As a commander with hundreds of thousands of troops at the headquarters of the Japanese North China Front, Okamura Neiji has paid little attention to regiment-scale battles.
But today was an accident. He had been in the war room since dawn, watching every move of the Fangshan County raiding force. He read every battle report sent back by Major General Ikeda carefully.
"Your Excellency, Commander, good news: General Ikeda successfully captured the Eighth Route Army garrison in Mao'er Mountain. The Eighth Route Army fled. They plan to stay there for one night and then evacuate the mountainous area and return to Fangshan County." The communications staff rushed into the war room with a joyful look.
Okamura Neiji looked forward to receiving this good news, and thought that Major General Ikeda had really achieved some great victory at Mao'er Mountain.
After reading the telegram, the smile he imagined did not appear on his face. If the mopping up troops really won a great victory at Mao'er Mountain, Major General Ikeda would definitely write down the number of enemies wiped out in his victory report.
But apart from taking down the Eighth Route Army garrison at Mao'er Mountain, the battle report didn't mention how much of the Eighth Route Army was wiped out.
Okamura Neiji is not the kind of dumb guy who doesn't understand anything. He has very rich experience in combat command. He can see the fishiness in this battle report after just reading it.
On the surface, Lan looks like a telegram reporting victory, but in fact it is just an ordinary battle report. Although the mopping up troops occupied the Eighth Route Army's garrison at Mao'er Mountain, they did not fight a major battle there. This shows that Mao'er Mountain was voluntarily abandoned by the Eighth Route Army. The mopping up troops took advantage, so they did not record the number of enemies wiped out.
In order to boost the morale of the troops, Major General Ikeda took the victory of the Eighth Route Army garrison at Mao'er Mountain as the victory and asked himself to issue a withdrawal order, deliberately describing this battle report as a victory report.
Since it is easy to keep the mopping up troops and the headquarters, we have also found a step for the withdrawal, so that the mopping up troops can smoothly withdraw from the mountains and return to Fangshan County.
Okamura Neji didn't want anything to happen to his troops in the mountains. The reason why they were not allowed to retreat yesterday was to save the face of the headquarters, and it was a last resort.
Now that they had a reason to withdraw, it would be too risky to let them stay in the mountains. He immediately ordered: "Call back to Major General Ikeda. The headquarters congratulates them on their successful capture of the Eighth Route Army garrison at Mao'er Mountain."
"Now that the mopping up mission has been completed, the headquarters agrees that they will evacuate the mountain tomorrow and end the sweep, but they must destroy the Eighth Route Army garrison before withdrawing." Lan
"When they return to Fangshan County, I will personally go over to celebrate their victory." At six o'clock in the afternoon, nearly two thousand Japanese and puppet troops entered the guerrilla brigade.
Out of caution, Major General Ikeda did not plan to camp inside the garrison. As a result, except for the guerrilla brigade garrison, there was no other suitable place for the troops to camp.
As a last resort, we can only locate the guerrilla brigade's station and raid the temporary camp site of the troops. In order to ensure safety, Major General Ikeda sent a squadron to conduct a dragnet inspection of the station with all the Imperial Alliance Army, and confirmed that there were no traps inside before officially entering the station.
Major General Ikeda naturally lived in the guerrilla brigade headquarters, and the troops were scattered around the headquarters. In order to prevent the Eighth Route Army from attacking them again with artillery fire, the Japanese and puppet troops also used local materials to build many bunkers at the station.
In the event of an accident, troops can immediately enter bunkers to avoid artillery fire. At 6:30 in the afternoon, the Japanese began to cook, and the camp was filled with rising smoke and blazing bonfires.
Half an hour later, the strong aroma of rice began to permeate the station. The Japanese sat in small groups around the campfire to finish their meals and enjoy the last meal of their lives.
"Boom..." An earth-shaking explosion suddenly sounded in the middle of the largest open space in the station. A large hole was directly blown into the flat ground, and flames and black smoke spewed out from the hole, like a volcano. The eruption quickly formed a huge mushroom cloud up to 20 meters high in the sky.
It is very open here, suitable for artillery to set up guns. In order to counterattack at any time the Eighth Route Army artillery that might sneak attack on him tonight, Major General Ikeda arranged several artillery squadrons and artillery squads under his command here.
When the explosion sounded, they set up the artillery in an open space aside, and the gunners sat around the campfire with their lunch boxes.
The explosion point was located right next to a campfire. In the orange-red flames, the burning sticks in the bonfire were instantly blown away and smashed into the surroundings at a very fast speed.
If any Japanese and puppet soldiers were unlucky and were hit by these wooden sticks, they would be killed or injured. Almost none of them would be intact.
There were more than a dozen little devils sitting around the pair of bonfires. They were blown away along with the wooden sticks. Several soldiers were blown up and their bodies were not left. Bright red minced meat and blood fell from the sky like rain, covering the ground. They were all stained red, and it was as tragic as you wanted.
With the explosion point as the center, several pairs of bonfires around it seemed to have experienced a storm. All the burning wood was blown away by the air waves, leaving traces of wind on the ground.
All the little devils within 20 meters were blown away and landed in various postures farther away from the explosion point.
The little Japs twenty meters away were blown to the ground. Almost all of them had their heads facing outwards and their feet facing the explosion point. There were no wounds on their bodies and they looked like they were asleep.
