Yamahara Ichiro originally had a high prestige in the regiment. Today, his impassioned speech moved the soldiers very much.
Those seriously injured people knew that they would definitely not be able to leave. They did not want to drag down the entire regiment because of themselves, so they all said: "Your Excellency, regiment captain, please leave a grenade for us so that we can stay here and die together with the enemy. We We will never hinder the regiment's breakout operation. Please ask your Excellency, the regiment commander, to ask our families after we break out. Please."
When Ichiro Yamahara heard this, he pretended to wipe his tears, then bowed deeply to the seriously injured soldiers, and said: "Brave soldiers of the Yellow Army, you are really good, you are the pride of our regiment. Don't worry, I will definitely convey your thoughts to your families, and your families will be proud of your heroic actions. The coalition will definitely ask the local Zheng Mansion to provide pensions to your families.
As warriors of the Yellow Army, I and the other soldiers of our regiment have already declared their determination to die. You take the first step, and then we will join you in Shenshe. In the future, we will still be members of the same regiment. , fight side by side together forever. "
Yamahara Ichiro's eloquence was excellent, and the wounded soldiers themselves were in a very tragic mood. After listening to his fanning, many people cried, and even the uninjured soldiers around him were very moved. At this time, the hearts of the Japanese soldiers were full of tragedy and their emotions were extremely high.
Hirota admired Yamahara Ichiro very much. He felt that he should learn from Yamahara Ichiro and further improve his eloquence.
Each of the seriously wounded received a grenade and left it on the mountain. Some lightly wounded people also took the initiative to stay. They asked to replace the main force to monitor the anti-Japanese armed forces in other directions.
Hirota Koki and Yamahara Ichiro did not delay, and directly led the troops down the mountain, preparing to break out to the southeast.
As luck would have it, it was cloudy tonight and visibility was very low, which created favorable conditions for the Japanese army's breakout operation.
Hirota Koki and Yamahara Ichiro led their troops down the mountain without encountering any problems. They believed that tonight there was hope that they could quietly approach the enemy's position and launch a surprise attack. In that case, there was a high possibility of a successful breakout.
Just when the two of them were secretly rejoicing, an accident happened. The vanguard of the Japanese army was about to reach the bottom of the valley when it was suddenly attacked by the enemy.
It turned out that after the headquarters held a meeting, each army dispatched small units to harass the Japanese troops at night in accordance with the requirements of the headquarters. Visibility was extremely low tonight. The Qinghe County brigade also seized this opportunity and sent a small force to sneak attack the Japanese army. As a result, they collided with the Japanese army who were breaking out of the encirclement, and the two sides immediately started a fierce battle.
The Japanese army encountered a class from the county brigade. Although they resisted tenaciously, the number of Japs was too great. Soon after, all the members of this class died heroically.
Hirota Koki and Yamahara Ichiro were not at all happy about the small results achieved by their troops, but were very frustrated.
They originally expected to make a surprise attack under the cover of night, but they did not expect that their attempt to break out would be exposed just as they arrived in the valley. Both of them also knew that there was no turning back at this time, so they ordered the troops to attack the opposite mountain.
Guarding the hills and ridges in the southeast were a company of the fifth regiment of the New First Brigade and the Qinghe County Brigade, with a total strength of more than 1,200 people.
The Mawushan base area has its own arsenal, and a large amount of Japanese weapons and equipment have been seized over the years. Not to mention the equipment of the company of the New 1st Brigade, the equipment of the county brigade is not inferior to that of the Japanese army.
They have ample ammunition, are condescending, and occupy favorable terrain, which completely makes up for their lack of numerical superiority.
The officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and the members of the county brigade were not afraid and launched a tenacious blockade against the Japanese army.
Over the past few days, they have summarized the methods of night fighting. Some team members still shoot down the mountain to attract enemy firepower, while the rest shoot at the enemies who return fire. The Japanese army had no idea what was going on and suffered heavy losses.
Especially when the Japanese army approached the defending position, the officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and the members of the county brigade were condescending and threw a large number of grenades, causing heavy casualties to the Japanese army.
The Japanese army was also desperate. They climbed up desperately regardless of casualties. At the beginning, they fired back while climbing up, but they suffered a heavy blow from the defenders.
Later, the Japanese soldiers also learned the lesson. They knew that the enemies on the mountain could not see them, so they simply stopped shooting and climbed up the mountain with their heads down.
The defenders on the mountain originally wanted to prepare some torches for lighting at night, but unfortunately they had been fighting continuously these days and had no time to prepare. There are only some low shrubs on the mountains here, and there are no fire-resistant materials such as pine trees, so there is no way to hold a torch.
The Eighth Route Army officers and soldiers could only keep throwing grenades downwards. With the help of the light of the grenades, after seeing the Japanese troops, they continued to throw grenades downwards.
Regardless of life or death, the Japanese soldiers continued to climb up, and soon reached the front of the garrison position. They roared loudly and rushed into the defender's position, and the two sides started a fierce hand-to-hand combat.
