stonecrandall Page 55
Page 55
The existence of the Kwantung Leased Territory, especially the Lushun Fortress and the port of Dalian, was always a huge bomb for the entire Korean battlefield. If it exploded, hundreds of thousands of troops on the Korean front would break out in a cold sweat.
The core of the Kwantung Leased Territory was the Lushun Fortress system, which was originally built by the Qing Dynasty and then operated by Japan and Russia in turn.
The best way to deal with this fortress system is to feign weakness, lure out the enemy's main force, and annihilate them in open battle.
No matter what kind of fortress it is, you will eventually need someone to defend it. If you have enough troops, the power that a fortress can unleash is terrifying, especially a fortress where a large army is stationed. It is impossible to attack it; you can only surround it and kill it.
The second best method is to surround and kill it. This is the most passive approach. To surround a fortress or a strong city, the number of troops you deploy must be more than a multiple of the enemy's. "If you have ten times the strength, surround it; if you have five, attack it." That's what our ancestors always said.
Surrounding a fortress with too few men would be an extremely risky and reckless act, but with too many men, Zhao Yan couldn't withstand such a dissipation of resources.
Of course, there is also the worst possible solution: to attack the city, capture the Lushun Fortress, and completely remove this hidden threat!
What Zhao Yan is planning now is how to lure out the enemy's fresh troops and kill them in the field. The difficulty of annihilating four enemy divisions under mobile warfare conditions is as different as the difficulty of attacking a fortress to annihilate four enemy divisions.
Zhao Yan took the initiative to show weakness and retreat to the east bank of the Dayang River, even abandoning the South Manchurian Railway line, thus opening up a broad road to Shenyang.
However, they secretly deployed the main force of a division in Liaoyang, and subsequent reinforcements also formed a huge encirclement around Liaoyang.
Zhao Yan was essentially spreading his legs wide, constantly enticing the allied forces to come and attack him, opening the passage to Andong. Zhao Yan dared not do that; the distance was too close. If he couldn't stop them and Andong fell, the front line would immediately explode.
However, Zhao Yan was still bold enough to open the route to Shenyang. With ample depth and sufficient area for mobile warfare, he was confident that he could lure the enemy in and then encircle them.
On July 30, the Allied forces also noticed the change in the battlefield situation. It seemed that the Chinese army had no ability to advance after fighting an ambush and had retreated to the east bank of the Dayang River to build defenses based on the natural barrier of the river. It was another line-filling tactic.
The Allied high command immediately realized that the road to Andong was blocked, but they also analyzed that the Chinese army did not seem to have sent too many troops back to reinforce, and could not cover all aspects.
The Allied forces have a huge strategic loophole in front of them: Zhao Yan seems to have not arranged for anyone to defend the road to Shenyang, and this section of the railway line from Lushun to Shenyang seems to be a vacuum!
The Allied high command reached a consensus and decided to abandon the attack on Andong and instead attack Shenyang, which was also a key rear point for the Chinese army. The fall of Shenyang was even more critical than the loss of Andong.
The only point of contention was that this time the British refused to lead the attack and instead demanded that the Japanese take the lead in attacking Shenyang.
But the Japanese were also reluctant to go, because they saw a place called Liaoyang on the map! To attack Shenyang, they would have to pass through Liaoyang!
Three years ago, the Japanese and Russians fought a major battle here, and the Japanese won a Pyrrhic victory. Now they have to pass through this godforsaken place again. It's impossible for the Japanese not to have some reservations.
However, it was impossible to ignore such a glaring loophole. In the end, both Britain and Japan decided to wait for more reinforcements.
Zhao Yan repeatedly sent out second-line troops to pretend to desperately obstruct the allied forces, engaging them in combat, only to be defeated and forced to retreat. He constantly lured the allied forces to quickly emerge from the Liaodong Peninsula.
But the Allied forces refused to move, waiting for reinforcements until August 7th, when another British division and two Japanese divisions arrived at the Gaizhou line, finally preparing to attack Shenyang.
The National Defense Force's pocket formation deployed along the Liaoyang-Panjin line had been waiting for a long time, and Zhao Yan was even eager to send someone over to urge them on.
For this campaign, he gritted his teeth and mobilized another 200,000 troops. This was no small matter; it was a large-scale campaign with enormous costs. The wartime consumption of so many troops was also considerable. Fortunately, the area was close to the railway line, which allowed it to withstand the pressure.
