Although no accurate news has yet reached the enemy headquarters in front of the independent regiment, cheers suddenly broke out on the battlefield.
Cheng Xiao looked at Wang Ping, surprised but disbelieving and asked: "Captain! Is this a win?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a rush of footsteps came into the headquarters, and then Zhang Qing's excited and excited figure rushed in.
"Regiment commander, political commissar! We won, we won. More than 3,000 days of puppet troops were all wiped out by us, and no one slipped through the net!"
"Huh!" Wang Ping, who had been tense all night, completely relaxed and answered after taking a long breath.
"We finally won, political commissar, order the troops to clean the battlefield immediately and take away everything they can. We must leave here before dark and return to the station! Don't forget, the little devils still have planes. We have already won this battle.
We will lose hundreds more people in this battle because of Jaap planes! We cannot afford to lose them!"
"Yes, commander!" Cheng Xiao said unnecessary nonsense and went directly to give the order.
At this time, a telegram from Chief of Staff Zeng Quan was also sent over: "Commander, Chief of Staff telegram!"
"The Japanese and puppet troops who were reinforcing Huangtuling suddenly withdrew more than an hour ago."
The political commissar who had just returned from giving the order frowned and asked: "Retreat, what kind of trick are the Japanese playing? Could it be that they have already calculated that Huangtu Ridge will be taken by us, and know that it is useless to come here with reinforcements, so why not
Go back and take a nap!”
Wang Ping shook his head and replied: "Japanese commander, to be precise, our old rival Major General Ono is very smart!"
"After the bridge across the river for the reinforcements was bombed by us, they would not be able to reach Huangtuling Village until at least dawn. And after dawn, their planes can come over. Compared with the infantry, we are definitely more afraid of their planes. Rather than letting them
The infantry worked hard all night to reinforce Huangtu Ridge, so it would be better to send out planes after dawn and arrive in an hour."
Having said this, Wang Ping's face became more serious than ever before, and he could not see the joy he had just after winning the battle.
"It's three o'clock in the morning. Political Commissar, contact the troops immediately. I'll give them an hour to clean the battlefield. After one hour, no matter what the result is? We must retreat and return to our base!"
"Why are you so anxious? Captain, did you think of something?" Cheng Xiao frowned and asked.
The battlefield is so huge, and the losses of the independent regiment are also huge. It will take a lot of time just to collect the remains of the sacrificed soldiers. In one hour, nothing can be done?
Wang Ping nodded and replied with a serious face: "Yes! In our plan, after eating two of the Japs' mopping up troops in one bite, the Japs' two remaining mopping up troops will definitely retreat! But now, it seems that is not the case.
!”
"If we eat so many Japanese and puppet troops in one go, even if we use a trick, the Independent Regiment will suffer huge losses. The Japanese must also know this."
"In terms of strength, not to mention that the Japanese still have two lines of mopping up troops, even if they only have one line of mopping up troops, the overall strength is still above us."
"Ono ordered the reinforcements to go back midway. On the one hand, it was because there was no time, and on the other hand, he was preparing for the continued siege and suppressing tomorrow and accumulating strength!"
Cheng Xiao's face also became serious, and he frowned before replying: "I'll give the order right away!"
An hour later, the independent regiment, dragging a large number of lightly and seriously wounded soldiers, began to retreat.
Regiment leader Wang Ping retreated with the second battalion. Before they had gone far, Cheng Xiao rushed over with a few pieces of paper and a heavy look on his face.
"Captain, the losses and casualties have been calculated. Even if we have the firepower advantage, the losses are very high. Especially in the final battle where a thousand Japanese were eliminated, the casualty ratio was almost one to one!"
"The whole regiment lost a total of 592 people, 219 people were seriously injured and lost combat effectiveness, and more than 800 people were slightly injured. The direct loss was more than one battalion!"
"The casualties on the Chief of Staff's side are not clear yet, but there must be some. I estimate that we directly lost more than a thousand people tonight!"
Wang Ping frowned and asked: "In other words, the main combat force has only a thousand people left!"
"Yes, leader!" Cheng Xiao replied with a melancholy look on his face.
I still have about a thousand people left, but the Japanese and puppet troops still have more than 6,000. More importantly, these 6,000 Japanese and puppet troops are not only equipped with a mountain artillery brigade and a field artillery brigade, but also specially strengthened an independent heavy artillery unit.
Team!
Faced with such a huge disparity in strength, Wang Ping's bad feeling became even stronger.
Then he ordered Cheng Xiao: "The troops speed up and retreat to their base quickly!"
"The reconnaissance platoon will set off immediately, bringing a radio to investigate the movements of the remaining two sweep-up troops of the Japanese and puppet troops. If they do not retreat and continue to sweep towards the garrison, they must cooperate with local troops and guerrillas to hold them back for as long as possible.
How long will it take?"
At the Japanese brigade headquarters in Laiyuan City, Major General Ono, who was waiting anxiously, finally received a piece of information forwarded by Nakamura about Lieutenant Commander Aoba of Hongqiao Village.
"General, there is only so much content in the telegram. Because the Eighth Route Army is everywhere around Hongqiao Village, the reconnaissance troops do not dare to get too close. They can only see the traces of bombing everywhere in Hongqiao Village and the Tubal Road leading out of Hongqiao Village.
Transporting supplies and equipment.”
"However, this can already prove that Lieutenant Colonel Aoba and his troops stationed in Hongqiao Village have encountered something unexpected!"
"More than a thousand imperial troops, two thousand imperial auxiliary troops, and a large number of artillery! Such a powerful force is gone!" Major General Ono still looked unbelieving.
After a full minute, the deputy chief of staff asked loudly: "Can any of you tell me how Tuba Road did it?"
Seeing that his subordinates were either lowering their heads and saying nothing or shaking their heads to express that they did not know, Major General Ono suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of powerlessness, and then he felt like an angry lion and cursed loudly.
"Bageya Road, I don't know anything about it. Why does the empire support you? Are you eating shit! Go check it out quickly. I want the General Staff and the Intelligence Department to give me an explanation after dawn!"
"Also! Contact Colonel Kato immediately and ask him how the situation is there?"
"Hi!" All the subordinates did not dare to stay in the war room for one more minute, and immediately rushed out as ordered.
Today is destined to be a tragic day for Ono.
The communications staff officer came back within a few minutes of leaving. He stood in front of Ono with a heavy look on his face and hesitated, not knowing how to report.
"Just say what you have to say, hesitantly, what a shame!" Major General Ono was already in a bad mood. The reaction of the communications staff officer directly made him angry, and then he glared at the other person and cursed.
"Hi! It's a telegram from Colonel Kato, and it's also a farewell telegram!" the communications staff officer replied with a guilty look on his face.
