially in the case of the 18th Division of the Kwantung Army, which is behind it, the speed of progress is not slow.

Chen Hanzhang never complains about hardship, even if he encounters great difficulties, he will grit his teeth and persevere, and he will not ask his superiors for reinforcements. So what exactly happened to him there, Yang Zhen is still unclear. But for Chen Hanzhang, who has always paid attention to decisive action and never dragged his feet, this situation is not normal.

He's making such slow progress there, he must have encountered something that is tricky for him. It's just this tricky thing, what exactly will be the situation? Chen Hanzhang didn't complain, but Yang Zhen didn't know. Since the start of the interspersed battle, Chen Hanzhang's report has always been an understatement of the battle situation.

It's just that after receiving Guo Bingxun's telegram, after several hard battles, he finally took Bayantara, but Chen Hanzhang, who had already arrived on the periphery of Tongliao, could only smile bitterly. When he received this telegram, he understood the true intentions of the chief of staff. But in the face of the current battle situation, he is somewhat at a loss.

Originally, Chen Hanzhang was preparing to take Tongliao and Kailu during the march, and then either according to the latest intention of the headquarters, he would insert the Naiman banner in the southwest direction, or insert it in the southeast direction to the line of Kangping and Changtu, threatening to deploy on the flanks of the Japanese divisions of the Zhongchang Railway. It is even directly inserted into Siping Street, where the headquarters of the Kwantung Army is located.

As for the 14th Division of the Japanese Army, which was originally stationed on the front line of Tongliao and Kailu, Chen Hanzhang did not plan to eat it in one bite. He was still ready to use the advantage of his armor cluster to defeat it as much as possible. As a commander at the level of a column, Chen Hanzhang's vision is quite long-term.

As early as when he learned about the entire operational plan of the General Headquarters, Chen Hanzhang believed that the role of seizing the Tongliao and Kailu lines and developing them in depth was far greater than that of the 14 th Division. He believes that the most important thing for the headquarters to send itself to carry out this interspersed task this time is to be fast.

It formed a horn with Wang Guangyu of the Linxi battlefield, first solved the Ximan battlefield, and completely stabilized the vast territory from Rehe in the south to Xing'an Province in the north. Taking Tongliao is just a flank guarantee for this plan. The intention of the headquarters is definitely not to annihilate how many Japanese troops, but to capture the whole of Ximan is the real intention of the headquarters.

The encirclement and annihilation of the 14th Division was certainly a joyful fight. However, this is exactly the opposite of the combat intention of the headquarters. If he can't cooperate with Wang Guangyu to form a strategic match, then Wang Guangyu may be crushed at any time. The importance of the line from Rehe to South Xing'an is not only known to the Anti-Japanese Federation, but also to the Kwantung Army.

With the strength of the two divisions at hand, plus a tank brigade and a cavalry brigade, it is not too much of a problem to eat a fourteenth division. But in this way, the speed of their interspersion will be greatly reduced. This is not only not conducive to achieving the overall strategy of the headquarters, but also a severe test for oneself.

The Tongliao line was too close to the medium-length railway, where the Japanese army had deployed heavy troops, and the straight-line distance did not exceed 300 kilometers. And behind him, the gap between Xinjing and Buyeo is too big. Once the war dragged on, the surrounding Japanese troops swarmed up and attacked themselves first. When the time comes, the rear road will be cut off, and the supply of fuel and ammunition will not be available, and the troops in their hands will be in danger of being encircled.

As the commander of the Anti-United Nations armored forces, Chen Hanzhang knows very well that his subordinates are a group of oil tigers. For every day of delay, this fuel consumption is astronomical. Without the support of oil in the rear, the oil in those refueling trucks in his hands can last for several days. Without fuel supplies, their own tank brigades are dead tigers.

Therefore, Chen Hanzhang's earliest idea was not to eat the 14th Division at all, but to try to fight fast with speed. Take advantage of the mobility of your own troops and attack by leaps. Taking advantage of the lax defense of the 14th Division, which had always been the second line, he did his best to take the first line of Tongliao and Kailu. But he didn't expect that the development of the course of the battle just backfired on him.

As for the reason for the slow progress at present, except for Chen Hanzhang, who was originally planning to seize the line from Tongliao to Kailu during the march, he did not expect that the resistance of the Japanese army in Tongliao would be so stubborn, except that the Japanese army had built a large area and the fortifications were too strong. The number of infantry in his hands who were actually engaged in front-line combat was insufficient, and the inability to occupy the advantage of troops was the main factor.

Since breaking through the Songhua River, several divisions under him have been transferred out one after another. Most of the original divisions in his hands were transferred to Du Kaishan's command to fill the gap after Du Kaishan took the first line between Arshan and Wangye Temple and opened up direct ground contact with the Linxi battlefield.

Since he was ordered to forcibly attack and advance from the Qian'an line to the Tongliao and Kailu lines, the infantry units that were originally equipped with the largest number of troops in his hands actually only had two regiments of the 3rd Division and the 18th Division left. However, due to the limitation of the number of vehicles of the troops following and interspersed, it is necessary to ensure ammunition and other supplies, especially to free up a large number of vehicles to transport fuel. In fact, with an infantry squad attached to each tank, there was barely a third division of all the troops that could be transported.

