The Eighth Route Army that captured Shouyang was gone!

A thousand strokes hit a pile of cotton!

The commander of the First Army of the Japanese Army, Kiyoshi Kazuki, who received the report, felt like a fool and was played hard by the Eighth Route Army!

In the headquarters of the First Army, there was a death-like silence, and all the staff officers and confidential communications personnel kept their voices down when they made phone calls, and they walked cautiously, for fear that if they were not careful, they would be reprimanded by His Excellency the Commander and His Excellency the Chief of Staff!

If it were to be replaced by other Japanese generals, I am afraid that at this time, I am afraid that I would have already been furious, and I would definitely scold the samurai of the Eighth Route Army for not daring to fight, and words such as despicable, shameless, cowardly, and coward would definitely echo in the headquarters of the First Army of the Japanese Army.

Seiji Kazuki and Shojiro Iida are not ordinary Japanese generals, but fierce and cunning generals in the Japanese army, who are both fierce and politically minded, and no matter how angry they are, they will not take advantage of their tongues in vain!

Seiji Kazuki and Shojiro Iida sat in front of the map, each holding a magnifying glass, looking at the military map by the light of the electric lamp.

After watching for a long time, his eyes were tired, so Kazuki Kiyoji stopped looking, walked back to the desk and sat down, put down the magnifying glass, raised his hand and rubbed his eyes, and muttered: "We were fooled!" ”

Iida Shojiro also walked over, sat down on the chair in front of Kazuki Kiyoji's desk, drooped his head, thought for a while, and then raised his head, looked at Kazuki Seiji with his eyes level, and said carefully: "Your Excellency Commander, the important thing is that we have wasted precious time, the pacification operation has been interfered with, and the plan of encircling and annihilating the main force of the Central Army of China and the main force of the Jin Sui Army of Yan Xishan cannot be fully realized!" ”

Shojiro Iida said it so tactfully, because he didn't want to provoke Lieutenant General Seiji Kazuki.

In fact, due to the Japanese army's mobilization of heavy troops to besiege Shouyang, not only was the strength of the 109th Division, which was responsible for pursuing and annihilating the main force of the Jin Sui Army, weakened and the offensive was unsustainable, but the offensive of the 20th Division was also affected. Because the Provisional Aviation Corps of the Japanese North China Front did not have so many planes to cover their attack!

In just a few days, the main force of the Central Army that was sticking to the front line of Han Xinling and the main force of the Jin Sui Army that retreated to the mountains of western Jin were all safely transferred. The vast mountains cover the anti-Japanese army, what if the little devil captures Linfen? did not achieve the goal of encircling and annihilating the main force of the Chinese army, and this battle was fought a bit like the kind of money spent by the vendors in the market!

In other words, Xiao Siming used Shouyang City to mobilize the Japanese army and forced the Japanese army to fight on both sides in Shanxi, but in the end, none of the strategic intentions were realized!

Listening to Shojiro Iida's words, Kiyoji Kazuki said hatefully: "It's all this damn Eighth Route Army unit that has disturbed the line of sight of the Front Army and the First Army Headquarters, and interfered with our determination!" ”

Shojiro Iida added: "Judging from the cleanliness of the Eighth Route Army's retreat, the Eighth Route Army that captured Shouyang is not the entire 115th Division, it should only be a regiment-sized force!" The situation reported from the front also proves this, the reason why the Eighth Route Army was able to capture Shouyang City was because they deceived the Shouyang defenders Chenggong, first surrounded the Baijiazhuang stronghold, tricked the Shouyang defenders into urgent reinforcements, and ambushed them halfway. In this way, Shouyang City will become an empty city, and the Eighth Route Army will be able to take advantage of the void to enter! ”

Shojiro Iida's analysis was seamless, in line with the reality of the battlefield at that time!

