"What about our own losses?" Nakata Yamaro continued to ask.
"The losses are about the same, even with the Eighth Route Army." the chief of staff replied.
He hesitated and added: "However, I think we are the real winners."
"Of the more than 2,000 people we lost, half were from the Imperial Army. The real Imperial Army only had 1,000 people, which is equivalent to one Imperial Army for two Eighth Route Army lives."
"If we continue to fight at this casualty ratio, we will be able to completely wipe out them if we lose another two to three thousand imperial troops."
"Moreover, of the two to three thousand imperial troops lost, only half were truly independent mixed brigades, and less than two infantry brigades, which is completely within our tolerance."
Nakata Yamaro was surprised and denied: "No, to be precise, we can only win or lose this battle."
After picking up a telegram and handing it to the chief of staff, he continued: "This is some information just collected and compiled by the intelligence department."
"In addition to the main force of the garrison that we want to eliminate, the Eighth Route Army operating in our occupied areas also has a large number of guerrillas that have suddenly appeared recently, as well as a large number of local troops and supplementary troops they have drawn from the rear base areas."
"The total strength exceeds five thousand people."
"I'm sure that most of the Eighth Route Army that we destroyed were local troops and supplementary troops."
"The local troops are okay. After all, they are all anti-Japanese troops formed by the garrison. Their combat effectiveness is just not as good as that of the main force. I can think of replacing two of them with one imperial army."
"The most difficult thing for me to accept is the supplementary troops."
"Almost all of them were from the Imperial Army. After being captured, they joined the Eighth Route Army. This is equivalent to the Imperial Army working hard to train them into an army, and finally paying a huge price to eliminate them."
"If you lose your wife and lose your troops, you will slap yourself in the mouth."
"So, among the more than 2,000 Eighth Route Army troops killed on the front line today, the real main force must not exceed 1,000 people."
"In other words, at the huge cost of more than a thousand imperial troops, we only eliminated less than a thousand of the main defense regiments."
"If both sides continue to use this style of play, there will only be one result: the fish will die and the net will be broken."
The good mood on the chief of staff's face disappeared, his brows furrowed again, he stared at Nakata Yamaro and asked anxiously: "General, we must not die together with the garrison."
"The final victory in this battle can only belong to the imperial army and our independent mixed brigade."
"Otherwise our hard work for so long will be in vain."
"And the price is too high and not worth it at all. If the front army headquarters knew that the cost of annihilating the garrison was the entire independent mixed brigade, they would definitely not agree to us continuing the fight."
Nakata Yamaro responded confidently: "Don't worry, I will never let the warriors die in vain, and the independent mixed brigade will not fight the defense group to the death."
"I want to witness with my own eyes the garrison group being wiped out by the mixed brigade group."
The chief of staff quickly asked: "General, you have an idea!"
Nakata Yamaro smiled and nodded, then replied: "Not bad."
"The breakthrough point is at the garrison base area."
"We have dispatched a total of eleven troops from the eight strongholds there, and they have already entered the hinterland of the garrison base."
"Their base area is empty of troops. If there are no reinforcements, they will definitely suffer a devastating blow from our attacking troops."
"The base area is the foundation of the garrison. Without the base area, they will become a rootless entity and will not survive long."
"So I judge that after the news of the attacking troops entering their base reaches the ears of the Eighth Route Army in our occupied area, they will definitely send troops to return for reinforcements."
"In this way, these hidden Eighth Route Army troops will be completely exposed to us, and the frontline mopping up troops can change from passive to active, wait for work, and take the opportunity to eliminate them."
"If they don't return for reinforcements, we can wait until our attacking troops destroy their base area, then we can turn our guns and fight back to the occupied area, and cooperate with the mopping up troops to attack them from both front and back to eliminate them."
"So in the next battle, in the face of our attacks from both front and back, no matter how the garrison team takes action or how clever their commanders are, we will definitely win."
At the Laiyuan City Defense Regiment Headquarters, Chief of Staff Hong Linfeng stared at the sand table with a serious look on his face.
The chief of the operations section stood nearby with an anxious look on his face.
The local army has just sent two more battle reports, and they are all bad news.
In addition to the bad news I received before, I have accumulated 16 battle reports, large and small.
Seeing that Hong Linfeng had been staring at the map without saying anything, he finally couldn't help but remind him: "Chief of Staff, so far, the Japanese attack troops have burned down 31 of our villages, and almost 20,000 people have become homeless."
"Hurry up and make up your mind! We can't let the little devils run amok in our base area, otherwise more villages will be burned to ashes by them."
"If this is the case, the entire base will be destroyed."
Hong Linfeng finally spoke, staring at the chief of the operations section and asking: "Are there any casualties among the villagers? And the guerrillas and local troops who cooperated with the operation, have they suffered any losses?"
The chief of the operations section thought for a moment and replied: "That's not true."
