At the end of January 38, the front in the north of the Republic of China was still hot, although the Japanese army gave up a large-scale offensive due to logistical reasons, but the interspersed with troops still gave the defending troops on the frontal battlefield a headache.

And the rear of the Japanese-occupied area was also lively at this time.

The first Japanese sweep of the Jin-Cha-Ji base ended in failure, with more than 10,000 Rao sweeping troops suffering a total of more than 2,000 casualties, and the combined forces of several divisions and regiments could only retreat along the towns along the various railway lines.

After the ambush in the valley of wind pressure, the 344 Brigade, which had tasted the sweetness of firepower, took advantage of the victory to fight another ambush, and although the results of this battle were not as big as the first time, relying on the intensive firepower of thousands of 60 mortar shells and dozens of light and heavy machine guns, a devil's brigade was still beaten to the ground, leaving more than 200 corpses and fled, while the 344 Brigade only suffered 50 wounds and 27 were killed, including 31 lightly wounded and 19 seriously wounded.

The important town of Laiyuan.

This is where the 6th Wing of the 109th Division of the Japanese Army and the 3rd Wing of the 19th Division of the Japanese Army are stationed.

The 109th Division has been stationed in Chahar for a long time, and it is the second-line division of the Japanese army, and as a second-line division, and the garrison is stable and war-free, the most important thing the 109th Division does is to further train recruits.

Many of the recruits who have been trained in Japan or in China or North Korea will be directly dispatched to various divisions and regiments for direct battlefield training, while those who are almost inferior will be sent to the second-line garrison division, that is, the 109th Division, which can appropriately participate in large-scale guerrilla operations in the local area while strengthening training, and once these recruits are mature, they will enter other divisions and regiments and enter the front-line battlefield.

Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the 109th Division has always been one of the worst even in the second-line divisions.

It is precisely because of this that in the face of the situation that nearly half of a brigade was annihilated, and even the captain of the brigade was broken, the 6th Wing of the 109th Division did not receive much punishment, but only received a scolding telegram, after all, as a famous stepmother cub in the Japanese Army, the soldiers of the 109th Division were all defective products picked by others, and even the weapons were mostly the remaining defective products of the Kwantung Army, and the headquarters was embarrassed to punish them too much.

This is like the worst son in the family, although he made a mistake, he could only say a few sentences.

But the 19th Wing of the 3rd Division was different.

It's now completely miserable with a capital letter.

As a permanent division, the 3rd Wing of the 19th Division not only has high-quality soldiers, all of whom are veterans who have participated in major battles many times, but is also well-equipped, and is a complete A Wing with all kinds of light and heavy weapons, each brigade is equipped with two intact infantry guns, and the wing has a mountain artillery squadron directly under it.

Therefore, when a brigade of the 3rd Wing was also ambushed by the 344th Brigade in a canyon and killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 100 people, the pots that were ambushed twice by brigade-level troops and suffered heavy casualties flew to the head of the 3rd Wing of the 19th Division together, and the various scolds and punishments from the headquarters doubled.

Smack···

The whip in the hand of a lieutenant general was heavily whipped on the body of the commander of the 3rd wing, and an obvious blood mark suddenly appeared on the wing captain who was wearing a thin white shirt, and then the lieutenant general seemed to feel that it was not enjoyable, and the backhand was another whip, which hit the wing captain directly on the back, and a fresh blood mark appeared.

The aggrieved captain of the 3rd wing could only grit his teeth and bow his head silently.

After pumping two whips, the commander of the 19th Division, whose anger had eased slightly, clenched his horsewhip at this time, pointed to the casualties on the table, and reported.

"One and a half hours"

"In the face of the Eighth Route Army, which lacked weapons and equipment, a brigade of your 3rd Wing only lasted for an hour and a half, and 237 imperial soldiers were killed in battle, and even the captain was seriously wounded."

"This is one of the seventeen permanent divisions of the Empire's elite?"

"The motley brigade of other people's bunch of recruits has lasted for a while, and they have successfully withdrawn more than half of it, what about you?"

"A bunch of waste, it's just a little bit stronger than other recruits' brigade"

“····”

Throwing the whip in his hand, the commander of the 19th Division scolded angrily at this time.

He lowered his head until the commander of his own division gasped and stopped scolding, and the commander of the 3rd Wing began to speak at this time.

"Your Excellency the division commander, I do not deny that because I was on guard, the troops were ambushed in a dangerous situation, and the inferior discipline was not good, resulting in the low combat effectiveness of the troops, this is an undeniable fault, please ask the division commander to punish me."

"But"

At this point, the wing commander suddenly raised his head and looked at the commander of his own division.

"One of the main reasons for the defeat was intelligence errors"

"The information that Tegaoke gave us is that the enemy in this vicinity is only half a division of the 119th Division of the Eighth Route Army, with less than 6,000 main forces, and the firepower is sparse and there is a serious shortage of ammunition."

"But the actual situation is fundamentally different, there is nothing wrong with the number of people, the other side does only have a brigade of the 119th Division of the Eighth Route Army, but the opponent's small arms firepower even far exceeds a brigade of the Imperial Army, these two ambushes The other side fired more than 8,000 mortars, and all kinds of light and heavy machine gun ammunition are also full, and there is no tactics of sprinting and fighting bayonets immediately after a round of shooting."

"And the main reason why I formulated the tactics of the brigade to act alone was that the enemy's firepower was sparse and there was a serious shortage of ammunition."

"According to Tegaoke's intelligence, even if the enemy's entire strength rises and falls, it will take at least five hours to resolve the battle with one of our brigades, and the main force of the internal wing will have enough time to come to support in five hours."

"But the intelligence was wrong, so it was not a strange thing that the battle was lost"

The captain bowed his head again.

"Eight thousand mortar shells?"

Hearing this number, the division commander was visibly surprised.

The two ambushes lasted only two and a half hours, and 8,000 mortar shells were fired in two and a half hours, although this number was also a high number for the Imperial Japanese Army.

And he has also fought with the Eighth Route Army many times, so he naturally knows how the firepower of the Eighth Route Army is, according to past experience, the firepower of a brigade can be compared to a brigade of the Eighth Route Army, and even the heavy weapons of the Imperial Army Brigade are still superior.

This firepower is definitely not the Eighth Route Army, is it their so-called Central Army?

"Accurate information?" The division commander asked with some suspicion.

"It's true, I've been to the battlefield to investigate, and the shells used by the other side are of extremely high quality, not cast-iron mortar shells, but shells made of cold-forged cannon steel," added the wing commander.

"Your team will repair in Laiyuan first"

"I'll go and talk to Tegaoke," the division commander had a faint flicker of anger in his eyes.