At the headquarters of the Japanese Fourth Brigade in Yangquan.
Brigade Chief of Staff Kurosawa Shoji looked at the pile of minced meat gathered up in front of him and was stunned, like a sculpture.
The minced meat was quickly wrapped in a shirt, which was collected at the point of impact. It contained gravel, soil, and shrapnel, and blood drops flowed out like a filter from the shirt.
Although Mitake Tsuda was violent, murderous, and a lunatic when it came to fighting, Kurosawa Shoji felt that Mitake Tsuda was a good brigade leader.
But such a good brigade leader has now turned into a pile of minced meat, and the pile of minced meat in front of him may not all be his.
It was hard for Kurosawa Shoji to imagine that the major general brigade commander who had been commanding them to fight half an hour ago had already lost his body in just half an hour.
It's very uncomfortable.
"chief of staff?"
The captain of the second battalion, Toshio Ogata, walked in with a dark face and a saber on his shoulder. When he saw this, he shouted cautiously.
"Where is your Excellency, Brigade Commander?"
When he was just at the front, Toshio Ogata was fully focused on directing the soldiers to attack the Eighth Route Army position. He only saw the artillery position being bombed, but did not notice that the brigade commander was also bombed.
His face was darkened entirely by the smoke from the shells.
Hearing the sound, Kurosawa Shoji came back to his senses and pointed at the minced meat on the table: "Your Excellency, the brigade commander, your jade is in pieces."
"Nani? Is this the brigade commander?" Ogata Toshio was stunned when he saw it, "This is impossible!"
"Tell me this isn't true!"
"Chief of Staff, tell me this isn't true!"
Ogata Toshio murmured to himself in an unbelievable tone.
"Ogata-kun, it's true!" Mitake Tsuda said dejectedly, "Your Excellency, the brigade commander, was blown up by artillery from the Eighth Route Army."
Hearing this, Toshio Ogata seemed to have lost all his energy and spirit, and was in a state of despair.
Immediately, he suddenly raised his head again, with a sharp look on his face, and his eyes were bloodshot: "I'm going to avenge the brigade commander!"
"Baga!" Tsuda Mitake shouted, "The firepower of the Eighth Route Army is beyond imagination. If you attack the Eighth Route Army now, you will only die."
"Then what should we do?" Toshio Ogata stopped and turned around and asked, "Can we just huddle in Yangquan City?"
"Ogata-kun, how many casualties did your second battalion suffer?" Kurosawa Shoji asked.
"There are more than 600 casualties, but we can still fight." Toshio Ogata said suddenly, "Chief of Staff, please give me another chance. I will definitely capture the Lion Rock and chop off the head of the Eighth Route Commander to commemorate the brigade commander.
Heroic Spirit."
"Nani? The casualties are so high?" Mitake Tsuda said in an incredible tone.
With only one wave of attacks, they not only failed to capture the Lion Rock position as expected, but also suffered more than 600 casualties, which was far beyond Mitake Tsuda's expectations.
What was even more difficult for Kurosawa Shoji to accept was that even the brigade commander was involved. It could be said that this attack was a Muggle loss.
This is only the attacking force, plus the artillerymen lost by the artillery brigade under the eight-way bombardment, plus the casualties last night, the loss will exceed a thousand people.
Although it is unbelievable, this is the cruel fact.
There are still a thousand capable soldiers in the city, but at least 200 must be left to defend the city, otherwise they will easily be stolen by the Eighth Route Army.
There is also a large-scale Eighth Route Army attack force east of Yangquan. The Imperial Alliance Army alone will definitely not be able to defend Yangquan City.
But without the artillery cover, what can we do now to fight against this powerful eight-pronged force?
Kurosawa Shoji's eyes dropped, looking at the map with thoughtful expression.
"Artillery..." Suddenly, Kurosawa Masaji's expression changed. The Eighth Route Army could win this battle entirely because of artillery.
