At the headquarters of the Japanese Fourth Brigade in Yangquan.
Brigade Chief of Staff Kurosawa Shoji looked at the pile of minced meat collected in front of him and was stunned, like a sculpture.
The minced meat was almost wrapped in a shirt, which was collected at the impact point. It contained gravel, soil, and shrapnel, and blood drops flowed out like a filter from the shirt.
Although Mitake Tsuda was violent, murderous, and a lunatic when it came to fighting, Kurosawa Shoji felt that Mitake Tsuda was a good brigade leader.
But such a good brigade leader has now turned into a pile of scraps, and the pile of scraps in front of him may not all be his.
It was hard for Kurosawa Shoji to imagine that the major general brigade commander who had been commanding them to fight half an hour ago had already lost his body in just half an hour.
It's very uncomfortable.
"chief of staff?"
The captain of the second battalion, Toshio Ogata, walked in with a dark face and a saber on his shoulder. When he saw this, he shouted cautiously.
"Where is your Excellency, the brigade commander?"
When he was just at the front, Toshio Ogata was fully focused on directing the soldiers to attack the Eighth Route Position. He only saw the artillery position being bombed, but did not notice that the brigade commander was also bombed.
His face was darkened entirely by the smoke from the shells.
Hearing the voice, Kurosawa Shoji came back to his senses and pointed at the minced meat on the table: "Your Excellency, the brigade commander, your jade is in pieces."
"Nani? Is this the brigade commander?" Ogata Toshio was stunned when he saw it, "This is impossible!"
"Tell me it's not true!"
"Chief of Staff, tell me this isn't true!"
Ogata Toshio murmured to himself in an unbelievable tone.
"Ogata-kun, it's true!" Mitake Tsuda said dejectedly, "Your Excellency, the brigade commander, was blown up by artillery from the Eighth Route Army."
Hearing this, Toshio Ogata seemed to have lost all his energy and spirit, and was in a state of despair.
Immediately, he suddenly raised his head again, with a sharp expression and his eyes filled with bloodshot eyes: "I'm going to avenge the brigade commander!"
"Baga!" Kurosawa Shoji shouted, "The firepower of the Eighth Route Army is beyond imagination. If you attack the Eighth Route Army now, you will only die."
"Then what should we do?" Toshio Ogata stopped and turned around and asked, "Can we just huddle in Yangquan City?"
"Ogata-kun, how many casualties did your second brigade have?" Kurosawa Shoji asked.
"There are more than 600 casualties, but we can still fight." Toshio Ogata said suddenly, "Chief of Staff, please give me another chance. I will definitely capture the Lion Rock and chop off the head of the Eighth Route Commander to pay tribute to the Brigade Commander. Heroic Spirit.”
"Nani? The casualties are so high?" Mitake Tsuda said in an incredible tone.
With only one wave of attacks, they not only failed to capture the Lion Rock position as expected, but also suffered more than 600 casualties, which was far beyond Mitake Tsuda's expectations.
What was even more difficult for Kurosawa Shoji to accept was that even the brigade commander was involved. It could be said that this attack was a Muggle loss.
This is just the attacking force, plus the artillery lost by the artillery brigade under the eight-way bombardment, plus the casualties last night, the loss suddenly exceeded a thousand people.
Although incredible, this is the cruel fact.
There are still a thousand capable soldiers in the city, but at least 200 must be left to defend the city, otherwise they will be easily stolen by the Eighth Route Army.
There is also a large-scale Eighth Route Army attack force east of Yangquan. The Imperial Alliance Army alone will definitely not be able to defend Yangquan City.
But without the artillery cover, what can we do now to fight against this powerful eight-pronged force?
Kurosawa Shoji's eyes dropped and he looked at the map, thinking.
"Artillery..." Suddenly, Kurosawa Masaji's expression changed. The Eighth Route Army could win this battle all thanks to artillery.
