At the headquarters of the Japanese North China Front, a telephone soldier hurriedly walked to the deputy chief of staff on duty and reported: "Sir, the officer school established by the Pacification Army in Tong County was attacked. Both the school and the garrison suffered heavy losses."
"The Tongxian garrison has dispatched four main battalions to reinforce the battlefield. In order to prevent accidents, they specially called the headquarters to inform the headquarters."
The deputy chief of staff sincerely looked down on the appeasement army. After hearing this, he snorted: "If you pick a weak persimmon, our enemies will dare to take advantage of the appeasement army."
"As far as I know, the enemy's main force has not appeared around Peiping for a long time. This battle should be caused by the Eighth Route Army guerrillas coming out to cause trouble. The appeasement army deliberately exaggerated the enemy's situation in order to show themselves to the imperial army. Tong County dispatched four main forces If we can't win the battle, there will be no need for them to continue to exist."
"Don't worry about them, just record this report and report to me if there is any situation."
After the deputy chief of staff finished speaking, he forgot about the matter and had no intention of reporting it to Neji Okamura.
At three o'clock in the morning, the deputy chief of staff was lying on the table in the war room, feeling dazed. A radio operator was holding a microphone and answering the phone in a low voice, for fear that he would wake up the commander if he was not paying attention.
But soon the operator couldn't sit still anymore. He stood up from his chair and shouted into the microphone with a look of disbelief on his face: "Bagh Yalu, what did you just say? Say it again..."
After listening for a few seconds, he covered the phone and reported to the deputy chief of staff: "Sir, something happened in Tong County."
"An accident happened to their troops who were reinforcing the military academy. The county town was suddenly attacked by unknown armed forces. The opponent was equipped with a large number of mortars, heavy machine guns, and mountain artillery to help. There was only one battalion of the Imperial Association Army and one squadron of the Imperial Army left in the county town. Immediately I can’t stand it anymore…”
"Aren't the enemies who attacked Tongxian Military Academy the Eighth Route Army guerrillas? When did they become so powerful that they dared to attack the county seat?" The deputy chief of staff had not yet fully reacted. He looked at the caller and asked with disbelief.
"They are not guerrillas, they are the main force of the Eighth Route Army..." the radio operator hurriedly added.
Before he could continue his report, several violent explosions came from the receiver, and then the call was disconnected.
The operator quickly dialed the number, trying to reconnect the phone, but no matter how he dialed, there was no response from the other party.
Putting down the phone, he met the deputy chief of staff's shocked eyes and continued to report: "The phone was disconnected. There were a few explosions from the receiver and then it went dead."
"Listen to the explosion right next to the phone..."
"Sir, 80% of the accidents have occurred in Tong County. Please make a decision immediately."
"Keep calling..." The deputy chief of staff finally realized something was wrong and gave the order in a hurry.
"Let the telecommunications room send a telegram to Tong County. Maybe the radio contact has not been interrupted."
"At the same time, the headquarters sent messengers to Tong County to check the situation. They rode there and brought the radio with them. The speed was a little faster."
"I'm going to wake up the commander now. Tong County is the east gate of Beiping and the last gateway to protect Beiping. No accidents must occur."
Okamura Neiji arrived at the war room five minutes later. When he entered the door, he stared at the communications staff officer and asked, "Have you not contacted the Tongxian garrison yet?"
The communications staff officer shook his head: "Reporting to your Excellency, Commander, the phone and radio were used, but there was no response from the Tong County garrison."
"I have sent messengers on horseback to Tong County to check out the situation. News should come back soon..."
"Shut up..." Okamura Neji cursed unceremoniously.
"I don't want to listen to this nonsense. You just need to tell me whether Tong County is still in our hands, who is attacking Tong County, how many people there are, and what kind of equipment they have. This is enough..."
The communications staff officer lowered his head and did not answer. If he had known these answers, he would have answered them just now and would not have given the commander a chance to get angry.
"A bunch of stupid pigs!" Neji Okamura became even more angry and cursed through gritted teeth: "It's impossible for so many enemies to appear around Peiping out of thin air. What do the intelligence agencies and the garrison troops everywhere do for food, and they didn't receive any information? Related information, what do I want you to do?”
"What are you still doing here? Go check it out quickly?"
"Is it possible that you really want to see the enemy bring artillery troops to the outside of Peiping and plunge Peiping into a war? Then our North China Front Command will definitely be embarrassed."
An hour passed, and Neji Okamura did not receive any useful information. At 4:30 in the morning, a series of "rumbling" explosions suddenly reached the headquarters from the east gate direction.
Although they were far apart, it was night and there was no noise in the city. Neji Okamura could hear it clearly.
"Boom..." The explosion continued, showing no signs of stopping.
An artillery staff officer hurriedly ran to Okamura Neiji: "Sir, the sound came from two kilometers east of the city. It was an explosion of mortar shells."
The combat staff pointed to the sand table and introduced: "There is an outpost and checkpoint of our army two kilometers east of the city. It is specially used to check suspicious people nearby in Peiping. The enemy must have attacked there."
"BaGeYaLu, this battle has made my wife so embarrassed..." Okamura Neiji became more and more annoyed as he listened.
"The enemies have all reached the outside of Peiping City, and we don't even know who is who... This is simply a shame for the North China Front."
