Of course, it's not that Du Kaishan is too careless, and it's not that he has no one in his eyes. By the time he decided to encircle the 66th Brigade, the gunfire on the battlefields around Beiping had already ended. The troops around Peiping were moving south, and a division of the vanguard had already advanced to the front line of Dacheng.

It is precisely because of the main force of the Beiping battlefield that the vanguard has arrived in Jizhong. Du Kaishan's confidence is quite sufficient, so he dares to be so bold and dare to deploy like this. When the flank was broken through, he rejected the proposal of the two commanders of the Hebei-Shandong Border Military Region and the Jizhong Military Region to retreat to the second line of defense, and insisted on not giving up the first-line positions in the remaining directions.

Not only did he not shrink his defense, but he even played a series of wonderful counterattacks in several key directions. The 22nd Division in Cangzhou and the 64th Division in Hejian were firmly contained. The gap opened by the 66th Brigade was unusable.

When Yang Zhen took his front finger and rushed to Renqiu County. Two battalions of 150-mm howitzers, one battalion of 122 rocket artillery, as well as two divisional artillery groups were concentrated. With the cooperation of an air force squadron, the 66th Brigade is being dealt with in one go.

After Yang Zhen arrived with his front finger, he knew that Du Kaishan, who was definitely going to change the current situation of the Jizhong battlefield. I didn't even think about dragging on with them for too long, after completing the encirclement of the 66th Brigade that was compressed in Lügongbao. Directly up is to cover the tank infantry with artillery fire and launch a cluster assault.

After the 66th Brigade broke through from the flank, in order to achieve the desired tactical objectives in the shortest possible time. Basically, they marched lightly, and heavy weapons were basically not carried. As a result, in the face of repeated attacks under the cover of artillery and tanks of the Anti-Japanese Union, although they tried to break through many times, their breakthrough operations were ultimately fruitless. can only shrink to the front line of Lugongbao and desperately call for help.

After several breakout failures, he didn't know his opponent, and he didn't care whether Renqiu County, which was basically an empty city at the moment, would be captured by him. Major General Ryuo Shimoeda, who took himself for granted too much and gave up the advantageous fighter, couldn't wait to give himself a few big mouths.

He didn't know that according to Yang Zhen's order, whether it was a field hospital or a logistics warehouse, it was not allowed to be set up in the county seat and densely populated areas. Although it was the rear of the Hejian battlefield, there was actually nothing in the entire Renqiu County except for some personnel from a subdivision in Jizhong.

The material reserve base of the Hejian Battlefield was less than five kilometers west of Twenty Lipu as the key target of his attack on the flank of the Hejian Battlefield. Even if he is allowed to enter Renqiu County, he will not get any benefits. At the same time, it will be unfortunate to have a close contact with the anti-coalition troops who went south from the Beiping battlefield.

Even if he seized Renqiu County, he would be trapped in a lonely city like his colleagues in the 32nd Division. And the biggest role that can be played is to contain the second-line troops of the Anti-United Nations, as well as part of the follow-up troops. But to a certain extent, it also reduced the number of Japanese troops that the Anti-Japanese Union needed to face in a frontal counterattack.

And for the Anti-Japanese Federation to divide the enemy in front of the entire Jizhong battlefield, it created a certain number of fighters. Because after he broke through on the front line of the Nianzu Bridge and went deep behind the "enemy lines", he left a big gap in the Japanese army behind him. After the Japanese troops in the other two directions were pinned down by the continuous tactical counterattacks of the anti-coalition in front of them, this breakthrough became the weakness of the overall deployment of the Japanese army.

At least until new reinforcements arrived, the Japanese forces in either Cangzhou or Hejian did not have enough troops to fill this gap under the continuous tactical counterattacks launched by their own frontal anti-coalition forces. In particular, the 64th Division, which is the key point, is tired of coping with itself, and there is still energy to use the breakthrough of the Nianzu Bridge.

Otherwise, if Renqiu County is really the baggage base of the Hejian battlefield, Du Kaishan will really be so bold and let him enter Lugongbao before launching a siege operation? As soon as he broke through the Nianzu Bridge, he mobilized the second-line reserves and drove him out again.

It was the overall analysis of the battle situation and the launching of tactical counterattacks one after another in other directions west of Cangzhou and Hejian County. After firmly pinning down the 22nd and 64th Divisions of the Japanese Army, they could not use the breakthrough opened by the 66th Brigade. Only then did Du Kaishan dare to lure the enemy deep and completely cut off the connection between the other two Japanese armies.

This time, the Japanese army's frontal assault and flank detour tactics not only did not achieve their desired goal, but instead took a brigade into it and was encircled. The Japanese army on the front line in Cangzhou not only did not borrow the light of the breakthrough on the front line of Nianzu Bridge, but weakened the strength on the battlefield in Cangzhou.

In fact, for Okamura Ninji's deployment, Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro, who is directly in charge of the front-line command, does not agree very much. It is not clear whether the attack on both flanks will achieve great results in a short period of time. Even if some progress can be made in this deployment, the overall link will certainly be disrupted.

Once it is impossible to disrupt the enemy's deployment and position, then the 66th Brigade and Regiment that break through in the direction of Renqiu can easily cause a situation of breaking through alone. When the time comes, don't be able to beat the wolf, but you will be bitten by the wolf fiercely, and you may even catch the entire 66th Brigade.

However, General Okamura has always bypassed him, the commander of the army, and directly issued orders to all departments on the battlefield in Jizhong. As an army commander, he can only command these five wings on the battlefield in Baoding until now after arriving in Jizhong. As for the divisions and regiments participating in the battle in all other directions, they were all under the direct command of Senior General Okamura Ninji.

