In the simple headquarters of Hashimoto's brigade, Major General Hashimoto was writing and drawing on an open map, raising his head from time to time to issue military orders to the staff beside him.
"A reinforced squadron needs to be arranged here..." Major General Hashimoto pointed to the arc he had just drawn on the map and said: "Strengthen three heavy machine guns and three mortars... Without my order, we will fight to the death of every soldier.
We can't retreat." Upon hearing this, a combat staff officer turned around and rushed out of the headquarters.
Major General Hashimoto didn't even raise his head. He pointed at a point on the map and continued to order: "There is a high ground here..."
"Although it is only a dozen meters high, it is the highest point within a few hundred meters and must be defended."
"If one squadron is not enough, two squadrons will be arranged, and two mountain artillery squadrons will be specially allocated to provide them with artillery support."
"As long as the high ground is not lost, the Eighth Route Army will not be able to rush to the headquarters..." Another combat staff officer hurriedly rushed out of the headquarters.
Major General Hashimoto was just about to continue giving orders when the radio operator suddenly ran towards him: "The brigade commander... Your Excellency, Commander, has an urgent message."
"Let us immediately divide our forces and break out..."
"Don't hold on to it any longer."
"The right-wing mopping up troops have withdrawn from the Eighth Route Army's base area in the center of the wing, and it is impossible to return to the battlefield to rescue us."
"The Hashimoto Brigade can only fight its way out of the wing on its own."
"Nani..." Major General Hashimoto's face was full of disbelief. The Eighth Route Army was everywhere around him. Hashimoto's brigade gathered troops to wait for reinforcements. Even if the entire army died in battle, thousands of Eighth Route Army troops could be wiped out.
Once the troops are divided to break through, the Eighth Route Army can defeat them one by one and eliminate Hashimoto's brigade at a very small cost. Even if there are troops that successfully break through, they will be very few.
It was better to defend here and fight with the Eighth Route Army. Major General Hashimoto took the telegram and read it twice before believing what the operator said, but he didn't understand why the commander wanted them to do this.
They were all going to die anyway, so why not let them kill a few more Eighth Route Army soldiers before they died? The brigade chief of staff also didn't understand at first.
Since Hashimoto's brigade will undoubtedly die, as the commander, Okamura Neiji must maximize the interests and let Hashimoto's brigade recruit a few more backers before dying, striving to further inflict heavy losses on the Eighth Route Army in the center and prepare for the next sweep of the North China Front.
Lay the foundation for the base in Yinzhong.
As a result, Okamura Neji actually did the opposite, which was too strange. But he soon figured it out. He looked at the Hashimoto Brigade and explained in a low voice: "General, Commander, you want to keep the Hashimoto Brigade organization.
.”
"If Hashimoto's brigade is completely destroyed here and no one escapes back to Baoding, the army will simply be gone."
"But as long as someone successfully breaks through, escapes back to Baoding, and takes the military flag back, the Kwantung Army Headquarters can still rebuild the army." Major General Hashimoto understood the point and thought for a while before making a decision: "Keep the military flag and bring him back."
It’s really important to bring it back to Baoding.”
"But there is no need to break out now."
"We will defend first, then look for opportunities to break out, and eliminate as many Eighth Route Army troops as possible."......
"Dongdongdong..." A heavy machine gun suddenly appeared in front of the team. The dazzling tongue of flames was two feet long. The bullets rained in a fan shape and swept towards the attacking troops. The first four or five soldiers fell to the ground.
Li Yunlong threw himself on the ground, holding the box cannon and loudly ordered: "Machine gun cover..."
"Mortar shooting, knock out the Japanese heavy machine gun firepower for me, hurry up..."
"Da da da..." A few of the troops accompanying the attacking team immediately joined the battle, instantly attracting the attention of the Japanese heavy machine gunners.
Several gunners took the opportunity to set up the mortar. They simply aimed and then quickly adjusted the shooting.
"Boom..." The explosion sounded quickly in front of the team. Unfortunately, the impact point was more than twenty meters away, and the heavy machine gun blocking the road continued to fire.
"Boom..." Two more artillery shells exploded, one on the left and one on the right, hitting the heavy machine gun. Bao Xiao's heavy machine gun instantly misfired.
"Rush over, use grenades to deal with the remaining enemies, and kill them all with me..." Li Yunlong also became red-eyed, jumped up from the ground, and rushed forward with the box cannon, giving orders as he ran.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Several grenades quickly hit the firepower point of the Japanese heavy machine gun, and several machine gunners who were injured by the shells were completely silent.
Li Yunlong's feet did not stop, he glanced at the corpse on the ground and continued to rush forward.
"Captain Li..." A very familiar voice suddenly sounded behind Li Yunlong. He turned around and saw Duan Peng leading a few people chasing him.
"Duan Peng... aren't you following Xiao Huang? Why are you here?"
"Our leader asked me to come here." Duan Peng reported while panting.
"The rear artillery is ready for bombardment."
"I brought a radio station. Commander Li can use the radio to call for artillery support at any time." Li Yunlong had already been coveting the dozens of mountain cannons in Huang Yu's hands. His eyes suddenly became hot, and he asked with anticipation: "A total of
How many artillery pieces are there?”
"Forty-two mountain field guns are ready for battle and can be fired at any time."
"There are more than thirty mountain field guns left to build artillery positions, and they will be ready to join the battle in ten minutes." Li Yunlong became even more excited after hearing this, and immediately ordered: "It's great that you are here."
"I'm worried that I won't be able to break through the main position of the Japanese army. With these artillery, no matter how hard the turtle shell of the Japanese army is, we can smash it." After that, he pointed to the main Japanese position 500 meters ahead and ordered: "Look
Have you reached the Japanese defense line in front?"
"Gather all the mountain artillery and give me five minutes of fire. Let's fire now."
"I led the troops to continue the assault, and I had just enough time to reach the front of the defense line."
"As soon as the shelling stops, I will launch an assault, trying to break up the Japs' defense line with one attack and give them a good beating." The defense line Li Yunlong saw was built temporarily by Major General Hashimoto on the high ground. Two squadrons on the high ground,
There is a squadron on each side of the high ground to prevent the Eighth Route Army from outflanking.
As a result, they were targeted by more than 40 mountain field artillery pieces before they even saw the Eighth Route Army's attacking troops.
"Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ] Do to for do.
The violent explosion was like thunder, and it reached Major General Hashimoto's ears at the same time. He dropped the pencil in his hand and ran to the lookout. He raised his telescope and saw the scene of a heavy machine gun team on the high ground being blown up.
"No..." the brigade chief of staff cried out.
"General, the high ground is being targeted by the Eighth Route Army artillery. They are preparing at least forty mountain field guns to launch an attack. Our troops don't even have trenches to hide in. They are all exposed on the ground. They will never be able to withstand such a heavy artillery attack. We must act early.
Intend."
"Whether to defend or break out, you must make a decision as soon as possible."
