At the Guanshan Town stronghold, Captain Yoshida stood on the top of the central gun tower, looking at the direction in which the troops were dispatching troops, with eager eyes.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, no news came back from the attacking troops.
By five o'clock, no one had returned, and no news had been sent back.
This is a very critical time point agreed between myself and the attacking troops.
In order to avoid night battles, the attacking troops must return to their stronghold before five o'clock.
The commander of the team is his absolute confidant, and his execution ability will definitely be no problem.
If you didn't withdraw to your base within the stipulated time, you were either delayed by something or something happened.
Captain Yoshida felt a vague sense of bad premonition in his mind.
"Sir, do you want to humble yourself and take a combat team out to take a look!" the team leader who stayed behind at the stronghold suggested.
Captain Yoshida hesitated and replied: "Wait for another hour."
At six o'clock in the afternoon, the sky had darkened, and there was still no sign of the attacking troops at the end of the road.
The bad premonition in Captain Yoshida's mind became even stronger.
He said to himself: "They are probably in trouble. If the attacking troops are delayed by something, they will definitely send someone back to report, but now we have not received any news. It is as if they have disappeared."
"Sir, I will take a team out now and find them at all costs." The team leader asked.
Captain Yoshida did not hesitate this time and directly vetoed: "No, if something happens to the attacking troops, if you lead a detachment out, you will be in trouble."
"When it gets bright tomorrow, we will order all the maintenance personnel in the blockade area to assist us in searching and find the attacking troops."
The next morning, news continued to reach the stronghold.
"Sir, Dawangzhuang maintenance meeting report: The attacking troops entered the mountain from them yesterday afternoon and never came out again." The puppet battalion commander Zhang told the news he had just received.
"Order the nearby maintenance team to immediately go into the mountain to search. I want to see the person alive and the body before death!" Captain Yoshida ordered with a stern face.
Now he was very sure that something happened to the attacking troops.
But as a commander, he must figure out what happened to the attacking troops and how many enemies they killed.
Battalion Commander Zhang did not move to give the order, but hesitated and replied: "There were already maintenance convoys entering the mountain, but they were all beaten out by the Eighth Route Army hiding in the mountain, and many people were lost."
"Sir, you also know that only a small number of the soldiers in those escorts were sent by us and have some combat effectiveness."
"The others are all improvised stragglers. It's okay for them to scare the common people, but they can't get on the stage when they encounter the real Eighth Route Army."
"After casualties occurred in the convoy, the remaining convoys were frightened and fled out of the mountain. No matter how we threatened them, they did not dare to go in again."
"Bagya Road, are they all stupid pigs?" Captain Yoshida yelled.
"Why don't you think of a way to solve such a simple problem?"
"Order the nearby maintenance team to organize young men from each village to search the mountains, find the imperial troops who entered the mountains, and find out what happened to them."
"Take the common people into the mountains together. In order not to accidentally injure the common people, the Eighth Route Army hiding in the mountains will definitely restrain their hands and dare not shoot casually."
At five o'clock in the afternoon, a motorcade appeared at the end of the road.
There were ten carts in total, and each cart was piled with corpses.
They were all carried out of the mountain one by one by the villagers. In order to show their loyalty, the puppet army battalion commander Zhang personally led a platoon to escort these corpses back to the stronghold.
"Sir, there are a total of 76 corpses of the Imperial Army and 21 corpses of the Imperial Association Army. I brought them all back because of my humble duty." Battalion Commander Zhang lowered his head and reported respectfully.
Captain Yoshida looked livid and wanted to get angry, but in the end he held back.
The man was already dead, and he had given the order to attack himself. No matter how angry he was, it would be useless and he would only make others laugh.
Staring at Battalion Commander Zhang, he asked, "Have you found out how many Eighth Route Army soldiers are hiding in the mountains?"
Battalion Commander Zhang shook his head and replied: "The corpses were brought out of the mountain by the maintenance team. I didn't go to the scene because of my humble duty, so I don't know the situation on the battlefield."
"I asked several convoy captains in my humble position, and they said that the battlefield was completely destroyed by the Eighth Route Army, and all weapons, ammunition, and bullet casings were taken away."
"There was nothing left except corpses, so there was no way to tell how many Eighth Route Army troops participated in the ambush."
Yoshida couldn't hold back this time and cursed at Battalion Commander Zhang: "Asshole, I asked you to go to Dawangzhuang just to find out how many Eighth Route Army troops were hidden in the mountains. Now I haven't found any useful information. Bring back these corpses."
What's the use, they can't speak."
"Also, if I don't know how many Eighth Route Army troops there are in the mountains, how can I report to my superiors and request reinforcements?"
At the Japanese military headquarters in Taiyuan, news of the presence of a large number of Eighth Route Army troops in the blockade area came like snowflakes in a steady stream.
The good mood brought to him by the successive victories of the attacking troops in the past month was all gone.
If the Eighth Route Army appears in only one or two blockade areas, I can still treat it as an emergency.
Now the Eighth Route Army has appeared in all blockade areas, with unknown strength and unknown equipment. They sneak up on the imperial army and destroy the large situation that the imperial army has finally established in the blockade area.
To think of it as an accident would be a bit deceptive.
The army commander had a sullen face. After reading more than a dozen telegrams again, he answered with certainty: "This is a conspiracy."
"The reason why the frontline offensive troops were able to win consecutive battles must have been intentional by the garrison."
"Their main forces did not all retreat to Lingqiu. Many troops were lurking in our blockade area. When all the main forces were withdrawn and the blockade area was empty, they would come out again, catching the imperial army by surprise and consuming our forces.
"
The chief of staff said: "Sir, you are wise!"
"This is the data that I just calculated: there are nine blockades in total, and the loss of the Imperial Army has exceeded 1,000 people, and the Imperial Alliance Army has lost more than 1,300 people."
"To be able to eliminate so many of us in such a short time, they must have a lot of troops."
"In addition, of the more than 1,300 Imperial Army troops, nearly 1,000 were captured."
"With the Eighth Route Army's political mobilization capabilities, at least 700 people will choose to join them. By then, the strength of the Eighth Route Army in the blockade area will increase."
"My humble suggestion is to immediately mobilize troops from the front line and return to support the blockade area."
"First kill the Eighth Route Army in the blockade area, stabilize the rear, and then attack Lingqiu."
The communications staff officer hurriedly walked in: "Sir, urgent report from the front: many blockade ditches and blockade walls in the nine blockade areas were destroyed by the Eighth Route Army last night."
"There is a serious shortage of troops in each blockade area. We can only stay in the strongholds and dare not attack."
The chief of staff quickly said: "Sir, we can't wait any longer."
"Your judgment is correct. This is the conspiracy of the garrison."
"First consume the troops in each blockade area, and take advantage of their insufficient strength to destroy the blockade trenches and blockade walls."
"If they are allowed to continue, our blockade will exist in name only, and the entire two months of efforts and sacrifices by the Imperial Army will be in vain."