Anda Twenty-Three did not realize at all that the defense line that he thought had no loopholes and was just waiting for the Eighth Route Army to come and die, actually had a big loophole.
That night, Adachi Twenty-three asked Takeda to inquire about the defense situation one by one, drank a few glasses of sake brought from home, and fell asleep.
At five o'clock in the morning, several flares suddenly rose into the sky, and then fierce gunshots and explosions rang out around Yuncheng.
Adachi twenty-three was woken up. As soon as he got up, he put on his clothes and hurried to the headquarters. As soon as he opened the door, he bumped into Takeda who came to report.
Takeda Kamie looked at Anda Twenty-three with admiration and said: "Your Excellency, Lieutenant General, as you expected, the Eighth Route Army has launched an attack on Yuncheng, and it is a comprehensive attack. There are a lot of troops from all directions.
Eighth Route Army!”
Anda Twenty-Three sneered proudly, and said as he walked: "You are seeking your own death!"
Then he asked again: "How is the situation?"
"The situation is very stable!" Taketa Kamie replied: "Thanks to Lieutenant General's accurate calculation, none of the ministries panicked. They all said that they did not need reinforcements for the time being and that they were capable of blocking the Eighth Route Army's attack!"
Hearing this, Anda Twenty-Three couldn't help but pause for a moment, then turned around and asked, "Are you able to block the enemy's attack?"
"Yes!" Takeda Kamie was a little surprised. Isn't this a good thing? Why did the Lieutenant General look a little surprised?
Anda's twenty-three words suddenly made it clear to Taketa Shangjiang.
Anda asked on the 23rd: "Where is the Eighth Route Army's chariot unit? It didn't show up?"
The fact that reinforcements are not needed means that the Eighth Route Army's tanks are not on board. Another meaning that the Eighth Route Army's tanks are not on board is that there is more to the Eighth Route Army's attack than meets the eye.
"No!" Takeda Kamie replied: "But there were spray bombs as the Lieutenant General mentioned, but the artillery fire was not violent!"
Then Takeda Kamie added: "Maybe it's because chariots can't fight at night!"
Anda Twenty-Three nodded. It is right that tanks do not have the ability to fight at night. Even the tanks of the Imperial Army... To be precise, it is not that the tanks of the Imperial Army do not have the ability to fight at night, but that tanks all over the world cannot fight at night.
Night combat.
So, the tanks of the Eighth Route Army fought at night?
Forget it!
However, the question is, since the Eighth Route Army knew that the tanks were not capable of night fighting, why did it launch an attack at this time?
They could wait until around six o'clock and launch the attack when it was getting dark. Wouldn't it be a better choice?
But at this time...
Anda Twenty-Three took out his pocket watch and checked the time. It was five o'clock in the morning, one hour before dawn.
With this doubt, Anda 23 walked quickly to the headquarters and immediately issued an order: "Order all ministries to send out small teams to conduct reconnaissance and pay attention to the enemy's tanks!"
"yes!"
The order was conveyed quickly.
This is also an exaggerated point in the battle between the Japanese and the Eighth Route Army. When most troops are attacked, especially at night, they will choose to stay in place and wait for dawn.
But the Japs were fighting on the Chinese battlefield...not just against the Eighth Route Army, but also against the recalcitrant troops.
When they were attacked, their first thought was to send out a small force to conduct reconnaissance, and even launched a counterattack, even if their troops were far smaller than the opponent's.
That means: We have finally discovered the enemy's main force. If we wait until daybreak to take action, it will be too late. The enemy will have already run away by then!
Therefore, Anda Twenty-Three’s order was actually the norm for the Japs’ operations, and it was also an attempt by Anda Twenty-three to figure out the Eighth Route Army’s main attack direction and strategic intentions.
Twenty minutes later, intelligence from all directions reached the headquarters of Anda 23 like snowflakes:
To the east is an enemy harassing force, which has been repulsed by our troops.
There was probably a regiment to the west, fighting the enemy, but no tanks were found.
The main force of the Eighth Route Army was found in the north, approximately two regiments, but no tanks were found.
A small number of troops were found in the south and were violently bombarded by "spray bombs" from the Eighth Route Army.
Anda Twenty-Three's eyes lit up.
south?
Violently spraying bullets?
But when he saw the salt lake on the map, Anda Twenty-Three shook his head.
Impossible, it is absolutely impossible for enemy tanks to attack from this side.
Thinking of Anda Twenty-Three, he asked: "To the south is the 226th Regiment of Changzhu. What is going on? A violent spray of bombs? How violent is it specifically?"
Anda twenty-three guessed that this was probably the frontline troops exaggerating the enemy's strength to show off their own military exploits and capabilities.
This actually made Anda Twenty-Three guess right.
The spray-injection bombs used by the Eighth Route Army in the south were single-shot ones. That is, they could be smuggled in, placed on anything, and fired without any hope of hitting anything.
Its purpose is to use explosions and fire to divert the sight of the Japanese or cover up some sounds.
Takeda Kamie understood the meaning of Adachi Twenty-three's words and immediately called to ask. As a result, Captain Kamie of the Takeda Alliance investigated and found that this was indeed the case. The enemy only fired eight spray bombs...
Situations like this kind of "lying about the enemy's situation" are actually very common in the Japanese army. Anda Twenty-three was used to it, so he didn't take it seriously.
After getting the confirmation, Anda 23 felt that the south side could be ruled out. The terrain here was not suitable for chariot combat, nor was it suitable for enemy attacks.
If Anda were to choose among the twenty-three, he thought it would probably be in the north, where the main force of the two regiments were... This showed that the Eighth Route Army was really attacking.
It is very likely that these two regiments are just the vanguard. They need to spend an hour to open a channel for the chariots, and then launch the final attack with the chariot units at dawn.
Thinking of this, Anda Twenty-three ordered: "Send reinforcements to the northern defense line immediately, report to the military headquarters, and send troops to encircle and destroy the Eighth Route Army!"
At this time, the Japanese had already assembled two divisions in the Yuncheng area. Although one division was still pursuing the Shanxi-Sui Army, it was still possible to encircle and annihilate the main force of the two regiments of the Eighth Route Army.
After the order was issued, Anda Twenty-Three also cursed: "Everyone in the Intelligence Department should be shot. The Eighth Route Army sneaked in so many people, but they didn't notice it at all!"
No wonder Anda Twenty-Three said this.
At this time, the vicinity of Yuncheng was controlled by the Japanese, to be precise, it was controlled by the gendarmerie brigade and the puppet army...the front combat troops advanced, and the rear gendarmerie brigade led the puppet army to take over the security.
However, the Eighth Route Army's battles have always involved blending into the crowd and then launching a sudden attack, which is a trivial matter to them.
What's more, the battle is not over yet and the Japanese are not yet firm.
When Anda 23 thought he had a confident command, he didn't know that Wang Xuexin had already led the tank troops to the edge of the Salt Lake under the cover of darkness, rockets and gunfire.