At the enemy headquarters of the Independent Regiment, Li Wensheng is reporting to Kong Jie on the drawdown of the troops.
"Captain, according to your order, the nine main battalions of the whole regiment have been reduced into three reinforced battalions. Each reinforced battalion has three reinforced companies of 250 people, an artillery company, a guard platoon, and a reconnaissance platoon.
...to recruit a thousand people..."
"Transfer half of the troops from the guard battalion to supplement the assault battalion, reaching a full strength of 650 men!"
"The original guard battalion was downsized into a reinforced guard company, with a full strength of 300 people..."
"The heavy artillery battalion was reduced to four companies... the cavalry battalion was reduced to four companies... the reconnaissance company, special operations brigade, and communications platoon remained unchanged..."
"The entire regiment is full of 5,000 men...but we only have more than 3,900 people left to continue fighting..."
"I mobilized 800 people from local troops and guerrillas to supplement the troops... and mobilized more than 200 people from prisoners to join the independent regiment to ensure that the main force is fully staffed!"
Kong Jie did not answer, looked at the chief of staff and asked directly: "Are there enough weapons and ammunition?"
"There's no problem with the weapons!" Li Wensheng replied.
"In the battle of Longgong Village, we seized a large amount of weapons and ammunition... In the pursuit yesterday, we also seized a large amount of equipment, which is enough to make up for our losses on the battlefield!"
"It's just that I'm a little short on ammunition!"
"The opponents who won the two battles were all Japanese combat troops. They carried limited ammunition and used a lot of it on the battlefield. The ammunition that fell into our hands was even less, less than a quarter of what we used!"
"With the addition of inventory, the amount of ammunition per soldier in the entire regiment has dropped sharply to one hundred and thirty rounds."
"There are fewer artillery shells... In the two victorious battles, we only captured some mortar shells and infantry artillery shells, but not a single mountain artillery or heavy artillery shell..."
"For every shot fired by the heavy artillery battalion, there will be one less shot!"
"I specifically asked Chen Daliang: There are still 200 rounds of shells left for the four 105-caliber mountain guns, and they can only fire a salvo for ten minutes..."
"Twelve 120-caliber mortars have 840 shells left. If fired at full strength, they can only fire for seven minutes..."
"Because the mountain artillery lost a lot of equipment, its shell consumption is relatively slow. There are more than 600 rounds left. It should be possible to fight several big battles..."
"Tough battles and big battles cannot be fought casually!" Kong Jie said with a long sigh.
"We had stored up so much wealth before the war, but it was all used up after just a few days of fighting!"
"Fortunately, Zuotou's division has been severely damaged by us and has temporarily lost its ability to attack!"
"Otherwise, with our current ammunition reserves, it will be difficult to withstand their attack for a day!"
Communications platoon leader Zhang Xuelin suddenly ran over and reported: "Captain, Commander Li of the new second regiment and Commander Ding of the new first regiment jointly sent a telegram asking us if we still need reinforcements!"
"If not necessary, they also want to fight a big war with the Japanese to gain more benefits before the Japanese withdraw their troops!"
Kong Jie turned to look at Li Wensheng: "Chief of Staff, what do you think?"
Li Wensheng thought about it and answered: "Based on the analysis of the current situation of Zuotou Division, ending the sweep and evacuating our base area is the best choice!"
"The possibility of the independent group fighting another big battle is very low!"
"Taking a step back, even if Zuo Teng wants to save face and suffer the consequences, and continues to attack us, with the existing strength and firepower of the independent regiment, we can still suppress them...use guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare to drag them to death, and achieve the final victory in the counter-mopping up!"
"I think Captain Li and Captain Ding's proposal is very feasible!"
"Concentrate our forces to fight two major battles in their base areas to completely disrupt the Japanese army's sweeping campaign against northwest Shanxi!"
Kong Jie looked at Huang Yu and asked, "Xiao Huang, what do you think?"
"I agree with the chief of staff's analysis..." Huang Yu replied while thinking about it.
"Without the tanks and heavy artillery, Zuotou's division is like a tiger without its fangs, and its combat effectiveness is drastically reduced."
"Although they still have more troops than us, as long as no major changes occur, the independent regiment will definitely be able to seize all battlefield initiative in future battles and suppress them with heavy artillery!"
"The troops originally scheduled to reinforce us really don't need to come anymore!"
Kong Jie immediately made a decision: "Then let Li Yunlong and Ding Wei fight on their own, concentrate all their forces to fight the Japanese and puppet troops in the defense zone, and strive to achieve the maximum results at the minimum cost, and leave us alone!"
At eight o'clock in the morning, Zuotou's division a few kilometers away was motionless, showing no intention of retreating...
At ten o'clock in the morning, more than ten planes appeared above the head of Sato's division.
In addition to the three escort combat aircraft, the remaining six were all transport aircraft with bloated fuselages.
He hovered at low altitude above Zuotou's division, dropped more than a hundred boxes of supplies in a row, and then left the battlefield...
Kong Jie and Li Wensheng stood on a high ground less than three kilometers away from the Japanese military station and witnessed with their own eyes one big box after another being dragged by parachutes, slowly falling to the ground, and being transported away by the Japanese...
"Captain, what do you mean by Zuotou... He even used airdrops, are you still planning to fight us to the death here and decide the outcome?" Li Wensheng asked angrily.
Although it has been analyzed before that the Sato Division will continue to attack the independent group.
But because the probability was so low, everyone didn’t take it to heart and didn’t make much preparation.
