However, the Eighth Route Army still maintained a strong offensive in northern Saibei, containing a large number of elite soldiers, which obviously greatly surprised Shi Yousan's expectations. This made Shi Yousan, an old man whose face could compete with the city wall, a little embarrassed, and secretly said that he was a gentleman with the heart of a villain.

For the change of the war in southern Hebei, he was also confused, if he wanted to say that he understood the Eighth Route Army, he was stronger than Shi Yousan. If you want to say that the Eighth Route Army was short of ammunition a year ago, I still believe it very much, but now, it is not the case at all.

Although the production capacity of the Baotou Arsenal is limited, the two production lines were started at the same time, which could fully meet the consumption of the Eighth Route Army in the north in terms of ammunition. Moreover, Han Yunhua's department still maintains the tradition of regional bullet reloading, and almost after a battle, 85% of the total ammunition consumed by the Eighth Route Army can be reloaded. If the battle is won and captured, there will be a lot of money, and there will be no shortage of weapons and ammunition.

After a period of reconnaissance, they also discovered the reason for the great increase in the strength of the Eighth Route Army in southern Hebei. The mastermind or "culprit" of the turmoil in Shandong could not stay in Luxi and fled to southern Hebei, and after combining with the Eighth Route Army in southern Hebei, such a force was produced.

The growth of the strength of the Eighth Route Army in recent years is obvious to all, and this is not a trivial matter. As a little devil bent on establishing the so-called Greater East Asia co-prosperity, he could not tolerate the emergence of a Chinese army in the puppet Manchurian and North China areas that could threaten the security of the Chinese army, but now the resistance of the southern national political axe is still very fierce, and the two sides used more than 2 million troops to fight to the death in Wuhan along the Yangtze River for nearly two months some time ago. Although the Warring States Civil Axe was defeated, it still caused great casualties to the army. This made it impossible for the army to attack Chongqing, and at the same time, it had to station a large army around Wuhan to prevent a possible national political axe counterattack.

As a result, the Chinese army was seriously short of troops in China. Originally, the strength of the nine divisions and regiments, four reading power mixed brigades, and six reading force wings under the jurisdiction of the North China Front Army could fully meet the control of North China.

However, since the Eighth Route Army crossed the Yellow River eastward and came to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border area, the good life of the army has come to an end, and although the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army has not fought a few decent battles of annihilation, the results achieved by the guerrilla tactics of cold guns and cold artillery are also surprising. Moreover, Han Yunhua, who was born out of nowhere, has created a shocking military legend, with a remnant regiment developing into a behemoth that people look up to in two years.

The army was insufficient, and the city was lost. In reality, the entire Saibei grassland, followed by the eastern Hebei that connects the inside and outside of the Guan, and now even the northern Hebei and northern Jin are under the threat of that Zhina killing god.

Senior General Binshan Yuan is one of the senior officers who have really seen Han Yunhua's strength, and he is also one of the officers who know Han Yunhua. He knew Han Yunhua's surname very well, either he didn't do it, or if he did, he would be fatal with one thunderous blow. In the previous period of offensive and defensive battles in Saibei, on the surface, it seemed that the Imperial Army was weak and strong, and the Yamashita Division even resisted the frantic attack of the two reorganized divisions under Han Yunhua with a newly formed division.

However, General Binshan Yuan knew that he had failed in the offensive and defensive battle in Saibei, and Han Yunhua's fundamental purpose was not to take the Pingjin area as judged by him and the entire special high school, but to clear out the last two military strongholds of the army on the Saibei grassland. And he did it too, the battle of Xilinhot, tank vs cavalry. Overnight, King De and Li Shouxin's Xilinhot and more than 100,000 troops were wiped out in such a daze, and King De himself became a prisoner of the Eighth Route Army, and only Li Shouxin escaped with more than 200 henchmen.

At this time, there were only a few strongholds left in Hailar and Manchuria on the Saibei grassland, but these two strongholds were thousands of miles away from Hohhot, the center of gravity of the grassland, and Han Yunhua was not in the mood or energy to attack those two unimportant strongholds, otherwise it would be impossible for the imperial army to hold Hailar River Manchuria.

In terms of military purpose, Han Yunhua achieved his military goal, so the offensive and defensive battle in Saibei was won by Han Yunhua. But General Binshan Yuan was not reconciled, he wanted to fight with Han Yunhua in a dignified manner, and now his four field divisions have entered the northern Henan region, and they will soon be able to reach Shanxi, meet with the Shanxi First Army, and then calm down the war in southern Hebei first. Then the army went north and drove Han Yunhua's troops back to Saibei, preferably to recover Chengde.

General Binshan Yuan's orders were very strong, and he, as the supreme commander of the North China Front, ordered all units of the North China Front to be ready for battle at any time. At the same time, a wing of reinforcements was allocated to the Yamashita Division, which had a large consumption.

