In the Qingshan Village area, the news spread that more than 500 Japanese and puppet troops were wiped out by the Eighth Route Army troops, setting off a silent storm.
The shock on all sides has not faded yet.
In the area of Guhe Village at the northeast end of Zhongtiao Mountain, the Eighth Route Army troops conducted another ambush and eliminated nearly a hundred Japanese.
The Third Independent Regiment's sudden and continuous attacks caught the little Japanese off guard.
The news spread secretly in the counties in the occupied areas through Yu Ming, a patriotic reporter in Ji County, and others.
People who heard the news were excited.
On the other side, the national army, which had already retreated to the south of the Yellow River, learned the news.
The mood of many national army officers is quite complicated.
The humiliating defeat in the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain is still deep in the hearts of many patriotic generals who have a sense of shame.
As a result, tens of thousands of national troops were unable to defend Zhongtiao Mountain for half a month.
The Eighth Route Army guerrillas were able to fight very impressively among them.
How can we not be ashamed of the disparity in comparison?
Independent Third Regiment.
Mountain Temporary Command.
Wang Huaibao, the leader of the third regiment, personally met with the captured puppet battalion commander Xie Yu.
This is the puppet army officer captured by Han Feng and four battalions of soldiers during the ambush in Qingshan Village, including more than 100 puppet army prisoners.
When the two parties met, Wang Huaibao was very polite and took the lead in introducing himself:
"Wang Huaibao, leader of the Third Independent Regiment of the First Independent Anti-Japanese Detachment in Northwest Shanxi Province of the Eighth Route Army!"
"Hello, sir!"
Xie Yu saluted Wang Huaibao and revealed his identity: "Xie Yu, commander of the fifth company of the third battalion of the 27th regiment of the Central Army!"
Han Feng on the side asked with a half-smile:
"Battal Commander Xie, this is wrong. What you introduced is your original identity, right? Your identity as the commander of the third battalion of the fifth regiment of the Royal Association Army was simply omitted?"
Xie Yu's face froze, but he didn't dare to say anything.
The young man speaking in front of me was the fierce general who captured him alive.
"Ashamed brother!"
Xie Yudai said with a bit of embarrassment: "After the fall of Zhongtiao Mountain, most of the main force of our Central Army retreated to the south of the Yellow River. The remaining troops who were unable to evacuate in time stayed in the Zhongtiao Mountain area to launch guerrilla operations against the Japanese invaders."<
/p>
"However, the Japanese army was powerful and carried out large-scale raids back and forth. My brothers also led the troops to resist vigorously. The original team of a company was beaten down to the last thirty or forty people."
Speaking of this, Xie Yu's words were a little sad:
"But what happened later? I and my brothers gritted their teeth and persisted, but the news came one after another. A certain national army company commander led the surrender, a certain national army battalion commander chose to surrender, and there were even people with higher positions than this
Chief."
"The Japanese saw that I was leading a strong resistance, so they sent a commander to persuade them to surrender. It's really a shame. The commander who persuaded me to surrender happened to be a battalion commander I knew. After surrendering to the Japanese, he was promoted and became the Imperial Association.
The commander of the army."
"I finally recognized the reality. The officers have all surrendered. What's the point of me continuing to persevere? The brothers behind me also want to live."
"At that time, the commander also said nicely that we would save the country through curves. This was just a temporary surrender in accordance with the instructions conveyed privately by our superiors."
"I'm just a small company commander. I don't know whether my superiors have conveyed these meanings, but since the commander said so, we can only believe it!"
"In this way, I took the remaining brothers and surrendered to the Japanese and became the Imperial Alliance Army."
These words are so touching! They are mixed with sadness and helplessness.
Unfortunately, Han Feng was not moved by this, and even sneered twice and said:
"I know a commander of the Jinsui Army named Chu Yunfei. This commander Chu said that soldiers should have the backbone of soldiers."
"It's true that you surrendered to the Japanese and became traitors. This is a stain that can never be washed away."
