RPAGF #217 - New landscape
#217 - New landscape
When Okamoto Yasuyuki appeared in Qinyang with the remnants of less than half a regiment, both the North China Area Army and the First Army Headquarters in Jin were relieved upon receiving the telegram.
The near-total annihilation of an entire division and its complete destruction were two completely different matters. At least for both Tuan Huang and the headquarters, it was a matter of face. Near-total annihilation only meant the loss of cannon fodder, but complete destruction meant the Kwantung Army's face had been slapped swollen, and there was no way to reduce the swelling immediately. For the cannon fodder back home, it was also an absolutely unacceptable result.
If the 36th Division, along with its cannon fodder and division commander, had died in Zezhou, the Japanese devils would have desperately tried to get revenge.
Therefore, after Okamoto Yasuyuki escaped, the North China Area Army, which had originally planned to petition the headquarters to forcibly transfer the Kwantung Army's elite forces south to fight, drafted a telegram to the headquarters themselves. "Our 36th Division has been fighting bloodily for days and finally broke through the encirclement of tens of thousands of Eighth Route Army soldiers. Today, we safely arrived in Qinyang, creating a new miracle of breakout! The grand strategy of southward operations no longer needs to be disturbed by the 36th Division. It is advisable to deploy calmly to ensure thoroughness."
At the Eighth Route Army headquarters, facing the battle report that Chen Brigade's pursuit had allowed Okamoto Yasuyuki to escape by chance, the headquarters leaders sighed but didn't say much. The Border Region's cross-level command in this matter had its own considerations at the higher levels. The front-line headquarters leaders were resolute, but the Border Region's reasons were limited to secrecy and were vaguely explained. The leaders at the headquarters actually didn't quite agree with letting go of such a great opportunity; this was a perfect opportunity to annihilate an entire division.
The Chen Brigade ultimately followed the Border Region's instructions and released the tiger back to the mountain, leaving future troubles. No one knew what the Border Region was thinking.
At the Border Region Staff Department, the entire staff department immediately erupted upon receiving the news.
The Chen Brigade not only drove the 36th Division out of Zezhou but also pursued them all the way. Like a knife cutting meat, on the rugged Zhongtiao Mountain road for dozens of kilometers, the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment took turns attacking, almost burying the 36th Division's two infantry regiments and the engineer regiment in the Zhongtiao Mountains. It was said that in the end, Okamoto led only a little over a thousand Japanese devils out of the mountains, truly hollowing out the 36th Division! This almost perfectly realized the Staff Department's intentions.
Chief of Staff Ye happily looked at the Chen Brigade's report of victory and excitedly went to report the good news to the leaders. The Border Region leaders were extremely pleased that the Chen Brigade had completed the command's mission to a high standard, issuing a commendation and praising the Chen Brigade for achieving the greatest strategic intentions at the smallest cost.
The brigade commander was a bit confused when he received the commendation order, but after thinking about a construction task he had received before, he vaguely guessed that it was related to this. However, at this moment, he didn't think too much about it. After throwing the commendation order to the chief of staff, he began to fully prepare for the upcoming reorganization work of the entire base area. Fortunately, Li Yunlong, that stubborn mule, didn't cause trouble for him this time, and he completed the tasks assigned by the brigade without any discount.
In terms of subsequent governance and construction, the Independent Regiment was full of talented people in construction, and Zhao Gang was even more outstanding in his abilities, so he would definitely take the lead. Next, Ding Wei and his group learned quickly from the Independent Regiment in building the base area, and they did a good job in the three major items: steel, chemical industry, and weapons processing. It seems that they will be the main force in the next large-scale expansion of production and construction according to the Border Region's plan.
Since then, after about ten days of short battles, the Eighth Route Army's three campaigns, launched this time to actively counterattack for resources, achieved their campaign goals as scheduled, and completely occupied the three major Jin resources areas designated by Ren Zhong.
This time, not only did they acquire a large amount of mineral resources, concentrating the main key resource areas of Jin into the hands of the Eighth Route Army.
In addition, there were many other hidden but very important potential benefits. First of all, the Jinxi Northwest - Luliang Base Area, the Jinyi Southeast - Taiyue Taihang Base Area, and the Jinyi Northeast - Wutai Base Area have now been expanded and connected into a single piece, forming a larger strategic depth, making more than half of Jin a stable and continuous base area.
Next is transportation. After a new round of violent expansion of the base area, there are now only the fragile Tongpu Line and Zhengtai Line strongholds supported by the Japanese devils between these three major base areas. With the current strength of the major military regions, it is not too difficult to pass through these transportation lines. Many times, the Japanese devils can only watch the Eighth Route Army pass by, completely unable to prevent the Border Region's important military equipment and machinery from being transported to these three major base areas.
Most importantly, the stable population of the base area has suddenly doubled.
Now, the population covered exceeds 5 million, accounting for a small half of the 12 million people in Jin. Ren Zhong's large-scale construction manpower resources have now become much more abundant, unlike the Border Region, which has almost exhausted its manpower resources and now has to rely on a large number of external population to further develop, and has begun to be severely restricted by the shortage of manpower resources.
