eurekapd Chapter 274: Nujiang River Confrontation
Chapter 274: Nujiang River Confrontation
There is only one road to Shifo Temple in the north of the entire Baoshan County, and only one road to Banqiao and Gongpo in the east. So even though the 8th Regiment sent people to notify Hyakutake Harukichi in Baoshan, Dai Ming's 101st Division quickly blocked Banqiao.
The part of the 112th Division in Banqiao, which was closest to the retreat route, only lost a squadron, and the 18th Division in Gongpo only lost about a battalion of troops. The rest escaped by floating along the creek.
The farthest Gongguo Japanese 33rd Division was more than 20 kilometers away from Gongpo and did not have enough time to evacuate. In addition, they were intercepted by Wei Li on the way. The dozens of rocket launchers were not an exaggeration. The firepower was even more powerful than yesterday's artillery group.
Originally, the artillery regiment of the 4th Division and the remnants of the artillery regiment of the 33rd Division could barely deal with it, but less than half an hour after the battle started, planes arrived from the sky.
Because the planes obtained accurate coordinates, they wiped out the Japanese artillery units in the first wave of bombing.
Without the artillery to restrain them, Wei Li's 8th Regiment became completely unscrupulous. When they had almost used up all the rockets they had, less than one-tenth of the Japanese 33rd Division could move.
At noon, as the 7th Mechanized Infantry Regiment encircled them from behind, the Japanese 33rd Division was completely wiped out, and the division commander, Lieutenant General Shozo Sakurai, was blown to pieces by a cannon.
This was the second Japanese lieutenant general killed by the 88th Army and the first lieutenant general killed by Xu's army.
Including the major general infantry commander of the 33rd Division, Xu Le earned 80 military merit points in the battle of Hewan Village alone.
[The three infantry regiments of the Tri-Region Division form an infantry regiment, and the regiment commander is equivalent to the former brigade commander! ]
In the afternoon, the 102nd and 103rd Regiments launched an attack on Baoshan County with the support of the Air Force.
However, at this time, Baoshan County was deserted, with only some wounded Japanese soldiers who were ruthlessly abandoned.
The two regiments divided into two groups and pursued the victory until they were counterattacked by the Japanese on the other side of the Nujiang River. The battle was declared over.
In the entire western Yunnan, there are only two roads connecting the two sides of the Nujiang River. One is from Tengchong to Baoshan, and the other is the Yunnan-Burma Highway: from Longling County to Baoshan.
Baoshan is the only way to cross the Nujiang River to the west. Hyakutake Haruyoshi certainly knew this. He originally planned to have a decisive battle with Xu's army in Baoshan. As long as he could defend this place, he could contain the entire western Yunnan.
Just as he was about to give the order, he received a call from Myanmar saying that the Lashio secret airport had been attacked, and all types of fighter jets had suffered heavy losses and were no longer able to provide him with air support.
Without air support, and knowing that Xu's army had excellent fighter planes, Haruyoshi Momotake had to admit that he had lost air superiority.
So he had no choice but to order a full retreat to the west bank of the Nujiang River.
The Japanese reinforcements, the 55th Division, also arrived and together with half of the original 112th Division, the 4th Division, and the remaining regiment of the 18th Division, defended the two coastlines.
In this operation, the Japanese 33rd Division was completely wiped out, two infantry regiments and an artillery regiment of the 18th Division were destroyed, and one infantry regiment and an artillery regiment of the 112th Division were also completely lost.
The enemy was annihilated in total, and under Xu Le's order, all the wounded soldiers and prisoners of war in Baoshan County went down to confess their crimes to the people of Yunnan Province who had died tragically.
The "luckiest" 4th Division only lost one artillery regiment.
In fact, Kitano Kenzo has always been in contact with his troops. He knows very well that he can never be a match for Xu's army, but in name, Momotake Haruyoshi is the commander-in-chief, so it is not easy for him to disobey orders openly.
That's why he secretly sent his artillery regiment to support the 33rd Division, and they hid far away, but they could not escape the bombs of the bombers.
If it weren't for his order, his artillery would not obey Haruyoshi Momotake's orders, just like Colonel Ogawa's 8th Infantry Regiment was slacking off.
