bookbashuk #264 - Conquer the famous city and beat the devils
#264 - Conquer the famous city and beat the devils
Outside Jizhou City, Li Yunlong and Zhang Dabiao were chatting and laughing, defeating the enemy. With abundant firepower support, the Japanese defenses were vulnerable.
Faced with the firepower network that Ren Zhong had painstakingly woven over four years, whether it was the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle or the Type 56 assault rifle, it was a dimensional strike for the Japanese. The remaining Japanese soldiers in the trenches had almost no power to fight back, and one by one, they turned into fertilizer for the fields under the coordination of infantry and artillery.
Inside Jizhou City, the high-ranking officers of the Japanese division were all present, but none of them looked happy. After a long period of debate, they still hadn't come to a conclusion.
Lieutenant General Tsukada Komei, who was temporarily commanding these division commanders, had just been promoted to Chief of Staff of the Ninth Area Army. He usually didn't have much prestige, and now the higher-ups' attitude towards Jizhou was unclear, so he didn't know how to handle himself.
The North China Area Army, the General Staff Headquarters, and the Ninth Area Army, his three superiors, all had no clear attitude.
The current gap with the Eighth Route Army was due to insufficient artillery. Both in terms of quantity and quality, they were losing to the Eighth Route Army. Therefore, the General Staff Headquarters agreed to transfer another heavy artillery brigade from the Kwantung Army and rush a batch of mountain guns and 105mm howitzers from the mainland to North China to reorganize more than 10 artillery regiments!
In addition, nearly one hundred medium tanks were being transported over. According to the new plan, each division would be reinforced with a tank battalion equipped with 5 medium tanks and 10 light tanks, as well as 5 self-propelled artillery pieces with 105mm howitzers to enhance the division-level mobile firepower.
This was to counter the Eighth Route Army's elusive 107mm artillery battalion.
As for infantry anti-tank weapons, the Type 100 rocket launcher, which the Japanese urgently imitated, had finally been released and 500 of the early Type 100 rocket launchers would be deployed to the front lines.
According to their tests, the Type 100 rocket launcher could penetrate the side armor of a medium tank at 150 meters, but the Japanese rocket launcher developers were not at all confident whether it could penetrate the side of the Eighth Route Army's T-34 heavy tanks.
According to the description, the tank's armor was dozens of millimeters thick. Based on the armor-piercing power of the Type 100 rocket launcher, it might be around 40 millimeters within 100 meters. Therefore, the Japanese military industry suggested that when facing heavy tanks, it would be more realistic to directly hit the tracks to disable them.
However, these were still at sea, and it would take at least a week to transport them to the front lines.
But could Jizhou's city defenses really last that long?
Tsukada Komei, the old Japanese devil who risked his life to observe the battle situation outside the city every day, said he had no confidence.
It wasn't that he hadn't thought of ways, such as counterattacks. Tsukada Komei had sent out two waves of regimental-level counterattack teams, but the Eighth Route Army, faced with this situation, very brutally sent more than a dozen jeeps equipped with heavy machine guns rushing up. Under the cover of the natural fortress formed by the tanks, they didn't give these Japanese soldiers any chance. Facing the crossfire of more than a dozen heavy machine guns, plus the concentrated firepower coverage of dozens of mortars, it fell like raindrops on the charging Japanese ranks.
Two regimental-level counterattacks were almost suppressed on the position before they could even make a splash!
The enemy's firepower was so fierce that it was simply unimaginable for Tsukada Komei. It was no less than when they encountered the steel torrent of the Great Bear back then.
The difference was that the Eighth Route Army's tanks were more solid and impenetrable than the Great Bear's tanks back then!
The Eighth Route Army's current offensive didn't care about martial ethics at all. If firepower could solve it, they would never send people to charge. This was completely different from what Tsukada Komei had encountered in the past.
In the past, whether it was the Eighth Route Army or the Kuomintang, if there was a chance for close combat, they would definitely try their best to get close to the Japanese positions for close-quarters combat.
But the current Eighth Route Army was completely different. They kept a certain distance and were fully prepared to solve the problem with ammunition under the advantage of firepower!
Even the Great Japanese Locust Army wouldn't dare to imagine this kind of prodigal play, but now they actually saw it on the Eighth Route Army.
The almost endless artillery fire on the battlefield was constantly kneading the Japanese positions.
Although the intensity was not the same as at the beginning, as long as the front line called, the rear artillery would respond accordingly. Using the current advanced rangefinder telescope, after accurately measuring the distance, they would report the precise artillery target to the rear artillery resources, so that the Japanese positions were always accurately shelled!
The Japanese's outer positions were completely unable to fight back.
Any infantry gun or 37mm anti-tank gun, once discovered, would be precisely bombed by mountain guns!
Basically, it would turn into a pile of scrap iron in less than five minutes.
Therefore, these weapons, which were barely effective against tanks, did not cause much damage to the tanks after they appeared. Either they were destroyed by the tank guns, or they were destroyed by the called-out artillery fire.
