Chapter 232: Completely annihilate the Japanese th Brigade! "Hasn't the news from the 4th Brigade been received yet?!" In the evening, at the Japanese First Army Headquarters in Taiyuan City. After failing to receive a telegram from Hiraru Isamu, Yoshio Shinozuka went to the telecommunications room in person and urged the telegraph operator to send a telegram to the 4th Brigade. Ask about the current situation of the 4th Brigade. But no matter how many telegrams the telegraph operator sent, there was still no response from the 4th Brigade. All the telegrams sent fell on deaf ears. "Commander, the 11th Brigade reported that the clouds above Shiquan County were drifting towards Tongshi Town, and that thunder could be seen over there. Could it be that because of the thunderstorm, the 4th Brigade was unable to receive our telegrams? And there is no way to send the information over there to us?" Seeing Yoshio Shinozuka so anxious, his adjutant took out a telegram and spoke to him, trying to use the thunderstorm to explain why the 4th Brigade could not receive the telegram or reply. Listening to the adjutant's report, Yoshio Shinozuka shook his head.
Although what the other party said is not impossible, the possibility is really too low. The Fourth Brigade finally sent a telegram saying that the intelligence department had made a big mistake and that the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army reported by the intelligence department was seriously inconsistent with the actual situation. The combat effectiveness and equipment of the Eighth Route Army are no weaker than those of the Imperial Japanese Army, and are even stronger than them. I hope that the headquarters will quickly order the 9th Brigade and the 11th Brigade to relaunch the attack, and the 4th Brigade will launch a breakout. You know, Pinglu Yongfu sent a telegram in the morning, saying that he hoped the 9th and 11th Brigades could slow down the attack, and then use the 4th Brigade as bait, waiting for more Eighth Route Army troops to arrive in the Shangdang area, and then annihilate them in one fell swoop. As a result, before half a day had passed, Pinglu Yongfu began to ask for help and said he wanted to break out. At first, Yoshio Shinozuka thought that Pinglu Yongfu had discovered that the Eighth Route Army was monitoring their telegrams, so he deliberately sent such a telegram to lure the Eighth Route Army. Yoshio Shinozuka also specifically asked the telegraph operator to cooperate well with Isamu Hiraru. As a result, shortly after Pinglu Yongfu sent the telegram for help, the 4th Brigade sent no more telegrams. Yoshio Shinozuka immediately sensed something was wrong. Then let the telegraph operator activate the backup code book to give the 4th Brigade's magic weapon and ask what is going on over there. However, the telegraph operator sent nearly a hundred telegrams, but all of them fell into the sea, and the 4th Brigade did not respond to a single telegram. Finally, Yoshio Shinozuka thought of the last telegram sent by Isamu Pinglu, which stated that the Eighth Route Army's equipment and combat effectiveness were seriously inconsistent with the intelligence, and immediately ordered all troops to re-report the equipment situation of the Eighth Route Army. It wouldn't have been a big problem if you didn't ask, but once you asked, big problems arose. The troops that were attacked in various regions reported that the equipment of the Eighth Route Army was completely different from before, and there seemed to be no shortage of ammunition. They all thought that they had encountered the main force of the Eighth Route Army. Finally, after combining all the known information at hand, Yoshio Shinozuka thought of an impossible possibility. The 4th Brigade has really become bait. If the equipment situation of the Eighth Route Army was really as Pinglu Yongfu said, then the Eighth Route Army's encirclement of the Fourth Brigade was not arrogance at all, nor was it an attempt to force the Fourth Brigade to leave Tongshi Town.
