A messenger panting heavily climbed to the commanding heights of Chentouling to report.
"I am the correspondent of the First Battalion of the Huaiyuan Independent Regiment. Our chief of staff asked me to report that the Japanese who broke out from here have not returned to Datong City."
"I ran back along the road for three kilometers and then suddenly turned and entered the mountains to the southeast, leaving many wounded behind to block the pursuers."
"After the pursuing troops arrived there, they left one company to deal with the Japanese wounded soldiers. The chief of staff led the others around the battlefield and continued to pursue the Japanese. They all went into the mountains."
Hong Linfeng was startled and had an idea: "Commander, the Japanese are probably heading towards our heavy artillery position."
"I want to take advantage of them during the retreat and kill our heavy artillery battalion."
"It's so sinister, I'm going to send a telegram to the heavy artillery battalion now and ask them to move quickly."
"They have cars, and it's night time again. No matter how fast the devils run on two legs, they can't catch up with them."
Li Hao snorted and replied: "Chief of Staff, don't worry. To be honest, I quite admire the Japanese commander. If his plan fails, he will immediately have a new target. If he encounters other artillerymen of ours, his idea will definitely succeed.
But tonight they miscalculated."
"The heavy artillery battalion is the trump card of our garrison. No matter how much I underestimate the enemy, I will never let them act alone."
"Chief of Staff, immediately send a telegram to Yuan Qingfeng of the Artillery Battalion. The puppet troops have been killing them for nearly a thousand days."
"Immediately command the cavalry battalion, air defense battalion, and artillery battalion subordinate guard companies to prepare for battle."
"The little devils must think that the Heavy Artillery Battalion is a soft persimmon, and they can squeeze it however they want."
"In fact, our heavy artillery battalion is a piece of iron. If we bump into it rashly, not only will we not gain any advantage, we will also hit our head and bleed."
At the Japanese Army Brigade Headquarters in Datong, the brigade commander has been waiting here for news, and even had dinner in the office.
Whether he could destroy the equipment stolen by the Eighth Route Army and severely damage the Eighth Route Army there was related to the long-term peace and stability of Datong for the next year, or even longer, and he couldn't help but pay attention to it.
It's past six o'clock and it's almost dark.
According to the planned combat plan, the attacking troops have now engaged the Eighth Route Army.
The brigade commander was confident in his troops. As long as the Eighth Route Army in Datong had no foreign aid, he would win this battle.
At seven o'clock, a communications staff officer hurried in, and the brigade commander thought he had brought the good news he had been waiting for.
But his face did not show any excitement after receiving the good news. Instead, his expression was solemn and very anxious.
"Did something happen?" The brigade leader's heart skipped a beat.
"Sir, the chief of staff has an urgent call!" the communications staff officer reported while handing the circuit board to the brigade commander.
"The attacking troops were attacked by the Eighth Route Army in Chentouling. The enemy had a heavy artillery battalion participating in the battle. We suffered heavy losses. The chief of staff thought that the garrison regiment had come to Datong and decided to change the plan temporarily."
"First break out of the Eighth Route Army's encirclement, then assemble heavy troops to raid their heavy artillery positions, and then retreat to Datong City after the attack."
"Finally, let's make a special statement: Let us arrange our troops to meet them at the gate of the city."
"How could this happen..." the brigade leader looked at the telegram in his hand and shouted with disbelief.
Except for the chief of staff, the other staff members in the headquarters are ordinary staff officers, several levels lower than the brigade commander. It is no problem for them to do things, but they will definitely not dare to speak rashly when they help you analyze the battle situation.
The brigade leader could see everyone's thoughts at a glance and could only analyze the matter by himself with a frown on his face.
When heavy artillery appeared on the battlefield, the chief of staff believed that the opponent was a garrison. His first subconscious reaction was that the attacking troops were in danger and the battle plan must be changed immediately.
The brigade commander's vision was much broader, and he was thinking about whether these heavy artillery would have an impact on the situation in Datong as a whole.
