An explosion soon sounded on the battlefield. It was the shell fired by the mortar squadron in the city!
It was very accurate. Almost all the twelve shells in the first round hit the target, causing a large amount of flames and white smoke to rise on the battlefield!
Soon, the battlefield was filled with smoke and dust!
It was a wasteland with nothing but bushes and withered thatch!
Under such intensive artillery fire, as long as there are people there, even if they are lying down, their bodies will be blown away!
But the commander didn't show any smile, his expression was still the same as before, serious and solemn!
Because he could see clearly that when the first round of artillery shells exploded on the battlefield, the Eighth Route Army had already withdrawn!
Except for the corpses of the killed subordinates, there was not a single active Eighth Route Army!
The shelling in front of me seems violent, but it has no effect at all except wasting the shells!
No, there is another effect!
Ordinary soldiers did not know that the Eighth Route Army had escaped. In their eyes, under such fierce artillery fire, the Eighth Route Army must have suffered heavy casualties, which greatly improved their low morale caused by the annihilation of a reinforced squad!
This is why the commander knew that firing a cannon was a waste of shells but did not stop it!
Seeing the increasingly excited expressions on the faces of his subordinates, some even clapped and cheered as they watched the battlefield covered by artillery fire. The commander knew that his purpose of firing the artillery was achieved!
He put down the telescope and ordered in a deep voice: "The artillery will stop shelling in five minutes!"
"I won't go out to clean the battlefield tonight. The enemy is too cunning. No one knows if they have other pockets outside the city!"
"In order to avoid being fooled again, we will wait until dawn tomorrow and confirm that there are no enemies outside the city before we go out to clean the battlefield!"
Although the commander was frightened by the battle just now, he did not lose his mind and was very calm!
I'm afraid that if the troops go out now and see that there is not a single Eighth Route Army corpse on the battlefield, this will expose this wasted shelling and further affect the morale of the troops!
But if we attack after dawn, it will be no problem!
Even if no bodies of the Eighth Route Army were found on the battlefield, no one would have any doubts about the shelling!
Because one night is enough time for the Eighth Route Army outside the city to return to the battlefield and take away the bodies of their own people!
After saying that, the commander walked out of the bunker with a sullen face!
The Chief of Staff follows closely behind!
Although the scale of this battle was small, the shock it brought to me was huge!
There are so many questions worth thinking about!
As the chief of staff, he must report what he sees and analyzes to the commander as soon as possible as a reference for him to issue orders!
The chief of staff believes that the commander, as a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a long time, must have seen some clues from this battle!
But he still underestimated the huge impact this battle would have on the commander!
As soon as he arrived in the war room, he slumped down in the chair, like an old man whose life was rapidly passing away. It was impossible to tell that he was a mid- to high-level officer commanding thousands of troops!
Seeing the Chief of Staff walk in, looking at his reaction with a stunned look on his face, the Commander first let out a long breath, and then said with a helpless face: "Chief of Staff, if it weren't for me to lower morale, things would really change in Laiyuan!"
"I'm certain that there are at least two battalions of the Eighth Route Army hiding outside the city just now, maybe even one regiment!"
"And they also used secret weapons in the battle just now!"
"In addition, the more than a thousand people we lost this morning were also killed by them!"
"More than a thousand imperial troops can lose their combat effectiveness in a short period of time. They don't even have the chance to send a message for help. There is only one possibility!"
"They used the secret weapon that once killed three of our infantry brigades in one night!"
"The military has reminded us about this matter, but because the garrison has not used it since entering Laiyuan, and the so-called secret weapons were not found after destroying their two companies, we gradually ignored its existence, and then ate it.
This is a huge loss!"
"Bageya Road, the defense team is indeed very cunning!"
"The situation is so bad that we don't need secret weapons. Let's be careless and let our guard down."
"Then he suddenly used his secret weapon at a critical moment to eat more than a thousand of us in one bite!"
"This hand was so cruel, it caught us off guard!"
"If it were yesterday, I would definitely not be afraid of them!"
"They have secret weapons, we have heavy mortars!"
"And the strength advantage is also on our side, so we can take the initiative and fight them decisively without any problem!"
"But it won't work today. More than half of the troops have been lost, and all the heavy mortars have been lost!"
"If our attacking troops had not destroyed those heavy mortars before they were destroyed, they would have definitely fallen into the hands of the Eighth Route Army, further increasing the strength of the Eighth Route Army!"
"This means that our opponent has both secret weapons and heavy mortars, and his troops are no less than ours!"
"At this time, we can do nothing but defend Laiyuan City and act like cowards!"
The chief of staff was silent!
He also saw that the Eighth Route Army outside the city was very powerful, but he did not think as much as the commander.
After listening to this analysis now, although I don't want to admit it, the facts are the facts.
The advantage in strength and firepower...are all on the side of the Eighth Route Army outside the city. If you attack rashly, you will definitely be like the reinforced team just now, and you will be swallowed up by the enemy in an instant!
