When Yoshio Iwamatsu saw that no one at the headquarters answered his words, he became even more angry and immediately turned to look at the chief of staff.
As his deputy, he had no choice but to answer: "Your Excellency, Commander, Kong Jie and Li Yunlong have indeed been transferred."
"But the independent regiment and the main force of the new regiment they formed are still in northwestern Shanxi. They haven't taken away a single artillery piece. They just changed the regiment leader."
"Although the overall combat effectiveness of the unit is not as strong as when Kong Jie and Li Yunlong were the commanders, it is not much worse."
"Battles such as conquering small and medium-sized strongholds are still a piece of cake for these troops."
Yoshio Iwamatsu slammed his fist on the table again, obviously very dissatisfied with the chief of staff's answer.
Staring at the sand table, he continued: "The Eighth Route Army has eleven regiments. This is a slap in our face."
"Since Commander Yoshio Shinozuka failed in his campaign to sweep northwestern Shanxi, we have never attacked northwestern Shanxi again."
"I remember that at that time, the Eighth Route Army in Northwestern Shanxi had only three or four regiments..."
"Why are there so many troops all of a sudden?"
The chief of staff seemed to be very aware of this matter and immediately explained: "After the defeat last time, the Eighth Route Army in Northwestern Shanxi indeed only had three main regiments and some local troops."
"But each of their main regiments has five to six thousand people."
"The independent regiment with the strongest combat effectiveness has eight thousand people, which is more than a brigade of many Chinese troops."
"After the Eighth Route Army headquarters transferred Kong Jie and Li Yunlong, these troops were dismantled into a main force group of more than 2,000 people, and then gradually developed into the current 11 main force groups."
"Although there are more establishments, the total strength is not much greater, and the overall combat effectiveness has not become stronger."
"On the contrary, it has been weakened a lot due to the dispersion of heavy weapons and command authority."
After hearing this, Yoshio Iwamatsu finally looked much better.
But he still asked with an unhappy expression: "Our losses in this raid have exceeded 7,000 people..."
"Killing one thousand enemies and damaging eight hundred. The Eighth Route Army is still on the offensive side. The battle damage will definitely not be known. How many people do you think the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army will have left after passing this stop?"
The chief of staff looked at Yoshio Iwamatsu carefully and made sure that he was not angry now before saying: "Of the more than 7,000 people our army lost, more than half of the Imperial Army were captured by the Eighth Route Army."
"No more than 3,500 soldiers were actually killed."
"Even if the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army suffered more casualties than us, the direct losses would not exceed 5,000 people."
"They also obtained more than 3,000 prisoners of the Imperial Association Army. With the mobilization methods of the Eighth Route Army, at least 2,000 people will take off their uniforms and join the Eighth Route Army."
"Based on this calculation, their direct losses in this raid are likely to be no more than 3,000."
"Nani..." Yoshio Iwamatsu was angry again and said with anger on his face.
"Why did we lose so many people?"
"If the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army continues to develop like this, then their overall strength will become stronger and stronger."
"no……"
"We can't let them grow like this anymore."
"In the past, there were two men, Li Yunlong and Kong Jie, in northwestern Shanxi. The Shanxi garrison suffered a major defeat on the battlefield and lost troops and generals. For a long time, they did not dare to raid northwestern Shanxi again."
"Now that Li Yunlong and Kong Jie are gone, the Northwestern Shanxi Eighth Route Army has just experienced a big battle. Even if it did not suffer heavy losses, the troops are very tired."
"After more than half a year of reorganization, the Shanxi garrison has recovered a lot of strength and combat effectiveness. It will definitely be no problem to mobilize 20,000 troops to participate in the big sweep."
"If we send out heavy troops to sweep northwestern Shanxi now, we will definitely be able to catch them off guard."
The more Iwamatsu Yoshio thought about it, the more he felt that his proposal was very feasible. The communications staff suddenly ran towards him, holding a telegram in his hand and saying anxiously.
"Your Excellency Commander..."
"An urgent message from the Front Army Headquarters was sent personally by Commander Okamura."
"What did General Okamura say?" Yoshio Iwamatsu asked directly.
"Let the Shanxi garrison gather heavy troops, seize the opportunity to advance into northwest Shanxi, severely inflict heavy damage on the Eighth Route Army in northwest Shanxi, knock off the arrogance of the Eighth Route Army in northwest Shanxi, and avenge previous shame..."
"Hahaha..." Yoshio Iwamatsu laughed after hearing this.
"Heroes think alike, General Okamura thinks exactly the same as me..."
"Without Kong Jie and Li Yunlong, the exhausted Eighth Route Army in Northwestern Shanxi would definitely not be our opponent."
"Just do it."
"Assemble troops immediately and sweep northwest Shanxi."
"The chief of staff immediately organized everyone to draw up a raid plan. I will see it tonight."
"The Eighth Route Army in Northwestern Shanxi has more than 20,000 troops. After deducting battle losses, there are still 23,000 to 4,000 troops."
"We can only deploy more troops, not less..."
"Find a way to gather together 25,000 imperial troops and 20,000 imperial alliance troops. The troops are divided into separate groups and suddenly rush into the Eighth Route Army's base area in northwestern Shanxi, catching them by surprise."
The chief of staff's mind was racing, analyzing the feasibility of Yoshio Iwamatsu's idea.
He also scanned the map with his eyes, calculating how many troops the headquarters could immediately dispatch to participate in the sweep.
Two minutes later, the rogue shook his head: "Your Excellency, Commander..."
"Time is limited. I can dispatch at most 20,000 imperial troops to participate in the sweep. Any more can only be dispatched from southwestern Shanxi. But it will take time and there is no way to achieve the suddenness of attacking northwestern Shanxi."
Yoshio Iwamatsu seemed to have guessed what the chief of staff would say, and asked directly: "How many troops have you left to defend Taiyuan..."
"One main brigade plus one brigade of the Imperial Army..." the chief of staff replied immediately.
"There is an infantry regiment left in Jinzhong, which is closest to Taiyuan. If an accident occurs in Taiyuan, they can immediately dispatch two brigades to reinforce Taiyuan."
"Too many..." Yoshio Iwamatsu answered, shaking his head.
Seeing that the chief of staff was about to object subconsciously, Yoshio Iwamatsu interrupted directly: "I know what you are going to say?"
"Taiyuan was once attacked and the inner city was almost lost."
"The Taiyuan Arsenal also lost a lot of equipment in that battle."
"The Eighth Route Army used those equipment to build an arsenal and solved many ammunition problems."
"You are worried that Taiyuan will be attacked again."
"What I want to tell you is that the Taiyuan of today is not the Taiyuan of the past."
"The current Eighth Route Army in Northwestern Shanxi is no longer the Eighth Route Army before. They don't have the guts to raid Taiyuan again."
"Even if there is, I will not give them any opportunity to take advantage of it."
"Taiyuan only needs to leave one infantry regiment..."
"Deploy a tank brigade from southwestern Shanxi to return to Taiyuan to protect the airport..."
"If the Eighth Route Army wants to raid Taiyuan, it must not take the main road, which means that the heavy weapons they carry are very limited."
"The chariot brigade is no longer a threat."
"As long as the Eighth Route Army dares to come, I am sure that they will never come back."
