When Kong Jie led the main force of the regiment to Xiaoli Village, more than 600 light infantrymen of the Neishan Brigade had been defeated by the cavalry company...
More than 400 people were killed, and more than 200 people escaped under the cover of darkness...
Zhang Dashan did not divide his troops to pursue him.
The task of the cavalry company is to cover the main force of the regiment through Xiaoli Village quickly. There is no need to waste time and troops on more than 200 Japanese soldiers.
At six o'clock in the morning, the independent group successfully entered the mountainous area, preparing to rest here for the whole day and continue moving forward after dark!
The brigade headquarters, which was hundreds of miles away, also stopped and hid in a valley to rest.
Marching during the day was too dangerous. If a Japanese plane discovered it, several aerial bombs would fall from the sky, and everyone would have no place to hide.
The breakout troops basically marched at night and found a place to hide and rest during the day...
"Contact the independent group immediately and ask them where they have been...have they arrived at the scheduled hiding spot on time..." As soon as the radio station at the brigade headquarters was set up, the brigade commander hurriedly gave the order.
"Didi...didi...didi...didi..."
The telegraph machine soon started ringing, and a few minutes later, the operator began recording the messages he had received.
After another ten minutes, a telegraph newspaper filled with telegrams appeared in the brigade commander's hand.
"The Independent Regiment is indeed an independent regiment. In just one night, it broke through three lines of defense of the Japanese army, defeated three infantry brigades, and ran 60 to 70 kilometers to reach the target latent point on time. They are the only ones in our brigade that can do it..."
The brigade commander sighed with relief.
Chief of Staff Zhou was noncommittal: "Other regiments do not have this strength... If nothing else, it is not something that ordinary troops can achieve by marching sixty or seventy kilometers in one night!"
"I heard that the Independence Regiment has specially conducted training in this area... Marching twenty kilometers with heavy loads is as common as usual!"
"If you train well at ordinary times, you will be as confident as them when encountering a war!"
The brigade commander nodded and replied: "When the counter-mopping up is over, we must ask Kong Jie to write a summary of the independent regiment's training methods..."
"Forward this telegram to the boss immediately... Kong Jie is fine, and we can have a good night's sleep during the day!"
At the headquarters of the Japanese Fourth Mixed Brigade in Yangquan, Major General Miyazawa didn't rest all night, constantly arranging troops to pursue and intercept the Independent Regiment. As a result, no trace of the Independent Regiment was found until dawn.
"General, we believe that the Independent Regiment is secretly lurking in this mountainous area... Although it is a bit unrealistic, this is the only mountain closest to the breakout point. It is impossible to hide thousands of people in other places!" Harada Nakazuo pointed to the sand table.
A little introduction, this is indeed the current hiding place of the Independent Group.
"Impossible!" Major General Miyazawa objected with wide eyes and a look of disbelief on his face.
"The Independent Regiment began to break out at around six o'clock last night, and was stopped by the Kurokawa Brigade for an hour or two. The time available for the march was less than ten hours..."
"I almost forgot that the Uchiyama Brigade also fought against the Independent Regiment and lost more than 400 people!"
"After calculation, the independent regiment actually spent less than nine hours marching!"
"The mountain you are looking at is more than 65 kilometers away from the independent regiment's breakout point, which means that the independent regiment has to march 65 kilometers in nine hours to attack, averaging at least seven kilometers per hour."
"They don't have cars, they all march on two legs, and they have to carry a lot of baggage, ammunition, and wounded people..."
"It's impossible for heavenly soldiers and generals to run so fast even if they come down to earth!"
Harada Nakazuo defended: "But except for this mountain, there is really no place around to hide so many troops!"
Major General Miyazawa shook his head and said: "No... there are many places along the highway where troops can be hidden, but you have ignored them!"
Seeing the brigade commander staring at the villages and towns on the sand table, Harada immediately showed an expression of disbelief: "General, you are not referring to the villages and towns along the highway, are you?"
"No?" Major General Miyazawa asked.
"All the troops hid in the houses and sealed off the village secretly. They were only allowed in but not allowed out... As long as the village is a little bigger, it would be no problem to hide a main force group in it!"
Harada Nakazuo's eyes lit up, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that the brigade commander's analysis was more reasonable than his own judgment just now.
He also felt that marching 65 kilometers in nine hours with heavy loads was an impossible task, but he could not find any other hiding place, so he settled for the next best thing and believed that the Independent Regiment was hiding in the mountains 65 kilometers away.
After listening to the brigade commander's analysis, Harada Nakazuo immediately overturned the unrealistic ideas in his mind and felt that the brigade commander's analysis was more reasonable.
Immediately proposed: "I will contact the aviation force now and ask them to focus on the villages along the highway about fifty kilometers away from the breakout point. Let the surrounding garrisons also send scouts and intelligence personnel to find the independent regiment's breakout troops!"
"This humble position also hopes that the general will dispatch an infantry regiment from the mopping up troops to return to the occupied area."
"After discovering the breakout troops of the Independent Regiment, immediately encircle them and annihilate them all!"
Major General Miyazawa did not answer, but asked with a stern face: "How many troops did we lose in total last night? How many troops are left on the front line?"
"The Kagawa Battalion that was attacked first was almost completely destroyed, with only more than 80 imperial troops below Kagawa's center left alive!" Harada reported with a solemn look on his face.
"The Kurokawa Brigade was severely damaged by the Independent Regiment, and there is only one infantry squadron left..."
