That night, not only the second company ambushed near Xiaozhuang Village, but also the first and third companies of the independent battalion and Yuan Gang, who held on to Baijiazhuang, fought with the devils. It's just that the other little devils who came out of Yuxian, Taiyuan, and Yuci were not as arrogant and arrogant as the little devils from the stone measuring station, and they didn't have tanks or armored vehicles, but they just sent squad-level devils to carry out tentative attacks, and strictly implemented the orders of the First Army Headquarters.

These small armies of devils, without exception, were all hit head-on, and almost none of them were able to escape!

In this way, the headquarters of the First Army of the Japanese Army could not figure out the reality of the Eighth Route Army at all, and became more and more cautious, strictly ordering all units not to advance.

The troops drawn from the Pinghan line were tossed overnight, and the next morning, that is, on the morning of March 1, all the cars were finally transported to Yangquan. After a short rest, they began to move westward along the railways and highways. I went to the stone station to meet Captain Toyokawa Toshio of the 108th Division of the Japanese Army, who had already returned from Xiaozhuang Village.

The troops who came were all large units at the brigade and regimental level of the Japanese army, and Captain Toshio Toyokawa was a little low-level, and he couldn't be arrogant, so he could only report to the major generals and Dazuo over and over again, describing the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army as extremely terrifying.

The 3rd and 4th Independent Mixed Brigade Corps are newly formed units that have not yet undergone major campaign training, and their combat effectiveness is difficult to assess. But the 16th Division of the Japanese Army is a first-class elite of the Japanese Army, much more arrogant than the 108th Division, where will the Eighth Route Army be seen!

Major General Kusaba Tatsuki, commander of the 19th Brigade of the 16th Division, listened to Captain Toyokawa Toshio's report, and gave him a slap in the face, scolding Toyokawa Toshio for being a coward and disturbing the morale of the army!

With the style of the 16th Division, it was necessary to kill directly towards Shouyang City every second. However, after Captain Toshio Toyokawa took him to see the ambush battlefield last night and inspected the piles of steel garbage turned into tanks, armored vehicles, and cars, Major General Kusaba Tatsumi was not arrogant, and immediately ordered the troops to camp in the old street area, build positions, and set up sentry posts to strictly prevent the night attack of the Eighth Route Army!

In a telegram sent by Major General Tatsumi Kusaba to Lieutenant General Imasago Nakajima, commander of the 16th Division, and Lieutenant General Kiyoji Kazuki, commander of the First Army, the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, which captured Shouyang, had the ability to destroy the medium tanks of the Japanese Army. Rushing into the market may cause unnecessary losses. Night battles should be avoided as much as possible, and it is better to choose to attack during the day under the cover of aviation, which is more conducive to giving full play to the superiority of the Great Japanese Army.

Major General Kusaba Tatsuki, commander of the 19th Brigade of the 16th Division, said so, but what else could the commander of the First Army, Kiyoji Kazuki, and the chief of staff, Shojiro Iida, who were far away in Shijiazhuang? I can only respect the opinions of the front-line generals.

As a result, the Japanese troops on the Eastern Front gathered in the Jiujie area on the evening of March 1.

Early the next morning, Japanese planes began to circle over Qinquan Town, reconnoitring, bombing, and strafing, just as Japanese planes had been circling and reconnoitring in the Sangshuping area a few days ago.

There was Japanese aircraft covering in the sky, and the Japanese troops on the ground naturally had more protection. Major General Kusaba Tatsumi commanded the 20th Cavalry Wing, three infantry brigades, and two brigades of the 22nd Field Artillery Wing, which were drawn from the 16th Division of the Japanese Army, to take the lead in the Jiujie area, and with tanks and armored vehicles as the lead, along the road, to Qinquan Town.

With the 16th Division, Toyokawa Toshio's Brigade, which was independently mixed with the 3rd and 4th Brigades and the 108th Division, became a flank covering force and followed the troops of the 16th Division forward.

From Jiujie to Qinquan Town, the straight-line distance is less than 10 kilometers, the railway mileage is a little more than 10 kilometers, and the highway mileage is a little more, but no more than 15 kilometers. The little devil's force, the iron flow is rolling, the cannon is rumbling, and the attack speed is still quite fast. By 12 o'clock in the morning, the 20th Cavalry Wing of the 16th Division rushed to the outskirts of Qinquan Town, and sent a search team to repeatedly reconnoiter and search, and after confirming that there were no fortified Chinese troops in Qinquan Town, the commander of the 20th Cavalry Wing, Kasai Toshimatsunakasa, pointed his command knife at Qinquan Town, and led the 20th Cavalry Wing to rush into Qinquan Town first.

The town is empty!

The town, which was not very prosperous in the first place, was even quieter at this time, several shops and restaurants that were usually open were closed, and not only could not see a pedestrian on the street, but not even a dog or a cat could be seen!

Kasai Toshimatsu Nakasa immediately sent a cavalry messenger to report to Major General Tatsumi Kusaba on horseback.

The 16th Division was not a first-class division of the Japanese army according to the order of the Japanese army. However, in terms of real combat effectiveness, the performance of the 16th Division on the battlefield of aggression against China was at least much better than that of the 1st Division, which had the title of Playboy, and the 4th Division, which was composed of Osaka vendors, and its real combat effectiveness was close to that of the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Divisions, which were the strongest in the Japanese army. In other words, within the Japanese army, at least within the 16th Division, the 16th Division is regarded as the ace elite after the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Divisions, and is on a par with the 3rd, 9th, and 10th Divisions!

