At 2 a.m. on June 10, Yangquan.
At this time, gunshots were heard in Yangquan City one after another, continuously.
As Hashimoto said, the soldiers of the 122nd Division had no experience in street fighting. Not only did their advance speed be very slow, but the number of casualties was also rising rapidly.
In the headquarters of the Fourth Mixed Brigade, Hyakutake Harukichi leaned on his command sword and sat on a chair with his head bowed in thought.
Next to it, a group of staff officers were squatting on the ground burning maps, telegrams, documents and other information.
At this time, Chief of Staff Mitake Tsuda came over and reported: "Sir, all the wounded soldiers from the rear have been sent up, and the remaining two squadrons have also been assembled."
"Yoshi!"
Hyakutake Harukichi stood up: "Order the troops to turn to the north of the city!"
"Hi!"
. . . . . .
In the south of Yangquan City, under the broken wall of a private house, soldiers from a class of the 728th Regiment of the 122nd Division were suppressed by two crooked handles on the upper floor of the street opposite and did not dare to raise their heads.
Flares lit up in the sky from time to time. Although this allowed the soldiers of the 122nd Division to see, it also allowed the Japanese machine guns to find their targets quickly.
This suppressed class is unusual because their squad leader is a major.
That's right, monitor major!
I just want to ask you whether you should hang up or not?
"Ye Fei! Stop cowering there like a bastard and beat those two birds down on the opposite side!"
In the distance, the company commander of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 728th Regiment cursed loudly.
Speaking of the reorganization at that time, Ye Fei's ownership caused several group leaders to scramble over their heads.
There is no way, the army has expanded to more than 30,000 people, but there is still no sniper genius like Ye Fei or Ma Chao. Such people are really rare.
Ma Chao is Liu Yu's bodyguard. If he can't snatch it away, then Ye Fei will become the sweet potato.
In the end, Liu Yu made the decision and let Ye Fei make his own choice. He chose the 3rd Battalion of the 728th Regiment because the battalion commander Xu Hu was his old leader and took good care of him and even saved his life.
Of course Liu Yu was biased. Xu Hu was his old comrade-in-arms and one of the original "Five Tigers of the County Brigade". He let Ye Fei choose by himself because he had already guessed that Ye Fei would go to Xu Hu.
However, the ones above treated Ye Fei as if he were a peerless treasure. When it came to the battlefield, the company and platoon commanders at the grassroots level had to scold their mothers.
Listening to the company commander's scolding, Ye Fei curled his lips, then carefully raised his head and saw that the floor where the two machine guns were located was about 120 meters away from him.
He retracted his head, then bent down and changed his position, finding a dark place where the flares could not illuminate.
Then, he set up his gun, aimed at one of the buildings opposite, and shouted loudly to the company commander: "Brother Gou Sheng, find a way to make the machine gun on the opposite side fire!"
"I told you not to call me by my nickname, my name is Wu Ligong!"
The company commander cursed back, and then said to the person next to him: "Take off your clothes, hang them on the bayonets and throw them out together!"
The soldiers around him did as he was told.
The next moment, a dozen shadows rushed out from where the Eighth Route Army was hiding, and two machine guns there suddenly opened fire.
"Ta-ta-ta!"
At this moment, a flash of fire flashed in the shadow position where Ye Fei was, followed by the sound of 98K's gunfire that was obviously different from that of 38K.
"boom!"
A machine gun instantly misfired.
Taking this opportunity, the soldiers of the 7th Company ran out of the bunker one after another and ran forward for more than 20 meters along the blind spot of another machine gun. During this period, two more soldiers were hit by another machine gun. Fortunately, they were only on the thighs. Bite a piece of meat.
The two injured soldiers hid under a low wall, gritted their teeth, took off their tactical backpacks, took out bandages from inside, and bandaged them themselves.
"boom!"
There was another shot from Ye Fei's side, and the other machine gun also fell silent.
"rush!"
Company Commander Wu Ligong shouted and rushed towards the two buildings first.
When he was still thirty meters away, Wu Gouzi shouted again: "Grenade!"
Several soldiers behind him immediately unloaded the grenades, quickly unscrewed the cap, pulled the string, and threw them into the windows of the two buildings.
There was an explosion, and the 7th company commander ordered again: "First platoon is on guard, second platoon goes to the building on the left, third platoon follows me!"
As he said that, he rushed into the building with a platoon of soldiers and rushed directly to the second floor.
However, when he ran to the little Japs machine gunner, he only saw two bandaged, blood-covered Japs who were already dead. There was a hole as big as the mouth of a bowl on the back of one of them's head, with red and white stuff splattered all over the floor.
Wu Ligong touched his head: "I said that after Ye Fei shot down one of them, the machine gun firepower could not be renewed in time. The seriously injured people who are emotionally attached to the Japanese are guarding here!"
In the rear, pacify the city.
Liu Yu was also stunned for a moment when he received reports from Yangquan City that almost all of the Japanese firepower points destroyed were seriously injured.
He immediately guessed what the Japanese were thinking, and ordered the 731st Regiment in the east of the city to detach a battalion of troops to pursue northward. At the same time, he sent a telegram to Nie Shuai, asking them to pay attention to intercepting Hyakutake Haruyoshi.
. . . . . .
At the same time, Liu Bei Mountain north of Yangquan.