As long as we can deal with the artillery of the Eighth Route Army, there will be no difficulty in defeating the Eighth Route Army.
While he was thinking about it, the communications staff member walked in with the telegram in hand and gave Kurosawa Shoji a military salute. His tone was emotionless: "Report to the chief of staff, General Shinozuka sent an urgent message to ask where we have advanced."
Kurosawa Shoji raised his head with a slightly embarrassed expression. Where did he push... How to reply to this?
"Immediately call General Shinozuka. Our unit was stubbornly blocked by the Eighth Route Army of the Taihang Mountain Hero Regiment at Lion Rock. It suffered heavy losses, with more than half of the casualties. Your Excellency, the brigade commander... is in pieces."
"Requesting tactical guidance from headquarters."
"Send it out immediately!"
The flag of the New Regiment says "Taihang Mountain Hero Regiment". Because the flag-raising period was short and the New Regiment was relatively low-key, Kurosawa Shoji didn't know which Eighth Route Army unit this was.
"Hi!" The communications staff member memorized the contents of the telegram, closed the folder, paused, and quickly walked out of the war room and walked straight to the communications room.
…
In the inner city of Taiyuan, the headquarters of the Japanese First Army.
The sand table set up by the combat staff overnight was covered with red flags and mini sun flags.
The small red flag represents the strongholds that the Eighth Route Army has conquered, while the sun flag represents the Japanese strongholds on the Zhengtai and Tongpu railways that have not yet been conquered.
More than 200 red flags were placed all over the sand table on the Tongpu and Zhengtai Railway.
Chief of Communications Staff Kasai Toshimatsu reported anxiously: "Your Excellency, Commander, as of 8:00 a.m., more than 200 small and medium-sized bases on Tongpu Railway and Shotai Railway have lost contact."
"Among them, only more than 30 garrison teams from small strongholds withdrew into large strongholds."
"Whether these strongholds that have lost contact have been captured by the Eighth Route Army is still unknown."
"The scale of the Eighth Route Army's offensive this time is greater than any previous one. The number of troops dispatched by the Eighth Route Army is conservatively estimated to be no less than 40 regiments."
Because the Japanese army did not receive any intelligence in advance, the Eighth Route Army's attack was carefully planned in advance, the headquarters' orders were resolute, and the troops performing the task were well concealed in advance. The sudden attack caught the Japanese army by surprise.
Of course, the First Army had more than just a few brigades. There were also three divisions surrounding Zhongtiao Mountain to besiege the Central Army in Zhongtiao Mountain.
However, those divisions did not receive orders from the North China Front Army Headquarters, and Yoshio Shinozuka did not dare to mobilize them easily.
Moreover, the current mobilization of the forces of those divisions cannot save the fire from far away.
The Japanese and puppet troops stationed on Tongpu Road and Zhengtai Road in Shanxi were immediately stunned.
Shinozuka Yoshio's face was as dark as water. The counterattack plan formulated by the staff was: assemble troops from Pinghan and Tongpu Road to attack the Eighth Route from the east and west, assemble the ninth brigade, and the fourth brigade to attack the Eighth Route from the east and west. It is expected to use three
Within days, the Eighth Route Army was driven away from the Zhengtai Railway.
But at the moment, it seems that the situation is much worse than Yoshio Shinozuka imagined. Most of the strongholds that have lost contact have probably been captured by the Eighth Route Army.
Yoshio Shinozuka asked in a deep voice: "Is there no news about the fourth brigade yet?"
At present, the headquarters of the Ninth Brigade has left the Yuci area along the Zhengtai Railway. News has come that although the Ninth Brigade has been blocked by the Eighth Route Army and is advancing slowly, it is at least in progress.
There is no news at all about the Fourth Brigade.
As soon as he finished speaking, a communications soldier walked in holding a telegram, paused for a moment and then handed the telegram to Kasai Toshimatsu.
