The Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army Headquarters in Taiyuan is reporting on some new changes that have occurred in Shanxi in recent days!
The military commander stood by the sand table, his brows furrowed and his face looked very ugly!
The chief of staff who was reporting was also helpless!
In the face of the Eighth Route Army's attack, although the troops already had ways to counter the flying thunder cannons, the opponent was too cunning and resorted to guerrilla warfare to minimize the losses of the flying thunder cannons!
Then use the flying thunder cannon to continue attacking the stronghold occupied by the imperial army!
The imperial army has limited strength, and every death on the battlefield means one is missing!
After several days of fighting, through attrition, more than 20 medium and large strongholds were captured, and more than a thousand imperial troops were killed!
Fortunately, the Eighth Route Army's offensive momentum and vigor had been defeated at this time, otherwise the losses to the Shanxi garrison would have been even greater, and both county towns might have been lost!
"Bageya Road, after we kill the garrison, I will definitely gather heavy troops to take back the territory that was robbed by the Eighth Route Army, and retaliate with tooth for tooth!" the commander clenched his fists, his eyes were red with anger, and he gritted his teeth and cursed!
After saying that, he stared at the chief of staff and asked!
"How is the situation of the garrison? Is there anything unusual recently?"
"And Major General Nakata Yamaro, has he contacted his troops? When will they be available?"
"I can't wait any longer. I want to get rid of the real enemy of the garrison immediately, and then concentrate our troops and firepower to deal with other Eighth Route Army units in our occupied areas!"
The chief of staff quickly replied: "Sir, calm down!"
"There has always been a connection between Major General Nakata Yamaro and the independent mixed brigade!"
"The troops are fighting with the Eighth Route Army, and both sides are suffering losses!"
"The front army headquarters has given a clear reply. The battle will be over in ten days at most, and then we will rush to Laiyuan!"
"So our specific attack time will be pushed back one month!"
"There hasn't been any movement in the garrison these days!"
"Spring plowing is underway in their so-called base areas. Local troops and guerrillas have all suspended training to help the people with spring plowing!"
"Only the main force is still training, but under the harassment of the action team we sent out, the training speed is much slower than before!"
"The garrisons in the three counties of Guangling, Laiyuan, and Hunyuan are recovering their strength and reorganizing the Imperial Army. They will rush out of the county when the main force attacks. They will be moved from behind to attack the garrison. They will attack the garrison from the front and back to eliminate the garrison!"
"The garrisons on the blockade around the garrison are forming and training the Imperial Association Army in accordance with the orders!"
"Currently, the 10,000-strong Royal Association Army has reached full strength!"
"Equipment and food are all in place!"
"All troops are stationed at various strongholds and county towns along the blockade. They are training while undertaking the task of the blockade garrison!"
"Yoshi!"
The commander finally showed a satisfied smile on his face, and then ordered decisively.
"Order to garrison the blockade line and intensify the training of the Imperial Alliance Army!"
"After the attack on the garrison started, all the Imperial Alliance troops participated in the battle, occupied the territory captured by the Imperial Army, and protected the rear of the attacking troops!
"Intelligence department, closely monitor every move of the garrison!"
"As long as the situation does not change, we will start attacking the garrison as soon as the independent mixed brigade is in place!"
The headquarters of the third battalion of the garrison regiment!
None of the telegrams from the regiment headquarters to the Third Battalion mentioned that the troops were going to war, but between the lines, Huang Sheng still vaguely felt that a war crisis was slowly approaching him!
Therefore, the pace of military training continues to accelerate under his leadership!
The day's training ended successfully. Huang Sheng dragged his exhausted body back to the headquarters. Before he could take a breath, a string of horse hoofbeats sounded at the entrance to the village outside the headquarters, and the sound became louder and louder!
When we arrived at the headquarters entrance, the sound of horse hooves suddenly stopped, and then we saw three regimental correspondents running in!
Because of riding horses for a long time, my cheeks were blown red by the cold wind, I was breathing heavily, and I was very tired!
"Captain Huang, regimental headquarters order!"
The leading correspondent decisively took out an envelope with body temperature and sent it to Huang Sheng!
Then he added: "The regiment leader also has an order: After reading and writing the letter, Battalion Commander Huang must burn the order in front of us, and then keep the order in the letter secret. Before the operation begins, not a word can be leaked out!"
"
"So serious?" Huang Sheng was stunned!
But he reacted quickly and opened the envelope carefully!
The content of the letter was not long, but it shocked Huang Sheng greatly, and his face became more and more solemn. It took him a long time to react!
After reading the order in the letter again and confirming that he read it correctly, he folded the letter and placed it next to the kerosene lamp to light it!
"Thank you, Camp Commander Huang, for your cooperation!"
The serious expression on the lead correspondent's face also relaxed, and then he took out another piece of paper. To be precise, it was a map, and it was completely hand-drawn!
"Captain Huang, this is the second thing the captain asked me to give you. I must wait until the letter just now is burned before I can give it to you!"
Huang Sheng took the map and spread it out on the table, took the kerosene lamp and started browsing!
Soon, Huang Sheng's frown relaxed, his face became much better, and he even smiled and shouted excitedly!