"The villagers in the base area especially support us, and with the cooperation of the guerrillas, we can move as soon as possible after receiving the order to clear the country."
"As long as everyone is safe, that's fine." Hong Linfeng breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he answered very unexpectedly: "As for the house, let the Japanese burn it down if they want. At worst, we can rebuild it after the war."
"But isn't this too much?"
The chief of the operations section stared at Hong Linfeng with big eyes and asked in disbelief.
"According to the current attack speed of the Japs, in three days, the number of burned villages in the base area will definitely exceed one hundred."
"How can we rebuild so many houses?"
Hong Linfeng answered confidently: "As long as we win this battle, the puppet troops in the eight strongholds in the base area and blockade alone will be able to capture two to three thousand people. Including those captured in the guerrilla zone, it will be enough for the villagers to rebuild their homes."
"In addition, if we don't let the little devils burn a few more houses and let them see the dawn of defeating us, they will not feel confident and bold enough to go deep into the hinterland of our base, and they will not infiltrate the pocket formations we have prepared for them.
"
The Chief of Operations looked unsure and asked: "Chief of Staff, do you mean that we deliberately let the little devils let go of burning the village to make them relax their vigilance?"
Hong Linfeng affirmed: "This is the result of discussions between the group leader and I."
"Although there are not many Japanese soldiers who have entered our base area, there are even fewer troops left behind in the base area."
"If you want to annihilate them all, in addition to using tricks, there is another key point, which is to make the little devils arrogant and arrogant enough."
"The more arrogant they are, the less vigilant they are, and the more fighter planes we have."
"In the end, we can eliminate them at the lowest possible cost."
"We will regard what the little devils are doing now as their final madness. When their arrogance reaches a certain level, we will give them a fatal blow and kill them."
"Immediately contact the Independent Battalion, Mobile Battalion, Cavalry Battalion, and the three county brigades. It's time to close the net."
"I don't care how the attack is carried out, but before dawn, each unit must kill a small group of Japs with minimal casualties."
"The independent battalion is the main force, with strong combat effectiveness and sufficient heavy weapons. They want to kill two troops for me."
"After the battle, they will rush directly to the next combat target assigned to them by the regiment headquarters."
The former enemy headquarters where Li Hao is located.
It was pitch dark outside the headquarters, with no lights at all.
Inside the headquarters, the lights are brightly lit.
Li Hao sat at the table and studied the map. Even though it was already two o'clock in the morning, he still didn't feel sleepy at all.
Communications platoon leader Zhou Liang personally waited for the news by the radio station, with a nervous but expectant face.
"Beep beep... beep beep beep..."
The crisp sound of sending and receiving telegraphs suddenly came to mind, and then the radio station indicator light began to flash.
Zhou Liang's eyes lit up, he grabbed the headphones and started to control the radio.
"Captain, the telegram is from the chief of staff."
Huang Sheng stayed by Li Hao's side and replied with a long sigh of relief: "Finally there is news."
"Captain, the chief of staff must have won the battle!"
Li Hao looked forward to it: "I hope so."
"As long as there is a breakthrough from the Chief of Staff, we will win this battle."
"According to the plan, all our main troops and local troops staying in the base area will be sent out tonight. As long as the battle goes smoothly, we will have no problem killing the six little Japs."
"As for the remaining five little Japs, whether they continue to cause harm in our base area or retreat, they have no chance of returning to their base alive."
"At that time, all the chief of staff needs to do is to pursue the victory, seize these strongholds and pull out all the nails planted by the Japanese in our base area, and then gather all the troops to reinforce us, fight two annihilation battles in the guerrilla zone, force the Japanese back, and win this counterattack
Sweep.”
"good news……"
Li Hao was interrupted by Zhou Liang before he finished speaking.
He put down his headphones and ran over, reporting excitedly.
"The chief of staff reported: The remaining troops used night attacks, ambush and other tactics to eliminate a total of seven Japanese and puppet troops. Among them, the independent battalion fought continuously and eliminated two attacking troops."
"Currently, the remaining troops are rushing towards the remaining four Japanese and puppet mobile troops. If possible, they will be eaten before dawn."
Li Hao was shocked by this result.
The results greatly exceeded expectations. My first subconscious reaction was that I thought I had heard wrong. I asked with disbelief on my face: "How could it be so fast?"
Zhou Liang quickly replied: "The chief of staff said it in the telegram."
"The main reason is that the Japanese were so arrogant that they burned down thirty-one of our villages in one day with almost no resistance, which directly confirmed the conclusion that our base area was empty of troops."
"In order to achieve a quick victory, at least half of the Japs did not stop and set up camp after the plane left. Instead, they continued to move forward and finally got directly into the pocket formations we prepared."
"In addition, in order to achieve a quick victory, the chief of staff used explosive packets on a large scale to lay out chain mines during the battle."
"Many Japanese puppet troops suffered more than half of their casualties before they even reacted after being attacked."
