Almost at the same time. The positions of each battalion of the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment received 3 basic ammunition airdrop supplies.
This gave the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment, which were running out of ammunition, a lot of blood. The Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment had to withstand the attack of four Japanese divisions and more than 20,000 puppet troops.
Although five ammunition bases were prepared before the war, and the equipment of the main force was better than that of the Japanese, the gap between the military strength and the Japanese and puppet troops was too big.
The Japanese were engaged in a round-the-clock battle with the New Second Regiment and the Independent Regiment. Without sufficient ammunition and appropriate tactics, it would be impossible to block the attack of the Japanese and puppet troops.
Beiping. Iron Lion Alley, North China Front Army Headquarters. Commander Okamura Neiji was not a suspicious person at first, but he has become suspicious recently and looks at everyone like a spy of the Eighth Route Army.
Sometimes he looked in the mirror and saw something was wrong with the person in the mirror. After the 5th Heavy Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Infantry Regiment were ambushed in Miaoergou.
Okamura Neiji also ordered the section chief of the Peking Special High School Course, the chief of the Peking Secret Service, and the First Lieutenant Matsui to conduct a secret investigation on the communications staff and others who knew the departure time of the 5th Heavy Artillery Regiment.
The suspicion of Sue Seizo, the deputy chief of staff, has been reduced a lot, but the suspicion of Sue Seizo has not been completely eliminated.
This time the whereabouts of the heavy artillery convoy was leaked, and the communications staff member was the most suspect, although this communications staff member was specially transferred from the mainland by Neji Okamura.
The only one who can grasp the whereabouts of the heavy artillery convoy and deliver the news is the Ministry of Communications. After all, the gate of the headquarters is only allowed in and out these days. No one can pass the information out, so the Eighth Route Army may have obtained the information from the Communications Department.
But after all, there is no evidence, and we cannot arrest people casually. As for the whereabouts of Miyano Michichi being leaked and then being blown up by a bomb, it was Ohashi Changan who took the blame. Who asked him to betray the interests of the empire?
In the office, Matsui's first left officer reported to Okamura Neiji: "General, the Special High School Division has launched an investigation into the communications staff officer Harada Jiro and the telegraph operator, and no abnormalities have been found so far."
"The records of every telegram sent and received are here, and no abnormalities were found." After hearing what Matsui Yuichi said, Okamura Neiji looked at the investigation report again, and frowned slightly.
What does it mean that no exception is found? There is no problem with the communications staff, and there is no problem with the telegraph operator responsible for sending and receiving telegrams. Is it me, the commander, who has the problem?
The defenders of the train stations along the way must not have known about the heavy artillery convoy. Although the train was pulling a cannon, it was basically wrapped in tarpaulin. The entire 3rd Infantry Regiment had never gotten off the train, so it was impossible to reveal its whereabouts.
Moreover, the communications staff's contact person for the Type 94 armored train had no way of knowing what was going on.
Therefore, the only people who knew the whereabouts of the heavy artillery convoy were him, Okamura Neiji, the communications staff officer, the telegraph operator and the decoder.
The telegraph operator who sends and receives the telegram only receives a string of numbers and does not know the content. The decoder is responsible for converting the telegram code into content, or converting the content into code.
Unless the decoder and the telegraph operator were in cahoots. Or maybe someone from the communications teams of the 5th Heavy Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Infantry Regiment provided intelligence to the Eighth Route Army.
But now the 5th Heavy Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Infantry Regiment have all been destroyed, and there is no evidence of their deaths. Okamura Neiji was under a lot of pressure. The Eighth Route Army seemed to have opened its eyes to fight the Locust Army, and the Locust Army knew very little about the Eighth Route Army. What a slap in the face?
The old devil is very dissatisfied with this investigation report, even if he finds a scapegoat. Matsui Oichi naturally saw Okamura Neji's dissatisfaction. He was a little uneasy, but he didn't dare to say anything.
"Continue the investigation, get down!" Finally, Okamura Neiji put down the investigation report and waved his hand to Matsui Oichi.
"Hi!" Matsui Man breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head and turned to leave. Shortly after Matsuio left, Deputy Chief of Staff Arisoe Seizo hurried in and reported to Okamura Neiji: "Commander, I have a new discovery." Okamura Neiji looked shocked. His eyes flashed, and he asked in a deep voice: "Youmo-kun, have you discovered the spy lurking in the headquarters?"
"That's not true..." Youmo Jingsan was slightly startled, secretly saying that His Excellency the Commander was a bit confused when it came to spying.
Seeing that the light in Okamura Neji's eyes dimmed quickly, Yumo Seizan said in a deep voice: "I analyzed the battlefield in northwestern Shanxi and found that the Eighth Route Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment are about to be unable to hold on."
"Oh?" Okamura Neji's expression changed.
"Why do you say that?" You Mojing Sanbian said: "The two divisions of the Locust Army attacking from the North Road, and the two divisions of the Locust Army attacking from the South Road, have been attacking the two regiments of the Eighth Route Army for more than five days. "Including the five-day truce between the Japanese army and other heavy artillery regiments, the Japanese army has been attacking the Eighth Route Army base in northwest Shanxi for 10 days.
