Chapter 383 The Devil's Plan to End the Household (two chapters in one)
The Chief of Staff of the First Japanese Army in Taiyuan was reporting to Yoshio Shinozuka on the results of his efforts in the past half month: "Your Excellency, Commander, in addition to recruiting the 354th Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the 358th Regiment, the Sixth Guerrilla Brigade of the Shanxi-Sui Army
An accident occurred in our plan, and all other recruitment operations were successfully completed!"
"Nearly 20,000 Jinsui troops have been gradually reorganized into the Imperial Association Army. More than half of the Imperial Association Army has imperial troops stationed in the army, serving as deputy positions in the army, assisting in command, and has complete control over these troops!"
"Baozhi has transferred these incorporated Shanxi-Sui Army troops to the Independent Regiment, the New Second Regiment, and the New First Regiment according to the original battle plan!"
"They are all local snakes and are familiar with the terrain there..."
"With their help, the imperial army can better blockade them and trap the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army!"
"I would like to say a disrespectful thing to you. From now on, not a single grain of food will flow from the areas occupied by the Imperial Army to the Eighth Route Army base area!"
Yoshio Shinozuka said with satisfaction: "This is our first step in attacking the soft power of the Eighth Route Army in Northwestern Shanxi, and the results have been fruitful... I decided to start the second step of the action plan immediately!"
"Deplete the food reserves of the Eighth Route Army in North Shanxi at all costs, leaving them with no food to eat and no food to use, and then causing their base areas to fall into chaos due to food shortages!"
The chief of staff understood deeply and continued to introduce: "Commander, please rest assured that preparations have begun for your humble duty!"
"In order to completely cut off contact between the Eighth Route Army in Northwestern Shanxi and the outside world, we followed the practices of the Manchurian Kwantung Army and established a circular no-man's land with a width of more than 20 kilometers around the Eighth Route Army base in Northwestern Shanxi, so that the Eighth Route Army could not find a single civilian in this area.
There’s less than a grain of food… and there’s not even a hiding place to be found!”
"According to statistics, there are more than 400,000 people living in this no-man's land..."
"After kicking out the young and strong, there are about 300,000 old, weak, women and children!"
"Drive them into the Eighth Route Army base area. Each person eats half a catty of grain a day, which will consume the Eighth Route Army's 150,000 catties of grain a day!"
"At least 4.5 million kilograms of grain from the Northwest Shanxi Eighth Route Army must be eaten in one month!"
"The land in northwestern Shanxi is barren and the grain yield is low. The Eighth Route Army does not have much grain to begin with!"
"At this consumption rate, it will take at most two months to empty out all their food stocks, and they won't even be able to keep military rations!"
"Without food, no matter how strong the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army in North Shanxi is, it will collapse... and then lose its combat effectiveness!"
"Why should we kick out all the young and middle-aged people among the common people!" Shinozuka Yoshio suddenly interrupted.
The chief of staff explained bluntly: "Prevent these young adults from joining the Eighth Route Army, or increase the number of labor forces in the Eighth Route Army base areas for their use!"
Yoshio Shinozuka shook his head and objected: "You are too petty!"
"We can't bear to let our children catch the wolf... We want to severely damage the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army through this non-military operation... We must not be stingy!"
"Send hundreds of thousands of young people among the common people to the Eighth Route Army base areas, and don't kick out any of them!"
"If the Eighth Route Army has sufficient food in its hands, these young men and women can indeed help the Eighth Route Army!"
"But if there is not enough food to feed them, these 100,000 young men will become the source of chaos in the Eighth Route Army base area!"
"Not only do we need to send all these young men to the independent regiment base... we also need to put some spies there!"
"When the Eighth Route Army runs out of food, these agents will encourage hundreds of thousands of young people to go everywhere to grab food, resist the Eighth Route Army, and even turn into bandits and loot the Eighth Route Army base areas everywhere!"
"In a word...the more chaotic the independent regiment's base area is, the greater the benefits we will get!"
The chief of staff immediately showed an expression of enlightenment, looked at Yoshio Shinozuka and said with admiration: "Commander is wise..."
"One hundred thousand young men are not as easy to fight as the old, weak, women and children!"
"In order not to starve to death, I can do anything..."
"If the operation is done well, just one hundred thousand young men can disrupt the Eighth Route Army base area and plunge the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army into chaos to quell the civil unrest!"
"The more strength they expend in civil strife, the lower the cost will be for us to sweep them away in the future!"
"The humble post will make arrangements soon... Let the Special High School Department cooperate with our actions to force 400,000 ordinary people into the Eighth Route Army base area as soon as possible..."
Yoshio Shinozuka continued: "This is not enough!"
"Remember the Yamamoto Secret Service?"
