At the Japanese Brigade Headquarters in Baoding, Okamura Neiji sat in the main seat in the conference room. Major General Kawasaki and Major General Fujita, who was transferred from the Kwantung Army, sat on both sides. Everyone else in the conference room all had military ranks above center left.
Some people looked eager to try, some looked worried, some looked calm, and there were all kinds of expressions.
Okamura Neiji's eyes stayed on everyone's face for two seconds, and finally stopped on Major General Kawasaki. He said with a majestic look: "Everyone, the troops to sweep the Eighth Route Army base area in Yizhong have been assembled. I have decided to officially send troops tomorrow morning..."
"Each mopping up force must strictly implement the combat plan. Any participating force must not underestimate the enemy, let alone advance alone, giving the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it."
"The troops moved forward together, gradually compressing the living space of the Eighth Route Army in the wing, and finally encircled them and defeated them, then reunited and annihilated them."
"Kawasaki-kun..."
"Hai..." Major General Kawasaki stood up respectfully.
"I will give you five infantry brigades, a field artillery brigade, two tank squadrons, a cavalry brigade, and a regiment of the Imperial Association Army to launch an attack from the left wing, sweep across Tangxian and Wangdu, and completely wipe out the Eighth Route Army operating there. "
"Even if we can't annihilate them all, we must drive them to Shunping, completely recapture Tang County and Wangdu, destroy the base we established there, and restore the imperial army's dominance over the two counties."
Although Major General Kawasaki did not receive the main attack mission, as long as he can successfully recover Tangxian and Wangdu, it will still be a great achievement.
Looking at Okamura Neji, he said with satisfaction: "Commander, please rest assured, I promise to complete the mission despite my humble position."
Okamura Neiji immediately turned his attention to the regiment commander who was transferred from Shanxi, and gave a serious order: "Harada-kun, I will give you four infantry brigades, a mountain artillery battalion, two tank squadrons, a cavalry brigade, and a regiment. The Imperial Alliance Army launched an attack from the left wing and swept across Yi County and Mancheng."
"Major General Fujita commanded two main regiments, two tank squadrons, a cavalry brigade, and a heavy artillery brigade to launch an attack from the front and attack Junpei."
"Your mission is the most important. You must not only annihilate the Shunping garrison of the Eighth Route Army, but also capture Shunping County in the shortest possible time, and penetrate Chenzhuang, the only way for the Eighth Route Army to enter and leave the mountains. Take it down, hold it at all costs, and move the activities The two garrison regiments in Mancheng and Wangdu are blocked outside the mountain."
"Cooperate with the two sweep forces on the left to gather them together and annihilate them."
…………
"Boom boom boom..."
The landmines laid by the Shunping garrison on the road were constantly detonated by the puppet troops. An infantry company was soon bombed and suffered heavy casualties.
The remaining puppet soldiers were afraid of being bombed, and walked slower and slower as if their feet were tied with weights.
"Bang bang bang..."
The little Japanese supervising the battle at the back didn't care about this. They kept pulling the trigger and killing the fearful puppet soldiers in front to serve as a warning to others.
】
"Lian Zuo, the Japanese are so cruel. They don't regard our brothers as human beings. If we continue, all the brothers in our company will be bombed to death." The deputy company commander of the puppet army said to the company commander with a look of grief and anger.
"The Japanese have made it clear that they want us to be used as cannon fodder. If we continue to advance, we may be injured by landmines and save our lives. If we don't move forward in fear, we will be shot to death by the little devils. If we are to blame, we have chosen the wrong path in the first place. We should not have been killed." Traitors are a bowl of rice."
"Boom boom boom..."
Three explosions sounded again, and seven or eight more soldiers were killed and injured, falling to the ground screaming.
The company commander felt that he was very lucky to be injured for the first time, and he was very envious of the wounded who fell to the ground.
Although the pain was unbearable, his life was saved after all.
Although he is alive and well, no one knows when the next landmine will explode under his feet.
Half an hour later, all the puppet troops in a company fell, and no one was left standing.
The puppet company commander was particularly unlucky. He happened to step on a landmine and his entire lower body was blown away. His internal organs were everywhere and he died on the spot.
The Japanese did not feel sorry for the puppet soldiers who were killed and injured at all, and soon a new full company was sent to the front of the team to continue mine clearing.
Taipingzhuang was the first anti-mopping battlefield prepared by Huang Yu for the Japanese.
Four trenches spaced more than 200 meters apart run across the entrance of the village. The trenches are connected by communication trenches. Looking down from the air, the entrance to the village is full of criss-crossing trenches, ensuring that troops can move from the village to any corner of the position without showing their heads. .
Of course, these are all positions that the Japanese can see at a glance. Their purpose is not only to attack the Japanese and puppet troops, but also to confuse the Japanese and puppet troops and make them think of underestimating the enemy.
Huang Yu's true reliance lies underground.
Each trench has more than a dozen entrances and exits to tunnel fortifications, and three main tunnels run through four surface trenches. In the event that the ground transportation trenches are destroyed, troops can quickly transfer and retreat through underground passages.
The only two dozen firepower points on the position are also connected to tunnel entrances, ensuring that the machine gun team can quickly move to the tunnel fortifications after being targeted by Japanese aircraft.
Not to mention in the village, corners, firewood piles, kitchens... places that everyone can think of, places that can't be thought of, may be tunnel entrances and exits.
