Chapter 349: Peeling the skin layer by layer
In the case of losing attacks in turns, paying a lot of price, but never being able to get close to the 32nd Wing. In addition, Lieutenant General Shizuo Yokoyama, almost an hour, urged him to immediately break away from the enemy forces and return to the morning sun with all his might. The most important thing is that if it drags on, it will fall into an overall situation surrounded by all sides.
Let the Japanese commanders of the battlefield east of Luofugou feel that if this battle continues like this, the whole army will be annihilated. After urgently consulting Lieutenant General Shizuo Yokoyama, he finally gave up the idea of joining the main forces of the 31st Wing, which was only a mountain away from them, and turned around and made every effort to break through to the south.
Concentrate all the remaining forces, cover the two wings with one force, and move forward in unison with two squadrons, turn around and go all out to break through in the direction of the Wei family's shack. A regiment with the advance army, fighting fiercely on the front line of the Wei family's shack and the small house, desperately attacking the south with all their might. In the shortest possible time, try to open a retreat route towards the rising sun.
Of course, there are some who are too close to the enemy in front of them, and they are really unable to withdraw their troops, so they can only let them stay and break the rear. Geckos cut off their tails to save their bodies, and this gecko tactic has become a common practice for the Japanese army. Therefore, leaving these people behind, the commander of the 8th Infantry Regiment in charge of the front-line command did not feel any guilt.
And those seriously wounded who could not be evacuated were all issued with a grenade. The lightly wounded who could still move were all left to cooperate with the broken troops to make a final counterattack on the enemy army to cover the retreat of the main force. Those who have fallen into a coma and are unconscious, someone will help them.
As for the two infantry brigades of the 31st Wing, which have never been able to break out of the encirclement, as well as the commander of the 31st Wing, Kobayashijima Tsukasa, now they can only ask for more blessings for themselves. In this battle, for the 5th Wing and 17th Wing of the 8th Division on the battlefield east of Luofugou, they really did their best.
In order to save the 31st Wing, it fought a bloody battle for a whole day and a night, and the momentum of its offensive never stopped for a moment. By the time they retreated, they were separated from the main force of the 31st Wing by a ridge, and the deafening gunfire and shouts of killing on both sides could be heard clearly.
However, after several hard battles and paying the cost of nearly one-third of the casualties, it just couldn't be relied on. This last threshold, for the two Japanese troops separated by only one ridge, was finally unable to cross. Now it is difficult for the rescue force to protect itself, and the division and regiment headquarters are difficult to protect themselves, and the only thing he can rely on is himself.
After all, in terms of the importance of the target and the number of troops, the 31st Wing, the two infantry brigades with a total strength of less than 500 people, are far from being able to catch up with the safety of the main force, let alone the safety of the division and regimental headquarters. What's more, in Beipiao, which is close to Chaoyang, there is also a military headquarters.
In order to be able to withdraw to Chaoyang in time, the headquarters of the rescue division was in the midst of fire and water. The Japanese troops on the Luofugou battlefield moved quickly and acted extremely decisively, and their breakthrough momentum was extremely violent. Coming up, they took a group charge with infantry squadrons under the cover of all artillery fire. Try to open the retreat route in the shortest possible time.
Cao Yafan, who felt that the casualties were too great and the speed of progress was not fast in the face of changes in the enemy's situation, after finding out that the Japanese army had given up advancing westward and the whole army had broken through in the south. With Li Mingfeng's consent, take the front of the Wei family's shack. The tactics of mobilizing troops to block layer by layer along the Japanese army's retreat route, attacking from multiple flanks in multiple ways, weakening the enemy little by little, until it was completely annihilated.
After seizing the first line of Shuangmiao and Damaigou, two battalions interspersed from the direction of Xinhui behind the enemy army attacked from north to south with a company as a formation. A battalion was reinforced by a regiment of the advance army, with two companies of mountain artillery, one company of infantry artillery, plus two mortar companies, and five 12-mm machine guns.
