Chapter 223 General Attack (I)
"Captain, Captain Kong sent a message, the Japanese 22nd Regiment has begun to retreat from the positions along the river!"
At the Vanguard Regiment Headquarters, Political Commissar Zhangye entered the cave with a telegram he had just received and reported to Qin Yangming.
"Oh? Has the entire 22nd Regiment of the Japanese invaders retreated?"
Hearing Zhangye's words, Qin Yangming quickly stepped forward and took the telegram.
"Well, Captain Kong said that the Japanese 22nd Regiment left a small group of Japanese soldiers behind to cover their retreat, and the rest of the troops are being transferred."
"It seems that the Japanese have reacted and started to shrink their defense line. Send a message to the Independent Regiment and ask them if the Japanese offensive momentum has slowed down?"
"Send another telegram to the brigade headquarters, asking the brigade commander to inquire about the situation of the 9th Brigade in Linyuan County.
If the Ninth Brigade launches another attack, it means that the Japanese Fourth Brigade is preparing to break out from our side."
Looking at the information on the telegram, Qin Yangming quickly asked the telegraph operator to send a message to the independent regiment and the brigade headquarters.
Confirm the current situation.
"Yes!"
"Captain, I'm afraid the Japanese will be pissed off this time.
They wanted to take advantage of our encirclement of the 4th Brigade to launch a counter-encirclement against us.
The 4th Brigade was used as bait to lure us.
Unexpectedly, we were not only able to swallow the bait of the 4th Brigade, but we might also drag the 9th and 11th Brigades in charge of the fishing net into the water and choke them half to death."
After seeing that Qin Yangming had made arrangements, Zhangye began to tease the Japanese.
Qin Yangming listened to Zhangye's words, nodded, and then echoed.
"Well, to be honest, I didn't expect the Japanese commander to make such a big mistake.
Especially the two senior Japanese officers, Shinozuka Yoshio and Hirata Isamu, who made such a serious mistake of underestimating the enemy. "
Although Qin Yangming said that he did not expect the Japanese to make the mistake of underestimating the enemy.
But in fact, he also expected that the Japanese would underestimate the enemy.
Under normal circumstances, the Japanese's assessment of the Eighth Route Army's equipment would not be too different.
The Eighth Route Army had only so many sources of equipment: captured, purchased, produced in arsenals, and some supplemented by the Second War Zone.
But the Japanese never expected that Qin Yangming would have such a heaven-defying thing as the system.
With the help of the system, the Eighth Route Army replenished a large number of heavy weapons and ammunition, a batch of weapons that the Japanese had never imagined.
So naturally they misjudged the equipment level of the Eighth Route Army and issued wrong orders.
As a result, the Japanese Fourth Brigade is now caught in a situation where it is unable to advance or retreat.
In fact, if the existence of Qin Yangming was ignored, there would be no problem with the Japanese's battle plan of Hiraru Isamu and Shinozuka Yoshio.
If it weren't for Qin Yangming, the Eighth Route Army would never have chosen to surround the 4th Brigade and made the decision to annihilate it.
And it is impossible to choose to completely occupy the entire Shangdang area.
If you want to easily surround and annihilate an entire field brigade of the Japanese, you will need at least ten times the number of troops.
If there was no Qin Yangming, with the capabilities of the Eighth Route Army, it would be very difficult to surround the 4th Brigade and annihilate it, let alone firmly occupy the entire Shangdang area.
But unfortunately, the Eighth Route Army has Qin Yangming, a cheating person.
Therefore, no matter how correct the Japanese's battle plan was, it would become a wrong plan because of the variable Qin Yangming.
"Commander, Captain Sun has already been notified. Also, on the way back, I saw the Japanese planes were flying back."
While Qin Yangming was waiting for telegrams from the brigade and the independent regiment, Goudan returned to the regiment headquarters.
Listening to what Goudan said, Zhangye nodded, then spoke to Qin Yangming.
"The Japs' planes are a big nuisance.
Now the troops from various regions have arrived, and the air defense positions on Cangyun Ridge and Baihu Ridge have been set up.
Due to the threat of anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns, it would take at least four hours for the Japanese planes to fly to Tongshi Town.
At that time, the time it stays in the air will not exceed half an hour.
Without the threat of the Japanese planes, we can fight them with all our might."
"Humph, damn it, sooner or later I'm going to bomb the Japs' airport, or move all those planes to the Eighth Route Army."
Listening to Zhangye's words, Qin Yangming became furious.
We have made up our minds that when we carry out the decapitation operation against the Japanese headquarters in Taiyuan, if there is a chance, we must blow up the Japanese airport.