On August 9th, the Allied forces finally took action, advancing along the railway line all the way to Liaoyang. Their movements were very swift, and their offensive was very powerful.
But in Liaoyang, the Anglo-Japanese Allied Forces encountered the familiar barbed wire lines of the National Defense Army. They charged headlong into them, only to suffer heavy losses. The 10th and 11th Divisions of the National Defense Army held Liaoyang to the death.
Meanwhile, three newly formed divisions from the Panjin direction were also rushing in, attacking Gaizhou from the west via Yingkou. Zhao Yan himself led the main forces of the 3rd and 27th Divisions across the Dayang River, desperately attacking Gaizhou.
Zhao's mobile warfare began again. The Japanese 29th Division, stationed on the west bank of the Dayang River, was caught off guard by two main divisions personally led by Zhao Yan.
Zhao Yan deliberately chose the late night of the 9th to dispatch 7,000 men to cross the river at Huanghuadian upstream. He then launched a feigned attack on the Japanese troops on the opposite bank to draw their attention, creating an opportunity for the surprise attack from upstream.
Two divisions launched a surprise attack on the Japanese army in the dead of night. The Japanese army quickly organized a counterattack and defense, focusing their attention on the main force of the National Defense Army on the east bank. They were unaware of the troops that had already crossed the river and launched a surprise attack from the north.
At the last minute, the Japanese army thought they had successfully prevented the National Defense Army from crossing the river under cover of night, but they did not expect that 7,000 troops would suddenly attack from the north, and they were thrown into chaos.
Taking advantage of the situation, Zhao Yan launched a real river crossing operation. Only someone with a screw loose would dare to attempt to cross the Yanghe River at night while facing resistance from an entire Japanese division.
Under attack from both sides, the Japanese 29th Division could no longer hold out against Zhao Yan's superior forces. If they continued to defend, they would be surrounded and annihilated. The Japanese quickly retreated.
After Zhao Yan returned to the west bank of the Dayang River, he immediately began a relentless pursuit of the 29th Division. Under the fierce attack of the two elite divisions of the National Defense Army, the 29th Division could not withstand the onslaught and had no choice but to retreat south to Wafangdian.
At this time, Zhao Yan also inexplicably encountered the main force of the allied forces that had retreated. Zhao Yan racked his brains but couldn't figure out why the main force of the allied forces, which was doing well in attacking Liaoyang, would inexplicably retreat to Gaizhou.
His last trump card, which he had used to tighten his trap, was neutralized by his opponent in such an inexplicable way. After hearing the news, Zhao Yan stood there dumbfounded, not knowing where he had gone wrong.
He had a deep suspicion that there might be another traitor within the ranks.
The reason is simple: the allied forces discovered that Zhao Yan had come here and was personally commanding the battle, so they immediately withdrew.
The familiar line-filling tactics, along with the overly blatant enticement, made the Allied high command uneasy. Finally, during a symbolic attempt to persuade the Liaoyang garrison to surrender, the Allied forces uttered the persuasive phrase, "Your leader has abandoned you."
The defending troops responded by shouting that the leader was right beside them, which caused an uproar among the allied forces. Zhao Yan had come in person; he wasn't on the Korean Peninsula but had been keeping a close eye on them.
Both the Japanese and the British were immediately on edge, and regardless of the situation behind them, they quickly decided to retreat.
After withdrawing, they ran into Zhao Yan's main force. The two sides fought fiercely along the railway line. When the Japanese and British troops saw this, they immediately understood that Zhao Yan wanted to use mobile warfare to encircle and annihilate them!
The Allied high command broke out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, by chance, they found out Zhao Yan's whereabouts, otherwise they wouldn't even know how they died.
Zhao Yan was furious and kept ordering a thorough investigation into where the leak had occurred. On the other hand, he frantically mobilized troops, transferring all the troops that had marched south from Liaoyang and Yingkou to Gaizhou to redeploy for the encirclement and annihilation campaign.
On August 12, the Allied forces that withdrew from Gaizhou numbered 70,000, with the railway line behind them, but they were overwhelmed by two divisions of more than 30,000 men under the command of Zhao Yan.
In some areas, Zhao Yan even managed to use his numerical superiority to launch annihilation battles. Zhao Yan transformed into a micro-management master, directly commanding down to the regimental and battalion levels, constantly launching various feint attacks and cover raids.