Before this, Neji Okamura and Seizo Arisu had never thought that two regiments of the Eighth Route Army could withstand the attack of four elite second-line divisions of the Japanese army for so long.
It simply refreshed their understanding. I never expected that in addition to the New First Regiment, the New Second Regiment and the Independent Regiment would be so difficult to deal with.
But fortunately, these are the three regiments with the strongest combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army. If all the more than 100 regiments of the Eighth Route Army are as powerful as this, how can the Locust Army fight?
Youmo Seizan continued: "The combat effectiveness of the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment really impressed the Locust Army, but compared with the Locust Army, there is still a big difference in military strength. I analyzed the combat reports submitted by each division and found that this The casualties of the Locust Army and the Locust Alliance Army have been decreasing in the past two days, which shows that the Eighth Route Army’s firepower has weakened compared to the previous few days, and the Eighth Route Army does not have much ammunition.”
"Arimatsu-san makes sense." Okamura Neji narrowed his eyes behind his round glasses and nodded. As the commander of the North China Front, he could naturally see this from the combat report, but these days he was focused on catching spies, so he ignored the combat report.
However, not only was the spy not caught, Okamura Neji even made himself physically and mentally exhausted. Okamura continued: "As the defensive side, the Eighth Route Army has a huge gap in military strength with the Locust Army. If you want to stop the Locust Army's attack, you must have stronger firepower."
"Especially machine gun fire and artillery fire."
"If you want powerful firepower, in addition to having machine guns and cannons, you must also have sufficient ammunition."
"The Eighth Route Army's airport was blown up by us. They have no way to receive weapons and ammunition. Once the ammunition is used up, the Eighth Route Army will have little combat effectiveness."
"That's right!" Youmo Jingsan said with certainty,
"I have calculated with several combat officers in the staff department. It is estimated that in one to two days at most, the ammunition of the Eighth Route Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment will be exhausted. By then, the Locust Army will defeat them and launch attacks from the north and south wings. Outflanking Li Yunlong’s Ministry.”
"Yoshi!"
"Thank you for your hard work, Arisu-kun." Okamura Neji nodded happily. Arisu Seizan's analysis changed Okamura's impression of Arisu Seizan a lot.
"It's not hard!" Youmo Jingsan bowed his head,
"Serve the Empire of Japan and His Majesty the Emperor." At this moment, Communications Staff Officer Harada Jiro, holding a stack of telegrams in his hand, hurried in and reported to Okamura Neji: "Report to Commander, the 21st The division, 23rd Division, 25th and 35th Division reported almost at the same time.”
"At 3 o'clock this afternoon, the Eighth Route Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment received a large amount of airdropped supplies at the same time."
"Nani? Is there such a thing?" Okamura Neji suddenly stood up with a gloomy expression. Youmo Jingsan also suddenly turned his head, his face full of disbelief.
The Eighth Route Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment actually received airdrop supplies? The two of them were still discussing just now, confirming that the ammunition of the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment was about to be exhausted. Unexpectedly, the next minute they received news that the other party had obtained ammunition.
This is very uncomfortable.
"Hi!" Harada Jiro lowered his head and said with certainty: "These airdrop supplies were all airdropped in front of the locust army. The air defense firepower of each division fired at the enemy planes and the enemy fighter jets attacked. Each division suffered equal losses. At least one squadron of troops!" Except for the 10th Division, every division sent a telegram to the frontline headquarters and copied it to the North China Front Headquarters.
There was too much content in the telegram, and Jiro Harada could only read and summarize the contents of each division before reporting to Neji Okamura.
Seeing that Okamura Neji didn't speak, Harada Jiro put the telegram on the table, lowered his head and turned to leave. Okamura Neiji picked up the telegrams and read them one by one. When he saw the third telegram, he couldn't help but tear all the telegrams into pieces angrily.
"Baga!"...Northwestern Shanxi. Dagu Town, the new regiment headquarters.
"Captain Li, my liaison officer just sent a telegram. The airdrop of three basic ammunition for the New Second Regiment and the Independent Regiment has been in place." Chen Feng walked into the regiment headquarters with a telegram in his hand, and then handed the telegram to Li Yunlong.
Li Yunlong took it and read the telegram quickly, laughing and saying: "Thank you very much, Consultant Chen!" Sure enough, after a while, the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment sent Li Yunlong a telegram, saying that they had received an airdrop supply of 3 base ammunition, and thanked Boss Chen. .
After reading the telegram, Li Yunlong couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The ammunition problem of the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment has been solved, and they can survive the Japanese attack for a few more days, then the people can safely cross the Yellow River.
"In five days at most, when the last group of people on the other side of the Yellow River cross the Yellow River, our new regiment can launch a major counterattack against the 10th Division." Zhao Gang said while staring at the map.
"But before that." Li Yunlong raised the corner of his mouth slightly and looked at Boss Chen,
"First of all, I need to ask Advisor Chen to drop a batch of airdrop supplies for our new regiment to ensure sufficient ammunition for the counterattack."
"Are you airdropping supplies?" Chen Feng smiled slightly, nodded and said, "No problem."
