Xu Yang smiled and said, “Chief of Staff, I think you may have underestimated our army’s current combat effectiveness. With the Krupp 105mm caliber howitzers in our hands, we can completely destroy most of the city walls in Shanxi.

As for the Japanese aircraft groups, they were indeed a huge trouble for our army, but that was only during the day.

Therefore, our army can choose to attack at night.”

Chief of Staff: “Chief of Staff Lone Wolf, you don’t think that with our current strength, we can capture a heavily defended city overnight, do you?”

“Heavily guarded?” Xu Yang said, “Except for Taiyuan City, the Japanese have no more than one infantry battalion guarding most of the cities in Shanxi, and at most one puppet army security regiment.

With such a small number of troops, I think as long as we can destroy the enemy’s city defenses, any regiment of our 386th Brigade can easily defeat them, right?”

Li Yunlong said confidently: “No problem, let alone a mere infantry battalion, even if there is a regiment of devils, our independent regiment can easily wipe them out!”

“I am also confident in my new group!”

“My new second regiment is also confident!”

“My 772nd Regiment…”

Ding Wei, Kong Jie, Cheng Xiazi and others also expressed their opinions one after another, with a look of confidence on their faces.

At some point, they no longer took a single infantry battalion of the Japanese invaders seriously. You know, a few months ago, any infantry battalion of the Japanese invaders could easily defeat them.

Take the Battle of Lijiaopo as an example. The 772nd Regiment of the Yamazaki Battalion, which was badly damaged, was unable to take it down.

But now, such a situation is impossible to happen again. Today’s battle against the Japanese 37th Division is the best example.

This is advanced weaponry and equipment, sufficient strength, which gives them confidence!
Xu Yang added: “Chief of Staff, I understand your concerns. After all, simulation is one thing, and actual combat is another, which is full of changes and uncertainties.

Therefore, we can use one regiment as a pilot. If we can easily win, we can then launch a full-scale general offensive.

Our troops launched attacks simultaneously in several directions. It was impossible for the Taiyuan 1st Army to take care of everything with only a few dozen aircraft.

During the day, we only need to defend a little and ensure the safety of the artillery as much as possible. At night, it is time for us to attack.”

At this point, Xu Yang suddenly had an idea, and he remembered the filming props from his previous life. He changed the subject and said, “No need! I think I may have thought of a way to deal with the Japanese air force?”

The chief of staff suddenly became interested: “What method?”

Xu Yang: “Our carpenter should have it, right?”

Chief of Staff: “Yes! We have carpenters and masons. Lone Wolf Chief of Staff, why are you asking this?”

Xu Yang: “It’s easy if we have it. It shouldn’t be difficult for these carpenters to make artillery and heavy machine guns on a one-to-one basis, right?”

“There is no problem with this.” At this point, the chief of staff immediately reacted: “Staff Officer Lone Wolf, do you mean to use wooden artillery and heavy machine guns to attract the firepower of the Japanese air force?”

Xu Yang: “That’s exactly what I mean!”

Chief of Staff: “Can the Japanese air force be fooled?”

Xu Yang: “It depends on whether the artillery and heavy machine guns made by our military carpenters are realistic enough, but I think it shouldn’t be a big problem.

Moreover, when the enemy launches an air raid, our army can burn straw on the ground to release smoke to blur the vision of the Japanese air force.

This way, we can ensure nothing goes wrong!”

The Chief of Staff nodded in agreement: “Everything is linked together. When the battle is in full swing, the Japanese air force has no extra time to carefully distinguish the true from the false except launching the attack.

Moreover, our army had never used this strategy before, so the Japanese never dreamed that our army would use wooden artillery to attract their firepower.

However, once the Japanese know about this plan, its effectiveness will be greatly reduced.”

The brigade commander shook his head and said, “Not really! As long as the Japs are not sure whether our artillery is made of wood, they will have no choice but to drop bombs to destroy it, because they dare not bet whether it is a real artillery.

This is an unsolvable conspiracy!”

The brigade commander was a former spy and he saw the viciousness of Xu Yang’s plan at a glance.

Li Yunlong laughed and said, “Lone Wolf Advisor, what’s wrong with you? Why haven’t we thought of this method before?
You’re a fucking genius!”

Political Commissar Zhao Gang said, “Old Li, watch your words. Are you praising the Lone Wolf Staff Officer or scolding him?”

Li Yunlong smiled awkwardly, but Xu Yang didn’t care.

The chief of staff looked at the brigade commander and said, “Brigade commander, what do you think of the Lone Wolf staff’s battle plan?”

Brigadier: “I think it’s feasible.”

Chief of Staff: “Which regiment should be used as the pilot?”

Li Yunlong quickly stretched his neck and said, “Hey, Chief of Staff, of course it’s our independent regiment.

