Lieutenant Matsumoto's heart suddenly rose to his throat, and his brows wrinkled again!
There are not many cavalry in the Eighth Route Army, only the main force has them, and they usually cooperate with the infantry in combat!
Now a cavalry platoon suddenly appears outside the stronghold. There is only one possibility. There are more main forces of the Eighth Route Army hidden outside the city!
The reason why it hasn't moved yet is that there must be some conspiracy brewing!
Just when Lieutenant Matsumoto was racking his brains to analyze the purpose of the garrison, the radio operator hurried over!
"Sir, there is an urgent call from the county garrison headquarters!"
"Let us immediately send out scouts to search the area three kilometers outside the stronghold to confirm whether there is the main force of the Eighth Route Army outside the stronghold!"
Matsumoto frowned and cursed: "Do we still need to search?"
"Their cavalry troops are here, and the infantry must also be here, and they are lurking outside the stronghold, waiting for us to go out and die!"
Scolding is enough, orders must be carried out!
Under Matsumoto's order, ten Japanese veterans left the stronghold and formed a line of skirmishers to begin reconnaissance!
Lieutenant Matsumoto stood guard on the central turret, staring intently at the scouts he sent out!
A squad leader under his command was standing nearby, holding a flare gun in his hand!
Once there is an accident outside, send them a retreat signal immediately!
"Da da da……"
As soon as the search team left the stronghold less than 300 meters away, a string of flames emerged from the bushes farther away!
A scout was beaten into a sieve on the spot, and he fell straight to the ground without even having time to make a sound.
"Da da da……"
The sound of gunfire was the signal. In the blink of an eye, at least four more machine gun flames appeared in the night. Bullets were flying in the night sky. Several more scouts were shot and fell to the ground!
New recruits are afraid of artillery, and veterans are afraid of machine guns, especially this kind of machine gun that suddenly fires!
The bullets flew over so fast that even the most well-trained veterans had no time to take evasive actions!
What's more important is that the bullets fired by machine guns are far more powerful than rifles. If you hit them, you will either die or be injured!
The two sides are exchanging fire, and being injured means that the combat effectiveness is weakened, or even lost, and eventually death!
Therefore, although Lieutenant Matsumoto sent out all veterans, he still suffered heavy casualties under the simultaneous attack of five machine guns!
Lieutenant Matsumoto was heartbroken and immediately shouted: "What are you still doing? Send a signal immediately to ask the living warriors to retreat!"
"A cavalry platoon appeared just now, and now five light machine guns have appeared. If we don't move back, heavy machine guns and mortars will appear soon!"
"The main force of the garrison must be lurking outside the stronghold, and there are quite a few of them!"
Ten scouts were chased by five machine guns and only three retreated.
A sergeant ran into the artillery building and reported: "Sir, there are many Eighth Route Army troops hiding in the bushes to the east of the stronghold. In addition to the five machine guns that were just exposed, I also saw a large number of human figures!
"Have you seen clearly how many people there are on the other side?" Matsumoto asked immediately!
The sergeant shook his head and replied: "It's too dark and the distance is so far that I can't see very clearly, but there must be a lot!"
The team leader next to him reminded: "Sir, do you want to send someone out to investigate again?"
"Now that we have figured out the specific hiding location of the Eighth Route Army, the investigation should be easy!"
"With the specific investigation results, we can report it to the headquarters!"
"Baga, are you a stupid pig?" Lieutenant Matsumoto opened his mouth and cursed!
"We have already lost seven elites just now. Do you still want to kill seven more people so mysteriously?"
"If they weren't far enough away from where the Eighth Route Army was lurking, and five machine guns fired at them at the same time, none of the ten people would have been able to escape!"
"Also, can you guarantee that there are no Eighth Route Army lurking troops anywhere except that bush?"
"Don't forget, the sound of horse hooves just now was in the other direction of the stronghold, not in the bushes!"
"Besides, our stronghold is so big, the Eighth Route Army must be watching!"
"If we send people out, they will know it immediately, and then they will set up pocket formations and wait for our scouts to fall into the trap. This is not impossible!"
The squad leader was scolded so badly that when faced with Lieutenant Matsumoto's questioning, he couldn't think of a single rebuttal. He could only retreat and ask: "Then how do we report to the headquarters?"
Lieutenant Matsumoto thought for a while and replied: "The attack was a cavalry platoon and five light machine guns. Based on the Eighth Route Army's habit of hiding its strength, I judged that there were at least two main companies of the Eighth Route Army outside the stronghold, and maybe a main battalion!
"
"Call back to the headquarters immediately: There are at least 380 Route Army troops lurking outside the stronghold. After investigation, it was determined that they are equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns, but no artillery was found!"
"In addition, they are equipped with at least one cavalry platoon to coordinate operations!"
"That's all, and what we reported is true. They are indeed equipped with a large number of machine guns and a cavalry platoon. This is not a false report of military information!"
As long as he doesn't let himself go out and die, whatever Matsumoto says is up to him!
And even if something goes wrong in the future, it will be Matsumoto’s responsibility!
Several officers complimented at the same time: "Sir, you are wise!"
At the Taiyuan Japanese Army Headquarters, reporting messages from each stronghold are being sent to the army commander one after another!
When he was almost halfway through receiving it, the military commander's serious expression relaxed significantly, and then he shouted with a look of realization on his face!
"I think I understand!"
"The reason why the Eighth Route Army left so many strongholds on the defense line without attacking and went straight into the hinterland of our occupied area was because it was not strong enough, but it wanted to defeat them one by one and swallow up the troops we deployed in this defense area, and then it took such a risk!"
"At the risk of our attacking troops being cut off from their retreat and making dumplings, fight all the way into our hinterland!"
"Not strong enough?"
This is the only explanation that the Chief of Staff did not think of!
The garrison captured so many strongholds of the imperial army in one night, how could it be that they were not strong enough!
If they were really not strong enough, how could they dare to initiate a war? Aren't they afraid that their opponents would be too strong and choke them to death!
Seeing the expression on the commander's face becoming more and more relaxed, and even a smile flashing at the corner of his mouth, the chief of staff who had been holding back questions quickly asked!
"Sir, how could they not be strong enough? The attacking troops are unstoppable all the way, and the lurking troops are hiding outside our stronghold, waiting for us to fall into our trap. The battle plan is so thorough, with almost no loopholes. I can't understand it!"
The military commander seemed to be very sure of his judgment. He put the telegram directly on the table and asked confidently!
"Don't you see something in common in these telegrams?"
"Common ground?"
The chief of staff took a moment to react!
"It's true: although these latent troops vary in number, they are all equipped with cavalry units, and are equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns, and rarely equipped with artillery!"
