Although the Muto Brigade suffered heavy losses in Kolizhuang, the Japanese army's sabotage battle on the tunnels did not end, but Kawaguchi Heiji changed his strategy, no longer letting the troops station in the surrounding villages or spend the night, but let the troops set off in the morning to dig the tunnels in the surrounding villages, and returned to Meizhen before dark to prevent the independent regiment from attacking at night.

In this way, it is safe, but the efficiency is also reduced, because the independent regiment will send small groups of elite troops out to harass every day, sometimes several times a day, and these small units are extremely combative, and the troops sent to dig tunnels spend half of their time fighting, and after a few days, not even a single tunnel has been dug.

At this point, Heiji Kawaguchi also thoroughly understands that this is simply looking for a needle in a haystack.

But in addition to this way of looking for a needle in a haystack, Kawaguchi Heiji really can't think of a better way, the only thing he can think of is to stay in Meizhen for a long time, as long as the Kawaguchi detachment is still in Dameishan for a day, the independent regiment and the people of Dameishan will not be able to come out of the tunnel for a day.

Heiji Kawaguchi has reason to believe that it is impossible for the independent regiment and the people of Dameishan to hold out for too long, after all, it is the busy farming season now, and it is impossible for the people of Dameishan to hide in the tunnels all the time and not come out to work, right? Otherwise, what will they eat this time next year?

Of course, if such a stalemate continues, the Japanese army will also have to bear great pressure.

Because the transportation and supply lines of the Kawaguchi detachment were not very safe, because the independent regiment could completely jump out of the encirclement of the Japanese army and attack the supply lines of the Kawaguchi detachment from the periphery, but Kawaguchi Heiji believed that even if he lost some supplies, even if he paid some price, the final victory would definitely belong to the Kawaguchi detachment.

Heiji Kawaguchi was even ready to fight a war of attrition with the Independent Regiment.

However, some things are not what you want to do, although Kawaguchi Heiji is ready to fight the independent regiment for a long time, but the commander of the Central China Front, Sugi Moto, is not like this, within three days, Sugi Sugi sent three telegrams to Kawaguchi Heiji, and the wording was more severe than the other.

By the last telegram, Sugi Sugi Moto demanded that Kawaguchi Heiji immediately and immediately settle the Dameishan Independent Regiment.

From Sugi Sugimoto's standpoint, he did have reason to ask Kawaguchi Heiji to do this, no matter what, Kawaguchi Heiji was a fully equipped detachment, and it was also an elite detachment based on the 101st Infantry Wing and the 149th Infantry Wing, which was by no means comparable to a third-rate unit like the Shigeto Detachment.

And Xu Rui, Kawaguchi Heiji's opponent, only had the strength of one regiment.

Although Xu Rui is very powerful, not only has superb command attainments, but also has a keen sense of smell on the battlefield, and has indeed caused a lot of trouble to the Japanese army before, but considering the huge gap between the two sides in terms of strength and firepower, Shanshan Yuan has reason to believe that there is absolutely no problem for Kawaguchi Heiji to achieve a quick victory.

More importantly, Shanshanyuan never wanted an accident in the plan for the Battle of Xuzhou.

After Heiji Kawaguchi read the telegram, he put it on the table again, and his face sank like water.

Yongjin Da on the side also whispered: "Your Excellency Commander, judging from the wording of the telegram, Your Excellency the General is already very dissatisfied with our detachment, although Your Excellency the General did not say it explicitly, but from the meaning of his words, if there is no breakthrough in the battle situation in Dameishan within ten days, he is very likely to change generals." ”

Kawaguchi Heiji's face instantly became more and more gloomy, and changing generals meant his defeat!

The competition in the military world has always been extremely cruel, and his failure is likely to lead to no hope of promotion in the near future, and if he doesn't keep up with this step, he may never be able to keep up!

Yongjin Tatsuya said: "Your Excellency Commander, it seems that we must break the situation as soon as possible. ”

At this time, Heiji Kawaguchi finally adjusted his mood, sighed and said: "Yongjin-san, even if we want to break the situation, but we can't find the main force of the independent regiment, what can we do?" ”

Yongjin Da was also dumbfounded when he heard this, yes, the independent regiment has always been hiding in the tunnel and can't come out, even if they want to fight, they can't find an opponent, it's really nerve-wracking.

After a while, Yongjin Tatsuya said in a deep voice: "Your Excellency Commander, why don't you conduct a carpet search of Meizhen and the surrounding dozen or so large and small villages?" I don't believe it, the Chinese army didn't leave a tunnel crossing in the houses of the town and the surrounding villages? There must be a tunnel entrance inside! ”

Heiji Kawaguchi shook his head and said, "Let's not talk about whether this kind of needle-in-a-haystack search can find the tunnel entrance, even if you find the tunnel entrance, what can you do?" ”

Yongjin Da also said: "If you find the tunnel entrance, you can carry out effective attacks." ”

Kawaguchi Heiji said: "Yongjin-san, have you forgotten the lesson of Xiao Li Zhuang? The entire tunnel network of the Chinese army is obviously carefully designed by experts, and all the reserved tunnels lead to the bottom layer, when we were in Xiaolizhuang before, our attacks on the bottom tunnels have failed, whether it is irrigation or poison gas, all of them have failed, so unless we can directly break through the upper layer of the tunnel and launch an attack from the functional area of the upper layer, it will all be ineffective. ”

Yongjin Da also sighed, there is nothing to say, there is a saying how to say, this is really a lion biting a hedgehog, there is no way to put his mouth out! The strength of the Kawaguchi detachment is obviously much stronger than that of the Dameishan Independent Regiment, but there is no way to take the independent regiment, and it makes people angry when they think about it.

