"Within five days, the Eighth Route Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment launched successive offensives in northwestern Shanxi and captured six counties in a row."
"The Locust Army lost a total of 8 squadrons, and the Locust Alliance Army lost 6 battalions, as well as a large amount of food and combat supplies."
A combat staff officer held a folder in both hands and carefully reported the losses in northwestern Shanxi in the past few days to Yoshio Iwamatsu, Masa Hanagani and others.
"idiot!"
After listening to the report of the combat staff, Iwamatsu Yoshio uttered a curse word on the spot, feeling a little depressed.
The 3rd Brigade was almost completely wiped out by the Eighth Route New Regiment in northern Shanxi.
The Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment of the Eighth Route Army started to cause trouble again. They lost 8 squadrons of locust troops, and their strength was almost close to that of an infantry regiment.
The six battalions of the Locust Alliance Army are equivalent to the strength of a Locust Alliance Army brigade.
Because the First Army suffered heavy losses, the base camp was also replenishing troops to the First Army, but the rate of replenishment was far less than the rate of consumption.
With Datong and six counties in northwestern Shanxi being recovered by the Eighth Route Army.
The First Army's living space in Shanxi has been greatly reduced. The North-Tongpu Railway has been abandoned and is almost completely occupied by the new regiment. Some garrison troops along the way have also withdrawn to Taiyuan.
The main strength of the First Army is now in southern Shanxi, Taiyuan and Yangquan.
The main force consists of three divisions and most of the cavalry brigade, and this cavalry brigade was borrowed from the army stationed in Mongolia and has never been returned.
Now only the Zhengtai Railway and the Nantongpu Railway are still in the hands of the Japanese.
However, the power of the Eighth Route Army has grown so alarmingly that non-security areas and guerrilla areas are expanding almost every day.
As a result, Yoshio Iwamatsu couldn't eat or sleep well. He suffered from anxiety and insomnia every day, and a lot of his hair fell out.
If this rate continues, sooner or later the Eighth Route Army will annex the First Army's territory in Shanxi.
On the side, Chief of Staff Hanatani Masaru, Deputy Chief of Staff Masao Miyazaki and Kazuki Yamamoto all fell into deep thought after hearing this.
This situation.
It seems different than expected!?
Why are the promised base areas of the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment starving to death?
The independent group and the new second group that were promised are already so hungry that they have no energy left?
Not only were the Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment not hungry, but they were still very powerful in combat. In just a few days, they captured six counties in northwestern Shanxi.
"Your Excellency Commander!"
Yamamoto Kazuki said in a deep voice:
"I just received information from intelligence personnel lurking in northwestern Shanxi. Recently, the Eighth Route Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment have obtained a large amount of food."
"The Eighth Route Army distributed these grains to the people in northwestern Shanxi for free."
The Japanese planted some spies among the common people, and these spies also went to northern Shaanxi.
However, these spies are only low-level agents and cannot obtain any valuable information at all.
If such a large amount of grain poured into northwestern Shanxi and the Japanese intelligence department could not detect it, then Yamamoto Kazuki and Iwamatsu Yoshio could collectively commit suicide by caesarean section.
After a pause, Yamamoto Kazuki said with an ugly face: "If I guess your guess is correct, this batch of food should come from the aid channel behind Li Yunlong..."
"It seems." Yoshio Iwamatsu's eyes were gloomy, "The Eighth Route Army has found a solution to the problem of food shortage."
"There are more than 1 million people." Hua Guzheng exclaimed in disbelief, "How much food is needed?"
"A conservative estimate would be several hundred million kilograms of grain." Miyazaki Masao guessed a rough figure.
"Hundreds of millions of kilograms of grain." Yoshio Iwamatsu fell into deep thought for a long time.
I don’t know how much time passed, but Iwamatsu Yoshio looked at Yamamoto Kazuki and asked: "Yamamoto-kun, can your intelligence department find out the channels through which the Eighth Route Army obtains food and where it receives the goods?"
Even transporting hundreds of millions of kilograms of grain to northwest Shanxi by air would require a lot of time and transport aircraft.
If we could shoot down these transport planes...
"It's difficult!" Kazuki Yamamoto shook his head, "Our intelligence officers are all ordinary Chinese people. They can see the transport fleet flying in the sky every day, but they don't know where they are flying to, unless..."
Kazuki Yamamoto has now been promoted to major general and holds many positions.
The Chief of Intelligence Staff of the First Army, the Special Agent Captain, and the Chief of the Secret Service Agency of the First Army are fully responsible for the security of the inner city of Taiyuan.
"Unless what?" Yoshio Iwamatsu asked.
Yamamoto Kazuki said: "Unless our intelligence personnel can enter the Eighth Route Army in northwestern Shanxi and become a mid-level officer, or develop informants in the Eighth Route Army in northwestern Shanxi."
Yamamoto knows that this is easy to say but difficult to do.
The Eighth Route Army's recruitment system is very strict and complete.
In particular, the main forces of the three regiments in northwestern Shanxi are almost all recruited from the militia.
The militiamen are all ordinary people in the village, and everyone who is born and raised knows each other. In addition to the people's guarantee, every soldier will also strictly check the three generations of his ancestors.
Even if you manage to place an intelligence officer in the Eighth Route Army, it will be difficult to collect useful intelligence because the level is too low.
If you want to improve your level, you can only kill enemies and perform meritorious service on the battlefield. In a few years, you may be able to rise to the level of company commander.
It's hard to say what the situation will be like in a few years, and how many locust troops will the intelligence personnel have to kill before they can be promoted to company commander?
Iwamatsu Yoshio said: "I have already asked Commander Okamura for instructions on applying for the deployment of senior agents."
Senior agents involved top secrets. If Yoshio Iwamatsu didn't take the initiative to tell him, Kazuki Yamamoto would never take the initiative to ask.
"Commander," Kazuki Yamamoto asked, "As for the advance team's plan to penetrate into the Eighth Route Base Area to cause sabotage, shall we continue?"
Yamamoto Kazuki felt quite unlucky.
He was supposed to take up the post of commander of the 3rd mixed brigade next month, but the 3rd brigade was destroyed by Li Yunlong.
Although it was not completely wiped out, the 3rd Brigade was almost wiped out, and only some remaining defeated troops were defeated.
It is difficult to become a brigade leader in a short time.
The most troublesome food problem for the Eighth Route Army in northwestern Shanxi is likely to be solved from now on.
Will the commander still agree to form an advance team?
Currently, the screening of advancing team members is already underway, and he has sent special agents to various divisions and garrison units to screen for suitable advancing team members.
Iwamatsu Yoshio asked in a deep voice: "Yamamoto-kun, are you confident that the advance team will penetrate into the Eighth Route Army base area?"
"If it is a defensive state like wartime," Yamamoto Kazuki replied, "the advancing team will never be able to penetrate into the Eighth Route Army base area. But in normal times, special forces will lead the way and the advancing team pretends to be the Eighth Route Army and infiltrates into the Eighth Route Army base area. There is no problem at all.
."
"Since we can penetrate it, let's continue!" Iwamatsu Yoshio said.
The main task of the advancing team is to destroy the military-civilian relationship between the Eighth Route Army and the common people.
Although it is impossible to eliminate the Eighth Route Army, once it succeeds, it will cause the Eighth Route Army to fall into internal strife and have no time to take care of the First Army.
"Hi!"
Yamamoto Kazuki lowered his head and looked slightly happy.
Later, Yamamoto Kazuki said again: "Your Excellency, Commander, according to intelligence, the Eighth Route Army is also equipped with a very advanced wireless communication equipment..."
