In Taiyuan, the headquarters of the First Army.
The lights were brightly lit in the conference room of the headquarters, and the staff of the entire First Army headquarters were busy.
On the sand table in front of Yoshio Shinozuka, there were more half-sized and large flags than yesterday. Each half-sized flag represented a large stronghold that had been captured by the Eighth Route Army.
Although most of these strongholds have lost contact with the headquarters, frequent low-altitude reconnaissance by aircraft also allowed the Japanese to figure out the specific number of these strongholds captured by the Eighth Route Army.
Chief of Staff Hideyoshi Kusuyama paused.
"Your Excellency, Commander, judging from the current situation, the Eighth Route Army's main target for launching this campaign is likely to be the Zhengtai Railway."
"Although Tongpu Road and Pinghan Road were also attacked to varying degrees, the Eighth Route Army's offensive was far less fierce than that of the Zhengtai Railway. It was more like the Eighth Route Army's response to the Zhengtai Railway."
"As the Imperial Army frequently mobilized reinforcements to the Zhengtai Railway, more and more Eighth Route Army troops were involved in the fighting."
"Fightings are taking place in northwest Shanxi, central Shanxi, southeastern Shanxi, and even central and southern Hebei. The situation is now out of control."
Yoshio Shinozuka frowned and asked, "Kusuyama-kun, given the current level of damage to the Shota Railway by the Eighth Route Army, how long will it take at least for the Shota Railway to be restored to traffic?"
"It will take at least half a year!" Kusuyama Hideyoshi said, "This is just a conservative estimate, because the Eighth Route Army's destruction of the railway is far from over. The Eighth Route Army wants to completely destroy the Shota Railway. If the Eighth Route Army is allowed to continue to destroy it, I am afraid it will be ruined for a year. It is difficult to restore traffic on the Zhengtai Railway!"
Shinozuka Yoshio's frown deepened, and then he looked at the intelligence staff officer Andeng Takeo and asked: "Ando-kun, have you shown goodwill to the Central China Army and the Shanxi-Sui Army? What is the attitude of Wei Lihuang and Yan Xishan?"
"Report to the General!" An Tengwu Nan paused and said, "Currently Yan Xishan's attitude is unclear, and Wei Lihuang has clearly rejected the imperial army's goodwill."
"idiot!"
"Wei Lihuang... If you don't eat the toast, you will be punished with a drink."
Yoshio Shinozuka cursed, his words filled with killing intent.
Kusuyama Hideyoshi said: "Zhongwei Lihuang, the senior general in China, is the main combatant and has an ambiguous relationship with the Eighth Route Army. His attitude is expected."
Wei Lihuang's attitude is very obvious. If the Japanese army dares to mobilize troops from southern Shanxi, then I will kill you. Even if I can't defeat you, I will make it difficult for Japan.
Yan Xishan, on the other hand, is more tactful and will probably not send troops. Even if he sends troops, it will probably be just for a while.
Yoshio Shinozuka nodded, finally looked at communications staff officer Toshimatsu Kasai, and asked: "Kasai-kun, have you still not contacted Takahashi Brigade?"
"Report to General, not yet!" Kasai Toshimatsu said suddenly, "Our reconnaissance fighter jets flew over Shouyang County before dark and found that the headquarters of the Takahashi Brigade was under shelling!"
Kusuyama Hideyoshi said: "Another beheading with a cannon! From Captain Sakata to Major General Tsuda Mitake, and then to Major Takahashi, this is Li Yunlong's consistent trick."
Shinozuka Yoshio's face gradually turned black: "Li Yunlong is unscrupulous in killing the imperial army on the Shotai Railway and attacking cities and plundering territory. Isn't it possible that no one in our First Army of the Empire of Japan can defeat him?"
As Shinozuka Yoshio glanced over, all the staff members hurriedly paused. Although Yamamoto Kazuki did not lower his head, he remained silent, with a rare and solemn look on his face that was as tight as a sculpture.
"idiot!"
Unexpectedly, no one can cure Li Yunlong, even Yamamoto Kazuki, whom he always valued, has died down.
Yoshio Shinozuka cursed angrily, slammed the blue and white porcelain tea cup to the ground, and left angrily with the Lieutenant General's command sword in his arms.
…
In Shouyang County, in front of the Japanese ammunition warehouse.
Kong Jiezheng asked in a deep voice: "Old Li, what exactly do you want to do?"
Li Yunlong didn't speak, but took the bucket off the back of guard Huang Erhu.
Then he took out a map of Shanxi from the map bucket and spread it out in front of Ding Wei and Kong Jie.
When the two saw this, they didn't know what Li Yunlong was going to do, so they came over with curious expressions.
"Old Li, what are you..." Ding Wei asked.
A mysterious smile appeared on Li Yunlong's face, and he pointed at the map and said, "Look, it's almost 70 kilometers from our place to Taiyuan. We can get there in one night by marching urgently."
"With our small number of troops, it is definitely unrealistic to attack Taiyuan City, and the firepower is not enough."
"However, I can use mountain cannons to bombard the Xincheng Airport outside Taiyuan City from a long distance."
"A few months ago, after our regiment killed the seventh regiment of Japanese tanks in Hulugou, during the retreat, Japanese planes killed dozens of cavalrymen from Laozi's cavalry battalion."
"All the cavalry are our Lao Li's treasures. I still remember this account."
At that time, Li Yunlong wanted to take the artillery battery to bombard the Japanese airport, but was stopped by Zhao Gang. After calming down, Li Yunlong kept this account in his heart.
But now, the time is ripe to settle accounts with the Japanese aircraft.
Kong Jie said immediately after hearing this.
"Lao Li, please don't act recklessly."
"How do you shell?"