After retreating to Shijiazi and Shijiazi Nangou to set up an ambush, two ambush circles were formed with the battalion as the formation. With Qianjiawa, Tang Zhuzi, and Taishan Ravine on the Jianping-Chaoyang Highway as the bottom edge of the ambush circle, a battalion of the Advance Army set up an ambush here. At the same time, the defenders of Luofugou transferred two formed companies and inserted them directly into the enemy's flank along the line of Hebei and Jiaojiegou.
These two formed companies were the last two companies pieced together by the defenders on the front line of Luofugou. After a whole day and two nights of fierce fighting, the Japanese casualties were not light, and the casualties of the anti-coalition defenders facing the attack from both sides were also not light. By the time the Japanese turned around, the two formed battalions could no longer piece together the strength of a single battalion.
The only two formed companies were put together by two battalions and all the squad platoons that still maintained a complete structure. Although the Japanese army was exhausted in the first battle of Luofugou, the anti-Japanese alliance on the entire Luofugou battlefield had also exhausted all their strength. The strength of the three regiments participating in the battle, except for the two battalions that went to the back of the enemy, the rest of the troops could not make up a complete battalion at this time.
The two regiments advancing on the front line of the Wei family's shack were in a fierce battle with the two infantry brigades of the Japanese army in front of them. Although the support point of the Japanese flank of the Wei family's shack was finally taken, the two regiments also suffered heavy casualties under the bitter fighting. The two sharp knife battalions that served as the main attack were all disabled.
After taking the Wei family's shack and the surrounding support points, only one-third of the two complete formed battalions before the war began. It can be said that if the enemy army continues to be the top, although the enemy army will not be able to escape, I am afraid that the various participating troops in the entire northeast battlefield of Jianping will also be greatly damaged.
The Japanese army turned in front of him, which undoubtedly made Cao Yafan himself slightly relieved. In such a confrontation, the situation cannot be changed in a short period of time. Even if the Japanese army in front of them is completely annihilated, I am afraid that all the units of the Anti-Japanese Federation participating in the war will basically be crippled, and they will have no spare strength to turn to other directions. Once this situation is really formed, the impact on the next battle will be quite large.
Since the Japanese army desperately broke through to the south and tried to rescue Chaoyang City, then the original hard-top tactics were changed. Adopt multi-way ambushes to peel the skin layer by layer, and cooperate with multi-channel infiltration and division tactics. The Japanese army, which was held in a ball, was completely defeated in one fell swoop after being cut into pieces.
On the way to the retreat of the Japanese army, they took advantage of the favorable terrain of the mountains along the way to block the attack with firepower. Layer by layer, the Japanese army was skinned until their vital strength was completely consumed. Using all kinds of weapons in his hands, he set up a series of fire nets on the Japanese army's breakthrough route.
The breakthrough was extremely eager, and the Japanese army, which was almost unintentionally in love, desperately retreated south regardless of casualties. Cao Yafan, on the other hand, concentrated his firepower and intercepted the Japanese army's retreat route layer by layer. The troops on both flanks adopted wolf pack tactics, constantly biting the sequence of the Japanese retreat on both flanks, and constantly bleeding the Japanese army.
Cao Yafan's order to the troops who assaulted the two wings was very clear, and he did not ask them to eat how many Japanese troops they would eat in one bite. Their task was to continuously intersperse and attack, constantly tearing off a piece of flesh from the Japanese army, so as to weaken the strength of the main force of the Japanese army to the greatest extent. Breaking through the encirclement, the Japanese army suffered huge casualties almost every time they took a step.
In the face of more and more enemy forces in the vicinity, the Japanese troops who broke through were under the command of the commander of the 8th Infantry Regiment who was sent to the west with a mountain artillery shell and the command headquarters, and the commander of the 5th Wing, who commanded the entire Luofugou East Battlefield, Okajima Shigetoshi. Those who didn't dare to have any hesitation and pause fought hard all the way to the south desperately to break through.