With such huge benefits, Ren Zhong certainly hoped that this operation would be a complete success.
Although Ren Zhong was nervous in the middle because of the 36th Division, Ren Zhong was relieved to finally see the battle report that Okamoto Yasuyuki had escaped, giving the Japanese devils no reason to go berserk.
However, Ren Zhong was still very nervous. Recently, Ren Zhong had to keep an eye on news from all sides.
He asked Chief of Staff Ye to send him a copy of the Border Region's intelligence summary. Although Chief of Staff Ye was a little strange that Ren Zhong did not rely on his own organization to obtain intelligence this time, Chief of Staff Ye also unreservedly transmitted the relevant information regarding this matter to Ren Zhong.
First of all, it was the reaction of the local newspapers collected by the Beiping underground line. Ren Zhong needed to use this to judge the Japanese devils' attitude towards these three major battles, especially the views of the upper-level Japanese devils in the North China Area Army.
As a result, Ren Zhong saw that the headlines of Beiping newspapers for three consecutive days showed that the Japanese North China Front Army downplayed the loss in Jin. Facing the disastrous defeat of losing as many as 2 brigades and another division, the newspapers only lightly mentioned that the Jin locust army had suffered a small setback, and that the locust army would soon gather troops to carry out a mopping-up operation in the security zone where the Eighth Route Army was active, and so on.
Then, there were lengthy reports of good news and new victories in Nanyang, all whitewashing the peace.
As for the movements of the Kwantung Army, which Ren Zhong was particularly concerned about, there was no news at all.
The railway transportation intelligence acquisition task issued by the Border Region to the Anti-Japanese Allied Army and the underground workers of the Northeast Puppet Manchuria Railway currently reported that there were no abnormalities at the stations along the line or in the monitoring of the train operation dynamics on the railway lines. There were no signs of a large-scale southward movement of the Kwantung Army at all.
It should be known that the transportation resources and logistical resources that need to be mobilized for the deployment of a main force at the division level are not small numbers. Even special trains would be calculated in dozens. If there were large-scale operations, these hidden observation intelligence points could not have failed to report any news.
These movements of the Japanese devils showed Ren Zhong the meaning of the Japanese devils' downplaying.
Therefore, considering the needs of the next construction, Ren Zhong discussed with Chief of Staff Ye and temporarily downplayed the results of the three major battles launched by the Border Region and the Eighth Route Army headquarters this time. There were no telegrams, no public publicity, only reports to the theater command and the rear, and notifications to the Allied forces.
After all, the main goal of this battle was to obtain real gains, not to seek empty fame.
Compared to the Eighth Route Army in historical time and space, they have now embarked on the road of self-reliance. The acquisition of external support is no longer so urgent. With Ren Zhong, the father of military industry, providing a steady stream of new technologies, new processes, and information on a large number of mineral resource sites.
Even on the basis of limited land and human resources, the current production capacity of the Border Region has long surpassed that of the Kuomintang in the rear base.
According to Ren Zhong's suggestion, the Eighth Route Army's battle report was indeed simply reported to the rear this time, only mentioning the news that our army had victoriously recovered Wutai, Luliang and other places, and registered these place names to legitimately occupy these places.
In the battle report provided to General Shi, a more detailed report was made on the losses of the Japanese devils. The record of 2 brigades and another division made General Shi feel that his 5 ammunition runs were not in vain.
After this loss, the Japanese North China Front Army suffered a great loss of blood, and the Eighth Route Army's pressure has already led to the beginning of the collapse of their entire North China dominant position, and it is completely impossible to transfer troops south.
For the changes in the northern war situation, the Eighth Route Army's expansion of strength once again is a great thing for General Shi, and is even qualified to be compared with the main battlefield of the Kuomintang.
Although there are still dozens of troops in the First and Second War Zones of the Kuomintang on the surface in Jin and northern Henan, the achievements that can be made are almost zero, which further highlights the strategic importance of the Eighth Route Army.
As the leader of the Asian war situation, General Shi is considering the overall war situation. After seeing this changing trend, General Shi began to promote the deep connection between the Asia-Pacific Theater Command and the Eighth Route Army.
The first step was to promote the establishment of a stable information communication channel between the command and the Eighth Route Army Office in Peidu, gradually replacing the Kuomintang as the leader of the North China battlefield, and greatly improving the importance of the Eighth Route Army in the entire war situation, from purely cooperating with the Kuomintang to cooperating with the Eighth Route Army at the same time.
For the rogue eagle, their goal is to strike and weaken the strength of the Japanese devils on the mainland as much as possible, and reduce their bloodshed in Nanyang and the South Pacific islands. Therefore, whoever can kill the most Japanese devils, and eliminate them in any place in North China or Northeast China, at this stage, whoever can do this is their friend.
Not only can the Eighth Route Army cooperate, but the rogue eagle is also sparing no effort to support the big bear in the north in fighting desperately with Germany in Europe.
The first update!