On the pipeline from no-man's land to Huaiyuan County, nearly two thousand Japanese puppet troops, pulling artillery and pushing heavy baggage vehicles, lined up in three formations and advanced mightily.
Captain Lieutenant Colonel walked in the middle of the team on a war horse with a very serious expression.
In the battle to attack the garrison base, the mopping up troops on the west route suffered heavy casualties, the mopping up troops on the east and middle routes were completely destroyed, and the imperial army was defeated.
As a member of the mopping up force, although he was not directly defeated, in the eyes of other imperial troops, he still could not escape his status as a defeated general.
If he goes back in disgrace like this, his implementation career in the second half of his life will definitely be ended because of this defeat, and the military exploits and honors gained in the first half of his life will also be lost.
Fortunately, his superiors arranged a good job for him at this time, leading a team to recapture Huaiyuan from the Eighth Route Army.
As long as he completes this task and the others involved in the sweep don't know about it, he will definitely be able to avenge his shame.
If nothing else, I will definitely have no problem keeping my current position and honor.
Therefore, this operation can only succeed and cannot fail.
"Sir, you will be out of no man's land after passing the checkpoint in front!" A staff officer from the forward troops rushed over on a horse to report.
The captain raised his binoculars and saw the forward troops passing a checkpoint.
A detachment of the Imperial Army and a platoon of the Imperial Alliance Army were stationed inside. They all stood on both sides of the checkpoint, holding steel guns in their hands, gazing at the troops on the road as if they were lined up.
"Order the troops to speed up their march. This place is fifty kilometers away from Huaiyuan County. Try to recapture the county before dark." The captain put down his binoculars and ordered seriously.
The deputy captain, Major, suddenly called out to the staff officer who was about to leave. After a moment of hesitation, he reminded the captain: "Sir, think twice."
"According to intelligence: Although the main force of the garrison that attacked Huaiyuan has left, there are still many guerrillas operating in Huaiyuan. If the troops march forward regardless of all costs, the losses will definitely be huge."
"guerrillas..."
Hearing these three words, the captain snorted and replied: "Aren't they just some bastards? Don't worry, they can't threaten us."
"The garrison's ability to defeat us relies on sophisticated equipment and sufficient ammunition."
"The guerrillas want guns but no guns, and they want ammunition but no ammunition. No matter how cunning they are, they cannot be a match for the imperial army."
"Order the troops to march forward with confidence and take back the county seat before dark. I don't want the troops to spend the night outside the county seat."
"Hi!"
The vice-captain was still a little worried, but the captain's firmness left him speechless, so he had no choice but to agree.
"I am humble enough to go and give the order now and march quickly towards the county seat."
Next to the mountain road two kilometers away, there are shrubs as tall as a person and small highlands rising one after another.
Guerrilla leader Peng Shaofeng hid behind a nearly two-meter-high boulder, with the telescope given to him by the Independent Regiment a few days ago hanging around his neck. He was nervous but looking forward to it.
"Captain, the Japs' forward troops are coming." The instructor reminded standing nearby.
Peng Shaofeng raised his telescope: more than fifty Japanese soldiers, with rifles in their hands and light machine guns in their arms, were lined up in a battle formation and hurriedly walked towards this side.
Perhaps because they were marching too fast, or because they thought there could be no enemies in Huaiyuan, their reconnaissance on both sides of the road was just a show.
As soon as he saw the enemy situation, the scout rushed over panting heavily.
"Captain, the Japs forward force has an infantry squad without heavy weapons."
"How far away is the main force from them?" This is the question that Peng Shaofeng is most concerned about.
"Five hundred meters!" the scout blurted out.
Peng Shaofeng's eyes quickly shot out two rays of light, looked at the instructor and said: "Old Li, I want to have a big game with the Japanese, and test the combat effectiveness of the troops."
Peng Shaofeng is famous for his courage, and the instructor has a clear mind.