But it was really to wipe out the 4th Brigade! It’s possible that the 4th Brigade has already started a firefight with the Eighth Route Army. Therefore, Yoshio Shinozuka has been waiting in the telecommunications room, hoping to receive information from the 4th Brigade and see what the current situation is there. If the situation is critical, he will immediately mobilize the 20th Division to go to Tongshi Town for rescue. Although the 20th Division is important, it cannot be easily transferred. However, for the sake of an entire brigade of troops, it can still be mobilized. If the 4th Brigade was completely wiped out by the Eighth Route Army, there would only be two brigades left in the whole of Shanxi that could be mobilized at will. Moreover, the 4th Brigade is not just the 4th Brigade itself. He also supplemented the 4th Brigade with a large amount of weapons and equipment. The entire 4th Brigade can be said to be in an overstaffed state. In terms of weapons and equipment, the 4th Brigade can be completely called an understaffed division. If the Fourth Brigade was completely wiped out, it would be a huge blow to the entire First Army. In addition to sending the commander directly back to the country, it would also affect the overall plan of the North China Front Army. An entire brigade was wiped out and so many weapons and equipment were lost. Once the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army and the Eighth Route Army officially started cooperating, they would launch attacks all over Shanxi. Then the First Army will be in a situation where it has no soldiers available. Moreover, Yoshio Shinozuka could not abandon those unimportant counties and had to withdraw his troops to defend a few major cities. Once this was done, the Eighth Route Army and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army would probably occupy those county towns as quickly as possible. Then quickly recruit new soldiers and use the supplies in those counties to quickly expand the troops. As for burning all the supplies in the county town, or killing all the people, leaving an empty city for the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army or the Eighth Route Army. Yoshio Shinozuka couldn't even think of such an order. Once he issued this order, at least 100,000 Imperial Army troops in Shanxi, who were already at odds with them, would instantly rebel. With 100,000 Imperial Army troops, plus the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army and the Eighth Route Army, the Shanxi First Army with only a few tens of thousands of people might end up losing the entire Shanxi Province. Thinking of this, Yoshio Shinozuka finally made up his mind. "Tomorrow, if we don't receive a telegram from the 4th Brigade before six o'clock tomorrow, then the 20th Division will immediately go out to rescue the 4th Brigade!" “No matter how dangerous the Fourth Brigade is, it is impossible for them to last even a day. There are nearly 10,000 troops there. Even if they are lined up for the Eighth Route Army to fight, it will take the Eighth Route Army three days to fight!” "Hi!" After giving the order, Yoshio Shinozuka turned around and left the communications room and returned to his command center. Although the matters concerning the 4th Brigade were important, it did not mean that he had nothing else to do. All regions were under attack from the Eighth Route Army, and he had to respond quickly. We also have to find a way to put the blame for the 4th Brigade's defeat on the Officers Observation Group. Then the reason for the loss of Shangdang area was thrown to the Special High Section. It can be said that Yoshio Shinozuka has prepared for the worst. If there was bad news coming from the 4th Brigade, he would immediately report it to the headquarters.
Because of the wrong information from the intelligence department, he made wrong commands, which led to the loss of Shangdang area. Because Yoshio Iwamatsu insisted on sending out the officers' observation group despite his opposition, the 4th Brigade gave up the best opportunity to attack in order to protect the officers' observation group. As a result, the Eighth Route Army seized the opportunity, leading to a major crisis for the 4th Brigade. In short, there was nothing wrong with Yoshio Shinozuka, and all his commands were correct. It was only because of the misleading information from the intelligence department and Yoshio Iwamatsu's reckless intervention that his combat plan collapsed completely. Anyway, the intelligence provided by the intelligence department itself is problematic, he doesn't need to say more. As for the officer observation group sent by Yoshio Iwamatsu...if you have the ability, just go and ask Hattori Naoomi what's going on. If you don't have the ability, you can just say whatever he says. ... Tongshi Town. Kasahara Koizumi stood on a mound, watching the artillery shells fired by the Eighth Route Army continuously fall into his own troops. Looking at the Eighth Route Army soldiers who were charging behind the Eighth Route Army tanks, Kasahara Koizumi also knew that the 4th Brigade was completely finished this time. "I lost... I lost completely..." Kasahara Koizumi put down the telescope in his hand, turned around and looked in the direction where the Yuxi Town and Dajing Town strongholds intersected. That direction was exactly the direction Pinglu Yongfu retreated. Now Kasahara Koizumi no longer had any hope that the large force could break out of the encirclement. He only hoped that the brigade commander could break out alive. "Sir, you should also retreat quickly. We still have some warriors who can cover your retreat from Tongshi Town!" A Japanese officer looked at Kasahara Koizumi standing there without wearing a raincoat, letting the rain hit him, so he quickly came to Kasahara Koizumi and spoke to him. "retreat? Where else can we retreat to?" Listening to what his officers said, Kasahara Koizumi smiled bitterly and shook his head. All the cavalry were sent to escort Pinglu Yongfu, and now they only have a few sidecars left. Motorcycles like sidecars are fine on flat roads, but if they are driven on mountain roads, they can easily overturn. He had no chance to retreat at all. "Sir, we can escort you into the mountains. Once we get into the mountains and the encirclement of the Eighth Route Army behind us is broken, we can naturally retreat." "It's useless, it's too late." "Didn't you notice something?" "Sir?" "The cavalry of the Eighth Route Army... Up to now, the Eighth Route Army attacking us has never used cavalry... In this kind of flat ground combat, the cavalry's combat effectiveness can be exerted to the maximum extent.
