Kuroda Shigenori left an infantry regiment and an independent mountain artillery battalion with Nagayong, and then took the main force of the 26th Division and the 4th Cavalry Brigade north to Gohara. However, it needs to be noted that at this time, The Fourth Cavalry Brigade has only one and a half cavalry regiment left.
After the main force of the 26th Division and the 4th Cavalry Brigade moved north, Chang Yong immediately ordered the deployment of troops and stepped up the construction of defenses at the right rear flag of Ordos, also known as Hangjin Banner, in preparation for the attack on the Langya Brigade. As early as Feicheng, Changyong has played against Xu Rui and the Langya team before, and he knows that this is a difficult opponent.
But at the same time, Changyong was also familiar with Langya's weaknesses, so he made targeted deployments.
Changyong built a circular fortification chain based on the desert plain terrain of Hangjin Banner, placing the two infantry brigades of the 13th Infantry Regiment on the periphery, and the remaining infantry brigades remained in the defense circle as the general reserve. Once the defense line in a certain direction is tight, troops can be deployed at any time for support.
In terms of artillery, in addition to the independent mountain artillery brigade left by Shigetoku Kuroda, Changyong also gathered all six Type 92 infantry guns from the 13th Infantry Regiment, for a total of twelve 75mm caliber guns. The mountain artillery and six 70-mm-caliber Type 92 infantry guns formed a unified artillery position.
Since mountain artillery and infantry artillery are relatively light and easy to adjust the shooting angle, they can change the shooting direction at any time and provide artillery support to the surrounding defensive positions in any direction. It can be seen that Chang Yong is still capable, because he The turtle shell formation set up in Hangjin Banner completely hit the Langya's weakness.
As mentioned before, what Langya is best at is street fighting and jungle fighting, and what he is least good at is plain position fighting.
In fact, it is not that they are not good at it. Even in positional combat on the plains, the performance of the Langya team members will definitely be better than that of other ordinary soldiers, but the gap between the two will no longer be like that of street fighting or jungle fighting. It's so big that it makes people despair. To put it more bluntly, in street fighting and jungle fighting, one Wolf Fang can easily kill a hundred ordinary soldiers.
But if fighting a positional battle on plain terrain, one Wolf Fang can only kill ten at most.
Moreover, in plain terrain, the advantages of heavy machine guns and artillery can be brought into full play. Without the barrier where the Wolf Fang team members can hide, the advantages of special warfare are greatly weakened, and the probability of being killed will be greatly increased! For example, in last night's attack on the Ekto Banner, two members of the Langya team were killed and seven others were injured.
Nine people were injured or killed, which made both Xu Rui and Leng Tiefeng feel distressed.
In short, Changyong has fought against the Langya Brigade a long time ago. He is well aware of the power of the Langya and the weaknesses of the Langya. Therefore, the turtle shell formation he set up in Hangjin Banner is very targeted. If the Langya Brigade attacks, , it may not be impossible to capture, but the price to pay will definitely exceed Xu Rui's endurance limit.
…
Let’s talk about Xu Rui later.
By the time Xu Rui had completed the recruitment of the remnants of the 7th Cavalry Division and settled the wounded of the 7th Cavalry Battalion, it was already noon the next day. This time Xu Rui had collected more than 500 remnants in total, but more than half of them were heavy-duty soldiers. The wounded, these seriously wounded not only cannot recover in a short time, but also must be protected by troops.
In the end, Xu Rui had no choice but to order Ma Fei's cavalry company to escort these seriously wounded soldiers south to Yan'an and send them to the field hospital in Yan'an for treatment. Although the medical conditions in Yan'an were not good, they were at least better than those in Hetao. If these were allowed to If the seriously injured are left in the Okto Banner, they will eventually become disabled even if they survive.
Therefore, now, Xu Rui only has one Langya Brigade and the newly formed Qi Qi Battalion.
In addition, although the Seventh Cavalry Battalion nominally has three cavalry companies, each cavalry company only has forty or fifty cavalry, and the three companies add up to more than a hundred cavalry. Moreover, since the Seventh Cavalry Battalion has just formed an army, its members have also been recruited. The remnants of the 7th Cavalry Division, the officers and soldiers have not yet turned a corner both mentally and conceptually, so one can imagine their combat effectiveness.
Therefore, after capturing the Ekto Banner, Xu Rui did not go north immediately, but stationed himself on the spot.
In any case, Okto Banner can be regarded as a market town. Although the population is not very large, only about a hundred households of Mongolian herdsmen or Han people who make a living by farming, it can still provide some supplies to the troops. Further north, , they may not be able to find a better place to stay, so Xu Rui simply led his troops to station in Ektuo Banner.
Anyway, the 7th Cavalry Battalion has just formed an army and needs at least a few weeks of reorganization and training.
Apart from anything else, mass discipline must be emphasized. As a soldier of the Eighth Route Army, the three major disciplines and eight points of attention must be memorized and practiced!
However, as the troops were stationed, the monitoring of the little devils was not relaxed for a moment.
Moreover, it was Leng Tiefeng who personally led a reconnaissance team to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of Hangjin Banner. All the Japanese deployments in Hangjin Banner were marked on the map by Leng Tiefeng and brought back to Ektuo Banner.
At this moment, Xu Rui, Leng Tiefeng and other confidants Langya and the three cavalry company commanders Cheng Luming, Li Zhengrong and Zhao Hao were sitting around the map brought back by Leng Tiefeng, discussing whether to go north to attack Hangjin Banner.
