Chapter 88: The Puppet Army's Fight
Xu Jinbiao was very clear about how important Qinghe County was. If Qinghe County fell into the hands of the Eighth Route Army, the Eighth Route Army would have a way to directly send troops to Mongolia.
Once Qinghe County, the thorn between the Eighth Route Army's northwest Shanxi base and the Pianguan base, is removed, the two large bases of the Eighth Route Army can be connected together.
At that time, the Eighth Route Army will be able to free up the troops defending Qinghe County to launch an attack or defend other areas.
If Xu Jinbiao secretly abandons Qinghe County and breaks out, not only will he die, but his family might also be killed by the Japanese.
If he had fought desperately, he might have been captured by the Eighth Route Army and survived according to the Eighth Route Army's policy of preferential treatment for prisoners.
Moreover, the Japanese would not make things difficult for his family because they saw him fighting to the death.
Thinking of this, Xu Jinbiao quickly strengthened his determination to fight to the death.
Anyway, even if his troops were wiped out, he could survive by surrendering. Then he could pretend to be an ordinary soldier and maybe even escape.
If he ran here, he would definitely be dead. Even if he ran to the mountain city, he would be killed by the Japanese agents, and his family would not survive either.
Xu Jinbiao gathered the remaining troops and threatened the soldiers: "Listen to me, our hometown is not here, it is in Hebei, which is the territory of the locust army.
If we surrender or run away, the locust army will never let our families go.
If we fight to the death and hold out until tomorrow morning, when the reinforcements from the Locust Army arrive, those local guerrillas will naturally retreat.
By then we will not only receive great rewards, but also money!"
"Think it over clearly. If we do our best to resist the Eighth Route Army, they will not kill us even if we are captured.
If we surrender, the Japanese will definitely not let us and our families in Hebei go!"
After Xu Jinbiao's threats and analysis, the puppet army, which had been a little noisy at first, soon quieted down.
A Japanese communicator in the back stepped forward and said, "General Xu, I have a good way to deal with the Eighth Route Army. Maybe we can save Qinghe County and force the Eighth Route Army to retreat!"
Xu Jinbiao listened to the Japanese communicator's words and asked curiously, "What method can be used to force the Eighth Route Army to retreat?"
A hint of viciousness flashed in the eyes of the little devil: "There are still many ordinary Chinese people in Qinghe County. As long as we catch all of them before the Eighth Route Army enters the city, we can threaten the Eighth Route Army to retreat!"
"If the Eighth Route Army doesn't withdraw, we will kill all the Chinese in Qinghe County!"
Xu Jinbiao listened to the plan stated by the Japanese devils and was shocked while looking around quickly.
Fortunately, he was the only one around who could understand Japanese.
Otherwise, once the Japanese signalman said this, the troops that had just stabilized might fall into chaos again.
If you let these puppet troops fight the Eighth Route Army, there might not be any problem, but if you let them massacre the city, that would be a big problem.
Their fight with the Eighth Route Army was a normal military operation, and it was normal for both sides to have casualties.
After all, life and death are left to fate.
In this situation, if you were captured by the Eighth Route Army, you still had a chance to survive.
If a massacre were carried out, it would be absolutely impossible for those captured by the Eighth Route Army to survive.
Not only can you not survive in the hands of the Eighth Route Army, you can't survive in the hands of the National Army either.
Xu Jinbiao surrendered to the Japanese just for power and money, but that doesn't mean he was willing to become a butcher's knife in the hands of the Japanese!
Once he gave that kind of order, it meant that he could never turn back and could only serve the Japanese devils as a dog.
But he had heard that the last time the Japanese launched a large-scale sweep against the Eighth Route Army, they not only failed to achieve the expected results.
Instead, we suffered a lot of losses, and two Japanese soldiers at the rank of major general were killed.
The communicator looked at the hesitation in Xu Jinbiao's eyes, listened to the gunshots that had already sounded in the city, and continued to speak to Xu Jinbiao: "General Xu, you don't think you can turn back, do you?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Masatake Aoyama has sent a telegram asking you to do everything you can to defend Qinghe County.
Commander Yoshio Shinozuka also sent a telegram saying that you can use any means. "
"As long as you hold on to Qinghe County, you will be the major general of the North China Security Army!
And your brother will also be promoted to colonel commander of the Security Army."
"Also, Commander Yoshio Shinozuka said that if you can defend Qinghe County, whether it's money or power, as long as he can do it, then he will satisfy you."
Xu Jinbiao was moved as he listened to the information that the Japanese devils kept spewing out.