On August 15th, when the Gaizhou Allied Forces were on the verge of collapse, the main force attacking Liaoyang withdrew. Zhao Yan had no choice but to stop the attack and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
On August 16th, just one day later, the reinforcements from within the pass and the garrison in Liaoyang that Zhao Yan had been waiting for arrived in a desperate rush. But because of that one day's delay, Zhao Yan lost his last chance to secure his position.
When the Allied forces retreated, they cut the railway lines and bridges and blew up all the locomotives, causing the pursuing forces of the National Defense Army to lose a lot of time and fail to engage the enemy.
Even so, Zhao Yan did not give up the opportunity to wipe out the 180,000-strong allied army and kept them pinned down.
The Allied forces were not made of clay. After retreating to Gaizhou, reinforcements arrived one after another, and supplies were continuously landed in Lushun and Dalian and then transported to the front line by rail.
On August 25th, the allied forces fully understood Zhao Yan's plan and the strength of his troops. Feeling that they had the advantage, they began to launch an offensive against Zhao Yan.
The allied forces suffered heavy losses, but replenished their forces even faster. By the 25th, another 40,000 reinforcements had arrived at the front lines, bringing the total strength to a terrifying 270,000, far exceeding the 190,000 troops under Zhao Yan's command.
Moreover, the vast majority of Zhao Yan's troops were newly established Class B units, and the Allied forces believed this was an excellent opportunity to defeat Zhao Yan in one battle.
However, Zhao Yan also felt that this was the last chance to wipe out the main force of the allied forces outside the fortress, and both sides were determined to carry out an unprecedented large-scale battle in Gaizhou.
Chapter 101 Battle of Gaizhou
At the end of August, the Battle of Gaizhou officially broke out.
Zhao Yan ordered that military merit in this battle be determined by the number of heads and prisoners captured. Those who behead one person would be rewarded with ten mu of land, and those who capture one person would be rewarded with fifteen mu of land. Those who beheaded ten or more people would have one of their children or themselves selected for an interview to enter officialdom.
The order was issued to the entire army, and morale was immediately boosted. The leader had spared no expense, and the soldiers' eyes were red with greed as they looked at the enemy forces in Gaizhou, their eyes filled with the ambition to get promoted and make a fortune!
On September 1, Zhao Yan took the lead in ordering the five newly established divisions of the reinforcements from within the pass to launch an attack, and launched a fierce assault on the allied-controlled area along the line of Dashiqiao, Pangbao and Chenjiadian in the north.
The Allied forces used the enemy's own methods against them, constructing a defensive system of barbed wire and trenches that firmly blocked the National Defense Army's surging offensive. The newly formed troops were in high spirits and launched fierce attacks, but suffered heavy casualties. Everyone was determined to fight to the death, either to kill the enemy for rewards or to die in battle and receive compensation.
Zhao Yan held onto his last four elite divisions tightly, relentlessly searching for weaknesses in the allied forces. Along the Gaizhou line, the allied forces held a firm grip on the entire Liaodong Peninsula, with Gaizhou as their core. Without completely crushing this vital force, Zhao Yan couldn't go anywhere.
With over 200,000 enemy troops positioned just 200 kilometers from their logistical hub, if they weren't wiped out, the entire army on the Korean Peninsula would have to sleep in their boots at night, with one eye open, constantly living in fear of their retreat being cut off.
Under Zhao Yan's generous incentives, the soldiers of the National Defense Force managed to gain the initiative in the actual battle despite being outnumbered and outequipped.
On September 5, after days of offensives by the National Defense Forces, the Allied forces launched a counterattack. It was absolutely unacceptable to continue to be on the defensive; morale would eventually collapse.
Even those trench warfare charges in World War I that were clearly suicidal had to be fought, the purpose of which was to counterattack and prevent morale from collapsing.
If the Allied forces hadn't moved, things would have been fine, but once they did, their weaknesses were immediately exposed. The Japanese and British forces, who took the initiative to attack, couldn't coordinate their actions or combat styles at all.
The allied forces' counterattack was disjointed from the start, with each side fighting its own battle. If Zhao Yan on the other side were a novice or mediocre player, this tactic wouldn't be a big problem and could be managed.
But Zhao Yan was no novice; he immediately saw the problem and promptly dispatched the 27th Division as a fresh force to the battlefield. Finding a major gap in the enemy's counterattack near the fortress, the 27th Division immediately staged a standard infiltration maneuver.
The British 19th Division and the Japanese 7th and 9th Divisions, which were carrying out the Allied counterattack, were directly divided into two groups by the 27th Division's infiltration of the fortified positions.
Then the other national defense forces that were attacking also began to move, and Zhao Yan's art of mobile warfare began once again.