As for those who were constantly bitten off from their bodies piece by piece by the enemy troops like wolves around them, or a small team, or most of the squadron, or even a whole squadron, they didn't care about rescue at all. These small units, which were divided, were treated by the Japanese army as an outcast to drag the enemy troops rushing around the perimeter.
The Japanese are not only ruthless to their enemies, but also to their own people. When a strong man needs to break his wrist, they will not hesitate to do it. As long as it can ensure that most people get out, although some people are lost, it is still cost-effective on the whole. And those troops who were divided were also very conscious and desperately resisted.
Therefore, the main force of the Japanese army, which was in a hurry to get out, threw away those troops that had been divided, and rushed towards the south one by one. Okajima Shigemoshi Osa has only one goal, and that is Chaoyang City. And he also clearly knows that as long as he crosses the highway from Jianping to Chaoyang, he will be safe.
It's just that when this Japanese army finally broke through to the front line of Shijiazi, the Japanese army who thought they were safe breathed a sigh of relief. An infantry brigade at the head had just passed through Shijiazi, and the follow-up troops who had not yet waited to catch up had taken a breath. Accompanied by a dense burst of mortar shells, dense gunfire and shouts of killing sounded around Shijiazi.
The advance march from the mountains on both flanks of Shijiazi was reinforced by a reinforced battalion, which directly cut the total strength of the five infantry brigades that had already plummeted from the time of the surprise attack on Xinhui, to the Japanese army with only more than two brigades left. Except for the incomplete infantry brigade that had passed first, the artillery and the remaining three squadrons were all cut off in the area north of Shijiazi.
After cutting off the contact between the front and rear of the Japanese army, the department immediately seized the mountains on both sides of Shijiazi with one company to prevent the Japanese vanguard from returning to help, while the three companies of the main force were all mixed with the follow-up squadron of the Japanese army, and a fierce melee battle broke out between the two sides on the Shijiazi line.
Originally, after the retreat sequence was cut off and it was discovered that the number of enemy troops in front of him was not large, Okajima Shigemoshi Osa was also ready to turn around and rescue the follow-up troops who had been cut off. But before he could mobilize his troops, in the direction of Shuangmiao on his flank, a company of the Anti-Japanese Federation suddenly appeared and directly attacked his flank.
The sudden killing of the anti-union company made Okajima Shigetoshi Osa startled. He immediately felt sensitively that the company that suddenly appeared was definitely not isolated, and the enemy army would definitely have follow-up troops. If he delays on the Shijiazi front line for too long, once the enemy's main force outflanks and reverses, then the remaining troops may not be able to go.
The grass and trees that were beaten were all soldiers, and Okajima Shigetoshi Osa, who wanted to rescue but was powerless, finally chose to continue to retreat south. He gave the encircled Japanese army an order to blow up all the equipment that could not be carried, throw away all the equipment that might become a burden, and make every effort to break through to Jianping County, and then continued to retreat south with the remaining troops.
As for the enemy troops who suddenly rushed up all around, whether the department, which had already rushed at the moment, could still have the spare strength to break through to Jianping City, in the opinion of Okajima Shigetoshi Daisa, there should still be no more problems, and the enemy troops who were ambushed on the front line of Shijiazi appeared on the battlefield with only more than one battalion.
With their own divided troops, the infantry alone can still make up more than two squadrons. With the addition of half a machine gun squadron and a mountain artillery squadron, the strength is quite rich. Although it was intercepted by the enemy for a while, as long as it was before the enemy's follow-up troops caught up, there was still not much problem in being able to converge and protrude.
In particular, it was not the Anti-United Nations that stuck to them, but the slightly poorly equipped Advance Army. Okajima Shigemoshi believes that it may be more difficult to get rid of the resistance in a short period of time given that the forces of both the enemy and us are roughly equal. But if you want to get rid of the advance army, it should not be too difficult.