The long day is finally over.
For Xu Rui, this was an extremely long day.
In the evening, after almost two hours, the First Battalion finally sent a telegram from the front line again. Tieling County was temporarily held, but the price paid was extremely heavy. In addition to the death of all members of the First Company, the Second Company , the third company and the guard platoon also suffered more than half of their casualties, and Beicheng District, Dongcheng District and Xicheng District were also lost one after another.
Now, there are less than 500 people left in the first battalion, relying on two blocks in Nancheng District to make the final resistance.
Although He Guangming made an impassioned speech in the telegram, Xu Rui had already clearly realized that the goal of the first battalion to hold Tieling for ten days had basically failed. Unless a miracle happened, it would not be ten days, not even three days. Maybe if we hold on, most of the entire battalion will be killed by tomorrow evening at the latest.
However, this is not the most worrying thing!
The fall of Tieling a few days ago only had some impact on Fengtian's defense system, but it was not fatal. What really made Xu Rui feel that the situation was very serious was that he seemed to have underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Japanese Seventh Army! The Battle of Tieling proved that the Seventh Army's combat effectiveness was much stronger than they expected.
The Seventh Army of the Little Japs is more powerful than any Japs army they have encountered before!
Wang Husheng also had the same feeling, and said in a deep voice: "Old Xu, we seem to have underestimated the Seventh Army."
"Whether it's underestimated or overestimated, it's meaningless now." Xu Rui shook his head and said, "The only thing we can do now is to continue to strengthen the defense of Fengtian City, otherwise the first battalion's defense in Tieling will be useless. It is worthless, and the sacrifices of more than two thousand brothers will also become meaningless.”
"Yes!" Wang Husheng nodded and said, "I will go back to the construction site right away and urge everyone to work overtime overnight. Tonight, we must reinforce the several main communication trenches connecting the permanent fortifications outside the city, and also reinforce the eight main tunnels. Work must be stepped up, and there is also the expansion of various underground shelters, warehouses, hospitals, etc. Oh, there is really too much work.”
Wang Husheng turned and left, and Xu Rui also turned and walked into the communications office next door, asking Liang Yixiao: "Xiao Liang, is there any news from the Soviet Far East Front?"
Xu Rui is not afraid of making sacrifices. As long as he can save the country and the nation, he will not frown even if he sacrifices the entire Chahar Independent Regiment, not to mention a mere battalion. What he is afraid of is that the sacrifice will be worthless! If they paid the maximum sacrifice and the Soviet army still lost all of Siberia in the end, it would really be a big loss.
So, now, Xu Rui must figure out, what is the situation on the Siberian battlefield
If Zhukov is really unable to support Adou, after their Chahar Independent Regiment has tried their best to mobilize the main aviation force of the Japanese Far Eastern Army, the Soviet army still cannot withstand the Japanese offensive, and the entire Siberia will eventually have to comprehensively If it falls, then their Chahar Independent Regiment has no choice but to move ahead of time now.
Because once the Soviet army loses all of Siberia, it will become meaningless for the Chahar Independent Regiment to continue to defend Fengtian.
But if the Soviet army has a chance to hold Siberia, they must hold on to Fengtian until the end! Because only in this way can it be possible to exhaust all the war potential of the Japanese and turn China out of danger. Otherwise, if Ishihara Kanji's Seventh Army is not dragged to exhaustion in Fengtian City, this elite force will definitely be transferred to North China battlefield.
Although the main force of the Eighth Route Army in the North China battlefield has achieved unprecedented development, it is obviously impossible to block Ishihara Wanji's elite Seventh Army, because the main force of the Eighth Route Army is far from equipped with weapons, equipment, and combat experience. Compared with the Japanese Seventh Army, which was tempered in the Chita Battle, not to mention that the Seventh Army also had two armored divisions.
Therefore, Xu Rui must figure out as soon as possible whether it is possible for the Soviet army to hold Siberia
Xu Rui quickly walked into the communications office and asked Liang Yixiao: "Xiao Liang, is there any news about the Soviet Far East Front?"
Liang Yixiao took off his earphones and stood up. Just as he was about to shake his head and say no, another female correspondent next to him suddenly shouted: "Sister Xiaoxiao, the Soviet Far East Front seems to have responded!"
Xu Rui's eyes froze for a moment, and Liang Yixiao said urgently: "Hurry, take notes!"
The female correspondent quickly picked up the pencil and listened carefully while writing lines of dots and dashes on the telegram copy paper in front of her. The telegram was unexpectedly long, and the female correspondent drew several Zhang's dots. He then took off his ears and handed the stack of copy paper filled with dots and dashes to Liang Yixiao.
Liang Yixiao quickly found the code book and translated the stack of dots and dashes into text.
While Liang Yixiao was translating the message, Xu Rui was standing behind her and watching.
After the first sentence was translated, Xu Rui secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was actually a good news!
The Soviet Far East Army had just won a victory. Because the special service team of the high command led by Vasily accidentally discovered a Japanese division headquarters, and then carried out a beheading battle and successfully destroyed the Japanese division headquarters, Zhukov again Taking the opportunity to mobilize five divisions and launch a large-scale counterattack, the Japanese offensive in the middle was disrupted in one fell swoop.