"The Uchiyama Brigade lost nearly three infantry squadrons...the heavy machine gun squadron and artillery squadron were intact!"
"There is another checkpoint and two gun towers along the highway that were blocked, and a reinforcement team was lost..."
"A total of more than 2,2100 imperial troops were lost, two battalions of the Imperial Alliance Army... and a large number of light and heavy weapons were lost!"
"Including the ambush, the frontline mopping up force still has six full infantry brigades, one disabled infantry brigade, and two regiments of the Imperial Army..."
"If we deploy an infantry regiment to return reinforcements, there will be more than 5,000 frontline mopping up troops left!"
"Judging from the battle situation last night, all the main forces of the independent regiment broke through, and only some local troops and guerrillas were left in the base area. Their combat effectiveness is very poor!"
"The mopping up force of more than 5,000 people will definitely be able to wipe them all out!"
Major General Miyazawa thought for a moment and continued to ask: "How many people are left in the independent regiment's breakout force?"
"They have such strong combat effectiveness and are equipped with a large number of artillery. Isn't it a bit short to only send one regiment back to support the occupied area?"
"My humble position is enough!" Harada Nakazuo continued to answer.
Quickly go through the explanations in his mind, and then analyze them one by one: "Intelligence shows that the independent regiment has a main battalion, a guard battalion, and several troops directly under the regiment..."
"We calculate based on a main battalion of 500 people, the total strength of the independent regiment should be about 3,000!"
"During the counterattack against the Kagawa Brigade, more than 300 corpses of the Independent Regiment were left..."
"During the assault on the Kurokawa Brigade, there were over 600 corpses of the Independent Regiment..."
"In the battle that defeated the Neishan Brigade, more than a hundred corpses of the Independent Regiment were left!"
"In three major battles, more than a thousand people were killed in the independent regiment. After deducting the wounded, there are at most 1,600 or 700 people left!"
"The troops are exhausted, their morale is low, and their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced!"
"We use twice the force advantage to encircle and annihilate them, and we are at least 90% sure of victory!"
“The environment they’re in is very good for us too!”
"This is the area occupied by the imperial army. All traffic arteries and important towns have our forts and strongholds!"
"Our spies are all over the villages... As long as they dare to come out and move around, they can't escape our pursuit."
"Looking at the Independence Group, without the support of the common people, they can only run around like headless flies!"
"When they are exhausted and exhausted from the collision, the time for the decisive battle will come!"
Harada Nakazuo's analysis was so clear that Major General Miyazawa couldn't find a reason to refute it. After hearing this, he was convinced by Harada Nakazuo.
After thinking about it for a while, he began to issue an order: "I will do as you say, dispatch three brigades back to the defense area to encircle and annihilate the breakout troops of the independent regiment!"
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Kong Jie regained his energy as soon as he woke up and began to look through all the intelligence received by the army in the morning.
"Japanese planes have been conducting reconnaissance in several villages fifteen kilometers away from us?" Kong Jie pulled out a piece of information and asked with great interest.
Li Wensheng explained: "It must be that the little devils didn't believe that the independent regiment could march 65 kilometers in one night and hide in the mountains. They thought we were hiding in a village more than ten kilometers away, so they focused on investigating that area!"
"Are we going to do more things that the Japanese can't even imagine?" Kong Jie replied happily.
"Only in this way can we take things by surprise and avoid the retaliatory attacks by the Japanese and puppet troops and suddenly appear outside Jinzhong City!"
"Is there any other news...especially about the Japanese and puppet troops' mopping up troops!"
"We successfully crossed the blockade, killed a brigade, severely damaged a brigade, and defeated a brigade. With the character of the enemy who must retaliate, we will definitely not remain indifferent."
"Our goal is to force the Japanese and puppet troops to return to the areas they occupied. In addition to attacking Jinzhong, we also need to eliminate more of their troops, so as to attract the attention of the Japanese!"
"Last night I wanted to kill the Japanese with a single carbine, let the cavalry and artillery cooperate, and then severely damage an infantry brigade!"
"Time is too tight, so I have to give up this idea."
"After passing the big mountain at your feet, you'll pass the place where you can help the troops!"
"If there are still little devils chasing after me, I don't mind fighting a few more battles on the way to kill them!"
"From now on, all our scouts must be sent out, focusing on what's behind us!"
Li Wensheng seemed to disagree a little, and immediately raised his objection: "Commander, we are going deep into enemy-occupied areas alone, and the people here don't help us. The army is like a blind man!"
"There's no way to hide your tracks, it's too dangerous!"
"We must not stay in the same place for too long, lest we give the Japanese a chance to surround us!"
"I suggest that we fight less wars, penetrate into Jinzhong as soon as possible, and win Jinzhong!"
"This is the safest way!"
Kong Jie answered confidently: "Chief of Staff, you are too cautious!"
"The total number of Japanese troops left around us is only one large group. If we rely on the artillery towers and strongholds to defend, we still have a chance to survive from our hands!"
"If they seek death themselves, abandon their strongholds and gun towers, and take the initiative to attack the independent regiment, I don't mind eating them!"
"The only thing that can threaten our safety is the mopping up troops..."
"But I asked the investigators to focus on what's behind us, so that the returning mopping up troops won't be able to escape our eyes, and they won't have the chance to encircle us?"
"Besides, the independent regiment has strong soldiers and horses. The number of Guangshan artillery and infantry artillery has increased to eight, and there are ten or twenty mortars. The total strength is still more than 4,000... Two infantry brigades can't do anything to us in a head-to-head confrontation.
