Chapter 10: Anqing (50)

The 21 st Group Army had no choice but to transfer Zhang Yichun, deputy commander of the group army, back to Mabu to take charge of the affairs of the 48 th Army. As an idle person, all the transfer matters of the 48th Army, Mo Di just waited and watched, thinking that it had nothing to do with him. Easily returned to the small courtyard rented in Mabu, and really hid in a small building to become a unity, caring about his winter, summer and spring and autumn.

Mo Di did not expect that when Zhang Yichun, deputy commander of the 21st Group Army, returned to Mabu, the first thing he did was to find him, which made Mo Di very flattered. Master Zhang's order was very simple: with Mo Di as the leader, a field observation group of the 48th Army was formed to inspect Pinghan Road. Not far away, on Pinghan Road, in the Yizao area, a big war has begun.

Mo Di's identity is still the intelligence director of the 48th Army, and with him is the nameless Jin Tongxuan, in addition to Wei Yongcheng, director of the military political department, and Li Baicheng, who has nothing to do all day long, the army staff and the 176th Division's 138th Division's Political Department Staff have all sent personnel, with Qin Guosheng as the guard company commander, fully responsible for the travel safety of this small observation group.

In 1940, Hitler attacked Northern Europe with a blitzkrieg, and it was a success. This move deeply stimulated the Japanese warlords, who thought of the inaction they had done on the battlefield in China the previous year, and also wanted to take action so that the European and American powers would not forget the existence of the Great Japanese Empire. Of course, the Fifth Theater of Operations posed a great threat to Wuhan, the base camp of the Japanese army in Central China, and it was also the direct reason why the Japanese army began to plan the Battle of Zaoyi.

In order to achieve the operational objectives, the Central China Front of the Japanese Army underwent considerable adjustments, first of all, Okamura Ninji was transferred, and the commander of the 11th Army was Kazuichiro Sonobe. Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe was fifty-seven years old, and Kuma himself graduated from the 16th class of the Army Officer Academy in October 1904. He was in the same class as Okamura Ninji, Kenji Dohihara, Seishiro Itagaki and Toshiyoshi Ando. In November 1913, he graduated from the 25th saber group of the Army University, and in April 1936, he was promoted to lieutenant general and served as the commander of the 7th Division, and in March 1940, he served as the commander of the 11th Army.

The purpose of the battle was "to defeat the main force of the Fifth Theater on both sides of the Han River before the rainy season arrives, and to further weaken Chiang's army through the victory of the battle, and to contribute to the progress of politics and strategy toward China." The guidelines for the battle were: "Prepare for the shortest possible period of time, and probably begin the offensive in early May." First capture the enemy on the left bank of the Han River south of the White River, and then completely destroy the enemy's core force on the right bank of the river near Yichang. On April 10, the Japanese base camp approved by Order No. 426 of the "Continental Order" that "in order to accomplish the present task, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese dispatch army may carry out an operation in Central and South China in May and June that goes beyond the established combat area." ”

The Japanese base camp believed that the troops surrounding Wuhan in China's Fifth Theater consisted of about 50 divisions, and its main forces were deployed on both sides of the Han River in northwestern Hubei Province, and attacking Yichang could deal a heavy blow to the Fifth Theater. Moreover, Yichang is also the gateway to Sichuan, only 480 kilometers away from Chongqing, the center of China's wartime military and political leadership, and has an extremely important strategic position. However, after the capture of Yichang, the base camp did not make a decision on whether to maintain a long-term occupation of Yichang.

In order to accomplish the above-mentioned tasks, the 11th Group Army was determined to mobilize as many of its 7 divisions, 4 brigades, and 88 brigades as possible. The seven divisions are the 3rd, 46th, 40th, 33rd, 34th, 13th, and 39th Divisions, and the four brigades are the 14th Brigade, the 18th Brigade, the 101st Temporarily Mixed Brigade, and the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade. Among them, 4 divisions and 1 brigade are in Jiangnan, 3 divisions and 2 brigades and heavy artillery brigades are in Jiangbei. Each side left a small force on the spot to serve as a garrison, and drew out as much of the main force as possible to participate in offensive operations. The "China Dispatch Army" also transferred one detachment from each of the 13th and 22nd Divisions of the 13th Army in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with a total of seven brigades assigned to the 11th Army. In addition, the 3rd Flying Regiment, the 1st Dispatch Fleet of the Navy's "Chinese Fleet", and the 2nd Combined Air Force worked together. Nearly 110,000 troops participated in the battle.

"It is the biggest dream of the Japanese army to open up the Pinghan line to the north and the Guangdong-Han line to the south, and only by opening up these two lines and establishing a solid management system along the railway line can the Japanese army gain a foothold in Central China." Mo Di opened the map and said to Jin Tongxuan: "Last year in the Zaoyang area of Suizhou, the Japanese army once carried out an attack, which was defeated by the Fifth War Zone by luring the enemy deep into the area and attacking in a roundabout way, and then attacked in the Changsha area, trying to open up the Guangdong-Han line and join forces with Ando Toshiyoshi in South China. It is a pity that General Xue Yue, who was defeated in Changsha first, and then lost Guangdong's great advantage because of the battle in southern Guizhou, and fought for a year, except for occupying Nanning and part of the western coastal areas of Guangdong, it can be said that there are not too many achievements, this year, they are still the same old, the north to fight the Han line, the south to fight the Guangdong-Han line, there is no new idea. ”

