The Japanese army attacked the position, and Major General Hashimoto was going crazy.
The attacking troops began to attack Tan Jiabao ten minutes ago. They almost rushed to the Eighth Route Army's blocking position several times, but were suddenly beaten back by the Eighth Route Army. He kept shaking his head.
Hundreds of soldier corpses had fallen in front of the blocking position, layer upon layer, without even a place to stay.
In order to block the hail of bullets fired by the Eighth Route Army, the more than 400 remaining members of the attacking force had to pile up the corpses of their comrades to form a bunker, hide behind the corpses and shoot at the blocking position.
"Boom boom boom..."
A new round of mortar shells hit the blocking position again, and in the splashing fire, several more Eighth Route Army soldiers were blown away.
Unfortunately, two artillery shells hit the offensive position. Several little Japs lost their lives in the explosion, and the pile of corpses blocking the attacking troops was blown apart at the same time.
Without the bunker, bullets came flying towards us, once again taking away the lives of several little devils.
Facing the bloody battle scenes in front of him, Major General Hashimoto's clenched fists almost crushed his bones, making a loud crunching sound.
"General..." the brigade chief of staff said with a look of dismay.
"The Eighth Route Army's blocking firepower is too strong. The attacking troops cannot rush through at all. Let them withdraw. If they don't withdraw, everyone will die there. What a loss."
"We can't withdraw..." Major General Hashimoto was already red-eyed and gave the order.
"Taking Tanjiagou is the only way for us to evacuate the Eighth Route Army's base area in the wing."
"Hashimoto's brigade must not be completely wiped out by the Eighth Route Army here."
"As long as there is a glimmer of hope, we must rush out. We must not stay here and wait to die."
"Let the mountain artillery unit also join the battle."
"Don't worry about accidentally injuring your own people. Concentrate all artillery and bombard the Tanjiagou blocking position."
"Mountain artillery is much more powerful than mortars. I don't believe it can't blow up all the Eighth Route Army troops on the position."
"A squadron is being deployed to reinforce the battlefield."
"Tell them not to wait for the bombardment to end, but to launch an attack directly after one minute, with artillery fire overhead, and fight the Eighth Route Army."
"Even if all the attacking troops are exhausted, I will still rush to the Tanjiagou blocking position."
Seeing that the brigade commander spoke very firmly and there was no room for negotiation in his tone, the chief of staff had no choice but to compromise.
Just as he was about to turn around, the explosions on the battlefield suddenly became louder.
The order for mountain artillery to join the battle has not yet been issued, so it is impossible for them to fire in advance.
There was only one possibility for the suddenly denser explosions on the battlefield: the Eighth Route Army artillery had joined the battle.
The chief of staff looked up and saw more than a dozen balls of fire rising from the center of the attacking troops. At least twenty soldiers were blown away in the explosion, and more soldiers were blown over.
The attacking troops had no trenches as bunkers, and the only place they could hide was in piles of corpses.
But it can only block the rain of bullets flying in the direction, but it cannot block the artillery shells falling from the sky.
The attacking troops seemed to be completely exposed to artillery fire, and a large area was exploded.
Faced with this scene, the chief of staff decisively turned to Major General Hashimoto: "General, this is the situation, do you still want to continue the attack?"
"Now the Eighth Route Army has only a dozen mortars participating in the battle, and one round of artillery fire can take away the lives of dozens of soldiers in the attacking force."
"You can kill at least one of our squadrons in one minute."
"When the Eighth Route Army artillery continues to join the battle, the attacking troops will not have time to attack, and the rapid attack of artillery fire will blow them all up..."
"Withdraw...if we don't withdraw, they will really be doomed."
Major General Hashimoto's temperament has changed. He is like a little old man who has aged more than ten years in an instant. There is no fighting spirit in his body, and his face is full of despair and scoundrel.
He sighed and said: "Retreat..."
"The entire army shifted to defense on the spot."
"The Eighth Route Army reacted too quickly. Once Tanjiazhuang failed, our chance to break out by bypassing Chenjiazhuang was gone."
"Now we can only think of ways to hold on a little longer. I hope your Excellency, Commander, has other ways to rescue us."
"Otherwise, the Hashimoto Brigade will really be ruined in my hands."
…………
At the Japanese Army's Baoding Garrison Headquarters, the deputy chief of staff suddenly approached the war room with a solemn expression.
Okamura Neiji seemed to have expected this scene. Before he could speak, he asked tentatively: "Is the escape route for the Hashimoto brigade to bypass Chenjiazhuang to break out..."
"Ha Yi..." the deputy chief of staff replied in a serious tone.
"The Eighth Route Army secretly seized Tanjiagou. After Hashimoto's brigade turned around and retreated from Wei Zhuang, they fought all the way to Tanjiagou before they realized that their retreat was cut off."
"The Eighth Route Army blocking the road has a reinforced battalion, which is well-equipped and has a very strong will to fight."
"Hashimoto's brigade concentrated all its mountain artillery and mortars to prepare for artillery fire, and also assembled a reinforced brigade to launch a group offensive. However, it still failed to capture it, and instead lost troops and generals."
"The Eighth Route Army pursuers joined the battle at the same time and launched a flank attack on the main force of the brigade."
"In order to prevent the troops from being divided and surrounded by the enemy and defeated one by one, they had to give up the attack and switch to defense."
"Please ask the former enemy headquarters to send reinforcements immediately, otherwise Hashimoto's brigade will definitely not be able to hold on for long given its current strength and equipment."
Okamura Neiji sighed deeply at the same time: "The battle has ended like this, what else can I do."
"The right-wing mopping up force closest to the battlefield is about to break out of the Eighth Route Army's base area in the center of the wing. Could it be that a force that is almost impossible to rescue has returned to the battlefield and trapped them too."
The deputy chief of staff also looked bitter and shook his head.
The troops detoured through Chenjiazhuang and fought their way out of Shunping. This method was something that I and the commander finally came up with. They thought it was perfect and could not be destroyed by the Eighth Route Army.
The result was still a failure.
Faced with the predicament of the Hashimoto Brigade, he could not think of any other way to solve the situation.
As for sending Youlu's mopping up troops to return to support Tanjiagou, don't even think about it.
The three-way mopping up force finally withdrew all the way. If they had done this, the three-way mopping up force might have been targeted by the Eighth Route Army in the Wing, and they would have lost both their wives and their troops.
But it was impossible for him to watch Hashimoto's brigade being wiped out by the Yizhong Eighth Route Army.
After thinking for a while, he proposed to Okamura Neji: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"The only option is to divide our forces and break out."
"Kill the enemy by one thousand and lose eight hundred by yourself."
"The Eighth Route Army in Yizhong also suffered heavy losses in the sweep, and the base area is seriously short of troops."
"As long as there are troops breaking out of the encirclement, they will have the opportunity to escape from the Yizhong base area by taking a small road and return to Baoding."
Okamura Neji did not nod immediately.
Once this is done, it means that the former enemy command has abandoned Hashimoto's brigade.
The division of troops will turn the troops into a mess, and the Eighth Route Army can defeat them individually at a very small cost.
But doing so will take the Hashimoto Brigade flag off the battlefield.
The battlefield is so big, there will always be one or two fish that slip through the net.
As long as one member of Hashimoto's brigade returns to Baoding alive, the structure of Hashimoto's brigade will still be there, and the Kwantung Army can rebuild this force at any time without the entire army being destroyed.