In terms of combat effectiveness, which regiment can compare with our independent regiment now? “

Cheng Xiazi quickly stood up and retorted, “Li Dayehu, what do you want? In the Hundred Regiments Campaign, you took over the task of attacking Niangzi Pass. Later, in the anti-mopping-up operation, you again took over the task of attacking the 37th Infantry Regiment of the 226th Division of the Japanese Army, and you asked us to cover you.

Why should you get the benefit this time? Do you really think we are raised by a stepmother?”

After Cheng Xiazi finished speaking, Kong Jie also followed up and said, “That’s right, why do you, Li Dayehu, get all the benefits? Since it is a pilot project, we should select teams with relatively poor combat effectiveness, so that we can test the true combat effectiveness of our army.

Therefore, our new second regiment is undoubtedly the most suitable. “

Kong Jie was self-aware and knew that the combat effectiveness of the New 386st Regiment was the lowest among the five main regiments of the entire th Brigade.

The brigade commander looked at Xu Yang and said, “Lone Wolf Staff Officer, what do you mean?”

When Li Yunlong and others saw that the brigade commander gave the choice to Xu Yang, they quickly looked at him and volunteered.

Xu Yang smiled and said, “Everyone, with your strength, any group can be competent for this mission, so it is really difficult for me.

How about this, we draw lots this time?”

Seeing everyone looking at him again, the brigade commander said, “Don’t look at me. I have handed this matter over to the Lone Wolf Staff to make the decision.”

Xu Yang: “Since everyone has no objection, then it is decided.”

Then Xu Yang turned and walked out.

A few minutes later, Xu Yang returned with five more twigs in his hand.

“I have five branches in my hand, four short and one long. Whoever grabs the longest one will fight. Who will go first?”

After a few people hesitated for a while, Ding Wei stepped forward first and said, “It’s a one-fifth chance anyway, so I’ll go first.”

After saying that, Ding Wei pulled a branch from Xu Yang’s hand.

Seeing that Li Yunlong and the other three were all staring at him, Ding Wei smiled slyly and held the branch tightly in his hand, not showing it to them. With Ding Wei taking the lead, the other four also took one branch each.

Li Yunlong glanced at the branch in his hand secretly, and his heart sank, because it was only about eight centimeters long in total. You know, the part of the branch that was exposed in Xu Yang’s palm was five centimeters long.

“Everyone, open your palms.”

Li Yunlong gritted his teeth and opened his palms, only to find that the branches in the hands of the other four people were even shorter, only a little over three centimeters.

Li Yunlong’s face suddenly broke into an arrogant smile: “Hahaha! I have the longest branch in my hand, so I deserve to eat the meat. Do you have any objections now?”

Of course there are opinions, but no one brings them up, otherwise it would be too late to play.

Immediately, the brigade commander began to ask the staff of the operations department to develop a detailed combat plan.

Although Ding Wei, Kong Jie and others did not get the combat mission, they also participated in the meeting.

……

After some discussion.

The 386th Brigade chose Liao County (now Zuoquan County) as its attack target. Several county towns around Yangquan were all defense areas of the 22nd Infantry Regiment of Hikawa Okazaka, and there were internal supporters in all of them. Attacking such targets could not reflect the current strength of the 386th Brigade.

Therefore, we must choose a county town that has no internal support.

three days later.

After lunch, Li Yunlong led his troops straight to Liao County, and when the sun set, they entered the Japanese-occupied area.

After the Hundred Regiments Campaign, the Japanese army suffered heavy losses, its transportation network was cut off and paralyzed, and hundreds of strongholds were destroyed. It had no ability to repair and control the situation in a short period of time.

Therefore, the main forces were simply withdrawn into the major county towns. Except for some important strongholds where some troops were stationed on duty and guard, the rest of the strongholds remained abandoned.

Therefore, Li Yunlong’s independent regiment easily marched straight to the city of Liao County without being discovered by the Japanese.

After arriving in the east of Liao County, Li Yunlong immediately ordered his troops to prepare for an attack.

He first ordered the artillery battalion to deploy on the spot, quickly build artillery positions and fire artillery. Then he ordered the third, fourth, and fifth battalions to make a detour and block the other three gates respectively to prevent a single enemy from escaping.

When you are strong enough, there is no need to surround the enemy on three sides and leave one side open when besieging them!
After everything was ready, Li Yunlong rode his horse to the artillery position, waving the whip in his hand and shouting, “Fire! Fire hard for me!”

“Fire!” Li Sanpao, commander of the heavy artillery battalion, and Liu Wen, commander of the light artillery battalion, gave the order immediately.

Eighteen Krupp 18mm howitzers and 105 36mm Type 70 infantry guns roared suddenly, and more than 50 shells were fired almost at the same time, rising into the sky with flames, like a meteor shower, and with a terrible sound of breaking wind, they quickly flew towards the east gate of Liao County shrouded in the night.

