"Weng buzzing..." The roar of aircraft sounded over the battlefield as promised.
The sound was very weak at first, then became louder and louder. After a few seconds, the silver-white fuselage of the aircraft appeared at the edge of the sky.
Second Lieutenant Fujino was the pilot who carried out this reinforcement mission. From the moment he entered the target airspace, he kept his eyes on the ground, searching for the battlefield he wanted to reinforce.
After making a large circle, he found no battlefield where his superiors requested reinforcements, except for an imperial army unit marching along the road.
Second Lieutenant Fujino decided to lower the flight altitude and search again close to the ground.
In order to prevent anything from being missed, specially designed fighter jets flew over the ground troops in an attempt to obtain some information from them.
It was an imperial army unit that escorted a large number of prisoners of the Jinsui Army.
The escorting troops held high plaster flags, wore uniforms of the imperial army, and marched in neat steps, clearly visible.
Hundreds of prisoners marched with their heads lowered, some carrying weapons and ammunition captured on the battlefield by the imperial army, and others carrying stretchers, like roosters that had lost a fight, marching amidst the cries and curses of the imperial army.
This was exactly the same as the other imperial troops he encountered along the way.
Therefore, they must be the Imperial Army's pursuit force that returned victoriously last night. Second Lieutenant Fujino had no doubt about this.
Just as he was about to continue searching for the battlefield he wanted to reinforce, the escorting troops suddenly placed a contact sign on the ground.
Second Lieutenant Fujino flew the plane over the heads of the ground troops twice before he could see clearly.
"The battle is over!?" Second Lieutenant Fujino said to himself after being stunned for a moment.
This was the message he got from the ground contact sign.
Although he was confused as to why the battle ended so quickly, he couldn't rush to the ground to find out what happened, so he could only choose to believe it.
After circling the battlefield again to confirm that the battle was really over and that the winner was the Imperial Army, Second Lieutenant Fujino comforted himself.
"It must be that the plane was not equipped with a communication radio. After the airport received the news of the victory of the ground troops, it was unable to contact me, and then I made my trip in vain."
With this thought, Fujino could only return to the airport with regret and disappointment.
On the highway, everyone's nerves were tense.
Seeing that the Japanese planes no longer passed over everyone's heads, and flew further and further away, slowly disappearing from everyone's sight, I finally let out a long breath and relaxed my tense nerves.
"Deputy battalion commander, the Japs uniforms we are wearing are useful, the little Japs pilot was fooled." The fourth company commander wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and reported nervously and excitedly.
The deputy battalion commander also breathed a sigh of relief: "Apart from the skin on our bodies, what really works is the contact signs put up by the puppet troops."
"If there is no contact signal, the Japanese pilots will definitely not believe us easily."
"But don't be happy too early."
"The Japanese plane was not equipped with a radio and had no way to contact us directly, which allowed us to take advantage of the loophole."
"When the plane returns to the airport, the Japanese division headquarters will definitely send us a telegram to confirm whether the troops have really won the battle."
"We don't have the Japs' contact code, and we don't know their telegram techniques and frequencies. It will definitely be exposed by then. Therefore, the troops cannot be careless. They must retreat as soon as possible and disappear from the battlefield."
At the Japanese division headquarters in Datong, the communications staff officer hurried in with a telegram.
"Sir, the aviation force has an urgent call!"
"When the planes they sent arrived at the battlefield, the imperial ground troops had already won the battle, and the fighter planes returned without success... They asked us why the news of the ground troops' victory was not reported to them, causing them to waste their attack in vain.
A lot of valuable fuel."
"Nani?" A look of confusion quickly flashed across the division commander's face.
If I remember correctly, in the past hour, the division headquarters did not receive any good news about victory on the front line.
The deputy chief of staff next to him also noticed this problem and quickly replied: "Sir, the frontline troops must have forgotten it. I will ask someone to contact them now to find out what happened!"
The chief of staff returned to the war room a few minutes later, his face more serious than ever before: "Sir, the radio station cannot contact them. I humbly judged that the radio station they equipped was destroyed during the battle, and then did not report the results to the headquarters."
The division commander still had doubts in his heart, but in the end he chose to believe it.
He has confidence in his troops.
The request for help in the telegram made it very clear that what they encountered was a fish that slipped through the net of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army.
The pursuit force fought all night last night. Even if there was a fish that slipped through the battlefield, it would not be too strong, otherwise it would not be able to escape the eyes of the reconnaissance force outside the city.
Therefore, even if the retreating troops encounter some difficulties in battle, there will definitely be no problems in terms of safety.
Maybe they will find the opponent's loopholes in the battle while fighting, and then launch a fatal blow to kill the opponent.
"Rumble..."
The last round of artillery shells hit the gathering place of the garrison, and black smoke rose into the sky. Countless pieces of soil, logs, and torn tents were thrown into the sky in the splashing firelight, and then flew everywhere like goddesses scattering flowers.
Thick gunpowder smoke has shrouded the battlefield so tightly that the Japanese division chief of staff standing at the front could not see anything.
But he believed that after 20 minutes of fire coverage from aircraft and artillery, even if the village was not razed to the ground, there would not be an intact wall inside.
As for the fortifications that the garrison wanted to use for street fighting, they must have been completely destroyed and could no longer be used.
With this idea in mind, the chief of staff directly ordered with a heroic look: "The troops rush forward and destroy the remaining Eighth Route Army inside!"
The attack was very smooth, and the speed was even a bit scary.
In less than ten minutes, a lieutenant from the attacking force rushed over from the battlefield: "Sir, the troops have occupied the garrison assembly area, but we did not find an Eighth Route Army soldier inside, not even a body."
"What?"
The chief of staff's eyes suddenly widened, showing a shocked expression of disbelief.
Then he looked at the commander of the reconnaissance force on the side.
If eyes could kill, this commander would have died several times.
Forcing himself to calm down, he asked in a deep voice: "Is this the main force of the garrison you called? Didn't you just swear to report that the garrison has not left and is in the village? Why is there no one in it, including them?
"
The commander of the reconnaissance force was more nervous and puzzled than anyone else.
Ever since he discovered this gathering place, he had been staring at it, but the accident happened right under his nose.
Facing the chief of staff's questioning, cold sweat continued to flow from his forehead like rain.
My mind was running rapidly, recalling everything I saw and heard here last night, trying to find some clues and figure out this matter completely.