The convoy of the Engineer Regiment ran all the way on the road, but after walking more than ten kilometers, he encountered two Japanese reconnaissance planes.

After a brief and tense battle, the engineers destroyed a Japanese reconnaissance plane at the cost of losing an armored vehicle... At this time, the firepower of the engineers was not a joke. The armored vehicle, heavy machine guns on the tank, and the light machine guns in the hands of the soldiers kept firing at the Japanese reconnaissance plane, causing the dive-swivel Japanese reconnaissance plane to be shot into a fireball and plunged to the back of the mountain.

Seeing that the situation was not good, another reconnaissance plane quickly turned around and fled.

"Room seat!" Looking at the flying reconnaissance plane, the engineer battalion commander reminded Wang Mazi: "We should avoid it!"

"Rountain!" The adjutant raised an objection: "But the order from Shangfeng... was to arrive at Lashio regardless of everything. Military situation was urgent..."

After thinking about it, Wang Mazi flatly ordered: "Notify the reconnaissance forces in front and find a place to hide!"

The order was quickly conveyed, and then the convoy of the Engineer Regiment was divided into several parts under the guidance of the reconnaissance force and scattered into the jungle to hide.

Of course, Wang Mazi’s decision was correct.

Anyone with a little bit of intelligence knows that the key target of the Japanese army at this time was Lashio.

Since the focus is on Lashio and they have airborne troops near Lashio, the Japanese air force will do their best to cover the airborne troops' attack on Lashio.

It is not difficult to imagine that this cover can be divided into two aspects:

One is to directly provide air fire support to the airborne troops, and bomb and strafuse along the way in front of the airborne troops to open the way for the airborne troops. This is likely to be impossible because of the heavy fog over Lashio.

The other is to use air force to reconnaise and block the Chinese army from supporting reinforcements in the direction of Lashio. This is precisely because the first point cannot be achieved, most of the Japanese air force will pour into this strategic direction.

As the saying goes, the general will not accept foreign military orders. In this case, if he still insists on orders and recklessly in the direction of Lashio, there will be only one outcome: the troops were almost blown up by Japanese planes before they arrived in Lashio. Among them, there are mechanized troops such as the Engineering Corps that rely heavily on highways.

If all the troops are gone, is it meaningful to arrive in Lashio?!

Sure enough, the engineering regiment had just been hiding for a while, and the roar of planes came from the air. At least forty or fifty bombers came from the group. They flew towards the engineering regiment like wild bees under the escort of several Zero fighters, and the whole sky was dark.

This made everyone in the Engineering Corps, including the adjutant who had objections just now, secretly thanked... If this was hidden a little late, it would be a matter of fear that the entire Engineering Corps would disappear from this world from now on.

The Japanese bombers turned around in the air for several times but did not find the target, so they randomly threw the bombs onto the highway and nearby bridges and beams, and then flew away.

So even if the engineering regiment wanted to leave, he couldn't leave. Wang Mazi gave an order: "Let's go when it's dark, and all departments will prepare for road construction and bridge construction!"

Later it was said that the new 22nd Division, which was reinforced in Lashio in another direction, suffered losses.

This is not to say that the commander of the New 22nd Division, Liao Yaoxiang, is not foresighted. In fact, Liao Yaoxiang is also a very smart commander. The reason why the New 22nd Division suffers losses is because his troops are too large and too complex.

The engineering regiment was full of tanks, armored vehicles and cars, and none of them were walking on the ground. Although the equipment of the new 22nd Division was good, it could only be considered a semi-motorized division. Only a small number of people could take cars to Lashio, and most of the soldiers rushed towards Lashio on foot.

These hiking soldiers were more uncomfortable... They could not hide in the jungle like engineers or automobile units and wait for darkness before leaving, so they were afraid that they would not be able to enter the battlefield in time. So they could only wait for the Japanese plane to come and hide in the jungle, and wait for the plane to leave and continue to march.

But sometimes Japanese bombers came faster than they thought, and they were bombs as soon as they came up... Fortunately, the new 22nd Division was a veteran of the long-standing team, so there were not many casualties.

The road construction and bridge construction work of the Engineering Corps began during the day. After all, people have much smaller targets than tanks, cars and other equipment. The soldiers of the Engineering Corps only need to send a few good-looking people to guard the high places. When they see Japanese reconnaissance planes coming from a distance, they will shoot a few shots with a few shots... The soldiers call this "air defense guns", which is especially effective for soldiers who are seriously lacking in communication equipment.

As soon as they heard the gunshots, the soldiers busy on the road and the river put down their work to cover up. The Japanese reconnaissance plane flew back and forth and looked down... There was no movement, but the road and the bridges seemed to have changed a little, and that change was not enough for them to summon bombers to bomb, so it was left alone.

The engineering regiment usually does the work of building roads and bridges, so the project goes smoothly. Among them, the Mutou Battalion Commander was the most powerful. He commanded and shouted at the soldiers with a steady clamor. In just over an hour, the road surface was leveled. In more than an hour, he built a wooden bridge in the river that allowed tanks to pass through... But this is a blessing that the river water was only knee-deep in the dry season, and the river was only about twenty meters wide.

After the road was built and the bridge was built, the Engineer Regiment rested for a while and it became dark. The Engineer Regiment set out again in the darkness and headed straight for Lashio.

On the other hand, Du Yuming from the Expeditionary Force Command received another telegram from the adjutant.

"Military seat!" said the adjutant: "The Japanese army airborne two more batches, one group of about 500 people, airborne near the road from Tangji to Lashio. Another group of more than 1,000 people airborne on the road from Mandalay to Lashio, and occupied the 419th highlands and 287.5th highlands."

"What?" Du Yuming's expression changed drastically when he heard this. The combat intentions of these two groups of Japanese airborne troops were very obvious, which was to occupy the high ground on both sides of the road to block the reinforcements sent by China from Mandalay and Tangji to Lashio.

"What did the Sixty-Sixth Army do?" Du Yuming couldn't help but curse: "Why did they let the Japanese take down two high grounds in the blink of an eye!"

"They..." the adjutant was stunned for a moment and replied: "They don't know where they are..."

"I don't know where to go?" Du Yuming couldn't help but gritted his teeth with hatred when he heard this.

In addition to the new 38th Division on the Western Front, the remaining two divisions of the 66th Army were the new 28th Division adapted by the Military Command and the new 29th Division that was not long ago formed.

It is understandable that the new 29th Division retreated and was inexplicably where they went. Less than two months after this division was formed, more than 80% of them were recruits who had never been on the battlefield. However, this new 28th Division... These military-level secret agents usually occupy themselves as military-level people, and they are arrogant no matter where they are.
Chapter completed!