Bright Sword: Start with Ding Blast Bridge, Homemade Sweet Potato Cake

Shang Xianji's troops stayed on the south bank of the Hutuo River for an entire afternoon. The next morning, they saw that there were few people in the area where the Eighth Route Army was holding its ground, and they suspected that the main force of the Eighth Route Army had retreated.

Only then did he arrange for the troops to move forward and capture the Hutuo River position in one go.

Looking at the standards of trench digging, the Japanese major general couldn't help but sigh that the Eighth Route Army troops in the Fourth Military Division were indeed different.

Not only is he proficient in guerrilla warfare, he is also skilled in offensive and defensive trench warfare.

From his experience, he couldn't find any faults.

What he couldn't understand was why this group of Eighth Route Army troops abandoned their sturdy trenches, abandoned the natural protection of the Hutuo River, and retreated to the mountains?

If the 9th Brigade launched a strong attack and wanted to capture the Hutuo River position, it would have to pay a heavy price.

Ding Wei’s actions are puzzling.

"General, shall we continue the attack?"

Brigade staff officer Major Hata Akechi asked respectfully.

"Move toward the mountainous area. No matter what the reason is for this group of Eighth Route Army to retreat, we must catch up with them and find out what happened. I suspect that they had a logistical problem and had to withdraw from the combat area."

Shang Xianji made a guess that life in the mountainous area is hard and logistics is a big problem, which is very likely.

In addition, he has unique insights into tactics.

It is believed that fighting in mountainous areas is suitable for guerrilla warfare.

Complex terrain makes it difficult to deploy troops and use artillery.

The Eighth Route Army is particularly good at guerrilla harassment. If you want to break up the guerrilla warfare, you have to use unique tactics.

The 9th Independent Mixed Brigade is an elite force in mountain warfare. It is an elite force that will fight and attack wherever it encounters an enemy, and has fought against the Eighth Route Army many times.

Encountering a strong opponent like the 4th Military Division actually aroused Major General Shang Xianji's desire to fight.

Fighting against a strong opponent is challenging.

Although problems occurred with the 3rd Brigade and the Okayama Regiment, which were responsible for the cooperation, it did not prevent Shang Xianji from continuing to carry out the mopping-up mission.

He is good at one tactic, the lightning tactic of central breakthrough.

In the Battle of Southern Shanxi, the 41th Independent Brigade and Lieutenant General Shimizu Noriyuki's st Division used this tactic.

The defending National Army was severely defeated, resulting in the annihilation of a large number of enemies.

At present, it seems that Ding Wei's Fourth Military Division has undergone a strategic contraction and retreated to the mountainous area. We should concentrate our forces and launch a surprise attack on its headquarters.

Make a breakthrough from the command center and quickly capture the core of the Fourth Military Division.

The Japanese troops quickly crossed the river and approached the northern mountainous area from the south bank of the Hutuo River.

Will there be problems with Ding Wei’s logistics?

Since taking over the New 1st Regiment, he has been victorious in every battle he has faced, captured abundant spoils, and has a huge amount of supplies in his personal warehouse.

There are no logistical issues.

The reason for the strategic contraction is very simple. It is to create a buffer distance so that when the Japanese come to chase, they can encircle and annihilate them.

If we deploy troops along the Hutuo River, the battle line will be too long.

With the limited force he had, only four or five thousand people, he was going to encircle the entire independent mixed brigade in the plains. The enemy was more mobile and equipped with a large number of vehicles and horses, so encircling them was simply a pipe dream.

However, if we retreat to the mountainous area, relying on the natural terrain to divide the Japanese forces, and then outflank them and eliminate them one by one, the difficulty will drop sharply.

In addition, when the water level of the Hutuo River rises, blow up the bridge across the river.

The entire Hutuo River is a natural urn that blocked the Japanese on the north bank of the river.

The layout is as follows:

Deployment of the main force

Relying on the Wutai Mountain area in the north and Xizhou Mountain in the southeast, it formed a posture of defending and waiting for attack.