As for the origin of the heavy artillery, like the Chief of Staff, the garrison regiment was the one that immediately came to mind.
At the same time, another question came to mind.
The heavy artillery battalion is the garrison's trump card against the imperial army, and it is impossible to go into danger alone.
Now that these artillery pieces appear in Datong, there must be a large number of infantry coming in to protect the safety of the heavy artillery battalion.
He had read the latest information about the garrison from the military department. Because the station was located close to the garrison, the brigade commander often took it out to study, and he was already familiar with the contents.
It was mentioned above that the garrison regiment lost its troops in a raid by the imperial army. Now, more than 80% of the soldiers in the army are newly recruited recruits, and the overall combat effectiveness is less than 20% of the original.
Under such circumstances, it is impossible for any Eighth Route Army to let them go to the battlefield to die, let alone fight deep into enemy-occupied areas.
The garrison regiment has stricter rules in this regard. Recruits who have not undergone three months of recruit training must not go to the battlefield.
But the garrison sent out troops anyway.
After thinking about it, there was only one possibility: the intelligence reported to him by the military headquarters was wrong, and the garrison was far from as bad as the intelligence said...
That's a big problem.
The garrison was a serious concern for the Shanxi garrison. A large number of intelligence personnel were watching it all the time, but they still got a piece of false information.
Frontline intelligence personnel will definitely not make mistakes, so this false information was deliberately created by the garrison.
They tried their best to make the military think that the army had many new recruits, poor combat effectiveness, and no offensive capabilities. There must be a big unknown conspiracy hidden behind it.
Now that the heavy artillery battalion of the garrison regiment has appeared in Datong, and thinking of the losses suffered by the Datong garrison in the past two days, three words suddenly popped into the mind of the brigade commander.
Datong City!
My heart suddenly became confused, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my judgment was right.
After deducting the losses last night and the troops taken away by the chief of staff during the day, there are less than 4,000 people left in the Datong garrison, and most of them are unreliable Imperial Alliance troops.
If the Eighth Route Army takes the opportunity to attack Datong and has heavy artillery support, the brigade commander will have no confidence at all.
Of course, if the chief of staff could successfully raid the heavy artillery battalion of the garrison, the result would be different.
Without heavy artillery, Datong City's strong fortifications allowed the 3,000 garrison troops to defend themselves for three months.
Immediately ordered the deputy chief of staff: "Reply a telegram to the chief of staff who raided the heavy artillery position now. It is best if the raid is successful. If the raid cannot be successful, the troops will immediately retreat back to Datong."
"The intelligence department took action overnight to find out how many Eighth Route Army troops were hidden in Datong."
"Order all strongholds and coal mines in Datong to be on alert from now on to prevent enemy sneak attacks."
The brigade commander paused after saying this, then strode to the sand table, pointed at more than ten strongholds with his baton, and then continued to give orders.
"I have clearly remembered these strongholds. They are the closest to Datong City. The total number of garrison troops is more than 2,000. They are a strong new force."
"Give them a special order: abandon their strongholds after dawn and all march back to Datong."
After the deputy chief of staff left with the order, the brigade commander suddenly felt relieved.
The worried expression on his face was also lessened.
According to his own arrangement, even if the Chief of Staff's operation failed and the Eighth Route Army really planned to attack Datong, if more than 2,000 people from outside the city entered the city, they would definitely be able to defend it for ten days and a half.
At that time, the reinforcements will take the opportunity to attack the garrison base from other directions. In order to avoid being attacked from both sides and having their base occupied, the garrison attacking the city has only one way to retreat.
Thinking of this, the brigade leader felt even more relieved.
But to achieve this goal, we need the cooperation of the military.
I immediately returned to my office and wrote a telegram to the military headquarters, describing the situation of heavy artillery in Datong, my judgments, and my thoughts.
The first update is delivered today! Please subscribe! Please vote monthly! Please collect!
