Chapter 87 All laws are inseparable

Since they wanted to capture Zhijiang in a hurry, the Japanese army tried their best to avoid attacking the fortifications at the beginning. To their surprise and surprise, they did not really need to attack fortifications along the way. After retreating. At this time, Banxi had rushed from Hengyang to Shaoyang, and personally commanded in the original command post of the 116th Division.Based on the report ahead, he concluded that the entire war situation, as previously expected, was moving in a direction favorable to the Japanese army. The last large-scale battle in the Anti-Japanese War - the Battle of Xiangxi (also known as the Battle of Xuefeng Mountain) has been fully launched.In Banxi's view, all the victories his predecessor had achieved in the Battle of Changheng were within his grasp, but he overlooked one point: the slight resistance ahead was just an appearance. In the core area of ​​Xuefeng Mountain, the Chinese army had begun to mobilize troops on a large scale.

As soon as the front-line gunshots rang out, Wang Yaowu held a senior staff meeting and decided to set up the headquarters in Anjiang and the front-line command post in Chenxi. The latter was stationed with most of the staff led by the Chief of Staff of the Front Army, Qiu Weida, and was directly responsible for the command of the campaign. As a think tank trained by the 74th Army, Qiu Weida spent the past two years at the Army University. The Army University is characterized by being good at cultivating senior staff. All outstanding students who graduated from the Army University have outstanding tactical planning. This is evident in Zhao Zili, Yu Chengwan and others.With the deepening of the frontal war of resistance, everyone has seen the importance of improving military literacy. Wang Yaowu has always been optimistic and positive about his subordinates applying for the Army University.

Army University is divided into three-year regular classes and two-year special classes.The former recruits students from the society and young junior officers in the army, while the latter mainly accepts applications from senior officers.Qiu Weida is studying in a two-year special class. The special class is different from the regular class. Because the students are all senior officers with military command experience, the courses are very targeted, and the instructors are all top-level tactical experts from the Army University.Under the guidance of the instructor, the students should revisit the tactical principles experienced on the battlefield in the classroom, and at the same time, according to the situation specified by the instructor, make plans, write orders, and perform various sand table tasks. Sometimes they have to go to the field Take live tactics lessons and simulate imaginary battles.

After two years of nurturing at the Army University, Qiu Weida has the possibility of further breakthroughs in tactical thinking and commanding ability. Wang Yaowu entrusted him with the commanding task to give him the opportunity to break through himself. Before the battle, both Qiu Weida and Wang Yaowu had predicted that the Japanese army would continue to adopt the "anti-aircraft furnace tactics", that is, to use heavy troops to detour the two wings and then break through from the center.Although the "Tianlu Warfare" suffered a defeat in the Battle of Changheng, this does not mean that the tactical thinking of "retreating for a decisive battle" and "fighting for the outside line" has become outdated.As Zhao Zili once pointed out, the biggest mistake of the command led by Xue Yue lies in not extending the depth and concentrating troops in a timely manner. If these two points can be improved, and we don’t make mistakes and fight steadily, The battle is hopeful.

In the past battles, the Chinese side usually chooses cities for retreat and decisive battles, but this time they want to choose the Xuefeng Mountains, and everyone believes that the latter is more favorable in terms of terrain than the former. Sun Tzu's Art of War has a saying: "Soldiers, the great affairs of the country, the place of death and life, and the way of survival must be carefully studied." Qiu Weida made an analogy based on this, saying that people live on the earth, just like ants live between hills and hills. , the terrain is slightly inconvenient, it is difficult to exercise.The same is true for the army. When encountering dangerous terrain, it will also restrict its actions and become constrained. Therefore, those who are good at using troops must understand the advantages and disadvantages of the terrain in advance.If you do not grasp the secrets of the terrain, you will fight by force, and it will be difficult to win the battle.

The geographical feature of Xuefeng Mountain is that there are overlapping mountains, rugged and dangerous roads, and the mountains are all in a north-south direction.It is exactly what Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese military strategist, called the "dead ground".In this regard, the Japanese army made mistakes both in strategy and tactics: strategically, they made the mistake of aggressively advancing, while tactically, they made the mistake of attacking fortified positions. After convening relevant combat personnel, including U.S. military advisers, Qiu Weida decided to adopt offensive and defensive tactics, that is, defend first and then attack.The combat of the Chinese army is also divided into two phases accordingly, the first phase is defense, and the second phase is offense.