The chief of staff didn't know why the commander suddenly mentioned this unit. He hesitated for a while before replying: "I still remember... Yamamoto Daizuo was an admirable officer... It's a pity that he died at the hands of the Eighth Route Army!"
Yoshio Shinozuka said bluntly: "Although Yamamoto's special agent team was defeated... Yamamoto Daizao also died in the hands of the Japanese... but I think the special operations proposed by Yamamoto Daizao are still very useful!"
"During the activities in southwestern Shanxi, we cooperated with the local imperial army to destroy a large number of Shanxi-Sui army battalion and regiment level headquarters, and even several division and brigade level headquarters, providing a lot of help to the frontal offensive troops!"
"The reason why we suffered repeated defeats at the hands of the Eighth Route Army, I think has a lot to do with the Eighth Route Army's fighting style."
"They have been fighting guerrillas in the areas occupied by the imperial army all year round. They are surrounded by the imperial army and the imperial association army, and they may be attacked at any time... The harsh combat environment forces their commanding agencies to be alert and alert, so
Their regiment headquarters is much more difficult to defeat than the Jinsui Army."
"If we settle for the next best thing, abandon the Eighth Route Army Corps-level headquarters, and specifically attack their battalion and company headquarters, material warehouses, and local government headquarters with low defenses, it will definitely be much easier to fight!"
"The Eighth Route Army is different from the Jinsui Army. In order to avoid exposing their targets, the troops are dispersed in their base areas in battalion and company units. This gives us a good opportunity to defeat them individually!"
"If the military headquarters sets up a few more action teams similar to the Yamamoto Special Forces, with the help of the Imperial Army and intelligence personnel, pretending to be the Eighth Route Army, and taking advantage of the food shortage and chaos in the Eighth Route Army base to infiltrate, they will definitely be able to further strengthen their
The level of chaos in the base area has resulted in unexpected results!”
"You can also use your identity as the Eighth Route Army to carry out murders and steal food in the base area, destroying the relationship between the Eighth Route Army and the people."
"Don't they often say that they are fish, and the people in the base area are water. Without the support of water, the fish cannot survive!"
"In that case, let's start from the root cause and drain the water first...and then clean them up!"
"Without the nourishment of water, I don't see how they can still thrive like a fish in water!"
At the Dingjiazhuang Assault Battalion station, Deputy Battalion Commander Zhong Chengjun walked into the battalion headquarters and said angrily: "Battalion Commander, the newly appointed Commander Wang of the 354th Regiment is also a weakling..."
"A large group of Japanese soldiers started to retreat before they even entered their camp. They ran faster than rabbits and didn't even have the courage to engage in a firefight!"
"Before we had time to send troops for reinforcements, the Japanese army cut off the connection between us and the 354th Regiment. By the time we reacted, one brigade of Japs had become two brigades, and two regiments of Japs from other places were also transferred from other places.
!”
"Only after investigation did we find out... that another Japanese group and two Japanese regiments were hiding behind the vanguard!"
"The vanguard troops completed the raid mission, and the more than 3,000 puppet troops behind them immediately pounced on us and completely cut off our contact with the 354th Regiment!"
"The two Japanese soldiers in the two regiments are all former members of the Jinsui Army and are very familiar with the local terrain!"
"With their cooperation, the Japanese army blocked all our previous roads, trails, and mountain roads leading to the outside world in just two days..."
"I specially sent someone to check!"
"A reinforced squadron of imperial troops and a battalion of Japanese soldiers were stationed at several highway checkpoints... and a large number of gun towers and bunkers were built on the highway..."
"A reinforced squad of imperial troops and a company of Japanese soldiers were stationed on the path, and gun towers and bunkers were also built!"
"The smallest number of troops are stationed at the mountain road junction...but the terrain there is very dangerous and heavy weapons cannot pass through. The Japanese and puppet troops only need to deploy forty or fifty people to block one of our reinforced battalions!"
"Trouble!" Huang Yu's face suddenly became very solemn.
"Our base area has always been short of food and had to purchase it from outside... Now the connection between the base area and the outside world has been cut off by the Japanese. Even if we can buy food from outside, we can't transport it back!"
"Without food, the troops will not have enough to eat, and that will cause big problems!"
"If there is a food shortage in the base area and something unexpected happens, our food shortage problem will be even greater!"
"Old Zhong, you stay at the battalion headquarters, I want to go to the regiment headquarters right away!"
"This matter is too big. It is worse than the situation that the leader and I had predicted before. We must report it to him immediately and think of a way to break the situation. The faster the better..."
"Otherwise, when the blockade of the Japanese and puppet troops becomes tighter and tighter, it will be difficult for us to break through!"
At the headquarters of the New Second Regiment in Baipogou, Huang Yu had just finished reporting on the division of the Independent Regiment and the 354th Regiment by the Japanese and puppet troops, when Li Wensheng answered: "Xiao Huang, it's not just your side!"
