Facing the Japanese and puppet troops' advancing raids, just as Kato Shigesuke expected, Zhang Yunfei took active defense, instead of having to make emergency transfers in the face of the enemy's raids as before.

Today's Japanese and puppet troops are no longer what they used to be, and they cannot be allowed to wreak havoc in the base areas. Life is difficult for everyone these days.

In the past, when the Japanese were powerful, they could only be forced to relocate when faced with raids. Now, the situation has changed.

The Japanese and puppet troops who invaded the base area this time were only a hundred or so Japs, and they barely had some combat effectiveness.

As for the thousands of puppet troops, they were simply a hodgepodge of direct descendants of Wang and the puppets from North China, direct descendants of Li Jianfeng, as well as captured prisoners and local factions.

These forces are mixed together and kneaded together. It takes time to subtly integrate, and it is difficult to truly form a combat effectiveness.

Even if the puppet army has formed a fighting force, that's all. What's more, Zhang Yunfei is not afraid of such a group of things.

To be honest, Zhang Yunfei also wanted to have a good winter, but reality did not allow it. These guys insisted on coming to the base to cause damage, so naturally they had to accept the challenge and fight back resolutely.

For Takahashi Ryuzaburo, it was the Eighth Route Army that forced him to carry out raids, while for Zhang Yunfei, it was the little Japs who were dishonest and unwilling to give up.

They all felt that the other party had forced them into a corner and had to fight. This was mainly due to their differences in stance.

Although Xincheng is wealthy, it cannot support so many military supplies. Now there are troops directly under the Puppet Fifth Group, the Japanese garrison of various counties, Wang Zhengyi, Huang Haohai, and Zhang Yunfei's New Ninth Regiment in the Xincheng area.

There are a total of five to six thousand people. The wealth of this area is only relative to other mountainous areas. In fact, it is still a mountainous area and not much richer.

In the past, it was not a problem for the Japanese and puppet troops to have material supply support from the Japanese. Now the supply has basically been cut off. Most of the materials need to be raised locally, so the pressure is naturally great.

As for Zhang Yunfei's New Ninth Regiment, in the past, both in terms of scale and material supply, they were suppressed to the minimum and minimum consumption.

In difficult times, the roots and bark of trees are eaten, and the leaves are stripped bare, so that we can persevere.

Now that the army wants to develop and grow, it naturally needs a larger territory and more supplies and food. It can no longer just survive as it did before.

In fact, the Xincheng area cannot support so many troops, and conflicts between the two sides are inevitable.

Zhang Yunfei had somewhat anticipated this situation. Now food and other necessities for daily life will not be available after they control the vast countryside.

Most of the food is firmly controlled by themselves and local organizations. The amount that the Japanese and puppet troops can collect is limited. It would be strange if they don't make some mistakes if they are anxious.

Winter is coming soon, and if they don't take this opportunity to get some food, unless they get food supplies from above, the Japanese and puppet troops will starve throughout the winter.

But now the Japanese are like this. There is a shortage of supplies everywhere, especially in Shanxi Province, which has many mountainous areas. The food production itself is insufficient. Even the food in some basin plain production areas in central Shanxi cannot meet the consumption of the local garrison. Where to go?

Mobilize food supplies?

Even if the Japanese could allocate a batch of food, it would only be for appeasement and the quantity would not be too large.

And our Eighth Route Army is equivalent to holding the enemy's food bag. The Japanese can't sustain their material supply needs only by relying on the palm-sized areas around the county.

Now that the autumn grain has come down, if the enemy wants the food, he can only take it from his own hands. It is not difficult to guess the enemy's movements.

Therefore, after receiving the intelligence that the Japanese and puppet troops were concentrating on the new city, Zhang Yunfei secretly transferred his troops to the northern area of ​​the base area to wait.

Zhang Yunfei set up his net and prepared to ambush the invading Japanese and puppet troops.

Kato Shigesuke felt that the New Ninth Regiment was the culprit for the Imperial Army's current passivity. Similarly, Zhang Yunfei also felt that the Japanese and puppet troops in Xincheng were the destroyers of the current good situation of stability and unity.

Look at Wang Zhengyi, who is committed to developing southward, actively helping himself, becoming self-sufficient, and even having some spare energy to support himself.

Unlike the group of Japanese and puppet troops in Xincheng, they only know how to use their brains to get something for nothing.

Zhang Yunfei naturally couldn't coddle them, so he had to teach them a lesson.

Teach them how to be a good person. If they really don't listen, then I hope they will be good people in their next life.

Zhang Yunfei was plotting against the Japanese and puppet troops, and Kato Shigesuke was also cautious in his move south this time. He was also plotting against Zhang Yunfei, and was on high alert for the Eighth Route Army to suddenly jump out and attack.

Therefore, he gathered the Japanese and puppet troops together for a group operation, and all the leading soldiers in the front were replaced by Japanese soldiers. At the same time, when marching, he focused on observing the two wings.

Although he concentrated his troops to act together, he did not mean to gather the troops together. He divided all the Japanese and puppet troops into three teams, with each team separated by about one or two kilometers.

In this way, even if they are ambushed, not all of them will be hit, and no matter which part of the unit is attacked, they can immediately support each other.

The Japanese had a deep understanding of the Eighth Route Army's sneak attacks and did not dare to be careless at all.

Kato Shigesuke's idea was not unsound, it was all based on painful experience, but he overlooked one thing, that is, the combat effectiveness of the puppet army he led was far from as strong as he imagined.

This puppet army has never been smoothed internally. It can be said that there is no trust between the puppet army officers who were later transferred and the local officers.

Moreover, most of the puppet troops in this unit were remnants of the defeated troops in the last battle to seal the ridge. They had narrowly escaped death and were really scared of being beaten.

In the battle of Fengling, he was defeated so miserably that he lost all his courage and had a serious fear of Zhang Yunfei's troops.

If they fight again, these people will most likely collapse at the first touch, and the effect Kato expected will not be achieved at all.

Moreover, he did not notice that his behavior caused great dissatisfaction among the puppet army officers.

The nature of this puppet army has changed. They are nominally directly subordinate to Wang Puppet. Although they only have one regiment, their commander is a lieutenant general.

At this level, he has some connections and arrogance. A person like him, even when the Japs were in their heyday, would not deliberately flatter the little Japs.

Even if it is necessary to curry favor with the Japanese, it must only be done by a powerful and powerful high-ranking member of the Japanese, at least someone with a rank or higher.

Even if it was inferior, he still needed to be a lieutenant colonel, a real authority among majors. As for a small captain, he had never taken it seriously.

So no matter what, he should be the commander of the joint forces this time, but Kato Shigesuke unceremoniously took away his authority and completely made him a subordinate.
Chapter completed!