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The North-South Peace Negotiation Behind the Black Screen Chapter 738: Breaking into Wafangdian

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    Wafangdian belonged to the Fuzhou Inspection Department in the Qing Dynasty. It was originally an ordinary town. Since it was successively occupied by Russia and Japan in modern times, due to its excellent geographical location, it guarded the Liaodong Peninsula from Jinzhou to Fuzhou.  The chokepoints on the road in Dalian and Lushun have successively attracted the attention of Russian and Japanese military architects.

    During the Russian occupation, Wafangdian received an investment of hundreds of thousands of rubles. After initial militarization, the town relied only on a few modified mortars during the Russo-Japanese War to cause more than 100,000 casualties to the Japanese troops who stormed the town.  Thousands of men and an elite infantry brigade were wiped out, impressing the Japanese generals.

    After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese generals and military experts began to notice this town. However, due to the deterioration of Japan's domestic finances after the war, in the ten years from the end of the Russo-Japanese War to the beginning of 1915, the number of troops stationed in the Liaodong Peninsula  The Kanto Organization only managed to squeeze out less than 100,000 yen for the expansion of Wafangdian.

    This situation was alleviated with the end of the Sino-Japanese War in Shandong. Due to lack of preparation and being alone in the Shandong War, two elite Japanese divisions were annihilated and left in China, which greatly shocked the Japanese military.  Although Okuma Shigeto has been committed to suppressing the expansion of the Army, the Military Ministry took into account the importance of the Liaodong Peninsula and increased its military investment in the Liaodong Peninsula after allocating funds to build a number of permanent military fortresses in northern Korea.  As a result, Wafangdian received an allocation of more than 300,000 yen. After the Japanese drove away the Chinese aborigines in Wafangdian town, they used this allocation to double the size of the town and built multiple roads.  Trench line.

    A year later, the Sino-Russian war broke out. China¡¯s victory frightened the top Japanese military officials.  The top army officials were horrified to discover that, unknowingly, the neighboring country that they had once suppressed and lost an opportunity to rise to power now had the qualifications to challenge Japan's leadership in East Asia.  Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has always regarded its neighboring countries as its biggest competitors. In recent years, with the decline of the Republic of China, Japan has lowered its vigilance. As conflicts and frictions between China and Japan continue to be planned, Japan is worried about being taken back by the Chinese as an excuse.  The Japanese in the Liaodong Peninsula once again allocated more than 300,000 yen in early 2018 to expand Wafangdian.

    Today, this place has been built by the Japanese from an ordinary town into a military fortress no smaller than a county town in the mainland.

    The genius is slightly bright, and the siege of the National Defense Force has begun again.

    The first to roar were the two 108mm heavy artillery pieces of the 109th Artillery Brigade. After the past two days of fighting, the National Defense Forces, after paying a heavy price of more than 4,000 casualties, have understood how difficult the hard nut in front of them is.  Permanent military buildings were hit one after another by 60mm-caliber mortars, as if they were just out of reach. Even the 75mm standard infantry artillery could not destroy the buildings without frontal concentration.

    Like yesterday, with the roar of the Wehrmacht artillery, the Japanese artillery positions in the rear responded with fierce shelling. The artillery shells fell from the sky to the Wehrmacht positions with roars, and the violent explosions boiled the entire battlefield.

    Those were the two artillery brigades under the Japanese 17th Artillery Regiment that had just arrived to support them. They also brought more than 20 artillery pieces of various sizes, including four 158mm guns disassembled from naval battleships.  caliber of a heavy-duty modified howitzer, the shells exploded loudly after hitting the ground, throwing the soil and stones on the ground tens or even hundreds of meters into the air, and then fell back to the ground, like rain.  Even if the soldiers of the National Defense Force are not directly killed by the artillery shells, the stones and clods falling from the air may cause indirect damage to the soldiers.

    It can be said that the reason why the Japanese were able to hold on to Wafangdian even when half of the city fell was due to these four large-caliber heavy artillery.

    "Damn it, where is our artillery? Why don't the artillery fight back?"

    On the position, an officer wearing a major's epaulettes angrily took off his military cap and threw it to the ground.

    "My brothers wanted to go to the gun repair shop. They went in and laid down for two hundred. Where are our cannons? Why haven't the Japanese artillery and machine guns on the opposite side been turned off yet!"

    "It's nothing more than that he is so angry. They have been too frustrated in the past three days in Wafangdian."  On a position spanning dozens of miles, the defenders only had one infantry regiment, one infantry brigade, and two artillery regiments. Counting some Japanese troops who fled from the front line, the enemy had less than 7,000 people in total.  However, they concentrated two infantry divisions and mobilized more than a hundred artillery pieces of large and small calibers. They paid countless casualties, but they have not yet been able to capture Wafangdian.

    No one could answer him, and the artillerymen were also aggrieved.  The terrain of the Liaodong Peninsula is hilly, and because most of the railways are controlled by Japan, heavy artillery is inconvenient to move. It is difficult to keep up with the needs of the war ahead by relying solely on animal power.  Japan has been operating in the Liaodong Peninsula for many years. They are very aware of the importance of the Liaodong Peninsula. Therefore, the number of heavy firepower stationed by the Japanese troops stationed there far exceeds that of the local and Nanyang garrisons.

    The artillery fire from both sides is still exchanging blows.In the middle of the war, after more than two days of fierce attack, the National Defense Forces had cleared the Japanese peripheral defense line and invaded Wafangdian.  At present, except for a very few strongholds in this fortress, most areas are already controlled by the National Defense Forces.

