The closed door was suddenly pushed open, and then the adjutant was seen rushing in!
"Sir, the garrison still has the ability to attack. They started attacking again, and they also used their secret weapon!"
"The East Gate garrison reported that they suffered heavy casualties and requested support!"
Colonel Aoki stood up from the bed, picked up his armed belt and walked to the war room, giving orders as he walked!
"Why are you panicking? Now that we have heavy mortars, we are not afraid of the secret weapons equipped by the garrison!"
"Although the number of artillery is limited, it is difficult to take the initiative to kill them! But it is still possible to defend Lingqiu City, continue to consume the offensive troops of the garrison through defensive battles, and create conditions for us to encircle and annihilate them next!"
"Immediately draw a squadron from the reserve team for reinforcements!"
"The first and second heavy mortar teams will launch a counterattack immediately!"
"After waiting for so long, I finally found out the secret weapon of the garrison!"
"Tell the artillery troops that this opportunity is rare and you must seize the opportunity to destroy it for me!"
"I want to see with my own eyes what these secret weapons are, how they can swallow up three of our infantry brigades in such a short time!"
Several staff officers rushed out of the war room and started giving orders!
"Boom boom boom..."
However, before Colonel Aoki could take a breath, the explosion sounded again, this time coming from the west of the city!
Colonel Aoki reacted very quickly. He frowned and said: "Bagya Road, unlike the garrison, there is no strength to attack us from two directions!"
Then he started to give orders with a heavy face: "Draw another squadron from the reserve to reinforce the west gate, and the third and fourth heavy mortar squadrons to reinforce the west gate. The mission is the same as the east gate. Go and give the order now!"
"Boom boom boom..."
In the next ten minutes or so, Colonel Aoki heard nothing but explosions in his ears!
Some rang in the city, some on top of the city, and some came from outside the city...
As time passed by, Colonel Aoki's face became more and more gloomy, and his confidence in the four heavy mortar teams was not as strong as before!
After such a long time, the artillery of the garrison still has the ability to attack, and can even launch counterattacks against heavy mortar positions!
This shows that the artillery counterattack of the four heavy mortar teams did not work!
Soon, the artillery staff brought him depressing news!
"Sir, the garrison is too cunning. It concentrates all mortars, mountain artillery, and infantry artillery to keep an eye on our heavy mortar squadron!"
"Although their artillery is not very powerful, there are many of them. Almost two of them are staring at us and hitting one at a time!"
"In order to protect the safety of the mortars and prevent them from being destroyed by the defense regiment's counterattack artillery fire, the artillery can only constantly move positions and cannot fully counterattack the defense regiment's secret weapons!"
Colonel Aoki said nothing with a sullen face!
The number of artillery pieces was too small, which was also an important reason why the troops were unable to expand their results during the counterattack in the first half of the night!
Otherwise, he would not take the initiative to report the results to the military headquarters as soon as the battle was over, let the military headquarters see the effect of heavy mortars on the battlefield, and then continue to reinforce artillery for Lingqiu City!
Now it seems that I still underestimated the impact of insufficient artillery fire on the entire battle!
I saw that the artillery staff looked helpless when faced with this problem, frowning and helpless, let alone a layman!
"Report to the commander..." The staff officer who answered the phone didn't know what Aoki was thinking, so he reported as soon as he put down the phone.
"The defenders in the east and west of the city reported that they had just been attacked by the secret weapons of the garrison, and the troops suffered heavy casualties! They requested to abandon the city defenses, no longer be passively bombed, and retreat into the city to fight in the streets as before!"
After hearing the bad news, Aoki's face turned gloomy to the extreme, and his mood became even more complicated!
No, the mood throughout the night was very complicated, with ups and downs!
The situation of the war changes too quickly!
In the first half of the night, the advantage was still on my side. When I saw that the final victory was about to belong to me, there was nothing but this!
As soon as the secret weapon of the garrison came out, all the advantages that were originally theirs were gone!
Not to mention defeating the garrison outside the city, even self-protection may have problems now!
My mind was running rapidly, thinking of ways to break the impasse before me, and then I gave the order decisively!
"If you can't defend it, then you won't defend it!"
"When the second batch of artillery reinforcements from the military headquarters arrive tomorrow, we will hit them with a counterattack, and then kill them completely!"
"The urgent need to delay now is to protect the troops. If the artillery is available and the troops are gone, it will be a big joke!"
"Order: The front-line troops immediately evacuate the city defenses, retreat into the city, and use infantry squads as units to engage in street fighting with the garrison!"
"The garrison suffered heavy casualties in the first half of the night. Although they now use secret weapons and have a lot of advantages in artillery fire, their strength has not increased!"
"In the previous street fighting, in order to avoid accidental damage, they did not even dare to use mortars!"
"Although we have deployed a secret weapon now, and it is very powerful, we definitely don't dare to use it in the city!"
"So as long as we retreat into the city and engage in street fighting, their secret weapons will lose their effectiveness, their artillery advantage will be gone, their troops will not be as large as ours, and the chance of victory and initiative on the battlefield will return to our hands!"
The worry on the adjutant's face disappeared immediately, and he immediately replied: "Sir, you are wise!"
"Temporarily abandon the city fortifications and save the troops! When the artillery is in place, we will counterattack and fight back, retreating to advance. I will give the order now!"
"Da da da... boom boom boom..."
Before anyone could move, a burst of gunfire mixed with several explosions rang out outside the headquarters!
"Sir, the headquarters has been attacked..." A second lieutenant from the security force broke in and reported!
Although Colonel Aoki was angry, he did not panic and asked calmly: "What's going on? What does the garrison do for food? The enemy even touched the headquarters and didn't notice it! How many people do they have, how are their equipment, what can the guard troops do?
Can't stop them!"
The second lieutenant quickly replied: "There are only a dozen of them and they are equipped with two light machine guns. The security forces are confident of stopping them!"
A flash of murderous intent quickly flashed across Colonel Aoki's face, and he ordered decisively: "No, the guards must not only block them, but also take the initiative to kill them!"
"If you dare to attack my headquarters with only a dozen people, you are simply seeking death!"
"Tell your captain, end the battle within five minutes, wipe them all out, and leave no one alive!"
After the second lieutenant left, the adjutant found an opportunity to speak: "Sir, I judge from my humble position that these Eighth Route Army soldiers must have sneaked in during the street fighting in the middle of the night!"
"The county town is too big. Our troops mainly guard the houses on both sides of the street. Many yards farther away from the street are not defended by troops. The enemy must have entered from those places!"
"This is the only possibility!" Aoki thought for a moment and agreed!
Then he gritted his teeth and cursed: "Bageya Road, this garrison is indeed the empire's most serious concern, it's so powerful!"
"As long as the imperial army shows the slightest flaw, they will immediately pounce on us and fight at our flaw!"
"I have a hunch that there must be more than one Eighth Route Army group sneaking into the city!"
"Order the troops stationed in the city to strengthen their vigilance to prevent sneak attacks by small groups of the Eighth Route Army!"
"Don't we still have a squadron in reserve?"
"Use combat units as units to patrol and guard the city, take the initiative to find and kill these Eighth Route Army troops!"
"Lingqiu City belongs to us, and the main force of the garrison is launching an attack from the outside. There must be no problems or chaos inside!"
