Chapter 128 Sir, I am Japanese
Maybe it’s because Goryeo is mountainous.
Gao Mu Xixiong was very familiar with the mountains. He led the remaining soldiers and resolutely refused to engage in a firefight with the Eighth Route Army. He used the terrain to shake off the Eighth Route Army again and fled into the mountains.
There were a lot of Japanese deserters in the entire Shangdang area.
Many Japanese soldiers thought of entering the mountains to escape the encirclement and suppression by the Eighth Route Army.
Although the Eighth Route Army had successfully captured the entire Shangdang area, the troops in the Shangdang area, including the militia, were only about 80,000 people.
This amount of troops was simply not enough to surround the entire Shangdang and wipe out the defeated Japanese troops.
Although they were defeated soldiers, the individual quality of the Japanese was still there. If the number of people pursuing them was smaller, they would easily be killed by the Japanese.
After all, not all units of the Eighth Route Army are as luxurious as the Vanguard Regiment to allow all soldiers to practice live-fire shooting and use money to raise the soldiers' military qualities to the same level as the Japanese devils.
They were also equipped with a large number of pistols, and were no weaker than the Japanese in both close combat and long-range firefights.
Therefore, many defeated Japanese soldiers broke through the encirclement of the Eighth Route Army and fled into the mountains around the Shangdang area.
The reason for this was partly due to the fact that the military skills of most soldiers of the Eighth Route Army were not as good as those of the Japanese devils.
Another large part of the reason was that it was the first time for the Eighth Route Army to fight such a large-scale battle, and many grassroots officers were inexperienced and had not yet switched from the mobile warfare model.
Just like before, we had to defend an area and fight a positional war with the Japanese, or move to another place after each shot.
But now the Eighth Route Army is encircling and suppressing the Japanese, and the method of moving to another place after each shot is simply not feasible.
In particular, we had to guard the main transportation routes to prevent the Japanese from sending reinforcements.
But the problem is that the Japanese now only want to escape and don't want to get entangled with the Eighth Route Army at all. As soon as they discover the Eighth Route Army, they just run away.
They didn't take any major transportation routes at all, but instead followed the example of the Eighth Route Army in the past and took mountain roads and small paths.
Moreover, a large number of defeated Japanese soldiers hid in the mountains, and many of them gathered together to form new groups.
Under the command of a large number of veterans and sergeants, many of the Japanese soldiers shook off their pursuers and even seized the opportunity to ambush a wave of pursuing Eighth Route Army troops.
If the pursuing Eighth Route Army did not have heavy firepower or had few men, they might be caught off guard by the Japanese.
The largest group of Japanese troops hiding in the mountains was the Yamazaki Battalion that forced its way out from Shangdang.
Lieutenant Colonel Yamazaki Jihei, commander of the Yamazaki Battalion, was very sensitive to combat. After learning that the Eighth Route Army had launched an attack on the entire Shangdang area, he led his troops to break out as soon as the city wall of Shangdang was broken.
Yamazaki Jihei mobilized the entire artillery and machine gun firepower of the Shangdang City defenders to attack a point in the Eighth Route Army's encirclement.
A large number of artillery shells and bullets were used to forcibly break a hole in the encirclement of the Eighth Route Army.
Then they used armored vehicles and a large number of trucks to clear the way and broke out of the encirclement of the Eighth Route Army.
Although the troops suffered heavy losses under the Eighth Route Army's various pursuits and blockades, a battalion of one thousand people was beaten down to less than two hundred people.
However, Yamazaki Jihei still managed to shake off the Eighth Route Army pursuers and fled into the mountains with the remaining troops.
When Yamazaki Jihei entered the mountains and encountered a group of defeated soldiers, he realized that many of them must have entered the mountains to hide, so he quickly dispersed his troops and searched for the defeated soldiers in the mountains.
It’s no wonder that Yamazaki Jihei actually gathered quite a few defeated soldiers.
Because Yamazaki Jihei was a lieutenant colonel, he could be said to be the highest-ranking officer among the defeated soldiers, and he retained the largest number of troops.