Or see if we can get two planes to fly back directly.
"Commander, telegrams have arrived from the Independent Regiment and the Brigade."
"The independent regiment said that the Japanese had stopped attacking them and started defending.
Captain Li was ordering his troops to attack the Japanese defense line.
Captain Li and his men were the first to use mountain artillery. The soldiers of the independent regiment had already engaged in close combat with the Japanese on their first line of defense.
In addition, the brigade said that the Japanese 9th Brigade and the 11th Brigade launched another attack.
The attack strength is even higher than at the beginning.
Comrades in Taiyuan sent a telegram saying that the Japanese 20th Division stationed near Taiyuan is preparing supplies and is suspected to be preparing to move out. "
Listening to the news told by the communicator, Qin Yangming raised his head with slight surprise.
"Oh, the Japanese 20th Division is ready to go?"
"Captain, the Japanese are getting anxious. It seems that they are really worried that the 4th Brigade will be wiped out by us. The 20th Division has even been dispatched.
This is the last trump card in the hands of the Japanese First Army.
If the 20th Division is deployed, it means that other areas will no longer have to worry about the threat of the 20th Division.
However, Commander, if the 20th Division is dispatched, do we need to speed up?
Otherwise, if the 20th Division comes, Shiquan County or Linyuan County may not be able to stop the Japanese attack."
Hearing the communicator say that the Japanese 20th Division had been dispatched, Zhangye spoke to Qin Yangming with some concern.
“If the Japanese 20th Division is dispatched, he must be able to move as well.
We don't need to worry about these things. The brigade commander said he would give us three days, so he will definitely help us buy three days.
I bet that the headquarters must have issued an order now, asking the troops in other areas to increase the intensity of their attacks, forcing the Japanese to leave the 20th Division in Taiyuan.
If the Japanese's 20th Division moves, we will be able to directly capture the rest of the cities in northern Shanxi!
Humph, the Japs from the Independent Regiment are shrinking their defense line, and the Japs from the New Second Regiment are retreating.
The 9th and 11th Brigades re-accelerated their offensive.
This means that the Japanese Fourth Brigade is preparing to break out from our side.
Order Luo Chengwen to hold off the Japanese's first wave of attack.
After you withstand the first wave of attacks, immediately launch a counterattack and bite the Japanese coming at you!"
"Yes!"
……
Tongshi Town, the headquarters of the 4th Brigade. At this moment, Pinglu Yongfu looked at the map with a grim face.
Just three hours.
The situation that was originally going well suddenly took a shocking turn.
First, the 22nd Regiment's attack was blocked, and they requested the use of special weapons.
Then the attacks of two other battalions were blocked, and it was discovered that the strength of the Eighth Route Army was seriously underestimated.
Before Pinglu Yongfu could catch his breath, the 22nd Regiment sent another report.
More than half of the infantry of the Tanaka Battalion, which was responsible for the main attack on the Eighth Route Army's riverside positions, were directly killed by the Eighth Route Army.
The remaining infantry could only form half a squadron, about a hundred people.
They also said that the Eighth Route Army in the positions along the river had a large number of incendiary bombs, which they used to block the river, making it impossible for the troops to pass.
Moreover, the Eighth Route Army destroyed the sluice gate above and released water directly to flood both sides of the river. As a result, the soil on both sides of the river bank has become very soft, making it impossible to build a floating bridge again.
After Pinglu Yongfu analyzed the current situation clearly, he had no choice but to recall the 22nd Regiment.
Prepare to break out.
"Captain of the Brigade..."
After the commander of the 22nd Regiment, Kasahara Koizumi, returned to the headquarters, he looked at Pinglu Yongfu with a livid face and did not dare to say anything.
His entire regiment fought against an Eighth Route Army unit of only a thousand people, a new unit that had just been formed.
Not only did they fail to win the battle, but they also lost nearly a battalion of troops, and even the engineering squadron lost more than half of its troops.
"Ugh."
Looking at Kasahara Koizumi's face full of guilt, Hiraru Isamu sighed helplessly and spoke.
"The failure of this battle cannot be blamed on you. I misjudged the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army.
I didn't expect the Eighth Route Army's combat effectiveness to be so strong. It was totally inconsistent with the intelligence. I underestimated the enemy.
Kasahara-kun, prepare to lead your troops to break out."
"Hashidou Madai, Your Excellency the Brigade Commander, breakout?
Do we need to break out now?"
"Kasahara-kun, the Eighth Route Army is at least three times stronger than the intelligence suggests, and their weapons and equipment are no worse than those of the Locust Alliance Army.
