Time travel! Regrets will never happen again!

Chapter 129: Decisive Battle in North China 5

Saburo Inada raised his Nambu pistol in his hand as the commander of the Japanese Army's 3rd Tank Division.

His pride would not allow him to be taken prisoner, nor could he be taken prisoner, otherwise his family would suffer the most severe punishment and liquidation.

With a "bang", the bulkhead behind Saburo Inada's seat was splattered all over with brain matter and blood from his exploding head.

Saburo Inada chose to commit suicide, and the remaining dozen or so Japanese tanks raised a white loincloth.

This armored battle, which lasted for six hours, came to an end. As a result, more than 6 tanks of the Japanese 260rd Tank Division were wiped out in the wasteland on the outskirts of Zhangjia K.

第一装甲旅也付出了损失31辆T34-85，12辆43型重型坦克的代价，阵亡的装甲兵高达179人。

This made Wang Chun and the senior leaders of the 78th Army very distressed when they learned the news. Tanks can be replaced, but the loss of personnel is the most heartbreaking.

But how can there be no casualties in a war? After the war, Wang Chun began to reflect on himself. If there had been more and stronger armored forces on the Zhangjia K front line at that time.

Then there would be no need to sacrifice so many young lives!

Neiji Okamura, who was in charge of Zhangjia K, almost witnessed this epic Sino-Japanese tank battle with his own eyes.

Perhaps this scale of battle could only be considered a medium-sized battle in the eyes of the Soviet Union and Germany, but for China and Japan, which were both poor in resources, it had already set a record for both sides.

Looking at the destroyed and burning tanks scattered across the wasteland, Okamura Neiji stood there in silence for a long time.

How many more defeats can the empire afford? This is what almost all the Japanese commanders in Zhangjia K thought.

This was a fair and direct confrontation. The Type 3 and Type 4 tanks equipped by the 3rd Tank Division were the most powerful tanks in the empire.

This powerful armored force, which was considered by the Japanese military to be invincible in the Asian continent, was now completely wiped out in a battle with an armored brigade under the Chinese 78th Army.

It is conceivable how much impact such a result would have on the Japanese army.

In fact, what the Japanese army did not know was that it was not just the 60st Armored Brigade that was fighting against them, and those 43 Type heavy tanks did not belong to the st Armored Brigade.

They have just joined the active service and were sent there to adapt to the environment and allow the crew members to experience the combat performance of this heavy tank.

Since the purpose was to test combat performance and run-in, it was naturally sent to the strongest 1st Armored Brigade on the front line. In this way, this heavy tank regiment was temporarily incorporated into the 1st Armored Brigade.

How could there be an armored brigade in this era with nearly 200 main battle tanks, except for the heavy armored combined brigade of the rabbits in the future, which is the most powerful BUG on Blue Planet.

The battle broke out prematurely because of the Japanese army's active attack. Like the tank decisive battle on the ground, the fighting in the air also ended after three days.

More than 400 fighter planes of various types belonging to the Japanese Third Air Group were completely defeated in the three-day battle.

In fact, compared with ground tank battles, the equipment and tactical gaps in air combat are even greater. By now, the Japanese have lost even their advantage in personnel quality.

Large numbers of outstanding veteran pilots were sent to the Pacific battlefield, where they fought with American pilots.

Dozens of excellent pilots died in battle almost every day. The war that lasted for several years had basically exhausted all the reserves of the Japanese army, even the talent reserves!

Only a small number of pilots in the current 3rd Flight Squadron are experienced pilots, and the rest are recent graduates from aviation schools.

Moreover, such aviation schools only have short-term training courses lasting four months, which is basically the same as the training course duration of the 78th Group Army’s aviation school.

However, the 78th Army Aviation Brigade is now flying the latest combat aircraft, while the Japanese army only has the Zero to continue to carry the main force.

The Zero was almost crushed in all aspects when facing China's new fighter jets.

