"Look for..." Umezu Yoshijiro blurted out the order after hearing this.
"Tell all the troops stationed along the railway line to find the Eighth Route Army who are attacking the railway line and their strongholds at all costs, and nip them in the bud. They must not be given a chance to gain a foothold in the Northeast, otherwise it will be difficult to eliminate them."
The chief of staff immediately accepted the order and asked smoothly: "What about the reinforcement troops going south..."
"With the railway destroyed, the reinforcements will not be able to use the railway to go south."
"It's winter again now, and it's definitely not possible to take the road..."
Umezu Yoshijiro knew very well how cold the Northeast winter was, and he knew even more how difficult it was to march in the ice and snow. Even if the troops were prepared for the cold in advance, there would still be a large number of non-combat attrition.
So as soon as the idea of traveling south by road came to mind, he rejected it.
Frowning, he replied: "Then we'll stop going south."
"Compared with annihilating the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong, the security of the Northeast is more important."
"Don't worry, if the Eighth Route Army in Yizhong is not wiped out by then and the Eighth Route Army runs rampant in the Northeast, it will be too much of a loss."
…………
Jinzhou Kwantung Army Division Headquarters.
The chief of staff hurriedly walked to the division commander with a very solemn look on his face: "General... the enemy who attacked the railway line is more cunning than we imagined..."
"According to the account of the Chinese at the settlement point: the Eighth Route Army that captured the settlement point brought nearly two hundred groups of mules, horses and horses into the mountains, loaded with all kinds of food, weapons and ammunition..."
"Our reconnaissance troops followed the enemy's retreat direction into the mountains to pursue them. At first, there were some footprints in the snow. As we walked, the enemy's marching traces were covered up by the wind and snow, and the traces were lost..."
"The reconnaissance troops have no choice but to divide their forces and search in the vast mountains..."
"The accident happened just like that..."
"The scouts who were searching due south, southeast, due east, and northeast of Shishan were all attacked..."
"The opponent is well-equipped and can move away in one strike without giving the reconnaissance troops any chance to counterattack."
"Moreover, our reconnaissance force went deep into the mountains alone without follow-up reinforcements. In order to prevent the enemy from ambush us in the mountains, we did not dare to pursue in depth and had to retreat hastily. Please ask the division headquarters to gather more troops into the mountains to search for the Eighth Route Army."
"Nani..." This result was something the division commander did not expect.
Originally, they thought that the Eighth Route Army that was attacking the railway line would have no choice but to escape in front of the main force of the Kwantung Army. Unexpectedly, they actually took the initiative to attack the reconnaissance troops they sent. It was really arrogant.
He didn't worry about exposing his targets if he took the initiative and sent more troops to encircle and suppress them.
But he soon rejected this naive idea.
The Eighth Route Army that entered the mountain did reveal its position during the proactive attack, but there were Eighth Route Army activities in several directions in the Shishan stronghold, which made them even more confused and did not know the enemy's true escape direction.
Even if he immediately ordered the main force that had been assembled to go into the mountains to pursue him, facing the scattered Eighth Route Army, he could only divide his troops into the mountains.
This is too dangerous. Once the Eighth Route Army seizes the opportunity, it will be easy to defeat the pursuit troops it sends out one by one. It will be too much of a loss.
After thinking for nearly half a minute, he gave the order: "Assemble another main force and go into the mountains to pursue."
"Four of the infantry brigades were divided into four, heading south, southeast, east, and northeast of Shishan respectively to search for the Eighth Route Army and eliminate them."
"The other two brigades are following behind, ready to reinforce the battlefield at any time in case of accidents."
The more troops there are, the slower the mobilization speed.
For an army, an increase in quantity means a doubling of logistical ammunition supplies.
It's now icy and snowy outside the city, and everything is covered in heavy snow, especially in the mountains.
When I stepped down, the snow was even higher than my knees.
It is very difficult for troops to fight on the road in this environment. Without sufficient logistics support, an army can be brought down by non-combat attrition.
In order to avoid such an accident, the two main regiments that received the order to attack took a full four hours to prepare for departure.
By the time they entered the mountains against the wind and snow, the Eighth Route Army that had attacked them last night had already moved to the depths of the mountains dozens of kilometers away under the cover of wind and snow...
…………
The station of the Qinglong Mountain Northbound Detachment.
As the attacking troops returned one after another, the camp area, which had been quiet for half a month, returned to a lively scene.
Several combat staff officers were very busy, sitting around a wooden table to tally the results of the attack troops.
Huang Yu was not idle either, and was reporting to Li Yunlong on his gains and insights from this trip.
"Commander..." Huang Yu reported while recalling his experience of more than ten days.
"The Kwantung Army's combat effectiveness is indeed stronger than that of the Kwanei North China Front Army, and its equipment is more sophisticated. Each infantry squad is equipped with three light machine guns and three grenade launchers as standard."
"The infantry brigade is equipped with twelve heavy machine guns, twelve mortars, and two infantry cannons as standard equipment...and many brigade units have been strengthened with four mountain cannons..."
"When an infantry regiment operates alone, it is basically supported by a mountain artillery battalion and a tank squadron..."
"Compared with the little devils in Guan, the only shortcoming is that they don't understand our fighting methods."
"After the railway line was attacked, not only did they not send heavy troops to chase us immediately, but they dispatched a large number of scouts and intelligence personnel to go deep into the mountains to search for our traces."
"This creates an opportunity for me to confuse them."
"The troops were divided into separate operations and launched attacks on Japanese reconnaissance troops and intelligence personnel from several directions. They then retreated after attacking, making the Kwantung Army even more confused about our movements."
"By the time they mobilize the main force into the mountains, we will have already gone into hiding in the deep mountains and old forests."
"I think we must make good use of this loophole of the Kwantung Army in future operations."
"We need to fight a few more big victories before they become familiar with our fighting methods."
"By the time they got to know us and discovered our location, the northward detachment had already grown."
Li Yunlong nodded repeatedly when he heard this. Just as he was about to answer, the chief of staff on the side suddenly interrupted: "Commander, Deputy Chief of Staff Huang...the harvest and results of the attacking troops have been calculated..."
"A total of 28 attacking troops, all returned to their bases safely."
"According to statistics, we destroyed a total of more than 14,000 meters of railway lines in this large-scale raid. The roadbed, rails, and sleepers were all destroyed."
"If the Kwantung Army wants to repair these railways, it must rebuild the roadbed and produce sleepers and rails..."
"Preliminary estimates indicate that it will take three months at the fastest for the railway that was attacked by us to be fully repaired and open to traffic..."
"The attacking troops also destroyed 24 Kwantung Army railway garrison strongholds during the operation, captured 36 settlement points controlled by Japanese expatriates, and eliminated 1,438 regular Kwantung Army troops and 549 armed expatriates. While rescuing a large number of civilians, they also mobilized
428 young people without families joined our Eighth Route Army..."