The two main regiments of the 18th Division, which followed up on the foot march, were actually in a situation of catching up with the main force in the rear. It's just that the speed of a two-foot march cannot keep up with the speed of tanks, cars and cavalry. The troops of the 18th Division did not finally catch up with the main force until the offensive at Bayantara, which had been going on for two days.

Although it caught up with the main force, it was a long high-intensity march. The main force of the 18th Division, which was already extremely tired, could only temporarily rest for more than a day, and could not participate in the battle at the first time. Under the circumstance that the 3rd Division had to dedicate part of its forces to guard the enemy forces in the Shuangliao direction and clamp down on the 14th Division in the Kailu direction, there was only one regiment of troops invested in the attack on Bayantara.

The insufficient number of motorized infantry made Chen Hanzhang's original plan to take advantage of the strong mobility of his troops and adopt a leap attack, with the 18th Division with part of the tank troops to attack head-on, while he himself led the main force to avoid the front of Bayantara, and penetrated directly into Tongliao from the flank.

In addition, Tongliao is the core in-depth defense zone of the West Manchurian region, and in order to fight against the Soviet Union, the Kwantung Army has built a large number of extremely strong reinforced concrete permanent fortifications in the triangle of Tongliao, Kailu and Bayantara. Most of its core fortifications were able to withstand the bombardment of 75-mm field artillery fire, and all artillery positions were turned underground and semi-underground.

In fact, before Chen Hanzhang carried out the intersperse, a large part of the enemy situation reports issued by the headquarters were not accurate. The headquarters made some mistakes in judging the Japanese fortifications in Tongliao, believing that Tongliao, as an important town in Western Manchuria, and as a strategic point in the depth of the Western Manchurian region of the Kwantung Army, would definitely build a large number of fortified areas for use as a second-line fortress area.

However, as a rear, his fortification group, both in terms of fortification and density, was certainly incomparable with the Linxi fortress group, which was the front line of the Kwantung Army's operations against the Soviet Union. But in fact, this judgment is diametrically opposed to the real situation. The density of the fortifications here is so large and the fortification is so high that it is definitely not much worse than that of Linsey.

Even in terms of density, it is above the battlefield of Linxi, where the terrain is relatively favorable. As for the reason is very simple, although Tongliao is located in the depth of the so-called Japanese puppet border fortification area in the entire West Manchuria, it is located in the mountains and hills at the southern foot of the Daxing'an Mountains in the West Manchurian region, and the Nurur Tiger Mountain in western Liaoning, and the Yanshan area of Rehe A rare plain under the intersection of many mountains.

Since ancient times, it is the main transportation route from the Songliao Plain to the West Manchurian region, and it is also an important passage for the Mongols to pass through the northeast, whether it is the Central Plains Dynasty entering the Mongolian region from here, or the harassment of the Mongols in the northeast, it is a necessary place to pass through. After Tongliao, it is considered to enter the nomadic region of Mongolia in the west.

The Horqin Sandy Land and the West Liao River system can indeed be used as natural barriers. The terrain here is mostly quite flat, but it is quite conducive to the movement of a large number of tank mechanized troops. The sand is not a desert, although there is only a word difference, but the terrain is too bad.

As part of the original Horqin steppe, the terrain of the Horqin Sandy Land is flatter and not as large as that of later generations, and there is no shortage of water here. Although it can barely be used as a natural barrier, it is far less effective than in the mountains.

The flat sandy terrain did not stop the Soviet tank and armored clusters. If the attacking side doesn't care how much sand it has. This so-called barrier, with and without is almost the same. Although the Xiliao River can be used as a real natural barrier, it flows from east to west.

Except for the Xila Murong River, the flow of other tributaries is generally not large. Most of the rivers can be crossed. The role that these rivers can play is not too big. As for the density of the water network, it is far from being able to act as a real barrier.

Therefore, after the Battle of Nomenhan, the Japanese army learned the lessons of the First Battle of Nomenhan and comprehensively strengthened the original so-called fortified areas in the West Manchurian region. After having mastered the power of the large-caliber artillery of the Soviet army, as well as the ability of tank mechanized units to quickly break through.

On the Tongliao line, which is the deep zone of West Manchuria, a large number of anti-tank fortifications and permanent fire points were constructed. And the artillery positions, all transferred underground. There is no way, the artillery of the Japanese army is not only not in the same grade in quantity compared with the artillery of the Soviet army. Even the power is too different.

The killing radius of a Soviet 152-mm howitzer and the power of the explosion are almost about 40 percent greater than that of the latest Japanese Type 96 150-mm howitzer. This is still a low estimate by the Japanese, and if it is honest, it can only be higher and not lower.

Because during the Battle of Nomenhan, the Kwantung Army checked the unexploded duds fired by the Soviet army, and found that the charge density of the Soviet army was much higher than that of the Japanese army with the same caliber of artillery shells. The most important thing is not only that the artillery shells are much more powerful, but also that the number of shells is not comparable to that of the Japanese army.

According to the standards of the Battle of Nomenhan, the one-time firepower projection of Soviet artillery was several times that of the Japanese army in a unit time and with roughly equal strength. And according to the intelligence department of the Kwantung Army, the Soviet army also has a mobile 203-mm howitzer. This is the exact information provided by the Japanese military attaché in the Soviet Union, who visited the military parade of the Soviet troops before the war.