Chapter three hundred and ninety fifth difficult decision
At the headquarters of the Japanese Fourth Mixed Brigade in Yangquan, the brigade commander, Major General Tsuda, had just laid down when the chief of staff barged into his room.
As a major general and a senior officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, Tsuda pays great attention to military appearance, both his own and that of his subordinates.
Now seeing the panicked look on the Chief of Staff's face, his brows instantly furrowed, and then he cursed with great dissatisfaction.
"Baga, Chief of Staff, have you forgotten my usual request? How unbecoming is it to panic?"
"Hi! Your Excellency General, you must pay attention next time when you are humble!" the chief of staff replied quickly.
I came here to report bad things. If I had angered Major General Tsuda before reporting, then after I finished reporting the matter, the general's anger would definitely be even greater. Inevitably, some of the anger would be vented on me.
Therefore, after several seconds of hesitation and seeing Major General Tsuda's face regaining his composure, the Chief of Staff breathed a sigh of relief and continued to report: "It's just that what happened just now was too important, so I took the liberty of coming in even though I'm a low-ranking official!"
"Major Harada of Pingding County has just sent an urgent message. The county has been attacked by at least one division of Tubal Road. Tubal Road is not only equipped with a large number of thunder cannons, but also has at least one company of mountain artillery, which has powerful firepower!"
"The defenders of Pingding County have suffered heavy losses and are in urgent need of reinforcements!"
Major General Tsuda stood up from the bed immediately, put on his military uniform and walked to the war room, frowning as he walked.
"The news is true. Tubal Road really dispatched a division of troops?"
"It shouldn't be wrong. The opponent is equipped with a mountain artillery battery. With the equipment level of Tubal Road, the regiment-level troops only have a few mortars at most. Those who can equip the mountain artillery battery are at least three regiments of division-level troops!" Chief of Staff
After a moment of hesitation, he confirmed.
"It shouldn't be!" Major General Tsuda's frown deepened at this time.
"Pingding County is not a strategic location, and it does not have enough supplies, weapons and ammunition to make the Eighth Route Army excited. Why did Tubal Road dispatch so many troops to attack it! There must be something wrong here!"
"General, will Tubal Road be at the encirclement point for reinforcements?" the chief of staff also realized the problem and asked with a frown.
"It's possible!" Major General Tsuda replied thoughtfully.
Then he walked to the huge sand table in the war room and stared at the sand table without saying a word.
At this moment, a communications staff officer broke in again.
"General, there is an urgent need to pacify the county town. Tubal Road's offensive is too fierce. Our troops are not equipped with mountain artillery, so we can only be beaten passively in front of Tubal Road Mountain Artillery Company, without any room to fight back!"
"Now the troops have suffered more than one-third casualties, and they can hold on for at most two hours. Please ask us to send reinforcements quickly, otherwise Pingding County will be occupied by Tubal Road!"
"Baga! They attacked so fiercely, are they really just to occupy Pingding County, or do they have other purposes!" Major General Tsuda turned into an angry lion and cursed loudly.
The chief of staff had to stand up and remind: "Your Majesty General, you must make a decision, no matter whether there is a conspiracy or not!"
"Major Harada is from a field division and has encountered all kinds of situations. If the situation had not reached a real crisis, he would never have sent a telegram asking for help!"
Major General Tsuda still made no decision, frowning and asked: "If Pingding County is lost, what impact will it have on us?"
"Yangquan, where the brigade is based, will be completely exposed to Tubal Road's troops. Also, without the stronghold of Pingding County, the dozen or so surrounding strongholds will lose their support and be defeated by Tubal Road. By then, dozens of towns south of Yangquan will
It will break away from the control of the Imperial Japanese Army!"
"In other words, can the county seat be pacified without being lost?" Major General Tsuda asked rhetorically.
"Hi!" the chief of staff confirmed directly without hesitation.
"If Pingding County is lost, the dozen or so strongholds around it will definitely be occupied by Tubal Road. Then the total number of troops we have lost must be more than 2,000!"
"More importantly, the terrain around Pingding County is complex and there are a lot of mineral resources. Once controlled by Tubal Road, the imperial army will definitely have to pay a high price if they want to take it back!"
"Then send troops for reinforcements!" Major General Tsuda finally made a decision.
"However, the reinforcements must be vigilant. The imperial army has suffered losses more than once from the Tuba Road siege and reinforcements!"
"We can strengthen the strength and firepower allocation of the reinforcements as much as possible, so that the reinforcements are so powerful that the Eighth Route Army cannot destroy them!" the chief of staff put forward a suggestion that was really helpless.
Then, in order to keep a close eye on Major General Tsuda's determination to send troops, he continued to encourage: "General, whether it is possible for Tubal Road to besiege the city for reinforcements, and whether it is a conspiracy to attack Pingding County, this is just our guess."
"However, if our guesses are wrong and the reinforcements go smoothly and feel pacified, then the reinforcements can work with the Pingping defenders to attack from inside and outside to eliminate or severely damage the Tubal Road attacking Pingding!"
"Also, I think the general doesn't need to worry too much!"
"According to intelligence, there are not many main forces of the Eighth Route Army nearly 100 kilometers around Yangquan. Now that they are concentrating their forces to attack Pingding County, it is impossible for there to be so many troops ambushing our reinforcements!"
"Maybe I really thought too much!" Major General Tsuda finally made up his mind and started giving orders.
"The 1st Infantry Battalion, the 1st Artillery Squadron, the 1st Cavalry Squadron, and the 1st Imperial Association Army Regiment form a reinforcement force. Lieutenant Colonel Matsushita of the 1st Battalion serves as the commander-in-chief and will set off immediately to reinforce the pacification of the county!"
"Also, call back to Major Harada who has been pacified. The reinforcements have already set off and ask him to hold on for an hour!"
The sound of guns and artillery in Pingding County is still as lively as it was at the beginning. The only difference is the flying thunder cannons equipped by the artillery.
Under the counterattack of Japanese grenade launchers and mortars, the nine grenade launchers had to change positions as soon as each explosive package was fired.
But even so, the explosive packets that continued to fall from the sky still caused huge damage to the Japanese and puppet troops.
Major Harada, who had been a little panicked since the beginning of the battle, already regretted it.
After all the troops were sent to the battlefield, the number of Japanese and puppet troops on the city wall increased sharply. Whether it was the explosive packets falling from the sky or the screaming mountain artillery shells, they all caused huge casualties to them.
In just ten minutes, the Japanese and puppet troops lost more than 300 people, equivalent to 20% of the total strength at hand.
The Eighth Route Army attacking Pingding County was just the opposite. As soon as they saw the defenders' increased firepower, they immediately stopped attacking and only used long-range firepower to engage them, killing and injuring them in large numbers.
The enemy who attacked him suffered no casualties, but his subordinates suffered heavy losses from the opponent's firepower. Harada immediately realized that he had made a huge mistake and should not have exposed all his strength to his opponent at once.
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