There are only more than a thousand imperial troops left in Laiyuan City. If two more squadrons are lost due to a hasty attack, the remaining troops will not be enough to even defend Laiyuan City!
In order to defend Laiyuan City, no matter how reluctant I am, I can only accept the reality, let go of my past arrogance, and be a coward!
He took a deep breath and asked: "Sir, I will study the plan immediately and defend Laiyuan City!"
"Okay!" the commander nodded and added.
"Starting from tomorrow, no troops can leave the city without my order!"
"The city defense troops rotate every three days. We must strengthen our vigilance to prevent enemy sneak attacks!"
"Scouts and intelligence personnel will all pretend to be ordinary people and go out of the city tomorrow. Bring a few more radios out to contact the Chinese lurking outside the city to investigate the enemy's situation!"
"Although we have decided to defend Laiyuan City, we cannot be blind and deaf!"
"The Eighth Route Army can block the ground and prevent our intelligence agents from entering the city!"
"But you can't block the sky, you can't stop radio signals!"
"Tell our intelligence agents and agents that in addition to collecting intelligence, they also want to find ways to sabotage and organize the Eighth Route Army to establish a base in Laiyuan!"
"You know, once the base area is established, their status and wealth will be gone!"
"The imperial army is responsible for protecting their families and wealth that have been transferred to the city, and providing them with weapons and ammunition!"
"I will report the situation here as soon as possible and request reinforcements!"
"I believe that the military never wants to see the garrison grow bigger step by step, and eventually become too big to get rid of, becoming a serious threat to the empire that is even more difficult to eliminate!"
"So they will definitely find ways to reinforce us and attack the garrison!"
"As long as the intelligence department organizes the Chinese to hold back the Eighth Route Army, it won't take long for the imperial army to launch a full-scale counterattack and kill the garrison!"
In Gongqiao Village, there was a lot of laughter from every house tonight. It was definitely more joyful than the Chinese New Year!
In the simple yard of the Zhang family, several family members were standing by the stove, waiting for the steamed buns to come out!
Although the pot is covered with a wooden lid, the steam coming out is still mixed with the strong aroma of noodles. This is a aroma that the whole family has not smelled for many months since the Chinese New Year!
Today’s steamed buns are still based on cornmeal!
But adding a pound of white flour will definitely make the steamed buns taste several times better!
“It’s time to start the pot!”
The old woman who was busy on the stove suddenly spoke, with an uncontrollable smile on her face!
Opening the lid of the pot, a stronger aroma of noodles hits your face!
A dozen large steamed buns are placed in the steamer, steaming hot!
The steamed buns are taken out of the pot, and the horse meat stewed with radish has been boiling in another pot for nearly half an hour!
For the Zhang family, tonight’s meal is definitely more sumptuous and delicious than the New Year’s Eve dinner a few months ago!
Everyone ate three big steamed buns and a big bowl of stew, and then put down their bowls and chopsticks with burps!
"It would be great if I could eat such good food every day from now on!" the youngest son said with a longing expression after eating the last piece of horse meat!
A wry smile quickly flashed across Father Zhang’s face!
If the Eighth Route Army had not given the Zhang family 20 kilograms of white flour as promised today, the Zhang family might have run out of food in a few days!
Not to mention that this kind of steamed buns with white flour cannot even be eaten as multi-grain pancakes!
The eldest son sitting next to me has grown up, but his family is too poor and he has not yet married a wife in his twenties!
As another pillar of the Zhang family, he is also very aware of the situation at home and has been thinking of ways to improve the situation at home, not wanting his younger siblings to go hungry!
Today I am helping the Eighth Route Army clean up the battlefield. According to my father’s wishes, he will do it alone. If the Japanese retaliate in the future, they will only retaliate against him!
But the eldest son won’t do it!
The corpse of Ergouzi killed by the Eighth Route Army was at the entrance of the village. He went to see it and found that most of the spies working for the Japanese in the village were inside. Although there were a few missing, he was no longer so afraid of them!
In front of bullets, even with the support of the Japanese, they can't escape death!
At that moment, the joy of being relieved appeared in my mind!
He has also been bullied by these idiots for several years. As a young man, he must be very unconvinced. Why can he only be bullied?
The arrival of the garrison and the killing of so many idiots at once gave him hope of turning around!
In addition, there was also white flour to be had. Even though his father disagreed, the eldest son still decided to take a gamble and insisted on helping!
In the end, not only did I gain a deeper understanding of the Eighth Route Army, but I also saw how powerful they were, and I also brought back twenty kilograms of white flour and fifteen kilograms of horse meat!
With these items, the whole family can stay hungry for at least one more month!
But if we want to last until the autumn harvest, we need more food!
At this moment, he thought of what the Eighth Route Army said before the village was disbanded, and his expression became complicated, filled with expectations and worries!