The little devils took the initiative in the street fighting in Zhoucun, and that was because they had strong troops, not that their attack was very smooth. In fact, when Cao Jin and Wu Jiasheng felt that the battlefield situation was tilting towards the devil, Lieutenant General Ando Toshikichi was already trembling in distress.

Toshikichi Ando was a pure fanatical militarist with a deep aggressor arrogance in his bones. However, he never imagined that the Eighth Route Army in front of him was so tenacious and had such a high tactical quality, and it was clear that the Imperial Army had already occupied a courtyard, but the Eighth Route Army immediately applied color and immediately organized a small force to counterattack, so that this courtyard had to be turned into a tomb for the soldiers of the Imperial Army. Moreover, this Eighth Route Army has many automatic weapons, submachine guns, pistols, grenades and an automatic rifle whose name I don't know what it is, which is particularly suitable for street fighting, and is more convenient to use than the firepower of the Imperial Army soldiers who only have 38 big covers and light and heavy machine guns, and the firepower is extremely fierce.

Now, Ando Toshikichi regrets a little, knowing that the special smoke will not work, and the troops will have such a large number of casualties, he should have surrounded this Zhou Village, which can't even drink clean water, instead of recklessly entering the city. It's too late to say anything now, the two armies are intertwined, you have me, I have you, and you can't withdraw if you want to. Now we must grit our teeth and wipe out this Eighth Route Army, or at least expel them from Zhou Village. Otherwise, as soon as the imperial army withdraws, the Eighth Route Army will definitely take advantage of the situation to pursue, and the casualties will be even greater.

Seeing that the corpses were carried in front of him and the wounded were carried in front of him, Ando Toshiyoshi could no longer bear it anymore, and immediately sent a report to Lieutenant General Okamura Ninji, requesting that troops be quickly dispatched for reinforcements, that the Fifth Division suffered too many casualties and could no longer undertake the task of pioneering the Northern Front Group.

Of course, it is true that Ando Toshikichi said that the Fifth Division suffered too many casualties, but it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that it needs to be driven back to the mainland to rest and replenish, and it is even more selfish to say that the Fifth Division can no longer undertake the task of the pioneer of the Northern Front Group, and Ando Toshikichi mainly does not want his veterans to be injured too much. Because he knew that the 9th Brigade of his 5th Division and the Guards Reading Mixed Brigade were absolutely elite, both of them were veterans with a high level of shooting and tactics. If the veterans lose too much, and then replenish the new soldiers, the combat effectiveness will be deducted, or even reduced to a second-rate army.

Okamura Ninji had also learned the tenacity of the Eighth Route Army at this time, the Second Division and the Fourteenth Division were in fierce battle at this time, the Eighth Route Army was ambushed everywhere, and every time the little devil took a step forward, he had to pay the price of blood. The most important thing is that Liu Yimin's instructor has won successive battles, and the ammunition supply is sufficient, and if there are many bullets and shells, the firepower is extremely powerful. In addition to air superiority, the little devil has no other advantages to speak of, and if he wants to attack and advance, he must stay alive.

What made Okamura Ningji most depressed was that after this road, the Eighth Route Army's policy of clearing the wilderness made it impossible for the army to find the common people, let alone raise grain and grass on the spot, catch Latin, and it was difficult to find even clean water. There is no way to do this, the front line is fighting fiercely, and it is such a hot day, and the drinking water is consumed very quickly, so you can't let the soldiers and the wounded die of thirst!

Therefore, when Ando Toshiyoshi sent a telegram to Okamura Ninji, Okamura Ninji had already crossed the Higashijuer Palace, and Lieutenant General Tsukihiko sent a direct telegram to General Terauchi Toshiichi, requesting that the Gangbu Naosaburo group go north as soon as possible, flank the Eighth Route Army, and end the battle as soon as possible. Like this, he was always afraid of falling into the trap of the Eighth Route Army, and did not dare to give full play to the advantage of the Imperial Army's rapid detour, and fought hard with the Eighth Route Army, the casualties were too great, and the consumption was too fast. After a battle, ammunition, food, grass, gasoline, plus the pensions of the fallen soldiers and the treatment of the wounded are not a small amount. Not to mention how much gold and silver treasure and white rice and golden wheat could be seized, and there was not even clean water. Such a battle is, in effect, a war of attrition. In the end, the veterans of the elite division will suffer too many casualties, and they will become second-rate divisions and third-rate divisions.

