Ten minutes passed, and Colonel Ishikawa did not receive any news about reinforcements.
He became anxious.
Judging from the time, the reinforcements should have already reached the Xiashibao stronghold. As long as they launch a sudden attack while the Eighth Route Army is not yet stable, they are still very confident that they can recapture the Xiashibao stronghold and continue to block the guerrilla brigade in the mountains.
As a result, they actually started disappearing with themselves.
At this time, a bold idea suddenly came to the mind of the chief of staff. He stared at the sand table and reminded Colonel Kawaguchi: "Sir..."
"Do you think the Eighth Route Army will really send reinforcements to the encirclement point..."
"Forcing us to send reinforcements by attacking the Shibao stronghold... The main force of the guerrilla brigade set up an ambush on the only way the reinforcements must pass... This way, we can not only capture the Shibao stronghold, but also severely damage our army's strength... Kill two birds with one stone..."
Kawaguchi Osaka shook his head like a rattle and retorted loudly: "Impossible...absolutely impossible..."
"I admit that the guerrilla brigade has very strong combat effectiveness, and various combat methods make it difficult for us to guard against..."
"But their troops are limited, and no matter how strong their combat effectiveness is, they cannot fight on two battlefields at the same time..."
"Furthermore, the Xiashibao stronghold has just been lost. If the Eighth Route Army wants to encircle the point for reinforcements, it must send troops across our army's blockade in advance and arrange an ambush battlefield."
"But before and during the attack on the Shibao stronghold, the main force of the Eighth Route Army was not found to have crossed the blockade under their noses..."
"They can take a small road to bypass the Shibao stronghold..." the chief of staff thought for a moment and reminded.
"You don't need heavy weapons to fight an ambush. The Eighth Route Army only needs to carry light and heavy machine guns and mortars..."
"These weapons and equipment can be completely dismantled and then marched on the soldiers' backs, and they can completely bypass the Shibao stronghold on mountain roads and trails."
"As for the strength of the guerrilla brigade..."
"The intelligence we have about the guerrilla brigade was collected three or four months ago."
"During this period, the guerrilla brigade has not been out in the mountains. Our intelligence personnel and scouts who went into the mountains to conduct reconnaissance also suffered devastating blows. The entire army was wiped out, and no intelligence was reported."
"So none of us know whether the guerrilla brigade expanded its troops during this period?"
"If their total strength increases from the more than 2,000 people we know to more than 3,000 people, they will have the strength to conduct a two-sided battle, besieging the Shibao stronghold while ambushing our reinforcements."
The chief of staff's analysis is particularly reasonable, but Colonel Kawaguchi prefers to trust his own judgment and the combat effectiveness of his troops.
Struggling to ask, "Even if the guerrilla brigade really wants to surround the site and provide reinforcements..."
"We have more than 2,000 reinforcements, half of which are the imperial army, and they are also equipped with radio stations. Even if we are ambushed by the Eighth Route Army, we won't even have time to send a telegram and report to the headquarters..."
"But we did not receive a request for help from the reinforcements, nor did we receive any reports of them being attacked..."
"I firmly believe that they are still intact, but they were delayed in something..."
"As for the guerrilla brigade's expansion from more than 2,000 people to more than 3,000 people in just three or four months...don't you think this is a joke?"
"Even if they recruit enough recruits in the mountains, it will only take three or four months for the recruits to initially form combat effectiveness."
"No matter how bold the guerrilla brigade is, they will not dare to come out of the mountain and engage in a decisive battle with our two to three thousand troops."
Colonel Kawaguchi said it right.
If the guerrilla brigade recruits new soldiers in the mountains and expands its troops from more than 2,000 to more than 3,000, it really would not dare to use a group of new soldiers to go head-to-head with the main force of the Japanese and puppet troops.
But he ignored one thing.
The more than a thousand recruits used by the guerrilla brigade to expand the army were all captured by the puppet army.
The puppet troops stationed in the Pingjin area were basically trained by the Japanese army themselves. They had very strong combat effectiveness, but they had no faith. Many people did not want to be stigmatized as traitors, which resulted in the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Association Army being far lower than the Japanese had expected.
After these people joined the Eighth Route Army, their whole demeanor and thoughts changed drastically, and they became a group of warriors with dreams and beliefs.
When the morale of the troops is high, the combat effectiveness will also be improved.
Coupled with the foundation that the Japanese had worked so hard to lay for them, the overall combat effectiveness of the guerrilla brigade was not only not affected by the expansion of the troops, but was greatly improved by their addition.
Time passed little by little, and there was still no news from the reinforcements.
At this time, Captain Kawaguchi himself began to have doubts about the idea he persisted in.
"Could it be that an accident really happened to the reinforcements to the Shibao stronghold? The Peiping guerrilla brigade really has the ability to fight on two fronts, and it consumes the strength of the Fangshan garrison by encircling the point and calling for reinforcements..." This idea also began to pop up in Colonel Kawaguchi's mind.
"Sir..." At the critical moment, an exclamation from the door brought Colonel Kawaguchi back to reality from his entanglement. He looked up and saw a lieutenant rushing in with a panic on his face.
"We followed the reinforcements to the Xiashibao stronghold for reconnaissance on the road... We found a large number of corpses of the Imperial Army and the Imperial Association Army about ten kilometers away from the Xiashibao stronghold..."
"Initial judgment should be reinforcements..."
"Judging from the number of corpses, the more than a thousand Imperial Army troops in the reinforcements should have been completely destroyed. More than 300 Imperial Army soldiers died, and more than 700 remaining were captured by the Eighth Route Army."
"All the weapons and ammunition equipped by the reinforcements were also lost."
"In order to report the news to the headquarters as early as possible, Beizhi immediately divided the reconnaissance team into two. Half of the scouts returned to the county with Beizhi and reported to the superior about the attack on the reinforcements. Half of the scouts continued to investigate the Shibao stronghold.
Go forward and determine whether the stone fort is really captured by the Eighth Route Army."
"The cavalry is fast, and there should be news coming back soon."
Colonel Kawaguchi stood there in confusion for a while before he reacted. Then he stared at the lieutenant and asked seriously: "Are you sure that the corpses seen by the reconnaissance team are from the reinforcements?"
"Hai..." the lieutenant replied firmly.
"Except for reinforcements, no other troops around the battlefield have so many imperial troops."
"More than a thousand corpses of the imperial army fell on the battlefield, just like a full infantry brigade, which was exactly the same strength as the reinforcements dispatched."
"Sir..." Before Colonel Kawaguchi could recover from the shock of this bad news, another report sounded at the door.
A second lieutenant scout ran in panting: "I have been ordered to go to the Shibao stronghold to reconnoiter the enemy's situation."
"When we arrived at the Xiashibao stronghold, the battle was over. The Eighth Route Army successfully captured the stronghold and was cleaning the battlefield."
"The total strength exceeds one reinforced battalion, many fortifications in the stronghold were destroyed by the enemy, and not a single garrison broke out from the stronghold."