Kazuki Kiyoji was silent for a while, and said, "The commander of this Eighth Route Army unit is not simple! He used the encirclement point in the art of war to send reinforcements! ”

There was a hint of worry in Iida Shojiro's tone: "The problem is that we haven't even found a trace of this Eighth Route Army!" Now, this army is wandering around Taiyuan like a ghost, and when it seizes the opportunity, it pounces on it like a hungry wolf and bites it, causing great trouble to the security of the Taiyuan area! ”

Kazuki Kiyoji said viciously: "We must find this Eighth Route Army and destroy them!" We can't let them continue to attack and destroy like this recklessly! ”

It's not interesting to say cruel words, the key is to be able to find out where this Eighth Route Army is!

Iida Shojiro graduated from the 20th class of the Army Noncommissioned Officer School, which produced six Japanese generals, all of whom were notorious demons who invaded China with the blood of the Chinese people on their hands. In addition to the two Japanese imperial generals, King Hatohiko of Asakanomiya and King Ernenhiko of Tokunomiya, the remaining Shimomura Ding, Yoshimoto Sadachi, Kimura Hyotaro, and Ushijima Mitsuru were all backbone commanders in the Japanese army.

To tell the truth, there are lessons to be learned from the Japanese army's method of training high-ranking officers. After graduating from the Army Non-commissioned Officer School in 1908, he went to the 42nd Infantry Wing of the Fifth Division as a trainee second lieutenant, received grassroots training, and then was admitted to the 27th Army University. After graduating from Lu University in 1915, he began to train, successively served as a member of the Provisional Military Investigation Commission, a staff member of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Army, and after being familiar with the daily work of the commander-in-chief, he went abroad to visit and study as an important member of the European Mission, and after returning to the Army, he became an instructor at the Army Military School, and was directly transferred from the instructor to the 44th Infantry Wing as a captain. After the training of the captain of the infantry brigade, the most basic combat unit of the Japanese army, Iida Shojiro returned to the Army Infantry School as an instructor, and was transferred to the Fourth Division as a staff officer.

At this time, Iida Shojiro, after repeated training in a variety of positions, his experience and command ability are not said, and he is very spicy!

I heard Iida Shojiro say: "Your Excellency, the 16th Division, the 3rd Division, and the 4th Division must return to their original defense areas as soon as possible, and they cannot stay in Shouyang for a long time!" Otherwise, it will affect the security of Hebei! The 31st Brigade lost the infantry brigade stationed in Shouyang, lost all supplies, and was in urgent need of replenishment. Now that Zhengtai Road is not passable, and Tongpu Road is also not passable, it is impossible for the supplies of the 31st Brigade to arrive quickly, so they can only be ordered to transfer from the 109th Division and the 20th Division! At the same time, they have to be allowed to raise food on the spot in Shouyang to feed the war! I suggest that the troops of the 16th Division in Shouyang and the 3rd and 4th brigades of the independent mixed regiment be immediately ordered to seize the time to launch a sweep in Shouyang, quickly find the troops of the Eighth Route Army hidden in the mountains of Shouyang, and resolutely annihilate them! Then they can return to their original defensive ground! ”

Kazuki Kiyoji said "Yo Xi", thought about it, and then instructed: "Order the 109th Division to allocate the division and regiment supplement team to the 31st Brigade to ensure that the 31st Brigade is complete!" The 31st Brigade left an infantry brigade to garrison Shouyang, and the main force returned to the 109th Division and continued to implement the Pingding battle plan! The troops under the command of Major General Kuaba Chenji of the 16th Division went south from Shouyang, controlled the Xiyang to Yuci Highway, and then attacked south along the Pingliao Highway in Xiyang, opened up the connection between the Pingliao Highway and the main force of the 108th Division, and divided the Taihang base area of the Eighth Route Army! The task of sweeping in Shouyang was handed over to the 3rd and 4th Brigades of the Independent Mixed Brigade. Send a report to the 20th Division and the 14th Division, ordering them to strictly carry out the task of pacifying the operation, continue to attack in a roundabout way, occupy important crossings along the Yellow River, and capture and suppress the Central Army in the encirclement! Notify the Provisional Aviation Regiment and ask them to stop the reconnaissance and search in the Shouyang area and fully support the 14th, 20th, 108th, and 109th Divisions in their operations! ”

When is this coming, Xiangyue Qingji is still not giving up, and is still thinking about annihilating the central army in southern Jin and the main force of the Jin Sui army in western Jin in one fell swoop! Moreover, Kazuki Kiyoji judged that it was only the Eighth Route Army-level troops that captured Shouyang, and he was relieved, so he turned to fully cooperate with the pacification operation!

