allonlinenovel Chapter 1132 The 3rd Army Heads North
Chapter 1132 The 3rd Army Heads North
Because the Japanese troops advancing from the north formed the Second Army, the three divisions that were moving from the south to the north to open up the Jinpu Railway also formed the Third Army. Although the Japanese Third Army was relatively weak, it was a military unit with the same organizational structure as the Second Army at the Japanese General Headquarters.
The commander of the Third Army was Katsujiro Nagamoto, the commander of the Fifth Division, while the commanders of the Seventh and Ninth Divisions served as his chiefs of staff.
After the Third Army was formed, since its main combat units were drawn from the garrison troops stationed in Pujiang, a statement was issued that the number of participating units in the Third Army would continue to increase.
Frankly speaking, it's all about seizing credit after the Jinpu Railway is reopened. The Second Army is currently stalled on the north bank of the Yellow River, with virtually no achievements to speak of. However, the Third Army is outnumbered and outgunned. Even if the Jinpu Railway is successfully reopened, members of the Second Army might step forward to claim the credit.
Therefore, under such circumstances, the Third Army had to cramm more people into it, even if these people didn't go to the battlefield, their unit numbers still had to be assigned to the Third Army. Once we opened up the Jinpu Railway, the credit would naturally go to the Third Army, and those combat units under the Third Army would basically be able to gain some combat merits.
At this moment, at the border of northern Jiangsu and southern Shandong, the Japanese Okabe Infantry Battalion had just occupied Dalang Town. The townspeople had long heard that the Japanese were coming, so they had fled two days ago. The southern Jiangsu region had been almost completely devastated by the Japanese, so the local people knew that staying at home meant certain death, and they had to leave even if they had to crawl.
From last night until now, the Japanese have searched the entire town for a long time, but haven't found anything. This is because the local officials have received their education from above, who told them what the scorched earth policy is. They're not waiting for the Japanese to come and burn our houses down, since we're not coming back anyway, so they might as well destroy the whole town first.
Dead rats or other things were thrown into every water source. Houses that could be burned were burned, and everything that could be taken was taken; anything that couldn't be taken was burned as well. That's what the Japanese soldiers saw when they entered. Many were furious, but there was nothing they could do but fire indiscriminately at the charred houses.
The people of our country are the most attached to their hometowns and have the deepest feelings for their land. But the problem is that we can't hold on to it now. After the Japanese invaders arrive, all kinds of supplies may very well become their strategic resources. So, under the persuasion of higher-level officials, both landlords and ordinary people burned their last remaining possessions here.
This strategy proved effective. The Japanese pursued a strategy of using war to sustain war within our territory. However, if all occupied territories were governed by this strategy, the Japanese would likely gain nothing from our land and would instead need to transport even more supplies from within the country to support the war effort.
The Japanese soldiers in Dalang Town camped out in the open all night. The dew was very heavy there. They had initially considered staying in the homes of ordinary people, but the houses were charred black from the fire, and drafty, making it dangerous to stay inside. All the houses were made of adobe, and some had collapsed after the fire. The soldiers were afraid of suffocating if they slept inside, so even though there was dew outside, they slept there.
As for food and drink, they searched the entire town but found nothing. Before they came, their captain had said that the town had plenty of chickens, ducks, and livestock, and that they could improve their meals. But after searching the whole town, they found nothing except a few stray dogs.
Although those stray dogs were killed, there was still blood on their mouths, suggesting they had eaten something. In this day and age, they dared not eat such things. The army medic had warned them that if they ate the stray dog meat and something went wrong, it would be their own problem.
So after occupying Dalang Town, the Japanese soldiers not only failed to improve their lives, but also became incredibly frustrated. Despite occupying the town, it seemed like they had nothing. We searched for ages, and besides getting a sweat out, all we seemed to get was discouragement.
Some soldiers even said that if the entire territory of China were like this, we would be in big trouble in the future. We shouldn't expect to get any resources from this land. On the contrary, such a vast territory could drag us down sooner or later.
Just as the Japanese soldiers got up to make breakfast, they were all cursing and swearing, thinking that they could find a rich place to search today, when suddenly the air raid siren went off.
"Get to your posts now!"
After the battle at Pujiang ended, the Japanese General Staff increased the number of anti-aircraft weapons for various units. Of course, most of them were anti-aircraft machine guns, and anti-aircraft artillery and the like were still very few.
At this moment, several bombers had appeared in the north. They recognized these bombers as Stuka bombers. They were extremely fast when they swooped down from the sky. Even if you used anti-aircraft machine guns to deal with them, you might not be able to catch up. You had to give them a head start.
The biggest advantage of the Japanese army compared to the Chinese army was not their weapons and equipment, but their extensive training. This made them more effective on the battlefield, even achieving a casualty ratio of 1:5.
However, the one thing the Japanese army never trained on was anti-aircraft machine guns. When they were training, they already knew about the state of the Chinese air force, so they not only didn't equip themselves with a large number of anti-aircraft weapons, but even the training on anti-aircraft machine guns was just a brief overview.
At this moment, the Okabe Infantry Battalion was equipped with a total of four anti-aircraft machine guns, all of which were modified from Type 92 machine guns. These things were completely unsuitable for anti-aircraft combat, with only 30 rounds of ammunition per magazine. They were mounted on a tripod and used as anti-aircraft machine guns.
Shooting down aircraft requires continuity. Can you fire 30 bullets in a continuous stream? Even if you fire rapidly into the sky, 30 bullets have nothing to do with lead. So before it even begins, your air defense forces have already failed.
It's truly remarkable that the Japanese could develop an anti-aircraft machine gun in such a short time...