"Your Excellency General, there are still 8,000 warriors in the Hengshan detachment. There will be no more than 2,000 Eighth Route Army troops on the Shenxian Ridge. With a strength ratio of four to one, I have the advantage. It is not a bad idea to destroy Chu Xiong..."

Suzuki's voice became softer and quieter.

"Suzuki-kun, you don't need to comfort me, wars are not about large numbers of people!

These eight thousand warriors, that’s eight thousand warriors with eight thousand mouths and hungry bellies. How much fighting power can they have?”

"Your Majesty General, we still have airdrops from the headquarters!"

Suzuki did not give up, perhaps more to convince himself.

"Suzuki-kun, airdrops are just a drop in the bucket. Chuxiong's troops at Shenxianling have enough food and ammunition, and the terrain is difficult. It may not be possible to defeat them in half a month, let alone a week!"

"After adding 4,000 more mouths, our supplies can only last for 5 days at most, and the ammunition cannot even last 5 days. The entire Liuzhen cannot grab a grain of food. Anping's supplies have been snatched by the Eighth Route Army. Even if

Even after we regained Anping, it was just an empty city, and now we can only rely on ourselves!"

The old Japanese from Hengshan is worthy of being a wise general among the Japanese. He has clearly seen the plight of the Hengshan detachment. The entire southeast of Shanxi has been turned into a pot of porridge. You are among me, and you are among me. Other units of the Eighth Route Army will not look at the imperial army.

Withdraw troops from their jurisdiction.

"Your Excellency General, Your Excellency Commander, is it true that you can't send reinforcements? There are still two divisions in Taiyuan City!"

Suzuki still refused to give up. There were still two garrison divisions near Taiyuan City. He only needed to send one to relieve Liu Town's difficulties.

"Suzuki-kun, where are the supplies? You are the chief of staff. Don't you know how much supplies need to be mobilized to dispatch a division?"

Suzuki was a top student at the General Staff Headquarters. He knew better than anyone how much supplies needed to be mobilized to dispatch a division and how many days it would take at the earliest.

This is not dispatching a brigade, this is a division. In order to prepare for the battle of 30,000 people, the commander emptied almost all the supplies in Taiyuan;

It took nearly a month to prepare just this, and then prepare a division's combat supplies. Xiao Zhuoyi'an didn't know how to do magic.

Osaka Suzuki finally began to accept reality...

"Your Excellency General, I will make a withdrawal plan right now!"

Yokoyama Yiyong breathed a long sigh of relief, cheered up and said:

"Yo Xi, Mr. Suzuki, don't be too pessimistic. Nine thousand imperial warriors are not something Chu Xiong can eat. He doesn't have such a big appetite!

All aspects of the troop withdrawal plan must be carefully considered, and the troops will be withdrawn tomorrow morning!"

Yokoyama Kazuo finally made up his mind to withdraw his troops. Regardless of whether this withdrawal went smoothly or not, his future in the army was completely over.

At the independent regiment headquarters, the six standing committee members gathered together to study the pursuit plan. Chief of Staff Zhong Guoliang spoke first:

"Comrades, judging from the signs of the Japs at the foot of the mountain, the Japs are about to escape. First of all, I want to make it clear to everyone that we cannot let the Japs escape. In our base area, the Japs are not allowed to come or leave whenever they want!

So today we will only discuss how to chase down the Japanese. The preliminary plan is:

First, all the 1,000 new soldiers composed of miners brought back by the last regiment commander were added to the garrison camp. Together with the 5 companies of the mobile battalion, the total force was 3,000 people. This was the main force for chasing the Japanese this time;

The guard company stayed behind at the old camp, the artillery battalion, and the cavalry company to assist in the pursuit."

"The Fourth Battalion and the Third Company mobilized the masses and destroyed all the roads between Liuzhen and Chenjialing. The main forces of the Second Battalion and the Third Battalion set up an ambush between Chenjialing and Anping City, blocking the Japanese at the line from Chenjialing to Anping;

The main force of the guerrilla brigade, the independent first company, and the second independent company will join the first battalion as a reserve team, and will be under the unified command of the first battalion commander Li Qing!"

