Headquarters of the Japanese North China Front in Peiping.
The communications staff officer suddenly rushed into the war room with a serious look on his face. Before Neji Okamura could speak, he hurriedly asked: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"Something happened to the troops heading north to support the Tianjin dock..."
"I just received news that some troops were violently attacked by the aviation force when they broke through the Eighth Route Army's blocking position..."
"I suspect that the Eighth Route Army Air Force is using the aircraft and aerial bombs they captured at Peking Airport to attack our reinforcements..."
"So far, three troops have been attacked by air attacks and suffered heavy losses. Among them, the support troops sent by Cangzhou lost contact directly after being attacked by air attacks... I suspect that they have had an accident..."
"air force?"
Okamura Neiji grabbed the collar of the communications staff officer, stared at his big eyes full of shock, and asked with disbelief: "You said the Eighth Route Army sent out planes to attack our support troops heading north..."
"Hai..." The communications staff officer's face turned red because he couldn't breathe, and he quickly replied: "Three reinforcements have been attacked by air strikes."
"The total strength of these three armies exceeds 3,000 people..."
"The humble official suspects that the Eighth Route Army Air Force specially selects reinforcements with large numbers of troops to launch attacks to reduce the interception pressure on their blocking forces."
The communications staff officer's affirmative answer made Neji Okamura despair.
He had no intention of letting the reinforcements heading north to recapture the Tianjin Pier from the Eighth Route Army.
As long as they cut off the Eighth Route Army's only route to the south and destroy the materials, weapons and ammunition they captured at the Tianjin dock, it will be considered a victory.
Unexpectedly, the Eighth Route Army blocked even this road for itself.
Attacking ground troops from the air has always been the unique combat method of the North China Front. Over time, the scattered troops of the North China Front took it for granted that the Eighth Route Army did not have an air force and that they would never be attacked by air on the Chinese battlefield.
With this idea, these troops did not have any air defense preparations. Even the main troops at the wing level were not equipped with anti-aircraft anti-aircraft machine guns, let alone the brigade-level reinforcements heading north on the battlefield.
It can be said that facing the Eighth Route Army Air Force, they could only passively defend and evade, without any resistance strength.
In this case, as long as the Eighth Route Army Air Force continues to launch attacks on the northward support troops and continuously drops aerial bombs, no matter how many troops there are in the northward support troops, they will be completely blown up.
The aerial bombs stored at Peking Airport range from tens of thousands to several thousand.
One aerial bomb can kill ten soldiers, and thousands of aerial bombs can kill tens of thousands of soldiers.
The total number of support troops deployed by the headquarters to go north was only thirty to forty thousand.
If you think about it this way, the Eighth Route Army Air Force alone can blow them up almost completely.
The supporting troops heading north suffered heavy casualties under the constant bombardment of the Eighth Route Army Air Force. Not only were they unable to intercept the Eighth Route Army in the wing that was about to move south, they might even have problems protecting themselves.
The more Okamura Neji thought about it, the more solemn his face became.
Seeing that the small red flags on the sand table representing the support troops heading north were slowly decreasing, and the number of Eighth Route Army troops blocking them head-on was slowly increasing, I took a breath and ordered: "Contact all the support troops heading north that we can contact immediately."
"Turn around and return to the base immediately. Don't go further north."
"The Eighth Route Army has an air force, and ground troops are constantly encircling them."
"If the troops do not retreat, they will be wiped out on the battlefield by the Eighth Route Army."
"If we lose Tianjin Terminal and Peking Airport, our losses are already big enough."
"If we lose the tens of thousands of troops who went north to support the Tianjin Port, it will be like adding insult to injury to the North China Front..."
"Hurry up and give the order."
"If they don't retreat, they won't be able to evacuate..."
…………
Because the Xinbao stronghold is located on an important transportation road, a garrison and a regiment of the Imperial Alliance Army are stationed all year round.
Although the garrison does not have as many people as the full infantry brigade, the total strength is still six to seven hundred people.
After receiving the military order from the North China Front Army Headquarters, they also sent two reinforced squadrons and two battalions of the Imperial Association Army north to support Pingjin.
The Eighth Route Army responsible for intercepting them only had one main battalion, so it was definitely no match for them in a head-to-head confrontation. They could only use the terrain to block them, dragging the Japanese and puppet troops on the road, and achieve the purpose of intercepting them by slowing down their marching speed.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the puppet army of more than a thousand days, which was rapidly heading north, suddenly turned around and retreated for some unknown reason.
The Eighth Route Army who blocked them all looked confused, wondering what the Japanese and puppet troops were up to.
However, in order to avoid an accident, the Eighth Route Army immediately caught up and stuck behind the Japanese and puppet troops to prevent them from taking other roads to continue northward to support Pingjin.
As a result, the pursuit ended up at the Xinbao stronghold.
The puppet troops, who lasted for more than a thousand days, began to act like cowards when they returned to their strongholds.
At the Eighth Route Army position north of the stronghold, looking at the stronghold that was under rapid martial law, the instructor couldn't figure out why. He immediately asked the battalion commander next to him who was also confused: "Old Zhang..."
"What the hell are you doing here..."
"Just now, we tried to break through our blocking position at all costs and go north to support Beiping and Tianjin."
"Why did he suddenly seem to be a different person? He just returned to the stronghold and became a turtle."
The battalion commander shook his head: "I don't know either..."
"Perhaps there was an accident that we don't know about somewhere. The Japanese and puppet troops received the order to retreat, and then they returned to their stronghold and behaved like a coward."
"Had we known that the enemy was about to withdraw, we should have taken the initiative just now. Maybe we could have intercepted a Japanese and puppet rear-guard unit."
"it's good now……"
"The Japanese and puppet troops have become a coward, and we have no choice but to eat meat."
"Buzz buzz..."
When Battalion Commander Zhang wanted to continue complaining, the faint roar of an airplane suddenly sounded in his ears.
His face suddenly turned pale, and he immediately shouted to his subordinates: "Little Japanese plane..."
"There is a plane flying towards us, probably to support the Japanese and puppet troops..."
"Everyone, hurry up and take cover... so that the Japanese planes can't find the bombing target, hurry up..."
The troops were already dispersed, so after Battalion Commander Zhang gave the order, everyone quickly withdrew into the Baogu area on both sides of the highway in squad and platoon units.
After a while, all the Eighth Route Army troops gathered on the road disappeared.
The six small black dots that appeared on the edge of the sky turned into six silver-white aircraft, circling back and forth around the Japanese and puppet strongholds, seemingly looking for the Eighth Route Army hidden on the ground.
Battalion Commander Zhang quickly broke out in a large amount of cold sweat on his forehead, fearing that some of his troops would be targeted by Japanese planes in the sky.
Aerial bombs are so powerful that they can blow up a large area. Once a troop is exposed, it will be too late for the soldiers to relocate temporarily and they will have to be passively bombed.
Just as he was nervously staring at the little Japanese plane in the sky, an accident happened.