The Japanese's disadvantage in artillery firepower became more prominent with the appearance and application of the Eighth Route Army's heavy tanks.
Watching the positions disappear at a visible speed every hour, Tsukada Komei was anxious but had no way to think. The current situation had actually entered a dead end.
Although there were still a large number of troops in the city for street fighting.
According to the current deployment, if they fought a Jizhou-style defense of Stalingrad, the Locust Army still had a chance to turn the tables when reinforcements arrived.
But the Eighth Route Army's current rate of progress had infinitely lowered the probability of this opportunity.
"These Jizhou Japanese are quite tolerant," the brigade commander said with some incomprehension after observing the Japanese situation on the front line, seeing no movement in the direction of the north gate.
"Jizhou's strategic position is too strong, the Japanese are reluctant to give it up," the chief of staff said with a smile on the side, "Once Jizhou is lost, the Japanese in North China will be like a missing leg. The Japanese haven't realized yet that this is not a place they should have come to in the first place, and sooner or later they will be cut off!"
"It's just that we advanced the attack today. Now it seems that this timing is good. The Japanese third-line divisions really don't have the capital to contend with our main forces. If we miss this opportunity and wait for the Japanese to replenish new equipment and new field divisions, our attack will probably be very costly."
"Yes, that's why I took the initiative to counterattack in advance. The Japanese seriously underestimated our strength this time. They still want to suppress us with their troop advantage, but they don't know that we today are not who we were yesterday.
Now the times have changed. Comrade Ren is too good at military industry. Now our weapons and equipment are so sophisticated that they have completely overwhelmed the Japanese. Our thinking must also change, or we won't be able to keep up with the development of our military industry," the brigade commander sighed. If Ren Zhong hadn't brought a lot of strategic and tactical information on infantry-artillery coordination, infantry-tank coordination, and mechanized large-corps operations, the brigade commander wouldn't have any concept of these things in his mind now.
After all, the days they had before were too shabby.
If a sniper battle could yield hundreds of Type 38 rifles and dozens of light machine guns, they would be happy for several days.
Now these things are only used by the guerrillas.
The main regiment now uses the domestically produced Type 56 series across the board.
Not only are they sophisticated and reliable, but the ammunition is also quite uniform, completely unifying the weapons of the seven countries and eight systems of the past.
Plus the mechanized transportation equipment, the current troop advancement speed is also faster than they could have ever imagined!
Traveling a thousand miles a day is really possible on the plains.
Where would they have dared to imagine this kind of progress before.
The brigade commander's heart was surging, but his eyes were still fixed on the battle situation in front, and he found that the Japanese defense line was rapidly melting like ice encountering hot water under the coordinated attack of tanks and infantry.
The outer positions that were originally planned to be attacked for five or six days, now it seems that they can be wiped out in at most three days!
Tanks are indeed too advantageous in clearing positions. The huge and solid body is a natural cover for accompanying infantry. There is no need to worry about the Japanese machine gun strafing. On the battlefield charge formation, the killing power of machine guns is very terrifying, but when encountering tanks, this machine gun firepower point is a piece of cake.
The tank's 76mm cannon can completely achieve discovery and destruction!
Taiyuan.
The successful development of the cloud explosive bomb made Ren Zhong a little more energetic and began to think about its uses. For individual applications, matching it with the RPG-80 disposable rocket launcher is the first choice. It can destroy a bunker in one shot without any problem.
It greatly increased the killing power of the RPG-80, achieving a destructive power even more powerful than a 105mm howitzer shell!
In addition, there is large-scale damage.
The most typical is the BLU-82 cloud explosive bomb used by the rogue eagle for bombing and air delivery!
This bomb is about 3.4 meters long and about 1.7 meters in diameter. Its volume is similar to that of a Beetle car, but its weight is obviously much greater than the latter, with a single weight of 6 tons. The BLU-82 bomb is made of a liquid mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminum nitrate that chemically reacts with air. It is said that when this bomb explodes, it can burn an area of more than 500 meters into coke, which is terrifying, and the shock wave generated by the explosion can be felt several kilometers away.
It is simply the strongest weapon below nuclear bombs.
Of course, Ren Zhong has no way to make such a large bomb now, and he has no ability to find a transport plane to drop it on the heads of the Japanese.
But he now has the Dongfeng Express IA model, which is already in the practical stage. If he makes a 1-ton cloud explosive bomb, the power will be quite considerable.
This weapon is too powerful in terms of area damage. On his own land, it is easy to accidentally injure people, so Ren Zhong does not plan to use this weapon domestically. Even if it is used to attack airports, this weapon is too powerful, and even a slight mistake will cause large-scale accidental injuries.
Therefore, in Ren Zhong's mind, he has already begun planning the first Dongfeng Express delivery to the Japanese.
But to realize this plan, it is not enough to just improve the weapons. He has to rely on the brigade commander to be more helpful!
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