Xie Yu remained silent and speechless.
Han Feng is right about this point. Don't look at the surrendered national troops who can always find various reasons for themselves, such as risking their lives to save the country, pretending to be ingratiating, etc.
In the final analysis, it is nothing more than a fig leaf to deceive oneself and others.
The war of resistance is about saving the nation. If you can't win, you can surrender, and then you can talk about curves to save the country.
The Chinese nation may have perished long ago!
Wang Huaibao smiled and said with relief:
"Captain Xie, know your shame and then be brave. The wrong things you have done cannot be washed away. The only way is to prove yourself with more practical actions."
"I want to know what your next plans are?"
Xie Yu was stunned for a moment and asked: "What do you mean, sir?"
Wang Huaibao said: "Chinese people do not fight Chinese people. From what Captain Xie said just now, I at least know that Captain Xie also has a sense of shame."
"If Captain Xie leaves, we will let him go at any time, but we don't know what Captain Xie is going to do next?"
"Of course I will continue to fight the Japanese."
Xie Yu replied without blinking. His expression seemed sincere, but he didn't know whether it was true or not.
Wang Huaibao smiled: "If you know your mistakes, correct them. There is no great way to do good. Captain Xie is so brave! How can you get the equipment to fight Japanese invaders?"
Xie Yu choked.
Naturally, he did not dare to expect the Eighth Route Army to return his equipment.
I don’t even have the face or the courage to ask for it.
"In this way, we good people of the Eighth Route Army will do our best to send Buddha to the West.
Now that you, Captain Xie, have been rescued from the clutches of the Japanese, you no longer have to compromise and act like traitors for the Japanese.
When it's almost dusk, we escort Captain Xie and you to sneak across the Yellow River. When you return to the national army and get your equipment, if Captain Xie is really determined to kill the enemy, wouldn't he be able to rush to the battlefield again?"
Wang Huaibao put forward his own ideas.
Xie Yu: "..."
"Very good. Judging from the look on Captain Xie's face, he agrees with this suggestion, so let's make it that way!"
Xie Yu was silent.
It's evening in a blink of an eye.
Wang Huaibao and his soldiers chose a basin with slower and shallower water flow, and used some civilian boats to transport Xie Yu and his party across the Yellow River.
Looking at the back of Xie Yu and his entourage gradually disappearing into the night on the other side, Han Feng asked: "Captain, do you think this Xie Yu will really lead the team back to Zhongtiao Mountain?"
Wang Huaibao laughed and said: "Who can know that people's hearts are separated from each other?"
Han Feng said: "But if we don't come back, won't our efforts be in vain? We helped the national army, and I guess others won't appreciate it."
Wang Huaibao smiled indifferently and said: "It's best if you are willing to come back, but if you don't want to come back and pull me down."
"Let's just do what we do. Contact reporters and let out the news that Xie Yu and his party are crossing the Yellow River south and preparing to return to the army to regroup and fight back to Zhongtiao Mountain."
"Oh, by the way, we must especially bring the news to the Japanese and puppet troops."
"Let's just say that we gave freedom to the puppet troops who surrendered to our Eighth Route Army, and we also helped them return to the national army."
"Another message is that the Eighth Route Army welcomes the puppet troops who are willing to rebel against the Japanese invaders and jointly fight against the Japanese invaders!"
"Commander, this is your plan to alienate people!" Han Feng said with a smile.
Wang Huaibao said happily: "The Japanese and the puppet soldiers were originally at odds with each other, and they had never worn a pair of trousers."
"There are indeed many teams in the puppet army, and they are privately connected with the national army. The Japanese are always on guard, so we might as well add another fire."
"First create public opinion and push the national army to the forefront. If they are willing to fight back to Zhongtiao Mountain, they can fight. If they are not willing, at least create public opinion and put some pressure on the Japanese."
"Hey!" Han Feng responded with a smile.
