"Order: Independent Battalion, Special Agent Battalion, Artillery Battalion, concentrate all firepower to attack Lingqiu City from the northwest two sides!"
"There is only one requirement: troop casualties must be controlled!"
"I don't ask them to rush into Lingqiu City tonight. This is too unrealistic!"
"As long as we can kill as many little Japs as possible with minimal casualties, I will consider them to have completed their mission!"
"But we must remember the combat principles of our garrison: enemies who can be killed with artillery shells on the battlefield must never use bullets, and enemies who can be killed with bullets must never use bayonets! The artillery and light and heavy machine guns assigned to them by the regiment are used to kill Japanese soldiers.
, not for decoration!”
"Also, order the Chief of Staff to come here immediately, and the Guard Company will establish a former enemy headquarters here!"
"I have a hunch that if the Japs take the initiative to withdraw their troops this time, it will definitely not be as easy as we thought!"
"There must be some big conspiracy brewing behind the scenes. Maybe there will be another fierce battle waiting for us next!"
After Li Hao issued a series of orders, he calmed down completely, then turned his attention to the map that the guard had just spread out, and fell into deep thought again!
Hong Linfeng worked hard and rushed from the west of the city to the north in less than twenty minutes!
When he saw Li Hao, he hurriedly asked: "Commander, what are these little devils doing? How come they all retreated and turned into cowards after being beaten?"
Li Hao did not hide anything, and directly handed over the telegrams he had just received, and then replied: "It's not just us. The Japs from Hunyuan, Guangling, and Laiyuan have all withdrawn, and they have concentrated their forces to defend the county.
Stance!"
"No, there must be something wrong here!" Hong Linfeng frowned at that moment!
"Judging from the telegram, the Japanese troops withdrew from various strongholds in the three counties, if not 2,000, are not much different!"
"With so many troops, even if the little devils are afraid of being divided into different strongholds and being defeated by us! They can also gather their troops, find a suitable battlefield, and fight us decisively. There is no need to retreat across the board and eliminate the three counties without fighting.
Give us all the villages and towns outside the county seat!"
"These are more than 200,000 ordinary people. Once we have developed, there will be no problem at all in raising an army of 10,000 people!"
"They are not worried that after we occupy these places, we will massively expand our troops, and eventually form a situation where we are too big to get rid of! When the time comes, if they want to eliminate us, the price they have to pay will not be the one or two thousand people who were withdrawn tonight.
It’s possible that there are four to five thousand people, or even tens of thousands of people!”
Li Hao watched Hong Linfeng express his inner thoughts like pouring beans out of a bamboo tube. Although there was no response, he was already happy in his heart!
Hong Linfeng has made great progress. He can see so many problems from several telegrams at just one glance, which shows that he is fully qualified for the position of chief of staff, has his own ideas and opinions on problems, and even directly raises questions!
Unlike before, you just do what you say, blindly obey orders, and don't have any opinions of your own!
Hong Linfeng didn’t know Li Hao’s inner thoughts!
Seeing Li Hao looking at him calmly but not speaking, Hong Linfeng became anxious and asked with a guilty conscience: "Captain, did I say something wrong?"
Li Hao quickly replied: "No, your analysis is correct, and you have the same idea as me!"
"I also think that the Japanese's initiative to withdraw troops is not as simple as it seems. There must be a conspiracy!"
"However, the reference information we have is too little. Until now, I have never thought about what this conspiracy is?"
"My idea is, leave it alone for now!"
"If there is really any conspiracy by then, at worst, the soldiers will come and cover it up with water and earth!"
"When we were guarding Lingqiu, we survived such a bad situation!"
"The garrison now needs guns, cannons, and enough ammunition. In addition, it now has the support of more than 200,000 ordinary people in three counties. Its strength can definitely be said to have increased dramatically!"
"So no matter what conspiracy the little devil is brewing behind, I believe that the defense regiment will be able to survive it in the end, and then turn the danger into good fortune, and use those conspiracies as a stepping stone for the defense regiment to continue to grow and develop!"
Li Hao’s words are undoubtedly a tranquilizer!
The worry on Hong Linfeng's face suddenly disappeared, and he immediately shouted: "Commander, you are right! As long as our garrison is strong enough, we are not afraid of any conspiracy the devils may make. At worst, the soldiers will stop us, and the water will cover us!"
"I suggest that the three main battalions be ordered immediately to continue operating according to the original combat plan!"
"Since the little devil took the initiative to give us the three counties, then we will swallow it in one gulp and not waste the little devil's kindness."
Li Hao no longer hesitated, his expression quickly returned to seriousness!
"Order: The three main battalions will quickly divide their forces and occupy all the villages and towns in the three counties that have been abandoned by the little devils. They will win the hearts and minds of the people by cracking down on traitors and spies, dividing the land, and reducing rent and interest rates! Then cooperate with local cadres to quickly establish base areas and establish local guerrillas.
District teams and county teams, give them the task of protecting the local area, and free up the main force!"
"We continue to attack Lingqiu City!"
"Try to spend another night tomorrow to kill the little devils inside!"
"This will give us two more battalions of mobile troops, plus a reinforced mountain artillery battalion. Even if the little devil really has a conspiracy, we won't be afraid!"
Colonel Aoki is very powerful!
