There is a town fifteen kilometers outside Baoding City. This is the only way to Baoding City, and it is also the largest town within a radius of dozens of miles.
As the peripheral defense line of Baoding City, the Japanese army built a stronghold here, stationed a reinforced squadron and a puppet battalion, and controlled dozens of surrounding villages.
Half a year ago, although there were Eighth Route Army guerrillas in this area, they all appeared as military workers. There were only a few people. Once they were eliminated, they were gone and they could not make any big waves.
Starting five months ago, this good situation began to change.
First, ten puppet troops patrolling outside the stronghold were killed in front of everyone's eyes. Their equipment, ammunition, and even military uniforms were all shot away.
Immediately afterwards, the county's transportation team delivering supplies to the stronghold was ambushed.
More than 40 Imperial and Imperial Alliance armies were wiped out, and nearly ten carts of food and ammunition supplies disappeared.
Ordinary military workers are definitely not that capable.
The squadron leader of the garrison at the stronghold made a judgment on the spot: a fully-organized Eighth Route Army appeared in the jurisdiction.
They must be eliminated immediately, otherwise with the mobilization methods of the Eighth Route Army, the entire jurisdiction will become their base area before long, and the strength of the troops will become stronger and stronger.
Two infantry squads and two companies of puppet troops were immediately dispatched to leave the stronghold and sweep the area under their jurisdiction.
After a few days of busy work, not only did I not see the Eighth Route Army, I also lost half a squad of imperial troops and two platoons of puppet troops...
The peace in the precinct was thus broken.
The enemy and we are going back and forth, today I will kill a few of you, and tomorrow the other side will kill a few of their own... It has been a stalemate until now, and no one can do anything to the other.
There is a valley less than ten kilometers away from the stronghold, and the terrain is very complex.
There was only one opening through which one could easily walk in. More than a dozen soldiers wearing puppet army or civilian clothes stood behind the bunker, covered with camouflage thatch, and stared motionlessly at the entrance of the valley to prevent outsiders from entering.
Walking into the valley, there is a unique cave inside.
Inside the forest, nearly two hundred soldiers were training in full swing.
On the edge of the valley, dozens of barracks built on Yabi are neatly arranged.
In the largest barracks, several middle-aged people were discussing something, with their brows sometimes relaxed and sometimes frowned.
"Company Commander Zhou, your superiors have asked you to immediately report the actual situation of the guerrillas. The more detailed the better." A middle-aged man wearing ordinary civilian clothes who looked no different from an Orion was the first to speak.
"Did your superiors tell you why?" Company Commander Zhou standing opposite asked immediately.
He was wearing a heavily patched Eighth Route Army uniform, with a serious and expectant expression.
"No..." the middle-aged man dressed as an Orion replied.
After thinking for a moment, he continued: "Not only you, but also several other guerrilla groups have received the same order, and our troops lurking in the city also have to report their situation."
Company Commander Zhou was delighted on the spot: "The superiors must have taken some big action..."
"Instructor, please immediately tally up our troop strength and equipment and ask the liaison officer to take them out directly."
"Order the troops to seize the time to train. From now on, every meal must be full, and there will be no combat missions."
At the Lingqiu garrison headquarters, Li Hao waited for three days and finally received a call back from Luo Wen.
But after reading it, everyone was not as happy as they imagined.
Seeing Li Hao frowning and not speaking, Hong Linfeng felt that it was time to fulfill his duties as chief of staff and immediately reminded him.
"Captain, our troops lurking into Baoding are developing very well, but their strength is still very small, especially because there are too few troops in the city. They can provide us with very limited help in attacking Baoding, so I think we need to be cautious about attacking Baoding."
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Li Hao was noncommittal: "The help they can provide us is indeed very limited."
Hong Linfeng's eyes lit up, thinking that the group leader had compromised, so he quickly said: "Then we won't fight Baoding?"
"No, even if there is no support, I am determined to Baoding."
"The troops have been training for such a long time. It is reasonable and reasonable to take them out to practice and test everyone's training results."
"Is there any place more suitable for our attack target than Baoding?"
Hong Linfeng continued to persuade: "But Baoding City is too difficult to defeat. If you don't do it well, you may lose your troops and return without success!"
Li Hao retorted: "The greater the risk, the greater the return. This is all directly proportional."
"If we can capture Baoding, all the weapons and ammunition used by the Japanese army going south will fall into the hands of our Eighth Route Army, as well as the various materials the Japanese army has hoarded in Baoding. I heard that there are ten warehouses in the city, and some warehouses hold grain.
Some warehouses hold supplies, and there are warehouses dedicated to stocking weapons and ammunition."
"If we take down Baoding, these supplies will all be ours."
"More importantly, we can eliminate a large number of Japanese and puppet troops, further weakening the strength of the surrounding Japanese and puppet troops."
Hong Linfeng knew that the leader had made up his mind and could not make him change his mind, so he asked a very crucial question on the spot.
"how to spell?"
"Old rules!" Li Hao replied.
"First consume a large amount of the Japanese and puppet troops outside the city, and then attack the city."
Hong Linfeng continued to ask: "Captain, the first step is easy to tell."
"The latent troops and the siege troops cooperate with each other, and they will definitely be able to kill many Japanese and puppet troops outside the city."
"The second step is difficult. The Japanese army has built a large number of permanent firepower points in Baoding. If we attack by force, we must use heavy artillery to advance little by little. It will take at least two nights to capture the city head."
"The Japanese are not stupid. Two nights are enough for them to mobilize reinforcements from the surrounding areas to form a larger encirclement around the battlefield, surround us in Baoding, and then attack us from both inside and outside to eliminate us."
"I'm very worried that we didn't take Baoding in the end, but instead trapped the siege troops."
Having said this, Hong Linfeng took Li Hao directly to the map and pointed to several counties around Baoding City for analysis.
"The map shows that the closest of these counties to Baoding is only 40 kilometers away. It takes ten hours of urgent march to reach Baoding City.
"At that time, we were still attacking gun towers and bunkers outside the city, but we didn't even reach the top of the city."
"If the Japanese reinforcements and the garrison in the city cooperate with each other and attack us from both inside and outside, the siege troops will be attacked from both sides. Not to mention taking Baoding, even escaping intact will be a problem."
"Taking a step back, if the Japanese reinforcements did not directly attack us and enter the city to strengthen the defense forces of Baoding City, it would definitely be more difficult for us to capture Baoding!"
"So I think our garrison's chance of winning this battle is less than 10%. If we attack forcefully, we will have an 80% chance of being defeated. Commander, you must think carefully before making a decision. Don't be impulsive and act quickly!"
Li Hao's expression was calm and he pointed at the map and asked: "Chief of Staff, tell me: How many garrisons are there in each of these counties? How many troops can be sent to reinforce Baoding?"
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