Chapter 9: The Battle Of Yan’an.
On the 4th of June, I start moving troops to begin the assault on Wuqi, the last PRC province before the capital.
Partisans rise up just in Jiaozhou, just south of Qingdao. Thankfully, they start moving away from the city itself. I have 1 infantry division in reserve, but it is sitting in Shanghai. It will be a while before they can catch up to them.
There are massive differences in the number of casualties. Sometimes I get a 10:1 ratio. Sometimes, the losses are less than stellar. I started the attack when there were only about 3 divisions there. By the time it was over, they had been massively reinforced and I had nobody to spare at the time.
On the 8th, I begin attacking Wuqi. To my surprise, it is defended by Mao Zhedong himself. He will do a good job slowing me down, even with mostly HQs and militia and all his forces disorganised. It is the mountaineers that are the real tough nut to crack. It may not be obvious from the shot, but there were units from practically all warlords here. In 1936, they were still happily killing each other. Now they send troops to save their former enemy.
Not that it actually stops me. After 4 days, Wuqi falls. If his forces had been at full strength, I might have ended up paying a lot more for this victory. Still, they will be able to send in a new batch of troops and force me to start over.
While all this is happening, I get a new fuel warning. The only ships still in operation are the carriers and a trio of submarines that I am using as scouts. I finally figure out why I am getting fuel warnings. Japan’s support brigades are mostly truck-towed (except the ones I build) in stead of horse-towed. This is done to simulate the large number of “tanks” (really just armoured cars) they had available. It means they all need fuel, and they are all fighting and moving all the time. Something to keep in mind for the future.
Nanchang and Wuhan. So close and yet so far away. I can’t go for Wuhan, because the division stationed at its edge is busy with a spoiling attack to stop a Chinese attempt at a breakthrough. If I let them, they could get some of my men in danger and maybe even split my frontlines. It will take me a couple of weeks and some reinforcements before I manage to stop their attack.
Nanchang is heavily defended. It too will have to wait until I can close a ring around them.
Once that happens, there will be a couple of VPs nearby to grab, but that is not for this chapter.
On the far end of the front, I am keeping the enemy forces busy with pinning attacks so that my other division can hug the coastline and, perhaps, steal a port/VP from behind their backs.
I finally manage to corner those damn partisans. Damn annoying little gnats that they are, they will be easily destroyed, but I still will have to repair the supply line to Qingdao and Weihai. Partly as a result of this, I start getting supply issues further south.
On the 16th, another victory in Wuqi.
Two days later, Yan’an is surrounded. I am more than a little worried about the size of that stack, but I knew that was the risk.
I don’t want to give them time to reinforce, so I immediately start the attack. 157,000 men are thrown into the cauldron. My troops in Hancheng and Wuqi will face a constant barrage of attacks. The ones inWuqi never get troubled all that much, since they have the mountains and forts to protect themselves from the troops coming from Xibei. But it is troublesome. Whenever one attack ends, the next one begins. Not that I mind it if they want to tire themselves out trying to get past my 1 tank division with militia and sub-par support units.
The ones in Hancheng, however, face a more resolute counter-attack that forces me to divert an extra 2 divisions there (1 infantry and the Imperial Guards) just to help the defense. You may notice in some of my later shots, that the progress gets all the way into the 30s. What’s more, they start bombing my men at just about the only point in the whole front that is completely out of range of any of my airfields. I have no choice but to accept the losses. I only hope that the victory doesn’t end up being too costly. In HPP, you pay the price for throwing away thousands of your men’s lives in a single battle.
A lot is riding on this besides the risk of War Exhaustion and grumbling back home. Defeat here will mean the whole 2nd Army will be in jeopardy, and with it, the whole Western end of my frontline. The only thing standing between them and Manchukuo at that point would be Mengkukuo’s single militia division.
Hancheng must hold!
Another determined counterattack on Wuqi is thrown off. The Chinese casualty ratios are stunning. After this one, all they will be able to offer here, are tiny pinpricks by single divisions, until the very end when they amass a new stack.
Of course, elsewhere, the war doesn’t stop either. The whole front is a confusing mix of attacks and counterattacks. By this point, I have managed to get something of a unified frontline going, but the odds only seem to grow as the Chinese just open a new case, filled with shiny new divisions, and the numbers are getting the better of my troops. A little later on, I will again be in a better position to support my attacks from neighbouring provinces and the pressure will ease off just a little.
Just look at those numbers. 51K gone. I don’t know just how many were PRC and how many were NRC or Xibei. And just east of Wuqi, another 27K are waiting.
This is without a doubt the highlight of the war so far. Over a month of fighting and dying has finally paid off. I am actually tired from the concentration. Considering how many times I have done Barbarossa with the Germans in vanilla, that is quite a feat. Hats off to the people of HPP!
While it didn’t count as a costly victory in terms of added War Exhaustion, one look at my production tab about 1 day later, says it all. 25% of my IC is needed to keep reinforcements going. Truly stunning, when compared with the breezy Vanilla game earlier.
Next: Two down, Four to go.
