It makes sense that the Japanese army did not reinforce Xibu.

At this time, the two most important strongholds for the Japanese army should be Lashio and Mandalay.

Once the Japanese 56th Division was lost in Lashio, the defense line of the 18th Division of the Japanese army would be opened, and the Chinese army would drive straight into the south along the Irrawaddy River.

So although Xibu is important, these two strongholds will never send reinforcements from Xibu, otherwise it would be like picking up sesame seeds and throwing watermelons.

"Mr. Commander!" When he knew that Xibu was surrounded, Shinichi Tanaka hung up the phone again to the military command center: "Xibu has been surrounded, and I think the next target of the Chinese army will be Mandalay! Please be sure to prepare for reinforcements to Mandalay!"

"Tanaka-kun!" Honda Masato replied impatiently: "It is normal for the Chinese army to appear in Xibu. Their purpose is to cut off the connection between Mandalay and Lashio, so that our army cannot continue to reinforce Lashio. As for the Chinese attack on Mandalay... Don't worry, the British will not allow the Chinese army to do this!"

The British did not allow Chinese troops to move south, which was no secret for the Japanese. The Japanese even knew why the British troops had such a strange behavior in the First Battle of Myanmar... The British would rather leave the supplies to the Japanese than to the Chinese.

Therefore, these words from Honda Masato are reasonable... The British army in history did not allow the Chinese army to go further south. Xibu was the southernmost position captured by the Chinese Expeditionary Force. Since then, the Chinese army has never been able to return to such a south-south place in Myanmar for decades.

But now history has changed. Because of the crisis in the Impal war situation, the British had to make concessions on this point, so Xibu was no longer the southernmost stronghold led by the Chinese army.

In other words, the news about the Honda Masahisa is actually lagging behind and outdated.

This directly led to Masato Honda focusing all his attention on Lashio... The town of Lashio was gathered at this time with two infantry corpses of the 18th Division and an artillery corps, as well as a corps of the 56th Division, with a total force of nearly 20,000.

There are two divisions in the Chinese army, and there are more than 20,000 people, so this is a even-match battle.

Of course, the air superiority and logistical advantages of the Chinese army have been automatically ignored by Honda Masao. Honda Masao hopes... With the efforts of the 18th Division and the 56th Division, they can defeat the Chinese army in Lashio, and then Lashio and Mandalay will naturally form a situation of attacking Xibu on both sides. Therefore, reinforcement of Xibu is unnecessary.

The Battle of Xibu was initiated at 2 pm. The Chinese army poured a large number of shells at Xibu as soon as it came up... Although the fire sea tactics are not very clever, they can undoubtedly clear a large number of obstacles for the offensive troops, especially before the first attack, because before the first attack, the Japanese army often buried a large number of mines, traps, bamboo stick arrays, etc. in front of the position. If the attack is not launched once, it will cause unnecessary combat reductions.

The artillery bombed Xibu for half an hour. In addition to sweeping away Xibu's house, the shells even cleaned up the big trees in front of the Japanese positions.

Then the Expeditionary Army soldiers drove up to the Japanese defense line under the cover of the m3 tank.

Of course, the only thing that went up at the beginning was a small number of tanks and troops... This is a common tactic used by the Chinese Expeditionary Force against the Japanese army, which was mainly due to the insufficient performance of the m3 tank.

m3 Stuart tank... Expeditionary soldiers love and hate it.

I love it because this kind of tank has made many achievements on the battlefield and often defeats the Japanese armored troops on the battlefield, especially when dealing with Japanese infantry.

I hate it because it lacks protection, and the war defense artillery in the hands of the Japanese army can easily destroy the m3 tank from the front.

So when using this kind of tank to fight the Japanese army, the Chinese army could only use one tactic: first use a small number of tanks to test the number and position of the war defense artillery owned by the Japanese army, and then they dare to send the tanks on a large scale to launch an effective attack.

But after a try, the Chinese army was surprised to find that the Japanese army defending Xibu had almost no heavy equipment, let alone war defense artillery, which directly led to the Chinese army's tentative troops almost breaking through the Japanese army's defense line.

A Japanese army of more than 4,000 people was not equipped with war defense artillery?!

This made Chen Shanguo, the commander of the New First Division, a little unbelievable. He once doubted whether this would be a conspiracy of the Japanese army, or that the Japanese army was preserving their strength, with the purpose of attracting the tanks of Chinese troops to go up and then launching a fatal blow to the Chinese army.

"What do you think?" Wang Mazi asked Zhang Chi.

"It should be true!" Zhang Chi replied: "It is very likely that Xibu's Japanese devils do not have heavy equipment!"

After pausing, Zhang Chi continued: "The reason is that Xibu is the Japanese soldiers' replenishment base. The Japanese soldiers here need to be replenished to the front line. They had never thought about defending here before. So... although there are many soldiers here, there are few heavy equipment!"

"Yes!" Wang Mazi nodded: "Their heavy equipment should be concentrated in Lashio and Mandalay. If this is the case, they will be in trouble!"

As he said that, Wang Mazi reported this judgment to his teacher Chen Shanguo.

The order was soon dropped: with the cooperation of artillery and tank battalions, we will resolutely annihilate the enemy of Xibu.

The next scene was a big deal. There were more than 40 tanks in a tank battalion, and several Shermans were also the ones who led the charge... Sherman tanks were called Langson lighters in just one go when facing German tanks, but they were invincible Iron King Kong when facing the Japanese army.

Dozens of tanks majesticly covered a regiment of soldiers pushing forward as the artillery fire extended.

The battle situation was indeed as Zhang Chi predicted. The Japanese army did not have many war defense artillery in their hands, and even heavy machine guns were pitifully few... The only war defense artillery was damaged by bullets and shells poured out from the three armies of the Chinese army before it even showed its power.

The tactics of the joint infantry and tanks played a full role at this time. Each tank was like a moving fortress. These fortresses easily used tank guns to destroy the Japanese firepower points, easily blocked the machine gun holes of the Japanese army's consortium, and even directly crushed their bunkers... Then the infantry following followed rushed forward, and guns and grenades knocked the Japanese army that survived trying to escape or struggle to fight back to the ground.
Chapter completed!