Chapter nine hundred and eighty fifth painful march
In the dark night, all roads were dug to pieces by civilians organized by the guerrillas, and the roads were carefully taken care of. There was a deep hole almost every few hundred meters.
These deep pits were dug according to Yang Ling's requirements. Most of them were four to five meters wide, and the shallowest ones were two meters deep. All the excavated soil was transported away, making it impossible for the Japanese to fill the pits.
It is said that there is strength in numbers, and more than 30,000 people have been working together for so many days, and there is almost no good road left in this area.
Facing the messy road that had been dug up, the Japanese soldiers were so angry that they cursed in their hearts, "Let's just fight a war. Why are you digging roads when you have nothing to do?"
The little devils can't even take detours through the wilderness. The paths known to the traitor guides have been completely changed, and many roads have even been directly submerged by dug canals.
Looking at the ruined marching road, the enthusiastic Japanese captain Hirayama Kei felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured on him, and his face turned ashen.
Now let alone the heavy equipment of those troops, walking on such a bumpy road, when can we get to Jieshou Town?
They originally wanted to attack lightly and catch the guerrillas in Jieshou Town off guard, but now the road problems have made their speed slow to a snail's pace.
"Obviously there used to be a bridge here, why is it gone?"
The traitors who volunteered to be guides were sweating profusely in the face of the angry Japanese soldiers even in the winter.
All the paths and bridges across the river they knew had changed. The bridges were gone, even the bridge piers had been removed, and the roads had become a desert.
It is extremely easy to carry out sabotage in this area with dense water network. As long as one bridge is demolished, the little devil will be unable to move forward.
Because if the little devil wants to move forward, he must wade through those ditches and rivers. It would be fine in summer, but this is winter. Thinking about wading through the water, the devil's teeth will chatter.
But after reaching this point, there is no turning back. If he withdraws to Gaoyou in such a dejected manner, he may encounter some kind of ridicule from his colleagues. Captain Hirayama can't bear to lose face.
Although the road was completely destroyed, fortunately there was no guerrilla attack, and it was still early before dawn. The captain of the brigade, Hirayama Kei, felt that he could not just stand still.
Moreover, the morale of the troops is now high, and he has been shouting war slogans for so many days. He is forced to retreat. Once he retreats, he will become synonymous with cowards.
"Captain, do you need to order the engineering team to cut down trees and build bridges?"
The Japanese staff officer looked at the cold river in front of him, and now he had the intention of retreating.
They left the city with high morale, but they didn't expect that they would get off to a bad start. They were already scolding the trash in the intelligence department.
The Chinese guerrillas actually completed such a large-scale sabotage operation under their noses, and they were not even aware of it. They should have been pulled out and shot.
In fact, this was wrongly blamed on their intelligence department, because Yang Ling and his team's raids, digging roads and ditches were all carried out at night, and the Japanese intelligence officers also reported it, but they did not attract enough attention.
After all, the guerrillas have carried out some sabotage operations in the past, but they are no different from scratching an itch. They just cut off the road, so I can just go around it.
But this time even taking a detour became a luxury, because the ditches on the roadside and the fields were filled with water. If you wanted to take a detour, you would have to endure the cold and mud.
Of course, this cannot stop the Japanese soldiers who are enthusiastic about fighting, but what the Japanese soldiers don't know is that there are dangerous situations within a radius of dozens of miles. If they knew, they would definitely retreat.
Now it was not only the wet fields that slowed down the enemy's march, but also the rivers blocking their way that made them worry.
If it were normal times, we could let the engineers build the bridge. With the speed of the engineers, it would not take half an hour to build the bridge.
But now they are going to raid Jieshou Town. If they can cross such bridges one after another, how long will it take?
“Take off your shoes and wade across the river!”
The Japanese captain, Hirayama Kei, stared at the dark river with a gloomy face for a long time, and then issued the order.
"Captain, this..."
The Japanese staff officer's teeth chattered when he thought of the cold and biting river water. He wanted to give some advice, but when he saw that Captain Hirayama Kei had already begun to take off his military boots, he swallowed his words again.
With the personal demonstration by Captain Hirayama Kei, the Japanese commanders at all levels could still sit still and issued orders one after another: "Wade across the river!"
The leader of the Japs' vanguard squad was complaining endlessly. He didn't even know the depth of the river now. If the captain made any mistake, he couldn't bear it.
Therefore, before Captain Hirayama Kei took off his boots, he ran to the side of the traitor guide and asked hurriedly: "Zhang Sang, how deep is this river?"
The traitor guide hurriedly replied: "Thigh deep, you can get through."
"Yours, go over first." The captain of the Japanese soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and ordered to the traitor guide.
"Taijun, Taijun, you can get through, you really can get through, don't believe me." The traitor guide thought that the Japanese didn't believe it, so he hurriedly explained.
The leading Japanese soldier waved his hand, and a Japanese soldier pushed the guide standing on the bank into the river.
With a popping sound, the traitor guide fell into the water. The cold and biting river water made the guide tremble all over. He hurriedly threw himself and yelled: "Taijun, Taijun, help me."
The leader of the Japanese soldiers shined his flashlight and found that the river water could not drown anyone, so he jumped into the water without taking off his shoes. The cold river water made them tremble all over.
The traitor guide, who drank several mouthfuls of cold water, was so cold that his hands and feet were frozen. When he was about to be washed away by the current, two Japanese soldiers grabbed him and dragged him ashore.
"Zhang Sang, you did a good job and you will be rewarded greatly." The captain of the Japanese soldiers crossing the river gave a thumbs up to the traitor guide.
The traitor guide, who was already shaking from the cold, had chattering teeth and couldn't even speak, so he couldn't even think of saying thank you.
Seeing that the Jian soldiers had successfully crossed the river, the Japanese soldiers who gathered on the shore took off their shoes and pants one after another and jumped into the water like dumplings.
Crossing the river in this way in the coldest month of winter, even the Japanese with strong willpower made some groans from time to time. Everyone who came ashore was so cold that they were almost stiff.
After repeated persuasion by the Japanese staff, Hirayama Kei, the captain of the Japanese army, did not cross the river on foot but on horseback. However, when he saw the soldiers whose lips were purple from the cold, he felt sorry for the guerrillas in his heart.
The resentment became even deeper.
Now the captain, Hirayama Kei, wants to fly to Jieshou Town and find the person who came up with these bad tricks and cut them into pieces.
The Japanese soldiers spent almost the entire first half of the night marching in such bitterly cold river water and on muddy roads. The further they moved forward, the greater the physical exertion of the Japanese soldiers.
The Japanese soldiers who set off from Gaoyou were all very enthusiastic and threatened to break into Jieshou for breakfast after dawn.
But now they were too cold and tired to say anything. Looking at the rapidly declining morale of the troops, Captain Hirayama Kei was anxious in his heart.