"During the day, before your mountain artillery battalion even got close to the airport, the Japanese plane spotted you."
"Even if you have an anti-aircraft artillery group, but the Japanese find that there is danger, and the sky and the earth work together to surround you, they will also kill your mountain artillery battalion."
"Of course I do this work at night." Li Yunlong said, "I'm not crazy about approaching Taiyuan in broad daylight."
"If it's night," Ding Wei said in a deep voice, "your artillery can't see the target, how can they calibrate the shooting parameters?"
Li Yunlong said: "Don't worry, this American mountain cannon has an effective range of 10 kilometers. Within the range, the artillery will hit wherever I point."
"Just brag." Kong Jie said with disbelief on his face, "You still point out where to hit. If you have this ability, the commander of our division's artillery regiment has already asked you to do it."
"You're really right, Lao Kong." Li Yunlong said, "I'm not bragging, Lao Li. The division commander personally called me last time. Guess what the division commander said? He really wanted me to kill the corps commander, but I was rejected.”
After a pause, Li Yunlong said again: "As for the shelling, you don't have to worry. My shells will definitely fall on the Japanese airport and planes."
During the day, Li Yunlong carefully observed the Japanese reconnaissance fighter jets and found that there were at least ten Japanese planes at Taiyuan Airport.
Killing one Japanese plane will get the aid of three mountain cannons. If you blow up all these Japanese planes, you can get at least thirty mountain cannons.
Together with the 6 Japanese planes shot down before, that's almost 50 mountain artillery pieces. Plus the mountain artillery battalion of the new regiment, it's almost the number of artillery pieces of a Japanese mountain artillery regiment.
Make a real fortune!
"Lao Li, what do you want to do?" Ding Wei asked.
"How can Lao Ding and I cooperate with you?" Kong Jie also asked.
"I don't need any cooperation from you." Li Yunlong said, "If you two are interested, you can come with me to observe."
"Then I must be interested." Ding Wei laughed.
"If you don't invite me, I'll go take a look." Kong Jie said with a smile.
"Then it's settled." Li Yunlong said, "The seized cars will be left to our new group. I will be of great use."
"No problem!" Kong Jie and Ding Wei said in unison, and then the two brothers looked at each other and smiled.
During the capture of Yangquan, eight trucks were seized, but they had not yet reached Shouyang County.
Li Yunlong wanted to use these trucks to tow the mountain cannon along the highway to a range of ten kilometers from Taiyuan.
The Sharp Sword Squadron lurked near the airport, calculated the shooting parameters based on precision methods, and used the radio to call artillery to bombard the Japanese airport.
The advantage of using a truck for towing is that it is convenient and fast, and the truck bed can also hold artillery shells and artillery.
The 70-kilometer journey will take at least one night if you rely on your legs, but it can be reached in three or four hours at most by driving a truck.
Driving a vehicle is a basic skill for members of the Sharp Sword Squadron. In an ambush battle on the Yuliao Highway a few months ago, two Japanese trucks were captured.
The Yu-Liao Highway was controlled by the New Regiment, and the Japanese did not dare to come out in the county town, so Lu Yingjun and his team members used these two trucks and learned to drive trucks on the Yu-Liao Highway.
However, Li Yunlong also knew very well that tonight was definitely not the time to bombard the Japanese airport.
Because of the good equipment, although the Zhengtai Railway and Highway from Yangquan to Shouyang were blocked by the 386th Brigade and the militia.
But the battle from Shouyang to Yuci is still going on. Some Japanese strongholds have radio stations that can directly communicate with the Japanese First Army Headquarters.
So, now we can only wait.
After the 385th Brigade clears out the Japanese strongholds on the section from Shouyang to Yuci, Li Yunlong can take action.
Next, the three brothers happily divided up the captured food, weapons and ammunition into three equal parts, each taking one.
In total, there are more than 900 rifles, more than 50 machine guns, nearly 200,000 rounds of bullets, more than 2,000 artillery shells, more than 300,000 kilograms of grain, 3 intact Type 92 infantry guns, 6 Type 97 mortars, and 9 2 Type 4 mountain guns and 1 Type 38 field gun.
This is nothing to Li Yunlong, but to Ding Wei and Kong Jie, it is a huge fortune.
Now the three brothers all found militiamen, civilians and transportation teams to help them transport ammunition and food back to the base area.
This place is not close to the base area, almost 100 kilometers away.
That night, Li Yunlong asked the Sharp Sword Squadron to go to Yangquan and hide all eight trucks near Shouyang County.
And sent a combat team of the Sword Squadron to penetrate and conduct reconnaissance near Taiyuan.
Basically what the New Regiment seized were Type 94 trucks. The Japanese trucks, like their tanks, all looked a little dicey. The maximum load capacity of such trucks was only 1.5 tons.
However, it is sufficient for towing a 75mm American mountain gun.
At the same time, Li Yunlong asked Fang Lei to send a telegram to the brigade commander and report the detailed combat plan to the brigade commander.
The brigade commander knew that Li Yunlong could not sit still. After serious and careful consideration, he agreed to Li Yunlong's bold plan and reported it to the division headquarters, hoping to get the cooperation of his brother unit, the 385th Brigade.
There was no fighting in the next two days. More than 5,000 soldiers from the New First Regiment, the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment joined in the battle to destroy the railway.
The 386th Brigade mobilized and organized the public to destroy railways, stations and ancillary facilities using methods such as demolition, blasting, fire, and flooding.
The entire Zhengtai Railway track on the section from Shouyang to Pingding was basically destroyed, and no complete track could be seen.
On the afternoon of the fourth day after the entire attack campaign began, Li Yunlong finally received a telegram from the brigade commander ordering tonight's operation.
