While Wang Xuexin and others were busy interrogating the prisoners and sorting out the captured equipment, the battle at Chenjia'ao began.
The first one to hit was a reconnaissance platoon of our army. They were ordered to enter Chenjia'ao to search.
It is normal for the chief to give such instructions based on the information he knows.
It is impossible to rashly withdraw the arsenal based on the information provided by a soldier!
You have to figure out the situation first!
But this reconnaissance was just a warning.
Captain Yamazaki Sosuke, who commands this unit, is a standard Japanese soldier. He graduated from the Army Noncommissioned Officer School, an officer school that Japanese soldiers are proud of.
However, what allowed Yamazaki Sosuke to be promoted to colonel and captain was not only this experience and knowledge, but also Yamazaki Sosuke's extraordinary observation, judgment and analytical decision-making abilities.
For example, at this time, Yamazaki Sosuke saw a group of Eighth Route Army soldiers coming for reconnaissance through the telescope and knew that he had been exposed.
"We may have been fooled!" Yamazaki Sosuke put down the telescope and whispered to the chief of staff beside him.
"Colonel is saying that Fukuda's intelligence is wrong?" The staff officer didn't believe it because Fukuda Shoichi was a trustworthy scout.
Yamazaki Sosuke shook his head and replied: "Although I don't know what happened, but... they (Eighth Route Army reconnaissance platoon) entered here without any hesitation and went straight to our hiding place to search!"
The staff officer raised his binoculars and took a look. Sure enough, as Yamazaki Sosuke said, every Eighth Route Army soldier felt as if he were facing a powerful enemy, and seemed to have known for a long time that there was an enemy here.
"Then..." the staff officer hesitated: "Should we retreat?"
It’s no wonder that the staff said this. Yamazaki Sosuke led a brigade that was not fully staffed. The total number of people was only more than 700 (the full staff was more than 1,000 people), and they had traveled more than 40 miles since the march last night.
, people and horses are exhausted, and if there is a fight, they will probably be surrounded and annihilated by eight forces.
But Yamazaki Sosuke remained silent. He opened the map, looked at it, and then said:
"Hiraoka-kun, if Fukuda gets false information and asks us to wait here, it means that the enemy does not want us to continue moving forward."
"Since the enemy does not want us to continue moving forward, it means that our heading is probably correct!"
The staff officer was understood by the captain at this point: "What the colonel means is that the location of the arsenal ahead is probably true?"
Yamazaki Sosuke nodded slowly and said, "If the arsenal is real, does Hiraoka-kun still want to go back?"
The staff officer nodded firmly and said: "Obey the colonel's arrangements, we are ready to be loyal to the empire!"
In fact, they had no choice at all. Yamazaki Sosuke had already made his decision in his heart.
Then Yamazaki Sosuke formulated an unreasonable battle plan.
When most commanders encounter this situation, they will order to annihilate the Eighth Route Army reconnaissance platoon in front of them and rush out from the mountain pass.
Yamazaki Sosuke didn't think so. He pointed at the map and analyzed:
"The enemy must have deployed their troops to set up an ambush at the mountain pass, and then sent out a small force to conduct reconnaissance."
"If we break out from the mountain pass, we will fall into the fire network set by the enemy in advance."
"Although it is still possible for us to rush out, it will cause unnecessary casualties and uncertain trouble."
"So, we should occupy the high ground on the right first, then rely on the high ground's commanding geographical advantage to break through, and then go straight into the enemy's arsenal!"
"Yes!" The staff officers and squadron leaders responded in unison in a low voice.
Yamazaki Sosuke waved his hand, and they all dispersed to execute the order without delay.
Yamazaki also boldly left the Eighth Route Reconnaissance Platoon behind him to ignore it, without even leaving a small team to cover it.
This approach is extremely dangerous to others, even if it is just an enemy platoon.
Because although the number of people in a platoon is small, it may become a nail in the back and the vanguard of a two-sided attack.
But Yamazaki Sosuke didn't take it to heart.
This is trust in the combat effectiveness of one's own army, or it can be said to be contempt for the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army.
He believed that once the battle started, his troops could accurately and quickly eliminate the platoon behind them, so it would not cause him too much trouble.
On the contrary, keeping them can create an illusion for the Eighth Route Commander... The reconnaissance platoon went deep into the woods but there was no fighting or gunfire, indicating that it had not yet contacted the enemy or there was no enemy at all, so the deployment of troops would not be changed.
Even let your guard down.
Yamazaki Sosuke's tactic really worked.
The two commanders of the New First Regiment and the New Second Regiment of our army had an emergency meeting before the war. They agreed that once the war started, the Japanese would definitely rush out from the mountain pass, so they set up ambushes at the front and rear mountain passes.
And because there was no gunfire, the subsequent reinforcements continued to pile up at the mountain pass, and each of them only sent a battalion of more than 300 people to seize the top of the mountain.
Ding Wei, the leader of the new regiment, kept an eye on the situation and personally crossed the mountain pass to the front line to observe the enemy's situation.
As a result, I observed through the telescope that the trees deep in the woods were shaking strangely, and they were also moving in a direction away from the reconnaissance platoon.
Ding Wei immediately understood what trick the Japs were playing. Without saying a word, he took out the cannon from his waist and fired two shots in the direction of the Japs.
These two shots were not intended to hit the enemy.
At this time, the Eighth Route Army's communication equipment was extremely backward. If we had used the radio to contact the New Second Regiment and explain what had happened during this race against time, the Japanese would have already rushed to the top of the mountain.
These two shots are telling everyone that there is an enemy situation, and it would be better if the Japanese can be provoked to fight back.
Sure enough, there were several "bang bang" gunshots, and two bullets flew past Ding Wei's ears.
Ding Wei straightened up and immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
Good guy, this is more than 400 meters away, and I am still hiding in the grass, but the Japanese are still fighting closely.
As soon as the gunfire rang out, the New Second Regiment immediately knew the location of the Japanese and realized that something was wrong, so they hurriedly sent reinforcements toward the top of the mountain.
But it was too late. Yamazaki Sosuke led the Japanese and charged towards the mountain as fast as possible.
After a burst of intensive gunfire and explosions, it took only ten minutes to break through my unsteady position on the top of the mountain.
Then the Japanese did not stop, and immediately divided into several groups to cover each other and use the geographical advantages to attack downwards. Soon they broke through the encirclement and went straight into the arsenal.
This situation was immediately reported to the headquarters, and the chief slapped the table angrily, causing the water glasses on the table to jump:
"Two regiments can't surround a large group of Japanese soldiers even if they are well prepared?"
"How did they fight?!"
Then the consultant on the phone explained:
"Chief, the Japanese are equipped with many grenades and have very strong firepower."
"Our equipment was already poor, and the machine guns were knocked off one by one by grenade launchers... This is too bad!"
The chief couldn't help but frowned when he heard this.
He has been dealing with the Japanese for so many years, so of course he knows how powerful the Japanese grenades are.
But what is in front of the Japanese is the Military Region Arsenal!