Chapter 1070 The Eighth Route Army broke through and slipped away
"Sir, Captain Yoshida reported that an Eighth Route Army unit broke out from the blockade ditch three kilometers east of them."
At the Guanshan Town stronghold, his subordinates woke up the sleeping colonel and reported.
"Nani, before dark, didn't I order all the troops to be on alert? Captain Yoshida has more than 500 people under his command. Why can't he even stop a breakout force? What does he do for a living?" Captain Yoshida left.
When he entered the war room, he cursed loudly.
The subordinate quickly explained: "Sir, please calm down. Captain Yoshida reported that the Eighth Route Army has dispatched a main battalion to respond."
"They attacked from both inside and outside. Our ambush hiding in the blockade ditch was eliminated in a few minutes, and then they used explosive packets to destroy the blockade ditch, the blockade wall, and the minefields we arranged in the blockade ditch."
"When the reinforcements at the stronghold broke through the Eighth Route Army's blocking troops and intercepted them, they had already coordinated with the breakout troops and successfully retreated."
"Because he was worried that the troops would go deep into the garrison base to ambush them alone, Captain Yoshida withdrew his troops after blocking the gap and did not pursue pursuit."
Seeing that Colonel's face looked much better, his subordinates continued to report: "Lieutenant Yoshida also reported that although they did not stop the Eighth Route Army's breakout force, they killed at least fifty Eighth Route Army troops in the exchange of fire."
"There were nearly forty Eighth Route Army corpses left on the battlefield."
"He also saw that there were nearly two hundred people from the Eighth Route Army breaking out of the encirclement, carrying dozens of stretchers. They should be the wounded who had been fighting against the imperial army's mopping up troops in the past few days."
A brigade captain participating in the sweep said: "Sir, although the Imperial Army has not encountered the main force of the Eighth Route Army in the past few days, the exchange of fire with their small forces has not stopped. It is true that many people were killed and wounded. I thought this was because of my humble position.
They are guerrillas, little shrimps."
"I didn't expect that they were the main force left behind by the garrison. They didn't dare to confront us head-on. They sent a small group of troops to fight guerrillas with us, and then broke out at the last moment and slipped out of the blockade. It was too easy for them."
At the end of the sentence, the captain showed an expression of indignation and unwillingness.
"Don't worry, they can't escape!" Colonel suddenly said.
"It is indeed a pity that they successfully broke through and escaped, but it also proved that our raiding method was effective for them, posing a fatal threat to them and driving them into panic. Otherwise, they would not have been able to risk crossing the blockade ditch to break out."
"Just run away, it's no big deal."
"As long as we continue to sweep with the current tactics and tactics, sooner or later they will be trapped by us in the new blockade area, and then they will fight us and be killed by us."
"Taking a step back, I still hope they will continue to break through."
"If they want to break through our blockade walls and blockade ditches, they must send a large number of troops to actively attack us."
"Compared to when we took the initiative to attack them during the sweep, they were in the dark and we were in the open. The losses caused by their attack on us would definitely be greater."
"And the more times we break through, the greater the casualties, and our limited troops are used up unknowingly."
"In the end, the imperial army can achieve maximum results with minimum casualties and completely wipe out the garrison."
The faces of his subordinates all showed expressions of approval.
The captain in charge of the sweep asked: "Sir, since the Eighth Route Army has broken through and escaped, should we continue the sweep tomorrow?"
"Continue the sweep!" the colonel replied without hesitation.
"Although the main force has left, it does not mean that there is no Eighth Route Army in this blockade area."
"They like to hide their troops among the people. They do not rule out leaving some backbone hidden among the people to continue to fight against us."
"The sweep will continue tomorrow. I will completely eliminate all resistance forces in the blockade area, and then launch an attack into the hinterland of the garrison."
Shiziling, a dense forest that the Japanese army has not yet swept away, is where the first company that entered the blockade was hiding.
At ten o'clock in the morning, the reconnaissance squad leader hurried in along the narrow path.
"Company commander, the Japanese mopping up troops are coming. There is a squadron and a battalion of puppet troops to cooperate with us. We can reach the foot of the mountain in an hour."
"How vigilant are they today?" Zhang Cheng asked, frowning.
If the troops want to lurk in the blockade area, escaping today's raid is the first hurdle.
"It's very bad. It should be due to the impact of the troops' breakout last night." The reconnaissance squad leader thought for a moment and answered.
Zhang Changchang took a breath and replied: "That's good."
"I prepared a bait for them in the forest. As long as they are attracted by this bait, we can go straight behind them to avoid the sweep, and then lurk in the area they swept and wait for them to retreat."
Although Shiziling is neither high nor dangerous, it is overgrown with weeds and thorny shrubs everywhere.
In addition, the Eighth Route Army had broken through the blockade ditch last night, and the Japanese and puppet troops were obviously not as vigilant as they were yesterday. They directly changed the drag-net sweep into three groups and followed the narrow path into the mountains to search.
After nearly five kilometers into the mountain, the troops still found nothing.
The squadron leader was about to order the troops to stop and rest when a scream interrupted his order before he could even speak it.
"Sir, we found blood stains on the path ahead. It should have been left from last night."
"Sir, there are also blood stains on the path ahead, and there is also a bullet belt discarded by the Eighth Route Army, which contains ten rifle rounds." Another subordinate ran over, holding the bullet belt he just picked up.
The tired expression on the squadron leader's face was wiped away, and he immediately shouted: "It must have been left behind by the Eighth Route Army's breakout force last night."
"The troops are chasing after the bloodstains, and maybe there will be other gains."
The squadron leader really wanted to find the Eighth Route Army.
In the past few days, although other troops did not encounter the main force of the Eighth Route Army, they killed some small shrimps. As a reserve force, I did not kill even a small shrimp.
Today is the last day of the sweep. The news that the Eighth Route Army successfully broke through last night has spread.
Although the squadron leader agreed to let him go to the battlefield, the squadron leader had no hope that he could achieve results.
Now he saw hope, even if he couldn't kill the Eighth Route Army, he could go back with a few corpses and some trophies.
Hundreds of Japanese and puppet troops, like hungry wolves smelling the smell of blood, rushed towards them following the blood stains.
"Company commander, the little devil has been fooled!" the instructor reminded.
"We started taking action, detouring behind the Japanese and puppet troops, lurking, and waiting for the Japanese and puppet troops to withdraw from Shiziling before taking action." Zhang Cheng ordered.
In the woods three kilometers away from the blockade ditch, the Japanese and puppet troops found the bait prepared for them by Zhang Cheng, eight damaged rifles and a light machine gun, hidden in the thatch.
"boom……"
A few Japanese soldiers just started checking the trophies when the booby trap buried under their rifles sounded, detonating together with a ten-pound explosive pack.
The rifles and light machine guns that were regarded as trophies by the Japanese were instantly blown away and turned into deadly weapons, smashing into the surrounding Japanese and puppet troops...