"Is it because your command skills are too poor, or because Peiping has not been in danger for a long time, everyone has slacked off, and this allowed the enemy to take advantage of a loophole."
The subordinates were left speechless by the question.
An unknown armed force suddenly appeared in Beiping, and they took Tongxian County and marched outside Beiping City. This was indeed their responsibility and they couldn't shirk it even if they wanted to.
Just when a group of people were frowning, thinking about how to calm the commander's anger and solve the problem, the telegraph operator suddenly rushed over: "Sir, there is news from Tong County."
"The messenger who went to Tong County to investigate has just sent a telegram. The county seat has been occupied by the enemy. Judging from the enemy's military uniforms, it should be the Eighth Route Army... They have captured the checkpoint two kilometers east of Beiping City under the cover of artillery fire and are temporarily holding back."
"Eighth Route Army?" Now it was Neji Okamura's turn to be dumbfounded.
Staring at the sand table with a face full of disbelief, he asked: "This is impossible. Aren't they the only guerrillas around Peiping? When did the main force arrive? Why don't I know any news at all?"
"Continue the investigation: I don't believe that the Eighth Route Army has the ability to conjure an elite army out of thin air."
…………
It was late at night at the Japanese garrison headquarters in Fangshan County, but the leader of the Japanese brigade was not sleepy at all.
As long as the Eighth Route Army operating in the defense area is not eliminated, the position of brigade commander under him will not be stable and may be lost at any time.
In this situation, he couldn't sleep even if he lay in bed.
"General, we found it. We found the Eighth Route Army attacking the reinforcements..." A long-lost smile finally flashed across the serious face of the chief of staff all day long, and he started reporting before he even ran to the brigade commander.
"They were hidden in the woods five kilometers northwest of the Zhoukou stronghold. The intelligence department found them at a huge cost."
"They call themselves the Second Regiment of the Peiping Guerrilla Detachment. They have about 2,000 people. They are well-equipped and have strong combat effectiveness. They have the mountain artillery and infantry artillery that were lost by the reinforcements. The intelligence officers can clearly see it."
While reporting, he marked the exact location of Wei Dayong on the map, and at the same time put forward his own thoughts: "General, there is still a large group of mobile troops in the city. During the day, three infantry squadrons were withdrawn from surrounding strongholds, plus the Imperial Alliance Army, and we can gather them immediately. Qi three thousand troops surrounded and suppressed them."
"The troops were divided into two groups and formed a wedge to surround the Eighth Route Army. We first surrounded them and then gathered them to annihilate them."
The brigade commander stared at the sand table and replied: "Contact the aviation force. As soon as dawn comes, planes will be dispatched to conduct low-altitude reconnaissance of this area and keep an eye on them. If the Eighth Route Army wants to escape, they can launch an attack directly from the sky."
"The ground encirclement and suppression will be carried out as you said. The troops will set off now and arrive on the battlefield before ten o'clock in the morning. They will launch an attack under the cover of the aviation force and strive to end the battle within two hours."
In the eyes of the brigade commander, the Second Regiment of the Peking Guerrilla Detachment has a small number of 2,000 people, refined equipment, and a lot of heavy weapons. No matter moving or marching, the movement will not be small, and it is enough to let the plane stare at them.
Little did they know that their real opponents were only more than a hundred people.
The two thousand people the intelligence officers saw were either guerrillas, prisoners of the puppet army pretending to be prisoners, or a group of dummies with only hats and military uniforms.
When the puppet army formed a semi-encirclement and charged toward the battlefield for more than three thousand days, Wei Dayong had already led the fourth company to leave the hiding spot, preparing to pull out the tiger's teeth, tear off two pieces of fat from the mopping up troops, and further inflict heavy damage on the Fangshan garrison.
…………
On the mountain road five kilometers east of the Zhoukou stronghold, more than a thousand puppet troops were panting and rushing forward.
They set out at five in the morning and covered nearly 20 kilometers in three hours.
As long as nothing goes wrong in the ensuing march, they will be able to reach the battlefield at 9:30 in the morning, half an hour earlier than scheduled.
"Buzz buzz..."
The two planes roared over the troops and circled back and forth twice. After confirming that the ground troops were not in danger, they quickly disappeared from the sight of the Japanese and puppet troops and went to escort another mopping up troops.
"Boom boom boom..."
The explosion of artillery shells suddenly sounded in the middle of the team, and thick smoke rose into the sky. Other Japanese and puppet troops near the impact point immediately lay down on the ground to avoid the gunfire.
"Boom, boom, boom..." The second round of artillery shells followed. Although many Japanese and puppet soldiers were lying on the ground, as long as they were close enough to the impact point of the bullet, the violent explosion would still take their lives.
The Japanese leader was both angry and excited: "On Bageya Road, the Eighth Route Army launched an attack as soon as the escort plane's front foot left. They are too cunning."
"The mortar squadron will counterattack immediately and kill them."
"If the aviation force cannot be relied upon, we will have to rely on ourselves. The main force will continue to advance. This must be a small force sent by the Eighth Route Army to harass us. We must not be deceived and affect the marching speed of the troops for their sake, delaying the general offensive in two hours."
The second update is delivered today, please order it all!