Needless to say, Okamura Ninji said that Terauchi Shouichi had already become an ant on a hot pot in a hurry.

The Kwantung Army and the Central China Front Army were constantly urging the transfer of troops back to defense, and Kenkichi Ueda, commander of the Kwantung Army, reported that the Soviet Far Eastern Military District was ready to move, and planes had been crossing the border to reconnoiter recently. The reconnaissance unit of the Eighth Route Army was discovered in the southern direction of Liaoning, and it was likely that the Eighth Route Army would take advantage of the lack of Manchurian forces to develop northward. The Kwantung Army was already secretly expanding its forces and expanding the continental defense forces. However, the temporary expansion of the army was to no avail, and he implored General Terauchi Shouichi to immediately send the 1st, 2nd, and 7th Divisions back to Manchuria to defend Manchuria, and to transfer at least two of the garrison divisions in North China to Manchuria for defense.

The Central China Front and the North China Front have been vying for control of the political axe in the occupied areas. Therefore, the commander of the Central China Front, Shunroku Hatata, was a little unkind, and after reporting the situation along the Yangtze River in a telegram, he asked Terauchi when Shouichi would let his seven divisions return to Central China? Do you have to wait for the Chinese [***] team to recapture Hangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai before returning to defense? The North China Front should carefully examine whether it was the unclear intelligence or the wrong battle plan, and why the invincible elite of the Imperial Army could not even contain a division of the Eighth Route Army under the command of His Excellency Terauchi?

Terauchi Shouichi didn't want to be humiliated by Kenkichi Ueda and Shunroku Hatata, and after scolding a few words of Baga, he simply ignored these two short-sighted guys, let them roar at will, concentrate their energy, and concentrate on solving the war in Shandong. But there is another problem that he can't ignore, and that is the problem of logistics and supply.

Before the army moves, the grain and grass go first, this is an ancient Chinese saying. Shouichi Terauchi has studied China very deeply, so he naturally knows the meaning of this sentence. But now that so many troops are concentrated in North China, they need to eat, drink, bullets, and shells, which is not a small amount. Especially in the battle with the instructor, the little devils have heavy casualties and large ammunition losses, and the replenishment of soldiers, weapons, and ammunition must keep up. However, troops like the 35th and 33rd Divisions threw away their guns when they retreated, and all the arsenals of the empire were operating at full capacity, and they could not keep up with their needs. Although His Excellency the Prime Minister did not say it explicitly, there is already a lot of trouble in the Cabinet about the huge military spending.

A small staff officer in the base camp didn't know which tendon turned wrong, and he actually started to trouble Terauchi Shouichi. This guy wrote an article and presented it to Prince Zaihito Miyaji, the chief of the General Staff, and calculated an account for the North China Front, and made a clear list of the weapons and ammunition, chariots, armored vehicles, automobiles, war horses, food, gasoline, medicines, and the total number of dead soldiers that the North China Front had lost since the start of the war, and ridiculed Terauchi Shouichi and said, Now the entire Daisai Honda Empire is serving the military exploits of General Terauchi Shouichi alone, please take pity on the poor people of the Daisai Honda Empire, and leave them a little rice and white noodles. You can't rob them of the poor!

That's not all, at the end of the article, this little staff officer provoked Terauchi Shouichi with the most vicious language, saying that it was fighting back and forth, and the size of the Imperial Army was getting bigger and bigger, and every day young people were sent to the port and boarded ships to rush to North China to participate in the war. However, these young people did not know that under the command of the general of the temple, they only played the role of a transport team, and they were going to send guns and artillery to the Eighth Route Army.

Of course, this little staff officer's quick tongue will inevitably lead to a catastrophe. Prince Zaihito of the Idle Courtyard Palace, the old bastard and Shouichi Terauchi wore a pair of pants, so naturally the news was leaked immediately.

When Terauchi Shouichi heard about this, he complained to the base camp that the junior staff officer had leaked military secrets, incited anti-war sentiments, was disloyal and disrespectful to the emperor, and wantonly slandered the exploits of the warriors of the imperial army, and demanded that he be shot.

The staff officers of the army are a bunch of arrogant guys, and they never take any superiors in their eyes. As soon as this little staff officer saw that Terauchi Shouichi was accusing him, where would he be restrained, he immediately contacted a group of people and began to argue, and the staff headquarters was in an uproar.

