Although the chief of staff cannot add fuel to the fire, as the deputy of the Baoding garrison headquarters, he has the responsibility to remind the brigade commander to stay rational.
Then he said to the brigade leader: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"An accident has occurred in the reinforcements. No matter how much we think about it, we can't change this fact."
"My humble position suggests that Baoding City be under martial law immediately. No one can leave the city without orders from the headquarters."
"As for when the Eighth Route Army's Yizhong Independent Brigade will return to their base area, and how long our attack troops operating in the Yizhong Eighth Route Army base area can hold on, we have no control or control."
"Anyway, Shijiazhuang has been captured by the Eighth Route Army. It doesn't matter how long the attacking troops hold on in the Eighth Route Army base area."
The brigade leader quickly regained his senses.
In order to reinforce Shijiazhuang and confuse the Eighth Route Army, the Baoding garrison sent more than 7,000 reinforcements. The total force dropped sharply from more than 13,000 to more than 6,000 in an instant.
Today, in order to destroy the highway, he lost nearly a thousand people in just one day, most of whom were the imperial troops who had few troops stationed in Baoding.
As a result, there are only a little more than 5,000 troops left in Baoding.
A thousand men were deployed in each direction of the city defenses, and some troops were allocated to protect important locations such as the arsenal. The mobile troops that the headquarters could directly mobilize were less than a thousand men.
If an accident does occur in Baoding City, this small number of mobile troops will be completely exhausted in a few hours.
The more he thought about it, the more solemn his expression became, and finally he ordered with a stern face: "I will do as you say, the whole city will be under martial law and no one will be allowed to leave or leave Baoding at will."
"As for the independent brigade returning to the base area, we can't control it even if we want to."
…………
At eight o'clock in the evening, a fire dragon slowly appeared on the road connecting Baoding City.
The Baoding City Wall, which is seven to eight meters high, is covered with various torches. The little devils led wires from nowhere, put dozens of searchlights on the top of the city, and swept them around three to four hundred meters outside the city to prevent the Eighth Route Army.
When passing by Baoding, they grabbed grass and hunted rabbits, and suddenly launched an attack on Baoding City.
The Japanese and puppet troops patrolled back and forth in neat formations on the top of the city. Dozens of black machine gun barrels extended from the shooting holes to the outside of the city, ready to shoot at suspicious targets discovered by searchlights.
Even the brigade leader climbed to the top of the city, holding a telescope to observe the fire dragon a few hundred meters away, hoping to learn more about his opponent and truly know himself and the enemy and win every battle.
"That's not right..." the chief of staff suddenly frowned and reminded the brigade commander beside him.
"Your Excellency, Commander, the forward troops of the Eighth Route Army did not continue to advance along the highway. They passed by Baoding and went directly towards Baoding City. Do they really want to hunt down rabbits and capture Baoding City together?"
The brigade leader's face instantly darkened.
He was not Zhan Xiaobai. He could not see the movement of torches in the distance until the Eighth Route Army might be coming to kill him.
He quickly ordered to the surrounding subordinates: "All troops must enter the position and prepare for battle."
"The searchlights will focus on the Eighth Route Army attacking us and fire illumination bombs. As soon as they enter the effective range of the light and heavy machine guns at the top of the city, I will hit them hard. I will not give the Eighth Route Army any chance to sneak attack on us."
What surprised the brigade leader.
He had prepared counterattack troops and counterattack artillery fire.
The Eighth Route Army advancing towards Baoding City was like a group of cunning foxes, always staying more than 300 meters away from the city head and refusing to rush forward even one meter.
The anxious brigade commander was sweating profusely, but there was nothing he could do.
I don’t know how long it took, but a subordinate suddenly shouted: “Your Excellency, Commander, do you think the Eighth Route Army is setting up artillery...”
"I heard from the Shijiazhuang garrison that when they attacked them, the Yizhong Independent Brigade used more than fifty mountain field guns and ten or twenty large-caliber heavy guns to storm the city. Many of the city defenses were destroyed by artillery shells without being used."
"In order to allow the limited troops to persist longer, they had to abandon city defenses and engage in street fighting with the Eighth Route Army, thereby weakening the Eighth Route Army's artillery superiority."
"If they bring all those mountain field guns and heavy artillery to the top of the slope, our city defenses will definitely suffer a devastating blow."
"Our location may also be subject to a devastating blow from the Eighth Route Artillery. Sir, please move away from here immediately."
Before the brigade commander answered, another report came to his ears: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"The Eighth Route Army parked outside the city began to attack. There was at least one battalion of troops, forming a line of skirmishers and rushing towards the city head at a very fast speed.
Facing the rapidly approaching Eighth Route Army, the brigade commander became anxious.
Immediately putting aside the worries of his subordinates, he decisively ordered: "All city defense troops are ready for battle."
"When the Eighth Route Army's attacking troops reached a position 150 meters outside the city, all the light and heavy machine guns on the city top and the participating troops opened fire, and the Eighth Route Army was not given any chance to get close to the city head."
"As long as they are not allowed to get close to the city wall, the Eighth Route Army's independent brigade will have no chance of entering Baoding.
“Dong dong dong… da da da…”
The Eighth Route Army's assault outside the city was very fast. In the blink of an eye, more than 30 light and heavy machine guns mounted on the top of the city began to spray flames.
The riflemen hiding behind the battlements were not idle either, and they started pulling the triggers on the suspicious targets they saw.
The battlefield shrouded in night is too dark, the number of searchlights is limited and it is impossible to illuminate all places outside the city, and the flares cannot make people see every corner outside the city.
The Japanese and puppet troops wanted to prevent the Eighth Route Army from approaching the city. The best way was to use firepower to block the outside of the city. If the Eighth Route Army ran into the firepower net, they would be beaten into pieces.
It's just that this kind of firepower network requires a very high density of bullets, forcing the Japanese and puppet troops at the top of the city to use their fastest fire rate to fire at predetermined positions outside the city.
Although it was a waste of bullets, the leader of the Little Japanese Brigade did not feel sad at all.
The arsenal in the city has more than one million rounds of various bullets stored in it. The Baoding garrison has only this few troops left, but it can't be used up even if it's hard to fight.
The combat effect is very good.
Through the telescope, the brigade commander clearly saw that the Eighth Route Army was blocked more than 100 meters in front of the formation and was unable to move forward.
"Yo Xi..." The brigade leader was obviously very satisfied with the result, and the corners of his mouth turned up unconsciously as he looked at it.
Gao Gao ordered: "The next battle will be fought like this."
"Use the most intense firepower to block the Eighth Route Army's attacking troops and not give them any chance to get close to the city."
"Even if there are only more than 5,000 people left in the Baoding garrison, it cannot be won by an independent brigade."
Seeing that the brigade commander was getting more and more excited as he spoke, the subordinate who had just reminded the brigade commander to pay attention to the artillery fire of the Independent Brigade was about to say a few more words, but he swallowed the words as he did not want to disturb the nature of the brigade commander at this time.
The chief of staff seemed to notice his worry and confidently comforted him: "Don't worry..."
"Baoding is different from Shijiazhuang. It took half a year to reinforce the city defenses. Even if the independent brigade is equipped with 10 or 20 heavy artillery, it cannot be easily destroyed."
"Moreover, the Eighth Route Army has no ammunition production capacity. All heavy artillery shells are captured. They should have almost used them in the Shijiazhuang battle. There are not many shells that can be used to attack us..."