Cheng Luming and the three of them seemed a little reserved because they had just joined the Eighth Route Army camp not long ago.
But veteran Langya players like Zuanshanbao have no scruples and say whatever comes to mind.
"Fight, we must fight!" Zhuanshan Bao said loudly, "We have sharp weapons like rocket launchers. Destroying the enemy's machine gun firepower is simply a matter of hands. If the little devil has no firepower advantage, isn't it like Caigua? E If the Ketuo Banner is like this, how strong can the Hangjin Banner be? I think we must fight!"
"You know nothing!" Leng Tiefeng immediately scolded, "The Okto flag and the Hangjin flag are not the same thing at all."
"Why are they not the same thing?" Zhuanshan Bao was still a little unconvinced and muttered, "I don't think there is any difference."
"Open your eyes and look carefully." Leng Tiefeng pointed to the map he brought back with the deployment of Japanese troops, and then said in a deep voice, "Okto Banner only has one Japanese brigade, and there is no artillery. Hang The pennant has enough for a regiment, and there is at least one artillery brigade! Can this be the same thing?"
"Is this the end of it?" Zhuan Shanbao scratched his head and asked, "The order given to us by the Party Central Committee is to attack the enemies in the Hetao as much as possible to reduce the pressure on Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army. If we huddle in Okto If the flag doesn’t move, doesn’t that run counter to the instructions of the Party Central Committee?”
Leng Tiefeng said: "We can't attack by force."
Xu Rui said: "The veteran is right. Judging from the Japanese defense map in Hangjin Banner, the intention to target our Langya Brigade is very obvious. If nothing else happens, the Japanese commander opposite should be an acquaintance of our Langya. At least I have dealt with them in Songhu or Dameishan, so I know the weaknesses of our Langya so well."
"What's the weakness of our Langya?" Zhuanshan Leopard said blankly, "What's the weakness of our Langya?"
"Nonsense, people will have weaknesses, and our Langya Brigade is no exception." Xu Rui said angrily, "The weakness of our Langya Brigade is that we are not good at positional warfare! Because in positional warfare, it is difficult to use special warfare. Advantage, last night, the reason why two good brothers died was because this was also a battle to attack a tough position."
"That's really what it looks like." Zhuanshan Leopard suddenly said, "That would be troublesome."
"I can't say it's troublesome." Xu Rui said cheerfully, "Have you ever heard of the leapfrog tactic?"
"Leapfrog tactic?" The three cavalry company commanders, including Zhuan Shanbao and Cheng Luming, were confused when they heard this.
Leng Tiefeng also looked confused and asked subconsciously: "Whose military theory is this?"
"It's not the theory of any military strategist, but a man named Mike..." Xu Rui suddenly paused when he said this, and then suddenly remembered that World War II had just begun, and it would still be several years before MacArthur used the leapfrog tactic in the Pacific battlefield. Xu Rui Because I was too relaxed, I almost spilled the beans.
At that moment, Xu Rui continued to talk nonsense without blushing: "It seems to be a Western veteran named Mike. I have forgotten the specific name. Anyway, he used a classic land warfare tactic in a battle, which is called Leapfrog tactics, the so-called leapfrog tactics, do not compete with you for one stronghold one by one, but jump directly from one stronghold to another like a frog. As for the military strongholds in the middle, just ignore them."
"Then here's the problem." Leng Tiefeng frowned and said, "If the central stronghold is left alone, how can the logistics supply line be guaranteed? Don't tell me that war supports war. Don't forget that Suiyuan Province is In our land, we cannot harm our Mongolian and Han compatriots."
This is indeed a difficult question.
If you are in the Central Plains area, you can still gain support from the local people by doing work. However, the Hetao is a vast area and sparsely populated. Except for the strongholds controlled by the Japanese or the puppet Mongolian army, it is difficult to obtain any supplies elsewhere. Sometimes even Even fresh water cannot be replenished, making logistics very difficult.
In World War II, the reason why MacArthur was able to implement the leap-frog tactic on the Pacific battlefield was because at that time, Japan's navy had been crippled and the U.S. Navy had completely controlled the Pacific, so the U.S. military could easily obtain supplies by sea. However, Chahar was independent. It was impossible for the regiment to replicate this approach on the Hetao battlefield.
Xu Rui waved his hand and said: "Veteran, remember, when learning any military theory or classic battle example, you can only learn its essence, but not copy it mechanically. The reason why I cited the leapfrog tactic as an example is not that I really want to learn it. , but that we can learn from his thinking."
"Learn this kind of thinking from him?" Leng Tiefeng frowned and asked, "What kind of thinking?"
Xu Rui said: "The veteran Mike I just mentioned, his leapfrog tactics have a clear purpose and a clear route. Our purpose is also very clear, but the route can be freely chosen. In other words, we can completely avoid the heavy Japanese troops. The garrisoned Hang Jinqi turned to attack other Japanese strongholds with empty defenses!"
After a pause, Xu Rui said again: "Hangjin Banner is garrisoned by an infantry regiment and an artillery brigade. Is this true for all the strongholds in the entire Hetao? We can't crack the turtle shell of Hangjin Banner, so why can't we crack it open? Other strongholds? As long as we capture other Japanese strongholds, we can still achieve our goal of flanking the Japanese and supporting Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army!"