Seeing that Xu Jinbiao was still hesitating, the Japanese soldier continued to speak.
"General Xu, if you are worried that your subordinates are unwilling to take action, we still have 20 warriors from the Empire of Japan who can help."
"I hope you can think about it quickly, otherwise it will be too late."
"Then I'll leave it to you!" Xu Jinbiao looked at the houses with tightly closed doors and windows on the street in the distance, and spoke to the Japanese in a low voice.
After receiving Xu Jinbiao's order, the Japanese soldiers were delighted and immediately led the remaining Japanese troops to capture civilians.
As for what he just said, it was completely a deception to Xu Jinbiao.
There was no order from above to allow the arrest of Chinese civilians for resisting the Eighth Route Army. Everything he said was made up to deceive Xu Jinbiao.
When he came out, he saw that the morale of the puppet troops had been shaken, and many of them were even looking at the Locust Army.
It was obvious that they wanted to kill them and take their heads to surrender to the Eighth Route Army.
So he came up with the idea of arresting ordinary people.
In this case, it would be impossible for these puppet troops to surrender even if they wanted to.
The Eighth Route Army will never let off those who turn their butcher knives against their own people.
Moreover, as long as enough civilians were captured, they might be able to force the Eighth Route Army to retreat, and Qinghe County would be saved.
As for those conditions he mentioned for giving Xu Jinbiao a promotion and a raise in salary.
Humph, when the time comes and I apply to change my unit, Xu Jinbiao will never be able to find me.
Moreover, Xu Jinbiao only has two thousand troops left now. When their troops arrive, what will it matter even if they fall out with Xu Jinbiao?
At worst, we can just kill them all. As long as the information is blocked well, killing Xu Jinbiao will not cause any bad impact.
This Japanese soldier had a good idea in mind. He led the remaining Japanese soldiers to search for ordinary people everywhere.
But the people who are still in the county town and have not fled are either the poor families living near the city walls.
Or they are the wealthy people living in the central area of the county.
The rich people in these county towns basically made their fortunes with the help of the Japanese. In other words, these people are basically traitors.
Even if you are not a traitor, you may have a family member who is a traitor.
Otherwise, how could one get rich in a city controlled by the Japanese without some connections?
As for those businessmen who made money honestly, they either ran away or were killed by those traitors.
But the Japanese don’t care about these things. They don’t care whether you are a traitor or whether you serve them.
Anyway, they have done so much for them, and now is the time when the Locust Army needs their contribution.
Since they like to work for the Locust Army so much in normal times, they probably won't mind if the Locust Army needs their lives now.
In this way, those traitors who firmly believed that the Eighth Route Army could not break through Qinghe County and that the Japanese could defend Qinghe County were directly captured by the Japanese.
Especially those so-called maintenance association presidents, chamber of commerce presidents and the like, these people basically live in the county town with their entire families.
But these traitors are not fools. They can clearly see that the Japanese want to use them as human shields!
If it were ordinary people, perhaps being a meat shield would not be a problem.
But don’t they know who they are?
Why don't they leave the city?
Isn't it because they are afraid of falling into the hands of the Eighth Route Army and being killed by them?
Now the Japanese are using them as human shields, and it's obvious that they want them to die.
Can they do such a loss-making business?
These traitors immediately stopped doing this, and some of them who had guards and guns started fighting directly with the Japanese.
Kill the Japanese, take their heads and surrender to the Eighth Route Army, and maybe you can save your own life.
Even if they can't, the Eighth Route Army will not make things difficult for their families because they killed the Japanese.
The Japanese troops were originally few in number, and after being beaten by these traitors, their number became even smaller. Xu Jinbiao had no choice but to send troops to support them.
Xu Jinbiao simply went all out and sent his guards to help the Japanese capture people.
At this moment, most of the Eighth Route Army's troops had basically rushed into the county town.
Xu Jinbiao kept sending people to speak to the Eighth Route Army, trying to delay time.
But Qin Yangming didn't buy it. He directly killed the man who shouted and continued to order his troops to attack.
Those puppet troops wanted to engage in street fighting with the Vanguard Battalion, but unfortunately they encountered the troops trained by Qin Yangming.
Street fighting is similar to this in special tactics.
CQB: Indoor close-quarters combat, specifically designed for urban counter-terrorism.
Although the soldiers of the Vanguard Battalion are not as good as regular special forces, they have not undergone true CQB training.
But he also participated in Qin Yangming's modified version of street fighting training.
(End of this chapter)
