si-mexico Chapter 1095 Deliberate Retreat
Chapter 1095 Deliberate Retreat
"Damn it, who commands a battle like this? They clearly have an advantage on the battlefield, but they insist on withdrawing their troops. If this continues, we can't cooperate with them on any battlefield."
At Ma Leizi's command post, this guy immediately started shouting. At this moment, besides him, there was also the Independent Division Commander, Commander Xia.
Commander Xia was originally following Li Shaoyi to command the battle in Pujiang, but because the situation in Pujiang changed, he immediately went north along the river to inspect some retreat points along the way. We can no longer hold on now. The large-scale retreat of the National Army has created loopholes in the entire front line. Even if we continue to implement the strategy of small-scale resistance, it will be quite dangerous for us.
"Stop cursing. I've been cursing all day in the south, but it's no use. Those guys in Nanjing said they've done a thorough calculation and that if the Japanese have fifteen divisions, we won't be able to resist them at all. So I came to the north in advance to check the road ahead and give our brothers a chance to retreat. Otherwise, if they follow the National Army westward, things will be very difficult."
Mayor Xia was also feeling very aggrieved when he spoke. Ma Leizi raised an eyebrow and immediately understood what he meant. Our troops could not retreat westward with the National Army. If they went all the way west, it would be easy to lose control of the army. The Ministry of Military Affairs might seize command. So our troops should go back to where they came from. As for the battles along the Yangtze River, even if we send more troops there later, they cannot retreat with them. This was the tone set by Li Shaoyi.
"Retreat is not a problem. The Jiangnan area is still in our hands, and the entire southeastern part of Shandong is also in our hands. If you want to retreat back to Chahar, that would be a bit difficult. But if we retreat to my place, all roads lead to eastern Shandong, and we can retreat however we want."
Ma Leizi patted his chest and said that the railways around Pujiang had been bombed, but the railways in eastern Shandong were still intact. Moreover, the engineers had also checked the railways along the way. We were unable to repair the railways because the Japanese bombed them frequently. However, if we were to use wartime mechanisms for maintenance, we could still ensure the operation of the railways, but the capacity would only be about half of what it used to be.
But we don't need to worry about these things. Our army is fully mechanized, and even without railways, as long as the supply of gasoline and other necessities is sufficient, advancing by road is not difficult for us.
Railway transport mainly consists of armored vehicles and tanks. If these things were to travel from Pujiang back to eastern Shandong, it would be at least a thousand kilometers. It's estimated that this system will no longer be used in the future.
"That's exactly what I wanted to hear. From now on, hold out in the north for now. Don't launch a large-scale attack on them, and don't provoke them too much. What we need now is a safe retreat route. During the retreat, we may encounter attacks from the Japanese navy and air force. We need to establish a comprehensive air defense network in the southern part of the entire Shandong Province. Don't hold back on how many air defense weapons you have. The commander-in-chief has told me."
As he said this, Ma Leizi smiled somewhat embarrassedly. He had a great many anti-aircraft weapons. How many? Enough to protect the entire southeastern Shandong region. If any Japanese planes dared to come, our air defense array could keep them all in the air, and not a single plane could escape.
"Speaking of which, we also suffered heavy losses in this war. If our original fighter jets hadn't been used to support the Pujiang battle, our young men could have provided us with a safe sky. But on the Pujiang battlefield, our losses were too great. To tell you the truth, half of the entire Shandong air force was lost on the Pujiang battlefield."
When Ma Leizi said this, he was also very distressed. Although we were able to win by a large margin every time we fought the Japanese in the air, no matter how we won, our losses were always accumulating slowly. In addition, our foundation was relatively weak. If we hadn't recruited foreign pilots this time, we would probably have even fewer planes in the sky now.
"The 72nd Army lost more than 10,000 brothers in the battle of Pujiang and more than 4,000 were seriously wounded. This is the result that was just tallied. This has added another heavy mark to the hatred between us and the Japanese devils. No matter what other people’s attitude is in the future, it is only a matter of life and death between us and the Japanese devils."
When Mayor Xia announced this data, many people in the operations room paused for a moment. They knew that the fighting in Pujiang was very fierce, but they did not expect it to be this fierce. Our troops were all elite and used relatively powerful weapons, yet the losses were still so severe. One can imagine what the situation was like on the battlefield.
However, considering the number of Japanese casualties, we were somewhat relieved. The number of Japanese corpses left in front of our positions was almost fifteen times that of ours, and the so-called iron will of the Japanese had almost completely collapsed in front of our positions.
Especially in the final period, we adopted a strategy of advancing in small groups, keeping the entire Japanese camp in a constant state of tension. It is said that some Japanese soldiers slept at night clutching their Type 38 rifles tightly. Upon hearing any noise outside, some would excitedly pull the trigger, resulting in their comrades being sent to the realm of Amaterasu.
Due to the withdrawal of the Nationalist government's troops, some subtle changes occurred in various parts of the north. When the Japanese Second Army held its second military conference, the division commander who raised the objection did not offer them a correct path. He simply asked them to continue to request that more of the newly formed troops be allocated to them, instead of all being transported to East China.
Ma Leizi's more than 100 transport planes are now operating at high efficiency, first transporting the wounded and sick from the Pujiang area and some civilian personnel back, and secondly ensuring the smooth flow of roads. Nearly 15 air defense companies have been added in various places, and more than 20 air defense companies are on their way. It is imperative to ensure the safety of the evacuation route. This is also one of the reasons why Division Commander Xia Guogui returned.
Hundreds of transport planes are ready to depart from the camp of the 72nd Army in the North. Our retreat is different from others.