Having been traumatized by previous defeats, the British 19th Division could no longer hold out and withdrew to Gaizhou. The British forces held out in Tangchi for only seventeen hours before betraying the Japanese.
After Tangchi fell, the flanks of two Japanese divisions were exposed to the advance of the National Defense Army. The 27th Division, disregarding the retreating British troops, quickly seized Tangchi and then continued to penetrate southward to cut off the Japanese rear.
At the same time, other national defense forces were also closing in. The Japanese army cursed the British army as shameless horse manure and quickly dispatched troops from Gaizhou to reinforce them.
The more the Allied forces moved on other defensive lines, the more vulnerable they became. Zhao Yan decisively committed his last three divisions to continue the attack.
On August 4, the 44th Division, which was sent to reinforce the besieged Japanese army, suffered heavy losses and could not advance. At the same time, the Australian 1st Cavalry Division was also blocked and could not provide support to the besieged Japanese army.
The most outrageous thing was that the Dutch and Spanish expeditionary forces didn't move an inch. They verbally agreed after receiving the orders, but in reality, they stayed at the Gaizhou train station and didn't move an inch. They even packed their bags and were ready to retreat at any time.
The National Defense Forces launched a frenzied offensive, seemingly with the intention of mutual destruction. Every bayonet charge was a fight to the death.
The most dangerous were the assault teams that carried light machine guns and threw grenades indiscriminately. Every time the assault teams carried out a raid under the cover of raining mortar shells, they even dared to risk being killed by their own mortar shells, advancing through shell craters.
The Gaizhou Allied Command repeatedly sent reinforcements to help the besieged Japanese divisions retreat, but they were all repelled by bayonet charges and assault team attacks.
On August 7th, the main force of the Japanese counterattack troops, the 7th and 9th Divisions, were surrounded in the Longtan Bay area and forced into the forest. However, with swampy and wetland terrain behind them, there was no way to retreat.
Zhao Yan deployed the 27th, 11th, and 54th Divisions, which tightly surrounded Longtan Bay from the west and south. The Japanese troops either had to abandon everything to climb over the swamp and cross the grassland, or stay put and wait for a slow death.
On August 10, the Allied counterattack, which started strong but ended weakly, ended in complete failure. Two Japanese divisions were surrounded, and the main force was only 57 kilometers away at Gaizhou, but no one dared to leave the defensive line to rescue them.
Once they came to their senses, all the allied forces were still shaken. No one dared to launch a counterattack in front of Zhao Yan again. They all obediently guarded their lines and refused to show their faces.
The British and Japanese generals had never encountered such a strange battle. Despite having the advantage and a great chance of winning, they were unable to exert any advantage in the battle.
Zhao Yan's mobile warfare tactics were completely baffling. Every infiltration executed by his divisions always managed to find the most vulnerable positions of the Allied forces and launch an attack. From the moment the Allied forces stepped out of their defensive lines, the Allied forces were always on the defensive.
The Allied forces thought they could take advantage of the National Defense Army's prolonged offensive and weakened morale to launch a brilliant counterattack and defeat Zhao Yan, but the situation changed immediately as soon as they left their defensive lines to launch an offensive.
The National Defense Army, which had been attacking and fighting the defensive line yesterday, immediately changed its offensive strategy to a flanking maneuver. The elite divisions of the National Defense Army, which had been hiding, suddenly appeared as if they had grown four legs and flew in.
Before you could even react, the encirclement was complete. The original arrowhead offensive was split into salients. The attacking troops were horrified to find that their flanks were gone, and the surrounding mountains and plains were filled with the National Defense Army surging forward with bayonets. Even the rear of the mountains and plains had seen infiltration troops of the National Defense Army.
You want to send reinforcements to help the attacking troops retreat, but the reinforcements will soon encounter various interceptions and encirclements by the National Defense Forces.
Throughout the entire counterattack operation, the coalition forces encountered dozens of encirclement and penetration operations by the National Defense Forces within just one week. The coalition command was simply unable to process so much combat information, and many units were surrounded and annihilated without the command headquarters even knowing it!
Unaware that Zhao Yan had directly issued his combat orders down to the lowest battalion level, each division was divided into more than a dozen combat groups of varying sizes for use.
Zhao Yan stared at the map for four days and four nights without closing his eyes. The staff officers and intelligence officers in the command post all became messengers and recorders. More than a hundred horses died from exhaustion, all to continuously transmit orders and receive battle information.