The light weapons equipment level of the several Eighth Route Army troops surrounding us was no weaker than that of our Japanese locust army.
Our Fourth Brigade must break out immediately, otherwise we will be in danger of being wiped out by the Eighth Route Army.
We all underestimated the enemy.
The Eighth Route Army is not stupid or arrogant, but is truly capable of annihilating our Fourth Brigade.
We are the ones who are arrogant and foolishly underestimate the enemy."
"The attacks of the First Independent Infantry Battalion and the Second Independent Infantry Battalion were both met with strong resistance from the Eighth Route Army.
The Second Independent Infantry Battalion was even counterattacked by the Eighth Route Army and pushed back to its own position.
The first line of defense of the 2nd Independent Infantry Battalion has been lost.
So we need to break through as soon as possible.”
"Mr. Commander, which direction should we break out from?"
Listening to Kasahara Koizumi's question, Hiraru Isamu pointed to a location on the map with the stick in his hand and spoke.
"We will break out from Baihu Ridge.
The Independent Third Battalion and the remaining troops will launch a fierce attack on the Dajing Town stronghold, creating the illusion that we will break out from the Dajing Town stronghold.
In fact, our breakout direction is towards Baihuling.
The fact that the Eighth Route Army in the direction of Yuxi Town was able to launch a counterattack shows that they had sufficient strength.
Moreover, Yuxi Town is full of mountains and there is not a single decent road.
Our tank squadron had no way of breaking out from that side.
The Eighth Route Army troops in the direction of Baihuling are a newly formed Eighth Route Army troops.
Its combat effectiveness is definitely not as good as that of the New 1st Regiment of the Eighth Route Army in Dajing Town and the Independent Regiment in Yuxi Town.
In addition, Lu Hang sent a telegram saying that he had discovered a large number of Eighth Route Army troops heading towards Tongshi Town from the direction of Baihu Ridge, and were preparing to support the Eighth Route Army troops here.
The need for support means that they don’t have much strength and failed to stop our Fourth Brigade from breaking out. Otherwise, they would not have transferred troops from Baihu Ridge to support us.
Moreover, the 9th Brigade was rapidly approaching Baihu Ridge.
By then, we will delay the Eighth Route Army troops here, and the 9th Brigade can take over Baihu Ridge while the troops inside Baihu Ridge are empty.
By then, when we have control of Baihu Ridge, even if the Eighth Route Army mobilizes 100,000 people, they will not be able to take Baihu Ridge back from us where we have two brigades stationed!
In other words, as long as we join forces with the 9th Brigade, we will still have enough strength to fight the Eighth Route Army."
“Kasahara-kun, you lead the 22nd Regiment and the remaining mountain and field artillery to attack the Eighth Route Army in the direction of Baihuling.
First, they used artillery fire to cover the Eighth Route Army's positions, forcing the Eighth Route Army to withdraw troops from Baihuling for support.
Then, when the 9th Brigade arrives near Baihu Ridge, you will immediately launch a general attack to capture the frontline positions, and then our 4th Brigade can immediately advance towards Baihu Ridge.
Take over White Tiger Ridge!"
"Hi!"
After Hiraru Isamu gave the order, Kasahara Koizumi left the command center.
Kasahara Koizumi quickly mobilized the remaining troops of the 22nd Regiment and the remaining artillery of the brigade and quickly headed to the Eighth Route Army's first line of defense in the direction of Baihuling.
Tongshi Town is originally an open area.
Such a large-scale movement of the Japanese troops could not be hidden from the eyes of the Eighth Route Army at all.
The Japanese 22nd Regiment approached the vanguard regiment's position.
Qin Yangming, who was in the cave, also learned the news.
……
"It's finally here... Let the soldiers on the first line of defense retreat into the anti-artillery holes at the rear to avoid the Japanese artillery fire.
Order Li Erhu and Wang Daniu to find the Japanese artillery positions as quickly as possible and destroy their artillery pieces when the Japanese artillery fires! "
"Yes!"
"Political Commissar, let's go out and take a look at the mountain to see how the Japs plan to fight!"
After receiving the news that the Japanese 22nd Regiment was approaching the Vanguard Regiment's position, Qin Yangming issued a response order and was the first to walk out of the cave, preparing to go to the top of the mountain to observe and check the Japanese's movements.
"No problem, Goudan, notify the guard platoon, the commander and I are going up the mountain!"
"Yes!"
Zhangye did not refuse Qin Yangming's proposal. After agreeing to let Qin Yangming go to the top of the mountain, he turned around and told Shitou to notify the regiment's guard platoon to do a good job of security.
(End of this chapter)