    It¡¯s just that the Japanese¡¯s determination to resist was far beyond imagination. Once one front was lost, they immediately retreated and established another, relying on alleys and strongholds to hold on tenaciously.  Moreover, they also had dozens of artillery pieces and a large number of machine guns. As a result, they blocked the strong attack of the National Defense Forces and stubbornly blocked this key point.

    Under the roar of artillery, the god of war, even huddled in a trench is not safe, let alone there are no trenches.  The soldiers of the National Defense Forces who invaded the city had to find all the shelters that could provide cover to withstand the shell fragments and other flying objects falling from the sky. In the high-speed flying, even a stone no bigger than a fingernail would be damaged.  It can penetrate steel, let alone flesh and blood.

    An explosion sounded not far away, and General Tu Lin put down the Wafangdian military area drawn based on the high-altitude aerial photos taken by the Army Aviation reconnaissance aircraft, and also put down the scale in his hand.

    "Will the Japanese artillery fire be endless?"

    He frowned and sighed, "Just relying on accumulating strength to transport supplies from the rear, our artillery supplies cannot keep up with the troop consumption. The Japanese almost blew up most of the railway when they retreated, and repairs will take at least a month."

    Wafangdian must be captured as soon as possible, as it is adjacent to the coast.  Xizhong Island not far away was captured by the Republic of China Navy yesterday. More than 490 Japanese troops stationed on the island were all killed in battle and none surrendered. After the National Defense Forces captured Xizhong Island, as long as the navy can still control the coastal defense line, in the future  A steady stream of supplies can be landed on Xizhong Island and directly transported to the Liaodong Peninsula to supply the army.  Wafangdian is extremely important. It is not far from Xizhong Island. Once the National Defense Forces capture it, it will become a material transfer station.

    At this time, a major officer hurried into the bunker and handed a telegram to General Tu Lin.

    Tu Lin opened it and finally had a smile on his face.

    Fengtian ordered them to take Wafangdian no matter what, before sunset today. To this end, they transferred all the two bombing squadrons of the Army and Air Force that had just cooperated to destroy the last Japanese resistance force in Fuzhou, and also transferred them from the side of the storm.  A bombing squadron was transferred from Liangjia Store.  Cooperating with the three army aviation squadrons assigned to their battlefield, they were finally able to have a stronger deterrent against the Japanese.

    "Quick, the order goes down. The troops in the city broke away from the Japanese army and retreated to some blocks. The artillery units continued to conduct fire containment on the Japanese artillery positions. Our bomber group is about to arrive. Pass my order. Wafangdian must be captured before sunset!  "

    About ten minutes later, two Army aviation reconnaissance planes rushed to Wafangdian first, hovered at high altitude for a while and took pictures before returning.  About an hour later, there was a shocking roar from the north, and then the sky was filled with a group of Army Aviation bombers and two groups of escorting fighter jets.

    Looking at the huge fleet of hundreds of fighter planes, Tu Lin let out a sigh of relief.  On the current battlefield of the Liaodong Peninsula, the Air Force of the Republic of China has an absolute advantage. As long as the supply of fuel and ammunition can be guaranteed, they can continuously bomb Japanese positions and provide fire suppression for ground offensive forces.  The reason why the Republic of China was confident in taking over the Liaodong Peninsula and destroying the Japanese resistance forces in Port Arthur and Dalian in a short period of time also came from the sky.

    Throughout the morning, the sound of explosions in the entire Wafangdian area never stopped.  The Army Air Force fleet dispatched nearly 400 sorties in one morning alone, dropping nearly 700 tons of aerial bombs on Wafangdian and Japanese positions, destroying a large number of Japanese military buildings, and also dealt a heavy blow to Japanese artillery, killing and destroying artillery pieces.  Dozens of them forced the Japanese to withdraw their remaining artillery units and could no longer provide military protection to the Japanese defenders in Wafangdian as before.

    By two o'clock in the afternoon, after the last bombing, all the aerial bombs in the frontline inventory were briefly used up. When the Army Air Force fleet had to return, the entire Wafangdian was almost in ruins.

    This air raid went very smoothly, not only destroying three Japanese heavy artillery positions, one Japanese telegraph station, two supply points, and a hidden ammunition depot.  At the same time, the Japanese artillery was forced to retreat, and the Japanese troops who were still holding on suffered over a thousand casualties.

    Of course, Lu Airlines did not pay a price.  During the bombing, two Army Airlines planes collided, perhaps due to pilot fatigue, becoming the third group of aircraft to collide since the establishment of the Army Airlines of the Republic of China.  At the same time, another Raptor bomber crashed due to mechanical failure, and three other aircraft were shot down by Japanese ground machine guns.

    But compared with the results they achieved, this loss is completely acceptable.

    The warriors of the Army Aviation performed well, and the rest depends on the soldiers of the National Defense Army.

      When the retreating fleet of aircraft gradually disappeared from sight, General Tu Lin looked to the north until he could no longer see any planes. Then he came back to his senses and shouted to the adjutant, "Go down the order, the artillery does not need to continue."  Save artillery shells and provide fire support for the infantry brothers. I order to capture Wafangdian before sunset!"

    "yes!"

    At four o¡¯clock in the afternoon on April 24, the National Defense Forces captured Wafangdian.  Eleven hours later, Liangjia Store was captured.

    As soon as it goes, it is now on the Liaodong battle map of the National Defense Forces, leaving only the two strong cities and fortresses of Dalian and Lushun.
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