It is obvious that these Japanese troops did not know that the mountains had been occupied by the Chinese, which can be seen from the fact that they were still scattered soldiers moving towards the mountains.

This seems a bit unimaginable, and the Japanese Navy Air Force even threw supplies to the mountains.

But Zhang Chi thought that this should be caused by the lack of dialogue between the Japanese army and the navy... Although the Japanese aviation army saw soldiers in the mountains, they mistakenly thought it was their own people, so they did not bomb and did not warn the army. The army thought that their own planes were flying everywhere in the sky, and if there was danger, they would definitely tell them, so this incredible situation occurred.

Zhang Chi guessed right.

The Japanese Grandmaster, Eifu Nagazawa, who commanded this unit, was ordered to immediately launch an attack on the flank of the Central Team stationed in the Matanicau River after the Americans retreated.

Nagasawa Eifu dared not forget Maruyama Masao's advice to him: "The purpose of this battle is not to drive the enemy away, but to eliminate the enemy. Do you understand?"

Nagasawa Eifu understood this sentence from Masao Maruyama... If he just drove the enemy away, it would be a small victory. The enemy could continue to fight after retreating to the second line of defense, which would greatly extend the time when the imperial army seized the Guadalam-controlled airport.

But if this army is destroyed or besieged, it will be different. It will cause a blank space in the enemy's defense line, allowing the imperial army to easily break into the airport and destroy the entire defense line of the Sino-US coalition forces in one fell swoop.

It should be said that this plan is still feasible. First, the defense of the US military is mostly based on the defensive front by bombing a firewall with bullets and shells. Their weakness is to fight melee. Therefore, once such a defense line is broken through by the Japanese army and develops into melee combat, the combat effectiveness of the US military will decline in stages or even collapse, and then the Chinese team will be divided from the middle into several parts that cannot be connected.

More importantly, the terrain stationed on the Matanicau River has another characteristic, which is surrounded by the sea on one side.

Surrounding the sea on one side means that the Chinese team that surrounds the Matanicau River only needs to surround three sides... The Chinese team cannot escape from the sea. Not to mention that they have no escape tools, the sea has long been blocked by the Japanese Navy's warships. Even the Japanese Navy's warships and aviation forces can provide firepower support for the Japanese army's battle to seize the Matanicau River.

Therefore, Eifu Nagasawa believes that there should be no great difficulty in annihilation of this Chinese team.

First of all, in terms of troops, the 16th Regiment had more than 3,000 people, plus its own third battalion of more than 1,000 people, with a total force of more than 4,000 people. The 2,000 troops were encircled and annihilated the 2,000 troops... This was already a killer for the Japanese army. (Note: The Japanese army always thought that there were only 10,000 Chinese troops stationed in Guadalam. Therefore, it is estimated that the 2,000 Chinese troops stationed in Matanicao River will not exceed 2,000. In fact, there are more than 3,000 people in a regiment.)

Secondly, the Japanese army and naval aviation cooperation were coordinated, and they were both warships and aircraft, so Nagasawa Eifu wanted to...the Central Team that encircled and annihilated the Matanicau River was of course easy to capture. If the Chinese were even allowed to run away, he would have to have a cesarean section and apologize.

It should be said that the heroes have similar views. Nagasawa Eio first looked at the mountain located east of the Matanicau River. His plan was: After the troops occupied the mountain, they immediately divided it into two parts:

Some of them had two squadrons with about 400 people, and these people were arranged to defend the possible breakthrough of the Chinese people in the mountains.

The other part has about 800 troops... Two of the infantry squadrons plus a machine gun squadron and an artillery squadron. The task of this part is to penetrate the mountains and penetrate the rear of the Matanicau River and dig out the Central Team stationed in the Matanicau River from the Lunga defense circle. (Note: The elite Japanese troops are often equipped with artillery squadrons equipped with two infantry artillery at the first level of the brigade).

But what Nagasawa Hideo did not expect was that because he underestimated the enemy and believed that the aviation troops would inform the army of the latest situation, and was also worried that the action would expose his intention to intersperse too early, he did not even send anyone to reconnaissance or seize the mountains, which directly led to the third battalion being stopped at the mountains before he had time to divide his troops.

At this time, the third Japanese army brigade didn't even know that there was an enemy ambush on the mountain. He was still carrying a rifle to advance towards the mountain.

After thinking about it, Zhang Chi ordered to Commander Liang beside him: "Order the artillery troops to fire into the woods!"

"Yes!" Commander Liang responded, but he couldn't help but feel confused when he left.

He originally thought that Zhang Chi would let the artillery troops shoot in the open area between the mountains and the jungle, because this open area was the area where the Japanese army charged towards our positions, which could cooperate well with the first battalion to attack the Japanese army's live power and block their attack.

And firing fire into the jungle... no one knows if there are any Japanese in the jungle.

But Staff Liang did not ask much and quickly conveyed the order.

Soon, the howling sound of shells came from the air. It was caused by the US howitzer regiment, the howitzer battalion of the new regiment and the artillery force of various caliber. The shells poured from all directions into the jungle three hundred meters away, instantly blew the jungle in a ball of fire and smoke. From time to time, there were branches and crackling sounds when the trunks were exploded.

The Japanese army suffered a great loss this time... The infantry squadrons were walking in front, and the Japanese artillery squadrons and logistics troops were following behind. They were dragging artillery or carrying ammunition boxes with mules and horses, and were blown up by this round of artillery. Not only were the heavy equipment basically scrapped, but a considerable portion of the ammunition used by the troops was also destroyed in artillery fire.

Then Nagasawa Eio gave an order: "Go forward! Occupy the mountains!"

His order is correct under normal circumstances. The enemy bombards the jungle. Although the jungle can hide, it is well known that it is a high-risk area during artillery bombing... because shells are often blocked by shade and exploded on the head, which will double the lethality of the shells.

Therefore, the most urgent task at this time is to pull the troops out of the jungle.

However, what Nagasawa Hideo didn't know was that this was exactly what Zhang Chi wanted.

"Wait for my order!" Zhang Chi ordered: "Wait until the enemy approaches before fighting!"

It's been a long time since I equipped American weapons, in order to better utilize the firepower advantages of American equipment, the Expeditionary Force has basically not waited for the enemy to get closer before fighting. Today, it finally staged another time.

At this time, General Liang finally knew the reason why Zhang Chi asked the artillery to bomb the jungle.
Chapter completed!