In the conference room of the office building of the Japanese First Army Headquarters, Yoshio Shinozuka presided over the combat meeting.
Attending the meeting were the commander of the Japanese 108th Division Fujiwara Kinichi, the commander of the 32nd Garrison Division Chiba Xunichi, the commander of the Japanese Second Air Force in Shanxi Inoue Kamakura, the Japanese Cavalry Regiment Commander Takayama Takeo, Huang Xiejun
Yan Guiwu, commander of the Fourth Division, discussed the operational plan to encircle and suppress the Mawushan base area.
After the meeting began, Chiba Xunyi first introduced the basic situation of the Mawushan guerrillas.
He spoke in great detail, not shying away from the losses suffered by the 32nd Division in previous battles, and even exaggerating a bit.
Because he knew that Xu Dalong's guerrillas could not be eliminated by relying solely on the strength of the 32nd Division.
He said: "Xu Dalong's guerrilla army was only a small force of dozens of people half a year ago, but now it has grown to thousands of people.
These people are not ordinary mobs, but regular troops that have undergone rigorous training and have rich practical experience. They are well-equipped and even surpass the regular field troops of the Yellow Army.
They are humble and incompetent, and currently unable to exterminate them. Commander, please send heavy troops to exterminate them as soon as possible to ensure the security of the occupied area."
Yoshio Shinozuka did not blame Chiba Xunichi, he had also been paying attention to the situation of the Mawu Mountain guerrillas.
He said: "Please give your opinions on how to destroy this guerrilla group that endangers public security in the occupied areas."
After he finished speaking, no one said a word.
Yoshio Shinozuka saw that no one was speaking, so he had no choice but to call his name.
Here, besides Yoshio Shinozuka, the person with the highest status is Konichi Fujiwara, the commander of the 108th Division, and Yoshio Shinozuka first sought his opinion.
Fujiwara Konichi was born into a noble family and had the demeanor of a scholar. He said sincerely: "Your Excellency, Commander, I am not familiar with the situation of the Mawu Mountain guerrillas and I cannot offer any constructive suggestions.
The Mawu Mountain area is Chiba-kun's defense area. He has been dealing with guerrillas for the longest time and has the most experience. The 108th Division is willing to obey Chiba-kun's command and cooperate with the operations of the 32nd Division."
Yoshio Shinozuka was very satisfied with Fujiwara Konichi's attitude.
Chiba Xunyi also cast a grateful look at Fujiwara Konichi.
Commander Inoue Kamakura of the Second Air Force of the Japanese Air Force was very angry about the loss of a reconnaissance aircraft in Mawu Mountain last time.
He asked: "Chief Chiba Division, do the Mawushan guerrillas have anti-aircraft weapons?"
Chiba Xunyi said: "I have inquired about this matter clearly. The guerrillas are not equipped with anti-aircraft weapons. It is said that the captain of the Mawushan guerrillas shot down your reconnaissance plane with a sniper rifle."
Inoue Kamakura said in disbelief: "There is such a thing."
However, he felt relieved when he heard that the Mawushan guerrillas did not have anti-aircraft weapons, and he also expressed his full cooperation with the 32nd Division guarding Chiba Xunyi.
Takeo Takayama, captain of the cavalry regiment of the First Army, was also unfamiliar with the situation in the Mawushan area, and also stated that he would obey Chiba Xunichi's command and cooperate with the 32nd garrison division in operations.
The 32nd garrison division is the main body of this encirclement and suppression operation. Recently, Chiba Xunyi's most important thing every day is to think about how to eliminate the Mawushan guerrillas. Therefore, Chiba Xunyi is the one who makes the final decision.
Chiba Xunyi summarized the lessons learned from the last encirclement and suppression campaign. He believed that the siege tactics should still be implemented against the Mawushan guerrillas.
He believes that now that winter has entered, without the cover of the green gauze tent, the activities of the guerrillas have become more difficult. As the guerrillas grow and develop, they consume a lot of the various living materials they need, and it is more difficult for them to replenish them in winter.
Therefore, this season was the best time to besiege them. He hoped to mobilize more troops to completely encircle the Mawushan guerrillas.
After Chiba Xunyi finished speaking, Shinozuka Yoshio turned his attention to Yan Guiwu.
Although he looked down upon this traitor who betrayed his country and sought glory, he still gave him full respect on the surface.
He said politely: "Yan Sang, you are familiar with the local situation. I would like to hear your opinion."
This was the first time that Yan Guiwu expressed his opinions in front of Yoshio Shinozuka, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese garrison in Shanxi. He felt excited and had all kinds of evil thoughts that he wanted to express.
However, he has now come to the conclusion that no matter what ideas he comes up with, they will not work in front of Xu Dalong's guerrillas, and the final result can only be a slap in the face. He believes that if he puts forward any suggestions again, he will suffer failure.
