Seeing the several military camps of the 49th Army outside Yangquan City, Stilwell and several generals from the Allied inspection team laughed out loud. The Canadian General Mondley patted Xie Tian on the shoulder and said with a smile: " General Xie, your tactics remind me of the distant cold weapon era. Are your soldiers preparing for a protracted war with the Japanese?"
Outside the towering bluestone city wall of Yangquan Ancient City, the 49th Army's barracks also built an earthen city wall, which was three to four meters high. There was a soldier standing guard every few steps on the earthen city wall, far away from the Japanese troops on the Yangquan ancient city wall. In contrast, but it is also a city wall. The earthen city wall of the 49th Army is already weaker than the city wall of Yangquan Ancient City in terms of momentum. It feels like a child challenging a street bully.
There have been countless sieges since ancient times, but there are only a handful of wars that actually used the method of building a city to siege a city.
This project is too big, labor-intensive, and not very effective. Especially in the current war, an earthen city wall like the one built by the 49th Army can blow up a large part of it with a casual bombardment. It is impossible to build it up at all. How much can it block the enemy, not to mention that it may face crushing by armored forces.
Xie Tian smiled at Mondley: "It's just a cover-up, and Miyamoto's division now only has one artillery regiment left that can pose a threat to this earthen city wall, but I estimate that the shells of his artillery regiment have also been destroyed by ours in the past ten days. It’s almost consumed.”
Qin Fen, who was accompanying him, said: "The Japanese artillery has not fired for two days. In the morning, I ordered the artillery regiment to fire a round at the Japanese artillery position. The Japanese did not fight back, but ran to the city and captured one or two hundred civilians and tied them to the cannon. around."
"What a fool," Xie Tian cursed and raised his binoculars to look in the direction of Yangquan City.
Stilwell and others also raised their binoculars to look over and saw clearly the situation at the top of Yangquan City. Stilwell and others couldn't help but frowned slightly.
On the top of the city, closest to the outer edge, stood rows of tied up people, including old, weak, women and children, some even holding infants in their arms.
The devils are using ordinary people as a shield.
Stilwell held up the telescope and said expressionlessly: "War makes people crazy, and the Japanese have lost their humanity."
Mondelli looked at Stilwell and smiled bitterly: "There will always be some civilians affected by the war. This is inevitable. It seems that there are not many civilians at the top of the city. It should be only one or two thousand people. This number is very important to this city. It is only a small part of the population of hundreds of thousands. It should be acceptable to break through the Japanese city defenses, lose one or two thousand civilians, and liberate the vast majority of the civilians."
Pang Yuan frowned slightly and translated the words of these people to Director He in a low voice, but kept his eyes on Xie Tian.
He knew that this argument would never be accepted by Xie Tian.
But the current situation is such that no matter what tactics Xie Tian uses to attack the city, it is inevitable to hurt the people.
Xie Tian glanced at Mondley expressionlessly, then turned to look at Qin Fen, Li Changshun and others who were accompanying him and asked: "It seems that the villagers are shouting. What are they shouting?"
Qin Fen and Li Changshun looked at each other. Qin Fen looked at Xie Tian and said, "The villagers have been shouting for two days. They are shouting. They are shouting."
Seeing Qin Fen's hesitation, Xie Tian frowned slightly and said, "Just tell me."
"They are shouting, Xie Baoqing, kill, Xie Baoqing, kill. Many people have been killed by the devils and thrown off the city wall, but more and more people are shouting. They, they would rather die than hope that we will soon Go into the city and destroy the Japanese."
As he spoke, Qin Fen's eyes turned red.
Xie Tian took a breath, glanced at his watch, and said with a dark face: "Go to your headquarters."
In the tent temporarily set up by the 49th Army headquarters, Xie Tian picked up the radio transmitter and turned the knob to connect to the Japanese channel.
A few devils on the channel were chattering and they didn't know what they were talking about. Xie Tian didn't care what they were talking about and interrupted directly: "Miyamoto Kujimu, I am Xie Baoqing. I am a man who can stand up and say a few words to me."
The voice of the Japs on the phone stopped abruptly. After waiting for a cigarette, Miyamoto Kujiumu's voice came from the radio: "Xie Baoqing, what do you want to say to me?"
Director He, Stilwell and others were also very surprised as to what Xie Tian wanted to tell Miyamoto Jiujiumu. There was not much time left before the final attack planned by Xie Tian. At this time, he actually wanted to talk to the Japanese commander.
And looking at Xie Tian's determined look, Director He, Stilwell and others realized that Xie Tian was definitely more than 90%, or even 100% sure of winning this battle.
If that's the case, why are you talking nonsense to the little devil?
Xie Tian ignored anyone's gaze and said into the microphone with a dark face: "Miyamoto Kujimu, I'll let you live. I'll give you half an hour to prepare. In half an hour, you and your group will You sons of bitches can leave the city from the east gate of Yangquan and return to North China. I promise that I will not send troops to hunt you down in Shanxi. But the prerequisite is that if you kill another common person in Yangquan City, I will give you a hundred lives. To repay.”
"Baga, Xie Baoqing, the Imperial Army of Japan will never be threatened by you."
"Damn it, I'm not negotiating terms with you. The countdown begins now. If you want to survive for half an hour, get out of Yangquan and Shanxi from the east gate for me."
After giving the ultimatum, Xie Tian simply cut off the call and turned to Qin Fen: "Order the 101st Division outside Dongmen City to withdraw from their positions and make way for the Japanese."
Qin Fen grinned in pain, responded loudly, turned around, grabbed the phone on the table and shook it.
Director He frowned slightly and looked at Xie Tian and asked, "Baoqing, do you really want to let the Japanese go?"
Xie Tian looked at Director He and nodded: "It's easy to kill them. Let them go first to avoid hurting innocent people."
Mr. He frowned and looked at Xie Tian for a moment, then reached out and patted Xie Tian on the arm: "Baoqing, let's come over here and say a few words."
As the saying goes, kindness cannot lead an army. This Xie Baoqing actually gave up his already prepared battle plan for some insignificant common people. This was simply unbelievable to Chief He.
The people trapped in Yangquan City are an elite division of the Japanese. Half of them have been wiped out by you, and they have been trapped by you for such a long time. They must have almost run out of ammunition and food. This is the perfect time to seize the opportunity to pursue victory. How can we give up so easily when it’s a good opportunity for an official?
Annihilating an elite Japanese division in one battle was an unprecedented victory that had never been seen since the Anti-Japanese War, and would have an unprecedented impact both at home and abroad.
You actually gave up this illustrious military exploit that was so easily available to you?
What do you think?
Chief He never believed that Xie Tian really did this for the one or two thousand civilians on top of the city.
Haven’t enough people died in China since the Anti-Japanese War? In the Battle of Nanjing alone, more than 300,000 people were killed by the Japs. One or two thousand civilians were sacrificed, and ten or two thousand Japs were killed. No matter how you calculate this account, you can calculate it. .
Mr. He pulled Xie Tian outside the tent. He wanted to know Xie Tian's true thoughts.
This Xie Baoqing has already been called a massacre. Director He never believed that Xie Baoqing could be a soft-hearted guy.