As long as the little devil dares to enter the village, he may be attacked from all directions.
There are two battlefield headquarters, one behind a broken wall at the entrance of the village, and the other underground.
When Huang Yu checked possible defense loopholes against the tunnel design drawings, the cavalry scout suddenly rushed over: "Captain, the Japanese and puppet troops are coming soon."
"The Japanese asked the puppet troops to go to the front to detonate landmines, and the main force followed closely behind them. Anyone who advanced would be shot. As a result, our mines barely hurt a single kid, but all the puppet troops were blown up, without affecting the Japanese and puppet troops. Marching speed.”
"When I came over, two regiments of puppet troops had lost one and a half companies."
"By the time they get here, they will definitely lose another company."
Huang Yu did not show any expression of disappointment on his face. He shook his head and replied calmly: "The puppet troops are also enemies. When we use landmines to blow up all the puppet troops in the two regiments, the little devils will have no cannon fodder. If they encounter danger, they can only do it themselves." superior."
"Let the troops prepare for combat. Except for the security troops, everyone else will withdraw into the tunnel."
"The Japanese and puppet troops are coming fiercely. In addition to the common mortars and infantry artillery, they also bring a large number of field artillery and heavy artillery. The aircraft in the sky are also not vegetarian. Without my order, no one can enter the surface positions, even the first It doesn’t matter if one trench is lost.”
"Captain, what should we do with the artillery?" Huang Yushan, commander of the artillery company, asked anxiously.
Although he was only the commander of the mountain artillery company of the Junping Garrison Regiment, he was equipped with more than twenty artillery pieces.
As an artilleryman in so many years, it was the first time to command so many artillery pieces at the same time. I wanted to go to the battlefield immediately more than anyone else.
"Liberating and waiting..." Huang Yu said bluntly without even raising his head.
"There are Japs planes above us during the day. If the artillery is exposed, it will lead to death. We have to wait until dark before we can reveal our heads."
…………
Half an hour later, the forward troops of the Japanese and puppet troops appeared at the end of the road. They also saw the blocking position built by the garrison at the entrance of the village. They stopped five hundred meters away from the blocking position, established a defense line on the spot, and waited for the main follow-up force.
After a while, the mighty main force of the Japanese and puppet troops came into Huang Yu's sight.
"The Imperial Association Army dispatched one company, and the Imperial Army dispatched two combat units to test the strength of the Eighth Route Army on the position..." Major General Fujita, the brigade leader, glanced at the battlefield and began to give orders.
He was from the Kwantung Army and had never fought against the Yizhong Eighth Route Army. He still followed the steps and sent troops to launch a trial attack first to determine the opponent's strength before launching a forceful attack.
If Major General Kawasaki was commanding here, he would definitely bombard us with artillery fire and bombing with planes.
Practice has proven many times that the imperial army's probing attacks not only fail to determine the opponent's strength, but are also likely to result in losses of both wives and troops.
The Baoding garrison has suffered too many losses in this regard and will not make the same mistake again.
Major General Fujita didn't know it, but still planned to use the three-axe attack method that the imperial army was best at to capture Taipingzhuang.
As soon as the probing troops set off, he raised his binoculars.
The blocking position was quiet, not even a human figure.
Major General Fujita looked more and more strangely. Just when he thought that there was no one in the blocking position and that he had been deceived by the Eighth Route Army, the familiar sound of firefights suddenly reached his ears.
The gunfire was very chaotic, mostly from rifles and machine guns. The probing troops were like a field of ripe wheat, being killed constantly.
The Japanese walking behind the puppet troops were obviously attacked by the opponent, and more than half of them were killed or injured in the blink of an eye.
Major General Fujita has been staring at the blocking position, hoping to lock the firepower point on the position and provide shooting support for a while.
As a result, I searched around but couldn't find a heavy machine gun.
There were not many probing troops left, and there were no heavy machine guns left in the blocking position to participate in the battle. No matter how stupid Major General Fujita was, he knew that the probing troops had failed. His face instantly sank. He chose to ignore the dozens of remaining soldiers in the probing troops and ordered with a murderous look on his face: " The artillery will fire immediately and level the blocking positions in front of me."
"The aviation force joined the battle at the same time, destroying the communication trenches behind the blocking position, cutting off the channels for the Eighth Route Army to send troops to reinforce the blocking position, and annihilating all the defenders on the position."
The Kwantung Army's combat literacy was very high. Within ten seconds of the bombardment order being given, violent explosions had already spread in the blocking position.
Mud splashed, smoke billowed, and even the retaining logs in the trenches were uprooted...
The soil piled on the edge of the trench was instantly blasted into a large crater, which was two meters deep.
"Buzz buzz..."
Three planes joined the battle at the same time, roaring and diving towards the ground. The aerial bombs broke away from the fuselage and smashed into the traffic trench with a huge scream.
Thick smoke billowed and fire splashed. Compared with heavy artillery shells, aerial bombs were more than ten times more powerful. A four-meter-deep crater was instantly blasted at the point of impact. The nearby traffic trench was also razed to the ground, making it impossible for people to continue leaving.
Another plane dived towards the ground at the same time and dropped an aerial bomb when it was more than 200 meters above the ground.
"Rumble..."
A thunderous explosion soon sounded in the blocking position, and thick smoke rose directly into the sky, forming a mushroom cloud dozens of meters high above the position.