Faced with the superior artillery fire of the garrison, they decisively decided to abandon the city defenses, avoid the artillery fire, and engage in street fighting with the garrison, which consumed a large amount of the garrison's strength until the garrison voluntarily gave up the attack because it could not bear the casualties!
At five o'clock in the morning, although the secret service battalion and the independent battalion successfully occupied the city, they also lost the ability to continue the attack!
The troops suffered too many casualties. After entering the city, the Japanese fired cold shots and grenades from nowhere, and they never stopped!
The two battalions attacked twice, but in the end they both failed, leaving a large number of corpses in the city and suffering heavy casualties!
There is no doubt that Colonel Aoki’s tactics are correct!
After hearing the good news that the garrison had once again returned to the city, Colonel Aoki's serious face finally showed a long-lost smile, and he happily ordered: "Order our troops to fight like this!"
"We have killed more than 200 Eighth Route Army troops in just three or four hours, not counting the injured! At this rate of attrition, by tomorrow night at the latest, more than half of the Japs attacking us will suffer casualties, and then we will have to retreat!"
"If I remember correctly, the defense team used this method to defend Lingqiu City last time!"
"Through street fighting, a large amount of our troops were consumed. Even if the attacking troops entered Lingqiu City, they were eventually forced out because of too many casualties!"
"Today we are going to give the garrison a tooth for a tooth?"
"Beat them with the street fighting they once defeated us with!"
"Sir is wise!" the adjutant quickly complimented, with a smile on his face!
He didn't expect that the situation of the battle would turn around so quickly!
In the first half of the night, the initiative on the battlefield was still in the hands of the garrison. The troops could only defend Lingqiu and passively be beaten!
Almost all the news I heard at the headquarters was bad news!
In the middle of the night, the troops withdrew into Lingqiu City, voluntarily abandoned their strongholds outside the city, and then used the commander's tactics. The initiative on the battlefield suddenly changed hands!
And the war situation began to develop step by step in a direction favorable to the imperial army!
The huge gap made the adjutant express his sincere appreciation for Aoki's superb methods!
Suddenly, the communications staff rushed in!
With an excited look on his face, he reported: "Sir, there is an urgent call from the military department!"
"Tomorrow dawn, there will be troops escorted by planes and cavalry to reinforce us. They will arrive at about three o'clock tomorrow afternoon and let us send troops to enter Lingqiu City!"
Colonel Aoki took the telegram and started reading it. The more he read it, the bigger the smile on his face became!
Then he couldn't help shouting: "Haha, God is really helping us!"
"With this reinforcement force, we will not only have to repel the garrison that attacked us, but also inflict heavy damage on them. We may even annihilate them all!"
The adjutant asked with wide eyes: "Sir, what kind of reinforcements are so powerful!"
"An artillery unit, and it's a heavy artillery force!" Colonel Aoki didn't hide anything, he spoke with a smile on his face.
"The front army promised to support our heavy artillery unit and already has a heavy mortar brigade in place!"
"The military headquarters directly detached a heavy mortar squadron, with a total of twelve 120mm large-caliber mortars, escorted by a cavalry brigade, and it is now set off!"
"The aviation troops who will reinforce us after dawn will also participate in the escort, ensuring that they will be delivered to Lingqiu City before dark today!"
"With these twelve large-caliber mortars, we are no longer afraid of the secret weapons equipped by the garrison!"
"As long as you dare to show your head, I guarantee that they will be blown into scrap metal!"
At the enemy headquarters of the garrison outside Lingqiu City, Li Hao frowned and stared at the city defense map for half an hour without speaking!
The Japanese guarded Lingqiu and fought in the city. This was something Li Hao never expected!
For the attacker, the losses suffered in street fighting can definitely be described as heavy!
If the garrison had an absolute strength advantage, it might still be able to withstand it!
The key problem is that there is no defense regiment!
The special agent battalion plus the independent battalion, minus the casualties, left less than 1,500 people!
And there must be more than this number of little Japs left in Lingqiu City. Fighting with them in street fights is a waste, even if both battalions are exhausted, they are no match for them!
Hong Linfeng obviously thought about this problem and said directly: "Captain, we can't fight anymore!"
"The Japs are well-trained, well-equipped, have enough ammunition, and they also have a strength advantage! Our troops have no advantages at all. Fighting with them in street battles will cause too many casualties, and we can't take any advantage at all!"
"The direct losses of the two battalions have exceeded one company. If we continue to attack, we may lose all our troops!"
"In addition, there are many ordinary people in the city. To avoid accidental injuries, the troops have never dared to use mountain artillery and infantry artillery. Even mortars are rarely used!"
"They are timid in fighting, and they are no match for little devils!"
Li Hao glanced at his watch before speaking: "Then I won't fight for the time being!"
"It will be dawn in more than an hour. As soon as the Japanese planes arrive, the city we occupy will definitely become a key bombing target!"
"I don't want the soldiers not to die in the hands of the Japs, and finally to be blown up by aerial bombs. It's not clear what happened. It's such a loss!"
"Order the troops to withdraw now and exit the battlefield immediately!"
"Take away everything that can be taken away, blow up what cannot be taken away, and never leave it to the little devils!"
"We will find a way to continue attacking Lingqiu City after dark!"