The 14th Division, the 109th Division, the 110th Division, and the 14th Division, which had received their support for the Central China Front, had entered Shanxi a day earlier and would join up with the First Army stationed in Shanxi within two days. General Binshan Yuan was overjoyed, and the depression in his heart suddenly decreased a lot, and the return of these four field divisions made General Binshan Yuan a lot more confident.

Not counting the three-unit garrison divisions transferred from China, the field divisions with full combat effectiveness included the 14th Division, the 109th Division, the 110th Division, the 14th Division, the 5th Division, the 108th Division, the 20th Division, the 21st Division, the 26th Division, the 10th Division, the Yamashita Division, and the Cavalry Group, as well as the 32nd, 35th, 36th, and 37th garrison divisions transferred to the North China Front in China, as well as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Reading Brigade, the 6th Heavy Artillery Brigade, the 11th Brigade, the 2nd Brigade of the Chinese Garrison, the 1st Brigade of the Military Police Headquarters in China, the 1st Wing of the Reading Force, the 4th Wing, the Tank Wing, etc., General Binshan Yuan carefully calculated the cards in his hand, at this time the North China Front Army had a total of 16 divisions, 11 brigades, two Reading Wings, and a chariot wing, with a total strength of more than 350,000.

Such a powerful configuration is the first time since the establishment of the North China Front Army, not to mention that it is the first time that he commanded nearly 500,000 troops, including the puppet army, to fight, and it is the first time that General Binshan Yuan, an officer who has fought countless battles. Excited, General Binshan Yuan ordered the four field divisions that had made the long march to speed up their march, to enter Taiyuan City by 29 July, and to devote themselves to a new battle immediately after repairing for a week.

Before these four divisions returned to North China, General Binshan Yuan also had 250,000 troops in his hands, but General Binshan Yuan did not dare to argue with Han Yunhua's subordinates, why did he say this? Except for the Fifth Division and the Yamashita Division, the remaining troops are either second-line garrison troops or have been severely damaged by Han Yunhua's troops, and although they have been replenished, they cannot recover their combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

In particular, the newly formed 32nd Division, 35th Division, 36th Division, 37th Division, Reading 6th Brigade, Reading 7th Brigade, Reading 8th Brigade, Reading 9th Brigade, and Reading 10th Brigade are all new recruit units that have just been formed this year, and less than one-tenth of the veterans who have actually been on the battlefield and seen blood are all sent to Han Yunhua's department. Therefore, General Binshan Yuan didn't dare to use these people to fight against Han Yunhua's subordinates at all, because he was afraid that Han Yunhua would see that he was the real strong crossbow.

However, at this time, the return of more than 100,000 field elites of the four field divisions and regiments immediately dispelled the worries in the heart of General Binshan Yuan, and the 100,000 field troops were much stronger than the 300,000 recruits. General Binshan Yuan believes that as long as it is properly arranged, Han Yunhua's troops will definitely be disabled this time.

Moreover, as a commander, especially a senior commander like General Binshan Yuan, who is in charge of more than 300,000 people, General Binshan Yuan also has a purpose, that is, to use the [***] team to train troops, just like Han Yunhua used the army to train troops, General Binshan Yuan also hopes to train a real elite army for the imperial army through the next battle. Otherwise, those hundreds of thousands of recruits will really not be of much use.

After discussion, General Binshan Yuan urgently transferred the 32nd and 35th Divisions plus the 3rd Brigade and the 7th Brigade to southern Hebei, while the 20th Division, the 21st Division, the 26th Division, the 10th Division, the Yamashita Division, and the Cavalry Group went north to Pingjin to participate in the sweep of Han Yunhua's headquarters. The 36th Division and the 37th Division, which were relatively weak in combat effectiveness, with the cooperation of the 4th Brigade, the 9th Brigade, the 14th Division, and the 108th Division, comprehensively attacked the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the 129th and 115th divisions of the Eighth Route Army in the southeast of Shanxi.

General Binshan Yuan was ruthless this time, in order to be foolproof, this time he actually did not call a single soldier of the puppet army, but only ordered all the puppet army to cooperate with the army that did not have an offensive combat mission to defend the cities in the rear. In addition, General Binshan Yuan can be regarded as mobilizing all the troops that can be mobilized, and the troops directly participating in the attack on Saibei have reached 7 divisions and two reading infantry brigades with a total of 150,000 people, and the troops participating in the attack on the Eighth Route Army in the southeast of Shanxi Province have also reached more than 80,000 people in four divisions and two reading brigades, and there are also two divisions and two reading brigades and regiments attacking southern Hebei, plus the original troops in southern Hebei, totaling more than 50,000 people. On the contrary, the number of troops attacking the Jizhong Military Region and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region was the least, with only one mixed brigade, two infantry wings, and one cavalry wing, with a total strength of less than 20,000 troops.

(To be continued)