In the Japanese military headquarters in Taiyuan, seconds passed and there was still no news coming back from the front line. The atmosphere in the war room became increasingly tense.
The military commander stood next to the sand table, supporting his body with his hands and his expression was very heavy.
"Sir, the troops mopping up the Huaiyuan Independent Regiment have called back!" the chief of staff started shouting as soon as he walked to the door of the war room.
"The Huaiyuan Independent Regiment is still within their encirclement. It has not left Huaiyuan, and it is impossible to reinforce the garrison."
This telegram should be considered good news to the military commander.
Because the Huaiyuan Independent Regiment has not reached Laiyuan, the chance of the attacking troops encountering danger on the front line will be much smaller.
But he didn’t even raise his head, and the expression on his face didn’t change at all. He continued the order with a sullen face: “Give an order to the troops sweeping up the Huaiyuan Independent Regiment and ask them to send more scouts deep into the Eighth Route Army base area to make sure that they really have not left their base area.
.”
"The Eighth Route Army is so cunning. It used the golden cicada to escape from its shell more than once and slipped away from under our noses."
"Also send a telegram to the troops mopping up the Laishui Independent Regiment: Make sure that the contents of the telegram you report to us are 100% accurate."
The chief of staff finally realized that the commander's expression had not changed at all.
It turned out that he didn't really believe in the telegram in his hand, and the Huaiyuan Independent Regiment was only one of the potential threats to the frontline offensive forces. Even if they didn't go to Laiyuan, it didn't mean that other troops didn't go either.
Immediately replied: "I will call them back now and personally urge them to report after they detect the definite evidence."
The chief of staff returned to the war room half an hour later and brought three pieces of good news at once.
"Commander, after repeated confirmation from the front line, the main forces of the Huaiyuan Independent Regiment and Laishui Independent Regiment are still in their base areas."
"The intelligence department also received a secret report: the Eighth Route Army that captured Datong City did not retreat."
"At least 10,000 Eighth Route Army troops have gathered in Datong City. They are cleaning the battlefield and rushing to transport supplies, as if they want to empty Datong City."
After hearing this, the commander's expression finally changed, he patted the sand table and said happily: "As long as these three troops do not reach Laiyuan, there will be no danger to the more than 5,000 attacking troops on the front line."
"The reason why we couldn't contact them must be that the remaining troops of the garrison jumped over the wall in a hurry. By luck, they raided our headquarters and destroyed the radio station."
"As long as the strongholds near the battlefield find them and send them radios, we will know what happened to them?"
"Contact the strongholds around the battlefield again: immediately send people with radios to find our offensive troops and connect them with the military headquarters."
The tense atmosphere in the war room became relaxed as the commander's mood improved.
There is a medium-sized Japanese stronghold five kilometers away from the battlefield. There are more than 80 Japanese soldiers and more than 100 puppet troops inside. They maintain contact by phone with a large stronghold 20 kilometers away.
The army commander gave them orders over and over again, and it was already eleven o'clock in the evening when they arrived.
The squadron leader who stayed behind did not dare to neglect, and immediately organized a ten-man reconnaissance team and marched quickly to the battlefield.
The wooden gate of the stronghold was slowly opened with a "squeaking..." sound, and the suspension bridge pulled by two ropes was lowered together and placed on the four-meter-wide trench.
Ten Japanese soldiers, carrying guns and a light machine gun, left the stronghold like ghosts.
The squadron leader stood on the roof of the central turret and watched them disappear from his sight before returning to the office.
As soon as he sat down, before he could take a breath, gunfire rang out outside the stronghold.
"Bageya Road, what's going on!"
The major stood up from his seat, grabbed the telescope on the table and climbed to the top of the turret. As he climbed, he questioned his subordinates, hoping that they could give him an explanation.
"Captain, there are enemies hiding four hundred meters outside the stronghold!" Captain Cao on duty reported, pointing to the machine gun fire that suddenly appeared not far away.
After the reconnaissance team was attacked, they did not use machine guns to fight back. Most likely, the machine gunners were killed immediately...
But there must still be scouts alive. From time to time on the road near the stronghold, there are several gunshots unique to the Sanba Gate.
In front of the machine gun, such a counterattack seems particularly weak...
In less than a minute, there were nearly half as many sporadic gunshots as before.
"No, the reconnaissance team is in big trouble!" the squadron leader analyzed with a stern face.
"Captain, it seems someone is running towards the stronghold!" Captain Cao suddenly reminded.
Under the darkness of night, several figures could be seen vaguely, holding rifles and retreating towards the gun tower while firing.
Bullets have no eyes, and no matter how fast they run, they can't beat the flight speed of bullets. Every few dozen meters they run, a scout is shot in the back and falls forward on the retreat road.
It wasn't until the last scout fell thirty meters from the entrance of the stronghold that the sound of machine gun fire stopped.
The squadron leader immediately ordered: "All troops staying at the stronghold should be ready for battle."
"Find a way to find out how many Eighth Route Army troops are outside the stronghold and what their purpose is!"
"As soon as we received the order from the military headquarters to send people to contact the front line, the Eighth Route Army came. This is so strange. There must be a conspiracy that we don't know about."
"Also, call the captain immediately. I will report this matter to him personally."
"Woooooooo..."
The piercing alarm sound soon sounded in the stronghold. More than two hundred Japanese and puppet troops ran out of their respective barracks like birds of a feather, holding weapons and rushing towards the turrets and bunkers they defended...
In the command room on the second floor of the turret, the second lieutenant kept shaking the phone, trying to contact the captain twenty kilometers away.
Half a minute passed, but there was no response from the hand-cranked telephone.
A minute passed and there was still no response from the other end of the phone.
The second lieutenant was so worried that he was sweating profusely. He shook the phone again with his last hope, but there was still no response from the other party.
I had to put down the microphone and climb to the top of the turret to report: "Sir, we can't contact the brigade headquarters. The phone line should be cut off."
A bad premonition came into the squadron leader's mind, and he asked dissatisfiedly: "Nani? The phone was fine a few minutes ago, why did something go wrong so quickly?"
"I don't know about my humble position!" the second lieutenant answered with his head lowered.
Then I thought about the suggestion: "Why don't you send someone out to check the phone line?"
"No!" The squadron leader refused without hesitation: "Ten scouts went out and didn't come back, and a few telephone soldiers definitely wouldn't survive if they went out."
"First understand the enemy's situation and then determine what we should do next?"
"The Eighth Route Army...the Eighth Route Army is coming towards us..." the sergeant suddenly shouted, pointing outside the stronghold with a stunned look on his face, as if he had been frightened by something.
More than three hundred meters away, a large number of people suddenly appeared.
Some were wearing Eighth Route Army uniforms, others were wearing civilian clothes, all kinds of things, but their equipment was very good.
Everyone held a gun in their hands, and was also equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns and mortars, and quickly approached the stronghold.
"Isn't the Eighth Route Army surrounded by the main force on the front line? Who can tell me where these troops came from?" The squadron leader was also frightened and shouted with confusion.
Seeing that his subordinates didn't respond, he decisively ordered: "What are you doing standing still? Everyone shoots. We can't let them get close to our stronghold."
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