"Your Excellency, Commander, there is an urgent telegram from the Fourth Brigade..." Toshiatsu Kasai, who only glanced at the contents of the telegram, shrank, his expression gradually becoming unbelievable.
"Read it!" Yoshio Shinozuka stared at the sand table, unaware of Kasai Toshimatsu's expression, and waved his hand and said expressionlessly.
"Hi!" Kasai Toshiatsu held the telegram in both hands and read loudly, "Our unit was stubbornly blocked by the Eighth Route Army, codenamed Taihang Mountain Hero Regiment, at Lion Rock."
"The enemy's firepower was fierce, the fourth brigade suffered heavy losses, more than half of the casualties, the brigade commander... was in pieces."
"Chief of Staff Masaji Kurosawa asks for tactical guidance!"
"His Majesty the Emperor is on board, and the Imperial Japanese Army is on board!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire First Army combat hall fell into dead silence. All the officers, including Yoshio Shinozuka and Hideyoshi Kusuyama, froze as if their acupuncture points had been tapped at the same time.
"Nani?" Kusuyama Hideyoshi's tone was full of disbelief.
"idiot!"
"waste!"
Yoshio Shinozuka was furious.
Everyone present did not expect that Mitake Tsuda would die, and at such a critical time, which made the already bad situation of the First Army even worse.
Kusuyama Hideyoshi snatched the telegram from Kasai Toshimatsu and read it quickly with an expression of disbelief.
"Which Eighth Route Army is this Taihang Mountain Hero Group?" Kusuyama Hideyoshi looked at the intelligence staff officer Takeo Andeng.
"It's the new regiment of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army. The leader is Li Yunlong." An Tengwunan paused and said, he knew this well.
"Is it Li Yunlong again?" Yoshio Shinozuka took a deep breath to calm down the anger in his heart, and his tone was cold.
There was murderous intent in his words.
"The remaining troops of the 4th Brigade were placed under the full command of Kurosawa Ozuo, and the aviation force of the First Army took off immediately to cooperate with the 4th Brigade in combat."
"Li Yunlong must be completely eliminated, and Li Yunlong must be eliminated at any cost."
Shinozuka Yoshio's eyes narrowed behind his black round glasses, filled with murderous intent.
With the commander's personal order, the commander of the Eighth Route District and regiment level was a bit undervalued, but at this time Yoshio Shinozuka no longer cared about that little bit of face.
A total of three left commanders died in the hands of Li Yunlong, and even a major general brigade commander died in the hands of Li Yunlong today...
If things continue like this, he, the lieutenant general, may not be able to save his life.
Li Yunlong, damn it!
At this time, Yoshio Shinozuka could no longer suppress his murderous intention towards Li Yunlong.
"Hi!" Toshimatsu Kasai and Hideyoshi Kusuyama nodded in unison.
Then the two began to perform their respective duties. Kasai Toshimatsu was responsible for liaison with the Fourth Brigade, and Kusuyama Hideyoshi was responsible for formulating plans and coordinating the command of aircraft for rescue.
…
In the morning, the results of each unit were summarized at the Eighth Route Army headquarters.
The 5th Regiment of the main attack force of the right column of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region captured Niangzi Pass at dawn. The main force covered the engineers, destroyed a large number of enemy fortifications, and blew up the Guandong Railway Bridge.
The first phase of the attack mission of each brigade and regiment was basically completed, and more than 200 Japanese strongholds were destroyed overnight.
The Zhengtai Railway west of Niangziguan has basically been controlled by the 129th Division. Except for some medium and large strongholds, the Japanese have become deaf and blind.
This means that the initiative on the battlefield has been firmly controlled by the Eighth Route Army.
Next, the Japanese will have no choice but to be beaten passively.
In the morning, the New Regiment dealt a blow to the Japanese Fourth Brigade at Lion Rock, wiping out more than 700 enemies.
When the news came, the front lines of the Eighth Route Army cheered.