The next step is to carry forward the principle of military democracy and discuss the combat plan formulated by the Staff Office. At this time, each Standing Committee member has the right and obligation to put forward his or her own revision opinions to the plan. There can be arguments and differences, but as long as it is agreed

All personnel must implement the plan unconditionally.

After more than an hour of intense discussion, several flaws in the combat plan were improved, and Chu Xiong finally finalized the final combat plan. Although there were some discrepancies with Chu Xiong's original plan, he still implemented it according to the collective agreement.

Military democracy cannot be a mere formality, and the cultivation of the system requires persistence.

That afternoon, the Fourth Battalion and the Third Company mobilized thousands of people and laid thousands of ceramic landmines on the road from Liuzhen to Chenjialing, completely blocking the road out of the town.

The guerrilla brigade, the First Independent Company, and the Second Independent Company began to gather towards Anping City. The people in Anping City began to evacuate to the surrounding villages. All the excess food was given to the people in the city, and Anping City became an empty city.

The Second and Third Battalions have also completed their assembly, under the unified command of Second Battalion Commander Zhang Yu, and are ambushing Wangjiawa in the direction from Chenjialing to Anping City. The terrain here is open and suitable for large-scale operations;

The first battalion, the guerrilla brigade, the first independent company, and the main force of the second independent company totaled more than 2,500 people, guarding the enemies in Zezhou and Luzhou.

That night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse. After the Hengshan detachment arranged the security troops, other troops rested in the field fortifications as usual;

In the field headquarters, Major General Yokoyama, Chief of Staff Suzuki and several regiment captains discussed the withdrawal of troops overnight. Among the units' organizations, only the cavalry regiment was left, the artillery regiment was relatively complete, and the tank group only had 5 tanks left.

Got it!

The final retreat plan was for the five remaining tanks of the tank group to clear the way, with the cavalry regiment guarding the two wings, and the two infantry regiments guarding the artillery regiment and the baggage regiment in the middle. The 8,000-strong army evacuated in a barrel-rolling manner.

Major General Yokoyama spoke:

"Gentlemen, the Chuxiong Division of the Eighth Route Army will not allow the Imperial Army to evacuate easily. They will definitely harass them along the way. Our goal is to safely withdraw from Liu Town. The main purpose of the Eighth Route Army's harassment is to drive them away. Eight thousand of us will form a group.

Without giving Chu Xiong's troops a chance to defeat each one, the Eighth Route Army would not have such a big appetite to eat up the 8,000-strong Imperial Army!"

"The Imperial Army has not failed. Our mission this time is to recover Anping City. This is the mission assigned to the Hengshan Detachment by Your Excellency the Commander. Victory will definitely belong to the Imperial Army. Long live His Majesty the Emperor!"

The old Japanese soldier from Hengshan still had a way of doing it. He was clearly trying to escape but he said he was trying to recapture Anping City, which boosted the morale of the troops.

At three o'clock in the morning, most of the Japanese soldiers fell asleep. In Shenxianling, ghostly troops emerged from the tunnels under the cover of night, and then began to assemble according to their respective organizational structures;

The 5 infantry companies of the mobile battalion and the 10 newly formed infantry companies of the garrison battalion have been assembled;

The artillery company's 24 mine cannons and more than 30 mortars had their muzzles set up, and 7 field guns were also set up. The target was the Japanese's supply brigade located in the center of the field fortifications;

Chu Xiong never thought of relying on more than 3,000 people from these 15 companies to eliminate 8,000 Japanese soldiers. His purpose was to defeat the Japanese soldiers and take advantage of the chaos to destroy their luggage!

Without this last piece of baggage, the 8,000 Japanese soldiers were like tigers with their teeth pulled out. The independent group could do whatever they wanted to do to them.

At five o'clock in the morning, it started to get dark, and it was time for the general attack.

"Captain, the time has come!"

Chief of Staff Zhong Guoliang came to ask Chu Xiong for instructions

Chu Xiong looked at his watch, it was exactly five o'clock, and nodded to Zhong Guoliang.

Zhong Guoliang took out his signal gun and fired three signal bombs into the sky, and the general attack began!

"Boom boom boom..."

"Dong dong dong..."

Dozens of artillery pieces from the artillery battery began to fire fierce bombardments at the Japanese field fortifications, and explosive packets roared towards the Japanese positions.
Chapter completed!