The Japanese army attacked the position, and Major General Fujita also received news that the attacking troops were stubbornly blocked by the Eighth Route Army in Taipingzhuang.
Compared with the frown on the chief of staff's face, Major General Fujita was very happy.
The more tenacious the Eighth Route Army's resistance is, the more important Taipingzhuang is to them, and the more they want to capture it. Maybe they can wipe out the Shunping garrison here.
While observing the battle situation, he ordered: "Immediately move a mountain artillery squadron and a mortar squadron into the village to provide close support to the attacking troops. We must capture Taipingzhuang before dark, destroy all tunnel entrances and exits in the village, and suffocate the enemy to death." In the tunnel."
The participation of mountain artillery in the battle gave the Japanese and puppet troops a magical help, and the attack speed suddenly accelerated.
When you see possible targets, use mountain artillery to bombard them, not giving the garrison any chance to sneak attack on them.
Broken walls and ruins were all razed to the ground. The soldiers had no way to hide and could only guard the entrances and exits of the tunnels to sneak attack the Japanese and puppet troops.
But the number is limited after all. After more and more tunnel entrances and exits were destroyed, the resistance faced by the Japanese and puppet troops became weaker and weaker.
At 5:30 in the afternoon, the firefight in the village stopped completely.
The tunnel entrances and exits found by the Japanese and puppet troops were also blown up completely.
It was thought that the attacking troops would wipe out a large number of Eighth Route Army troops in the village, but the result was quite different, which made Major General Fujita very angry.
"General, the attacking troops searched the village and found less than a hundred corpses. Including the corpses of the Eighth Route Army found by our attack on the four lines of defense, the total number of enemies killed was no more than 600..." The chief of staff hesitated for a while before adding his own Speak out the repeatedly confirmed data.
After finishing, he was afraid that Major General Fujita would get angry, so he added: "It is impossible for the Eighth Route Army to have only those who were killed in battle and not injured. Under normal circumstances, they would have killed more than 500 people in battle, and there would have been at least more than 200 seriously injured people."
"I have deduced from my humble position that the Junpei garrison's casualties this afternoon must have exceeded 800 people."
Major General Fujita suppressed his anger and asked: "There are more than 800 people, do you think this result is worthy of everyone's happiness?"
"There's no such thing as a humble position..." The chief of staff quickly shook his head.
Major General Miyazawa did not give him a chance to explain, and continued suppressing his anger: "Jade smashed six infantry squadrons, seriously injured one infantry squadron, and wiped out two battalions of the Imperial Alliance Army, losing six tanks. In the end, only more than 800 were wiped out. Eighth Route Army.”
"I have the nerve to show off these few results. Our Kwantung Army has never fought such a frustrating battle since its establishment."
"If this spreads back to Manchuria, our entire brigade will become a laughing stock."
Major General Fujita was furious. The more the chief of staff explained, the more he felt that there was no silver here. It was better to admit this mistake and quickly change the subject.
Facing the brigade commander's almost murderous gaze, he replied: "Based on the daytime battle analysis, the number of Eighth Route Army troops stationed at Taipingzhuang is about 2,000, and no heavy weapons have been found yet."
"We have killed more than 800 people, and the remaining 1,000 people should be hiding in the tunnels."
"If we eliminate them, we can give an explanation to the Kwantung Army Headquarters."
"There must be many tunnel entrances and exits hidden in the village that we have not discovered. If the troops directly enter the village, the Eighth Route Army will be able to attack us when they emerge from the tunnels. Our artillery advantage will have no chance to be used."
"The troop losses must have been very heavy."
"My humble suggestion is to send troops to surround the village, release poisonous gas into the tunnels, force the enemy to the ground, and then gather together to annihilate them."
"If the poison gas is useless, we can also send engineers and the Imperial Army to blast the tunnels, find one of the tunnels, and slowly blast it. If the Eighth Route Army doesn't come out, they will be buried underground."
If the tunnel fortifications under the Japs' feet were built independently on a village-by-village basis, the Japs' plan would surely succeed.
Unfortunately, they far underestimated the scale of the tunnels in the Wing Center base.
In addition to the inside of the village, there are also tunnels and entrances all over the outside.
Deliberately trying to gather and annihilate the Junpei garrison by surrounding the village was obviously an exaggeration.
Major General Fujita didn't know this, and he immediately agreed with the staff officer
The commander suggested and immediately ordered: "Use poison gas first to save time and effort. If the poison gas fails, then use explosion methods."
"Deploy an infantry brigade to surround the village, strengthen a squadron of heavy machine guns, a squadron of mortars, and a squadron of tanks. I will surround Taipingzhuang into an iron barrel so that not even a fly can escape."
"Start releasing poisonous gas into the tunnel in an hour. We must force the enemy out of the tunnel."
"The engineers and the Imperial Alliance Army are ready to blast the tunnel."
…………
At the underground headquarters of the garrison, Huang Yuzheng was eating dry food from a pot of cold water to replenish his strength.
The night attack battle is about to begin. As the direct commander of this battle, he must recharge his batteries and keep himself in a state of concentration at all times.
"Captain..." Wang Lin hurried over, his expression very solemn. He had obviously figured out the deployment of the Japanese and puppet troops above him, and the situation was not good.
Huang Yu hurriedly reported without waiting for him to speak: "The Japs were too cautious and did not send troops to the village. Instead, they deployed a reinforced brigade to surround the village and also sent some Japs to release poisonous gas into the tunnels."
"Thankfully we made anti-virus preparations when digging the tunnel, otherwise the enemy's plot would have succeeded and we would have suffered heavy losses."
"But our night attack plan seems to be impossible."
"I thought that the Japs would enter the village, and the troops would fight hand-to-hand with them when they broke out of the tunnel. I specially strengthened the troops with one or two hundred pistols, but they didn't give us a chance."
After Huang Yu swallowed the last mouthful of dry food, he replied: "When the enemy changes, we will change. If the Japs don't give us a chance to fight in close combat, then we will raid their troops surrounding Taipingzhuang."
"If a strengthened brigade can bring everything together, it will still be a huge blow to the Japanese and puppet troops who are sweeping us away."
"Immediately reinforce the third battalion with all the light machine guns equipped by the first and second battalions and the machine guns captured in the tunnels, and send the machine gunners together to ensure that each infantry squad has two machine guns to break through the Japanese blockade at close range from outside the village."
"The guard company also participated in the battle, bringing sixty Molotov cocktails and knocking out the armored vehicles and tanks on the blockade."
"If we don't take action, we must do it. If we do, we must deal a fatal blow to the enemy and make them feel the pain."
"After the battle, the participating troops immediately evacuated the battlefield through the tunnels, found resistance and repaired and were on standby. We will greet the Japanese when they arrive in Shunping County."
Seeing Huang Yu's determination and strong confidence exuding from his body, he planned to persuade him, but he swallowed his words and immediately accepted the order: "I will make arrangements now, and by the way, I will also bring the grenades that should be equipped with one or two." Send it to the Third Battalion."
"Although the level of grenade launchers is not high, as long as there are enough of them, a blind cat can kill a lot of Japanese soldiers."