……
Japanese Army 41st Division Headquarters in Yuncheng.
The commander of the Japanese Division, Kenichi Yamato, learned that the Zhongtiao Mountain troops had been ambushed by the Eighth Route Army many times, and held a military meeting to discuss the follow-up response plan.
The head of the Japanese intelligence department took the lead in reporting the specific circumstances of these ambush battles:
"Sir, according to feedback from the frontline reconnaissance troops, in the many battles that broke out in Dashu Village, Qingshan Village, Guhe Village and other places, the Eighth Route Army troops hiding in the Zhongtiao Mountain area showed quite strong combat effectiveness."<
/p>
"They have strong mobility, superb combat tactics, well-equipped equipment, and fierce firepower. In addition, judging from the footprints on the scene, most of these Eighth Route Army troops wear mountain military boots, which are somewhat similar to the main force of the independent regiment." "From this, we initially judged that the team that ambushed the imperial troops was the elite of the Independent Regiment of the Eighth Route Army."
This is consistent with the fact that not long ago, Kong Jie's first detachment sent troops south to reinforce Zhongtiao Mountain.
The devil continued:
"Based on the situation on the battlefield, these Eighth Route Army troops have a large number of artillery on hand, mostly with a caliber of 60 mm or 50 mm. There have also been 82 mm mortars commonly used by the national army."
"In addition, the bullets dug out from the corpses of our soldiers found that in addition to the 7.92mm bullets commonly used by the Eighth Route Army and made in Hanyang, and the 6.5mm bullets commonly used by our army's Type 38, a new caliber was also discovered
The bullet is a 7.62x63mm rifle bullet."
Shan Tengjian nodded, a little confused and said:
"7.62mm bullets... are commonly used in many fine art weapons."
"Is it possible that the Eighth Route Army troops in Zhongtiao Mountain are equipped with a large amount of beautiful weapons and equipment?"
The information deduced from this cast a shadow on the minds of Japanese military officers.
"Your Excellency, Brigade Commander, if this is the case, it means that the elite Eighth Route Army troops hiding in Zhongtiao Mountain are so sophisticated that they are already superior to our imperial troops."
"Relying on the familiarity of the mountain environment will be a great disadvantage to our army."
Santo Kenichi thought for a moment, but without knowing anything, he raised his head and asked, "Do you have any good countermeasures?"
At this time, a Japanese staff officer spoke up and suggested:
"Your Excellency, Brigade Commander, the Eighth Route Army troops are extremely cunning and are especially good at mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare in mountainous areas."
"And our army is better at frontal attacks. When fighting the Eighth Route Army in the mountains, we use our shortcomings to attack the Eighth Route Army's strengths. The advantage lies with the Eighth Route Army, and the disadvantage lies with us."
"I suggest that to deal with the Eighth Route Army troops in Zhongtiao Mountain, we should find corresponding troops that are good at mountain warfare."
When this suggestion was made, a Japanese officer immediately echoed:
"Your Excellency, Brigade Commander, I agree with this point of view. Not long ago, Colonel Yamamoto led a special agent team to fight in the mountains and forests and achieved considerable results."
"It can be seen that to deal with the Eighth Route Army guerrillas, we should indeed find corresponding combat units."
"Where can we find such troops?" Kenichi Santo asked.
The Japanese chief of staff replied: "Your Excellency, Brigade Commander, the Kwantung Army is the elite of the Japanese Empire and has been fighting against the Anti-Japanese Alliance for many years in the dense forests of the Northeast.
As of today, the anti-union guerrillas in Northeast China have basically been wiped out. It can be seen that the Kwantung Army has rich experience in fighting in mountainous areas and destroying the Eighth Route Army guerrillas.
If we can get their reinforcements, I think we can definitely deal with the Eighth Route Army troops in Zhongtiao Mountain."
"吆西!"
After coming back to his senses, Santo Kenichi said happily: "This is indeed a good idea. I will apply for a transfer order from the Commander."