Jin Tongxuan said with a smile: "When fighting a war, we only pay attention to the purpose, but we will not pay attention to any new ideas and old ideas. I think it's very innovative for the Japanese base camp to transfer Okamura Ninji back to the base camp. In the first half of this year, the focus of the work of the Japanese army base camp was to plan for Wang Jingwei to set up a separate central committee, and the operational policy of the base camp general staff was to limit the expansion of the combat area and use Wang Jingwei as a bait to lure the Chinese military forces to lay down their arms. Okamura Ninji was greatly dissatisfied with this, believing that Seishiro Itagaki's inducement to surrender would have no effect at all, and he openly wrote that the center of the enemy's anti-Japanese forces did not lie in the 400 million people in China, nor in the will of government dignitaries, still less in the 2 million anti-Japanese enemy troops, including some local miscellaneous armies, but only in the anti-Japanese will of the central direct army with Chiang Kai-shek as the center and the young officers of the Whampoa Military Academy system as the main body. As long as the army exists, a swift and peaceful solution is like a fish for a fish. Last year, he beat Tang Enbo in the north and Guan Linzheng in the south, which is a clear proof of this. This year, he also demanded a large increase in troops, wanting to continue his strategy, and had a fierce conflict with the operational policy of the Japanese base camp, so he was transferred from the front line and returned to Japan as a military counselor. ”

Mo Di looked at Jin Tongxuan in surprise, where did Jin Tongxuan get this kind of inside story! Jin Tongxuan explained this problem with a smile: "In the past two years, Chief of Staff Gong has established a powerful intelligence team, and most of my news comes from him. ”

Mo Di laughed and said: "Lao Gong is good, he also knows how to exchange money in this way, and he has brains!" It will be a good deal! Will live! ”

Jin Tongxuan said with emotion: "I have left eastern Anhui, and it is estimated that it will be difficult to get information from Chief of Staff Gong!" ”

"No, how much it costs, we'll just pay it." Mo Di said: "It's just that now, I, the director of intelligence, am a vacant title, and I haven't received any expenses before. ”

Li Baicheng knows Jin Tongxuan's ability, and thinks that his level is not below Huang Tianhua, and he can have him by his side, and Mo Di can be even more powerful. Li Baicheng believes that Jin Tongxuan is different from Huang Tianhua, relatively speaking, Huang Tianhua has a better intuition about military affairs, but Jin Tongxuan's integrity and knowledge level are far above Huang Tianhua. Hearing the discussion between Jin Tongxuan and Mo Di, Li Baicheng said worriedly: "This time, the Japanese army in Jiangbei has three divisions and regiments, and each division has an artillery wing directly under it, and we have seen a lot of this kind of artillery wing, with a lot of people, more than 3,000 people, more than 2,000 horses, but only 48 75 mountain guns, which is not much stronger than my artillery regiment. However, as far as I know, the Japanese army in Jiangbei also has a heavy artillery brigade, which is an unusual existence, and there are two heavy artillery wings under a standard heavy artillery brigade, including 30-40 heavy cannons of 150mm caliber of the Taisho seven-year type, 20 heavy cannons of 240 caliber of the 90 type, 10 heavy * guns of 305 caliber of the 96 type, and some heavy artillery brigades are also equipped with 3-6 mortars of the 98 type 320 caliber. ”

"320 caliber artillery fire!" Mo Di and Jin Tongxuan asked in unison, this caliber is too amazing, the diameter of one foot is thicker than Mo Di's waist.

Li Baicheng nodded and said: "The mortar is a smoothbore gun with a short barrel, a large firing angle, a low muzzle velocity, and a high arc trajectory; Its firing range is short, the projectile is powerful, and it is mainly used to destroy strong fortifications. Because of its short and thick cannon body and similar shape to a stone mortar, it is called "mortar cannon". Small-caliber, portable mortars were later developed into mortars. The Japanese army's 98 320 mortar gun is actually a manual super-large caliber mortar, weighing 1215 kilograms, of which the projectile weighs 300 kilograms, the barrel has a chassis stick stabilizer, the gun pitch angle is fixed +45 degrees, and the maximum firing range is 1100 meters. ”

"I know that before the 77 Incident, the Japanese army formed six heavy artillery brigades, two of which were deployed in China, the remaining four brigades were all deployed to China, two were deployed by the Kwantung Army, and the remaining two were deployed in the North China Front and the other was assigned to the Central China Front." Jin Tongxuan said: "I didn't know that there was a force that was so powerful. ”

"Pretty impressive!" Li Baicheng's face showed worry, and he said: "In the case of the Type 90 240 heavy cannon, the barrel is 12 meters long, the gun body weighs 5.5 tons, and the shell weighs 185 kilograms. If such a shell hits a field fortification, at least one platoon of troops would have to be cut out of the formation, and the people in the fortifications would be shocked to death by a huge shock wave if they were not killed. As for the 320-mm mortar, not to mention the power, basically a single shell hit the fortifications, and a company was wiped out. ”

Mo Di and Jin Tongxuan gasped, they really didn't know how to deal with such a perverted monster cannon.

"Don't worry about it." Wei Yongcheng of the first company said: "This kind of thing has a relatively large strategic price, and there are mostly deterrent elements. Zaoyi is mountainous, the road is small and steep, this kind of heavy artillery march is not easy, except for attacking the key points and guarding the pass, I am afraid that there is not much effect. In addition, although the shells of the 320 mortar are very heavy, the accuracy can be imagined not to be too high, and the maximum firing range is only 1100 meters. The shells go out, and you don't know where they fly. ”

Mo Di and the others laughed, although Wei Yongcheng was a layman, what he said was really true.