Hyakutake Harukichi led the remaining two squadrons and ordered to stop advancing as soon as they reached the foot of the mountain.
Looking at the deep valley in front of him, Hyakutake Haruki was thoughtful.
Mitake Tsuda ran over from behind and asked: "Sir, why did you stop? The Eighth Route Army may catch up at any time, and it is dangerous to stop here!"
Hyakutake Haruki ignored him, but turned to look to the west, where it was also dark.
Immediately, he issued an order: "Order, the entire army turns back to the west and goes to Shouyang!"
"Nani?"
Mitake Tsuda was shocked: "Sir, the command from the headquarters is for us to transfer to Yu County! Moreover, Shouyang has been captured by the Eighth Route Army!"
Hyakutake Harukichi glanced at him: "Is it definitely safe to go from Yu County? I bet that Liu Yu has already laid a trap there! In the direction of Shouyang, the Eighth Route Army there is fighting fiercely with the 37th Division. Their defense must be relatively weak, if we can bypass their defense line, we can join up with the 37th Division!"
"As for Yu County, the Wutai Mountain area to the north is the activity area of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army. From there, we can take the mountain road back to Taiyuan. How many of us will be left in the end?"
"Hey! Sir, you are wise!" Tsuda Mitake flattered him at the right time.
Hyakutake Harukichi did not comment, waved his hand and ordered: "Go and deliver the order quickly!"
"Hi!"
Soon, the Japs from the two squadrons turned westward, running along the foot of Liubei Mountain towards the Zhengtai Railway.
Hyakutake Harukichi fell at the end of the team. He watched the imperial soldiers running past him, and then turned to look in the direction of Yangquan.
"Liu Yu, our competition has just begun. Next time, I will not treat you with any contempt!"
. . . . . .
At 5 o'clock in the morning, Liu Yu was woken up by Tang Tianji while he was dozing off.
"Commander, the Japs in Yangquan City have been completely eliminated!"
"Oh." Liu Yu responded with a confused look, and then asked: "Deputy Commander Nie and the others in the north, have they squatted down to Momotake Harukichi?"
Tang Tianji replied: "There is no news yet, and the 731st regiment has been stationed in Yu County. The Yu County security group did not resist at all and surrendered directly. According to them, Hyakutake Haruyoshi has never returned to Yu County. county."
"Huh?" Liu Yu was startled for a moment and said doubtfully, "This is strange, then where did he go?"
Liu Yu had several speculations about the Japanese army's response.
Either Hyakutake Harukichi defended Yangquan until dawn, and then the Japanese troops from Yuci and Shimen on the periphery launched a massive attack to completely annihilate Liu Yu's troops in the center.
Alternatively, Hyakutake Haruyoshi could retreat to Yu County and rely on the mountains around Yu County for defense, because during the day, the artillery of the 122nd Division would not be able to be so unscrupulous, and he would have a high possibility of holding on until reinforcements arrived.
In the end, Hyakutake Haruyoshi passed directly through Yuxian County, took the mountain road, climbed over Mount Wutai, and retreated to Taiyuan.
The first two are unlikely, because Tumen Pass is now a big hedgehog, and the little devil can't even try to break it without leaving tens of thousands of corpses behind!
The 37th Division in Shouyang was just organized and sent to Shanxi in April. It has only been two months. Liu Yu is not afraid of this group of Japanese soldiers in the countryside, even if they are joined by the 41st Division.
Unless Xiangyue Qingsi transferred the 20th Division from Yuncheng to challenge the 122nd Division in a duel, Liu Yu would really be a little afraid of him. It's not that Liu Yu is afraid of the Japanese's permanent division, but the 20th Division also has a 1st Heavy Artillery Brigade, otherwise it would be impossible to make the first theater of war difficult with just one division.
But if he really transferred the 20th Division, General Wei Lihuang would laugh out loud.
In the end, there is only the third possibility left. Therefore, as long as the 115th Division can hold the northwest area of Yuxian Basin and the several passes leading to Wutai Mountain, Hyakutake Haruyoshi will be dead!
But now the news coming back from the front actually says that Hyakutake Harukichi has never entered Yu County, so where did he go? Did he fly?
Liu Yu looked at the combat map and looked at various locations on the map, trying to find where Hyakutake Harukichi might be going.
Finally, when he saw the location of Shouyang, he immediately thought of something and asked Tang Tianji: "Have the independent regiment reached Shouyang? Did they leave any garrison troops along the way?"
Tang Tianji was stunned for a moment, and then immediately said: "We have arrived in Shouyang! Because the 727th Regiment is facing a lot of pressure from the 37th Division, the entire independent regiment has arrived in Shouyang! Commander, you mean?"
Liu Yu straightened up and sighed: "I underestimated this old devil, he is so courageous! I guess he followed the Independent Regiment and ran towards Shouyang!"
Tang Tianji also reacted: "Then, should the independent regiment send troops to go back and search?"
"It's a useless search. There are mountains everywhere in that area. He's just trying to hide in the dark. How can he find it? If he doesn't make trouble, he will ambush him!"
Liu Yu glanced at the sky outside the house, breathed out and said: "In another hour or so, it will be dawn, and then the Japanese planes will be dispatched! Forget it, just run away if he runs away, let Shouyang side Pay attention to the defense lines on the side and rear, don't let Momotake Haruyoshi cooperate with the Japanese planes to launch a sneak attack."