Although the left-wing and right-wing Japanese troops quickly returned reinforcements and regained the initiative, after this defeat, the Japanese Far Eastern Army was exhausted and could no longer organize a vigorous offensive like before. The entire battle situation fell into a stalemate, and the Japanese army Although it still occupies an advantage, the advantage is no longer obvious.
After reading the telegram translated by Liang Yixiao, Xu Rui didn't have much reaction on the surface, but Du Junjie behind him let out a long breath, waved his fist and shouted: "Okay!"
This is indeed good news. The infantry and armored groups of the Japanese Far Eastern Army are contained on the Siberian battlefield and will no longer be able to move south in a short time!
In other words, the only thing that can threaten the North China battlefield at this time is the Seventh Army. This means that as long as the Chahar Independent Regiment can drag the Seventh Army in Fengtian, the main force of the Eighth Route Army in the North China battlefield will only have to face Shanxi First Army, Shandong Twelfth Army and the Mongolian Army in Northern Hebei! In this way, not only the Baotou base area can be preserved, but the main force of the Eighth Route Army can even win at least five months of operating time. At least before the arrival of winter, North China will be safe.
In this way, the tactical goal of the Chahar Independent Regiment was perfectly achieved!
Because there are five months, even if the main force of the Eighth Route Army in North China is still difficult to defeat the First Army stationed in Shanxi, the Twelfth Army stationed in Shandong, and the Mongolian army stationed in Chanan in northern Hebei, various base areas in North China can welcome Unprecedented development opportunity, the Eighth Route Army's strength may expand from 400,000 to over one million within half a year!
If the Eighth Route Army had one million people, then the entire situation on the North China battlefield would be completely different!
Of course, to achieve this goal, there must be a prerequisite, that is, their Chahar Independent Regiment must defend Fengtian City for at least five months, and must also ensure that Ishihara Kanji's Seventh Army is crippled! Otherwise, after capturing Fengtian and annihilating their Chahar Independent Regiment, the Seventh Army will still have enough power to sweep across North China.
Thinking of this, Xu Rui's mood became heavy again, because it was not easy to hold Fengtian City for five months and ensure that Ishihara Wanji's Seventh Army was crippled! Especially in the Battle of Tieling, the Seventh Army showed a powerful combat capability that far exceeded that of the Guards Division and the First Division, which made it more difficult to achieve this goal.
Xu Rui said at that moment: "Ajie, you immediately lead people to conduct another war game. This time, directly set the combat effectiveness of the Japanese Seventh Army to twice the previous one! On this basis, determine the defense plan! The target is not If there is a change, we should hold Fengtian for at least five months, and we must leave enough energy to break out!"
"Huh?" Du Junjie's face immediately dropped when he heard this, and he cried bitterly, "Just set it to twice as much?"
"Ah what?" Xu Rui said without any doubt, "Just do as I say and start the deduction immediately."
"Okay." Du Junjie scratched his head and returned to the war room with several combat officers from the staff department.
…
Almost at the same time that Xu Rui asked Du Junjie to re-formulate the defense plan, Ishihara Wanji was also furious.
"Stupid, stupid! Extremely stupid!" Ishihara Wanji put his face close to Maruyama Masao, and the splashing saliva directly sprayed onto Maruyama Masao's face. If it weren't for the fact that Maruyama Masao was also a lieutenant general with the same military rank as himself, Ishihara Wanji would have I really want to throw away my hand and slap him, you idiot, you don’t even know how to use your brain when it comes to fighting.
Why is Ishihara Wanji angry? Because the loss is too great!
In just one day, the Second Infantry Regiment of the Second Division, the most complete and most combat-effective infantry regiment, was basically wiped out. The first tank regiment of the coordinated operations could also be basically cancelled, because the entire regiment had only With less than ten tanks, we can't even form a squadron. How can we fight worse than this
What makes Ishihara Wan'er even more angry is that after paying such a heavy price, Tieling hasn't been captured yet! At least one battalion of Chinese soldiers is still entrenched in the Nancheng District of Tieling and continues to resist! If the previous casualty ratios of both sides were followed, the Seventh Army would have to lose at least one infantry brigade, plus a tank squadron, before it could completely occupy Tieling!
However, it is only a small force of the Chahar Independent Regiment guarding Tieling. It is so strenuous to defeat Tieling. What should we do if we then attack Fengtian City, which is guarded by the main force of the Chahar Independent Regiment? If the casualty ratio is still like Tieling's, even if they use up all the Seventh Army, I'm afraid it won't be enough. Is it possible to mobilize more troops from the mainland
It was precisely because of this that Ishihara Wanji was so angry and furious!
Political Commissar Maruyama was a little unconvinced and retorted: "Commander, do you have a better way?"
Ishihara Wanji was suffocated when he heard this. In fact, he had no better way. If he had any good way, he would have told Maruyama Masao immediately, so why didn't he wait until now