His division is a permanent division, which is one of the most powerful Type A divisions in the Japanese army, and its artillery regiment is not comparable to other ordinary divisions.
It has 12 Type 105 24mm mountain guns and 75 Type mm mountain guns.
第18师团的炮兵联队差一些，但也有12门三八式75毫米野炮，以及24门九四式75毫米山炮。
33师团的炮兵联队就更差一点了，配备的是12门九五式75毫米野炮，外加24门四一式75毫米山炮。
The 112th Division had only one artillery battalion, which was equipped with only 12 Type 75 mm field guns.
Together with some Meiji 75-type 4mm cavalry field guns of the cavalry regiments, mountain guns of the infantry regiments, and anti-tank rapid-fire guns, the four divisions lost a total of nearly 200 artillery pieces.
Except for the artillery regiment of the 4th Division, most of the rest were destroyed in the cluster artillery fire of Xu's army yesterday, and the remaining small part was abandoned during the escape.
Now, although the Japanese have openly deployed defenses beyond the Lancang River on the west bank of the Nujiang River, they have no heavy firepower, only artillery from an artillery regiment of the 55th Division for follow-up support.
Nakedly strong on the outside but weak on the inside.
However, the danger of the Nujiang River is no less than that of the Lancang River, and the Type 69 tank is also unable to cross it, so the two armies are temporarily in a standoff.
...
"Young Marshal, the morale of the army is high, and it is time to kill the devils. But tanks and artillery are the main forces of our army. Now both are trapped on the east bank of the Lancang River and cannot cross. There is no way to fight to the Nujiang River!"
In Baoshan County, a group of senior leaders of Xu's army gathered together again, and Liu Quanhua was the first to complain.
If Dai Ming hadn't stopped him, this guy would have almost led the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment to cross the Nujiang River.
Wei Li also frowned and said, "We rely on firepower to succeed and fail. We rely on tanks and artillery, but they have also become the biggest obstacle to the army's march.
The Lancang River Campaign was not bad, as the artillery regiment could bombard on one side.
Now the artillery regiment is separated from the Lancang River and the Nu River by more than 50 kilometers, and cannot hit the Japanese at all. The tank regiments are also blocked in Shanyang. If they try to cross the Nu River by force, the troops will suffer huge losses without the fire support of the artillery regiment!
We have to find a way to get our heavy firepower troops across the river!"
Governor Tan of Yunnan Province, who was temporarily allowed to attend the meeting, thought for a moment and said, "I have mobilized nearly 3 civilian workers and hundreds of engineers to participate in the bridge repair. If we only build a simple bridge for infantry to pass through, it can be completed in days at most.
But your tanks and self-propelled artillery weigh more than 30 tons. Even if we mobilize all the resources in the province and work day and night, it will take at least a month to build a suitable bridge. It will take at least 40 days to open it to traffic."
As early as when Xu Le just arrived in Yunnan Province, he had already considered the problem of crossing the river with heavy firepower. There was no way to use the Type 69 tank. Although it was very inconvenient in the terrain like Yunnan Province, its strong protective ability was something Xu Le did not want to give up. He could only wait for the bridge to be built.
There is a type of tank that can be used as a temporary substitute, and he also has a way to deal with artillery.
Just as he was about to speak, Wei Li spoke first: "Mr. Tan, how about this! Although the Gongguo Bridge was blown up by the Japanese, it is not that difficult to repair. We can use reinforced concrete to reinforce the bridge. What do you think?"
An engineer from the Nanqiao Transport Team who came with Governor Tan shook his head and said, "It can be done this way, and I have calculated that it can be reinforced to bear 20 tons of weight within half a month. But if you want to strengthen it further, you have to redesign the whole thing, which is tantamount to building a new bridge!
Moreover, whether it is reinforcement or new construction, we are faced with an important problem! ”
Xu Le looked at the man and said, "What's the problem? If you don't have enough manpower, I can ask the troops to help!"
The designer shook his head: "Manpower is not a problem. The people of Yunnan Province are very active in the war of resistance. The important thing is that there is a lack of building materials, especially steel bars!
The Yunnan-Burma Railway runs through countless mountains and ravines. In order to build bridges and tunnels, all the available steel in Yunnan Province has been used up, and now the required steel is no longer available.
If there isn't enough steel, the bridge will never be built!"