However, the air battle was very ugly, with a large group of rookie pilots having almost no tactics in the air.

In the end it's purely a competition of fighter jet performance. As for flying skills, forget it. How strong of a flying skill can you expect a rookie to have?

Today, the 78th Group Army has more than 2000 pilots, of whom only about are veteran pilots, and the rest are flight trainees.

The wheels of war have been set in motion; they cannot and will not be allowed to stop.

Okamura Neiji immediately adjusted the combat deployment, defending the entire Zhangjia K and grassland, while strengthening the defense in the Beijing-Tianjin area.

Nearly 600 anti-aircraft guns sent by the Kwantung Army and the country were all deployed in several important cities, while the North China Expeditionary Army and the Japanese th Army stationed in Jiaodong Province.

The Japanese army decided to defeat the Second and Fifth War Zones and the Central Army of the First War Zone on the southern front. Especially the current situation in Central Plains Province is really a godsend for the Japanese army.

Jiang Dingwen, this greedy and lustful guy, has now been troubled by the civil unrest, and nearly 200,000 national troops in the First War Zone are running around in a desperate situation.

Fires were put out everywhere, but the local people had completely lost hope in the government and would rather cooperate with the Japanese.

Originally, the main force of the Japanese army was tied down in the Zhangjia K, Beijing and Tianjin areas, but with the destruction of the 3rd Tank Division, the Japanese army was forced to choose defense on this front.

The Fifth War Zone and part of the Second War Zone's troops, which had been fighting successfully on the southern front, were suddenly attacked from both sides by the Japanese troops heading south and the Japanese 12th Army, which had assembled in Jiaodong Province and was originally planning to attack the Red Party.

Although the fighting on this front was very intense, the hundreds of thousands of Central Army troops seemed to be oppressing the Japanese army with the force of a mountain.

In just seven or eight days, they had captured a large area of ​​territory occupied by the Japanese army.

As soon as the Second and Fifth War Zones learned that the 78th Army had annihilated the Japanese 78rd Tank Division at Zhangjia K, they wanted to take advantage of the Japanese army's disastrous defeat and inevitably transferred most of their troops to the Chahar area to fight to the death with the th Army.

Hebi was the only isolated city left in the entire northern part of the Central Plains Province. If it were not for the tank battalion, the 15th Independent Mixed Brigade in the city would have been lost to the attack of more than 100,000 Central Army troops.

The reason why it has not been conquered yet is that Zhongyuan Province has been devastated by various natural and man-made disasters in the past two years and has become like a hell on earth.

The troops of the Second and Fifth War Zones received no support from the local people at all, and even their logistics troops were often attacked.

At this time, the 23rd and 32nd Divisions stationed in Liaocheng and Heze and the 20th and th Independent Brigades in Handan area cooperated with nearly Imperial Army troops to suddenly rush towards Zhongyuan Province.

This action of the Japanese army was beyond the expectations of almost everyone. Even the 78th Army did not expect that the Japanese would suffer a major defeat on the northern front.

They actually launched an offensive against the more than 100,000 troops in the Second and Fifth War Zones of the Central Army on the southern front.

Li Deling and Yan Xishan were stunned by the Japanese army's massive move. The more than 100,000 Central Army troops on the southern front were almost defeated by the attack of two divisions, two independent brigades and 200,000 puppet troops of the Japanese army.

The 22nd Army of the Guangxi clique fought desperately, hoping to buy time for the retreat of other troops in the Fifth War Zone, but their retreat route to Anhui Province was cut off by the Japanese army.

In the end, the hundreds of thousands of troops from the Second War Zone and the Fifth War Zone had to retreat to Shanxi Province.

These Central Army troops would never agree to retreat south. Everyone knows what the Central Plains Province is like now. Even their food rations cannot be guaranteed if they go to the First War Zone.

After losing 6 soldiers, the remaining nearly troops in the two war zones retreated to Changzhi, Shanxi Province with difficulty.