At the division headquarters, a battalion commander rushed in in a panic, nervous and frightened.
"Master, something happened!"
"The Eighth Route Army laid mines everywhere outside the city overnight. We are surrounded by mines!"
"Impossible!" the teacher denied without hesitation, and then expressed his opinion.
"Although Hunyuan City is not big, it is still a county town. If you want to surround this place with landmines, you will need at least 3,000 mines. I don't believe the Eighth Route Army can come up with so many landmines."
The chief of staff knew best about the mines equipped by the garrison and had seen it with his own eyes. He quickly replied: "Master, it is not impossible."
"When we were transporting food, we often encountered minefields laid out by the Eighth Route Army. They indeed had a lot of mines."
"And many landmines are made of stone and ceramics. There is no cost at all and ordinary people can make them themselves."
"These mines are not very powerful, but they are numerous and can hurt people. Moreover, mine detectors do not react to them and cannot find them."
"Most of the landmines buried outside the city must be made of ceramics and stone!"
Having said this, the chief of staff thought of a scene he often encountered on the way to transport food, stared at the battalion commander and asked.
"Are they still saying on the sign that the mines were planted by Japanese and puppet agents? They are clearing the mines, but it will take time."
The battalion commander immediately nodded: "I've written it!"
"It says that the minefield was planted by Japanese and puppet agents. The Eighth Route Army has arranged engineers to start clearing mines. However, because the minefield is so large, it will take at least ten days to find all the mines."
"Excuse!" continued the chief of staff.
"Master, I'm sure those landmines were planted by the Eighth Route Army themselves, and the Japanese and puppet agents were just an excuse for them."
"As long as they are willing, they can detonate all those mines in one day."
"Now that they tell us it will take ten days, they obviously want to use landmines to trap us in Hunyuan City, unable to enter or leave."
The teacher replied angrily: "Do you think it's an excuse that I don't know? But it's useless even if we know."
"Hunyuan is still under the control of the Eighth Route Army. Whatever they say is whatever they say. We have no reason to refute it."
"Let's talk and speak freely. What should we do next?"
"Including today, we still have enough food to last three days."
"When the time comes, the troops will run out of food."
"Brothers have not had enough to eat for several days. If we run out of food again, the morale and morale of the army will definitely collapse. Maybe everyone will open the city gates and surrender to the Eighth Route Army as prisoners. Then our division will be completely destroyed."
The deputy division commander hesitated and replied: "How about we go to the Eighth Route Army to grab food and attack them proactively?"
"Impossible!" Before the division commander could speak, the chief of staff shook his head in denial and then explained.
"I transported food three times and was constantly attacked by the Eighth Route Army, but I couldn't find it."
"They are as slippery as loaches, giving us no chance to catch them."
"Moreover, the Eighth Route Army always dealt with us secretly. In order not to give us a chance to cause trouble for them, they never confronted us head-on. They even used the excuse of Japanese and puppet spies coming out to lay landmines."
"We haven't even encountered their main force, and we don't know where they are stationed. How to attack them and grab food."
A regiment leader boldly suggested: "Master, how about we go to the Eighth Route Army to negotiate!"
This time it was the division commander who spoke and shook his head in opposition: "This road won't work either."
"The advantage now lies in the hands of the Eighth Route Army. We are like a piece of meat on the chopping board of the Eighth Route Army."
"If they want to use force and eat us at will, what can we use to negotiate with them?"
The deputy division commander was anxious: "We can't use force, nor can we negotiate. Can we just be trapped in Hunyuan City and starve to death?"
The chief of staff suggested: "Master, I think our division can only rely on the theater now."
"If the food in the war zone arrives on time, we will have hope."
"There is no hope unless the food is in place. We can only choose to negotiate with the Eighth Route Army, and let the war zone negotiate with them. Let the Eighth Route Army show their favor and let us withdraw from their base area. We must save the troops first."
The radio operator suddenly walked in and interrupted: "Master's seat, urgent call from the war zone..."
"The three main divisions of our army that entered Datong all have their own tasks. They can only mobilize one regiment of troops to escort the war zone to replenish our food and ammunition to support Hunyuan City."
"The war zone has issued a transfer order to replenish our food, ammunition, equipment, and funds. We are loading in the war zone. We will arrive in Datong in three days. We will join a regiment assigned to us by Datong and march quickly to reinforce here."
"It's over!" These two words came out of the division commander's mouth after listening to the telegram.
The food will arrive in Datong in three days. From Datong to here, a normal march will take another two days, which means that the troops will have to be hungry for at least two days before they can have food.
And there is a prerequisite for this: the Eighth Route Army will not attack this batch of grain.
If they continue to use the old method to deal with the grain transport team and reinforcements, starting from Datong, they will not be able to reach Datong in five days, and the troops in the city will definitely not be able to survive that time.
And he was 100% sure that the Eighth Route Army would not just watch the food sent from the war zone arrive in Datong smoothly.
Therefore, it is a question whether the food, weapons and ammunition supplemented by the war zone can reach Hunyuan safely.
Of course, if more reinforcements are transferred from the war zone, they can learn from the chief of staff's method of transporting food and use small roads to carry some food to Hunyuan City.
But they only had one regiment, and the amount of food they carried at one time was not enough to cause losses along the way. It was a waste of food for the Eighth Route Army.
It is for these reasons that the teacher believed that he was hopeless.
The deputy division commander and chief of staff also had serious expressions on their faces, and their expressions became increasingly embarrassing.
I don't know how long it took, but the division commander finally made some noise and replied with a long sigh: "We failed in this operation."
"I will send a telegram to the war zone right now to truthfully report our current situation and ask the war zone to negotiate with the Eighth Route Army to take us back."
"I can bear all the responsibility for the failure of this operation, but our division cannot just collapse in Hunyuan City."
"The theater and the commander-in-chief spent a huge amount of money to set up our division. We must not let it go without a fight."
The deputy division commander and chief of staff looked at each other and stood up at the same time: "Master, we must bear the responsibility together."
After finishing speaking, the division commander continued: "Furthermore, I think there is nothing wrong with our command of this operation. If we want to blame it, the Eighth Route Army is too cunning. The people here are too supportive of them. They are completely on their side and do not give us a chance."
"
The chief of staff said: "I also think that this operation was not a fault of war. This place has long been developed by the Eighth Route Army into their base area. The people's morale and the military's morale are all on their side. If we want to win here, we can only take it slowly."
In other words, it’s too fast to go up to the peak.”
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