"Jingle Bell Bell ......"

The phone rang, and the auxiliary officer of the Japanese army headquarters in Luxian County picked up the phone.

"Moximoxi? …… Hello! …… Hello! ”

After a moment of conversation, the lieutenant put the phone back in its place. Fujino, who was sitting on the side, looked at his assistant with a puzzled expression, waiting for him to answer for him.

"Shaozuo, a call from Lunan County: There are a large number of suspicious personnel activities in the administrative center, and the phone said that it is not ruled out that it is the Eighth Route Army."

Fujino crossed his hands, not surprised.

"Oh? What are the activities of these suspicious persons? Is it to prepare for military activities? ”

Hearing Fujino's question, the assistant officer reported in a timely manner.

"That's not true, in fact, Lu Nan doesn't know whether those people are the Eighth Route Army or not. In Lunan County, there have suddenly been a lot of activities between villages and towns in the name of merchants, and these people are very vigilant in the process of action, and our agents have been thrown away several times when they want to follow them up. As for what exactly they are for...... This is still being clarified. ”

After the assistant finished reporting, Fujino just nodded his head.

"It doesn't matter what the purpose of these suspicious people is, there is about one regiment of the Eighth Route Army in Lunan County, and it is not surprising that there are activities of the Eighth Route Army in Lunan County."

"But Shaozuo, is it really okay for us to be so laissez-faire? I always believe that if the Eighth Route Army under our rule is left unchecked, it will definitely become a big threat. ”

Fujino, who said seriously from the adjutant officer, was stunned for a moment, and then he stood up from his desk and slapped his subordinate.

"Are you doing my duty?"

"Don't dare!"

The auxiliary officer immediately bowed his head, since the "226 Mutiny" that occurred in Japan in 1936, the "Imperial Dao faction" in the army has been purged and there is no longer one out of ten, and the "Ling Shang" admired by the Imperial Dao faction is no longer something that can be said on the table. For Fujino's sudden beating, he must choose to endure.

"We are soldiers, not dead soldiers. When it comes to making decisions, you have to use your brain. Shangfeng has already made a decision, in the near future, a military operation will be carried out against the Eighth Route Army in the area of Jizhong, and by that time the entire Eighth Route Army in Jizhong will be purged! We don't need to scare the snake now! Do you understand?! ”

Fujino's lesson made the assistant officer shudder, and he did not dare to raise any objections. Fujino didn't dare to contradict himself, but he didn't show his subordinates who were convinced. I sighed secretly in my heart: These reckless men from the Changzhou Domain, don't they have anything else in their minds except muscles?

Born in Osaka, he actually looked down on these soldiers who only knew how to work hard, but in his country he still admired this spirit of serving the dead, so that the Osaka Division in his hometown was sometimes smeared as a "cowardly division".

"Shao Zuo, when will we be able to clear the Eighth Route Army? Which force will accomplish this glorious mission? ”

The assistant officer asked with some curiosity, and Fujino was stunned when he was asked this question, and then thought about it carefully and said.

"This kind of thing is to be kept secret, and if you know it, it will rot in your stomach."

The adjutant immediately nodded his head in understanding.

"Well, it is said that the elite wing of the first-class division will be in charge of the purging work at that time. If the wing had not miscalculated, it should have been subordinate to the Fifth Division, which was called the 'Steel Division'. ”

……

At Taiyuan Railway Station, groups of Japanese soldiers are boarding trains one after another. As the supreme commander of these soldiers, Itagaki Seishiro's eyebrows looked at the fortified city in front of him with a little unwillingness. After winning the battle in Shanxi, he was originally infinitely glorious and glorious, but a small accident made his glory a little dusty.

The Eighth Route Army, this weak army. Whether it is the number of people or equipment, it seems that it cannot withstand the slight knock of the Fifth Division at all. But such a force always provokes him in some small places and makes him unhappy.

In the Battle of Pingxingguan, an ambush by the Eighth Route Army gave the Japanese army its first taste of defeat. Although this failure was not disastrous, it was not a big deal for his overall layout. But it's like drinking rat droppings while drinking porridge, even if there is only one, it is enough to spoil the interest of the whole meal.

When the Battle of Taiyuan was about to end, a relatively small battle took place in Lingqiu. It is precisely because of this battle that the imperial army, which has actually eaten all the benefits of Shanxi, has not even won so decently, as if you obviously won a fight with others, but you suffered serious internal injuries and the opponent scratched your face with his nails before falling! Winning is indeed winning, but winning is not pretty!

After occupying Taiyuan, Seishiro Itagaki, who had been hated for a long time, immediately ordered the strangulation of the Eighth Route Army. In this regard, Guangling dispatched a whole team, and nearly two brigades were also dispatched in the Baima area to respond. But even so, it still made that hateful Eighth Route Army jump out of the encirclement! For this reason, Seishiro Itagaki angrily threw a jade that he had been wearing for a long time.

But the Eighth Route Army, which did all this, did not seem to feel its anger and still provoked itself. Seishiro Itagaki can't forget how he felt when his subordinates reported that Goro Maeda's special train had become a few empty cars.

And all these things are done, there is always a name in the middle, and that is the 344 Brigade! This brigade has offended itself several times, and Seishiro Itagaki once swore that he would let all the more than 6,000 people in this brigade die!