Zhao Yan himself got nosebleeds from looking at the map, and he drank ginseng soup three times a day to stimulate his body and keep his spirits up.
On August 14, the two Japanese divisions besieged in Longtan Bay were completely annihilated at a distance where friendly forces could hear the artillery fire and see the nighttime explosions.
The Allied high command could only cling to the defensive line and dared not send any more troops to rescue them. A serious rift broke out between Britain and Japan, with both sides beginning to blame each other, and the command leadership was severely divided.
The rift in the command structure also affected the front lines, and soon the Allied forces' defenses in Gaizhou showed signs of weakness, which Zhao Yan seized upon.
On August 19, during a routine troop rotation of the Allied forces, the National Defense Forces commando team, which had been captured and interrogated, learned that after interrogating the captured prisoners, the commando team had uploaded the intelligence, which was then compiled up the chain of command to Zhao Yan's headquarters.
A huge stack of similar intelligence reports came back every day, along with several heavy combat reports, but Zhao Yan didn't skip a single one. He read them all, even if it was just a quick glance.
These days, satellites weren't everywhere like in later generations. In an era when even radio was difficult to spread, generals could only rely on these documents and maps to gain as much awareness of the battlefield situation as possible.
This seemingly ordinary troop rotation report caught Zhao Yan's attention. This wasn't the first troop rotation report obtained by the frontline assault team; many similar reports had been sent back over the past few days.
A commander's action decisions cannot be made based on a single intelligence report; more intelligence and supporting evidence are needed to confirm the report's authenticity before a decision can be made.
Intelligence reports over the past few days have indicated that the Allied forces' Gaizhou defense line has undergone several unreasonable troop movements and rotations.
The original Allied defense lines were composed of various units stationed and defended according to local conditions, with a mix of multinational forces. Now, however, they are gradually becoming more distinct, with Commonwealth and European troops grouped together, and the Japanese troops grouped together in their own separate camp. This is clearly a sign of discord.
Today's intelligence indicates that in the Yimianshan area, the high ground at Hill 756 has been replaced by a Dutch regiment stationed for defense.
The reason is simple: the Japanese army discovered the previous betrayal of their allies by the Dutch and Spanish and demanded that the British punish them severely. But why would the British punish their close ally, the Netherlands, a stepping stone in Europe, just because of the Japanese opinion?
Of course, for the sake of the overall situation, the British also made a compromise, which was to send the Dutch to the battlefield, and they were stationed on Hill 756, which was the easiest to defend and had the most dangerous terrain.
It's a very thoughtful arrangement. Sending the weakest unit to defend the best-defended area sounds like a reasonable plan. Sending the worst player to the best lane to develop is how games are played.
But war is different. The best place to defend is often one of the most important places on the entire front. You know it's easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the enemy knows it too. If Zhao Yan were in charge of this kind of place, he would definitely assign the most capable troops to defend it.
So what kind of unit was this Dutch 117th Musketeer Regiment that was sent up? Although it sounds like a musketeer regiment, it was actually a proper modern army unit. However, it was not sent from Europe, but was just an infantry regiment formed in the Dutch East Indies colony.
The members were all white soldiers, but there were distinctions among them. The commanders of the infantry regiments were all Dutch from mainland Europe, while the lower-ranking soldiers were mostly white or mixed-race whites from the colonies.
Theoretically, they did have some combat capability, but in reality, the most common combat missions this unit carried out were bullying the colonial natives and Chinese.
All of this intelligence was thoroughly investigated by the task force that was capturing prisoners, and Zhao Yan also learned about it.
With such a huge opening appearing, Zhao Yan didn't hesitate at all and immediately ordered an attack.
On August 20, the National Defense Army launched a full-scale offensive against the Gaizhou defense line.
At first, the Allied forces held their ground with ease, and the battle line was as solid as a mountain. But everything began to change after Zhao Yan deployed his most elite Third Division to make a key breakthrough.
Hill 756 has a treacherous terrain and is the only high mountain peak within dozens of miles. In theory, it should be the least likely place to be breached.
But the 3rd Division defeated the Dutch garrison in just one assault.
After the mountain defense line fell, Zhao Yan decisively deployed the last remaining force, the 27th Division. The two divisions sent their artillery directly to the high ground to bombard the Allied forces from above.
The artillery occupies the high ground, which is not just a matter of a wider firing arc, but also a greater field of vision. I am one or two hundred meters higher than you, and things that I couldn't see before are now clearly visible.