, if you are embarrassed in front of Yoshio Shinozuka, your future will be very worrying.
In addition, he and Xu Dalong have now begun to form a certain tacit understanding. He forcibly resisted his urge to show off and said: "The plan of His Excellency the Commander of the Qianye Division has been perfected. Huang Xiejun's Fourth Division will obey His Excellency the Division Commander."
Under the command, we will go all out to cooperate with the Yellow Army and launch the encirclement and suppression of the Mawushan guerrillas."
Although Yan Guiwu did not put forward any constructive suggestions, his attitude was still praised by Shinozuka Yoshio.
Yoshio Shinozuka nodded towards him and said, "Very good, Yan Sang, you are extremely loyal to Huang Jun."
Yan Guiwu couldn't help but feel a little excited when he was praised.
He hurriedly said: "Thank you, Commander. I will dedicate myself to my humble duty, die for myself, and go all out to cooperate with the Yellow Army's combat operations."
Shinozuka Yoshio basically agreed with Chiba Xunyi's combat plan, but his troops were limited. He still disagreed with the long-term siege of the Mawushan guerrillas, because he could not mobilize so many troops for a long time.
Time to surround a guerrilla force, he hoped to win a quick victory.
His operational concept was to first form an encirclement around the Mawu Mountain base in accordance with Chiba Xunyi's advice, and then approach Mawu Mountain in an all-round way, constantly narrowing the encirclement. First, drive all the Mawu Mountain guerrillas into the mountains, and then search every hilltop.
Completely annihilate them.
In order to achieve the mission of this battle, Yoshio Shinozuka decided to transfer 1,000 veterans from other Japanese troops and add 3,000 new recruits to Chiba Xunichi.
The entire 215th Brigade was mobilized from the 108th Division to cooperate with the 32nd Division.
Takeo Takayama's cavalry regiment conducts mobile operations around the Mawu Mountain area to track the cavalry of the outgoing guerrillas. Once they find traces of enemy cavalry, they use the tactics of hot pursuit and do not give them any chance to breathe.
Make it impossible for them to destroy the logistics supply lines of the troops participating in the encirclement and suppression. If possible, completely annihilate them.
The Air Force is required to dispatch reconnaissance aircraft to provide intelligence to the encircled and suppressed troops, indicate targets, and dispatch bombers to bomb guerrilla positions based on specific combat conditions.
This offensive operation was dominated by the Japanese army. Yan Guiwu's Huang Xiejun 4th Division cooperated with the Japanese army to strengthen the blockade of the Mawushan base area, completely cutting off the Mawushan guerrillas' channels for obtaining supplies from the outside world.
Valley
Chiba Xunichi served as the overall commander of this operation, and all departments were required to obey Chiba Xunyi's command.
After the deployment, Yoshio Shinozuka conveyed the instructions of the commander of the North China Front Army, Tada Jun, to adopt the three-point policy of burning, killing, and robbing the Eighth Route Army's base areas to completely destroy the Mawushan guerrilla base areas and make the guerrillas invincible.
Water from the source, fish without water.
Chiba Xunyi and other Japanese generals felt very excited after hearing this.
Especially Chiba Xunichi, he believed that this was the best plan to defeat the Mawushan guerrillas, and expressed his appreciation for this vicious policy.
Upon hearing this vicious plan, Yan Guiwu couldn't help but tremble in his heart.
He was not a good person, but he was not so cruel to the common people. He felt that these little devils were too wicked and simply did not regard the Chinese as human beings.
However, Yan Guiwu was a smooth person. Although he was a little dissatisfied in his heart, he still showed an appreciative attitude on the surface.
After the meeting, Chiba Xunyi returned to his residence.
Before he could sit down and rest, Yoshio Shinozuka quietly sent someone to call him over.
Yoshio Shinozuka is a cautious person, and the last time the Mawu Mountain guerrilla combat plan was scrapped, it was mainly because of problems with the army transporting new recruits.
He believed that the reason why the guerrillas had such accurate information about the movements of military columns was that someone might have leaked the information.
He could not trust Yan Guiwu and Huang Xiejun, and he was also worried that the other generals attending the meeting would inadvertently leak the news, so he specifically asked Qianye Xunyi to formulate a careful plan during this operation to prevent leaks.
Chiba Xunichi understood the spirit of Shinozuka Yoshio's instructions, quietly went to meet with the logistics department responsible for transportation of the First Army, and agreed with them on the recruit transportation plan. At the same time, he went to see Fujiwara Konichi and Inoue Kamakura and talked with them.
The route for dispatching troops was agreed upon to avoid being intercepted by guerrillas along the way.
Of course, all this was hidden from Yan Guiwu.