Probably because he was afraid that things would get bigger and bigger and that they would be out of control in the future, Prince Zaihito, the chief of the General Staff, did not know what measures had been taken, but anyway, the body of the little staff officer appeared on the beach of the Tokyo Bay Beach. After forensic examination, it was concluded that he had drowned while swimming.

Although this is only a small episode, it shows that the huge military expenditure of the North China Front Army in Shandong has reached an intolerable level.

To be honest, before launching the Shandong War, Shouichi Terauchi was also fully prepared. The Kwantung Army's southward corps was supplemented by Manchuria, and the Central China Front's supplies were transferred from Central China. All preparations were sufficient, and ammunition, food, and medicine were well stocked. However, Terauchi Shouichi did not expect that at the beginning of this war, the materials were consumed so quickly, especially the 35th Division and the 33rd Division, which lost all their baggage and had to be resupplied. Needless to say, guns and ammunition must be allocated from the reserves of the domestic and North China Fronts, and the food problem must not always be transported from the mainland, right? Terauchi Shouichi originally wanted to raise grain and grass on the spot after occupying central Hebei, southern Hebei, Hebei Lubian and Luxi. This method is not impossible, and at first I grabbed some food, but then it didn't work. The reason was that the small units, militia, and guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army who had slipped through the net kept attacking the grain convoys. It is often with great effort to collect all the grain from the people, but it is robbed by the Eighth Route Army, and the lives of the soldiers who collect the grain have to be taken.

In desperation, Terauchi Shouichi had to order the garrison headquarters of Jizhong, Jilubian, southern Hebei, Luxi, southwestern Luxi, and Taixi to increase the intensity of grain collection to ensure the needs of the front line.

As a result, the army began to burn and loot on a large scale again, and the face of the robbers was once again exposed. Correspondingly, the revolt in various places became more intense. The common people fully understood the evil face of the little devil, and the relationship with the Eighth Route Army became closer, covering the soldiers to fight against the devil.

After receiving the telegram from Okamura Ninji, Terauchi Shouichi felt that he had made a mistake in strategy, and that he should not divide his troops into three routes, but should concentrate his forces to clear Luzhong and Ludong, and open up the Jiaoji Road first. After all, Manchuria is the foundation of the interests of the Great Say, and if it is lost, it will be troublesome. Besides, he had already made a promise to Ueda Kenkichi that he would open up the Jiaoji Road in ten days and guarantee that the first, second, and seventh divisions would be rebuilt. Now that a few days have passed, I can't even take a small Zhou Village, so how can I talk about opening up Jiaoji Road?

By this time, Shouichi Terauchi had to think about adjusting the battle plan. He is a commander-in-chief figure and the culprit of the invasion of China, and when considering the problem, we must not only stand on the standpoint of the North China Front Army, but also consider the overall situation. Now, since it is determined that the main force of the Eighth Route Army is in Luzhong, it is necessary to mobilize a large army to capture it in one fell swoop, completely annihilate the main force of Liu Yimin's tutor, open up the Jiaoji Road, completely restore public order in Luzhong and Ludong, and then wave troops to solve the mountainous area of central and southern Lunan and the Eighth Route Army in Lunan as the task of containment.

Therefore, after obtaining the consent of the base camp, Terauchi Shouichi adjusted the battle plan again, ordered the Tada Jun Southern Line Group to attack and advance rapidly to the north, join the Luzhong battlefield, cooperate with the Northern Line Group and the Central Line Group, and completely annihilate the main force of the Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop, and recover the Luzhong and Ludong regions.

As a result, the elite troops of the northern, middle, and southern fronts of the Chinese army began to rush to Luzhong.

When Shouichi Terauchi was busy adjusting his strategic deployment, the battle between the enemy and us on the battlefield of Zhoucun had reached a white-hot state.

After the army captured Kuixing Pavilion, Lieutenant General Ando Toshikichi, commander of the Fifth Division, moved the division headquarters to Kuixing Pavilion and ordered Major General Kunisaki Noboru, commander of the 9th Brigade, to command the 9th Brigade, the Engineer Wing, and the Search Wing to conduct street battles in the city. Considering that the city had been turned into a pot of porridge and the heavy artillery had no chance to exert its power, Ando Toshiyoshi ordered the Konoe Yoriki Mixed Brigade to be under the command of the 9th Brigade with one wing, and joined the street battles in the city, attacking from the east gate and the west gate respectively. Another wing, attached to the field artillery wing, made a detour to the north and attacked the north gate directly.

