Now that he has the most basic judgment about the enemy, Major Aso has nothing to fear.
He frowned and ordered: "Pursue, catch up with the Eighth Route Army and destroy them!"
"There are not many of them. As long as we catch up with them, we will win, and we will win for sure!"
After more than a thousand days, the puppet troops had just rushed forward less than 500 meters when a burst of gunfire broke Major Aso's dream.
Nine heavy machine guns, more than ten light machine guns, and more than 200 rifles fired together. In the blink of an eye, forty or fifty of the Japanese at the front fell.
The remaining Japanese and puppet troops immediately fell to the ground and wanted to fight back.
However, the firepower fired by the independent regiment was so fierce that even if they were lying on the ground, the whizzing bullets would still kill them.
As for counterattack, it is simply impossible.
Major Aso, who was walking in the middle of the team, was startled at first, and then reacted quickly.
"The artillery team and the heavy machine gun team will counterattack immediately to suppress the enemy's firepower!"
The Japanese army responded very quickly, and mortars and heavy machine guns were immediately set up. But just as they were preparing to counterattack, the intensive machine gun fire from the opposite side suddenly stopped.
"What's going on?" Major Aso asked with a look of confusion.
"It seems that the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side has retreated!" a squad leader next to him said suspiciously!
"Retreat? How is it possible?" Major Aso asked with an expression of disbelief.
But in order to catch up with the Eighth Route Army as soon as possible, Major Aso still chose to believe it, and then quickly ordered: "The First Company of the Imperial Association Army, attack immediately, rush up to see if the Eighth Route Army has really retreated, attack immediately!"
Within a few minutes, the company commander of the Imperial Association Army rushed over with excitement on his face: "Sir, the Eighth Route Army blocking the front was repulsed by us!"
Seeing Major Aso's brows suddenly wrinkled and then staring at him with a look of disbelief, the company commander quickly changed his tune!
"The ones who were not repelled by us were the Eighth Route Army who retreated on their own initiative. Not even a single body was left behind. Should we continue to hunt them down?"
Major Aso scolded with an expression of resentment: "It goes without saying that your troops will take the lead as the vanguard, and the others will follow. You must catch up with the Eighth Route Army that just retreated and destroy them!"
Anyone who understands knows that the Eighth Route Army that everyone is chasing does not want to fight them desperately.
Instead, they took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain, used firepower to kill themselves as much as possible, and then retreated after the attack. In this case, whoever walks in front may become the target of the Eighth Route Army's next round of massacres.
The company commander did not expect that lying about military information would bring him such an ending.
He was very reluctant to accept this task, but facing Major Aso's eyes that could almost kill people, he could only swallow back the rejection he was about to say, and then answered unwillingly: "Please don't worry, sir, I will lead the troops right away."
Open a way for the main force and hunt down the Eighth Route Army who ambushed us!"
"Yoshi!" Major Aso's tense facial expression finally relaxed, and he began to give orders.
"The troops continued to pursue the Eighth Route Army. The Imperial Association Army's first company went to the front to clear the way, and other troops followed suit!"
Throughout the night, the more than a thousand people led by Major Aso were in a state of exhaustion.
Zeng Quan and Zhang Qing cooperated with each other, constantly using firepower to beat the chasing Japanese behind them, or counterattack them, trying to eliminate them as much as possible.
As for the two mortar companies, no matter how the Japanese army launched artillery counterattacks, the bombardment of the two companies was not interrupted for more than half an hour.
When there was still an hour before dawn, Zeng Quan directly led the troops to withdraw from the battlefield to avoid losses to the troops when Japanese planes arrived.
Colonel Kato, who had not rested all night and was very nervous, relaxed immediately as the two planes arrived and slumped in his seat.
However, this relaxation did not last long.
As soon as Major Aso entered the headquarters with a gunshot wound, he lowered his head and reported.
"Sir, I have failed to live up to your high expectations due to my humble position. I have not completed the task. Please punish me, sir!"
Colonel Kato's face suddenly became heavy: "Baga, I originally planned to let you lead the troops to destroy the Eighth Route Army that sneaked up on us, but what did you do? The Eighth Route Army was not eliminated, but you lost your troops! You know that in the shelling last night,
How much have we lost?"
"Chief of Staff, tell our Major Aso!"
"Hi!" The chief of staff, who held the rank of lieutenant colonel, had a gloomy face from beginning to end.
The transport troops lost so much material at the transfer station. As the chief of staff of the station garrison, he himself also bears an unshirkable responsibility.
"A total of 105 large trucks filled with various supplies stopped at the transfer station last night."
"In the shelling, the ammunition of twenty-five carts was directly blown up or killed by explosions. In addition, the supplies of twenty-two carts were bombed. Some were all destroyed. The advantage was greatly lost!"
"Material losses are still minor. After analysis, the Eighth Route Army used two artillery companies and eighteen mortars in total, and fired a total of more than 500 shells at us. Nearly 30% of the shells hit the transfer station camp area, causing serious damage to us.
The garrison brought huge casualties. Excluding the troops you took away, 154 Imperial soldiers were killed and 51 injured in the camp area alone. The Imperial Alliance Army suffered even greater losses, with more than 300 casualties!"
Seeing Major Aso lowering his head and saying nothing, Colonel Kato became even more angry.
"Why don't you say anything, Mr. Aso, it's your turn next. At that time, you promised me that you would destroy the Eighth Route Army that attacked us. Even though you didn't complete the mission, I still want to know your results and losses!"
Major Aso could only answer bravely: "We checked the battlefield after dawn and found only 49 Eighth Route Army corpses!"
"How much, I didn't hear clearly!" Colonel Kato asked dissatisfied.
Major Aso knew that the commander had heard clearly, but in order to vent his anger and dissatisfaction, he deliberately asked this question to make himself look embarrassed.
But being a senior official is overwhelming, especially in the highly hierarchical Japanese army. Major Aso did not have the guts to disobey military orders.
Although his face turned red from suppressing the pressure, Major Aso lowered his head and replied: "49 Eighth Route Army corpses!"
"Where are our casualties?" Colonel Kato, who was also holding back his anger, did not intend to let Major Aso go, and stared at him and continued to question.
"The Imperial Army suffered 217 casualties, and the Imperial Alliance Army suffered 451 casualties, with a death rate of over 80%!" Major Aso couldn't even lift his head and answered in a mosquito-like voice.
Colonel Kato was immediately irritated: "Bagaya Road, that is to say, you only killed 49 Eighth Route Army soldiers with nearly 800 casualties!"
"Hey, Commander, please punish me!" Major Aso had no confidence at all.
Colonel Kato cursed angrily: "Punishment? Can punishment bring hundreds of warriors back to life?"