"I knew the leader had been prepared, and it turned out to be true!"
"Now that we have this map, the mission assigned to the Third Battalion by the regiment commander will definitely be more effective with less effort!"
"Comrade, you should go back and report to the regiment commander now. The Third Battalion promises not to disappoint the regiment headquarters!"
At the Xiaozhuang stronghold three kilometers away, squadron leader Captain Kato has just returned from the training ground!
There were originally less than 300 troops stationed at the stronghold, including a reinforced squadron of the Imperial Army and a company of the Imperial Alliance Army!
More than half a month ago, an order was suddenly issued from above, requiring him to expand the Imperial Association Army from a company to a battalion!
Captain Kato is unwilling in his heart!
Although they have more troops under their command, the combat effectiveness of the Imperial Alliance Army is too poor, and no one can guarantee whether they will have second thoughts and betray the Imperial Army when they go to the battlefield in the future!
He didn't feel relieved until he saw from the expansion order that the Imperial Army be assigned to serve as officers and instructors in the Imperial Association Army!
Then he began to receive supplies of food, weapons and ammunition from his superiors, and expanded his troops!
In order to allow this Imperial Army to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible and make meritorious deeds on the battlefield in the future, Captain Kato personally took action and personally led an infantry squad to train them to death every day!
The effect was very good. In just a few days, those new recruits had already become impressive!
Kato believed that given time, these hundreds of Imperial Army soldiers would be trained by him to become elites, capable of killing everyone on the battlefield, becoming a sharp sword in his hand, and making achievements for himself!
Just as Captain Kato continued to have sweet dreams, the squad leader on duty suddenly barged in!
Without even knocking on the door, he opened the door and rushed in, looking nervous!
"Captain, there's a situation!"
"The Eighth Route Army that was confronting us made a sudden move. They came towards us under the cover of darkness. There were about two hundred people with unknown equipment!"
Kato was already unhappy that his sweet dream was interrupted!
His subordinates didn't even knock on the door, but just opened the door and barged in. Kato felt even more unhappy and even showed signs of getting angry!
After listening to the report and confirming that the Eighth Route Army dispatched only more than 200 people, Kato's unhappiness was directly replaced by anger, and it exploded instantly like a powder keg!
"Bage Yalu, are you stupid?"
"There are only over 200 Eighth Route Army soldiers who have frightened you to this extent. Are you still an officer of the Empire of Japan?"
"Don't you know the strength of the Eighth Route Army opposite us?"
"How much combat power can a group of newly expanded recruits have? Even if they all come to kill me, I won't be afraid!"
"If my superiors hadn't repeatedly emphasized that we should not take the initiative to attack and provoke war, I would have wanted to lead troops into their base area and kill all the new recruits!"
"Order the troops to prepare for battle. If those new recruits really have the guts to come and fight, then just kill them all!"
"However, I don't think they have the courage. How can a group of new recruits take the initiative to provoke a war and even attack a stronghold with complete fortifications?"
The one who just left the position is the 3rd Battalion and 9th Company!
Until departure, the instructor was still full of doubts about the attack order brought back by company commander Yuan Shan.
Of course, I can’t blame him!
There is a huge disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, and the troops have just completed training. A commander with a little sense will not let the troops go into battle at this time. Moreover, once the troops are launched, it will be the most difficult battle that will test the combat effectiveness of the troops and cause the highest casualties!
Looking at Yuan Shan with excited eyes next to him, the instructor asked again: "Company Commander, are you sure the battalion commander really ordered us to attack the Xiaozhuang stronghold, and it was not harassment?"
The instructor has asked this question no less than five times, all in the past half hour or so!
Yuan Shan did not show any irritability!
Because when he first received the order, his reaction was the same as that of the instructor: doubt and disbelief!
He didn't choose to obey the order until the battalion commander explained the attack method!
Looking at the instructor, he answered with certainty: "Instructor, not only the Xiaozhuang stronghold, but the Gufeng Town stronghold is also our attack target tonight!"
"First make a quick battle to capture the Xiaozhuang stronghold, then make a long-distance attack of fifteen kilometers, and then make persistent efforts to capture the Gufeng Town stronghold. End the battle before dawn, and then divide the troops. Half of the troops took advantage of the fact that the maintenance committee and traitor agents in Gufeng Town have not yet arrived.
If you have time to retreat, send troops immediately to kill them, seize the wealth they exploited and plundered from the villagers, and help us fight against the Japanese and the Japanese!"
"Half of the troops are following me to monitor the direction of the county and attack any reinforcements that may be sent from the direction of the county!"
"how to spell?"
This is the answer that the instructor can’t even figure out!
There is such a huge disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, and more than 80% of the soldiers in the ninth company are new recruits. They have just completed recruit training and have not been on the battlefield! It is difficult to capture a Xiaozhuang stronghold in one night, let alone another Gufeng Town stronghold.
!
There were more Japanese and puppet troops there, and the gun towers and bunkers in the stronghold were stronger!
Don't forget that the stronghold was not taken down by then, and nearly 200 people from the Ninth Company turned in, losing his wife and then losing the troops!