After a long time, Yongjin Tatsuya said again: "Is there really no way to think about it?" ”

Kawaguchi Heiji said: "At the moment, I am afraid there is no other way than to wait for the opportunity." ”

Originally, Kawaguchi Heiji also wanted to force the independent regiment out of the tunnel by drawing salary from the bottom of the kettle, and then catch the main force of the independent regiment through fishing, but Xiao Li Zhuang fought a battle, not only failed to catch the independent regiment, but lost the bait of the Muto brigade, and now Kawaguchi Heiji does not dare to fish anymore.

Just as the two old devils were frowning each other, the phone on the desk suddenly rang.

Yongjinda also immediately stepped forward, grabbed the microphone and brought it to his mouth: "Maxi Maxi? ”

After a while, Nagajin Tatsuya covered the microphone and said to Heiji Kawaguchi: "Your Excellency Commander, the guard post in the west of the town has been attacked by a small force in Shina, and I ask for tactical guidance. ”

Heiji Kawaguchi immediately said: "Send an infantry squadron to reinforce immediately." ”

Regarding the attack on the Zhenxi guard post, Heiji Kawaguchi didn't pay much attention to it.

Because a few days after the battle of Xiaolizhuang, such an attack also happened every night, sometimes it would be staged several times a night, the first time, Kawaguchi Heiji was a little careless, and only sent an infantry squad to reinforce, but in less than fifteen minutes, when Kawaguchi Heiji personally led a brigade to arrive, the infantry group stationed at the guard post and the infantry squad of more than 60 officers and soldiers who went to reinforce were already collectively broken!

From then on, every time the guard post was attacked, Kawaguchi Heiji would send at least one infantry squadron to reinforce it, and sometimes even send an infantry brigade there.

"Hello." Yongjin Tatsuya paused, and then said into the microphone, "Kobayashi-san, please hold on for a while, reinforcements will arrive soon." ”

After saying that, Yongjin Tatsuya hurried out of the war room to gather troops, and in less than a moment, a squadron of devils quickly completed the assembly, and then rushed along the main road to the guard post on the west side of Meizhen.

After sending reinforcements, Nagajin Tatsuya returned to the war room, at this time, both Nagajin Tatsuya and Kawaguchi Heiji thought that this was just a routine night attack by the independent regiment, as soon as the reinforcements arrived, the small force of the independent regiment would immediately withdraw, so the two old ghosts didn't pay much attention.

Five minutes later, however, the gunfire in Zhenxi had become more intense than not.

"Huh? What's going on? Kawaguchi Heiji frowned and said, "Listening to this gunshot, has the Shina army also increased its troops?" ”

Yongjin Da was speechless, and just when the two old devils were confused, the telephone on the table rang again.

Yongjin Da also picked up the phone again, and said Ma Xi Ma Xi, on the other end of the phone, the leader of the devil squadron who spoke reported in a very hurried tone: "Sir, the Chinese army has also increased its troops, we have fallen into an encirclement, repeat, we have fallen into an encirclement, request tactical guidance, request urgent tactical guidance!" ”

Yongjin Da also frowned, and asked in a deep voice, "How many people have come from the Zhina army?" ”

The squadron leader on the other end of the phone reported: "There are enemies in the west, north and south, and the fire is very fierce, and at least one battalion of the Chinese army has come, at least one battalion!" ”

"Nani, a battalion?!" Yongjin Tatsuya's face changed, and he immediately put down the microphone and said to Kawaguchi Heiji, "Your Excellency Commander, the Independent Regiment has actually increased its troops, at least one battalion of troops!" ”

"A battalion? Xu Rui: What does this mean? He still wants to eat one of my squadrons right under my nose? Kawaguchi Heiji snorted and said, "Yongjin-san, immediately send a brigade to reinforcements, I want to see if Xu Rui can eat one of my brigades." ”

"Hello." Yongjin Da also slammed his head and turned to leave.

After a while, the 1st Infantry Brigade of the 101st Infantry Wing quickly assembled, and then immediately went to the guard post in the west of the town, with the arrival of devil reinforcements, the battle around the guard post in the west of the town became more fierce in an instant, and even the artillery of both sides began to participate.

This time, Heiji Kawaguchi and Tatsuya Nagajin were not as calm as they were just now.

I don't know why, Kawaguchi Heiji faintly has an intuition that the independent regiment may not stop there, maybe it is possible to invest more troops for speculation, as for the reason, maybe Xu Rui felt that the Japanese army suffered a big loss in the battle of Xiaolizhuang, so he didn't dare to attack easily.

However, the independent regiment wants to quickly eat one of its own brigades, is it possible?

Heiji Kawaguchi simply walked to the courtyard outside, and then went up the ladder to the observatory on the top of the ancestral hall, and then observed the battlefield ahead through the artillery team on the observatory.