At 1:30 in the morning, the first attacking force returned to Baoding City.
The result was far worse than the brigade leader imagined.
The deputy chief of staff and the team leader lowered their heads and walked up to the brigade commander: "General, the specific losses of the troops attacking on the east route have been calculated."
The brigade commander was most concerned about how many troops he still had on hand, and he immediately asked: "You only need to tell me how many troops are left in the troops that attacked the east gate to continue fighting. I don't want to hear about other losses, so as not to affect my mood."
"I just received the latest telegram from the blockade, which clearly records the strength and equipment of the garrison through the blockade."
"In addition to a cavalry battalion of at least 500 men, the garrison also dispatched an anti-aircraft battalion, a heavy artillery battalion equivalent to a heavy artillery regiment, an armored company with 20 tanks and armed vehicles, and more than 2,000 infantry."
"With so many troops fighting outside Baoding City, if there are too few defending troops, they will definitely not be able to stop the defense regiment from attacking."
The captain's head dropped even further, not knowing how to answer.
The deputy chief of staff could only stand up and report: "General, there are 516 people left in the east gate attack force to continue fighting, and they have also brought back 218 lightly and seriously wounded people."
"The biggest losses were from the heavy machine gun unit and the artillery unit. They took out 20 heavy machine guns and 20 mortars. Just now they brought back only five heavy machine guns and six mortars. All other heavy weapons were abandoned outside the city.
!”
"As expected, these heavy weapons should have fallen into the hands of the garrison."
The brigade commander's face suddenly dropped.
It was my decision to take the initiative, but now that the situation is like this, I can't even shift the responsibility to others.
He stared at the captain and cursed angrily: "What did you do? More than a thousand people left the city, and so many troops were lost in just two or three hours. What do you, the captain, do for a living?"
"I am willing to take all responsibilities due to my humble position!" The captain did not dare to say a word of defense and could only answer with his head lowered.
The brigade commander became even more angry: "Can we recover the hundreds of soldiers lost by taking responsibility?"
"The garrison may launch an attack at any time. Just bring me this few troops. It won't be enough to defend one wall of Baoding City."
"General, calm down." the deputy chief of staff reminded him at the right time.
"The enemy is currently employing people. If you want to punish them, we should wait until the battle is over. I suggest that they should be punished and meritorious service."
"I am still worried about one thing: the troops from the east route have only returned more than 500 combat-ready troops. The troops from the other three routes have not returned yet, so the losses must be huge. Calculating this, it would be good if the troops from the east route can return 2,000 troops.
Already."
"There are only more than 2,000 troops in the city who have not left the city, and there are only more than 4,000 troops in total. It is too difficult to defend Baoding City!"
The brigade commander agreed: "The troops are definitely not enough."
"The garrison regiment dispatched nearly a regiment of heavy artillery. If these artillery pieces are put to good use, a single shell hitting the city wall can kill one of our infantry squads."
"There are also chariot troops. Once a gap is blown out of the city wall by heavy artillery, the Eighth Route Army can enter the city under the cover of chariots."
"In order to defend Baoding City, we must dispatch a large number of troops to plug the gaps. With the few troops in the city, dispersed behind each city wall, it would be good to have a thousand mobile troops left. What can we use to plug the gaps?"
"Send a telegram to the chief of staff and the Third Infantry Brigade immediately, asking them to stop encircling and suppressing the Eighth Route Army and return to the county to aid!"
As time passed, the atmosphere in the war room became increasingly depressing.
Bad news kept coming in. The troops attacking on the east route among the four troops had the smallest losses. The worst was the troops attacking on the north route, which only brought back more than 300 intact soldiers.
Of course, this is not what makes the brigade leader most desperate.
The deputy chief of staff walked over in a hurry with a very serious expression. After sending all the staff members in the war room away, he reported: "General, something seems to have happened to the chief of staff and the third infantry brigade!"
"No matter how many times we called on the radio, there was no response."
"What..." The brigade leader became anxious.
The two mopping up troops are the key to whether they can hold Baoding City, and nothing can happen to them.
He grabbed the deputy chief of staff by the collar, stared at him with red eyes and asked, "Tell me what you just said again, what happened to the chief of staff and the Third Infantry Brigade?"
"General, calm down!" the deputy chief of staff replied, breathing heavily, his face flushed red from holding back, and a look of pain on his face.
"We have been calling the chief of staff and the Third Infantry Group on the radio for almost half an hour, but there has been no response from either unit."
"Is it possible that the radio is broken? Or the troops are chasing the Eighth Route Army and the radio is on the march and is not turned on!" The brigade leader still couldn't believe the result and asked with the last glimmer of hope.
The deputy chief of staff replied: "I have thought about these humble positions, but the possibility is very low."
"Both the Chief of Staff and the Third Infantry Brigade have prepared radio stations. Even if one radio station is destroyed in the battle, it is impossible for two radio stations to be destroyed at the same time."
"In order to ensure the safety of the mopping up troops during the battle, the brigade headquarters issued a special order that the attacking troops must send us a safety signal every five hours."
"Six hours have passed since the last signal. Even if they are fighting and chasing the Eighth Route Army, they will still be within two minutes."
"If I remember correctly, the two troops have never missed a signal since they left the city. Tonight is the first time."
"Did something really happen to them?" The brigade leader gradually began to believe this fact.
He let go of the deputy chief of staff and stared at him, hoping that he would give him a different answer at the last moment.
The deputy chief of staff lowered his head: "General, I am 90% sure that something happened to them."
"But no matter what the final result is, we must prepare for the worst."
The brigade leader's last hope was shattered. He sat down on the chair, his whole body seemed to be paralyzed, and his whole body was weak.
After two minutes, I slowly regained my composure, stood up from the chair, and strode to the sand table for analysis.
"The garrison is coming fiercely, and with more than 4,000 people in the city, we will definitely not be able to hold on for long."
"The Chief of Staff and the Third Infantry Brigade have no hope. We can only rely on foreign aid."
"I just took a look and found that within a radius of 100 kilometers, Yixian County has the largest number of troops stationed there."
"I will send a telegram to the front army headquarters now to mobilize troops from surrounding counties to reinforce Baoding."
"Especially the Yixian garrison sent at least 3,000 people to reinforce us."
"The reason why the front army stationed heavy troops in Yixian County is to prevent the garrison regiment from developing towards Peiping. Now that the main force of the garrison regiment has come to Baoding, Yixian County does not need to guard so many troops. It can completely send heavy troops to support us."
"Other surrounding counties will also send troops, causing the garrison to be surrounded by us, causing them to worry and reducing our defensive pressure."
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