As long as the Eighth Route Army's artillery can be dealt with, there will be no difficulty in defeating the Eighth Route Army.
While he was thinking about it, the communications staff member walked in with the telegram in his hand and gave Kurosawa Shoji a military salute. His tone was emotionless: "Report to the chief of staff, General Shinozuka sent an urgent message to ask where we have advanced."
Kurosawa Shoji raised his head with a slightly embarrassed expression. Where did he push...how to reply to this?
"Call back to General Shinozuka immediately. Our unit was stubbornly blocked by the Eighth Route Army, designated as the Taihang Mountain Hero Regiment, at Lion Rock. It suffered heavy losses, with more than half of the casualties. Your Excellency, the brigade commander... is in pieces."
"Requesting tactical guidance from headquarters."
"Send it out immediately!"
The flag of the New Regiment read Taihang Mountain Heroes Regiment. Because the flag-raising period was short and the New Regiment was relatively low-key, Kurosawa Shoji did not know which Eighth Route Army unit this was.
"Hi!" The communications staff member memorized the contents of the telegram, closed the folder, paused, and quickly walked out of the war room and walked straight to the communications room.
…
In the inner city of Taiyuan, the headquarters of the Japanese First Army.
The sand table set up by the combat staff overnight was covered with red flags and mini sun flags.
The small red flag represents the strongholds that the Eighth Route Army has conquered, while the sun flag represents the Japanese military's strongholds on the Zhengtai and Tongpu railways that have not yet been conquered.
More than 200 red flags were placed on the sand table along the Tongpu and Zhengtai Railways.
Chief of Communications Staff Kasai Toshimatsu reported anxiously: "Your Excellency, Commander, as of 8:00 a.m., more than 200 small and medium-sized bases on Tongpu Railway and Shotai Railway have lost contact."
"Among them, only more than 30 garrison teams from small strongholds withdrew into large strongholds."
"Whether these strongholds that have lost contact have been captured by the Eighth Route Army is still unknown."
"The scale of the Eighth Route Army's offensive this time is greater than any previous one. The number of troops dispatched by the Eighth Route Army is conservatively estimated to be no less than 40 regiments."
Because the Japanese army did not receive any intelligence in advance, the Eighth Route Army's attack was carefully planned in advance, the headquarters' orders were resolute, and the troops performing the mission were well concealed in advance. The sudden attack caught the Japanese army by surprise.
Of course, the First Army had more than just a few brigades. There were also three divisions surrounding Zhongtiao Mountain, besieging the Central Army in Zhongtiao Mountain.
However, those divisions did not receive orders from the North China Front Army Headquarters, and Yoshio Shinozuka did not dare to mobilize them easily.
Moreover, the current mobilization of the forces of those divisions cannot save the fire from far away.
The Japanese and puppet troops stationed on Tongpu Road and Zhengtai Road in Shanxi were immediately stunned.
Yoshio Shinozuka's face was as dark as water. The counterattack plan formulated by the staff was: assemble troops to attack the Eighth Route from the east and west of Pinghan and Tongpu Road, and assemble the Ninth Brigade and the Fourth Brigade to attack the Eighth Route from the east and west. It is expected to use three Within days, the Eighth Route Army was driven away from the Zhengtai Railway.
But at the moment, it seems that the situation is much worse than Yoshio Shinozuka imagined. Most of the strongholds that have lost contact have probably been captured by the Eighth Route Army.
Yoshio Shinozuka asked in a deep voice: "Is there no news about the fourth brigade yet?"
At present, the headquarters of the Ninth Brigade has left the Yuci area along the Zhengtai Railway. News has come that although the Ninth Brigade has been blocked by the Eighth Route Army and is advancing slowly, it is advancing at least.
There is no news at all about the Fourth Brigade.
As soon as he finished speaking, a communications soldier walked in holding a telegram, paused for a moment and then handed the telegram to Kasai Toshimatsu.