Iida Shojiro frowned, feeling that it was a bit unrealistic to continue to adhere to the pacification battle plan at this time, and originally thought of making some more suggestions and asking Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoji to take back his life, but when he thought that Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoji was now in a high voice in Japan and was one of the candidates for the post of land minister, he swallowed back the words that came to his lips!

Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoji is not unaware of the situation and obsessed, he has his own considerations, that is, after such a large-scale pacification operation, he can't be anticlimactic, and he has to come up with some real results. Otherwise, there is no way to explain to the North China Front and the base camp!

Up to now, the Japanese army has not systematically eliminated a single division or brigade of the Chinese army. On the contrary, the Eighth Route Army systematically eliminated the Japanese aviation unit at Taiyuan Airport and the Japanese brigade stationed in Shouyang. Such a result will not be accepted by Seiji Kazuki!

Taking advantage of the fact that part of the 16th Division and the 3rd and 4th Brigades of the Independent Mixed Brigade had arrived in Shouyang, Kazuki Kiyoji wanted to use these forces to continue the fight!

Historically, in the later stage of the Japanese army's pacification operation, due to the 129th Division's ambush at Shentouling, the Japanese army launched a nine-way siege on the southeast base area of Shanxi in April. At this time, it was not yet time for the Japanese army to deploy a siege of the Nine Roads southeast of Jin, and Kazuki Kiyoji couldn't wait to order the 16th Division to open the Pingliao Highway.

Considering that the troops of the 16th Division and the 3rd and 4th Brigades of the Independent Mixed Brigade were all transported to Yangquan by emergency car, and like the 31st Brigade, they were in urgent need of supplies, Kazuki Seiji told Iida Shojiro to contact the railway department of the front army and make sure to quickly build Zhengtai Road and Beitongpu Road to ensure smooth transportation.

Kazuki Seiji is not the kind of person who talks loudly, and he also knows that Zhengtai Road and Tongpu Road will not be able to be repaired for a while, so he asked Iida Shojiro to personally deploy the matter of transporting supplies by road!

All in all, in short, Commander Kiyoji Kazuki handed over the matter of Ichikawa Beach to Shojiro Iida to deal with!

Kazuki Kiyoji thought too simply, and the headquarters of the First Army soon received a telegram from Major General Tanito Nagaei, commander of the 31st Brigade of the 109th Division, reporting that after inspection, all the ammunition supplies stored by the 31st Brigade in Shouyang City were transported away by the Eighth Route Army, not even a grain of rice was left, and the warehouse was so clean that not even a single mouse could be found. The people of Shouyang City are also hungry and run out, and they can't find the real thing at all, the 31st Brigade is now out of food, and the soldiers are so hungry that they don't even have the strength to walk, so they ask the army headquarters to solve the problem of eating the 31st Brigade!

This matter, Kazuki Kiyoji had thought of it a long time ago, but he didn't expect it to be so serious!

Kiyoji Kazuki directly asked Iida Shojiro to send a report to Major General Tatsumi Kusaba, ordering that a part of the rations carried by the 19th Brigade, the 3rd Independent Mixed Brigade, and the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade be taken out to solve the problem of food for the 31st Brigade first, and then urgently replenish the troops from Taiyuan and Yangquan!

Kusaba Tatsuki's call back was very funny, with only one line of words: "The 19th Brigade has no surplus food!" ”

was so angry that Shojiro Iida directly threw the telegram in the face of the communications staff officer who knew the telegram! (To be continued.) )