"Other directions in the base area are also tightly blocked by the Japanese and puppet troops!"
"With the help of the incorporated Jinsui Army, bunkers and gun towers were built on all the mountain roads and paths leading to the outside world!"
"Except for two or three underground transportation lines and radio, we have completely lost contact with the outside world!"
"Commander, Chief of Staff, the Japanese and puppet troops have made it clear that they want to use economic blockade to trap us and restrict our development!" Huang Yu immediately expressed his thoughts.
"In previous counter-sweep operations, we seized a large number of weapons and ammunition."
"No matter how tight the blockade is built by the Japanese and puppet troops, we won't need to worry about ammunition in a short period of time!"
"The only things we need to worry about are food and salt. For the army, both are indispensable!"
"I want to know how long the food and salt in our hands can last!"
"Can the grain and salt stored in the hands of the people in the base area last until the autumn harvest?"
Li Wensheng knew the family background of the Independent Group very well. Looking at Huang Yu, he blurted out: "Speaking of this matter, the leader and I haven't had time to thank you properly!"
"We were in very short supply of military rations. You bought hundreds of thousands of kilograms of grain from the 354th Regiment, and then seized hundreds of thousands of kilograms of grain from the 354th Regiment in the subsequent raid. All of a sudden, we lost all our grain.
The gap has been filled.”
"According to the current speed of the troops in the trenches, there will definitely be no problem in sustaining the military rations until the autumn harvest!"
"Although the grain reserves in the hands of the villagers are not much... it will be no problem to save a little to last until the autumn harvest!"
"Salt is a problem...Northwestern Shanxi does not produce salt, and the stock has always been very small..."
"If no salt flows into the base area in the following days, the salt storage in northern Shanxi can last for four months at most!"
"That's okay!" Huang Yu said with a sigh of relief!
"With the combat effectiveness of our independent regiment here, we will definitely be able to break the blockade of the Japanese and puppet troops in four months!"
Kong Jie was not so optimistic. He kept frowning and did not relax because of the conversation between the chief of staff and Huang Yu.
He knows the little devil too well.
Recalling that the brigade commander and Huang Yu both reminded themselves to be on guard against the underhanded tactics of the Japs, the first reaction in their minds was that the Japs' blockade of the base was only the first step, and there would definitely be many more tricks waiting for them.
Looking at Huang Yu and Li Wensheng's serious analysis: "You are only talking about the most optimistic outcome!"
"If an accident occurs during this period, I'm worried that our grain and salt reserves will be exhausted in a short period of time... Then the pressure on the troops will be great."
Huang Yu instantly heard Kong Jie's worries and quickly replied: "I'm also worried that the little devil will use dirty tricks against us..."
"I was thinking about this issue on the way here..."
"Except destroying our grain depot."
"I racked my brains and couldn't think of any other dirty tricks that could consume a lot of our food in a short period of time!"
"As long as we strengthen our vigilance and store military rations separately as much as possible, we don't put all our eggs in one basket!"
"Even if a grain depot is unfortunately destroyed by the enemy, only a small part of the food will be lost and it will not affect the overall situation!"
Li Wensheng responded: "I can't think of any dirty tricks that can consume a large amount of our military rations in a short period of time!"
"Captain...there is a situation on the front line..." Communications platoon leader Zhang Xuelin suddenly rushed in to report.
"Deputy Chief of Staff Shen sent an urgent message: Early this morning, more than 2,000 civilians crossed the Zhangzhuang stronghold and entered our base area!"
"I thought it was a good thing, but it turned out that the more than 2,000 people had nothing, not even the most basic life-saving food rations and clothing."
"Our Eighth Route Army is an army of ordinary people. We cannot just watch them starve to death or freeze to death in our base area..."
"Immediately mobilized 10,000 kilograms of military rations to support the people so that they would not starve to death..."
"As a result, just after we dealt with this group of people, more than 3,000 people from the direction of Lizhuang were forced into our base area by the Japanese and puppet troops, and they also did not bring any rations or clothes!"
"Deputy Chief of Staff Shen once again allocated 15,000 kilograms of military rations to support them..."
"Just now...more than 5,000 civilians in the Gaopo stronghold were forced by the Japanese and puppet troops to approach our base..."
"Deputy Chief of Staff Shen feels that this is a conspiracy by the Japanese and puppet troops against us, and they want to consume a large amount of our military rations through these ordinary people!"
"If we don't take action immediately, the Japanese will definitely send more people into our base area and consume our food!"
"Deputy Chief of Staff Shen also reported that all the people who entered our base area came from the Japanese-occupied areas surrounding the base area... The specific situation is still being investigated!" This chapter has been completed!