As a result, the Sato Division did exactly this.
As a result, the independent group had no chance to take a break, so they had to bite the bullet and continue to fight against them.
Kong Jie replied with a wry smile: "Sato is so elusive!"
"He actually chose to continue attacking us... Doesn't he know that Zuotou's division has become a tiger without its fangs?"
"Launching an attack without an artillery advantage will do no good except lose troops and generals!"
"I can't understand either..."
Li Wensheng suddenly thought of a possibility, hesitated and said: "Captain, could it be Yoshio Iwamatsu who didn't let Zuotou's division retreat?"
"The Japanese have assembled three main divisions to mop up northwest Shanxi. Zuoteng's division is only one of them to mop up troops. If the other two mopping up troops go smoothly, Zuoteng's division really cannot withdraw!"
Kong Jie understood as soon as he heard this: "Are you saying that Yoshio Iwamatsu wants to use Sato's division to hold us back and give the other two mopping up troops a chance to break through?"
"It's not impossible!"
Speaking of this, the frown that was already frowning deepened, and he analyzed with a stern face.
"The overall strength of the New First Regiment and the New Second Regiment is slightly weaker than ours. Each faces a division of little devils, and the pressure is greater than ours!"
"The original anti-mopping plan was to injure ten of his fingers rather than cut off one of them. Concentrate all the strength of the three regiments to severely damage Zuoto's division and repel the mopping up troops all the way..."
"In order to avoid making the same mistake, the other two mopping up troops had no choice but to retreat."
"Now the Zuotou division has been severely damaged by us, but it has not retreated!"
"Instead, we put the breakthrough point on the other two divisions. In this way, our previous combat plan will be ineffective, and the counter-mopping pressure in northwestern Shanxi will fall on Li Yunlong and Kong Jie."
"Without foreign aid, these two regiments will definitely not be able to survive for long."
"And we are unable to divide our troops to reinforce them under the attack of Sato Division."
"The pressure they face will only increase!"
Huang Yu suddenly interjected: "Captain, regardless of whether Iwamatsu Yoshio has such an idea, as long as the Sato Division does not retreat for a day, the Japanese attacking the New First and Second Regiments will not retreat, and their combat pressure will increase."
Come bigger!”
"Only by severely inflicting heavy damage on Zuotou's division again and repelling them can we completely break the situation..."
The solemn expression on Kong Jie's face was slowly replaced by seriousness, and he immediately ordered: "Inform the troops of the Independent Regiment that can still fight to immediately replenish ammunition and prepare for battle..."
"As soon as it gets dark and the Japanese planes are unable to reinforce the battlefield, we will take the initiative to attack the headquarters of Zuotou Division!"
"Even if all the remaining artillery shells of the Independent Regiment are used up, Zuotou Division will be beaten to a bloody head, and thousands of Japanese will be killed, forcing them to retreat..."
Huang Yu reminded again: "Captain, I'm worried that Zuo Teng still has a trump card in his hand that we don't know about!"
"We have pulled out all the tiger teeth of the Sato Division. If they dare not retreat at the risk of their troops being severely damaged by us again, they must have something to rely on."
"There are eight thousand little devils stationed in front of us!"
"No matter how courageous Yoshio Iwamatsu is, he would not dare to sweep away northern Shanxi at the cost of a division!"
"I suspect that there is something wrong with the more than 100 boxes that Yoshio Iwamatsu just airdropped to the Sato division!"
"The last support of Sato's division is probably in those boxes!"
Kong Jie replied seriously: "No matter what support Zuotou still has, we must take the initiative, continue to hit them hard, and repel them. Otherwise, Yoshio Iwamatsu's sweeping campaign against northwest Shanxi will never end!"
"Besides, only by taking the initiative to attack and forcing Zuotou's division to a dead end can we force out all the trump cards in Zuotou's hand!"
Huang Yu felt a little uneasy in his heart, always feeling that Zuotou's regiment had some other conspiracy. But he couldn't find a reason to refute Kong Jie, so he could only nod in support.
At Zuotou's division station, after seeing the supplies airdropped by the military headquarters to the troops, the chief of staff regained confidence in the future of the division.
After sorting out the airdrop supplies, he ran to Zuotou and reported: "Division commander..."
"The military airdropped a total of 1,000 ordinary mortar shells, 1,500 poison gas bombs, and 200,000 rounds of ammunition to us!"
"In order to prevent our gas bombs from being used by the independent regiments during the artillery battle, I divided them into five, and each infantry group was divided into 300 rounds..."
Lieutenant General Sato kept staring at the map. There was no reaction after the chief of staff finished speaking. It took another five minutes before he spoke.
"Let the troops continue to strengthen the defense line around the station!"
"The Independent Regiment wants to force us back and end the sweep, so it can only take the initiative to launch an attack!"
"We have plane reinforcements during the day, but no matter how bold they are, they don't dare to show their faces!"
"I suspect the Independent Regiment will launch an attack tonight!"
With the poison gas bombs in hand, the chief of staff wished that the independent regiment would launch an attack now and take orders immediately: "Commander, please don't worry..."
"I will definitely let the troops set up a dragnet around the station... As long as the independent regiment dares to come, I guarantee that they will never come back!"
Lieutenant General Sato added: "Let the artillery prepare the gas bombs!"
"The Independent Regiment must not be equipped with gas masks... There is no way for the troops to use poison when they attack. The poison gas bombs used at that time will definitely severely damage the Independent Regiment!"
