Wang Jiayu, headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.

Several leaders of the headquarters had all gathered in front of the map, and they all looked grim.

Deputy Chief of Staff Zuo said with a solemn expression: "According to the situation reported from various places, the devils in Yangquan, Taiyuan, Fenyang, Lu'an and other places have all been dispatched. ”

"There are as many as six unit numbers that are already known."

"The devils even sent out tank troops, and there are quite a few of them."

"Now it is certain that the scale of the devil's sweep this time is far greater than any previous one, and the most conservative estimate is that the devil has used more than 60,000 troops this time!"

Hearing this, the expressions of several leaders became even more solemn.

Their 129th Division plus the militia of the Taiyue Military Region were only 30,000.

"Damn!" Mr. Peng slammed his fist on the table, and said in a deep voice, "Yoshio Shinozuka, this old devil, this is trying to swallow our Taiyue Military Region!" ”

Master Liu said: "Then I'm afraid he still lacks a good pair of teeth." ”

The left deputy chief of staff said: "But in the face of such a large-scale sweep by the devils, I am afraid that the previous methods will not work." ”

The Eighth Route Army's previous method of dealing with devils was to lead the devils in circles in the mountains, and wait until the devils were dizzy, tired, and dragged down, and then turned back and bit them.

Mess with him a few times like this, and the little devil can only withdraw his troops.

Because in the mountains, let's fight, I can't find the main force of the Eighth Route Army, if I don't fight, I will often be attacked and harassed by a small force of the Eighth Route Army, and if you accidentally give you a ruthless one, who can stand it?

But this time it obviously won't work, because this time the devil's troops are too many.

As soon as the devils have more troops, they can encircle the Taiyue Military Region with an iron wall.

The so-called ironclad encirclement is to first pull one or more blockade lines on the periphery.

Then send one or more elite troops deep into the hinterland of the base area to carry out back and forth sweeping, forcing the main force of the Eighth Route Army to be divided into pieces and stand by in concealment.

After the Eighth Route Army was reduced to zero, the outer blockade line moved forward, narrowing the encirclement little by little.

It was like pulling a net until the main force of the Eighth Route Army was wiped out, so that there were no longer formed anti-Japanese armed forces in the entire base area, and at best there were still small anti-Japanese guerrilla forces.

Okamura Ningji also used this trick in Jizhong, causing heavy damage to the Jizhong base area.

"yes, the old way of doing it doesn't work anymore." Mr. Peng nodded, and said, "The only way now is to divide the troops into two routes, with one part broken into pieces, staying in the base area and insisting on fighting guerrillas, and the other breaking through the blockade line, jumping to the vast periphery, beating behind the devils, and forcing them to return to the division to save themselves!" ”

"The boss is right." Commander Liu said, "The Japanese army in Shanxi will inevitably lead to the emptiness of its rear garrison this time, as long as it breaks through the Japanese blockade line, it will immediately be a different situation." ”

Several other leaders also nodded in unison, and there was no objection to this.

Mr. Peng said in a deep voice: "Then the question now is, how many troops to use to fight on the outside line?" Which unit should be sent? ”

Division Commander Liu said: "The principle is that the number of troops cannot be too small, because too few troops cannot break through the devil's blockade line, or after breaking through the blockade line, they will be completely injured and unable to launch a major offensive." ”

The left deputy chief of staff said: "There must be at least one brigade, and it must be an elite unit." ”

"Then there's nothing to discuss." Mr. Peng said with a final word, "It can only be the 386 Brigade!" ”

The left deputy chief of staff said: "Then the question now is, how to break through?" In which direction to break through? Where to attack the Japanese army after breaking out? ”

A staff officer said: "According to past experience, it is certain that the whole unit will be broken into pieces and break through separately, but this method of breaking through is easy to cause a large-scale attrition, and even if the troops are prominent, their combat effectiveness has already been seriously weakened, and it is difficult to restore their combat effectiveness in a short period of time, let alone take advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack against the Japanese army." ”

Another staff officer said: "However, with the current strength and strength of the 386 Brigade, it is completely possible to try to break through from the front!" ”

"I agree." The deputy chief of staff of the left said, "Today's 386 Brigade, the weapons and equipment of the four main regiments under it have been replaced, and the independent regiment has been replaced with a second one, which can be described as well-equipped!" The artillery battalion directly under the 386 Brigade is equipped with 5 75-caliber mountain guns and 7 70-caliber infantry guns! Ammunition reserves are also plentiful! So it is fully capable of forcibly blowing up a gap in the blockade line of the devils with artillery fire and breaking through head-on! ”

Mr. Peng said: "I also agree, the 386 Brigade is now strong. ”

Master Liu said: "Then the question now is which direction to break through?" ”

The left deputy chief of staff said in a deep voice: "It will definitely not work to the east, the junction of Shanxi and Hebei is now lined with bunkers, and the old devil Okamura Ningci has already laid an iron bucket array at the junction of Shanxi and Hebei. ”

Two months ago, Wang Yan got back a huge sum of money from Taiyuan, and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army immediately contacted various anti-Japanese base areas in central Hebei, eastern Hebei, and southern Hebei, and began to supply and transport grain to the Taiyue base area.

As a result, food was bought, but it suffered huge losses when crossing the blockade line at the junction of Shanxi and Hebei.

The headquarters bought more than 200 million catties of grain from various base areas such as central Hebei, eastern Hebei and southern Hebei, but less than 100 million catties were transported back to the Taiyue base area!

The loss turned out to be more than half!

And it's not just food that's being lost.

The troops in charge of escorting in central and southern Hebei, as well as the local troops sent by the Taiyue Military Region to meet them, also suffered huge losses, with nearly 10,000 casualties!

In short, the Eighth Route Army suffered a big loss in this battle of transporting grain!

Of course, then again, it's totally worth the price.

Mr. Peng said thoughtfully: "Okamura Ningji, this old devil is really not easy to deal with. ”

"Then we can only break through to the west." Master Liu said, "Because it doesn't make much sense to go south or north, only to go west is the Jinzhong Basin, which is the essence of Shanxi!" After breaking out, whether it is to go south to Huozhou and threaten Fenyang, or to go north to threaten Pingyao counties, it is enough to mobilize the Japanese army and force it to return to the division to save itself! ”

"I agree." Mr. Peng said, "Then give an order to the 386 Brigade, take the 386 Brigade as the backbone, strengthen a small number of logistics troops to form a mobile column, break through to the west, jump to the periphery to fight, create a new base area if you have the opportunity, and at least fight a few beautiful battles if you don't have the opportunity, force the enemy to save yourself, and give up the sweep of the Taiyue Military Region." ”

"Oh yes, from now on, the 386th Brigade will no longer be the Taiyue Military Region."

The deputy chief of staff immediately picked up the phone and said, "Pick up the 386th Brigade for me." ”