Seeing the captain's eyes shining as he stared at the Japs' forward troops, I instantly understood what he was thinking.
He reminded calmly: "Captain, there are more than 50 Japs in the vanguard, and the main force is only 500 meters away from them. They can be killed by a quick march of four minutes. Trying to eat them is like pulling out a tooth from a tiger's mouth. The possibility of success is too low."
Peng Shaofeng was not affected by these words and answered confidently: "If it were more than half a month ago, even if the Japanese forwards had only one small unit, I would not dare to attack them."
"It's different now. The guerrillas are equipped with four heavy machine guns, 13 light machine guns, and more than 100 rifles. They also have enough ammunition. They will definitely not be willing to go without a fight."
"Use an infantry platoon and an artillery platoon to slow down the main force of the Japanese troops in reinforcing the battlefield, while the others set up an ambush here."
"As soon as the gunfire from the ambush stopped, the reinforcements retreated."
"Four heavy machine guns and ten light machine guns are lined up on the battlefield, trying to kill at least thirty Japanese in one shot."
"There are more than a hundred riflemen with several good marksmanship. If they kill a few more, there will be no more Japanese left."
"Arrange a few more soldiers to disperse and ambush beside the road. After we shoot, they launch attacks with grenades and hand grenades."
"If everything goes well, we will kill all these dozens of Japs in one minute at most."
"With another two minutes to clean up the battlefield and retreat, we can end the battle before the main force of the Japanese attacks and pull the tooth out of the tiger's mouth."
Seeing that the instructor was slowly being persuaded, Peng Shaofeng continued to encourage.
"There is one more thing you should not forget about the instructor!"
"The reason why the Japanese forwards were so vigilant must be that they looked down on our guerrillas and believed that our guerrillas could not threaten them, so they dared to rush into Huaiyuan so arrogantly."
"As long as our concealment is good enough and we can catch them off guard, we will definitely have a higher chance of winning."
The instructor was moved.
The sophisticated equipment of the guerrillas indeed gave him a lot of confidence.
If a reinforced company in the main force had such good equipment, a squadron would not be afraid of taking on the enemy.
This is a guerrilla force, and it will be no problem to kill one-third of the Japs.
The worry on his face was slowly replaced by excitement. He looked at the captain and replied: "Fuck."
"I will be responsible for the reinforcements, and captain, you will be responsible for the ambush."
"We must hide our troops well, especially the bombardiers who are ambushing on the side of the road. The more sudden the ambush is, the higher our chance of winning and the quicker we can win the battle."
The captain of the Lieutenant Colonel, riding on a war horse, would urge the troops every half hour to tell them to move faster.
"Da da da……"
A burst of gunfire suddenly came from the forward troops. It was very dense and included a lot of heavy machine gun fire.
Less than half a minute after the gunfire, explosions were heard, and at least ten grenades exploded at the same time.
The captain rode on horseback and raised his binoculars to see clearly what was going on there.
The attack came from the east of the forward troops. More than fifty imperial troops fell on the road, dead and injured. They were obviously at a disadvantage.
"Squadrons 1 and 2 will attack immediately and reinforce the forwards to kill the enemy." The captain reacted quickly and gave the order while watching.
As soon as the order was issued, the captain saw the enemy attacking the vanguard appear.
Armed with a rifle with a bayonet attached, or holding a light machine gun, they roared towards the road.
Hearing the sound of gunfire and seeing their equipment, the captain's first reaction was that he had encountered the main force of the Eighth Route Army.
But this idea was quickly rejected by himself.
There were more than a hundred enemies, wearing all kinds of clothes, with less than twenty actually wearing military uniforms. They all rushed to the front, and at a glance they knew that they were officers.
They are very familiar with such troops, they are everywhere in North China.
The deputy captain shouted in disbelief: "Eighth Route Army guerrillas, how is this possible? How come they have such good equipment?"
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