In order to avoid accidentally injuring their own people at night, the Japanese army tied a white towel around the neck of every soldier. Although the visibility at night is extremely low, if you get close, you can still see a white shadow.
The Eighth Route Army officers and soldiers and the members of the county brigade also thought of this. In order to identify themselves, they uniformly tied a white towel on their left arm. As a result, it was difficult for both parties to identify each other, and they were confused when they were mixed together.
However, this embarrassing situation was quickly broken. The members of the county brigade were very smart. They did not dress uniformly, and most of them did not wear hats on their heads. They knew very well that the Japanese troops attacking them were neatly dressed and must have been wearing hats with bird patches on their heads. So they stretched out their hands and touched anyone wearing a hat, and gave them a bayonet directly.
The captain of the county brigade saw that this method was very effective, so he sent someone to tell the company commander of the Eighth Route Army. The company commander quickly and quietly told his soldiers about this method. The Eighth Route Army soldiers also took off their hats and reached out to touch the Japanese wearing bird films.
The Japanese soldiers were very stubborn and did everything in a proper manner. Who would have thought that the Eighth Route Army officers and soldiers and the county brigade members would be so cunning. As a result, many Japanese soldiers lost their lives inexplicably.
Hirota Hongyi is a flexible-minded person, and he is constantly summing up experience. He inspected the bodies of the Eighth Route Army soldiers on the ground and saw white towels tied around their left arms. So he told the Japanese to touch the left arm of the person they met. If the person had a white towel wrapped around his left arm, he was an enemy.
The two sides were fighting each other desperately, and no one said a word, because as long as they spoke, the other party could hear whether they were enemies. Everyone was fighting each other silently, only those who were killed and injured kept screaming.
The fighting in the southeast had already alerted members of the Eighth Route Army and county brigade in other directions. They immediately came down from the mountains and rushed here to provide support.
The Japanese army also left some troops on the mountainside to block the enemy troops who came to support them. As a result, there was a lively fight at the bottom of the mountain and on the hillside. Apart from the screams on the top of the mountain, there was almost no other sound.
Seeing that the situation was critical, Hirota Koki briefly discussed it with Ichiro Mihara who was beside him, and decided not to entangle with the enemy anymore, and continued to break out to the southeast under the cover of night. Anyway, the opponent can't see clearly, so how many can break out counts.
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Yamahara Ichiro adopted Hirota Koki's suggestion and prepared to shout loudly and issue orders.
Hirota Hongki grabbed him and whispered a few words to him.
Yamahara Ichiro called a combat staff officer next to him and asked him to issue orders for him. After speaking, he and Hirota Koki hid aside.
The combat staff shouted loudly: "Yellow Army warriors, your Excellency the commander of the regiment has an order. Don't get entangled with the enemy. Take advantage of the night to break through directly to the southeast."
The Eighth Route Army officers and soldiers on the mountain and the members of the county brigade were worried about not being able to find the location of the Japs. The voice of the Japanese combat staff immediately attracted their bullets and grenades.
The Japanese combat staff and some Japanese soldiers around them were blown to pieces, but Hirota Koki and Yamahara Ichiro had already hid aside and escaped the disaster.
After hearing the order, the Japanese soldiers remained silent and fled directly to the southeast. The guards protected Hirota Koki and Yamahara Ichiro and ran forward with them.
The company commander of the Eighth Route Army and the captain of the county brigade didn't know what the Japanese commander was shouting just now, but they felt that there were people running around them in the southeast direction.
But they really couldn't see clearly and didn't dare to shoot rashly. As a result, many Japanese soldiers passed through the members of the Eighth Route Army and the county brigade.
The Japanese were so eager to escape that they couldn't see the road clearly at night. Many people tripped over stones, and some even missed the mark and rolled down the mountain. No matter what, the Japanese soldiers rushed down the mountain while crawling.
The company commander of the Eighth Route Army and the captain of the county brigade heard the screams of the Japanese falling down the hillside, and then realized that the Japanese had broken out because they had no one at the foot of the mountain.
The two of them had issued a military order. Seeing this situation, they became anxious and shouted desperately: "The Japs are running away. There are Japs at the bottom of the mountain. Fight quickly!"
At this time, there were still many Japanese soldiers on the mountain who had not been able to break out. They heard the shouts of the company commander and the county captain and immediately shot at them. As a result, the company commander died on the spot, and the county brigade captain was hit by several bullets and passed out.
The members of the Eighth Route Army and the county brigade heard the shouts of the company commander and the county brigade captain, and hurriedly threw grenades down the mountain and set up machine guns to shoot down the mountain.
Many Japanese soldiers were killed or blown up. The remaining Japanese soldiers did not bother to fight back and ran silently as hard as they could.
After a while, members of the Eighth Route Army and county brigade who came from all directions also climbed up the hill. They heard that some Japanese soldiers had broken out, and there was nothing they could do about it. It was so dark that I didn’t know where to find the Japanese even if I wanted to chase them.
They had to stop temporarily and wait until daybreak before making plans.
After a few hours, daylight finally broke. Officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and the county brigade took inventory of the battlefield and found that there were more than 3,100 corpses of Japanese soldiers in the mountains in this area, and the Eighth Route Army's casualties also reached more than 600 people.
