Xiao Yuan finally rushed to the enemy headquarters in front of the garrison.
Although he was very tired, Li Hao had no time to let him rest.
The Jinsui Army wanted Datong so much that after receiving a telegram from the Eighth Route Army that it wanted to negotiate, they sent people to Datong.
At the same time, the troops of the three divisions began to gather near Datong. If the negotiations failed, they would directly expel the Eighth Route Army by force and occupy Datong militarily.
Li Hao had just received a telegram from Chief of Staff Zhou asking him to go to Datong for negotiations.
After Chief of Staff Zhou argued hard, the negotiation time was set in four days, which meant that he had to rush to Datong within four days, and he also had to accumulate enough negotiation capital during this time.
Otherwise, when you get to the negotiation table, you won't be able to take any advantage, and you'll end up with nothing.
Looking at the tired Xiao Yuan, he said with an embarrassed look: "Xiao Yuan, the task is urgent, I don't have time for you to rest here!"
"The commando team did a good job in Yixian County some time ago."
"With just a few dozen of you, you control most of Yixian County, and you have also developed an army of more than a thousand people, which makes everyone in the regiment look at you with admiration."
"Now that the situation in Yixian County has stabilized, Deputy Commander Luo is completely under control. If the commando team stays there any longer, it will be overkill."
"Good steel is used on the blade. I decided to assign a new mission to the commando team."
"From now on, the reconnaissance company directly under the regiment, the independent company, the special agent company, plus your commando team, will temporarily form a secret team, with you as the captain, and the reconnaissance company commander Chen Wei as the deputy captain. We will set off in an hour.
March quickly to get here and lie in wait."
If Xiao Yuan remembered correctly, the regiment leader was pointing to the Jinsui Army's defense line on the edge of Datong.
Nowadays, most of the Japanese and puppet troops in Datong have been wiped out. Although the more than 1,000 Japanese puppet troops confronting the Jinsui Army have not been killed yet, a large number of Jinsui troops are stationed there.
As long as the Jinsui Army takes the initiative to attack, it will take only a matter of minutes to eliminate the Japanese and puppet troops, and it will not be their turn to intervene.
Therefore, the regiment leader definitely did not let himself lurk there to deal with the Japanese and puppet troops there.
Since the opponent is not the Japanese, the only remaining enemy is the Jinsui Army.
The Jinsui Army is a friendly force. If the regiment leader asked him to deal with them, wouldn't he be worried that he would be labeled as undermining the united front and cause a scandal?
The more Xiao Yuan thought about it, the more solemn his expression became.
Li Hao knew that he had seen some clues, so he did not hide it and explained straightforwardly: "Datong City was captured by our Eighth Route Army, and it should belong to our Eighth Route Army."
"But the Jinsui Army also took a fancy to Datong. As our nominal allies and superiors, they issued an order to the headquarters in a very unreasonable way, saying that Datong was not our defense zone and that we should withdraw from Datong and let them take over the defense."
"I definitely disagree, but military orders cannot be violated. Otherwise, if someone in the war zone is labeled as disobeying military orders, we will suffer even greater losses."
"In order to protect our own interests and recover losses as much as possible, our superiors decided to negotiate with the Jinsui Army."
"And appointed me as deputy negotiator."
"In order to take the initiative at the negotiation table and force the Jinsui Army to give us some benefits, I need you to lead the troops to carry out some small actions next to the Jinsui Army's station to put pressure on the Jinsui Army and increase the bargaining chips in our hands.
."
Xiao Yuan understood and nodded thoughtfully.
Li Hao continued: "I asked the political commissar to prepare a set of Japanese military uniforms and a set of puppet army uniforms for each of you."
"After arriving at the hiding point, all the troops pretended to be Japanese soldiers and puppet troops."
"What is the specific mission? After arriving at the lurking point, I will send you a telegram based on the progress of the negotiations."
"Before this, you only have to do one thing: "Find out the true situation of the Shanxi-Sui Army on the defensive line, the more detailed the better, and then send your investigation results to Datong."
In the sky over Huaiyuan, the roar of airplanes has not stopped since dawn.
One after another, planes painted with plaster flags cruised over the heads of the Japanese and puppet troops, covering them.
The Japanese captain's mood was very complicated.
It was a good thing that the escort plane arrived as scheduled, but he couldn't be happy.
Because the marching speed of the troops did not change due to their arrival, it was still advancing slowly like a snail, and it had to withstand the ubiquitous attacks of the Eighth Route Army.
The only thing that changed was the way the Eighth Route Army attacked itself.
Before dawn, they attacked themselves in company and platoon units, and even relied on favorable terrain to block them head-on. The troops paid a huge price to advance a certain distance.
After dawn, the planes arrived. The Eighth Route Army did not dare to assemble too many troops under the nose of the planes, so they changed their attack method to sneak attacks on themselves in squads and platoons, and the casualties were much smaller.
But within half an hour of being happy, the good mood was blown away by several explosions.
While the Eighth Route Army changed its offensive methods, it even used landmines to increase its own offensive methods.
The ubiquitous landmines annoy the captain.
What's even more despicable is that the casualties caused by landmines are almost all broken legs and feet. Once a soldier is bombed, he can only be carried on a stretcher and cannot march on his own.
This means that if a wounded man with a broken leg appears in the army, the army must arrange at least two intact soldiers to carry him while marching. Not only does the army lose three soldiers in an instant, but it also greatly affects the marching speed of the army.
The Eighth Route Army also seemed to realize the huge impact the wounded had on the retreat of the troops.
In addition to landmine explosions, non-stop sneak attacks also began to inflict casualties on the troops, which could be wounded but never killed.
By one o'clock in the afternoon, mines and sneak attacks had already caused more than 200 wounded soldiers to the troops who were unable to march.
Including the soldiers carrying stretchers, a total of more than 700 people were unable to fight.
Excluding the subordinates who were killed while marching last night, and the more than 300 subordinates left in the rear, there are only less than 400 usable combat troops left.
The marching speed was also reduced to two-thirds of the normal state due to the appearance of more than two hundred stretchers.
Coupled with the impact of landmines and sneak attacks, the speed is even slower, and we will definitely not be able to kill the no-man's land before dark.
"Captain, you're walking too slowly!" the adjutant warned anxiously as he caught up with the captain.
Fighting to no man's land before dark is a military order issued by the brigade captain to the military headquarters. If it is not completed, not only the brigade captain will be punished, but all officers in the entire brigade will be affected.
"I know!" the captain replied solemnly.
After looking at his watch, he said: "Only if the marching speed is doubled, we can cover more than 30 kilometers and reach the no-man's land in the remaining five hours."
"But there were too many wounded in the team. Even if the soldiers tried their best, they couldn't walk seven kilometers per hour, and they had to march for five consecutive hours."
"There is a way!" the adjutant replied after thinking for a moment.
"There is a Chinese saying that loses the chariot but saves the commander. We cannot let more than 200 wounded people affect the marching speed and cause the no-man's land to be occupied by the Eighth Route Army, otherwise all of us will become sinners of the empire."
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