When the Japanese invaders approached the border between the mountains and the plains and the water level of the Hutuo River rose, the New 1st Regiment encircled the enemy's western part, the New 4th Regiment encircled the enemy's rear, and the New 3rd Regiment and the troops directly under the 4th Military Sub-district launched a frontal attack.

Kill him alone and throw the whole horse to pieces.

The rainy weather seemed to have agreed with Ding Wei, and after the Japanese crossed the river, it started to drizzle.

At noon, the light rain turned into heavy rain.

The raindrops fell with a crackling sound, mixed with a hint of coolness.

The soldiers covered the trench with tarpaulins and huddled together, rubbing their hands.

The soldiers in charge of reconnaissance took turns to explore the front line, and after returning, they used ginger soup to keep warm.

The kitchen staff cooked a large pot of bone soup and poured canned beef into it to increase the calorie content of dinner.

The rainy weather made the ground muddy, and the Japanese had to settle in a mountain village north of Hongdao Town to temporarily take shelter from the rain.

When marching outside, as long as there is no fighting, it will not affect the combat.

Severe weather presents both a risk and an opportunity.

Shang Xianji planned to wait until the rain was a little lighter, launch a surprise attack, find Ding Wei's headquarters, and destroy it with lightning speed.

Disintegrate this Chinese army.

Ding Wei was also waiting, and when it got dark, he ordered an encirclement attack.

In the dark and rain, we fought a bloody battle with the Japanese.

He gave separate instructions to the kitchen team to take out canned beef and ensure an adequate supply of white flour pancakes and steamed buns.

Everyone is well fed and ready for a tough battle.

When a mountain torrent occurs in a mountainous area, it starts out as a small stream of water, which then converges and flows downwards.

Many tributaries converge into the Hutuo River, and the river becomes turbulent.

The soldiers reported to Kenkichi Ikegami that their logistics troops on the south bank of the Hutuo River were temporarily unable to guarantee crossing the river.

The stone bridge was submerged by the river, and horses and vehicles had to wait until the water level eased.

"No problem. When the rain stops, we will launch a lightning offensive. It won't take too long from the start to the end of the war. The supplies we have are enough to deal with the current war."

After saying that, he drank a sip of hot water, listened to the sound of rain, took out a marching diary, and began to write with interest.

The days are long in summer, but in rainy weather, it can get dark at five or six o'clock.

The soldiers had their meals in advance, tied their trouser legs with ropes, and tightened their shoes.

If you don’t have a raincoat, then cover yourself with a waterproof cloth and dig a hole in the middle to expose your head.

Keep bullets and grenades within easy reach and wipe off water stains on guns.

The comrades made preparations for war in an orderly manner.

Launch a surprise attack tonight and encircle the Japanese brigade.

Time passed by minute by minute. Zhang Dabiao, Gao Qing and Zhong Zhicheng, who were in charge of the command, checked the time on their pocket watches and decided to launch the offensive at 7 o'clock in the evening.

The three main regiments launched an outflanking attack on the location of the Japanese brigade.

Zhang Dabiao had the cooperation of the cavalry battalion, reconnaissance company, and artillery battalion to launch an offensive against the Japanese invaders head-on, attracting and engaging the main forces of the Japanese invaders.

The other two routes encircled and suppressed the enemy from the flanks and rear.

"Zhu Zi, provide cover fire and find a suitable artillery position. In muddy weather, you can consider using heavy mortars."

Ding Wei now had four more 4mm mortars and eight more 120mm mortars, which he seized from the robbery of the arms depot in Gang County.

There was no time to count the supplies, so several trucks carrying weapons and equipment were brought back to the Fourth Military Division.

Except for Ding Wei who knew the list of supplies and took inventory personally, the battalion commanders and regiment commanders were not aware of it.

All we know is that the commander made a fortune, robbed the Japanese's arsenal, and got a large number of weapons, equipment, bullets and artillery shells.

In muddy weather during rainy days, mountain artillery may not be able to be assembled quickly, and combat operations are greatly affected.

The relatively light mortar is more advantageous than the mountain artillery.

As a regimental fire support, Ding Wei was very willing to set up a mortar regiment, equipped with 120mm and 107mm mortars for mountain warfare.