Since the traces of the Japanese army had been lost, everyone felt very sorry, so they reported the situation here to Xu Dalong and took the initiative to review it.
Xu Dalong was very satisfied with the result and reported the situation to Li Yunlong, Zhao Gang and Zhang Dabiao.
Li Yunlong was also very happy and said: "I can't believe that the remaining companies and the people from the county brigade actually killed so many Japs. The Japs were only a reinforced unit, which should not exceed 5,000 people. There are 3,000 here." There are too many Japs to die, plus the Japs we killed in the past two days, there are probably no more than 1,000 Japs who escaped. They no longer pose much of a threat."
Zhao Gang said with some worry: "The little Japs broke out to the southeast, which is the direction of our base area. The group of Japs disguised as the Eighth Route Army who entered our base area have not yet been eliminated. With this group of Japs, the base area I’m afraid there’s a lot of pressure there.”
Xu Dalong said: "It's nothing special. Now that the Japanese who blocked the road have escaped, the road can be opened to traffic. Let Monk Wei lead the special operations team back to the base to eliminate these Japanese soldiers."
Zhang Dabiao suggested: "Hurry up and let the reconnaissance plane take off to detect the whereabouts of the escaped Japs. Since there are no Japs in the mountains, let the troops of the few companies and the five county brigades left in the mountains be sent to Move to the front line and participate in frontal combat."
Li Yunlong said: "That's it. Hurry up and give the order."
The Eighth Route Army and the county brigade that were encircling and suppressing the Japanese troops in the mountains received a telegram jointly sent by Xu Dalong, Li Yunlong, and Zhao Gang. They sincerely congratulated them on the results they had achieved in capturing the Japanese troops in the mountains, and offered praise and said that they would wait for this battle. After the completion of the work, rewards should be given based on merit.
The officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and the members of the county brigade were very excited when they saw that the leaders not only did not blame them, but also recognized their achievements.
Regardless of fatigue, they immediately followed the order in the telegram, gathered their troops and rushed to the front line of Licheng.
After Koki Hirota and Ichiro Yamahara stood out from the encirclement, they did not dare to stop and continued to march southeast. After dawn, they stopped for a short time.
After counting the number of people, both of them felt very depressed. The people who followed them out, in addition to the 220th Regiment, also had artillery and baggage troops reinforced for them, with a total number of nearly 5,000 people. Now there are only more than 1,100 people left, barely the size of an infantry brigade. There are more than 200 wounded among them, and there is not much ammunition left. Both of them felt that this combat operation was a failure.
They were unwilling to just go back and were reprimanded by their superiors. They always thought that they could make some achievements to alleviate their sins.
After discussion, both of them agreed that rushing the defeated soldiers like them to the front line to participate in the battle would not be of much use at all. But now that the main forces in the Eighth Route Army base area have been transferred to the front line of Licheng, the interior must be empty. It is better to attack the Eighth Route Army base area directly.
As long as the base area can be seriously damaged, the enemy will be forced to send the main force back for reinforcements, thus having the effect of supporting frontal battlefield operations.
After making up his mind, Yamahara Ichiro fanned the tired Japanese soldiers again, and then led them to continue heading southeast.
The Japanese were marching, and the roar of reconnaissance planes was heard in the sky. This is a mountainous area, and most of the mountains are exposed rocks. The vegetation is very sparse, and the devils cannot hide at all.
Hirota Koki saw the plane in the sky and knew it was a reconnaissance plane, but he didn't care. Because he wanted to let the Eighth Route Army know that they were going to attack the hinterland of the base area, he ordered the Japanese to continue marching.
The pilot of the reconnaissance plane saw the Japanese soldiers on the ground and reported the situation to the coalition command.
Xu Dalong immediately sent the telegram to Monk Wei, asking him to contact the reconnaissance plane pilot directly to catch up with and eliminate the Japs.
In Yangcheng County, Hirata Hiroshi and Nagawa Yuichi led the advance team and continued to advance towards the location of the military division headquarters.
The scouts in front discovered that a militia team was heading in this direction in the distance. There were many people on the other side, at least more than 200 people.
Hirata Hiroshi knew that they had been exposed, and if the other party discovered them, there would be no way to hide it.
He held up his telescope and observed carefully, and found a cemetery in the southwest. He immediately led the Japs towards that direction, wanting to hide there for a while and wait until the militia team on the opposite side passed by before moving on.
When Hirata Hiroshi and others were about to approach the cemetery, they discovered that there was a small road next to the cemetery. There was an Eighth Route Army unit in the southwest, and they were driving along the small road towards the cemetery.
Hirata Hiroshi knew that it was impossible to avoid it. If they fought with the enemy here, the enemy's reinforcements would arrive soon, and there would be only death waiting for them.
He continued his search and saw a village 1 kilometer away, and immediately led the team towards the village.
The Eighth Route Army troop heading towards the cemetery saw Hirata Hao and his team. They had already received a notice that the Japanese were disguised as the Eighth Route Army. Seeing the strange movements of this group of people, he chased them.