As time passed by, these "asleep" little devils began to bleed from their orifices, telling outsiders that they had expired.
"Rumble..." The second explosion sounded in the barracks area just two or three seconds later. The simple barracks built with thatched grass were torn to pieces on the spot. Fireballs mixed with a large amount of black smoke rose from the ground. Many Japanese and puppet soldiers who were resting in the barracks were blown away and turned into corpses on the ground.
Major General Ikeda was finishing his meal at the headquarters. When the explosion sounded, the ground beneath his feet trembled twice. His first reaction was that there was an earthquake.
Japan is an island country prone to frequent earthquakes. Major General Ikeda experienced this more than once. He dropped his lunch box and ran out, almost colliding with the security guards who rushed in.
Lan
"General, something happened, something happened at our station..." Mr. Ishii started shouting from a distance.
Major General Ikeda finally realized something was wrong. A real earthquake would not end with just one or two tremors, nor would there be as violent an explosion as just now.
When he looked up, he saw two huge fireballs like mushroom clouds rising into the sky from the training ground and barracks area.
The boss, whose mouth was open, was obviously frightened.
"Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot ..." The scream of artillery shells suddenly sounded over the station. Ishii Shaozuo was instantly brought back to reality. A guard rushed towards him at the same time. The moment the two of them fell to the ground, the explosion happened. It rang in his ears.
A hot wave of air swept from behind, and when he turned around, he saw that the headquarters had been flattened by artillery shells. Beads of sweat poured down from Major General Ikeda's forehead like rain, and his eyes were full of panic.
Fortunately, he evacuated the headquarters out of caution just now, otherwise he would have turned into a corpse. No, he should have been blown away by the shells.
Ishii Shaozuo jumped next to him at the same time and escaped the first round of artillery fire from the Eighth Route Army. Before Major General Ikeda could speak, he hurriedly reported: "General, we have been fooled."
"The Eighth Route Army buried a large amount of gunpowder deep in the station and detonated it from a long distance. Our troops stationed in the barracks area and training ground suffered a devastating blow, especially the artillery. They have been reduced to tenth and have almost lost their combat effectiveness."
"We can't stay here any longer. The troops must evacuate Mao'er Mountain immediately and return to Fangshan County."
"Without artillery, the poison gas bombs we are equipped with will lose their effectiveness, and the Eighth Route Army can continue to use artillery to consume our troops until we are completely annihilated." Major General Lan Chitian was so angry that he could not speak.
Since entering Mao'er Mountain, I have been cautious enough, but in the end I was tricked by the Eighth Route Army. Looking at the shells constantly falling around him, he knew that it was time for him to make a decision immediately, otherwise the troops would lose many more men if they retreated a minute late.
After getting up from the ground, he ordered with a stern face: "Retreat. All units will march quickly to evacuate the station. We will meet at the gate of the station, withdraw from Mao'er Mountain, and return to Fangshan County." Ten minutes later, the last explosion sounded at the gate of the station. .
At this moment, the station has been razed to the ground. No, to be precise, it should be burned to the ground. Looking around, there are burning thatched houses everywhere. Thick smoke rises into the sky and spreads in the sky, covering the entire area. The sky was completely covered, as if it was going to rain heavily.
The ground is full of craters caused by artillery shells, some large and some small. The two most dazzling craters were caused by gunpowder explosions, with a depth of more than three meters and a diameter of more than ten meters. The soil was burned black and mixed with bright red flesh and blood... The craters were surrounded by corpses of Japanese and puppet soldiers. Visual inspection showed that there were at least Five hundred, especially around the two largest craters, there were so many corpses that there was no place to stand.
Zhang Xuan was dumbfounded, and at this moment he understood what the captain meant by flying on a dirt plane.
The explosives buried deep underground suddenly exploded, and the little devils on the surface were blown away while stepping on the soil. Isn't this just a homemade airplane?
Although the station was destroyed, and I felt a little reluctant and heartbroken, compared with the results of the battle, this loss was obviously nothing.
"Captain, can I bring someone in to clean up the battlefield?" Zhang Xuan couldn't help but want to rush into the station to confirm the number of corpses of the Japanese and puppet soldiers, and take a look at the good things the Japanese had left for him. Looking at Huang Yu, he asked anxiously .
Lan
"Wait a moment..." Huang Yu shook his head.
"The Japs are equipped with poison gas bombs. If they are left at the station, the troops must confirm safety before entering the battlefield." As soon as he finished speaking, Duan Peng ran towards them with a happy face. He took a breath to suppress his excitement. Looking at Huang Yu, he said as calmly as possible: "Captain, we found the Japs gas bombs, a total of 400, stored in four places. The remaining gas bombs were either used or taken away by the Japs."
"Ten gas bombs in a box, all intact. I have asked the special forces to seal them up and transport them away at any time." The first thought that came to Huang Yu's mind was to shoot out these gas bombs and return them to the little devils, tit for tat. .
But when he thought about the reason why he and Kong Jie left northwest Shanxi, he could only give up this idea and looked at Duan Peng who gave a serious order: "Transport these gas bombs out of the station immediately, and use the mules and horses we brought to transport them. There is no mine." Order, no one can come near..."