After returning to Lingao City, Yan Guiwu tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. He was in a conflicted mood. On the one hand, he hoped that the Japanese army could completely wipe out Xu Dalong's Mawushan guerrillas, so that he could live a peaceful life, but he thought it was unlikely, so
He believed that it was still necessary to maintain the necessary tacit understanding with Xu Dalong and others.
He also felt very uncomfortable about the three-guang policy that the Japanese and puppet troops were about to implement. Although he was not a good person, he was not so ruthless.
Although he had the idea to let the common people take bullets last time, they were only a small number of common people after all. He could not bear to massacre the common people on such a large scale.
Yan Guiwu thought twice and decided not to tell Xu Dalong about the Japanese army's plan to encircle and suppress Mawu Mountain, but asked Wang Shuhuai to quietly inform Xu Dalong about the Japanese army's upcoming three-guang policy.
After Xu Dalong received this bad news, he was not shocked, because this is what the Japanese did in history, and sooner or later they will adopt this vicious policy towards the Mawushan base area.
From the news conveyed by Wang Shuhuai, Xu Dalong guessed that Yan Guiwu must have participated in a high-level meeting of the Japanese army. Otherwise, he would not have passed on such information. This heralded that the Japanese and puppet troops were about to launch a large-scale attack on the Mawushan base area.
Xu Dalong had already guessed that Yan Guiwu concealed the Japanese army's battle plan from him.
He thought this was normal and did not blame Yan Guiwu. He knew that dealing with Yan Guiwu was a long-term matter and he could not go too far. As time went by, he believed that he would be able to win Yan Guiwu to the anti-Japanese side.
Xu Dalong took out another part of the money and gave it to Wang Shuhuai, asking him to convey his gratitude to Yan Guiwu.
After Wang Shuhuai returned to Lingao City, he went to see Yan Guiwu and conveyed Xu Dalong's gratitude to him.
Yan Guiwu asked: "Did Xu Dalong ask you for other information about the Japanese army?"
Wang Shuhuai said: "Captain Xu didn't say anything, he just asked me to express my gratitude to you."
The reason why Yan Guiwu only asked Wang Shuhuai to convey the new policy that the Japanese army would adopt to deal with the base area was actually to secretly convey to Xu Dalong the news that the Japanese army was about to launch a massive attack on the Mawushan base area.
He believed that Xu Dalong was a smart man and could understand his reminder.
He was originally worried that Xu Dalong would ask about the details of the Japanese army's plan to attack Mawu Mountain, but he did not expect that they would not embarrass him at all.
He now finds more and more that Xu Dalong is a friend he can make friends with.
The reason why Xu Dalong did not embarrass Yan Guiwu was because he had his own powerful intelligence system.
On the one hand, he assigned the intelligence squadron the task of reconnaissance of the enemy, and at the same time, he sent a telegram to the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army Taiyuan Intelligence Station and the Military Command Taiyuan Working Group, requesting them to reconnoitre relevant intelligence.
As the Mawushan base area was about to face a massive Japanese attack, Xu Dalong sent a telegram to his superiors to report on the situation he had learned.
This time Xu Dalong did not send the telegram to the independent regiment, but directly sent the telegram to the brigade commander.
This is not because Xu Dalong wants to bypass the Independent Regiment, but because the Independent Regiment cannot solve the problems faced by the Mawushan base area at all.
The brigade commander quickly responded with a telegram, telling Xu Dalong that the underground party organization had been closely monitoring the actions of the Japanese army, and the intelligence would be notified to Xu Dalong in a timely manner.
He asked Xu Dalong to prepare for counter-mopping up from now on and protect the Mawushan base area as much as possible.
If the enemy army is too strong, you can lead your troops to leave the base area and go to the Taihang Mountain base area of the Eighth Route Army when necessary.
Xu Dalong sent another telegram, assuring the brigade commander that the Mawushan guerrillas would be able to defeat the enemy's encirclement and suppression and defend the Mawushan base area.
Around the Mawushan base area, there are only three places where the Japanese army may increase their troops in large numbers, one is Taiyuan, one is Yucheng, and the other is Jincheng.
Xu Dalong has arranged personnel to conduct surveillance in the Taiyuan and Yucheng directions, while the underground party in the Jincheng direction is responsible for providing intelligence.
News first came from the direction of Jincheng that 1,000 Japanese veterans and 3,000 Japanese recruits had left Jincheng. They did not go to Lingao City, but went in the opposite direction. They should not be targeting the Mawushan guerrillas.
Go.
Xu Dalong didn't think so. He believed that what the Japanese army needed most at the moment was the garrison of the 32nd Division. This move by the Japanese army was probably creating an illusion.
Xu Dalong sent a telegram to the brigade commander, hoping that the brigade commander could send someone to closely monitor the movements of the Japanese troops to prevent them from taking a detour to Gaocheng.