Especially when waiting for a possible bad news, everyone feels like their days are like a year.
Especially Okamura Neji.
Although the safety of the reinforcements will not affect his future, it is related to the safety of Peking, and even more to the face of the North China Front and himself. Its importance is self-evident.
At this moment, he was having a harder time than anyone in the war room.
"Sir..."
An exclamation suddenly sounded at the door of the war room, and the scout who everyone was waiting for finally rushed to the door of the war room panting heavily.
The chief of staff was also very anxious.
If an accident occurs to the reinforcements, resulting in the North China Front Army and its commander being embarrassed, and Peiping being thrown into crisis, as the Chief of Staff of the Front Army, I will definitely have to bear considerable joint responsibility.
Quickly asked: "Have any reinforcements been found..."
"Where have they killed? How long will it take to get to Fangshan County to join the war..."
"besides……"
"What happened to the radio they equipped? Why did they lose contact with the headquarters and the Fangshan garrison..."
The scout was confused by the chief of staff's series of questions. He took several deep breaths to calm himself down, and then answered: "We have found reinforcements for the westward march..."
"but……"
Seeing the scout's hesitant expression, he seemed to have something to hide. The chief of staff became even more anxious and continued to ask: "But what but..."
"If you have something to say, just say it...what does it look like to hesitate..."
"There's no result we can't accept, just tell us..."
The scout could only bite the bullet and report: "But when we found the reinforcements going south, they had already had an accident..."
"A full infantry brigade and two cavalry squadrons were all killed..."
"When we arrived at the battlefield, the Eighth Route Army was still cleaning the battlefield. The total strength was at least one battalion."
"There were only a dozen of us and we didn't dare to get too close. We took a few glances from a distance and after confirming that all the reinforcements had been destroyed, we left the battlefield and returned to Peking to report the situation."
"The humble position left half of the scouts to keep an eye on the battlefield..."
"As soon as the Eighth Route Army retreats, they can enter the battlefield and find out how the reinforcements were wiped out by the Eighth Route Army..."
"How can this be……"
Although the chief of staff already had a bad premonition that the reinforcements might encounter an accident, his first reaction after hearing the bad news was still disbelief.
But it is impossible for a scout to joke about such a big thing and lie about the military situation, which means that an accident has really happened to the reinforcements.
Although I don’t know how the Eighth Route Army did it, the facts cannot be changed.
He immediately asked Okamura Neji, who was standing next to him with a look of astonishment on his face: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"An accident happened to the reinforcements, and it was too late to redeploy troops to reinforce Fangshan County... And Fangshan County is in danger, and one of the city gates has been breached by the Eighth Route Army..."
"I'm worried that we will lose Fangshan County..."
"At that time, Peiping will be in crisis and may be attacked by the Eighth Route Army guerrilla brigade at any time..."
Okamura Neji's first reaction after being shocked was anger.
I thought I knew enough about the Eighth Route Army guerrilla brigade, calculated their strength and equipment, and determined that they would not be able to send too many troops for reinforcements, so I was confident in sending a reinforced brigade to reinforce Fangshan.
Unexpectedly, despite all calculations, I still underestimated the combat effectiveness of the guerrilla brigade.
They can attack the Fangshan garrison and reinforcements at the same time, which shows that their combat effectiveness is very powerful.
Once Fangshan is captured, with the combat effectiveness shown by the guerrilla brigade on the Fangshan battlefield, even if Peiping cannot be conquered, the large and small strongholds outside the city and the garrison will definitely not be a match. All the troops entering and leaving Peiping City, the Japanese, and the Chinese who work for the Japanese
...may be attacked...
Then Beiping City will definitely be in chaos.
Moreover, they were also equipped with a lot of mountain and field artillery, and a lot of them were captured in the Fangshan battle.
As long as they fight to the outside of the city and place a mountain cannon outside the city wall, even the inside of Peiping City will be attacked.
The more Okamura Neji thought about it, the more solemn his expression became, and in the end he didn't dare to think about it anymore.
Suddenly he punched the table where the sand table was, stared at the sand table, and asked the chief of staff sternly: "The maximum number of troops that Beiping City can mobilize..."
The chief of staff didn't know what Okamura Neiji's purpose was in asking this question, but he still answered dutifully: "The Peiping garrison has too many places to defend... At most, a reinforcement brigade can be dispatched to reinforce Fangshan..."
"If we gather more, we can assemble a regiment of the Imperial Alliance Army."
"A regiment is stationed at Peiping Airport..."
"If we could find a way to block the Eighth Route Army guerrilla brigade to the west of Fangshan, or find a way to severely damage the guerrilla brigade..."
"We only need to leave one infantry brigade to ensure the security of the airport. If it is to deal with the Eighth Route Army guerrilla brigade... the airport can also mobilize two brigade..."
Okamura Neji shook his head and replied: "It's still too little..."
"This battle is too dangerous..."
"Once an accident occurs, not only will Peiping be in crisis, but Peiping Airport may also be attacked and destroyed..."
"You must be sure of victory to fight this battle..."
"The Eighth Route Army guerrilla brigade can fight on two fronts at the same time. It can not only wipe out a reinforced brigade of reinforcements, but also break through Fangshan County and severely damage the Fangshan garrison..."
"It means that their overall combat effectiveness is very strong, and they also have strong attack capabilities."
"If you attack rashly without an absolute advantage in strength, you may not only fail to win, but you may even lose your wife and lose your troops!"
A combat staff officer suddenly stood up...
"Your Excellency Commander..."
"There is a transportation brigade stationed at Tianjin Pier, equipped with nearly a hundred transportation vehicles..."
"We can mobilize a full infantry brigade from Tianjin and transport it by car. It can reach outside Peiping in three hours at most..."
"At that time, we will be able to assemble four full infantry brigades and a regiment of the Imperial Army to attack Fangshan at the same time, block the Eighth Route Army guerrilla brigade's offensive, and destroy them!"
The subordinate's reminder made the chief of staff's eyes light up and he said: "Tianjin Pier not only has a transportation brigade, but also a tank brigade..."
"We can also dispatch half of the tank brigade from Tianjin to reinforce Peiping..."
"In the past, we have never used tank troops to deal with the guerrilla brigade... This time we dispatch tanks to attack them, we will definitely catch the guerrilla brigade by surprise..."
Okamura Neiji did not answer the call, but his mind was running rapidly, thinking about the chances of the troops capturing four infantry brigades to attack the guerrilla brigades and fall to the ground.
He stared at the sand table and considered for a full minute before making a decision: "Find another way to mobilize some Imperial Army troops to gather more than 6,000 infantry, half a tank brigade, an artillery brigade, and a heavy mortar squadron..."
"Chief of Staff, you personally lead the team and must block the guerrilla brigade's offensive and kill them."