So Yamazaki Jihei directly reorganized all the defeated soldiers and put them into the Yamazaki Battalion.
After Yamazaki Jihei's continuous searching, the Yamazaki Battalion was able to recover to more than 900 people.
The brigade's organization was almost restored.
However, the weapons and equipment of the entire Yamazaki Battalion are basically light weapons.
The only equipment that could be considered heavy firepower were three Type 99 light machine guns, six grenade launchers, and a 60mm mortar.
Moreover, the entire army was seriously short of ammunition, and many Japanese soldiers only had guns but no bullets.
There are only two hundred machine gun bullets in total.
The grenade launcher only had thirteen small grenades. If the grenades carried by the Yamazaki Battalion were not the kind that could be fired with the grenade launcher, Yamazaki Jihei would have wanted to give up the grenade launcher. As for the mortar, there were only three shells left.
As for heavy machine guns, there was not a single one left.
Who carries a heavy machine gun when running for their life?
Especially the Japanese's heavy machine gun.
For the first time in his life, Yamazaki Osamu hated the weight of the Type 92 heavy machine gun.
If it were lighter, it would be best if it were as light as the German machine guns, so that there wouldn't be 800 people unable to carry out even a machine gun.
Because the troops were extremely short of equipment and ammunition, Yamazaki Jihei did not dare to lead his troops out of the mountains to attack the artillery tower defended by the Eighth Route Army.
Even after a sentry who was out gathering intelligence came back and reported that he had discovered the Eighth Route Army had a telecommunications vehicle, Yamazaki Jihei didn't even dare to turn on the radio.
He was afraid that the Eighth Route Army would know his location and send a large-scale force to encircle and suppress him.
After all, Yamazaki Jihei has gathered most of the defeated soldiers together.
It seems that the strength of the Yamazaki Battalion has increased, but judging from the current morale and equipment of the Japanese soldiers in the Yamazaki Battalion.
The Eighth Route Army only needs three main regiments to destroy the entire Yamazaki Battalion.
Takagi Xixiong, who escaped from Shiquan County into the mountains, was lucky enough to meet Yamazaki Jihei's team.
Takagi Xixiong looked at Yamazaki Jihei in front of him with some trepidation.
In order to escape, he took off his officer's uniform and put on a soldier's uniform.
This is clearly an act of cowardice in the Japanese army.
If the superior officers knew about it, he would definitely treat me to a meal of spirit-infusing sticks.
Fortunately, Yamazaki Jihei was not in the mood to find a spirit infusion stick to treat Takagi Xixiong to a meal.
After all, strictly speaking, he disregarded the orders from his superiors and secretly led his troops to retreat, which was an act of cowardice.
Don’t talk about the second brother, the eldest brother.
Because Takagi Xixiong not only changed his military uniform, but also threw away his officer certificate, Yamazaki Jihei naturally needed to prove Takagi Xixiong's identity.
"Takagi-kun, you are so young and have the rank of captain, so which school did you graduate from?"
Gao Muxiong listened to Yamazaki Zhiping's question and quickly stood at attention and replied: "Report to the commander, I graduated from the Tokyo Army Academy..."
Takagi Xixiong told Yamazaki Jihei the information about his graduation school and graduation time without any concealment.
Yamazaki Jihei looked at Takagi Xixiong, who was full of energy and had a loud voice, and nodded with satisfaction.
He also graduated from the Army Officer Academy, just a few years earlier than Takagi Xixiong.
From the tone and gesture of Takagi Xixiong's answer, Yamazaki Jihei knew that what the other party said was true.
"Very good, Takagi-kun is very energetic!"
"As expected of a soldier who graduated from the NCO Academy!"
"Sir, are you also a graduate of the NCO Academy?"
"Well, I graduated a few years earlier than you, so I can be said to be your senior."
"Where are you from, Takagi-kun? Korean or Japanese?"
Hearing Yamazaki Jihei asking about his identity, Takagi Xixiong spoke loudly to Yamazaki Jihei without any hesitation.
"Senior, I'm from Tokyo, Japan!"
(End of this chapter)