"Your Excellency, Commander, there is an urgent telegram from the Fourth Brigade..." Toshimatsu Kasai, who only glanced at the contents of the telegram, narrowed his eyes and his expression gradually became unbelievable.
"Read it!" Shinozuka Yoshio's eyes were fixed on the sand table, without noticing Kasai Toshimatsu's expression, he waved his hand and said expressionlessly.
"Hi!" Kasai Toshiatsu held the telegram in both hands and read loudly, "Our unit was stubbornly blocked by the Eighth Route Army, codenamed Taihang Mountain Hero Regiment, at Lion Rock."
"The enemy's firepower was fierce. The fourth brigade suffered heavy losses, with more than half of the casualties. Your Excellency, the brigade commander... is in pieces."
"Chief of Staff Colonel Kurosawa Shoji requests tactical guidance!"
"His Majesty the Emperor is on board, and the Imperial Japanese Army is on board!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire First Army combat hall fell into dead silence. All the officers, including Yoshio Shinozuka and Hideyoshi Kusuyama, froze as if their acupuncture points were tapped at the same time.
"Nani?" Kusuyama Hideyoshi's tone was full of disbelief.
"idiot!"
"waste!"
Shinozuka Yoshio was furious.
Everyone present did not expect that Mitake Tsuda would die, and at such a critical time, which made the already bad situation of the First Army even worse.
Kusuyama Hideyoshi snatched the telegram from Kasai Toshimatsu and read it quickly with an expression of disbelief.
"Which Eighth Route Army is this Taihang Mountain Hero Group?" Kusuyama Hideyoshi looked at the intelligence staff officer Takeo Andeng.
"It's the new regiment of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army. The leader is Li Yunlong." An Tengwunan paused and said, he knew this well.
"Is it Li Yunlong again?" Yoshio Shinozuka took a deep breath to calm down the anger in his heart, and his tone was cold.
There was murderous intent in his words.
"The remaining troops of the 4th Brigade will be placed under the full command of Colonel Kurosawa. The First Army Aviation will take off immediately to cooperate with the 4th Brigade."
"Li Yunlong must be completely eliminated, and Li Yunlong must be eliminated at any cost."
Shinozuka Yoshio's eyes narrowed behind his black round glasses, filled with murderous intent.
With the commander's personal order, the commander of the Eighth Route District and regiment level was somewhat inferior, but at this time Yoshio Shinozuka no longer cared about that little bit of face.
A total of three major commanders died in the hands of Li Yunlong, and even a major general brigade commander died in the hands of Li Yunlong today...
If things continue like this, he, the lieutenant general, may not be able to save his head.
Li Yunlong, damn it!
At this time, Yoshio Shinozuka could no longer suppress his murderous intention towards Li Yunlong.
"Hi!" Toshimatsu Kasai and Hideyoshi Kusuyama nodded in unison.
Then the two began to perform their respective duties. Kasai Toshimatsu was responsible for liaison with the Fourth Brigade, and Kusuyama Hideyoshi was responsible for formulating plans and coordinating the command of aircraft for rescue.
…
In the morning, the results of each unit were summarized at the Eighth Route Army headquarters.
The 5th Regiment of the main attack force of the right column of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region captured Niangzi Pass at dawn. The main force covered the engineers, destroyed a large number of enemy fortifications, and blew up the Guandong Railway Bridge.
The first phase of the attack missions of each brigade and regiment was basically completed, and more than 200 Japanese strongholds were destroyed overnight.
The Zhengtai Railway west of Niangziguan has basically been controlled by the 129th Division. Except for some medium and large strongholds, the Japanese have become deaf and blind.
This means that the initiative on the battlefield has been firmly controlled by the Eighth Route Army.
Next, the Japanese will only be beaten passively.
In the morning, the New Regiment gave the Japanese Fourth Brigade a head-on blow at Lion Rock, wiping out more than 700 enemies.
When the news came, the front of the Eighth Route Army cheered.
…
(Finish coding early and wait for the news.)