Lieutenant General Toshiyoshi Ando originally did not intend to attack the North Gate, and he planned to leave a retreat for the Eighth Route Army and drive them out of the city to be annihilated. But at this time, the street battle in the city was fighting, and it was not early, and Ando Toshikichi judged that the Eighth Route Army was going to defend Zhou Village, and even if it broke through, it would choose the night. At this time, Ando Toshikichi, who had been stimulated by heavy casualties, was unwilling to let the Eighth Route Army slip away in the night, so he sent a roundabout attack force, wanting to break through the north gate in one fell swoop, flank the Eighth Route Army in the city, and completely eliminate the Eighth Route Army.

The street fighting tactics of teaching the 21st Regiment were very clever, which was taught by Liu Yimin himself. To put it bluntly, it is the infantry squad platoon street combat tactics of later generations. With the squad and platoon as a unit, each infantry squad and infantry platoon forms three battle groups, which are respectively responsible for attacking, covering the two wings and guarding the tasks, and the squad and platoon are rationally allocated firepower to protect the retreat of the wounded, ammunition supply and the rapid transfer of troops. Bayi automatic rifles, pistols, grenades and devil infantry fought house by house. In this way, the devil's strength and firepower are superior on the whole. But when it comes to each compound and each small street, our army has an advantage in firepower. Moreover, our army is mobile and flexible, and it will move a position for a while, and the courtyard occupied by the little devils may also be quickly recaptured by our army.

This tactics instructor has been repeatedly practiced in Xi'an, and it has been listed as a military technical competition project. However, to implement this tactic, it is necessary to put the devils in and mix them up with the enemy, so that the devils' planes and artillery cannot be bombed.

The battle began at noon, the little devils kept attacking, our army and the enemy fought repeatedly, the two sides came and went, and the blood stained the bluestone-paved road on Zhoucun Street red.

The devils who attacked the east and west gates, after taking a dirt plane made of explosives packs, also entered the city and became entangled with our army.

The 3rd Battalion, 9th Company and 2nd Platoon of the 21st Regiment resisted and retreated to the Zhuangyuan Mansion on the north side of Sishi Street. The soldiers didn't have time to appreciate the grandeur of the Kangxi Champion King Yingtong's mansion, so they hurriedly hidden, and the devils were about to attack in.

Chen Huaifu, the commander of the second platoon of the Ninth Company, was a native of Qishan, Shaanxi, who was originally from Yang Hucheng's troops, and was captured by the Red Seventh Army when he captured Xi'an, and later joined the Red Army. It was incorporated into the Fourth Division. When the Fourth Division participated in the battle to eliminate the Ma Jiajun, he was promoted to the leader of the combat team because of his combat bravery, and later became the deputy squad leader. After going north to resist the war, this Shaanxi Lengwa fought extremely bravely, and was promoted to platoon commander with meritorious service.

There are three combat squads in one platoon, one fire support squad. Among them, the fire support squad was equipped with a Type 92 heavy machine gun, two light machine guns, and two grenadier canisters after the Qingdao Campaign. In today's street fighting, the platoon fought well, and each fighter carved a few lines on the butt of his gun, and that was their record. However, the casualties of the troops were also very large, and there were originally 50 fighters, but now only 36 remain.

The little devil chased after him. The streets were filled with the chirping of birds and the faint sound of footsteps.

There are two courtyards in front and back, and in the middle is a two-story brick and wood structure.

After Chen Huaifu entered the door, he saw the yard clearly, made a gesture, let the light and heavy machine guns go up to the house, and the two grenadiers were also selected to shell the devils on the street, and the three squads were also well concealed, ready to put the devils in the yard to be eliminated.

Hearing the voice of the devil outside the gate, Chen Huaifu immediately ordered the grenadier to give a few cannons through the courtyard wall, and the courtyard was immediately quiet.

It didn't take long for the little devil to push open the false door, and the grenade hanging on the door exploded in one fell swoop, blowing up the two little devils who pushed the door.

After the smoke passed, the three little devils jumped in three times and two times. As soon as he entered, he rolled over, fell to the ground, and began to look around with his gun in hand.

The little devils are fast, the Eighth Route Army is faster, and after a few crisp gunshots, the three little devils convulsed a few times and completely lay down on the ground.

This time, it was a lively situation for the devils outside the door, and the machine gun fired at the inside of the gate for a while, and then a squad of devils poured in.

(To be continued)