Noda Ozuo took it seriously, decisively drew out his command sword, pointed forward and ordered: "The main force of the independent regiment is in front, speed up the assault, kill them... boom boom boom..."
Before the order could be finished, a violent explosion reached their ears again, and a string of dazzling fireballs simultaneously rose among the attacking troops more than a hundred meters ahead.
Many soldiers were knocked over in the explosion, and the neat offensive formation was once again thrown into chaos.
"idiot!"
No matter how stupid Noda Daizuo is, he still knows that he has been fooled.
The artillerymen of the independent regiment who had just bombarded him were not killed, but were moved away before the artillerymen under his command counterattacked, leaving them alone!
With an angry look on his face, he ordered: "Fire the artillery...each mortar squadron will counterattack immediately...we must kill them..."
It took only half a minute for the three mortar squadrons to begin their counterattack, and then the artillery of the independent regiment attacking the attacking force disappeared.
This time Noda Ozuo was not as triumphant as before, for fear of being slapped in the face again.
Looking at Longgong Village with a murderous look on his face, he ordered: "Keep moving forward, capture Longgong Village as quickly as possible, block the gap in the blockade, and block all the troops of the Independent Regiment that have not yet withdrawn outside the base area!"
Half an hour later, Noda Dazuo climbed up to the only remaining gun tower in the Ryugong Village stronghold. The expected fierce battle did not happen. The Eighth Route Army that had just attacked him seemed to have disappeared without a trace...
"Sir..." the adjutant of the regiment went to Noda Daizuo to report.
"The troops have searched the three-kilometer radius and still haven't found a single Eighth Route Army soldier... I suspect that they have withdrawn to their base, leaving only a few hundred gunners to attack us from a distance!"
"Even the gunners quickly retreated after two rounds of artillery fire, crossing Longgong Village and returning to their base!"
Noda Daizuo's face quickly darkened, and he suppressed his anger and asked: "In other words, we launched an attack under artillery fire and paid a huge price, but in the end we missed, and we didn't even catch a shadow of the Eighth Route Army!"
"Ha Yi!" the wing adjutant replied with his head lowered.
"How many people did we lose in two rounds of shelling?" Noda Daizuo continued to ask.
The adjutant lowered his head and replied: "582 people were killed, 157 were seriously injured, and more than 200 were slightly injured!"
"Nani?" Noda Dazuo was shocked by this result and asked with a look of disbelief on his face!
"You're not mistaken, we only suffered two rounds of shelling. How could the losses be so huge?"
The adjutant quickly explained: "The Independent Regiment dispatched a total of thirty mortars to attack us from a long distance."
"Both rounds of shelling were five rapid fire rounds, with a total of three hundred shells fired at us!"
"The accuracy was very high. The artillery was fired suddenly. Without any preparations by our army, each artillery shell caused an average of two to three casualties to our soldiers!"
"If it hits the machine gun team, one shell can kill four or five machine gunners and ammunition handlers!"
Noda Daizuo was so angry that he didn't say a word for a long time. It took him a while to react to the bad news. Then he looked at Nakamura Daizuo with a pair of eyes that were about to burst into flames, and asked in a bad tone: "Nakamura-kun...Does this mean you know everything about the independent group?"
"Our assault speed was already fast enough, but we fought all the way here without encountering the main force of the independent group..."
"Didn't you say that there are two or three battalions of troops southwest of Longgong Village? Where are they?"
"And what's going on with the thirty mortars attacking us?"
"Didn't you say that the independent regiment's participating troops only had one heavy artillery battalion? Where did they come from!"
"Without even seeing the shadow of the Independent Regiment, the Noda Battalion lost six to seven hundred men. An infantry brigade's combat soldiers were inexplicably wiped out!"
Nakamura Daizuo couldn't even utter a word of rebuttal.
The Noda Battalion's attack was urged by him, and the reports of the enemy's situation also came from him. Due to emotions and reasons, he was responsible for the battle losses of the Noda Battalion.
He hesitated for a while before answering: "Please Noda-kun, I will definitely not shirk my responsibilities...I will send a telegram to the division commander now and ask for punishment!"
At the Japanese Division Headquarters in Yuanping County, the division commander Lieutenant General Zuo Teng was like an angry lion, overturning the table in front of him!
After that, he still couldn't get over his anger, so he took out his command knife and chopped several large vases in succession before he calmed down.
"General, calm down!" the chief of staff stepped forward in time to persuade.
"The counter-mopping up is about to begin. Our top priority now is to replenish the battle damage and prepare for the next big mopping up!"
"When we enter the base of the Independence Regiment, we will definitely retaliate in kind and use the heads of the Independence Regiment soldiers to avenge the Nakamura and Noda Regiments!"
Lieutenant General Sato didn't appreciate it at all and scolded him unceremoniously: "Do I still need you to teach me such a simple thing?"
"Order... the supply brigade directly under the division to be immediately organized into the Nakamura Regiment, and then 600 people from the Guard Brigade, Engineer Squadron, and Artillery Regiment will be transferred to supplement the Noda Regiment!"
"They don't need to retreat to the county seat. They can conduct training directly in Longgong Village."
"If the independent group still dares to attack the blockade, we will resolutely repel it..."
"Send another telegram to the First Army Headquarters and ask them to prepare two more regiments of ammunition supplies for the Imperial Alliance Army, faster!"
"I can't help but want to rush into the independent regiment's base and find their main force as soon as possible for a decisive battle!"
At the brigade headquarters, the brigade commander heard the chief of staff shouting excitedly in his sleep.
"Brigadier...good news!"
"Kong Jie just fought a great victory in the base area. He wiped out more than 2,000 Japs and captured a large number of weapons and ammunition, including eight Guangshan cannons!"
"Now his heavy artillery battalion has truly become a veritable artillery regiment!"
The brigade commander jumped out of bed, put on his military uniform and trotted into the war room.
"To be more specific: The Japanese raids are about to begin. Shouldn't they be preparing for war and counter-mopping up? If they are fighting at this time, wouldn't they be afraid of problems arising from the counter-mopping up in the base area?"
"This battle is for counter-mopping up!" the chief of staff explained.
"The telegram said: In order to anger Zuotou Division, the Independent Regiment took the initiative to attack the stronghold of Ryugu Village and forced Zuotou Division to send troops to reinforce Ryugu Village."
"Kong Jie deployed heavy troops along the path that the Zuoteng Division must pass through. With the cooperation of the heavy artillery battalion, he suddenly launched an attack. He killed more than two thousand Japs in one battle, seized a large number of weapons and ammunition, and also took some of the entire Zuoteng Division. The cavalry brigade and mountain artillery brigade suffered minimal casualties and won a complete victory!"
"Is Zuotou's division angry?" The brigade commander did not focus on the seizure, but stared at a particularly inconspicuous sentence in the telegram and asked.
The chief of staff shook his head and said: "I don't know why Kong Jie wants to anger the Zuotou division!"
"But he is not a careless person. He must have his own reasons for doing so..."
As soon as they finished speaking, the operator suddenly ran towards them!
"Report to the brigade commander, chief of staff, and commander Li of the new second regiment for an urgent message... They also fought a great victory in the base area and wiped out two thousand little devils..."