Any objections he had were largely ignored. Although after the 66th Brigade launched the operation, he repeatedly gave orders to Major General Ryuo Shimoeda, asking him to be steady in his actions. Once the breach is opened, don't rush to attack in the direction of Renqiu.

Instead, the focus was on the flank of the riverine battlefield, but the 66th Brigade was still under the supervision of General Okamura, and stepped into the encirclement of others step by step. He, the commander of the corps, was helpless, neither reinforcements nor commanding the other two divisions. One could only watch as the strength of a brigade fell into a bitter struggle under the siege of enemy tanks and heavy artillery.

After the end of the Beiping War, Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro, the commander of the 12th Army, who was under the command of Shimen, already felt that something was wrong. He repeatedly asked the base camp and Okamura Ningji whether the whole army would retreat to the south bank of the Hutuo River. The Hutuo River was used as a natural blocking position to prevent the in-person resistance to continue to move south, and to encircle and suppress the so-called Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region troops of the North China Communist Army.

However, Senior General Okamura Ninji, who was anxious to stabilize Jizhong, did not hesitate to refuse his request. He was asked to stabilize the battle situation in Jizhong immediately after the arrival of the early reinforcements. Prepare for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements and the complete disintegration of the offensive of the Anti-Japanese Federation in Jizhong.

Although Senior General Okamura Ninji repeatedly and strictly ordered all divisions and regiments participating in the battle not to weaken the intensity of the attack, Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro still used his keen sense of smell. After the anti-union forces around Beiping moved south, and the so-called Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region troops of the North China Communist Army behind them became more and more active, they sensed that the anti-Japanese alliance was about to start a counterattack.

And this counterattack will not be tactical, once it does come, it will definitely be a sea collapse. The enemy army has been working hard for so long, and does not hesitate to mobilize the communist army in the northeast to enter the pass to participate in the war, so it will definitely not stop after only controlling the Jizhong Plain north of Hejian. Their target will definitely be the entire Great Plain of Jizhong.

Before the follow-up reinforcements knew when they would arrive, the enemy's all-out strategic counterattack was about to begin. The worried Uchiyama Eitaro will continue to desperately attack in the direction of Mancheng in addition to passing through the county with a wing on the battlefield of Baoding. In Qingfengdian, a strategic place behind Baoding, two infantry brigades were left behind to ensure that they were outside the back.

Concentrate all the remaining forces to move the battlefield eastward, trying to get closer to the six infantry brigades on the Gaoyang front line in order to strengthen their own combat strength. In his previous offensive, the large number of tank troops invested by the Anti-Japanese Union in the Jizhong battlefield never appeared on the battlefield after a large number of reinforcements arrived, which always made him feel uneasy.

Just to deal with the possible tank offensive of the enemy, Lieutenant General Eitaro Uchiyama, who was almost helpless. The only thing that can be done now is to curse the super loser fiercely, and in a short period of time, the main force of three tank wings and a tank brigade was mostly wasted cleanly.

On the other hand, they are constantly trying to launch an attack north of the Cao River without stopping it, in order to give General Okamura an explanation. tried his best to find a way to combine the two battlefields of Gaoyang and Baoding into one, and bring the Japanese troops in the two places closer together. Folded back to back together to increase the coefficient of coping with risk.

The Tang River and the Cao River are used as natural blocking positions to avoid the impact of tank clusters that may occur at any time of the enemy. He also ordered the aviation squadrons at various airfields in northern Henan and southern Hebei to draw out a group of veteran reconnaissance plane pilots to conduct close reconnaissance of the entire area from Baoding to Hejian and 30 kilometers deep by the enemy.

Command the air force under his command to find and destroy at all costs enemy tank clusters, material distribution centers, and heavy artillery positions. Even if all the planes participating in the battle are exhausted, it is necessary to completely weaken the enemy's tank cluster assault ability in the air.

Because at this time, in addition to the remnants of the first brigade of two tanks, and the remnants of the three tank wings of the Japanese army before, there were few left. Only a few squadrons of armored vehicles were transferred from East China, as well as squadrons of cavalry fighting vehicles. These armored vehicles, which were thin-skinned and weak-fired, and simply had no ability to compete with enemy tanks, were already the only armored force in his hands.

What made him even more troubled was that among the five wings on the battlefield in Baoding, there were only five anti-aircraft artillery squadrons. Because everyone was transferred from other theaters and faced different opponents, not only was the number of anti-tank guns equipped insufficient, but even the models were old-fashioned Type 97 rapid-fire guns.

The few miscellaneous tanks left in Chongqing at the moment do not use the anti-tank guns that are too powerful. Therefore, the Kwantung Army and the North China Front, which are relatively facing the threat of tanks, whether they are equipped with the 11th Army and the 13th Army in Central China or East China, and the 23rd Army deployed in South China, because there is basically no armored threat.

Therefore, they are not equipped with too many anti-tank guns, and the models are mainly old-fashioned. Even a small number of new anti-tank guns were allocated to the North China Front before the war, mainly the First Army and several divisions and regiments around Pingjin directly under the Front Army. As for the other fronts, there were hardly any effective anti-tank means.

Although I had worked hard to collect before I set off, I still couldn't meet my needs. There are only a few squadrons of anti-aircraft artillery, not to mention the new 50-millimeter anti-tank guns, or the more powerful rapid-fire guns, all of which are added up, and there are only six guns. Once the enemy launches a large-scale tank attack, there is almost no way to deal with it except to use meat bullets.