In front of the East Gate Tower, two sleepy Japanese sentries carrying Type 38 rifles were suddenly awakened by the whistling sound of artillery shells breaking through the air.

I subconsciously looked up and saw the magnificent scene: “What is that?”

After saying that, he quickly rubbed his eyes and said in shock: “Yamedie, it’s artillery fire, enemy artillery fire!”

“Xiao Lin, this is impossible. How could the enemy have such a large-scale artillery fire?”

Before the two Japanese sentries could finish their screams, more than 50 high-explosive grenades fell heavily on their heads.

“Boom!”

“Boom boom boom!——”

More than 50 artillery shells exploded one after another. The continuous explosions were as terrifying as the collapse of the sky and the earth. The raging shock wave carried countless broken shrapnel, ruthlessly destroying everything including the city gate tower.

The city gate tower was hit by two shells and was blown to pieces, collapsed with a loud bang, and caught fire.

Several Japanese sentries on duty were sleeping soundly inside the city gate tower. Before they woke up, they were covered underneath.

The Japanese and puppet troops on the city wall were all blown to pieces on the spot, without even a chance to call for help or escape.

More shells fell on open spaces and buildings in the city.

In an instant, the buildings inside and outside the entire East City Gate collapsed and were damaged, flames rose and explosions continued.

Balls of scarlet flames rose from the ground, almost lighting up the entire night sky.

As soon as one round of shelling ended, the independent regiment launched the second and third rounds of shelling, one after another.

The shells in the sky were like free stones, falling one after another. The huge shock wave blew the broken city wall of the entire East City Gate into pieces, and it collapsed one after another under the weight.

For a moment, all the Japanese devils and puppet troops in the city were awakened from their sleep by the huge noise coming from the East Gate.

Ishihara Ichitaro was the highest commander of the Japanese army in Liao County and a major battalion commander.

The old Japanese was suddenly awakened, thinking he had just had a nightmare, but when he heard the earth-shaking explosions continuing one after another, he immediately realized that something was wrong. He was so scared that he quickly got up and dressed, without even fastening his belt, and quickly ran out to the command post not far away to find out what was going on.

The Japanese staff officer on duty at the headquarters was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. When he saw Ishihara Ichitaro coming, he stood at attention and said, “Sir, something bad has happened. The East Gate has been hit by heavy artillery fire from unknown armed forces!”

Ishihara Itoro gritted his teeth and said, “Baka! It must be the Chinese Central Army in Zhongtiao Mountain. They took advantage of the lack of manpower in the Locust Army and sneaked out to attack us!

We must not let their conspiracy succeed. We must quickly mobilize the second and third squadrons, as well as the security regiment, to go to the East City Gate for support, and at the same time request tactical guidance from the regiment headquarters.

We must defend the East Gate at all costs and never let the Chinese break in!”

The Japanese captain said with a heavy face: “Sir, please forgive me for being frank, judging from the Chinese firepower at the East Gate, the attacking enemy must be well prepared and very powerful, at least more than a reorganized division, and a reorganized division with an artillery regiment.

It would be difficult to hold the position with only our 1000-plus locust soldiers and 1000-plus ineffective Imperial Army troops.

The enemy’s artillery, in particular, posed a huge threat to the Locust Army. Judging from the noise, it was at least heavy artillery with a caliber of 100mm or above.

Therefore, I suggest that we should give up this place while we cannot suppress the enemy and there are no too many casualties, and quickly retreat to the brigade headquarters in Qin County.

As long as we preserve our manpower and wait for reinforcements to arrive, combined with the air force’s air firepower, we will be able to easily recapture this place!”

Unexpectedly, before he finished speaking, Ishihara Ichitaro slapped him hard and angrily scolded him: “Bakayalo! You are so stupid! Liao County is a strategic location in the southeastern part of Shanxi Province, and it is also the frontier fortress where the locust army confronts the Central Army of China in southern Shanxi Province. How can you give up so easily?

You are afraid before the battle. You have brought shame to our great Japanese locust army!”

“Besides, even if the strength of this Chinese army exceeds the size of a division, our army may not be powerless to fight. Before this, haven’t we defeated enough Chinese armies?

Besides, we were actively attacking at that time, but now we are on the defensive!”

The Japanese captain was slapped hard in the face. He felt a burning pain on his cheek, but he didn’t dare to raise his hand to rub it. He could only bow his head and admit his mistake: “Hey! Sir, I am wrong!”

Ishihara Ichitaro said sternly, “Hurry up and follow the order. Tell the second and third squadrons that if they can’t defend the East Gate, they will all commit seppuku and apologize to His Majesty the Heavenly Locust!”

“Hi!” The Japanese captain bowed again and immediately left.

After he got out of the door, he finally had the chance to raise his hand to rub his cheek. ‘Ouch!’ It really hurts!
The Japanese captain was so frustrated… (End of this chapter)