Itachi's pity that Seishiro Itagaki may not have had the opportunity to fulfill his vow, because it had just ended in 1937 and at the beginning of 1938. As the commander-in-chief of the North China Front, Terauchi Shouichi gave him an order: to ask their Fifth Division to leave Shanxi and rush to other battlefields!

In the eyes of the North China Front and the headquarters of the Japanese in Tokyo, almost all of the regular army forces in Shanxi were wiped out. Shanxi's law and order work requires only a small number of soldiers. There is no need to place nearly 30,000 elite soldiers on such an occupied land that has already settled everything, which is a great waste for an empire that is already short of resources.

Itagaki Seishiro also understands these truths, but understanding the truth does not mean that he is willing to swallow this breath.

It was at this time that a name appeared in front of him. This is a wing commander subordinate to the 21st brigade: Yoroku Sasaki. If there is anyone who is the most humiliated commander in the entire Fifth Division, it is undoubtedly Sasaki Shiroku.

The Nishimura Brigade, which was defeated in the frontal battle and lost ground, was his troops, but when he personally went out to encircle and suppress the Eighth Route Army, it still ended in failure.

Now in the Fifth Division, colleagues behind their backs call Sasaki 46 as waste wood Sasaki.

For the slander of his colleagues, Sasaki is angry to death. But he had no way to argue with it, because failure was a given. However, Sasaki did not get depressed, but waited for the opportunity to take revenge all the time.

It was at this time that Sasaki's long-awaited opportunity for revenge finally came! The Fifth Division was about to be transferred, but Seishiro Itagaki was unwilling to stop there.

Sasaki, who saw the opportunity, chose to fight without hesitation, and he believed that the division commander would definitely give him this opportunity to wash away the humiliation on his body with his own hands. At the same time, Sasaki himself has a hunch that if he can defeat this strong opponent, he will also be reborn like Nirvana and grow into a better commander!

After receiving Sasaki's request to fight, Itagaki approved his request without much hesitation. In this way, Itagaki decided to keep the Sasaki United in Shanxi. He believed that as long as the imperial army seriously dealt with the enemy, a wing of more than 3,000 people could completely defeat a brigade of the Eighth Route Army with one enemy and two enemies. And Commander Terauchi Shouichi will definitely not punish himself for this small wing.

……

"Sasaki, you have to remember. It is a great kindness to the division commander to give you this opportunity. I want you to protect your honor as a soldier. ”

At the headquarters of the 21st Brigade, Sasaki was listening to the lecture of the brigade commander at the moment. The entire division was transferred, and the 21st Brigade was to be transferred out of Shanxi except for Sasaki.

"Hello! Follow the teachings of the brigade commander! I won't let you down this time! ”

Today's Sasaki no longer has the vigor of that time, but now he looks more restrained and fierce.

"That's the best! You really don't want to let me down again this time, now you are not only burdened with the humiliation of the Nishimura Brigade and the Sasaki United, but also the high hopes of the division commander! ”

The commander of the devil's brigade gritted his teeth and said that his love would become the laughing stock of the whole division, and his face as a commander was also dull.

"This time, in order to allow you to complete the plan to clear the Eighth Route Army in central Hebei, the division commander specially allocated an artillery squadron and a cavalry brigade to your wing. I hope you can make good use of them and fulfill the expectations of the division commander. ”

The brigade commander's eyes flashed when he said this, and he also hoped that his love would be able to turn back into the original star of the imperial army. Sasaki is only in his thirties this year, and he should have an even more brilliant future.

"Thanks to the division commander and brigade commander, I have done my homework this time. I have a deeper understanding of the Eighth Route Army. After the failure of the encirclement and suppression, I did not give up on myself, but returned to Lingqiu to re-comb. In Lingqiu, I caught a militia captain who was once under the 424th Regiment.

The prisoner confessed that the overall quality of the Eighth Route Army was relatively high, and the will to fight was more resolute, and that the Eighth Route Army was very good at conducting mountain warfare, ambush warfare, and guerrilla warfare. In my opinion, several tactics of the Eighth Route Army that he confessed have high reference value.

Of course, the most important gain is that the Eighth Route Army has poor overall weapons and equipment, and its mobility is not strong. This means that as long as we can accurately judge the movements of the Eighth Route Army and engage in a frontal battle with them, it will be difficult for the Eighth Route Army to get out of the battlefield, and once we engage in a head-on battle, with our equipment superiority, we will definitely completely annihilate the Eighth Route Army!

So I developed a tactic called the Highway Advance Tactic. ”

"Highway advance tactics? It's an interesting name, so let's talk about it, Sasaki-kun. ”

As soon as the brigade commander, who had already decided to catch the train, heard this novel name, he immediately decided to stop and listen for a while, because he felt that Sasaki's tactic should be very innovative.

……

Itagaki Seishiro tightened the yellow tweed cloak on his body, and straightened the command knife at his waist. Finally, he took a nostalgic look at the fortified city that he had captured, and boarded the train under the service of the auxiliary officer. What he didn't know, however, was that in Taierzhuang, Shandong, just a few months later, an even bigger battle awaited him.

……