Strictly speaking, in addition to the second, fifth, and sixth divisions, the combat effectiveness of the 16th Division is comparable to that of the Japanese army's permanent divisions, and the 3rd and 10th divisions are slightly inferior. Compared with the 16th Division, the other Japanese divisions were a little worse in terms of ferocity and technical combat level.

After Major General Kuaba Tatsumi arrived at Qinquan Town, he inspected the corpses of the Japanese soldiers in the stronghold that had been stripped to the point of only a crotch cloth and identity tag, and checked the neatly arranged corpses of the puppet army, and then reported the situation in Qinquan Town to the headquarters of the First Army, and reported that he would lead the troops of the 16th Division to advance directly to Shouyang City and recapture Shouyang!

To the surprise of Major General Kusaba Tatsumi, the commander of the First Army, Lieutenant General Kazuki Kiyoji, and the chief of staff, Major General Iida Shojiro, who received the telegram, were more cautious than him!

After examining the map for a long time, the telegram order given by the headquarters of the First Army to Major General Kuaba Tatsumi turned out to be deployed on the spot to strictly prevent the sneak attack of the Eighth Route Army, and wait for the 31st Brigade of the 109th Division to return from western Jinxi to seize the Baijiazhuang stronghold, and then advance east and west, and attack Shouyang County!

Seiji Kazuki and Shojiro Iida were stunned by the Eighth Route Army, and they couldn't figure out the reality of the Eighth Route Army at all, and saw the insignificant Qinquan Town as the Eighth Route Army engaged in a large-scale fortified wall clearing, with the purpose of starting a main battle with the Japanese army!

Kazuki Kiyoji is anxious to become the land minister of the Japanese cabinet, and what he is most afraid of is that there will be any mistakes in the troops. Therefore, he did not hesitate at all, and immediately ordered Major General Caochang Chenji to fight steadily and steadily, and must cover the safety of the left and right flanks of the main force, first recapture Zongai Town, open up the connection with Taiyuan, and then gradually advance in the direction of Shouyang County, and be sure to wait for the 109th Brigade of the 36th Division to capture the key points of Baijiazhuang, and then wave the division to attack Shouyang County.

Kiyoji Kazuki's telegram is in the heart of Kusaba Tatsuki!

Since the battlefield of invasion of China, Caochang Chenji first attacked south on the west side of Yanjinpu Road in the North China Battlefield, and then was transferred to the Shanghai Dispatch Bureau with the 16th Division, transferred to the Songhu Battlefield, and captured Changshu, Changzhou, and Danyang all the way, and then directly killed from Danyang to Nanjing, and together with the Sixth Division and other troops, created the Nanjing Massacre that shocked the world.

Originally, the murderous demon Kusaba Chenji didn't see the Eighth Route Army at all, but after he checked the ambush battlefield in Xiaozhuang Village, he knew that the Eighth Route Army had the ability to destroy Japanese tanks and armored vehicles, and his mind changed, for fear that the main force of the Eighth Route Army would not set a trap in front of him to let him jump, so he naturally became cautious and carried out the orders of the First Army Headquarters to the letter.

The reason for this is that Major General Kusaba Tatsumi fought with the 16th Division from North China to East China, and it was rare for the Chinese army to destroy Japanese tanks and armored vehicles. There are occasional examples of the Central Army's anti-aircraft artillery fighting against Japanese tanks, and the final outcome also ends with the victory of the Japanese army. There was an exception, and it was the Chinese defenders who carried explosive packs and cluster grenades to fight the Japanese tanks. Major General Kusaba Tatsumi scoffed at such an example, because he knew that it was a soldier's life to fight against steel, and although the sacrifice was heroic, for Japan, which had a large industrial advantage, the sacrifice of the Chinese soldiers could not stop the rolling iron flow of the Japanese army, and it was of little significance!

The situation on the ambush battlefield in Xiaozhuang Village is different, and Kuaba Tatsuji knows at a glance that the ambush of the Eighth Route Army is clean and neat, and the Japanese army will not be allowed to fight back at all! Whether it was a tank or an armored vehicle, under the fire of the Eighth Route Army, there was no chance to fire back, and it was directly turned into wreckage. What does this mean? It shows that the Eighth Route Army has more powerful tank-fighting weapons than the 37mm battle defense gun of the Central Army.

Kusaba Tatsumi could even imagine the tragic situation after the Japanese army was suddenly attacked, and the soldiers were afraid that they would not even have time to jump out of the car, and they were directly beaten into a sieve!

Invisibly, Major General Kusaba Tatsumi had an inexplicable fear in his heart!

This is something that Major General Kusaba Tatsumi has never done since the battlefield of aggression against China!

Major General Kuaba Tatsuki, who had a hint of fear in his heart, stationed himself in Qinquan Town, sent troops to sweep the surrounding area, recaptured Zongai Town, and opened up contact with the Japanese army in Taiyuan and Yuxian.

On March 3, the 31st Wing of the 109th Division of the Japanese Army, which had returned from western Jinxi, finally entered Shouyang County and recovered the Baijiazhuang stronghold, which was already a pile of rubble.

In the sky, the Japanese planes were circling and dropping bombs, and on the ground were the tanks and armored vehicles of the 16th and 109th divisions of the Japanese army, the 3rd and 4th brigades of the independent mixed brigade, covering the infantry attacking, and the ancient city of Shouyang was suddenly pushed to the cusp here!

What the little devils didn't expect was that when they held back their strength and rushed into Shouyang City, they found that Shouyang City was actually an empty city! (To be continued.) )