But until now, the Eighth Route Army has not had a single horse on the battlefield. The Eighth Route Army’s tanks have all come out, so there is no way they are without cavalry. The cavalry is not being deployed now, either because they think it is not the right time to deploy the cavalry. Either that, or the Eighth Route Army here has no cavalry... or the cavalry is all in another direction." As Kasahara Koizumi was talking, he turned his gaze towards the direction of Yuxi Town. …… As time passed, the vanguard's attack area became larger and larger. As the battle line was rapidly stretched, the vanguard regiment's artillery could no longer exert sufficient power. The Japanese also seized the opportunity, rushed quickly to the vicinity of the vanguard regiment's soldiers, and began to rush into the vanguard regiment's troops and engaged in a melee with the Eighth Route Army. The tanks of the Vanguard Regiment had now been transformed into fixed artillery positions, parked in a slightly higher area and fired at the areas where the Japanese were most densely populated. The machine gun on the Type 2 tank fired a series of small shells, each of which could often take away one or two Japanese soldiers. The soldiers of the vanguard regiment fought with the Japanese devils. Every three soldiers formed a combat group and cooperated closely with each other. One pistolman and two riflemen. The riflemen were responsible for stopping the Japanese soldiers who were rushing over while the pistol soldiers were changing bullets. Because the troops began to engage in a melee, the light machine guns in the vanguard regiment did not dare to fire at will, for fear that the bullets they fired would penetrate the bodies of the Japanese and then hit their own people. As time passed, the troops of the new regiment soon joined forces with the troops of the vanguard regiment. Both sides began to tighten the encirclement. The cavalry coming from Yuxi Town were the most ferocious. After the Japanese no longer had rapid-fire weapons such as machine guns, Qi Tao, Sun Desheng and the company commander of the cavalry company of the New 1st Regiment broke through the Japanese defense line and led their respective troops to kill among the Japanese troops. Qi Tao is a Mongolian, and he prefers to use the Mongolian scimitar rather than the cavalry sword. Qi Tao held a well-made Mongolian scimitar in his hand and looked at several Japanese soldiers rushing towards him with bayonets pointed at him. Without saying a word, he rode his horse and rushed forward. As the horse's hooves flew, a Japanese soldier was kicked away. Then Qi Tao turned the scimitar in his hand, and a Japanese soldier fell down. Sun Desheng on the other side was not to be outdone. He used the two 20-shot revolvers in his hands to make many different uses. The Japanese soldiers couldn't even get close to Sun Desheng, let alone fight him with swords. On the battlefield, all cavalry can be roughly divided into three types. Among them, the one holding a cavalry sword in one hand and a Mauser pistol in the other, with a submachine gun hanging on his body, must be the cavalry of the vanguard regiment. The one holding a scimitar, with top-notch riding skills and carrying a carbine on his back, is the cavalry of the independent regiment. Another decent unit is the New 1st Cavalry Regiment.
The Japanese Fourth Brigade still has a lot of soldiers left, including many smart ones. Seeing that the Eighth Route Army had not only tanks but also cavalry to assist on the flat ground, he led his troops to retreat into the farmland that had become extremely soft due to the rain. Use mud to limit the cavalry charge. Some Japanese soldiers retreated to the villages with their troops and used the villages to block the attack of the Eighth Route Army. But no matter how the Japanese tried to stop us, they could not change the fact that they would be wiped out. As more and more Eighth Route Army troops surrounded them, various heavy weapons began to move forward. To deal with the Japanese soldiers who entered the farmland, the Eighth Route Army directly brought out heavy machine guns. After a burst of fire, the Japanese soldiers in the farmland fell directly in the field. To deal with the Japanese soldiers hiding in the villages, the Eighth Route Army brought in the Type 92 infantry gun and blew up all the Japanese soldiers and their houses with one shot. It can be said that the Eighth Route Army can now declare that the Japanese Fourth Brigade has been wiped out, and the remaining ones are just some defeated soldiers, which can be completely eliminated in a short time. Officially annihilate the Japanese 4th Brigade! Even Pinglu Yongfu, who took advantage of the chaos to escape while being escorted by cavalry and personal guards, was caught red-handed by Li Yunlong, who had incredible luck. (End of this chapter)